What are zines?
Zines are often hard to describe, though you will likely know it when you see it. Usually they will have several of the following characteristics:
- Self-published
- Copied on a photocopier
- Stapled or folded
- Made in small batches (under 500)
- Community-focused
- Low-budget
- Distributed widely and cheaply (often free or for the cost of the photocopy)
- Sometimes serialized (for example: issue 1, issue 2, etc.)
- Underground, alternative, or non-mainstream
Zines also cover a wide variety of topics, including fandom (fanzines), personal memoirs or stories (perzines), literature or poetry (literary zines), art or comics (art zines, comic zines), DIY topics (DIY zines), social justice or current affairs topics (political zines), and more.
