c/diy-zine-culture

Finally finished a zine after 4 false starts...

I've been working on this little comic zine about my road trips through Nebraska for like 6 months. Kept getting stuck on the order of the pages, something just felt off. Then I laid everything out on the floor of my apartment and walked around it for 20 minutes, seeing it from different angles. The whole flow finally clicked and I stapled the last copy last night. Does anyone else have weird rituals for figuring out page layouts?

That guy at the coffee shop who called my zine "cute" and I still think about it 2 years later

Stapling zines backwards saves so much time

Used to fold and staple each zine one by one till I realized if you staple the whole stack first then fold, it's way faster. Cut my time making 50 copies of my latest 8-pager from 2 hours to maybe 45 minutes. Anyone else got a weird shortcut like this?

Stumbled on a stat that said 70% of zines never get more than 50 copies printed. Found it in a library research paper about underground publishing.

Shoutout to the person at the zine swap who told me to use a bone folder instead of my fingers

I was at the Portland Zine Symposium last month and someone watched me folding my zines with my thumb, handed me a $5 bone folder, and said 'your edges will look way cleaner.' I finally tried it last week and yeah, my fingers were leaving little oily marks on the paper. Does anyone else have a random tool that just changed their zine-making game?

Hit up the Brooklyn Zine Fest last Saturday and it felt off

I went to the Brooklyn Zine Fest last weekend and got kinda bummed. Maybe half the tables were selling stuff that looked more like fancy printed booklets than actual handmade zines. One seller had a $20 risograph print that was just a single folded page with no staples or any soul in it. Am I just being a gatekeeper about what counts as a zine, or do other people miss when it was more about photocopies and messy stories?

My buddy at the coffee shop said my zine was too clean

I was at this little spot in Portland last Tuesday, showing my latest zine to a friend who runs a record store. He flipped through it for a minute, then handed it back and said "this looks like a brochure from a dentist office." I laughed but it stung. He was right though - I had spent 4 hours fixing the margins on my computer before printing it at the library. All my favorite zines have smudged ink, uneven staples, handwritten notes in the margins. Mine looked like it came off an assembly line. So I went home and purposely messed up the binding on 10 copies, spilled some coffee on 3 of them, and drew little doodles in the corners. They still feel wrong but at least they don't feel fake. Has anyone else had to unlearn being too perfect with their zines?

Digital zines are killing the soul of the format

I traded a stack of handmade zines with a girl at a punk show last month and her stapled photocopy pages felt more alive than any PDF I've ever downloaded. There's something about the smudged ink and uneven cut edges that online versions just can't replicate. Anyone else feel like digital zines lose the whole point of the DIY ethos?

Got inspired at a zine swap in Austin last spring

I went to this tiny zine swap at a coffee shop off South Congress, maybe 30 people there. Some kid handed me a one-page zine about fixing bike chains that was literally just photocopied hand drawings and it blew my mind. Now I keep all my zines under 8 pages and I draw everything by hand before scanning. Anyone else find their style after seeing something super raw like that?

My zine folder completely burst open at a coffee shop

Last Saturday I was showing my latest collab zine to a friend at Red Rock Roasters and the cardboard folder I used for storage just split down the middle, scattering pages everywhere. Over 30 loose sheets flew under tables and one ended up in some strangers latte, which was a mess to explain. How do you guys carry your zines to trades without risking a disaster like that?

Warning: My zine binding took 6 hours because I skipped one step

I spent last Saturday trying to staple together 50 copies of my latest art zine and it was a nightmare. I was using a long-arm stapler like always but the pages kept slipping and the staples were all crooked. After 3 hours I had maybe 15 decent copies and I was ready to toss the whole thing. Turns out I forgot to knock the stack of pages flat before stapling. I usually tap them on the table to align the edges but I was in a rush. Once I did that with a bone folder the rest went perfect in under an hour. Has anyone else had a simple step wreck their whole production timeline like this?

Spent 6 hours trying to fix a misaligned page on my last zine

My risograph was printing the back cover a quarter inch off center and I kept thinking it was a paper feed issue. Turns out it was a single loose screw on the registration plate that took me 5 hours to notice.

Was dead set against collage zines but a friend's issue on city architecture changed my mind

I finally took that advice about cutting out the fancy fonts

A few months ago at a zine swap in Portland, this older guy picked up my little art zine and flipped through it. He pointed at the title page and said "this font is fighting with your drawings, not helping them." I was using some decorative script thing I thought looked cool. He was right though. I switched to a plain bold sans serif for the next issue and suddenly the drawings popped way more. Has anyone else had a stranger's random comment actually improve your whole layout approach?

Overheard a librarian talking about zine preservation at a coffee shop

I was sitting at this little cafe in Portland last week, and two librarians were chatting at the next table. One said her library has a special zine collection from the 90s that's literally falling apart because the paper was cheap and acidic. She mentioned they're scanning them all now to save the content, same way they do old letters and photos. Made me think about my own zines and how I should maybe scan copies of my early ones before they get too yellowed, you know? Has anyone else here digitized their old zine collection for preservation?

Mixed up my zine pages and made a whole comic about a guy eating a bicycle

I was collating a 16 page mini-zine last week and stapled the middle spread upside down. Now page 7 shows someone chewing on a tire and page 8 has them sipping a handlebar smoothie. Has anyone else accidentally created a surrealist masterpiece from bad page order?

A warning about using spray adhesive on zine pages

I was putting together a batch of 50 zines for the Portland Zine Fest last month and used a cheap spray adhesive to mount some photos. About 3 hours later, the pages started curling up at the edges and the photos peeled off. I had to reprint everything and use a glue stick instead. Has anyone else had adhesive ruin a batch like this?

The stat that blew my mind about zine distribution costs

I was reading a breakdown on some indie publisher's blog and they said the average cost to mail a single zine within the US is now over $4.00 with media mail rates. That's almost as much as the cover price for most of the zines I trade for. Has anyone else noticed this eating into their zine swap budgets?

Hot take: digital zines are killing the whole point of this craft

I set up at the Portland Zine Fest last month and watched 3 people walk by my table because they were too busy scanning QR codes on their phones. I spent 40 hours cutting and stapling 50 copies of my latest issue by hand, and someone asked if I had a PDF version. I told them no and they just walked away. The whole POINT of zines is the physical object, the smudged ink, the crooked staple. Why are we acting like a blog post on thick paper is the same thing as a handmade zine? Anyone else feel like the scene is getting gentrified by digital-only creators who don't even own a photocopier?

Digital vs physical zines, I finally saw the point of print after 3 years online only

I used to swear by digital zines since they're free to make and share, you know. But then I went to a tiny zine fair in Portland last spring and saw someone's handmade 8-page booklet with actual staples and photocopied textures. The physical weight in my hands made me read every word slow, like I was holding someone's actual diary. Has anyone else switched teams after touching a real paper copy?

Pro tip: don't drop $30 on glossy paper for your first zine run

Honestly, I dropped $30 on fancy glossy paper at the print shop for my 20-page art zine last month because I thought it would make it look professional. The ink smudged on every single page because I used a cheap laser printer at home, and they all looked terrible. Anyone else had a paper choice totally ruin their zine and have a go-to alternative that actually works?

Wasted $40 on a crappy stapler for binding zines

Bought one of those cheap plastic staplers at a craft store and it jammed on the third page of my 20-page mini-zine. Anybody know a decent long-reach stapler under $30 that actually works?

Traded my photocopied zines for a risograph one. Hated it at first.

Found a local print shop in Portland that lets you use their risograph for $20 a session. I was all about the grungy photocopier look. Messy, imperfect. Thought risograph was too clean, too professional. Gave it a shot last month after the owner kept pushing. Took me 3 tries to get the registration right. But once I did? The colors popped. Way richer than my copies. I still like the raw photocopy style for some stuff. But for a cover or a photo-heavy zine? Risograph wins. Anyone else switch their method and end up liking the change?

Changed my mind about single-topic zines

I used to think zines that only cover one subject were boring compared to the mix-tape style ones. But I picked up a 24-page zine called "Bike Commute Stories" at a Philly distro last month and it totally changed my mind. The whole thing was just different people's experiences riding to work, and the focus made each story hit harder. Anyone else find that narrow focus works better for certain topics?

Hit 50 copies sold of my zine and it threw me off

I printed 30 copies of my latest zine about growing up near the railroad tracks. Figured that would last me six months. Sold out in two weeks and had to run 20 more. Now I'm wondering if I underpriced it at $4 or if people just really like trains.