Zine Review: Am I A Dreamer

Am I A Dreamer
Richard Larios
20 pages
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Am I A Dreamer is a US quarter-sized, black and white comic zine about staying true to your creative self, how your creativity can change and grow as you do, and the difference between doing and dreaming.

This is another instance of reading a zine exactly when I needed to read it. My creative self is very happy.

Am I A Dreamer opens with Richard writing about being called a ‘dreamer’ and how that title doesn’t really jive with him – because he’s doing things! He then moves into different motivations for things and how he does things for fun. Meaning he stops them when they stop being fun, a mindset passed down from his mother who always told him to do what makes him happy.

From there he talks about changing as a person in jail and how he survived it by continuing to be creative. Even more, other prisoners related to his writing. He escaped the mindset of prisoner by being the writer even in the cell where he spent so much time. Upon release, he was a blank canvas, and yet he continued to process and create. Not dream. Create.

“Left to me I would say that I’m a grunt that self-medicates with art.”

Am I A Dreamer is a great zine that shows in few but powerful words how life can change dramatically but our dedication to our art(s) doesn’t have to. Reading about how Richard kept creating and kept writing, doing what he does for fun, therapy, and many other things, is very inspiring to me. It reminded me that what we nurture and stick with is what grows within us.

He also touches on a number of different subjects (dreaming versus doing, life as a young man in jail, doing what is fun, etc) while seamlessly blending all these topics into a great read.

I would love to see more on every subject from Richard. I highly recommend this zine for everyone but especially creatives (And especially if you’re like me and feel like you may have lost your creative way a bit.)

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