For the love of zines
Looking for contributors to my up and coming zine “Not so crazy”
If you have had experience with mental health, or know someone who has and wish to share.
Accept all formats, writings, art, poems, illustrations, short stories, poems, photography.
Please send to JADEHUTCHINSON1@GMAIL.COM with the subject like “notsocrazy”
Submissions can be anonymous or credited, if you wish to be credited, please state how.
Deadline: 25 JUNE (For Issue ONE)
The antibiotic reinforcements were called in, my fever broke, and I managed to was my hair today.
It’s the little things.
I am genuinely sorry for the delay in zine reviews. I’m hoping to be right back to it tomorrow.
PS. This is why you have an ’emergency stash’ of posts. Hrmph.
I’m just starting into week three of whatever this lung thing I have is. If I’m a bit slow in replying to things, please know I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
For all the people who still get pissed. I know I do.
This Has All Been Too Much For Me Today, I Think I’ll Go Back to Bed
Philip Dearest
PhilipDearest.tumblr.com
I got this zine on Etsy a while back, but I can’t get back to the Etsy shop to provide the link. I have no idea what’s happening there, so I apologise to Philip Dearest.
This Has All Been Too Much is a mini-zine that links words and art to express thoughts from the anxious and/or depressed mind. The phrases easily struck home for me, and it was a sad reminder of the things so many people go through.
I’ll be the first to say that I can be a little dense when it comes to art, but seeing statements like, “I can’t stop thinking” fleshed out as a potted plant was a lot more interesting than what I imagine it sounds like. I like the combination of words and uncomplicated art to express mental health issues.
The printing of this zine is intriguing as it appears to be white printed on black instead of the other way around. I fully admit that I had my nose pretty close to this zine to get a better look.
My one hesitation with this zine is that, while it may provide a way for people to not feel so alone, the messages might further feed into a dark place. Sometimes it’s a thin line between the two things, and this zine is one of those times.
I found This Has All Been Too Much to be a somewhat bittersweet experience, but the fact it made me feel something is a goal accomplished.
Conspiira/torial #1
Yuri Realman
http://www.moreverbs.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheAmpersandRanch
I received Conspiira/torial #1 as a zine submitted for a review, and I must apologise because the combination of only two reviews a week plus my less than awesome zine organisation meant for a probably-longer-than-necessary wait.
Conspiira/torial #1 the the fictional (or is it?!) tale of Yuri Realman and how he’s being dragged into a conspiracy that he doesn’t want to believe… Though I can’t say for sure, I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve read a fiction zine of any sort. This was a good zine to break the gap.
What you imagined when you read my one-sentence synopsis? That’s what this story is. Or rather, this chapter one. There’s no mistaking this for anything other than a chapter one, but it’s a beginning I thoroughly enjoyed. Even my inner editor had a good time, and she doesn’t like much of anything.
Side note: As someone who likes to write books as well as read them, I know how difficult it can be to find your ‘voice’. I think ‘Yuri’ can rest assured that his voice is spot on and consistent.
Conspiira/torial #1 is a zine that goes to show that a zine doesn’t really have a definition in terms of what it is or isn’t. People know what they like, but preferences do not a standard system make. This zine is five single-sided pages printed and stapled in one corner.
However (you knew that was coming, eh?) even with personal preferences aside, I think there is room here for a lot of fun. Because of the envelope art and the awesome note accompanying the zine – on top of the actual context – I think this zine would be great with a little layout put into it. Half-fold, printing on both sides of the paper (being a zinester has made me a bit grumpy about white space), a cover upon which to stamp and draw…
There is nothing wrong with the way it is, but I can see potential for this to become aesthetic art as well as prose.
Conspiira/torial #1 is definitely worth checking out – especially if you like a bit of mystery.
I really want to leave yesterday’s post up a little longer because I think it’s important for people to know, but I have some happy mail to share. 🙂
Fishspit once again demonstrates that he is the kind of envelope art and has sent me a zine he made with Serena Pruess!
Quinn traded me Plaid Skirts and Converse #4 for Dear Anonymous 4.
A little bit of postal happiness for the day. <3 The next zine review will be up tomorrow!
Given there was over a year between Don’t Call Me Cupcake 1 and Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2, I was thrilled at the two month gap between #2 and #3. I certainly didn’t expect to have only a two month gap between #3 and #4, but here we are…
I don’t expect to keep up this pace whatsoever, but given a two month gap would land DCMC 5 in August, which happens to be my birthday month, and this birthday happens to be the big 30… Well, I might try to make it happen one more time.
So I’ve been prattling on in my own kind of Wonderland, shouting at the world and proud as punch that I’ve actually kept going with something that has terrified me on a number of levels. But I kept (and keep) doing it, and I’ve never really stopped to think about why.
Here and there recently – but in the zine world in particular – I’ve seen quite a few people ask some variation of the question: But what if no one cares?
The question always makes me smile if only for a little while because it reminds me of a quote I read when I was young enough for it to take me a couple minutes to understand: Everything ever written was cared about by at least one person.
Forgiving the passive voice for the sake of meaning, this quote got me through the rougher teenage years when I was passionate about writing but didn’t have the ego to skip over the self-doubt. It didn’t matter if no one else cared because I cared enough to write it. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have written it.
Yet this is the same flippant attitude that bothers me when aspiring authors ask published authors about plotting or pantsing. I’ve been asked that oh-so-common question – “But isn’t it annoying to lose so much work if the plot changes?” – only to find myself giving the same flippant reply that frustrated me so much when I was starting out:
Yes, but it’s much worse to lose fully written chapters.
Perhaps not flippant to some, but it felt and still feels that way to me.
I have a Jackson Pollock of mental illness labels, so believe me when I say that I know “I care” can be about as effective as carrying water in a hair net when it comes to pushing you through the doubts into getting your words and art on the pages. Because you don’t always care. It’s more a feeling of being possessed and needing to put those things you are feeling ‘out there’ somewhere. It’s a need rather than an act of care and desire.
So what if no one cares?
This is the point at which I would love to tell you something inspiring. Something like that quote I read so long ago that pops up in my head and gives me that moment of a wry grin. I don’t know if I’m that person, though. However, I still want to offer you this…
I have done and been many things in my life. Tried on many labels, held many loves secret while shouting many others to the world. I have been so thoroughly in love that I thought something not of my understanding was going to burst out of my chest at any moment. I’ve also sat down on a bed, placed a rifle barrel in my mouth and tasted the tang of that metal. I say this not to sound impressive or dramatic. I say this because each life is filled with amazing highs and lows that are difficult to contemplate. Through everything that I have seen, enjoyed, and survived, there is one thing in my life that has never wavered as the most beautiful of reassurances:
Finding out that I am not alone.
By far, that simple knowledge that has come to me in many different ways over the years has been the most valuable. (Sorry, geometry. I know you helped me play a mean game of pool.) Every time I discovered something that made me think, “I’m not the only one” it was like an entirely new world had opened up to me. That is why you create – because for every you out there doubting, there is a me out there who needs to know that this existence is not a solitary one.
Whether you absolutely adore mail, want to talk about the existential intricacies of The Blacklist, feel the need to share the ins and outs of gardening in your kitchen sink, or simply need to sort out on paper what it is about the snap of the rubberband against your wrist that makes everything better: express it.
Though you might not feel it now or even years from now, someone out there will read what you’ve written and think: That’s me.
They’ll read your words or look at your art and wonder why it took them so long to find it. They’ll find something in what you’ve had the courage to express that will get them through something, inspire them, or will simply – beautifully – make them feel less alone in the world.
Don’t stop yourself from writing because you’re afraid no one will care; write because there is someone out there who will.
