Author: Nyx

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Happy Mail Monday – No Glasses Edition

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMVTZWw40g&w=425&h=315]

Hello and welcome to another Happy Mail Monday where I am out of sorts and absolutely loving the awesome mail that has come in. Zines, stickers, buttons, and birthday presents. There’s a lot to check out.

Thank you so much for watching.

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Awesome People/Places/Spaces Mentioned:

*Three Chairs Publishing/Jen – https://3chairspublishing.com/
**HMM Featuring TCP – https://seagreenzines.com/happy-mail-monday-completionist-heart-edition/

*Antek – https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/pleasetakeonebooks
**Review of Fritkot 1-3 – https://seagreenzines.com/zine-review-fritkot-1-3/

*Hannah Williams – https://linktr.ee/hrw_writes

*Ken Bausert – https://www.instagram.com/passcribe/

*Warglitter Zines – https://www.instagram.com/warglitter/
**YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIhWqEQQ5lHcuG4cJOz3O9g

*Black Wolf

*True Zine Marin – https://www.instagram.com/truezinemarin/

*Portland Buttonworks – https://portlandbuttonworks.com/

*Latibule – https://linktr.ee/latibule_art

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My PO Box:

Nyx
PO Box 378
Murray Bridge, SA 5253
Australia

***

You Can Find Me At:

seagreenzines@gmail.com

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/seagreenzines

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Zine Review: Nice Bum, Where Ya From?

Nice Bum, Where Ya From?
Ryan Pocket Thoughts
https://www.instagram.com/_my_name_is_ryan_/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/pocketthoughts/

Nice Bum, Where Ya From? is an 11cmX9cm full colour zine of art revolving around funny rhyming pick up lines involving backsides.

It’s Friday, and I’m in a cheeky mood (pun fully intended), so I decided to pick up one of Ryan’s zines for some smiles and laughs. I was not at all disappointed.

Nice Bum, Where Ya From? launches right in, carrying on from the funny rhyme (and hairy bum) right on the front cover. From there we are treated to six pages – each featuring a bum-related rhyme and a related drawing. They range from (for me): “Did he really write that?” to “I really need to stop laughing in the next five minutes”. That probably says something about my (low) maturity levels, but… I don’t care. I appreciate the laughs so much.

Ryan’s art style is realistic, colourful, and just plain awesome. Do some pics get a little naughty? Well, about as much as you’d expect from a zine with a hairy bum on the cover. But I think it’s all great. My favourite is the one with a Valentine’s Day flair, but I will say no more on it… You’ll have to see for yourself.

I love Ryan’s zines. More often than not, they remind me not to take myself or whatever I’m making creatively too seriously. His zines remind me to smile and laugh. Definitely grab this. And maybe one for a friend who needs a laugh too.

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Zine Review: Fritkot 1-3

Fritkot 1-3
Antek
a.blampied(at)hotmail.be
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/pleasetakeonebooks

Fritkot 1-3 is a set of three A6, full-colour collections of photomontages.

One more thing to love about zines is zines like these ones making me feel like I have a cool art exhibition right in my hands.

Fritkot 1 opens with a welcome note from Antek letting the reader know that this is a selection of photomontages from the collection they have been creating over the past five years. What follows is a list of the title of each piece included followed by Antek’s sign of.

We then launch right into twelve (in each issue) pieces for the reader’s enjoyment and contemplation.

Zines like this used to intimidate me because, with little to no guidance, I was afraid of getting the ‘wrong’ interpretation from things. However, these days, I enjoy the mystery and finding my own meanings.

While not every piece strikes me, what I like, I really like. For example, ‘Suburban Street’ in issue two features a graveyard with a cityscape (clearly my description does it absolutely no justice), made such a huge impression on me I found myself losing time just looking at it and thinking about what I felt it was ‘saying’ to me.

Further, while no issue has a theme as such, issue three interested me a lot. The front and back covers imply otherwise, but the pieces inside really gave me the impression of being in the world but not being in the moment. Being too focused on superficiality or small things to see the bigger picture. Am I right? Am I wrong? It doesn’t really matter. I’m enjoying the journey of thinking about it.

Fritkot is an interesting series of photomontages that can prod your mind if you let it. If you like photomontages and collages or would like to start checking them out, then have a look at this series.

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Happy Mail Monday – Post-Birthday Edition

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxereYwZTM&w=425&h=315]

Hello, YouTube friends. After a quiet week to celebrate my birthday, I am back with awesome mail from around the world. Zines, collages, adult stickers, and more.

Thank you so much for watching.

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Awesome People/Places/Spaces Mentioned:

*Feral Publication – https://feralpublicationzines.bigcartel.com/

*Sincerely Me Design (sticker) – https://sincerelymedesign.com/

*Star

*Send Something Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/sendsomething/

*Kristopher Storey – https://www.abocomix.com/

*Antiquated Future – https://antiquatedfuture.com/

*Antiquated Future Records – https://antiquatedfuture.bandcamp.com/

***

My PO Box:

Nyx
PO Box 378
Murray Bridge, SA 5253
Australia

***

You Can Find Me At:

seagreenzines@gmail.com

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/seagreenzines

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Catching Up

Hello, zine friends!

It has been a quiet week here on the blog, but that’s because it’s my birthday week! I have had a fabulous week of fun, rest, and relaxing (goodness knows I needed some relax/rest).

A quiet dinner out marked the actual day/night, and I brought in the next year of my life with traditional cake and candles. I am traditional in quite a few ways.

I’ve also spend a lot of my time organising a huge mail out now that I have finally finished the 24 Hour Zine Thing 3! I’m so excited to have finally finished not just this zine but really having finished a zine at all. It has me full of energy and feeling like I’m finally getting back on track with things in my life.

Next week, look forward to a packed Happy Mail Monday as well as fresh-baked zine reviews for your reading pleasure.

Happy Friday!

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Zine Review: Pre-Existing

Pre-Existing: A Zine About Disability & Chronic Illness During 2020
Anna Gecko & Others
https://www.instagram.com/oleandrsstudio/
https://oleandrsstudio.carrd.co/

Pre-Existing is a full-colour, US-quarter-sized zine about various people’s experiences with disability, chronic illness, medication, and other related subjects during a pandemic.

Pre-Existing opens on the inside cover with a few article headlines about COVID and disability, warming the reader up for the content to come. What comes isn’t gentle, however, with the page opposite featuring an art piece called “Sacrificial Worker” featuring a worker with a medical ID bracelet on. It’s a little dark to see all the details of the art, but it still says so much about working during the pandemic.

What follows are short written pieces covering topics from getting diagnoses to getting/trying to get treatment in this ‘new world’. They are quick reads in word count, but they leave you with a lot to think about long after you’ve finished reading them.

There is hope mixed in with the frustration however, with one contributor writing this about having found a chronic illness support group:

“It was the first time I felt like I didn’t owe an explanation about why I couldn’t do something.”

Beautiful.

Along with the Sacrificial Worker art being a bit too dark (printers are printers are printers), my other nitpick is that the text is cut a bit in a few places. That said, it didn’t pause me for long in my reading of this zine. There was also a small, considerate touch that I don’t see very often – washi tape put over the staples internally. That’s such a nice little touch (especially for someone who has been poked more than a few times by staples).

All up, Pre-Existing is a shorter read and one that I’m glad exists. This is one of those zines that helps us to have sympathy and empathy for each other, lets the contributors have a place to express themselves, and might even help some readers take it easier on themselves in whatever they are dealing with.

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International Zine Month Wrap Up – Days 28-31

Hello zine friends! I write to you on a rainy Saturday, hardly believing that the month is already wrapping up. So here I go with the final prompts…

International Zine Month – Day 28 – Favourite Zines

Today’s prompt is:

Post online about your favourite zines!

Noooooooo, I can’t do it! I can’t pick favourites. Haha. Truly. I know how it seems, but I really am going to bow out of this one. I’ve read and enjoyed so many zines over the years, I don’t want to pick favourites. Yes, there are different zines that have different impacts, but I want to shout out my love for all of them. You can always check out the Zine Review Index if you’d like to have a look at the zines I’ve reviewed over the years.

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International Zine Month – Day 29 – Zine Selfie

Today’s prompt is:

Take a photo of you with your zine or zine collection and post it online.

I may have tried to think of a way to not do this one because I take pictures with the mail on Happy Mail Mondays, but… sometimes you just have to stop, drop, and selfie. So here I am with some of my favourite zines I have made over the years.

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International Zine Month – Day 30 – My IZM 2021

Today’s prompt is:

Write a letter or online post about your IZM20221 experience.

I’m not ready for it to be the end of July already. I’d say that July isn’t what I had expected, but I haven’t been real big on setting expectations for how things will go for a long time now. Life has a way of always turning out different anyway, so I’d rather be a boat trying to go along with the waves than fighting against the waves for the sake of a set course. (That’s just where I am in life at the moment.)

As per usual, it’s been about practising what I preach. Let things go and don’t stress because IZM and things like it are about having fun and connecting. It’s not another job and not something you should feel bad about if you don’t get every day on the day. It turned out that *Hadass’ way of grouping days together is what’s worked best for me. And so it goes. Twenty Two Zines took that approach in their videos, too, and it totally worked!

It’s been a good IZM this year. An IZM that we perhaps needed a bit more than in previous years (we definitely needed it last year to) and will continue to need as we rock into the 2020s.

I’m rambling again as I always do, but that’s just the state of things on a rainy day. Yeah, I wish I could have been more involved with things this IZM. More connected with everything that’s going on. But I still had a good time. I still got to enjoy great posts and videos by fellow zinemakers. And I had some fun.

I hope you did too.

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International Zine Month – Day 31 – HallowZine

Today’s prompt is:

HallowZine! Remember zines and zinesters that are no longer with us.

One of the interesting things about the zine world is how not everything is ‘forever’. That’s part of what makes zines special, but it also makes the zineverse sad, too. We know things are finite, but zines can remind us of that a little more than we’d like them to.

With the state of the world, lives, mental health, and a myriad of other things, we’ve seen distros close, zinemakers stop, and zine series’ stop as well. Some closed with announcements while others faded. It’s always sad to say goodbye.

Here’s to the distros to have closed, the zinemakers who have stopped making, the series that have disappeared, and, of course especially, here’s to the zinemakers who have passed on to the parts unknown. Best wishes and thoughts to all in your next great adventures.

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DOWNLOAD THE PDF TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER HERE!

Like with all years, I like to keep a running list of links to people/places participating in International Zine Month. So if that sounds like you, then please let me know! Comment here on the blog or send me an email at seagreenzines at gmail

Participants:

*Echo Publishing
*Hadass

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Vlog: One Year Later

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Royq4tmaEpY&w=425&h=315]

On this day last year, I posted a video about my struggle with depression and how I needed to reach out and get help. Now, a year later, I’m taking stock of where I was, how far I’ve come, and where I’d like to go.

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International Zine Month – Days 25 – 27

Hello, zine friends! It’s another multi-prompt IZM day here in the zine cave with plenty on as always. I hope the start to the week has found you well and rolling along with things gently. A lot of people are going through a lot of stuff right now, so remember to be gentle and kind not only to others but to yourself too.

So let’s see what we have!

International Zine Month – Day 25 – Off to Review

Today’s prompt is:

Send your zine for review to a website or magazine that does reviews.

There are quite a few reviewers out there these days and thus a lot of good ways to get your zine in front of new eyes. But when it comes to sending out a new zine (which I should have in August!), I always think of Ryan, Feral Publication, and Craig.

Do you have any zine reviewers you recommend? Have you sent your zine to a new-to-you reviewer? Let me know in the comments.

International Zine Month – Day 26 – My Zine Collection

Today’s prompt is:

Organise your zine collection. Post a shelfie online.

Oh gosh. I’m almost a little shy to send this, but here we go…

The zine cave is in a perpetual state of change at the moment, so my zine collection is being stored in… the closet. Yes, I know, but it is the zine cave closet, so that’s something. I also store empty flattened boxes for shipping things in there, too (that’s what you see on the right).

It’s not perfect, pretty, nor ideal, but it is the current state of my collection. I’m just glad it’s organised at all. Haha.

I’d love to see what you do with your collections…

International Zine Month – Day 27 – Collaboration Day

Today’s prompt is:

Ask a zine friend if they would like to do a split zine of collaboration.

Yet another thing on the to-do list! Zippity Zinedra and I talked about doing a split zine earlier this year, and it is still on the list! So we got the asking a friend part done early… the making the split zine will – with luck and determination – come later this year.

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And that’s it for me for today zine friends. I hope you’re having fun this month and getting your zine on!

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DOWNLOAD THE PDF TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER HERE!

Like with all years, I like to keep a running list of links to people/places participating in International Zine Month. So if that sounds like you, then please let me know! Comment here on the blog or send me an email at seagreenzines at gmail

Participants:

*Echo Publishing
*Hadass