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
Rebecca, Barnsley - http://sullen-hearts.blogspot.co.uk/
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 –
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
Bettie, Sheffield – http://manufacturinghearts.blogspot.com
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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