What's a zine?
“What’s a zine?” is an 8-page mini zine that you can download and print on your own. It includes a brief introduction to zines: what zines are, some historical highlights, and common formats.
The zine is available on Ko-fi for free (or pay what you want).
The PDF is sized to print on one sheet of 8.5 x 11-inch paper (standard U.S. letter size).
This zine is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which means you’re welcome to distribute and share copies for non-commercial use.
If you don’t know how to fold this kind of zine, search for “how to fold an 8-page zine” on YouTube to find tutorials.
Washi tape as collage pieces
I’m working on a new zine, and I want to share some process pics with you. 🙂 I’m making pages with black and white illustrations and then using washi tape to make collage elements.
Here’s how I’m doing it.
- Draw the picture in black ink.
- Lay a piece of tracing paper over the drawing. With a pencil, outline the area where washi tape will go. For this page, I wanted a curved shape around the planet.
- Use washi tape to cover the area outlined in pencil. I kept even lines of tape but you could overlap pieces or rip the tape into smaller pieces.
- Flip the tracing paper over. Use scissors to cut along the pencil line.
- Glue the washi tape piece onto the drawing.
Zine: So You Met Your Past Self
“So You Met Your Past Self” includes tips for what to do when you meet a past version of yourself. This fictional zine is a handy guide for the time traveler in your life (even when that’s you).
This zine is available on Etsy (U.S.) only.
I made the background for this zine by hand. I diluted blue fountain pen ink in water. Then I painted the ink on to watercolor paper.
After the paper dried, I drew an abstract design with a dark blue marker and white gel pen.
This kind of line drawing is a technique I learned from Katie Gebely.
First you draw dots on the page, at random. Then you connect the dots with straight lines. That’s what I did with the dark blue marker. Then I added shorter lines in white gel pen.
Visuals in Barbie and Pleasantville
I wrote an essay for The Wrench Dispatch: The Movie Issue about visuals in Barbie and Pleasantville. The zine came out in January 2024 and collected essays about recent movies.
The essay is about 900 words, so I’m going old school and putting it under a Read More. So retro.
Zine: How to make a mini zine
“How to make a mini zine” is an 8-page mini zine that you can download and print on your own. It includes a brief introduction to zines and instructions for how to fold an 8-page mini zine from a single sheet of paper.
The zine is available on Ko-fi for free (or pay what you want).
The PDF is sized to print on one sheet of 8.5 x 11-inch paper (standard U.S. letter size). No access to a color printer? No problem — the zine looks great in black and white, too.
To fold the zine, you can follow the instructions directly on the PDF. Or if you prefer video instructions, search for “how to fold an 8-page zine” on YouTube.
This zine is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which means you’re welcome to distribute and share copies for non-commercial use.
Zine: The antidote to social media
“The antidote to social media” is a mini zine that looks at how negative things are outweighing positives on social media. But social media platforms are still a good way to find people to connect with. The zine suggests ways to work around the negative aspects of social media.
Copies are available on Etsy (U.S. only).
A lot of my zines start in a notebook page. Here’s where I started writing out what I wanted to include in this zine.
Zine: Children of Immigrants
“Children of Immigrants” is a half-page zine that collects art and writing about immigrant experiences. Thirteen people contributed stories, poetry, photography, illustrations, and collages.
The finished zine is 8.5" x 5.5", 28 pages (including covers), and printed in full color.
Everyone who contributed to the zine received a complimentary copy. The rest of the copies sold out, mostly at Lancaster Zine Fest. 😃 So, no more physical copies but you can download a digital version from Ko-fi for free or pay what you want.
Note: The digital version is a PDF meant to be read on a screen. The PDF is not formatted for printing and folding a paper copy.
Zine: Shoveling sand - My favorite writing advice
“Shoveling sand” is a 20-page zine that collects my favorite writing advice from several writers. I grouped quotes by themes including “keep a notebook,” “don’t worry about being popular,” and “get the first draft down.”
This zine measures 5.25 inches high x 4 inches wide. The cover is printed in full color on white cardstock. The interior pages are printed in black and white on 24 lb. white paper. Designed and laid out in Canva.
Zine: Useless Venn Diagrams
“Useless Venn Diagrams” is a mini zine with random observations, put into Venn diagram format. Topics include puzzles, note-taking, and movies.
Printed in black on teal paper. I drew this zine by hand and then adjusted spacing and layout in Canva.
Zine: Cat's Cradle
“Cat’s Cradle” is a tiny story about mimicking someone. It’s not quite sci-fi, but it feels like it…maybe because it was inspired by a scene near the end of Annihilation. (I won’t spoil the movie and neither does the zine.)
Here’s the full text of the story:
It’s like playing cat’s cradle, but we aren’t using string.
I do one thing. She does something else that feels like… an extension. A continuation.
And then we swap.
She does one thing— says a phrase, draws some lines, moves her arm just so.
I extend— a line of poetry, a floral doodle, a yoga pose.
And then we swap.
The training protocol doesn’t specify how to teach. Just that I’m supposed to.
I report progress back to the team.
And then we swap.
