In a digital world, zines honor the printed word
Annual event shows simple booklets are filled with meaning
Published out of homes and often hand-assembled with staplers and tape by sneaky late-night employees making liberal use of the office copier, zines — or do-ityourself publications — have been popular with art and punk communities since the ’70s.
Now, with declining advertising revenue forcing alternative publications like the Houston Press to shutter their print editions, zines remain one of the few options for artists, poets and even former journalists to self-publish.
“Sometimes people get intimidated making zines because they feel like it has to be a comic or animation, but a lot of people put really useful information in them,” said Jasmine Monsegue, who taught classes on the topic Saturday at Lawndale Art Center as part of the Houston Zine Fest, an annual gathering that has been going on in some form since 1994.
More than 60 publishers gathered this year to sell, trade and hand out works that ranged from small pamphlets on folded printer paper to glossy print booklets.
“I can make it myself. I don’t need any special equipment, and that’s what’s so great,” said John Rassenfoss, a local zine star and the host of the public access show, “Space City Chronicles.” “I make like 15 of these and sell them. They’re gone. I don’t make any more, and I can just move on to
the next one.”
Sara Cress, a former staffer at the Houston Chronicle, got into zines as a means to spread her poetry. Publishing three to four times a week on her website, breakingpoems.com, Cress collects her news cycle-inspired poems into printed editions that she sells at events like Zine Fest.
“Having something printed is so much more meaningful, and people love having something to hold on to,” said Cress. “I don’t know if zines will ever replace the Press, but these are a really valid form of expression.”
They’re an inexpensive option to provide art communities some sort of print coverage when other publications can’t or won’t.
“A great example would be Wake the Zine in Galveston,” said Zine Fest organizer Evan Mccarley. “They saw a need to get the words out about music and art to fill that void of not having an arts and culture magazine in Galveston.”
Zines focusing on gonzo journalism and political discourse have become staples of organizations like the Houston Anarchist Black Cross, which distributed titles such as “Why I’m Facing 75 Years,” “If You See Something do Something: 12 Things To Do Instead of Calling the Cops” and “HTown Holds It Down” at its booth Saturday.
“It’s a medium for people to write ideas that don’t fit into the mainstream press and get that circulated through their own networks and channels,” said Houston Anarchist Black Cross member and zine writer Monica Gomez. “The analysis that might not make it in the op-ed of the Houston Chronicle but might have gone into Houston Press or Free Press, you could put that in a zine.”
Conner Clifton, a former NPR reporter and contributor on Houston Matters, gave a presentation on blockchain technology and zine creation Saturday. Though he said print is undoubtedly in the process of dying, mediums such as zines stand a chance at surviving and larger print publications might be able to learn something from them.
“I do think mainstream media could borrow from zines in that they’re personal,” said Clifton. “It’s really difficult to be a journalist when you’re not invoking some sort of emotion.”