#19: Lots and lots of zines and a mountainous poster: this week’s things will take you on quite a journey

In this week’s edition of your favourite It’s Nice That regular, we have things that will take you on a journey. We have things that will take you on a journey into a land of nightmares, and things that will take you all the way to the highest peaks of the Northumbrian mountains. We have things that have come all the way from Los Angeles and Vancouver, things from France, and some other things from just a stones throw away down the road in London. This week’s things are from around the world, and some of the things are from other worlds entirely.

OTTO Press: Zines

OTTO press sent us this bright bundle of Risograph chapbooks and zines, which has become a constant source of excitement and inspiration in the It’s Nice That office. Le Petite Sortie tells the story of a personified bunch of shapes who never quite see eye to eye, and Sausage, Egg, Beans & Chips brings together a vibrant assortment of abstract, wiry, dream-like illustrations. We particularly love the whimsical comics by Swedish artist EKTA, whose meshy, patchworked faces look like illustrated figures in a Jan Svankmajer animation, and the very beautiful strip by Peter Cline, which is filled with striking shapes and evocative silhouettes.
www.ottopress.co.uk

Daniel Zender: Zines

We posted about the Daniel Zender’s nightmarish paintings a couple of months ago, and now he’s send us his incredible collection of slightly disturbing self-published zines. Included in the collection is a black paged booklet of shadowy shapes that belong in dark dreams, and a publication of eerie faces created with rushed brush strokes. It’s sinister stuff, and not at all for the faint-hearted.
www.danielzender.com

Double Dot: Issue 5 – Los Angeles & Vancouver

Double Dot magazine takes sister cities, in this particular case Los Angeles and Vancouver, and tells stories about the cultural relationship between the two. In the centre of the publication are two photo shoots, the first based in Vancouver, and the second in LA, so your journey from one city to the next feels seamless and is intriguingly visual. Dotted throughout the pages are bright illustrations by It’s Nice That favourites Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, Jon Burgerman and Sara Andreasson, and included in the vibrant pages are interviews with fiction writer Amber Dawn, and the LA band Local Natives. It’s an eye-catching magazine that has something for everyone, and there is not a single dull moment as you delve into each and every one of the colourful pages.
www.doubledotmagazine.com

Sarah Haug: C’est la Mousse – Que rend foufou

A bright, predominately pink zine about an eccentric hair dressing salon, whose clients include a chick with a mohawk and a pig with a fiery quiff. It’s difficult to decipher a narrative, but there are lots of peach coloured combs and bubbly shampoo bottles dotted about, which can’t be a bad thing.
www.sarahhaug.com

Isy and Leigh Anderson: An Extra Mile Or Two

Arriving in a rainproof Highlander bag and labeled “Lake District, Cumbria, England,” we naturally thought that Isy and Leigh Anderson had send us some kind of map. When we opened up the sticky, yellow velcro, we were delighted to find that An Extra Mile Or Two is not actually a map at all, but rather the end result that every hiker aims for and dreams of. Unfolding the publication was a feat in itself, the poster being wider than I am tall, and once I finally manage to spread the image on the ground I was greeted by a breathtaking black and white landscape shot of the vantage point above Haweswater reservoir. The poster is so big that I couldn’t photograph it in its entirety, so you’ll have to be satisfied with fragments of the incredibly stunning shot. The project was part of a pitch for Isy and Leigh’s dream job, which they unsurprisingly got, and they’ve published the picture as a kind of reminder of the fact that it is always good idea to go that extra mile or two.
www.photographybyanderson.co.uk