According to editor Anna Knoebel:

We call Abe’s Penny a micro-magazine. Each issue is a series of four postcards with a narrative that unfolds in sequence, one part per week. The narrative is a combination of photographs and text, in the format of a traditional postcard. Collectible and temporal, the cards vary each month, with a different artist and writer collaborating on each issue.

It was like getting a special surprise in the mail each time. My name and address were hand-written in a tight, neat script. It is cool to think of the hand that wrote it – the care that was taken here.

The narrative develops over the 4 cards, and it was really fun getting each piece at a time. It was also fun anticipating the next card – the next segment of the story.

The text is wonderful – almost haiku in it’s sparseness and negative space. It’s what it doesn’t say that says so much. It’s a simple reflection on a father – once a quirky breadwinner who hoards wads of cash – who has been diminished to a mindless invalid by an unnamed illness. The sorrow of his decline and the adoration and love felt by the narrator are obvious, even though only ever implied.

There is a history and life in the story, somehow magically portrayed in its dozen or so sentences. What a wonderful trick.

The pictures are exceptional too. I was relieved that there wasn’t an attempt at a literal relationship with the narrative. It would have been too easy to have done so. Instead beautiful, thought provoking images stand on their own and challenge you to draw a relationship with the text.

The images aren’t ralated too each other either – in style or subject matter. Yet when hung upon the narrative, they all somehow work together to enhance and inform the story being told.

I’m sorry, I am glowing. But I really do appreciate these little cards. They were addressed to Cantara and myself… but I am going to keep them. She can borrow them if she wants, but I’m keepin’ em.

Also, so as not to fall afoul of new FTC regulations, I should disclose that my copy of the publication was provided gratis. But don’t think for a moment that this is why I love these cards so much. I would had I paid for them – and you will too.