Zines are an independent, self published, novella that can describe any array of ideas that can be held in a book format. These little booklets have a storied history in the literary and artistic world. They were at the precursor to the comic book and nowadays have become more of a niche collectors object in the art world.
What’s interesting is the overall scope of what zines may cover. Because everything is independently done, a vast assortment of different artists and genres and styles exist in the art world. The sheer diversity of the medium is quite exciting, as hundreds of different authors escaped the filter of publishing to present their work to the world. It’s almost like a literary type of public art display.
Zines also have an element of being a very personal item. Books are small widows designed to be viewed by one person. This makes interacting with the craft and artistry a much more personal experience when viewing the works. An artist may make a zine specifically tailored towards one specific person, which makes deciphering what the comic fully means as an interesting endeavor.
Another interesting component of this medium exists with the ephemerality of the work. Because the project is often limited in its release and very personally made, there doesn’t exist an endless supply of copies. Thanks to the internet, a lot of these works can be scanned and uploaded to a database, but this does not remove the ephemerality of the physical book.
Zines are a very interesting medium that hold a lot of potential in the presentation of ideas and stories. I may attempt to produce my own zines at some point, depicting my own wildly obscure, interesting tales.