Page 116 – For the love of zines

Wog Mum is a black and white comic zine of life snippets from an Australian kid who grew up in a Maltese household (and the humour that follows).

Funny family anecdotes told in comic style? Yes please.

Okay, so full disclosure is that families seem a bit of a slightly strange thing to me as I had to disconnect from my biologicals a long time ago. That being said, it just makes me find all the funny loud family anecdotes all the more interesting and funny.

Mel opens up with a brief introduction to the zine, the inspiration behind it (Mel’s mum), and Malta. From there, we launch into 12 pages of comics that made me smile and a few times laugh out loud. Even the back cover has a bit of Malta Mum goodness to make you smile.

From food to family heirlooms (‘heirlooms’?), Mel covers a lot of funny mum moments in a little space. Mel’s art style is fun and on the cartoon side of the art which, in my eyes, totally suits the style and tone of the humour. I like how Mel worked in a couple of actual photos, too. (To show the particular heirloom in question in one case! Hehe.)

In the back of the zine there is a recipe for a go-to Maltese snack, which I not only found fun (yay! new recipe to try!) but also found funny given the comic clips that involved food or questions about food. It’s one of those unexpected things I love finding in zines – the things you don’t expect to find but end up working so well in the zine anyway.

Wog Mum 1 was a fairly fast read, but I did go back again a few times to enjoy the clips, style, and humour again. I think it’s a good, fun, warm zine that many will enjoy. I’m looking forward to checking out the next one. (Yes, there is a Wog Mum 2!)

*From Etsy: Malta is a small European island country in the central Mediterranean inhabited by about 437,000 people.

Its traditions are odd, the people are loud, and the old school women are notoriously stubborn – my mum being one of them. So I thought I’d make a zine about her.

On the use of the word “wog” the Maltese-Australian artist says:

“I use it as a term of endearment (as do my family and ethnic mates), with the word originating from the acronym Worthy or Western Oriental Gentleman. It’s generally a term used these days in Australia without a negative meaning, more to establish a cultural grouping. We wogs are proud of our culture and my zine means no disrespect to any ethics.”

November 28, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 28: Set Your Zines Free

Hello and happy nearly-Friday, zine friends. Haha. Nearly Friday because I have my days mixed up and almost typed ‘happy Friday’. So what’s on the agenda for today…

Set Your Zines Free

Yes! It’s set your zines free, a day about leaving your zines for people to find, giving free zines to friends, sharing zines online, and all sorts of other ways to share your creations.

Today I’m setting my zines free by packing extra freebies into orders as well as sending out some surprise goodies as well. It’s getting to that point in the year when mail is going to slow down due to the volume, so I wanted to get out some mail before all that happens. Haha. And what a better way to do it.

I’m thinking that, eventually, I’d like to start sharing the zine love more locally – maybe even teach some workshops – but that may be something for 2020. No reason to stop dreaming though. Hehe.

Are you sharing some zine goodness today? Let me know in the comments – especially if you have any giveaways of any sort that you would like me to share.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

https://www.instagram.com/violett_komplett/
https://www.instagram.com/bydhiyanah/
https://www.instagram.com/dungeon_maven/
https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
https://echopublishing.wordpress.com/
https://www.instagram.com/gothcupcake/
https://www.instagram.com/14thframe/

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 27, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 27: Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello, and happy Wednesday, zine friends! Today is our last Wednesday and thus our last Work in Progress Wednesday of the month! Oh, gosh, to think we’re already here!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Work in Progress Wednesday is just that – working on our WIPs. If you care to share what you’ve been working on, all the better!

Today I poked away a bit at the InDesign, adding bits and pieces. I absolutely love the amount of clip art you can find on Etsy that is very affordable and can be used as much as you like for non-commercial purposes. I have a lot of watercolour goodies that I have been enjoying including in the Missives.

As much as I do a lot on computer, the writing still happens primarily on paper. That is what I’ve been doing most of the evening, and I will do a bit more before I go to bed. Tomorrow for typing!

What have you been working on today? No stress if the answer is nothing! There is a holiday on soon in the US, so perhaps your priority today was prep or travel. It’s all good. If you’ve shared something, let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 26, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 26: Warm Up: Share the Zine Love: Favourites, Odes, & Thoughts

Hello, dear zine friends, and welcome to this Tuesday, the 26th day of ZineWriMo. Today we have a warm up all about sharing…

Warm Up: Share the Zine Love: Favourites, Odes, & Thoughts

…zine love!

Today I’m sharing my zine love with a favourite as well as a couple pages you may or may not have seen depending on how you view these posts.

First, a favourite for zinemakers of all experience levels.

Stolen Sharpie Revolution!

Stolen Sharpie Revolution is one of the first zine-related additions to my now happy, happy zine collection. It was, is, and forever will be one of my favourite resources for all zinemakers because it covers a bit of everything clearly and concisely – not to mention being an absolutely massive help to me when I was first starting out (nearly a decade ago and dreaming of having a distro).

What’s even more awesome is Alex Wrekk didn’t just leave it at one and done. I have about three different editions of SSR as it keeps growing and expanding with updated as well as new information!

Absolutely one to check out if you haven’t already.

My other two little shares are the resources page and zine review index you can find here on the main site. They could both use some updating (please let me know if you’d like your zine shop, distro, zine blog, etc listed!), but they can be a place to start if you (like me, too) like to have plenty of time and space to poke around all of the things before diving into a new project.

What are you sharing in today’s zine warm up? A favourite zine? Thoughts on zinemaking? Let me know in the comments.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

November 25, 2019

Happy Mail Monday – Happy Tears Edition/ZineWriMo Day 25

Hello, zine friends!

Today I have decided to combine Happy Mail Monday and ZineWriMo Day 25 because the prompt and the day have lined up in such a wonderfully unexpected way.

Today’s prompt is to make a mini-zine celebrating someone. In today’s Happy Mail Monday, I was honoured to have such an amazing friend as Ryan send me a zine… about me. (As strange as that feels to type.) What I’d like to do is just let you know that I open the mail from Ryan at 9.05 in the video, and my reaction? Well, my reaction is what zines and the people who make them can do and be – especially to someone who is struggling.

Until next time.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJVH8gc4g4&w=560&h=315]

Hello and welcome once more to Happy Mail Monday, where I share the glorious mail that has landed in my post box over the past week. Today’s video sees mail from near and far, and a very, very special unexpected surprise that just goes to show what a mini-zine can do.

Thank you so much for watching.

***
Awesome People/Places/Spaces Mentioned:

*Real Tioga – https://www.instagram.com/walterinowego/
– https://www.etsy.com/shop/realtioga/
*Billy – https://www.patreon.com/iknowbilly
*Ryan – https://linktr.ee/_my_name_is_ryan_
*Latibule – https://www.instagram.com/latibule_art/
*True Zine Marin – https://www.instagram.com/truezinemarin/

*ZineWriMo – https://www.seagreenzines.com/happy-zinewrimo-2019/

***

My PO Box:

Jaime Nyx
PO Box 378
Murray Bridge, SA 5253
Australia

***

You Can Find Me At:

seagreenzines@gmail.com

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/seagreenzines

November 24, 2019

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 24: 24 Hours on the 24th: Make a Zine (any size/type) in 24 Hours

Hello once more for the second post of the day, zine friends. For today’s prompt…

24 Hours on the 24th: Make a Zine (any size/type) in 24 Hours

Alas, I’m afraid that this post will be of the more boring variety, as I just don’t have the spoons with me to make a 24-hour zine – even a mini-one – today. However, there is still a lot of zine goodness to be enjoyed – even of the ZineWriMo variety, so be sure to check out the other participants below.

Until then, make some zines and spread a little sunshine.

Other Participants:

Novice Zinester
Herinza Syadza

Posts

Call for Submissions: Workaholic 2

Call for Submissions: Phenomena 2

Call for Submissions: Final Dear Anonymous Zine

Call for Submissions: The Projectionist’s Playground

Zine Review: Wog Mum

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 28: Set Your Zines Free

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 27: Work in Progress Wednesday

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 26: Warm Up: Share the Zine Love: Favourites, Odes, & Thoughts

Happy Mail Monday – Happy Tears Edition/ZineWriMo Day 25

ZineWriMo 2019 Day 24: 24 Hours on the 24th: Make a Zine (any size/type) in 24 Hours