Creating the Sandy Bawls mini-zine
I'm getting back into being Sandy Bawls, but I'm having a hard time getting people to notice me. And when I tell people, I can point them to an Instagram account, but that doesn't really explain anything about the whole act.
I knew I didn't want a business card, because that isn't going to really tell people anything more. And I know that I can make delightful A4 zines.
(Yes, you too can take colouring books off of Archive.org and turn them into abridged tiny colouring zines!)
So I thought "Hmm. Maybe I can make a smaller zine. Like, instead of taking a sheet of A4 and turning it into an A6-sized zine, I can, like, cut a sheet of A4 in half and turn it into an A7-sized zine".
I opened up GIMP, I looked for a good font, and I got to work.
It was pretty easy figuring out what to put in the zine (explaining who I am, where I can be found online, telling people all about my favourite sailor music, maybe a drink recipe...), but I had to think about the size and readability, because, yeah, A7 is small.
I played around a bit, made it all fit, and I had eight images before I knew it.
(I know there are more professional ways to do this, like, with proper document editing software and whatnot, but I go with what works for me.)
Then I popped it into Zeenster (only because the amazing and delightful Electric Zine Maker doesn't work on non-Intel Macs any more), and there we go, an A4-sized zine.
From there it was just a matter of shrinking it down and making two of them fit onto a sheet of A4.
It's a little more cutting than the regular zine, but when it's all folded up, it's not just a nice tiny zine, it fits into an Altoids tin.
!
And now I have a bunch of little zines to give out. Not only will I have them for when I'm at the David Lynch Drag Night on October 21 in Manchester, I'll also have them for when I'm at the Queer Up Duck! Drag Showcase on November 4 in Nottingham.
And around other places. I mean, they're in an Altoids tin. I can take them anywhere.
What needs work?
The sizing's a bit off. I have to shrink the page to fit the area, so the folding looks weird, but I think I can also just move a few things around to make it all fit right. And I put on folding lines to make my life easier, but if I fix the sizing, then I won't really need it, I think.
But it prints nicely in black-and-white, it's a weird neat way to introduce people to Sandy Bawls, and it's just fun.
Want to see it in its entirety?
Well, if you're in Nottingham and see me out and about, ask me.
If you're elsewhere...you can print out the A4 version and get a zine of your own.