100 what? What hundred? Issues? Dang, have we got issues! Our biggest issue (‘ceptin’ this one) is that we are obsessed with culture stuff. New England and Boston DIY. Independent everything. Strange and unusual. The fringe. That’s all it is, folks. The Compass is made by people who care, shoveling sand against the tide just cause it improves the ride. It’s a testament to our region’s deeply radical nature. People come and go from this city, but there’s a core of lifers who you can’t count out. If nothing else, the fact that The Compass has made it to 100 issues (after 100 months of work from hundreds of volunteer editors, writers, and artists) is a testament to the toughness of you people, who actually read this thing. You are the shit.

Our existence also represents an opposition to the mainstream, a refusal to give in to the digital age completely. Why should we give up on what we love just because it’s completely economically nonsensical? We may have no idea what the actual readership of this thing is, but we believe it’s worth the effort. We think the world needs more zines, not more apps. We really believe that media’s past is media’s future.

If you can dig it, you’re welcome aboard any time; this project is sustained by volunteers of all commitment levels. That’s because it takes a real community to keep things like this alive. That, and the deep belief that after our civilization actually collapses, we will still be throwing shows in abandoned buildings and making a zine about it.