Author: Nyx

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.

Nice Things That Happened to Me Because of Pokemon Go!
Avery Flinders
https://twitter.com/averyflinders

Nice Things That Happened to Me Because of Pokemon Go! Is an A6 full-colour zine about positive things that happened around and because of playing Pokemon Go.

This zine opens with a silver linings recounting of how Pokemon Go came out a couple of days after a car crash left Avery without a car. A game that involved a lot of walking after losing the car proved to be a big plus. From there, Avery writes about more good times that involved or came from using the game.

As I read, I had to admire Avery’s bravery. Not only were there actual wanderings through unfamiliar places – that ended up leading to fun things like a sculpture garden – but Avery also met with new people through the shared hobby. Reading this put a smile on my face. The centre spread even has pictures of various pokemon in different places.

I have to give kudos to Avery for the cursive writing that is actually readable. There are two little niggles in the forms of the margins cut a little bit here and there (nothing too bad), and Avery didn’t include contact details. But, as always with the latter, it could be intentional.

Nice Things is a lovely zine. (Minus the car accident happening, of course.) Pokemon Go got a lot of flack, as popular things do, but it also provided a lot of good – as evidenced by the stories here. Avery shares the good vibes and the positivity, and the world can always use more of that.