Witches of the World Volume 1
Habitual Novelties (Jason)
https://linktr.ee/habnopubco
Witches of the World Volume 1 is an A5 full-colour zine collection of detailed descriptions of witches of the world including real-world history, folklore, and more in a Dungeons and Dragons-esque style anthology.
I may have fangirled all over this zine shortly after Jason handed it to me.
Witches of the World opens with a title page (a title page!) and table of contents (which I will be talking about soon) before launching into the introduction of this zine. Jason writes about how this zine came to be, influences in its creation, and even plans for future volumes in the series.
From there we go not right to the descriptions but into instructions! Yes, my zine friends, this is not only a zine but a game you can play as well! When Jason delivered this directly into my hands at Festival of the Photocopier, it also game with a character stats sheet but also with dice as well! The next spread also includes a guide to the information provided as well as a key to all the information provided in each witch spread.
I love, love, love the layers to this zine. Informational, artistic, adding a game element as well… So much fun in one package. Jason has really thought of everything.
We then get into the witches pages, each spread is dedicated to one witch. Magic type, age, height, elements, world map, profile, items, and so much more are included. If you want character layout, this is it. I’d love to adapt this for some of the character development for my novels.
As with all Habitual Novelties zines, I love the little details – not only in the art included but in the zine overall. In this zine, the table of contents is actually a set of mini images of the spreads underneath the header for that spread. The header font style is fun and different without being ridiculously hard to read. Even each witch comes with its own small colour palette for what was used in the art.
I have never in my life played a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and I still think this zine is amazing and so well done. If that doesn’t say something, I don’t know what will.
Witches of the World Volume 1 is an awesome, fun zine that just goes to show that you can keep stretching the bounds of what a zine is and the things a zine can encompass. Definitely check it out.
