Dear zinelovers,

It has been a frightfully long time since we last spoke. Since August my mind has been completely occupied with organising the inaugural Let Them Eat Zines festival with my nieces and nephews, and now that the long-awaited day is over, I scarcely know what to do with myself. I suppose I will just have to sit down with a mug of cloudy apple juice and read the many zines that I picked up at the festival. Isn’t that a nice feeling? Waking up the morning after a zine festival, still numb with happiness, glancing to your left, and lo! A pile of unfamiliar and unread zines! It is the exact opposite feeling to a drunken one night stand. Here are just some of the many zines that followed me home after Let Them Eat Zines.

Space Hostilities
Tom & Lily

As someone who has not watched all of the Star Wars films, but has nonetheless absorbed almost the entire plot just by being cursorily aware of contemporary culture, this is a zine after my own heart. I too am familiar with the disproportionate venom one should expect when declaring to friends and strangers that, no, I have not seen Star Wars. This zine explores how thoroughly Star Wars has pervaded our collective consciousness, such that it is possible for me, an uninitiated cretin, to read the sentence ‘Yoda in conventional holds contempt syntax,’ and smile appreciatively. The zine contains articles such as ‘Ten Things I Don’t Know about Star Wars, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Smile Politely when People Make References to It’ and ‘Ten Reasons I Know Things About Star Wars Despite Not Having Seen It’. What a comforting zine! I am glad I am not alone.

Tinker Tailor
Rebecca Crane

In this deliciously colourful zine, Rebecca Crane’s charming anthropomorphic animals fill in the character roles of the nursery rhyme Tinker, Tailor. My favourite illustration is the Tailor, a bovid with dear little spectacles and a needle and thread in his cunning cloven hoof. In between the full-colour profile pictures of each character is a black-and-white narrative in which the characters cross paths – the Tinker has tea with the Tailor, the Tailor repairs the coat of the Soldier, the Soldier rescues the Sailor from a tentacled creature, and so on, which I thought was an ingenious touch. This zine reminds me of why I adore picture books – it is that pleasure of revisiting the same illustrations over and over again and discovering some new detail each time. The print quality of this zine is also quite exceptional.

never bring a knife to a pun fight
d&d

I picked up this cheeky A7 zine from Shiritori Press’s stall and took an instant liking to it. It is a zine of quickfire weaponry-related puns and wordplay. You may find that pun-making, once you get started, is quite infectious. I sure enjoyed rifling through this zine. I nunchuckled so much I almost had an axe-ident. Knife to read your zine, d&d!

Thank You For Your Love
Bastian Fox Phelan

Taking its title from a song by Antony and the Johnsons, Thank You For Your Love explores the question: what does it mean to be the family of a trans person? In the introduction, Bastian Fox Phelan says: ‘[N]o one can tell you what your gender is; it’s something you feel. But it’s also a thing that relies on interactions with other people – you need to be “seen” by others to be real.’ This theme of seeing/being-seen-as echoes throughout the zine – the need for our identities to be confirmed, validated and supported by others; the need to become real, to be confirmed as real, especially by the ones we love. Bastian Fox Phelan combines his personal experiences with perspectives of other trans writers, excerpts from interviews and childhood photographs to create this beautiful and insightful zine.

It is December, readers – the mushiest of seasons; a time of infinite leftovers, hugging people you would not ordinarily hug, and grand sweeping generalisations about the season. I hope you have a magnificent summer – take care, stay cool, stay true.

Yours sincerely,

Aunty Mabel

Go get ‘em!

Photo: Matsu Photography

“I hope people come to our zine festival,” said Anna wistfully, the night before our first-ever zine festival. Well, Anna of Endearingly Faint Optimism, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE!!! Thank you to the 200+ people who climbed Paper Mountain to participate in the inaugural Let Them Eat Zines festival, a day of all things handmade and DIY. The weekend is over and we are still amazed and excited about how everything went, and extremely touched by all the encouragment and support we have received along the way. Our fondest thanks to stallholders, our volunteers, guest speakers and musicians. Thank you also to Matsu Photography for the truly wonderful documentation of this beautiful day.

Here is David Craft opening the festival with his voice that is deeper than the ocean. He was accompanied by Pippa Lester (pictured) and Skye. Photo: Matsu Photography

These are just some of the many fine wares from our stallholders! Aunty Mabel was delighted to be in the company of Rebecca Crane, Sticky Carpet, Format, Fergus & Friends, Sticky Institute, Jenii Scott, Shiritori Press, Lost in the Suburbz, Sylvia Shrewsbury, Niina Aoki, ARTillery and PEAC. Photos: Matsu Photography

Taking us into the afternoon was Amanda Merdzan, who is sweeter than sunshine. Photo: Matsu Photography

Below the stairs in a dark seedy corner, Steve titillated adult visitors with a sexy zine peepshow. It wasn’t very steamy because that would have harmed the zines, but it was pretty hot. Photo: Sj Finch

If all that excitement got one’s pulse racing too much, visitors could retreat to the courtyard, browse our zine library, and make a zine! Photo: Emiko Watanabe

Here is Zine Chef host Miko collecting the competitors’ offerings! The zine battle of Thomas vs Danni was well-fought, with two A7 zines created in 45 minutes using the secret ingredient: a book about shipwrecks. Photo: Rachael Kuan

We were grateful for the insights of Thomas from Sticky Institute and Simon from Format Collective during our panel discussion! Our own Rachael represented Aunty Mabel’s and Steve acted as the discussion chair. Photo: Matsu Photography

We were also grateful for the insights of Sue Byrne, who talked about the State Library’s efforts to collect and archive zines. Photo: Matsu Photography

Danni and Alina of Shiritori Press talked about their hopes, dreams and squillions of projects. They have many, many projects. Photo: Shiritori Press

These skewers were the ingenious idea of two volunteers who came in the morning and helped out with food prep. Thank you! They were delicious! Photo: Matsu Photography

Delish Ice! Your popsicles are amazing! In particular, the ginger beer flavour was popular amongst festivalgoers. Photo: Matsu Photography

And to close the festival was Heathcote Blue and his chilltastic tunes. What a relaxing conclusion to a glorious day! Photo: Emiko Watanabe

More pictures of the day are available here.

But wait, we have more thank-yous! Thank you to the kind people who let us borrow their astroturf; thank you to all the organisations that helped to promote this event like Paper Mountain, Great About Perth and RTRfm; and thank you to all the zinesters in the world, whose ingenuity and courage inspire us daily. Our staples may not be archival, our print runs may be small, but our creative spirits stretch forth into infinity like the searing rainbow tail of Nyanphotocopier.

Peace xo

]]> http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/11/27/let-them-eat-zines-our-very-first-zine-festival-group-hugs-were-had-laps-were-danced-in-fb-friend-requests-unrolled-across-cyberspace-like-neverending-astroturf/feed/ 2 http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/11/06/volunteer-call-out/ http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/11/06/volunteer-call-out/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:08:29 +0000 perthzinecollective http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/?p=636 Hey everyone!

We are looking for some wonderful, altruistic people to help out with our zine festival Let Them Eat Zines (https://www.facebook.com/events/345997405495660/). The festival will take place on the 24th of November at Paper Mountain (267 William St, Northbridge). Volunteers are needed to help set up between 8:00am and 10:30am and pack up between 5:30pm and 8:00pm and will be treated to an awesome gift (e.g. zine showbag, festival tote bag) to thank them for them time. If you’re interested, flick us an e-mail at perthzinecollective@gmail.com with your name, availabilities (morning, evening or both) and a contact number before Monday the 12th of November.

Hope to see you there!

Love,
Aunty Mabel

We had a smashing good time at This Is Nowhere a few Sundays ago! What more do you want in a festival? There was a terrific photo booth, the charming art of Cherish Marrington, a truly endearing terrarium and helpful signage warning festivalgoers of roaming beasts. We always like to be warned about roaming beasts. From our position in the foyer we could hear (and feel) the dark delicious tunes reveberating from the Dolphin Theatre, but it was also nice to retreat to the buskers in the courtyard or traipse to the main stage in the Somerville Auditorium. HERE IS A VIDEO OF THE TENNISCOATS BEING SUPER SWEET. Thank you to life is noise for organising the festival and inviting us to come!

Thank you to the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre for having us on Saturday to present a collaborative zine workshop. Our resulting zine was called Firsts, in which each of the contributors shared a story of a first experience – there was a first kiss, a first lost tooth, a first pet…and many others! This was a limited edition run and copies are not for sale, but Firsts will be part of the Perth Zine Collective’s reading library. Thank you to everybody who attended the workshop and contributed to the zine! You are all stars.

In other news, the Perth Zine Collective is proud to be tabling at the launch of Magic Lemon! To quote from the event page, Magic Lemon is ‘a cookzine full of veganised and original animal-free recipes by Wat Gerg.’ Wat fun, Gerg! The party’s going down on Saturday at Dada Records (36 Pier St, Perth) from 5pm to 8pm! We cannot wait to shyly glance at you from across a table of zines.

Courtesy of the photo booth at This Is Nowhere

]]> http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/11/01/this-is-nowhere-firsts-magic-lemon/feed/ 0 http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/10/09/the-many-merry-happenings-of-the-pzc-so-many-things/ http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/2012/10/09/the-many-merry-happenings-of-the-pzc-so-many-things/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:31:05 +0000 perthzinecollective http://blog.perthzinecollective.com/?p=522
This Is Nowhere
Sunday 14 October 2012, UWA Campus
This Is Nowhere is HAPPENING ON SUNDAY! All festival punters will receive a free copy of our EXCLUSIVE zine, Sweetish Rhino: The Official But Only Mildly Informative This Is Nowhere Zine, which have been specially pre-rolled-in by PZC member Damian (as seen above). Why is the zine titled Sweetish Rhino? That is for you to find out! Hint: we could have also titled the zine Shiniest Whore, Whiniest Horse or Winos Shit Here. Please visit us during the festival! We will be in the foyer of the Dolphin Theatre, ready to recommend a zine to you. This Is Nowhere, the self-professed ‘festival for people who don’t like festivals’, features a delightful line-up of international and local acts, including Tortoise, Xiu Xiu, Grails, Tenniscoats, Puro Instinct, HTRK, Ikonika, and many more! Tickets are $99 presale (plus booking fee) and $120 on the door (unless sold out), so get in quick! For more information on This Is Nowhere, please view the Facebook page.

FIRSTS: A Collaborative Zine Workshop!
Saturday 27 October 2012, KSP Writers Centre
As one of our own will be a writer-in-residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in October, the kind folks at KSP have given us the opportunity to run a workshop! Please join us and contribute a page or two to our collaborative zine, entited FIRSTS, a collection of first experiences. Your contribution can be the story of your first word, your first car, your first love, your first fight – whatever first you can think of. As always, we will provide collage materials, typewriters and stationery. Both newcomers to zine-making and experienced zinesters are welcome to participate. This workshop costs $25 for students and KSP members, and $40 for non-students and non-members. You will need to make a booking by emailing kspf (AT) iinet (DOT) net (DOT) au. For more information (including a recent announcement that might benefit you if you’re a student!), please view the Facebook event page.

Let Them Eat Zines
Saturday 24 November 2012, Paper Mountain
Just a quickie update on the festival. We were delighted to receive so many stallholder applications during our call-out phase! Thirteen to be exact. Which means that Paper Mountain is going to be chock-full of zines and other exciting wares like artwork, prints, wearable crafts…maybe even icypoles?! Baby we got a market going! We will be getting in touch with stallholders in the coming weeks, and we thank stallholders for their patience in the meantime. Please keep checking the Let Them Eat Zines website and our Facebook page for more updates and call-outs!

The PZC at Paper Mountain

The Perth Zine Collective have been hard at work making an exclusive zine for This Is Nowhere! Presented by life is noise and Matilda Bay Redback Beer, This Is Nowhere is a boutique music event set to explode VERY SOON on Sunday 14 October at the Somerville Auditorium, Dolphin Theatre and Lawrence Jackson Court on UWA’s sprawling, leafy campus. Click the flyer below to check out the sweet line-up!

Source: www.facebook.com/ThisIsNowhere.com.au

During This Is Nowhere, Aunty Mabel’s Zine Distro will be shining with FIERCE ZINE GLORY in the foyer of the Dolphin Theatre! Please come and visit us! We will be very happy to see you.

The Rad Library needs your help! Please see the information below.

The Rad Library is seeking volunteers to help run things – we are a mobile community library that sets up in Hyde Park each Sunday between 1-5, you can find us either at the Pagoda closest to the stage or at the stage. As a lot of the original members have moved on we are frequently a little short of people to run it! So if you’re free on a Sunday just drop down and have a look at our collection of Radical books & Zines – yes, we have them too!

You can get in touch with The Rad Library by emailing the.rad.library AT gmail DOT com.