Zine Review: Everything Dies 7

everything-dies-7

Everything Dies 7
Box Brown
BoxBrown.com
Everything Dies

I think Microcosm Publishing describes this awesome and hilarious zine series best:

One of the best and most promising new comic artists out there today, Box Brown writes and draws the Everything Dies zine series as a hard (and oft times hilarious) look into the religious myths of our world.

Everything Dies 7 takes you into the great flood myth, but not the biblical one. This is the Sumerian version with the crankypants Sumerian god Enlil getting upset at all those vexing humans.

This zine comic is great. I’ll come out and say that right now. TL;DR: Everything Dies 7 is excellent.

Box Brown’s style is very enjoyable and reminds me a little of the Felix the Cat cartoon style that I used to watch as a kid. (Which is meant to be a compliment; I love Felix!) He has a great way of using the images to really enforce the humour found in the writing. I laughed out loud more than once (“It vexed him so hard!”) thanks to Brown’s sense of humour. Especially in the little things like a god saying ‘hullo’ instead of ‘hello’.

Love it.

What really made it a keeper (though, let’s be real, it was a keeper pretty much from the first time I saw it) was the addition of letters and responses in the back! All still keeping in the style of the overall comic and just giving it that little something extra.

In and of itself, the comic is so enjoyable and definitely one of those zines that I don’t even let people borrow because I don’t want to lose it. Still, I feel like there’s even deeper examinations to be made once I get my hands on 1-6.

PS. By clicking on the Everything Dies link above, you can grab every Everything Dies comic (for a fair price) and start reading right now.

Done, Doing, Dreaming – Sunshine Edition

dodgys-view

I know I put this picture up yesterday, but it’s sooo pretty here, and I am LOVING this sunshine. Aussies know what I’m talking about.

Expanding on what I mentioned yesterday, my friend Dodgy is off on holiday at the moment. I’ve been wanting to get some recording done for ages, but it’s way too noisy where I live. Dodgy happens to live in picturesque country Victoria where it’s so much quieter. So here I am, recording zines as well as my first novel.

I’ve already learned I’m horrible at doing voices.

Done

*You can now listen to me read Don’t Call Me Cupcake 1: Introductions on Bandcamp for free! Click here to check it out as well as other zine creators reading their work. <3
*I've just finished up recording Don't Call Me Cupcake 3, so audio versions of 2 and 3 should come out later this year.

Doing

*I’m currently working on Don’t Call Me Cupcake 6, which is about spring in Australia, zine projects, Wanderer being in hospital, and other fun stuff.
*I am also working on getting ahead with zine reviews just in case I go ahead with NaNoWriMo. I’m not entirely convinced that I would be doing the sane thing by joining in, but I’m not one for always doing the sane thing… If you’d like to be my writing buddy, you can find me here.
*If you hadn’t already heard, We Make Zines – the place for all things zine – is closing down at the end of this month due to a dramatic rise in cost. I’m not able to do much, but if you know about coding and site migration, be sure to stop by this thread and let Quasifesto know that you’re willing to help out.

Dreaming

*I’m actually dreaming of moving away from Etsy as a shop front, as it’s looking like Etsy is one of the more expensive places to run a shop front…
*I’m also dreaming of Festival of the Photocopier (Melbourne’s zine fest in February)! It slipped my mind when I thought I’d be moving out of Victoria before February 2017, but
*Which means I need to prioritise the button/badge maker. Squee!

I hope you are all having a wonderful start to your week!

Sunny Day Happy Mail!

Today’s happy mail brought to you by…

dodgys-view

This gorgeous view!

My friend Dodgy is out of the country for a while having a holiday, and I’m crashing at his place for a few days. More on that later, though. On to happy mail!

letter-from-chris

I may have horrible response times (I haven’t forgotten you!), but I love getting letters as much as I love zines coming to my post box. This absolutely lovely letter from Chris Sitko really brightened my Monday.

meta-zine-bundle

Zine bundle! Zine community tip: If you love a zine and want to share it with your friends, but you don’t want to lose your copy, don’t be afraid to get in contact with the zine maker! I sent an email to Davida about getting extra copies of Meta Zine sent my way because it’s the kind of zine I want to give to my friends. And here they are!

microcosm-publishing-happy-mail

This is technically happy mail from last week, and you might recognise it if you follow me on Instagram. I couldn’t help myself sharing it there, though, because it was so out of the blue!

Joe from Microcosm Publishing sent along his zine for the joy of it (and review, too, hehe). And he sent a sticker with it! Wooooo! I’m getting quite the collection of awesome stickers going. 😀

It’s been a wonderful week in mail, and I am feeling so lucky to know such awesome people. If you love zines and your mailbox is feeling a little lonely, shoot me your mailing address. I may not always have stamps, but when I do, I love sending out heaps of mail!

Call for Submissions: Bi Focus #3

bi-focus-3

Submission Deadline: 30 November 2016
Find out if you’re in it by: 4 December 2016
Publication: 30 December 2016

Forms of submissions accepted: photos, paintings, comics, poetry, essays, personal stories – max four A5 pages per person (just to stop it being too bulky!). Please make sure it’s your own work and that you haven’t published it elsewhere. When submitting artwork, please consider that because this is printed at home, colours may not come out how they look on your screen at home.

Who can contribute: people who feel that they fall under the bi umbrella (e.g. you might identify as pansexual, bisexual, panromantic, biromantic, bicurious, polysexual, etc).

Topic: there is none! I mean, it still needs to relate to bi-ness e.g. review a tv show and how it portrays bi character/s, or talk about some shit you’ve dealt with due to being bi, or write a story about a bi penguin, or draw a comic about your first crush that made you realise you were bi, or take a photo of some bi peeps (get their permission to publish that pic too please!).

Pay: AUD$5 per contributor (this is an experimental payment for this third issue to see if this is sustainable, I really want to be able to pay people for their work)

Profits (if there are any): will go to charity – all profits from all my zines and art get split between animal and human rights charities.

You can submit by sending me a message on facebook, or emailing me at khuolohan@yahoo.com.au. All contributors will get a free copy mailed out to them/to pick up :).

Please note: I will be selling this at Junky Comics, in my etsy store, and at zine fairs so if you want, feel free to use a fake name or no name if this makes you feel safer. After it has been printed and sent out, I will not be able to change these details.

Previous issues available here: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ZinesByKeira

Zine Review: The Life and Times of Billy Roberts #76

billy-zine

The Life and Times of Billy Roberts #76
Billy
https://bunnyears.bandcamp.com/

Every time I feel like I’ve settled in with the variety of shapes, sizes, etc that zines come in, something new comes along. This time? A zine that’s a pamphlet! No binding required, one page, two folds, columns… The Life and Times of Billy Roberts is the most appropriate title ever; I feel like I’ve received a ‘life digest’ from Billy.

In issue 76, Billy talks about the month of things breaking, new friends, the therapeutic value of concerts, and more. There is a lot packed into this zine, and yet each section is only as long as it needs to be. It’s like catching up with an old friend ‘quick letter’ style without feeling like anything is being left out.

Aesthetically, yeah, it can get a little beat up in the mail (as evidenced in the photo above), but I’ve seen worse done to bigger zines in envelopes. I’m just pleased as punch that this made it all the way to me in Australia and that I’m feeling like I’m part of the mailing list.

I really hope to see more issues of this in my post box.

Zine Review: Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup

defriending-managing-the-friendship-breakup-zine

Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup
Dr Faith G. Harper
http://faithgharper.com/

Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup is self-explanatory as far as titles go. This zine takes you not only through options on how to do it but why it’s so damn complicated.

As a general rule, relationships DON’T last until death do us part… And when they don’t last, we have no fucking clue how to deal.

The thing about the zine that I appreciated the most is that it acknowledges the muddled greyness of the ‘are we or aren’t we’ middle space of the defriending zone. It’s not pretty, and this zine doesn’t try to make it so. As someone who is trying to figure out the best way to do the whole ‘defriending’ thing, it’s nice to have the reassurance that it’s as messy as it seems to be.

Don’t think this zine is going to throw you a pity party. Friendships involve two people, and Dr Harper gets into your responsibilities – whether you’re the defriend-er or the defriend-ee. The real lightbulb moment in this happened for me when Dr Harper got into the difference between whether something is a one-off event or indicative of a person’s personality. (What they did vs who they are.)

This zine ended up being a lot more complicated and involved than I thought it would be but, having read it, I realise that’s a very good thing.