My kid said my truck stop zines are just 'dad stories'

Was showing my 12 year old the little zines I make about weird roadside stuff, like that giant ball of twine in Kansas. She looked at my last one and said, 'It's just your dad stories, but on paper.' Hit me that maybe I'm not making them for other people, just for me. Anyone else make zines that are basically personal notes you don't expect anyone to read?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.adam2mo ago

Your kid nailed it, but that's the whole point. The best zines are personal notes that found an audience. You're making something real, which is more than most people do.

henrys602mo ago

Maybe the best zines are more than just personal notes though. Some really great ones feel like a whole little world you can step into. Like that one about weird roadside attractions, or the comic zine that tells a whole story. It's not just a note, it's a full idea someone built.

gray_gibson6d ago

Wait, hold on, henrys60 said a zine that feels like a "whole little world" is better? That's wild to me. No offense but a zine about a giant ball of twine in Kansas is already a whole little world. It's got the weird roadside stand, the old guy who built it, the smell of hot tar in the parking lot. That's a world. You just have to know how to look at it. And kid calling them "dad stories" is brutal but honest. Mine would probably say the same thing if I wrote about that time I saw the world's largest prairie dog statue. That's the thing about zines though, you're not trying to make a movie. You're just trying to save a weird little moment before it gets lost. Like a Polaroid of a feeling nobody else would even notice.