5 Filipino zines we can’t stop recommending

Zines come in all types and topics, but what we love about them the most is that they’re independently-crafted and they champion a do-it-yourself culture that we totally support. Small, self-published booklets, zines can tackle a wide range of very specific topics in a way that storytellers intend to share them—unfiltered. They can be visually driven like comic strips or an art piece on their own. They can be personal and introspective or political and inspiring change.

One of our longtime Common Room makers, Mako Micro-press, brings their protest art not just in catchy stickers and prints, they also create zines, show us how to make them, and curate the selection we have at the Mess Studio library. Over at our little bookshop, we also have zines from local illustrators, writers, and other creators who draw, write, and collaborate about a variety of topics—from anting-anting to activism, heartbreak to healing. Here are a few worth picking up that you’ll have a hard time putting down.

Tall Order by Patricia Ramos

Author, illustrator, teacher, and “your friendly neighborhood giant woman,” Patricia Ramos gives us this funny and honest reflection of growing up tall (six feet tall to be precise) and not playing basketball. If you grew up bigger than average or have simply experienced your own body issues and how stereotypes push them further, pick up this comic zine. Tall Order easily pulls you in with its own personal coming-of-age tale and makes you stay until the last panel to cheer for our tall friend (yes, feeling close) on how she made it to the other side—parental expectations, basketball coaches, and confidence-destroying planks notwithstanding.

Make Your Own Anting-Anting by Carl Lorenz Cervantes

Zines are also a great way to share one’s expertise or interest, like this how-to zine from researcher, psychologist and university lecturer Carl Lorenz Cervantes. Anting-anting is not necessarily a mainstream topic, but it’s been part of Filipino culture since pre-colonial times. Cervantes reminds us how our ancestors have long believed that the world is filled with spiritual power and certain objects are imbued with magic. Whether you believe it or not, the zine takes you on a journey you likely wouldn’t have taken because the anting-anting has been mostly forgotten or ignored through centuries of heavy colonial and religious influence. It’s a booklet that gives a way back to it. And as the author advises, “receive only what resonates.”

Introspek by JV Papasin, Cindy Aquino, and Bry Barrios

Among the zines reviewed here, here’s one I really had a hard time putting down. With poetry from JV Papasin, photos from Cindy Aquino, and artwork from Bry Barrios, Introspek is a perfect convergence of different creative expressions flowing into a cohesive collection that makes you feel hope, gratitude, rage, and stillness. It opens with Papasin’s “Our humble abode,” and together with art from Barrios, they both feel welcoming and familiar. Then as each page, poem, and image unfolds, it feels like they’re taking your hand and showing you what’s inside. It can be uncomfortable, it can be a revelation, or both.

From “The Third Commandment” to “Kalmado,” you can feel the hostility of words as well as their comfort. And in these times when it’s easy to lose hope and feel helpless, somebody writing, “Hihinga akong malalim / nang mahanap ang hinahon / at muling buhayin / ang iyong habilin sa akin / ‘hindi ako hihinto’ / sa panahon ng sikhay, ligaya, maging pagkabigo” can give you pause and possibilities. Let this one stay with you.

Sakay Na! by Patricia Ramos

We obviously love many of Ramos’s works, and this little accordion booklet shows you that zines can also be a fun and accessible way to share one’s art. Unfold and find each panel is squeezed with colorfully illustrated commuters of all shapes, sizes, and moods. Anyone who’s spent hours commuting and riding jeepneys may recognize themselves or their fellow commuters somewhere in each of the panels. Here’s to art reflecting the human (and very Pinoy) experience.

The Magic on Mt. Hiraya by Viel Vidal

Another comic zine that takes you somewhere unexpected is Viel Vida’s The Magic on Mt. Hiraya. It starts off seemingly as simply a comical take on the ghost friend trope—with the living protagonist, Frankie, enumerating all the predictable reasons why the ghost has appeared in her life. They take a road trip to Mount Hiraya and it’s there where the story swerves into something sad and unexpected. It’s important to read the author’s note at the last page to understand and find solace in the fact that there was healing in the end.

This is what’s great about zines. They show us that stories can take shape and flow in so many different ways. They don’t have to follow what publishers may deem marketable or trending, they don’t need a huge audience, and they don’t even need to have the perfect production to matter. If you’re a storyteller, all you need is a folded sheet of paper, an idea worth sharing, and the courage to put it out there. And for readers, zines are a great way to discover all sorts of tales the way each storyteller wants to tell them.