Cholo Anthology

The first book published by Znz is an anthology of the 1980 zines "Cholo" - issues #1, #2, and #3 - plus "The Mission District" in one handy volume. True to the original publications, this 260-page book features uniquely colored pages and a brass fastener to evoke the zines' aesthetic spirit.

"If there ever was an enigmatic zine, this is it. Produced in 1980 via the San Francisco Comic Book Company, it's a thick, brass-fastener-bound collection of mismatched pages. The back cover is the front cover. The binding and paper selection mirrors the format of sci-fi zines of the era.

Contents range from crude drawings of Chicano gangs, stylized cartooning, prison art, lowriders, local landmarks, dedications, and the pervasive "Cholo" masthead that reappears constantly, like a magazine that keeps starting over.

Published by 'Ed Silvera' (Gary Arlington), with assistance from 'Rogelio Del Fuego' (Roger Brand). The juxtaposition of serious cartooning with naive art, street photos, jarringly out-of-place interludes, and found objects is the blueprint of the street art zine genre, especially from the Bay Area. This is the Mission School long before Glen Helfand gave it a name.

The convergence of so many subcultures into one publication - predating Teen Angel's by a year - is an anthropological clusterfuck of the best kind."