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]

I'm from Newcastle, Australia, and I've really only just started to get into zines... lucky for me Newcastle seems to have a massive zine scene, there's a fair called This is Not Art on next Sunday (where I'm going to have a stall)... um sorry this is turning into a ramble... but anyway, we have an organisation called Octopod, which is sort of where all the young writers/artists/musicians gather, and I went to their office yesterday and discovered an amazingly huge zine library.

It's wicked, they've been collecting zines from all over Australia for about ten years, I'll have to take some photos and post them here.

Going to buy up a whole lot of zines on Sunday, would you like reviews of them here?

Also, what's this sticky distro? HOw do distros work?

I think that's it, sorry for the rambling and so many questions, but like I said, I'm new :P

[Sticky Institute]

Some of the greatest Australian zines of our time include Westside Angst (and any other zines by Ianto Ware), Laughter And The Sound Of Tea-cups (and everything else by Vanessa Berry), Picaresque, Woozy, Erinsbourough Exploits, Foffle, Web, everything by Mandy Ord, everything by Arlene Textaqueen, Very Ilky.....paper zines seem to be doing pretty well in Australia. But then again I sit behind the desk at Sticky so it feels like there are lots of zines being made out there. Luke Sticky.

[Sticky Institute]

Hi Emma,

Sticky is a shop in Melbourne which stocks zines. The shop is run completely by volunteers and has been around since 2001. On the shelves can be found zines from all around the world.

Sticky can be found at Shop 10, Campbell Arcade, Melbourne, Victoria (under Flinders Street Station in the middle of the city) and is open every day of the week except Sunday. Sticky will be at TINA doing a stall at the zine fair as well as giving a talk at the fair about how Sticky operates.

Luke Sticky.

Emma Stronach said:

I'm from Newcastle, Australia, and I've really only just started to get into zines... lucky for me Newcastle seems to have a massive zine scene, there's a fair called This is Not Art on next Sunday (where I'm going to have a stall)... um sorry this is turning into a ramble... but anyway, we have an organisation called Octopod, which is sort of where all the young writers/artists/musicians gather, and I went to their office yesterday and discovered an amazingly huge zine library.

It's wicked, they've been collecting zines from all over Australia for about ten years, I'll have to take some photos and post them here.

Going to buy up a whole lot of zines on Sunday, would you like reviews of them here?

Also, what's this sticky distro? HOw do distros work?

I think that's it, sorry for the rambling and so many questions, but like I said, I'm new :P

[Andrew Culture]

Wow, I never cease to be amazed at how together most other countries (other than the UK) are with zine scenes. The UK scene is spread out over the entire country and still isn't huge. We only have two symposiums a year that I know of.

But then I guess it could be because our cities are so damned small!

[Milo]

I think my favorite Australian zine is 'The Adventures of Swan-boy' from Melbourne.

[Emma Stronach]

Mmmm Melbourne, I am such a fan of that place, was down there in Jan for the Big Day Out and absolutely besotted with the place. Seemed like a much easier city to live in than Sydney. No doubt I'll get myself back there sometime (maybe I'll come down for BDO...) will check Sticky out, sounds cool.

So you'll be at the same fair (or someone from Sticky)? Awesome ;) I'll be the one with the origami and toys Hoorah!


Sticky Institute said:

Hi Emma,

Sticky is a shop in Melbourne which stocks zines. The shop is run completely by volunteers and has been around since 2001. On the shelves can be found zines from all around the world.

Sticky can be found at Shop 10, Campbell Arcade, Melbourne, Victoria (under Flinders Street Station in the middle of the city) and is open every day of the week except Sunday. Sticky will be at TINA doing a stall at the zine fair as well as giving a talk at the fair about how Sticky operates.

Luke Sticky.

Emma Stronach said:

I'm from Newcastle, Australia, and I've really only just started to get into zines... lucky for me Newcastle seems to have a massive zine scene, there's a fair called This is Not Art on next Sunday (where I'm going to have a stall)... um sorry this is turning into a ramble... but anyway, we have an organisation called Octopod, which is sort of where all the young writers/artists/musicians gather, and I went to their office yesterday and discovered an amazingly huge zine library.

It's wicked, they've been collecting zines from all over Australia for about ten years, I'll have to take some photos and post them here.

Going to buy up a whole lot of zines on Sunday, would you like reviews of them here?

Also, what's this sticky distro? HOw do distros work?

I think that's it, sorry for the rambling and so many questions, but like I said, I'm new :P

[Bird in the Hand Zine Shop]

I absolutely loveeee Erinsborough Exploits and I am sure there's a million UK residents buzzing to get a hold of it! There are so many good zines in Australia that it's impossible to list them all. My favourites at the moment are a rotation of zines that tell stories and ones with great pictures. There's a young lady in Sydney who makes zines under the alias The Fetus and her little drawings of a 'thing' called Newdle are impeccable. Another brilliant zine in years past is The Positive Vegan (a vegan cookbook by a Sydney lass). The last time I popped into Sticky I spent close to $40 and was amazed at the new offerings in the zine community. It seems like everyone who makes zines is fun and interesting and really freaking talented.

Sticky is doing something absolutely amazing for the Australian and worldwide zine community. The fact they often do it without batting an eyelid is something to be noted. I'm not sure what's happened lately with the Octapod as I've jumped ship to Sydney in this last year. I think it is a sorely underused resource. Some of the utilities the Octapod offer are lost to many people - people in the community who don't know about its existance, people who are taken to be 'outsiders'. Their aspirations are great in many areas... the largest zine library in Australia? I'm not sure if the Melbourne library one has surpassed that. Each year the Octapod collects up one of as many zines at the zine fair as they can and lumps these in the library for your reading pleasure. It's organised into different genres and you can sit on their comfy armchairs to your hearts content. I'd like to see this resource organised in some sort of computer system and eventually I'd like to see these catalogued, scanned and listed on some sort of website. I'm really not sure if that's where the zine community wants to go (as the feel of paper in your hands can never be replaced) but I feel at least a computerised cataloguing system is in order.

Well, I really took this post too far didn't I. I will stop and suffice to say that I truly appreciate the originality of zines within Australia and the world and I hope one day someone will say that my zine is high up on their list of favourites.

[Emma Stronach]

I was at Octopod last week and the lady on the desk seemed very excited about zines but said that no one has really done anything with the library they have there. They've submitted a proposal to govt type people to get a grant so they can catalogue it. Hopefully that comes through soon, and hopefully I can talk my way into the job, because spending all day looking at stuff like that is my idea of heaven ;)

Bird in the Hand said

[Andrew Culture]

All utterly amazing, government funding is not to be sniffed at. There are a few zines in Northern Ireland that I think are funded by the arts council, which is pretty remarkable.

Hmm, I thought I'd be more elequoent than that, maybe I shouldn't post on here when I've just woken up :)

[Emma Stronach]

Hehe that's Ok Andrew, even though you have just woken up I totally agree that govt. funding is awesome. I'm running my small business (Emerald Arts) with the aid of a Government grant called NEIS. They pay my rent while I get things off the ground. Very very cool.

Andrew Culture said:

All utterly amazing, government funding is not to be sniffed at. There are a few zines in Northern Ireland that I think are funded by the arts council, which is pretty remarkable.

Hmm, I thought I'd be more elequoent than that, maybe I shouldn't post on here when I've just woken up :)

[Andrew Culture]

utterly fantastic!

[Bird in the Hand Zine Shop]

hehe! If only I hadn't been so lazy.

Emma Stronach said:

Hehe that's Ok Andrew, even though you have just woken up I totally agree that govt. funding is awesome. I'm running my small business (Emerald Arts) with the aid of a Government grant called NEIS. They pay my rent while I get things off the ground. Very very cool.

Andrew Culture said:

All utterly amazing, government funding is not to be sniffed at. There are a few zines in Northern Ireland that I think are funded by the arts council, which is pretty remarkable.

Hmm, I thought I'd be more elequoent than that, maybe I shouldn't post on here when I've just woken up :)