23 Comments
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Billie Shafran's avatar

!!! Thanks so much for the shout-out, this write-up was wonderful. Feeling very encouraged by the zine culture brewing here on the stack 🤝💛

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

No, thank you!! I love everything you're doing over on your newsletter/Substack and can't wait to read/see more! 💜

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Gayle Ramage's avatar

As a teen in the late 90s, I used to buy a Blondie fanzine from someone who made them here in the UK. My sister co-created a Kula Shaker fanzine with a friend, too.

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

Ooh!! Much love to fanzines, they are my favorite type/genre 💜

Thank you for sharing!

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Josh Datko's avatar

Ohh, very nice. I like the history of comparing to to Thomas Paine. It gives some weight to thr revolutionary nature of zines (they already had it of course!)

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

Right?! Alternative press and self-publishing models have pretty much existed since the dawn of the Enlightenment Period, if not some before from witch pamphlets and religious tracts :) Check out the anti-lynching pamphlets from Ida B. Wells. Those are as revolutionary as they come!

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Krys Kinsel's avatar

🖋️✏️🖌️✂️💫 Right on!!!

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bee choi's avatar

this caught my eye cuz HECK is the name of my zine 🤣 it's fully analog and i scanned them into its own tumblr more about my zine history here: https://partydip.substack.com/p/diy-chaos-how-making-zines-saved?r=4nrx2

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

Ahh! Your zines are amazing! Can't wait to read/learn more :)

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bee choi's avatar

oh thank you!! 😊

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Danielle Nadine Pierre's avatar

This was a great read at a quick pace. This let me reflect fondly on the paper fanzine I made for my Multimedia class in undergrad. The prof kept it for future cohorts 🥹

Thank you!

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Lily Caraballo's avatar

I came across a couple of zines on a college campus last month. They’re not the first ones I came across, but they got me curious in making one of my own for fun

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

Zines are all over college campuses now, it’s awesome! Glad to hear you’re feeling inspired to make one ☺️

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Brigitte's avatar

My favorite pre-00s zine was Laughter and the Sound of Teacups by Vanessa Berry. She wrote a super detailed account of one day of her life each month and I was obsessed. She still publishes a zine once a year called I Am A Camera.

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

I know I Am A Camera! wow, I will have to check her other work out.

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Brigitte's avatar

It's such a good zine! The old one (LATSOT) was my biggest zine comfort read back in the day. I believe she published a book and I think she has a Substack now too.

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Menno Liefstingh's avatar

really love this, thank you

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Erika Settles's avatar

Glad to see they’re still around! I used to order zines in the mail back in the 90s.

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Vince Roman's avatar

I collect gay porn zines from the 1980s

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

You've probably already heard of the zine exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum from last Winter/Spring. They had a stellar collection of gay porn zines and queercore zines from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in that exhibit. If you can get your hands on the catalog from that exhibit, I highly recommend flipping through it to see what they featured.

In case you haven't, here's a link to their page: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/copy_machine_manifestos_artists_who_make_zines

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Marc Schiller's avatar

👊🏻💪

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jill elizabeth's avatar

I rarely actually read digital content but so glad I read this. I look forward to learning more.

Good work 👏

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Abby Schleifer's avatar

Thank you so much! Grateful to have you here :)

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