I intended to read at least one zine every day in July for International Zine Month (IZM) and succeeded! I ended up reading 46 in total. My selection for this reading challenge included a comic about travel adventures, a comic about overcoming tiredness, metazines encouraging readers to make their own zines, several riot grrrl zines from different parts of the world including Brazil and Denmark, a few quaranzines with personal reflections and experiences, a Jewish queer zine with personal-political stories and artwork, a zine about dealing with abuse and community accountability, a fanzine about horror films directed by women, personal-political zines about manarchists and anarchist organising, perzines with a glimpse into the life of the authors, mini-zines about mental health, a play your own adventure about zines, a music/perzine about reclaiming an interest in playing guitar, a study about black face masked as a children’s holiday and how art can offer criticism or alternatives, a zine with ideas for dabbling in witchcraft, an artzine about winter plants, and more! I love that these publications use a mix of text and images to express what they want to say, with fictional stories and passionate revelations as well as black & white collages and splashes of colour in the paper choice, binding, or ink. One zinester even made a curiously folded zine, one of the tiniest zines I’ve ever seen, and a mini-zine with a pocket filled with seeds! Clearly, every zine maker has their own unique style and voice and each zine is so personal and reveals a lot about the creator or author. I recommend checking them all out!
PS. I actually read the two feminist mini-zines by Girls Go BOOM that you can see in the photos below in June but forgot to add them to my previous post. I got both of them during a recent visit to the Girls Go BOOM zine library and look forward to upcoming issues.
More photos and links to where you can find the zines:
Where to find (most of) these zines:
- 10 Best Horror Movies Directed by Women
- All Thrills No Frills Music Bill
- Brain Storms + If you thought people would listen… + Lockdown Attachment and Disconnection + Picture Writing from my Perspective + Seeds for You + Self-harm Alternatives + Sometimes we feel broken + Zines are time capsules
- Brainscan
- Dream House Art Letter newsletter + Hot Girl Summer 2021 + My Relationship Manifesto + Tired (part of the Dream House Art Letter subscription)
- Girls Go BOOM mini-zines
- I Wanna Be Yr Grrrl
- The Ken Chronicles
- Make Your Own Fun + Winter Wild
- A Personal Guide to Anarchist Organising (from the edges) + Manarchist Shut ur Face + Reframing Lost Time: a neurodivergent guide to mental illness
- Quaranzine: a zine about isolation, connectedness & survival in dark times (by Mad Covid)
- Ramshackle Travel + Hourly Comic
- Shabbes 24/7: Queer Belgian Jewish Collective
- To Love: abusers in radical spaces
- Utopia Thoughts
- Youth Decay
- Lots of zines bought from Penfight distro including: The day they threw me out of zine club + Murder on the National Express + Say Hi & Wave + Someone Somewhere + Staying Home + all zines about zine prompts (Penfight is taking a short break but you can order vouchers to support them and use them later!)
DIY feminist zines + comix 