For the love of zines <3
Double points if you know where that quote is from…
Instead of posting one of those ‘oh, I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while’ things that no one likes, I’m just going to say, ‘Hey! Still around!’
I’ve done a smidge of updating here with new pages up top and a new link in the side. If I know you (in any way, really, even through ‘we make zines’) and you think I need to have your link in my sidebar, let me know.
More reviews, news and purple mouse coming up soon.
Dear Anonymous 2 is on its way and I’m once again looking for letters!
Lessons learned from DA1:
*250 words or less is good (for one page)
*500 words or less is good (for two pages)
So, basically, you’re right in the 1 – 500 words range, but shorter is better. BUT, this blog is about expression, and I don’t want to force anyone to clamp down on their passion just for me. I’m flexible. 🙂
As for content, these letters can be confessionals, but they can also be whatever you like them to be. Write to your life, write to your cat, write to your past or your future… Dear Anonymous is about writing the letters of the things you can’t say for whatever reason.
Send letters to theauthor at inkyblots.com
All contributors will receive a copy.
I was thinking about the other times I’ve mentioned other people’s zines that I have bought/received here, and it seemed to me like they were mini-reviews. Nothing flash, just a bit and bob and a link to buy.
So I’m thinking I should keep up with that, eh?
I went to Sticky Institute in Melbourne a little while ago, but I’m only just getting to talk about my gloooorious purchases. (Okay, it was hot, I was nervous, and I had somewhere to be – but it was still glorious!)
I can’t seem to find all the zines I bought there on the Sticky, but I’ll put up whatever buy links I find.
I bought this zine for my bloke in my effort to convert him to the zine side. We’re a bit ‘into’ conspiracies, so none of what was in the zine was new to us, but it is CC #1 and I imagine it would be a good introduction for people who aren’t as familiar. The few typos were a bit distracting just because my mind works like that, but I wouldn’t say that was a reason not to get it.
I always find it amusing when I ‘just so happen’ to stumble across something that is so much bigger than I first thought it to be.
This is a zine I got purely because it looked interesting and different. I say ‘got’ because, unknown to me, this is a free zine that had been appearing in Melbourne for years. Read the description on the sell page because it’ll do a better job, but this was a letter in a paper bag. The letter was beautiful and somehow strange. I’m glad I got it, though. I am thinking about saving for the anthology (also on the linked page).
This zine wins the award for first zine to make me laugh out loud. This zine is a tongue-in-cheek guide to writing your bodice-ripper romance novel which, frankly, is a guide in writing the worst kind of romance possible. With quotes like “But make certain to never choose names that reek of boganess (‘Tayla’, for example). If you do you quash your chances of achieving an educated audience while undermining the aspirational delusions of bogan readers everywhere…”, you’re not going to get much better. Highly entertaining even on second and third reads.
So simple yet so funny! I absolutely love this zine. The beauty comes in its simplicity and just goes to show that zines can be about anything. I just have to wonder how the creator ever thought of rhyming couplets for zombie survival instructions. Haha. Love it.
I am so happy to have finished my first zines and have them out there in the world. Today I sent out a stack of envelopes to contributors, trades and some surprises for sendsomething.net. Both are available at my etsy shop, but I think most of this first print run will go on trades and such. Haha. I don’t mind that at all. I need to stock up my zine collection!
I’m in that weird moment now where I’m thinking ‘what’s next…?’ as far as my next zine goes. I’ll put a formal call for submissions for Dear Anonymous V2 soon, but I’d like to work on something else as well.
But, until I decide what’s what, pictures!
Purple moose loves Guinness and The Perfect Pocket Guinness Guide.
I’m running late with a heap of things (including updates here), but I do have a quick announcement:
I have an etsy shop! Woo hoo!
My etsy shop: OzButterfly
We’re heading off to Sticky Institute in Melbourne (amongst other places) in mere minutes! Purple moose is coming along for the fun and I have heaps to talk about and will have heaps of pictures when we’re back.
This is a page I finished that is simple, but I love it. It’s less serious than a lot of the letters.
I didn’t get to work on things last night because puppy – by accident – sunk his tooth into my thumb. It seems find today, though, so if I can just get the scanner working, I should be right to go for sending volume one out next week.
I already have letters for volume two, so keep sending those letters in! Volume two is probably going to be done on the computer instead of being handwritten like this one. Mostly to save time and because my mad drawing skillz are severly lacking.
More mailbox goodness! I’m thinking of having a change jar that I will use for buying up zines. I love them all so far and I like supporting zine makers. That’s a thought for another time. Zines!
This zine was definitely a ‘softy’ buy in that firsts are very close to my heart. When I first moved to Australia, taking in and experiencing as many ‘firsts’ as I could became my mission; a mission that led to me trying many things I would not have tried otherwise. I really liked the cute art and the uncomplicated subject. I would definitely check out her other work.
If there was ever a zine that I thought I needed to have to get started in the zine world, it’s this one. With it’s own ISBN and awesome binding, it’s more like a small book than a zine. But it’s a sort of zine-topia in all the information it holds. From thoughts on layouts to an index of distros and zine events (worldwide!), Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 is definitely a must have, in my opinion.
This is also one of those cases where I wish I would have looked at everything in the shop before making my purchase because they have so much awesome stuff in addition to zines! Check it out.
This is the original cover for Dear Anonymous when I first started putting it together. At that point, I’d only received a few short letters, so they all fit in perfectly. However, I received one longer letter and rather have to force that person to severely edit the letter, I decided it would be better overall (especially because I want this to be a series) to move from a mini-zine (one page folded up) to a half-fold zine.
Ta-da.
It’s not as cute as the other one, but I’m really not that great of an artist so computer printing is a good thing. This is not the final product (as you may have guessed from my handwriting on it), but it’s pretty close. And it’s green! (Inspiration for the title of this blog, anyone?)
Not only does computer printing the cover (well, most of it) make it easier on me, but it will make it cheaper in the end. This first volume has all colour pages which is going to make copying expensive, but I wanted my first one to be exactly the way I wanted it. We’ll see where the next one takes me.
I am still looking for letters, so leave a comment if you’d like to take part. If you’re not comfortable with that, it’s all good. I’ll have a dedicated email for zine things as soon as I sort out whether I want to make this a .com or not.
Purple moose says, “Dot com!” But purple moose doesn’t have to pay any bills, so we’ll see.
If there is anything I have learned during my snooping around zine creators and communities is just that; it’s a community! So what better way to start getting to know the community than by buying some zines!
There are plenty of places to get zines for free or for trade, but I like supporting zine makers when and where I can. Etsy is a good place to find quite a variety of zines if you don’t care to join wemakezines.ning.com right now. It’s through Etsy that I bought my first zine that came in the mail. Yay!
Bum buh da dah!
As a maker of awesome peanutellas (peanut butter and nutella bikkies), this zine was a natural buy for me. I love the result, too. The whole thing looks great and I can’t wait to try out the recipes.
I will be featuring each and every zine I receive, trade for, buy, etc here on the blog. So while I don’t have a finished zine for trading at the moment, just let me know in the comments if you are up for a future trade.
The purple moose approves!
Sea Green Zines 