“i’ve got angels in my head” – 1996 zine about Dissociative Identity Disorder by Billie Rain
a friend of mine may be has multiple personality disorder. Sometimes I try and think that we all just have different personalities inside of us, and maybe hers are just more extreme. …The zine helped me to understand that what she is dealing with is really different from me, and that it probably isn’t helpful for me to minimize her experience. That there are ways I can relate my experiences without minimizing hers. Sometime I just want everything to be not so hard. I don’t want to accept that my friends have been through such terrible shit, even though I know they have. I recomend this zine, even if you don’t know anyone with multiple personalitys. It also has things that are good for understanding abuse survivors in general, and helpful things for survivors. – Cindy Crabb
Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Rape, Torture, Survival, Violence against Women, Mental Health, Multiple Personality Disorder
When Rabbit Howls, by the Troops For Truddi Chase.
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Witch Hunt by Annie Anxiety
Addressing Mental Health and Confronting Sexual Assault in Activist Communities
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Sometimes Things Get Confusing When You’re Mentally Ill is a brief comix history of a revolutionary activist’s struggles with depression, PTSD, abuse, marriage and fatherhood, recovery and struggling to reclaim a sense of self. It’s cartoony but not light hearted. There is lots of potentially triggering stuff here. Consider yourself warned.
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Surviving Love A Mad Journey In Extreme Romances And Lovingness
A 19 page, short Zine covering personal experiences with my journey through trauma, madness and romance.
I wrote this because I need to put my emotions and confusions
and madness into words, or pictures, or forms, or thoughts, or ideas or… or…
or… Anything but in my head. Because I too often times find romance difficult
due to paranoia, manic episodes or complete loss of coherency and logic. And I
am hoping that in writing this that I am able to help myself, as well as others.
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Dyscalculia the social math of multiplicity by the Desired Constelation
Throughout history and across many cultures, there have been various phenomena that fall under the umbrella of multiplicity: the experience of more than one self in one body. Modern psychiatry has pathologized this as Multiple Personality Disorder (now Dissociative Identity Disorder) but many multiples are now coming forward as healthy, functional groups of people who don’t seek a psychiatrist to “integrate” them.
This is a collection of short essays, poems, and doodles by our group, trying to explain our experiences and how other people have treated us when they discover our multiplicity. Topics include depersonalization, human rights, gender and sexuality issues, psychiatry, alienation, and struggling to learn how to co-operate as a collective when joined at the hip.
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The LGBT people with mental illness and other disabling disorders sometimes have to deal with the mental health system and still are rejected in some areas according to the type they have. This one is about the stigma we face in our day to day lives as anarchists and LGBT with different abilities and qualities. It is based on my view point as an anarchist transman with Asperger’s disorder and why I question the stigmas that occur in my life.
Any comments, questions, or suggestions
Email me at piratesphinx@riseup.net
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Future Print Shop
Motor City Kitty by Brianna Dearest
Motor City Kitty is a long-running perzine from Ohio that discusses trauma, recovery, sobriety & more. Recent issues of the zine focus on her life adventures- such as touring the east coast alone via Megabus, and striving to live an ideal life, despite having to navigate her way through complicated relationships and struggling with mental illness. The zine is made cut and paste style, with typewritten text juxtaposed alongside Brianna’s own illustrations.
The magic of being in a band with folks who are relatively new to their instruments and learning together, being a second generation punk, pain and abuse, support and what it looks like, stories about their dad, friends, bikes.
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“I think disclosure’s frightening for anyone telling anyone (else) about their past…” Struggling with suicidal thoughts, therapy being pushied on them after their father died (age 13) and later attending radical mental health collective meetings. Surviving a sexual and emotionally abusive relationship trying to access therapy and it being shitty. Finally finding a good therapist who understands how trauma lives in the body, how to listen to our inner voices, embracing imperfections.
Typed on a beautiful handwritting manual typewriter. Writing about therapy and developmental trauma, and trying to let in good feelings like the beautiful moments from Girls Rock Camp
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Motor City Kitty Issue #22 / 20 pgs / 5.5″ x 4.25″
Written in late July of 2013 and assembled while on a Greyhound bus headed towards the third annual DC Zine Fest, this tiny (but text heavy) issue focuses on a breakdown and a breakup. Bri discusses dealing with months of depression while moving several times, traveling, and having her heart broken.
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Issue #21 / 20 pgs / 8.5″ x 7″ /
“Tour zine! This one is half-legal size and falls somewhere between perzine, tour diary, and comic. I know how much work went into it, because I saw Bri diligently writing and drawing (and agonizing) at the Tulip Farm over the course of her five-week stay here. It’s all about touring via Megabus, zine readings and friendship, depression and anxiety, navigating trying situations as a feminist and a survivor of abuse, and makin’ it through yet another winter.” (Description by Amber Dearest)
Issue #20 / 40 pgs / 5.5″ x 4.25″ /
“Bri put this issue together just before embarking upon a zine tour, which brought her from Cleveland, Ohio, up to Montréal – to see me! Some of the main themes running through this issue are friendship, family, and the future, with Bri answering questions from Telegram #25 about her goals and her ideal life. She writes also about being a survivor of abuse, while also being involved in a relationship with someone who is going through an accountability process – I can only imagine how difficult this was to write, and how vulnerable she must feel sharing these thoughts with us. I know that it’s something so important to talk about, too. Like, once a person has been called out, what is the next step? And what does it means for those who are close to them? How can we end cycles of abuse?” (Description by Amber Dearest)
Issue #19 / 48 pgs / 5.5″ x 4.25″ / $3 US PPD
“I love this zine. It’s collected stories about her family and her relationship to them, and different forms of grief, plus some lighter stories about music love and fandom. This zine has a really brave and powerful story about her father dying of a heroin overdose when she was 13 – and about their relationship – stories about him, about realizing he was an addict, and her working to accept his death.” (Description by Cindy Crabb)
Issue #18 / 56 pgs / 5.5″ x 4.25″ /
“This is a MIGHTY issue of Motor City Kitty. It mostly chronicles Bri going on tour of the midwest US with her then-partner’s band. It’s written mostly in the form of a journal, type written with drawings and pictures scattered around. There are stories of more or less successful shows, eating on the road, idiots and nice people and much more. There is also a piece on Slutwalk Cleveland and a goodbye to Kent, Ohio, where she had been living for the past seven years.” (Description by Tukru)
Issue #17 / 24 pgs / 5.5″ x 4.5″ /
“This little but full zine has writing on the cultural influences Bri feels [she] has inherited from her parents, the second part of an article called ‘Feminist Killjoy’ about [arguing] with a sexist person (don’t worry though, you needn’t have read the first part, which is in Motor Ciy Kitty #16), tokenising isms, things Bri likes and dislikes about herself, and attending an emotionally charged gig on the anniversary of her father’s death. This zine is wonderfully written, intimate and has one of the most beautiful layouts I’ve seen in a long while: typewritten, some handwritten and some wonderful drawings throughout. Every page a delight!” (Description by Em)
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Everyday Magic / Finn Cunningham
This 50 page illustrated zine explores how to create a healing connection to the natural world through an engagement with plants, nutrients and microorganisms. It’s not a traditional cookbook but a how-to guide covering: nutritional basics, sprouting, fermenting, gardening, foraging, medicinal herbs, flower essences and more! Read a review.
Against the Flood #2-4 by Hannah, 2008
“I don’t want to be telling you this. My ego is screaming at me to stop writing about [cutting myself]. I want to be a good role model, someone who deals with her depression by going for a bike ride, taking to a friend or writing in her journal. But if you are depressed then you know that part of depression is that you don’t always feel like doing these things. Sometimes you feel like hurting yourself.”
I gotta say this excerpt reinforces the power of zines: first person reality, stuff that couldn’t get published published because it might be considered dangerous, but might actually be the most useful and relatable thing a person could read. Quoted with permission.
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Infecticitis #13: deconstructing internalized capitalism and how to draw a flower by Comet Crowbar
2013, 48 Pages, orange-paper cover, entirely hand-written
My newest zine about my political beliefs in Do-It-Yourself philosophy, reflecting on being born in America, anti-war, traveling to La ZAD in France, talking to nature, creators not consumers.
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Infecticitis #12 (sometimes) by Comet Crowbar
2012. 24 pages, A5
Hiking on the Appalachian Trail through Massachusetts. Hiking through the Rockies in Colorado. Bouts of depression. Tree love. Organizing the zine fest berlin. Washin’ dishes. Sleepless nights. “Maybe this issue is called Sometimes, cuz sometimes it’s one way, sometimes it’s not, or another way entirely. Don’t ask me about yesterday, it’s already gone.”
Infecticitis # 11: SELFISH by Comet Crowbar
2012. 36 pages, A5.
A zine on being selfish, in regards to mental health. This zine is the result of a long Winter Depression, with a personal account on such topics as depression, suicide, self-harm/ scars, being an adult, self-awareness and taking care of yourself.
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Infecticitis #10 by Comet Crowbar
2011. 32 pages in 16cm triangle, woodblock print cover on 300g paper.
The gender-queer (in itself) art zine that folds into a pyramid. Reflection on 10 issues/ 7 years of zines. What is a zine. Juice. Designing puzzles.
Infecticitis #9 by Comet Crowbar
2010. 32 pages, A6, hand-colored cover.
Figuring out the patterns of a new life in Berlin. Living autonomously for myself. Hitch-hiking to Norway. Coming out queer. Camp on a farm teaching English. The Professor and Sprinkles, the farm kittens. What will you make of today?
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The Adventures of Cublet Dvorsky
Sweet writing about crushes, mental health, frienship. Also a thoughful story about violence, mental health, anarchism and trauma – being a queer, trans, female socialized young person from a working class background, and looking at how their ideas about non-violence and fighting back are changing – including protesting.
Better Days: Stuff that helps with all this anxiety
cute drawings chronically the things sarah does to help with anxiety, from holding her pet hedgehog to staying up late, to focusing on a friend, finding some structure, and more. Inspiring. Makes me want to make one too.
Telegram #33
Miranda talks about trying to get couseling and always being misgendered, even in a place that had an intake that recognized trans*, and how inaccessible therapy is, even when you really want it. A big list of things they’ve tried because they’re sick of everyone saying “have you tried….” Mad Pride. Madphobic language. Ideas on how to make spaces more accessible.
Telegram #31
“On Broke-femme identity, self-care, magic and ritual, finding meaning in illness, winter survival…”
Telegram A Collection of 27 Issues
This beautiful book compiles the first issues of Telegram, which is one of my favorite zines. Thick with useful stories about all kinds of things with a focus on mental health, including how to make a zine, and why zines are good for survival. I am so excited to get to read these early issues that I missed out on!
Witches in the Weird World #3
Epically thick zine about “being a mad witch but what living that life is like in terms of our oppression as mad people, how to heal and maintain mental health, what it is actually like to be mad, how people can be allies, dealing with suicide and the search for life” (from the intro)
When Lanugage Runs Dry #4:A Zine for People with Chronic Pain and Their Allies
another issue of this great compilation zine. Issue #4 discusses chonic pain, mental illness and identity; it has a great practical piece on self-care, and much more!
Reverse Cougar Years #3
The first issue in 7 years of this Canadian zine, which they stopped writing because someone told them it was selfish to share thoughts just because they liked telling stories. F*** that! Welcome back Maxx!! This issues is partially about mental health, anxiety, family history, going to the West Bank, taking anti-anxiety/anti-depressant medication and not knowing for sure if they are helping or not, but knowing that seeing a psychologist and talking is totally helping and they recommend it.
Also, talks about being a sound tech and female in this male dominated field.
Brian J. Solem /Brianna Dearest
Motor City Kitty is a long-running perzine from Ohio that discusses trauma, recovery, sobriety & more. Recent issues of the zine focus on her life adventures- such as touring the east coast alone via Megabus, and striving to live an ideal life, despite having to navigate her way through complicated relationships and struggling with mental illness. The zine is made cut and paste style, with typewritten text juxtaposed alongside Brianna’s own illustrations.
Motor City Kitty #24
“I think disclosure’s frightening for anyone telling anyone (else) about their past…” Struggling with suicidal thoughts, therapy being pushied on them after their father died (age 13) and later attending radical mental health collective meetings. Surviving a sexual and emotionally abusive relationship trying to access therapy and it being shitty. Finally finding a good therapist who understands how trauma lives in the body, how to listen to our inner voices, embracing imperfections.
Motor City Kitty #26
Typed on a beautiful handwritting manual typewriter. Writing about therapy and developmental trauma, and trying to let in good feelings like the beautiful moments from Girls Rock Camp.
Alex Dahm – 159
STUPID, I’m Sorry if That Was Weird, Happy Birthday, Please Forgive Me, I’m Working On It, Nose Petals, Brighter and More Lucid Than Before, Just a Dream
Hi! I’m Alex Dahm, a queer comics creator living in Chicago. I’m interested in making comics that explore abstract storytelling, mental health, and physical manifestations of memory. I also love drawing noses, underwear, and silly comics about my partner, David, and I running amok in our tiny apartment.
alexdahm.com
Ashley Zielinski – 58
Aus Bahadur Wheelhouse a queer, brown, intersectional feminist born and raised in the region of Mississauga land known as Toronto, who tries to make art about survival, mental health, and the encroaching doom that awaits us all… but mostly (just barely) makes rent. the-wheelhouse.org
Brown & Proud Press – 136
On Struggling Identity, On Struggling Self-Care, On Struggling Bodies, Support Zine for Marissa Alexander
Brown and Proud Press is a writing collective of people of color based out of Chicago, IL. We believe in the necessity of self-preservation and creating visibility around our struggles and histories through the medium of zines. Our main project, the “On Struggling” zine series, brings together personal narratives on topics such as identity, assimilation, racism, mental health, modes of self-care and more from people of color across the country.
Dirk – 33
OCD Throws Bows
A zine about ocd, my personal experiences with it, and what that means for the conversation around radical mental health.
JC
Tributaries, Collide
“Tributaries” is a perzine about growing up with rheumatoid arthritis, and the impact of physical disability on daily life. JC also compiles the zine “Collide,” a submission-based zine on the intersection of physical disability and mental illness.
Kisston Gorgeous
Gorgeous Attitude
Kisston writes about mental illness and keeps on truckin’.
Mack Attack – 146
Heart Pulp
Mack is a (trying to be) posi person who has been writing about their feelings in journals, margins of notebooks, backs of receipts, and on their arm for as long as they can remember. Only recently have those things been put together into zine format. Mack talks a lot about their struggles with mental health, their politics, relationships, and their experiences as an AFAB non-binary, queer person.
Nichole – 128
Pieces, A Visitor in Myself
Nichole writes perzines that snapshot various points in life. She has written about mental health, therapy, lucid dreaming, a 50 mile work commute, acne, relationships, and thriving instead of just surviving.
Sage Adderley / Sweet Candy Distro & Press
Marked For Life, FAT-TASTIC!
Sage Adderley is a single mama of three humans and one cat. She is passionate about kindness, coffee, mental health, fat activism, and the DIY lifestyle. Sage is the owner of Sweet Candy Distro & Press, Sage’s Blog Tours, and writes the personal zine, Marked For Life. She is also the creator of the body positive zine, FAT-TASTIC! Sage currently resides in the magical land of Olympia, Washington where she swoons over the breathtaking view of Mount Rainier. Invoking Nonna is her first novel.
Sprout / KC Zine Collective – 118
Sprouted Ink, Undercurrent
Sprouted Ink is a collaborative personal and art zine about mental health, self empowerment, and DIY learning/sharing. Curated by Sprout with submissions by Sprout, her friends, and strangers met on the internet. Sprout is also part of the KC Zine Collective, Zine creators and enthusiasts working together to foster zine making projects, support zine culture, and increase access to zines (and awareness of them) throughout Kansas City.
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Nichole Pieces, A Visitor in Myself
Nichole writes the perzines Pieces and A Visitor in Myself. She has written on various topics since 2010, such as mental health, lucid dreaming, a 50 mile commute, breakups, medication, friendships, moving beyond diagnosis, desexualizing touch, and more.
Nicole Jennelle / People Make Plans
A perzine about partying, grieving, mental illness and social justice in education peoplemakeplans.tumblr.com
Synthia Nicole / Damaged Mentality
Synthia Nicole writes, creates & self-publishes the zine Damaged Mentality. Which has a personal look into invisible disabling brain -injury & how her mental health is/has been as a result.
Activist Journeys 