Month: January 2024

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 and All I Made Was This Lousy Zine
Anna
12 pages
https://www.instagram.com/annarambles/
https://unreality.space
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stufffromanna

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 and All I Made Was This Lousy Zine is an A6 sized black and white zine about going to Melbourne’s Festival of the Photocopier and things Anna learned while they were there.

“I wrote this zine while I was [at Festival of the Photocopier], and turned it into a zine at home.” Zinemaking at a zine fair. Love it!

I Went to The… opens up with details about Anna’s contact details and an acknowledgement of Wurundjeri and Bunurong People before introducing the zine and its table of contents. Anna then writes about the zine fest itself and the experience of being there on both day one and day two, from the quiet of the morning to the bustling buzz of the afternoon. Anna ponders reality in the travel to the fest, being at the fest, the various sort of trade, buy, and banter commerce that happens at a zine fest. Anna includes some lessons learned, things they’d do differently next time, and a final note to anyone considering going to a zine fest (whether selling or buying).

I love seeing zines like this. Zine fests can be a big, scary, intimidating thing even while you really want to go. Zines about going to zine fests – both as a seller and as a customer – are so helpful, and I liked Anna’s occasional reality-bending thoughts injected here and there as well. This zine made me miss Festival of the Photocopier so much, and I am happy to see the encouragement for others to attend zine fests.

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 is a fairly quick read that made me smile and nod along in agreement. Whether you’ve been to a zine fest before and/or are considering going to one, this is a good zine to check out.

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It!
Sierra DeCarmen
One Page Folded Mini
https://www.instagram.com/sierradecarmen/

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It! is a full-colour, one page folded mini-zine about creative self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and about taking the leap to make that leap despite it all.

So much in such a small zine? Why yes!

I Just Made This… is a gorgeously uncomplicated zine created with your standard piece of lined notebook paper, and I just adore it. Sierra starts off with: “One of these days I will make a zine.” From there, she marches forward in exploring her thoughts around her hesitation in making a zine as well as her approach to breaking through to make one anyway.

There really is so much packed into a small zine with various topics like imposter syndrome and doubts all touched on that could be expanded into a much bigger zine. But Sierra keeps it where it is – a zine made out of a sheet of notebook paper.

Other than the lines of the notebook page itself, this zine is all handwritten text. Sierra’s sense of humour and writer’s voice are clear – and very encouraging throughout the zine. Not to mention welcoming as well! All without including one of the phrases I loathe: “If I can do it, anyone can.” Nope. Only heartfelt and warm honesty and encouragement here.

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It! is a lovely mini-zine I highly encourage you to check out. I want to keep my copy with me at all times for when the doubts start springing up in my head.