Category: Zine Reviews

I was thinking about the other times I’ve mentioned other people’s zines that I have bought/received here, and it seemed to me like they were mini-reviews. Nothing flash, just a bit and bob and a link to buy.

So I’m thinking I should keep up with that, eh?

I went to Sticky Institute in Melbourne a little while ago, but I’m only just getting to talk about my gloooorious purchases. (Okay, it was hot, I was nervous, and I had somewhere to be – but it was still glorious!)

I can’t seem to find all the zines I bought there on the Sticky, but I’ll put up whatever buy links I find.

I bought this zine for my bloke in my effort to convert him to the zine side. We’re a bit ‘into’ conspiracies, so none of what was in the zine was new to us, but it is CC #1 and I imagine it would be a good introduction for people who aren’t as familiar. The few typos were a bit distracting just because my mind works like that, but I wouldn’t say that was a reason not to get it.

I always find it amusing when I ‘just so happen’ to stumble across something that is so much bigger than I first thought it to be.

This is a zine I got purely because it looked interesting and different. I say ‘got’ because, unknown to me, this is a free zine that had been appearing in Melbourne for years. Read the description on the sell page because it’ll do a better job, but this was a letter in a paper bag. The letter was beautiful and somehow strange. I’m glad I got it, though. I am thinking about saving for the anthology (also on the linked page).

This zine wins the award for first zine to make me laugh out loud. This zine is a tongue-in-cheek guide to writing your bodice-ripper romance novel which, frankly, is a guide in writing the worst kind of romance possible. With quotes like “But make certain to never choose names that reek of boganess (‘Tayla’, for example). If you do you quash your chances of achieving an educated audience while undermining the aspirational delusions of bogan readers everywhere…”, you’re not going to get much better. Highly entertaining even on second and third reads.

So simple yet so funny! I absolutely love this zine. The beauty comes in its simplicity and just goes to show that zines can be about anything. I just have to wonder how the creator ever thought of rhyming couplets for zombie survival instructions. Haha. Love it.

More mailbox goodness! I’m thinking of having a change jar that I will use for buying up zines. I love them all so far and I like supporting zine makers. That’s a thought for another time. Zines!

This zine was definitely a ‘softy’ buy in that firsts are very close to my heart. When I first moved to Australia, taking in and experiencing as many ‘firsts’ as I could became my mission; a mission that led to me trying many things I would not have tried otherwise. I really liked the cute art and the uncomplicated subject. I would definitely check out her other work.

If there was ever a zine that I thought I needed to have to get started in the zine world, it’s this one. With it’s own ISBN and awesome binding, it’s more like a small book than a zine. But it’s a sort of zine-topia in all the information it holds. From thoughts on layouts to an index of distros and zine events (worldwide!), Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 is definitely a must have, in my opinion.

This is also one of those cases where I wish I would have looked at everything in the shop before making my purchase because they have so much awesome stuff in addition to zines! Check it out.