Month: February 2024

The Wrong Side of Google History
Caragh Brooks
8 pages
https://linktr.ee/caraghbrooks

The Wrong Side of Google is an A5, full-colour zine featuring odd and sometimes bizarre Google searches with accompanying art for each search.

After a long day, I was very much in the mood for an entertaining zine, and this zine certainly provided.

The Wrong Side of Google opens with a title page that includes Caragh’s links alongside illustrated social icons, which is a touch I always enjoy. From there, we go into the searches… Swearing spiders, odd uses for bodily fluids, and some random search queries fill the pages. Each page features three search bars with an illustration of the search above it.

Caragh’s art style is fun and totally adds to the overall amusing and curious feel of this zine. The drawing of Arnold Schwarzenegger reminded me of a caricature and made me laugh out loud as my mind went to “Glass Joe” from the original Nintendo “Punch-Out!” game. (Yep, dating myself a bit there.)

I’m so curious as to how this zine – and these searches – came about. Is there a list somewhere of the strangest searches? I’m sure there is. But I don’t know if it would be more entertaining to know the behind the scenes of this zine or if the mystery makes it even better. I found myself chuckling with some searches and shaking my head at others. Of course there is Wario fanfiction, but did someone really search ‘sneaking hotdogs into peoples pockets’? So many questions, and I don’t know if I want any of them answered.

All up, I think The Wrong Side of Google History is a fun poke at the weird ways human brains work with fun art added in the mix. Pick a copy up.

The Snailey Mailer: Random fun stuff about the United States Postal Service
Matt Carpenter
12 pages
https://www.mattcarpenterart.com/word/

The Snailey Mailer is a black and white half-letter zine filled with fun facts about the United States Postal Service.

This zine is yet another great example of why I love zines. Do I want to read fun facts about the USPS? Yes, please. Would I have thought of looking up these facts myself? Unlikely. Zines and the people who make them are awesome.

The Snailey Mailer launches right into things with a brief introduction and the first fun fact (yes, I’m calling them all fun) about the USPS. The first one is about motorcycle use for mail collection and delivery – which immediately made me wonder if any US towns still use them. We still do in Australia! That said, Australia doesn’t pick up mail from mail boxes like the US does. (Yes, I’m going into my own postal mail fun facts.)

We then go into facts about pneumatic tube mail (I would so love to have this somehow be a part of my life) which made me feel nostalgic for the drive up banking from my childhood, mail statistics (double yes – love statistics), what those marks on your envelopes mean, and more.

I think the fact that made me say ‘whoa’ with the most emphasis is: The Postal Service processes 118,152 address changes daily. Daily?! Wowza. And I had no idea they are one of the largest employees of veterans.

At this point, I feel like I am risking laying out the entire zine for you here in the review, so I will take a breath and talk about the aesthetics. As I get older and my eyesight gets worse, I appreciate nice, clear typing all the more. All the facts – including references – are printed in clear type and along with pictures to go along with the text. Matt’s sense of humour sneaks in with little captions below some of the images.

All up, I am a mail nerd and a fun facts nerd, so The Snailey Mailer is the perfect zine for me to sit down and chill with. Learn some interesting things and perhaps grow a deeper appreciation for your local postal workers by checking out this zine.