SO, WHAT’S A ZINE?

So for the initiated- what is a zine?

Zines are non-commercial, self-published booklets that are typically reproduced using a copy machine or digital printer.

They can be illustrated with images by hand, or photographs or just be words on the paper. They can be freehand or collaged. They can be deeply personal , expressing the zine authors frustrations of joys or fears, the can be political, environmental, clean, scatological, black and white, in full colour. They can come with quizzes.

Mostly done with small print runs on a variety of papers, with staples, or hand sewn, they are all unique snapshots of personal feelings and niche groups.

There are zines for musicians, and artists, science fiction fans, LGBTQI + community, cooking zines, pet zines, lovelorn zines, sexual advice zines. Holly English, who’s work has been shortlisted several times for Zine awards, writes about a subject she knows too well – living with chronic pain. Horrible boyfriends, dealing with elderly relatives,

There is almost nothing that can’t be covered by a zine and that is the whole point- they are are a total freedom of expression media- the only censorship is that imposed by the author themselves.

If people don’t like what the author is saying, they don’t have to buy it – and in fact a lot of zines are free. The general attitude is – if you don’t agree with me, go write your own zine!

The Byron Print Fest brought together a handful of newbies nervously putting out their work for a first time to some of the titans of the underground industry who have been producing or publishing zines for decades. They were all totally delighted to meet each other.

Interviews with zine authors, collectors, publishers and zine fair organisers.

Let’s start at the beginning with an interview with journalist and zine producer Benjo Kazue, on the eve of the first ever Byron Bay Print Fest which he single handedly organised. Benjo writes and publishes a zine called ‘Cosmic Phallusy’

Benjo Kazue

The Byron Print Fair April 29.

Held in the local Scout Hall in Byron Bay , a good time was had by all.

Here is a half hour Podcast of the event and below you can listen to fuller versions of the interviews.

Luke Sinclair

Luke runs the Sticky Institute in Melbourne and brought a big selection of zines to the fair. He relates how the first Melbourne Zine fair started small and very quickly ballooned into an enormous nationwide event. There are now many such events around Australia and also in New Zealand and Luke is involved with many of them

Holly English

Holly has been shortlisted several times for Zine awards. She has written a lot about chronic pain ( from her own experience) ageing (in ‘Grace’ ) and disappointment with art school (Marsha)
She knows that no one’s life is perfect and makes her zines to help others cope with life. She famously staged her own wedding to ‘Existence’ ( everyone had a good time!

Holly English talks about “Dad”

This is a link to another interesting interview with Holly about her comic ‘Dad’.

Mark William Tyler

Mark produces the ‘GC Bugle’ zine. He is another person whose love of the punk scene led him to zines. He is also a boxer. who loves to write poetry and this interview finishes with ‘Hey Babe’, one of his poems.

Chris Lego

Chris Lego is a prolific , experienced Zine producer and screen printer who also diversifies into tea towels and posters. He produced a zine about the aftermath of the Lismore floods – but he says he has not distributed it in Lismore where the floods were horrific as he made the zine for people who had little idea of what the experience was like. He also imports material from America from other Zine distributors.

Eli and Sasha

Eli and Sasha are Lismore locals who are enthusiastically embracing zine production with the founding of ‘Ditto magazine.. They work as a couple , and find they have complementary skills.

Eva Wilson

Eva wants to make people laugh and she produces funny zines and also poems which she writes on paint chart strips.

Bee

Bee attended the zine fest to meet other zine producers. She has made quite a few ‘ per-zines’.’ – stories about about things that have happened to her. Like a lot of zine writers , she likes ‘hard copy’ rather than online zines.

Cora

Cora has found a unique use for a zine- she draws pictures with subtitles that use ‘phonemes’ to help people read and write. She also runs a radio program devoted to Zine world, but up until now has not produced her own zine for the public. Her zine is available through Sticky Institute in Melbourne.

Aiden Gentle and Ruby Scott

Aiden runs an LGBTQI+ youth social group for teenagers . Ruby was one young person who attended the Print Fair and made her own zine about being queer.

Aiden Gentle

Ruby Scott

Max Melit

Max is a freelance journalist who writes a beautifully produced music zine. He also finds there is a lot of freedom in a music zine as it can be more honest in its articles than the mainstream music press which is more about promotion. Max also found found a zine a more popular and subscribed to than a blog.

Max Melit – the read

Max read a small extract from his current zine to show that as a free reviewer, he can be honest bout the music scene.

Matt Day

Matt Day is a long time zine fan and collector .He brought a large amount of collectible zines to trade or sell. He has been collecting for over 3 decades and is aware of the evolution of zines and how they have changed.