The city library has a zine collection, and one librarian catalogs every single issue by hand.
We met at the back table of a print night, where they were trimming a stack of covers with a paper cutter that should probably be retired. The conversation started there and moved to a café when the shop closed.
How it started
- First zine: a photocopied tour diary
- Favorite tool: a long-reach stapler from 1987
- Print run: usually 100, sometimes 30
- Where to find them: the collective's lending shelf
Asked what advice they would give someone making their first zine, the answer came fast: finish it. A finished bad zine teaches you more than a perfect one that lives in a folder on your desktop.
Finish it. A finished bad zine beats a perfect folder.
What keeps them going
The recording ran for almost two hours. What follows is edited for length and for the parts where we both got distracted by the café's very good cat.
Kit Moreno
Do you trade? I have a perzine about bus drivers I think you would like.
Lou Ferreira
Bookmarked, printed, folded, and stapled into my notebook.
Lou Ferreira
I laughed out loud at the part about the good scissors.
Aurelie Fontaine
Love this. Any chance of a workshop on it at the next print night?
Tomás ReyesAuthor
Please send a copy when it is done!
Jonah Mbeki
Seconded. A workshop would be brilliant.
Ollie Brennan
Yes! Bring it to Thursday print night and we’ll swap.
Ben Achterberg
Thank you for writing this down. It’s the kind of thing people only ever explain in person.
Lou Ferreira
The photos are great. Is that the laundromat on Elm?