Zines are the epitome of DIY publishing and as long as you have access to scissors, glue and a photocopier, anyone can produce their own. As a medium, they are inherently subversive; they’re self-produced so they don’t have to answer to anybody and their style is often strongly linked to a punk aesthetic.[i] As Michelle Kempson outlines in her article, ‘I sometimes Wonder Whether I’m an Outside’: Negotiating Belonging in Zine Subculture’, there is a sense of community that comes from participating in the creation and sharing of zines.[ii] You would not get into creating zines as a means to make a living… instead, people almost exclusively there to exchange time and creativity. People will give you something they’ve made in exchange for something of yours that they want to experience. The reward? Sharing your creativity with another group of people. Spending time on something that makes you feel something rather than payment at the end of it.
Take for instance, Rocket, which was an independently produced series of zines that circulated mainly around Melbourne for free around 2014 and 2015. The zine is printed almost like a collage on simple cartridge paper in black and white, which evokes feelings of old-school punk aesthetic. Their reasons for doing this are not just purely for aesthetics; by printing in the simplest manner possible using cheap printers means that costs are cut by a huge amount which is entirely necessary to sustain the publication.
The zine community is a fantastic way to inform and entertain people from a number of different subcultures. Their creators generally have a specific interest in a topic and can share that in a way that would not be possible in mainstream printing. But without the support of mainstream printing and advertising, keeping a free publication like Rocket running is extremely difficult. It is a sad reminder that nothing in this world is free. You would have to have funds in order to create content and distribute it using print media; even using the most basic of techniques still requires printing as a huge cost at the very least. By not charging anyone to cover this cost, the lifespan of a zine is generally quite short-lived, as seen with Rocket and the cost they incurred.
They turned to crowd-funding in order to make production and distribution possible, just as a lot of self-initiated projects rely on.[iii] They put their costs at $10,000 for 12 months of production which has since ended because it’s not something that can be sustainable. Presenting work that is subversive is unlikely to be backed by larger corporations and that means having to fund the project yourself. There was no mainstream advertising or sponsorship; instead, the zine focused on sharing creative talents amongst a range of different disciplines for free. Anything mentioned in the zine was there because the creators genuinely felt passionate about a particular band or artist.
While this independence is a necessary link to the form of the zine, it is also the downfall of its distribution. Trading zines for other publications or creative endeavours is a wonderful community initiative but it means that someone is always out of pocket for the printing of new content. Perhaps there needs to be a middle ground where zines must be charged a fee for the printing so a zine can continue to be sustainable. Until then, people will engage in this subculture of creating zines until they can no longer financially support it themselves. For now, we enjoy the passionate yet mostly short-lived lifespan of each zine and look at the positives; having a copy of a rarely printed piece of art that means you’re part of a community.
[i] Teal Triggs, “Scissors and Glue: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic.” 2006. United States: Oxford University, page 69-81
[ii] Michelle Kempson, “‘I Sometimes Wonder Whether I’M An Outsider’: Negotiating Belonging In Zine Subculture”, Sociology 49, no. 6 (2015): 1081-1095.
[iii] Emily Newbold, “Keep Rocket Free”, Pozible, last modified 2017, accessed April 5, 2017, https://pozible.com/project/185255.
Documenting Design 
Zines may have been the epitome of DIY publication in an era before digital publishing platforms became accessible to everyone and anyone, however in an age now, where digital platforms can distribute, communicate and share information so easily and for free, I find it interesting that Rocket zine remained a conventional print magazine that lost money in 2014-2015. The fundamental ideology of the zine; trading, sharing and feeing a part of a creative community can still be achieved online. I wonder for how long independent, printed zines will sustain in an online era. Will all zines transition to an online platform to increase their lifespan and cut costs?
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