Zinestack Roundup No.1
📚🐈⬛ Attempting the impossible: herding all the cool zine cats on Substack. 😄
Let’s start with some basics from
:“7 Rules Of Zine Freedom As Decreed By Me”
Typically zines are easy to reproduce. I have zines that come in beautiful origami forms though, for example, so they can be as fancy as you want.
Some people argue that if a zine isn’t hastily photocopied in black and white, it’s not a zine. Come on. Don’t be a weirdo low-fi gatekeeper. Give colour some love. Yes, colour printing is more expensive, but it’s so prettyyyyyyyyyyy. Plus you can colour copy on the sly if you’re smart! That doesn’t mean your zine isn’t a zine.
Zines can be printed or digital. Some people, again, they’d say that digital zines aren’t real zines. Ugh.
A zine can be written or illustrated by one person or many people.
Zines can be about anything you want.
There’s completely zero restrictions on how long (or short) your content should be.
I personally feel that it’s very important that the political side of zine culture isn’t lost, because I feel sometimes zines are presented to people without that aspect of it at all, and it’s that emphasis on agency that I think is crucial.
A call for entries from :
“Welcome to The Collective Imprint, a worldwide zine collaboration that celebrates the pure, unrefined creativity of 2025. As digital progress and changing environments influence our world, this initiative invites artists, writers and creatives of all kinds to capture and share the essence of human creativity in the present day.”
And the Note that started it—keep Liking, Commenting and Restacking:
Foldy Comics
Make a dynamic five-page zine with a single sheet of paper and no staples from
Join ‘s Catdroool Club and receive original art every month.
Quimby’s Bookstore, Wicker Park’s Indie Publishing Paradise, For Sale After More Than 3 Decades
What could a Zine Coop look like?
Comment below and Restack—let’s get this conversation started!
What would a zine coop look like? Love this question. Some ideas... A sliding scale membership. A collaborative governing structure. Mentorships or small groups for mutual support. Curated zine bundles. An annual conference, now I'm getting really ambitious. An online catalogue.
Here is my first ever zine that I made over the weekend :) : https://leanimation.substack.com/p/sunday-spread-week-4-the-stick