For the love of zines
The Rock N’ Roll Horror Zine
Submissions Now Open
Looking for rock, metal and punk themed horror, sci-fi, pulp and bizarro fiction submissions up to 2,500 words. Also interested in visual art submissions that are on theme, especially cover art.
Accepted submissions receive $5 and a contributor copy.
Email submissions to doomgoat666@gmail.com
Hello and happy weekend, zine friends! And happy Friday to those in other time zones. Today we have a bit of an interesting prompt…
Today’s prompt is:
Plan or attend a zine event. Big or tiny!
Zine events! Be them big or small, zine events can be an amazing, fun way to meet zinemakers you want to meet and discover new ones you may have never found otherwise.
There aren’t any zine events locally or even semi-locally, I’m sad to say. (Though there is a little something something happening in September that I will post about then.) And, being me, setting up a zine event this last minute… Yeah, I need to get better at the planning ahead side of things.
So I’ve decided to do something a little… in between. Not a zine event as such, but an event I am participating in.
Ta da! Haha. I remembered how, at the beginning of the month, I said that I would be doing my very first 24 hour zine thing this year. Lo and behold, it’s nearly the end of the month, and I haven’t don’t it yet! Eep!
Today’s prompt (when looked at at the right angle hehe) gave me the chance to go ahead and do it.
How I’m making it an ‘event’ is that I will be livestreaming off and on today throughout the making of the zine on Instagram. Some things will be pictures in ‘Stories’ and others will be shorter (maybe?) live videos. I should have planned this out a bit more, to be sure, but I’m also not really minding the playing it however it goes.
So if you’d like to join in and maybe make your own zine in the next 24 hours, follow me on Instagram. I’ll also be checking in when I can on the SGZ Facebook page.
Have fun! I’ll be starting with the videos side of things in about 30 minutes after this post goes up.
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List of activities: http://www.stolensharpierevolution.org/international-zine-month/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/internationalzinemonth/
Others Joining In :
*Echo Publishing – https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
*Feral Publications – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dA2HTUon0
*You?
TZD is a zine distro created to erase stigma around chronic illnesses (including mental illness) and to educate people about what living with chronic illness is like.
One zine/print a month will be featured and all money raised from each work will go to a different charity.
Facebook: facebook.com/tenderzine
The first work featured is by me (Amber is Blue) and it focuses on my battle with major depression. All money raised goes to Lifeline Australia.
We’re looking for submitters: email amberisblueart@gmail.com for further information.
Cats Not Kids #1
Purple Donna
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/purpledonna
Cats Not Kids 1 is an A6 black and white perzine about life with a dysfunctional uterus, the heartbreak of leaving furry family members behind in the UK when moving to Australia, and preferring to have cats rather than kids.
Cats Not Kids starts off with a brief introduction about finally making a zine after thinking about doing it for a long time as well as an introduction to Donna – a fellow expat who fell for an Aussie and made the leap to land in Melbourne. (You bet I love how much we had in common right off the start.)
The things Donna and I had in common continued with Donna talking about dealing with period problems from youth and the frustration of uninterested doctors forcing her to take things into her own hands. It’s always frustrating to read about people coming up against block after block with medical professionals, but there is some comfort in knowing you’re not alone.
Things take a very sad note when Donna writes about needing to leave her beautiful cats behind in the UK – not by choice but because of bad timing. A sudden change in legislation meant all the preparations to take them along were lost time. As someone who lives with a lovely cat and two rambunctious dogs, I really felt for Donna’s position of really having no options.
This zine was a quick read and one I enjoyed a lot. I was worried that this might include some negativity towards people who want or have kids (given the title), but it doesn’t. I’m looking forward to reading the next ones.
Happy Friday, and happy catching up!
Today’s prompt is:
Post online about some of your favourite zines
Favourites? You want me to pick favourites?!
I love a lot of zines for a lot of different reasons. With that in mind aaaaaand a zine review yet to post today, I am going to be a little cheeky and point you to the 100th Zine Review Celebration and 200th Zine Review Celebration for some of my favourite zines.
Let me know about your favourite zines. I’m always looking for recommendations!
***
List of activities: http://www.stolensharpierevolution.org/international-zine-month/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/internationalzinemonth/
Others Joining In :
*Echo Publishing – https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
*Feral Publications – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dA2HTUon0
*You?
Hello, zine friends! Today is the day that I take on the prompt that I knew I wouldn’t be able to take on last night. And I still underestimated the time and energy it would take to do it. Ooph!
Yesterday’s Prompt:
Organise your zine collection
I must admit that I’ve known this was coming for a while but was still avoiding it a bit. Haha. I knew I had a lot of zines, but it was easy to bliss over that with them all in the one box…
But then I spread them out on the table to start organising them.
Looking at the pictures, I wish I would have counted them. I felt a bit overwhelemed with the massive pile on the table. Where would I start? But then I started noticing zines I hadn’t looked at for a while that I loved and zines that reminded me of zine events. Soon enough I started putting them in the cello bags I picked up months and months ago (told you I was avoiding it!).
The first hiccup in my plan came with zines that were too big (usually too wide) to fit into the bags. They got their own separate pile.
The second hiccup came in the form that, while I got a lot of my zines organised, I didn’t get everything organised.
I ended up with quite a few zines that I had to pop right back into the box – but don’t get me wrong: I’m certainly not complaining about having a lot of zines! (Nevernevernevernever.) I’m happy to have organised what I could, but I was left feeling less than great because… I don’t actually like this way of organising zines. I have a lot of zines from some people, which made some bags bulk out quite a bit.
I’m also concerned about getting in and out of all the bags. I reference zines all the time. Making them easier to find is an obvious good thing. But the somewhat fragile looking cello bags has me concerned about ripping bags. Especially if I’m grabbing some of the heavier ones.
Alas, trying to figure out the best system for a big zine collection is a problem I certainly don’t mind having. It may just be a while before I find the ideal solution for me.
That being said – how do you organise your zines? I’d love to see pictures!
***
List of activities: http://www.stolensharpierevolution.org/international-zine-month/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/internationalzinemonth/
Others Joining In :
*Echo Publishing – https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
*Feral Publications – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dA2HTUon0
*You?
Small Potatoes #4
Keira
https://www.instagram.com/k.huolohan/
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/ZinesByKeira
Small Potatoes 4 is an A6 black and white perzine on cream paper about anxiety, work, and a lot more.
I’m in a chatty mood, zine friends, and there are a lot of things I enjoyed about the latest instalment of Small Potatoes.
Small Potatoes 4 opens with an introduction about little things we do even if we can’t remember the reason why we do them, Keira’s pride in finishing the zine, and the struggle to finish it while spoons were scarce (their energy was low). I identified so much with it being easier to write things happening in your life down and “just hand[ing] people the zine and hop[ing] they understand.”
This intro – and the updates on things they wrote about in previous issues – really epitomise while I like reading a while series. I adore reading about how people grow and change over the course of a zine series. This intro reads like Keira is becoming more comfortable with sharing their thoughts on paper. They also invite readers to respond and share about a zine they are making (one I’m contributing to!).
Keira writes about anxiety and medications, shares drawings and poetry, gives a driving update (congratulations on passing your driving test!), and more. They actually opened up the zine to suggestions for what to write about in this issue, and they wrote about why and how they give – my suggestion! I’d actually forgotten that I’d made the suggestion, so it was a great surprise. As someone who has experienced their generosity, it was interesting to read about their background and thoughts on giving.
In ‘Retail Work is Real Work’ Keira writes about how people abuse retail workers and make judgements about what ‘real’ work is. (Hint: These people don’t consider retail work ‘real’ work.) I’m always sad to hear about people treating other people badly, but I was impressed how Keira got angry but also fought with facts. The main fact being that there aren’t enough jobs to go around in Australia full shop.
I have a lot of love for this and the series. The variety of subjects, art, and poetry make for unexpected surprises in each issue. It’s easy to read with a clear font and contact details. There’s a lot to enjoy. Check it out.
PS. I love the subtitle.
Hello, zine friends! After a run in with a Greenpeace ‘volunteer’ who didn’t want to take no for an answer, all plans for yesterday fell aside. I was shaken up and emotionally spent, so today I’m back to catching up. The best laid plans, eh?
At least today we get to talk a bit about something I know a thing or two about. 🙂
Yesterday’s prompt:
Send your zine out for review
I feel a little awkward talking about the importance of zine reviews when I review them. Still, I think reviews are important. In a world where entertainment is easy to access and there is always noise coming from multiple directions, it can be hard to get word out about your zine. Especially when zines have roots that go against the corporate, the mainstream, and the ‘easy sell’.
Whenever someone lets me know that they found a zine they enjoyed through my reviews or someone found their zine through my reviews, it makes me feel like I’m really putting some good out into the world.
I always say that to receive mail, you must send it, and I feel like it’s a fair thing to say that if I review zines, I should send mine out for review as well.
My zines have been reviewed a couple times here and there, but I do need to make an effort to send them out more often. With that in mind, I will be sending along a zine or two to Five O’Clock Zine Reviews
Craig reviews zines in short videos on Instagram. I admire how he reviews zines nearly every day as well as being able to sum up things in one or two videos! (A marvel to my long-winded self. Haha!)
Are you sending your zine/s out for review? Have you been reviewed? I have a few zine reviewers listed on the Resources page – am I missing any of your favourites?
Let me know in the comments!
The prompt for today is a bit of a big one, so I’m going to leave that one for tomorrow. Until then!
***
List of activities: http://www.stolensharpierevolution.org/international-zine-month/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/internationalzinemonth/
Others Joining In :
*Echo Publishing – https://echopublishing.wordpress.com
*Feral Publications – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dA2HTUon0
*You?