Zine Review: Unproductive #3

ZINES_UnproductiveUnproductive: don’t worry about it
Comic, issue #3, Robbie Robert, unproductive.storenvy.com, $3

Unproductive is a zine that features dark-humoured portraits of everyday life. Whether featuring two characters watching a video of the conditions of a cell phone factory in China on their mass produced phones or a conversation between two friends on the inevitability of death, Unproductive is by no means a zine that will make you feel better about the world. There is no overarching narrative behind the characters in the zine; what seems to be the unifying factor of each of these strips is their cynical content. At times, the oversaturated darkness of Unproductive is comforting in a way that reality TV can be — at least this isn’t my life. When overdone, sadness can seem gimmicky, like the performative nature of a Tumblr filled with nothing but complaints. I think that the blob-like characters of “don’t worry about it” alleviate this stress, they aren’t trying to fit into our human dimension — they live in a world filled with dread that detaches the darkness somewhat from our world. (Rachel Davies)