Sunday 31 March 2013

Zine Reviews: March '13


Social Notworking
Sofia Niazi, England – www.sowfia.blogspot.com
A cute little comic zine about the phenomenon of  Social Network Syndrome (SNS), written by imaginary scientist Dr Gustav von Schneider.  In this study, he details the development of SNS, the symptoms (compulsive behaviour, unfounded anxiety, and loss of concentration), experiments, psychotherapy notes, and the 4 distinctive types of SNS sufferers.  Presented as a scientific study, complete with observations and conclusions, this zine is so original and entertaining!

Opinionated Nobody #2
Inside this lovely little perzine, Rebecca writes introspective stories which reveal a great deal about her personal life, including going on a “fat swimming trip” organised by the Yorkshire Rad Fat Collective, her fascination with the Christian Patriarchy Movement, her favourite bed, meeting up with some zinesters at last year’s Little Zine Party, thoughts on religion after studying theology at university, and her love of to-do lists.  Rebecca’s style of writing is nice and easy to read, and I love how it feels you get to know Rebecca well when reading her zines.  I like the layouts too – clean and neat, with handwriting and computer-printed text.  Email or write to Rebecca to grab a copy.

Athemaura #3
Anon, Surrey – http://athemaura.weebly.com/1/category/athemaura/1.html 
A half-sized, horizontal zine with a cool tracing paper cover and messy cut-and-pastey layouts, Athemaura #3 is more personal than previous issues, focusing on details from the author's life.  Inside, we read a long piece about her struggles working with difficult colleagues in her beloved library, which escalated to the point where she had to resign.  She then goes on to discuss the positive things that she has done since, including volunteering with a wildlife project, growing vegetables, and cat-sitting.  We also read about the death of her beautiful dog Jazz (along with a photo – what a cutie!), and some thoughts on bullying in adulthood, and how we should speak out when we witness people being shitty to others.  Though she writes about some upsetting and frustrating experiences (I felt sooo angry when reading about her awful colleagues at the library!), she seems to take a positive approach to it all, encouraging the reader to learn from horrible incidents in their lives, and to be aware of what’s going on around them and help others in need. 

Paper and Ink Vol. 1: Broken Hearts and Broken Bottles
Edited by Martin Appleby, England – http://inpursuitofexpression.blogspot.com
Paper and Ink is a collaborative literary zine featuring short stories and poetry by a selection of writers.  The theme is heartbreak, and the featured pieces are all good quality and lovely to read.  The layouts are clean and functional – black text printed on white background, with lots of blank space on each page, and a different font used for each contributor, which I thought was a nice touch.  It’s quite short at 14 pages, so I managed to devour it very quickly! One of the better lit zines I've read for a long time.

Buy Her Candy #3
Buy Her Candy is a consistently good queer/feminist perzine, and no issue ever disappoints!  This issue features short pithy pieces on letter-writing, growing up and feeling as if she’ll never be a ‘proper’ adult (me too!), and queer identity.  There’s also a very sweet story about missing post involving an elderly lady assuming Bettie and Ingrid are children writing to each other!  Bettie includes some short reviews of zines she has enjoyed recently at the back of the zine.  The layouts are really cool – cut and paste, with lots of stickers and simple striking imagery.  Highly recommended!

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