Month: March 2016

A Guide to Op Shopping
Jane Cantwell
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AdventuresinKindness
#luckyjarzines

I got this, A History of Abandoned Hobbies, A Guide to Letter Writing, and A Guide to Being Cool as a lovely little bundle.*

A Guide to Op Shopping is an A7-sized zine in full colour with maps as backgrounds. (Love it.) You definitely get the sense that Jane is a serious op shopper and likes to hunt down a bargain. I’m not much of an op shopper myself, but her zine (and my wallet) make me feel like I should really get into it.

Though I am familiar with op shopping, I did learn something in that I didn’t know a student card could possibly get you discounts. That’s definitely good to know.

The little note on the back (I won’t spoil it) made me smile and wrapped up the whole thing nicely.

*The links will only begin working as the other reviews are posted.

X
Rebecca Sheedy
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/rebeccasaurusrex

The “X” is actually CUT OUT of the cover to reveal the green paper behind. I swear, if I love that any more, I would burst into a pile of confetti and doughnuts. Love it!

There is so much work put into this one small zine – it’s fantastic. Very detailed, full colour art set up in a comicbook style, printed on nice glossy paper, the green paper just on the inside cover, the aforementioned ‘X’, and even a little sticker on the front to say that it’s a “Bonus Unsubmitted & Unfinished Honours Thesis” (with every purchase of its companion zine that you can find on the Etsy shop).

I’ve come to see that I don’t quite have Rebecca’s level of love for the X-Files, but I’m happy to admit defeat to someone like Rebecca. This zine shares her dedication and love for the X-Files through her childhood/teenage years. I enjoyed following along with the various X-dedicated projects she did alone as well as with her friends.

I like that this zine is about the X-Files (<3) on the surface, but it's also a reference back to some things in my childhood. From what I gathered in this zine, Rebecca is only a year older than me. This zine kept me smiling not only about the show but about things like becoming a master at pausing the VHS recording to skip the ad breaks and making my own newsletters in Microsoft Publisher 95.

The only nitpick I have with this is that there aren't any sort of contact details on here. That in combination with a title like 'X' is going to make it hard for people to find the person who made it. I know this is a bonus zine sold with other zines, but things get separated.

Definitely one for the permanent collection, that's for sure.

SAD: Sensitive Adult Daily – A Zine for Sensitive Adults
Darcy L Rock
http://sensitiveadultdaily.tumblr.com/
http://www.sensitiveadultdaily.com/

I traded for this at the Festival of the Photocopier after someone at the Sensitive Adult Daily table handed Wanderer a card that had me giggling.

The mixture of humour and anxiety had me wondering what I was getting into with zine, but I had to check it out.

It’s hard to know where to start with this zine because there are so many good things to talk about. Despite it being 8 pages (not counting front and back) long, every time I thought I knew how to take it, it brought something new. First it started with quotes, then it went to art, and later it got into things like cognitive distortions. There’s even a ‘confessions board’ and classified section (both of which you can submit to).

It’s like an entire community space within a mini-zine. It’s fantastic.

I think the thing that I like the most is that it includes ‘sensitivity’ along with mental illness. I think there are a lot of people who aren’t diagnosed as mentally ill out there who hear ‘you’re just too sensitive’ (or something of the like) too often. That this zine could grab their attention, too, is an excellent thing.

As it turns out, Sensitive Adult Daily is holding a Kickstarter going toward helping the creator distrubute this zine for free. Check it out here.