November 2019

November 30, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 30: ZineWriMo Wrap Up (BONUS: Make a zine about it!)

Hello, hello, and hello once more, wonderful zine friends. Welcome to the final day of ZineWriMo! Hardly seems possible to me, but the calendar tells me that it is so.

ZineWriMo Wrap Up (BONUS: Make a zine about it!)

Ah, what a month. I feel like this year has been a lower key ZineWriMo, which is exactly what I wanted it to be. Creativity and inspiration rather than pressure and stress.

I had two main goals this month: post each day about the prompt for that day and to make the next Missive From Murray Bridge.

I didn’t quite post every day on the day, but that being said, I did learn a bit about self-forgiveness and the fact that life just keeps happening regardless if of whether we like it or not. Haha. Bonus lessons for the win. I also finished up Missives From Murray Bridge 25, which I will be sending out sooner rather than later.

And there we have it – a rather simple wrap up for a nice month of zine creativity.

How did your ZineWriMo go? Did you enjoy the month? The prompts? Did you make a zine or some zines? Let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

https://www.instagram.com/violett_komplett/
https://www.instagram.com/bydhiyanah/
https://www.instagram.com/dungeon_maven/
https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
https://echopublishing.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/gothcupcake/
https://www.instagram.com/14thframe/

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 30, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 29: Friday Night Highlights: Show Off/Write About Your Progress

Hello, and happy Friday-on-Saturday, zine friends. Friday got well and truly away from me, so it’s a double-ZineWriMo post kind of day to round out not only the week but also the end of the month (already!).

Friday Night Highlights: Show Off/Write About Your Progress

My WIP is WIP no more! (Yes, the colours are accurate – I think my printer is running out of ink.) There was one thing I really wanted to do this month, and it’s create the last Missive of 2019. It’s been a longer time in the coming than I’d thought it would be, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s funny for this to be the first in a number of things that wrap up the year, but really, I’m looking forward to the start of 2020.

Have you shown your Friday highlights, or are you waiting for the big wrap up? Let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 30, 2019

Call for Submissions: Workaholic 2

November 30, 2019

Call for Submissions: Phenomena 2

November 30, 2019

Call for Submissions: Final Dear Anonymous Zine

November 30, 2019

Call for Submissions: The Projectionist’s Playground

November 28, 2019

Zine Review: Wog Mum

Wog Mum 1
Mel Buttigieg
https://www.instagram.com/zinegangdistro/
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ZineGangDistro

Wog Mum is a black and white comic zine of life snippets from an Australian kid who grew up in a Maltese household (and the humour that follows).

Funny family anecdotes told in comic style? Yes please.

Okay, so full disclosure is that families seem a bit of a slightly strange thing to me as I had to disconnect from my biologicals a long time ago. That being said, it just makes me find all the funny loud family anecdotes all the more interesting and funny.

Mel opens up with a brief introduction to the zine, the inspiration behind it (Mel’s mum), and Malta. From there, we launch into 12 pages of comics that made me smile and a few times laugh out loud. Even the back cover has a bit of Malta Mum goodness to make you smile.

From food to family heirlooms (‘heirlooms’?), Mel covers a lot of funny mum moments in a little space. Mel’s art style is fun and on the cartoon side of the art which, in my eyes, totally suits the style and tone of the humour. I like how Mel worked in a couple of actual photos, too. (To show the particular heirloom in question in one case! Hehe.)

In the back of the zine there is a recipe for a go-to Maltese snack, which I not only found fun (yay! new recipe to try!) but also found funny given the comic clips that involved food or questions about food. It’s one of those unexpected things I love finding in zines – the things you don’t expect to find but end up working so well in the zine anyway.

Wog Mum 1 was a fairly fast read, but I did go back again a few times to enjoy the clips, style, and humour again. I think it’s a good, fun, warm zine that many will enjoy. I’m looking forward to checking out the next one. (Yes, there is a Wog Mum 2!)

*From Etsy: Malta is a small European island country in the central Mediterranean inhabited by about 437,000 people.

Its traditions are odd, the people are loud, and the old school women are notoriously stubborn – my mum being one of them. So I thought I’d make a zine about her.

On the use of the word “wog” the Maltese-Australian artist says:

“I use it as a term of endearment (as do my family and ethnic mates), with the word originating from the acronym Worthy or Western Oriental Gentleman. It’s generally a term used these days in Australia without a negative meaning, more to establish a cultural grouping. We wogs are proud of our culture and my zine means no disrespect to any ethics.”

November 28, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 28: Set Your Zines Free

Hello and happy nearly-Friday, zine friends. Haha. Nearly Friday because I have my days mixed up and almost typed ‘happy Friday’. So what’s on the agenda for today…

Set Your Zines Free

Yes! It’s set your zines free, a day about leaving your zines for people to find, giving free zines to friends, sharing zines online, and all sorts of other ways to share your creations.

Today I’m setting my zines free by packing extra freebies into orders as well as sending out some surprise goodies as well. It’s getting to that point in the year when mail is going to slow down due to the volume, so I wanted to get out some mail before all that happens. Haha. And what a better way to do it.

I’m thinking that, eventually, I’d like to start sharing the zine love more locally – maybe even teach some workshops – but that may be something for 2020. No reason to stop dreaming though. Hehe.

Are you sharing some zine goodness today? Let me know in the comments – especially if you have any giveaways of any sort that you would like me to share.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 27, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 27: Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello, and happy Wednesday, zine friends! Today is our last Wednesday and thus our last Work in Progress Wednesday of the month! Oh, gosh, to think we’re already here!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Work in Progress Wednesday is just that – working on our WIPs. If you care to share what you’ve been working on, all the better!

Today I poked away a bit at the InDesign, adding bits and pieces. I absolutely love the amount of clip art you can find on Etsy that is very affordable and can be used as much as you like for non-commercial purposes. I have a lot of watercolour goodies that I have been enjoying including in the Missives.

As much as I do a lot on computer, the writing still happens primarily on paper. That is what I’ve been doing most of the evening, and I will do a bit more before I go to bed. Tomorrow for typing!

What have you been working on today? No stress if the answer is nothing! There is a holiday on soon in the US, so perhaps your priority today was prep or travel. It’s all good. If you’ve shared something, let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 26, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 26: Warm Up: Share the Zine Love: Favourites, Odes, & Thoughts

Hello, dear zine friends, and welcome to this Tuesday, the 26th day of ZineWriMo. Today we have a warm up all about sharing…

Warm Up: Share the Zine Love: Favourites, Odes, & Thoughts

…zine love!

Today I’m sharing my zine love with a favourite as well as a couple pages you may or may not have seen depending on how you view these posts.

First, a favourite for zinemakers of all experience levels.

Stolen Sharpie Revolution!

Stolen Sharpie Revolution is one of the first zine-related additions to my now happy, happy zine collection. It was, is, and forever will be one of my favourite resources for all zinemakers because it covers a bit of everything clearly and concisely – not to mention being an absolutely massive help to me when I was first starting out (nearly a decade ago and dreaming of having a distro).

What’s even more awesome is Alex Wrekk didn’t just leave it at one and done. I have about three different editions of SSR as it keeps growing and expanding with updated as well as new information!

Absolutely one to check out if you haven’t already.

My other two little shares are the resources page and zine review index you can find here on the main site. They could both use some updating (please let me know if you’d like your zine shop, distro, zine blog, etc listed!), but they can be a place to start if you (like me, too) like to have plenty of time and space to poke around all of the things before diving into a new project.

What are you sharing in today’s zine warm up? A favourite zine? Thoughts on zinemaking? Let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza