I picked up a bunch of really cool local zines from Tsutaya this weekend: two issues of Bang Bang Zine and two Sketzines which are part of a series of zines by different artists. It seems they are part of the same type of zine project that got interrupted by the pandemic. You can get them all online from Bang Bang Zine's online store.
I’ll start with the Sketzines. This one by @preetdraws (seems to be untitled, or possibly meant to be “Mom”, based on the cover image) was very raw and personal. The simple layout, using the panel as a divider between the characters’ dialogue, works really well. There’s a sense of quiet tiredness, maybe despair, as the divide between the characters is accentuated by the division of the page space and how the bottom text seems to want to sink to the bottom of the page and away. The “o”s in the bottom text are also punched out, adding to the feeling of increasing hollowness and loss. Simple, understated, effective.
Contrasted with Loke Junhao’s energetic depiction of wolves and sheep in Malaysian society. There’s a rawness here as well, but in a different mode, of trying to find a shape to dissatisfaction with how Malaysian society is structured and practiced. The imagery of the wolf and worldwide notoriety in 2019 is pointed, yet I feel there’s a bit of a muddiness to who gets lumped in with the wolves that I find unsatisfying, as symptoms and causes are not fully examined. Still, I appreciate the energy and the drive to put a shape to the dissatisfactions. I admit I might also be missing quite a lot here since I don’t read Chinese and am only working off the English wordings.
The Bang Bang Zines are a bit more defined as anthologies of works bound together by a common theme. Volume 1 is titled “Playtime” and deals with time and history, influenced by the pandemic’s impact on our perception of time and continuity, featuring works by Chya Chyi, Ka Cheong and Munyeong. There’s a lot to love here, from the quiet contemplation of “Migration” to the grief and hurt of “Mr. Taken”. The one bit I really loved was the little booklet that was included in the zine with an English translation for “Girlfriend”, and the use of colour to denote memory.
Bang Bang Zine Volume 2 has “Boundaries” as a theme, and features work from Chya Chyi and Munyeong. I loved the ambiguity of “Arcturus” and the exaggerated forms of “Ordinary Soya”, but my favourite bit was this fun use of the spiral binding as part of the form of “Deskmate”.
A small thing that I also loved was this two page transition from “24 Hours from Tokyo to Island” to “Naoshima Limited”, using the same panel dimensions to link the two linked stories by different authors.
All in all, some really lovely zines! There were a bunch more zines (definitely more Sketzines and some others which might also be related) still there at Tsutaya, and I’m hoping to pick up some more later and keep following all the artists’ work.
