Why?

[Isabel Quintero-Flores]

Why did you start a zine?

[Nadia Brady]

I used to write a school newspaper - with topics like "Jesus loves Ellen, Ellen Undecided About Feelings", "Bullying, the Answer to Everything" and the such. Oddly enough I didn't actually have the school's permission and eventually they told me if I didn't stop they'd expel me, so I put the energy into making a zine with friends. Now I make zines when I don't want to do 'real' work.

[kit feral]

honestly, I've been doing this so long that I don't really remember what originally sparked me. I was 9 and weird, I guess?

now... I just need a creative outlet. something where my voice is the only thing that matters, something that I can send all over the world and make a name for myself with. something to indulge my ego, to talk about what I want to talk about, and to imagine that someone is reading my views on life and laughing/relating/whatever.

there's just nothing better than photocopying something YOU made.
I dunno.
It's what I do instead of drugs (usually) ;)

[sandy]

i was enjoying a lot of drugs. the drive to create just comes with that territory, so i made my first zine.

didn't realise at the time where my head was at, or what i needed to say. it became clear after making another couple of zines that i had some dark stuff that needed to come out constructively. it had turned into some kind of escape, cos once i sorted out what was wrong in my life, i just lost the drive.

even though stuff was still a bit wrong, it wasn't fucked up in the same way as before. my life was "a healthy kind of wrong," i guess you could say - and i didn't need zine-making to help fix that.

now, i make zines cos i enjoy it. it's fun again. :)

i don't take as much drugs as before, though - one of my favourite things to do was to smoke a little, have warm tea and sit at the typewriter. but that's now the treat, rather than the staple. ;D star, honey, i so hear you. hehehe...

[Adrian Fynch]

The medium really appealed to me as a writer and photographer. It was a way to combine my love of collage and writing and photography, a way for me to get my work and voice out, a way to get out my angst and I love making things with my hands.

[kit feral]

one of my favourite things to do was to smoke a little, have warm tea and sit at the typewriter


mmmmm, if only I still had a working typewriter... that sounds like perfection.

[Kate Haas]

I had never heard of zines when I got back from the Peace Corps in 1993. But my new boyfriend had been writing them since high school and had a whole shelf of them in his apartment. I read them. And I thought: I'm a writer. I could do this.

[Eric N. Peterson]

I created 'zines back in the early 90's.
You sent your issue to Factsheet 5 for review and advertisement. Factsheet 5 was everywhere all over the world, and at the time a great networking device to get your work to others outside of the mainstream.
This was long before the internet, and was the only source I ever new of.
During the late 80's and early 90's I was trying to make it as a commercial artist, the work I continuously found was deeply unsatisfying... 'zines were a fantastic outlet for letting my creative imagination fly freely, and to reach others as well. It was an exciting time and a great experience.
I published my own stuff for a few years, and also contributed to other 'zines as well.