Category: Zine Reviews

To The End of Time: A Photography Manifesto
Graham Lally
http://exmosis.net
@6loss

To The End of Time is an A7-sized black and white mini-zine featuring small photos and writing about photography.

There is something that can be utterly stunning about black and white photography – even when it’s A7 and printed on cream paper. When it works, it just works, and – for the most part – it works in this zine.

Each page has a single photo, and each photo is accompanied by small blurbs. I found the writing intriguing. Graham opens with an almost aggressive stance on photography and then follows with writing about his fascination with it. It swings back to a disdain for digital photography and then moving in another direction again.

While I don’t know for sure it’s his feeling or intention, I thought the writing spoke to a love/hate relationship with photography without actually saying it.

To The End of Time is a solid little zine. Not only is it printed on thicker (nice, cream) paper, the pages are glued so it doesn’t unfold. It’s nice to hold and flip through.

I think this a poetic tribute to photography and is a mini-zine that anyone who enjoys photography would like.

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

Poly/Not Poly is an A6 sized black and white perzine about polyamory and, well, not polyamory.

With an introduction of a single sentence, Kristy gets right into the subject matter on page one with how they discovered polyamory existed. From there Kristy explores polyamory and how somewhat indirectly participating can be confusing to people.

Even though feelings of anxiety and doubts are involved, I really enjoyed reading Kristy’s perspective. I’ve known people and come across the ‘I have multiple partners and so does my partner’ point of view, but Kristy writes about what it’s like to have one partner but is okay with that partner having someone else as well.

(I feel like I’m being less than ideally clear, so more points to Kristy for a clear, engaging zine.)

Poly/Not Poly is not all sunshine and roses, however, with Kristy getting into some of the anxieties that can come with a partner who is polyamorous. Kristy admits to being ‘mostly okay’ with their partner having partners but that this can aggravate anxiety at times. I really admired Kristy’s ability to separate their own anxieties from their partners actions. As in Kristy sees the anxieties coming from within rather than being the fault of the partner. It’s a complicated but important thing to learn.

Not only that, there is dealing with the people who think that if things aren’t ‘equally’ polyamorous on both sides, then something is wrong.

Kristy’s writing is candid, open, and, at times, quite funny. I chuckled at this:

“Interestingly, my girlfriend is also very into soccer, but no one seems to have the same worries that I am compromising my identity by being up for going to watch a match with her.”

Poly/Not Poly is not what I expected, but it is a zine I am very glad to have read and to now have in my collection.

PS. This zine made me remember a webcomic I adore (Girls With Slingshots). It has since ended, but Jamie explores a lot of different kinds of relationships.

Rose/Water – No Longer Confused
Hollie F
Latibule_Art

A couple notes before I get into the swing of things. First, I am not completely sure how the zine creator wants the title to be displayed. This is my best guess. Second, the photo does not due justice to the gorgeous colours of this zine.

Rose/Water is an A7 sized full colour zine about being different and finding your true identity.

Aesthetically, this zine is beautiful. It’s one of those zines that I keep flipping back and forth through repeatedly. It makes me want to get out my watercolours. The line drawings follow the same style as the drawing on the front, the watercolours telling the story alongside the words.

What a lovely story it is, too. In fourteen little pages, Hollie tells a story that so many people exist – about feeling so alone until finding a path beyond blue or pink. Though it is about moving beyond blue or pink, I think it speaks to everyone who has not fit into whatever they were told to fit into.

This is a zine I would always want spare copies of to give away because it’s just so sweet. I’m not sure if/where Hollie sells these, but if you can find a copy, grab it.

Enby Life: Stories, poetry, & art by non-binary people
Sally King, Wolfram, Madi, Keira Huolohan, Luca, Nicki Warren, Rae White, AlexB, Nikki Nicnevin, Doc, Izzie Austin
Editing & Design: Rae White
https://raewhite.net

Enby Life is a half-fold black and white zine collection of stories, poetry, and art by non-binary people.

When I first pick up a zine, I don’t just read it. I flip through, get a feel for the paper and binding, so on and so forth. Well, I didn’t last too long flipping through this zine before I stopped flipping and got to the reading part.

Enby Life teaches you about more than what non-binary is but what it feels like. The pieces touch on things like labelling, frustrations, confusion, acceptance, and more through comics, poetry, writing, and all the variety you could want in a zine. I love the art and comics, but I equally love being made to slow down by longer prose pieces.

Every piece in here made me stop and think.

On the aesthetic side of things, there’s a lot to love about this zine. The type is huge, so there is absolutely no worry about eye strain here. Even the smaller type is easily a point or two bigger than I’m used to seeing (no, I did not look weird comparing font sizes in various zines), and it’s all in a nice sans serif font.

Even more, the comics, art, photography found inside are all well done and can keep you flipping back and forth between the pages even after you’ve finished reading the zine.

I greatly appreciated the glossary of terms in the back of the zine. It’s like a little nod of acceptance that not everyone is 100% knowledgeable about these things right from the get go and even lists links for where to learn more. When a zine (or any media) comes from a place of teaching rather than expectation, open minds find it easier to learn.

I really enjoyed this zine. It’s a lot of fun, and I think it’s good for people to either find that they aren’t so alone and/or to learn about what life is like from other perspectives. Grab a copy.

PS. This definitely needs to be a series if you’re up for it, Rae.

My Mad Fat Zine
Seleena Daye & Holly Casio
seleenalaverndaye.co.uk
coolschmool.com

My Mad Fat Zine is a black and white half-fold love ode to the UK television show ‘My Mad Fat Diary’.

Seleena and Holly have very possibly made the longest, most well thought out fanzine I have ever read. From episode synopses to set designs and musings on ‘where are they now’, this zine really gives you everything you could want to know about this show.

With so many topics in the show like mental health, fat girl sex, family, friendship, 90s nostalgia and more, they certainly had a lot to write about. But they always kept it within the context of the show and how they felt about the topics’ representation within it. I enjoyed reading about how they deconstructed what could have been otherwise dismissed.

With synopses and character arcs discussed, I wondered if that level of detail might spoil the show for me, but I actually feel like I could watch it in a more thoughtful way now. Even knowing where a lot of things are going, there’s still a lot to be discovered and enjoyed.

I appreciated that Seleena and Holly also included their criticisms of the show. This isn’t blind adoration here. They comment on some rather significant plot holes and even write about imagined episodes in ‘the lost year’ between seasons two and three.

Along that same line, I liked reading about how both Seleena and Holly dismissed the show before falling in love with it. Something about that little detail made me laugh and made their fan-feels a bit more authentic to me.

My Mad Fat Zine references a lot of things I’m not familiar with and is about a show I’ve never seen. But I think a mark of a great fanzine is winning over people like me, and this zine has definitely done that.

Insomniughhh 2
Ashley
https://sites.google.com/view/insomniugh

Insomniughhh 2 is a black and white quarter-sized zine about life with a circadian rhythm sleep disorder.

I reviewed Insomniughhh 1 not long ago and was very curious to see where it went from there. Where the first zine walked more of an educational zine path, issue two dives into perzine territory.

Ashley writes about the heartbreaking isolation and troubles that can come with being someone who has a different clock to the 9-5 that is meant to be ‘normal’. There’s no holding back on topics like faking normal, the quest to find medications that actually work (and continue to work), and more.

I sympathised a lot with Ashley’s ‘graveyard of pills’ having had one of my own for my own conditions up until the point I moved a few months ago. That being said, I do think a ‘Things I’ve Bought While on Ambien’ is in order if Ashley ever feels up to it.

There is a little more margin watching that needs to happen for this zine with an entire line of one page cut off the bottom. But once again, Ashley pairs text and graphics an what I think is a balanced way.

While the two zines do differ, I feel like they’re a good pair that readers would do well to pick up together. In the first, you will find more info, but the second will give you a better glimpse of the reality.

Confessions
?
notyourleo@outlook.com

Confessions is a quarter-sized zine about beauty standards and growing up Filipino with a desire to be white.

Confessions gets right into things with no introduction as such nor table of contents. While I must admit this did throw me at first, the subject matter pulled me right in just as quickly.

The zinemaker writes about growing up with girls who were ‘obsessed with getting their skin paler’ and how it was actually difficult to find cosmetic products that didn’t have bleachers in them. The pressure to be white didn’t only come from peers, however, with the zinemaker’s own grandmother chiming in.

They go on to write about how in the rare instances that Filipinos are in the spotlight, they are often pale with perfected looks.

To put it bluntly, this zine made me sad. But it did so in an important way. I grew up with girls complaining about wanting to be darker – a story so similar to this zine but with the opposite colours involved.

That’s why these stories are so important to share as many perspectives as possible and maybe just come to new, better conclusions.

There are bright notes to be found with the author writing “i honestly think im beautiful” at one point. In a zine that touches on the pressure not only from media but from friends and family to be something else, I found that especially beautiful.

In regards to the contact details, I actually have the zinemaker’s name written down, but at no point in the zine is a name mentioned. I don’t know if thought was actually put into the choice – and I may be reaching with this – but it serves the subject. It gives this zine a feeling of being one story in many – highlighting the problem itself.

Confessions ends nearly as abruptly as it begins, but writing things that way is growing on me. It’s as if someone has dropped a box containing a life experience in front of me and simply said, “deal with it” instead of wrapping it up with pretty beginning and ending ribbons.

Small Potatoes Issue 1
Keira
IG: @k.huolohan
TW: @khuolohan

Small Potatoes 1 is a quarter-sized black and white slice-of-life perzine, and I have never found a zine cover and title combo so absolutely endearing. Love it!

It’s a week for coming back to zine-ing as Keira opens by writing this is the first zine they have written in over a year. Welcome back to zinemaking!

I really liked the variety I found in Small Potatoes. Don’t get me wrong – I like all life stuff kinds of zines. But Keira worked in life stuff, dreams, a short fiction story, poetry, and even book recommendations.

In the beginning they write that they want this zine to be an attempt to opening up, and I think they accomplished that. With so many different things, I think Keira has created a great start in showing their world bubble.

I’ve never been so inclined to ask a zinemaker if they wanted to be friends based on zine alone.

Getting back to the dream stuff, you may be thinking that they’re a hit or miss topic to write about. I check Keira’s dreams off as a hit. I don’t know if it was the dream, the writing, or the combination of both, but there was one point where Keira writes, “I felt so peaceful.” I nodded along because I felt peaceful, too!

On the aesthetics side, Keira uses typewritten words with a combination of drawing and pictures that go very well with the text.

If perzines are your thing or you’re new to zinemaking, then pick up a copy of this zine.

PS. I love the little ‘contact details’ pun on the back. I won’t spoil it, though.

Insomniughhh 1
Ashley
https://sites.google.com/view/insomniugh

This zine may be about living with a circadian rhythm sleep disorder, but I loved reading in the intro that this zine is Ashley’s step back into zinemaking after about twelve years. <3

Insomniughhh 1 is a short but informative introduction into what a circadian rhythm sleep disorder is and what it’s like to live with one.

Ashley’s disorder comes in the form of feeling the need to go to sleep at 2.30 to 3.30 in the morning. From what the word ‘circadian’ actually means to a breakdown of sleep studies, Ashley provides a lot of information in what feels like more than fourteen pages.

I love how informative this zine is. I didn’t know much about sleep disorders beyond the basics, and I loved learning more. I especially liked the larks and owls part. Most people have heard of night owls, but I’ve never heard of nor thought about its morning counterpart. (Spoiler: Larks)

I had to chuckle in sympathy when I saw CBT on the ‘What They Tell You Works’ list. (More power to you if it works for you, but it’s handed out like a wonder drug.) I liked how Ashley followed that with the ‘What Works For Me’ list. For me, it served as a reminder that what ‘they’ say is not the be all and end all for options.

The sleep study part was an eye opener, however. As someone who got a ‘something is wrong, but we’re not sure what’ from her own sleep study, I found some hope in finding out that sleep studies aren’t useful in circadian rhythm disorders.

Insomniughhh is a handwritten zine, but I had no trouble reading. It has a nice balance of text and pictures. The text occasionally skips outside the margins, but not too badly.

If you want to learn about circadian sleep disorders, then this is definitely a great zine to start with.