About Crimewave

Crimewave U.S.A. is a magazine. It has nothing to do with crime. Well, very, very rarely is it about crime. It is the invention of Linette Lao and Mark Maynard, who have been publishing it for almost ten years now. Perhaps the best way to understand CW Usa is to look at some of the subjects we have addressed in the magazine over the years: chicken ice cream, weddings, polka tents, wine, house on the rock, scary motels, freak shows, meat, tumbleweeds, fisticuffs, convenience stores, L.A., Roswell, Lunchables, Elvisfest, and the ordinary details of Mark and Linette's lives. Over the years, we have interviewed such luminaries as Howard Finster, Moe Tucker, Neil Hamburger, Andy Kaufman's best friend Bob Zmuda, David Cross, Half Japanese, Pylon, Daniel Pinkwater, Cat Power, Daniel Johnston and even a close acquaintance of Don Knotts!

Here are some reviews:

"If zines were food, Crimewave U.S.A. would be a free birthday meal at Denny's, complete with all your friends, balloons and a spilled cup of coffee- it's that much fun." - Fact Sheet Five, Editor's Choice Award

"All told, it's great writing from my new favorite zine couple, Mark Maynard and Linette Lao. If you don't have a life you can live vicariously through theirs." - Eye magazine

"Some of it's funny, some's personal, some is just bonkers; it all deserves to be read." - Pathetic Life

"Crimewave kicks every other magazine's butt. Time and Newsweek should both run pictures of (Mark and Linette) on the cover of their final issue with the headline: WE GIVE UP." - David Fair, Half Japanese

"A reliable vehicle for self-promotion..." - Creative Loafing, Atlanta

"A zine with tremendous buzz." - City Paper, Baltimore

"Crimewave U.S.A. is always good." - Ben Is Dead

"With the possible exception of those losers on Seinfeld have such blank lives yielded such entertaining twaddle." - Request Magazine

It is nationally distributed through many fine independent bookstores (like Quimby's Queer in Chicago, Reading Frenzy in Portland and Atomic Books in Baltimore) and huge corporate ones like Tower Records, Borders and Barnes and Noble. But you can buy it here too.