Category: Zine Reviews

Attempted Not Known 12 – Pain Points.
Peter Conrad
48 pages
https://www.instagram.com/peter.conrad.comics/
https://www.peterconrad.com

Attempted Not Known 12 – Pain Points. is a 7.8cm x 12.2 cm black and white comic featuring comics about physically painful accidents that happened in Peter’s life – with the entire zine curled up in a standard US pill bottle.

Pain Points opens with a drawing of pills filling up the page before the title page and then launching into the first comic: “No, A Fence.” (Love a pun.) Luck struck that day with Peter landing outside a nurse’s home. Said luck, however, would not follow Peter through all the accidents…

We then are introduced to various injuries – often involving stitches – Peter has dealt with. Falls, braces, and a number of injuries thanks to cars, and we have a collection of ‘scar stories’. ‘On the Chin’ definitely has to be one of the top ‘days filled with bad luck’ I have ever read or been told about. It involves a bike accident, a dodgy car, ridiculous parking at the hospital, and DIY bandaging to keep things in place. And I thought I’d had some bad luck days.

Peter’s art style with thick and thin lines working together to create just the right light and shadow, with some panels more details than others in a way that conveys a narrative tone as well as containing the art itself… It makes me feel nostalgic for the newspaper comics I used to read while still having its own ‘Peter’ flair to it.

Of course, in my reviews, I talk about the aesthetics of a zine. How could I not love and have a chuckle at a comic zine about painful moments coming in a pill bottle? Not only that, the bottle is covered in stickers like “Controlled Substance – Dangerous Unless As Directed” and the description reading “Acomxine 40pp”. Little touches like that tickle me to no end, and I love discovering all of them.

As someone who is sensitive to others’ pain (I can’t watch those ‘funny’ videos of people getting injured in various ways), this zine definitely made me wince more than a few times. That said, it was still well worth the read. Peter’s art style, his ‘slice of life stories’, how the zine itself is presented… I think it’s all a lot of fun, and I am very much looking forward to getting my hands on more of Peter’s comics. (Until then, I will be satisfied with checking out Peter’s Instagram, which features plenty of comic goodness.)

Chronically Invisible
Jessie Ziegenbein
12 pages
https://ko-fi.com/s/aff0b7c08f
https://linktr.ee/bitterpillpress

Chronically Invisible is an approximately 12.8cm x 17.8cm green and grey tones zine about the impact – both immediate and long-term – of chronic illness on a person’s life as well as the challenges they face.

When I saw this zine when it first came out. I knew I needed to get a copy of it. As someone who has been forced to face her chronic illnesses in unavoidable ways in the past couple of years, I always value all the ways I can remind myself that I am not alone.

Chronically Invisible opens with Jessie introducing themselves, a bit about their background, and what they hope to achieve with this zine. As with many zines like this, a little more empathy in the world would be an amazing thing. From there Jessie writes about what self-advocacy is, medical admin, statistics, and more. There’s even a crossword puzzle inside to enjoy.

Jessie wraps up with a piece called ‘A New Perspective’ in which they detail finding a new way to look at the world which comes with darkness but also with an appreciation for growing self-confidence, self-trust, and self-growth. I found myself identifying with this piece so much – down to a similar time frame in which my own chronic illnesses took a dramatic escalation. It was lovely to read someone sharing thoughts similar to ones I had contemplated before but never truly expressed in those ways.

I couldn’t possibly review this zine without touching on the aesthetic of this zine. Jessie takes it to an awesome level by carrying the green (with grey) theme through the zine in everything from the type to the colour of the paper itself. Everything about this zine from message to production feels very thoughtful to me, and I appreciate it all the more. The leaves featured on the front are called Monsteras, and I can’t help but wonder if choosing them as opposed to some other green leafy lovely also plays a part in name, appearance, or both thematically in this zine. I enjoy when a zine gently encourages my brain to stretch and ponder rather than demanding it does to understand.

Chronically Invisible is an introduction to the impact of chronic illness on a life – from day to day to medical care. I feel like it strikes a beautiful balance between informative, personal, informational, and empathetic. While I know I would have enjoyed more (and would certainly enjoy a Chronically Invisible 2), I do feel like this zine was ‘just right’ in terms of length and substance.

Definitely one to check out – especially if you are feeling alone in dealing with your chronic illness(es).

You Suck at Art: a zine about perfectionism, creative burnout, and finding your way back
Sapphic Bushtit – Skylar
8 pages
https://www.instagram.com/sapphic_bushtit/

You Suck at Art is a primarily black and white, US-quarter-sized zine whose subtitle covers is better than I could in regards to what it’s about:

“a zine about perfectionism, creative burnout, and finding your way back”

You Suck at Art opens with a short note about how this zine was “Made whilst stressing TF about EBABZ2022!!!”, which I had to mention for a few reasons. One, I love a little ‘outside the zine’ content (playlists, reading lists, this zine was made whilst) in zines because it makes the whole thing all the more fun. Two, I think many zinemakers can identify with stressing before a zine event, so it made me all the more empathetic to Skylar with this zine.

We open up with a fun comic-style drawing above Skylar writing about her relationship with making art. I love how Skylar writes about not being interested in being good but rather making art for fun because I feel like that is such an important creative spark that so many of us lose along the way. Unfortunately, as life too often goes, a lot of negative factors piled up with no self-compassion to soothe things, and Skylar stopped making comics…

However, things to take a turn toward the sunshine with better times, new passions, and (big, excited fairy zine-mama noises here) zines helped bring Skylar back into the world of art.

Skylar’s art style is fun and inviting. She uses just enough detail for us to know what’s happening with a more rounded overall style that invites you to ‘step in’ to the art without it being intimidating.* It would probably be helpful to do comparisons, but I’m not sure how comfortable I am with that because I don’t want to create any sort of associations the artist may take negatively.

Overall, I think You Suck At Art is a great, short read that mixes in art with telling a story of a creative struggle that I think more creatives than not have encountered some flavour of in their lives. As someone who is slowly but surely coming back to her fiction writing and zinemaking, this was absolutely something I empathised with straight away. (Especially the negative inner critic, which I have now at least momentarily silenced with a metaphorical doughnut and new zine to read.)

I think this zine is super cute, works on all levels, and is an awesome introduction to Skylar. Definitely grab a copy of this. If and when there is more zine goodness from Skylar, I am ready and waiting for it.

Welcome to the zineverse, Skylar!

*PS. I am trying to work on how I describe art styles, but I’m very much a work in progress.

Raise Your Horns – Badass Metal Tales
Hadass Bar Lev
54 Pages
hadass420.wordpress.com
Ko-Fi

Raise Your Horns – Badass Metal Tales is a black and white, A6 zine written as part of ZineWriMo 2018* created for the love of metal.

Raise Your Horns starts off in a very metal way with the table of contents named “The Enemies Within”. I smiled immediately seeing that, and settled in for the metal goodness to come. The metal goodness to come just so happened to arrive upon reading the first line of the zine: “In my previous zine, I wrote about how I got into Marilyn Manson.” Of course, Beautiful People started playing in my head immediately. I figured that boded well.

Hadass packs this nice chunk of an A6 zine with all sorts – from loved bands, to an itemised list of metal attire she owns (including little metal onesies for her daughter!), and far beyond.

We begin at the beginning, which is appropriate. Hadass writes about getting into metal, how riot grrrl and feminist punk led into female-fronted metal bands, and how her evolution as a fan of metal continued. We also get “Love,” “Like,” “Like But Not as Much” lists of bands, the rise and fall of a favourite band, and so much more. Hadass includes the story of meeting her husband and by extension the Jerusalem metal head community. Her words about the feeling of coming home when at a festival ground resonated with me, as I have found the metalhead community to be one of the most warm and welcoming communities I’ve had the pleasure of being welcomed into.

She also writes about Arch Enemy seeing her through some of the most difficult times of her life, whereas HateBreed (my introduction to metal as a baby metalhead) did much the same for me. Alas, as sometimes happens, she then documents the fall of the band once so beloved when led by Angela who ended up leaving the bank.

While this zine might be a lot to take in for a ‘metal baby’ or someone who isn’t into metal at all, there are plenty of references to bands, singers, and songs to pursue outside the zine if you’d like. The perzine elements warmed my heart as a fellow metal enthusiast, and I can imagine that people newer to the genre would be able to hone in on the clear feelings Hadass expressed and go from there. There is also a section that goes over some of the different ‘flavours’ of metal, which I found useful as I’m still a bit new to the nuance within the genre.

I love that this zine wraps up with a Twigz comic about how to properly make the hand gesture of the metal horns. I smiled at the clarification (because a lot of people do get it wrong), but I actually chuckled at the wrong examples, which included “Something to do with Star Trek?” Very funny, and a great way to wrap everything up.

All in all, Raise Your Horns – Badass Metal Tales was a great ode to metal as a genre with an emphasis on the perzine approach to it all. Hadass gets to the point of things, doesn’t hold back, and doesn’t mind dropping some swears in there as well (which I appreciate). If you have the faintest inkling of interest in metal or wonder how a badass mom living in Jerusalem got so much into metal, pick this one up. And part two as well!

*How has the time flown so quickly?! I’m proud as punch that this zine was made as part of ZineWriMo.

Does This Count? Poetry From a Non Poet
Don Leach
12 pages
https://notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
https://www.instagram.com/notmovingpics/

‘Does This Count? Poetry From a Non Poet’ is a ~10cm x 14cm black and white zine of short poems written by a self-identified non-poet. (Does that make them non-poems?)

If you have followed me for a while, you will know the long and wary history I have with poetry. I know what I like, though I can’t often articulate why. I love a metaphor, but that doesn’t mean they are my forte. If you speak to my of meter, then my face may just go blank while I float off to my happy place. With that in mind, this zine had me smiling from the get go and completely into the idea of poetry from a non-poet. I feel like I could do the same.

We open up with a brief introduction from Don, in which he writes about not caring for poetry growing up but getting into writing lyrics as a teenager. These lyrics were never put to music, but then Don discovered spoken word, and things made sense… From there we delve into haiku – or rather, sort of haiku. I don’t know much about haiku, but I’m pretty sure there are rules about syllables. But it only fits that poems from a non-poet would be, well, not-haikus.

Each poem is given its own page an is accompanied by simple line art. Each poem is in its own font, which makes the part of me that took graphic communications wake up and feel both curious as well as confused. The poems range in subject matter, though many of them touch on relationships and interactions between people. As will pretty much every poetry zine I’ve read, some went over my head. Yet others struck me, making me ponder the words and their implications in my own life.

I’d state a favourite poem, but I think that might be giving away more than I care to about my current mindset.

All up, I quite like this zine. Something about ‘poems from a non poet’ helps me to relax and not feel like I have to understand everything that is going on in each piece. I also like the humour that goes with writing something like this. A sort of ‘I’m not sure if I’m doing this right’ feeling that I think we can all identify with. It made me smile and made me feel like trying my hand at writing poetry – or not-exactly-poetry – again, which makes it a win for me.

50 Ways to Protect Your Body Image, 70 Acts of Self-Care, 50 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery
Kim Rounsefell
https://thankubody.au/collections/vendors?q=Kim%20Rounsefell
https://nourishandtreat.au/pages/about-kim
One-page tri-fold

50 Ways to Protect Your Body Image, 70 Acts of Self-Care, and 50 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery are all ~11cm x 9.5cm full-colour, tri-fold zines full of prompts for the title subject.

I should note here that these were not packaged or listed as a set as such. There are enough similarities for me to want to review them together.

These three zines in gorgeous pastels (I love pastels) with cutie doodles on the covers are all list zines about the title topics. Whether you need some self-care time, some self-discovery time, to protect your body image, or all of the above – these minis are the zines for you! They open up in the traditional tri-fold fashion to reveal easy-to-read numbered lists that follow a quick little intro to the subject at hand.

As I mentioned, I love pastels. I also love lists and doodles, so these three zines are like a trifecta of awesomeness for me. None of these subjects are strengths of mine, so I am so happy to get help with ideas on all counts. Each zine held both ideas that I had heard before (but appreciate being reminded!) as well as completely new-to me ideas. You can pick them up for a quick scan for a few ideas or sit down and take the whole lot in. I love the size of these, too. How small they are in size as well as thickness makes it easy for me to tuck them into my planner.

As you can probably tell at this point, I really adore these little minis in every way. They are a cute, portable, friendly way to remind myself that that I don’t need to have it ‘all together’ because there are zines like these out there to help. Definitely check them out.

Words for my younger self
Shei
One-page folded mini
https://linktr.ee/_godsavethequeer__

Words for my younger self is an A7, one-page-folded, full colour mini-zine with words of advice Shei has for their younger self.

This colourful mini from Shei opens with them writing about how they will being turning 30 and reflecting back on what they have learned over the years.

From there, we go into words of advice – many of which my younger self could have certainly done with hearing, that’s for sure. Each page features typed advice set on colourful collage backgrounds that I have long associated as Shei’s style. I always appreciate so much colour; it makes me smile.

Shei also writes this at the beginning: “So here are a few things I’d like to tell my younger self. Take it as self therapy.” I love this concept of writing to your younger self as a form of therapy. Perhaps it’s just my life scope, but I don’t think reflection is given enough due considering the impact it can have.

I don’t know if this will surprise anyone, but, when I was a child, I always took advice from my elders very seriously. I always had this thing about making the most of life, so why wouldn’t I listen to those who’d lived more of it. With that in mind, I absolutely love zines like this. I love the idea of other young people out there coming across this zine and zines like it, taking the advice to live better lives.

With each piece of advice, I thought, “That’s my favourite.” Then I would read the next and think, “Ah, no, this one is definitely my favourite.” All up, Words for my younger self came together as a lovely mini that I appreciated on many levels. Definitely check out this mini-zine and consider making one of your own.

Scenes From A Marriage Vol 2
Matt MacFarland
60 pages
https://www.mattiemac.com
https://linktr.ee/Mattiemac17

Scenes From A Marriage Vol 2 is a 5 inch x 5 inch (~12.5cm x 12.5cm) partially black and white, partially colour comic zine about, well, marriage life. The zine is filled with comics that are one or two pages long, with each page featuring four panels per page.

I haven’t laughed so hard while also feeling called out at the same time for a very long time.

Scenes From A Marriage opens with a short and sweet dedication before launching right into the comics. From the very first one, I was laughing out loud and enjoying myself thoroughly. I wonder if Matt looks back on that first one and shakes his head because he didn’t realise just how appropriate it would be for the rest of 2022. I won’t spoil the whole thing, but I will say that even the spirit world is feeling the inflation.

The chuckling and laughing continued on to the point that Wanderer started giving me weird looks from the kitchen until I told him about what I was reading. One specific comic I could have sworn was taking from our life (though a friendship and not a marriage). A scene from my life played out right there in the comic with the husband character marching in to announce some sort of bad news the wife character doesn’t want to hear about while she prepares to listen to true crime videos. I feel so called out.

I enjoyed each and every comic in this zine. There are so many great ones to mention, but I want to add in one more to what I’ve already mentioned. In one comic, the husband character finds he’s ‘speaking’ in text and emoji speak and doesn’t know how to stop. It’s just so funny and adorable to me.

There’s no way I could review this zine without mentioning how much I love the covers – yes, front and back – on this zine. It reminds me of those t-shirts in the 90s with the cartoon characters facing forward on the front but on the back, you could see their behinds. There’s only a little behind on the behind of this cover (which gave me a giggle), but I just absolutely love the touch of looking at the characters’ backs on the back. Even the title is on there – backwards! Love it.

There’s so much I love about this comic. From the humour to the art style that just fits everything so perfectly, Scenes From a Marriage Vol 2 has quickly and easily become a favourite in my collection. Definitely check out this and Matt’s other creations. My completionist heart needs it all!

Inside the Cavern of Your Mind
TQ Walton / Purple Bat Press
1 page mini-fold
https://www.instagram.com/therese__walton/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PurpleBatPressZines

Inside the Cavern of Your Mind is a full-colour, one-page-folded mini-zine about exploring inner mental spaces.

Funnily enough, just as I finished reading this zine and started writing this review, a friend decided to have a philosophical debate. So a mental examination was well timed.

Exploring inner mental spaces sounds like a massive topic, and many things have been written on it. Inside the Cavern of Your Mind, however, is a lighter but just as important exploration. With relatively few words and simple but colourful pages, TQ both ponders with and encourages the reader.

Inside the Cavern of Your Mind is a short read but one that I have read over many times. I quite enjoy the positive feelings and recommend checking it out.

tomorrow

…with an e.
Lynne
http://www.butchnorfemme.com
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ButchNorFemme

…with an e. is a US 1/4-sized black and white zine about gender stereotypes, societal expectations, anxiety, and not so healthy coping mechanisms… all wrapped up in preparations for and attendance of a wedding.

As Lynne mentions on page one, this zine does contain writing about alcohol in case that is triggering for you.

…with an e. opens with Lynne writing about how this zine was put together in 24 hours the day after Thanksgiving and how a 24-hour zine seemed to fit the bill of writing about the experience but not taking weeks or months to do so. From there we have the aforementioned trigger warning before launching into where it all started: their brother got engaged.

Lynne writes about many things, from hating dressing up, anxiety from being expected to do so at their brother’s wedding, looking for a dress, and more. Lynne’s writing style is an interesting mix of opening up with personal anxieties, thoughts, and feelings but with as sort of ‘one step back’ perspective that lets them – and the reader – take in their actions from a self-reflective sort of stance. With a flair for a sort of subtle, dry humour as well, I felt like I was reading a letter from a friend about everything that had happened.

I’m someone who likes to get dressed up and is comfortable presenting as a cis female, there was still so much in this zine I identified with. I may like to wear a dress, but I abhor clothes shopping. Trying clothes on? Horror of horrors. Lynne also writes about how their boobs suddenly got bigger after thirty. Strangely enough, I can identify with that and all the fun adjustments clothing-wise that needed to be made. Only at 35 for me.

The mythical makeup class that Lynne felt like they missed, the feeling awkward in social situations – especially when there are expectations set for behaviour, etc – and even using alcohol as a coping mechanism… I was right there with it all. Heck, music isn’t my strong suit either.

It was hard reading about the sort of silent agreement Lynne has with their family to just ‘not talk about the things’ in regards to Lynne’s queerness. But I think there is a great value in the fact that Lynne wrote about it because I imagine that a lot of people are in the same position with family: not ‘out’, possibly suspected, but they don’t talk about it to avoid any potential conflict.

I could keep going on and on about this zine, and I think that goes to show how much I enjoyed it and how it made me think about things. I love it when a zine surprises me with ‘I’m that way too!’ thoughts while I’m reading.

…with an e. is a zine about so much but, overall, about being human and trying so hard to navigate the weirdness we call life.

Check it out.