What is Zine Culture?
Zine culture is the ecosystem of practices, communities, and values surrounding zines—small-circulation, self-published magazines and booklets created outside commercial publishing structures. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. Zine culture has historically been anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist. The culture encompasses not only the physical artifacts but the networks of exchange, collaboration, and community-building that have formed around DIY publishing for nearly a century.
Unlike mainstream media, zine culture prioritizes unfiltered expression over profit. Profit is not the primary intent of publication. To many zinesters, the community found through making, reading, and trading zines is just as important as the printed publication. Zines have provided a platform for voices excluded from or misrepresented by commercial publishing, including queer communities, people of color, punks, feminists, and other marginalized groups.
Origins & Lineage
Zines in their current form largely derive from the fan magazines (shortened to fanzines) of the 1930s. The very first zine dates back to May of 1930 in the USA. A little publication called The Comet was first created by the Science Correspondence Club. The term “fanzine” was coined by American chess player and SF fandom founder Russ Chauvenet in the October 1940 edition of his own science fiction fanzine Detours. Hugo Gernsback published the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories in 1926. In January 1927, Gernsback introduced a large letter column which printed reader’s addresses, allowing them to write to each other; it was out of this mailing list that fans’ own science-fiction fanzines began.
The term “zine” emerged in the 1960s as a shortened form of “fanzine.” However, precursors existed earlier: American zines trace their origins to the amateur press movement of the early 20th century, when amateur printers purchased their own presses in order to produce small works concerning a specific topic or interest. Components of the amateur press movement can be seen in an often overlooked precursor to zines, the “little magazines” of the Harlem Renaissance. While not unique to the Harlem Renaissance, during the 1920s, individuals or small groups of Black artists and writers used the little magazine (a short, small distribution magazine) to undermine the established literary system.
The advent of new technologies, specifically the photocopier, allowed for easy duplication of zines, which were adopted by the punk music scene in the 1970s and 1980s. While zines were used as a medium of subcultures from the start, the overt anti-establishment ethos of the punk movement meant the scene relied heavily on zines to disperse information regarding music groups, venues, and events as they rejected corporate labels and more mainstream publications. The modern-day zine movement can be traced back to 1976 with a punk fanzine called Sniffin’ Glue… and Other Rock n’ Roll Habits which featured commentary on bands like The Ramones and Blue Oyster Cult.
By the 1990s, influenced by the punk movement, the “Riot Grrrl” movement used zines as a way to discuss feminist messages rooted in social consciousness. Zines allowed individuals to share their own experiences in an unfiltered manner that passionately addressed issues of gender identity, discrimination, sexism, and body image. The first documented use of the term “riot grrrl” was from a July 1991 zine titled riot grrrl, compiled and published by Kathleen Hanna, Molly Neuman, Allison Wolfe, and Jen Smith.
How It’s Practiced
Zine culture manifests through creation, distribution, and community-building practices that distinguish it from commercial publishing. At its core, zines are closely tied to activism and social movements. The physical production typically involves accessible technologies: photocopiers, scissors, staplers, glue, typewriters, and increasingly, digital design tools. A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier.
Content varies wildly. Written in a variety of formats from desktop-published text to comics, collages and stories, zines cover broad topics including fanfiction, politics, poetry, art & design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, intersectional feminism, single-topic obsession, or sexual content far enough outside the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. Creators—sometimes called “zinesters”—produce their work alone or in small collectives, maintaining full editorial control.
Distribution operates through alternative channels: hand-to-hand exchange at concerts and protests, independent bookstores, zine libraries, mail networks, and zine festivals (“zine fests”). Zine enthusiasts continue to host workshops and fests, including the annual DC Zinefest. The culture emphasizes reciprocity—trading zines rather than selling them, building networks of mutual support rather than competitive markets.
Zine Culture Today
Zine culture has persisted and even had a resurgence in popularity in recent years as more people crave analog media, independent publications, and offline connection. Contemporary zine makers have access to both traditional methods and new technologies. With computers becoming more widely available and the creation of the World Wide Web, some Riot Grrrl zines adapted to electronic platforms as “e-zines.” Today’s zines exist in physical, digital, and hybrid forms.
Many universities have their own zine collections and there are also numerous independent zine libraries both in America and around the world. In 2024, the Brooklyn Museum hosted the first exhibition dedicated to the history of zines over the past five decades in North America. Titled Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, the exhibition focused on zines’ relationship to various subcultures and avant-garde practices, including punk, street culture, queer and minority-made art.
Today, zines are not defined by any one topic and an attendee at a zine fest is likely to find zines about everything from prison abolition to grief to fantasy characters to botany. The culture continues to serve as a space for political organizing, artistic experimentation, community archiving, and personal expression outside corporate control.
Common Misconceptions
Zine culture is not simply “amateur publishing” or a stepping stone to commercial success. While some zinesters do transition to professional writing or art careers, the culture fundamentally values autonomy and community over commercial viability. The most important aspect of a zine is generally that the publication identifies as one.
Zine culture is not synonymous with punk or riot grrrl, despite those movements’ prominence in zine history. Defining zines created by girls as girl zines or riot grrrl zines, or as feminist zines, potentially ignores or backgrounds a whole range of other commitments and preoccupations. The punk scene was “plagued from the beginning by complicated racial politics and outright racism.” Black, Indigenous, Asian American, and Latinx creators have maintained parallel and distinct zine traditions often overlooked in dominant narratives. Mimi Thi Nguyen’s Slant and Sabrina Margarita Alcantara-Tan’s Bamboo Girl critiqued riot grrrl from the perspective of Asian American girls. In 1997, Nguyen published the compilation zine Evolution of a Race Riot.
Zines are not required to be photocopied or handmade to be “authentic.” Most definitions of zines include the fact that they are small-circulation, self-published, and often inexpensive or free. That’s generally true, although these are more guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. Contemporary zinesters use print-on-demand services, risograph printing, and digital distribution while maintaining the culture’s core values of independence and community.
How to Begin
Start by reading zines. Visit zine libraries (many universities host collections), attend a local zine fest, or explore digital archives like the Queer Zine Archive Project. Pay attention not just to content but to the materiality: how pages are folded, how images and text interact, what reproduction methods reveal about the maker’s resources and choices.
To make your first zine, begin with what you have. A simple eight-page zine can be created from a single sheet of paper, folded and cut. Choose a topic you feel passionately about—something too specific, too personal, or too political for mainstream publication. The format invites experimentation: collage, hand-lettering, photocopied photographs, typed manifestos, drawings, comics.
Distribution can start small: make copies for friends, leave them in cafes or record stores, trade with other zinesters through social media or mail networks. Many cities have zine distros—small operations that carry independently published work. Research whether your area has a zine fest where you can table.
Key resources include Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture by Stephen Duncombe for historical context, online guides like those at We Make Zines and The Creative Independent, and zine-making workshops often offered through independent bookstores, libraries, and community centers. The most important resource is the zine community itself: zinesters typically welcome newcomers and freely share knowledge about printing techniques, distribution networks, and creative approaches.