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Happy Mail Monday – Post-Fever Edition

Hello, zine friends! Welcome back to the blog.

Thank you all for bearing with me. An intense flu/flu-like thing knocked me off my feet Sunday night, and I spent Monday and Tuesday trying desperately to break the fever I had. I’m slowly getting steadier on my feet again, and the fever seems to be gone for good, so onward and upward!

(My brain is still partially melted, though, so don’t be shy about getting in contact about any emails, calls for subs, or anything else I may need reminding about.)

Before I get into the mail, I wanted to say that I hope everyone who attended ZICS Aus over the weekend had an excellent time.

Now for mail!

The first lovely bit of zine mail came from Meeni Levi all the way in Belgium! The zines actually came in a secure little plastic sleeve to protect it from the rigors of international travel. ^_^ We must protect the zines! And did you notice the title of the mini-zine? “Conversation Falafels”. Hehe! You all make it so difficult for me to get anything done because I want to check out your zines straight away!

I had to take a picture of the very, very cool wax seal Meeni put on the envelope. I’ve seen pictures and the like of seals and such, but I think this is either the first time or the first in a long time that I’ve been able to check one out up close. I think I may need to add a wax seal into my bag of happy mail goodies. This looks so cool!

Thank you, Meeni, for trading with me!

Squee! Happy mail from Brazil, and with cute cat sketches, too! And so many stamps!

You may recall Henry and Fafa Jeapelt who generously decided to give me a chance and sent me Catzine 1 and Bluez despite the fact that they are in Portuguese – a language I’m not familiar with. I am so excited to see Catzine 2 as well as a wooden bookmark and a super, super cute drawing of a cat by Fafa!

Thank you so, so much!

That is mail for today my friends. Thank you all again for bearing with me during confusing times (confusing enough with the move let alone with a sudden flu thrown in). Barring any relapse, I will be back tomorrow with a fresh new zine review for you. Big hugs!

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Zine Review: If You Hate Someone… You Hate Someone

If You Hate Someone… You Hate Someone
http://jeepneyzines.tictail.com/
notyourleo@outlook.com

If You Hate Someone… You Hate Someone is a black and white handwritten zine about language, relationships, and the question: Are hurtful words turning romantic?

I’ve been sitting here for a while now trying to figure out how to get into this review, but my head is still filled with everything I’ve just read. I should learn to simply not have expectations with any zines because this zine certainly went in a different direction than I thought it would. What started out as a rant turned into a real ‘lightbulb’ sort of zine for me, making me think about things in a new light.

Inspired by people ‘shipping’ Resident Evil 7’s “protagonist and the game’s next door asshole”, the zinemaker asks:

“Are we normalising loathing in healthy relationships?”

They start off talking about tired of people deciding that two men who hate each other ‘obviously’ must really be in love with each other. The concern (amongst many) in this is that it’s taking nasty words and phrases thrown at each other as some sort of secret, disgusting love language and how that is playing out in society with hurtful words becoming normalised.

I like the clarification of the difference between liking the ‘enemies to friends to lovers’ trope and the ‘they hate each other so they must love each other’ thing that the zinemaker is talking about. Furthermore, there is the clarification that this isn’t about abusive relationships either – even though, when it comes to this topic, they are muddier waters to navigate.

They go on to point out the societal implications of indulging what some would argue is an ‘innocent fiction’ and how it’s not just simple or fun. How these sorts of things tend to leak into behaviour and normalise it.

Who hasn’t heard ‘if a boy hits a girl, then he really likes her’?

I do have to point out here that the handwriting is a bit hard to read at times. But I found the subject so interesting that it only slowed me down rather than prevented me from continuing.

If You Hate Someone is a zine that I expected to read casually, but it ended up really making me think a lot about things that I’d simply accepted as how things work. Things that I hadn’t taken the time to think critically about. If anything I’ve described here sounds interesting to you, then definitely check out this zine.

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Zine Review: The Life and Times of Cashed Up Bogans

Terrible Comics Presents: The Life and Times of Cashed Up Bogans
Sober Bob Monthly
IG: @soberbobmonthly

There’s a saying in Australia – “not happy, Jan” – that sums of feelings of extreme annoyance. That saying came to mind when I read this comic zine. Sober Bob isn’t happy, Jan, and she’s not about to hold back on what she thinks.

Cashed Up Bogans is a full colour comic of cynical musings about modern so-called ‘middle class’ life and the dredges of suburban humanity. Each page has its own multi-panel comic featuring the hypocrises and shallowness that turn people into full-time cynics.

‘Draw Your Favourite Bogan*’ – a spot on the inside front cover – made me laugh out loud. But when it came to the comic about real estate… Well, after spending the past two years or so learning about the annoyances, discrimination, and outright BS in that system, I felt annoyed all over again.

Even though I’m a ‘why can’t we all just be a bit nicer to each other’ kind of woman, I fell right into this zine. I totally understood why Sober Bob made this zine, and I know a fair few friends of mine who would enjoy it as much as I have.

I feel like Cashed Up Bogans is a combination of rant, dark humour, and completely taking the piss out of common culture. Because, in the end, they are jokes (even if they have teeth). I definitely want to see more of the terrible comics series.

If you like to take a dark poke at humanity – more specifically the suburban class – then this zine is one to check out.

*Bogan is more or less the Australian equivalent of the US redneck mixed with the stereotypical trailer trash.

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New Levels of Exhaustion

Hello, wonderful zine fans!

My apologies for leaving the blog so quiet this week, but it’s for good reason!

We have keys, my friends! Keys to the new post box!

Wanderer and I were up before dawn on Monday to drive the six hours to Murray Bridge. We, of course, couldn’t resist and took a peek at the new place, but it was all business after that as we ran around gathering paperwork, so on and so forth.

Early to bed, early to rise again Tuesday with our house inspection Tuesday morning before the six hour drive back. (The house is gorgeous, but I won’t bore you with the details.)

So I am thoroughly exhausted, but I will be very excited to show you the new space for Sea Green Zines in just a couple weeks!

I apologise if this is a bit all over the place. I am still incredibly tired and my to-do list is huge – including zine-y goodness. I am literally unable to relax when there’s so much to do and two weeks left to do it in, but this too shall pass.

There are new zines to come, the new address to come, and more posts to come. And better writing if I can finally get a good night’s sleep. 😉

(We found a place that does amazing onion rings. More positives for the move.)