Category: Zine Reviews

Sugar Needle 34: The (Almost) Vegan Issue
Phlox & Corina
https://cathycamper.com/art/
http://zinewiki.com/Sugar_Needle

Sugar Needle 34 is a US vertical half-fold that is mostly black and white with some hand colouring. It’s all about sweet treats we love (and hate), this issue focusing (mostly) on vegan treats.

Hm. Am I doing a bad thing to myself by reading about sugary snacks when I have none? We shall see…

Sugar Needle opens with a brief intro about life between issues of the zine before launching into the candy reviews. I knew I was in trouble straight away because all natural vegan gummy animals sound so yummy.

After that came chocolates, toy-shaped candy, and all sorts of interesting concoctions. This isn’t your general review of Snickers and Twix, that’s for sure. They include all kinds of things including candy from other countries. (Can someone please find and send me a Vosges bacon and chocolate bar?! Mmm.) There is variety in the reviews as well with some being short and some being a little longer.

The middle spread was a pleasant surprise with a more ‘article’ style piece about Melissa Berry, owner and maker of Missionary Chocolates.

A few of the reviews made me hungry, but it’s well worth the amusing read. The whole tone of the zine is one of friends just having fun, and I really enjoyed it – and felt tempted to make my own sweets review zine.

Sugar Needle is a light read that made me smile. I’m glad I have a couple more issues in my hands to enjoy.

It’s True My Cat Isn’t Cute Enough for the Internet
Imogen Dall
https://imogendall.wordpress.com/
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/BigFaceGoods

My Cat Isn’t Cute Enough for the Internet is an A5, full colour zine about Pekoe the cat and life as a cat not cute enough for the internet.

I fell in love with this zine the first time I saw it on Instagram, and I have not been disappointed.

This zine is a fun ode to the not-exactly-cute cat with murder eyes and silly sleep positions that don’t quite make the cut for cute internet cats. 99% about a fun kitty and 1% a little poke at the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of internet fame. The 1% being this quote from the introduction of the zine:

“And yet, there’s something to be said for [Pekoe’s] pig-headed unwillingness to conform to the socio-cultural expectations of his time.”

The quote is fun in a sort of cheeky way out of context, but it’s even better with the rest of the intro.

The zine is full of fun and funny pictures of Pekoe living that Pekoe life. A somewhat evil stare, a treat hunt, and more fill this zine of cat awesomeness. There’s a spread for Pekoe’s advice for life (I especially like ‘take up space’ hehe) that I really love. My favourite part (if I dare pick a favourite) is the middle spread which let’s just say features Pekoe and would make great gift wrap.

I could go on forever about the content, but I have to take a moment to mention the design as well, because this zine is so nicely laid out, so visually pleasing, and nicely printed as well.

I love cats (and dogs!), and I feel like I’ve found a whole new genre to love in the zineverse. I would love to see more pet/furbaby/etc dedicated zines like this one.

Unless you dislike cats, then there’s every reason to check out My Cat Isn’t Cute Enough for the Internet.

Real Friends and the Emoji We Use
Imogen Dall
https://www.instagram.com/bigfacegoods/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/bigfacegoods/

Real Friends and the Emoji We Use is an A6 full-colour zine about the emojis Imogen’s friends and family use the most and what their use really means.

“Because talking on the phone is weird and awful.”

Yes. Yes it is.

Real Friends opens with a funny homage to the show Law and Order that makes me chuckle every time I read it. I’d love to quote it, but I’d have to quote the whole thing – and that’s a bit of a spoiler. I’ll just say that anyone who watched the show will, at the least, get a smile out of it.

Imogen’s homage to their friends’ and family’s often-used emojis follows after this amusing intro. Each person gets their own coloursful page with their name, emojis, and the ‘true’ meaning of that person using those emojis. Mixed in with these ‘emoji profiles’ is a spread of obscure emojis (and what they really mean), the history of emojis, and a great conclusion. (There have been studies about emoji usage!)

I enjoyed this zine a lot. I’m a big fan of pastels, which are used throughout the zine. I’m so glad Imogen went with full colour for this zine because it puts the best kind of icing on this cupcake. I also really like the ‘decrypting emojis’ premise mixed in with plenty of humour as well as emoji facts.

Real Friends and the Emoji We Use is a nice mix of colour, humour, and facts. It’s a zine that left me smiling.

I’m Just Not Hungry: A Zine About Surviving an Eating Disorder
Hattie Porter
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/dogsnotdiets
https://www.instagram.com/dogsnotdietsshop/

I’m Just Not Hungry: A Zine About Surviving an Eating Disorder is an A6 black on blue paper zine about dealing with disordered eating no matter what your specific diagnosis is.

Note: There is some gendered language in this zine. I read it as a consequence of the studies being referenced not accounting for trans or non-binary people.

I’m Just Not Hungry opens with a warm introduction in which Hattie writes about trying to cover a number of experiences no matter what your diagnosis or stage of recovery. As an ‘Eating Disorder NOS’, I appreciated that kind of inclusiveness.

From there, Hattie writes about the wonders of the human body and the importance of challenging beliefs in order to start/keep recovering. Hattie tackles subjects like weight and calories to provide a clinical view of them. Hattie also includes an ‘Important Notes’ section and wraps up with a section you can use to fill in reminders to yourself.

This was a tricky zine for me to read because I am so sensitive to the subject. It’s hard to read about the wonders of the human body when your body malfunctions due to incurable conditions. But once I mentally stepped back and focused on Hattie’s intention in making this zine, I found I got a lot from the words.

Hattie writes:

“Eating disorders are complicated… There will be parts of this zine that aren’t really relevant to you…”

I agree completely. I think if you approach this zine with that in mind, then you can pick and choose the gems that speak to you like I did. Hattie does a good job of a difficult task in encompassing a disorder with many different symptoms in a mostly general way.

This zine is about a sensitive subject and should be treated as such. That being said, I think that there is wisdom to find here if you’re up to reading it.

Cui Shirts Vol 1
The Syncsters
https://www.instagram.com/cuishirts/

Cui Shirts Vol 1 is a (roughly) 14cm x 14cm full colour photography zine taking a funny look at so-called fashion. In this volume, we have Cringe Shirts.

I review zines based on the zines alone, but I do love creative packaging. Cui Shirts arrived on a small clothes hanger. A clothes hanger! I love it so much. (Not to mention that it’s a green hanger, too.)

Spelling mistakes, strange sayings, random tassels… The shirts pictured in Cui Shirts will leave you shaking your head or having a good chuckle as you wonder what went through the mind of the people who dreamt them up. For someone like me who doesn’t know the first thing about fashion, I appreciated the ‘poke’ and laugh at current ‘fashion’.

I can’t write this review without mentioning the physical aspects of the zine, too. Nice smooth pages with rainbow backgrounds somehow just fit the feel of the zine, and the cover is printed on really cool, sort of holographic shiny cardstock.

All up, Cui Shirts is a zine with a creative presentation and enjoyable format. It’s as quick or as long a look through as you like and is a bit of fun that may leave you taking a closer look at what you have in your closet.

Chips Please
Siobhan
https://www.instagram.com/wigglymittens/
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/sluginkpress

Chips Please is an A7 black and white zine about a lifetime love of chips.

This is going to be a very short and sweet review, but I can’t resist because chips done well are little golden pieces of happiness. (Fries for the US readers.)

In Chips Please, Siobhan briefly writes about a long-held love of simple chips in text and a few drawings. Not impressed by the fancier chips out there, they just want a bit of hot sauce.

I can’t agree with the hot sauce, but sometimes a bowl of hot chips really is all it takes to make everything better.

The Android: Chronicle of the Human Resistance Issue 1
Phil Schrader
Contact me for post box

The Android: Chronicle of the Human Resistance Issue 1 is a full-colour, US sized zine newsletter from 2189 about things happening around the territory formerly known as ‘the United State’ after the Great Cataclysm.

Wow! Just wow. Okay, not ‘just’ wow because those aren’t the kind of reviews I write, but I’m really impressed with this zine.

As I stated in the synopsis, this zine is about the state of life in 2189 after a Great Cataclysm that had something to do with waves of the Machines has decimated what we know of life now. It’s written like a good mystery novel – tossing you right in and leaving you to piece together the details. The Android is written completely in the voice of someone from the time, merely alluding to the events in Earth’s history that have led to the articles found within.

The articles cover a variety of things like notifying the people that a new territory has opened up, how the ‘cricket children’ are not to be feared, plague warnings, and how to build sustainable communities. This only really covers a small part of it. At first glance, this zine looks like it could be a fairly fast read, but I found myself going through it nice and slow, taking in all of the little details as well as thoroughly examining the photos and art included.

I absolutely love this idea of writing from a future time as well as the idea that zines would keep information circulating during dystopian times. (It also makes me want to read ‘The Postman’ again.) The Android is 100% in its world, and I love feeling like a detective trying to put together the pieces of what happened. And while it was a little cheeky, I loved the small touches like the ‘cricket children’ that clearly reference some of the repercussions of nuclear fallout but puts it in a way that makes it just another part of their world. (Welcome to Nightvale is also coming to mind.)

At first I was a little disappointed to see no social links or anything other than a post box address (I don’t really like putting any addresses online), but now I’m left wondering if that’s intentional. The internet and social media certainly don’t exist in the world of 2189. If that’s actually the case, then colour me all the more impressed.

I am a fan of sci-fi and dystopian fiction, so I don’t know how this would go with non-fans. Still, this is definitely worth checking out. There is a lot to enjoy in this zine for what it is and how it’s written.

Still Poly/Not Poly: Further Adventures in Relationship Structure Ambivalence
Kirsty
https://www.instagram.com/mskirstyface/
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/foreverincomplete

Still Poly/Not Poly is a black and white A6 zine about Kirsty’s relationship with relationships, changing views of polyamory,

I’ve reviewed the previous issue Poly/Not Poly: Adventures in Relationship Structure Ambivalence here: (https://www.seagreenzines.com/zine-review-poly-not-poly-adventures-in-relationship-structure-ambivalence/)

I quite enjoyed Poly/Not Poly and was happy to see another zine about the topic. Still Poly/Not Poly was made two years after the first, and, in Kirsty’s usual style, gets right to the topic into the introduction. They write about how things can change in relationships and how, even though they no longer feel the same way on a lot of points, this zine is meant to be an addition rather than a replacement. It may seem a small thing, but I love this to bits and pieces because it sets from the beginning the fact that people can grow and change.

When I started reading this, I immediately remembered how much I like Kirsty’s writing style. They have a way of writing that is so clear, so open and self-aware… Their writing made me think about how some experiences in life must be accompanied by deprogramming our own minds from what we’ve been trained to think and believe.

Kirsty talks about struggling with the ‘monogamy guilt’ (my term, not theirs) as well as their relationship anxiety that stems from internal worries as well as from fears over judgement from others. I feel like, regardless of topic, those feelings are utterly and completely relateable.

“I feel very lucky to have had both of them in my life and I feel proud of myself for fighting my brain for that.”

I think this zine could be one to help people navigate through the very complicated waters of what many of us are taught we ‘should’ want and have in relationships and figuring out what we really do want in relationships. Kirsty doesn’t present this zine as any sort of guide by any means, but, in a way, I see that as all the more reason that it’s helpful.

It’s certainly has me thinking about a lot of things.

Still Poly/Not Poly is another great read from Kirsty that helped open my mind and gave me new perspectives about my own feelings about relationships. I think this and the previous zine are excellent reads for anyone who wants to examine relationships and how they view them.

The Earlham Review no. 1
Tim Cook
https://www.theearlhamreview.com/

The Earlham Review is a black and white A4 size zine chock full of chippings of text and pictures arranged into its own magazine of organised chaos.*

I haven’t written these words in a while, but wow, it’s hard to know where to start with zine.

As you can probably see from the cover, The Earlham review dives right into an assortment of clippings from different sources put together to create all new bits and pieces. I can easily imagine one or more people sitting at a big table covered in text and image clippings, going through it all to create sentences that make sense.

There are longer fake news articles like ‘Two Years ‘Hard’ For’ by Constance Cox-Cumming, as well as small little snippets of fake news one-liners like “South American black widow spider living in bunch of shop bananas frightened of being sent to special detention cobweb”.

And there are 24 pages of this.

My favourite part is the cut and paste “Profile On Badminton Star Betty Cylinder”. With so many little clippings from so many different sources, it makes for an amusingly confusing assortment of ‘facts’ from “Birthplace: Studio flat in Chelsea” to “Superstitions: Sleeping”.

The slight drawback is that what makes it awesome is also what makes it slightly visually overwhelming. When there’s so much on a page going in quite a few directions, then it can all feel a bit in your face at first glance. That being said, it’s worth diving right in and seeing the massive assortment of little cut and paste treasures are on offer.

I am in absolute awe of how much time and effort it must have taken to put this together – and there’s a second edition out, too! I’ve read through it several times and still keep going back to it for ‘one more look through’. I’m probably repeating myself at this point, but there’s so much!

The Earlham Review is certainly an interesting zine that takes cut and paste with a large side of collage to a whole new level. I’m by no means some zine-reading giant, but I think it’s worth noting that I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It’s a zine that’s interesting no matter what level you take it – flip through or reading every single strange and often amusing combination of words.

One to check out.

*I know ‘organised chaos’ is an oxymoron, but I can’t think of a better phrase.

Road Trip
Saff
https://www.instagram.com/saffmiro/

Road Trip is a full-colour A7 (A3 when fully unfolded) fold-out flow chart zine.

Road Trip starts out seeming like a checklist for road trips and turns into a short of choose your own adventure story with plenty of chance that you’ll end up… in a bad way. For something that looks rather sweet and cute at first glance, there’s plenty of dark humour to enjoy. While it’s definitely a flow chart, the design, colours, and layout reminde me of the board game Life. Anyone else remember that game?

There’s a lot to enjoy about this mini from the humour (I wonder if Saff really doesn’t like road trips) to the different-than-normal way it’s folded up. I give Saff a big hat tip for the amount of time and effort making this must have taken.

Definitely check out this fun mini-zine.