Welcome to the third (difficult) issue of Pop Boffin. The first two issues gave me a warm glowy feeling inside just because I created them and they were good. After that though, the zine had to progress to something fantastic to be worthy of its existence. I sweated for many nights trying to decide what new shape and form could justify the existence of yet another zine. You can't really tell the difference online because all I did was change the colour of the wallpaper. But in print you'll be amazed to see the zine is regular magazine size now and contains even more exciting design features. It may not be revolutionary but I think it looks super neat and it's bursting with even more top-quality writing. This issue was inspired by Ryan Bigge's zine, 127 Days to live, Andrea Gin's zine, Turf, and Brad Yung and Billy Reuben's zine Juxtsuppose.

Sam and I spent a month back in Europe this summer, which slightly delayed the emergence of this piece of genius. But it also gave us a lot of good fodder. You can live the magic of being a London media hot-shot along with us. Grab your mobile phone and jump into the company cab! If you want to read all about our adventures you'll have to buy the zine is print because they ain't on the website.

We had a lazy/creative self-indulgent summer with lots of yummy food, lots of adventurous day-trips and no commitments. But then Sam's immigration papers came and the party had to end. You will now find us serious and responsible and with little time for zinular malarkey.

I've been a little bit disillusioned with the zine industry lately. Zines can be shit or they can be fantastic. Some fab zinesters put their heart, soul and money into their operation. And we get little out of it except for the satisfaction of being in control of our artistic output and every once in a while getting mail from someone who is on the same wavelength. We can’t stop doing it, so enjoy. xoxo Lara

Hot Topic. What does Pop Boffin mean?
Pop (noun): To us, it's the stuff that the people make and choose as individuals not the stuff corporations impose on them as a mass. When a little piece of magic or madness hits you as if from nowhere... that's pop.
Boffin (noun): An enthusiast, an egghead, a brainiac. While anti-intellectualism runs rapid, we still favour brains over brawn and welcome intelligent analysis of any object or situation. A boffin embraces the collision of irony and emotion, intellectualism and spontaneity, meaning and style.
Pop Boffin (noun): a person with an intellectual and emotional enthusiasm for popular culture.