I love this so much. I've been reading your zine posts and feeling envious because I was thinking that zines came on the scene in the 90s and I was too old/otherwise occupied to participate. Then today I Googled when they started and saw they've been around forever. I think I did some zine things very long ago: in 8th grade I put out a few issues of a "magazine" I called DASH - for Dark Shadows, that old TV show that was new then & all my friends raved about. I'd write by hand on notebook paper and make a construction-paper cover - I can see green in my mind. I'd duplicate it by hand, only two or three times. In college (1977) I started what I called a feminist literary magazine - typed on an old Selectric and professionally printed. Don't know if that counts as a zine. I only did two issues then got bored. A few years later I did a newsletter, also professionally printed because by then we owned a press, for our Peace Center. It might have been a zine if I'd known anything about that concept then. I mean, I might have reformatted it so it looked like a zine. That's all. I'd always had a thing for creating publications, but even with the press downstairs, I stopped writing & never did anything else with it. Your posts have awakened that desire. :-)
I’ve recently felt like I’m “too old” to start a zine. I’m Gen-x (55) and feel like I should have done it in my 20s, then I told myself I don’t need to restrict myself! I can make a zine if I want darn it. I’ll make one this month.
I love that you made a zine about Dark Shadows!! My mom loved that show when I was little.
I started when I was 11. I am now 44. There is never such thing as too late to make a zine! My oldest student is 87 and she makes "family secrets" zines!
Yes! It would have been fun to create zines in our 20s, but now we can bring all the vision and experience we've accumulated over the years. I'd love to see what you produce, so I hope you'll check back.
That's awesome! And yes, part of our Biggest Little Zine Fair project is redistributing unsold zines to libraries & bookstores & free zine libraries in community centers. :)
I have been wanting to make a zine for a long time and have yet to do it. I don’t know what I want the topic main idea to be. I have thoughts but I don’t know. I think I keep putting it off.
This is your reminder to stop putting it off! :) What helped me with the half ideas was just starting. I pull up a canva file and start putting things where I think they might one day go. It's not the most elegant system since I often end up scratching it and starting over, but it builds momentum in me. I also keep a notepad file of anything that maybe-might-be a topic for me one day. :) Even just a doodle zine would be dope!
I just stumbled across this and now I'm really excited to finally make a zine. The part that really got me was when you described it as "Achingly human." I love that so much
Hi Ra, Im just discovering your substack and realizing that my graduation with a degree in criminal justice (I focused my time on restorative justice and prison reform) and your release from prison fall around the same time.
Only recently have I discovered my love for zines thanks to TTRPGs like Mothership & MörkBorg, but thank you for the encouragement to make my own. I want to make things people love and resonate with. Things that change perspectives, encourage creativity, generate emotions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your positivity, and resilience. I dont know that my zines would be your favored genre, but when I assemble one, you'll be one of the first to know.
Congrats on that degree! We need lots more of that education in the world, so thanks for being part of it. :) I would love to see whatever you make!! :D
I wish I could say I stuck in the career field, but I had to switch due to the stress of being a "bleeding heart" amongst so many missing the point. It was too much for me. Now I try to be a vocal advocate backed by research at any opportunity to convince the regular everyday folks that they can't solve things with a cell.
Oh, the careers are only a small part of the battle. I think the Knowing/Seeing does the brunt of the work in the world. I have so much love for people who stick it out, but I think there is just as much work to do away from the jails and the courthouses and the classrooms. 🙂 the little conversations that happened on a individual level tend to be the simple machines that help all the other work crank along. 🙏🏽
Since I started doing microfic I’ve wanted to make printed versions to put on my bookshelf. Something I can *hold* and that can’t vanish with a server crash. Maybe donate a copy to my local library… make them available on a POD platform like Lulu… it felt so silly. And then I found the zine culture and it’s been wonderfully validating. 🥰
I love seeing all the stuff people are putting together. Definitely going to bundle my fics into monthly issues once I’ve got my author site and stuff up.
I read this when you posted it-- but too quickly and didn't want to respond as if I didn't sit with it, so I waited, and now here we are a month later. :) Thank you for sharing. I'm Autistic, and I'm always so appreciative to read advocacy stories centered in love. <3
I started my poetry / photography zine late 2024 and it’s been the first time i actually feel like i’m DOING something with my creativity without having the pressure of money, readers… it’s just simply and genuinely funny. It helped a lot with the courage of “exposure”, considering myself as an artist and stuff i had blocages with before
I love this! Yes, I think our brains really respond well to tangible proof that our art is being created and changing the landscape of the world in front of us just by existing. I've been blessed with a positive art experience on the Internet, but it feels different in the body to make something that you can really hold.
Exactly, it absolutely materialized a very long process for me and that changed everything. Holding the thing in your hands for the first time is really something aha 🌹
I’ve always wanted to make a Zine! I love the idea of swapping. What if we left them inside Free Little Libraries?!
Yes! I do this. I also pin them to coffee shop bulletins, and street poles. They're so easy to tuck anywhere.
Coffee shop bulletins, fantastic!
Zine festivals and zine swaps are alive and well! We have one in Bremerton Washington just last week.
I love this so much. I've been reading your zine posts and feeling envious because I was thinking that zines came on the scene in the 90s and I was too old/otherwise occupied to participate. Then today I Googled when they started and saw they've been around forever. I think I did some zine things very long ago: in 8th grade I put out a few issues of a "magazine" I called DASH - for Dark Shadows, that old TV show that was new then & all my friends raved about. I'd write by hand on notebook paper and make a construction-paper cover - I can see green in my mind. I'd duplicate it by hand, only two or three times. In college (1977) I started what I called a feminist literary magazine - typed on an old Selectric and professionally printed. Don't know if that counts as a zine. I only did two issues then got bored. A few years later I did a newsletter, also professionally printed because by then we owned a press, for our Peace Center. It might have been a zine if I'd known anything about that concept then. I mean, I might have reformatted it so it looked like a zine. That's all. I'd always had a thing for creating publications, but even with the press downstairs, I stopped writing & never did anything else with it. Your posts have awakened that desire. :-)
Yes! All of that is a zine. I can send you a template for Canva that you can use if you want to try your hand at it again :)
Thank you!
I’ve recently felt like I’m “too old” to start a zine. I’m Gen-x (55) and feel like I should have done it in my 20s, then I told myself I don’t need to restrict myself! I can make a zine if I want darn it. I’ll make one this month.
I love that you made a zine about Dark Shadows!! My mom loved that show when I was little.
I started when I was 11. I am now 44. There is never such thing as too late to make a zine! My oldest student is 87 and she makes "family secrets" zines!
Yes! It would have been fun to create zines in our 20s, but now we can bring all the vision and experience we've accumulated over the years. I'd love to see what you produce, so I hope you'll check back.
I’ve been part of (the American Library Association) ALA’s Zine Pavilion and there are librarians around the U.S. who collect zines.
• Please deposit your zines at a local library!
That's awesome! And yes, part of our Biggest Little Zine Fair project is redistributing unsold zines to libraries & bookstores & free zine libraries in community centers. :)
Yes! We want them all! Do you want a list!???
This would be incredible! If email is easier: biggestlittlezinefair@gmail.com ! Thank you!!
I have been wanting to make a zine for a long time and have yet to do it. I don’t know what I want the topic main idea to be. I have thoughts but I don’t know. I think I keep putting it off.
This is your reminder to stop putting it off! :) What helped me with the half ideas was just starting. I pull up a canva file and start putting things where I think they might one day go. It's not the most elegant system since I often end up scratching it and starting over, but it builds momentum in me. I also keep a notepad file of anything that maybe-might-be a topic for me one day. :) Even just a doodle zine would be dope!
YES!
🙏🏽🙌🏽
Yes!!! All the zines!!
🎉🎉🎉
I released my first zine just last month after literal years of wanting to! So freeing. Already planning the next issue <3
Very cool! Congrats!!
I had never thought of making a zine. I really liked how you called it a mini-universe by itself.
I might just make one after reading this post. Certainly thinking of it now! Thanks for the encouragement, RaAvis!
Aw that would be wonderful! Everyone has at least a few absolutely-needed zines in them. Love that you might add to the galaxy of them 🎉🪐🔭
I just stumbled across this and now I'm really excited to finally make a zine. The part that really got me was when you described it as "Achingly human." I love that so much
Yay! Would love to see what you create! "Achingly human" has become the centerpoint of my creative process, and I have no regrets 🙂
Hi Ra, Im just discovering your substack and realizing that my graduation with a degree in criminal justice (I focused my time on restorative justice and prison reform) and your release from prison fall around the same time.
Only recently have I discovered my love for zines thanks to TTRPGs like Mothership & MörkBorg, but thank you for the encouragement to make my own. I want to make things people love and resonate with. Things that change perspectives, encourage creativity, generate emotions. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your positivity, and resilience. I dont know that my zines would be your favored genre, but when I assemble one, you'll be one of the first to know.
Pax et amor -Jamie
Congrats on that degree! We need lots more of that education in the world, so thanks for being part of it. :) I would love to see whatever you make!! :D
I wish I could say I stuck in the career field, but I had to switch due to the stress of being a "bleeding heart" amongst so many missing the point. It was too much for me. Now I try to be a vocal advocate backed by research at any opportunity to convince the regular everyday folks that they can't solve things with a cell.
Oh, the careers are only a small part of the battle. I think the Knowing/Seeing does the brunt of the work in the world. I have so much love for people who stick it out, but I think there is just as much work to do away from the jails and the courthouses and the classrooms. 🙂 the little conversations that happened on a individual level tend to be the simple machines that help all the other work crank along. 🙏🏽
i’m at a zine club at my college!
🎉 Love this!!
Since I started doing microfic I’ve wanted to make printed versions to put on my bookshelf. Something I can *hold* and that can’t vanish with a server crash. Maybe donate a copy to my local library… make them available on a POD platform like Lulu… it felt so silly. And then I found the zine culture and it’s been wonderfully validating. 🥰
I love seeing all the stuff people are putting together. Definitely going to bundle my fics into monthly issues once I’ve got my author site and stuff up.
So awesome! Love the idea of monthly issues. 🙂
Here is my zine! In digital format. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QJqEcm9K0aWkYCiWC0VerddLu9H3Tfs-/view?usp=sharing
I read this when you posted it-- but too quickly and didn't want to respond as if I didn't sit with it, so I waited, and now here we are a month later. :) Thank you for sharing. I'm Autistic, and I'm always so appreciative to read advocacy stories centered in love. <3
Thank you!! (I also really relate to being afraid to respond to something too quickly as if someone else will think I didn't take it in.). <3
I started my poetry / photography zine late 2024 and it’s been the first time i actually feel like i’m DOING something with my creativity without having the pressure of money, readers… it’s just simply and genuinely funny. It helped a lot with the courage of “exposure”, considering myself as an artist and stuff i had blocages with before
I love this! Yes, I think our brains really respond well to tangible proof that our art is being created and changing the landscape of the world in front of us just by existing. I've been blessed with a positive art experience on the Internet, but it feels different in the body to make something that you can really hold.
Exactly, it absolutely materialized a very long process for me and that changed everything. Holding the thing in your hands for the first time is really something aha 🌹
i ❤️ zines
🎉💕 me too! I'm hoping to build up my Zine library this year.
“Achingly human” ugh yes
❤️🙏🏽