Aggravated Doughnuts

This zine is made by a zinester I met at Canzine this year. I have read this zine multiple times and still it makes me chuckle. Aggravated Doughnuts is a comic explaining, in great detail, how they like to enjoy their favourite doughnut. And enjoy it they do. The artwork is great and I love the idea behind it. It’s a fun zine that you can keep coming back to or share with your friends. 

It is made by Jacqueline Huskisson, you can check out their Instagram here or head on over to their website.

Bill's Benevolent Association

So these cool cats are brothers (Evan & Josh) and I met them at this years CanZine Fest, I shared a table with them. They are both artists with their own unique styles.

Yes is an art & poetry zine made by Josh. This zine is packed with wood, plant & human bolb themed art that are accompanied by short poems. It is a very interesting zine. I’m left wondering about the inspiration behind each piece, and yet it’s a light and fun zine. I think this may be my favourite page.

Moving Parts & Local Traffic Only are zines made by Evan. Moving Parts is an interactive zine with pull tabs. It’s about the less than glorious jobs we have to deal with as adults and goofing off in those jobs. The zine features photography as well as art. Click here for an example of one of the pages and how it moves. Local Traffic Only is a photography zine with construction related drawings on top of the photo. It comes with a card featuring a poem for each of the photos. And the whole zine unfolds into a poster. 

Loved the zines from these two. Together they are Bill’s Benevolent Association and you can check out their Instagram page here.

Human Sightings

I discovered Evie from Dogs Not Diets, they are friends and made some collab zines together. Luckily they did because I absolutely love Evie’s art and zines.

The collab zine they made together currently has two volumes and is called Thanks... But No Thanks. It is filled with completely unhelpful advice they have received from people in regards to their mental health. Such as, “But think of all the people who have it so much worse.” Sigh. These zines are too real for anyone who has a mental illness.

The Guide To Self-Care features a few tips that have personally helped Evie. This is a thoughtful mini zines and it compliments the Thanks... But No Thanks zine very well.

Evie also draws a lot of comics called Humans which feature aliens experiencing similar problems to us silly humans. Sometimes in similar situations that we can go through, like trying not to be late to a party. Other times it is about experiencing and coping with a mental illness. I don’t know how else to describe it except by calling it awesome and telling you that you need these zines in your life. Her sense of humour displayed in the zines and her art is fantastic. Always puts a smile on my face. 

I also love Evie’s space and astronaut themed cards and badges. Featuring positive affirmations such as, “You deserve to take up space” and “You are not alone.”

Go to the Human Sightings Etsy page to check out all the cool items you can buy.

Follow Evie on Instagram or Facebook. You can also check out the website at http://www.evelynbasch.co.uk/ 

Hattie Porter - Dogs Not Diets

Hattie is the first person I decided to get zines from on Etsy. I was struggling with my mental health and found these zines extremely helpful. Thank you for making them, Hattie! 

She creates mental health themed zines, which are printed on pastel coloured paper (which you can choose which colour you would like) and stitched on the spine. Each zine is mostly typed with some handwritten notes throughout. She also emphasizes certain sentences or key points by hand-drawing underlines or boxes around the words. These zines are filled with facts surrounding the topic (anxiety, panic attacks, depression, etc) to inform you about what is happening to you [Knowledge is power] and adds self-care tips & coping strategies.

There are zines for certain topics and also a bigger book A Small Part Of Everything which is a summary of all the zines up to that point. Which has its own design that is different from the zines. It isn’t just a photocopy of what was already made, it’s a new version just for the book.

If you are interested in grabbing a copy for yourself then head over to Hattie’s Etsy page.

You can also follow Hattie on Instagram.

Old Aches

I found this zinester on Reddit when I was first getting into zines earlier this year. 

Old Aches is a 16-page black and white perzine. It features poetry they had written and photos they had taken while in high school that they found years later. It seems to be summer themed, almost in a nostalgic sense. A lot of the poetry in this zine is about being a lesbian, but feeling terrified because they don’t feel worthy of reciprocated love. 

If you would like to get in contact with this zinester you can email them at bsebllgrl@gmail.com

Jams

Jams is one of the first zines I ever received from a zinester. It is a music review zine. It features 6 album reviews, for each review he included a page of drawings that he drew while listening to the album in one listening session. He includes a rad synopsis of the album, his favourite track on the album and what he thinks it tastes like. The whole thing is written by hand, which I think looks way better than if he had typed it out. 

I loved the drawings, it complimented the content very well. I also like how he chose to handwrite the reviews; It kind of reminded me of Beavis & Butthead. It was a cool selection of music, with a few bands I never have heard of. 

Chris not only reached out to me to trade zines when I was a brand new zinester, but he also recommended me another zinester in my country to check out which I have always appreciated. So thank you dearly for being super cool.

You can check out Chris through his Instagram account.

Fiveoclockzine

Craig (fiveoclockzine) found me on Instagram and followed me, thankfully, and eventually I was able to gather up the courage to ask him to trade.

The little three little mini zines (The Hungry Cat, Landscapes and Cityscapes From My Mind & How I Make Coffee: A Fanzine About Coffee) that he sent were a delight to look through. Fun little snippets from his mind. I loved how they weren't the standard size for a mini zine also.

Coffee & People is his main zine series. Focusing on life stories he has been thinking about a lot lately, or was reminded of because of something that recently happened to him. It's cool to see the progression of how this series is made over time. It started as a mini zine made out of two pages and glued together, a very solid mini zine that was made with care. It progressed into a bigger zine with many pages later on. Reading about his memories is very intriguing to me. To see which moments he has chosen, out of all the possible moments. It definitely feels like a physical embodiment of early morning thoughts over coffee in the quiet beginnings of a brand new day.

I'm also excited for 5 O'Clock Press and where it may lead in the future. In the first issue he explains, "Why zines?" I wholeheartedly agree with his response.

If you don't know who fiveoclockzine is then you are missing out. Check out his Instagram page here to see his zine reviews. You can also check out his personal Instagram account.

You can buy his zines online as well on his BigCartel page.

Take Care

I got this zine, and submitted to it, a few months before I started making zines. It was my reminder that zines existed. I had made a few poetry zines when I was 14 but never really did anything with them. The fact that this zine existed was the spark that lit the zine making fire inside of me. So I am deeply thankful for that.

This is a bi-annual collaborative zine featuring art, poetry, short stories, mantras, collages, etc all focusing on mental health. The purpose of this zine is to encourage creative expression as a way to heal, process trauma and promote self-care. They also give you the option to submit anonymously, which I think is amazing because not everyone is comfortable being so emotionally vulnerable and sharing it with the world. It is a wonderful collection and I am honored to be a part of it. 

My copy came with a handmade affirmation card. I have that card posted on my cork-board and look at it often. It's helped me so much this year. The thought and effort that they put into making this zine is amazing.

If you want to support this project check out their website to submit or grab a copy for yourself or head over to their Instagram page.

Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

I found Steppp on Instagram while looking through posts tagged “zines.” They are an artist and zinester. I love their art. [They even prettied up the envelope they sent me with some art!] You should definitely check them out.

Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams is a 24-page colour art zine. Featuring mental health themed art. The art and format of these zines seem very much like pages from a personal art journal. Depicting thoughts, dreams &\or experiences they have had; whether it’s how they feel about lies, how they see themselves, or how shitty Mondays are.

The first issue is black, red and blue for each illustration. The second issue features even more colours and seems even more like a journal. There are a few pages I keep flipping back to because I absolutely love them.

You can find Steppp on Instagram or by emailing them at uhmzines@gmail.com

To support their art you can visit https://ko-fi.com/steppp.

Latibule

I discovered this artist from fiveoclockzine as well. I am so thankful for the Instagram zine community. Well, the zine community as a whole too, but specifically Instagram because that’s the platform I use most often. 

Latibule is an amazing artist. I love their style of art. I love the raw sincerity they display with their art. Most of their zines I would describe as art perzines, featuring a lot of mental health themes without specifying any diagnosis in particular, which makes it even more relatable.

Untitled \ Miles Apart 

This one is an 8-page mini zine featuring watercolours and a short story about long-distance friendships/relationships. Most of the friends I have are online and a far way away, so this zine hit home for me. 

Tulips

This is an 8-page mini zine describing places that mean a lot to Latibule in a collage style. I love the idea of sharing places that feel like home to you and this was brilliantly executed.

Rose Water [no longer confused]

This is a 16-page mini zine in a comic format about trying to find yourself when the world tells you that you have to fit into the moulds they give you even if you don’t fit. 

Drift

This is an 8-page mini zine which tells a short story. I related very much to this one as well. It put into words and images a feeling I have felt countless times but don’t know how to explain. 

blur.

This is a 16-page zine which tells a story about a night Latibule had with someone. I love how they decided to draw themselves in this comic and all the subtle differences they added to show the “static” and how it affected them. 

If you are interested in their zines or art then be sure to follow them on Instagram or Facebook. You can also contact them directly at latibuleart@gmail.com

You can show your support for them at https://ko-fi.com/latibule