Okay, I’ll admit my faults when they’re pointed out to me – and Black Cross has shown me the light. This is another one of those “black background” zines, only this time the layout works. And well. Maybe it’s the increased font size, or the staggering of graphics within the print, breaking up all of those pesky white lines. Whatever it is, it works. And extremely well, too.

Their proclamation is that Black Cross is “Better than smoking pot in front of the idiot box,” and I’m going to have to agree with them. This is one of the finest zines around. Their poetry is cutting-edge, left-coast stuff. Gritty and raw. The only drawback is that this isn’t a true web-zine, but rather a web site to promote the print magazine, issues of which are available for purchase online.

The editors promise that once all print copies of an issues have been sold, that issue will be posted on the Net in it’s entirety. As of publication date, though, not even the contents of Issue No. 1 are available. Hey, I understand that magazine editors need to make a buck, but I’d also like to see a little more of the zine online. Plee-eze!

There’s this growing trend with web-based zines to imitate their print cousins by having a really cool cover art graphic (like the cover of a magazine) that does nothing but tell you to “Click here to enter.” Black Cross is no exception, but, man! The eye candy, though pushing the limits of acceptable download time, is very nice.

One thing I love about the online version of this magazine is the huge list (3000+) of poetry magazine addresses they maintain. From Another Chicago Magazine to Zyzzyva, if it’s in print, chances are it’s listed here.

If you’re a fan of poetry, then this should be your first stop when searching the Net for poetry, or poetry related sites.