Month: February 2017

killing spiders & other words in spring
s. rivka m.
IG: @s.rivka.m

killing spiders & other words in spring is a zine filled with imagery, colour, prose, and poetry. On the first page, there is a brief description:

pieces from scratch or prompts given in a course conducted by tomas moniz

I have to admit that I am very drawn in by layout and those sorts of details, so this zine caught my attention straight away by having no white margins on the cover or the interior pages. Immediately I began to wonder how it was made, whether there are still to-the-edge printing options out there or whether, perhaps, s. rivka m. sat and trimmed all the edges off all copies of this zine.

All the pages are cardstock with full colour cut and paste images that almost but not quite take precedence over the text set upon them.

My favourite piece is the first: To my nineteen-year-old self. Maybe it’s because I’m now thirty or because I identified so well with things like ‘by twenty-six, you’re practically thirty’. Either way, it was both nostalgic and inspiring for me.

There are no contact/further reading details in this zine other than the creator’s name. I always remember that there can be reasons for doing this, but I also always mention it when it happens. Never assume people won’t want to see more of your work. ^_^ (To which I respond to myself: never assume that everyone wants to be found.)

There’s something about this zine as a whole – the cardstock all the way through, no white margins, saddle stitching, cut and past style – that makes me feel like I’m holding a piece of art as much as I am holding a zine. I liked reading the words, but I also like to flip through. I admit that I’ve had this zine for a long while, but in the time, I have taken this zine out and flipped through the pages to take in the colour choices, text placement, and the like more times than I can count.

I don’t have other zines by s. rivka m., but I get the feeling that they have already found their style, their way of doing things – whether they’ve realised it or not.

(PS. This zine made me realise that in the past I may have been capitalising titles that the creators didn’t want capitalised. It’s a force of habit, but I’ll do my best to put in the titles exactly as they are in the future. Apologies if this annoyed or offended anyone.)

Kackle Issue 3D Skull Water
By Bruce Wilson
www.facebook.com/kacklezine

A zine that comes with 3D glasses? Yes, please!

Skull Water is a short horror story zine with the addition of some 3D illustrations to go with the story. The story takes place in the mountains with a sweet old couple and their adult son. I’m not sure if the moral of the story is not to mess with nature or ‘love can be both beautiful and disgusting’…

I’m an editor by nature (and by qualification these days), so I rarely read a piece of fiction without finding something to nitpick. Overall, though, it’s a fun (for horror) short story with an ending that made me literally chuckle out loud. It’s a story that someone with a bit of dark, crude humour will enjoy.

The images are well done, but the focus still remains on the story instead of the 3D. What I mean by that is the images add a great amount of fun and dimension to the zine on the whole, but, in the end, it’s still about the story. They complemented the story, as good illustrations do.

The 3D aspect to this zine is another great example of you only being limited by your imagination when it comes to making zines. Why not make a 3D zine or something else entirely? That this came with the 3D glasses gave that sort of ‘bonus prize’ feeling upon first receiving it.

I quite enjoyed this and greatly appreciated the laugh.

The Life and Times of Billy Roberts Issue 78
Billy
www.iknowbilly.etsy.com

The Life and Times of Billy Roberts Issue 78 is a single piece of paper folded in half to create four pages. It’s a reminder that zines don’t have to be gloss and colour, thick, thin, or any one thing. I find myself wishing that all my friends would create little life update zines like these so I could keep up with their lives when we can’t catch up otherwise.

Right away I could feel Billy’s depressed mood through his words. “I’ve already written 3 versions of this newsletter and thrown them all away” isn’t a good sign. In this zine, Billy talks about the US election, dealing with full-blown depression, and finding some good things in amongst the doom and gloom. It’s a zine-ified version of a letter from a friend. Even if you aren’t friends with Billy, I feel like you could get that sort of feeling from this zine nonetheless.

It’s hard to read about the hard times anyone is going through – friend or stranger. My heart went out to Billy, especially talking about not being able to do much more than stay still and watch television most days. I think that’s what makes it even more special that Billy is able to still talk about some happy things happening despite all the weight of depression.

If you’ve read my reviews for a while now, you know one thing that niggles me is no contact details. When the creator leaves the reader to hunt down further reading. I’m almost willing to ignore it on this one because it might be something ‘just for friends’ anyway, but you still never know where your little creations may go, so…

This is a zine I’m keeping not just for the reasons I like it but because it’s like keeping a letter from a penpal. It’s a zine that shows how much zines can connect people and remind us that we are all people dealing with our own struggles.