Z · 26 / 26

Z — Zine

Cut, pasted, stapled, handed out.

The style

Made by hand, handed out.

A zine is a small magazine made by the people who write it, in a run as short as they like. The Comet, put out by a science fiction club in Chicago in 1930, is usually counted as the first; Russ Chauvenet coined the word fanzine for them in 1940.

Punk took the form up in 1976 with Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue, typed, scrawled and photocopied in London. In the early 1990s the riot grrrl zines of Olympia and Washington, DC, made it the voice of a movement. The look came from the tools: scissors, glue, letters cut out of magazines, a marker, a stapler, one sheet of paper folded into eight pages.

On a screen the style means type mixed in the headlines and plain in the text, things taped and stapled at a lean, a red marker in the margin and a highlighter for what is chosen. Every field and button stays level, and the page always says who made it and how to get the next one.

In use

A collective, on paper.

Paste-Up Club, a zine collective in Mangwon, keeps one page. Filter the events and say you’re coming, or join the waitlist for a full room. Sign up to the letter on the form taped on, and borrow two zines from the stapled reading list.

  • Flyers, not cardsEach event is a cut-out flyer: the date on a scrap, the kind stamped on, the places counted. A full room takes a waitlist.
  • The form sits straightThe sheet is taped on at an angle, but every field on it is level, and a mistake is written in red beside the field.
  • Two at a timeThe reading list is two stapled sheets. Borrowing stops at two, and the third asks for one back first.
a zine collective in Mangwon · since 2019

What’s on

all free unless it says
  • 17Sat OctWorkshop

    Cut & paste night

    2–5 pmThe back room, Mangwon

    Bring a stack of old magazines. We bring glue, scissors and tea.

    Full12 / 12
    2 waiting
  • 22Thu OctSwap

    Swap table

    7–9 pmCafe Ondo, upstairs

    Bring five copies of anything you made. Leave with five you didn’t.

    23 going
  • 31Sat OctReading

    Small print

    6 pmThe back room, Mangwon

    Six makers read from their zines, ten minutes each.

    9 places left21 / 30
  • 7–8Sat–Sun NovFair

    Zine fair, table 41

    11 am–6 pmMullae, 200 tables

    Our table at the fair. Issue 15 launches here; come and say hello.

    64 going
  • 15Sun NovWorkshop

    Stab-stitch binding

    1–4 pmThe back room, Mangwon

    Four holes, one needle, a book by four o’clock. Materials ₩8,000.

    3 places left5 / 8

Get the letter

What’s on, new issues and calls for pages. No more than once a month unless you ask.

Tell me about
How often

The library

borrow two, two weeks

0 of 2 borrowedSheet 1 of 2

  1. Line 6Dae-ho Lim · 28 ppA photo from every stop on the line, Eungam to Sinnae.
  2. Hot PlateMina Kang · 16 ppDinners for one, cooked on one ring.Out till 17 Oct
  3. Small HoursJun Seo · 20 ppA diary of a year of night shifts at a print shop.
  4. Fold HerePaste-Up Club · 8 ppHow to make an eight-page zine from one sheet.
The kit

Every part, every state.

The parts that page is built from: black cut-out buttons on a yellow scrap, typed slips for fields, a marker tick, a highlighter for what is chosen and rubber stamps for status. The rows of states hold still for comparison; everything else works.

01Button

Pressing glues it flat onto the yellow scrap

02Text field

From 1 to 500.

03Select

04Switch, checkbox, radio

Fold

05Slider

Even · 55
The tab is a paper slip; it turns yellow while you drag

06Progress

Copying issue 1548 / 120
Paused40%

07Segments and tabs

14 sent in, 2 still to come. Deadline Friday.
Size

08List rows

Picked rows get the highlighter, swiped left to right

09Card and loading

Call for pages

Issue 15: Rooms

One A5 page about a room you have lived in. Drawn, written or glued. In by 31 October.

14 pages in
While it loads, the card is a paste-up in non-photo blue: where things will go, not grey bars pulsing

10Toast

Stays six seconds, and holds still while you point at it

11Modal

Bin the misprints?

Eleven copies of issue 15 came out crooked. They can go to the swap table as seconds, or in the recycling.

A sheet stapled on top. Escape or the × keeps them

12Steps

  1. Call for pages, done
  2. Paste-up, done
  3. Copy, now
  4. Fold & staple
  5. Hand out

13Badges and avatars

NewSold outFreeSwapDraft
Folding tonightMina, Jun and Ari
Stamps say it in words, never colour alone
Signature

Cut, paste, fold.

Two tools. A ransom-note cutter: type a line and it is cut from seven faces on seven papers, no neighbour alike. And an eight-page zine folded from one sheet: title it, read it as a booklet, open the sheet to follow the folds, and print it.

18 / 40. Short lines cut best.
5°
Papers

15 scraps from 7 of 7 faces

One A4 page, landscape, no margins. The top row prints upside down; that is right.
Issue 1 · freeby Paste-Up Club
Cover · ← → to turn
Tokens

The system, in numbers.

Nine colours with their contrast, three faces with a job each, how far each thing may lean, a spacing scale and four speeds. Copy them as custom properties, with the scrap, the tape, the highlighter and the button.

Colour
  • --paper #f2efe6The page: copy paper
  • --sheet #fffdf7Scraps, fields, white card
  • --kraft #c7a57aCard stock and covers
  • --ink #171615Photocopy black: text, 15.7:1
  • --ink-2 #55524bSecond text, 6.8:1
  • --red #c8231bMarker: notes and errors, 4.9:1
  • --hl #ffe800Highlighter: what is chosen
  • --tape #ece0aaTape, at 70%, multiplied
  • --pencil #7fb6d9Non-photo blue: layout lines only
Type
  • Issue 15Anton · cut-out headlines
  • last one!Permanent Marker · notes in the margin
  • Typed on the back-room machine.Courier Prime · the reading text
  • Sat 17 Oct · 2–5 pmCourier Prime 700 · labels
Lean, in degrees
  • Fields, buttons0°
  • Sheets, cards1.5°
  • Flyers, tape3°
  • Stickers, stamps6°
Space, in pixels
  • 4
  • 8
  • 12
  • 16
  • 24
  • 32
  • 48
  • 72
Motion
  • Press120msA cut-out button pressed flat
  • Swipe350msThe highlighter across a row
  • Drop420msScraps and notes landing
  • Turn500msA page of the booklet
:root {
  /* Paper */
  --paper: #f2efe6;
  --sheet: #fffdf7;
  --kraft: #c7a57a;

  /* Ink */
  --ink: #171615;
  --ink-2: #55524b;
  --red: #c8231b;       /* marker: notes and errors */
  --hl: #ffe800;        /* highlighter: never under red */
  --tape: rgb(236 224 170 / 0.7);
  --pencil: #7fb6d9;    /* non-photo blue, layout only */

  /* Lean: fields and buttons stay at 0 */
  --tilt-sheet: 1.5deg;
  --tilt-flyer: 3deg;
  --tilt-sticker: 6deg;

  /* Space */
  --space-1: 4px;
  --space-2: 8px;
  --space-3: 12px;
  --space-4: 16px;
  --space-5: 24px;
  --space-6: 32px;
  --space-7: 48px;
  --space-8: 72px;

  --radius: 0;
  --press: 120ms ease-out;
  --drop: 420ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 1.4, 0.4, 1);

  /* Type */
  --font-cut: 'Anton', Impact, sans-serif;
  --font-hand: 'Permanent Marker', cursive;
  --font-text: 'Courier Prime', ui-monospace, monospace;
}

/* A cut-out scrap glued on: flat paper, a hard edge, a slight lean */
.scrap {
  background: var(--sheet);
  box-shadow: 1px 2px 0 rgb(23 22 21 / 0.18);
  transform: rotate(var(--tilt-sheet));
}

/* Tape: translucent, multiplied, with torn ends */
.tape {
  width: 72px;
  height: 22px;
  background: var(--tape);
  mix-blend-mode: multiply;
  clip-path: polygon(3% 0, 97% 4%, 100% 30%, 96% 60%, 100% 100%,
    4% 96%, 0 70%, 4% 40%, 0 8%);
}

/* The highlighter: a stroke behind the words, ends left ragged */
.hl {
  background: linear-gradient(100deg, transparent 0.5%, var(--hl) 2%,
    var(--hl) 97%, transparent 99.5%);
  box-decoration-break: clone;
  padding: 0 0.15em;
}

/* The button: a black cut-out on a yellow scrap, pressed flat */
.button {
  min-height: 46px;
  padding: 0 20px;
  border: 0;
  background: var(--ink);
  color: var(--sheet);
  font: 400 17px/1 var(--font-cut);
  text-transform: uppercase;
  letter-spacing: 0.03em;
  box-shadow: 4px 4px 0 var(--hl), 4px 4px 0 2px var(--ink);
  transition: transform var(--press), box-shadow var(--press);
}
.button:active {
  transform: translate(3px, 3px);
  box-shadow: 1px 1px 0 var(--hl), 1px 1px 0 2px var(--ink);
}

Do

  • Make it look made: cut edges, tape, staples and a marker. Nothing glossy, nothing blurred.
  • Mix type in the headlines. Set the reading text in one plain face.
  • Tilt the scraps, never the fields. Anything people type in or press sits level.
  • Say who made it and how to get the next one.

Don’t

  • Don’t cut up the reading text

    A ransom note is a headline. A paragraph in seven faces is a puzzle, and nobody finishes it.

  • Don’t tilt what people type in

    A crooked field makes the caret, the text and the label disagree. Tape the sheet at an angle; keep the field level.

  • Don’t fake it with a grunge filter

    A scratched texture over a glossy button is a costume. The style is real cut paper: a flat scrap, a hard edge, a strip of tape.

In the wild

Where the style shows up outside this page.

  1. The Comet

    Science Correspondence Club · 1930Often counted as the first science fiction fanzine: fans printing for fans.

  2. Printed Matter

    Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard and others · since 1976A New York shop for artists’ books and zines, still open.

  3. Factsheet Five

    Mike Gunderloy · 1982The zine of zines: page after page of reviews and addresses.

  4. Bikini Kill

    Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail · 1990Riot grrrl manifestos in handwriting, collage and type.