Rob ‣ Haphazard Zines

My typewriters have all been in the shed since we moved house a few years ago, but I decided to get them out and get them into use. I’ve actually never used this one before — a >100yo Corona 3. Needs a new ribbon but otherwise in perfect working order! A glorious machine.

So now I guess I’m going to have to figure out where they came from, and whether I can reinstall them without doing any further harm.

And then there are three more that I haven’t got around to looking at yet.

Decided I should get my typewriters out of the shed and into use. One of them is in perfect working order. Another one had a few sticky keys, but when I opened it to give them a clean a ball bearing, a spring and some very specific washers fell out…

yesssssss do it

Kachi-Koshi

Haphazard 05

I like to watch sumo wrestling. It's a lot of fun! This zine is a crash course in sumo in case you would like to give it a go… and I think it's interesting even if you're not going to become a committed fan.

#zine #zines

Onion Songs

Haphazard 04

A list of songs that reliably make me cry, with snippets of lyrics.

There's a spotify playlist too
open.spotify.com/playlist/21C...

#zine #zines

Highlights

Haphazard 03

Reading ebooks is so much easier because I can always pick up my book during down time (on the train, in a queue, at lunchtime). So now I read more books again! I highlight passages that I think capture an important idea. Here are some of those passages.

#zine #zines

manga panels that i saved because i relate to them

Haphazard 02

I mostly read digital manga and sometimes I get the urge to screenshot and save a particular panel because it resonates with me. The weird thing is that these panels are usually very, very mundane.

#zine #zines

Japanese Stairs

Haphazard 01

When I visited Japan, I noticed that there are a lot of stairs around. Where we would put stairs on the inside of a building, they put the stairs on the outside. I couldn't stop noticing stairs and photographing them.

#zine #zines

Haphazard #0 The Preface

The Preface

Haphazard 00

Here I explain a bit about my history with zines, and how I ended up committing to a weekly zine project.

#zine #zines

A black and white phot of the six zines I had at the Festival of the Photocopier (their titles are listed in the main post)

I am bad at social media BUT we are six weeks into 2025 and I have made six zines and tabled at a zine fair (the Festival of the Photocopier)

// 0: The Preface
// 1: Japanese Stairs
// 2: manga panels that i saved because i relate to them
// 3: Highlights
// 4: Onion Songs
// 5: Kachi-Koshi

My account was removed and then immediately reinstated after I emailed the Bsky team. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but the reinstatement was so quick that I doubt a human even reviewed it — my guess is that they just automatically reinstate when they get an email, at least the first time.

“it's happening” Email confirmation from Sticky Institute: “FESTIVAL OF THE PHOTOCOPIER FEB Sat 8 + Sun 9 12-5PM | Kensington Town Hall “Hello Robert, Thank you for applying to be a stallholder at the Festival of the Photocopier 2025! We would like to offer you, [REDACTED] a full table at the fair on Sunday 9th of February!”

OK I can’t back out now! I’ll be at the Festival of the Photocopier #zine fair on Sunday 9 Feb…

I wrote a blog post about what a zine is, what zines are, why that's important, and how that relates to other conversations about how to create things free of corporate control that have been happening in other people's blogs lately.

seedlinggames.com/blogging/dis...

Before you ask, I haven’t yet figured out how I am going to get these #zines out to people. I committed to this project half way through the first week of the year, so my priority was putting the #zine together quickly so I wouldn’t start behind schedule. Logistics are a problem for Future Me.

So my goal this year is to produce a #zine every week. I’ve got some ideas for different series, and I’m going to start with Surveilled, which will just be images of things I notice. The first issue is all Japanese stairs. Every time I visit I am caught by them. Here are some of my favourites.