Category: International Zine Month

Happy International Zine Month! Today is the first day of activities, so let’s get rolling!

Today’s prompt is:

CanaZine Day! Buy, read, or share zines from Canada

Woo! I have loved the list of prompts in the past, of course, but I love that we have a fresh list of new activities for this year. For today’s prompt, I am wrapping myself up nice and warm (winter here in the land of Oz) and enjoying a read of these two zines:

Little Acorns is a series by Canadian zinemaker Maranda Elizabeth. (I reviewed their zine ‘Self-Care for Zinesters’ recently.) I’m not sure what they are about, but my awesome friend LP sent them, and I trust LP’s taste in zines. ^_^

That’s me for today… or is it? Hehe. Don’t forget to let me know if you’re joining in IZM 2018!

List of activities: http://www.stolensharpierevolution.org/international-zine-month/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/internationalzinemonth/

Others Joining In:

*Echo Publishing: https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
*You?

Hello, wonderful zine friends!

It is that gorgeous time of the year when we have an entire month to get our zine on and celebrate the lovely handmade bits of magic that are zines. Hehe. Woo!

Even better? Even better?

There is a brand new shiny list of daily activities from Alex Wrekk!

*happy dance*

This is a month I love more and more each year I join in. You can look in the ‘International Zine Month’ category if you’d like to see what I’ve done in past years.

This year I will be posting daily (yep – more posts to come today!) as well as doing my very first (ee!) 24 hour zine challenge.

Something else I like to do with these events is have a running list of people who are joining in. So if you are joining in, let me know where you are posting (blog, Instagram, etc) so I can add your link to the list.

There’s definitely more to come later today. Happy IZM!

Leave a zine in public for someone else to find

I decided to leave a few copies of ‘What’s This Then?’ – my mini-zine about what zines are – in one of my favourite places…

Okay, so you can’t tell where this is by the picture, but I left some zines at the post office. More specifically, where all the post boxes are adjoining the post office shop.

I felt weirdly nervous doing this, and I don’t really know why. Nervous and happy at the same time. I do wonder if anyone who finds them will take the extra step to check out zines.

I’ll probably never know.

That’s me for today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Other Zinesters Joining In (Let me know if you are, and I’ll add you to the list!):

*@eintervital
*@dre
*@queerarcana

Play along with 31 Days of International Zine Month Activities here!

Write to ZineCrush.com or your zine crush

Luuuurve is in the air – zine love! (Remember – love is not contained just to romantic love and neither are crushes!)

Okay, so as far as I can see, the URL mentioned isn’t operating, and the Twitter (https://twitter.com/zinecrush) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/zine.crush) haven’t been going to a while.

So I reckon I’ll confess my zine crush here!

I really admire Nichole (@corridorgirl) who writes the Pieces perzine series – the first perzine series that I really got into and identified with on many levels. I think they were the zines that made me feel like I could really make friends through zines.

So that’s me. Do you have a zine crush?

Other Zinesters Joining In (Let me know if you are, and I’ll add you to the list!):

*@eintervital
*@dre
*@queerarcana

Play along with 31 Days of International Zine Month Activities here!

Organise your zine collection

Oopsie. Hahaha.

Hello, zine friends! It’s IZM, and I knew this one was coming. I knew it was coming and thought I’d have it sorted by the time it rolled around.

Alas…

As much as I want to blame the chaos of the house move, I have had this system of doing things for quite a while now. It’s really not something I would call organised, but I’m not going to reorganise right when I have packing up to do right around the corner.

So for better or worse, here’s how I organise my zines:

This is the shop stock! I made a big push early in the year to get lots of stock ready and waiting, and here it is. Well, what’s left of the big rush. The switch to the ‘it’s sea green colour in person’ basket happened… a month or two back, I believe. It makes it much easier to pull out or put away as needed and to easily see what I have and don’t have.

This is my bedside table. In two mesh mail-sorter type things (technical terms only here at Sea Green Zines) I have the zines I’m going to read next. ‘Coming right up’ level of ‘reading soon’.

One mesh holder has zines that were sent to me for the purpose of reviewing. Just in case I’m in a waffle mood and am not sure what I want to read next, I know to look to that one. The second has ones that I’m eager to read sooner rather than later. (Though they did get a little mixed together because Asimov the cat got a little crazy… But I’ll sort them back into their proper mesh homes.)

I keep them in the mesh things along with a couple of pens and some paper so I can reviewer wherever I please. Not that it’s a difficult thing to review a zine, but with this, I can grab it when I’m about to go sit in the recliner or have a long bath and all the bits and pieces are in one place.

In my dear cube shelf, I have a cube filled with zines that I have not read yet that aren’t quite ‘next on the reading list’ and haven’t been sent to me for review. In fact, most of these were sent to me by the amazing LogPoes when she was cutting down her collection. There’s nothing wrong with them; I simply prioritise them last because no one is waiting on me to review them.

Lastly, we have the home of the zines I have read and (possibly) reviewed. This is where they go to sweet rest until I decide to rummage through them and relive the good reading times.

That’s me for today with my system that works for me now but will probably change once I’ve moved. I’ll be back tomorrow with IZM day 6 and a review!

Other Zinesters Joining In (Let me know if you are, and I’ll add you to the list!):

*@eintervital
*@dre
*@queerarcana

Play along with 31 Days of International Zine Month Activities here!

International Zine Month 2017 Day 3: Zine Distro Appreciation Day

Hello zine friends! It’s International Zine Month, which means I’ve shouting my zine love from the rooftops even more often than usual for the entire month.

Zine Distro Appreciation Day! Order from a zine distro

Zine distros! Those beautiful places that gather ziney goodness and organise it for easy purchase by the masses. They give us a chance to get our cut and pasted words out to people we will probably never meet. Thank you distros!

So today’s task is to order from a distro. I would love to do that and shout out about the zinelicious goodies headed to my post box… but I have a rather spendy neuro appointment coming up. Until I know if I need more than one of those spendy appointments to get my noggin’ sorted, I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to purchase any zines.

Are you in a similar financial position? Well we can still show our distro love!

I would love to show my distro appreciation by shouting out to my closest zine distro: Sticky Institute! I visit them every time I’m in the Melbs CBD, and they stock my zines as well!

I’m also going to show my distro appreciation by shouting out to the distro I would like to order from next: Pen Fight Distro! They are located in the UK and have a unicorn on their logo. Does it get any better?

If you love your local – or not so local – zine distro, please leave a link in the comments! I love looking through the listings of new-to-me distros.

Until tomorrow, keep those glue sticks out and scissors cutting.

Other Zinesters Joining In (Let me know if you are, and I’ll add you to the list!):

*@eintervital
*@dre
*@queerarcana

Play along with 31 Days of International Zine Month Activities here!

Re-read your favourite zines

My favourite zines? How am I supposed to pick favourite zines? Ack!

It’s been a long and busy (in good ways) Sunday here in the land of Oz, and I’m finally sitting down to relax a bit. (I’m thinking hot bath to take off that annoying winter chill in my bones.) But reread a favourite zine? Actually pick one (or two, or three)?

I’m a bit tired and want something nice to look at, so I might go with zines by Bodie Hartley or Rebecca Sheedy because I love their artwork.

Then again, it’s been a long, tough week, so Sober Bob’s pull no punches writing and sense of humour could be the ticket. It’s International Zine Month, too, though, so I could really get my zine nerd on and get into some copies of Xerography Debt and admire their dedication to zines.

Then there’s the tactile experience that I love so much, so there’s Kerbloom’s awesome letterpress aesthetics or the satisfaction of holding a thick little zine that I know is full of goodness like The Screever.

I could go back to the very first zine I ever bought or brush up on my zine knowledge with Stolen Sharpie.

Then again, there are really so many to choose from that, in the end, I may just do a lucky dip and go from there.

Happy IZM, my friends. ^_^

Other Zinesters Joining In (Let me know if you are, and I’ll add you to the list!):

*@eintervital
*@dre
*@queerarcana

Play along with 31 Days of International Zine Month Activities here!

I have to postpone today’s review, but that just means double the awesomeness tomorrow.

🙂

This day got away from me in so many ways, though not unpleasant ones. But I did still want to take a peek at today’s task before bed:

If you’re wondering why I didn’t link to the site name, it’s because apparently not a site as such anymore.

Sad face.

I have zine crushes all over the place insofar as I admire all the people who have such great artistic abilities, I love seeing zines that have been going for a long, long time, I crush on zine makers who stuff there zines full of interesting content…

I have crushes on zinesters who also make/sell buttons. Especially on those who run distros and have done so successfully for years.

<3

If you have a zine crush, let me know! I'm always on the lookout for new zines/zinesters to take a look at.

I love that we have a whole month. We’ve taken it, and we’re not giving it back! (But we’ll share, of course.)

Welcome back to another beautiful (there was actually sun here, I am so happy) day of International Zine Month. So what’s on the agenda for today?

I’m going to tweak things a smiggle again today with this one to highlight a site that has been set up specifically for getting in touch with people who want to trade zines:

Zine Traders

I haven’t signed up (yet), so I don’t have a lot of details, but even if you’re not looking to trade right now, it’s a great way to find new zinesters to check out.

Win, win, win!

Now on to something I thought of while being so busy not sleeping the other night. Haha.

*Recorded the audio versions for Don’t Call Me Cupcake 1 and Don’t Call Me Cupcake 2. Now I need to edit it and get it over to Billy da Bunny. Curious about audio zines? Check out Billy’s Bunny Ears Distro.

*Dear Anonymous 5 has been started. There’s still time to sneak in with a letter if you’d like to be a part of it.
*I’m looking for a nice but affordable mic for doing more recording.
*I’m finally ordering a photobox so I can take NICE pictures.

*I’ve been dreaming big about a badge making machine. Someday one will be mine, and Zine Ninja’s image will go worldwide!
*Podcasting! LogPoes was kind enough to have a listen to my first (and only) podcast, and that got me thinking about how much I wanted to get into doing that. And still do. I have to get the front panel of my computer replaced and look for a good mic, but it’s definitely on my mind.
*I am looking forward to putting out a few new calls for submissions for zine ideas I have swirling around in my head…