Cometbus is most famous for publishing the
zine Cometbus, which he began in Berkeley, California, in 1981. Cometbus has self-published the usually-handwritten zine ever since, despite a few breaks. The name
Cometbus was coined by
Gregg Turkington during the early days of the magazine when the name changed from issue to issue.
Cometbus consisted of band interviews, personal diaries, artwork, and observations on the
punk subculture in the
San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The zine captured a slice of life in
Oakland and Berkeley from the late 1980s through the 1990s. From 2004 to 2006, Cometbus took a hiatus from writing
Cometbus to pursue publishing his writing through other channels.
Cometbus came out of retirement in 2006 with the release of
Cometbus #50, the 25th anniversary issue of the magazine. Originally planned as a letters only issue, it features band interviews (for the first time since issue #24), short stories, and book store reviews.
Cometbus #51, The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah, was released in September 2008. It chronicles the history of Moe's Books and other longtime businesses on
Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.
Cometbus #52, The Spirit of St-Louis, Or, How to Break Your Own Heart, A Tragedy in 24 Parts, was released in 2009. Cometbus says in his blurb: "It all starts with the story I've told so many times it's turned stale and tired from overuse. There I was, dropped off in a city far from home. I didn't know a soul or have a hope, and so on..." Both issue #52 of
Cometbus and the novel
I Wish There Was Something That I Could Quit are rumored to be about his stay and relationships in
Pensacola, Florida.
Cometbus #53 features contributions from Maddalena Poletta and a cover by Eisner Award winner
Nate Powell. Released in 2009, it features a lengthy piece on art, comics, and the early days of punk in NYC in the mid-1970s that is largely derived from an in-depth interview Cometbus conducted with John Holmstrom, the co-founder of the legendary
Punk Magazine.
Cometbus #54, In China with Green Day?, released in February 2011, is about Cometbus' and Green Day's tour of Asia in 2010.
Cometbus #55, Pen Pals, was released in February 2013 (cover by
Jordan Crane).
Cometbus #56, A Bestiary of Booksellers details the NYC used book trade.
Cometbus #57, 35th Anniversary Issue: Cartoonists (2016) interviews with comics creators
Kim Deitch,
Gary Panter,
Al Jaffee,
Drew Friedman,
Ben Katchor,
Paul Levitz, et al.
Cometbus #58, Zimmerwald (2017), is a novella about a teenager who "finds solace in a diner full of grumpy seniors during the heyday of San Francisco punk".
Cometbus #59: Post-Mortem (2020), a series of interviews about the punk scene. The extremely limited print runs of the zine have been somewhat ameliorated over the years by a number of collections.
Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus (
Last Gasp Publishing 2002, ) a 608-page compendium of selections from 43 early
Cometbus issues which are long out of print and often difficult to find.
Double Duce (
Last Gasp Publishing 2003; ) a novel based on life in a
punk house called Double Duce that collects material from issues 32, 35, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, and 45.
Add Toner (
Last Gasp Publishing 2011, ) compiles issues 44, 45, 46, 46 1/2, 47 & 48 in full, along with a collection of stories entitled "8 out of 10 days" . ==Other writing==