The Success Rate of the Herbs I Have Bought at Bunnings
Rebecca Sheedy
https://www.instagram.com/rebeccasheeeedy/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/mildscribbling

The Success Rate of the Herbs I Have Bought at Bunnings is an A7 full colour mini-zine about Rebecca’s experiences with herbs bought from Bunnings (Australia’s everything including the kitchen sink shop).

This zine is like reading reviews before deciding to buy herbs, except so much cuter, more fun, and with to-the-point notes.

Basil, flat leave parsley, and four other herbs get a spotlight in this lovely little zine. Each page features one herb with the name, a drawing of the herb, and three* notes about Rebecca’s growing experiences. It’s not all dry facts, however, with adventures with a caterpillar and food uses for the herbs making it in.

There’s really everything to love about this zine, and I’m not even any good at growing… well, anything. I hope the ‘herbs I’d like to try’ part on the back means there will be a part two in the future.

*Except for chives, which gets two. Rebecca really doesn’t like chives.

Things To Do After a Long/Hard Day
Crash Reynolds
https://utopiabycrash.wixsite.com/hello
https://www.instagram.com/indeliblecrash/

Things To Do After a Long/Hard Day is a black and green A7 text mini-zine where the title explains what it’s all about. Mostly.

This zine is a brilliant reminder that you shouldn’t judge a zine by its cover, title, or even first page.

I opened this mini-zine to find the expected numbered list with some expected ideas – “read a book” – as well as some unexpected ideas that made me smile: “convince someone to make your favourite dinner”. But around the mid-point in the zine, things take a slightly odd turn. Crash keeps to the numbered list format, but the zine becomes part ideas list and part strange-but-true life story in the process.

I don’t want to give away too much, so I will say that I greatly enjoyed this zine, the unexpected turn, and the reminder that you don’t always know how something is going to end.

Beanstalk Volume 1 – the hat edition
Jess Hast, Annemiek Dekker, and Cassidy Shipp
https://www.jemhast.com/

Beanstalk Volume 1 is an A5 black and white zine with a variety of art and written pieces around the theme of hats.

Three friends getting together to make a collab zine? I started liking this zine before I even opened it.

Beanstalk 1 opens with a letter from Jess Hast, one third of the creative trio behind this zine. In the letter, Jess welcomes the reader to this, the inaugural issue, plans for the rest of the series, and even a fun story behind the Beanstalk title. (I won’t tell. Hehe.) Page one gives you an overview of the 22 pages (and who created what) as well as brief bios of each of the trio.

What follows is a variety of paintings, drawings, sketches, favourite hats list accompanied by notes, and more. There’s even a fun origami project so you can make your own paper hat. As noted in the TOC, some pieces are acrylic while others are ink, digital, fabric, and so on. I like that there’s nearly as much variety in medium as there is in the number of pieces.

One painting – Crazy Hat Lady by Annemiek – reminded me of a character from one of Clive Barker’s Abarat books (the first, I believe). A short man who wore a bunch of hats for sinister reasons. I immediately wondered if Crazy Hat Lady had an intriguing story. I do have to give a hat tip (wink) to the Mad Hatter reference in a later piece as well.

One little thing – and I’m being really nitpicky here – is the lack of page numbers or piece titles in the TOC. Or both. I had to count the pages every time I wanted to know who made what or what was used to make a piece. A small thing but a thing that would have made the zine experience flow a bit smoother for me.

I wouldn’t have thought that hats would be all that inspiring as a theme as I don’t often find myself cold enough to have the opportunity to wear one. I’m quite happy to say I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of pieces in this zine, how many made me smile, and how hats could be as special to people as teddy bears or favourite sweaters.

I’ll behave and not make any more hat-based puns. I will say that if you like hats and/or if you like zines that have variety, then this is one to check out (and it’s a series!).