Category: Zine Reviews

Who Am I? An Interactive Zine to Help You Explore Your Ever-Growing Identity
Reflective Zines (Mary)
https://www.instagram.com/reflectivezines/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/reflectivezines

Who Am I? is a full-colour US half-fold zine full of questions and prompts to help you explore who you are.

I like a bit of self-exploration at any time, but the fresh start of a new year feels like an especially good time to do so.

Who Am I? opens with an introduction about identity, how it can change, and the influence of mental illness on a person’s sense of identity. From there, we dive into pages of questions, prompts, and other activities to help you get to know who you are at this point in time.

Mary starts gently with a ‘draw yourself’ prompt followed by basics like hair and eye colour. But it slowly gets more introspective with questions about your role models, the past, and how vital certain things are to you for your future.

Reflective Zines are so full of colour and personality that makes them easy for me to engage in. All of the questions and prompts are set on the pages amongst colourful art as well as various quotes about identity. Winner all around for me.

This is the kind of zine I would like to fill out, put away, and take out again in a year’s time to see how I’ve changed (and no changed) over time. I had fun with most of the questions (thinking about the past is difficult but valuable) and liked how many questions there were about things I don’t usually think about.

This is a fun zine that offers a lot. If you want to find out more about yourself and/or make a record of where you are at a specific point in time, pick this up.

Postmodern Witchcraft: How to Brew Calm, Hex Stress, And Exorcise Your Social Media
Imogen Dall
https://www.imogendall.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bigfacegoods/

Postmodern Witchcraft is a full-colour A5 zine about “how to brew calm, hex stress, and exorcise your social media”.

It’s a stressful, stressful world, and a little calm can go a long way. From the moment I opened this zine to see a primarily lavender purple table of contents spread, I started to calm down.

Postmodern Witchcraft is comprised of five sections: Magic Potions, Ache Enchantments, Digital Exorcisms, Stress Soaks, and Conjuring Spells. Each section is set up beautifully with easy-to-read fonts, colourful art to accompany the easy-to-read text, and a nice layout overall.

I enjoyed every part of this zine both aesthetically as well as in content. A guest to de-stressing is always welcome and valuable to me. I’m looking forward to trying some of the suggested brews as well as putting some of the digital suggestions into practise.

One thing that played on my mind a little is that I’m not a practising witch. With that said, I think this zine is a ‘lighter on’ take on witchcraft and shouldn’t be approached with the expectations you might have with a zine like Brainscan 35. For example, one of the ‘stress soaks’ involves pouring a glass of wine to drink while taking your bath. But hey, wine in the bath can be its own ritual, and I like some humour in my zines. But I don’t know if a practising witch will take it differently or whether Imogen is a practising witch.

This is a fun zine with a beautiful design and layout. (What can I say? In another life I studied graphic communication.) The suggestions sound good (bring on the comfort brew), sound fun, cover a range of things, and make for a chill reading experience overall. Definitely called for today.

Another one to check out from Imogen and Big Face Goods.

Electron Libre 1
Izalixe Straightheart
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/IzArt
https://www.youtube.com/user/izalixe

Electron Libre 1 is a black on coloured paper US ½-fold size perzine about a variety of topics as well as various media recommendations.

Full disclosure: My podcast – The Zine Collector – is recommended in this zine. (Thank you!)

Electron Libre 1 opends with a nice inner cover information page (links, socials, etc) before Izalixe shares an introductory piece about the initial shock of – and later, adjustment to – restrictions in a pandemic world. Izalixe’s concepts of home, life, and self took on a new light in a new world.

From there, Izalixe writes about changing the zien series name from ‘The Happy Loner’ to ‘Electron Libre’ as well as the deeper meanings behind both titles. (I love the whole concept behind ‘free electron’.) There are also pieces on getting through the pandemic world a bit better, reviews on various media, how sentiments without action often aren’t enough with the current state of the world, a stack of podcast recommendations, and more.

Toward the beginning of this zine, Izalixe mentions admiring sinemakers who stick to one theme in a zine. There’s even a subtitle to this zine – ‘homecomings’ – that Izalixe ties into the opening pieces. While I admire themed zines as well, I equally enjoy the variety that is in Electron Libre. The zine has serious, thoughtful pieces balanced out by the ‘sharing for the joy of sharing’ reviews and recommendations pieces.

Izalixe has an interesting energy that really comes through in their writing. I quite enjoyed it. Yes, there were a couple of pieces I couldn’t read because I don’t know French. That said, I still felt quite at home and am quite excited to have so many new things to have a look at.

This is definitely a zine to check out.

Alternative Incite No. 1: Follow the Creative Impulse
Joe3 Et al.
https://butter-lamb.com/

Alternative Incite No 1 is a slightly wider than A5 black and white collection of photography and written pieces on a number of subjects.

Alternative Incite opens with a piece about censorship and taboo words: “Introduction: Jesus Christ and Jeepers Creepers”. Talk about an excellent opening for someone like me (cue a The F Word zine reference here haha). The piece is well argues and works back into the title as well as themes of not being mainstream and creativity for creativity’s sake.

From there we have photography and more written pieces primarily created by Joe3. Other pieces include reactions to articles Joe3 has read, a piece on the changing societal views through a generational eye by J. Matthew Smith, an interview with Suvo Sur, and more.

What an intriguing zine! If you want a zine with pieces that will get your mind turning, this is one to check out. I found myself going slower and slower while reading (a good thing) and pausing here and there to contemplate the thoughts and opinions presented as well as my own. The pieces touch on many different topics, but they all have a ‘world view’ kind of feel to some extent.

I found the overall voice of the zine to be intelligent and well-written without getting too ‘heavy’ or ‘dense’. The ‘Dear Butter Lamb’ section with letters from readers even made me smile with the answers using references from different dictionaries. (Have I mentioned that I think it’s cool that Joe3 collects dictionaries?)

All up, I enjoyed this zine quite a lot. Even better? This is the first of a new series. I hope it continues for many more and includes the elements Joe3 mentions wanting to include.

Isolation Resurrect
True Zine Marin
https://www.instagram.com/truezinemarin/
https://www.instagram.com/shellbobmv/

Isolation Resurrect is a full-colour, a bit wider than A5 collage zine.

Collage is a lot like poetry for me: I know what I like, but explaining why I like it is difficult.

Set on maps as backgrounds, Isolation Resurrect features collages made from cut out paper elements, mail-related bits, stickers, and more. There are few words in this colourful collection (those used having impact) but plenty to pour over visually from page to page.

Using the title as the base, I really picked up on the quarantine/isolation feelings from this zine. Using the maps as backgrounds is an excellent choice and visually represents huge part of the change of view in our new world. Travel, going places, road trips… They’re all different. The same goes for the collages on top. The importance of mail, filling up one’s time…

What really makes the tone stick for me is the distinct glimpses of the darker side of these times as well. A few words and a few images make a big impact.

My favourite page is a tough call in this, but I really love this quote:

“Be welcome to and offer help as we are healed by it”

Isolation Resurrect is an interesting collage zine that made me feel and made me thing. All said and done, that’s always the goal with art. Definitely a keeper for me.

My Opinions on the Stardew Valley Bachelors and Bachelorettes
localamity
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/localamity

My Opinions on the Stardew Valley Bachelors and Bachelorettes is a full-colour A7 zine about the marriage candidates in the game ‘Stardew Valley‘.

The top of this zine says “A zine that nobody wanted” but I absolutely wanted it. I just didn’t know I wanted it until I saw it.

If you’re not familiar, Stardew Valley is an incredibly popular farming simulation game that incorporates other elements like combat and dungeons. You also have the option of romancing and marrying a number of characters in the game.

As a zine about a specific game, this is going to be a touch lost on some people. That said, I’m a big fan of the game, and I’m thrilled to see this mini.

Each page features two marriageable characters with a colour picture and Localamity’s thoughts on each candidate.

I found myself chuckling quite a bit because my thoughts line up with Localamity’s a lot. (Harvey is the first character I ever married, Abigail was my first wife, and I also haven’t pursue Leah for absolutely no particular reason.) I love that Localamity included Krobus as a candidate as well even though they technically aren’t. I 100% support the inclusion of shadow babies in a future update. Fingers crossed.

If you like Stardew Valley, then grab this mini. It’s a fun addition to a relaxing game.

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…

***

Other Participants:

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

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.