Hold on... wtf's a zine?

A zine (in this instance) is a handmade, independently produced, badly photocopied publication.

We want ours to be full of stories art and ideas!

Try making your writing sound more like a story than an article because it's not a magazine or newspaper we're making here and also be aware that sometimes we may not be able to fit everything we want into a single issue. Certain things might not work so well together so there is no absolute guarantee that your stuff will just go in the very next issue straight away, but it's very likely and we'll do our best!

Also, if you think you can write music (on paper), that might be kind of awesome.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

One Month Later

We did it!

Congratulations people! Not only did we actually create and sell all 10 copies of our first zine, we've now actaully followed all the way through to a second issue!

Today we sat in Sticky finishing off the buttons and sticking them on all the bags before we handed up 20 copies of issue no.2
10 of them hit the shelf while 10 more are being sold online through Sticky's Mail Order Department. 7 more will be sitting in my locker at school for direct purchase at the low low price of $4. (Better get in quick though because John and Sam.M have already claimed one each... so there are really only 5 now).
You get 36 pages, a free button AND a sticker!

The deadline for issue no.3 has been set for the end of September (and will not be changing like last time) so you've got a lot of the school holidays to work on something. Get anyone you think might be interested to send us something also. Hopefully it will only get bigger and better!


By the way, we've pretty much run out of good button designs so if we're to have free buttons with the next issue you guys are gonna have to whip up something awesome. (I'm looking at you drawy people!)

I think that's all I had to announce for the moment so yeah...
Let's do it again! (because a
pparently it was quite popular last time around)

Friday, August 7, 2009

We Got Reviewed by Some Goat Guy!

A moment ago, I pulled a 'Sticky Institute' email/newsletter thing out of my junkmail, (why it was in there, nobody knows) and guess who got the first review in it!? :O

A Fistful of Buttons
A5 28 pages, done by a total of 8 magic people.
comes in cool paper bag
I never knew how to start a review. There we go, much better.
Well, a Fistful of Buttons (aka FFB) starts in a little paper bag
with a sideways exit. In marker, the name is spelled on the front, setting the scene for this quaint, dirty, urban, teenage zine. Being a teenager myself, it struck many chords.
Inside the paper bag, you are met with a yellow-stained photo-cover of Hosier Lane (Melbourne) graffiti tourists.
Inside cover: flowersand butterflies and oddly cutesy drawings, which remind me ofthat old-school, kitsch wallpaper. The stories are all pretty genuine and interesting. 'Holidays' has to have pinned the feeling down of being a teen during summer vacation. Wonderful use of leet speak.
The photography really stood out for me, looking really grungy and photocopier-aholic-like. The poetry, well, I couldn't tell whether it was tongue-in-cheek or just plain innocent-naive-style. In general, I like this zine, although the magic 8 ball told me to do otherwise. A little cliche at times, but still, I would read another zine if you made one. Yep...
-GOATMAN

No idea who GOATMAN is but it's still cool :)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

All Gone!

Today, John's travels into the city confirmed that we have sold all 10 copies of Issue No.1 :D
That means a tidy profit of $12.50 for the FFB kitty and it is likely that we will print 15 to 20 copies of Issue No.2 :)

Get back 'ere!

ah-HA!

You all thought I'd neglected the blog!
(That is, assuming you even ever looked at the thing more than once... which you didn't but oh well)

The point is that the second issue is STILL hapenning!
It'll be put together with whatever we have before the Friday 7th (aka. tomorrow)

Also, sorry to all those people who handed their stuff in ages ago :\

But also thank you, because now this issue is looking really awesome!

(Quick! Go draw / write / photograph something else!)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Lucky You

You guys now have until Wednesday night on the 29th of July to get your stuff into us!
It doesn't matter what it is you send just get it in by then and everything we have on Thursday will be considered... but it's your very last chance so go go go!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Mission Accomplished x3

Yesterday, Dana travled into the city and reported that we've already sold at least three copies of Issue No.1 in three days!

Good work team!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Foot in The Door

Yesterday we took ten copies of Issue No.1 into Sticky Institute under Flinders St Station in the city. Everything went smoothly and within a few minutes they were sitting on the shelf selling for $2.50 each.

Now that we've done it once, it's time to do it again, but better! We are now calling for all entries to be submitted by the 24th of July so we can release the next issue by the end of the month.
We are going for a tri-weekly kind of thing at the moment and hopefully we'll be able to keep it up with your help.

I'm kind of getting sick of chasing up people one at a time so from now on this'll be the place to get all your news and updates. You can also use the comments to ask questions and to confirm your involvement in each issue.

So for Issue No.2 if you're in, you're in and if you're not, you're not. Anyone is welcome to add something but please don't stuff us around with maybes. Everything we receive before the 24th will be considered no matter how big or small. Just contact / send your entry to dacarldude@hotmail.com and we'll get back to you asap.

The zine is set out in A5 (half an A4) pages but you can also have A4 (landscape) double page spreads for your artwork.
If you are writing for us, just send us the text and we will format it ourselves. Entries may even be hand written as long as they're in pen or something the photocopier can actually see (no greyled).

The key to contributing is to not think about it too much, don't worry about how good or bad you think it is, just send it in and hope for the best! Just make something you are happy with.

Hope to get an entry from everyone who has been sent to this blog :) So hurry up! haha