the girl who owns the world

Should I start a Hamilton, Ontario based distro for zines, patches, and cards (?)

Not sure what you want to get your loved one/friend/sis/boo/partner/that girl you’re dating but not really dating but you are dating and you don’t know what to get her because it’s not serious, but you really like her? 

ZINES! 

My favourite place to get zines is FIGHT BOREDOM DISTRO run by my super pal/pen-pal AMBER. Good for feminist, queer, DIY, personal, and other really rad selections. 

Nothing says “I love you” like supporting small, DIY distros and talented people. Zines in general always make me feel more romantic, and more enchanted with my life. They are also really “real” in a way that I can’t explain. Someone made them, someone put their little tiny heart into the words and the binding. They made this because they wanted to, and they felt enough conviction to hope, to hope to share it with someone just like you. 

I’d adore for my Valentine’s day to be Indian food, and making zines at a nice, quiet kitchen table. Anyways, before I get too caught up in this romantic fantasy, here’s a few zines that I found very enchanting and intriguing! 

Things that caught my eye for romantics: 

Bring On The Dancing Horses / $1.00 /60g

This is the kind of perzine that ought to be savoured over several sittings, then read and re-read. Named for one of the best songs that came out during the year I was born, and containing sixty-something half-size pages of beautifully-written non-fiction about long-distance bike trips and a month-long stay at New York City’s Bowery Manor squat, Bring On The Dancing Horses is a zine about travel, love and anarchy…in writing about relationships, he says, “I’ve heard friends say they’ve never felt love like that first love. I don’t know how to respond. I only know that mine become more intense with each successive burst,”

(Excerpt from Zines A-G Fight Boredom Distro)

Dig Deep #2 / $1.00 / 20g 

The first issue of Dig Deep was one of the most sweet and thoughtful and interesting zines I read all of last year and this second issue does not disappoint …Perhaps the most moving and thought-provoking is a piece on street harassment, documenting not only the ways that men have catcalled and even followed her home, but also the way this made her feel and how she changed her habits because of it (which, obviously, we shouldn’t have to do). This is countered with an empowering piece on a monthly women-only dance night that happens in Chicago and her experience with attending for the first time. “No boys, no booze, no judgement.”

(Excerpt from Zines A-G Fight Boredom Distro)

High On Burning Photographs #4 / $1.00 / 30g 

Ocean writes all about falling in love with tough girls, working in a mail room, choosing singlehood, the ways that ACTUP has shown up in her life, giving up alcohol and all sorts of other interesting things. She says that the zine is a place to store all of her wayward stories, and while some of them are unrelated to each other, they somehow all make sense together. I can especially relate to the bits on alcoholism, coming from a family of alcoholics and finding it extremely difficult to give up. She just writes in this really eloquent way that makes you feel like you’re tagging alongside her for adventures, and crying with her when shit goes down. Cut and paste with a combination of computer-rendered and typewritten text and Victorian clip art. You gotta read it.

(Excerpt from zines H-N fight boredom distro)

Root #2 / $3.00 / 15g
This issue focuses on two things: school and zines. Studying to become a biologist, while never being certain of the future that education will give to oneself. Researching heritage wheat varieties. Questioning the self-indulgence of zines and what place they have in her life. Stocking zines at work and talking about them at the library. Traveling. The kind of zine that takes you away and makes you reflect. Cut-and-paste with photos throughout.

(Zines O-U Fight Boredom Distro)

CHECK OUT THE ORDERING FAQ

All reviews are written by Amber. 

All images are from Fight Boredom Distro, and are the property of their respective owners. Clicking images will bring you to their sources.