Author: Nyx

Am I A Dreamer
Richard Larios
20 pages
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Am I A Dreamer is a US quarter-sized, black and white comic zine about staying true to your creative self, how your creativity can change and grow as you do, and the difference between doing and dreaming.

This is another instance of reading a zine exactly when I needed to read it. My creative self is very happy.

Am I A Dreamer opens with Richard writing about being called a ‘dreamer’ and how that title doesn’t really jive with him – because he’s doing things! He then moves into different motivations for things and how he does things for fun. Meaning he stops them when they stop being fun, a mindset passed down from his mother who always told him to do what makes him happy.

From there he talks about changing as a person in jail and how he survived it by continuing to be creative. Even more, other prisoners related to his writing. He escaped the mindset of prisoner by being the writer even in the cell where he spent so much time. Upon release, he was a blank canvas, and yet he continued to process and create. Not dream. Create.

“Left to me I would say that I’m a grunt that self-medicates with art.”

Am I A Dreamer is a great zine that shows in few but powerful words how life can change dramatically but our dedication to our art(s) doesn’t have to. Reading about how Richard kept creating and kept writing, doing what he does for fun, therapy, and many other things, is very inspiring to me. It reminded me that what we nurture and stick with is what grows within us.

He also touches on a number of different subjects (dreaming versus doing, life as a young man in jail, doing what is fun, etc) while seamlessly blending all these topics into a great read.

I would love to see more on every subject from Richard. I highly recommend this zine for everyone but especially creatives (And especially if you’re like me and feel like you may have lost your creative way a bit.)

Renaissance I
Connor Ovenden-Shaw
8 pages
https://linktr.ee/connorovendenshaw

Renaissance I is an A6, full-colour zine of photography and poetry.

I feel like I’m always saying the same thing about poetry – most of it goes over my head, and I just like what I like – but here I am reviewing more poetry zines. What can I say? I’ll always keep reading poetry.

Renaissance I opens right into things with a handwritten note from 1949 on the front inside cover and a poem on (I believe) the quickly fading nature of fame and/or empty praise. From there we take in the combination of poetry, which often expresses feelings of sadness and things lost, as well as photography of various things.

The photography is personalised not only by the eye of the photographer taking the picture but also by sketches that have been drawn on them. I wish I could say what it reminded me of. Either way, I quite liked the added elements.

Connor’s writing often feels fuelled by depression: calm and accepting but with an air of despondency. There also feels, to me, that there is an air of nostalgia mixed into some of the poems as well. I can’t say I fully understood all of the poems – there were a couple of places where I felt like symbolism was being used but I didn’t click onto it. That said, these all of these poems made me feel something – and making someone feel something is the aim of any art.

For anyone curious, the back cover is the one that ‘got me in the feels’ the most.

Connor doesn’t include any socials in this zine, but a quick Google of their name will lead you to where you need to go. This is usually a nitpick of mine, but, to be honest, it feels like the right choice for this zine in a way I struggle to articulate. Perhaps if you have read or do read this zine, you will agree.

As always, the inclusion of a ‘1’ in the title has me smiling, because I do hope to see more of these. Connor’s writing is full of emotion, and I adore the element of drawing on the photos (something I’d like to try myself at some point).

Check this one out.