What was your introduction to the zine world?

[Samantha Blythe]

I started making my own zine before I knew that anyone else made them, and the first zines I saw were actually just excerpts in the book Zine Scene by Hillary Carlip and Francesca Lia Block, and that was close to 10 years after I started making mine. It was only a few years ago that I finally ordered a pack of zines from Parcell press.

[Carol@Swallowcliffs]

I joined an art zine swap and made my first zine about a year ago. I think the art zines are really fun to make!

[Foxy Mudslide]

I was introduced to them a few years ago in some activist groups at my college. Around that time I went to a feminist art show in San Francisco to see Miranda July's Joanie 4 Jackie videos. There were a bunch of really well made grrrl zines from the 80s and 90s there, and after seeing how these girls from all over the world had created things and collaborated and shared them with each other through the mail, I felt like I needed to be a part of that. In the internet age, there's something very personal about someone post marking their thoughts and sending them on a journey through the postal service. When it gets to your mail box it feels very secret and real.

And then, just a few days ago, I discovered this website. Hear that? It's my world rocking.

[b]

SPIDERGHOST.NET ...Sammy Winston's demented black and white zines full of graffiti, poetry, weird pictures and quotes, they were some of the first zines I read

[Nick Cato]

Rick Sullivan's GORE GAZZETTE, a Xeroxed horror film review zine (he used to copy it at his job for the Mobil corportation!). I found my first copy inside BLEEKER BOB's in NYC around 1981 and quickly started collecting any zine I could find.

[Charlotte Lee (Bitch theme)]

I have been into feminism and riot grrrl for quite a while, and after hearing about how Bikini Kill and Bratmobile used to make their own zines, i started trying to get hold of loads of different feminist/riot grrrl zines. I have quite a collection now, and have branched out into loads of different types. So then i decided to make the leap, and do one myself!

[Gordon Gordon]

Back in the 80's my roommate received a zine from a friend in the mail. I don't think I had ever seen a zine before and I found it fascinating. I was bored with no direction other than working and getting fucked up, but thought that "I could do this", so I did. 25 years later I still am.

[Erica S.]

I ordered a zine grab bag from a music distro I used to order from quite frequently. Most of them were crappy punk rock music zines (disappointing, as I've never been a huge fan of punk and especially not hardcore punk), but there was one in there called "Tight Pants" that was all kinds of funny stories and comics and such. I had no idea what to think about it! A few months later I did a Google search on zines (we had just gotten the Internet at my house... I feel old now) and found the Pander Zine Distro message board and, well, that's all she wrote. :)

[Adrian Fynch]

I can't actually remember when I was first conscious of zines, but I remember the first ones I ever read. One was given to me at a Unitarian church youth group and it was about women and their bodies, all hand-drawn and beautiful, and the other was a zine done by a couple of girls in Toronto. The one girl and I were sort of forced together by our parents [hellooo playdate all over again!] and she gave me her zine and I was completely floored and soon after started making them. She and I are still friends too. Thanks parents :)

[riotgrrrlaz]

I started making zines in eighth grade. My girlfriends and I began making zines together and they primarily included short stories and music/movie reviews. I remember that we would walk around campus at school and hand them out to anyone who would take them...and we hoped they would read them! I also recall that when we began making our zine we did not have a computer...everything was done on a typewriter.... I actually kind of miss those days!!

[Monstress Zine]

i don't really remember the first zine i ever saw. i was a punkling in the 1980s and they were everywhere at shows. the first one i really liked was made by a friend of mine in the 1990s. i didn't make my own until i did madcow for the university of toronto women's centre and that's when i started trading/ reading / collecting/ participating more seriously.

[Elaine]

Mine was exposure at science fiction conventions where people were writing their own fan fiction. The price in the 1980's was $5 to $10, the zines were photocopied onto really cheapo paper with a card stock cover, and usually were about a half inch thick (big!) and stapled.

I didn't try doing one of my own till just recently though.

[Saling Pusa Distro/closed]

been writing since i can remember... and the 1st time i got my hands on a copy machine, i had the impulse to make copies od some of the things i wrote and gave them out to friends... never really thought there was a name for it though... not til high school... I joined a writer's guild that produced "zines" called Coffeewrite which were compilations of all our works, then gave em out to everyone in school every quarter for free... but back then i thought "zines" was just something they made up... didn't think a lot of people from everywhere makes them too :)