⟡˙⋆making zines for the first time⋆˙⟡
I turned to making zines after going through a touch of the creative burnout. Making my comic WALL FLOWERS and editing my book had become this endless quest for better, better, better (still ongoing, getting close). That's why making zines felt like such a breath of fresh air.
My first zine was super simple. Actually, it’s a mini zine made out of a single folded sheet of paper. A little guy. It’s about Breaking Bad.
I used crayons and markers and sticky notes for this one, and then I mosied over to my local Staples and scanned and printed a bunch of them to give to my friends. It was really good for my soul to document Walter White’s descent with his BFF, Jesse xoxo
In a world where everything online feels polished and filtered, there's something rebellious about making something physical and messy just because you want to. No algorithm decided it was worth seeing. It makes me feel like I’m sketching in my sketchbook, but with more “structure”, or “theme”, I guess.
A brief history of the zine
Zines have been around longer than the ‘gram or the ‘tok. They started in the 1930s when sci-fi fans made "fanzines" to share stories without needing publishers. Over the decades, zines became tools for rebellion. Punk rockers used them to spread underground music news in the 70s-80s, and young feminists created Riot Grrrl zines in the 90s to talk about everything from sexism to music.
The word ‘zine‘ is short for ‘magazine’, though zines aren’t trying to sell you something, nothing in the form of ads, anyway. Where traditional magazines run with adspace, zines run with spite.
What can you put in a zine?
Drawings / Comics
Poetry
Collages
Cool information
Uncool information
Movie or book reviews
Your manifesto
Recipes
Lists that make you happy
Lists that make you angry
Inside jokes
Breaking Bad
Zero rules. Anything goes. I’m keeping a little inspo journal that I jot ideas down or tape post-it notes inside.
Making and sharing zines has become one of my favorite creative outlets. I love handing them out to friends or leaving them in coffee shops. I'm still learning with each one I make, but that's part of the fun.
If you're curious about exploring zines further, check out archives like the Barnard Zine Library where you can browse collections dating back to the 70s. I like The Creative Independent, and here’s a whole archive of other zines, to get your mind going.
And if you make zines too, I'd love to trade! Drop me a message and we can swap our little creations.*