A Guide to Letter Writing
Jane Cantwell
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AdventuresinKindness
#luckyjarzines

I got this, A History of Abandoned Hobbies, A Guide to Being Cool, and A Guide to Op Shopping as a lovely little bundle.*

I’ve been writing letters since I was a kid, so I don’t exactly need help in that department, but I do like having ‘sets’ of zines, so…

A Guide to Letter Writing is a beautifully bright full-coloured, A7-sized mini-zine. I love all the beautiful colours in this zine. It makes the whole thing more fun and nice to look at. Another pleasant surprise to be found inside was that, instead of list of tips and tricks, it’s set up like magnet poetry words on a fridge. Each page has a header (like “How to Decorate a Letter”) with the typed suggestions all pasted in at different angles below.

Very fun.

*The links will only begin working as the other reviews are posted.

Things I Know About Cooking and Not Eating Animals
Shit and Sundries
http://universalwastelandpirate.tumblr.com/

I’m not anywhere near to being vegetarian or vegan so I have to admit that I was wondering if I would really get anything out of Things I Know About Cooking and Not Eating Animals. As it turns out, I did.

I love that S&S starts off with a funny, ‘keepin’ it real’ confession about her beginnings in becoming a vegetarian. I’m not here to judge anyone’s reasons behind their life choices, but admitting that it came from something silly makes the zine more relate-able. When you’re talking about potentially sensitive subjects, a bit of humour can definitely help.

There’s a bit of most things I think you’d expect to see in this zine. There are things she wishes she’d cooked with sooner, recipes, how to re-hydrate dried beans, and more. It certainly introduced me to some things that I’d never even heard of before (textured vegetable protein, anyone?). Plus, just because I’m not a vegetarian, it doesn’t mean I don’t love my beans and own a dehydrator.

There’s a blank page in the back for ‘notes and stuff’ that I think is cool. I’ve never seen a notes page in a zine before. That may be for obvious reasons, but I like seeing new and different things in zines.

All up, it might not be quite my thing, but it was a good zine in the subject that taught me things without preaching to me.

Fuck Fame
http://www.missionminicomix.com/

Fuck Fame is an A7-sized mini-zine that calls to task the privilege granted by popularity – specifically within the band/punk scene.

This is what I love to see in a mini-zine – especially mini-zines made out of a single piece of paper. Just because you don’t have a lot of space doesn’t mean you can’t still have a lot of content. Fuck Fame is a well done comic zine with excellent, surprisingly detailed art, clear handwriting, and a message that needs to be heard.

I very nearly missed the URL in there, but they placed it well. Haha. Excellent use of space.

A Guide to Op Shopping
Jane Cantwell
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AdventuresinKindness
#luckyjarzines

I got this, A History of Abandoned Hobbies, A Guide to Letter Writing, and A Guide to Being Cool as a lovely little bundle.*

A Guide to Op Shopping is an A7-sized zine in full colour with maps as backgrounds. (Love it.) You definitely get the sense that Jane is a serious op shopper and likes to hunt down a bargain. I’m not much of an op shopper myself, but her zine (and my wallet) make me feel like I should really get into it.

Though I am familiar with op shopping, I did learn something in that I didn’t know a student card could possibly get you discounts. That’s definitely good to know.

The little note on the back (I won’t spoil it) made me smile and wrapped up the whole thing nicely.

*The links will only begin working as the other reviews are posted.