Category: Zine Reviews

Cult Crash Course
Nate/Can of Thoughts
One Page Folded Mini
https://linktr.ee/can.of.thoughts

Cult Crash Course is a one pages folded, black and white mini-zine about a few cults Nate has encountered.

I almost feel like I should have waited for a full moon to post this review. Cults have that sort of ominous air in my view. As it turned out, we launched right in on spread one, and Nate’s sense of humour had me relaxing and feeling curious rather than anxious in no time.

Full disclosure, I was a bit wary of this zine at first because of some things in my past and not being sure what I was getting into. However, I quite liked this zine and wished it was a bigger edition. Nate makes a brief introduction to each cult, lists some main points as well as some images for each one, and the handwriting, cut and paste combo absolutely reminded me of someone’s personal research project notebook. I want to know more cults Nate finds!

Cult Crash Course is a short read (hence the short and sweet review) but one that I can absolutely see as being a first step into prodding someone’s curiosity about the subject. Absolutely pick one up if you’re at all curious.

Junk Drawer
Ever Caffeinated Press
12 pages
https://linktr.ee/evercaffeinatedpress

Junk Drawer is a US half-fold sized, black and white zine perzine collection of bits and bobs from ECP’s works in progress, thoughts, ‘What I’m Currently…’, and more.

“…it’s a way for me to reflect, and to scrap together projects that I’ve started, doodles I’ve made, and dedicate a place to put stickers and other weird shit I find on a daily basis.”

Talk about something I could identify with straight away. Doesn’t everyone have a least a dozen WIPs sitting around somewhere in various stages of done or not done (depending on how you look at it)? Junk Drawer is a zine that takes those pieces and puts them into one zine with a bit of perzine mixed in for fun.

First we open up to an introduction to the zines (where the earlier quote came from), and I am totally on board with this idea. (In fact, I’d like to make a zine in the same vein.) I think it’s so fun to not only have a place for all the little thought bubbles, dream bunnies, and notes written on sticky notes but also to be able to see all those things from another person. (I think that makes me nosey, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.)

After the introduction, we get to a written piece that makes me feel so seen in amazing ways. “All I know is I have a hard time 1.) starting projects and 2.) finishing projects.” Ah, yes. I know those states of being all too well. After that, we are treated to written pieces, collage, “My Zinemaking Process”, and even a Currently section with watching, listening to, and reading sections. (If you’ve read my Missives From Murray Bridge, you know I love a good ‘Currently’ section.)

I really enjoyed this zine from concept to aesthetics. Junk Drawer reminds me a lot of ‘Lost Projects’ zine collab full of various unfinished projects. Maybe it’s getting a peek into those unfinished ideas, maybe it’s knowing that other people also have plenty of unfinished ideas. Perhaps both. Either way, this zine hits the spot on a number of levels, and I hope to see a long series of them.

PS. Fun fact: When I was grabbing links for this review, I saw on Instagram that there is a Junk Drawer Two! Insert excited noises from me here.

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 and All I Made Was This Lousy Zine
Anna
12 pages
https://www.instagram.com/annarambles/
https://unreality.space
https://www.etsy.com/shop/stufffromanna

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 and All I Made Was This Lousy Zine is an A6 sized black and white zine about going to Melbourne’s Festival of the Photocopier and things Anna learned while they were there.

“I wrote this zine while I was [at Festival of the Photocopier], and turned it into a zine at home.” Zinemaking at a zine fair. Love it!

I Went to The… opens up with details about Anna’s contact details and an acknowledgement of Wurundjeri and Bunurong People before introducing the zine and its table of contents. Anna then writes about the zine fest itself and the experience of being there on both day one and day two, from the quiet of the morning to the bustling buzz of the afternoon. Anna ponders reality in the travel to the fest, being at the fest, the various sort of trade, buy, and banter commerce that happens at a zine fest. Anna includes some lessons learned, things they’d do differently next time, and a final note to anyone considering going to a zine fest (whether selling or buying).

I love seeing zines like this. Zine fests can be a big, scary, intimidating thing even while you really want to go. Zines about going to zine fests – both as a seller and as a customer – are so helpful, and I liked Anna’s occasional reality-bending thoughts injected here and there as well. This zine made me miss Festival of the Photocopier so much, and I am happy to see the encouragement for others to attend zine fests.

I Went to The Festival of the Photocopier in 2023 is a fairly quick read that made me smile and nod along in agreement. Whether you’ve been to a zine fest before and/or are considering going to one, this is a good zine to check out.

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It!
Sierra DeCarmen
One Page Folded Mini
https://www.instagram.com/sierradecarmen/

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It! is a full-colour, one page folded mini-zine about creative self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and about taking the leap to make that leap despite it all.

So much in such a small zine? Why yes!

I Just Made This… is a gorgeously uncomplicated zine created with your standard piece of lined notebook paper, and I just adore it. Sierra starts off with: “One of these days I will make a zine.” From there, she marches forward in exploring her thoughts around her hesitation in making a zine as well as her approach to breaking through to make one anyway.

There really is so much packed into a small zine with various topics like imposter syndrome and doubts all touched on that could be expanded into a much bigger zine. But Sierra keeps it where it is – a zine made out of a sheet of notebook paper.

Other than the lines of the notebook page itself, this zine is all handwritten text. Sierra’s sense of humour and writer’s voice are clear – and very encouraging throughout the zine. Not to mention welcoming as well! All without including one of the phrases I loathe: “If I can do it, anyone can.” Nope. Only heartfelt and warm honesty and encouragement here.

I Just Made This Ugly AF Mini Zine …And I Love It! is a lovely mini-zine I highly encourage you to check out. I want to keep my copy with me at all times for when the doubts start springing up in my head.

Depression Cooking: easy recipes for when you’re depressed as fuck
Sonali Menezes
28 pages
https://www.instagram.com/sonaleeeeeee/
https://linktr.ee/sonaleeeeeee

Depression Cooking is a black and white, US half-fold size primarily text zine of recipes as well as advice and thoughts around eating when you are dealing with depression.

I’m reviewing this zine in January and decided to do so because depression is even more common at this time of year. Remember you are not alone.

Depression Cooking opens with a content warning (touches on diet culture, fatphobia, disordered eating, [Sonali’s] body, and [Sonali’s] weight) before launching right into the introduction. Sonali writes about how this zine is a love letter to depressed kin, zines and how beautiful they are, wanting to make this zine for a long time, and then into Sonali’s history both in the creation of the zine and with food and eating. From there we get the formal introduction to the format of the zine itself, including recipes having categories of ‘Less Spoons’ and ‘More Spoons’ (spoons = energy if your’re not familiar with Spoon Theory). A detail I love because sometimes you have an extra spoon or two, but just trying to come up with a little extra somethin’ somethin’ for your meals uses those spoons.

We also have a table of contents, general tips for mindset around eating, a number of recipes of both savoury and sweet varieties, and even some sneaky playlists for you!

What I first anticipated as being a zine purely of recipes and perhaps a story or two became a zine that had good timing in my life in a number of ways. Not only have I somewhat recently experienced one of the worst depressive episodes I’ve had in years, I also have issues with disordered eating and a history with bad food relationships. I appreciated this zine just by my assumptions from the title, and I appreciated it all the more seeing how Sonali wrote about personal experience with and around food.

One special element to note about this zine is highlighted in the first line (after the content warning): “This zine belongs to everyone.” Depression Cooking is noted as being copyleft. That means you can make as many copies as you like and send them to friends (like my friend Anna Gecko sent this copy to me). You can find the free PDF along with others at the Linktree link in the details at the top of this review. (Sonali only asks that you never sell it.) I love that Sonali did this, especially given how common and impactful depression is.

All up, I think this is a fantastic zine on so many levels. I want to make copies and send them to everyone, and I love that Sonali has made it possible to do that. This is definitely one to check out for yourself and/or for a friend. You don’t always know who might be struggling.

Thank you Sonali.

Death
Wesley Sueker
16 Pages
https://www.youtube.com/c/TwentyTwoZines
https://linktr.ee/twentytwozines

Death is an 18.5x11cm sized black and white zine in Wesley’s Drawing Room Tarot series that explores the meaning and implications of the card as well as adding perzine elements from Wesley’s life that relate to the card.

We open from a quote from Mark Twain about Death the immortal and its equal treatment of us all. Quite the opening, and quite the quote. From there, we read an introduction to the Death card and why it in particular can bring up conflicted feelings if not negative assumptions about the meaning of the card. The Death card may include but also can often go beyond the literal meaning and interpretation, and Wesley does a great job of explaining that.

We also read about how the Death card and its various meanings have applied through their life, Death within the structure of the major arcana, tarot in the musical Carmen, and much more. I also absolutely must mention that there is a resource section for further reading about tarot because I do so love a resource section.

Wesley’s writing style is just plain awesome. They write in a way that is welcoming and intelligent without presuming that the reader has any particular level of familiarity with tarot. They write about their life in an acknowledging and contemplative way and put personality into the more educational parts so you feel like you’re reading something from a friend rather than a textbook.

The physical format of these zines is one of the reasons that I say the physical aspects of a zine are part of the reviewing experiences. (Though I would have enjoyed a digital version as well.) This zine is sized not in your usual half or quarter sizes but rather like a tarot card with that extra length to the width. This detail tickled me and gave me a big smile throughout reading it.

Adding onto that, Wesley’s art style is just plain awesome. I love all the elements Wesley incorporated in their Death card and found myself interpreting everything from one hand letting go of another and the other holding on to the roses beneath. There’s so much more to the Death card than the assumed ‘it’s a bad card’, and Wesley really captures it all in so many symbolic details. Even better? The symbolism choices are laid out and explained in the zine itself.

Regardless of whether you’re ‘into’ tarot or not, I think you would enjoy this zine. There is so much about the symbolism of the Death card that relates so much to life and how we live it that it goes far beyond the study of the card itself. There’s a lot to get from this zine. Definitely one to pick up.

Confessions Of An Ex-Zine Editor 1
The Ex-Zine Editor
26 pages
https://bubblegumzinearchive.blogspot.com
https://linktr.ee/bubblegumzinearchive

Confessions Of An Ex-Zine Editor 1 is an A4-sized black and white perzine (with full-colour cover) about making zines, not making zines, coming back to zines, and a lot of things inbetween.

“Specifically, this zine would be about sobriety and solitude and what fills the silence when you suddenly give up music altogether. It would be about mourning the loss of things that are no good for you, and about figuring out who the fuck you are when you jettison your whole identity overnight.”

Confessions Of An Ex-Zine Editor 1 opens with an introduction from The Ex-Editor in which they write about previously editing Bubblegum Slut zine for eleven(!) years. They go on to write about the end of Bubblegum Slut, the end of the parties, and retreating from that world and zines until April 2022 when they started looking through old zine boxes.

From there we launch into a zine broken up into three acts: Act One explaining what happened when they didn’t edit zines, Act Two celebrating people who brought them back to the zine world, and Act Three asking what happened while they were away and where everyone else went.

I could write so much about everything you’ll find in this zine. This zine is everything good about a memoir put into perzine form. Ex-Editor’s writings begin in a world filled with music, parties, and drugs that come to a sudden stop with the death of a doctor.

They write about the following years of detoxing, sobriety, filling time during sobriety (including a long list of different jobs lasting different durations), and the loss of not only their identity but their writing as well. But, as you may have guessed by the existence of this zine, creativity begins to grow once more – and Ex-Editor shares the journey.

Also, in true perzine variety fashion, Confessions also includes an interview with singer Delilah Bon and chock full of various reviews. The back cover is a photo of items pooled together collage style, and not only is there a ‘guide’ to the items featured on the back on the inside of the back cover, all the items are referenced in the zine itself!

Confessions Of An Ex-Zine Editor 1 is an awesome example of a perzine in both content and style. Text and images come together in a cut and paste style that is sharp and clear while still maintaining that ‘zine’ feel. (Speaking of feeling… There is a fuzzy purple heart on the back!) Not only did I enjoy this zine; reading this made me eager to read the next one.

1-800-I-Felt-Okay
Joe Ledoux
2 pages (1 folded in half)
https://www.joeledoux.com
https://www.instagram.com/joeledouxmagic/

1-800-I-Felt-Okay is an A5 glossy zine leaflet with a single poem called “Somehow I’m Okay”.

Oh my gosh, all the nostalgia. I felt so much of this down to my bones. From not wanting to become a teenager to skipping prom (I didn’t go skateboarding but I did choose that date to get my wisdom teeth taken out) and even summoning the courage to finally talk to certain people when you’re just about to graduate.

With the leaflet style, we are immediately put right into the poem “Somehow I’m Ok” and accompanying illustrations that take us through the years. Joe writes about a very early experience with these strange humans called “teenagers” and through to the end days of being one.

I feel like everything in this zine serves to suit the ‘feel’ of the overall vibe. Joe’s art style is fun and something I can totally imagine drawn in a bored student’s notebook while a lecture is happening. The drawings reflect the written words, which gives it another level of interest. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an illustrated poem before. At least, not recently anyway.

This time of the poem spans a number of years, and I feel like poetry really fits that feeling of the time flying by in a blink, as quickly as the words are read on the page (even if done slowly and savoured). Even the length of the zine – one page folded in half – lends itself to that ‘done all too soon’ quality.

It all comes together really nicely. And while I still can’t claim to have a grip on poetry as a writing form as such, the nostalgia took me in and carried me all the way through.

I’m just sad I’ve never tried that soda mix.

I really enjoy things I can sympathise and empathise with, and 1-800-I-Felt-Okay is a quick read that I enjoyed several times over.

I’m Still Here: A collab mental heath zine for tough times
Shei, Marvellous, Ether
16 pages
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/GodSaveTheQueer
https://www.instagram.com/sheinicorn/
https://linktr.ee/_godsavethequeer__

I’m Still Here is a full-colour A5 zine about mental health and self-care during tough times.

I’m Still Here opens with an introduction from Shei to the zine and the themes. What started as a zine collab to cheer up to a friend turned into a collab between three friends during a time when ‘tough times’ described the entire world and everyone in it. From there we have pieces on distractions to cope, a piece about the journey to embracing one’s anger, feel good recommendations, poetry, and more.

I have said many times that it feels like I read some zines at exactly the time I need to read them, and this zine falls into that category. There are so many ways this zine really ‘spoke’ to me. The importance of activities often based in fantasy that help us cope with reality. A very powerful piece about embracing your anger and everything it truly encompasses. Plenty of recommendations for things to help you feel good. There’s always been a time and place for self-care, but I feel like it’s taken a whole new level of importance and meaning after 2020.

As someone who has struggled a lot regarding anger, that’s definitely the piece I kept going back to. Ether wrote beautifully with a strong writing style about containing and denying the feeling until learning to embrace it and what it morphed into.

I always love Shei’s zine style, and this zine is no exception. There is so much colour, collages with all sorts going on, beautiful background papers, and a mix of handwriting as well as typing. I could absolutely go on. Even after I finished reading, I ended up flipping through a few more times because it’s pleasant to look at. (I am a big fan of florals and pastels.

While I’m Still Here does reference 2020 strongly, I think tough times and the self-care that’s needed to help cope are timeless topics to write/create about. I greatly enjoyed this zine and would love to see more like it.

The Five Emotional Hungers Workbook
Faith Harper
16 pages
https://www.faithgharper.com
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/dr-faith-g-harper

The Five Emotional Hungers Workbook is a US quarter-sized, black and white workbook format zine about emotional hungers that can trigger or push emotional eating and questions to ask yourself to examine your emotional eating.

The Five Emotional Hungers Workbook starts off with an explainer of what emotional eating is which, depending on your experience with the topic, may or may not seem pretty straightforward. From there we dive in a little deeper to the odd lack of research behind emotional eating given its increasing prevalence in media. Personally, I immediately thought of the scene in Bridget Jones’ Diary in which she is eating a pint of ice cream while singing ‘All By Myself’ to her apartment. Examples abound, and yet real scientific research… not so much.

From there, Dr Harper writes about researching an upcoming book and how doing so helped develop this concept of ‘core emotional hungers’ and how it’s not all tied to depression and anxiety. (I especially honed in on the “confused mood” which I chalked up to restlessness but was intrigued to see refined in definition to a better fit.)

Following this, the five emotional hungers each get a page for a brief explanation, an example, and a blank space for you to reflect and write about if and how that particular emotional hungry has shown up in your life. The reflection continues with more questions that prompt you to think about how you can ‘Reclaim Emotional Satiety’ and gives you space to answer those questions as well.

Something to remember about Dr Harper’s work is that it often contains swearing. I find swearing to be anywhere from something I don’t really notice to being amusing, so it doesn’t bother me one bit. However, I thought I should note it for those who might be unhappy with such words.

Reading this zine both made me appreciate the size of this workbook – I can easily tuck it into my journal and either journal in the zine itself or use the prompts in my regular journal anywhere I care to take it/them – and want more at the same time. (She does have ‘Unf#ck Your Body’, which I am eager to read.) I could write pages and pages around my thoughts on emotional eating – from my own experiences to representation in media to the things people think about a lot less in regards to emotional eating (in my opinion): the celebratory kind of emotional eating. So I am more likely to use this as a springboard rather than anything I would actually write this. That said, you could easily read this on work commute or at a coffee shop without it bringing much attention to itself. Despite its size, the space provided is more than enough for even those who have large handwriting to make some bullet points that could be explored/expanded elsewhere at another time.

As someone who has dealt with disordered eating for most of her life, I greatly appreciate this zine and zines like it. While there can be physical reasons that a person can’t interpret hunger ‘signals’ and/or needs to retrain their body to properly do so, a lot of that still ties in with the mental aspects of eating and self-soothing. I won’t go into my personal history, but I will say that this zine presents a great jumping off point to examine what could be hiding behind your emotional eating habits and tendencies. Definitely pick it up.