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Help Save Wasted Ink Zine Distro

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXQ0-Ewr9uU&w=560&h=315]
Read more on the Go Fund Me page

Detailed Information on Closure by Charissa:

“It’s with a heavy heart that I announce this news. I’m closing the storefront of Wasted Ink Zine Distro at The Hive.

I was given less than 24-hour notice that construction would be taking place in my store. I informed the owner I was disabled and needed more time to get help moving items. She assured me I would have a week to move my items but the construction took place the next day which resulted in paint splatter on my furniture, broken furniture items and decor items, and a thick film of dirt and grime on many of my zines. I’m still assessing the damage of my property and merchandise and will be contacting creators.

Additionally, I was told my rent would increase 25% and after nine months of financial difficulty due to the pandemic, that rent increase isn’t feasible for me.

I want to thank the community for providing such support in the last 5 years and please know this isn’t the end, just a change of plans for Wasted Ink. May we celebrate the wonderful art events, poetry readings, and conversations that took place inside our space at The Hive. Our online store will remain live and we will be looking for a new location when COVID-19 has eased next year.”

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Zine Review: Zines as Therapy

Zines as Therapy
October Stoner
https://www.stonerzines.com/https://www.instagram.com/stonerzines/

Zines as Therapy is a full-colour US-sized half-fold zine about the important and therapeutic role zines can play in someone’s life.

I really appreciated October opening this zine with making it clear that Zines as Therapy isn’t advocating zines as a complete replacement to therapy. Therapy can be an important tool for some people, and having more tools from which to choose is a good thing. Which is also why I love that someone made a zine on this topic.

Zines as Therapy opens with October writing about the importance of zines in sharing lesser known experiences as well as how zines can offer candid perspectives on these experiences. They can be used to share types of therapy (very valuable for those with little or no access to adequate therapy), share tips, as art therapy and more.

October also writes about creating zines as a way to process anger, and that certainly gave me a few zine ideas.

The zine has typed text on light colourful backgrounds, making it easy to read as well as pleasant to look at.

I quite enjoyed this zine. A zine about zines (love) with a therapy focus. What’s not to love? October’s writing style is direct while also adding in perzine/personal content that makes it feel even more relateable.

This is a good zine, and I’d definitely include it as a part of an “Intro to Zines” pack for someone.

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Zine Review: Electron Libre 1

Electron Libre 1
Izalixe Straightheart
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/IzArt
https://www.youtube.com/user/izalixe

Electron Libre 1 is a black on coloured paper US ½-fold size perzine about a variety of topics as well as various media recommendations.

Full disclosure: My podcast – The Zine Collector – is recommended in this zine. (Thank you!)

Electron Libre 1 opends with a nice inner cover information page (links, socials, etc) before Izalixe shares an introductory piece about the initial shock of – and later, adjustment to – restrictions in a pandemic world. Izalixe’s concepts of home, life, and self took on a new light in a new world.

From there, Izalixe writes about changing the zien series name from ‘The Happy Loner’ to ‘Electron Libre’ as well as the deeper meanings behind both titles. (I love the whole concept behind ‘free electron’.) There are also pieces on getting through the pandemic world a bit better, reviews on various media, how sentiments without action often aren’t enough with the current state of the world, a stack of podcast recommendations, and more.

Toward the beginning of this zine, Izalixe mentions admiring sinemakers who stick to one theme in a zine. There’s even a subtitle to this zine – ‘homecomings’ – that Izalixe ties into the opening pieces. While I admire themed zines as well, I equally enjoy the variety that is in Electron Libre. The zine has serious, thoughtful pieces balanced out by the ‘sharing for the joy of sharing’ reviews and recommendations pieces.

Izalixe has an interesting energy that really comes through in their writing. I quite enjoyed it. Yes, there were a couple of pieces I couldn’t read because I don’t know French. That said, I still felt quite at home and am quite excited to have so many new things to have a look at.

This is definitely a zine to check out.

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Done, Doing, Dreaming

Hello and a happy mid week to you all from the somewhat steamy land of Oz. (Humidity. Ew.) Times are busy here in the zine cave, and it feels good to be so. What have I been up to?

Done

*Happy Mail Monday is done and posted! I mean, yes, you saw that Monday, but I’m so happy. Partly to start getting back to some sort of normalcy but also because, yes, it means the computer has arrived! I’m still setting it up, but it’s been brilliant so far. It’s been nearly a decade since I updated anything, so everything is working smoother and faster.

Doing

*Resting… sort of. Resting isn’t really a strength of mine, but I’d still say I’m mostly recovered from the whole kidney stone thing, thank goodness. Those things can cause so much trouble, and I’m lucky mine passed without any lasting damage.

*Zine reviews! I’m still very behind, but I’m starting to get ahead. I also still want to do some… something so I’m posting more of them to catch up. People have been amazingly patient.

*SGZ Pages – I think the pages here on the blog could use some updating. I know links to other zine spaces and places could use updating, so if you are a zinemaker, have a zine shop, run a zine related page or blog – please let me know because I’d love to add you to the list.

*Review Index – This hasn’t been updated in way too long, so I’ll be working on updating it and making sure all of the links work.

*Distro! This definitely needs to be rebuilt, and soon. I’ve taken way too long.

Dreaming

*Button machine! Thanks to the awesomeness of True Zine Marin, Sea Green Zines now has a button machine. I’m so excited and have so many dreams of different buttons I can make. I need to get the swing of the machine going by my first buttons, but there may be some SGZ-made buttons coming to my shops soon.

*I’m still dreaming of finishing up Phenomena 2, Workaholic 2, Dear Anonymous 9, and Dear Anonymous 10. I thought I’d be able to finish them before the end of the year, but, at this point, I really have no idea. I’m trying to get as much as possible done each day.

*I’m dreaming of a few new personal zines as well as some things to add to the YouTube channel… but they are all definitely well within dreaming territory for now.

**************

Upward and onward right? I have more plans starting to bubble to the surface as I start to get organised. I want to build things in a say that will let me be as consistent as possible, so I’m taking it slowly.

Until next time, spread a little sunshine.

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Happy Mail Monday – Much Delayed Edition

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8BRC9nRrb0&w=560&h=315]

Hello, hello, hello! After a lot of kerfuffle and waiting, I am finally able to make videos again! This is the video that should have gone up in November. It feels good to be back!

Thank you so much for watching.

***
Awesome People/Places/Spaces Mentioned:

*Adrian/Shadree – https://www.instagram.com/shadreesden/
** https://www.deviantart.com/shadree

*Hannah Williams – https://www.instagram.com/hrw7005/
** https://hwilliamswrites.com/

*“Doubt and the Artist” Podcast – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNpMaUu4Wxg

*Sometimes People Don’t Suck Review – https://seagreenzines.com/mini-zine-review-sometimes-people-dont-suck-1-2-3/

*Feral Publication – https://www.instagram.com/feralpublication/

*Feral Comics – https://feralpublicationzines.bigcartel.com/

*Kendy MissMuffcake – https://linktr.ee/Missmuffcake

*Zappix Art – https://linktr.ee/zappixart

*Hadass – https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
** https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/PMSmess

***

My PO Box:

Nyx
PO Box 378
Murray Bridge, SA 5253
Australia

***

You Can Find Me At:

seagreenzines@gmail.com

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/seagreenzines

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Zine Review: Alternative Incite No. 1

Alternative Incite No. 1: Follow the Creative Impulse
Joe3 Et al.
https://butter-lamb.com/

Alternative Incite No 1 is a slightly wider than A5 black and white collection of photography and written pieces on a number of subjects.

Alternative Incite opens with a piece about censorship and taboo words: “Introduction: Jesus Christ and Jeepers Creepers”. Talk about an excellent opening for someone like me (cue a The F Word zine reference here haha). The piece is well argues and works back into the title as well as themes of not being mainstream and creativity for creativity’s sake.

From there we have photography and more written pieces primarily created by Joe3. Other pieces include reactions to articles Joe3 has read, a piece on the changing societal views through a generational eye by J. Matthew Smith, an interview with Suvo Sur, and more.

What an intriguing zine! If you want a zine with pieces that will get your mind turning, this is one to check out. I found myself going slower and slower while reading (a good thing) and pausing here and there to contemplate the thoughts and opinions presented as well as my own. The pieces touch on many different topics, but they all have a ‘world view’ kind of feel to some extent.

I found the overall voice of the zine to be intelligent and well-written without getting too ‘heavy’ or ‘dense’. The ‘Dear Butter Lamb’ section with letters from readers even made me smile with the answers using references from different dictionaries. (Have I mentioned that I think it’s cool that Joe3 collects dictionaries?)

All up, I enjoyed this zine quite a lot. Even better? This is the first of a new series. I hope it continues for many more and includes the elements Joe3 mentions wanting to include.

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Done, Doing, Dreaming

Hello, zine friends!

I had been a while since I have done one of these, but I wanted to let you know things are still happening in the zine cave while I’m waiting for other things. To be frank, I’m a bit overwhelmed with how chaotic and out of sorts everything feels right now. But it all comes down to one step at a time.

Done

*The November Missive is complete. I was delayed by health issues, and then some printing issues cropped up (surprise, surprise), but I finally have them printed and folded. They will be going out this week.

*2021 Planner – I wasn’t planning on making a planner, funnily enough, but I got it into my head and put one together. I’m now all prepared to roll into the new year and start pre-posting all rolling calls for submissions, regular calls, shout outs about various spaces and places, and more.

*The next Happy Mail Monday is done… I’m just waiting on the ability to export it.

Doing

*I have a lot of zines to review. There’s no two ways about it, really. There is a stack, and I’m making more time to read and review them. I’m also thinking about ways to maybe post more than two reviews a week at certain points so all the wonderful, patient people who have been waiting can finally be reviewed.

*Resting. Yep, I’m adding this to the list to remind everyone (especially myself) that rest is an important thing. It looks like I had a kidney stone, and I need to give my body time to heal. Luckily, I have plenty of reading material for the quieter times. 😉

Dreaming

*I am hoping very, very hard that my new computer will arrive this week so I can get back to Happy Mail Monday, other videos, and more projects. My current machine is steadily getting worse, so the new one should arrive just in time.

*I’m still dreaming of finishing up Phenomena 2, Workaholic 2, Dear Anonymous 9, and Dear Anonymous 10. I thought I’d be able to finish them before the end of the year, but, at this point, I really have no idea. I’m trying to get as much as possible done each day.

*I’m dreaming of a few new personal zines as well as some things to add to the YouTube channel… but they are all definitely well within dreaming territory for now.

**************

There we are, dear friends. I wish I had more to put here, but we all know how this year has been.

Upward and onward. Head up. Until next time… spread a little sunshine.

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Zine Review: Isolation Resurrect

Isolation Resurrect
True Zine Marin
https://www.instagram.com/truezinemarin/
https://www.instagram.com/shellbobmv/

Isolation Resurrect is a full-colour, a bit wider than A5 collage zine.

Collage is a lot like poetry for me: I know what I like, but explaining why I like it is difficult.

Set on maps as backgrounds, Isolation Resurrect features collages made from cut out paper elements, mail-related bits, stickers, and more. There are few words in this colourful collection (those used having impact) but plenty to pour over visually from page to page.

Using the title as the base, I really picked up on the quarantine/isolation feelings from this zine. Using the maps as backgrounds is an excellent choice and visually represents huge part of the change of view in our new world. Travel, going places, road trips… They’re all different. The same goes for the collages on top. The importance of mail, filling up one’s time…

What really makes the tone stick for me is the distinct glimpses of the darker side of these times as well. A few words and a few images make a big impact.

My favourite page is a tough call in this, but I really love this quote:

“Be welcome to and offer help as we are healed by it”

Isolation Resurrect is an interesting collage zine that made me feel and made me thing. All said and done, that’s always the goal with art. Definitely a keeper for me.