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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?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_gibson17d ago

Remembered setting up at a tiny show in Chicago a few years back and this dude came up to my table flipping through my mini-comic about my cat getting stuck in a storm drain. He's laughing, pointing at the hand-drawn panels, says "this is great, do you have a website?" I told him no, just this stack of paper. He put it down and walked off to the next table. Meanwhile the table next to me was selling a USB stick with "zines" on it for five bucks and they had a line like it was a food truck. I get that digital is convenient but the whole point is the grit. Like remembering the first time I smeared ink from a fresh photocopy on my fingers and thought, yep this is it. That's the feeling.

richardrodriguez16d ago

Brought a little zine to a comic swap last year, same kind of thing where people wanted a QR code or something digital. I just stuck a "pay what you want" sign on my table and talked to anyone who picked it up, no website pitch needed. Ended up selling almost the whole stack and got better conversations than the USB stick guys because people actually wanted the paper in their hands. Know what you mean @gray_gibson, that ink smell and the weird fold lines are half the reason to make these things.