Zines, Zines, Zines

I'm having a bit of a tidy up this week - sorting through lots of old boxes and folders, clearing out old paperwork and other bits and pieces I've accumulated over the years and trying to get the good / important / useful stuff a bit better organised.

In one of the boxes, I found a pile of old zines written back when I was a student. It seems wrong to just recycle them, so I wondered if any of you lovely folks fancied a copy?

UPDATE - all the zines have now been posted! :) 

There are a couple of issues of my personal zine "Bugs and Fishes" (which is where the name of my blog came from!). Bugs and Fishes is lighthearted and whimsical, ranty and opinionated, and obsessed with things like baking, advertising, strangely named foodstuffs, and misheard song-lyrics. The zine ran from 1999-2005 and is packed with my articles about whatever was on my mind when I wrote the issue!

Issue 17 is from 2004 and includes articles about essay-writing, rain, things spotted in Sainsburys, the Olympics, the spider scale of scariness, announcements on trains, the word "chav", grapefruit juice, and warnings found on medication.

Issue 18 is from 2005 and includes articles about colouring-in, cups of tea, new year's resolutions, the Gap, strange signs in the university library, the UK government's slogans for immunisation, graffiti, place names, and TV listings.

There are also some copies of "My Library Project: A Short Investigation into Graffiti Left in University Library Books". This is a zine documenting my obsession with the various scribblings left by other students in my University Library. These vary from the helpful to the annoying to the downright insane and a selection of them are compiled here for your entertainment.

Sample categories include 1) Random Underlining, 3) Dissent and Sarcasm, 5) Cussing, 15) Staggering Stupidity, and 17) Scary Nutters. Beware: this zine does include some swears!

My Library Project is perfect for anyone who has ever been annoyed by this sort of thing, or for people who (like me) spend far too much time in libraries.

Freebie: Anti-Fashion Zine

I've been having a bit of a clearout this week and last night I found a whole folder full of clippings from women's magazines and beauty columns and was totally at a loss as to why I'd kept them... until at the back of the folder I found some half-finished anti-fashion zines.

Before I had a blog, I used to write lots of zines (including one called Bugs and Fishes which I published at irregular intervals for about 6 years, hence the name of this blog!). I wrote about all sorts of weird stuff, stuck it down on a bit of paper with pritt stick, photocopied it and handed it out to friends, and later sold a few copies through my fledgling Etsy shop.

As I don't sell my zines anymore, I thought it might be nice to share one here instead: issue #3 of my anti-fashion zine This Season's Must Have (yes I know sharing issue #1 would make more sense, but I can't find the files on my computer and my scanner needs replacing, so shh).

I love clothes, but fashion (and fashion journalism) drives me crazy! This Season was inspired by endless articles about the new "must have" jeans and how not wearing them would be social death. It's packed with clippings that made me either fall on the floor laughing or grind my teeth in a vaguely feminist, and distinctly anti-fashion rage. Hope you enjoy it :)

This Season's Must Have by Laura Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Click on the images to view full size and print (each page prints to A4 size)

An Exhibition

Ah, how annoying it is to be ill!

Most annoying of all to be cancelling so many plans and postponing so many fun crafty schemes... but for the moment, naps and general resting must take priority over other (much more interesting) occupations.

Atop my list of "things to do when I feel better" is visiting the Between the Covers exhibition at The Women's Library, in London.

The reason? Well, aside from the exhibition looking pretty darn interesting, one of my zines is apparently in it! So thrilling.

I only found out by chance - a blogging friend (who happened to know about my anti-fashion zine This Seasons Must Have) happened to go to the exhibition and spot one of my zines framed on the wall and kindly let me know about it via Twitter. Ah, how I love the internet and our lovely friendly crafty community.

The Return of the Zines

A long time ago, before I had a blog and a shop and was still at school I started a zine (pronounced "zeen") called "Bugs and Fishes" filled with lots of odd things that were rattling round my brain.

The zine ran from 1999-2005, and when I first set up shop on Etsy I sold copies of it along with several of my other zines and named this blog after it. And now by popular demand (and some nagging from my boyfriend) the zines are back!
Issues 15 to 18 of Bugs and Fishes are currently available, plus "My Library Project" - a slightly obsessive look at the crazy graffiti people write in library books.

You can find them in my Etsy shop or save by buying direct from me via my website where you'll only pay one fixed handling charge for shipping as many zines as you want.