Zines!
Zines can feature poetry, jokes, cartoons, collage, and artwork, essentially anything that can be put down on paper. Here are resources to help you learn more about zines and zinemaking, and ways you can get started on making your own.
Zines at Christchurch City Libraries
The Zine Collection is a not for loan collection of New Zealand zines and small press comics on Auahatanga | Creativity, Level 4, Tūranga. From the initial 200 zines in 2021, the collection has grown to more than 1000, and includes two small pop-up collections in community libraries. There are seven genre headings for this collection: Art, Comic, Literary, Personal, Political, Music and Miscellaneous.
In addition, there is small curated permanent collection of mainly Christchurch and Canterbury zines on Tuakiri | Identity, Level 2, Tūranga. The focus of this collection is to preserve examples of the genre for the future.
Pop up zine collections
There are small pop up collections of zines at South and Upper Riccarton libraries.
Add your zine to the library collection
If you want to add your zine to the library's zine collection, print out this form [207KB PDF] and:
- Drop off your zine/s at a library;
- OR post to us at:
Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi
PO Box 73045
Christchurch 8154
New Zealand
Tell us about your zine, and we can catalogue it correctly – making it easier for you and others to discover your zine online. Your author name doesn’t have to be your legal name; it could be a nickname, your social media handle, or you can choose to remain anonymous. We know that zines can be incredibly personal and you can choose how you want to be connected to it.
About Zines
Do you draw? Doodle? Write notes to friends? Glue stuff? Cut paper? You can make a zine!
Zines (pronounced zeens, not like lines) are self-published booklets, often circulated in small numbers. Traditionally, zines are cut-and-paste or hand-drawn then copied on a photocopier. Today, you can also find zines that are produced digitally and feature photos, typed text, and digitally produced artwork. Zine makers distribute their zines through music stores, online stores, art galleries, and at festivals and conventions.
What do you put in a zine?
Anything goes! Zines touch on music, politics, television, movies, work, food, whatever. You can get to know people pretty well through their zines because they are highly personal and whatever the creator wants it to be! Zines can feature poetry, jokes, cartoons, collage, and artwork, essentially anything that can be put down on paper. There are many kinds of zines out there! Like, fanzines - the name given to zines that are by fans about their fandom.
What are zines for?
In her book From A to Zine, Julie Bartel writes that zines are all completely individual. The only thing that zines have in common is that the existence is the result of passion rather than a desire for profit, she writes. And she adds that it is the offline nature of zines that makes them interesting:
Zines spring from the desire to create a tangible material object, and the physicality of zines is what differentiates them in essential ways from their electronic counterparts. Zines are about paper and glue, staples, thread, and ink, not about HTML tags, links and pop ups. Creating an artefact which can be passed from one person to the next, which can be sent through the mail (the regular mail), is part of the appeal.
Making a Zine
Let's make a zine - print out our Youth Librarian Alicia's awesome how-to guide to zines. [8MB PDF].
How to videos
How to make a zine
How To: Zines
Ariel explains what a zine is and the power of making a zine to get your voice heard.
How to make a zine from one piece of printer paper
Dillon shows you how to make an eight-page folded zine. This is the quickest and easiest way to get started making zines.
How to Make a Zine | Lollalane
YouTuber Lollalane demonstrates how to make a zine booklet with hand-stitched binding and films her creative process.
How to make a zine
Jordan Clark shows you how to make a folded zine and films her creative process. Her video inspired others in the journal/DIY/penpal community to create their own zines from their craft stashes.
Creative Corner | How to make your own quaran-zine
Caroline Kulczycky, the creator of the Feminist Math Zine, shares tips for putting together a simple zine.
Caroline Kulczycky, a student ambassador for the Center of Creativity and the creator of the Feminist Math Zine, shares her process for creating a zine. https://t.co/twY2VslBUd
— The Pitt News (@ThePittNews) March 27, 2020
Zine communities
There are zine-making communities throughout New Zealand. They often hold workshops and festivals where zine makers can come together to sell and trade their zines. You can follow and join them on Facebook and Instagram.
Zines in the news
- Behind the Wheel of A Large Automobile and other amazine zines Vicki Anderson, The Press, 27 September 2019
- Auckland Zinefest is amazine The Spinoff, 23 July 2019
- Creativity flows in the capital as Wellington’s Zinefest approaches Dominion Post, 30 October 2018
- Radical, Raw and Real: Asian Diaspora Activism through Zine-making Hainamana, 14 November 2018
- What a zine is and why you could (and should!) make one The Big Idea, 23 February 2018
- An invitation to participate: Zine-making in New Zealand Bryce Galloway, B.180 Christchurch Art Gallery
Ōtautahi Zinefest: Sunday 27 August
The 2023 Ōtautahi Zinefest was on at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 27 August. As part of Zinefest and WORD Christchurch Festival, teens created zines at Tūranga.
Interview: Alicia and Sarah on Ōtautahi Zinefest
More about Ōtautahi Zinefest
- Follow Ōtautahi Zinefest on Facebook
- Follow @otautahi_zinefest on Instagram
More about Zinefest
See our zine pics and photos from Zinefest:
More:
Ahead of the 2018 Christchurch Zinefest, Reuben Woods spoke to Alice Bush and Jane Maloney from Zinefest Christchurch and the CHCH/Ōtautahi Zine Library on the Watch this Space blog:
- It’s Pronounced ‘Zeen’ – Christchurch Zinefest 2018 (Part One)
- It’s Pronounced ‘Zeen’ – Christchurch Zinefest 2018 (Part Two)
The rules?
In short, there are few rules for zines. Some would argue that there are none. Make one yourself or get your friends in on it!
- Can I make a zine about my cat? YES!
- Can I make a zine about that old guy who whistles in front of my house every night? YES!
- Can I make a zine about my obsession with underwater basket weaving? YES!
- Can I make a zine without words? YES!
- Can I make a zine about anything and with any materials I like? YES! Pretty much.
You get the idea. Now, go! Make zines!
