Category: Zine Reviews

Bus Driver Blues
Kathy Sarpi
www.kathyaudrey.storenvy.com
kathy-audrey.tumblr.com

Another lovely mini-comic zine by Kathy Sarpi, and another one for Nyx’s forever collection.

I reviewed On Motivation a few weeks ago and absolutely fell in love with Kathy’s style.

This zine continues on with that gorgeous, liquidy type of art that serves the black and white oh-so-well. Her art is like a romance between ink and paper, and nothing will spoil it. A little heavy? Probably, but I am both adoring and a smidge envious of Kathy’s talent.

The way she uses the combination of thick and thin lines along with the flow creates something that I really want to see happening in a graphic novel. I want to write a story just to have her bring it to life with her art.

The story held inside is a beautiful slice of life that also serves as a reminder that you can never truly know what someone else’s live experience is. What they’ve been through. How they’ve survived up until the moment you meet them. All within the context of a short, sweet story of taking a moment to think.

<3

Wanderluster Volume #1
Wanderluster
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/WanderlusterZine

I love zines. I love mail. You know I had to check this one out.

Wanderluster Volume #1 is a full-colour zine featuring a variety of postcards from around the world. Wanderluster is a member of the worldwide postcard exchange site PostCrossing. The bias for me comes in the form that I was a member of PostCrossing, so I think there is a level of enjoyment I would have reached had I not been familiar with the site or concept.

The cover is a little plain, but the red and blue striped washi on the bottom and air mail sticker at the top leave you with no doubts as to what this zine is about. Kudos to Wanderluster for going full colour with this. While the theme – introductions – enjoyment isn’t reliant on there being colour, the visual (postcards) enjoyment is much more in colour than it would have been in black and white. I enjoyed looking at all the different postcards and the stamps as well.

Admittedly, I couldn’t read some of the handwriting on a couple of the postcards, but that wasn’t a huge hold up by any means (and isn’t really something Wanderluster could have done anything about anyway). I liked seeing how people around the world chose to introduce themselves when given such limited space to write in.

The fact that Wanderluster’s address changes a couple times gave a little scope on the time it must have taken to put this all together – a small detail Wanderluster probably didn’t even think about.

The next editions in the series have themes (so far: #2 Exciting Moments and #3 Food), which I think will make the zines even more fun.

How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence
The American Association of Patriots
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/artist/the_american_association_of_patriots

I received this in an awesome package from my US friend, Black Wolf, but I can’t for the life of me find the post… Anyway.

I think this is one of the few zines that I have heard so much about that it risked not living up to how much it had been built up in my mind. Turns out I had nothing to worry about.

It’s hard to know where to start with this one because I want to write about everything at once. There’s just so much going on here.

How to Talk to Your Cat About Abstinence is a guide for parents of cats to help them talk to their cats about the importance of abstinence. On the surface, anyway. In reality, it is a very cheeky poke at the view that ‘no sex’ is the only way to keep the youth of today safe. It addresses questions like:

*Do I really need to talk to my cat about abstinence?
*What difficulties do kittens born from premarital sex face?
*What are other things I can do to safeguard the purity of my cat?

I like how this zine is printed on glossy paper – just like the information pamphlets you’d find in the doctor’s office (or other professional offices). Is it possible to have an ironic use of paper? I think so. It’s even full colour, sparing no expense over getting the word out about your cat.

Okay, so the obvious thing that I haven’t touched yet in this review is the actual content behind the content. Taking the topic of ‘abstinence only’ teaching with religious leanings is bound to get some people up in arms, and it’s not going to be nearly as funny to some as it is to me.

I’m not going to get into the issue itself, but I do think that putting the issue in this form this way is an excellent idea. It’s accessible, non-threatening…

And, if you want, you don’t have to think too hard, and you can get a good laugh.

I so very much want to read ‘How to Talk to Your Cat About Gun Safety’ and ‘How To Talk To Your Cat About Evolution’.

Hello My Name Is: A Zine About Living With Mental Illness
Kendy (MissMuffCake)
www.missmuffcake.com

Full disclosure: I contributed to this zine. 🙂

I wasn’t sure if I should review it given that fact, but I think I’m not too biased to give an opinion that’s not influenced by my participation.

If anything, the content itself – mental illness – makes me more biased than my participation. Hehe.

Hello My Name Is: A Zine About Living With Mental Illness is just that. It features a collection of people who introduce themselves, their mental illnesses, and how they don’t let those mental illnesses define them.

I feel like I am doing a disservice to the zine by summing it up like that because I know, not just from contributing or personal experience, how huge and import it can be to stand up and talk about your mental illness. That it is on paper makes no difference to the impact it has for the person sharing.

It was lovely to read people sharing the ways they perverse. There were also differences in the way people responded to the prompt, which I found interesting. (Tell five people to do the exact same thing and you’ll still likely get variations.) I loved reading about how people ‘beat the stereotypes’ and yet there was no anger or resentment in their words.

Aesthetically, this is a simple (no negative connotations attached to the word) with a picture and a paragraph per person. I think, however, that this is perfect for the content. The whole point of this zine (I think) is to show that people with mental illness are still people. They don’t need to be dressed up or changed for the sake of being appealing to the masses.

Neither does this zine.

I hope to see more of this. The shortness of responses appeals, the content appeals, that you can see the faces of the people who are introducing themselves only adds to it.

More please. 🙂

Mini-Moss: Log / Mini-Moss: Dognapped
Tegan Elizabeth / Becky Nosiara
www.etsy.com/au/shop/incaseofdystopia

I know it’s April 1st, so Mini-Zine March is over, but I didn’t want to have this Friday all on its own without a mini-zine. Plus, I really wanted to squeeze this one in as part of the MZM stuff.

I received this zine in trade at the Festival of the Photocopier. The idea of a science fiction zine intrigued me, and the fact it was a mini-split-zine made it all that more appealing. There’s always something a little special about split zines, and I like it when they split it by putting one part in one direction and the other in the opposite direction (reading one means the other is upside down).

Plus, to completely judge a zine by (one of) its cover(s), how could I pass up a bourbon bottle floating in space?

As for the actual stories, you can check out excerpts on the Etsy listing.

Log was a great example of how, in short stories, you can tell such a massive story in fewer words. The implications and the references were used well in that they told a lot without being confusing. Beyond that, though, is the concept of anxiety in space. I’ve read it before, but this was more… my kind of anxiety. In space. I wish I was more articulate so I could express the difference. Anyway, I quite liked it.

Dognapped was quite a funny piece. “Completely starkers.” I love the phrase so much and had an out-loud giggle when I read it. I’m not quite sure what else to say about it for fear of spoiling it.

The best part? How these two stories relate to each other. I almost wish I could wipe my memory to find out what it would be like to read Dognapped before Log so I can find out how the influence of feelings would go if read in the opposite order.

My only little bugbear with this is that there is no contact information. Nary a URL to be found. With zines, you never know for sure if that’s intentional, but I’m a lazy fangirl. I like to be pointed in the right direction.

On Self-Motivation
Kathy Sarpi
www.kathyaudrey.storenvy.com
kathy-audrey.tumblr.com

Hello, zine I bought on first sight! Sometimes, you just know about a zine, and I just knew about this zine when I saw it on sale at Festival of the Photocopier.

No regrets whatsoever, and we have another lovely addition to my ‘forever keeps’ zine pile. Lurve.

I love the art style in this zine. On Self-Motivation really tempted me to break my ‘no pictures of the insides’ rule in regard to zines. Luck is with us, however, in that I have no such qualms for posting awesome little pictures that happen to be on the back cover.

Kathy’s style reminds me of graphic novels I used to read when I was younger – the Boneville series, I think it was called. I’ll probably look back and see that they’re nothing alike, but what I’m trying to get at is I love the combination of thick lines and thin details coming together to create something that manages to look so fluid. Everything is sort of round and squishy.

Given the content of the zine (self-doubt, fear of failure), I think it’s perfect. Whenever I am having a bad day or am on the cusp losing it in some way, I always describe it as ‘melting into a puddle’. Thus the art is perfect in a subtle sort of way. Plus the message itself is a beautifully simple one that we creatives need to hear. Sometimes often.

Anyway, all up?

I want to give this zine to all of my friends who create to remind them that we all doubt.

(Plus, I should keep this on my desk at all times to battle on my behalf with the Doubt Monster.)

Proof I Exist #23 – Questions and Answers
Billy
http://wemakezines.ning.com/profile/BillyDaBunny
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/iknowbilly

This zine came unexpectedly from Billy da Bunny himself along with some awesome happy mail.

I don’t remember 100%, but I think this is the first zine I’ve read that is about zines. As you can imagine, it’s like taking my love for zines and squaring it. Awesomeness all around.

Proof I Exist #23 – Questions and Answers is the product of a talk Billy gave to a class on the topic of zines. They were having so much fun that they didn’t get through all the questions. He thought he’d take those questions and turn it into a zine. (Right on.)

I like reading the writing of strong voices. People who prefer to teach than preach. Billy knows his zines, and he knows what they do for him and the world. He’s found this great medium between prattling on too much and not saying enough. He answers the questions completely but manages to get you thinking at the same time. (I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some teachers answer a question too thoroughly so independent thought wasn’t exactly encouraged.) What makes a good zine, why zines are important in society… He answers questions I’ve heard plenty of times and more on top of that.

I thought this would be a short read, being a mini and not a lot of pages. I was pleasantly surprised when I slowed down from the first question. I enjoyed taking my time to think about what Billy was saying and thinking about how I would respond to the same questions.

While this doesn’t delve so much into the history of zines, I would not hesitate to give this to someone who wants to know more about the whole ‘zine thing’.

A History of Abandoned Hobbies
Jane Cantwell
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AdventuresinKindness
#luckyjarzines

I got this, A Guide to Being Cool, A Guide to Letter Writing, and A Guide to Op Shopping as a lovely little bundle.*

The moment I saw this zine, I got to thinking about all the hobbies I’ve started and later abandoned through forgetfulness, negligence, etc. What a fun topic for a zine.

This is a lovely full-colour A7-sized zine. It’s a mixture of art, solid squares of colour, and words. I love how it’s all laid out, and Jane had me from “I bought a book. i never read it.”

I’d love to see an even bigger version of this.

PS. If you ever see this, Jane, I totally hear you on poetry.

*The links will only begin working as the other reviews are posted.

The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad
Adam Gnade
http://pioneerspress.com/products/the-do-it-yourself-guide-to-fighting-the-big-motherfuckin-sad

Okay, so reviewing this might stir up a few feelings in regards to what is/isn’t a zine. Does the binding matter? Does an ISBN make it not a zine? Frankly, I’m not sure where I draw the line. I think that the message in this zine/book/??? is important enough to look past defining lines to what is actually being written about. This started as a zine, so I’m willing to see it as such.

Anywho.

This is one of those zines that I saw at some point, it got stuck in my head, and before I knew it, it’d been on my wishlist for ages without me any the wiser as to when and where I first saw it. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d get out of it, but I knew I wanted it.

In ‘The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Fighting the Big Motherfuckin’ Sad’, Adam Gnade takes you through a journey of self-examination, examining other people – in general and in your life, examining what it is to fight for life and what it is to cope… There’s so much happening in this zine, and yet you wouldn’t think it – even flipping through the pages. The topics are deep and complex-if-you-want-them-to-be like brand new thought gardens, just waiting for you to plant some thoughts and let them grow. (Workable metaphor? I hope, because I like it.)

This zine turned out to be even more than I could have anticipated. It’s not ‘let’s sit down and talk about depression’; it’s ‘let’s sit down and talk about how to deal with life’. While I was reading it, I felt like he was talking to me as a fellow person who thought the world was bloody hard to live in rather than talking to me about depression. At no point did I feel like it was about the label – even as he wrote about drug therapy. It was always simply about life.

I’ve mentioned before here how much I love lists, and this zine has plenty of them throughout. It’s nice to have that break when you’re dealing with such a heavy topic. It helped balance out the pace of reading the non-list sections.

Without a table of contents, I didn’t really know what I was in for. There was the title, of course, but little else to let me know what I’d be reading. Looking back on it, I’m glad for that. That’s not to say I’d be against a TOC, but I liked the ‘winding journey’ element to reading this zine. I liked not quite knowing what was coming up next. The clear breaks/titles were all that was needed – and only needed so I could have a clear stopping place while I thought back on what I’d read.

I did a lot of thinking back on what I’d read.

One special entry that I really appreciated was ‘Helping Your Friends Get Through It’. I like that Gnade didn’t automatically assume that his only readership would be amongst people who were dealing with the problem rather than people wanting to know how to help others with the problem. It’s a small section – not even a full page – but I think it’s a very important not-a-full-page.

On the technical side of things, as a zine maker, I found it quite interesting to see how a zine translates into a more ‘bookish’ form. You’d think it would be easy, but as someone who makes/formats both, it might not be as 1 to 1 as you think. While I by no means give up my love for the traditional ways of binding zines, I do love how this is bound while maintaining the more zine-esque qualities of a cardstock cover and black and white interior pages.

PS. Totally excited that I got a purple one. <3

Shakespeare’s Lovers: Twelfth Night
Bloomurder
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/BLOOMURDER

Remember that time when I found a shiny orange zine and loved it so much that I demanded then and there that I must have the whole set? Yeah, totally got my hands on the other two.

Shakespeare’s Lovers: Twelfth Night is the second in the series and has another pretty cover – this time in beautiful dark blue. Like Shakespeare’s Lovers: Macbeth, a brief introduction is followed by a synopsis and examinations of the individual characters (three this time: Orsino, Olivia, and Viola).

You have to admire someone who can take a plot as complex as Twelfth Night and turn it into three easy-to-understand A6 pages.

Once again, once I started reading, I couldn’t stop until I’d read it through. I must admit that I’m not exactly a hardcore Shakespeare fan, but I like Bloomurder’s synopsis style and character analyses. I liked seeing Bloomurder’s enthusiasm for Viola’s character, as she’s also a favourite of mine. I think there is something really beautiful about seeing/reading/experiencing something someone has created purely for the love of that subject.

I love Twelfth Night, but I’m hoping to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream come next. <3

Check out this zine series!