Cometbus was an eponymous punk zine, started in Berkeley, California in 1983 by Aaron Cometbus, born Aaron Elliot. For the past 20 years Aaron Cometbus has been self-publishing his usually handwritten zine, including band interviews, diaries and observations on punk culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and from his travels. A zine—an abbreviation of the word magazine—is most commonly a small circulation, non-commercial publication of original or appropriated texts and images. ... Berkeley as seen from the Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve Berkeley is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California, in the United States. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Aaron Elliott, better known as Aaron Cometbus, is the author of Cometbus, a seminal punk rock zine. ... Punk culture as it is seen today started in the mid 1970s as a movement or rebellion against some styles of music which existed at the time such as Prog Rock and Heavy Metal whose stars were seen as out of touch with their fans. ... USGS Satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area. ...

Aaron Cometbus's writing captures a slice of life in Oakland and Berkeley, California from the late 1980s through the 1990s. This includes squatting, collective living, falling in love and other perils of the punk rock lifestyle. His writing is characterized by stories of loneliness and alienation, tempered with episodes of brightness and perennial hope in the ability of humans to connect to one another. View of downtown Oakland looking west across Lake Merritt. ... Berkeley as seen from the Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve Berkeley is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California, in the United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... This article is about occupying land without legal permission but with ethical intentions and means to use empty space usefully. ...

In 2004, Aaron quit writing Cometbus to pursue publishing his writing through other channels. As of 2005, he has been self-publishing a series of small books of short stories, Chicago Stories and Mixed Reviews being the first two. He has also recorded and toured with the band Pinhead Gunpowder, with members of Green Day, with whom he toured before their mainstream success. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pinhead Gunpowder is an East Bay Punk Rock band consisting of Aaron Cometbus (drums, lyrics), Bill Schneider (bass), Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Jason White (guitar, vocals). ... Green Day is a California-based Pop punk/Punk rock band, consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (born Michael Pritchard; bass, backing vocals), and Tré Cool (born Frank Edwin Wright III; drums, backing vocals). ...

Selections from 48 issues of Cometbus have been collected into a single volume, titled Despite Everything - A Cometbus Omnibus (Last Gasp of San Francisco; September 2002, ISBN 0867195614). 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Double Duce (Last Gasp, 2003, ISBN 0-86719-586-X) is about Cometbus's life in a punk house called Double Duce, and collects material published in Cometbus 32, 35, 37, 38, 41, 43, and 45. A punk house is an colloquial name given to a house, building or dwelling occupied by a collective of musicians and artists, often of a punk rock variety. ...

Chicago Stories (self published, 2004) is a small collection about Chicago, originally published in Cometbus 35, 37, 38, 41, and 45. Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

2 collections have been translated into French, including En Dépit de tout (1997).

Cometbus' distinctive handwritten script can be seen in early Green Day album liner notes, the Jawbreaker collection 2xLP "Etc", and is emblematic of the decidedly lo-fi zine culture. Jawbreaker were a popular San Francisco musical group (which actually began in Los Angeles when the members were attending the exclusive private Crossroads High School) who had seemed poised for critical and commercial success by the time of their last album, Dear You. ... Lo-fi — from Low Fidelity — describes a sound recording which contains accidental artifacts, like distortion, or environmental noise, or a recording which has a limited frequency response. ...

See also

Crimpshrine Seminal Berkeley, California Punk rock band, featuring Jeff Ott, later lead singer of Fifteen, Paul Curran, and Aaron Cometbus, the author of the zine Cometbus Song writer and drummer for many bands, most notably Pinhead Gunpowder. ...

Pinhead Gunpowder Pinhead Gunpowder is an East Bay Punk Rock band consisting of Aaron Cometbus (drums, lyrics), Bill Schneider (bass), Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) and Jason White (guitar, vocals). ...