Great Australian Zines of our time

[Andrew Culture]

I've been trading with Sticky Distro in Oz for some time now (I'm in the UK) and I've always been amazed by the high standard (and highly individual) zines that are sent back to me in trades.

However, this isn't meant to be an advert for sticky (as cool as they are) but more a discussion on Australian zines! My absolute favourite has to be 'Foffle', it's sort of music based, but covering bands that *shock* aren't punk! It's sense of humour is great and really down to earth. One of the many really odd zines I've been sent was 'Cute Baby Christian Monkeys, not at all diseased', which was quite frankly the oddest thing I've ever seen!

So what Oz zines are you a fan of?

[Emma Stronach]

Totally ;)

Andrew Culture said:

utterly fantastic!

[lofipi]

I used to read Aussie zines (Lemon is the only one springing to mind, sadly), and I went to the book launch of Vanessa Berry's Strawberry Hills Forever, and I went to a wonderful exhibition in a gallery in Sydney's western suburbs some time ago, but I'm out of the loop and find myself reading a lot of American stuff. I'm reading this keenly and hoping to tap into Aussie stuff again. Only just found out about the You/Westside Angst launch at a zine fair (?) on the October long weekend in Newcastle - that starts tomorrow! Can I make it? I don't know if I can do it... Aiya!

PS: Any Sydney shops selling a lot of and/or recent zines, or Sydney zine fairs coming up? Yes, I'm that far out of the loop.

[Emma Stronach]

I think you do need to come for the zine fair, because it is awesome and totally not all about zines. Basically, I rock up there at about 11.30am, set up my half table then spend the day chatting to all sorts of awesome people.

Your social life sounds lovely ;)

lofipi said:

I used to read Aussie zines (Lemon is the only one springing to mind, sadly), and I went to the book launch of Vanessa Berry's Strawberry Hills Forever, and I went to a wonderful exhibition in a gallery in Sydney's western suburbs some time ago, but I'm out of the loop and find myself reading a lot of American stuff. I'm reading this keenly and hoping to tap into Aussie stuff again. Only just found out about the You/Westside Angst launch at a zine fair (?) on the October long weekend in Newcastle - that starts tomorrow! Can I make it? I don't know if I can do it... Aiya!

PS: Any Sydney shops selling a lot of and/or recent zines, or Sydney zine fairs coming up? Yes, I'm that far out of the loop.

[Mr. T]

It's all about Pee Zine for me! fucking amazing!!!

[anna p]

hi andrew,
nice forum topic! i spent 2002-2006 madly collecting australian personal zines (i wrote a phd on them), so my favourite zines come from a specific genre, apologies if you're not into perzines.

my top 5 australian perzines (in no particular order)
1. 'you' : prolific, ephemeral, anonymous, rad.
2. anything by anwyn : 'dust', 'secret archive of the recent past'... great thoughtful, poetic, political perzines.
3. 'love, truth and honesty: a zine about bananarama and me' : a fanzine/perzine about growing up on a farm and loving pop music (and the recent second issue is also wonderful)
4. anything by sandy : 'blown colon', 'dirrty', 'handpash'... sandy is a thinker / dancer / sometimes jelly-wrestler who writes amazingly awesome zines that are very hard to find. anyone see him at the tina zine fair this year?
5. 'i think so...' : i am not sure whether esther is still making zines, but 'i think so...' always included a great personal writing and through it i discovered chris kraus and 'hedwig and the angry inch' for which i am ever grateful.

honourable non-perzine mentions to:
web (always odd and funny and well executed)
mandy ord comix
keg de souza's pun zines
plastic knife
erinsborough exploits

[Bird in the Hand Zine Shop]

anna p said:

(i wrote a phd on them) what a topic! can we read it?

[Sticky Institute]

Sticky has copies of Anna P's Phd on personal zines on the shelf right now. From memory it is called "Intimate Ephemera". Sticky is happy to do mail order.

Luke/Sticky.

Bird in the Hand said:

anna p said:

(i wrote a phd on them) what a topic! can we read it?

[anna p]

yeah i'd say buy it through sticky :)
but i warn you, it is an academic monograph so, if you're not keen on literary theory some of it might be a little hard going. there's plenty to read about particular zines though. you can read more about it (like a chapter summary etc.) here:
http://www.mup.com.au/page/94

ap

Bird in the Hand said:

anna p said:

(i wrote a phd on them) what a topic! can we read it?

[lousie]

lofipi said:

It doesn't always have a heap of zines for sale, though usually a small number of good things, but Black Rose Anarchist Books has heaps of old zines in the library. From memory, recent stuff for sale includes copies of Feels Like Friday & This Heart Pumps Electricity, which are totally my favourite current local zines: wonderful old-style good-angst little perzines from the western suburbs. There are a few other good zines there too, & some local comics, I just can't remember details right now. It has my zine too.

It's at 22 Enmore Rd, just near newtown station, it's open 11-7 thursday & friday & 11-5 saturday & sunday. It takes zines on consignment too.

My all time favourite zines from this country are ones I first traded for, some of which are still around in some form: Astrogrrrl, all Sandy's zines, especially All I want to write is this, Luddite Shall Inherit, I think so...

[Kris M.]

Hello Mr. Culture!

I couldn´t agree more with your thoughts on Sticky. Dealing with them is an absolute pleasure. And they´ve been a huge inspiration for me to stop being so damn lazy & half-assed about making zines.

I have a few favorite Aussie zines:

Mandy Ord´s comics: I have one called "birthday bitch" & another called "Sensitive Creatures" which are both amazing.

"No Time Wasters" which is a zine full of fake classified ads. It´s hilarious.

And I quote: "FOR SALE: One VHS copy of Steven Seagal´s "Under Siege" taped off TV in 1994 with the ads cut out. Minor tape wear during "cake scene". All offers considered."

And, last but not least, I always love the zine YOU which usually comes in a decorated, stapled shut paper bag.

[Kris M.]

Oh, I almost forgot to add my shameless plug!

In late 2008/early 2009 I´ll be publishing issue number 2 of my "zine & mail art history zine" entitled "Going Postal!"...

Within it´s covers there will be a long interview with Luke about Sticky Distro & Australian zines in general.

End of shameless plug.

[adam ford]

Yeah cute baby christian monkeys was by my mate paul - one of the spectacular WEB series. Web stands out against the Australian zine landscape because of its always stylish and restrained design, its insane sense of humour and the fact that it has never once dipped its toe into the water of perzine, even after -what?- 40 issues.

Other Oz zines I never pass by include The Life and Times of Mavis McKenzie (again, not a perzine - not that I have anything against perzines, it's just nice to see something different now and again), and anything by Esther Singer (though I seem to have lost track of her work of late - is she still doing zines?).

I picked up a great zine about TinTin the other day - can't remember the title, but it was by Ianto Ware, of Westside Angst fame. It was an overview of the publication history of TinTin mapped onto Ianto's own journey of personal growth as he strove to achive the status of a flaneur, just like TinTin. The TinTin pictures looked like they were traced from the originals, rather than photocopies, which was a lovely somehow personal touch.

You know? I think I'm going to nick that paragraph above for a zine review.