International Zine Month
July is International Zine Month and Alex Wrekk of Stolen Sharpie Revolution has an excellent list of prompts to follow.
You should go follow her! She's on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I'll be posting all the daily prompts on the Queer Zest Zine Fest accounts: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Day 1 prompt: "What is a zine?"
If you have taken a class from me or hung out with me for a minute, you know to me that definition for a zine is wide open. Every couple of months, I see people fighting online over what is a zine, usually with the implication that something too slick or too expensive no longer can get classified as a zine. To me that's just not in the spirit of zine making. Wether the zine is a single, low quality copy folded into a simple 8-page zine or a full color, professionally printed book, it's equally valid. Both can be zines and can everything in between.
For me, the true spirit of a zine is the independent nature of the publications. Zines give opportunities for anyone to share their stories, art, indie games, fan work, poetry, and more that do not fit into traditional publishing. Zines have always been an open space for fan works, alternative voices, queer stories, and personal stories.
For me, my first zines were picked up at punk shows and featured interviews, upcoming shows, band photos, and ads for buying cassettes in the mail. They had that traditional zine aesthetic: cut and paste, bad copies, hand stapled, and often distributed by hand.
We now have print-on-demand and digital delivery options that allows creators more ways to share their voice, their vision, and their passion.
Follow along with me
I'll be sharing zines and writings about zines every day this month, so follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for more zine goodness.