Customer Reviews

Answer Me! (The First Three)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Goad has a way with words. Regarding suicide: "the rest is oily-smooth blackness as you skid through space on an icicle sled". On self-help groups: "grab a knife and stab the child within!" Writing about a teenager who shot his face off and lived "he even fathered a child with a woman who undoubtedly had a strong stomach and a roaring sex drive". It's rare that a writer this good mixes such twisted humor with serious subjects.

No other form of written word makes me laugh harder than this collection. Self-published in the early '90s, this is great stuff (and the fourth issue is also highly recommended).

Regarding the previous reviewer, yes, he's had problems with violence. Disturbing as that might be, it's childish to write him off as pure scum. We all have our own issues to deal with. Hopefully he will learn to control his temper. To call him a sociopath is quite an exaggeration.

I look forward to his future writings.

Answer Me! became, after 2 issues, one of the most controversial 'zines ever published. After 4 issues, most 'zine distributors wished it would go away.

The Goads are writers, fed up with the cutting and censoring that goes with freelance article writing. Instead of turning to another line of work, they turned to self-publishing, and created Answer Me!

The Goads don't follow journalistic objectivity- they defy it. If they're interested enough to write about something, they're interested enough to have an opinion about it- and they want to cram it down the throat of everyone on the planet.

From hardcore rappers to suicide to serial and mass murderers, the Goads get into the topics that make most of us squeamish. What makes most people squeamish, though, becomes morbidly fascinating under the Goads' hands.

When it comes time for pure vitriol and hatred, they attack with a sharpened wit and pen. They will make you ashamed to be a man or woman- their hatred covers everything. Misanthropy with guns. They state the facts, state their opinions, and ask no apologies.

This book collects only the first three of the four published issues of Answer Me!, and for most people, just the first issue was offensive. If you've ever been wondered what goes through the minds of the shy, quiet people you see daily, this may answer your questions. And if you're one of those shy, quiet people, this collection may answer your dreams.

I was in a comic store in San Francisco a few years ago when I picked up the first issue of Answer Me! It was hilarious. Now we've got all three issues under one cover! People have gone to jail over this stuff. Who else but Mr. Goad could pull off a magazine in which each issue addresses such hard-hitting topics as rape, mass and serial murder, and suicide, in such a wry, goofy, "let's not forget to laugh at ourselves, folks" manner? Nobody, I tell you!

Read it. Think about it. Then you will understand why you have no choice but to ... Answer Me!

Answer me is the most important (and entertaining) literature to come along in a long time. I think Jim Goad in my opinion is the most important (underated)literary iconoclast in our lifetime. If you are disenchanted with the so called " underground scene" but like the unhindered grit of (for lack of a better word) true alternative reading, look no further. This is the be all end all of all magazine or even 'zines that Answer me! often gets lumped into. The First Three came as a blessing because I had Issue #3 and was foaming at the mouth for more only to find out they were out of print. I would like to thank Jim & Debbie Goad for putting these much coveted issue and for just existing because believe it or not this mag changed and enligtened me. Long live the wrath of Goad!!!!!!!!! I would like to hear from others who have latest info on Answer me, or Goad related lit and info.

A compilation of the first three issues of the underground zine Answer Me! put out by Jim Goad and his now deceased wife Debbie. Interviews with subjects as diverse as Iceberg Slim, David Duke, Anton Lavey and Timothy Leary. Articles like the 100 most spectacular suicides, (which is at times quite hilariously written) going undercover at AA and NA meetings, serial killer profiles, (also made me laugh out loud) among lots of other interesting and diverse topics. The highlight for me though was the misanthropic, hateful rants dished out by the Goads. Further proving my theory that righteous hatred is a beautiful thing.

With essay titles such as "Babies are Dirty" and"Your Mother is a Whore," you can't go wrong. Most articlesare just rants which howl against Americana in all her glory, butthere are researched articles as well. Serial murderers and The Top 100 suicides are documented here with as much pathos and care as the Goad's can muster.

Currently Jim Goad is imprisoned for a charge unrelated to his writing, yet his essays were brought up as evidence to set his bond at an unheard of $760,000.

Buy the Book! _The Redneck Manifesto_ is another book of Goad's, which I can't recommend in good conscience. END

The Goads do not cease to amaze me in their steadfast resolution for in-your-face literary stamina. Thank gosh their predatory zeal has not found me prey, for I should be ripped to shreds. Clever, obnoxious, and noteworthy. By golly, it's the work of the devil. And the sweetest of forbidden fruit to digest.

Everyone praised this zine as an ironic look at the world. It rose to fame in the hipster Zine rush of the 1990s. Now, when all is said and done, it's been proven this guy is a sociopath. He beat his wife for years. He beat his girlfriend--who he was cheating on his wife with--too. You know his wife had cancer when he cheated on her? He also just beats people. He's as pure a fascist a-hole as you will ever find. Hopefully--now that he's out of prison--he will beat someone else and they'll beat him back. Into prison or into another life.