Category: Zine Reviews

Why I Love Nic Cage (And You Should Too) Activity & Fun Book
K. Sheldon & Kendra K.
http://goteamkk.tumblr.com/

This is a zine that makes me smile every time I look at it. It’s one of those zines that reminds me that “if you can dream it, you can zine it”. I think it’s pretty easy to see why.

Yes, this zine really is an activity and fun book. And don’t think that just because it’s a zine that it’s not up to standard. This is a proper activity book with colouring, drawing, a maze, a word search and more!

This might not be something you want to just hand off to a kid, though. (Being an adult does not prohibit you from enjoying activity books!) Just in case you thought this was for kids. I mean, you could, but that centrefold… Oh, man, that centrefold… I have had this zine for quite a while now, and I still can’t stop myself from chuckling a little when I think about that.

(Spoiler hint: You can see a version of the centrefold if you go to the Tumblr page. You can’t miss it.)

The thing that really gets me smiling is the little ‘seal’ on the back that says this activity book is ‘unauthorize’. Love it!

I almost want another copy of this so I can play in one but have the other for keeps. Haha.

I F#cking Love This Album
Various – Put Together by Chops
http://www.theworddistribution.com/

I F#cking Love This Album is Fishspit’s first foray into teaching me all about a lot of music that I’ve barely or never heard of.

As far as a first step goes, this one is a good one.

I F#cking Love This Album is a multi-contributor zine that takes you not through individual songs that the contributors love but the albums that they love. As Chops puts in the intro:

You didn’t have to pick your “favorite” album, or the first album you fell in love with, or the album you most like right now, just an album you love.

When it comes to zines like this that explore favourites or loves, I’m glad to see that there are multiple contributors. That way you can get all sorts of recommendations that are inspired by different backgrounds and influences. Where I expected a zine of text where everyone shared their favourite and that was it, I was impressed to find different takes on the prompt.

One person responded in comic format, and another person focused on the often-overlooked movie soundtrack album. All this made for a more engaging read and even more different varieties of things to look up.

You’ll still get what you expect with this zine, though: a scavenger-hunt-esque zine that may introduce you to music you’ve never heard of before or that reminds you to go back and listen to those old loves.

Everything Dies 7
Box Brown
BoxBrown.com
Everything Dies

I think Microcosm Publishing describes this awesome and hilarious zine series best:

One of the best and most promising new comic artists out there today, Box Brown writes and draws the Everything Dies zine series as a hard (and oft times hilarious) look into the religious myths of our world.

Everything Dies 7 takes you into the great flood myth, but not the biblical one. This is the Sumerian version with the crankypants Sumerian god Enlil getting upset at all those vexing humans.

This zine comic is great. I’ll come out and say that right now. TL;DR: Everything Dies 7 is excellent.

Box Brown’s style is very enjoyable and reminds me a little of the Felix the Cat cartoon style that I used to watch as a kid. (Which is meant to be a compliment; I love Felix!) He has a great way of using the images to really enforce the humour found in the writing. I laughed out loud more than once (“It vexed him so hard!”) thanks to Brown’s sense of humour. Especially in the little things like a god saying ‘hullo’ instead of ‘hello’.

Love it.

What really made it a keeper (though, let’s be real, it was a keeper pretty much from the first time I saw it) was the addition of letters and responses in the back! All still keeping in the style of the overall comic and just giving it that little something extra.

In and of itself, the comic is so enjoyable and definitely one of those zines that I don’t even let people borrow because I don’t want to lose it. Still, I feel like there’s even deeper examinations to be made once I get my hands on 1-6.

PS. By clicking on the Everything Dies link above, you can grab every Everything Dies comic (for a fair price) and start reading right now.

The Life and Times of Billy Roberts #76
Billy
https://bunnyears.bandcamp.com/

Every time I feel like I’ve settled in with the variety of shapes, sizes, etc that zines come in, something new comes along. This time? A zine that’s a pamphlet! No binding required, one page, two folds, columns… The Life and Times of Billy Roberts is the most appropriate title ever; I feel like I’ve received a ‘life digest’ from Billy.

In issue 76, Billy talks about the month of things breaking, new friends, the therapeutic value of concerts, and more. There is a lot packed into this zine, and yet each section is only as long as it needs to be. It’s like catching up with an old friend ‘quick letter’ style without feeling like anything is being left out.

Aesthetically, yeah, it can get a little beat up in the mail (as evidenced in the photo above), but I’ve seen worse done to bigger zines in envelopes. I’m just pleased as punch that this made it all the way to me in Australia and that I’m feeling like I’m part of the mailing list.

I really hope to see more issues of this in my post box.

Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup
Dr Faith G. Harper
http://faithgharper.com/

Defriending: Navigating the Friendship Breakup is self-explanatory as far as titles go. This zine takes you not only through options on how to do it but why it’s so damn complicated.

As a general rule, relationships DON’T last until death do us part… And when they don’t last, we have no fucking clue how to deal.

The thing about the zine that I appreciated the most is that it acknowledges the muddled greyness of the ‘are we or aren’t we’ middle space of the defriending zone. It’s not pretty, and this zine doesn’t try to make it so. As someone who is trying to figure out the best way to do the whole ‘defriending’ thing, it’s nice to have the reassurance that it’s as messy as it seems to be.

Don’t think this zine is going to throw you a pity party. Friendships involve two people, and Dr Harper gets into your responsibilities – whether you’re the defriend-er or the defriend-ee. The real lightbulb moment in this happened for me when Dr Harper got into the difference between whether something is a one-off event or indicative of a person’s personality. (What they did vs who they are.)

This zine ended up being a lot more complicated and involved than I thought it would be but, having read it, I realise that’s a very good thing.

Coping Skills: Because Sometimes Life Is Some Serious Bullshit
Dr Faith G. harper
http://faithgharper.com/

When Wanderer’s emergency happened, I found that I couldn’t tolerate TV, videos, or anything I’d usually do to distract myself. However, I did have this zine, and bit by bit, it did help…

This zine is one of a series called ‘Dr Faith’s Five Minute Therapy’ and just goes to show how effective a catchy title is. I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into when I ordered this zine, but I couldn’t resist getting it with a title like that.

Lucky me, it was a bet that paid off.

Dr Harper has created a list (love a list) zine all about things you can do to cope with what’s happening in your life. There aren’t really specifics applied to this like ‘coping with a car crash’ or ‘coping with the fact someone ate the last doughnut’. It’s like the title says – because sometimes life is some serious bullshit.

Coping Skills is written in the voice of a friend rather than a doctor (or parent or ruling force in your universe). Coping Skills is all about coping, but it reads as something closer to a conversation you’d have while out for coffee rather than one you’d have in a psychologist’s office. When it comes to stuff like this, it’s so important to hit that point of telling someone what they can do rather than just telling them what to do.

I must say that I have to admire that Dr Harper was so ‘meh’ about prayer and meditation one one page but then turned the perspective to a whole new light (that I hadn’t thought of before) on the next page.

I really love that there are suggestions for things to do that you actually can do. I’ve read too many lists and articles that suggest things that require money or other means when ‘money’ or ‘other means’ can be things that add to the stress of the situations in the first place. The suggestions in this zines are general enough that you know what she means but can apply them as you please.

I read this zine during a time when I was incredibly stressed and not sure how to function, let alone cope. It wasn’t a miracle, but it did help. That being said, I think this zine is a great zine to read for any kind of coping, be it more or less stressful.

Comics & Beer
Rory
www.createorperishshop.etsy.com

I’ve never been so excited to see that this was an ‘issue 1’ (implying there would be more) and so disappointed to find there were no more. That sort of stuff happens in the zine world, but I would be all over a sequel to this, no matter how many years later.

Comics & Beer is about life. Rory’s life. From the get-go, you know this isn’t going to be the ‘usual’ sort of perzine thanks to the intro being more of a multiple choice reaction quiz than a ‘hi, my name is X and I’m X years old’.

Rory has a great writing voice that has liberal pinches of sarcasm, dark humour, and disillusionment. It’s what grabbed me from page one and kept me reading. There are little pieces of humour that you might not catch upon first read. There’s even a mini-zine within the zine with short movie reviews. As far as added touches go, this is an excellent one.

That’s not to say there aren’t serious moments. In the piece about TV and our (humanity’s) relationship to it, this quote really got me:

I have shared probably 100 times as many emotional moments with a stupid plastic box as any other living person.

I love what I love and often read in those areas, so it can be a lot of fun when something like this comes to shake up my reading a bit. When it comes to my own perzines, I’m so stuffy about things and try to have themes and whatnot. It was really refreshing – and reminds me to loosen up! – to read a perzine that felt so wonderfully random in picking snippets of life. Even better, I love perzine that leave me wanting to read the next one in the series straight away. Alas…

The contact site listed doesn’t work, but that very well could be because (sigh) this is the only zine in this series. I was sad to find that out when I hunted down the Etsy site. At least you can still get copies of this zine, though. You should, too.

Ed Tillman’s delightful little photo zine “The 5 Cent News” will take you back to better times. Maybe better times never existed, but when you look at Ed’s zine you’ll believe they did. Ed’s photos somehow bring on a sense of satisfying nostalgia. From the really cool little band that slips over the contents, to the wonderful silence that permeates the photos, this zine will zap you into a childlike feeling of wonder. The zine just has a way of making you feel good.

edtillman.net

The Radical Uprise 6: Summer Kicker!
TheRadicalUprise

I know the timing of this might not be the best, what with the northern hemisphere heading into autumn, but here in the southern hemisphere, we’re pretty excited about spring. And, well, what follows spring…

The Radical Uprise 6: Summer Kicker! is an excellent example of a zine that is unabashedly and wholeheartedly what it is. What does that mean? In this case, it means this zine is a list zine with an abundance of ideas for what to do about your summer boredom – or the fact you should, you know, see the sun and the outside world.

With suggestions like ‘Learn Calligraphy’, ‘Flea Market’, and ‘Go Raw for a Week’, there’s a great combination of active and quiet activities to suit various personalities.

The real beauty of something like this is that, though it’s a summer boredom breaker, it’s good all year ’round – regardless of boredom levels. You could grab this zine out for finding out something new to do for the day or for winter activities, too. Okay, so walking around barefoot might not be the best idea in winter, but there are plenty of ideas that are definitely year-round or could be with just a little tweaking.

The extra touch I really loved in this mini-zine is the extra space at the end to put in your own ideas for kicking the boredom (and the computer addiction). Either that, or listing out your answers to the prompt that comes before it: Create a summer soundtrack. I’m not sure what the original intention for these lines are, but either way, I love it.