Death
Wesley Sueker
16 Pages
https://www.youtube.com/c/TwentyTwoZines
https://linktr.ee/twentytwozines
Death is an 18.5x11cm sized black and white zine in Wesley’s Drawing Room Tarot series that explores the meaning and implications of the card as well as adding perzine elements from Wesley’s life that relate to the card.
We open from a quote from Mark Twain about Death the immortal and its equal treatment of us all. Quite the opening, and quite the quote. From there, we read an introduction to the Death card and why it in particular can bring up conflicted feelings if not negative assumptions about the meaning of the card. The Death card may include but also can often go beyond the literal meaning and interpretation, and Wesley does a great job of explaining that.
We also read about how the Death card and its various meanings have applied through their life, Death within the structure of the major arcana, tarot in the musical Carmen, and much more. I also absolutely must mention that there is a resource section for further reading about tarot because I do so love a resource section.
Wesley’s writing style is just plain awesome. They write in a way that is welcoming and intelligent without presuming that the reader has any particular level of familiarity with tarot. They write about their life in an acknowledging and contemplative way and put personality into the more educational parts so you feel like you’re reading something from a friend rather than a textbook.
The physical format of these zines is one of the reasons that I say the physical aspects of a zine are part of the reviewing experiences. (Though I would have enjoyed a digital version as well.) This zine is sized not in your usual half or quarter sizes but rather like a tarot card with that extra length to the width. This detail tickled me and gave me a big smile throughout reading it.
Adding onto that, Wesley’s art style is just plain awesome. I love all the elements Wesley incorporated in their Death card and found myself interpreting everything from one hand letting go of another and the other holding on to the roses beneath. There’s so much more to the Death card than the assumed ‘it’s a bad card’, and Wesley really captures it all in so many symbolic details. Even better? The symbolism choices are laid out and explained in the zine itself.
Regardless of whether you’re ‘into’ tarot or not, I think you would enjoy this zine. There is so much about the symbolism of the Death card that relates so much to life and how we live it that it goes far beyond the study of the card itself. There’s a lot to get from this zine. Definitely one to pick up.
