Month: January 2020

The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes #1
Amber Dearest
https://www.instagram.com/___pencilskirt/
https://totalbetty.bandcamp.com/

The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes #1 is an A6 black and white perzine about mental health, revisiting the past through zines, sobriety, and more.

Sometimes the zineverse gives you the zine you need to read when you need to read it.

The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes opens with a simple “Reasons to Live” on the inside front cover, which Amber provides with a ‘that’ll do’ in both words and tone. While this is a bit of an intense way to open a zine, I think it speaks to Amber’s writing style as well as being the right kind of tone to resonate with me with where I am in life and mental state right now.

From there Amber writes about a hot July night and how closing a door can mean much more than a closed door. They go on to write about lethargy, melancholy, and loneliness, feelings of being a burden on wonderful friends, and learning to accept things in life.

I identified with so much in this zine and love the way Amber wrote about it. Amber presents the situation and their thoughts without getting stuck in all the teeny tiny details. It’s sharing observations about not being okay without being preachy.

At one point, Amber writes: “I’m never sure if I should answer the question “How’s it goin’?” with perfect honesty.” I found myself nodding along (as someone who has taken to jokingly responding to that question with ‘honest answer or polite one’).

Aesthetically, this zine is very easy to read with primarily typed text. The handwritten elements are clear, and the cut and paste elements are used sparingly to emphasise. It fits the tone of the writing and content. If the reader of the zine is in that space as well, it’s a ‘calm’ zine visually speaking.

One addition I really liked is on the last page Amber added a note beginning with “If you’re a friend and you’re wondering how to support me”… There’s something really beautiful to me about that.

I think a lot of what I like about this zine is how much I identify with it from where I’m standing now. Admittedly, that isn’t the best place. In some things, I feel like Amber (albeit past Amber writing this zine) is a few steps further from where I am now. That in and of itself is rather intriguing, and maybe it’ll be the case for someone else, too.

I think even with current life elements influencing my perspective, this is a zine to check out for Amber’s distinct writing style and writing on subjects I think a lot of people can identify with.

Dirty Machine: short and slutty poems
Nana
https://twitter.com/NaNawrote
https://www.instagram.com/nanawrote/

Dirty Machine: short and slutty poems is an A5 zine of short, dirty poems inspired by submissions of three random words from people on Twitter.

Is it bad that I’m laughing at delight at the mere concept of this zine?

Dirty Machine opens with a fun preface from Nana in which they right about the surprise about how excited people got about exchanging three random words for a dirty poem. (I don’t find this at all surprising. Hehe.) Nana also includes plenty of socials, details about the zine itself, and – as special bonus content – a SoundCloud link to enjoy!

From the preface, we launch into a collection of short poems that range from cheeky to nicely seductive. A few of the poems are in a different language, but most are in English. Like the mark on the cover says, this zine is for mature readers only.

Poetry is still poetry – mostly a mystery, and I know what I like when I read it. That being said, I quite enjoyed these poems. I like the variety in tone and structure, and I do like a bit of mature content. I like Nana’s use of sensory words as well as phrases that gave me clear imagery.

Or sometimes a giggle, like in the case of “Darling,/ what’s your safeword?”

The look and feel of this zine is quite nice. It has a nice glossy cover with smooth pages inside. Every poem has its own page with the random three words each in their own speech bubble floating above it. Even the page numbers are fun, noted by black cats sporting the white numbers.

Dirty Machine feels fun and fresh full of an energy as well as a sense of challenging the unknown. I don’t envy Nana the task of writing poems to these sets of three. One in particular – lemang, cheese, crispy – would have left my mind completely blank!

If you’re a mature reader who thinks short and slutty poems would be fun, then I can tell you this zine is one for you to check out.

Colour Swatch Confessions Vol 1 & 2
Latibule Art
https://linktr.ee/latibule_art

Colour Swatch Confessions Vol 1 & 2 are A6 full-colour zines full of anonymous secrets, thoughts, and confessions on colour swatches.

As two small collections of loves, fears, and even a quote, Colour Swatch Confessions Vol 1 & 2 please my anonymous-confessions-loving heart. Straight into it, these zines open up to reveal the various handwritten confessions collected and put together by Latibule.

I love that the thoughts and confessions are written on colour swatches (paint sample cards). Not only does it make for a colourful zine, you can get into deeper thinking about such thoughts being written on things that are so briefly used and then put away.

Some of the darker colours are harder to read in low light, but it didn’t stop my enjoyment.

I think these zines (and zines like them) are more important than they might first appear. Not only are they a safe place to express yourself, they are a good way to remind yourself that so many of us are thinking about (loving, disliking, worrying about) similar – if not the same – things.

This is another one of those reviews where I think you’ll know if the zines are something you’ll enjoy. I recommend checking them out.

Dr. Pigeon: Psychological Psychiatrist
Habitual Novelties
https://habitualnovelties.com/
https://jasonrandell.com/

Dr. Pigeon: Psychological Psychiatrist is a black and white A5 zine that takes a fun, creative comic approach to philosophical ideas.

I must say that I was intrigued by this zine from the start. A pigeon psychiatrist? I need to have a look at that. A pigeon psychiatrist that, through comics and interesting characters, explores concepts like the universe? Yes, please!

We open up with an introduction to Dr. Pigeon as well as the zine we’re about to dive into. This zine is introduced as a day in the life of the doctor with a glimpse into a few sessions.

In these sessions we meet three patients: The Universe, Death, and Yourself. Each patient is given its own part with a comics spread and then one page of musing on the ‘patient’. I quite liked the musings which were all fairly short with no answers nor any attempts at pushing any particular views. They read like the sort of deep conversation starters you’d have with friends at midnight while looking up at the stars. The meaning is yours to make or not make.

Aesthetically, this zine is great. The font choice is nice and clear, the art style goes well with the subject matter and tone. The little details are a lot of fun, too, like a discount coupon for your first session with Dr. Pigeon and a tour of the doctor’s office (illustrated, of course). I would have been quite happy with the ‘patients’’ sessions, and these elements really added icing to the cake (so to say). Plus there is such a fun little something special to the page numbers – but I will leave that for you to discover.

Jason’s approach to adding in the contact and other relevant details makes me grin. On the inside front cover, you find everything you could want to know about the zine – from the inks and printers used to what print run and copy the individual zine is. On the back inside cover you find all the external links your heart could desire. Everything absolutely covered, and I think it’s fantastic.

All said and done, this zine left me feeling happy. I enjoyed the fun space that didn’t take itself too seriously while still inviting some deep thinking. I hope there is another one of these out there or to come in the future.