Happy International Zine Month, y’all! 🌸✂️ International Zine Month is an interactive celebration of all things zines created by Stolen Sharpie Revolution author (and prolific zinester) Alex Wrekk. Each year, they release a great calendar of activities and prompts so you can get involved in the festivities! I love celebrating IZM, and I’m planning on featuring a handful of the prompts here on the blog, as well as on Zine Reviews.

Here’s how I responded to the first few prompts:

Day 1 – What is a zine? Come up with a concise definition in your own words and share it with others. I tend to stick with “Zines are diy publications typically printed on a copy machine.” Short and sweet!

Day 2 – Zine Rewind! Re-read your favorite zines and remind yourself why you love them. If you’re new to zines, read a zine that is more than 10 years old! I re-read some of my favorite issues of Carrie McNinch’s diary comix “You Don’t Get There From Here”, as well as part of Alyssa Giannini’s perzine “Wanderer #3”, while doing “research” for an upcoming project. (Okay, so it was maybe more like procrastination and distraction rather than actual research… but trust me, when the finished project is revealed on Monday, you’ll wanna read these zines, too!)

Day 3 – Look up virtual zine events to attend this month! When else are you going to be able to attend a zine event in a different city or even country for free? I’ve added the Portland Zine Symposium “Sketchbooking as Anti-Captialist Practice” workshop, hosted by Mara Ramirez, to my calendar! I can’t wait to attend virtually on July 25th. ✍️ And in addition to attending a virtual zine event or two this month, I’ll also be hosting some of my own:

💕✨ On July 20th at 7pm (CST), I’ll be hosting a Zine Scouts meet-up over Zoom! Zine Scouts is a fun lil’ program we’ve put together at KC Zine Con; it’s a series of events from now until fall 2022, leading up to our next big zine fest. Since the workshop falls on #tinyzinetuesday, I’ll walk everyone through how to print and fold a mini-zine, and I’ll give you all the info you need to participate in Zine Scouts. Bring the last zine you read and loved, as we’ll be having a show-and-tell with the group.

And for all the Kansas City locals, I hope you’ll join me at the Soulcentricitea Tearoom on Saturday, July 24 at noon for a free Zines as Activism workshop! You can learn more about both of these workshops (and RSVP for the virtual one) on my Workshops page, or by visiting the KC Zine Con website.