Chronicled Chaos Issue 1
Molly
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Chronicled Chaos is an A6 size black and white (save for one art page) perzine about Molly and their system (what’s a system? Read the zine hehe), Dissociative Identity Disorder, chronic illness, art, and more.
I’ve mentioned plenty of times here how much I love and appreciate perzines because they’re either helping me feel less alone, or they are giving me new perspectives that I wouldn’t have found otherwise. Sometimes both. So how could I not love a perzine that not only teaches me so much but also opens up with a glossary of terms after the introduction?
Chronicled Chaos opens up with an introduction from Molly, who they are, and what you can expect in this (and future) perzines in the series. (Love how they put it all down on the page right from the get go.) From there, Molly then gives a comprehensive list of terms and definitions around DiD (Dissociative Identity Disorder).
As I mentioned, I learned a lot in a relatively small amount of time about DiD and their experience of it. There’s not only an overview of the condition but also brief introductions (and history) for some of Molly’s alters or parts (new vocabulary!). They even include drawings of each of them – something I found fascinating as well as enjoyable to look at.
There’s a lot more to enjoy in this perzine as well, the variety reminding me of MissMuffCake’s Stay at Home Girlfriend series. Molly includes art, poems, a comic, and other things happening in their life. They also include content warning for any possible triggers.
One thing they included is called ‘#SeeMyInvisible’ which involves taking a selfie and drawing over the selfie to display where their chronic illness(es) are. It’s about seeing invisible illnesses and, moreover, reminding people that it’s not all about what their eyes can see. They used a gold marker to colour over their selfie, and I thought about how I hoped the hashtag would really take off and more people would do it.
The variety also plays into the look of the zine as well, with plenty of clear text mixed in with art, a few pages with unobtrusive backgrounds for the text, and so on. There’s definitely plenty to look at.
One aesthetic touch I especially enjoyed is how the gold speckles on the cover, the gold on the aforementioned ‘See My Invisible’ and some stickers on the inside are all put on after the printing. Meaning that each zine copy will have that little bit of unique touch to set it apart from the rest.
I really enjoyed this perzine from the casual reader standpoint to the interested learner standpoint. There’s a lot to take in and think about without it feeling incredibly dense. Check it out.