Zines

Zines Collection

What Are Zines?

Zines are a diverse form, but importantly, all zines share certain characteristics, such as the ones outlined in the graphic above. To restate the poster above in plain text, Zines are:

• Created by individuals or small community groups. Usually zine creators, called "zinesters," are people who have been minoritized and excluded from traditional publishing models. Because zines are self-published (printed without the need for a publishing company or other corporate entity), they allow people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures to publish work that is meaningful to them.
• Printed and distributed in small, limited runs. Commercial printers, which have the capability to print in mass quantities, are not involved in the production of zines. Rather, individual creators or small community groups print zines themselves, and have much smaller capacities and funds. Thus, zines are usually produced in very small batches at a time. Because zinesters often create many zines over a short period of time, zines may go out of print quickly as zinesters focus their attention on their newer works.
• Created with primary intentions of knowledge-sharing, wisdom-sharing, elucidating unique (and often actively oppressed) perspectives. Profit is not a primary motivator for zine creation. This is a stark departure from mainstream publishing, which is very profit-oriented.
• Usually printed on standard printer paper (8.5 x 11 in.) and folded in some configuration to make a small booklet. This makes them affordable to print and purchase, but also means that zines can be quite delicate. Please handle the zines at TCC with care so that they can continue to be enjoyed by students for years to come.

Under construction!

This guide is actively "under construction!" Meaning, I am working to add new resources to this guide almost daily. Please continue to check back for new resources, especially on navigating finding zines in the TCC Library collection!