Review: Gupter Puncher Issue 16

Gupter Puncher Issue 16

Various Authors
Zizek Press
Street: 10.05.14

I never imagined that Mega Man would make me question the nature of my reality. Gupter Puncher Issue 16 is the first Gupter Puncher zine I’ve ever read, and it makes me curious to go back and read issues 1–15, though, apparently, some of the earlier issues have gone missing. Anyway, this thing starts with a short story in which Mega Man 2 becomes self-aware and starts to dread his existence and question the morality of killing a Bubble Man whom he can’t even understand. It ends with a trippy bit in which respected fucking actor Dennis Franz goes on a rant at the director of Psycho II and then finds out that he’s actually just a disembodied head in a jar living in a fantasy world until science is advanced enough to bring him back into reality. Between these bookends are pieces about Hollywood, horror movies and video games, with Twitter and email correspondence with the zine publisher peppered throughout. Gupter Puncher Issue 16 is a trip. I highly recommend it if you need to remember that there are real people living in your video games. –Alex Gilvarry