A few of you may know via my Flickr that I recently illustrated a very short story called “Lost”, which you can purchase at my Etsy shop. This was one of those projects where it began quite by accident — I just started drawing (because I love stories, I just went along and wrote text to accompany whatever it is that flowed out of my hand).
Help came too in the form of a book I bought called Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine by Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd which helped me by expanding my thoughts to the possibilities of a zine format for story-telling.
Now, after I’m done, I went around looking for more zines and came up with a few places, which I think might be a great place to start if you’re looking for something unique. The list isn’t exhaustive, so feel free to let everyone know if you have a favorite distro or a zine that we simply MUST have a gander at.
Running Amok sells limited edition zines made by fantastic artists like Kelly Lynn Jones and Nigel Peake.
Ahhh. Nothing better than cereals to go with your zine, just like what Andrew Neyer wanted it to be.
Yael Fran has her say in the cute Girls have many girls zine.
Julia Pott makes one of most wonderful zines ever (besides you, Gemma — we’re still waiting for your new one to come out!!)
Who can forget Craig Atkinson’s collaborated zines sold over at Cafe Royal?
And a fashion zine called Worn which caught my eye with this cover art. There’s artists interviews, fashion and more, so it’s almost like a full-fledged indie magazine!
{For more zines, I’d recommend going over to Julia Rothman’s Book By It’s Cover because she has one of the largest collection ever of artists’ zines and books!}
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On a more personal note, I find it very difficult to focus my energy on creating my own art sometimes, because there is a lot of beautiful works out there by artists whom I respect, and you know the drill — I keep putting things off because I’m hooked on looking instead of creating. And because I’m a newcomer to selling my own art, I feel an even deeper connection to the artists who I profile here on Pikaland, and I am in awe of the hard work that they put in to get their names out there. So I’m going to be working extra hard to discover my own destiny, and in the meantime, we’re all in the same boat, and I can’t ask for better company. 🙂
