Zine-ology

I first came across zines in Blaft Publications webpage. They have a section dedicated to the same. Zines (as in Maga-"zines") are just small books, and can contain anything. They can be hand-made or printed, generally self-published. When I checked online, there are a lot of formats, workshops, clubs and all, for zines. Many of the zines I have seen are very creative and artistically top-tier.

When we were younger (when we were in school), my sister and I were creating these zines. Although at that time, we did not know the word for it. We would fold the paper into four or eight sections, write stories and jokes in it, draw pictures even. I am not remembering clearly if we even slid in some songs. 

We had a skipping rope, whose end part we would use as a mike. My memory is vague on whether we would present our zines together, holding each end of the rope or individually do it. But yes, we would read out these stories and jokes (and possibly songs) to the invisible audience. I tried looking for these zines, expecting at least one to show up from hiding. But, after a lot of searching, I came to conclusion that these zines are lost to time.

I am not sure if my picture books from younger days can be considered as zines. But if we go by the standard definition, they are hand made and self-published with just one copy, makes them eligible for zine status. I will write about them in future posts.

I tried creating a zine today. I thought of drawing the places I wanted to visit. Here's the catch, I am not good with drawing pictures. So, I ended up changing the topic to "My common drawings", and drew the kind of drawings I have been drawing since childhood. I at least tried to make it as colourful as possible.