Category: Zine Reviews

Witches’ Brew #1
Echo Publishing
https://echopublishing.wordpress.com/

Witches Brew #1 is a full-colour A7 zine about Nina’s favourite herbs.

I couldn’t grow a weed in the most perfect summer, so I really admire people who have a green thumb or affinity for plant life.

Witches’ Brew opens right into the herbs, with each page featuring the herb’s name, a drawing of it, and a few thoughts from Nina like potential uses of the herb or how well it grows. The aesthetic inside matches the cover with the gorgeous green as the background and line drawings. I always go on about Nina’s handwriting, but she has an amazing balance of easy to read writing and small enough writing to pack in plenty of information.

Unfolding this little beauty reveals a simple, yummy-sounding recipe for thyme pasta as well as instructions on how to make a lavender bag.

I love learning new things, and mini-zines like this one are a lovely intro into various topics without being overwhelming. If you have any interest in herbs, definitely pick this one up.

PS. I’m excited to see the ‘#1’ on here too, implying a series to come.

The Psychology of Color! What do colors make us feel?
Mary
https://www.instagram.com/reflectivezines/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/reflectivezines

The Psychology of Color! is a full-colour US-sized one-page mini zine about what different colours can make you feel.

The Psychology of Color! is a pretty zine that makes me smile. I mean, I love colour, and this is a mini about colour. Mary gets right into things with each page featuring a single colour. A header, a brief list of feelings, and small drawings cover each colour.

This zine is like a first step intro into colour psychology, which is a huge, interesting subject. Like with many of their zines, I love that Mary has made another zine that serves as a great way to ‘dip your toes in’ with a given subject.

I like this mini a lot. It’s nice to look at, makes me smile, and has re-lit my interest in colour psychology. It’s definitely a bright and lovely zine for anyone’s collection.

Some Lesser-known International Days
Saff Miro
https://www.instagram.com/saffmiro/

Some Lesser-known International Days is a black and white A7 zine about international days of celebration you may not know about.

I was already digging this mini based on the title alone, but I found even more than I was expecting.

Each page features one international celebration day with the date, a brief explanation of the day’s origins, a fun illustration, and even a website for more information. Talk about covering all your bases.

I think it’s important to celebrate what we can and take joy in what we can – and this mini is a fun example of that. Dancing, mountains, more… Why not give a not and a smile?

This is a mini reminder of good things I’m glad exist and would be a good start to a series if you ask me. Wink, nudge.

Just Be 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/flatvnd/
http://flatvend.glitch.me/

Just Be 🙂 is a black and white US-sized half page folded twice mini-zine about positivity culture and how it can turn into something detrimental to those dealing with mental illness.

This is a short zine that gets right to the point with the middle spread being purely text. The zine is about positivity culture and how it does come from a good place, but it can quickly and easily have bad effects. These effects can include implying that mentally ill people are at fault for their unhappiness.

This zine didn’t take me long to read, but I did read it several times. It can be hard to shift one’s view on something that appears to do (and can do) some good for people. But it is important to look at the topic, and I would love to see more zines examining it.

A relatively small amount of text led to a lot of time thinking.

There are no socials on this zine, which I think is a shame because the first thing I wanted to do after reading it was check out more of the creator’s creations. (Hat tip to Crash Reynolds for the link information.)

This zine is available for free download, so there’s definitely every reason to check it out. It’s a good one to get you pondering.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Mini Zine Set
Mary
https://www.instagram.com/reflectivezines/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/reflectivezines

The DBT Skills are a set of four black and white US-sized one-page minis that cover four skills used in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy: DEARMAN, PLEASE, TIPP, and GIVE.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy does love an acronym, and I love that someone thought to turn some of the skills into a mini-zine series.

No space goes to waste in this jam-packed series. Each mini page is dedicated to one letter of the acronym. Along with what the letter stands for, each page is filled with examples of what that particular part of the skill means. When the acronym doesn’t fill all of the pages, Mary uses the remaining pages for additional reflection and validation.

I like Mary’s free-spirited style with plenty of information and doodles packed in. It’s quite full on if you’re having any trouble focusing. But, by the same token, it makes them fun to explore.

I’m already pretty familiar with Dialectical Behavioural Therapy. From that perspective, I’m glad Mary thought to create these minis. They are useful for getting and staying familiar with the DBT ‘tools’. That said I think if I wasn’t familiar, I would still understand them. They would probably have even inspired me to explore DBT as a therapy method. I also quite liked the additions of ‘check ins’ and validations when they were included.

I think this is a great set of minis that is both useful and helpful.

I Actually Liked the Cats Movie!
Anna Gecko
https://www.instagram.com/oleandrsstudio/

I Actually Liked the Cats Movie! is a US-sized colour zine about why Anna liked the Cats movie.

This mini is a handwritten text zine primarily featuring Anna’s reasons for why they liked the Cats movie – the only person I’ve seen express a positive opinion of the movie.

I must admit that this zine initially intrigued me because it’s the only positive opinion I’ve seen about this movie. It’s a quick read that is definitely a list and not a movie review in a more traditional sense. I’ve seen the play but not the movie, and I can say it definitely helps to be familiar with character names.

Having seen the play but not the movie – was this mini enough to get me to check out the movie? Well, I’m open to watching it.

If you liked the movie but haven’t wanted to say so because of all the negative commentary, or if you didn’t like the movie and wonder how someone could have liked it, this is a mini zine for you.

Things I Do to Self Soothe
Crash Reynolds
https://utopiabycrash.wixsite.com/hello
https://www.patreon.com/utopiabycrash

Things I Do to Self Soothe is a full colour, US-sized half fold zine about self-soothing techniques that work for Crash.

Oh, I do so love self-care, and self-soothing is a very important topic under that subject umbrella.

Things I Do to Self Soothe opens with a brief introduction to these techniques with a reminder that they are what works for Crash. They may or may not work for you – and finding what works for you is important. From there we go into a list of different self-soothing techniques to try.

I like how Crash broke these up into categories. It starts out with things you can do outside before going into things you can think and then things you can do inside. Maybe it’s my inner list-lover or love of organisation, but I like knowing that I can refer to a specific page depending on what I’m looking for.

Not that I would exactly get lost. This is a short zine, but I’m always appreciative of self-care zines because there is always something I hadn’t thought of or tried before. (I think I may have mentioned recently that I’ve only just started using washing my face as both self-care and self-soothing.)

I enjoyed the aesthetic of this zine, too. It’s colourful without being overwhelming, it’s not too bright, and Crash’s handwriting is not only big but easy to read as well. All the suggestions are separated and pop thanks to colour borders. I’m fairly certain Crash used crayons to create those borders, and there’s something about that that makes me smile.

If you’re into self-care zines, then this is definitely one to add to your collection.

Things My Cat Will Definitely Attempt to Eat When I’m Not Looking
Connor Ovenden-Shaw
https://linktr.ee/connorovendenshaw/

Things My Cat Will Definitely Attempt to Eat When I’m Not Looking is a tiny palm-of-your-hand sized black and white zine about things Connor’s cat will eat when Connor isn’t looking.

This tiny zine is super cute and super relatable me, who lives with a cat that loves to nom on everything. Each page features one naughty nom with an illustration to go along with it.

There is a level of cuteness and humour that goes along with this zine topic in and of itself. Yet Connor adds in a bit of extra humour on top using the zine itself!

But I won’t spoil it.

I really enjoyed this zine and think anyone who loves cats will as well.

The Drawn Me Like One of Your French Girls Only Don’t Draw Me Draw Something Else Please Zine
Anna and Ray
lightswitchtrigger@gmail.com

The Drawn Me Like One of Your French Girls Only Don’t Draw Me Draw Something Else Please Zine is a black and white US-sized half-fold zine collab between Anna and Ray in which Ray suggests a theme and Anna draws it out.

Collab time!

The Draw Me zine opens with Anna and Ray each taking a page to introduce themselves and the zine. This had me smiling from the get go because you can easily pick up some of the friendship dynamic between them.

After that, we get into the prompts and drawings. However, it’s more than a simple back and forth – it’s an often-funny conversation between two friends that happens to involve drawings.

As Ray mentions in the beginning, Anna doesn’t always do things in the way Ray would envision them. Anna’s imagination is wild and funny, which is well reflected in her art. The drawings more often than not go in directions I never would have imagined (enjoyably so).

As I mentioned, this zine is more a conversation that involves art. A Couple of times the page order within a spread confused me briefly (right to left instead of left to right) but it didn’t make me pause for long. Bolded versus not bolded writing lets you know who is ‘talking’ save for one page where I think Anna is actually talking with her drawing rather than Ray.

The conversation takes a bit of a turn at the end, but Anna brings it back to a very nice place and ends the zine on a sweet note.

I enjoyed every element of this zine: friend collab, prompts, wild art… It’s a lot of fun to check out.

Angry: A Review of ‘The Fiorenza Forced Marriage’ by Melanie Milburne
Angry Romantic
dear.angryromantic@gmail.com

Angry is a one-page-folded A6 black and white zine review of ‘The Fiorenza Forced Marriage’ by Melanie Milburne.

I feel like I’ve found an established series with Angry reviews: I’m not completely sure what’s happening, but I like it, and I’m excited.

In this one-page zine, Angry Romantic breaks down this novel in many funny and, indeed, angry ways. There is even a review of the back cover blurb, which is apparently quite the tease that doesn’t exactly deliver.

Angry Romantic gives us a bit of a plot run down in the first middle spread by giving us twelve different plot points/elements rated on the A.N.G.R.Y. scale. What is the A.N.G.R.Y. scale? I don’t know, but this book didn’t do well on it. Negative ratings are possible.

When you fully open the zine, you find an ‘ad’ for 2009 horoscope book, a spotlight on the author, fun ways the author refers to genitals, and the final verdict on the story from Angry Romantic.

As a writer, I would be a touch horrified to have my work reviewed in such a way… but I absolutely laughed reading this. Plus, even with the humour, Angry Romantic makes points that make it clear a little criticism is warranted.

Even better? This is a free zine!

I absolutely need more of these in my life. I think anyone who has read a romance novel needs it in their life, too.