Bethany Fortner

This is a zinester I discovered on Reddit. I am so glad I did because these zines are awesome. 

I am often fearful of the people in the world is about people who get hurt and don’t know how to handle it and become desperate. It features drawings of wild animals and does a great job of tying the images and words together without smacking you in the face about it.

This is a lamp... is about how lamps can end up being victims to themselves. It is a great mental health themed zine about choosing to actively live instead of just letting life happen to you. It is an awesome metaphor for this topic. I didn’t know what to expect going into this zine, but it definitely has become one of my favourites. 

For more art and zines you can find Bethany on Etsy and Instagram.

Bloomurder

This is a zinester I discovered on Etsy. They have a few different types of zines. They have botanical and literary-inspired zines, as well as poetry zines. If you follow me on Instagram then you already know I am really into poetry, so that’s what I have from Bloomurder.

Spring time pleasures

This one is a mini poetry zine that is spring and flower themed. The poetry is typed on a typewriter and copy and pasted onto the sheets along with images of flowers. A fun touch/bonus: inside of zine unfolds to a flower collage poster. A fun zine to look over multiple times.

Celestial

A poetry zine that features poetry by bloomurder accompanied by some of their favourite pieces of art. Poetry in this collection is celestial themed, it is second in a trilogy of poetry zines, and curated from all the poems they wrote between 1997 - 2016. I love that they included the title and artist for each of the art pieces featured so you can look into it more if you love the art as well. I think my favourite poem in this zine is Refugee. 

The Lilac Dreamer

This is a beautifully handwritten poetry zine that features a single narrative poem which includes a few photos of lilac trees, that I believe were photos taken by bloomurder. I really enjoyed this one. They did a great job with the storyline. I imagine they could write really cool short stories someday if that is a thing that is of interest to them.

Vapid

This is a poetry zine which includes poems that feel like moments of lost hope. Each poem is pasted onto a simple background that brings attention to the poem and adds to that stark feeling these poems inspire.

After seeing what a great job they did with their poetry zines it leaves me wanting more. You should definitely check them out. You can find them on Etsy, Instagram or Facebook. You can also email them at bloomurder@gmail.com.

The Common Cold

This is a zine I found off Etsy and was intrigued by. It is a 16-page booklet quarter page sized made by Kirsty. It is a perzine which talks candidly about their mental health, about being diagnosed with OCD at a young age and their relationship with their mental health over the years. It talks about feelings of guilt revolving around not “getting better,” and not making enough of an effort.

It was a great perspective on someone coming to terms with deciding to take care of themselves how they see fit instead of trying to take care of themselves to appease others. Which we should all take note of. Don’t let other people make you feel like you are not good enough because of your mental health and how they think you are managing it. Lovely zine!

If you would like a copy of this zine or want to check out their other zines then go to their Etsy page. They currently have 23 zines listed so there’s a lot of zines to look into.

You can also follow them on Twitter.