Functions of Zines
Guides to Zines
Visit these guides, created by librarians, to learn more about zines.
- What's A Zine, Anyway?By Amy Sonnichsen from Mount Saint Mary's University Library
- All About ZinesFrom the New York Institute of Technology
- Zines: A basic guide to finding, making, and teaching zines.From the Pratt Institute School of Information
- Zines at Schlesinger LibraryFrom the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard Radcliffe Institute
- Zines at the Library of CongressFrom the Library of Congress, including some digital zine collections.
Making Zines
Here are some resources for making your own Zine
- Zine Making 101From Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Making ZinesFrom Salem State University
- New England Book Artists Zine SwapsAnnual zine swap by New England Book Artists, with video and print instructions on how to make a simple black and white zine.
- How to Make a Zine - New England Book ArtistsA printable guide to folding your own zine out of a single piece of paper.
- How to Make a Zine - Library of CongressA guided template for folding your own zine from the Library of Congress, including a blank template and a Fearless Women Zine.
- Make a Saddle-Stitched Zine - ZineopolisInstructions for making a saddle-stitched zine, which uses staples or stitching to bind multiple pages rather than folding a single sheet of paper.
- Make a Zine in Google SlidesReuse this Google Slides template to make your own digital zine.
Zines
"Colorado College Zine Collection" by Colorado College Tutt Library is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
- Xerox and Roll: The Corporate Machine and the Making of PunkFrom JSTOR, learn how the quintessential corporate machine was used to solidify underground punk culture. There are great links to articles about zines and zine collections.
- Spockanalia -- The First Star Trek FanzineBy Maria Jose and John Tenuto, explore the history of the first Star Trek fanzine, first published in 1967. Gene Roddenberry, the creator and executive producer of Star Trek, interacted with the zine and gave interviews to be featured in it. Many fanzines came out of science fiction fandoms like Star Trek.
What is a Zine?
"Zines are do-it-yourself (DIY), self-published magazines that combine elements of personal journals, newsletters, collages, and magazines. The DIY nature of the zine is an important aspect of its appeal. Zines are often photocopies, pamphlets or booklets that are given away, traded with friends, or sold through online distribution centers or at independent music and book stores. Zines can also take the form of webpages, which can be accessed by other(s)...They often contain stories about the author’s life, essays, poetry, short stories, comics, recipes, lists, and reviews of books, bands, or other zines."
Bates, Dawn and Marueen C. McHugh. "Zines: Voices of Third Wave Feminists". In Different Wavelengths : Studies of the Contemporary Women’s Movement, edited by Jo Reger, Routledge, 2005, pp 179-180.
“Zines are non-commercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines that their creators produce, publish, and distribute themselves. Most often laid out on plain paper and reproduced on common photocopy machines, zines are sold, given away, or as is common custom: swapped for other zines. They’re distributed primarily through the mail, advertised along the grapevine of other zines, and in the pages of review zines."
Duncombe, Stephen. " 'I'm a Loser Baby': Zines and the Creation of Underground Identity. In Hop on Pop : The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture Edited by Henry Jenkins, Tara McPherson & Jane Shattuc, Duke University Press, 2002, pp 227.
"Talk to cheerleaders for zines and alternative comics, and they'll tell you that this is where the 'true art' of the 20th and 21st centuries resides. It's where the constraints of the mainstream have no purchase. Where writers and artists can do what they like, when they like, without bother about the tyranny of the bottom line. It's where taboos can be broken, experiments can be pursued, and new voices can be heard. Subversion - in its many forms - is a natural and necessary corollary."
Triggs, Teal., and Roger Sabin. Below Critical Radar : Fanzines and Alternative Comics from 1976 to Now. Slab-O-Concrete, 2000, p 1.
Zine Collections
- Zine Libraries ListUse this list of Zine Collections to find Zine libraries around the world and digital Zine Libraries
- Papercut Digital Zine LibraryPapercut is a Zine Library located in Cambridge, MA. This is a link to their digital collection.
- Migrant Zine CollectiveMigrant Zine Collective is an activist-based zine collective aiming to amplify, celebrate and share the voices of migrants of colour in Aotearoa (New Zealand).
- Zines from the Internet ArchiveThis is a collection of zines that can be found on the Archive. Zines are self-published, non-commercial publications with typically small circulations. They cover a wide range of topics with many focused on politics, art, creative writing, and personal theory.
- Small Science CollectiveA collaboration of artists, students, scientists and anyone else who is seriously curious about the sciences, the Small Science Collective produces small zines and web comics on topics from ants to galaxies.
Read online, download the zines, distribute, make your own! - Project NiaZines published on the digital platform Issuu.
Launched in 2009, Project NIA is an advocacy, organizing, popular education, research, and capacity-building center with the long-term goal of ending youth incarceration.
Zines through Library Databases
- Popular Culture in Britian and AmericaMagazines, zines, and other primary sources reflecting the culture of the US and UK in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
To browse the zines in the collection, select "fanzine" from the "Document Type" dropdown on the left hand filter menu. See the screen shot below.
Learn more about zines with these library resources
Hop on Pop by Call Number: E169.12 .H666 2002ISBN: 0822327376Publication Date: 2003-01-23See the chapter "I'm a Loser Baby": Zines and the Creation of Underground Identity (pp. 227-250)
Punk, fanzines and DIY cultures in a global world : fast, furious and Xerox by Call Number: ebookISBN: 3030288765Publication Date: 2020
Different Wavelengths by Call Number: HQ1155 .D545 2005ISBN: 0415948797Publication Date: 2005-07-26See chapter 3 & chapter 10 for a discussion on zines and the feminist movement.
Below Critical Radar by Call Number: NEVINS PN6725 .B36 2000ISBN: 1899866477Publication Date: 2002-03-01Fanzines and Alternative Comics from 1976 to now
