Zine Review: Real Tioga Vol 7

Real Tioga Vol 7
Eric
PO Box 14
Owego, NY 12827
United States
https://www.instagram.com/e.walter.yetter/

Well, my dear zine friends, it’s been a while since I’ve read a zine that perplexed me, but here we are!

Real Tioga Vol 7 is a 1/4 sized black and white zine with a collection of short – often amusing – newspaper clips and ads.

Please don’t take ‘perplexed’ in a bad way, because that’s not at all how I feel about this zine. With no note, no intro, and no internet connections to check out (not even a name on the return address), this zine was a mystery from the start. It became even more of a mystery when I found this attached to a page inside.

Real Tioga’s collection of clippings includes all sorts of things from people wanting the comments to be shorter to complaints about the perpetual scent of animal urine in the street. With bats and alligators to worry about as well as a lost and found, this collection has a lot going on. Or rather, the people in this area do.

I definitely felt like an outsider reading a little closer into the inner workings of these people, but I often found myself smiling. Complaints of leaf blowers and just how people responded to each other via the text was fun.

I found myself really hoping that these are clippings from an actual community paper – or perhaps this zine IS the community paper? – because I fell in love with people going back and forth communicating with each other in this way. Plenty of fun.

If you can find a copy, check it out.