How could I not make a zine for my favourite robotic assassin?
When I was headed for a convention in my hometown of Saint John, NB (Fog City Comic Con) I knew I needed something big, something cool, something relatable for my story of a miniature detective.
That’s when I knew I had to make a special occasion zine.
I love everything about zines, reading, making, and collecting them. There’s a lot of different ways to approach them, but one of the most simple versions is the single page zine. It’s a challenge, too, and I love making art inspired by a frame.
The purest form of this isn’t what I did this time, but my adaptation had its own set of problems to solve.
First and foremost was the layout. Because I wanted to make this something satisfying, something with a story feel to it, characters, setting, plot, the whole shebang, I had to fit a considerable number of words onto one double-sided letter-sized piece of paper.
Add to that: I was working with a new printer I wasn’t familiar with and things like preferred margins and double-sided printing had to be worked out.
A little confession: this was my first ever printer that could handle two-sided printing. So I was unprepared for the complications of a machine picking how the second page was done. I always did that manually—sometimes leading to late night hilarity, but always something in my control. I knew nothing of the handy toggle buttons that would solve my dilemma, so I spent some agonizing hours working out which of the teeny pages needed text outlines, then flipped upside down and into a reverse order on the page.
In the end, though, (with help—thanks Di) I was able to trim, fold and staple my little story in time for the convention. I took down one batch, but had a second pile already printed, ready for assembly.
They were a hit. Even the local area zine archive wanted copies (!) and I ran out quickly both days. That told me I needed to take them to the next convention, too. Now I take them with me wherever I go. They’re a great way to take a peek at my book, and adorable, too.
I have other zines, the oldest one still in print is Mother & Child and I still take it to conventions as a stand-alone zine, and as bonus content for my Bones Of The Magus Collector’s box set.
Mother & Child, like Bones itself, is a graphicless novel. If you want to know what that is, you can find it here:
And if you’re intrigued by the possibility of a rogue android assassin who breaks out of her cover job as a brothel worker to be the tiny rock in the boot of a cosmic cop trying to solve the murder of a weirdo galactic empire noble…
This button is for you!