Migraine

Migraine (alternately called The Migraine Entertainment Syndicate) was a small independent press run by Ian Lynam from 1994-2001 in Berkeley/Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon.

The first release was the collaborative dream-interpretation zine SuperBlackBlack by Ian and David D'Andrea (Devil in the Dishes). 54 titles were rapidly released under the imprint. The press included a wide range of content. Each title was produced in an edition of between 500 and 3000 copies.

Published titles included:

• Velour, a compilation of writing, art and comics featuring work by Simon Gane, Kyle Metzger, Karen Cail, Al Columbia, Icki Sty, Andy Gerhan, Sam McPheeters, Marc Arsenault, and Carrie Bugg.
  
• SuperBlackBlack 2 and 3, compilations of writing, art, and comics by Carrie McNinch, Chris Steinsvold, Icki Sty, Al Burian, Rob Drenched, and a number of others. #2 came with a 7" record by Berkeley post-punk band Say Uncle. #3 came with a 7" compilation record titled "Ninja Factor" featuring Swing Swang Swung (Bellingham, WA), Three Doors Down (Oakland, CA), Dragon Rojo (Oakland, CA), and Our Lady of the Highway (Oakland, CA). Both issues featured deluxe spot-color covers printed on transparent vinyl.
  
• Sap, a trilogy penned by Lynam and Kim Fern and drawn by Simon Gane. Punk rock love unfolds across the three digest-size issues drawn in Gane's signature style. The trilogy will be reprinted in collected book form by Wow Cool in 2007.
  
• Non-LP B-side, a collection of short collaborative comics by Lynam and Gane
  
• Scrumpy & Smiles, a slapstick comic about two British drunks by Simon Gane
  
• Law of Diminishing Returns, a graphic novella by Ian Lynam that was published in both English and Japanese versions. The comic charts Lynam's move to Portland and ruminations on life in the East Bay from the assumed persona of a blobby pod-like caricature named "Our Hero".
  
• Cheap Inspiration, a novella.
  
• Internal Combustion, a thick digest-size comic about urbanism and the Oakland landscape
  
• Alphonse, a trio of short fiction pieces rendered in comic style and strung together. It includes a faux myth about why cats' eyes gleam in the night, the unknown dangers of Xerox toner, and the story of an old Italian knife sharpener.
• Asphalt, a collection of short stories about the experience of being a cab driver by Doug Grime
  
• Moon Moth Mask, a graphic interpretation of a poem by Lynam
  
• A "Best Of" collection of Carrie McNinch's The Assassin and The Whiner comic zines
  
• The Sisyphus of Fifth Avenue is a short story by Tim Elder about Bruce (aka the Baboon) whom Tim knew while living in NYC. Illustrated by Ian Lynam.
  
• Velocity, a split poetry/art zine by Ian Lynam and James Day Leavitt of Daynightpress. Two stories, with graphical and text duties being traded between both authors.
  
• My Alphabet #4 and #20, Patrick Mullins' 'encyclopedia zine'. Initially, Mullins planned to craft a zine about a topic for each letter of the alphabet. Sadly, only the topics of timekeeping and lexography were addressed. Both issues were reprinted for Lynam's Wordshape type foundry in 2004 and are available in pdf format at http://www.wordshape.com
  
• Scary Side of the Street, a perzine
  
• Seasonal Affective Disorder and ____, two comics by Al Burian, later reprinted by Microcosm Publishing under the title Things are Meaning Less
  
• Songs of the Range, a Western-themed split comic by Ian Lynam and Jeff Wilson
  
• Action!, a photozine by Icki Sty, collecting years of d.i.y. punk/hardcore band photography
  

Two clandestine Migraine titles exist, as well:

• Sty Zine #30 was written, compiled, and printed by Ian Lynam as an unrequested gift to Icki Sty in 1995.
• Hey Asshole, a compendium of Dylan Williams' "Hey Grandpa" comics with the word bubbles whited-out and really offensive new verbiage was produced secretly and deposited on Williams' doorstep in Olympia, Washington in 1996.
  

Ian Lynam now writes regularly for a number of design and cultural publications and runs a design studio in Tokyo, Japan.
http://www.ianlynam.com David D'Andrea now runs an illustration business in Portland, Oregon.
http://www.sonofenoch.com