A zine is usually a non – commercial, non professional publication, kind of like a magazine but with a twist. The main difference between a magazine and a zine is that zines are not out there to make a profit but, rather, to add
other, often unheard voices into the mix. Zines are usually made out of interest and passion and are often self-published by the writer/artist/creator. Typically zines are made using collage techniques and are then photocopied
since these are means available to almost everyone.
Zines can be difficult to define. The word “zine” is a shortened form of the term fanzine, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fanzines emerged as early as the 1930s among fans of science fiction. Zines also have roots in the informal, underground publications that focused on social and political activism in the ’60s. By the ’70s, zines were popular on the punk rock circuit. In the ’90s, the feminist punk scene propelled the medium and included such artists as Kathleen Hanna, who produced riot grrrl out of Olympia, Washington.
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier. A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000. Profit is not the primary intent of publication. There are so many types of zines: art and photography zines, literary zines, social and political zines, music zines, perzines (personal zines), travel zines, health zines, food zines. And the list goes on and on.
In class we were presented with lots of zines to look at and gain ideas and inspiration. These zines were typically all A5 many of them varied having lose inserts in the books. Some had pages smaller or larger than others. This showed a huge rage of diversity and ideas that i could use when creating my final zine.
Zine Plan
For my zine I want to create a flowing ascetic that can be seen on each page of the zine tying the narrative together. One idea that i though was really strong was incorporating lines into each one of my images. I thought this because a lot of my images contain vivid bold lines already such as the images with the metal grids and wires. I liked this whole ascetic of caged, almost trapped in which reflects directly back onto what life was like in WW2 because they were curfews they lived under occupation jersey was completely trapped. So i feel this will fit well with my story my images I already have got and create a real flowing story line behind the zine. When i actually get to putting the images next to each other that’s when i will be able to completely plan out how i want the images to look in coordination with each other. I want to have a mix of black and white images also images that are colored but no overly vibrant more just brown warm tones some images that I think i might use are:
