Zines are independent publications produced in small batches and distributed in non-traditional ways. Zine-making resists mainstream media, ideals, and profit to offer an alternative, grass-roots mode of communication.
Creating Zines
- Vice: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Zines
- Creative Independent: How to Make a Zine
- Jeff Phillip’s – big collection of resources
- The Public: Comprehensive Guide to Developing, Making, Printing, and Distributing Zines
- Video: How to Design a Photo Zine using InDesign
- Graphic: Choosing the Right Binding Type
- Video: Saddle Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial
- Video: Kettle Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial
Zine-making Costs
- Print on Demand Cost Comparison
- The “Real” Cost to Plan, Shoot, Edit, Design, and Print a Photozine (Come Thru, It’s Lit example)
- Book List focused on Zines & Independent Publishing
Suppliers
- Red River Paper: 32 lb. Double-sided matte paper
- Moab Paper: Entrada Rag 190 gsm Double-sided matte paper
- Smartpress: Print on Demand, Free paper sample book
- Newspaper Club (for printing newspaper-size zines)
“Indie Publishing: How to Design and Publish Your Own Book” by Ellen Lupton
Credit: Disobedient Electronics (2-color, sewn spine; see full zine here)
Zine History & Reading
- Mental Floss: A History of Zines
- Video: Riot Grrrl: The ’90s Movement that Redefined Punk
- Book List: Zines & Independent Publishing
Where to Find Zines
- Quarantine Public Library
- Library of Congress zine collection
- Open CultureInternet Archive
- The Queer Zine Archive Project
- Zine World: A Reader’s Guide to the Underground Press
- Zine Wiki
- Printed Matter, Inc.
- Microcosm Publishing
- Chicago Zine Fest and Zine Mercado
- Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection at School of the Art Institute, Chicago
- Zine Festivals and Small Press Fairs
- Broken Pencil Magazine: Zine Reviews and Culture
- Zine Libraries Worldwide
- Papercut Zine Library
- Sherwood Forext Zine Library
- Queer.Archive.Work
Teaching about Zines
- Rising Together Teaching Tool
- Aimée Beaubien: Syllabus for Structure, Sequence, and Series
- Four Lesson Plans for Teaching Zinemaking (Will be posted soon; getting usage clearance).
- MFA Thesis: Return to the Tangible? The Photozine in the Digital Age
- Dissertation: In the ruins of zine pedagogy: a narrative study of teaching with zines
