Happy International Zine Month 2023! ✂️🖊

IZM was inaugurated in 2009 by the one-and-only Alex Wrekk of “Stolen Sharpie Revolution” fame. Aside from encouraging folks to read and make lotsa zines in July, the month-long celebration features a prompt list full of ideas for zinecentric activities. 2023’s list was designed by @zineville, and I’ll be posting weekly recaps of how I fulfilled each prompt here on the blog.

Day One‘s prompt is to define “zine” — I’ve always said that “zines are handmade, diy publications, typically printed on a copy machine, then folded and bound/stapled by hand.” To expand on that, I think zines are inherently non-commercial, tactile (not digital; I feel like blogs and “e-zines” sort of exist as their own thing), and indie. This is what differentiates them from a chapbook or magazine or pamphlet or blog.

I’m also using International Zine Month as the excuse to re-launch my Youtube channel. Back in 2021, I started posting zine reviews on Youtube. I had a lightbulb moment when I realized that I could film zines as I reviewed them. Since zines are an innately visual medium, showing off more than just the front cover — doing a full-on flip-thru via video — could give folks a better idea of what the zine is like. From this spark came the catmothcrow channel, and while I really love how my first three Zine Review videos turned out, they took a lot of time to produce and the project quickly fizzled out.

But ‘ya know what? I missed making them. And after starting a TikTok account last year, I’ve become better at recording voiceovers without cluttering or tripping over my words, and I’m only getting quicker and quicker at editing, so I’m bringing the channel back, baby!

Some new zine review videos are forthcoming, but for now, I’ve got a brand new series to share. Inspired by @adventuresinaardia and the “Roll for Sandwich” series (as well as “Roll for Latte” by fellow Kansas Citian @thecoffeeslurp and @vinyldad85’s “Roll for Vinyl), it’s ROLL FOR ZINE 🎲 What will the dice have in store for us? Will we be making a zine? Reading a zine? Leaving a favorite zine in a Little Free Library? Creating a collaged zine without using a gluestick? Watch and find out! I just dropped episode one… and if all goes well, I’ll have a new Roll For Zine to share in each weekly #IZM2023 post.