Hey, Folks, welcome to part two of our APE coverage. The Alternative Press Expo was this past weekend, and there was so much fun stuff we had to break our coverage into several tasty morsels. If you missed part one and want to read about some folks making with the funny, please feel free. In this post, we're focusing on some creators that combine a less obvious type of humor with some great art and a generally longer form of storytelling....

Local zine Ker-bloom! never fails to supply a light meditation on various topics (love, gamer culture, mid-life crises and more) – the latest issue, #63 deals with topics of forgiveness. Each issue is gorgeously, painstakingly handset and letterpress-printed on recycled cardstock, in limited edition batches of about 250. Karen Switzer (aka artnoose) has kept Ker-bloom! in production since 1996, and also runs Crafty Cards, designing custom letterpress cards and stationary out of her East......

We recently snagged a copy of Jay Howell's Dog and Dog Information guide at the art/zine/DIY Goods shop Needles and Pens and LOVED it. Self-described as a guy "who really likes dogs" and "would never kick a dog's ass," Dog Information is a pocket sized instructional guide to, yep you guessed it, dogs. The semi-glossy, heavily illustrated, and locally produced mini-mag comes chock-full of canine stories, hilarious drawings and handy information (like a list of great dog names, how to fend off an attack dog, and more than you probably ever wanted to know about dog genitalia). It’s a must-have for zine enthusiasts, dog lovers, fans of the raw talent of artists like Nikki McClure and people like us, who just like instructional guides regardless of the subject. You can order it online here or swing by Needles and Pens yourself and pick up a copy. At two bucks a pop, what’s stopping you? ...

We're working on fixing our broken TypeKey login, we swear. We've just gotten so caught up with all those fresh episodes of shows on the WB, not to mention UPN's Dramatically Different Thursdays. So until we come to our senses, we're pleased as peacocks to introduce a new feature that we didn't have to do any work on at all: customizable city-local search engines integrated right into your browser! Whoo, that sounds confusing, but......