Free Zine Friday

Polemical Zine Issue #2: Different
collaborative, curated by Rebecca McLaren

Polemical Zine is a series of collborative zines with "no selection process". That is, they accept any and everything from all people. That philosophy twists my heart in a particular way, as I feel like that is the true spirit of zinemaking, and it hurts me when I see zines turned into "products" with a focus on "quality" (it does happen, terribly so). Each Polemical issue has a loose theme for inspiration, this one titled "different", an exploration of differene and normalcy. I love a good variety zine, and it's so beautiful to see what people choose to contribute with no limits. (Also, can we appreciate the glitter star stickers breaking up the white space?)
54 pages, color

it's easier than you think
by sophie mautner

This is an inspiring and layered collage zine that is basically a multimedia diary. Hand-done drawings, text, polaroids and even fiber (needlepoint? I'm not sure) are collaged in with stickers, magazine pages, interesting garbage and the like. I feel like it totally captures existence in a world around you, yourSelf and Outside things. It's super inspiring and dreamy. My favorite page is the one with the red converse skater kit, sinking house, and chemistry homework, it's like the inner child I actually wanted to be.
24 pages, color

Bound
by Bethany Fortner

This is such a special zine. It’s a beautiful fairytale about a unicorn, a late bloomer named Philomena who desperately wishes for her horn to grow in, and seeks help from a wizard in the woods. It’s about shame and feeling vulnerable and the status quo and loneliness. You can hear in the author’s voice just how deep and personal the story is–like the best fairytales, it is so intensely familiar and relatable that it gives you lessons you didn’t know you needed.
17 minutes. Physical copies available

The F Word
by Nyx

A big fun zine all about “fuck”, our favorite swear word! Nyx analyzes what it is about the word “fuck” that makes it so satisfying and versatile. Learn about the history, grammatical flexibility, and capacity for emphasizing, and more that makes fuck such a great fucking swear. Warning: swearing. (Duh).
12 minutes.

The Sisterhood of the Living Dead
by Maggie Grimason

CW for grief, descriptions of sex, & animal and human death.
“The desert is dust, and so am I.” This zine is intense but really moving. It’s like a collage of memories linked together by the central theme of life and death. Maggie shares deep dark stories of seeing ghosts, fascination with bones, grieving her dad, empty relationships, and finding herself in the deserts of the southwest. Poetic and beautiful, a winding trail of thoughts and lives past.
29 minutes. More of Maggie’s writing here.

Wait, What Happened? #1
by Cat/Kowski
I want to give this zine to anyone who is progressive at heart but perhaps under-informed about why it’s important to be antifa and kkkop. It’s a friendly perzine with all the perzine goodies–favorite movies, chit-chat in handwriting, & wild west women. And then sandwiched in between is an awesome piece called “How I went from ‘Police Deserve Respect’ to an ACAB Tattoo” that touches on a whole bunch of different facets of US law/lessness, and how the police are designed in a way that makes “good cops” impossible. And it’s a lot easier to approach and understand than some of the denser antifacist zines out there.
24 pages, color, website here

Youth Culture 2000
by Mia Lin + Melissa Niles

I was double-checking their About page to see who to credit this zine to, and the first line is “It all started when Girl Tony Hawk met Goth Britney Spears.” Yeah, nothing I write could do a better job of capturing this zine than that line! It’s a fucking experience, dredging up memories I didn’t even know I had (girl tech password diary, anyone?).
18 pages, color

What Do You Think You’re Doing?
by Kaiser Caimo

I think every artist today needs to read and honestly ask themselves every single question in the zine. It will completely reframe how you approach your art, how you interact with it, how you want to present it. For anyone who is overwhelmed by the prospect of sharing art, wondering where or how or when to get your work into the world, this will help you build direction. I reread this regularly to remind me why I make art, to help realign and reaffirm my values around art.
40 pages, color, website here

Knowing the Land is Resistance
by the KLR Collective

The zine is really a picture of building strong relationships with forests and natural spaces, in this case the Carolinan forest, getting to know it, and what that really means. It’s beautiful and no matter where you are, it shows you how you can get to know nature, and love it, in every expression. It’s summed up pretty well by this quote from the zine: “To know, to truly know the forest is to love it, and whoever loves it will fight for its welfare.”
44 pages, color

new hearts new bones #2
by cheering and waving press

There are like 21 issues of new hearts new bones (all available to read for free!), but I’ve picked this one in particular because I think it’s most appropriate for Earth Day--it's about liberation and an underlying connection with yourself as a being on Earth. nhnb is a collage of drawings, magazine clippings, ads and junk printed out, literal garbage, handwritten text, copies books and mags... & what’s really awesome about it is how it’s all integrated together, everything put together entirely based on what it communicates and not the type of medium.
24 pages, color, website here

Destroy Your Lawn!
by anonymous

Okay, so hopefully by now we all know that lawns are very environmentally-unfriendly (if you don’t, you definitely need to read this zine!). I’ve been anti-lawn for years, but I still got a lot out of this super short but thoroughly informative zine! There’s a brief history of lawns and suggestions for what to do with your (and others’) lawns. I also appreciate how it acknowledges that lawns are so deeply ingrained in American culture that just letting it grow is sometimes not a possibility because you could face fines from the city, and it still gives you other options that could work for you. (I totally appreciate this because growing up our neighbors were constantly complaining to the city about our lawn, so “just leave it alone” is definitely not always viable).

BOYGIRL BABBLES: Issue #01: Homecoming
by Jenna (boygirlbabbles)
The coolest, punkest, zine-est poetry zine I’ve ever seen. And if the term “poetry zine” made you think about passing on this zine, turn your ass right around and click. It's like reading a punk scrapbook, with photos and stickers and markers and buttons and printouts and Alison Bechdel panels, all traditionally collaged in and around the super deep, super raw, fuck-your-bullshit everyday poetry. “scratchy guitars and tattered jeans / his raspy voice and handmade zines”
16 pages, color, carrd here

Bittersweet
by Bitter Pill Press

27 queer poets, writers, potters, photographers, digital and traditional visual artists contributed to this zine about queer love-–love for yourself, love for others, love for queerness in general. The layout of each page is just so beautiful and visually interesting; the fonts and arrangements here really bring every piece to life. It feels like a truly collaborative work, with different artists sharing page space to create something even better than they’d be on their own, you know?
36 pages, color, ko-fi here

The Four Colour Theorem
by Jorge Luján Mora

There’s this thing called the four color theorem, which is basically a theorem that states you will never need more than four colors to fill in a map such that no adjacent regions are the same color. This zine shares the theorem visually and simplifies it using these cool looking node graphs. If you’re intrigued by this theorem, there’s a game you can play to see it in action!
8 page minizine, b&w, zinesters' Twitter here

TigerxTiger
by edward (catboyriot zines)

An absolute riot! An explosion of color and love and energy about edward’s favorite animal, the Tiger! A super bright digital collage of everything from drawings to clipart to photos to anime screencaps to Animorphs covers and everything in-between. I am perpetually inspired by this zine. It is the best eyeburn I’ve ever seen.
16 pages, color

The Selkie and the Lighthouse Keeper
by sewagebaby2

An absolutely beautiful aro/ace fairytale about the beauty and value of a queerplatonic relationship. It’s a story in these stunning digital illustrations with poetic text overtop, plus linocuts for the cover and back. One of the characters is a Selkie, and I always love when concepts of queerness are explored and represented through mythical creatures and magical bodies.
10 pages, color

A Self-Defense Study Guide for Trans Women and Gender Non-Conforming AMAB Folks
by TransFighters, Oakland

Real, actionable advice for deescalation, ways to fend off or respond to harassment, and physical escape techniques that won’t get you in for assault. And it recognizes that you can’t assume others will come to your aid in the way you might be able to if you were cis. It also covers safety around intimate partners. This is absolutely must-have information for all trans women and allies, period.
40 pages, color