Calls for Calls for Submissions
If you have a call for submissions, a zine fest, a zine project, a zine that needs crowdfunding, or something else zine-related and would like to get the word out – look no further!
Well, actually, look further. Definitely look further, because that’s how you get the word out about stuff.
Definitely pause here for a moment, though, because I can help! Send me your call out graphic and any additional information, and I can post it here. Saturdays and Sundays are all about the calls for submissions here on Sea Green Zines, and I’m always happy to post more.
Leave a comment here or email me at theauthor(at)inkyblots.com
Zine Review: How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence
How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence
The American Association of Patriots
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/the_american_association_of_patriots
I received this in an awesome package from my US friend, Black Wolf, but I can’t for the life of me find the post… Anyway.
I think this is one of the few zines that I have heard so much about that it risked not living up to how much it had been built up in my mind. Turns out I had nothing to worry about.
It’s hard to know where to start with this one because I want to write about everything at once. There’s just so much going on here.
How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence is a guide for parents of cats to help them talk to their cats about the importance of abstinence. On the surface, anyway. In reality, it is a very cheeky poke at the view that ‘no sex’ is the only way to keep the youth of today safe. It addresses questions like:
*Do I really need to talk to my cat about abstinence?
*What difficulties do kittens born from premarital sex face?
*What are other things I can do to safeguard the purity of my cat?
I like how this zine is printed on glossy paper – just like the information pamphlets you’d find in the doctor’s office (or other professional offices). Is it possible to have an ironic use of paper? I think so. It’s even full colour, sparing no expense over getting the word out about your cat.
Okay, so the obvious thing that I haven’t touched yet in this review is the actual content behind the content. Taking the topic of ‘abstinence only’ teaching with religious leanings is bound to get some people up in arms, and it’s not going to be nearly as funny to some as it is to me.
I’m not going to get into the issue itself, but I do think that putting the issue in this form this way is an excellent idea. It’s accessible, non-threatening…
And, if you want, you don’t have to think too hard, and you can get a good laugh.
I so very much want to read ‘How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety’ and ‘How To Talk To Your Cat About Evolution’.
Zine Review: Hello My Name Is
Hello My Name Is: A Zine About Living With Mental Illness
Kendy (MissMuffCake)
www.missmuffcake.com
Full disclosure: I contributed to this zine. š
I wasn’t sure if I should review it given that fact, but I think I’m not too biased to give an opinion that’s not influenced by my participation.
If anything, the content itself – mental illness – makes me more biased than my participation. Hehe.
Hello My Name Is: A Zine About Living With Mental Illness is just that. It features a collection of people who introduce themselves, their mental illnesses, and how they don’t let those mental illnesses define them.
I feel like I am doing a disservice to the zine by summing it up like that because I know, not just from contributing or personal experience, how huge and import it can be to stand up and talk about your mental illness. That it is on paper makes no difference to the impact it has for the person sharing.
It was lovely to read people sharing the ways they perverse. There were also differences in the way people responded to the prompt, which I found interesting. (Tell five people to do the exact same thing and you’ll still likely get variations.) I loved reading about how people ‘beat the stereotypes’ and yet there was no anger or resentment in their words.
Aesthetically, this is a simple (no negative connotations attached to the word) with a picture and a paragraph per person. I think, however, that this is perfect for the content. The whole point of this zine (I think) is to show that people with mental illness are still people. They don’t need to be dressed up or changed for the sake of being appealing to the masses.
Neither does this zine.
I hope to see more of this. The shortness of responses appeals, the content appeals, that you can see the faces of the people who are introducing themselves only adds to it.
More please. š
We Made It!
I am so thrilled (and relieved) to say that the Dear Anonymous Kickstarter has made it! Soon the sweet sounds of the printer will once again fill the Nyx house. <3
Thank you to everyone who shared, liked, Tweeted, and – of course – donated!
Quiet Day for Zine Making
My live isn’t exactly loud and exciting, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the quiet times.
I’ve cut a magazine into ribbons and taken my first voyage into more traditional cut and paste. I’ve certainly done cut and paste – that’s how zines are made – but this is the first time I’ve made actual collage-from-magazine-cuttings backgrounds for pages.
These pages are for a project I’m working on with my friend, who recently decided her zine name is Dark Wolf. She’s been devouring my zines and others, and she was inspired to make zines of her own. For the first one, though, we’re working together.
I’ve brought her over to the zine side. Mwhahahahaha.
In other news, I’m a mere $39 away from hitting my Kickstarter goal, so I am soooo looking forward to getting ink and paper later this week. (Of course I’ll make it! Never give up. Never surrender.)
One I’m printing and sewing again, I’ll feel better. At the moment I just feel a little bit weird with everything ready to go but for the supplies. But it’ll be fantastic to hit the ground running.
Is It Monday Already?
I’m hitting a blank here.
I think I’ve hit the Monday evening slump. It’s a little after 5pm as I’m typing this, and my get up and go has definitely got up and gone. Whoops.
More and more, I’m coming to see that 2016 is going to be, well and truly, a strange and occasionally emotional year for me. I got on Facebook this morning to find many people had posted pictures and memes in celebration of Siblings Day. I did smile, even while I was trying to remember if so many people had posted about it last year. But then my smile died a little when I thought about family, and how that word means something different to me these days.
I posted this:
Apparently it’s Siblings Day. So here’s to all my sisters from other misters and brothers from other mothers. Blood is biology; family is time, effort and giving a damn – a big, important damn. Here’s to each and every one of you who invited me to be part of your lives and showed me what family truly is.
What I didn’t post was how it took my breath away when I remembered that it’s been nearly ten years since either of the men I used to call family have spoken to me. I gave up writing letters a long time ago, but in that moment of clarity, it hit me exactly how long ago that time was.
I don’t know how many biological nieces and nephews I have, though I could guess. I don’t know all their names or how their doing. I don’t know if they realise they have an aunt who loves them even if their parents don’t let me get to know them. I don’t know what those men look like or who they are in their thirties. They are forever frozen in my mind in their early twenties.
Maybe it’s better that way.
But there are people out there who love me. People who would adopt me even at my age. People who are proud to call me sister even though biology says it isn’t so. And the thing is, I AM an aunt to two boys and a girl who have never met me but know their aunty in Australia never misses a birthday postcard (even if they get there a little late sometimes).
So here’s to siblings, by blood or by love alone.
And here’s to a strange, Monday evening soapbox speech because sometimes even a zine blog needs a bit of variety. š
Over Halfway There!
We’ve made it over the halfway mark for the Dear Anonymous Kickstarter!
Sneak peeks of Dear Anonymous 4 AND Don’t Call Me Cupcake 3 are up for backers only…
Call for Submissions: Papergirl Bristol
Call for Submissions: Hairy Femme Mother #2 Zine
Call for Submissions for Hairy Femme Mother #2: Send your stories of being a hairy queer femme ā Iām taking stories, poems, essays, artwork, photos, collages, whatever you come up with. The only thing Iām 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 ā this includes black femmes.
More info: http://skinnedknees.net/hairyfemmemother