About Our Collection
Hutchins Library was the recipient of a large personal collection of zines from an alum several years ago. In order to best share these with the public, a display space was created for them on the library's third floor.
Shortly after the creation of a formal zine area within the library, one of our Graphic Design faculty members, Dan Feinberg, began to include a zine component in his course curriculum, requiring students to create their own original zines as an assignment. At the end of each semester, copies of those zines were gifted to Hutchins and added to our collection.The next semester, another of our faculty members - Alan Mills - added zines to his course as well. Many of the student-made zines created in these classes are included in this guide. Since then, our collection has significantly expanded with donations from Ida Lucille Mangum (archivist at UK Libraries), Jim Scheff (Kentucky Heartwood), Dan Wu (Atomic Ramen), & Shoosie Quatroll.
What are Zines?
From the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture:
Zines are nonprofessional, anti-commercial, small-circulation magazines produced, published, and distributed by their creators themselves. Composed and formatted on home computers, zines are reproduced on copiers or printers, assembled on kitchen tables, and sold or swapped through the mail or made available at small book or music stores. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 zines circulate in the United States and in other countries throughout the world. With names like Dishwasher, Temp Slave, Pathetic Life, Practical Anarchy, Punk Planet, and Slug & Lettuce, zines have a subject matter that ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous and sometimes the unfathomable. What binds these publications together is the prime directive “do-it-yourself.” Zines advocate that people stop shopping for culture and create their own.
citation: Duncombe, Stephen. "Zines." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: St. James Press, 2013. 489-490. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
How to Use this Guide
Some things to know about how this guide is arranged:
- This zines in this guide are discoverable via two methods:
- alphabetical, by title
- by broad subject area
- For each guide, we have provided a thumbnail of its cover as well as a PDF of its full content
