# data[].attributes.headline
Connections between contemporary zines and older zine making practices

# data[].attributes.subject
Connections between contemporary zines and older zine making practices

# data[].attributes.headline
Exploring contemporary zines after making them in the 80s and 90s

# data[].attributes.subject
Exploring contemporary zines after making them in the 80s and 90s

# data[].attributes.body
Pop it in here!

# data[].attributes.body
Pick a zine from the below column to read, share something you noticed about it in the comments underneath, or in the Zoom chat.

# data[].attributes.body
This post is a reminder to myself to include a video of the pocket-book zine folding method.

# data[].attributes.headline
Sore Loser: A chronic pain and illness zine.

# data[].attributes.subject
Sore Loser: A chronic pain and illness zine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
'Sore Loser: a chronic pain and illness zine on queer disabled grief' is the latest Covid Commission 2021, by Sandra Alland and Etzali Hernández. An audio version and a downloadable pdf with alt-text are below the flip-book.
We started working on this project by writing poems together over Signal messages during the 2021 spring equinox. We wrote together (but apart) again on the summer solstice, then we recorded our podcast on Zoom and released it for Samhain/Día de muertos. To keep with our astrology/astronomy theme, we decided to launch this, the final zine, on the winter solstice. Thanks for joining us!

The zine is made from four pieces of A4 paper folded in half, which makes it 16 pages long. It has a bright yellow piece of A4 cardstock for the cover, and it's stapled together with two staples. The contents are black and white poems, quotes and other texts, with some small black and white images. The text is either handwritten or printed in 13 point Arial and 11.5 Verdana fonts.

We made each page by cutting and pasting the laser-printed or handwritten text and images, then scanning it. The cutting and pasting, and the effect of scanning, gives the pages a sense of texture and depth. Sometimes the outline of where we cut and pasted stands out strongly in black, other times it's more subtle.

Below the flip-book is an audio version of us describing the zine and reading our work. There's also a downloadable pdf of the images with alt-text. If you want to buy a hard copy, email SoreLoserZine@protonmail.com. They're £4 plus postage. Thank you for reading and/or listening.
A pdf version with alt-text is downloadable here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sore Loser: a chronic pain and illness zine on queer disabled grief - Disability Arts Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sore Loser: a chronic pain and illness zine on queer disabled grief is the latest Covid Commission 2021 by Sandra Alland and Etzali Hernández.

# data[].attributes.headline
Swallow It Whole: A Zine about PrEP for Women.

# data[].attributes.subject
Swallow It Whole: A Zine about PrEP for Women.

# data[].attributes.body
A reminder that this is an unfiltered medical collection, so take care as unexpected images can pop up in searches.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our collections are at the heart of what we do. Find out what we have by searching online or visiting our library. If you're interested in exploring and researching our collections, we're here to support you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our collections are at the heart of what we do. Find out what we have by searching online or visiting our library. If you're interested in exploring and researching our collections, we're here to support you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began we were thinking about trying to write a thing about zines that talk abut using herbs and DIY abortion. Then came the pandemic, and in the U.S., the confirmation of another anti-abortion supreme court justice, who, it's speculated, will work to overturn the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized pregnancy termination.

We kind of hate that we have to write this at all, but the ongoing attacks on reproductive freedom and healthcare across the world make this necessary. Everybody should have access to the healthcare they need, full stop. This means being able to make informed choices about reproductive options including different methods of contraception, pregnancy and childbirth, and the ability to end a pregnancy as desired.

A couple of notes:

1. The following links were not digitized by us at QZAP. Abortion and reproductive healthcare are absolutely queer and trans issues, but these zines are maybe outside of our collection policy scope. As such, they are not necessarily up to our standards for digitization, nor can we assure that the original creators permissions were sought before these were put online.

2. These zines are intended to be informational and not "how-to" manuals. If you need to get an abortion or know someone who might, try contacting Planned Parenthood (in the U.S.) or The International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion (global)

3. A lot of the research for this (short) list came from Jenna Freedman's article Unreproductive: Zines on Herbal Abortion and Menstrual Extraction at Zinelibraries.info, which is focused library holdings, and the Let's Talk About DIY Sexuality Zines handout (PDF) by Emily Bee that was prepared for the 2015 Milwaukee Zine Fest.

The Zines

Hot Pantz: DIY Gynecology / Herbal Remedies By Isabelle Gauthier & Lisa Vinebaum (1994)

Reclaiming Our Ancient Wisdom by Catherine Marie Jeunet

Wives Tales

DIY Doula

Wow! It's been almost a year since we've posted anything to the blog. And what a fucking year. As we're still in the midst of a global pandemic, we're not doing a whole lot these days. At least, not in person. Luckily, online events are a thing right now, and we're super happy to participate in them.

Coming up next week, we're co-sponsoring a film screening at the Northwest Film Forum of It's on Liebigstraße 34. The screening will include 3 films about the (in)famous feminist-queer squat Liebigstraße 34 in Berlin, Germany and how it was forcibly closed last autumn.

The screening is sliding scale from $0-$25 and will include a Q/A with the film-makers. The links above and below have info on how to get tickets.

Incidentially, we were asked to co-sponsor this by our long-time friend Elliat, who made the amazing doc Travel Queeries, which you can see here.

It seems like a lifetime ago, but it has really only been about two months since we partnered with our friends at the Milwaukee Zine Fest and The Milwaukee Rep to produce a zine from their Queer Love Stories event. Just as things were ramping up here with the COVID-19 preperations and prior to the Safer At Home orders, we got copies of the community made QLS zine from our local. That was three weeks ago (it's 13 April, 2020, a Monday, as we post this.) Since the production of this was funded through the partnership and our initial intent was to make them available during the Milwaukee Zine Fest, we thought we'd do that minus the fest.

If you would like a copy, all you have to do is send us 3 First Class U.S. stamps.
Queer Love Stories c/o QZAP
2935 N. Fratney Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212
Please be sure to include your name and address.

If you are not in the U.S. and would like a copy, please contact us.

Please take care of each other.

Love,

QZAP

He was an early editor of Gay Comix, and his breakout work, Stuck Rubber Baby, explored queerness and racial justice through a Southern lens. Perhaps his most well known character, Wendel, represented a bit of Howard himself, with optimistic, simple charms. We honor the legacy of gay comics artist Howard Cruse, who died on November 26, 2019, and share our condolences with his husband, daughter, and chosen family.

Howard's work began during a time of tremendous social change in the US in the early 1970s, when he utilized the energy of the underground comix movement to create gay characters and stories with love, laughter, and poignant drama.

Most importantly, Howard worked at a time where he established the frameworks of gay comic storytelling himself, truly a pioneer where few visual artists were creating work by, for, and about queer people. To meet him in person, you would encounter a gentle soul, a very kind and thoughtful human being, in some ways an 'anti-celebrity' of sorts. He was candid about how drug use sparked his creativity, and he told human stories in ways that made them universally relatable.

Thank you, Howard, for the path you created, the artists that you inspired to create their own queer work, and for leaving the world with a rich legacy of queer visual stories. Your memory is a blessing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began we were thinking about trying to write a thing about zines that talk abut using herbs and DIY abortion. Then came the pandemic, and in the U.S., the confirmation of another anti-abortion supreme court justice, who, it's speculated, will work to overturn the 1973 Roe vs.

# data[].attributes.body
Enter your search term, when the results come in, make sure that the 'Open Access Media - CC0' button is checked.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Welcome to Smithsonian Open Access, where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian's images-right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 4.9 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections-with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian's 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

What will you create?

#SmithsonianOpenAccess

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Smithsonian Open Access | Smithsonian Institution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about Smithsonian Open Access

# data[].attributes.body
This link takes you through to the collection via the public domain filter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ERROR: The request could not be satisfied

# data[].attributes.body
Be aware of the licenses of images on this site - you can always filter for public domain images to avoid doubt.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

# data[].attributes.headline
Visual guide to folding a one-page pocket zine

# data[].attributes.subject
Visual guide to folding a one-page pocket zine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The rise in zine recognition is great: there are more zine fairs than ever before, you can find out how to make a zine by reading Rookie or watching youtube tutorials, you can buy zines online rather than having to send £1 coin sellotaped to a bit of card in the post to a stranger, there are zine workshops in public libraries, it's ace! And the term zine itself has become much more diffused.

In the last 10 years or so, the term zine has been used interchangeably with things like artists' books, small press comics and illustration, independent magazines, photobooks, etc. All of these things are forms of self publishing and are radical in themselves for operating outside the traditional mainstream forms of publishing. And zines themselves have changed. From political pamphlets, to football zines, sci-fi zines, fanzines, perzines, punk zines, art zines, poetry zines, photo zines, and beyond. They haven't always been one thing, and they should never be just one thing. It's important to see them change and grow.

But despite the change in audiences, themes, and subject matter, the term zine is always rooted in diy non-profit forms of self-publishing. That is really their only defining feature. anything else - subject matter/format/binding/style - is fair game.

I'm aware that zinesters often come across as petty when we discuss and try to lay down the parameters of what is a zine and what isn't a zine. It's just a term and why can't we embrace change, and who the hell are we to decide? I've been making zines for 18 years, I co-founded two zine library collections at the Stuart Hall Library and Tate Library, but I'm not a guardian of the term zine, my opinion doesn't actually mean shit, and I honestly have no right to tell you what is or what isn't a zine. Nobody does.

Defining zines isn't petty though when it comes to the economy of zines. The point of zines is to make them as cheap as possible and to distribute them as cheaply as possible. Are there problems with the zine model? Totally. You have to know what a zine is to be able to access them for a start, And to make them you need access to a cheap photocopier, etc.

Zine culture, like a lot of activist culture is guilty of being too white, elitist, cliquey, and inaccessible. But the very basic idea of zines is to share your ideas and create something quick, and very cheap. It doesn't have to look glossy and professional. Of course if that's your aesthetic then that's cool too, but zines are non profit.

One more time: Zines are non-profit. That's the big defining feature. It doesn't make your artists book, comic, magazine any less radical or important or inspiring if they are made for profit or to develop your career. People need to eat and pay rent and make a living and writers and artists deserve to be paid. Artists should asbolutely be able to make a living from their art.
It also doesn't mean that zines are inherently better than other forms of self-published works. These works are still radical, they just might not be zines, and that's totally ok. We can still co-exist, we still table at many of the same zine fairs because we are still operating under the same umbrella of diy self-publishing. It just doesn't make them technically zines. Because zines are non profit.

The art of the zine swap is a major custom of zine culture. This has always been part of zine life and zinesters openly trade their zines with other zinesters for free. You don't view it as losing money, you view it as exchanging your ideas and that's really the point of zines, to share ideas quickly and cheaply. Most zines are meant to be shared and passed on, and it's common to see anti copyright/copyleft disclaimers in zines encouraging readers to make and distribute your own copies/scans of the zine and share with others. It's part of what makes a zine, that it can exist outside of traditional publishing economies. And while this non-profit model works for zines, it probably wouldn't work for independent magazines for example, which requires profit to sustain the work and to pay writers.

The reason why zinesters feel passionate about defining the term zine is because we've seen diy models of production co-opted by people precisely trying to make a profit or to elevate their status, using diy as a stepping stone to 'making it.'

It can feel gross to overhear someone bragging about how much money they have made from their zine. We've cringed when people apply the term 'business model' in relation to their zines, when creators discuss promoting and marketing goals in relation to zines, when people refer to making zines as their job, or when we've picked up an expensive art magazine filled with advertisements calling itself a zine. Absolutely none of those things would bother me if the term zine was removed from the situation. Want to make a living from your art? Go for it, I want to support that! Want to crowdfund your book? Sounds good, I'm in! Want to set up a independent magazine and pay your writers? I'm so down for that.

The term zine comes with a history and context which implies radical methods of publishing and sharing. It's not just a bunch of zinesters being petty over semantics saying 'you can't sit with us.' You can definitely sit with us, there just needs to be an understanding of that context. As an art librarian for the last 10 years I've seen the trend of lecturers and teachers in art schools using the term 'zines' interchangeably with 'artists' books' on book making courses without explaining any of the cultural history and context associated with that term. Art students then create artists' books, calling them zines, and then get frustrated when they aren't able to sell their artists' books for £30 at zine fairs when the average price of a zine at the same fair is £2. The context of the term matters.

Zines aren't just a way of describing a cut and paste aesthetic in the same way that 'punk' wouldn't be applied to a designer t-shirt covered in safety pins. I don't think anyone wants to police who gets to call their work a zine because that establishes hierarchies and rules which go against the point of zines in the first place. And this conversation will be repeated over and over until the end of time anyway.I'm sure zines will continue to adapt and change in ways we haven't thought of. I just hope they always maintain that link with non profit diy publishing.

This is Fake Diy zine available to order here:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The rise in zine recognition is great: there are more zine fairs than ever before, you can find out how to make a zine by reading Rookie or watching youtube tutorials, you can buy zines online rather than having to send £1 coin sellotaped to a bit of card in the post to a stranger, there are zine workshops in public libraries, it's ace!

# data[].attributes.body
Copy and paste the "stickers" from this webpage into your digital zine pages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Part of the Take It Back Zine Library. Catalogue Entry: https://takeitbackzine.com/library/chaosbrain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dear GP is a collection of patient-written, satirical letters that assess their mental health professionals in the style of a clinical evaluation. It also includes art, collage and re-purposing of clinical notes

Get your free PDF copy here:

EDIT: We now have image descriptions for anyone who uses screen reader software. We were unable to embed them into the original PDF so have created a separate document of image descriptions only.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dear GP is a collection of patient-written, satirical letters that assess their mental health professionals in the style of a clinical evaluation. It also includes art, collage and re-purposing of clinical notes Get your free PDF copy here: Download EDIT: We now have image descriptions for anyone who uses screen reader software.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Does A COVID-19 Doula Do? Zine - ONE Archives Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The What Does a COVID-19 Doula Do? zine is a snapshot of a time from the WHAT WOULD AN HIV DOULA DO? (WWHIVDD) community, responding in words, actions and images to the unfolding, unprecedented, global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

# data[].attributes.headline
I wanted to make a zine about my ADHD diagnosis

# data[].attributes.subject
I wanted to make a zine about my ADHD diagnosis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Document details

More from

I wanted to make a zine about my ADHD diagnosis...

Published on

Part of the Take It Back Zine Library. Catalog entry: https://takeitbackzine.com/library/iwanted

Create once. Share everywhere.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
I wanted to make a zine about my ADHD diagnosis...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Part of the Take It Back Zine Library. Catalog entry: https://takeitbackzine.com/library/iwanted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Part of the Take It Back zine library. Catalog Entry: https://takeitbackzine.com/library/mudlarking

# data[].attributes.body
This is an example of an audio zine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Listen to issues of Queer Out Here, an audio zine that explores the outdoors from queer perspectives. Take your ears adventuring!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Artists' Books and the Medical Humanities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I Make Books documents book artist Martha A. Hall's creative responses to her cancer diagnoses and treatments. Hall's books provided personal healing and an opportunity to convey her experience of navigating the health care system in the United States. One of her goals in making artist's books about cancer treatment was to facilitate conversations with health care practitioners about their interactions with patients. The film - like her books - act as a beginning point for conversations about patients' lived experiences. If you want to make your own books, check our bookbinding and Book as Body workshops.

Martha Hall, I Make Books. Film produced by the Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Martha Hall: I Make Books - Artists' Books and the Medical Humanities - Research at Kent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I Make Books documents book artist Martha A. Hall's creative responses to her cancer diagnoses and treatments. Hall's books provided personal healing and an opportunity to convey her experience of navigating the health care system in the United States.