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ZINES

People have been making zines since the 1930s. In the 50’s, tons of zines centered on fandom started popping up. People literally couldn’t contain their excitement for Star Trek and didn’t yet have Tumblr. In the 70’s and 80’s, zines became a punk mainstay for sharing information, since it was quick and cheap to slam something out at a copy shop. In the 90’s, riot grrrrl and queer zines became hugely prolific in feminist and queer spaces. Zines partially faded from public awareness with the advent of the internet in the late 90’s, but there’s a been a resurgence in zine creation and zine culture in the modern day.

We have so many zines that are cartoons, that are drawings, that are thoughts and manifestos. They’re collages from found materials, unexpected art, surrealist poetry, and so much more, contained in a booklet that’s easy to share and distribute, to trade and to give, building a community on the trade of small ideas brought to life. In any art form we iterate, and that iteration refines process and skills and causes us to dig deeper and make more interesting things. Zines are a great format for creating a confined narrative in an easy to replicate format.

You can make a zine however you want. Sharpie, collage, crayons, flower pressings, cyanotype, pencil sketching, digital drawing, photocopied or printed, one copy or thousands. You can do anything.

Check out a sample of the zines and art books that the Spooky Haus has made!!

Here’s how you fold an 8 page zine! (Instructional image by lin cogeda, itch.io)

Make a zine today! (Brought to you by zines)!!