Author: Nyx

The Puss And The Shade: Transylvania Bible #1
M.J. Ocasio & Monstark
http://mjocasio.com/
https://www.monstark.com/

The Puss And The Shade: Transylvania Bible #1 is a 7cm x 10.7cm black and white comic about an epic battle between a brave cat and a shade.

You had me at the metallic cover.

The Puss And The Shade is the first of the ‘Transylvania Bible’ mini series of graphic vignettes. The mini opens to a lovely inside cover page and then launches into the dark tale of a cat defending his baby human.

I love it. I’ll come right out and say it from the get go. Everything about this zine really hit the spot for me.

The art style uses a lot of lines, leaving the overall page darker at a glance and thus adding to the dark tones of the story. The story itself is great. Few words are needed, and the artists do a great job of visually telling a story. A cat and a baby but in a grim tale? Wow. It combines the usual cute with a horror feel in both art and overall story, and I enjoyed it a lot.

You may be able to tell I don’t want to give away too many details about the story itself because of the length of the zine, but the ending really caught me by surprise. Of all the ways things could have gone…

This is a great zine in the materials used as well. The cover is a metallic blue while the paper inside is textured. Things can be a touch difficult to read on the blue cover depending on the lighting, but that is a small hiccup and – I think – is worth the tradeoff with the awesome cover paper.

I’m happy to see a “#1” with this because I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next in the series.

I highly recommend checking out this mini zine for awesome art styling, an awesome story, and a well put together zine.

Graffiti From an American Refugee
Pockets
https://www.instagram.com/pocketsthepoet/

Graffiti From an American Refugee is an 11cm x 9.5cm accordion fold, black and white zine of poems.

When it comes to reviews of poetry zines, I always preface the review with letting you know that I know nothing about poetry other than what I like. I took a poetry unit at university, and I still know nothing about poetry. Now with that out of the way…

Usually I jump right into what comes after the cover at this point, but – as is habit – I looked at the front and then the back. And I have to mention the back, which is one of the coolest introductions to a person I’ve seen. I won’t quote it, because I enjoyed it so much I feel like that would be a spoiler, but it felt like ‘punk poetry’. Comfortable and cool.

Inside Graffiti From an American Refugee, you find four poems. To me they read like slam poetry. I read the words and could almost hear the emphasis on certain words and almost see someone in front of a mic delivering them. I couldn’t always quite get into a rhythm as such, but the messages were clear and left me feeling inspired.

Aesthetically this zine is fun. The accordion fold is different than the usual fold, the type is easy to read, and there are a few images to help keep visual interest.

All up, I enjoyed this a lot. Not finding a rhythm here or there didn’t stop me from getting into the overall feel of this zine. It was interesting and fun – one to check out and see if you like.

Proper Use of a Condom
Debbie Bamberger
https://www.instagram.com/debbiebamberger/

Proper Use of a Condom is a black and white, US-sized, one page folded mini-zine that is about exactly what the title says.

To be honest, the title made me think this zine was going to be for a giggle. But it’s exactly what it says it is, and I love it even more.

Proper Use of a Condom starts beautifully with “obtain enthusiastic consent” and takes you from there through the few, clear steps on how to use a condom. Every step is written in clear writing and accompanied by simple line drawings to illustrate. Even in something fairly straightforward, Debbie does inject a bit of humour to make you smile.

I love the idea of taking on instructional type minis for things a lot of people might take for granted as common knowledge. I also love the idea of zines being a source of information for things that might otherwise be prohibited in certain situations for young people. It’s plain, simple, and that’s awesome.

Proper Use of a Condom is great and worth picking up if you’re interested. I’d love to see it as part of a whole series of ‘quick and practical’ mini-zines for all sorts of things.