IZM 2022 – Days 22 to 28

Hadass420

Jul 29

This year's International Zine Month is quickly coming to an end. Here's what I've been up to this past week.

Day 22: Check out zine YouTube channels. This was Friday and I had much more interesting things to do than watching YouTube, though none of these things were IZM-related. I went bike-riding for the first time since my honeymoon in 2015. My family and I went to the First Station and rented bikes. My daughter did a great job on a two-wheeler that was way too big for her. I had a fucking blast, driving fast, riding the adrenaline, GAWD! It was heaven! My husband had a bit of trouble getting the hang of it. He learned how to ride a two-wheeler a little later in life so he was struggling with it. Both me and my kid cheered him on and eventually, he went riding smoothly in no time. After that, we went home, had dinner, and I baked muffins. Always a treat.

Day 23: Another zine distro day. Saturday and I pretty much read the entire day. That evening, I had a Zoom meeting with a couple of zinester friends. We are planning an oracle card calendar, so not exactly a zine event, but close enough. I'm happy I got a chance to join in on their meeting because I usually don't have the time, the will or the energy. Computers suck, the connection is never good enough, and it just pisses me off. But this time, I struggled to make it work. Finally, we just used the chatroom on Zoom and that was good enough.

Day 24: New zine skill. I had an idea where I should probably learn how to bind zines with a needle and thread because it would be perfectly fitting for me clothes zine. But alas, I am not printing many (or any) hard copies of zines anymore because I decided to go digital, so whatever. I finally got all my material for the collaboration zine I am writing with Henry Jaepelt. He contributed a 4-page comic (with an inner joke I absolutely loved) as well as the cover page (which kicks some hardcore ass). I hope to start the layout at some point this week.
Today, I worked the entire time solely on my clothes perzine. I almost finished setting up the pages. I kept looking at the clock and saying "OK, after this piece, I'll stop and leave the rest for later." But this was a classic case of I'll-Just-Finish-This-Chapter. When you read a book, you always say "I'll just finish this chapter and go to sleep," and before you know it, it's 3 a.m. and you finished the whole fucking book. So I just kept going until I really had to pack up and go home.
Having slept no more than five hours last night, I was sure I'd go nap as soon as I got home. But no! Instead I went right on with my zine. And I finished setting up the pages!! All I have left is numbering the pages, designing the table on contents and write the contact page and it's off to the scanner (not printers because I went digital, remember?). Yay!!

Day 25: Send zine for review. Yesterday, I got the zines from Ryan of Pocket Thoughts that I traded with! I've heard quite a bit about these zines and came across some of Ryan's posts on my Facebook feed, so I'm glad I finally got a chance to read some of them. The layout is flawless, and the art and visuals are excellent, but what I like best about Pocket Thoughts is the humoristic tone of the written pieces, as well as their brevity. They're straight and to the point and with the added element of humor, it just makes the zine a much lighter and more enjoyable read than most other zines I come across. I think I wrote about that before, but I love zines that make me laugh. They're fewer but finding them is so rewarding! I also try to add humor in my zines whenever possible. I think I have a decent sense of humor and like to make people laugh. I hope some of my zines have that effect on people too.
Today, grand day, I completed Purple Moon Spawn - A PMS Perzine, issue 19, about clothes! It looks great if I do say so myself, and you'll get a chance to see some samples of it when I write the IZM wrap-up post on Sunday, July 31. And you'll also be able to download the full version of the zine from my new Ko-Fi shop on that same date!
For the rest of the month, I hope to finish updating my PMS Mess catalog, digitize and upload the rest of the mini zines to Ko-Fi, and layout the collaboration zine, which should be a treat in itself because Henry's contribution to it is awesome!

Day 26: Organize zine collection. I guess I did something of the sort today. I finished digitizing my mini zines and I added them to my Ko-Fi shop. I listed them individually, except for the Full Disclosure Trilogy. And I also made a care package listing for all the minizines plus the one microzine I made once (check it out here if you'd like). I also worked on my catalog. Since I went fully digital, I'll probably post the catalog as one of the listings but it will be for free download, of course.

Day 27: Collaboration zine. Done and done! Brazael & Israzil issue 2 is finally laid out and it looks fantastic! It ended up being 16 pages long, just like the first one, which is great because I was worried it might be shorter. I love the way it looks. I sent it to Henry and I'm waiting for him to confirm it.
I also finished setting up the digital version of PMS Perzine issue 19. AND I am still working on the catalog. It's a bit dicey because I'm having trouble making everything fit. I had to add an extra two pages which means I won't be able to publish it in hard copy yet, unless I find something else that could fill two more pages. Maybe I'll have to wait until ZineWriMo comes around and I'll make another full-length zine and maybe a couple more minis.
Also, today is my dog's birthday. We celebrate it on the day we adopted her which was exactly 10 years ago today. So now she's 12!

Day 28: Post about my favorite zine. This morning at home, I had no time to do anything IZM-related. I had to make it to the office earlier than I usually do on Thursdays, so I didn't do much of anything. But I did have a Eureka moment when I came up with an idea for the two extra pages of the catalog - my MoZiPro 2022 zine collection! So this will really have to wait until the end of the year, when all my MoZiPro zines are done and digitized, and I can also add my next ZineWriMo zine, and make a Ko-Fi catalog for 2023. Yay!
Once at the office, I sent the final pages of the collaboration zine to Henry. PDF doesn't work for him so he requested them as individual Jpegs so that he can print it himself.
I'm also trying to find a solution for all my printed stuff (zines, flyers, business cards, etc.) regarding the URL of my new store. They all have the Etsy URL on them and come August 1st, it will no longer be relevant. I'm consulting with my husband to see if stickers could work. I hope to print stickers of the Ko-Fi URL as well as the QR code. It will be much easier to just stick it over any defunct URL.
I don't even pay attention to the original prompts anymore. I think I'll straight-up ignore them next year and simply make my own. I wonder if ZineWriMo prompts will speak to me more. Only three months left to go!

The next post - the IZM wrap - will go live on July 31. PMS Perzine issue 19 cover as well as Brazael & Israzil issue 2 cover will both be unveiled, so you don't want to miss it!

Peace, love and have a nice weekend!

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