Sunday 16 February 2014

Review: Cinema Sewer #23 By Robin Bougie feat Bob Fingerman, David Paleo, Patton Oswalt, Steve Rolston & more

This 44 page Adults Only comic sized/style zine from 2010 is the 23rd outing of the long running brain child of Canada's Robin Bougie, and for those who haven't heard of him, Mr Bougie knows more about Sleaze than Silvio Berlusconi!

This crammed packed, professionally produced zine is full of reviews, articles, comics, illustrations and humour, and with Bougie's encyclopedic knowledge, there's an infectious, obsessive enthusiam to it all.

First thing to grab you is that great Bob Fingerman cover, like a classic, raunchy noir-pulp novel illo, complete with buxom, shapely Femme Fatale... Her victim died with a smile on his face.

Inside the theme continues as Bougie writes an excellent article on Film Noir, running through many classics of the genre (some well known, others lesser) with a brief synopsis of each, accompanied with great illustrations (by the brilliant David Paleo) and original film poster art.

The sadly departed and much loved Andy Copp who died last year, writes about and reviews two classic  video mixtapes from the '80s and '90s: 'The Amok Assault Tape' and 'Video Macumba' (the latter being rumoured to have been made by Mike Patton, although this has never been proved). The article is accompanied by Bougie's excellent drawings.

There's a 5 page article where gay Belgian porn historian Dries Vermeullen talks about frequenting fleapit adult theatres in the '80s, and he also looks at some of his favourite classic XXX cinema, obscure exploitation and blaxploitation flicks, replete with old film posters and more of Boug's great illustrations (I really like how he draws women) .

Josh Simmons contributes an interesting comic all about 'Messiah Of Evil', which he described as "The greatest early-1970s Southern California Fractured-Stoner-Magic-Lovecraftian-Blood-Moon- Zombie-Slow-Nightmare Horror Movie ever made".

Comedian Patton Oswalt writes a funny article (illustrated by James Lloyd) about his obsession with Jason Statham movies, and fantasises about how classic movies would be if Statham appeared in them. 

'Dying To Be In The Movies' is  a comprehensive history of on-set film deaths from 1920 to 2004, with background info on what happened in each fated film. Just a few examples of the fatalities include stepping on a live landmine, shark attack, decapitation by helicopter blades, and being struck on the head by a telegraph pole

There's an interesting review of  the instructional video 'Self Loving With Betty Dobson'  (known as the "Godmother of masturbation"). And a list of Bougie's favourite films of the ten years previous.

Other cult reviews include Jennie Wife/ Child, Fuego, Virginia, The Final Sin, Easy, Neon Nights, Beyond Love & Evil, Hell Of The Living Dead, Pumping Iron, She's On Duty& more, and there's also the very enjoyable "Ask The Bougieman" section where fans and readers ask Robin all manner of questions, and he gives his honest reply.


















Finishing things off is this beautiful back cover illustration by Steve Rolston, dedicated to the strange, camp, Chinese Sci-Fi movie "I Love Maria" with Bougie's synposis underneath which makes it sound great fun.

If this magazine sounds like your thing, go to:








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