If you've been paying any attention at all, you know that I'm a huge Celia Perez fan. In fact I reviewed last year's issue of The Shortest Day here, most glowingly.
This year Celia is sadder than last year, having lost her older sister, Gloria, to leukemia. Much of this sensitive and evocative zine is directly about or influenced by that loss. Despite her intense grief,
There is no lonelier feeling, nothing that can make you feel so small and insignificant, than to be outside on a beautiful day and to know that someone you love is gone forever and that the world keeps on turning as if they never were.
Celia is reluctantly looking forward, setting out an ambitious 100 item to-do list for 2013. The items range from mundane ("Get glasses adjusted or replaced.") to nostalgic ("Wear my Doc Martens on my 41st birthday (their 2oth anniversary).") to crafty ("Make more watercolor postcards.") to that fear-laden kindness I love so much about my friend "Show more love and compassion toward myself and others."
The zine is type- and handwritten and hand-illustrated. It's in color, but has that cut-and-paste aesthetic that lets you know that despite highish production values, it's an old-school zine with five lists in addition to the to-do manifesto.
The Shortest Day is no longer listed in Celia's Etsy shop, so I don't know if she's still selling it. If not, ask her for one of the zines she does have listed. They are all muy full of awesome. You might also see her tabling in the Zine Pavilion at ALA this summer.