Author: Nyx

mEN DO bleed too – my story as a man with endometriosis
Aubrey Dillion Sinclair
???

mEN DO bleed too is a black and blue A7 mini-zine about being a man with endometriosis.

Content warning (from the cover): blood, sex, some gendered terms, graphic content

mEN DO bleed too opens with Aubrey talking about their period experiences growing up and what they had to deal with medically to both find out they have endometriosis as well as dealing with ongoing treatment of it as a trans man.

As someone who deals with an incurable reproductive condition, Aubrey really had me from the start with this one. These conditions are so often dismissed and ignored, and to add on the difficulties of approaching ongoing treatment as a trans man on top of that had me wishing so many things were different about the system. However, there are silver linings to Aubrey’s story, though I will leave you to find out what they are.

I like the feel of this zine. It’s handwritten, hand drawn, and everything about it says it’s the zine of someone who made this to share a story they are passionate about sharing. The drawings – down to the little arrows guiding you from one page to another – add to the story in a pull at your heart strings sort of way. Some of the text is cut off, but most of it is easily sorted and read with a bit of unfolding.

mEN DO bleed too is a mini-zine reminder to not take anything for granted – especially not discussions of health topics that are so often gendered and can leave people feeling alone. One to check out.

Quarter Life – A Few Weekends
TJ Corless
terry-corless@hotmail.co.uk
https://www.paperandinkzine.co.uk/

Quarter Life – A Few Weekends is a black and white A5 zine with a few chapters from his novel Quarter Life about a man entering adulthood but told through a series of weekends. CW: Drug and alcohol use

Quarter Life opens with a foreword explaining what this zine is about, where it’s from, and how various chapters have been published in magazines, zines, and other spaces. From there we launch into the excerpts, each given its own title – Third Weekend, Fifth Weekend – as well as where the excerpt was first published.

The excerpts are told in the first person present style, which I thought would throw me off because it’s not my favourite perspective or tense. (And it’s often not done so well, but I’ll try to rein in my editor side.) That said, TJ’s writing voice is personal but not intrusive. The ‘told in weekends’ format is an interesting one that adds a slightly different flavour to a story of a life.

The story itself is set in England, so you may not know what Coronation Street is or what a ‘proper little chavvy’ is, but I thin kthose sorts of details make it more fun.

I like the aesthetic of this zine with the recycled paper and riso cover. It’s easy to read, the pages are numbered… It’s an easy-to-tuck-in-your-bag-and-go sort of zine that asks to be well read.

I wasn’t quite sure how pieces of a novel would go in a zine, but this works quite well. The writing is fun, I enjoyed the excerpts in and of themselves, and the story is intriguing enough that I’m now quite curious about the novel. I hope to check out more of TJ’s writing in the future.