I finished three new zines yesterday- two new main ones, and a freebie. @Japes wanted some, didn’t you? (Thanks to @AllOfThemWitches already- it was all a ploy to get your home address)
Now with the wonders of technology you can choose to pay in Korean Won or Danish Krone if you so wish.
It’s a small magazine you make yourself. So it’s non-commercial, not focused on what advertisers want. In the pre-internet days there were a lot that had information/reviews etc about music and football, but nowadays they focus more on people’s personal writing.
The idea is as well that you swap with people as well as sell them (and there’s a going rate that’s considered fair- you’re not going to get rich doing this). There’s regular fairs in different towns and cities in the UK and abroad (prob the nearest to you is Nottingham, but I’m not sure if/when it’s running this year). You end up getting friends with people from all over the place via swapping and keeping in touch.
Football fanzines are still a thing to varying degrees, it’s one of the very few fan-culture things that seems to have avoided the clutches of the big-money modern game innit
These look like they would have been very satisfying to make in the actual physical creation sense, they look fun
these look cool, i think its the sort of thing id like to be more into. i contributed to a couple that my friend made a couple of years ago and tried to make one to go with a piece me and my gf made for an exhibition but my printer fucked up so that didnt happen. feels like the sort of thing i could get very into tho
I entered a raffle at a Japanese food fair. It wasn’t quite an open raffle though, as they asked on the entrance form if you had a blog, and what the address was. Turns out they wanted someone who would take some nice photos to use on their website.
I do colour ones when it’s appropriate ie there are colour photographs. For text though, b&w is expected, and the going rate for an issue depending on thickness is £1-3. People who charge above that/print things in colour or on glossy paper when it’s unnecessary are seen as taking the piss and not entering into the spirit properly.
I used to use a photocopier when I had access to cheap/free copying and reams of coloured paper, but now I just use a laser printer. I scan the colour master sheets, clean them up on photoshop to be high contrast (modern photocopiers have something similar built in) and then create a pdf of them to print off. I’ve got boxes of different coloured paper I bought in bulk. Staples and the like charge a fortune for copying, and if you want coloured paper you have to bring your own, adding more expense.
Also, you’re in Manchester, right? The Nexus Arts cafe has a zine library that friends of mine run. It’s in a separate room behind the bar area, and you can sit and read hundreds of zines there. (They don’t lend out).