Mythical Type

Yesterday I ran a zine-making station at a public library fundraiser. 🙂

The library had a Fall Fair with a bake sale, raffles, magic show, and games. Arts and crafts tables were inside the library. Here’s the zine-making station.

The library provided magazines, scrapbook paper, markers, glue sticks, scissors, and plain white paper. I brought copies of How to make a mini zine and What’s a zine?

This is the first time I’ve done a zine event with kids. Having collage materials definitely helps, so kids don’t have to write something on the spot.

Two girls spent about an hour and a half at the table, making two zines each, because they said they were having so much fun. 🥹

I think if I do more kid-focused zine events, I might make some kind of template that they can fill in. Having more of a guide might be a nice option besides having a blank piece of paper.

Here’s a zine I made during some downtime.

“The antidote to social media” is a mini zine that looks at how negative things are outweighing positives on social media. But social media platforms are still a good way to find people to connect with. The zine suggests ways to work around the negative aspects of social media.

Copies are available on Etsy (U.S. only).

A lot of my zines start in a notebook page. Here’s where I started writing out what I wanted to include in this zine.

“Useless Venn Diagrams” is a mini zine with random observations, put into Venn diagram format. Topics include puzzles, note-taking, and movies.

Printed in black on teal paper. I drew this zine by hand and then adjusted spacing and layout in Canva.

"Cat's Cradle" is a tiny story about mimicking someone. It's not quite sci-fi, but it feels like it...maybe because it was inspired by a scene near the end of Annihilation. (I won't spoil the movie and neither does the zine.)

Here's the full text of the story:

It's like playing cat's cradle,
but we aren't using string.

I do one thing.
She does something else that feels like...
an extension. A continuation.

And then we swap.

She does one thing—
says a phrase, draws some lines, moves her arm
just so.

I extend—
a line of poetry, a floral doodle, a yoga pose.

And then we swap.

The training protocol doesn't specify how to teach.
Just that I'm supposed to.

I report progress back to the team.

And then we swap.

“Modern-day Sisyphus” is a mini zine about 21st century tasks that never go away.

The zine is inspired by Sisyphus, a figure from Greek mythology who is tasked with rolling a boulder up a mountain, only for the boulder to roll back down every time he reached near the top.

Copies are available on Etsy.

Page 1 has a summary of the story of Sisyphus.

Page 2 lists chores that are repetitive: washing dishes, doing laundry, dusting, and vacuuming. At the bottom of page 2, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

Pages 3 and 4 list tasks that are repetitive: making the bed, replying to emails, mowing the lawn, taking out trash, and paying bills. At the bottom of the pages, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

Pages 5 and 6 list positive things that are repetitive: listening to favorite songs, making a cup of coffee, saying good night to loved ones, cooking favorite meals, celebrating holidays, and spending time on hobbies. At the bottom of the pages, there’s an illustration of a man rolling a boulder up a hill.

Here’s the back cover:

“Song lyrics I mishear” is a mini zine that lists lyrics where I hear the wrong words. Each page is about one song and includes the actual lyrics along with what I hear instead.

I wanted the interior pages to be a mix of typed text (the actual song lyrics) and handwritten notes (the words I hear). This way, the pages look like they’re annotated.

Copies are available on Etsy.

I've been particularly annoyed lately about how much we depend on cars, so I made a little zine about it.

I'm not saying we should eliminate cars completely. I want better public transportation so everyone has more and better options for getting around.

Here are the interior pages.