Call for Submissions for Hairy Femme Mother #2: Send your stories of being a hairy queer femme – I’m taking stories, poems, essays, artwork, photos, collages, whatever you come up with. The only thing I’m asking is that you identify as a hairy queer femme and your submission reflects that. Priority will be given to hairy femmes of color and hairy trans, genderfluid, or gender non-conforming femmes of color – this includes black femmes.
More info: http://skinnedknees.net/hairyfemmemother
I really, really didn’t want to miss any zine reviews. At all. It was my goal to make every single Thursday and Friday no matter what.
But if there is one thing I won’t do, it’s rush a review. I want to give every zine its time. So I’ll have to ‘call in sick’ today.
Really, though, if you can’t excuse yourself from something because you’ve had a transabdominal ultrasound AND an unexpected transvaginal ultrasound all in one afternoon, then you can’t excuse yourself from anything. My bladder and my ovaries hurt, and I don’t care if that’s an overshare.
(Actually, I do. Sorry if that info made you feel squidgy.)
I will be back tomorrow when I’m feeling less poked and prodded.
Beer and Longing
Meg O’Shea
Pleaseusethisbag.tumblr.com
This is another lovely zine from Festival of the Photocopier. (I’ve mixed up my zines so much that I am actually happy when I remember where I got something.) This is another one of those zines that I bought because the front looked awesome. Nearly bought for only that reason, I mean. I did have a look inside to find that the quality of the outside was carried into the inside – but I’ll get to all that in a moment.
Beer and Longing is a comic about homesickness. Simply put, anyway. More than that, it’s about being a dual citizen, growing up in dramatically different places, being pulled in different directions and not being sure if either one is the right one for you.
Of course, a little of that might be my bias speaking, having grown up in one country in one hemisphere and then moving to the other side of the world.
The story is as simple or as complex as you want it to be, and the art reflects that in a way. Meg has an art style I enjoy that is detailed but not to the point of taking away or distracting from what is happening in the story. I was pleasantly surprised at the writing in this. There is a lyrical quality to it that leaves me hoping that Meg writes more stories.
The materials used and the way this zine was put together is gorgeous. I don’t see a lot of zines where the creators choose to sew the binding like I do. But Meg took this to a whole new level. No simple saddle stitch for Meg! Meg went with a Japanese four-hole binding that I have only ever seen in person a few times – and I’ve never seen it done on a zine. The beautiful thing is that it’s so appropriate to the zine itself. The Japanese stitching, the circle print on the cover which is reminiscent of the Japanese flag, the tiny Japanese type within that circle… Of course, all relating to the setting of the comic.
I absolutely adore it when creators carry themes like that in such subtle ways.
And I can’t go past mentioning that the cover and interior paper is quite nice, too.
This is a lovely zine, through and through. The whole thing just makes me want to be careful with it and treat it well so I can enjoy it for years to come.
When a bride-to-be doesn’t want to go try on dresses alone, and she summons you to go with and take pictures… Well, you go with and take pictures.
As much as I was ‘of course I will’ was involved with yesterday, it did involve dropping my plans and all sorts of uncomfortable things. Being the fat friend to the fitter bride, being one. Snooty tiny shopkeepers making snide side comments being another. But it’s all done now, and the bride is happy.
I must admit that adventures out and about make me all the more grateful for my cave where I can create and write, for people who truly understand me, and for being able to have such wonderful things in my life.
The wonderful news is that the Kickstarter payment date approaches! I am fairly sure that I have done absolute everything possible that I can without the other supplies I need coming in. So hit the ground running I shall.
I always feel a little strange when it comes to ANZAC Day. Not about the day itself but about my standing within the context of the day. I feel like, for me, it’s a ‘stand back and keep your mouth shut’ kind of day. I may be Australian now, but I didn’t grow up here, etc, etc. Americans aren’t exactly known for knowing their own history (outside of the Civil War, that is) let alone anyone else’s.
It’s one of those situations where I feel like it’s not my place to feel the feels about this. Americans have Memorial Day, after all. But I do feel it, if only in a way that someone who wasn’t born Australian can feel it.
Even so, I chose not to stand back and pretend that it’s not happening. I may feel how I feel about war, but that doesn’t mean I don’t also feel for the people who fought in these wars. For me, it’s about the individuals and what they went through. And regardless of how I feel about the bigger picture of these things, the individuals deserve at least a moment of silence.
ATTEMPTINGN0RMAL
CANNAZINE 2016
ATTEMPTINGN0RMAL presents CANNAZINE 2016 : a project dedicated to creating a guide to cannabis with a collection of various art works, articles, polls & stonerisms.
All deadlines are currently ongoing – although experiences, stories, facts, news, etc from ANY YEAR are accepted !!!
Continue checking out THIS page or www.attemptingn0rmal.tumblr.com/cannazine for updates, calls for submissions and release dates.
I NEED YOUR HELP !!! CREATIVES AND CANNIBUS USERS WANTED !!!!
TAKE MY STONER SURVEY , ONLY TAKES 2 MINUTS, PURELY ANONYMOUS (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M3VGJH7)
i am looking for all sorts of material from artwork, poetry, prose, facts, experiences, reviews, photographs, articles and more !!!!
submit anything you think will be relevant to attemptingn0rmal.art@gmail.com
all induced, influenced, inspired art, poetry, prose, etc is accepted. B&W ONLY (sorry guys colour co$t$) jpeg / psd / pdf / doc files accepted, must fit onto one letter sized sheet of paper (shrunken is OK)
all photography accepted amateur to professional
send me your knowledge and experiences !!! Write to me in the body of the email or via a word.doc
If you have any questions / comments / concerns you can email me 🙂
PLEASE SUBMIT EVERYTHING TO : attemptingn0rmal.art@gmail.com
SUBJECT LINE : CANNAZINE – C4S
PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION!!!
LOOKING FORWARDS TO THE SUBMISSIONS GOOD VIBES AND HAPPY TOKING!
Bus Driver Blues
Kathy Sarpi
www.kathyaudrey.storenvy.com
kathy-audrey.tumblr.com
Another lovely mini-comic zine by Kathy Sarpi, and another one for Nyx’s forever collection.
I reviewed On Motivation a few weeks ago and absolutely fell in love with Kathy’s style.
This zine continues on with that gorgeous, liquidy type of art that serves the black and white oh-so-well. Her art is like a romance between ink and paper, and nothing will spoil it. A little heavy? Probably, but I am both adoring and a smidge envious of Kathy’s talent.
The way she uses the combination of thick and thin lines along with the flow creates something that I really want to see happening in a graphic novel. I want to write a story just to have her bring it to life with her art.
The story held inside is a beautiful slice of life that also serves as a reminder that you can never truly know what someone else’s live experience is. What they’ve been through. How they’ve survived up until the moment you meet them. All within the context of a short, sweet story of taking a moment to think.
<3
Wanderluster Volume #1
Wanderluster
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/WanderlusterZine
I love zines. I love mail. You know I had to check this one out.
Wanderluster Volume #1 is a full-colour zine featuring a variety of postcards from around the world. Wanderluster is a member of the worldwide postcard exchange site PostCrossing. The bias for me comes in the form that I was a member of PostCrossing, so I think there is a level of enjoyment I would have reached had I not been familiar with the site or concept.
The cover is a little plain, but the red and blue striped washi on the bottom and air mail sticker at the top leave you with no doubts as to what this zine is about. Kudos to Wanderluster for going full colour with this. While the theme – introductions – enjoyment isn’t reliant on there being colour, the visual (postcards) enjoyment is much more in colour than it would have been in black and white. I enjoyed looking at all the different postcards and the stamps as well.
Admittedly, I couldn’t read some of the handwriting on a couple of the postcards, but that wasn’t a huge hold up by any means (and isn’t really something Wanderluster could have done anything about anyway). I liked seeing how people around the world chose to introduce themselves when given such limited space to write in.
The fact that Wanderluster’s address changes a couple times gave a little scope on the time it must have taken to put this all together – a small detail Wanderluster probably didn’t even think about.
The next editions in the series have themes (so far: #2 Exciting Moments and #3 Food), which I think will make the zines even more fun.
I don’t like putting my cranky pants on, but sometimes I do without realising it…
Things have been a little unplanned around here with things like a sudden flatmate moving in, the Kickstarter campaign, and working on my next novel.
Tomorrow will mark four weeks since the new flatmate moved in. Even in the best of times, someone moving into your space is bound to be stressful. I think we’re doing pretty well, but my mental health has been having a bit of a rough ride with it all.
I’m still so thrilled about the success over the Kickstarter. I was geared up and ready to… wait. Turns out that it takes two weeks for everything to be processed. Oops. I’m not a stop-start kind of worker, so the delay threw me a bit.
And the novel. The novel. Plotting…
In Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2, I talked about letting fears stop my creativity. A big part of that was not releasing a novel last year. The anxiety built and built… Well, I’m facing those fears now and plotting out the next book.
Having a bunch of people, places and events running around in my head is actually a pretty peaceful place for me to be mentally. But then the doubt monsters creep in.
And my cranky pants come on.
At least Zine Ninja always keeps his cool.
