During the month of September I ran another Electric Zine Jam (the two point oh edition!) in which people made a bunch of beautiful zines. This jam was to celebrate the new Electric Zine Maker update which introduced a number of templates, and the brand new UI update.
I’m also over the moon that PAGE online wrote about it!
“Zines und OpenSource passen wunderbar zueinander, findet Nathalie Lawhead und entwickelt seit 2018 den Electric Zine Maker. Nun ist ein großes Update für das Printshop-Tool erschienen.”
– by Lena Simonis on PAGE, Zine Design: Micro-Heft gestalten mit dem Electric Zine Maker
So… Like I did for the first jam (which you can check out here), I’m here to highlight all the wonderful submissions.
I’m constantly amazed by what people make in the Electric Zine Maker. It’s inspiring to see how people express themselves with it. All these beautiful zines about this breadth of topics… I don’t think there is even such a thing as a “bad zine”. Just the fact that someone made one, and shared it, is beautiful in itself. It’s what makes zine making so special.
If you enjoyed any one of these please be sure to follow the creator on itch, check out their Twitter, or even tip them!
(Also, if I forgot to add your submission, the comments are open. Please link to it and I’ll add it.)
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axoona has made a number of beautiful and intriguing zines with the Electric Zine Maker. I would like to highlight my still favorite fold-your-path-adventure-game mini zine thing (check it out here!). It’s so cool!
I love this person’s creativity. The way they use the Electric Zine Maker has been consistently inspiring.
Climate Anxiety is another example of something meaningful.
This one really spoke to me. It talks about these relatable fears surrounding… well… environmental collapse.
To me, this is a terrifying period to try to exist in. It’s like you’re watching Earth hurt and you can’t really do anything but be angry at yourself, the system, rich people…
This zine challenges some of our beliefs surrounding that. It acknowledges the things that can’t be done, while also talking about the things that we still can do. The small things you can control, in a meaningful way, to change things for yourself and others. It’s a beautiful one with a realistic but hopeful message.
I’ll leave this quote from it…
“Prioritizing joy is an act of resistance.”
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Speaking of beautiful art…
Plight of Pierrot (ZINE) by eggbiskit
I’m at a loss for words at this one. The art is simply stunning. The style is amazing, as is the way the pages are laid out.
It’s a tiny illustrated short story about being down on luck, and then…
Seriously do yourself a favor and page through it. It’s so beautiful.
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REVENGE FANTASY by citriccenobite
This one is beautiful and very meaningful. I also don’t want to say too much about it for fear of spoiling it.
It’s a lot like an illustrated short poem, about revenge, closure, an overcoming what hurt you.
“and now that he’s gone, you finally feel safe enough to cry”
It is very touching. I recommend it.
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A Tentacle Porn History Zine by coolsquid
I have to admit that I was off-put at first with the TW for rape combined with the topic in general, BUT it ended up being a really insightful short read about the history of Tentacle Porn. It talks about when it first started, and how it was American’s that made it weird (no surprise there).
What I found interesting is how European values had this detrimental effect on Japanese society in which a negative view of nudity was adopted, and it harmed the culture. Then American’s take over the theme and make it creepy, and then Japanese artists kind of navigate that an “take it back”, so to speak.
I hope I don’t paraphrase all this too heavily, but I found it insightful. It gave me more to think about in terms of European and American values ruining supposedly good or interesting things for other societies (which I guess goes without saying).
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This is one that I think is hard to describe and I really don’t want to take words from it. It’s personal. It’s about struggle, being trans, and navigating a relationship with parents that struggle to embrace that.
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World At War by tapewormheaven
“”World At War”, a zine about war and the indifference towards it.”
This one is really powerful. I don’t want to spoil it by talking about it too much.
It’s beautifully made. You really need to try it.
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“A short and silly sapphic zine about finding something to wear before a hot date. Will she find a cute outfit or strike out?”
Oh my god I love this. It’s so sweet. This is adorable. You need to read it!
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This is a short one, and if I would say more I’m afraid I would spoil the… plot twist ending.
I love the art. It’s beautifully laid out. The illustration style, colors, characters, are all beautiful. I also enjoyed the use of the Glass Stamps tool at the end.
It’s a lot like a very short tiny comic.
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A Zine for Adults in 2021 and Beyond by Jeremy Oduber
Jeremy Oduber is the developer who made the HTML5 reader for the Electric Zine Maker.
As I am reading the zines in this jam it occurs to me the extent at which his project has been a gift to the Electric Zine Maker community. Pretty much everyone in this jam, or just in general when they share an EZM zine online, uses his tool.
I’m grateful that he put so much work into supporting the HTML reader over these years.
I think it’s important to highlight all his hard work here. If you use it, and you can afford it, please tip him. It’s been a blessing.
So that said…
He made a zine for the jam too! It appropriately captures the mood of 2021, as well as 2020, and probably next 202x’s too… Truly, a relevant zine for the times, yes.
If you enjoy artful screaming, this zine is for you!
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Meet Chalice<3 by RodFireProductions
“It’s just a simple piece about one of my original characters, Chalice. Just something fun and creative I made while at school.”
Sometimes I see zines where I’m amazed at how the person combined all the tools to make very interesting, unique, or compelling art. This is one of them.
The glitchy effects, the way all these components have been laid over eachother, is really compelling.
This is a zine about a character that the author invented, and plans on building on. It’s a cute one featuring beautiful art.
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What to do with Your Werewolf Boyfriend by fishfoodsss
This zine is all about a hot gay werewolf boyfriend who is very tall and loves meat.
I had no idea that werewolves would make such great gay boyfriends. I learned something valuable reading this zine.
I love the art too! It’s kinda romantic tbh? Relationship goal maybe? I’m definitely glad they found each other.
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roger that: a lockdown sufjan stevens fanzine by shrinkwrap
This one is beautiful… I mean, they all are, so I’m using that word a lot. It’s a beautiful fanzine. I’ll quote from the comment on the page because I think this person said it well,
“a little tribute to an artist with what seems like an endless well of artistic output. we got soft pages(michigan), we got glitchy pages(the ascension), we got pages addressing the unavoidable sufbrainrot you get from being a fan (every single album)! i just wish i was longer with some more sufjacts <3"
– swampedwater
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“Game born out of spite. Who wants to play a fun card game without being under the target of big entertainment corpos marketing team? Me, so I created this game.”
A card game made partly using the Electric Zine Maker. The cards are in a google doc which are linked to on the itch page.
I think it’s inspiring when people make games and use the Electric Zine Maker for some part of it. This one looks neat. I think people will have fun with it.
“Make and sell your card. Challenge people who created their own cards. Edit and kitbash this game to your heart content to have a good time while arguing on paper cards.”
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A French zine, also by the wonderful axoona, featuring artful poetry.
It’s beautiful.
“Mes poèmes écrits en Juin 2021 pour #Nudete
(un challenge proposé par MamieChocolatee)”
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Willy’s Culinary Adventure Zine! by Bella Marie
A super cute zine about fictional restaurants. It made me smile. Fishy’s Fish Restaurant reeled in a generous 10/5 rating, so it’s obviously THE spot to check out.
10/5 zine.
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no thoughts, only doodles by jsctn
As the title implies this is a tiny art zine filled with cute little doodles.
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potatoes are my fave by nixfromspace
This is a tiny potato-fanzine. I’m in love. Finally potatoes are getting the recognition they deserve.
Also… I never even thought of using the Bacon Tool as something you could draw French Fries with. I think I missed the opportunity to call it the French Fry tool.
Either way, this is another adorable zine that will make you smile.
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GREYMUZZLE@<3 - ELECTRIC ZINE JAM 2.0 by afxmeal
A zine dedicated to furry culture. It’s very informative, and is a tiny glimpse into why it matters to people.
It also talks about how internet spaces were helped by furries.
Zines like these are why I appreciate zine culture so much. It’s a tiny piece shared from someone that found this thing important to them, and it helps you see what’s valuable about it too.
“one of my favourite parts of this community would probably be just how unconventional it is.”
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“a story about gay shitheads and a horror house, which will never see fruition but which is fun to imagine.”
A horror-like zine about two people that move into a house, and the house turns into a character of itself.
It’s interesting to page through, and very conceptual… I know that’s probably a weird way of describing it. It’s a very cool and very strange zine. It’s also the first time I’ve read an EZM zine with its own spooky ambient soundtrack.
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“This zine is a collection of original poems similar to haiku, called senryu.”
This is a beautiful, gentle, calming… collection of words. It reads like musings.
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I’m in love. This one was really sweet!
The team has to invent more numbers, and I wish them luck with that.
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a collection of thoughts by Hartmann
“A small collection of mostly low quality thoughts ive had, in diary format. just a couple little things, dont expect a poignant emotional masterpiece. :P”
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A multimedia zine featuring glitch art. It’s kind of grunge vaporwave (do those words go together? is that a thing? this zine makes it real).
This is one of my favorites (which is hard to say because I’ve enjoyed all of the zines), but I have a soft spot for this kind of art.
I’m just going to leave my favorite page here… (EZM was not responding?? oh no.)
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“A collection of digital collages that helped through a period of darkness I had during 2021.”
It is beautiful and I appreciated what was shared. You have to click on the bottom corners of the page to page through. It’s beautifully made.
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Catalogue for the beast by GiantSpaceHead
“A Catalogue themed Horror(?) zine.
its mostly filled with images and strange concepts that I think about when I’m bored.”
This is a strange digital construction that’s almost a guidebook of sorts.
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“FROG FUNNY COMICS. LITTLE COMICS FOR ENJOY. FROG TIMES AHEAD”
Thank you. I love it! Silly weird doodley comics!
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Crackling Bastion of the Argent Crawler by Nightmace
A tiny zine of doodles and random words.
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zine: the evolution of wordvomit by cosmicbhejafry
I think if there’s one theme that started to emerge from this jam it is that of beautiful wordvomit.
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9/11 Rage ZIne by klenahttps://klena.itch.io/911-rage-zine-21
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Another lovely glitchy wordvomit glitchvomit artvomit zine.
“Download “GoodNorning_A4″ if you are crazy enough to print this out!
Happy Zine-ing!”
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Reading all the zines was lovely. I’m constantly inspired by what people make in the Electric Zine Maker, all that breadth of stuff people share… but lol I said that before.
I’m grateful to have made a tool that lets people make things like this.
Thank you to everyone that participated!
Small Electric Zine Maker development update:
My main work computer broke down a few days ago and I’ve been scrambling to get all my information off it. I’ll need to buy a new system now, so obviously that’s thrown a wrench into a lot of my plans. I can’t wait to start working on it, and all my other projects again tho… I’m not sure if that information is useful to people but sharing it sure helps my computer-less-ness anxiety :D
Oh also! If you liked reading these zines, please check out the “made with the Electric Zine Maker” collection on itch. Zines are constantly being added to it.
