Just when you think that zine culture might be poised for a major comeback, you go into a place like Family and find that it never really went away. Opened in autumn 2006, Family carries scores of individually designed, printed and packaged art zines reflecting the best and oddest of their creators' various intentions. Whether it's How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence; L.A. XXX, artist Sandy Kim's mocking mock-up of longtime L.A. scandal sheet L.A. X-Press; food-and-culture journal The Gourmand; or even books about zines such as Under the Radar: Underground Zines and Self-Publications 1965-1975, Family is staunchly, honorably devoted to carrying these zines that are in essence wild creative outbursts that were somehow lassoed and held down long enough to be Xeroxed, stapled and delivered to shelves. Zines have long been at the forefront of artistic movements, giving people on the brink of something fresh a place to develop their ideas, which they might have done in total oblivion were it not for the efforts of places like Family. The store also regularly rotates its stock of zines — if you don't pick up the one you want, you might never see another copy again.

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