Month: December 2017

A Guide to Self-Care
Latibule Art
Latibule Art

A Guide to Self-Care is a full-colour A7-sized mini-zine of self-care activities.

Self-care can come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes it means just doing something. In this little mini-zine, you will find ideas for solitary adventures that can easily be adapted to groups if you’d like.

I like the adaptability of the activities in that way. For the most part, they are as ‘in’ or as ‘out and about’ as you’d like them to be (within the parameters of the activity itself).

This is a lovely little zine for your pocket or wallet to give you ideas on days when thinking of something to do is difficult.

To The End of Time: A Photography Manifesto
Graham Lally
http://exmosis.net
@6loss

To The End of Time is an A7-sized black and white mini-zine featuring small photos and writing about photography.

There is something that can be utterly stunning about black and white photography – even when it’s A7 and printed on cream paper. When it works, it just works, and – for the most part – it works in this zine.

Each page has a single photo, and each photo is accompanied by small blurbs. I found the writing intriguing. Graham opens with an almost aggressive stance on photography and then follows with writing about his fascination with it. It swings back to a disdain for digital photography and then moving in another direction again.

While I don’t know for sure it’s his feeling or intention, I thought the writing spoke to a love/hate relationship with photography without actually saying it.

To The End of Time is a solid little zine. Not only is it printed on thicker (nice, cream) paper, the pages are glued so it doesn’t unfold. It’s nice to hold and flip through.

I think this a poetic tribute to photography and is a mini-zine that anyone who enjoys photography would like.

Poly/Not Poly: Adventures in Relationship Structure Ambivalence
Kirsty
@mskirstyface
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/foreverincomplete

Poly/Not Poly is an A6 sized black and white perzine about polyamory and, well, not polyamory.

With an introduction of a single sentence, Kristy gets right into the subject matter on page one with how they discovered polyamory existed. From there Kristy explores polyamory and how somewhat indirectly participating can be confusing to people.

Even though feelings of anxiety and doubts are involved, I really enjoyed reading Kristy’s perspective. I’ve known people and come across the ‘I have multiple partners and so does my partner’ point of view, but Kristy writes about what it’s like to have one partner but is okay with that partner having someone else as well.

(I feel like I’m being less than ideally clear, so more points to Kristy for a clear, engaging zine.)

Poly/Not Poly is not all sunshine and roses, however, with Kristy getting into some of the anxieties that can come with a partner who is polyamorous. Kristy admits to being ‘mostly okay’ with their partner having partners but that this can aggravate anxiety at times. I really admired Kristy’s ability to separate their own anxieties from their partners actions. As in Kristy sees the anxieties coming from within rather than being the fault of the partner. It’s a complicated but important thing to learn.

Not only that, there is dealing with the people who think that if things aren’t ‘equally’ polyamorous on both sides, then something is wrong.

Kristy’s writing is candid, open, and, at times, quite funny. I chuckled at this:

“Interestingly, my girlfriend is also very into soccer, but no one seems to have the same worries that I am compromising my identity by being up for going to watch a match with her.”

Poly/Not Poly is not what I expected, but it is a zine I am very glad to have read and to now have in my collection.

PS. This zine made me remember a webcomic I adore (Girls With Slingshots). It has since ended, but Jamie explores a lot of different kinds of relationships.