zine

looking back at my dream journal over the years, as well as the dreams represented in the past months i noticed that one of the only constants were the apparition of some "mystery guy".

this made me think of a pretty well known character/ myth from Romanian folklore.

Zburător is a supernatural being (also described as a demon or incubus) that takes the form of a handsome man and appears in young girls' dreams, charming them, often leaving them lovesick upon waking up.

i wanted to put my own spin on it, so i wrote a poem inspired by my own emotions and experiences, around which i want to make a zine, complete with illustrations

the main visual elements will be skeletons, flowers and moths.
i want both characters (the narrator and the zburător) to be represented in an abstract way that people can project their own imagination/ memories/ feelings onto.
skeletons felt like the best option because they're pretty much a human blank canvas - and i also enjoy drawing them.

i already started taking in consideration the materials for the zine itself.
i want the physicality of it to be part of the story and the overall atmosphere.
i'm currently playing around with different kind of transparent materials, such as calk paper and transparent stickers to establish the distance between the two characters.

Zines as a storytelling medium

Many Moving Parts! Colliding at Terminal Velocity - Bas de Geus

Story:
Content/ style: - mainly black and white with accents of red, orange, yellow, purple and green
- heavy graphic design
- mainly hand-drawn comics and illustrations with a few manipulated photos
Physicality: A4 size, high quality paper, glossy cover and matte print for the content.
- some of the pages have stickers placed to complete the image and there are a few prints in-between some of the final pages

bye - Emi and Lea

Story: - collection of written unsent letters to random people, objects
Style: - simple page layouts, scanned hand-written letters printed on white paper often accompanied by relevant photos
- very atmospheric
Physicality: - cover and content pages printed on the same kind of paper
- stitched binding
- semi-glossy print

FEAR IS A THING WITH CLAWS - Lot van Teylingen

Story: poem
Style: hand-drawn illustrations and text overlayed with anatomical drawings
Physicality: - cover is bigger than the content pages
- simple staple binding
- cover is printed on thick paper, content is printed on semi-glossy paper

following the feedback session on the 2nd of december, i came to the conclusion that i should continue with the collages i've already started making and focusing on atmosphere and using landscapes as the main storytelling tool.

- i will repurpose some of the digital collages i've already made in the past months and edit them to fit the aspect ratio of my zine
- i think i'll go for A5 in horizontal format. i still have to test different types of paper and ink for it and also see if i can still incorporate transparent paper in the mix.

feedback 7th december: cut the verses, show the poem before/ after the images.
- rethink presentation/ folding method and/ or aspect ratio
- what's the purpose? what am i trying to show or tell?
- what's the meaning of the collages to the audience? what can they take out of it?
- what should they understand?

inspiration for poem (why poem):
romanian mythology, relevant theme => connect with zburator. in writing it;s easier to shift between realities and create transitions, but it's also very abstract and feelinds-based. the reader also makes their own interpretations and visualizations of it.

first test print:
transparent paper printed on both sides

*challenges: achieving an accurate overlap between the print on the front and the back side

*what worked: good colour saturation, the transparency works well, especially with the white gradient spots from the bottom collage

*to improve: printing different elements on the front/ back side to achieve a layered effect

second test print:
full print on front side, fully black accents on the back side

*challenges: still no perfect overlap

*what worked: the contrasting black accents add more dimension to the overall picture

*to improve: keep track of the front side and the back side (the top collage was printed in reverse)

third test print:
mirrored background on the back side and foreground accents printed on the front side

*challenges: still had minor overlap problems

*what worked: separating the background and foreground digitally and lowering the opacity on the overlap in the background layer

*to improve: minor overlap and saturation issues