Stratu’s Diary Comix March-April (self-published, 2017) ***¼

[Review by Dann Lennard - originally appeared 4 June 2017 at his blog Kirby Your Enthusiasm]

I love Stu and this is a fascinating exercise of self-discipline, but the cupboard is bare when it comes to intellectual or entertaining reading material. Friending and blocking people on Instagram, internet shopping, TV shows or films he’s watched, vaping...there’s just not a lot of depth in what’s purportedly a “diary”. And I understand that dilemma – when I briefly did my own diary comic last year, I gave up because I was unwilling to share my most intimate thoughts to strangers. So what I was left with was the mediocre, mundane (and occasionally interesting) minutae of day-to-day living. The few times Stu explores more personal territory – like hanging out with his aunt or talking about how a certain person has let him down or helped him or whatever, then the zine gets more interesting. But those moments are a few and far between. That said, I did appreciate Stu’s mention of Seoul Station (the anime prequel to the excellent South Korean zombie flick Train To Busun. It encouraged me to buy it). I appreciate Stu’s work ethic and artwork (the personalised cover on the March issue was lovely). I note that he’s changed the format for April, turning it into an A6 digest (maybe for monetary reasons?). Either way, this zine is fine if you’re a friend of Stu’s and want to know how he keeps himself busy every day, but I wish it was so much more.

Becky Kidner - diary drawings #48

Diary drawings #48 - 16th March - 7th April 2015 by Becky Kidner

8 pages/A3 poster. 

Colour copy printed on A3 paper, centre cut and folded to A5.

£2

Becky’s obsessive project appeals to my mindset. Since 2007 she has been documenting every day, replicating key moments in logos, names, places, a diary of all forms of text based graphic design. Collectively it is a series of ongoing collages that are at once highly specific and personal, and yet, reflects how all of our daily lives are interlinked with the ubiquitous and invisible world of fonts and formatting.

To review this zine in more detail would be missing the point, and to review them all would take a project almost as obsessive as Becky's (I picked this issue up back at DIY Cultures in May). Dive in anywhere and you get an interesting take on the daily diary, documenting what companies spend millions designing, and what we usually filter out from our day to day: a compelling combination of the personal and impersonal. 

To view Becky’s diaries, and to contact about her zines, visit: Beckykidner.blogspot.com

Review by Nathan Penlington

Some of my Best Friends R Strangers

Ooooh, a sealed white envelope. How mysterious! (I love mysteries!) What's inside? Two minicomics!

It's Cold, Up North, This year. / New Year


By Mike
zine-it-yourself.blogspot.com

Both of these are diary comics by Mike. Or rather, they are pages from his diary which happen to be in comic form. Is there a difference? I don't really know.

The comics in "It's Cold, Up North" are rather sad and deal with it being cold and dark, Mike feeling uninspired and not knowing what he's doing with his life, and breaking up with his girlfriend of ten years. They're not the happiest of comics, but reading about stuff like this kind of makes me feel better about my life, in that it means I'm not alone in my thoughts and feelings. This isn't to say that there are no moments of humour or joy. At one point Mike states "My travelling companion today is a sousaphone." a line that, in its seemingly normal take on a (to me) absurd situation, brings a smile to my face.

"New Year" is comics from the first few weeks of January and continues the tales of depression, cold, and darkness. Somehow these ones seem more optimistic than "It's Cold", and it could be that with the new year Mike has attempted to concentrate more on the positive things in his life instead of dwelling on the negative. That's something I should really take to heart as well.

(Originally written for 365 Zines a Year.)