Shutterings and Mutterings

Zine covers created by Beowulf Mayfield

The E-zine bonanza

During the April 2020 UK lockdown I've become intrigued by zine making, in particular Austin Kleon's zine creations using cut-outs and black-outs of existing materials.

I've tried making a couple of physical booklets but I wanted to create something I could easily share for others to enjoy so I've turned to e-zines that can be downloaded in PDF format by simply clicking on the images or links below.

Cover of My Life in Lockdown ebook

My Life in Lockdown: A silly poem originally devised to make a paper zine. However, paper zines are complicated to distribute so I've created a PDF version and gone mad with Photoshop and InDesign in the way you can when there are no deadlines to worry about... Download PDF.

Cover of Duet Furioso ebook

Duet Furioso: This is a piece of music-inspired madness in which brash, disonant avant garde music meets the violent mayhem of the Spy vs Spy strip cartoon. The cover does not really give much impression of what's going on inside here... Download PDF.

Cover of Once Round the Park and Back ebook

Once Round the Park and Back: A photo zine comprised of pictures taken during a single walk around a local park. The weather was good so I just took a simple SLR and standard lens. No art lenses or flashy accessories - just looking, shooting and moving swiftly on. Download PDF.

Blog home

Blog Extras

What's a zine? A zine, very loosely speaking, is a small scale publication. It may be hand-made one-off booklet or a small print-run booklet or magazine distributed to a small readership.

where do you get them? That's the tricky bit. Zines are not commercial publications and therefore not sold through commercial distribution channels - you wont find them in a high street newsagent shop. You might find them at events, gallery or specialist shops or you may be able to request a copy direct from the maker.

What's the difference between a zine and a blog? Zines have been around a lot longer than blogs and have their roots in the underground press of the Sixties and the late 1970s/early 80s punk era. However, a zine is not necessarily part of a continuous series and that is where it really differs from a blog. An effective blog is one that gets updated regularly and keeps readers coming back, a zine can be a series or a one-off.

When's the next one due out? No idea - when I get round to thinking something up and putting it together...

You can see more by visiting my Flickr photo stream.