I recently participated in Portland’s 2nd Annual 24 Hour Zine Challenge with about 9 other people. Some may say we were insane, but it was a lot of fun and I’d definitely do it again. Of the 9 participants, only 4 finished, but of those only two people managed to make copies of their zine before the 24 hours was over: myself with my zine All Things Ordinary #3 and Alex Wrekk with Brainscan 25.5.

I’ve never sat next to someone for the duration of making their zine. The experience makes reading the final product much different than reading a zine you’ve never seen before. Regardless of that, Brainscan 25.5 is a fun zine. Alex decided to write a zine all about the different post office boxes she has had over the years. With each p.o. box, she talks about where she was in her life when she had it, who she shared it with, and interesting stories pertaining to that particular box. The layout is beautiful, filled with great clip art and well placed typewritten words as most issues of Brainscan contain. The cover is a nice black cardstock with a silver stamp of the title and some coffee beans.

My only complaint is that it was too quick of a read. Obviously given that it’s a zine made in 24 hours, it’s not going to be as big as her last 80 page legal sized zine, but I was left wanting more stories about picking up mail, interesting postal workers, etc… Perhaps Alex will expand on this issue in the future, Brainscan 25.75 perhaps?

For those who want to buy this zine, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.  Alex has decided that she’s only going to be trading this zine.  So if you have a zine, fancy beer, or a small puppy-cat for trade, you can email her at brainscanzine@gmail.com