Education Portal for Students in India

What is the purpose of a zine?

“The Spirit of the Zine” – What do you find in a zine ? Text

Poetry Short Stories Essays and Commentary Points of View Word Art Lists Manifestos Opinions OR maybe no text at all!

Visual Art / Images

Drawings Photographs Paintings Collage Art OR maybe no images at all!

What else? (traditionally)

Collaborative Work Marginalized Voices Edgy Styles Comic Styles – Mini Comics Handmade / Homemade Feel 80s-90s “old school” cut and paste aesthetic Photocopier look Notebook look Collage Edgy Topics Political Topics Personal Narratives Anything really!

The Bottom Line? A zine may include anything artistic or otherwise that you may wish to express! The idea behind a zine is that you express your intentions in some sort of “pamphlet-esque” or “book-like” form, replicate that creation, then share! STEP 1: CREATE STEP 2: REPLICATE (MAKE COPIES!) STEP 3: DISSEMINATE (SHARE IT!)

Is a zine just a magazine?

A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine ) We all know what a magazine is but the question is: what’s a zine? The definition of zine is in the name “fanzine” as it’s often referred to a publication devoted to some celebrity a person admires.

• Today, the term “zine” is used to describe a publication created by someone who wants to share a message, show off their artwork, or develop comic book concepts,
• Although the word “zine” is derived from “magazine,” the two publications are significantly different.
• A zine is often made by a single person or a small group of individuals whenever they feel like it, as opposed to a magazine which needs an editorial team and a fixed publishing schedule.

A zine can contain anything artistic or anything else that you want to share! The concept behind a zine is that you communicate your views or ideas in some type of “book-like” or “pamphlet” form. As community-driven publications, zines are often distributed by printing and distributing them out at events or gatherings.

What is a zine vs magazine?

What is an E-zine? – A zine (pronounced ‘zeen’) is a small-circulation collage-style publication with a focus on unconventional topics. Though ‘zine’ is a derivative of ‘magazine’, the two types of publications are very different. Unlike a magazine which requires an editorial team and a strict publishing schedule, a zine is typically created by a single individual or a small group of people when they feel like doing so.

Zines are community-driven publications, so they are mainly distributed by photocopying and handing out at festivals or meetups, though some zines can be sold through zine fares or online shops, i.e. Etsy. This keeps most of the works on the fringe, but it also makes them unique in the choice of topics and design.

E-zines are essentially just digital zines created with the help of various e-zine makers. They may be different in terms of means of creation, but the nonconformity vibes and DIY aesthetics are still there as well as the choice of articles. Here’s an example of an e-zine by the University of Victoria students: Grounded Zine

What are the pros and cons of a zine?

Kat Haugh is a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Specialist on the USAID LEARN contract. We all have them: that 50-page report sitting on your desk that you’ve never read. And when you think about reading it, you cringe. You just can’t do it.

And there’s a good reason for that, research and experience show that in order for information to be used for learning and adapting, the information itself needs to be easily accessible. How do we present information in a way that capitalizes on opportunities for information to actually be digested and used (and avoid the dreaded 50-page report)? One way the USAID LEARN contract makes data more accessible and actionable is through visual storytelling.

We use metaphors, doodles, storylines, and designs to communicate about our work and better understand what our data is telling us about our progress and impact. We’ve recently piloted a new visual storytelling technique called a zine. The term zine is short for magazine and is a self-published visual story with a combination of text and images.

Zines are a visual reporting tool used to distill complex information (like information about financial investment or climate change) into short, easy-to-read, creative stories. Everyone can be an author (and also an editor, designer, and publisher) of a zine, and that is part of what makes them so powerful.

We got inspired by zines and so we created one about our work on LEARN. The finished product looks like this: If you can’t tell from the picture, the Zine is a small (8.5 x 11 inches) booklet that includes minimal text and lots of visuals. It’s written in story-form, with no jargon or flowery words. That’s because the focus is on communicating the information as succinctly and efficiently as possible and presenting it as a story.

Need to know > nice to know. Given the limited space in the zine, we had to be really strict about what was absolutely necessary to communicate and what was not.Ideal visual to text ratio. To avoid overdoing it with the amount of visuals in the zine and overwhelming our audience, we followed guidance from data visualization experts like Stephanie Evergreen and others about the appropriate visual to text ratio.Co-creation of recommendations is helpful. In order to make the content of the zine as useful as possible, we worked within our team to co-create the recommendations about changes we’d make in our work in response to the data that was reported in the zine.Facilitation is needed for internalization. Just sharing the zine is not enough for the information to be adequately digested and used for decision-making. Facilitating the internalization of the information through an exercise (like a madlibs game ) is critical for the information to be downloaded by your team.

Like all types of reporting, the zine comes with its own pros and cons. The pros are that this type of reporting focuses on what is most important, is told in story-form, and is highly visual and engaging. The cons are that the zine cannot always capture the details and the visuals can feel overwhelming to some.

1. There is a lot of opportunity in our field to improve the way we are communicating about our work.
2. We’d love to hear how you are using your visual brain to do it! Please share your stories with us.
3. And, click here to see one of our zines.
4. Tip: To learn more, there’s an entire wikipedia page devoted to zines and if you type “zine making” into Amazon, you’ll get 10 pages of results,

There may also be a zine-making community near you,

Why are zines so popular?

A box of zines A zine ( ZEEN ; short for magazine or fanzine ) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine, Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation.

• A fanzine ( blend of fan and magazine ) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest.
• The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.

Popularly defined within a circulation of 1,000 or fewer copies, in practice many zines are produced in editions of fewer than 100. Among the various intentions for creation and publication are developing one’s identity, sharing a niche skill or art, or developing a story, as opposed to seeking profit.

Zines have served as a significant medium of communication in various subcultures, and frequently draw inspiration from a “do-it-yourself” philosophy that disregards the traditional conventions of professional design and publishing houses, proposing an alternative, confident, and self-aware contribution.

Handwritten zines, or carbon zines, are individually made, emphasizing a personal connection between creator and reader, turning imagined communities into embodied ones. Historically, zines have provided community for socially isolated individuals or groups through the ability to express and pursue common ideas and subjects.

For this reason, zines have cultural and academic value as tangible traces of marginal communities, many of which are otherwise little-documented. Zines present groups that have been dismissed with an opportunity to voice their opinion, both with other members of their own communities or with a larger audience.

This has been reflected in the creation of zine archives and related programming in such mainstream institutions as the Tate museum and the British Library, Written in a variety of formats from desktop-published text to comics, collages and stories, zines cover broad topics including fanfiction, politics, poetry, art & design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, intersectional feminism, single-topic obsession, or sexual content far outside the mainstream enough to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media.

Do people still buy zines?

Ari Marcopoulos: “Everything is worthy of a photograph” Ari Marcopoulos has been at the centre of New York’s counterculture scene since he left his native Amsterdam in 1980 at 23 years old. He’s worked for Andy Warhol and Irving Penn, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Robert Mapplethorpe.

And he photographed some of the most recognisable (and legendary) faces of NYC hip-hop during the ​ ‘ 80s and ​ ‘ 90s: Public Enemy, Rakim, LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys, to name but a few. It’s safe to say he’s witnessed New York youth culture blossom. Marcopoulos was there during the early beginnings of New York’s underground skate scene, for instance, when insiders flocked to a little-known shop-cum-cultural hub on Lafayette Street called Supreme.

” Perhaps it’s the most famous city in the world, I don’t know,” the 66-year-old photographer says with an air of irreverence. ​ ” When I moved here, I was certainly very attracted to the idea of moving to New York. Now, it’s my home and I have a very hard time imagining living somewhere else.

1. It’s a very inspiring place to be.” Like most New Yorkers, you get the feeling Marcopoulos is fiercely loyal about his home turf.
2. The restless city, its hardcore grind, shapeshifting styles and DIY attitude, has been the backdrop of his work for four decades.
3. Now, his documentary photography from 2015 to 2019 has been compiled into Zines.

Compiled like a family photo album and inspired by his affinity for fanzines, which he started collecting in the early-’90s, Zines is as much a scrapbook of Marcopoulos’ life as it is a time-capsule of New York. ” I feel like this book is very cinematic,” Marcopoulos says of the bumper book that boast more than 300 pages. Hey, Ari! What’s the first zine you remember buying? It wasn’t really a question of buying zines back then, people were giving them out. There must have been a point where I bought a zine, but I think in the beginning, it was more finding them somewhere.

I remember Mark Gonzales giving me zines, possibly in the early ​ ‘ 90s, mostly about skateboarding or music. In simple terms, zines are about passing on information – new ideas, new styles, new people – like magazines and, to a lesser extent, books. What makes a zine special to you compared to other mediums? With books and magazines, there’s a lot more production involved as far as the being conceived and then made.

And often in magazines, there are multiple opinions. A lot of zines are fanzines, so there’s a real passion. You get this point of view of somebody that might not be well-known, or you have an opportunity to find something very unique and very personal.

And people usually don’t make more than 25 copies of a zine. That DIY side of zine-making feels quite rare now, doesn’t it? Zines have taken on a much bigger role with art fairs and things that are happening, where people print more copies – it has become a little bit more of a business than it used to be.

The idea back then was that if you couldn’t find the types of images or information inside magazines or books that were out there, you would make something that shows what you’re seeing or feeling. That’s what makes zines unique – you can make one at home. With social media, they’re becoming more rare now, since we’re documenting thoughts and images everyday, from our phones. Your book is very much your point of view – the things you come across everyday, like a photo diary. Do you see it like that? Well, whether it’s a diary or not, people tend to look at my work and say, ​ ” Oh, yeah, it’s a diary, you see his partner, his children, his friends.” And the dates on the pictures give the feel of a diary.

But it’s not really a diary, because I feel, in a way, you don’t get to see so much of my life. It’s not like I’m trying to show you what my life is like, or what I’m doing. They are more images that I feel people can relate to, because they have similar situations. There are photos in there that I would say are amazing photographs, but maybe something funny is happening at home and people can look at it and it reminds them of their own lives.

You also get an idea of what I look at and what fascinates me, or what I’m interested in. You can really sense that fascination with your subject matters – whether they’re friends, family or strangers on the street – and your style is pretty raw and unpolished.

• Who have been some of your influences over time? In my teenage years, I started going to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Amsterdam.
• I saw an early show by Nam June Paik and a show by James Terrell.
• Those things really baffled me, as it broke a certain barrier of what I thought could be art.
• It opened my eyes to expressing one’s ideas in a myriad of ways.

And then I started seeing films by Pasolini and Fassbender, and American movies in the ​ ‘ 70s like French Connection, And then photographers like Diana Arbus and Robert Frank. All photography started becoming interesting to me. I would also look at sports photographs of American basketball – I played basketball when I was a kid.

To make a list of names becomes very tricky, because you either leave someone out, or the list becomes huge. What makes a subject or photograph print-worthy when you’re editing so many down for a book? Everything is worthy of a photograph. There’s probably a fair amount of photographs of trees in the book, so I guess I love trees – but who doesn’t?! As I move through my life, I see things and I’ll photograph them because they catch my eye.

If you walk around with me, then I would talk about things that I’m seeing, not necessarily even photographing them, but I will be pointing out things to you. I see many things that I think would make a fascinating picture, and I don’t always take a photograph of it. You’ve been at the centre of New York counterculture for a long time. How have you seen the scenes evolve over time? There’s no denying that New York is a city that attracts people from all over the place: tourists, artists, old people, young people, immigrants, people looking for work.

• There’s a lot of aspects to New York that you might not see if you’re here for a short visit.
• Of course, there is always a lot happening.
• A lot of people talk about gentrification, but I think that is something that is kind of international.
• The core of New York is that it is a city where people live and where people have to work hard, and those people are still here.

You see those people every day on the subway, in the street. How has gentrification affected the art scene? There are still a lot of young artists here working and doing things – some of them are seen and some of them are not seen. There’s still plenty of experimental music, people putting out zines.

A lot of the artists have moved further out from the centre of New York because of gentrification, but they’re still here. I can’t say that I’m so in touch with that – I know of things happening, but I never really go out looking for the newest shit that’s going on. I just follow my own path and things that I happen to walk into.

Ari Marcopoulos’ Zines is available to purchase at (£65) : Ari Marcopoulos: “Everything is worthy of a photograph”

Can anyone make a zine?

A zine, pronounced ‘zeen’ (just like the end of the word magazine), is a homemade publication. There are no set-in-stone rules for making zines. A zine can be about anything you’re interested in.

Do people still publish zines?

Zines are defined as do-it-yourself publications. Those who create them are often called zinesters, Zine content varies, and Stephen Duncombe’s taxonomy of zines is useful for understanding the range of subject matter: there are fanzines, political zines, personal zines (sometimes referred to as perzines ), identity zines, religious zines, work zines, and zines about health, sex, travel, comics, literature, and art.

What distinguishes zines in general is the personal nature of the content, whether the subject matter be diaristic or political. The most common definition of a zine is a self-published, black-and-white photocopied booklet. The number of copies is usually determined by the resources available. Historically, zines have been made by hand—the pages typed, drawn, written, collaged, glued, and taped—and then reproduced on a photocopier.

Today, most zines are still made by hand but may be scanned and printed at home. Some zinesters now make zines via desktop publishing while many continue to work in analog environments. Other zinesters work in both digital and analog environments. Pre-Internet, people exchanged zines via the postal service.

More recently, zinesters sell or trade them in person at zine fairs or sell them through “distros” (distributors) in stores or online. The more they cost to make, the higher the sale price. In the 1980s and 1990s, zinesters would make “free” copies at work or go to “Kinko’s” to copy in black and white cheaply.

Zinesters are more likely to print at home and print in color. They are more likely to sell their zines than to just trade. Kinko’s is no longer, but FedEx and Staples are destinations for photocopying. Stephen Duncombe, Notes from the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture, 2nd ed.

Can a zine be about anything?

While there is no standard definition for a zine (pronounced “zeen”), it is typically described as a self-published, handmade, or small press booklet that is photocopied and distributed in relatively small quantities for the purpose of sharing ideas, experiences, and perspectives, often of historically marginalized or underrepresented subcultures and social movements.

Short for fanzine, zines can encompass a variety of subjects such as music, cooking, gardening, politics, tv shows, travel, personal journals, or anything of interest to the zinester (the person who made the zine). Zines can be filled with drawings, photos, poetry, prose, interviews, comics—unedited viewpoints and personal experiences of the zinester—and are most often photocopied, folded, and stapled.

Due to the do-it-yourself (DIY) nature of zines, they are not scholarly or peer reviewed, nor are they part of the mainstream publishing industry. In this guide you can learn about the history of zines, how to research zines, where to find zines in your community and other libraries, and how to make your own zine.

What is the main rule of a zine?

Good question. tricky answer. The word zine has come to represent a range of small-batch, DIY, “magazine-like” publications in terms of form and content. ​ For the purposes of Milwaukee Zine Festival, we like to think of zines in the ways described below. pronounced “zeen” ZINE (n): A zine is a self-published, non-commercial print-work that is typically produced in small, limited batches. Zines are created and bound in many DIY ways, but traditionally editions are easily reproduced—often by crafting an original “master flat,” and then photocopying, folding, and stapling the pages into simple pamphlets.

1. Zines may also be sewn, taped, glued—or even exist in unbound and other non-folio formats.
2. The main rule is that there are no rules! ​ People who create zines are likely to be more motivated by self-expression and artistic passion than they are by profit: zines are usually inexpensive and sometimes distributed for free or in trade for other zines, goods, and services.

The history of zines is vast and fascinating: read more about it here, ​ Zines can touch on a variety of topics from music and art, to politics, sexuality, humor and personal memoir. Their content may be written, drawn, printed, collaged, or any other form of combining words and imagery—a zine’s structure may be narrative, journalistic, comic-like, or completely abstract.

• Why zines matter: Culturally and historically, zines have served as a powerful outlet for content considered to be too niche, risqué, or outside of the mainstream, in terms of more traditional/commercial forms of publication.
• A zine can be produced with the simplest of tools, and easily distributed low-to-the ground, outside capitalistic or potentially oppressive systems: amongst friends; in local gathering places or homes; at fests designed to celebrate them! Zines provide a safe, independent platform of expression for underrepresented and marginalized voices: Black, Indigenous & People of Color, young people, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ(+) community, persecuted religious groups, and people with limited economic resources.

Essentially, zines can be a little hard to define—but that’s what makes them great: they’re a glorious mash-up of art, letters, story and emotion; just like the brains, hands and hearts of those who produce them. Their small, simple format belies their unique ability to speak creatively for even the softest voices.

Can a zine be just pictures?

What is a photo zine? – A photo zine is a self-made, printed issue built of photos and captions. The term comes from the word “magazine”, as zines follow the style of magazines with headings, text, and illustrations put on a grid. An important feature of a photo zine is visual storytelling,

• On its pages, images dominate the text and form a sequence that tells a story.
• Learn more about this technique in our article A Brief Guide on Sequential Storytelling,
• Mini zines in the MUC Zine Library, Munich Source: @munichzinelibrary There are no rules for creating photo zines; you could even say that’s their main strength.

Therefore, zine-creating often becomes an outlet for photographers who become hostages of their customers’ needs and market trends. Photo zines have no commercial purpose and are designed to spread bold artistic concepts. However, since the circulation of such issues is often minimal, some of them become valuable collectible items.

How many pages is a zine?

First Off, What is a Zine? – Zine publications are a great format for anyone to share their thoughts, experiences, photos, artwork or interests, get them in front of an appreciative public and connect with other people with similar interests. If you are just learning about zines, they are small-circulation independent publications with an endless list of themes from photography to flowers and from comics to science fiction. They cover niche subculture topics, generally outside of the mainstream and appeal to an alternative public.

Zines are artistic, personal, political, cultural or experimental. You may have heard the word “fanzine” which is a non-official publication produced by ‘fans” of a cultural genre (art, music, film, literature). ​Size tends to vary, but the most standard sizes are 8.5″ x 11″, 6″ x 9″ or 5.5″ x 8.5″ folded and stapled.

Dimensions may be customized to suit your purpose, so let your creativity guide you! Page count varies from as few as 8 pages and up. The traditional binding process for zine printing is saddle stitching, which can accommodate a publication of up to 92 pages.

Do zines have writing?

If you’ve never heard of a zine, fret not, you’re in the right place. I’ve made a bunch of zines and contributed to friends’ zines and, chances are, you may have made one too even if you didn’t know that’s what they were called. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned creator, zines are a great way to publish your own art, poems, writing, musings, and anything else you want to express—without needing anyone else’s permission to do so.

Why is it called zine?

Zines can be difficult to define. The word “zine” is a shortened form of the term fanzine, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fanzines emerged as early as the 1930s among fans of science fiction. Zines also have roots in the informal, underground publications that focused on social and political activism in the ’60s.

• By the ’70s, zines were popular on the punk rock circuit.
• In the ’90s, the feminist punk scene propelled the medium and included such artists as Kathleen Hanna, who produced riot grrrl out of Olympia, Washington.
• A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images.

More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier. A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000.

Do zine artists get paid?

While most zine creators regard their publications as a labor of love, others also make money from them. We take an honest and helpful look at how to increase your chances of making a profit from your zine – In today’s digital age, zines continue to thrive as a unique form of self-expression and self-publishing. These small, independently produced publications offer a platform for creators to share their work, ideas, and passions with like-minded individuals.

• With the rise of zine culture, we get an increasing number of questions from independent creators who are curious about the potential to make money from their zines.
• In this post guide, we explore the various aspects of zine-making, the advantages of printing with an offset printer, choosing a zine topic, the costs involved, and ultimately, the potential for generating income from your zines.

Although, in the interests of honesty and transparency, we know from our long experience that the idea of making anything like a living from selling your zine is unrealistic. Not impossible, but so unlikely that you may as well forget about it. There are easier ways to make money! Publishing a zine will always be primarily a passion project.

1. However, with the right approach, you can make your zine profitable; at least enough so that it pays for itself in terms of production and distribution costs; and if you’re really smart, maybe a little side income, too.
2. Now we’ve calibrated our expectations, let’s dive in! A zine, which is short for a magazine, is a small, self-published, and often non-commercial publication that usually focuses on a specific topic or theme.

Zines can encompass a wide range of formats, including short stories, essays, tracts, poetry, photography, or artwork. They are often handmade, or printed in limited quantities, and distributed at a low cost or for free. By nature and definition, they have a small circulation – usually only a few hundred copies of each issue, although the most successful can run to a few thousand – and focus on a single, niche topic.

Zines have a long history in the DIY (do-it-yourself) culture, with roots in punk rock, political activism, and underground art scenes. The DIY ethos of zine-making emphasizes accessibility, affordability, and creative freedom, making it a popular choice for independent artists, writers, commentators, and activists who want to share their work outside the mainstream publishing industry.

While the early zines were often hand written and then copied using an old-fashioned mimeograph (or stencil copying machine) with a hand-driven crank handle, most successful zine publishers now get their copies professionally printed. A cheap option is always digital printing, especially for very short or occasional runs; while offset printing is the most efficient choice for longer runs or zines which need higher quality artwork reproduction.

Can you make money from zines?

Zines allow you to grow an audience online and offline and start making money from your work. – While sharing your illustrations or your poems with the world isn’t necessary to a fulfilling creative practice, it’s important to a lot of people (us included!).

If you have big creative dreams, growing an audience (that already buys your work!) can make you more desirable to traditional publishers, curators, and other brands because you are essentially guaranteeing sales and a larger audience for them. Growing an audience takes time and consistency. But once you have your zine, you can start growing your audience both online and offline.

If you already have a portfolio website, blog, or email list, you can add a storefront integration and sell copies of your zines directly to the people who already visit your website. Etsy is a huge online marketplace for makers, and zines fit in perfectly.

You can set up an Etsy store and people all over the world can search to find your listings. Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr are platforms that have a rich zine culture. Share your zines in those communities and make connections with other people who share similar work. Because they are physical books, independent bookstores, card stores, boutiques, and other specialty shops can sell your zines, too.

They will likely do a consignment set up with you, but some bookstores will purchase your zines wholesale. Zine distributors are another option to increase your readership. And check your local library, they might also have a small-press section and would be interested in having your zine on the shelves.

Etsy Portfolio website Social media Email list

Offline selling and audience growth options:

Specialty shops Bookstores Zine fests Libraries

Do zines need copyright?

Favorite copyright/fair use statements in zines I’m posting this to the zine libraries site because I want people to contribute to it, but I should also put out there that the front matter is not necessarily representative of all zine librarians everywhere, zine librarians who add their favorite intellectual property claims and disclaims from zines, or even of myself tomorrow.

That said, here goes: Unless they say otherwise, zines are protected by copyright. Sometimes even when a zine creator declares a zine anti-copyright, you might err on the side of protecting their privacy, e.g., if the zine was made in the 1990s before a lot of people understood what sharing would look like in the digital context.

Many in the zine community prefer to consider kindness and consent, rather than strict legality. When deciding what to excerpt or share in any way, think about if it was your zine. How might you wish someone to share or protect your vulnerable, intimate content? We’re not saying never quote or never cite from zines.

• We want you to.
• Just be thoughtful about it.
• We recommend you don’t digitize first and ask questions later.
• A bunch of zines are, meaning the creators are impossible to find.
• You still have to try.
• I won’t say anything more about digitization because,
• Anyway, zine digitization isn’t the point of this; it just can’t be avoided when you’re talking about copyright.

In this case, I’m merely wanting to celebrate cute and clever statements zine librarians have found in zines.

“Copylefted because everyone owns words and I trust people to give credit” Libel #18: The Europe Poems by Jenna DeLorey, 1998? (postmark “Reproducing/reprinting all or any part of this zine without prior consent will be considered utterly disrespectful and generally uncool.” Aqsa Zine #4 Ancestors + Descendents “All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electric, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. unless its something you’re just doing because you love it and not for any commercial gain. then you can use a little part. you can always write me if you have questions. plus I’d love to know what you are doing!” Cindy Crabb. The Encyclopedia of Doris: Stories, Essays and Interviews, Doris Press.2011. “Anti-copyright: Going Homo may be reprinted at will for non-profit purposes, except in the case of individual articles, grafix, and other contributions copy-righted by their creators or previous publishers. It would be nice, tho, if you mentioned you found it in Going Homo.” Going Homo #3 “permission for reprinting with proper credit given is happily granted as long is it’s not for jive-ass corporate greed bullshit. if you have to ask about that part, you probably are. go to hell.” Gumption no.3.1995? “All material herein Is owned by Its respective creators. So don’t steal — ask politely. And remember to always give credit where credit Is due.” Queer Nasty #5. “No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission by Julia. You may, however, attempt to persuade/woo her with cookies, beer, or high school handjobs.” Julia Wertz. The Fart Party #1, 2006. “No part of this zine may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electric, recording or otherwise without the prior permission from its creator. Unless you’re just printing it for funzies & not for commercial gain. \_(“/)_/ ” (ascii art reproduced as best I could) Infinity Dots. Take Two: Escape from the Bayou, 2016. Copyrights are silly, and we can’t keep you from stealing our shit, but maybe please don’t? Brook and Felicia, The Most Important Zine of the Day, 2014 Published by Mutya Inc.©. And if you even dare copy the stuff in this issue for your own purposes and say it came from your own lips, be prepared to stay home a lot, lest I sick my headhunters on you! Sabrina. Bamboo Girl #1.1995.c. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Dead Inside #1.2016 Share it. Copy it. Paste it. Cut it. Destroy it. Remake it. Do whatever the fuck you want. Don’t do it for cash. Credit me. Tell me about it. Gravestones/Church Signs by Moose Lane.2016ish. if you steal this i’ll seriously kill you. Scrappy J.: A Story About Fighting by Cassie J. Sneider, 2008. @narchopyright – steal and give credit No State Solution by rozele, 2003 (sloppyright) Lol rights reserved. Any part of this zine: do whatever without prior permission. Undoing Sex: Against Sexual Optimism by Mynwych Hyrryr, July 2012. Copyrights are for little boy businessmen. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” No Apology #1 by Heidi. Early 1990s? All errors © Norman Shamas the zine also contains a CC license, which apparently applies only to non-errata A Brief Introduction to Fosta-Sesta by Norman, October 2018. Feel free to swipe whatever you want from here, with polite attribution, of course. Or make a hundred copies and leave them in the waiting room at your doctor/midwives’ office. Self Defense for Pregnant Ladies by Kelly Wooten, 2012. Everything in this collection was created by Erika Moen. Do not steal. Don’t be a dick. c 2007 White Stripes screenshot used w/out permission (p.13) DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary #1 by Erika Moen, 2007 Please do not reproduce this zine in any way, shape, or form. No photocopying, scanning, uploading, emailing, etc. Please do not catalog and/or otherwise add to a library collection. This is for your eyes only.2020 Used with love, but without permission. It is time to let go of the ego and to learn. Static is copyright free, and we encourage you to reproduce at will. We only ask that you are respectful enough to inform us of any use. Please request permission for use of drawings by Amy Davis or Danielle Frohlich. Other than that, steal away, you little pirates. Static #1 by Nono and Squeaky, Summer 1996 This zine collects work building a mad tarot deck. The collages in it are scavenged from folders, magazines, online collections, and infringe on multiple people’s copyright. Anti-Copyright/Copyleft (well, it would be hypocritical for it to be anything else, right lol) A Mad Tarot by Lilith, 2021 all rights NOT reserved. any part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any forms or by any means–electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise–without the prior written permission of the producers. Hourglass by Ally Meyer, 2023

Please add yours, either right in the post, or in the comments. : Favorite copyright/fair use statements in zines

Do zines have to be small?

Decide what format your zine is going to be – Zines can take all kinds of forms, some easier than others to make. There are stitch-bound zines, perfect-bound zines, accordion zines, tiny zines that come in matchboxes, large poster-sized zines that unfurl, and digital, online-only zines. If you decide you want to make an eight-page mini zine, all you need to do is start with one page of printer paper. Following the diagram above, fold it into eight rectangles and cut a horizontal slit down the center of the page between the four innermost rectangles.

• Each little rectangle on one side of the paper will be one page.
• If you’re feeling ambitious, you can decorate the other side so that once people are done reading, they can unfold the zine into a poster.
• For full folding instructions, check out this handy dandy video,
• If you want to make a stapled zine, that means you will be using printer paper folded in half (so that the left and right sides touch) to make a booklet.

More info on how to format, print, and staple those below!

How much are zines usually?

Guide to starting your own zine Are you ready to do a zine? This is probably the most important question you should ask yourself when you’re considering doing a zine – are you really ready to do one? Doing a zine can take up a lot of your time and become a big responsibility.

1. There’s no reason that you should have to do a whole zine – if you aren’t sure you can handle a zine on your own, consider maybe contributing to zines that you like or getting a couple friends to do one with you.
2. Also, just because anyone can do a zine doesn’t mean they should.
3. Not everyone is suited to the kind of work that goes into zines, and there’s a lot of forms of creativity that just don’t translate well into a zine.

That said, if you have a lot of ideas and you think this is the way you want to express them, here’s how to do it! Content What kind of stuff will be in your zine? Obviously, before you start actually making up pages you need to have some idea what you’re going to put on them.

• Start collecting clipped stuff, pictures, notes on things you want to write.
• Your zine can be about any subject you want (or all the subjects you want).
• Once you’ve decided what you’re going to put in your zine, start working on it – it’s a lot easier to do a zine with a bunch of work you’ve already finished than to try and do one from scratch.

Size and format Once you’ve decided what you’re going to put in your zine, you need to decide what it’s going to look like – what size, and what format you’ll do it in. There are lots of formats to do a zine in. As you order zines, you’ll see that some people use “nicer” printing methods – better paper, or color.

But for a first zine, your best bet is photo-coping. It’s easy, you can make up copies as you need them (instead of having them all sit in piles in your closet) and the art looks clean because of the white paper. Half-size zines like this look nice, especially if they’re stapled properly. You also can experiment with colored paper for the whole thing or the cover, or even an insert.

The two bad things about photocopying: Collating (putting the Xeroxed pages in order) can be a real pain (a zine I worked on once had 24 full-size pages, and we made 500 copies – it took FOREVER to put them together), and if you have a lot of pages it can get very expensive.

• The biggest advantage is that you can put out a zine like this with practically no money – just get a few copies together at a time, after you get an order with money in it.
• When you’re copying your pages, you can do almost any size zine – the folded-in-half size is pretty much the standard.
• You can also do full pages and just staple them together, or even do the pages on 11″ x 17″, fold them in half and staple, and voila! a zine that looks printed.

Other variations I’ve seen: legal-size Xeroxes folded in half (makes a squarish zine) and pages that have been folded in quarters and even sixths, stapled and trimmed to make mini-zines. Remember that the size page you use will affect the number of pages in your zine – if you do a half-size zine, every double-sided copy = 4 zine pages, so you have to have a page count that you can divide by four (8, 16, 24, etc.).

Plan on starting small – start off with an issue with a really low page count to save money, and if you get enough to put out future issues, then start adding pages. One girl I know does incredibly tiny Xeroxed zines, but she also does a new one every time she has something new to say or show, whether it’s a week later or a month.

A zine doesn’t have to be big to be good, that’s for sure. Layout Once you’ve decided what’s going into the zine, you can start worrying about making up your pages. You don’t have to make the pages in the correct order, but you do need to make them the correct size.

Make up a bunch of “flats” (base pages you glue everything up on) – you can use any kind of paper for this. (If you are doing a full-size zine you might want to consider a heavy paper, like card stock, for the base.) Make the pages the size of your zine pages – if it’s a half-size zine just cut 8-1/2″ x 11″ paper in half, and so on.

Number the pages on the back or right on the flats if you want page numbers in your zine. When that’s all done, you can paste up anything you want onto the pages. (Keep in mind that a Xerox machine will cut off about 1/8-1/4″ on the edges, so don’t put anything important too near the sides.) Next figure out how many pages you’re going to have, and start working out what you want to put on each page.

If your zine is full size, it’s pretty simple, but if it’s a half-sized zine, you’re going to have to lay them out and copy them in the right order for them to come out the way you want. The easiest way to do this is to make up a blank zine, the length that yours is going to be. Fold the pages in half and make it the same size as yours.

Go from front to back like you’re reading it, and number the pages as you go. You can also make notes on what you want to put on each page. When you’re finished making up all your individual pages, you can take it apart, and just glue the flats down on the blank numbered pages wherever you want them to go.

Now you have a double-sided original, which will make it easier to remember how to Xerox them. The stuff on the pages Text The text (writing) in your zine can be done any way you want – from handwritten to nicely typeset. Handwriting is an option if your handwriting is VERY legible (ask someone else if you aren’t sure how legible it is) and you use a good black pen.

Don’t use colored pens, and never use a ball-point. Typing on anything from an old manual typewriter to some spiffy new electronic one will always work. Try marking the outline of the area you want filled with type in pencil on a regular size sheet of paper, and then type directly on it, following the outline.

• Then erase the pencil, cut it out and paste down.
• And if you have access to a desktop computer or even a good word processor (if you don’t know anyone with one, try school) you can actually typeset stuff for your zine.
• Art As far as art goes, anything that’s black and white (even if the “white” part is grayish or yellowed), like drawings or stuff you’ve cut out of magazines, will usually come out just fine.

You can photocopy most colors, too – try different things out. And you can copy almost anything to make a background pattern – I’ve put half my clothes on a copying machine at one time or another. Experiment! One of the big advantages to photocopying is that you can reproduce so many things with no extra cost or effort.

1. Photos Photographs should be black and white, although most color pictures will reproduce okay.
2. Again, you’ll have to experiment.
3. They should be as focused and clear as possible.
4. You can either paste the actual photo into place if it’s the right size, or you can Xerox it and paste the Xerox into your page.

If you want them to really look like photos, you can get a “half-tone” made. A half-tone makes a “continuous-tone image” (like a photo or pencil drawing, things with grays in them) into a black-and-white dot pattern that looks like a photo, but actually isn’t.

If you look closely at any (black and white) photo in a newspaper, you’ll see that they are really made up of a lot of little dots. Halftones should be pretty easy for you to get, but they usually aren’t cheap. The best thing would be to look in the yellow pages – try printers, graphics, maybe advertising production if they have it.

Any place that says it has “full production services” is a very likely bet. Spend an afternoon calling them up and asking if they do halftones. Most of them will say no, but in case you find a lot, ask them a test price – ask them how much, say, a 8″ x 10″ 85-line-screen halftone would cost.

• Then of course pick the cheapest and closest place you found.
• Or if a place seemed really friendly or helpful, it might be worth a little extra to go there.
• An 85-line-screen means that the piece of equipment they use to make the half-tone has 85 lines per inch – there’s actually 85 rows of dots in each inch of the screen.) But when Xeroxing, you can use a finer or a coarser screen – a finer screen would look more like a photo, but it might not reproduce as well.

If you wanted a big dot effect you could get one done on a coarser screen, they usually go down to 45-line screens at most places. Ask them to show you some examples. Also, if you have access to someone’s computer with a scanner, you can scan in the photos and print out a half-tone.

Not quite as perfect, but a lot cheaper! Pasting up pages Once you’ve got all your contents organized and ready to be put together, start pasting up the pages (gluing everything down) one at a time. Don’t feel rushed, you can do it in fits and starts for as long as you want – you’re not on a deadline here.

You can use scissors to cut things out, or move up to x-acto knives (special knives for doing crafts and things – you’ve probably seen one before, all office supply stores have them). I personally recommend the “X-ACTO gripster”, which has a rubber coating on the part you hold.

1. They’re much cooler.
2. When you cut things with an x-acto, put the paper you’re cutting on top of a piece of cardboard or something similar.
3. It keeps you from cutting up the tabletop, and also makes the cutting much easier.
4. Paste things down with glue sticks (you can get these from any office supply also – I recommend the purple-tinted UHU glue stick, it’s my favorite), not a regular glue like Elmer’s or something – those wet glues will make the paper buckle up really bad.

Make sure you give whatever you’re gluing down a good coat or it might fall off when it dries! Once you’ve put something down on your flat you can wiggle it around and even peel it back up if you have to, but only for about the first 10 seconds. Be careful! Make sure you’re putting things where you want them.

Be neat or be sloppy – look at other zines to get inspired. When you’ve finished up the individual pages, you need to get them ready to copy. If your zine is full-sized, all you have to do is put them in order. If it’s half-sized (or some other wacky size), you’re going to have to make originals that are the same size as the paper you’re copying them onto, and in the correct order.

Follow the directions under “LAYOUT” to make up your originals. Printing (i.e. photocopying) Once your originals are completely finished, you can go get your double-sided copies made. (If you do not have double sided originals, be very clear when placing your order if you don’t do the copies yourself.) Do as many as you think you’ll need, but don’t feel like you have to make too many.

You can always get more done. Plus, it’s easier to collate smaller numbers at a time. Once you’ve got your copies back, you need to collate them (put them in order), and fasten them somehow. You can staple them together, leave the pages loose but folded in the right order, punch holes in the center and tie them together – or come up with something entirely new.

(A lot of people ask how you staple a big zine right in the center – the secret is a long-reach stapler that is at least 12″ long. A lot of copy shops have one available for people to use, and if you’re going to be doing a lot of zines, you can find them at any big office supply place.) All done? Voila! You are a proud parent.

Finance – budgeting your zine I’d say that money is a consideration for almost everyone doing zines (unless you’re independently wealthy or you work at a Kinko’s). With your zine do you expect to: (A) lose money; (B) break even; or, (C) make a little money? If you expect to make a little money, well, think again.

If you expect to lose money (not much of course), good for you. I lose money on most of my projects. But I consider the non-financial rewards to be more than worth it. (What are they, you ask? Well, mail, other zines, positive feedback, new friends, stuff like that.) And if you want to break even, well, you’ve got a really good chance! You need to figure out a balance between your cost and your price – you don’t want to charge too much, but you don’t want to go totally broke either.

1. Your cost will obviously depend on the number of pages in your zine.
2. Your price should be as low as you can afford, and will depend on your distribution.
3. Eep in mind that $1 is a standard zine price – if you’re charging $3 (even if that’s your cost), a lot of people simply won’t risk $3 on something they’ve never seen before.

Keep your zine small and keep the price low. For example, a typical half-size zine, at 20 pages (5 double-sided Xeroxes) will cost you 65¢ at Kinko’s (if you find a cheaper place, use it!!) If you charge $1 for it, you’ll make a little money when you sell it in person, break even if you sell it in a store, and lose a little bit when you mail it.

It should come out about even. If your zine’s a little bigger, you might want to put $1 on the cover, and charge $1 + postage by mail. Like I said, sell it for as little as you possibly can – and when pricing it you should also take into consideration how many you plan on doing. Losing 25¢ each on 50 copies is a few day’s lunch money.

But 25¢ each on hundreds of copies could break you for sure. Distribution There are several ways to get a zine out into the world, including: giving out/selling copies yourself (at shows or school or whatever); doing mail-order yourself; having other mail-order/distribution places handle copies; and, selling it in stores.

Distributing it yourself involves two possibilities, doing it in person or through the mail. In person you have the most options, you can sell it or give it away, and even sell it to some people and give it to others. Doing mail-order yourself is the most popular approach by far – you need to figure out a price that will include postage and then get exposure for your zine through ads and reviews.

(You can either charge the cover price, or add extra for shipping. A lot of zines will make it on one 32-cent stamp, others need 55-cents postage. Take a copy, or a blank one of the same weight, down to the post office and find out.) Selling directly to stores (or more likely, putting on consignment) is also an option.

Any store that you or a friend can get to (on a regular basis) is a good place to try and put copies on consignment. You may have to negotiate the amount with each store individually, but you should get 60-75% of the cover price. Don’t take less than 50%, ever. You’ll have to make up a consignment slip and have it signed by someone with authority, unless they have one already.

Usually you set a time limit on the consignment, and at the end of that time, they have to give you money for all the copies they don’t have and give you back whatever’s left. But you can work this out depending on your relationship with the store. There’s lots of combinations of this depending on what you can afford and how into it you are.

1. You could give it away locally in stores or at shows, but charge for it by mail.
2. Or only do it by mail.
3. Do whatever you feel comfortable with.
4. Getting exposure If you’re selling your zine by mail, there are two ways to get people to order: through ads and through reviews.
5. Ads are always good.
6. A lot of smaller zines will trade ads for free, and classified ads in bigger zines can get a really good response.

Reviews are very important – not only can you get orders from them, but good reviews will help you get ads, distributors and encourage people to pick your zine up if they see it somewhere. Other places you send copies to will be determined by the content of your zine.

• Judge for yourself whether you think the readers of a particular publication would be likely to like your zine.
• When sending a review copy, it’s a MUST to attach/enclose a note which clearly states your name, the name of the zine, your address, and mail-order price of the zine.
• Trade copies with other small zines like yours, especially if they list other zine addresses.

(And list addresses of zines you like in return.) Whatever you decide to do, remember that this is supposed to be FUN. If you start getting burnt out, or sick of doing zines, then stop. Fill your orders, but don’t feel like you have to keep putting out new issues.

What are the benefits of making a zine?

Explore Zines! – I encourage parents and anyone who spends time with teens to incorporate zine-making into your activities. A quick search for “zine workshops near me” can get you started, or search for classes available at holiday and vacation locations.

What is the power of zines?

A brief history of zines – In 1776, an English-born American political activist, philosopher and revolutionary political theorist named Thomas Paine self-published a pamphlet titled Common Sense, Promoting ideas that contributed to the American War of Independence, Paine’s pamphlet is now considered to be the earliest example of a zine. Fire!! ( Source ) The first queer zine, Vice Versa: America’s Gayest Magazine, was created in 1947 by Edythe Eyde (also known as Lisa Ben, an anagram of “lesbian”). The young secretary typed, copied, mailed and hand-delivered 9 carbon-paper issues of this free publication. The Comet ( Source ) Folk music, rock and roll, underground comics and Star Trek were common themes for zines throughout the 50’s and 60’s. In 1966, a young science fiction fan and pioneering rock critic named Paul S. Williams made a zine called Crawdaddy, This zine was so popular that it became an official music magazine with rivals such as Rolling Stone and Creem, Crawdaddy debut issue ( Source ) In 1970, Xerox released a photocopier that could print on both sides of a sheet of paper, which was soon followed by colour copiers and automatic feeders. Widely available throughout the 70’s and 80’s, copy shops around the world became creative hubs of the punk scene, which exported zine culture beyond the US. Bored Stiff, 48 Thrills, Punk, and Flipside ( Source ) Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images ( Source ) In the 1990’s, a huge sweep of political zines spreading the feminist manifesto from the punk perspective emerged from the Riot Grrrl movement, Riot Grrrl ( Source ) Queercore ( Source ) Zines have remained a staple of punk culture, artist promotion, and the DIY movement, but by the time we all had tiny supercomputers in our pockets, the medium had faded into the background. The pervasiveness of the internet and digital culture has made this DIY print medium even more powerful than it was throughout the 20th century – and it’s not just another nostalgia thing.

1. As many of us battle an isolating addiction to the meaningless scroll, there’s something soothing and invigorating to be found in the tangibility of a zine.
2. While many zinesters make digital version of their work available online, I feel that digital zines don’t quite give us the same reprieve that we get from holding a work of art in our hands.

Amid the climate crisis, trans rights and Black Lives Matter movements, Zine culture is making a comeback. This publishing medium offers a unique and valuable form of self-expression, community-building and activism that isn’t subject to the co-optation and algorithmic control of multi-billion dollar corporations.