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Until very recently, I never paid much attention to zines or zine culture. I think I know why.
When I was younger, at open mics or poetry readings, I was always a little put off by the people hawking their smudged, typo-ridden, homemade print-outs. Not that I had anything against smudged, typo-ridden, homemade print-outs per se, but it was the way they were hawked that made me uncomfortable. The people doing the hawking were either overly aggressive or embarrassingly sheepish—unlike the musicians with their CDs, who were generally too high to convincingly muster aggression or sheepishness.
Looking back, my “ick” response about the whole thing was probably due in large part to my own insecurity. I couldn’t imagine myself pushing my own homemade print-outs, so I was quick to judge those who were braver than me.
In any case, over the past few years, I’ve had a change of heart. Now that I’m older and jaded for other reasons, I can remove all the social aspects associated with zines and simply appreciate the form itself. And zines, I’ve found—particularly now, in the digital age—are pretty great.
Zines are never what you expect. Even with the simplest zine, there’s always some expectation-defying element—a personal touch that’s straight from the heart (or funny bone) of the author. This is what I’ve come to love most about zines.
Earlier this year, author Tim Staley sent me a copy of his new zine ApplePear. When I found it in the mail and pulled it out of the envelope, I was quickly assaulted by the smell of sweet fruitiness—apple-pear, perhaps? I held it to my nose to be sure. Yep, Tim had all but drenched this thing in apple-pear scent. Even before I’d opened the zine to page one, it had already brightened my day through an unexpected sensory treat.
More recently, I received in the mail a pair of zines from Billie Shafran (who writes as Bitch Sensei on Substack). While lacking a scent, they had plenty of personal touches.
The zines are both classic computer-paper creations folded up into six-page booklets. The zine “Margecore” contains six images of Marge from the Simpsons dancing in front of hardcore punk albums. The zine “Skaa!!! Real Monsters” features characters from the Nickelodeon show Real Monsters posing in front of ska albums.
I brought these two zines with me to the most recent meetup of the Jokes Review editors. We laughed about the childish absurdity of the images, talked about some of the bands, and marveled at how genuinely grotesque the Real Monsters characters are.
Culture changing through technology has changed how I see this form of art.
These nostalgia-centric zines made me realize another thing about the way my opinion of zines has changed over the years. When I was younger, I considered the zine form to be a part of the broader comic book universe. But now I don’t immediately associate them with comics books so much as with memes—internet memes that have escaped the screen.
Culture changing through technology has changed how I see this form of art. Kind of interesting.
If you’re like me and have had misgivings about zines, now might be a good time to reconsider! Lots of things are in flux these days—in culture generally but particular in creative/maker circles. I could see the next few years bringing about a renaissance in the zine space.
In the spirit of potential renaissance, Jokes Review is just about to release our very first zine. We’ve put out print issues of our journal since 2016, and we’ve published a number of books. But we have never before done a zine! Keep an eye on our zines page for our inaugural release: Barb by
and Mark Dwyer.
I’m not going to say we’ll be hawking this thing at open mics anytime soon, but we are scheduled to do an official book release with a reading on May 15, 2025 at Amatoria Fine Art Books in Sacramento, California. See you there?
Peter Clarke is the editor-in-chief of Jokes Review and host of the podcast Team Futurism. Read his Substack newsletter The Decadence Project and follow him on Twitter @heypeterclarke.
So tickled by that apple-pear-scent -- and can't wait to see the Jokes Review zine!
Love this piece! And now I need zines