Month: October 2020

The Seas
Iestyn et al
https://zinelove.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_zinelove/

Full disclosure: I provided the cover art for this zine and have a piece included inside.

The Seas is an A5 landscape layout, full-colour zine featuring art, comics, and words all around the theme of the seas.

“Sit, listen and watch. Turn inwards and hear the voice inside. Let your spirit float and your eyes will open. There are many Seas on Earth – not all are watery, many are found in the 7 ½ billion people we share this planet with.” – Back cover

Perhaps is the class on mindfulness that I’m taking or perhaps it’s the amazing expanse of feelings bodies of water can bring, but this zine has me in such a contemplative state.

After the title page, The Seas opens with an introduction from Iestyn who, in words, contemplates literal and metaphorical meanings of seas. (But don’t worry – not too clinically nor in a confusing fashion.) From there we move immediately onto the opening, wordless comic by Miranda Smart that takes us easily flowing into the art and words contained in the rest of this zine.

There are comics, photos, words, art, and combinations of these all around the theme of seas. I would have thought the variety of things found in this zine might take away from or make the theme a little difficult to stick to, but I quiet enjoyed all the different interpretations. I’m especially impressed with the comic artists who convey so very much with no words at all. There’s some excellent visual storytelling in here.

I think Iestyn has a real artist’s eye for design, and that really shows in this zine. From the landscape layout that put me in the ‘view as a vista’ mindset as a reader to echoing the cover art within the middle spread to give it a very balanced aesthetic overall, The Seas is a lovely zine to take in on multiple levels. I love that Iestyn took the care to get this printed on nice and smooth matte paper but also with borderless printing as well.

Everything feels like a lovely touch with this zine.

I do think a little niggle for me would be having the artists’ names right there along with their pieces. That said, I did quite like how Iestyn handled the ‘artist blurbs’ at the end with page numbers so it also serves as an end-of-zine table of contents as well.

I love an anthology/collaborative zine that brings many people together, and The Seas fits well and truly into that love. There’s so much in here that got me pondering, and I mindfully journeyed through the whole thing.

The Seas is a beautiful and thoughtful zine through and through. I highly recommend getting a copy.

Witches of the World Volume 1
Habitual Novelties (Jason)
https://linktr.ee/habnopubco

Witches of the World Volume 1 is an A5 full-colour zine collection of detailed descriptions of witches of the world including real-world history, folklore, and more in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque style anthology.

I may have fangirled all over this zine shortly after Jason handed it to me.

Witches of the World opens with a title page (a title page!) and table of contents (which I will be talking about soon) before launching into the introduction of this zine. Jason writes about how this zine came to be, influences in its creation, and even plans for future volumes in the series.

From there we go not right to the descriptions but into instructions! Yes, my zine friends, this is not only a zine but a game you can play as well! When Jason delivered this directly into my hands at Festival of the Photocopier, it also game with a character stats sheet but also with dice as well! The next spread also includes a guide to the information provided as well as a key to all the information provided in each witch spread.

I love, love, love the layers to this zine. Informational, artistic, adding a game element as well… So much fun in one package. Jason has really thought of everything.

We then get into the witches pages, each spread is dedicated to one witch. Magic type, age, height, elements, world map, profile, items, and so much more are included. If you want character layout, this is it. I’d love to adapt this for some of the character development for my novels.

As with all Habitual Novelties zines, I love the little details – not only in the art included but in the zine overall. In this zine, the table of contents is actually a set of mini images of the spreads underneath the header for that spread. The header font style is fun and different without being ridiculously hard to read. Even each witch comes with its own small colour palette for what was used in the art.

I have never in my life played a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and I still think this zine is amazing and so well done. If that doesn’t say something, I don’t know what will.

Witches of the World Volume 1 is an awesome, fun zine that just goes to show that you can keep stretching the bounds of what a zine is and the things a zine can encompass. Definitely check it out.