Category: Zine Reviews

Falling Apart: A Zine on Death, Grief, Mourning & Loss
Zippity Zinedra Press
https://www.facebook.com/ZippityZinedra/

Sometimes there are zines that I know are likely to confront me in one way or another – and this zine is one. I struggle with the entire subject of death, so the thought of reading people’s stories of grief and mourning was a bit daunting.

Falling Apart is a collection of stories, photos, quotes, artwork, letters and more from people dealing with death. I didn’t expect there to be such a variety not only in the content itself but in how people expressed their grief. It didn’t occur to me before this that grief and mourning happens in more ways than I’m acquainted with. One of those things taken for granted…

There is the cut and paste element that makes zines so awesome and has a combination of text, pictures, and even (readable!) handwritten pieces. I mention this because I appreciated that Zippity Zendra did it very well, keeping things in zine style while still letting the stories and photos remain the focus. Given the subject, I think this is the best way to go.

While I did have to hunt down the link to the Facebook page because I couldn’t find a URL or an email address in the zine, that is negated a little bit by the cover collage artist not only being given a special spotlight in the front but his details are listed as well.

This is another zine that I think you will know fairly easily if it’s something you’d like to have in your collection. Or you could be like me and take the chance with a zine you really aren’t sure how you’ll handle but read anyway because you might learn something…

Functionally Ill 19: Fully Favorable
Laura-Marie
www.etsy.com/shop/robotmad
dangerouscompassions.blogspot.com

Functionally Ill: Fully Favorable is the 19th is a nine-years-running (at the time this zine was made – it’s not dated) zine about Laura-Marie’s journey from the first diagnosis of bipolar disorder. In this issue, Laura-Marie shares some snippets from letters she’s written as well as touches on Social Security hearings, leaving a therapist behind, new psychiatrists, and more.

Functionally Ill doesn’t go into a lot of background or history beyond the brief introduction. Usually I would find that distracting from the content right in front of me, but something about Laura-Marie’s writing put me right into the moment where I didn’t need more information. I want it – I want to read more zines in this series – but it wasn’t distracting.

Laura-Marie’s experiences with Dr R made me angry about heavy-handed psychiatrists, and, thought this zine, I got a glimpse into what it’s like to try to get Social Security payments in the US. I liked that excerpts of letters to others were in the mix, showing the subtle differences in writing voice but almost getting a different perspective on events.

There’s a lot to be said for using zines as therapy, especially when you have a mental illness. However, there is also a lot to be said for using zines as a way to get past stereotypes and gain perspective. Though this was a brief look, it was an interesting one.

Meta Zine: It’s a Zine About Zines
Davida Gypsy Breier
http://www.leekinginc.com/

A zine about zines? Yes, please! What we have here, my friends, is everything I want in a zine about zines that is so good, I can’t help but want more.

In Meta Zine, Davida has created a zine guide that introduces you to (or further informs you about) the world of zines. When I say world, I mean world. While it’s light in weight, this zine is anything but light in content.

Part I is an introduction to the world, culture, and history of zines. Davida mixes the evolution of zines with personal experiences and philosophy. (But at no point does this feel like a perzine.) Davida examines what, if any, definition ‘zine’ actually has and the desire of some to create that label. This moves further into the current zinemaker and inspired yesterday’s post regarding thoughts about the legitimacy/policing of digital zines. There is no preaching or personal politics in this, though. It’s an exploration of the history and associated thoughts – thoughts I’ve also had as a zine reviewer.

Part II takes you into the hands-on world of actually making a zine. From supplies and margins (don’t ignore margins!) to printing and selling, Meta Zine gives you all the basics to get you started if you are otherwise hesitant. There are even more sections, including a number of zine resources for finding, selling, and trading.

Meta Zine is only 23 pages long (half fold, looks to be a 10pt font if I’d guess) but still somehow manages to pack it with so much information. It’s fantastic. This is the kind of zine I would make if I had Davida’s level of knowledge. If I had the money, I’d happily buy dozens of copies of this and send them to everyone who expressed an interest in the zine world.

If you want to know about zine history, how to make zines, some of the philosophy behind zines, anything else related that I haven’t mentioned, then get this zine. It is an utterly fantastic place to start.

Read
Chris Graves
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Today’s review is a short and sweet one for you.

Read is, as Chris puts it, “A mini-zine of mini-reviews OR A taste of some of the things I’ve read in the last month”.

I like that it’s not just text on paper (nothing against zines like that, though). Some reviews have mini-pictures of the covers, and there are little bits of colour here and there as well. I find it funny that the same book – The Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult – has been recommended in the two book review zines I’ve read. I’ll have to check it out.

This zine does contain on of those things that makes me go ‘hrmph’ – lack of contact/social media. You might make a zine just for you or only for your friends, but you never know if your zine will end up all the way in Australia with someone like me who’d like to see your website. 🙂

Ethical Sloth 4 – Happy Horror
Annika Pepita, Sandra Haselsteiner, Raoul Berlin, Nina Echozina, Lilli Loge, Tony Trouble, Patch Sinclair, Yori Gagarim, Tanja Is, Anna Bas Backer, C.C., Dana Moustache
http://ethicalsloth.net/
https://www.facebook.com/ethicalsloth/

The red splatter on the cover is actual paint, not printing. I love that! Anything that’s a little extra ‘something’ added after the printing makes a zine that much more fun for me.

With the blood spatter across the cover and ‘Happy Horror’ as a subtitle, I assumed this was a horror zine. As it turns out, it is, but it’s much more than that…

Ethical Sloth 4 is a collection of comics that takes a horror lens on all too real experiences of sexism, fear, and a lot more. I don’t think I’ve read a zine that was an assortment of comics before, and this was a great introduction to it. I enjoyed the wide variety of artistic styles, from more full page types of comics…

…to more traditional panel type of comic…

As you may have noticed, the second comic is in German (I believe), so I wasn’t able to understand some of it. But therein lies the beauty of images; I was able to get the gist of some parts.

“Piece of Meat” was my favourite of all of them, as it got me thinking and spun my expectations in just a few pages without very many words involved. I have to admire the ability to do that.

If you like comics, supporting the queer community, and zines addressing subjects like sexism, misogyny, etc, then take a look at Ethical Sloth.

Death Bring Me Freedom From My Heart For I Am Enslaved
Jenn Suxx
Guest Page by Shannon Knox
fucktheface@riseup.net
http://wemakezines.ning.com/profile/JennSuxx

I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed any sort of comic zine. What a zine to get back into the swing of comic things with!

Death Bring Me Freedom From My Heart For I Am Enslaved is a perzine-ish tale of love and emotional abuse told in comic format.

Jenn’s art style is engaging (to my tastes). Everything is clearly detailed, but not crowded. This zine is the first time in a long time (first time ever in zine comic form) that I’ve seen sex in a comic, and it was well done. Everything suited what she was saying, and what she was saying read as completely open and not at all shy about what she’d gone through.

At first, I found it an intriguing juxtaposition to get such ‘young’ vulnerability from Jenn while at the same time reading a comic clearly set with adult situations. However, when she followed things with a bit of her childhood background, all of that made a lot of sense. Even in comic form, even in an image that clearly demonstrated the situation but left the serious blows to implications, it was hard to see how another child had been left to neglect. And the impacts of that.

The story does jump here just a smidge, leaving questions that you’re really not sure if you want to ask. In the end, though, none of them really distract from the bigger story, and all I wanted to do is casually ask if she wanted to go out for a coffee sometime.

This is definitely not a ‘light’ zine by any means. I know that the abuse I lived through certainly influenced my reading of this, but I think your empathy would have to be pretty low to not pick up on the emotions in this comic.

Jenn ends the zine on a positive but realistic note, which is all any of us can really do when processing any sort of abuse. That she has the strength and frame of mind to remind people who have dealt with similar situations that they are not alone is a lovely thing to see.

BDSM FAQ: Your Anitidote to Fifty Shades of Grey
Faith G Harper, PhD, LPC-S
FaithGHarper.com
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/6590/

There are so many things this zine represents for the zine community. Zines can be any topic (someone taking on what bad things 50 Shades did to the BDSM community), they can be educational, and zines can (and are) written by people from so many walks of life (even PhD walks of life!).

Talk about a good start.

While the heart-shaped handcuffs on the front and back covers may give you a giggle, BDSM FAQ is serious when it comes to educating people about the basics of BDSM. In the brief introduction, Dr Harper talks about the increase in people wanting to talk to her in a professional capacity about the whole ‘BDSM thing’. This zine was born of the questions most asked in a BDSM class she taught.

I was not in personal need of an FAQ or introduction to BDSM because I was fortunate enough to know a very kind D/s couple who taught me a lot about the lifestyle. I picked up this zine anyway because I was curious about how Dr Harper would handle the subject. The whole subject reminded me a little of 7th ‘reproductive studies’ class with a large smattering if misrepresentation thanks to one set of books.

BDSM FAQ is exactly what you would want as a resource to learn about the subject. Dr Harper gives it the seriousness that any lifestyle choice deserves and treats the reader like the adult they should be if they’re wanting to learn about this. The zine also includes the best simple representation I’ve seen about what the letters actually stand for:

While the title might suggest otherwise, time is not wasted venting about 50 Shades; it’s directed where it should be: answering questions. From the words of the lifestyle you should know to how to approach things no matter what kind of relationship dynamic you have.

I highly recommend this zine if you’re merely curious, if you’re looking to start, or anything in between. The zine even ends with a positive true-life experience of a submissive to let you know that there are positive things to be found in BDSM if that is what you are looking for. And not all of those things have to include sex.

If you’re interested, Dr Harper has an assortment of educational zines about all sorts of things including anxiety, anger, adulting, coping, and more. You can check them out here.

On another note not related to Dr Harper but related to 50 Shades of Grey, here is a video from Film Theory about how Christian Grey actually uses cult indoctrination tactics (rather than BDSM practices) on Anastasia.

Pieces #11 On Connecting Through Friendships, Letters & Zines
Nichole
http://wemakezines.ning.com/profile/Nichole
https://www.etsy.com/shop/fictionandnot

I’m usually so utterly focused on reviewing things in order, but when you have a zine series you love, you make exceptions…

In a way, jumping from Pieces #5 to Pieces #11 has been interesting in that Nichole’s writing ‘voice’ has changed so much. There seems to be this level of inner acceptance in this zine that I didn’t pick up in previous zines. That’s one of the reasons I love being able to ‘stay with’ a zine series over time – people change and grow.

That being said, I was very happy to see that Nichole’s cut and paste style that I have loved over the course of this series is still going strong in #11.

Nichole talks about taking a new approach to interactions with people, the beauty of letters, and meeting penpals in person in the setting of Chicago Zine Fest 2014. The inner acceptance that I mentioned earlier really shows in the beginning pages,the very first starting with the words “hello, hello” and the second pages displaying her mailing address with an open invitation to connect.

The funny thing is that I felt this shyness come over me at such an invitation. Not unpleasantly so, though.
The zine wraps up with beautiful thoughts about cultivating ‘second homes’ – those spaces where we feel safe to stop in and comfortable enough to stay. I loved the imagery and loved being reminded of little things that I can do to make my own life a happier one.

For me, the Pieces series continues to be everything I want in a perzine in both aesthetic and content. Nichole makes me think but doesn’t lecture, and I always feel welcomed in rather than forced to watch from the outside.
Definitely grab a copy.

Fat is Beautiful
Crystal Hartman
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/crystal_hartman
crystal_hartman@hotmail.com

Fat is Beautiful is one of those zines that made me punch my fist into air and say, “Yes!” I try not to let myself riled up about these things, but if I hear ‘it’s all calories in, calories out’ one more time… If was all just calories, then conditions like PCOS couldn’t possibly have ‘makes it harder to lose weight’ as a symptom.

Anyway, not the place for a soapbox, Nyx…

Fat is Beautiful is not a blind foray into ‘love and love alike’ (though they have their space, too). Crystal comes in firm, strong, and – even better, supported by facts and statistics.

Mmm. Statistics.

This zine is full of pieces that address the oft-touted health arguments against weight, facts about weight, calories, etc, and even the politics of facts.

It was fascinating to me to have my own preconceptions challenged not by lecturing but by showing alternate causes to the effects that we are all but beaten over the head with. For example, fat people (yep, I am doing as encouraged and using the ‘f’ word) have more health problems. However, no one mentions how much is blindly blamed on weight rather than being investigated/prevented/treated.

A recent study found that far women are a third less likely to get breast exams, gynecologic exams, or Pap smears.

Something to think about. (Again, I recall my own experiences of non-treatment – even by a female doctor.)

As much as this zine could have come off as a complete rant and nothing else, it’s actually educational and well-based in multiple resources that are listed in the back. (And, if you’ve been reading here for a while, you know how much I love it when a zine encourages me to further investigations outside the zine itself.)

The Fat Liberation Manifesto is beautiful.

My one nitpick with this zine is that some of the text has been cut off the edges of the pages to the extent that it did cause some pauses in reading to sort out exactly

Even so, this is a great zine to remind yourself that you’re not alone and/or educate yourself about not listening to everything the mainstream media tells you about weight…

Woolf Pack #4
Rebecca Cheers, Chloe Reeson, Alice Jane, Izzie Austin, K. Queene, Amelia ‘Dashurie’ Moss, Talia Enright
http://woolf-pack.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/woolfpackbrisbane

So much colour! <3

I certainly don't hold it against a zine to be in black and white (that would be silly, considering), but I can't help but notice when a zine goes full colour. And wow does it serve this zine so well. There is such vibrancy and passion in the words that the colour printing only adds to that.

Woolf Pack #4 opens with a gorgeous, colour 'merbabes' comic encompassing the ideas (I think) that being yourself doesn't mean you don't have to be alone and how today's technologies make it even easier for us to connect. I don't think I've been so 'welcomed' to reading a zine. Lovely stuff.

I don't usually point out specific stories even in collaborations because it's about the zine as a whole for me – and this zine is no exception in that I have enjoyed each and every piece in this.

Still, I have to mention the piece 'Vagina Christmas' because it spoke volumes to me in a way nothing has before. Rebecca Cheers talks about many things surrounding her experiences with vaginismus. At one point, she writes:

I made that crack about it sounding like ‘vagina Christmas’ every time I spoke to a new doctor, because I thought it mad me sound less sad.

In the moment I read that, I felt less alone in the world. How many times had I made jokes at my own expense, about my own, painful, experiences? (My personal one is the Pap smear treasure hunt jokes…) That one moment of connection made me think about the whole piece in a more personal way – especially regarding sexual education (or lack thereof).

I love being inspired to think without being told I’m an idiot.

The great moment for me with this zine is when I was nearing the end, really enjoying everything, and then I realised that the comic I enjoyed so much at the beginning utterly applied to my ‘feels journey’ with the zine itself. Woolf Pack #4 has left me feeling that much more able to be part of this community of awesome ‘merbabes’.

Woolf Pack #4: Pick up a copy.