Category: International Zine Month

Hello and happy Thursday zine friends!

Oh what a week it has been already. We’re back in lockdown here in South Australia (along with much of Australia), we’re experiencing some incredibly cold (for Australia) weather in some parts, and life is simply a whole lot of hectic.

Sometimes all we can do is hold on! Let’s get going with the prompts!

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Today’s prompt is:

Make a flyer for your zine to trade, send out with orders and trades.

I had every intention of making a new SGZ flyer, but I had a look at my usual one… and I still like it. Haha. I’m sure it could use a bit of sprucing up that I might do at some point, but I really like it. So it’ll stay like this…

Side note: If you have flyers, stickers, business cards, etc that are about zine-related things, please feel free to send them to me. I’m happy to include them in my mail outs.

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Today’s prompt is:

Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade or swap zines with you.

Zine swaps! Zine swaps are a huge part of the zine community. From larger mail swaps like Crash to individual trades between zinemakers, it’s how we keep connections and physical mail alive.

This year for trade day, I have the pleasure of trading with Shei of God Save the Queer. Whether you’re into zines or jewellery, I highly recommend checking out their creations. It’s all so beautiful!

Who are you trading with?

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Today’s prompt is:

Zine Distro Appreciation Day! Tell people about/order from a zine distro.

So many distros, so little time! An easy peasy reference is checking out the distros listed on my Resources page.

If you have a distro, shop, or other zine-related site that isn’t on the list, please let me know!

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Today’s prompt is:

Talk about a thing you learned in a zine. “I once read in a zine that…”

When it comes to things I have learned in zines, what I learned in Pieces 13 will always be a huge part of my life…

I once read in a zine that… demisexual is a type of asexuality that falls under asexuality. Demisexuals only feel sexually attracted to someone after establishing an emotional bond.

Check out the review linked above if you want to read more about the impact this had on me.

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Today’s prompt is:

Zine Library Day! Search for a zine library in your area and make plans to go someday or contact them about how to include your zine in their collection.

I didn’t have a local zine library before everything happened (though I did have plans to start one). However, like with so many other things, the virus has inspired people to go online! There are now more options than ever to get your zine read on digitally.

Check out these online zine libraries:

*Quarantine Zine Club
*Sherwood Forest Zine Library
*Queer Zine Archive Project
*POC Zine Project

Are there others that I have missed? Please let me know!

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Today’s prompt is:

Check out zine YouTube channels.

Yay! I love seeing this day in the list of IZM prompts not only because I have a zine YouTube channel but because I feel like it’s such a fun way to connect with other zinemakers and see what they are putting out into the world. There are zine reviews but also videos about being a creator, finding balance in zines and business, ans so much more. Definitely check these out and let me know if there are any that I’m missing:

*Craig Atkinson
*Feral Publication
*Ryan Pocket Thoughts
*Sea Green Zines
*Twenty Two Zines
*Warglitter Zines

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

Hello and happy Friday once more, zine friends. It is a cold, blustery night here in this little section of Oz. I’m rugged up in a hoodie as well as my electric blanket and getting my zine and zine-related activities on.

Oh adulting. I suppose I was never going to be an ‘out clubbing’ kind of woman. Haha. No regrets.

I posted some free zine goodness earlier (in the post below), and giving away zine goodness seems so perfect to pair up with today’s prompt…

Today’s prompt is:

Make a list of reasons you love zines and share your list with others.

Zines, how I do love thee. Let me count the ways…

I’m sure I have that line wrong, and I’m sure I’ve made that joke before, but what can I say? I like what I like. So what do I like (and love!) about zines?

*Taps into my inner joy – Making zines helps me tap into my inner joy. Yes, I often write about serious subjects and things like that. Still, there are times when I can get out my crayons, stickers, washi tapes, and more and have an absolutely fabulous time. No judgements creativity time with colours and just plain fun.

*Learning! – Like with everything these days, you do need to double check things. Especially when it comes to advice that can effect your body and your mind. That said… learning! I have learned so much from zines. About myself, about how to make certain crafts, about different belief systems and practises… There’s so much to learn from different life perspectives to fun facts about fruit. It’s all out there for the reading.

*Helps remind me I’m not alone – I’m sure I put this every year, but it’s such a big one for me. Whether it’s helping me to discover that the things I thought were ‘just me’ are actually common for a lot of people or the reminders that we all have our own journeys and own mistakes to make, zines remind me that I’m not alone. There’s someone out there who can understand. Even when I feel like there’s not, there’s no way I convince myself that there aren’t people out there who at least want to try to understand. I love that and will always love that about zines.

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

Hello and happy Friday, zine friends! Technically it’s the 16th today, but I can’t miss out on Free Zine Day! It’s one of my favourite International Zine Month days.

Today’s prompt is:

Free Zine Day! Offer your zine for free online or – if it’s safe to do so where you are – leave zines in public places for strangers to find and enjoy.

I know digital zines aren’t ‘real’ zines for some zinemakers, and I respect their thoughts on that. Alas, a car battery later, and a car service as well as a vet visit to come means digital is the best I can do this year. However, it’s free and in colour, so that’s pretty cool, yeah?

Happy Free Zine Day everyone! Here’s Dear Anonymous 3 for your digital reading pleasure.

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

Hello, zine friends! Welcome back to another International Zine Month day of goodness here in the zineverse. So many things to do and never enough time, so let’s launch right into the activities from the past few days.

Day 10:

Write a letter or a message to a zinester.

Mail, mail, glorious mail! I think it’s pretty obvious at this point how much I adore mail. What, with the whole Happy Mail Monday thing. Haha. But you do need to send mail to receive it, and I can tell you I had quite the stack of mail to respond to! (I’m a terrible penpal, unfortunately. I’m much better with care packages.)

The universe was kind with the sunshine filling the room and a stack of envelopes I thought I’d run out of. A beautiful day to spread the zine (and happy mail!) love.

A few people have mentioned having big mail send outs today, so here’s looking forward to plenty of happy mail posts in the near future!

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Day 11:

International Zine Day! Read a zine from a country different from your own.

Hahahaha I actually have more zines from overseas than I do from within Australia, so this is an easy one! And, of course, zine reading is quite the pleasure.

Here I have Alita: Battle Angel and Gunnm – A Tale About Humanity and Freedom by @MarGlow3. This zine is from France (with thanks to Shei who send it to me). I won’t get into the details here (because that’s what my review will be for), but I’ve seen the movie and they had me at Alita.

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Day 12:

ZineWiki Day! It’s a wiki just for zines! Add to or update listings to the new and improved zinewiki.com

ZineWiki! ZineWiki is an amazing resource filled with all sorts of information on zines, zinemakers, and much more. For a while, there were some issues with the coding and ability to access/edit things on the site. However, it looks like a lot of that (if not all of it) has been resolved! I even found my old Dear Anonymous page. I can’t seem to find my zinemaker page, so I’ll put that on the list of things to do!

If you’re new to ZineWiki, definitely check out the introduction page first. You can even have a go at making your first test edit there.

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Day 13:

Make up a zine superstition and share it (skip the 13th issue? Spin 3 times to prevent copier jams? Your best friend reads your zine first?)

In 2018, I wrote about a master copy ritual to ensure no difficulties in reproducing your zine. In 2019, I wrote about the number of black writing instruments needed to ensure a smooth zine-making experience. Last year, I wrote about a tale I’ve heard whispered about the 13th issue of a perzine series…

This year I tell you a tale from my own experience. I had no idea it was even a thing, but here we are. We must be careful, my zine friends, as the zine muses will not come our way if… our zines are unorganised!

We all know that point when our zine collection is unorganised. We can sense it in our souls. And it is at that moment that the timer starts… For you see, the longer our zine collection is unorganised, the longer the muse will stay away.

Sad but true.

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Day 14:

ValenZines Day! Give yourself some zine love! Read zines in a bubble bath? Buy some new scissors? Let your zine friends know you care about them.

Zine love! Yes, please, and thank you.

The state of the world, the state of the people in the world, trying to get by, trying to get our minds and hearts around this past year and a half… There’s a lot going on, like always, and it’s too easy to lose track of yourself, your self-care, and the people you care about.

It may not sound like the most loving sort of thing, but catching up with the daily prompts today has actually made me feel very good. I’m glad to have done it. As for self-care, I’ve been taking a bit of time each night to sit down and consider my future. I’ll probably be where I am for at least a few years, but it’s going to ba a lot more years than that if I don’t start making decisions and plans.

I say it pretty much every happy mail video, but I care about and thank each and every one of you. I wouldn’t be doing what I do or even able to do what I do without all of your support and encouragement. I really don’t know where I’d be at this point. Thank you.

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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

Hello and happy Friday, zine friends!

Wow, wow, wow. It had been a tumultuous fortnight. I won’t go into it too much, but I’ve been dealing with ongoing complications from the flu (yes, the flu I got back in March) as well as a lot of life changes as I do what I need to do for the sake of my mind, heart, and self.

I’ve really set a new bar for getting behind with things, but that’s okay! Remember the joy rather than focusing on the stress. I’m going to dive right in with the IZM prompts I’ve missed…

Day 4:

AmeriZine Day! Explore marginalised voices in the Americas. By, share, and read zines about racial justic and zines written by BIPOC (Black Indigenous and People of Colour) from the Americas.

When you mention zines written by BIPOC zinemakers, my mind immediately goes to Brown Recluse distro. As is written on the site:

BROWN RECLUSE is a collectively-run zine distro for QTBIPOC by QTBIPOC.

There are so many zines on offer, and they use a sliding scale system that helps you to support the distro itself and help them to continue featuring BIPOC zinemakers. I love it when places make it easy for you to engage in supporting them. I feel like that might sound a little odd, but when I have extra, I love spreading the love.

Nina Echozina also has an excellent list of resources for BIPOC zines.

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Day 5:

Review a zine: post online or write a review to print in your next zine.

I’m going to delay this day for a number of reasons. As much as I’d love to push reviews out, I don’t want to rush reading (and enjoying) zines. I’m working out how to do more reviews for the rest of the year to pick up on my back log of reviews owed. Slowly but surely…

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Day 6:

Zine Pride Day! Explore LGBTQIA+ zines! Buy, share, and read zines by people of marginalised sexual orientations and gender identities. Check out the Queer Zines Archive Project!

When I saw this prompt, I immediately thought of Shei from God Save the Queer who recently released the latest edition of their series ‘I’m Still Here’. Their Etsy shop is also filled with awesome jewellery as well as zines.

You can check out my reviews of Shei’s zines here.

Day 7:

What’s a zine distro? Educate yourself of what zine distros are, how they operate, and how they pick zines to carry. Support a distro near you!

Distros! Distros are shops (online or off – or both) that primarily sell zines. Sometimes they also sell stickers, patches, and the like, but zines are the main thing being sold.

The specifics can get a little more tricky – what makes an Etsy shop a shop rather than a distro, what percentage of zines to other items makes it a distro, so on and so forth. However, I like the simple answer I put above. Haha.

How a distro picks zines can vary a lot. For my distro, I see a zine I like, and I try to get copies of that zine for my distro if I can. (I’m a buy copies up front kind of distro owner rather than a ‘pay when they sell’ distro owner.) Whereas I go by what I like, others go by theme, genre, support specific zinemakers, and some distros take all zines.

There’s a heap of different ways to approach finding distros and running them. I can only hope that you love a research project as much as I do! Haha.

Day 8:

Cook with a recipe you found in a zine!

This isn’t going to be a very exciting one, I’m afraid, as I don’t have a recipe for you. I have baked in the past thanks to The Nutella Cookbook. I also know that Kendy of The Stay At Home Girlfriend includes vegan recipes in that (awesome) perzine series.

However, as I’m not a vegan or even vegetarian, I don’t have anything much more exciting than a fruit salad that I can make, and I don’t really have the energy for anything more complex.

So for today I will say check out Kendy’s awesome zineness!

Day 9:

Buy direct! Do you sell zines online? Update your shop and post a link to it online. Buy directly from someone who posts a link to their shop.

And here we are, zine friends! To the final catch up day. Buy direct!

Yes, yes, yes. Sea Green Zines operates both on Etsy as well as independently as a distro here on Sea Green Zines. Both definitely need a bit of a dust and polish, as shipping prices have gone up, and I haven’t updated yet…

Please, please, please feel free to put your shops and distros in the comments! Along with dusting and polishing my shops, I want to do the same for my Resources page – which includes distros and shops around the world.

Unfortunately, due to a dead car battery while I was out at the shops, I can’t join in on this one just yet. However, there will be fresh, lovely zines I will be snapping up as soon as I can…

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And that is me for today, zine friends!

As always, you are all so amazing for all your patience and understanding with everything. I really wish this was a nine to five so I could give it all the proper love and attention it deserves. As it is, I’m spreading the zine love as much as I can…

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

Hello and happy Friday, zine friends! I hope this post finds you and yours well. My immune system isn’t leaving me be at the moment, hence why I’m starting IZM on day two. Haha. So let’s go for it with days one and two today!

Today’s prompts are:

Day 1. What is a zine? Make a definition in your own words and share it.

A zine is (often) a handmade magazine-like creation of (often) words and/or art made by either one person or a group of people on a topic or topics of their choosing. These are often reproduced on copiers or printers.

Hahaha. I feel like I’m answering a test question (even though there’s no stress in this!), and I know that my answer changes a bit every year. Trying to define what a zine is is a funny exercise that gives an opportunity for a smile as we celebrate how encompassing zines are in topic, creation, and distribution.

Day 2. Zine Rewind! Re-read your favourite zines, a reminder of why you love them.

As always, I’m behind on zine reviews, so I’m not reading old favourites today. However, my favourites come easily to mind, and I love them for so many reasons! The reasons I love all the zines I love. They make me smile, they surprise me, and they remind me that I am not alone. I could not ask for more.

If you have favourite zines, please let me know what they are! I’m always curious about people’s favourites – especially ones I haven’t heard of before!

That’s me for today zine friends. I have all the tea and the tissues and the good things to get back to health asap. Until next time… spread a little sunshine!

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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

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again… and I’m starting on day two. Hahaha. It wouldn’t be Sea Green Zines without some sort of timing issue.

Welcome to International Zine Month, the month where we celebrate all sorts of things zine, connect with other zinemakers, and have plenty of fun. From the creator of all the goodness…

During conversations with friends I found myself saying “Wouldn’t it be rad if there was an International Zine Month?” Which led to the question as to who could make it official. This was actually a silly question since zines are inherently DIY there was no one who would make it official, but I could Do It Yourself. I figured to pair it with the 24 hour Zine thing would be a good idea and since that takes place in the month of July…. JULY IS INTERNATIONAL ZINE MONTH!

I will be back in a little bit to catch up on yesterday and today. Let’s get this zine month rolling!

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

Hello and Happy Friday, zine friends! It’s time again for a daily activity from the International Zine Month 2020 prompts list!

Today’s prompt:

This prompt! This prompt… Every year I have the same idea for this prompt, and every year I haven’t taught myself yet. I’m going to postpone this one and hope that I can make the time to do it because I think it’s a pretty cool idea…

My apologies for the boring post for today. The universe isn’t really letting up on the world just yet, is it? All we can really do is hold on tight, appreciate what we have, and try to spread a little sunshine.

You can pop over here for the 2020 IZM list of daily activities by Alex Wrekk. (Pssst! Go here to download your own printable IZM 2020 poster!)

Also be sure to leave a comment and let me know if you’re joining in. I’ll keep a growing list on each post so we can all check out what each other are doing.