Ben Is Dead - Today

Today

While the zine evolved quite a bit over the years, some things about it never changed - notably each issue being organized around a theme, the very small typeface used throughout (over the years the magazine printed many letters from readers complaining the font was so tiny it was hard to read) and the tiny quotations and commentary that ran along the bottom of almost every page. The zine attracted some notable fans, including Star Trek producer Brannon Braga, who sent in a fan letter. Many alternative cartoonists of the era (such as Adrian Tomine and Ellen Forney) were also fans, and contributed to the zine's penultimate, comics-themed issue.

Today Ben Is Dead is perhaps best known for the three-part series of "Retro" issues, in which dozens of writers looked back at the trends and fads of their childhoods with a mix of nostalgia and horror. These issues were compiled into the sprawling book, Retro Hell: Life in the '70s and '80s, From Afros to Zotz. Early in the millennium, an anthology of Ben Is Dead articles was announced at Incommunicado Press, although the project eventually fell through. In 1996, Romeo established the University of California, Los Angeles' "Darby Romeo Collection of Zines," a permanent archive currently housed in UCLA's Arts Library Special Collections.

Many of Ben is Dead's writers have continued their writing careers (Vaginal Davis writes for LA Weekly, Lisa Crystal Carver and Mikki Halpin have each written several books, etc.) including Romeo, who has penned articles for LA Weekly, Alternative Press, Vanity Fair, The Chicago Tribune and The Village Voice among others. She currently maintains the blog Coconut Girl Wireless.