Sober Bob Supplementary
Sober Bob
http://soberbobmonthly.bigcartel.com/
@soberbobmonthly

I must admit that this zine review is partly fuelled by my enjoyment from watching @soberbobmonthly ‘Your Story’ videos on Instagram… That and my immense love for garlic dill pickles.

Sober Bob Supplementary is a single-page, quarter folded zine about the places we live in, restoration, and the backward “logic” of local councils. It’s about work, people, unemployment, and it always being okay to make zines. All on one double-sided page.

(As someone who lives in a place that cares more about historical renovation rules rather than actual historic buildings, those parts resonated a lot with me.)

My favourite part in this is this quote:

…it’s a worthless to a job but not worthless to me…

That really sums up a lot of passion pursuits, doesn’t it? It sums up so much of what’s wrong with society and what’s right with individuals. It reminded me that my art only needs to be important to one person.

I feel like I’m really getting back to basics when it comes to my love for zines, and this zine is a good example of that. It’s one piece of paper folded twice, and I feel like Sober Bob uses that in the best way. There’s the 1/4 front and back covers, a half page, and then the inside, which is the unfolded full page.

You might not be impressed with a single folded piece of paper, but I appreciate the variety in page size as well as direction. For me, it touches the fun creativity of zines in tense times – even within the zine community.

This is another one of those zines that I wish my friends would make. Random or not so random thoughts paired with whatever their art looks like. Whatever makes them happy – because that makes me happy.

killing spiders & other words in spring
s. rivka m.
IG: @s.rivka.m

killing spiders & other words in spring is a zine filled with imagery, colour, prose, and poetry. On the first page, there is a brief description:

pieces from scratch or prompts given in a course conducted by tomas moniz

I have to admit that I am very drawn in by layout and those sorts of details, so this zine caught my attention straight away by having no white margins on the cover or the interior pages. Immediately I began to wonder how it was made, whether there are still to-the-edge printing options out there or whether, perhaps, s. rivka m. sat and trimmed all the edges off all copies of this zine.

All the pages are cardstock with full colour cut and paste images that almost but not quite take precedence over the text set upon them.

My favourite piece is the first: To my nineteen-year-old self. Maybe it’s because I’m now thirty or because I identified so well with things like ‘by twenty-six, you’re practically thirty’. Either way, it was both nostalgic and inspiring for me.

There are no contact/further reading details in this zine other than the creator’s name. I always remember that there can be reasons for doing this, but I also always mention it when it happens. Never assume people won’t want to see more of your work. ^_^ (To which I respond to myself: never assume that everyone wants to be found.)

There’s something about this zine as a whole – the cardstock all the way through, no white margins, saddle stitching, cut and past style – that makes me feel like I’m holding a piece of art as much as I am holding a zine. I liked reading the words, but I also like to flip through. I admit that I’ve had this zine for a long while, but in the time, I have taken this zine out and flipped through the pages to take in the colour choices, text placement, and the like more times than I can count.

I don’t have other zines by s. rivka m., but I get the feeling that they have already found their style, their way of doing things – whether they’ve realised it or not.

(PS. This zine made me realise that in the past I may have been capitalising titles that the creators didn’t want capitalised. It’s a force of habit, but I’ll do my best to put in the titles exactly as they are in the future. Apologies if this annoyed or offended anyone.)