The following are the notes I gave out in my zine making 101 workshop. I wanted to turn this into a zine, but it got to be too long. I have a lot more that this to say about the subject, but this is everything I think you should know when you make your first one.
Zine (pronounced “zeen”) is loosely defined as “a noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject matter.” Born out of sci-fi fan zines in the 1930s and then re-popularized by activist and punk DIY spaces in the 80s, they’re a great way to publish something outside the mainstream. They’re easy to make and cheap to produce. They often contain underground subject matter that would otherwise be suppressed. While some people do sell their zines for a profit, a lot of others keep them free or sell them at-cost out of the belief that important knowledge should be free. In times of censorship, propaganda, and misinformation, truthful and helpful information is how we keep each other surviving and thriving and resisting fascism. I like to say that a zine is like a magazine without the MAGA.
If you’re new to creative pursuits, it can feel daunting to make something. The best creative advice I ever received in my decades of doing this is that “perfect is the enemy of done.” The best zine is a zine that exists, rather than waiting in your head until it’s perfect. One great thing about zine culture is that looking unpolished is part of the appeal. These aren’t professionally made and are not being held to those standards. Draw stick figures. Make a collage. Type instead of handwriting. Or you can collaborate with somebody who has skills you’re less confident in. Make a shitty first draft and then make a better second draft, but whatever you do, just get it done. I beg of you to please avoid using generative AI to create your zine. AI is built on plagiarized work stolen from other creative people without their consent, and is primarily a way for capital to access skill while avoiding paying for it, increasing wealth disparity and distorting reality, and it is against the mission of this project. Even the worst drawing is better than the best AI.
WRITING
What to write about. A zine can be about ANYTHING. They’re not all nonfiction information. People put out poetry zines, comics, fanfiction, philosophy, cookbooks, and more. Art is just as important as information because fascism wants to destroy both. The resistance will be illustrated.
That said, here are some topics to get you started brainstorming.
How to do something at the 101 level. Know how to sew? Garden? Build things? Try explaining the basics, and point to resources for people who want to learn more.
How to access things. Know how to get through a phone tree and talk to a human? Know how to get around insurance denials? Know where to go to get shit done? Talk us through it.
Make your own manifesto. Have a strong philosophy about how the world should work? Passionate about a subject? Share it with the world!
Make something beautiful and joyous. Fascism wants us to be miserable, especially if we’re one of the “deviants and undesirables.” Spreading happiness in the face of that is resistance.
Make it personal. Diaries and memoirs are very popular zines, and can be a great way to share our stories with both people who relate to us (catharsis) and who don’t (education).
One thing that can really make your zine helpful is a call to action. Don’t just tell people about a topic, tell them what they can do about it. I saw an increase in censorship online, so I decided to take action and encourage offline creation and distribution. People want to help other people, so if you tell them about a problem, they’ll appreciate having some direction in finding a solution.
If you’re making something informational, it’s good to provide references so people can verify the information and learn more about it. It’s also good for double-checking your own knowledge. Sometimes we misremember things, even if we’re an expert on a subject. Sometimes, it turns out we were given false information, or fell for propaganda or pseudoscience. It happens to all of us. That’s why we fact check.
VISUALS
While you can make zines that are just words, they’ll be much more appealing if you take the time to do more than simply write them out. You can play with form a LOT, much more than most traditional publishing allows for. Write words in a shape like a circle or spiral. Cut them out of magazines and assemble them like a ransom note. Hand write them beautifully or select an interesting font.
Draw something. Even if it’s stick figures. For real. It’s always better than resorting to something like AI. Zines are a way to connect with other humans, and they want to see what YOU make, not what a machine can make for you. If you really don’t want to make your own visuals, collaborate with another person who can help you with that. Not only do you get a prettier zine, you will have spent time collaborating with other people.
Photos can also bring some pizzaz. Take your own photos, or cut them out of magazines like a collage, or find them on a creative commons/royalty free database. I cannot recommend taking any random thing from Google, both because it’s potential plagiarism and because the internet is clogged up with bad AI. Referring back to the previous paragraph, just make stick figures. It’s always better than plagiarism.
Make a cool cover! While a large number of zines are black and white inside, many people opt to print the covers in full color to make them more eye catching. However, full color printing is much more expensive, and can take a zine from <$1 to print and make it $3+. An easy way to print a cover in black and white while making it pretty is to use colorful paper! Black ink on green paper will grab more attention, while also differentiating your cover from the inside. You can also use cardstock for the cover, which will make your zine sturdier than copy paper alone.
Free art programs
Krita (krita.com)
Inkscape (inkscape.org)
Cheap art programs
Affinity Suite (affinity.serif.com) $170 for 3 programs (alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator), you own it forever without subscription
Clip Studio Paint (clipstudio.net) Basic version $4.50/month or $54 to own forever without subscription
There are other free/cheap art programs out there, but the ones I found use AI in some way, which plagiarizes work from other people, and is against the philosophy of this project. We will not use the tools of our enemies. Can’t rage against the machine while using their machine.
For royalty free images, look into Creative Commons, which are images consensually shared for free use. The Smithsonian website has more than five million images for free that you can find at si.edu/openaccess and Wikipedia has commons.wikimedia.org open and free. Now, collage work can skirt the line between fair use and plagiarism. A collage as a single piece of art tends to fall under fair use, but making copies, especially if you sell them, might be against copyright. Use your best judgment.
PRINTING AND LOGISTICS
Pre-press: Figure out which pages go on which side so your folded and stapled zine will have the pages in the right order. Make a little mockup. It’ll save you a lot of headache later.
Photocopy vs scan n print AND BEYOND. Photocopiers have come a long way, and are no longer restricted to pure black and white, but you give up some control in the output as the machine makes decisions for you. Most people don’t have photocopiers at home, so this method involves going somewhere any paying somebody. Scanning your work (or designing it on the computer) and printing it at home is more affordable, and you won’t even have to put on pants. You can adjust the images to print more effectively in grayscale, or take things to the next level with CMYK (full color) printing. There are also risographs (which are like photocopiers but COOLER) and screenprinting as options, especially if you want to use colorful ink. These options take a lot of skills and classes, so they’re not for beginners. If you don’t feel like printing it yourself, there are printing services who will do it for you, but it can make them prohibitively expensive and impossible to distribute for free/cheap enough for people to afford.
Make it cheap! Especially if you’re going to be giving them away for free, you don’t want it to be too expensive to get them made. Black and white printing is far less expensive than color printing. Do your printing at the public library instead of a print shop. If you do take your project to a print shop, they often give bulk discounts so if you can manage the up-front costs, they end up being less per-unit. Printing at home is usually the cheapest option... after you buy a computer and printer and ink and paper, that is.
DISTRIBUTION
You made your zine! Now how do you get people to read it?
Word of mouth. Go out in the world and tell people you meet that you made a zine, and offer them a copy. It feels intimidating at first, but the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Zine/indie comics fests. There’s a lot of overlap between zines and indie comics. Keep an eye out for craft and art fairs, indie markets, anywhere that people gather to buy and trade independent art.
Indie shops. There are independent bookstores that will sell zines on consignment, which means they’ll stock them, but you don’t get paid until they sell. If a store buys something wholesale that means you get paid up front. Stores will take a percentage of the cover price, usually 40-50% depending on your deal.
Internet. There are entire networks of zine enthusiasts out there. Get involved, buy and trade with other zinesters. This will also provide a lot of knowledge about new ways to make zines that you might have never thought of!
Further reading
Make a Zine by Joe Biel and Bill Brent, published by Microcosm Press, who themselves publish a lot of extremely good zines
Stolen Sharpie Revolution by Alex Wrekk, published by Silver Sprocket, who also make some of the best zines in the world
Self Publish, Be Free! by Isabella Rotman, a self published zine about making self published zines by a master of making zines and self publishing them
ZineWiki.com is an online open source encyclopedia about everything zines. Also provides a way to tell people about your own zine!
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