Author: Nyx

Hot Pants! Do It Yourself Gynecology and Herbal Remedies
Isabelle Gauthier and Lisa Vinebaum
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/899

**As stated in the zine: This book is not intended to provide diagnoses or prescriptions.

There seems to be this view of the world in that there are people who are ‘for’ modern medicine and those who are ‘against’. Well I’m here to tell you there are plenty of people who just want options.

Hot Pants! Do It Yourself Gynecology and Herbal Remedies is exactly that. From PMS to yeast infections, this zine lists alternatives for problems you’ve had, problems you’ve heard of, and a few more in the mix. I feel like this is the ‘little book of lady bits’ that I should have been given when I was a teenager.

This zine goes far beyond a list of problems and solutions, though. There are illustrations a’plenty with the female reproductive system, how to check your vaginal mucus, and even an example chart for fertility charting. It gets even better in the back. Want a list of aphrodisiacs? Check. Want to know how to prepare your own herbs? Check. Not sure if you wanted Chickweed or Motherwort? You guessed it – check.

Side not kudos: I love how the table of contents is set up like a periodic table. There are multiple reasons as to why this is funny and clever.

My love for this zine extends beyond what this zine literally is into what it stands for. Beyond ‘this is how you make babies’, my education about my body was distinctly lacking. My access to doctors who could actually explain anything? Distinctly lacking. What this stands for is not just alternative health but communication and shared knowledge for women in a world where it can be difficult for women to learn more about their bodies and their health.

As someone who craves some alternatives that don’t come from the chemist, I think this is a fantastic little guide for better understanding.

Hand It Over #1
WDKING, Ella King, Louie Joyce
http://budzine.weebly.com/

Everything has been going wrong today – internet, computer, printer… even my office chair broke in three ways – so it was nice to give the arvo a one-finger salute and sit down with Hand It Over.

I received this zine in trade at Festival of the Photocopier (this is how ‘fast’ reviewing goes when I only do two reviews a week) from the one and only @budzine (Instagram).

Hand It Over #1 is a zine of variety with a comic – split into two parts – an interview, a shop review, and other things. While one piece did poke at adults with colouring books (who says colouring is just for kids? haha), I love a tongue-in-cheek prod as much as the next person. (If you can’t laugh at yourself…)

I have to say that the comic was my favourite part of the zine. Not only did it have the split (something I enjoy from my newspaper-reading days), but the message was exactly what I was hoping it would be. The pages that followed the ending were funny in a dry, wry way.

The interview was on the short and sweet side in both questions and answers, which I really liked. I’m a big fan of interviews, but most of them drag out too long.

Hand It Over combines things I like about newspapers/magazines – the variety of content, the type of content, the ‘find more on page X’ that I like in newspapers – but keeps to the cut and past zine style.

Plus, I’ve always been a fan of all caps and small caps. +1 readability

I hope to see it expand for even more variety – more interviews, comics, etc – and take advantage of the white space on the interior covers and back cover. I can see this easily growing into a thicker and thicker zines with all sorts of content inside.

I feel like this is a great beginning for what could turn into a long-lasting zine series.

Xerography Debt #34
Editor: Davida Gypsy Breier
http://www.leekinginc.com/
https://microcosmpublishing.com/

Is it weird to review a review zine? Am I going to poke a hole in the universe if I post this?

Last year, I was thinking about bundling up all my reviews into a zine review zine. Rather than jump right in, I decided to have a look around and see what, if anything, other people were doing with the idea. Let’s just say that when I came across ‘Xerography Debt’, I thought: Well, they have it covered.

Xerography Debt is amazing. I’ll put it right here toward the beginning of the review because that pretty much sums it up.

Aesthetically, I love this issue. The art is fantastic, the colours, and even the font of the words on the cover drew me in. They use great paper, a clear and readable font, and it’s one of those nice, thick zines that you know you’ll get to spend a lot of time with.

I usually don’t mention layouts, but this one bears mentioning. The inside cover has not only contact details but also lists out the whole Xerography Debt team, the table of contents, and breaks down the reviews into individual reviewer sections. Have I mentioned that they have 15 reviews on the team? Wowza. And an index in the back.

Even more, they have a “Basic stuff you should know” in the back in case this is your first issue of Xerography Debt.

This is where I start doodling ‘Nyx loves XD’ in my zine notebook.

As you would expect to see inside Xerography Debt, there are zine reviews. They tend to be on the shorter and sweeter side of things – at least, compared to my prattling on, they certainly are. Having a team of reviewers makes things even more interesting with the differing tastes and reviewing styles.

What gives the content that ‘frosting on top’ is that there are columns in there as well! There’s a perzine quality inserted into this review zine with columns that range from an interview to PO Box Withdrawal. I absolutely dug right in and loved the columns so much. I learned so much! For instance, I was reading one column that talked about amateur press associations. I lost hours researching APAs.

Backtracking a little to the first piece – the introduction – Davida beautifully states why it can still be a zine even if it has an ISBN:

[Zinesters] all try and stretch the boundaries of what can be done with photocopies and staples, but if what we have to say can’t be stapled, moving to book format makes perfect sense.

Boom. Done. Drop mic. There you go.

I must admit that letting myself loose with a zine that gave me even more zines to try to get my hands on might not have been the best idea, but I’m still glad I did it. Because zines. (Of course, now I have to get my hands on all the copies of this series…)

Do yourself a favour and grab an issue of Xerography Debt.

Bloomurder #1
Laura
www.facebook.com/bloomzine
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/BLOOMURDER

My 101st zine review. Wow. I feel like I have a clean slate and greater expectations all at the same time. Haha. To give my anxieties a bit of a relax and my brain box some enjoyment, I figured Bloomurder #1 would be the way to go…

Bloomurder is a collection of bits and pieces of experiences. I say ‘bits and pieces’ with no disrespect. The content is a mix of art and travel, music and television shows from her youth. It bounces around a bit and doesn’t have a theme for the issue as such, but sometimes it’s nice to go along with someone else’s flow to see where it takes you. This style of doing things reinforces the ‘scrapbook’ feel I get with this zine.

I found the pieces funny in a synchronicity sort of way. I’ve never been to France, but Wanderer has, and he had some very similar things to say about the places there. Laura also talks about South Australia and the Adelaide Fringe Festival. I just so happen to be looking at moving to South Australia. So in that strange way, I do have somewhat of a bias toward some of the content.

This zine also combines journal aspects as well with little additions to go along with the writing instead of a cut and paste fiesta distracting from the words. Had I learned after the fact that this zine was a product of ‘converted notebook ramblings’ (instead of at the intro), I wouldn’t have been surprised.

Earlier today someone asked if there were any rules when it comes to making zines. There really aren’t, but Laura provides a good demonstration of the ‘general understanding’ when it comes to handwriting in zines: make sure people can read it! Laura has easy-to-read handwriting (except for one word on occasion 😉 ), as you can see* on the first page here:

One thing I found interesting in this zine is that Laura uses handwriting for some pieces and typing others. If someone had simply suggested this to me, I would have assumed that I wouldn’t like it. As it turns out, I do. The change from piece to piece fits the overall ‘scrapbook’ sort of feel that I get with this zine.

I find it a lot of fun to look at a person’s first zine, especially after they have been making them for a while. I’m very curious to see how Laura’s style has changed or stayed the same in the issues of Bloomurder that follow.

PS. I have to mention that her contact/media details right in the front, clear and easy to find. Yes!

*I’ve decided to revisit my rule about no pictures of the insides of zines. I am looking at doing it more, but for the time being, I am going to be very picky about what I take pictures of.