Author: Nyx

decency is a relative thing
Sober Bob
https://www.instagram.com/soberbobmonthly/

Decency is a relative thing is a zine “exploration into the weird and not so wonderful wasteful world of people who won’t stop buying housewares.”

“There is no relief or release from consumerism.”

If I shared all the quotes I wanted to share from this zine, I would end up sharing half the zine.

In Decency is a relative thing, Sober Bob takes us through the similarities between people who hoard homewares and then breaks things down into four common ‘types’ of homeware hoarders. What I thought would be an interesting zine that, in the end, wouldn’t have much to do witch me, ended up being a zine that had me looking around the house and examining my own habits.

By writing about the four types of people who hoard homewares, Sober Bob touches on huge problems in the invasiveness of business in creating trends on social media. Not only that but how some people feed into a negative system by not being completely transparent about what is and isn’t actually paid/advertising.

A side shout out to touching on the problems of the real estate sector and how carefully placed wicker baskets shouldn’t make a house more expensive.

This zine isn’t a complete flaming blast at everyone, however. In fact, it shows a real sympathy to the kinds of advertising that we’re subjected to and even more so now that social media not only influences what is “normal” outside the home but inside it as well.

Even more, Sober Bob touches on the impact of the ‘trend’ on the longevity and ethical practices (or lack thereof) in keeping up with the ‘trend’ lifestyle.

An interesting moment came for me when I realised that I have ‘followed the trends’, too, in the past. Despite my days working in an op/secondhand shop giving me a strong aversion to stuff for a long time. I began seeing more and more YouTube videos with fairy lights (they’re not just for Christmas anymore!) and ended up buying some myself. I don’t regret getting them by any means because they give me joy, but if you think you’re immune to trends…

Aesthetically, this zine is lovely. The title is gold-foiled (which I suspect is a cheeky visual metaphor), and the entire zine is printed on gorgeous cream-coloured textured paper.

The thing I love about this zine that actually goes beyond the zine itself is the interesting (in my opinion) conversation it inspired between me and Wanderer, for which I give my thanks to Sober Bob.

You may not think that a zine about homewares is for you, but I think you should still check it out. This zine is as much a zine as it is the beginning of a conversation. Grab a copy.

Rabbits & Relics: Okunoshima (Rabbit Island)
Rae White
https://raewhite.net/
https://twitter.com/wings_humming

Rabbits and Relics is an A5 black and white zine about Rae’s exploration of Okunoshima – Rabbit Island.

I have always wanted to travel to Japan, so to say I was excited about any sort of Japan-related zine is a bit of an understatement. I’ve heard of various animal places like the fox village and cat island, but rabbit island was new to me.

I think the thing that really struck me about this zine is the glimpse of reality Rae gives in this zine. At the start, Rae mentions how the contrast of adorable rabbits and World War 2 relics is both striking and confronting.

Take what you will of the beautiful living alongside the symbols of the horrible, but it really spoke to me. This isn’t some glossed up, glossing over happy fun time tourist brochure. Rae provides us with real pictures, with facts both playful and painful.

Aesthetically, the font is big, clear, and easy to read. I don’t need my glasses or ideal lighting to read this zine. The photos Rae includes echoes their feelings about the island with pictures of desolate buildings next to adorable rabbits.

This zine also serves as a good introduction to the island in that it has a ‘how to get there’ page as well as a couple popular theories about how the rabbits got to the island in the first place.

Rabbits and Relics as a fairly quick, interesting read about Okunoshima. It’s definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in Japan, rabbits, World War 2, or anything in between.

SlowQuest II: Meet the Wizard
Bodie
http://www.slowquest.com
https://www.instagram.com/bodieh/

SlowQuest II: Meet the Wizard is a 9.5×8.5cm fantasy choose your own adventure comic zine(!).

This is one of those times when no one will have sympathy for me, but I will still say it’s so hard to stick to my reviewing system. I was so excited to read this zine, but I had to wait because I’m a ‘responsible adult’ and ‘shouldn’t immediately drop everything I’m doing to read a zine’. Sigh.

SlowQuest I is a beloved zine in my collection, so I was incredibly excited to see not only that there is a second one but that it has more pages (more choices!) as well.

As I mentioned, SlowQuest II is a choose your own adventure zine, which means that there are many possible outcomes to the choices you make in this fantasy realm. You have received an invitation to work for the wizard, but actually getting to the wizard isn’t as simple as it sounds.

I was proud as punch that I didn’t die on my first combination of choices, as that’s definitely a possibility in this zine. Of course, there are so many possible paths – drink potions, get lost, punch a bear – that I happily spent time going through every possible combination of steps.

As I have no doubt mentioned a number of times at this point, Bodie’s art style is fantastic. He creates art with such intricate detail, and it really shows through in this zine with two-page spreads of certain settings that I greatly enjoyed looking at up close.

Bodie’s attention to detail carries into the zine itself as well with rounded corners, trimmed edges, and borderless illustrations on cream-coloured paper.

I certainly don’t want to give anything away, but I found the ending of this zine quite curious and hope it means more SlowQuest adventures in the future.

I imagine at this point you know what I’m going to write… Grab a copy!

Forever Incomplete #1
Kirsty
@mskirstyface

Forever Incomplete is a perzine about life with OCD, confronting myths about OCD, living alone, and more.

I must say that I do like a good a good intro. Forever Incomplete starts off with a short intro about who Kirsty is and what’s in the zine. While that isn’t exactly necessary, I do like knowing a bit about the person whose life I’ll be reading about as well as what they’ve chosen to share with me.

From the introduction, Kirsty writes about life with OCD and how the stereotypes about OCD can be wrong. I appreciated the eye opener – especially when it came to busting the myths around OCD. It reminded me that there are nuances and facets to everything – even the stereotype that people with OCD are particularly neat and tidy.

I identified a lot with Kirsty’s zine story and the particular kind of embarrassment that comes with really liking something that you’re not very good at. I’m glad that despite the comparisons and crafting ‘misses’ that zines stuck.

I did have a private little smile at the ‘Things Which Don’t Happen to Heterosexual People’ because a few have definitely happened to me and Wanderer (hetero couple) because we’re in an age gap relationship. (Please don’t take this as me taking away from the disrespect and discrimination homosexual couples deal with regularly. I only mean to say that I empathise. Wanderer and I have also experienced the ‘triple take’ just for holding hands, etc.)

I also have to point out how much I love the part about all the things you can do with an English MA. It’s regarded as such a useless degree when it’s actually a lot more flexible in terms of career paths than many other degrees.

The cut and paste aesthetic is lovely and makes me want to get out my paper and scissors. Different sections are denoted by different fonts – something I’m seeing more that is growing on me.

Forever Incomplete is an informative zine as well as a good perzine. There are plenty of reasons to read it, so check it out.

Practical Zine Making
Vampire Sushi Distro
www.vampiresushi.co.uk

Practical Zine Making is an A7 black and white zine about zine making – specifically about zine layout.

Zine layout is one of those things that seems like it should be simple but can, at times, be annoying to try to get your head around. Practical Zine Making makes the whole thing a lot easier by not only writing about zine layout but by showing you with clear pictures how to make/number half-fold/A5 zines as well as quarter size/A6 zines.

I think this is a fantastic little reference zine. I wish I had more copies to hand out/send out to zinemakers, as layout can often be a headache – especially when you’re just getting started.

Definitely pick up a copy if layout is at all a pain for you.