Kari-graphy – A Show-and-Tell About Calligraphy
Kari Tervo
http://zinewiki.com/Kari_Tervo
Kari-graphy – A Show-and-Tell About Calligraphy is a ½ fold black and white zine about calligraphy.
Okay, so the title is already descriptive enough, but what can I say? I like to stick to a format. Mostly.
A zine for the love of calligraphy! Definitely one for me, I actually remembered seeing this when Kari first brought it out, and now I finally have my hands on a copy – and it’s even better than I thought.
What I thought being ‘I know heaps about calligraphy’.
This zine is an excellent starting place (or even a ‘further down the line’ place for people like me) for anyone interested in calligraphy. Kari is definitely thorough – moreso than I expected given the zine’s 16 pages and some of the large examples of the things written about. (Not complaining! I like plenty of examples.) This zine turned out to cover all sorts of things like basics, tips, calligraphy gear, and more.
Kari-graphy takes on a perzine quality in the section “Kari-graphy: A History”. I had to smile reading it because I have a very similar history with calligraphy – except I ended up putting names on certificates for the drama club rather than the National Honor Society. The things you find out you have in common with people!
You may think that calligraphy is a dry topic, but Kari really makes it her own with her sense of humour – even on page one:
“…one of my favorite hobbies: calligraphy, or, as it is more formally known, fancy-letterin’.”
Those are the sort of things that give me a chuckle and make me want to check out more zines by the author.
Aesthetically, this is a great zine. It’s easy to read, there are a lot of examples of what is written about – from practise pages to font examples – and the cover is made of lovely parchment paper. Even more cool – the inside of the back cover has a mini-poster Kari has made for you to keep.
Obviously this is a very specific topic for a zine, but if you have any interest at all, grab a copy.