I like the look of issue two of Australian magazine, Happenstance, which supports local talent across the design and art community. In the latest issue, local artist and printmaker Del Lumanta invites them into her prizewinning bedroom, alongside sketchbook submissions from Luke Kopycinski, Jacob O. Rolfe, and Evan Shipard: ‘We’ve kept it all homegrown, yet expanded our minds a little. Most of our content is Sydney-sourced, but we’re keeping an eye out on a national scale’. Oh, and if you’ve pre-ordered a copy, chances are it’ll show up at your place on the back of a bike. Nice!

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When we feel bad about buying Made in China, we buy it anyway. When the kids at Peppermint Mag feel the guilt, they buy American Apparel. These cats have shown that it’s easy to be cute and stylish while being environmentally conscious. Enviro-friendly is no longer the domain of long-haired hippies and tie-dyed shirts. Welcome to the era of reuse, recycle and the revision of our tomorrow, one little pom pom hat at a time.

The overprotected brain child of Australian designer Timba Smits, every issue of Wooden Toy Quarterly is lovingly themed and designed down to the typeface. The issues come off like unique works of art and seem oddly out of place on the magazine racks. Unfortunately the printing sizes are small, making them hard to get. But they are well worth the effort.

Our favourite fiction quarterly — the Australian produced Torpedo — is soon to release its second issue, which is jam packed with well-written, independent fiction. Torpedo 2 visits the Wild West Within and features fiction bullets from young American talents Yannick Murphy, Tony D’Souza, Greg Ames, Aaron Gwyn, Justin Taylor and Holly Tavel (all McSweeney’s regulars), as well as gunslingers from down under including Josephine Rowe, Luke May and Jon Bauer. Illustrated by two Englishmen and a Belgian, the saloon also has shady comics artists, Jeffrey Brown, Paul O’Connell and Brian Hoang propping up the bar. The release date is mid-May, but it’s available for pre-order now.