Monday 30 December 2013

Classification Party

It has been scientifically proven that adding the word 'party' to anything automatically makes it sound more fun. So here we are attempting to make sorting things into a vaguely logical order sound exciting. On January 18th we have hired the little room at Nexus Art Cafe and we'd like people to come and help us organise the collection into a handful of very broad categories. We think this will help people to browse the shelves a little bit easier.

All the information is available on the Facebook event page. Please feel free to share the event with your pals! You don't have to commit or anything, you can just pop in for a few minutes if you happen to be in the area. There's sure to be some nice people to talk to about zines and whatever else you like talking about. And you can have a cup of tea and a slice of cake while you're at it. Check out the super cool poster below, as designed by the extremely talented Stef Bradley of Today Zine fame.

Whether you can come or not, we'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support since we took over the library in the summer. Hopefully 2014 will bring lots of exciting new developments for the library! Happy New Year!



Sunday 1 December 2013

New in: Big Donation #2






Another big pile of zines! This time, from Anne who lives in Japan. Thanks!

New in: Big Donation #1



Look at all these! The lovely Ben Catt has kindly donated a fair chunk of his zine collection to the library. All of these are now in the library for you to read. Includes stuff like Be Honourable by Josie Long, Twigs and Apples and Your Pretty Face is Going Straight to Hell. Plus loads of other neat stuff. Thanks Ben!

New in: 13 issue one


Azra Page says that her zine, '13' "is focused on art based around the fantasy world in my head. This world is made up of thirteen universes. I draw abstract pictures in sharpie, make collages and paint these universes".

New in: Node Pajomo XIV


Mail art project in zine form! 


New in: Lost Possessions


"Lost Possessions by Kevin Harris and Martin Dudley explores how, through a series of vignettes, we experience a kind of community through loss of things – gloves, scarves, hats, a bootee, a tie. Things which soon become a common feature of railings, benches and other street furniture, inviting us to speculate on how they became lost. They are temporary moments of connection to unseen and unknown others, drawing us into a consideration of other people’s lives that can never be resolved."

New in: Projects Not Programs



"Projects not Programs by the Institute of Cultural Inquiry is a manifesto by the Los Angeles creative group, the Institute of Cultural Inquiry that caught my eye both for its playful aesthetic and its message of open-ended creative exploration."






New in: The New Wizard of the West


The New Wizard of the West, published by The Periodical, is "An interview with Tesla, the Modern Miracle-Worker, who is Harnessing the Rays of the Sun; has Discovered Ways of Transmitting Power without Wires and of Seeing by Telephone; has Invented a Means of Employing Electricity as a Fertiliser; and, Finally, is Able to Manufacture Artificial Daylight" originally printed in Pearson's Magazine in May 1899.


New in: Today IV by Stef Bradley


The latest issue of Stef Bradley's very funny mini comic 'Today' features drawings of embarrassing childhood events, revenge, terrifying insects and loads more. Find it in the mini zines section at the back of the library.



New in: Mythologising Me: Seven is for Kitty Heaven



The seventh issue of Mythologising Me is a really great perzine that talks about things like "going back to study again, a trip to Norway and family deaths as well as mid-twenties angst". Come and have a look! You'll be able to find it in the mini zine section at the back of the library.


New in: Found by Jamie Martin


"Found is a 16 page photo zine created as a personal project for myself. This publication features 35mm black and white photography of locations and situations around Manchester."

You can buy a copy from here and have a sneak peek at the inside here.


New in: Up North 1



"up north is about getting photographs off the screen and sharing them in print. Future issues will depend on how often I get out and about with the camera. It would be great to hear from anyone interested in collaborating or contributing work, either in the UK or elsewhere. Any style or subject. Film or digital."

New in: The Chapess issue one


Re-issue of the first issue of the Chapess (2011) - a collective zine edited by Zara Gardner

Text and illustrations by

Ruby Ratafia
Misty Pane
Anna Anon
Betsy Hatter
Beth Morrison
Lucy Abel
Hels Belles
Cherry Styles
A. Stone
Deb O'Nair
Loretta De La Coeur
Zara Gardner

Buy it from here!

New in: Indie Kids


Indie Kids is a comic that "follows the annoying day to day lives of the 3 friends through love, heartbreak and rare out of print 7 inch records", made by Mat Adams. These have come all the way from Australia!

New in: Sloucher


We were given a copy of Sloucher, a zine about music and short stories, to add to the collection at the mini zine fair we exhibited at in Sheffield the other week. 

Tuesday 26 November 2013

New in: The Nature of Change



20 pages
19 x 19 cm
b/w drawings risoprinted / fullcolour digitalprinted
50 copies

http://timromanowsky.com/index.php?/illustration/the-nature-of-change/

New in: Friek in Carrousel


Friek in Carrousel
40 pages
24 x 18 cm
b/w drawings risoprinted
50 copies

New in: Spongebob Mini Zine



32 pages with sponges from different artists / risoprinted on yellow paper / 55 copies
a zyklop publication
3 € + shipping
contact me: post@timromanowsky.com

New in: Activism Through Zines


One page zine by Chella Quint.

New in: Tye Die Tapes issue 1


Little zine by Sheffield based tape label Tie Die Tapes.

New in: The Chapess issue 2: Wonder Women


The second issue of the Chapess zine, edited by Zara Gardner and Cherry Styles.

17 contributors over a whopping 51 pages -

Lizzie Campbell
Helen Entwistle
Natalie Bradbury
Kay Richards
SMG
Beth Morrison
Helen Piercy
Gemma Correll
Adam Doughty
Becky Garratt
Christa Harris
Miriam Nice
Vicki Johnson
Nicola Renshaw
Joy Martin
Cherry Styles
Zara Gardner

Buy it from here!

Thursday 14 November 2013

New in: This is Me Singing #1


"This Is Me Singing takes a look at internet stardom at its least viral. The zine features a whole rafter of screenshots from videos uploaded to Youtube under the tags “Me Singing”, in which popular songs are lovingly reworked beneath the watchful eye of a webcam.

The people behind these video clips are a departure from your usual Youtube sensations, however, since each one has only received a tiny number of views and is unlikely to hit the big time any time soon. So what is it that makes ordinary people so keen to transfer their own small bursts of karaoke from the privacy of their bedrooms to the wider echelons of the internet?

It’s a phenomenon we haven’t quite figured out yet, but what comes across with many of the singers here is their sense of self-consciousness, with some apologising for awkward behaviour, or their voices not being up to scratch. Beneath the sheepishness, however, lies a quiet passion for the song they have chosen, and some deeper impulse for it to be noticed by a wider audience – no matter how small."

New in: Time Travels in...


"Jump blues is blues at its most fun, a call to arms not to bewail tribulations or reflect upon the abyss, but to let loose, wail, and party". Time Travels in Jump Blues is a handy pocket sized guide to jump blues!


"Before Rock and Roll, children were children and then went straight to being little adults, wearing the same clothes, doing the same things as their parents. The Rock and Roll movement was the first time that teenagers created their own identity. With their own self-expressive fashion, their own records, and their rock inspired fun loving lifestyle, it was an identity strongly in contrast to that of their parents generation". Another handy pull out mini zine that tells you everything you need to know about Rock and Roll! 





New in: The Inventory


"Abandon Normal Devices is an annual arts festival celebrating digital culture and the ways in which people engage with a rapidly changing technological environment. The festival alternates between Liverpool and Manchester, and is always filled with pretty groundbreaking work, so we were really pleased to receive a micro-commission this time around.

In keeping with this year’s theme –Success — we decided to create a fanzine-style publication which contrasted the traditional awestruck, home-made, low-circulation zine with content pilfered from the online profiles of artists involved in the festival. Titled The Inventory, the zine was meant as a glimpse at the changing role of the internet as a tool to promote and publicise an individual’s career.

We wanted to question how the role of artist — and to some extent, anybody who uses social media platforms — had evolved, using Marshall McLuhan’s 1967 work The Medium Is The Massage: An Inventory of Effects as our starting point. Considering the ways in which the internet creates a prism through which a person’s character and career can be viewed, it seemed appropriate to look to McLuhan’s work with its emphasis on the method of communication over the actual material being communicated.

Alongside this, we included tips from brash online marketing consultancies, which analysed how best to “extend your influence” online — right down to the length of characters needed for a successful tweet.

We handed out copies of the finished zine at as many of the festival sites as we could get to, which was a good way of making sure we got to see a lot of the work on show. Particular highlights included Wafaa Bilal’s Meme Junkyard — a huge inflatable Techno Viking head, sustained purely on #technoviking tweets, and Border Bumping, which reworked national boundaries according to where mobile phone networks placed them. Skype karaoke at the Salutation pub was another of many enjoyable moments.

There are still a couple of copies of The Inventory left, so if you’d like one, feel free to drop us a line on closedcaption@live.co.uk"

Tuesday 12 November 2013

New in: Gaudy Verse II


"The second issue of Gaudy Verse features poems about artistic young dons, dancefloor catastrophes and smartphones that won't let you out of their sight."

You can buy yourself a copy of Gaudy Verse 2 on Etsy for £1.50.

New in: Jelly Cake Season 2 - Episode 2 + 3


"Maybe one day Jelly Cake will be about vigilante fighting forces battling for domination. Of how multidimensional supernatural forces are assaulting Kizzy, Bailey, Helen and Estelle with deadly force. Of how unsavory villain invaders are putting our planet in crisis. But for now it's all about pointless, random and mundane micro-transactions that our reluctant super-heroines encounter on a daily basis."


Sunday 20 October 2013

Salford Zine Library Visits Sheffield!

We're taking the zine library on the road! Or at least some of the zine library. And we're going by train. Anyway, on November 2nd we'll be carrying a hefty chunk of the zines in the library over the Pennines to Sheffield for a zine fair and zine making workshop at Bank Street Arts.

The zine fair starts at 11am and, as well as being able to have a look at our collection, you'll be able to buy some zines from some ace local zinesters too! We're going to be setting up a little 'reading room' area so you can relax with a pile of your favourite zines. Then from 2pm there's a FREE zine making workshop, which will be running until 8pm (You don't have to stay that long if you don't want to, though!). It should be loads of fun!

Places on the workshop are limited, so booking is encouraged. Do that and find out more information about the day by clicking here. Also, if you're coming to along, remember to bring some donations for us! We're always dead grateful to receive new zines to add to the collection.




Saturday 19 October 2013

New in: English Chicago Review Issue 3


Issue three of The English Chicago Review features poetry from Rowland Bagnall, Rebecca Bird, Jonathan Butcher, Jim Conwell, Alan Corkish, Anthony Costello, Craig Coyle, Stephen Devereux, Doug Draime, Brett Evans, Andy Fletcher, Chris Hardy, Aideen Henry, Richard Hughes, Nigel Jarrett, Allan Johnston, PD Lyons, Mary McCollum, Tim McLafferty, Ottilie Mulzet, Robert Nisbet, Jon Plunkett, Laura Potts, Wendy Pratt, Kieran Setright, Maria Taylor and Lucy Winrow.


New in: Hand Job Issue Two


"Hand Job is a literary zine that has a range of poetry and short stories from around the UK, as well as sporadic illustrations throughout. Issue 2 features writing on a range of subjects, from OFSTED, to people drowning."


New in: Glad to See the Back of You


"Glad to See the Back of You" is a photography zine about punk jackets by Ricky Adam.


Saturday 5 October 2013

Let's talk about classification

Hey! At some point in the near future we want to organise a 'classification party'. Basically, we'll get loads of people to come down to the library and help us sort the collection into broad genres or categories. It'll make it so much easier to find stuff! The plan is that there'll be some nice music and cake and cups of tea available and things like that.

Before that, though, it'd be really useful to get an idea of what genres/categories you all think would be appropriate. They have to be fairly broad, but not so broad that they're completely meaningless. Any ideas anyone?

- Sport
- Poetry
- Music (Maybe this needs to be divided into narrower categories?)
- Environment
- Politics
- LGBT
- Personal
- Compilation
- Photography
- Illustration
- Health
- Comics

Any other ideas would be appreciated! Feel free to tell me some of those aren't necessary too. Also, it'd be great if you could tell people you know who are interested in zines to join this group. Then we can have more people involved in the discussion/party and it'll be even more fun. Comments on this post and our Facebook, tweets to @SalfordZineLib, or emails to salford zine library at gmail dot come would be very gratefully received. And if the idea of a classification party sounds like fun to you, keep your eyes peeled for more info! I'll update the discussion as we go along at the bottom of this post.



Update 7/10/2013: It's been suggested that there might be too many categories here. Do we think that we're better off with a less is more kind of approach? If so, what do you think the core categories are?

New in: Reading Between the Lines Volume One


Reading Between the Lines, by Robert Shaw, is "a collection of illustrated quotes from various types of media, but mainly movies". All your favourite movie quotes, illustrated.


Guess the name of the film!



New in: Time


"Time I is a continuation of a zine I published in 2001, using journal entries from 2013. The entries within cover everything from having moved here in 2012, the personalities I encounter at my job and in my personal life, the way ideas circulate on the Internet, unsent letters to friends, letters sent by friends, countless postscripts, functioning in the real world at a distant reserve, and more."

http://a--verdade.tumblr.com/

New in: Organelle


Elliot Coffin, a contributor to 2000% Buttitude, brings us Organelle - a "passage through the body". Organelle is screen printed and pictures of the inside are available here.


New in: 2000% Buttitude


2000% Buttitude is "an enquiry into the landscape of the human form" - or loads of nice illustrations of naked people - by the Naked Exhibitionists. Includes contributions from:

New in: Death is When the Monsters Get You


Death is When the Monsters Get You is a comp fanzine all about Stephen King novels/films, with contributions by Cath Elms, Rebecca McCormick, Martin Appleby and Elm Williams.

Copies of the zine can be bought by contacting the editor at stephenkingfanzine@gmail.com or by tweeting @polygluttony.

New in: Vee is for Vulva #1 and It's Uter-Us Not Uter-You #1



Two pocket sized zines containing fun (and not so fun) facts about vulvas (vulvae?) and uturi. 

New in: Usual Suspect issue number 7.5


Usual Suspect 7.5 is a zine by Dave Gurz, who lives in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. It contains some cool essays about punk rock and zines. 


New in: Sticky Sounds Volume 5 + 6


Two issues of Sticky Sounds arrived together, oh boy! Both volumes contain loads of music stuff, interviews, illustrations, essays and short stories. Volume six is a bumper sized version and includes interviews with loads of different zine editors about why they make zines and things like that.


New in: Un Deg Un Rhymes With Bean Egg Bean 'Zine #1


Tiny pocket sized zine about Un Deg Un, a pop-up arts centre at 11 Regent Street, Wrexham. The arts centre is run by THIS project, a local arts organisation, in partnership with Leeds-based arts charity East Street Arts. It features photography by Sue McGrane and artwork by Paintpotface.

http://thisproject.co.uk/pop-up-arts-centre-now-open/


New in: Alligator #2


Okay, so this isn't technically "new in". It came in ages ago but it got mislaid somewhere along the way, sorry! Better late than never. It's by Paul Gallagher, who contributed an illustration to the issue of Shrieking Violet we received recently.

"Alligator is an anthology zine of comics and illustrations by Manchester student Paul Gallagher. The work is influenced by cartoons, as well as underground comics, outsider/folk art and TV shows, to get more information and examples of his work go to http://paulgallagherillustration.tumblr.com/".


Monday 23 September 2013

State of the 'Zine

What are you doing on October 13th? Cancel it. The people behind the brilliant Spiel Magazine and the super talented OWT Creative people have joined forces to organise a football zine fair and zine making workshop at the National Football Museum as part of the Manchester Weekender. Here's some blurb:

"Irreverent, insightful, crass and crude – during the 70’s and 80’s the Zine emerged as a key part of grassroots football culture and became a match day staple. To celebrate the unique footballing insight provided by lo-fi fan-publishers we are opening up the museum collections to the unique brand of analysis and polemic which characterised the football fanzine.

Football 'zines have always been DIY and using the tools of the zine-maker - typewriters, photocopiers & cut-out text - we are inviting visitors to produce their own football Zine engaging with the culture of fanzines and with insight from the museum archive.

A selection of contributions produced on the day will later be assembled into a limited edition print, for sale in the Museum shop."


You can find out more about the event by clicking here.

We're hoping to have some of the zine library's collection on display at the event, providing inspiration for budding zinesters taking part in the workshop. We've been getting lots of really cool football zines recently (Keep checking this blog/the shelves for new stuff!) and it'll be good for them to stretch their legs for an afternoon.



Tuesday 10 September 2013

New in: Headpress 2.1 and 2.6


"The infamous Headpress flagship quarterly, the Headpress journal, is available both online as an outrageously free Headzine and also a collector edition. The collector edition has exclusive content, is a full colour limited edition hardback of 250 copies only, with each one individually stamped and numbered."

Issue 2.6 is "a Holiday Special bumper edition of Headpress. Part one is devoted to the contemporary Grand Guignol, and the second part the landscape of the counterculture by way of some of its books and publishers."