Month: February 2017

i’m sick.
Katie
www.thelalatheory.com

Sometimes I feel like I pick up the zines I need to read when I need to read them, and they are just right to help me get past whatever creative hangups I have at that point in time. This is one of those zines. (Take that as you will.)

i’m sick is a (mostly) text-filled mini-zine stream of consciousness pondering about fever dreams, being sick, people, music, work, and reminding oneself that your alive. Sick as Katie is, they venture forth to the library and contemplate whether the boyfriend will ever call.

It is a touch self-pitying, but who doesn’t get into a bit of grumpiness and self-pity when they are ill?

There’s something about a smaller zine that either makes it more ‘fun and light’ or more intimate. This zine is the latter. It meanders not only through thoughts but but feelings as well. It starts out making you wonder if it’ll venture into a rant while instead it just gets a little grumpy before wandering on to more interesting things. Somehow you end up on something important and vulnerable all at the same time.

This zine reminds me that not everything – not every work created – has to have a point, a wrap up, a ‘the end’ at the end. I mean that in the best possible way. Sometimes things exist simply for the sharing of them because we had a moment where we wanted to connect or simply to express something. It reminds me to loosen up about the standards I hold myself to.

Even Katie says in the zine:

I really just wanted to say hello and to remind myself that I’m alive.

Sometimes I begin to wonder if I read way too much into things. Then I read a sentence like that and remember there are beautiful things to be found even in word rambles.

Sober Bob Supplementary
Sober Bob
http://soberbobmonthly.bigcartel.com/
@soberbobmonthly

I must admit that this zine review is partly fuelled by my enjoyment from watching @soberbobmonthly ‘Your Story’ videos on Instagram… That and my immense love for garlic dill pickles.

Sober Bob Supplementary is a single-page, quarter folded zine about the places we live in, restoration, and the backward “logic” of local councils. It’s about work, people, unemployment, and it always being okay to make zines. All on one double-sided page.

(As someone who lives in a place that cares more about historical renovation rules rather than actual historic buildings, those parts resonated a lot with me.)

My favourite part in this is this quote:

…it’s a worthless to a job but not worthless to me…

That really sums up a lot of passion pursuits, doesn’t it? It sums up so much of what’s wrong with society and what’s right with individuals. It reminded me that my art only needs to be important to one person.

I feel like I’m really getting back to basics when it comes to my love for zines, and this zine is a good example of that. It’s one piece of paper folded twice, and I feel like Sober Bob uses that in the best way. There’s the 1/4 front and back covers, a half page, and then the inside, which is the unfolded full page.

You might not be impressed with a single folded piece of paper, but I appreciate the variety in page size as well as direction. For me, it touches the fun creativity of zines in tense times – even within the zine community.

This is another one of those zines that I wish my friends would make. Random or not so random thoughts paired with whatever their art looks like. Whatever makes them happy – because that makes me happy.