Month: February 2016

Posted on

This is What A Box of 70 Zines Looks Like

20160209_164028

Because I know you were dying to know.

All the zine sewing and assembly is done, done, done.

This is what the pile of zines I’m bringing to the Festival of the Photocopier looks like.

20160209_164132

There are still things to take care off like extra change, some signs (so no one who doesn’t want to speak has to ask me what my zines are about, etc), and other touches.

My anxiety is pretty crazy, and I’m not getting a lot of sleep. But the thing is, I know I’m not the only one. Wanderer will be with me all the way, and it would stink to do all this work and not go. Who needs sleep? Or calm nerves? HA.

Posted on

Call for Submissions: Fat Ass

Fat Ass Zine

FAT ASS is an intersectional queer/feminist zine that centers on the experiences of queer fat folks and celebrates the artistry, activism, and work of fat activists. For issue #1 of FAT ASS, we’re looking for submissions related to food and fat bodies.

We’re looking for submissions that address the following topics/themes (and more!):

-Fat bodies and food consumption practices;
-Queerly challenging fat-shaming and diet culture;
-The social context(s) of fat bodies eating, producing, buying food;
-Fat folks in food-production/consumption spaces;
-Racialization/gendering/sizing/disabling of food (i.e.: the connection between meat consumption of misogyny; demonization of foods that are deemed “unhealthy”);
-Fat perspectives on food for healing, self-care, spiritual practice, and/or holistic well-being; (NOTE: we do not condone the empty promises of diet culture so please do not send us diet regimens, “weight loss stories,” before/after pics or other fat-shaming bullshit!);
-Queer/feminist/fat community-building through sharing/producing food;
-Representations of fat bodies and food in the media;
-Fat trans and gender non-conforming perspectives on food and eating;
-Impact of fat and food stigma on queer folks’ livelihood;
-Have an idea that’s not listed above? Send it anyway!

It is a myth that you must be a “good writer” or “good artist” to submit to a zine. We welcome many kinds of writing and artwork: essays, poetry, short stories, photography, doodles, rants, drawings, cartoons/comics, collage…and more!

Send your submissions to FATASSZINE@gmail.com before February 29th, 2016. For written submissions, please use Microsoft Word and submit your writing in .doc or .docx format. (Please try to limit submissions to 2500 words. We are flexible. Let us know if you need a little extra space.) For artwork, please attach high resolution .jpg images to your email. Please include a title for your artwork and any information you think would be pertinent for readers to know about your piece (i.e.: medium, location, tools used). Contributors have the option of sharing a short bio or publishing their work anonymously.

All contributors will receive a free copy!

Posted on

Zine Review: Wiseblood #62

wiseblood 62

Wiseblood 62
Fishspit
fuzzybunnyflatbunny@gmail.com

Today’s review is brought to you by an early morning run to the dental hospital for Wanderer’s emergency, followed by a very long day.

How much do you love this cover? I wish I’d had time to take a better photo, because it’s excellent.

Before I get into the content of this zine, I want to mention how cool it is to see a zine that is on issue 62. Last week I reviewed issue 37, and that was impressive in and of itself. But 62? I only just finished Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2.

The Wiseblood website says “A Zine Since 1984”. It’s strange and wonderful to think about how this zine series has been going longer than I have been alive.

Wowza.

Many zines on, and Fishspit still has a stream of consciousness style of writing that picks you up and carries you along (if you’re willing to go along). He still hasn’t lost his knack for being potentially offensive. His first piece is about smoking, and his third piece does start with the sentence “I hate babies”.

His views, his sense of humour… It’s so different from the current youth generation. For better and worse, it’s a wake-up smack in the face sort of thing at times with a dash of seriousness when you don’t expect it.

It might not be quite so black and white as I see it, but I still reckon it’s a love it or hate it sort of zine.

Posted on

Zine Review: ‘Bots Is ‘Bots 3

Bots Is Bots 3

‘Bots is ‘Bots: Issue Three
Gregg
http://botsisbots.blogspot.com.au/

Check out my reviews of the other ‘Bots Is ‘Bots issues in the Zine Review Index.

When I got my hands on the ‘Bots is ‘Bots zines, I considered writing about the series as a whole in one review. But this one is the one that made me decide that they all need their own review.

Of all the ‘Bots is ‘Bots comics I’ve read so far (admittedly, only three), this is my favourite issue. It has so much wordplay in it, and I love wordplay. Seeing it in comic form makes it even more fun. Where the first two issues seemed to have pretty solid themes, this one looks like it’s taking the piss out of itself. Having some fun and a laugh at the expense of the strangeness of life and the English language.

In each issue there is a part one/part two comic that ‘sandwiches’ all the rest of the content. That strip? Just keeps getting funnier.

I’ve mentioned before that I like seeing how a zine series can grow and change over time. I didn’t think there was anything missing from this series, but I’m happy to see some variety injected into it in the form of a (robot) movie review.

I’m looking forward to seeing where things go.

Posted on

Prepping for Festival of the Photocopier

That’s right, lovely people. I am absolutely ruddy terrified at the prospect, but I will be going to Festival of the Photocopier.

Not only that, I’ll be launching Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2 there!

IMG_20160109_183954

I’ve been working hard every day in an effort to finish DCMC 2 before the zine fair. Like I said, I am so terrified, but Bloomurder has give me a shining light in the storm so I at least know one person there.

(Review zines! You’ll meet some nice people!)

IMG_20160115_193552

Things have been incredibly frustrating here with trying to sort out whatever is wrong with my computer. Luckily, most of my zine-making process only involves black markers and a massive amount of double-sided tape. Plus, my printer/copier doesn’t need to be connected to a computer to work, so I have been able to sort out a huge amount of stuff with out the ol’ desktop.

IMG_20160125_175305

IMG_20160126_152027

IMG_20160203_133028

Now all I have left to do is the assembly portion of things. That involves a lot more than you might think with labels, stamping, copying, cutting out cupcakes, so on and so forth. It’s a pretty huge work load (especially considering I had to do print runs for Dear Anonymous 1 and 2 on top of everything else), but it’s happy work. I really do love the zine world. I’m happy here.

20160203_175621