Zine Review: O’Flannigans 1-5

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O’Flannigans 1-5
Jessica
oflanniganszine@gmail.com

I’m taking liberties with the capitalisation and the apostrophe. Apologies if I’m wrong! Apologies also to Jessica, who sent these to me for review and, between the time for the zines to arrive and me finally reviewing them, has been very patient.

O’Flannigans is a mini-zine series dedicated to the local music scene in Logan, Utah. Along with a collection of fun bits and bobs, you will find the Music Report (complete with header banner and rock fist) complete with what you’re missing out on if you’re not there.

It took me a moment to realise that ‘Why Sound’ is where the music is happening rather than this imagined O’Flannigans pub I had going in my head. That’s my fault due to extended time spent at pubs over the years. Noticing that made me realise that there aren’t really details as to the location of Why Sound or even any pointers to Logan, Utah. (I found that on the note Jessica included.)

Having a zine dedicated to your community is definitely an awesome thing, no doubt about that. But a few details go a long way if your zine escapes the ranks and wanders out into the rest of the world. Though I should note the email address is now included.

Beyond that, though, this is a fantastic little zine series. There is so much going on in such a little space – it’s fantastic! Backgrounds, drawings… There’s a little Ouija board in one, a crossword in another… I really love the colour accents that change in each issue. In a black and white zine world, colour is an excellent way to stand out and give your zine some pop.

You can easily tell that there is so much passion going into these zines from the things I’ve already mentioned to quotes like this:

The night ended with Like Wildfire savagely kicking ass with their chaotic hardcore jams.

Why do I love that sentence so much? Doesn’t matter. It’s awesome.

All this passion and energy makes the fact that this mini-zine is free even more awesome.

Happy International Zine Month – Day 14 + Review Rain Check

I have to postpone today’s review, but that just means double the awesomeness tomorrow.

🙂

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This day got away from me in so many ways, though not unpleasant ones. But I did still want to take a peek at today’s task before bed:

ValenZINE’s Day! Write to ZineCrush.com (or your zine crush!)

If you’re wondering why I didn’t link to the site name, it’s because apparently not a site as such anymore.

Sad face.

I have zine crushes all over the place insofar as I admire all the people who have such great artistic abilities, I love seeing zines that have been going for a long, long time, I crush on zine makers who stuff there zines full of interesting content…

I have crushes on zinesters who also make/sell buttons. Especially on those who run distros and have done so successfully for years.

<3

If you have a zine crush, let me know! I'm always on the lookout for new zines/zinesters to take a look at.

Happy International Book Month! Day 13 + Done, Doing, Dreaming

I love that we have a whole month. We’ve taken it, and we’re not giving it back! (But we’ll share, of course.)

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Welcome back to another beautiful (there was actually sun here, I am so happy) day of International Zine Month. So what’s on the agenda for today?

Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade zines with you

I’m going to tweak things a smiggle again today with this one to highlight a site that has been set up specifically for getting in touch with people who want to trade zines:

Zine Traders

I haven’t signed up (yet), so I don’t have a lot of details, but even if you’re not looking to trade right now, it’s a great way to find new zinesters to check out.

Win, win, win!

Now on to something I thought of while being so busy not sleeping the other night. Haha.

Done

*Recorded the audio versions for Don’t Call Me Cupcake 1 and Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2. Now I need to edit it and get it over to Billy da Bunny. Curious about audio zines? Check out Billy’s Bunny Ears Distro.

Doing

*Dear Anonymous 5 has been started. There’s still time to sneak in with a letter if you’d like to be a part of it.
*I’m looking for a nice but affordable mic for doing more recording.
*I’m finally ordering a photobox so I can take NICE pictures.

Dreaming

*I’ve been dreaming big about a badge making machine. Someday one will be mine, and Zine Ninja’s image will go worldwide!
*Podcasting! LogPoes was kind enough to have a listen to my first (and only) podcast, and that got me thinking about how much I wanted to get into doing that. And still do. I have to get the front panel of my computer replaced and look for a good mic, but it’s definitely on my mind.
*I am looking forward to putting out a few new calls for submissions for zine ideas I have swirling around in my head…

Happy Mail Awesomeness! Zine Makers Are the Best

Haaaaappy mail! I’m so happy I could burst into glitter and confetti.

People in the zine community are so generous. A couple of these were trades, but it’s still wonderful and generous in my book.

Billy da Bunny Happy Mail

This first assortment of zine goodness came from http://wemakezines.ning.com/profile/BillyDaBunny. We have an interesting little trade happening in that part of the trade is me recording audio versions of my zines…

More news on that later.

Billy even took a look at my wishlist and did some digging around. Zinesters are awesome!

Bloomurder Happy Mail

This pack of happiness came from the one and only https://www.facebook.com/bloomzine/. She creates such classy zines, and it’s always a pleasure to find happy mail from her in my post box.

LogPoes Epic Happy Mail

It’s a box of zines. An actual box of zines.

Squeeee!

The amazing LogPoes of https://yourfriendlp.wordpress.com/ was going through her zine collection and asked me if I’d like some of the zines she was happy to pass on.

Would I?

anime eyes

Yes, please!

Zine Happy Mail

So many zines! This, my friends, is how you get one of the very rare “I owe you Tim Tams for the next decade” Nyx cards.

I am near-speechless level gobsmacked that someone would send me a big ol’ box of zines like this – especially from overseas.

Thank you so much, LogPoes!

So Many Zines

<3 <3 <3

Happy International Zine Month! Day 12

Another day, another task to check off on the IZM to-do list!

Send your zine out to be reviewed.

I’m going to risk annoying some people by tweaking this one again. Not only am I low on the postage funds, but I’m also battling with a bad bout of SAD. I already know that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and I also know that I’m all that and a bag of chips to others. What I don’t want to do is pile on additional anxiety (couch search for stamp money, is this the another letter AusPost is going to wipe its backside with and then claim it never saw the letter, will the receiving end even like what I’m offering) that could be avoided.

I’d rather try to keep on keeping on here with the way things are, wouldn’t you?

What I will do is list the places where I know you can get your zines reviewed:

Robert at MoreVerbs.com
Syndicated Zine Reviews
Xerography Debt – Yep, that same zine I drooled all over in this review
Zine Nation

And, of course, you can always send your zines to me for review!

Happy International Zine Month: Day 11

This day. Oh, man, this day. Not to mention the awful lighting. Crossing fingers for sun tomorrow so I can take some happy mail pics, because I have some awesome happy mail in.

So, as it turned out, I needed some zen, calm down time, so I used today’s task to do that…

Make some mail art!

IZM Day 11 Mail Art

I went the zentangle route because that’s one of the few things I can doodle that doesn’t end up stressing me out even more.

Want to see this envie in person? Then enter my giveaway, and I’ll send your zine goodness in THIS envelope. 🙂

Rain Day

Happy mail is postponed because it’s an absolutely dreary day, and my house has horrible lighting.

Rain

Happy International Zine Month – Day 9 & 10: Zine Giveaway Time!

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Yesterday I postponed the task for day nine so I could think about who to write to. A new day today meant a new task…

Day 9: Write a letter to a zine maker you don’t know.

Day 10: Send a care package to a zine friend.

Well. Those two together gave me an idea…

Far be it for me to squiggle the rules around, but I thought I could combine these two and tweak it into a giveaway!

That’s right; you could win some Sea Green Zines!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post letting me know which zine(s) you’d rather have: Dear Anonymous or Don’t Call Me Cupcake. (Neither is an option! If that’s the case, I’ll send you zines from my collection.)

Easy peasy.

Open worldwide.

I’ll announce the winner next Sunday (Melbourne time).

Ruby Zine Call for Submissions: The Female Experience

the first edition of ruby zine is looking for submissions with the theme “the female experience,” which can be interpreted however you wish. feel free to submit poetry, reviews, prose, essays, short stories, drawings/doodles, photography, diary entries, etc. basically anything you want that you think will fit. the zine will be published on issuu most likely, and i may be looking into other ways of publishing the zine (for free). when the zine is complete, i will send everyone involved a link to the finished publication. PS if anyone is interested in making cover art or submitting art for the cover that would be great!

i am unable to pay for submissions as i’m a broke student ((but getting published is great for a resume)) :~)

the deadline for submissions is august 10th 2016. i will definitely get back to you before this date if you submit; this is just the absolute last day for submissions! you can submit at rubyzine.tumblr.com/submit & feel free to ask any questions you may have.

please include with your submission what name you’d like to go by, the title of your work (if there is one) and how you can be contacted/found on social media (optional)

**this is inclusive to trans women/transfeminine/femme presenting and nonbinary people as well…basically anyone who has something to share is more than welcome; the more perspectives the merrier!

Call for Submissions: All in Your Head

All in Your Head is a traditional cut-and-paste style zine with a focus on LGBTQIA neurodivergent and disabled activists, zinesters, artists, and authors. Our zine operates on the following *principles: 1.) social inequality and injustice exists [racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, cissexism to name a few]; 2.) disability, neurodiversity can be understood as a viable form of human difference that intersects with/is shaped by systems of dominance; 3.) claims that there is a “normal” bodymind can have damaging and harmful effects (physically/emotionally/spiritually) and are partly shaped by current social/cultural values and white western colonial histories; 4.) neuroatypical people and people with disabilities must navigate cultural taboos, move among complex institutions and systems of care and negotiate conflicting ideas of “wellness/illness,“ “silence/disclosure,” “visibility/invisibility;” “dis/ability” and more 5.) most importantly, our stories matter. (*this list is by no means exhaustive)

For the Fall 2016 edition of All in Your Head, we invite you to share first person narratives, essays, rants, poems, doodles, drawings, photography, collages (and more!) that address the concept of “cure.” We are seeking pieces that explore the theme “cures” as it relates to disabled bodyminds and ways that queer neurodivergent, disabled folks encounter and resist cultural stigma and self-authorize our existence.

We are seeking topics that address the following themes (and others):

§ “Cure culture” (Eli Clare) as a homogenizing/coercive force

§ Critiques of health, well-being, and wholeness as it is informed by white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, racism, colorism, ableism, classism, homo/bi/transphobia and other forms of oppression;

§ “Curing” queerness, disability, and neurodiversity manifesting as state and institutional violence;

§ Interconnections among racism, white supremacy, ableism, and state/institutional violence particularly in light of police violence and state surveillance;

§ Queering cures and cure culture;

§ Trans and queer sick/neurodivergent/disabled narratives and grappling with the concept of “cure;”

§ Radically performing illness/sickness and other forms of resistance to “cure culture;”

§ Artist/Activist projects related to queerness, disability, and neurodivergence for our activist spotlight section.

§ Have an idea not listed here? Submit anyway!

Send your submissions to allinyourheadzine@gmail.com before September 1st, 2016. Please send your submissions via email. For written submissions, please use Microsoft word and submit your writing in .doc or .docx format. Please try to limit submissions to 1500 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 would like readers to know about your piece (medium, location, tools used etc). Contributors have the option of sharing a short bio or publishing their work anonymously.

IMPORTANT: Contributors should be willing to have their work displayed in another, accessible form of media alongside the traditional paper zine. Contributors should anticipate that their work may be read and translated/captioned in a video via youtube or vimeo or another internet venue. More details on this element to come. Email us with any questions. Coordinators of All in Your Head reserve the right to reject any pieces that violate our basic feminist/queer values. We explicitly seek to interrupt racism, sizeism, sexism, ableism, classism, trans/bi/homophobia, and all other forms of oppression in our work and submissions that violate these principles will be automatically rejected. All submissions should provide content/trigger warnings where appropriate. Coordinators reserve the right to add trigger/content warnings if necessary.