Bird Brained Zine Anthology

Bird Brained Zine Anthology is an inter-dimensional alternative literary-art anthology full of the odd, lowbrow, surreal, and unconventional. It’s filled with comix, poetry, photographs of your mom, and all that good shxt. It’s hell on Earth!

Bird Brained first burst out of an egg when Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Publisher, Karlo (Karr) Antunes (he/him), went to a small, curated comics-art festival in Brooklyn, NY in 2019. This festival only accepted artists who were already well-known around Brooklyn and NYC, so there were no new faces at the venue. That sucked. He realized that many festivals are like this and aimed to make an inclusive and diverse zine for unknown and up-and-coming alternative and lowbrow creators who deserve a chance to be seen and recognized for their work.

This zine was primarily created to urge off-beat, underground creators to continue to create sustainably — success and feeling good about your art doesn’t happen overnight and creators should always aim to feel fulfilled with their art regardless of whatever they deem “successful”; it is secondly a means to further connect the underground community so that contributors will talk art amongst each other, find opportunities, or even collaborate with one another on future projects (the underground is much bigger than the mainstream); and finally, Bird Brained was born because… why not? So, here we are.

Bird Brained is an alternative zine made for the makers — a community of underground, hard working, idiosyncratic, and otherwise considered odd punx and indie artists honing in on their craft while also attempting to make ends meet; badass and diverse individuals who want to promote a progressive world; and introspective people who make their best effort to always take responsibility and educate themselves wherever there is a lack of knowledge, in order to promote the greater good of society and the world for generations to come. Whether these individuals are in retail, busting their asses full-time in a studio; freelancing; booking their own gigs; doing some other job; or in school, they’re out here continuing to create because they want to and because the world needs it. It’s made for the brainstormers and idealists who people may think are impractical for wanting to pursue a creative career. It’s made for the “brainless;” the “stupid;” the marginalized; the underdogs; the queer; the odd; the unconventional; the alternative; the deprived; the burnt out; the poor; and the dimwitted, brain dead boobs of the universe who don’t follow the crowd. Hell yeah!

It’s made for the “Bird Brained.”

In case you weren’t aware, birds are INCREDIBLY clever, and so are you.

Express yourself. No excuses.

How does it work?

Bird Brained Zine will be published twice-annually in April and October. We are open to artists and writers of all shapes, colors, and forms, but there are some prerequisites.

Must be be considered Bird Brained (view list in Submit tab)
Must have less than 5,001 followers on their most used social media account (WE CHECK)
Must be 20 or older
Must create and submit art/writing/films/music/etc. that fits the Bird Brained Zine overall aesthetic: a mix between absurd, lowbrow, satirical, surreal, punk, gothic suburbia, odd, and unconventional work. Think “Twilight Zone” or the mental state between reality and fantasy. If this sounds like you, by all means, submit!
Must also fit current issue’s theme (if applicable), which can be found on our homepage (again, if applicable to a specific issue). Take whatever inspiration you want from the theme, as long as it’s not too much of a stretch.
Must believe in equal human rights
Must not be a dick

More info on submitting can be found under the Submit tab.

Bird Brained Zine Anthology is run on the Founder’s own income and money made from selling the books and merchandise. Most proceeds are recycled right back into Bird Brained (i.e. the next issue, publishing fees and costs, festival fees and costs, merch costs, paying any editors, etc.). Any revenue that’s leftover will be donated to organizations/companies supporting LGBTQ+ Adults/Youth, the BLM Movement, bail-funds, mental health awareness, alternative non-profit art schools, cruelty-free products, sustainability, and more.

On top of being a zine anthology, our site and Instagram will be posting prompts every time we feel like it to help get creatives’ bird brains flocking in case they’re ever stuck in a pigeonhole. It happens.

[ Inquiries related to submitting, general information, wholesale, etc. send an email over to: info@birdbrainedzine.com ] Do NOT send submissions to this email. They will be ignored.

Cheers