Category: Zine Reviews

watches too much, it’s just not healthy
Fire (?)
fire.as.a.metaphor@gmail.com

watches too much, it’s just not healthy is an A5 black and white zine featuring Fire’s ponderings on #100-#91 of their 100 favourite movies.

“The rest of the movie is great enough. A brain-melting, gleeful in ways I never knew possible, exhausting tale of how everything would be better if people found their trash side.”

I think I’d watch the movie based on that sentence alone.

watches too much, it’s just not healthy opens with a very brief introduction about the idea that started this zine before launching right into the movie features. Each movie is given its own full title page with details like the title, director, run time, and more all set against a full A5 picture from the movie itself. Following the title page, Fire then examines each movie in a mix of synopsis, critique, mental wanderings, some nostalgia…

I called these spread movie features rather than reviews because this zine certainly made me realise just how many movie analysis and review videos I watch/listen to online. Without realising it, I’ve become quite used to a certain general structure for these things – a structure Fire more or less doesn’t follow, preferring to textually wander as the spirit takes them.

Fire explores their favourite movies in different ways. Some start more traditionally with a short opener, synopsis, and then thoughts. Others mix in different facets like facts about the actors and/or directors, personal memories associated with the movie, etc. I have to admit that this did throw me a bit. I had to reread certain sections and take my time with others to really keep up. I was expecting a bit of that simply because there are so very many movies out there and there were bound to be references that I didn’t understand.

(For example: “Desperate Living: AKA Punk Story. AKA the one without Divine”)

Fire definitely writes like someone who is familiar with movies inside and out. They also express this aesthetically as well in the layout. There’s a fun element with small pictures of movie scenes running alongside the text like a film strip. It’s the little things like that that really make me smile.

As you may have guessed from the question marks in the top details, there aren’t any socials within the zine other than an email address, from which I decided on a name to use. There could always be a reason when people limit what they share, though, so it’s only ever really a mention rather than a nitpick.

While I do enjoy recommendations and will be watching some of these movies (I haven’t watched any mentioned and have only heard of one), I think I personally prefer a bit more expected structure to these kinds of recommendations. That said, I can appreciate a refreshing take on things for what it is, and some of Fire’s thoughts had me smile and pondering quite a bit. I’d also still check out the next in this zine series, if it exists.

Hello, zine friends! Yes, your fluffy zine enthusiast and reviewer is cheekily slipping in a prompt for you to review a zine too…

Review a Zine

Okay, so it was also super cheeky of me to put zine review day on a day when I usually review a zine anyway, but what can I say? Double the jam for one scone. Haha.

I think there is a lot of value to be had in singing your love of a zine (or analysis or…) from the rooftops, but also there is value to be found in examine one’s own reactions to things. Asking why you liked something, why something had an impact on you, so on and so forth. It’s with that in mind that I included reviewing a zine as the prompt.

Coming soon…

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Other Participants:

*https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
*@spaghettinightinc
*@juelule_
*Echo Publishing
*Rachel Getts
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Get the full list of prompts and find out what this whole ZineWriMo thing is all about here.

Hello and a sublime Saturday to you, zine friends. Today was a busy but beautiful here in this little patch of Oz. Today in the ZineWriMo list we have…

Make a ‘NaNoZine’ full of words in honour of National Novel Writing Month

The prompt is for a NaNoZine, but Hadass let me know that ‘nano’ also implies ‘very small’. While I love an itty bitty zine, today is actually a nod to NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month.

I thought about writing some fiction for this prompt, but I ran out of time and didn’t want to put anything partial (like a first chapter) into a zine. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised my real calling for this zine was a collection of quotes.

Quotes have taken an important part in my life in recent months as inspiration, comfort, and more as I’ve dealt with various things. What better idea for a word-filled zine than filling the zine with words that have brought so much to me?

I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve enjoyed making a zine again a lot and am looking forward to finishing it.

Did you make a zine today?

***

Other Participants:

*https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
*@spaghettinightinc
*@juelule_
*Echo Publishing

***

Get the full list of prompts and find out what this whole ZineWriMo thing is all about here.

What’s it TEA you?
Shadree’s Den
https://www.instagram.com/shadreesden/
https://www.deviantart.com/shadree

What’s it TEA you? is a full colour, slightly smaller than A7 zine about tea.

Australia turned me into a tea drinker. Just putting that out there.

What’s it TEA you? launches right into the world of tea with an introduction to various tea types. White tea, yellow, tea, oolong, and more each have their own page. Each page features the tea type, a brief description, a white cup to show the contrasting tea colour, and a small picture of the tea itself.

I’m not at all knowledgeable when it comes to tea, so I found this easy-to-read zine quite helpful as a basics, 101 type of learning experience. I had no idea yellow tea was even a thing. I like that visuals were included as well, because I am definitely inclined to learn better when there’s some involved. While the descriptions are short, it actually helped me to finally get a grasp on why I like some kinds of teas and not others. (Oxidation is important!)

The addition of iced tea and bubble tea at the end made me smile. Trying out the latter is actually on my bucket list, so this served as a little reminder as well.

What’s it TEA you? is a fairly quick read that taught me a few things along the way. I quite like it, and I think it’d be a great little addition to a tea-themed gift or even as a stand alone to tea enthusiasts and tea newbs alike.

Survival Tips for Dark Times: Things to Try When You’re Feeling Miserable
Liminal Spaces
https://www.etsy.com/shop/liminalspacesshop/
https://linktr.ee/LiminalSpaces

Survival Tips for Dark Times is a black and white slightly smaller than A7 zine of encouragement and things to try when you are feeling down.

“You’re allowed to do whatever it takes to feel better.”

Survival Tips for Dark Times opens with an introduction to the zine including how the zinemaker finds it useful to have a premade list of ideas for things to do during dark times. From there, we go into a list of some of those things – but wait, there’s more! After this list, Liminal Spaces includes a blank (but for some art) spread for the reader to create a list of their own ideas. They then wrap up the zine with more encouraging words for the reader.

I love this zine. Self-care is something I really struggle with, so I always appreciate ideas and reminders in that area. I love that Liminal Spaces went those extra steps to give the reader not only extra encouragement but extra space to write down their ideas as well. It turns the zine into something that you might put down and reference later into something even more interactive.

From the fonts used to the detailed art primarily featuring nature, the design is absolutely lovely to. I feel like the art style and even the paper weight fit with a zine about times when we feel a bit delicate, amongst other words.

I definitely recommend this zine through and through. Grab a copy.

The Seas
Iestyn et al
https://zinelove.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_zinelove/

Full disclosure: I provided the cover art for this zine and have a piece included inside.

The Seas is an A5 landscape layout, full-colour zine featuring art, comics, and words all around the theme of the seas.

“Sit, listen and watch. Turn inwards and hear the voice inside. Let your spirit float and your eyes will open. There are many Seas on Earth – not all are watery, many are found in the 7 ½ billion people we share this planet with.” – Back cover

Perhaps is the class on mindfulness that I’m taking or perhaps it’s the amazing expanse of feelings bodies of water can bring, but this zine has me in such a contemplative state.

After the title page, The Seas opens with an introduction from Iestyn who, in words, contemplates literal and metaphorical meanings of seas. (But don’t worry – not too clinically nor in a confusing fashion.) From there we move immediately onto the opening, wordless comic by Miranda Smart that takes us easily flowing into the art and words contained in the rest of this zine.

There are comics, photos, words, art, and combinations of these all around the theme of seas. I would have thought the variety of things found in this zine might take away from or make the theme a little difficult to stick to, but I quiet enjoyed all the different interpretations. I’m especially impressed with the comic artists who convey so very much with no words at all. There’s some excellent visual storytelling in here.

I think Iestyn has a real artist’s eye for design, and that really shows in this zine. From the landscape layout that put me in the ‘view as a vista’ mindset as a reader to echoing the cover art within the middle spread to give it a very balanced aesthetic overall, The Seas is a lovely zine to take in on multiple levels. I love that Iestyn took the care to get this printed on nice and smooth matte paper but also with borderless printing as well.

Everything feels like a lovely touch with this zine.

I do think a little niggle for me would be having the artists’ names right there along with their pieces. That said, I did quite like how Iestyn handled the ‘artist blurbs’ at the end with page numbers so it also serves as an end-of-zine table of contents as well.

I love an anthology/collaborative zine that brings many people together, and The Seas fits well and truly into that love. There’s so much in here that got me pondering, and I mindfully journeyed through the whole thing.

The Seas is a beautiful and thoughtful zine through and through. I highly recommend getting a copy.

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.

Tips for being Baby
Pebble, a baby
https://www.storenvy.com/stores/1042727-chicken-collective

Tips for being Baby is a one-page black and white mini-zine full of baby tips for babies. From a baby.

This is a short and sweet review for a short and sweet zine – extra on the sweet. Tips for being Baby is a cute, text-only zine of baby tips broken up into sections like ‘eating food’, ‘making friends’, and ‘excellent things’. Each section has a number of fun little snippets to fit the category.

I’m not a parent, but I enjoyed this zine and found it quite adorable. I could see this sort of mini-zine being such a fun way of documenting your child growing up. It certainly have me a smile, and I only had the pleasure of meeting little Pebble once.

There are no socials or contacts on this one, but the cute wins the day. Plus I almost missed the secret inside and got an extra smile when I found it.

I think you’ll have a good idea of whether you’ll like this zine. It was a very cute little pick up in my day.

Healing – Musings From a Mental Ward
Sian May
https://www.instagram.com/dad.party/
https://www.depop.com/dadparty/

Healing – Musings From a Mental Ward is an A6 read and white zine of art and word musings.

This is one of those zines I have a hard time reviewing because I know I like it, but I struggle to find the words tell you why.

In a combination of few words and uniquely detailed drawings, Sian takes a journey of thought. ‘Musings’ is the perfect word. I felt like I was wandering with Sian as they processed being in a place that creates a lot deep thinking and complex feelings.

This zine reminds me of poetry – it presents a lot, but my interpretations from my own experiences bring a lot to the reading experience.

I think Healing is a zine to check out (if wards are not a sensitive topic for you). I’m looking forward to looking into more of Sian’s creations.

Drivel #1 – The New Issue
Gina Sarti
https://antiquatedfuture.com/artist/gina-sarti
https://www.instagram.com/okaysurefinewhatever/

Drivel #1 – The New Issue is a US-sized half-fold black and white zine full of a variety of pieces all around the theme of ‘newness’.

A zine with a dedication! Can we do more of that? It’s such a lovely touch.

Drivel is a cut and paste style zine with handwriting, (primarily) type, drawings, and (patterned) backgrounds. It’s the kind of zine a casual flip through will tell you is packed with plenty to read in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Gina opens with a dedication, a thank you for reading, and even a PO box for getting in touch if you’d like. How friendly is that? From there we go into plenty of fun new things like new treats, new romances, new words, and more. Interviews are involved as well – adding a bit of collab-ish flavour as well.

I’m a big romantic softie at heart, so of course I loved the ‘new romance’ part in which Gina asked two friends who recently started dating to both answer a series of very sweet questions.

Gina’s interview with their friend Rachel is very interesting. Wow is Rachel an interesting person! Plus I love the idea of friends – new or old – interviewing each other. There’s always more to learn.

Drivel is a fun zine full of variety, spice, laughs, serious moments… I enjoyed reading this a lot, and I hope there is another Drivel in the zineverse or it’s on its way.

Check it out.