Zine Reviews: August '13

Death Is When The Monsters Get You #1

Edited by Kat Williams, Swansea – stephenkingfanzineATgmail.com
I love this zine so much, and not just because it was created by one of my close friends!  DIWTMGY is a Stephen King fanzine, and features a selection of opinion pieces discussing aspects of King’s work, including mental illness, female archetypes, grief, mythology, and the success of the movie adaptations of King’s novels.  I love the layouts – Kat uses photocopied sections from relevant King books as backgrounds, and uses a mixture of different typewritten fonts and handwritten sections.  If you’re a King fan, I can’t recommend this zine enough!  Kat is also looking for people to contribute to issue 2, so if you have something to say, get in touch at the email address above.

Make It Work #1 and #2

Edited by Kirsty Fife, London -http://www.etsy.com/shop/kirstywinters
Make It Work is a compzine dedicated to DIY fashion and style for plus-sized women (“fatshion”), with a focus on body-positivity, self-care, and resisting the mainstream.  Both issues are very densely-packed, which at £1.50 a pop makes this zine great value for money!  #1 includes advice articles on topics including how to shop on the high street, buying and repurposing second-hand clothes, crafting tutorials, advice on DIY event organising, as well as introspective pieces by the authors on life as a fat woman, and the struggles and prejudice faced on a daily basis.  #2 has more great craft tutorials and resources, along with more political articles on radical vanity, the subjectivity and hierarchies of taste, gender play, fat-shaming, and mental health.  I adore this zine series so much, and wish it could be mass-distributed, as everyone deserves to be told that they don’t need to fit into the limited body aesthetics that mainstream media offers us.  Favourite quote, from the introductory page of #1: “Making it work is about more than just clothes – it’s about finding ways to live and love a body that you are brought up to hate. It’s about choosing to survive and fight, to be visible”.

Feeling Alone #2
Human Bean Zines, Surrey – www.etsy.com/shop/humanbeanzines
Feeling Alone #1 was published in July 2012, and detailed the author’s struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder and their stay at a psychiatric hospital.  Feeling Alone #2 takes place exactly a year later, and we read about the author’s progress with their mental health over the 12 months following their hospitalisation.  Some topics covered include counselling, coping with Atos and DWP assessments, mentalisation-based treatment, the benefits of occupational therapy, and taking on more activities in their life, including volunteer work and roller derby.  With mostly hand-written with some sweet hand drawings, it feels incredibly intimate, and the author documents their journey with honesty and clarity.

Ghost Fuck #2
Edited by Lizzy, Bournemouth – http://ghostfuckzine.tumblr.com
This is one of my favourite EVER zines in terms of layout style!  The style is arty and chaotic - lots of typewritten words and phrases cut and pasted all over the place, bits pasted in upside down, lopsided columns of text, striking black crosses and triangles used throughout.  It’s difficult to describe, but it looks amazing, one of my fave zines to look at!  Having said that, there are 2 things that bother me – 1, the zine is just titled “Ghost Fuck”, without an issue number (I had to search through the website archive to find out which issue was which), and 2, there’s no intro or outro outlining what the zine is and what it’s about, which I always think is a useful addition to a zine.  The content is mostly DIY feminism, with pieces on girl-hate, pornography, queer club nights, the Bechdel Test, and riot grrrl.

untitled and Negative Land
Elodie, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne - applejackAThotmail.fr
Elodie's untitled zine is mostly an artzine, but feels very personal – it reminds me a lot of an art journal, with mixed media layouts, handwritten notes, disjointed poetic prose, hand drawings, cut and paste typewritten lines of text, and photographs.  All bound together within a white tracing paper cover, it feels very delicate and intimate, a lovely thing to get lost in for a few minutes.  Negative Land is a photozine created by Elodie in collaboration with 3 other friends, and features colour photographs of different scenes from England and Paris, including beaches, parks, cozy living spaces, woodland, and city streets.  Both are free, so if you want a copy, drop Elodie a line at the email address above.

Review: Alternative Press Fair 2013

This is a guest post by the lovely Fliss, creator of SW Zines - thank you!

SW Zines felt so privileged to be part of the Alternative Press Fair this year! I have been attending over the years, and had previously applied for a stall, so it was wonderful to be afforded such a chance this year.

No Dark Places was lovingly organised and set in The Albert community centre in Queens Park, north west London, which was a new area to head to for a zine event. 

These photos make it seem like it was a rainy day, but I remember sunniness. I was delighted to see vegetables growing on the site. Grow vegetables everywhere, in every possible style and space for all, I say!

No Dark Places also incorporated a day of live music. I had no idea till we got to The Albert that a band I really love, Capitol K, were playing. They are electronica ace. We knew we'd be too exhausted from early rise, hauling heavy goods, and a day of talking and selling, etc, to stick around for the live music, sadly (comment about it, if you saw Capitol K, please do). Maybe if we didn't work so much so hard all week and if we lived much more local. We did catch a couple of sets, though, more on that later...

SW Zines' stall, after set up. Wish you could also see the pretty woodland themed decoration (pretty paper and real pine cones) underneath the zines - my photos are never my best on these days, so caught up in nerves and fretting and such!

I had brought along a bunch of woodland creature themed stuff, in aid of the badgers and against the badger cull. Had dates worked out differently (the stall application was put in months ago - but I would never cancel this anyway), I would have been at the protest in central London this day, but I did a small bit by making a special mini zine and putting word out. Here are some of the books and posters I had brought along to decorate the wall behind us:

I decided to re-appropriate the sketch of a badger by Yan of the band British Sea Power for a t-shirt for the day, too - with added badges bought at the zine fair! (book and pint!).

Library themed zines I had printed up especially, on request, for Holly of Cool Schmool zines.

On arrival at Alternative Press Fair:

We were sat in between two inspiring female artists. Here is Alex Brady's stall, her speciality is lino-cut prints. I bought a mini zine of her work (as pictured in the middle).

Also next to us was http://www.etsy.com/shop/worriedeyes with her wonderful paintings, sketches, biro drawings, postcards, stickers. I'm afraid I chatted to her so much I forgot to photograph her stall! I bough a beautiful postcard, and we did an exchange of our work too.

Now things get blurry, especially as so much time has passed (apologies again, this blog took such a long time to get written, so much has happened and taken over and I just am not able to blog as instantly as I once might've). So, here are lots of photos of various stalls from the day. If I don't name/identify you, please be forgiving and don't take it personally, and hopefully you'll appreciate what a whirlwind these events can be - before, during, and after! Next time I will make more notes, try to be better organised - please just email me with any web links to add, or if you'd like a mention, etc! I did go out from behind our own stall to talk to people, look at their work with care/interest, buy loads and load of stuff, though! I always make a point of doing this - if you're not interested in what else is out there, part of the point and so much community is lost.

Photo overload, I hope you don't mind! So many pretty things around at this year's Alternative Press Fair!

There were events going on throughout the day. I think Jimi Gherkin ran this one. The only bummer about running a zine stall is missing out on the events 'cos you can't leave your table too long!

There was a letter-press machine (woah!):

Plates for creating postcards:

There was a notebook doing the rounds, to be compiled into an on-the-day zine - theme was things you want to learn:

Swimming pool rock! (yeah!)

Award for prettiest zine stall/wares this day goes to Princesa Pirata distro from Bristol!

Princesa Pirate became my new spot of heaven. This distro's remit of: feminism, mental health, sexuality/relationships, anarchism/radical politics, and the most beautiful array of crafts such as the above immensely colourful postcards and patches, is all just so perfect and mood-boosting and life-affirming. Instantly spent double figures here. The distro owner had travelled from Bristol to be here, and I loved the old suitcase simply opened out to display things, pulled along on a bike trailer then by train. A distro so inspiring, makes me want to be back in Bristol again! It's such an ace place for art/artists/alternative thinking.

There was also a table of free zines on this day, and there was a spot of zine swapping, and selling to distros, all very positive.

The organisers were champion in their work, and I look forward to any further things they organise/create/do! - Here's to Rose Nordin and Amneet Johal, and everyone involved in the hard work of putting it on, plus the zine makers and zine readers who made this event too. Here's to next year's!

www.alternativepress.org.uk

Zine News Round-Up: 18/08/13

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International Zine Month: JUST FOR FUN WEEK (week 5)

Well, we're at the end of International Zine Month, and it's been a blast. Thank you all for playing along, I hope you've enjoyed too! Here is the final week's round-up:

JUST FOR FUN WEEK

28 - Cook with a recipe from a zine or cook zine!
Ok, confession time - I had every intention of doing this, but didn't get round to it in the end, mostly due to post-work tiredness.  FAIL.

29- Post a photo online of you with your zine or your zine collection.
Here's me with my new zine!

30 - Read some zines! Lay in bed and read zines all day if you can!
Agh, another big fat fail.  I should have cleared the afternoon and just stayed in bed reading zines, but instead I made plans and spent my afternoon/evening doing boring adult chores and such. Sigh.

31 - Log into WeMakeZines and write about your experience or write about it on your own blog.
Done and done!

Extra credit - Read a zine every day

Review of IZM 2013

It was lots of fun, especially tweeting every day about the challenges, and sharing other people's experiences online.  However, with retrospect pledging to do all 31 was very ambitious, and only could've been accomplished if I'd actually spent some time planning ahead what I was going to do, and making time for the challenges on the days needed (e.g. day 30).  Perhaps next year I'll just pick a few to do.

Reading a zine a day was such a rewarding challenge!  I don't make as much time for reading zines as I should, as I often get bogged down by doing "more important things" like work stuff and writing for this blog. IZM definitely reminded me why I love reading zines, and from now on I'm going to make an effort to read them more often.  Here are all the zines I read during the month:

I'm going to write a short review of each one over the weekend, so keep your eyes open for that! - changed my mind about this, am too busy and run down right now, sowwy :(

If you missed it, you can read my review of each week here:

 - Week 1: I Love Zines Week

 - Week 2: Postal Appreciation Week

 - Week 3: Zine Distribution Week

 - Week 4: Zine Library and Education Week

INTERNATIONAL ZINE MONTH: Zine Library & Education week (week 4)

Welcome to week 4 of International Zine Month 2013, a week dedicated to zine libraries and educating others about zines!  This was a difficult week for me, as I'm struggling to find the time to do the more in-depth tasks in the evenings after my full-time job, but anything I miss I'm going to return to eventually. :)

21 – International Zine Library Day! Visit your local zine library!

Unfortunately I don't have a local zine library, but I have added a list of all current zine libraries to the blog sidebar for readers to peruse.  Info about how to visit and how to submit your zines to their collections can be found here.

22 – Send your zine to a zine library.

I sent mine to Salford Zine Library! 

23 – Make a 1 page zine. 

Didn't have time to do this yet, but I have planned it out and made a start on it.  I'll finish it next week, promise!

24 – Organize your zine collection.

Didn't have time to do this yet either. Bah, I am such a big cheat.  

25 – Teach a friend or family member about zines.

All of my friends and family members already know about zines, as I excitedly blather to them about zine culture on a regular basis! Instead, I've put up an educational page on my blog all about zines, what they are and where to find them.  Please share with anyone you think would be interested!

26- Submit something to a compilation zine.
Although I didn't have time to complete my submission this week, I'm going to submit something soon to Shape and Situate, one of my favourite feminist compzines.

27 – Organize a zine event! A zine reading or a zine fair or fest or even just for friends to get together and work on their zines.

I had planned a beach day with my friends where we were going to read and trades zines - unfortunately a load of my friends couldn't make it at the last minute so this didn't happen, but it was due to factors out of my control.  I ended up going surfing instead, and read some zines when I got in!

EXTRA CREDIT: read a zine every day.

Next week is the final week of International Zine Month 2013 - JUST FOR FUN week (my favourite!).  What will you be getting up to?  Don't forget to share your blog posts, tweets, and photos with us! :)

International Zine Month: ZINE DISTRIBUTION WEEK (week 3)

We're on week 3 of International Zine Month already!  I'm getting a wee bit tired of the daily tweeting and such, but the tasks and the daily reads are lots of fun!  If you don't already know, I'm taking part in all 31 tasks for IZM as set by Alex Wrekk; make sure you follow my progress on Facebook and Twitter! Here's what I did this week:

15 – Leave a zine in public for someone else to find.
I went out for lunch with my boyfriend and left some copes of my free feminist minizine 'How to prevent sexual assault' in the ladies toilets.  

Plus, when I did my big shop at Tesco this week, I put a load of feminist minizines titled 'Reasons to be a feminist' inside the women's magazines.  I do this every now and again when I have the time and inclination - I'd like to think that if even one person enjoys reading my zine or learns something from it, then I've done a good deed. :)

16 – Send your zine to a distro for distro consideration.
I sent my latest perzine to Sweet Candy Distro, a US zine distro that sells lovely feministy zines.

17 – Review a zine online or write a review of a zine to add to your zine.
I've decided that at the end of the month, I'm going to review all 31 zines read this month for IZM! Keep your eyes open for that bumper zine review post.

18 – Order from a zine distro that you have never ordered from before.
I ordered from Doris Press (run by Cindy Crabb, author of 'Doris' zine), which sells lots of amazing social justice and political zines.  I highly recommend Doris Press' catologue, there were so many zines that I wanted to buy, but had to limit myself to $20 total!

19 – Zine Shop appreciation day! Stop by a shop that sells zines and buy some zines or consign your zines.
Unfortunately the nearest zine shops to me are in London (a 3.5hr train journey away!) so I was unable to visit any.  However, I did send some zines to a bunch of zine libraries.  Check out the full list of UK zine libraries in the blog sidebar ---> ---> --->

20 – Free Zine Day! Give your zine away to someone!
I gave away a free copy of my latest zine to all my friends!

BONUS: Read a zine every day

Here are mine from the week:

Next week is ZINE LIBRARY AND ZINE EDUCATION WEEK - what will you be getting up to?  Don't forget to share your blog posts, tweets, and photos with us! :)