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Shoutout to the person at the Portland zine fest who traded me a comic about their panic attacks for my poetry chapbook
We stood by the snack table for maybe twenty minutes, and they said, 'I think the best zines feel like a note passed in class when you're both trying not to cry,' which has stuck with me ever since, making me wonder if zines are better as raw, personal confessions or as polished, artistic objects meant for a wider audience?
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elliot_lane963mo ago
Messy handwriting about a bad week" is the whole point.
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beth_hunt14d ago
Is it really a zine if you can actually read it without squinting? I swear half the charm is trying to decode someone's chicken scratch while you're hiding it in a textbook. Elliot_lane96 is absolutely right though, that's the whole point. The messy handwriting is what makes it feel like a secret, like you're getting a peek at someone's actual brain instead of some polished product. I've got a stack of those things from a zine swap years ago and I can barely read half of them, but I remember every single story. It's the raw, unfiltered stuff that sticks with you, not the slick layout.
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rosejackson3mo ago
That line about a note passed in class really hits. I used to think zines needed slick art and a clear point to be good, like a tiny magazine. But that trade you described, that's the real stuff. The best ones I've kept are just someone's messy handwriting about a bad week or a weird dream. The polish can come later, but you need that raw note first, right? What was the comic you got like?
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