Hutchins Library News Blog

Welcome back Zine fiends, it's time to kick off a new year with a simple How-To post! Was one of your new years resolutions to be more crafty? Then I have just the zine for you! How to make a Mini Zine for begnners! This zine includes helpful tips, tricks and a zine template! 

Zine Facts! 

The first zine is often traced back to a 1930s effort by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. It was called The Comet, and it started a long-lasting trend of sci-fi related zines. The important sci-fi zine Fantasy Commentator began in 1943, and ran in various iterations (though not continuously) until 2004. One of the pieces serialized in Fantasy Commentator eventually became Sam Moskowitz’s book on the history of sci-fi fandom, The Immortal Storm. The interconnectedness of zines and sci-fi is reflected in the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) Hugo award for Best Fanzine, first given out in 1955 and still awarded today. (As the name of that award shows, zines were originally called fanzines, alluding to the fans who made them. Eventually, fanzine was just shortened to zine, and the range of topics widened to include practically anything.)

How to Make a Mini Zine

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome back to Zine of the Month! This month we are focusing on a zine called 'No Mercy' by Robert Allen. Full of crazy illustrations and powerful life advice, this zine is definitely one to be aware of!

Zine Facts! 

Most definitions of zines include the fact that they are small-circulation, self-published, and often inexpensive or free. That’s generally true, although these are more guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. The most important aspect of a zine is generally that the publication identifies as one. Many zine-makers will say zines are as much about the community as the product, and that identifying as a zine is what separates these publications from comics, literary journals, websites, and other types of independent publications.

No Mercy by Robert Allen

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome back to Zine of the Month! This month's star is "Welcome to Boyhood," a personal narrative zine about growing up trans. With the use of poetry and images, the author of this zine portrays the hardships many ftm (female to male) trans people face during their childhood. 

Zine Facts! 

Zines have now become so mainstream that even Kanye West has one. In February 2016, the hip-hop artist tweeted: “Season 2 Zine pronounced Zeen short for magazine. A lot of people pronounce it wrong.” The tweet included a picture of the publication Kanye had made to accompany his second line of footwear for his brand, Yeezy. After decades of existence, zines are no longer strictly counter-culture, but they originated as small-scale DIY efforts—many with an anti-authoritarian message.

Check back next month for more zine facts! 

Welcome to Boyhood

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome back to Zine of the Month! This month's choice is '10 Reasons Why You Should Study Abroad: Things I've Learned About Myself and Others While Abroad. This zine encourages students, and people in general, to take the opportunity to study abroad. It lists 10 experiences that you can expect to enjoy during your travels. 

Zine Facts! 

Zine culture has made its comeback in the recent years, due rise of individual expression in social media. Social movements like Black lives matter Portland launched a zine to express their work and beliefs. Worth a flip.  And what’s cool about creating your own zine in the modern era of the internet is that you’ll have no circulation restrictions. Everyone with an internet connection can easily read and share your ideas. 

Come back next month for more zine facts! 

10 Reasons Why You Should Study Abroad

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome back to Zine of the Month! This month's zine is Somos Berea, a zine made by students describing what it means to be Latinx. They discuss topics such as colonialism, immigration and xenophobia, as well as Latinx identity. 

Zine Facts! 

Zines are in no way, mainstream. This type of publication is nonconformist, just like their authors. There are a lot of ways to create a zine and there are no written rules. You can go wild with your content and images as zines have more of a DIY inspired look.
Also, when it comes to publishing zines, things are a lot different than publishing magazines. And this is because zines are not mainstream, as I said. While magazines are often produced by publishing companies, zines are self-published for a small circulation, distributed through mail order and word of mouth. Magazines may be focusing on selling advertising space and making a profit, whilst zines are mainly created for spreading bold, strong, revolutionary ideas.

Somos Berea

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome back to Zine of the Month! This month's zine is Like Walking Onto Another Planet: Stories About the True Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining. This zine showcases environmental and sustainability issues in the Appalachian region due to the removal of mountain tops in order to mine the coal. Check it out in our Zine Collection!

Historically, zines have been around since 1776 when Thomas Paine self-published Common Sense and used it as an instrument in promoting the ideas that contributed to the U.S. War for Independence. Just a perfect example to demonstrate the free spirit of zine culture. Zine comes from fanzine which is a term that generally describes a small-circulation science fiction publication. Fanzines first appeared in the late 1920s. Zines were used to promote punk music in the 1970s, a time when this type of music received very little interest from the larger press music. This phenomenon spawned a new interest in self-publishing.

Check back next month for more zine updates!

Like Walking Onto Another Planet

Call Number: Zine Collection

Welcome to Zine of the Month! We will be showcasing a new zine every month, so make sure to check back!

This month's zine is "time (a collaborative zine)". This zine is full of creative writing, art, and photographs, all written, made, and taken by people who collaborated together to make this final product. 

You might ask yourself, what is a zine? And how is a zine different from a magazine? Many people think zine is short for magazine. That could be right, however, there are a few major differences between the two types of publications. A zine (pronounced zeen) is an independently or self-published booklet, often created by physically cutting and gluing text and images together onto a master flat for photocopying, but it is also common to produce the master by typing and formatting pages on a computer. The publication is usually folded and stapled.
Throughout these posts, we will be exploring the history, creation, and uses of zines throughout time. We will also walk through a few different ways to make your own zine! Come back next month to learn something new!

time (a collaborative zine)

Call Number: Zine Collection