• Contents

• What is a Zine?
• Why Make a Zine?
• Zine Formats & Mediums
• Make your own!
• Zine Ideas
• Resources

Zines (pronounced like 'zeen') are independently published magazines or booklets with small circulations that are created to express the vlews of the publisher. They can utilize any number of mediums and formats, and can cover any subject imaginable. If you can say it visually, you can say it in a zine! Zines became popular in the 1930s as a method by which science fiction fans would share stories and writings. They then saw a resurgence in the 70s & 80s in the beat, hippie, and punk countculture movements. Zines have remained popular with the counterculture since, and their cheap, DIY spirit lasts today, making them inherently anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist vehicles for sharing knowledge, ideas, and art.

You can share with others in a meaningful, creative, and impacful way. The expression of thoughts and feelings through a visual medium is a beautiful thing, and is sometimes the only option you have to express those ~ abstract ~ thoughts deep in your psyche!

There is a wide-ranging community of artists that make zines. Photographers, painters, illustrators, writers all use zines to share and display their work... and a lot of them are down to trade! (thats where we come in)

Zines are CHEAP! If you have a piece of paper and pen, you can make a zine. Zines are an art form that exists outside of the boring and exploitative framework of the "fine art" scene. The cheap nature of zines make them effective vehicles for sharing ideas and information outside of the current system. Zines are protest!

Now that we've seen how to make a zine, lets pick a topic! Zines can be about anything at all, or nothing in particular. Write down your entire political manifesto, or abstractly express your emotional state using several shades of purple. There's no wrong way to make a zine. Feel free to use these prompt suggestions here, or come up with a topic of your own!

• A comic book story that takes place entirely in a bathtub.
• A portfolio of all the wallpaper designs you would make if you were a wallpaper designer.
• Illustrate your favorite birds and give them names, like Terry the Eastern Towpee.
• An illustrated list of everything on your desk
• A poem for your mother
• The world is your clam!

Once you've picked a topic, pick a format. See the formats listed above, or try something new!

Choose a medium! Draw your thoughts, or write your feelings! For even more fun you can mix mediums-- some things benefit from being illustrated, some things benefite being written.

Start Zine-ing!!!

• The Creative Independent's How to Make a Zine