Zine Review: Doris 26

Doris 26
Cindy Crabb
http://www.dorisdorisdoris.com/

Doris 26 is a black and white (save for the cover) perzine that is, well, hard to describe. It’s about life, hope, society, and living. More specifically, it’s about the state of people and their desire for meaning, social ecology, the stories we tell ourselves and more.

I’ve been a fan of the Doris series since I first started reading them – thanks to a number of recommendations on a WMZ thread. Right from the unrelated snippets on the first page, I am sucked into the life of this person whose use of language and way of doing things is so different from mine.

I quite enjoy the aesthetics of this zine. I feel like I’m reading someone’s diary or looking through a junk journal (if you’re not familiar with the term ‘junk’ is not an insult). There’s a fun and seemingly unplanned mix of typing and handwriting, cut and paste and drawn comics.

Reading Doris zines is like a reminder to myself that I am too uptight. While that may sound bad, I look at it as Cindy’s writing style relaxing my mind while simultaneously giving me interesting concepts to think about. There are so many times as I am reading when I note down something I want to look into further or think, “That’s exactly how I feel!” (Page 1: “I’ve been trying to figure out how to get over the lifelong problem I’ve had where I think I don’t know anything about anything…” – This!)

Admittedly, I didn’t understand everything. Cindy’s life experiences are so different from mine, but that’s probably why I found everything so fascinating. Some of the social ecology stuff did go over (way over) my head, but what I did understand was very interesting to me. Also, what I did understand has inspired me to keep learning to I can understand the other stuff.

The seeming randomness of this zine is beautiful to me. It speaks to sharing for the sake of sharing and nothing else.

I think that anyone who has an interest in zines should read at least one Doris zine. I think 26 is a great place to start with plenty of it being about people and currency society.