Nick Name zine is perfect to read with a buddy

Nick Name

Zine, Hurley Winkler & Aysha Miskin, 3948 3rd Street South #183, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250 USA, nicknamezine.com, [email protected], $4 USD

As someone who has collaborated on music, writing, and all sorts of things with other people, I know how fun it can be to ave a creative project with a friend, and to have it really click. That particular joy is what takes centre stage in Nick Name, a project born of friendship by two Floridian pals, Hurley and Aysha.

In black-and-white drawings and cut-and-paste text and images, the zine is a compilation of one- or two-page spreads that each issue a cute or clever joke, or just have fun with an idea and a doodle. My favourite: opposing pages of drawings of waves, one with boats and labelled “seaward,” the other whose wave tips have “cunt” written along them, and it’s labeled “c-word.” Get it?

That’s really all there is to it. There’s nothing profound explicitly communicated in Nick Name. It seems the primary intent is to simply revel in collaboration. A picture of the authors, in a pool, floating together on an inflatable mattress, concludes the zine with a quick explanation of how they met. They look so happy, like they’re having a lot of fun together, as if to say that’s what they did when they made this zine — had fun together. So even with little to say, as a testament to two friends’ joy in creating collaboratively — which really is clear throughout Nick Name is a welcome, delightful zine. Grab a buddy and read it together!