handmade zines/magazines

[regularchickens]

I've published a couple of photo zines, starting last fall. I'm working on another now, and I plan to keep it up. I like publishing to print, and I like forcing myself to think about what will work in short books. I'm also not a fan of Blurb's pricing, which prevents anybody but those with plentiful disposable income from sampling your work.

I have a few remaining copies of my second zine up on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/92500221/three-days-away

I do print through Magcloud, but I make orders, package, and ship the copies myself. Magcloud's site and process is impersonal and hard to sort through. I've started looking at alternate, more hand-made means of printing my books/zines, but I'm much better at the digital side of things than at the physical, and I haven't found a solution that meets a good price/quality point yet.

This is an interesting site (with quite a following) that lets anybody who releases a self-published photobook to get a mention: http://theindependentphotobook.blogspot.com/

 

[FrankS]

What you are doing is a lot like those of us who continue forward with film, even though digital makes more logical sense in many ways.

 

[dreilly]

I publish a zine called Geneva13, and I'm not sorry about missing anything, because I don't think I have. There are things that a physical zine can do that a website never, ever can, like be picked up on a waiting room chair and be read cover to cover, by innumerable people who all live in the same community and often know the people the zine is about. This is one area where the internet just can't effectively operate, the local. People agglomerate on the internet according to interests, not physical proximity, and I guess that's the point of the internet. But print zines can cover a discrete geographical area, get passed hand to hand and be accessed by anyone who stumbles on them, and can read. Geneva13 is all about the city where I live, Geneva, NY.

I bristle at any talk of previous golden ages. Film. Zines. Politics. Music. "Punk was only punk until..." Pffff! Yes, certainly the role of zines has changed, from uniting people across a wide geographic area around a common interest to communicating to a specific geographic community (or interest group within that community), but the form lives on, and is reinvented and rediscovered by new people. For them, like for me, zines remain fresh and revolutionary. Luckily we ignore the people who say that the real time for zines was before we were born, and we go ahead and do it anyway. The stories that I've had the privilege of covering for this little magazine invented on a long car ride to the adirondacks four years ago have changed my life, and in some real ways impacted the community. And it's spawned a growing interest in zines in general at my college and in the wider city.

Jeff, I'd love a copy of your zine. I'll happily trade for the latest issue of Geneva13, where we look at examples of creative reuse, like a furniture factory that uses reclaimed wood from old factories (and is in an old factory too) and the supremely weird subcommunity of steam engine aficionados that have a huge gathering near Geneva every summer (and no, they don't seem to have ever heard the term "steampunk") to fire up these giant boilers and run crazy, dangerous looking steam trackors up and down the midway. The world is weird and wonderful!

 

[selloutboy]

I'm currently raising resources to actually make my own zine.
Thinking of just going xerox, paper, and stapler since all the shots are black and white anyway. 😱

This thread make just want to go ahead and do it and worry about the problems when I encounter them. 😎 (still have no idea how to distribute since Philippine international postage is crap)

Nice seeing people's thoughts on zines though 🙂

 

[jefffribourg]

I'm currently raising resources to actually make my own zine.
Thinking of just going xerox, paper, and stapler since all the shots are black and white anyway. 😱

This thread make just want to go ahead and do it and worry about the problems when I encounter them. 😎 (still have no idea how to distribute since Philippine international postage is crap)

Nice seeing people's thoughts on zines though 🙂

thats the only way to make a zine. my first one was pure mistakes and i made 15 copies and took them to local bookstores and record shops.

if you xerox yours(which most zines are) run a test with a page that has a lot of different tones and value to see how well it holds up, then adjust the copier a little to make it more accurate. paper is also important when trying to recreate quality, some papers are simply just better and allow quality and others can be sloppy. in the end its still a zine and doesn't need to look like a high quality art magazine.

any ways im glad to have sparked some interest in getting people back to zines and look forward to seeing what you have in store.

 

[jefffribourg]

Jeff, I'd love a copy of your zine. I'll happily trade for the latest issue of Geneva13, where we look at examples of creative reuse, like a furniture factory that uses reclaimed wood from old factories (and is in an old factory too) and the supremely weird subcommunity of steam engine aficionados that have a huge gathering near Geneva every summer (and no, they don't seem to have ever heard the term "steampunk") to fire up these giant boilers and run crazy, dangerous looking steam trackors up and down the midway. The world is weird and wonderful!

yeah i would be way into that! i live with a bunch of people in an old broom factory in LA and a majority of the people here that are into the "steam punk" recycled goods to make art thing. im sure they would love to see it as well.

when i get all these guys printed id gladly trade.

 

[selloutboy]

if you xerox yours(which most zines are) run a test with a page that has a lot of different tones and value to see how well it holds up, then adjust the copier a little to make it more accurate. paper is also important when trying to recreate quality, some papers are simply just better and allow quality and others can be sloppy. in the end its still a zine and doesn't need to look like a high quality art magazine.

any ways im glad to have sparked some interest in getting people back to zines and look forward to seeing what you have in store.

I appreciate the tips!
Duly noted. I guess my next step now is to find a good paper and do the test runs.

Thank you 🙂

 

[Hjortsberg]

yeah i would be way into that! i live with a bunch of people in an old broom factory in LA and a majority of the people here that are into the "steam punk" recycled goods to make art thing. im sure they would love to see it as well.

when i get all these guys printed id gladly trade.

I've got an idea about where you live in Los Angels from your posts in this thread and the activities you talk about.

If you have a moment, listen to the song "Picasso's Tear" by Los Angeles musician Stan Ridgway from his album Anatomy. I think he might be singing about you and your friends.

 

[Hjortsberg]

well, upon further research and listening to that song again, it's kinda tough to get there thru the lyrics. However, this is what Stan says about that song:

"Back a few years, a downtown loft space was a place where I hung for a while. No trees. No grass. Concrete and steel. I had some friends down there and we all had alot of ideas about alot of things. And we were working on our art night and day. Big, big plans. It was great for a while until reality exploded into the picture and then... it had to be re-framed. We had alot of good things happen though, and we still talk about how we're going to get the other stuff we didn't finish.. done. We hope. If we live so long.