Month: August 2021

Mummies: A Zine About the Dead
Arinn Westendorf
https://www.arinn.com/
https://linktr.ee/ari.nn

Mummies: A Zine About the Dead is an A6, black and white zine about various mummies found around the world.

An educational zine about mummies with perzine elements included. Count me in.

Mummies opens to some socials details (thank you!) and a cover page before launching right into what we’re here for: mummies! Each spread features a drawing of the mummy on one page and a short description on the other. The description includes the mummy name, approximate date of death, date of discovery, and location followed by what the featured mummy means to Arinn.

Something about Arinn’s drawing style reminds me of Bedtime Stories on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/BedtimeStoriesChannel) – haunting and a little cold, which is so appropriate for the subject matter. Having the drawings of the mummies to go along with the details is a great idea and not only makes it have more impact with the readers but also gives the zine a complete feel that the zine would definitely lack without them.

Mummies aren’t really a passion of mine by any means, but I found this zine a very interesting read. I liked getting a glimpse of knowledge about the mummies and to see them, but more interesting was the impact that each mummy had on Arinn and Arinn’s fascinations with mummies overall.

Mummies: A Zine About the Dead is an interesting mix of educational, art, and perzine. Check it out.

The Lost People: How Pop Culture Helped Me to Deal With Trauma
Marvellous
https://twitter.com/Marglow3
https://www.instagram.com/badquilla/

The Lost People is a full-colour A5 zine about processing childhood trauma and abuse through pop culture.

Marvellous opens the zine with an introduction to himself and how being an abuse survivor has defined him. Talk about being hooked in the first few paragraphs. Marvellous really spoke to me straight away when he wrote about carrying several identities within them:

“I’m the child who wasn’t listened to, I’m the teenager who is always hurting, I’m the young adult who was trying to not let himself drown in the pain of abuse.”

As a child abuse survivor myself, this resonated so much with me. It is one of those things in my life that I just took for granted as part of myself and how I think about myself but never really thought of beyond that. Seeing it on the page like that, written by someone else, was really beautiful to me and was yet another reminder of how powerful zines and shared experiences can be.

From there, Marvellous writes about processing trauma through pop culture. I was delighted to find more similarities between us. While I always knew the movie Spirited Away (and all Miyazaki films really) had a powerful impact on me, it was interesting to take in the story through Marvellous’ interpretation.

Marvellous also processed trauma through other movies and books as well. Because of the strong connection I have to Spirited Away, I found myself eager to write down the things I hadn’t seen and read so I could do so later.

The design of this zine is quite well done with the colours of the background soothing words about an intense journey. Watercolours keep you flowing forward and typed words with a mix of written parts here and there keep variety on the pages.

The Lost People is a good zine about how pop culture can actually help us but also represents a zine for abuse survivors wanting to reach out. I’m a little wary of these subjects for my own mental health, but I found this to be a fairly gentle reaching out. Marvellous expresses himself in a way that resonates rather than triggers bad memories (at least, that was my personal experience).

This is a good zine to check out and one that I hope Marvellous expands further in the future if he cares to do so.

Nice Bum, Where Ya From?
Ryan Pocket Thoughts
https://www.instagram.com/_my_name_is_ryan_/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/pocketthoughts/

Nice Bum, Where Ya From? is an 11cmX9cm full colour zine of art revolving around funny rhyming pick up lines involving backsides.

It’s Friday, and I’m in a cheeky mood (pun fully intended), so I decided to pick up one of Ryan’s zines for some smiles and laughs. I was not at all disappointed.

Nice Bum, Where Ya From? launches right in, carrying on from the funny rhyme (and hairy bum) right on the front cover. From there we are treated to six pages – each featuring a bum-related rhyme and a related drawing. They range from (for me): “Did he really write that?” to “I really need to stop laughing in the next five minutes”. That probably says something about my (low) maturity levels, but… I don’t care. I appreciate the laughs so much.

Ryan’s art style is realistic, colourful, and just plain awesome. Do some pics get a little naughty? Well, about as much as you’d expect from a zine with a hairy bum on the cover. But I think it’s all great. My favourite is the one with a Valentine’s Day flair, but I will say no more on it… You’ll have to see for yourself.

I love Ryan’s zines. More often than not, they remind me not to take myself or whatever I’m making creatively too seriously. His zines remind me to smile and laugh. Definitely grab this. And maybe one for a friend who needs a laugh too.

Fritkot 1-3
Antek
a.blampied(at)hotmail.be
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/pleasetakeonebooks

Fritkot 1-3 is a set of three A6, full-colour collections of photomontages.

One more thing to love about zines is zines like these ones making me feel like I have a cool art exhibition right in my hands.

Fritkot 1 opens with a welcome note from Antek letting the reader know that this is a selection of photomontages from the collection they have been creating over the past five years. What follows is a list of the title of each piece included followed by Antek’s sign of.

We then launch right into twelve (in each issue) pieces for the reader’s enjoyment and contemplation.

Zines like this used to intimidate me because, with little to no guidance, I was afraid of getting the ‘wrong’ interpretation from things. However, these days, I enjoy the mystery and finding my own meanings.

While not every piece strikes me, what I like, I really like. For example, ‘Suburban Street’ in issue two features a graveyard with a cityscape (clearly my description does it absolutely no justice), made such a huge impression on me I found myself losing time just looking at it and thinking about what I felt it was ‘saying’ to me.

Further, while no issue has a theme as such, issue three interested me a lot. The front and back covers imply otherwise, but the pieces inside really gave me the impression of being in the world but not being in the moment. Being too focused on superficiality or small things to see the bigger picture. Am I right? Am I wrong? It doesn’t really matter. I’m enjoying the journey of thinking about it.

Fritkot is an interesting series of photomontages that can prod your mind if you let it. If you like photomontages and collages or would like to start checking them out, then have a look at this series.

Pre-Existing: A Zine About Disability & Chronic Illness During 2020
Anna Gecko & Others
https://www.instagram.com/oleandrsstudio/
https://oleandrsstudio.carrd.co/

Pre-Existing is a full-colour, US-quarter-sized zine about various people’s experiences with disability, chronic illness, medication, and other related subjects during a pandemic.

Pre-Existing opens on the inside cover with a few article headlines about COVID and disability, warming the reader up for the content to come. What comes isn’t gentle, however, with the page opposite featuring an art piece called “Sacrificial Worker” featuring a worker with a medical ID bracelet on. It’s a little dark to see all the details of the art, but it still says so much about working during the pandemic.

What follows are short written pieces covering topics from getting diagnoses to getting/trying to get treatment in this ‘new world’. They are quick reads in word count, but they leave you with a lot to think about long after you’ve finished reading them.

There is hope mixed in with the frustration however, with one contributor writing this about having found a chronic illness support group:

“It was the first time I felt like I didn’t owe an explanation about why I couldn’t do something.”

Beautiful.

Along with the Sacrificial Worker art being a bit too dark (printers are printers are printers), my other nitpick is that the text is cut a bit in a few places. That said, it didn’t pause me for long in my reading of this zine. There was also a small, considerate touch that I don’t see very often – washi tape put over the staples internally. That’s such a nice little touch (especially for someone who has been poked more than a few times by staples).

All up, Pre-Existing is a shorter read and one that I’m glad exists. This is one of those zines that helps us to have sympathy and empathy for each other, lets the contributors have a place to express themselves, and might even help some readers take it easier on themselves in whatever they are dealing with.