Happy International Zine Month!
Always nearly completely last, as per usual, but I am on the road so I think I get some good karma points for going the distance. Literal distance in some senses. So here we go! I’m not sure if anyone else is celebrating, but I am sure going to.
Technically I am using the 2015 list, but I ran out of time before I realised that I could just make one of my own.
Besides, Alex Wrekk has done a damn fine job with the 2015, so who am I to go trying to change that kind of awesomeness?
Here I go with day one, which calls for the…
Top 10* List of Why I Love Zines!
- They are handmade! Be it partially or completly, zines have a handmade element that can be hard to find these days. They are as simple or as complex as you want.
- They are what you say they are. A5, A4, stuck in a matchbox, spraypainted on poster-size paper… Paper, tissue paper, cardstock… Sewn, stapled, glued… There is a true beauty in the variety of form and definition when it comes to zines.
- They are about anything your heart desires. I have in my possession, a Nicolas cage colouring zine. (Review coming, I promise.) I also have a zine dedicated to Nutella, a zine about morning routines, a zine of thoughts and feelings converted into bar graphs and pie charts. The limit truly is only your imagination.
- This is kind of an extension on things, but they are also words plus art, plus photography, plus cut and paste, plus… They are an art form but in so many different ways – often at the same time.
- Perzines. I have to mention these because they are a particular favourite of mine. I’ve said plenty of times over the years that I wish everyone would write memoirs because there are so many lives I would love to know more about. Perzines are a form of that.
- Anyone can make them. There is no class to take, degree to hold, age requirement, so on and so forth. They are there any time, any place, for any person to write on any topic. I can’t think of many other things in the world that are welcoming on that kind of level.
- Mail! They are a physical (no insult to “ezines”, but they aren’t quite physical zines) creation that is sent in the mail, and receiving mail is a truly wonderful thing. Something that may have travelled more than you have travelled, created by hands you may never see in person. Maaaaail is the means by which zines fly around the world, and for that I love them.
- Zines remind me that I am not alone – in many different ways. I’m not alone in my desire to create, to write, to be heard, in dealing with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety or even in my appreciation of really nice paper.
- Zines are the means by which I have met/’met’ a lot of awesome people. There are now dozens of people I am 99% sure I would have absolutely no contact nor any interactions with without zines. How could I not love that?
- Making zines help me to feel like I’m actually doing something in a world where it’s all too easy to feel like I can’t do anything positive.
*Definitely top 10, but in no particular order of preference or loveliness in my opion after that.