Art School - Adam Void

Art School

by Adam Void

Approx 21cm x 27cm, zine fold into 7cm x 10.5cm.

One page double sided b&w on orchid stock

$1

A visual mash-up, collage, cut & paste mini zine from prolific artist and zine maker Adam Void. It's a kind of cool little zine, and a perfect example of Adam's seemingly ceaseless creation and his view on art - specifically art school. 

In Adam's own words: 

"Well, not just any art school. It's a remix of illustrations from the 2018 School of the Alternative handbook. So more like art school in the woods with spraypaint, bears, and a bunch of weirdos."

I've reviewed a few of Adam's other zines in the past - which you can find here. I've always valued his work, so I'm excited to see Adam's new venture, a partnership with Chelsea Ragan, called Cut in the Fence. 

Cut in the Fence is a zine producer and distro with a focus on graffiti, underground, and folk art. Go visit the website and you'll see some great looking stuff - I've been sent a few more things for review, which will be posted soon. I also really think the pricing is set at a level that is accessible. For that reason, be aware that lot of Cut in the Fence publications are limited edition, so if you see something you like, don't hang around. 

Buy the Art School mini zine here: cutinthefence.com/product/art-school-adamvoid

www.cutinthefence.com



Review by Nathan Penlington

Break the Chain - Volume Three

A5, 36 pages

£3.23 (+ £4.03 p&p)

I’ve got a soft spot for Break the Chain. Nothing in its pages is relatable to my life – my knowledge of post-hardcore and post-punk music is shaky, I rarely share my political views and the closest I’ve ever gotten to Jacksonville, Florida is Canada. I am firmly outside of the target demographic.

I think the thing about this zine which resonates with me the most is its earnestness. Its cut-and-paste aesthetic is reminiscent of the early zines of the sixties and seventies, hastily photocopied, stapled and distributed while the pages were still warm. There’s a lot of heart in its pages.

The third issue offers more psychedelic artwork from Stacey Matchett, an intriguing artist who appears to have almost no online presence. Her drawings are as detailed and hypnotic as always, and they seem to be composed with a more definite sense of purpose than the pieces that have been included in previous issues.

There’s also work from an artist whose name I hadn’t heard before – Austin Redwood. His art is in total contrast to Matchett’s; serene paintings of trees and landscapes. This type of artwork in this type of zine is a surprise, but a welcome one.

In general, the band interviews are a fun read. Matt Sessions (creator of Break the Chain) has scored interviews with bands from across the Unite States, including Big Ups, Priests, UV-TV and Profit Prison. Each of the interviews are sufficiently engaging, but I can’t help but notice that most of the musicians’ answers to Sessions’ questions are astonishingly articulate, almost as if they’d had quite a lot of time to compose each response. It’s fair to say that the interviews are probably conducted long-distance, but I think this is an understandable trade-off for reaching bands outside of Jacksonville.

Sessions poses his trademark question to each of the bands: “What are you reading at the moment? Are there any books you’d recommend?” I’m still waiting for the day somebody reels off a reading list full of Andy McNab thrillers or Marian Keyes paperbacks, but the selection was as distinguished as always – titles by Joan Didion, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf and Arundhati Roy, amongst others. I guess artists appreciate art, no matter what the medium.

This volume is a solid instalment in the Break the Chain zine and it will be a pleasing read for fans of the first two volumes. It is interesting, impactful and illuminating – everything I’ve come to expect from this zine.

You can buy your copy of Volume Three of Break the Chain here.

Review by J.L. Corbett

Basic Paper Airplane #12

Basic Paper Airplane #12: The Interview Issue

Joshua James Amberson 

14cm x 21.5 cm, 36 b&w pages , risographed cover. 

$3 USD (plus $1 p&p w/in US, $3 international)

The theme for issue #12 of Basic Paper Airplane is simple - a collection of interviews - but what makes it unique is that they are all interviews Joshua made with a diverse array of artists, musicians, and writers, while working on a series of articles for The Portland Mercury. The original articles only included a few quotes, so this zine sets our to rectify that by collecting together longer interview transcripts for the first time.

Each section opens with a paragraph or two that sets up the interview, roots the process of interviewing in real time, real place, and a real mindset. What emerges is Joshua's sensitivity for the creations of the interviewee, and a genuine love of being excited by things other people find joy or inspiration in. As testament to Joshua's approach the interviews are full of pertinent observation and considered thought about the practice of creation - whether that discipline is music, writing, or film. 

The zine follows a simple layout, with a photo of each interviewee heading every section. The cover though, designed and printed by C Stone and Anthony Michael, is a thing of risographed beauty. 

The best way to look at Basic Paper Airplane #12 is as a primer on the work of creators you haven't yet discovered. It will have you scrabbling to track down albums & books, that you know from the interviews alone, will be rewarding. Its no easy feat in a cultural climate that constantly sells to us through every channel, to the point it's easiest to disengage, to succeed in creating active engagement. Basic Paper Airplane #12 does exactly this - through honesty, personality, and passion. I can't recommend it enough. 

Buy a copy from http://www.antiquatedfuture.com/zines/basic-paper-airplane-12-the-interview-issue/

Or say hello - PO Box 42081, Portland, OR 97242, USA. 


Review by Nathan Penlington

Bombinate #1

Bombinate #1: bees

20 pages, A5. 

£3 (free shipping in UK, int postage varies)

I'll be honest, I had to look up the meaning of 'bombinate':

verb (used without object), bom·bi·nat·ed, bom·bi·nat·ing.1. to make a humming or buzzing noise.

Which is obviously fitting for a zine whose theme for issue #1 is bees, but also fitting for a zine literally buzzing with ideas. 

The bee crisis is already a very real problem - in recent years the UK alone has lost three species of bumblebee, and in parts of China apple farmers have been forced to pollinate by hand. Objectively, at this point in time, you could only say things are going to get worse the world over. 

Some of the work in Bombinate #1 tackles this issue, while other work takes bees as metaphor, image, narrative: a bumbling encounter between new lovers; feeding sugar water to the dying; two bees on the coffin of great-uncle Evan. 

Bombinate #1 contains mainly poetry, alongside a couple of short stories, with illustrations by Mot Collins.  The styles are diverse, and give different opportunities to view the same topic through different eyes and different angles. This diversity of content is increased in following issues, and the Bombinate submissions guidelines state they are looking for fiction, non-fiction, essays, plays, flash fiction, poetry, and recipes. 

For a reason I can't quite articulate a section of Fionn O’Shea's 'helo this doesn’t have a title' has set up home in my brain:

"there was a post I saw a while ago how you can see in google stats that in every single language that google supports, someone has searched 'where do the birds go when it rains'. The post was about how it's nice that everyone everywhere hopes that the birds are ok when it rains. I hope the bees are ok when it rains." 

To extend the image, in a world that is raining hard I'm happy there are places like Bombinate to retreat to. 

Buy a copy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/616929686/bombinate-issue-1

And don't forget to submit your own work. More info here: https://www.bombinate.space

Review by Nathan Penlington

Break the Chain, Volume 2

 A5, 44 black and white pages

£2.90 (+£3.62 p&p)

The second volume of Break the Chain is a battle cry from the Jacksonville punk scene. Sequels are always tricky, and so I was eager to see if zine maker Matt Sessions could pull it off.

The first interview is with Dawn Ray’d, a black metal band from the north of England (my neck of the woods, how exciting!). Reading through this interview, I was a little disappointed with myself; my surprise at the band’s articulation and love of poetry (their band name comes from a poem by Voltairine de Cleyre) spoke volumes about my own preconceptions of heavy metal bands. Much of their interview was an exploration of the power and beauty of words, and yet it ended with a reminder of the anarchy at their core - “Fuck the pigs, smash the Nazis”.

This volume also offered fantastic artwork from Matt Jaffe. His images have been created with thousands of dots, each one carefully placed, each one a crucial part of a bigger picture. Jaffe’s artwork is sharply evocative, but more importantly it teases one’s curiosity – each image bears a strange caption (“alienergy”, “sickened”, “radiate”), none of which make sense straight away.

It’s clear that Sessions has held onto the same punk ethos that birthed the fist volume of Break the Chain, and he’s built on this significantly in the second volume. The pages are crammed full of content, each item fitting well within the theme of angry protest whilst offering their own distinct point of view.

Sadly, some items fall a little short. Ed Dantès’ essay “In Prisons We Trust (part one)” is full of angry commentary, but unfortunately offers very little depth or intelligent examination of the points he is criticising. I was really rooting for Dantès – his argument started off well, gained momentum, but the deathblow never came (perhaps it arrives in part two).

This volume is a gripping read, and I think this has a lot to do with Sessions’ obvious love for the music scene in his area. It’s clear that he doesn’t make Break the Chain for profit or notoriety (you won’t find his name anywhere in these pages), but because he loves the Jacksonville scene.

On the whole, the second volume of Break the Chain is a triumph. It it builds on the themes of protest and angst introduced by its predecessor and the result is a zine which is polished and cohesive – clearly, Sessions is finding his groove.

Volume two of Break the Chain can be bought here 

Review by J.L. Corbett

Synesthesia

A5, 20 colour pages

£3.62 (+ £3.62 p&p)

Synaesthesia (the condition) is sensory confusion. Your house tastes like cake. Your lover’s voice smells like fresh cut grass. Your favourite song feels crunchy. The number seven is green, for some reason.

Synesthesia (the zine) dives headfirst into delirium. Stacey Matchett evokes a sense of desperate, inescapable confusion in her pastel colour palettes, bold rainbow scribbles and delicate black linework - it’s a beautiful assault on the senses. 

Usually when poetry and artwork appear together in print, the images end up playing second fiddle; they usually serve as garnish, pretty pictures to illustrate the words. Matchett turns this convention on its head. The bright images dominate the pages of this zine, holding hostage the reader’s psyche and rendering the accompanying poetry somewhat redundant. It’s not that the poetry is particularly poor, more that within the psychedelic pages of Synesthesia its role is secondary to the artwork.

When I first encountered Matchett’s work in volume one of Break the Chain, I described it as “grunge expressionism”. Reading through Synesthesia, it seems clear to me now that her work is too nebulous to fit within that category; her art style shifts throughout the pages, and yet each drawing bears her stylistic signature.

Matchett does a great job of creating a collection of artwork centred upon a theme without falling into predictability – each page explores a different facet of a disorganised mind and does so with a touching vulnerability.

You can buy your copy of Synesthesia here.


Review by J.L. Corbett

NickName - Issue 1

Nick Name Issue 1
Hurley Winkler and Aysha Miskin

24 Pages
Size: Digest
Printer Paper - bound with staples
$4.00 + Shipping

Ohhhhhh myyyyy!!

NICK NAME, a new zine series by Hurley Winkler and Aysha Miskin, hits EVERY MARK that I enjoy and look for in a zine - every single one.

This little zine, handmade in Jacksonville, Florida, is packed full with art, poetry, letters and various other little surprises. Printed in black and white on simple paper and bound with staples, this zine has a lot to offer in such a little package.

A mere 24 pages, this zine offers so much of what I like and what I like to see. Heavily influenced by pop-culture today, these ladies seem to be some of the rare young people today who GET IT and SCREAM IT.

Being young is hard, and this zine manages to cover the angst that some young people are too afraid to express in their work throughout art and creative writing.

This zine has everything to fulfill the angst that some people are too afraid to scream out. There aren't enough young writers like this out there telling the hard, beautiful truths of youth. Winkler and Miskin do an amazing job at exposing those truths.

Purchase a copy here!

Social Media:

FB - Nickname Zine
IG - @nicknamezine

Review by Daniel Peralta
Completed on 10/16/2017; 9:58 PM CST

BEARQUEFT Comix #2

BEARQUEFT Comix #2
Charlie Haggard and other artists

40 Pages
Size: Digest
Cardstock - bound with staples
$5.00 + Shipping

Charlie Haggard comes back with a punch with the second issue in the BEARQUEFT series.

Digest size and bound with cardstock and staples, Haggard manages to bring back his darkly humored (in a good way!) comics while also showcasing some new artists to look out for!

While this is a more collaborative work than the first, Haggard does an amazing job at finding artwork that strongly fits in with the overall theme that this comic strives for.

The phony ads and original characters of the first did not disappoint, and added some light to where the series is going.

That being said, I am looking for to seeing other collaborative works in this series and trust Haggard will do an amazing job at reeling it all together.

Purchase a copy here!

Also, check out the review of the first issue here!

Review by Daniel Peralta
Complete on 09/15/2017; 2:45 PM EST

Wasted Land 2

Wasted Land 2

by Adam Void

21cm x 27cm, zine fold into 7cm x 10.5cm mini zine. 

$/£: trades encouraged

A mini-zine by prolific artist and zine maker Adam Void, creator of the great Nirvana Rules zine reviewed a few posts back.

Wasted Land 2 is a collage of found images, additional drawing, and handwritten text. It's absurdist in the tradition of dada, and it's DIY culture in the tradition of punk. It's the kind of thing you want to leave in bars and bookshops to be discovered - no wait, it's the kind of thing you want to find in bars and bookshops.
If you want a copy contact Adam at adam_void (at) yahoo (dot) com - trades are encouraged. If you ask nicely he might also send you some other goodies. 

As I said in my review of Nirvana Rules Adam's been making zines since 2003. Check out his past publications page: adamvoid.com/index.php?/ongoing/publications - now THAT is a zine maker.



Review by Nathan Penlington

Flies on the wall

Flies on the wall

by Zeppelinmoon

A5 - 40 pages, b&w and colour, perfect bound. 

£2.50 plus postage

This debut zine by zeppelinmoon consists of a series of comic exchanges between flies observing the emotionally tragic lives of the human family whose walls they rest on. A couple of appearances by sloths, dogs, and seals aside, the flies on the wall operate as a minimalist comic in which each page works as an individual panel - but also helps build an implied larger narrative. 

Flies on the wall is a well produced zine in full colour - the pages that aren't flies on a white wall, obvs. It's smart, it's slick, it's crude, it's funny, and there is swearing. What's not to like? 

Check out  Zeppelinmoon on instagram for a look at current artwork, and then head over to Etsy to buy a copy.  

etsy.com/uk/listing/531688936/flies-on-the-wall-a-comic-cartoon-zine

For more artwork, and Zepplinmoon's shop full of original t-shirts, totes, pins, cards and more, visit: 
Zeppelinmoon.com


Review by Nathan Penlington

Notebookdrawings - Vol 2

Notebookdrawings - Vol 2
by Mette Norrie

2017 

A5, 38 pages, colour print.

50DKK (Danish Krone) or approx £5.80

Buy Vol 1 & Vol 2 for 85DKK (approx £10)

Following on from Notebookdrawings Vol 1 is a brand new volume of text and illustration from Danish artist Mette Norrie. For those new to her work it follows a minimalist format - each page is notebook style lined paper, over which have been drawn illustrations in pen and pencil, and captioned at the top in English. 

Some are witty play-on-words, others play-on-images - The Reviewer's Diary, Diary of a Social Media Manager - the illustrations are also sprinkled with literary references - T.S. Eliot's Calendar, Tender Buttons. 

But the pages that really strike a chord are those of a more melancholy, tender, quieter tone with titles like Failed Ideas, Forgotten Magicians, Lonely Gloves Club.  

Cumulatively Notebookdrawings form a kind of visual poetry that takes you outside the world as you see it. And like poetry they benefit from the time and space needed to experience in a physical form. 


The illustrations have been selected from Mette's blog - nbdrawings.tumblr.com. So, take a look, and then support her work by buying a copy of the zine. 

In her shop you can find copies of other zines too, alongside individual prints: norrieart.tictail.com/product/notebookdrawings-vol-2


www.MetteNorrie.com




Review by Nathan Penlington

Notebookdrawings - Vol 1

Notebookdrawings - Vol 1
by Mette Norrie

2016 

A5, 26 pages. 

50DKK (Danish Krone) or approx £5.80

Notebookdrawings is a charming zine by Danish artist Mette Norrie. It follows a simple, minimalist, format - each page is notebook style lined paper, over which have been drawn illustrations in pen and pencil captioned at the top in English. 

There is a wistful melancholy to many of the illustrations, but each page breathes freely with visual and verbal humour, together they form an enchanting take on the world. 

The illustrations have been selected from Mette's blog - nbdrawings.tumblr.com. So, take a look, and then support her work by buying a copy of the zine. 

In her shop you can find copies of other zines too, alongside individual prints: norrieart.tictail.com/product/notebookdrawings

www.MetteNorrie.com



Review by Nathan Penlington

How To Get Abducted By An Alien

How To Get Abducted By An Alien
Krystal Becker

12 Pages
Printer Paper - black and white
Size: Digest
$2.65 + Shipping

This comic zine, bound with string and printed on normal printer paper, gives you a brief guide on how to be abducted by aliens.

The artwork throughout is very "cute" - giving it a more child-like, non-serious vibe. The pictures are all in black and white, which accompany these silly steps to have your chances of being abducted by aliens supposedly higher. While the idea is really neat, I feel like having the pictures in color would have made for a lot better experience overall.

The writing and steps, I will admit, are very amusing, and I like how she plays on this idea. However, I feel that the ending was very abrupt and there could have been room for a lot more in terms of steps.

Needless to say, I know how hard it is to put zines together, and the fact that Becker has put the time and effort to give us a nice, sleek layout is a feat in itself.

In the end, it is an extremely cute idea, with extremely great artwork, that did have me snickering a little throughout.

Purchase a copy through: Etsy

Review by Daniel Peralta
Completed on 4/3/2017, 5:08 P.M. CST

Growing Up In The Post or Raised By Mailartists

Growing Up In The Post or Raised By Mailartists

Mark Pawson

10.5cm x 7.5cm, 12 pages.

Stamped 31st Oct 2015

50p

Mark Pawson is an important figure in the UK zine world. A life long champion of DIY art and print, both a maker and distributor. One of Mark's early zines is an obsessive account of his love of Kinder eggs - where he bought them, how much they cost, and thorough reviews of the toys inside. More significantly perhaps, he kept the zine in print for 20 years, and sold around 10,000 copies. That's a lot of stapling. 

I picked up Growing Up In The Post from Mark at a small press fair in London a few weeks ago. At only 50p, Mark described it as being "part of his pocket money range" (amongst other makers selling their zines at inflated prices, making your work available for a handful of change is almost a provocation in itself). 

The zine describes how, at the age of 13, Mark found himself as part of the International Postal Art Network which at that time was "a tremendously energetic self-created forum for equal exchange  of work and ideas". As Mark goes on to explain this process of exchange and sharing informs the way he chooses to work now. 

Mark has a large and varied amount of work available from his website. Both his collaborative and solo work is here: http://www.mpawson.demon.co.uk/pawone.html 

His range of badges can be found here: http://www.mpawson.demon.co.uk/badges.html

And other people's books and zines can be seen, and bought, here: http://www.mpawson.demon.co.uk/books.html

While you are on Mark's website check out the events pages for some interesting DIY art and zine fairs in the UK. And if you bump into Mark at a fair, tell him we sent you.  


Review by Nathan Penlington

Things I Thought But Was Wrong

Things I Thought But Was Wrong - Issue 00
Quarter Duck Publications

A5, 24 pages, full colour.

£3

Things I Thought But Was Wrong is the perfect zine for the mid-teens of the 21st century. It consists of a crowd-sourced series of Twitter length statements, each illustrated by an Instagramable artwork. The concept is immediately explained by the title - those moments in which something you always thought was true is shown to be wrong. 

The combination of absurd mishearings and naive misunderstandings with the resulting illustrations makes for a smart, funny, engaging zine. 

I hope I'm not wrong, but I predict big things for Things I Thought But Was Wrong. 


Buy Issue 00 from Etsy: etsy.com/uk/listing/454573914/things-i-thought-but-was-wrong-zine

To submit your own failings join Things I Thought But Was Wrong on Facebook and Instagram @things_I_thought_but_was_wrong


Review by Nathan Penlington 

****I picked this zine up last weekend at Cultural Traffic - a new publishing arts fair held near London's Brick Lane. They produce regular alternative publishing events in the capital, with a really diverse range of makers and sellers. If you're interested check out culturaltraffic.com for more info****

Shinprint #1

Shinprint #1

By Shindig Collective / Spring 2016

A5 - 12 pages

FREE (in return for swaps or mystery post)

"Your new favourite experimental arts club"

This is a fun, <sm>art cut & paste zine that functions as a manifesto for Cambridge based art / literature / performance collective Shindig.

Celebrating their love for Fluxus, Dadaist and Oulipian experiments, the collective lay out their visions in a rearrange your own interview feature, a pin the extra limbs on the donkey game, and a mini-catalogue of their existent work. 

If this small collection of work -  an interactive alchemical poetry box created by Abi Palmer, a collection of tiny zines of tiny ghosts stories by Wesley Freeman-Smith, and a series of literary blown eggs by Uppahar Subba - is a gauge, then this is a collective, and a zine to keep an eye on.  (I've been a collector of texts that take odd forms for as long as I can remember, but this is the first time I've come across one hidden inside a series of blown eggs).   

I'm already looking forward to issue two, but until then, who fancies coming round to damage the wallpaper with a vigorous game of pin the extra limbs?



Contact: hello at shindiggig dot com

Or visit shindiggig.com



Review by Nathan Penlington