Animated Meat Issue #1: Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Ed Richter
12 pages
https://animatedmeat.com/
Animated Meat Issue #1: Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a US-sized half-fold, blue, black, and white zine with photos and writing about raising children in today’s world and why visiting a cemetery is a perfectly appropriate day trip for the family.
This zine ended up being a prime example of why I shouldn’t judge zines by their covers – or their titles.
Animated Meat opens with Ed writing about how taking kids to a cemetery for an outing may seem odd to some parents given the plethora of kid-friendly options available in Southern California. Ed transitions smoothly into writing about some of those options and how those options represent a ‘fair weather’ kind of parenting that doesn’t prepare you for the inevitable times when the world hands you your backside. The writing is thoughtful about raising (training) good workers as opposed to the joys (sorrows, and frustrations) that come with raising interesting people.
Ed’s writing touches on a number of societal things, from raising children to how we measure success in the current age. Yet it doesn’t dive too deeply into anything in particular. We wander through Ed’s thoughts, contemplating or not contemplating as much as we care to, only to end up back at the cemetery paying respects to “a few gentlemen who kept [Ed] company during [Ed’s] own moments of despair”.
The look (and feel) of this zine stands out. The print on the front is actually textured rather than flat ink on the paper. Inside, Ed uses slightly glossy paper that suits the black and white photos. I appreciate the nice, clear text as well.
Animated Meat ended up being something almost completely different to what I expected, and in very good ways. I don’t have kids, but I enjoyed Ed’s thoughts and commentary on how many kids are raised and how society as a whole is trending. I could go on and on about the topics brought up in this zine, which just goes to show how much I liked it and hope that there will be more in the series.
Check it out.
*Side note: The cover is a much more tomato red than my camera would lead you to believe.