my first zine, Ladybug #1 is now ready & available!!

(the photo doesn't look so great, it's a little grainy, sorry!)

i have a "Shipping Log" on my We Make Zines page, to keep track of when & who i send Ladybug #1. if you bought a copy or we arranged a trade, check this post...

my first zine ever, for the 24 Hour Zine Thing of 2010. check 24hourzines.com for details on this event/project.

i'm still trying to write a good description for my zine haha. 

done in the old cut n' paste style, it's your typical perzine, with short stories about my childhood, typewriters, finding a gray hair, and insects, among other tidbits. nothing too deep or intimate though, because i wanted to make a “positive” zine, something that would be pleasant to read, kinda like “light reading”.

Ladybug #1 is quarter-sized (A6) and 32 pages, hand-sewn with sewing thread. while the inside is all black & white, each cover is hand-colored with crayons, using varied colors. after each copy is assembled, i put a few embellishments on the back-cover, so every copy is always different!

available for direct online purchase coming soon!!!
in the meantime leave a comment or email me for info to buy a copy - postage will vary depending on your country. you can use a Currency Converter website like www.xe.com to figure out how much it will cost in your country's currency.

i accept PayPal; i'll send you an invoice with the total cost. ...if you don't have PayPal but still want to get hold of a copy, maybe we can work something out. occasionally i'll accept cash in foreign currency: $2 USD/CAD/AUD, or £1,30 GBP plus postage. oh, and Euros, of course!

if you have any questions feel free to message me at zineproject2009 [at] gmail [dot] com

i'm up for *SELECTED TRADES ONLY*, specially if you make zines too - i'm mostly into perzines, comics, literary zines; i'm not so much into poetry, political or music zines, sorry! i'm also up for trades for other zines made for this year's 24-Hour Zine Thing!

thanks for reading :)

Reviews of Ladybug #1

obviously, as a first time zine-maker, i'm curious (and a little anxious/scared) about other people's feedback.
here i'll post reviews other people make of my zine, and also feedback i get through emails and messages from other readers.

first things first, and today i got my first review, as my little zine arrived at a fellow countryman's mailbox, in Coimbra (in Portugal). Ogata Tetsuo runs a blog called UzineFanzine, where he reviews zines that he gets from all over the world. here's the review he wrote of Ladybug #1 (written in Portuguese):

«Responsável pela Invicta Distro, Yvonne decidiu também por mão-à-obra e criar o seu primeiro fanzine. Ladybug #1 é um fanzine (em modo perzine) criado em 24h e à moda antiga: máquina de escrever, papel, tesoura e cola.
O resultado é um conjunto de textos bem escritos na língua de Sua Majestade que falam de histórias de infância, de máquinas de escrever e de insectos.
Que venha rapidamente o próximo número...»

roughly translated into English:
«Owner of Invicta Distro, Yvonne also decided to get her hands to work and create her first fanzine. Ladybug # 1 is a fanzine (perzine mode) created in 24-hours and in the old-fashion way: typewriter, paper, scissors and glue. 
The result is a set of texts and writings in the language of Her Majesty that tell stories of childhood, typewriters and insects. May the next number come soon ...»

*Selected Tades Only*

update:
unfortunately, i have to cut down on trades, mostly to outside of Europe :((
the postage costs are getting a bit too heavy for me; add that to my last visit to the copy-shop yesterday to make more copies of my zine. i still have quite a few arranged trades to send out, and i also plan to send some copies for reviews and distros consideration.
so, for the next weeks, maybe a month or two (it depends on the influx of money into my account haha), i won't be able to do trades, specially if you live outside of Europe, sorry.

»» for everyone that -contacted me or i contacted- about trading so far, rest assured, you're still on my trading list. i'll send out my part of the trade as soon as possible, ok?

a little bit about me...

i'm a 31 year old gal, born and raised in a small European country by the seaside facing the Atlantic Ocean, called Portugal. you might have heard of it, i hope ;-)

i love books and reading ever since i can remember. i saw/read my first zine about 15 years ago, but because i was in my crazy teens i didn't fall in love with them back then. i re-connected with zines about a year ago, can't quite recall how i found them. or maybe they found me!
either way, i'm happy for getting involved in this world, and i'm very VERY grateful to zine-makers, of course. their zines make me feel less lonely, make me laugh, make me think outside the box, allow me to learn new things and become aware of important issues.

What's a zine?

A zine (pronounced "zeen," like "magazine") is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one person or a few individuals. Zines are publications done for the love of doing them, not to make a profit or a living. Most zines are photocopied, but their production can range from handwritten or handmade booklets to offset-printed magazine-like publications (but with a print run of hundreds or a few thousand instead of hundreds of thousands).

Zines come in all shapes, sizes, topics, and formats. They can include personal essays, political discussions, fiction, craft or do-it-yourself advice, articles about music or movies, comics, reviews - anything under the sun, really. In a zine, you might find typos, misspelled words, improper grammar, and brilliant or radical or just plain honest ideas that simply aren’t allowed in Time, Newsweek, or People magazine.

Zines, underground press, small press, alternative press … these are just a few of the names for publications that are not produced by a corporation with an eye to the bottom line, but by ordinary people who want to make their voices heard. The underground press is written by street punks and lawyers and stay-at-home moms, and covers topics from politics to fiction to personal observation. At its best, it offers insight into the real lives of the 95% of us who don’t look like the people on TV.

Zines are different from e-zines, which are "zines" published on the Internet (via personal web pages or email lists). More and more, both "zines" and "e-zines" are used to describe these electronic publications. There are significant differences between the two genres; if we say "zine," we mean something on paper.


(definition from the Zine World FAQs page)

Ask me anything!

that's right, you can ask me anything you want! and i'll try to answer the best possible way (depending on the type of question hehe).
who knows, maybe i'll publish your question & my answer in the next issue of Ladybug zine!