#cyanzine

Few weeks ago I learnt about a zine fest that was happening this month and decided to not only to go but also scan and print some zines I've made and share some copies!

It was really fun! Sadly I struggled to talk with stall owners and other folks at the event (I hope I wasn't too awkward!) due to being overwhelmed by the big crowd and noise but, luckily they had a place to grab free zines so I put all the ones I didn't personally hand out to people in that section ^u^

In total I got 16 zines! as well as many stickers and badges :D I'm so glad to of been able to go to this event & buy so much from local artists & add more to my zine collection! All the zines I got were so fun and cool! I wanted to get more but sadly I had a set budget and had to stick to it >:3. This event has of course also greatly inspired me for future zine projects and in general ♡

As you can see from the pics above, the scan & print quality for my zines sadly isn't the best (last three pics comparing the prints to the master copies :P), luckily I only planned on giving these zines away for free but, in future when I do start selling at markets (I have wanted to do this on and off since I was a teen lol), I will make sure to have set up at home so I can print them at a nicer quality & cheaper than the library... maybe? Hopefully (love the library but it's printing is a bit costly for me ^u^J).

A few days ago I felt like making another zine before the year ended and wasn't sure what it was going to be about until I dug up a memory from a few years ago.

I did an art course and one day in class we had 40 minutes to start and finish an art work. Then we got into small groups to present said art work and critic each other. I drew a simple character wearing a JSK/lolita fashion dress I designed and while most most criticisms were fair (pointing out anatomy flaws, explaining ways to improve the pose and overall composition, compliments on the outfit details and colour palette ECT.) but one of the artists said the drawing was bad and too shallow because it had no meaning.

To this day I'm still frustrated by that comment, not just because imo it's bad criticism, but also because it's a mentality in regards to art that I really hate seeing. The mentality of course being "good art" is deep and meaningful while "bad art" is shallow, meaningless and therefore useless. To me there is no such thing as good or bad art, sure I have my preferences (there is a lot of art I don't like or care about) but, I think art as a concept in of itself is inherently subjective, therefore all things relating to it are subjective.

Last week I scanned my first zine! Reason is because it's a 16 page zine (two mini zines to make one) and I knew I wanted to make another 16 page mini zine so I scanned & printed a copy to test stapling a zine so I could feel confident I would be able to sell copies of these 16 page zines in future :>

I also took pics of the master copies pages again for this post because my first ever tumblr post on this blog is of this zine! and you can tell... I donated the zine copy to my state library because it turns out they're wanting to create a collection of local zines so I may scan more of my zines for them soonish to donate ^u^

as for this zine and why I made it, well I used to be a full time decora! especially from 2021-2023, even used to have an insta account for it (before I got rid of all my instas for many many reasons). I don't wear decora much these days but I still love the style! Even if my feelings around it are a tad complicated due to a lotta personal stuff :P

last week I made a zine about my asexuality! I made this zine for a few reasons, firstly it's because the A-spec aspect of my queer identity was the part that took longest to figure out (though the aro part took longer than the ace part :P) and second, it's because I have sadly noticed many people in real life can be really weird about it?

Like even with well meaning & kind folks, a few have straight up make annoying assumptions about me as soon as they learn I'm ace. One example is that after I corrected someone for thinking I'm touch adverse I mentioned being ace in a group convo and they immediately said "Oh I knew I was right to assume you didn't like hugs and kisses!" which was, ugh! :[ so fucken annoying, but other shit like assuming I've never been in a sex shop (I'm 25! I've been in 2 or 3 different ones!), can't handle sex jokes or, give relationship advice at all it's all just... so fucken frustrating so I kinda vented with this zine XD

Probably doesn't help in real life I am a super quite and a passive person (it's something I'm working on!) so I guess it's really easy to project the ace stereotypes onto me, but still! In future, I would love to make zines on A-spec and M-spec Identities but last time I attempted this I got quickly overwhelmed by the research as I'd want these zines to be fully inclusive but, also friendly to total LGBT+ newbies :P but maybe this year I'll try again! who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

First zine of 2025. Made it few nights ago because I just really wanted to make a zine and after grabbing out a bunch of stickers and scrap paper I got an idea to make a sweet and cat themed zine which lead to a weird tangent XD

Late last month I went to an art and crafts group hangout session with a few of my friends and decided to make a zine because I just felt like making one XD

This is my 3rd zine but I'll probably never post my 2nd zine cuz it's a perzine and, it's very sad and angry, so I don't feel like sharing it, you can find my first zine here btw (warning it's one of my first Tumblr posts and as a result quality is very bad sorry).