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Before everyone and their mom and their mom's mom had a blog, everyone had a zine. Well, okay, not everyone. The thing about zines is that they require actual effort: stapling, photocopying, flirting with the owner of your local independent bookstore until he agrees to put three issues on consignment, etc. This is one of the many reasons that zines will always have a special place in our heart. They never fail to remind us of A More Innocent Time. We file them in the same mental file folder that contains My So Called Life, Pre-Sucking Liz Phair, and Sassy Magazine [insert obligatory joke about how this is Balk]. Happily, our favorite zine of all, unlike all of the other things in the drawer in our brain labeled '1994,' is still very much with us. It's called the East Village Inky, and it gets better with every issue.

Ayun Halliday started writing the East Village Inky when her daughter, Inky, was born. She had recently moved to New York to be an avant garde actress; she and her husband, the playwright Greg Kotis, were even featured in history's only known instance of a non-smarmy Vows column. But when Inky was born, Ayun had to cope with what seemed like the end of her independent, creative life. So the first few issues of the Inky detailed the ennui of motherhood and the unique pleasures and discontents of sharing a tiny East Village one bedroom with two people, one of whom was a kid. Sounds unappealing? Think again. The enormous appeal of Halliday's writing is that it's never, as she'd put it, "complain-y," even though, especially in those early days, there was plenty to complain about. Halliday's tales of her journeys through New York's lesser-known corners in search of Korean stationery or perfect bahn mi have never failed to grab our attention and impress us, mostly because she's one of the most innately hilarious writers we've ever read. And we never fail to laugh out loud at her cartoons — of herself, of Inky, and of Inky's little brother Milo (whose arrival precipitated a move to Brooklyn, but not a change in the zine's title). Halliday has also written several books, which are all great. And she even has a blog now, too. But for our money (only $13 a year!), the Inky will always be our favorite. You can order it here. Now please excuse us while we go off to listen to Lisa Loeb's debut album.

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