YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL #1

"Mostly full of beautiful collages with accompanying phrases and words, Turku's first 24 hour zine also includes a letter to a friend who's party was missed, memories of gigs attended with one of her oldest friends and three pages of "Things I like" (don't you just love those pages?!). This zine is art heavy, which I don't normally go for, but I think Turku's style is just lovely." - lizzy, marching stars distro

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL #2

"this scrappy cut & paste personal zine was clearly written in real time, page by page, & cobbled together when tukru decided she had enough pages. but don't let that fool you into thinking that it was just thrown together aimlessly. i really enjoyed this zine, & the palpable sense that it was worked on bit by bit when tukru had some downtime lends it an air of a journey that the reader is on along with the zinester. tukru is finnish & moved to england to attend college. now she is graduated, but has fallen in love & is struggling to find the means to stay in england, find a job, find a house, etc. the whole zine hinges on this theme, as she explains how she & her boyfriend got together, & that she is sharing his room right now & trying to make the relationship work even though they are living right on top of eac other all the time, & tukru is applying for an endless series of dreary dead end jobs & meeting with various governmental figures responsible for helping people find housing. i am always interested in stories from people trying to make ends meet, since that is what i do so much of the time. something about this zine really resonated with me--just the little stories like, "i don't have much money, but maybe i'll make some soup." & all of the covers were hand-colored! each one is completely unique!" - ciara, learning to leave a papertrail distro

"I'm a little stuck as to how to describe this zine. If you like part typewriter, part handwritten perzines with the perfect mix of writing and collage style art, you're going to love this. So what does Turku actually write about? Well… mostly about her life, and how she is living with her boyfriend at his parents house, and how their bed is dying, and how she misses cooking, and how she's looking for a job, and how she misses Finland, and so much more. She also includes some vegan recipes, zine recommendations and a page of "things that I thinks is good & nice". It's just all lovely and perziney. I was left smiling on the inside (and probably the outside too)." - lizzy, marching stars distro

"Whether airing frustrations, searching for jobs, or embracing nostalgia, Tukru creates an artistically appealing zine about these moments in her life. She also includes recipes, drawings, and photographs in this document that makes you root for her success." - lb, stranger danger distro

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL #3

"beautifully crafted A6 zine from Tukru who has her fingers in quite a few zinepies. it charts her moving into a council house, life with her boyfriend carl, jobs, money, gigs, work, recipes, life in general. really nicely put together and personal. ace ace ace." - pete, dead trees & dye distro

"let me try to explain tukru's zines & why they appeal to me: they feel like the person who put them together really enjoyed the zine-making process & really lavished their attention on what they were doing. which isn't to say that the layout is the most spectacularly ornate & beautiful thing i have ever seen, or that the writing is like a polished jewel. there is a feeling in these zines, like you are sharing something special & intimate with tukru--sometimes goofy, yes, & sometimes it reads like a blog or something, but translated into this photocopied paper medium, there is something special that shines through. it's like going to a friend's house, & maybe the house is kind of messy & there are dishes in the sink & they forgot to take out the recycling, but it feels like home, like someone lives there & loves living there. that's what these zines are like. so issue #3 is more handwritten/typewritten pasted together photocopy art about moving into a new apartment & trying to get adjusted, feeling bored & unmotivated at her job, getting ready for her boyfriend to move in with her, trying to make time to pursue photography, wanting to move to glasgow but staying in england for her boyfriend, putting together a photo exhibit (which includes the photos she took for a project called "chubby princess," which is self-portraits of tukru in too-small clothes, accompanied by thoughts on body image & weight), several pasges of tasty-sounding recipes (apple & walnut risotto!), & more. if you like completely unpretentious personal zines, this is the one for you." - ciara, learning to leave a papertrail distro

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL #4

"tukru decided to make this issue themed--specifically, "the past. my past with other people, love, 'love,' mistakes, being crap with people & such things." & holy cow, she doesn't hold back. i don't think ver have the guts to write a zine this remorselessly personal, but it's a lot of fun to read. she says she was inspired to put this issue together on the eve of her long-term boyfriend, carl, moving in with her. this is kind of a way to purge the ghosts of relationships/crushes/hook-ups gone by & start fresh. tukru's layout style is a mix of cut zinester handwriting (print, cursive, capital letters, all lower-case, all jumbled together for effect), & pieces banged out on a cranky manual typewriter, pasted together with drawings, photographs, & clip art, so you have the feeling you are reading someone's secret multi-media diary or something. she writes about first kisses; going to shows & making out with friends, strangers, & band members; how she met & got involved with carl; anxiety over the possibility of being a rotten girlfriend; general crushing habits; & a lot more. plus book/zine recommendations & a few recipes ("lemmenleipa," or finnish love bread; alas, i don't know how to code an umulat, which should be over the A). all the covers are hand-colored, & each one is unique. this is a fun but honest personal zine, & despite the subject matter, it doesn't feel like tukru is bragging or whining. she is just sharing some stories, both good & bad, & some stories make her look good & others make her seem like a jerk, which is exactly what love, "love," crushes, & relationships do to people." - ciara, learning to leave a papertrail distro

REVIEWS:

KERSA X #3

"I like the format of the chunky Kersax # 3 (£1; 100mm x 105mm approx; 84pp) very much - Tukru's double-sided-copied seven sheets of A4 each divided into three, giving - when folded - something square-ish, pleasing to handle. I've had a soft spot for this size/shape since Bypass's ex-editor Peter Pavement's fine mid-'nineties Microzine Monthly series. On the cover, there's a pic of Elvis, who's also allocated the centrefold of this red rubber band-bound 'zine. Some of the photos inside are by Kersax's photography-student creator; others are of icons like Bardot, the Manics, Debbie Harry, Pete Doherty, Warhol, and Edie Sedgwick.

As with the collaborative 'zine Fragile (reviewed for bypasszine on 10th November), Tukru's come up with some engaging double-page spreads. He's used a variety of approaches for the text - handwritten, manual typewritten, word-processed. Sometimes the handwriting's in upper case, other times in lower, and drawn lines help to make reading of it easy - particularly good when you're required to do so across two pages. The crossings-out give Kersax a welcome immediacy.

A few quotes from this (autobiographical ? fictional ? somewhere between the two ?) tale of crushes and relationships, vodka-drinking, cigarette-smoking, mixtape-listening and rock and roll glamour, to give a general impression :

- "the most gorgeous chill down his spine when james touched him... an accidental kiss on his stick out bony collar bone"

- "pink lipstick around those eyes. a shocking sight to the teachers at first ever sight"

- "that scrawny boy with a haircut straight from that francois truffaut film, slick and naive..."

- "rocknroll will always be more important to me than any living person. at least her"

- "her hipbones all bruised from bouncing into the edge of the stage filled with ROCKUNROLL spirit..."

- "we are modern day edies, princesses of rockunroll""

- bypasszine

FRAGILE (w/ carl)

"Fragile # 1 (£1.50 with cassette, £1 without) is a sixty-page, b&w, rubber band-bound A5-er made by Carl and Tukru, and comes with an amazingly blue-hued Mitsubishi C60 mix (The Newbeats' Bread And Butter, Talulah Gosh's My Best Friend; Beat Happening, The Adverts, Billy Childish, Bow Wow Wow...). Title's typed on the 'zine's cover using red ribbon - a pleasingly personal intervention. Cut 'n' paste collage/montage stuff, plus outline hand-lettering and Biro handwriting. Photocopied are striped fabric, lengths of masking, "FRAGILE" and black tape, Love Hearts, guitar chord shapes, a Yeah Yeah Yeahs badge, some stitching, a map of Finland, and lined paper and perforated notebook pages. A fly's blown up b-i-g, and there's everywhereman Pete Doherty - plus a vintage Joey Ramone and Debbie Harry snap, scratched-up contact prints and some Billy Childish text.

Apparently chaotic, Fragile is revealed by close scrutiny to be more organised an affair than a cursory glance might suggest. Care and attention's been paid in the pre-copying preparation to ensure that pagination works a treat : the 'zine's chock-a-block with winning double-page spreads. In no way is this just slung together. Controlled spontaneity, if you like.

A William Burroughs quote sums up the energy Fragile's creators aim to put across : "Rock and roll adolescents storm into the streets they... throw acid in the Mona Lisa's face... open zoos, insane asylums, prisons..." . Looks like Carl and Tukru had heaps of fun playing around with materials and machines. Near the back are the (crossed-through) words, "We made this so that you will say "I can do better than that" and then you will." Appreciate Fragile, but give it a go yourself."

bypasszine

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL #3

"Ever wanted to know everything - EVERYTHING - about someone's life? Then Your Pretty Face is Going Straight to HELL is the zine for you.

From her love-life, to her IKEA shopping sprees, to her unhealthy bowel movements, Tukru lets the reader in on her most private moments in minute, almost excruciatingly picayune detail. And you will lap up every item, every word (my personal favorite: squatly), and leave feeling closer than you probably should to a perfect stranger.

There is something intensely endearing about Tukru's unabashed exhibitionism. Her unusual frankness is utterly refreshing in a world gone cold from technological saturation. While you pretend to be someone you clearly shouldn't be for the sake of making virtual pretend-friends, Tukru is putting her soul to bare on paper, without ever expecting a single other person to read, much less care, what she's written. Indeed, the zine is at it's most profound in a short, meandering clip which finds Tukru drunk off her ass, typing at the whim of her subconscious, poignantly concluding with "I'm afraid of reading this. now, sober or ever."

Your Pretty Face is far too honest and heartfelt. And that's precisely what makes it such a great zine."

- kvick, man with crisis blog