Category: Zine Reviews

Urban Legends
Edited & Published by Kali Kambouroglos (Mythical Type)
32 pages
https://mythicaltype.com
https://ko-fi.com/mythicaltype

Urban Legends is a quarter-sized black and white zine collection of art and writing about legends, myths, and folklore.

Tis the season for some strange, some spooky, and some otherworldly goodness. Plus in zine form? Yes please.

Urban Legends opens with an easy-to-read (ever more important as I get older and my eyes get worse) table of contents complete with links for most of the contributors for this issue. From there we launch into things with a creepy, sing-song sort of piece with ‘Strange Little May’.

The zine is filled with short pieces and art. I like how some of the pieces are short introductions that double as invitations to look deeper into the subject should the reader want to do so. (I may have done some nosing around about what a homunculus is.) I especially enjoyed Kali’s piece on The Fulton Theatre, as I’m always interested in a potentially haunted location.

I also love how some of the pieces come not only with who they are by but also with a location as well. I’m always fascinated by the different myths and legends from around the world, so it’s a fun detail to have that added in when possible. (Also, I found it curious that the UK has a superstition about magpies – “Mr. Magpie” by Kaci O’Meara – but Australians don’t seem to!)

The zine wraps up with an editor’s note that includes some facts about how the zine was made. Little touches like these are always fun to me. I’m always curious about how people create these zines.

Urban Legends is an interesting zine that gives a lot of tasters that make me want to take a lot of deeper dives into things. As far as I know, there isn’t a second Urban Legends, but I hope there is in the future. I need more zines like this!

Confessions of a Small Town Pizza Delivery Girl
Hello Magnolia
One page folded mini-zine
https://www.hellomagnoliaprintshop.com
https://www.patreon.com/cw/HelloMagnolia

Confessions of a Small Town Pizza Delivery Girl is a full colour, one page folded mini-zine collection of personal experiences or witnessed experiences while working as a pizza delivery girl.

First and foremost, there is a trigger warning on the front of this zine: “Trigger warning: Zine mentions sexual assault of a minor and sexual harassment of a minor.” As someone sensitive to those topics, I appreciated the warning and found the content to be disturbing on a ‘what the f*** is wrong with people’ level but was fine to read and keep reading.

Confessions of a Small Town Pizza Delivery Girl gets right into things from the first page with an interesting regular who always ordered their soda in a particular way. From there, we get a variety of lessons about how sometimes people with bad reputations can actually be the kindest people, how some of the people reputed as being kind are actually the worst, and reminders to be kind to hospitality workers. They go through enough day to day and, well, should the opportunity for some payback present itself…

The design of this zine is very fun and colourful. It reminds me of a combination of colourful food ads and the kind of scrapbook and doodle type journals friends and I kept growing up. There are plenty of elements to please those who like plenty going on visually in their zines while still staying readable. There is also a QR cods on the back to make it easy to find out more about HM without taking up much visual real estate in the zine.

Confessions of a Small Town Pizza Delivery Girl is a zine that’s just like life: sweet moments, confusing moments, and some moments that will leave you shaking your head. However, if you’ve worked in hospitality (or retail, etc) and you’re okay with the aforementioned trigger warnings, then this is a zine to pick up for the solidarity. I can absolutely see other zinemakers reading this and making their own zines with their stories as well.

Lucid Dreaming and How I Accidentally Joined a Cult
Robby
6 pages
https://www.instagram.com/keet.creates.zines
https://www.instagram.com/keet.creates

Lucid Dreaming and How I Accidentally Joined a Cult is an A7, black print on orange paper zine about lucid dreaming – with an added part about getting out of a cult in a hurry. (They’re related, I promise.)

I’ve always been fascinated with dreaming overall, with lucid dreaming being a particularly interesting subtopic. So a zine about lucid dreaming? Yes, please.

Lucid Dreaming and How I Accidentally Joined a Cult (I’ll shorten it to ‘Lucid Dreaming’ from here on out) opens with Robby writing about finding a lucid dreaming course advertised and deciding to go for it.

From there, she goes into things she learned in the course. This leads into how the cover image works with the zine: Robby mentions how her lucid dreaming ‘tell’ for lucid dreaming was pulling her finger. Her finger stretching (cover image) or falling off would tell her she was dreaming. This whole thing made me smile because I have heard of so many things but nothing so, well, easy.

I appreciated that Robby mentioned trying not to get too excited. Nobody ever gave me that advice, and I got so excited the first time that I promptly woke up. Oops. Haha. But it’s definitely a good piece of advice that is too often overlooked.

You’re probably wondering about the cult part (which, kudos to Robby for that fun hook), and I’ll just say that I’m so Robby got out before she got too far in. Be careful out there, people, when helpful groups start trying to get you to obey strange rules.

Lucid Dreaming is a great mini-zine with a lot of good advice while also showing a bit of Robby’s personality and life experiences. If you’re curious about lucid dreaming and want to get to know a cool person through her zines, then definitely pick this one up.

Pouch: Issue One
VRK
50 pages
https://www.instagram.com/pouch.studio
https://pouch.studio/links/

Pouch: Issue One is a full-colour A5 zine chock full of all sorts of things stationery and stationery related – journaling, supplies, planners, DIYs, and more.

While Pouch identifies itself as a magazine rather than a zine on the cover, VRK does call it a zine inside. So I’m going with zine for the purpose of this review and, frankly, because I love it and wanted to write about it. (There’s your TL;DR if you’d prefer one. Haha.)

Pouch opens with a lovely table of contents on the inside cover and a letter of introduction and welcome. If I hadn’t already been convinced I would love this zine before even reading it, then this first spread would have convinced me. The table of contents page pulls a few things out of the list and places them, with pictures, around the page to add plenty of visual fun. There is a QR code to find links to all the stationery and creators featured in the issue, and the welcome letter? Has cute little stickers on it. Absolutely adorable.

From there we go into ‘Pouch Picks’ with fun stationery goodies to buy and/or try. (MU Inky Pens, welcome to my wish list.) In pages following, we have a thorough review of a label maker (thank you!), ideas for using up your notebooks, being kind to your hands while writing, an in-depth interview with Nikki Chan about journals, goals, and more… At fifty pages, I could write paragraphs about everything included in this zine. Needless to say, there’s so much to enjoy!

Yes, there is also some sticker talk, which I thought was fun in and of itself but also to follow the Sticker Culture Zine review yesterday. I also mentioned in that review how much I love an interactive zine, and Pouch is interactive! There’s a page included of drawn images to cut and paste if you like as well as a fun kuchipatchi coaster pattern to make! (And a crossword puzzle. Can’t forget the crossword.)

The aesthetic of Pouch is lovely and cute. There are plenty of little details to delight your eyes, journal and planner layout examples (and my bias is that I absolutely adore looking at what people create in their planners and journals).

All in all, Pouch is such a lovely zine that is jam-packed with goodness. Even better? There’s Pouch Issue Two already out in the universe for you to enjoy as well. I think you’ll know by this review if you’ll love the zine. If you have even an inkling you’ll enjoy it, pick it up! I’ve been pouring over it again and again. (And it will be staying on my desk for future inspiration.)

What Makes a Story Scary?
Alex E Clark
A5 single page folded mini-zine
https://www.instagram.com/lexlotl/
https://alexeclark.bigcartel.com

What Makes a Story Scary? is a 5×7.2cm, black ink on red paper comic mini-zine general synopsis of scary stories.

Of course I have to start off October zine reviews with this spooky little zine. So cute!

“First we meet some friends. They’re happy and having fun…” That’s where we begin with What Makes a Story Scary? Diving right in, Alex creates a one panel to a page (save for the last page with two panels) comic with the most condensed description of many, many scary stories. Paired with Alex’s cute but not too cute and detailed art style, I was smiling from page one. Yes, a lot of horror stories and movies can be summed up in such a way, but – just like this comic – the details are what make it fun.

In fun mini-zine style, the zine fully opens up to reveal a flyer on the inside for Hallowzeen 2019 at Sticky Institute in Melbourne. While the date does make me shake my head and sigh for our past selves and what they were about to face, I do so love it when a mini-zine opens up in such a way to reveal a bit of a secret treasure inside. Double points for the spooky creature Alex drew for the inside.

I enjoyed this cute little mini, and it inspired me to do some creative writing. Knowing ‘the ropes’ of a genre is the best way to then twist the concepts around for something new. Alex’s comic gives awesome inspiration to go along with, too.

I’m not sure if you can find this mini floating around anymore, but if you see it, definitely pick it up and have a peek.

Ker-bloom! 133
Art Noose
8 pages
https://www.etsy.com/shop/artnoose
https://kerbloom.bigcartel.com
https://www.instagram.com/artnoose/

Ker-bloom! 133 is a quarter-sized, letterpress colour zine about Art’s visit to the Hawaiian island of Moloka’i, Kalaupapa National Historic Park, and the history of the area.

We open to a simple title page printed with letterpress in black ink, which, of course, made me immediately want to run my finger over the texture of the letters. Turning the page puts us right into the zine with Art writing about their second trip to Moloka’i. We flow along as Art shares thoughts about hiking in Kalaupapa, how people only rarely visit that particular Hawaiian island, the tour Art went on, and into the history of the island.

If you’re not familiar, a peninsula here was once used by the government “as a forced relocation settlement for people with Hansen’s Disease (commonly referred to as leprosy).”

Art’s writing flows easily and blends a retelling of a trip along with a respectful recounting of history (much of it not pretty). Art doesn’t moralise nor lecture – rather, writing it all out as part of the experience. Tourism with a respect for history. I quite appreciate it as well as the slice of life style of zine this is.

This and all issues of Ker-bloom! are a beautiful experience if you like the tactile side of the zine reading experience. The entire zine is beautifully made with everything done in letterpress on lovely cream paper. Even the main internal text has texture and colour. There’s even a beautiful sliver of pattern in the very centre, and the staples binding the zine seem to disappear into it.

This zine is a prime example of why I mostly stick to reviewing physical zines. Holding this zine adds a whole dimension of experience to the zine in and of itself. All the elements work together beautifully.

Plus, Art uses an element that always makes me smile: the number zine I have out of a limited (in this case, 250 copies) print run.

Ker-bloom! 133 is definitely one to check out and one to keep.

Do It Your Self Care 5: Autumn Blues
Nina Zina
One-page folded mini
https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
https://lostluna.bandcamp.com
https://ko-fi.com/echozines

Do It Your Self Care 5: Autumn Blues is a full-colour, one-page-folded mini-zine about embracing the autumn season.

It’s almost winter here in the land of Oz, but autumn marches gently into winter without the snow to mark it, so it all blends together quite nicely.

Autumn Blues opens with Nina writing about the sadness that comes with saying goodbye to summer and all the summery activities and events that go along with the season. Then she introduces the zine as a means to help embrace the beauty and the magic of autumn.

We then have lists of lovely autumn-y pleasuress. From cosy activities and events like listening to the rain hitting the windows to comfy clothes and warm drinks. There’s plenty to enjoy about autumn and the cooler months, and this zine provides a gorgeous little reminder of so many of those things.

Even more, this beautiful little zine opens all the way out for dozens more things to enjoy in autumn as well as an additional note from Nina.

I could always go on for days about how much I love Nina’s style. Nina’s handwriting is clear and easy to read. Beautiful autumn and winter blues and reds in patterned backgrounds go perfectly with the mustard yellow paper pieces the text pieces are written on.

Do It Your Self Care 5: Autumn Blues is a beautiful zine in both aesthetics and intentions. It can be easy to lose yourself in the blues of the colder seasons. It’s so nice to have a reminder of all the wonderful things that come along with it. It’s another lovely addition to the series, and definitely one to pick up.

If you’d like to check out my reviews of issues one through four, here are the links:

*Do-It-Yourself Care
*Do It Yourself Care #2: Self-Care During Heat Waves
*Do It Yourself Care 3 – Self-Care During Christmas
*Do It Yourself Care 4: Joyful Girl Where I Find Joy

International Zine Month 2018
Hadass
28 pages
https://hadass420.wordpress.com
https://ko-fi.com/pmsmess

International Zine Month 2018 is a quarter-sized black and white zine with a ‘page a day’ perzine style format covering July 2018.

While we aren’t even quite to June yet, International Zine Month (July) is already on my mind…

IZM 2018 opens with some very metal art elements on the inside front cover before launching into the intro. Hadass writes about feeling inspired to create a zine and deciding on a one page a day zine for the month.

Therein is day one, and we go right into day two in which Hadass writes about doing Tai Chi (and colour me intrigued and wanting to look more into it) every Monday. As the days of the month pass, we get a fun look into Hadass’ life with all sorts of subjects. Sharpie marker highs, memories from going through old journals, an Ozzy Osbourne concert, and plenty around metal and the impact of music on her life.

Hadass’ writing is raw and unapologetic. She writes without filter, the highs and lows of life, creativity, and art coming out on the page. She navigates the world of wife, mother, metalhead, zinemaker, writer, and so much more. Life is often chaos, and Hadass gives us a glimpse into how she handles hers. (Like a badass.)

The aesthetic of this zine is really a free flow of creativity. Some entries are typewritten and others handwritten. Some are words on backgrounds while others incorporate photos and drawings.

I’ve often talked and written about how much I like perzines and life update newsletters. This zine mixes the two into a diary zine. While this is from six (!) years ago at this point, it’s still interesting to get a peek into my friend’s life. As well as ride the highs and lows of creating with her. I also learned that we have something in common: a sweet tooth!

I really enjoyed this zine on multiple levels, and had started my creative engines going not only for IZM 2024 but for getting into a writing routine for my novel.

PS. I now have ‘Wreck This Journal’ on my wishlist. Sounds like fun!

Discarded
Kendy Paxia
20 pages
https://linktr.ee/Missmuffcake

Discarded is a quarter-sized, full colour photography zine featuring discarded plush and other toys.

Discarded opens with an introduction to the zine: inspired by a photo that Kendy’s boyfriend Matthew took of an abandoned squishmallow. As with many sparks of inspiration, it grew from there being also fuelled by a curiosity for how the toys found out in public get there.

From there, we venture into a collection of photos of discarded toys. Each page features one full-colour photo of a toy along with credit in name, location, and – when available – social handle.

Some are dirty. Some are old. Some look downright sinister; but then again, I did always find dolls a little creepy. And all of them with no indication to what led them to be in their current environment.

Like other art, this zine is as fast or as slow as you want it to be. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a writer and look for the story in everything, but I found myself really taking my time and thinking of all the stories of these plushies. Were they lost? Dropped? Discarded? As well as all the possible things the imagery of the lost toys could represent. So many possibilities.

All up, though melancholy (with the paths my mind wandered while looking at this zine), I quite enjoyed Discarded. It got my mind working in so many different directions, and I always appreciate that.

Even better? I believe there is a second issue on its way. So if you’re interested in being a contributor, definitely get in touch with Kendy.