Zines, Chap books, and doujinshi

[rovingjack]

is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine.

the idea of folded paper self publications of written or block printing seems to have it's roots in the right time periods (late 1700s- early 1900s). And zines having so intermeshed with science fiction fan bases and later the Punk communities...

I've developed quite a fascination with them lately. in part sparked by a poet friend selling small works in a chapbook fashion. and thinking about the roleplaying game challenge that comes in February called zinequest where people create campaigns on kickstarter for roleplaying zines.

I love the idea of both creating modern zines in a steampunk theme, as well as steampunk zines in the time and setting.

anybody else into this sort of thing?

[Hurricane Annie]

 Are you talking about content  and a format with pictorial story lines as in graphic novel series and or articles and photo spreads of topical interest?

My mind was immediately drawn to the UK teen zines  we had shipped to the Southern Hemisphere. Subjects contained within included how to avoid "pressure" from boys, how to do make up and hair like the pop stars of the day, matching your tights with your shoes and clothes, why you shouldn't dress like a punk rocker. Most importantly  what sort of girl {now outed rock star} likes.

 Then my mind drifted to Mad magazine, Heavy Metal and Cream. Onwards to the old biker magazines with tattoos, bikes and gold in leather bikinis having far more fun than the "good girls in the magazines above. To the magazines that had " interesting articles" that were only read for the pictures.

 What would the centerfolds be of?

[rovingjack]

 Are you talking about content  and a format with pictorial story lines as in graphic novel series and or articles and photo spreads of topical interest?

zines as I have encountered originates from a shortened term for Fanzine. which was a concept that came into being as fans of sci-fi started using home printing methods to produce short (less that 40 pages) black and white booklets and pamphlets in the low hundreds of numbers. Underground comics began using the format, and with the photocopier coming on the scene all sorts of fandoms began to do things with it. Including the Punk scene.

Chap books are in my mind similar if not the same thing; and predate the sci-fi publishing fanzines. My friend recently sold some. they are usually made as either a few sheets of paper folded in half with a colored card stock cover, run through a photocopier, and staple bound. some are made pocket sized. and some are made from a single sheet and folded and cut in such a way to get 8,12,16,24 pages. She collected several of her poems in the one she made, and sold them for a quarter each.

It's a sort of middle spot between fliers, information brochure, magazine, news letter, and artist portfolio.

They can be short stories, articles, poems, comics, even photography collections, a short collection of recipes, instruction booklet for a project, information about a country or heritage, introduction info for a subject you are an enthusiast about. etc.

I could see all sorts of steampunk fandom done in zine format, as well as the idea of fictional steampunk settings having thriving steampunk chapbook subculture. Patterns for hats, a scholarly article on the application of an eldritch carving in some dinosaur bone as the power core of some mechanism or device.

Part of why it's in my head so much lately, is years ago I made a hand made maze each day for a year, and then did word puzzle creation each day for a year. If I could track them down in storage I could compile them into a dozen zines each. make the files downloadable, and print them and run photo copies and staple them into booklets that could be mailed out and shared with friends.

But not only that, I could do it for each of my monthly projects. recipes, photography, paintings, stories, etc.

zine makers have conventions but just as often show up at other conventions. It's not uncommon for zine makers to swap zines with each other, like artists sometimes do with art swaps.

I'm thinking I could see about getting a table at some conventions again and have puzzles and game zines, art books, and short story zines, mini comics, and recipe books etc. it could be a fun interaction and community building adventure.

[Hurricane Annie]

 Mr Roving Jack, in these current times of reflection and self companionship, the concept you are visualising could be useful for  folk to have a diversion and distraction. As well as offer practical advice. 

[Sir Henry]

Your title is missing the Soviet Russian version - samizdat ("self-publish").

This sounds like a wonderful idea. A few years ago I put together an annual annual (like the British comics used to (still do?) every Christmas) for a comedy forum I was a member of. It was quite hard work, but well worth it and it raised a few quid to keep the site up and running.

One trick I quickly learned was to provide them as a pdf file as well as printed. Some folks would prefer their nostalgia digitised, it appears.
By the second year the pdf had sound effects, animations and all sorts. Very few people know just how much you can embed in a pdf, so I got several complaints the day after that year's release from people who had been reading it on the bus/train/underground while commuting to work. They weren't happy to hear my velvety tones reading the introduction aloud for everyone around them to hear.
A bit later I received more complaints from people who had reached the end of the annual. The last 5 pages were a parody of the forum, each with an audio file to go with it, but this time I left the 'Stop Playing' code out when they turned the page. By the end there were 5 tracks all playing on top of each other. It was glorious.

Yes, I am evil.

[rovingjack]

Your title is missing the Soviet Russian version - samizdat ("self-publish").

I tried looking into that after your post and it sounds like less artistic and creative and more manifestos and underground political organization than I'm likely to get with anything I do in the zine scene. I mean I've done much political organization and activism stuff over the years (I somehow ended up on national and international media in interviews about the things we were working for), and I'm not opposed to doing stuff for those types of things. But in all honesty I'm a artist, maker, and story teller; and if I don't have an outlet for those aspects I go bonkers. I need to set aside the fights and the ugliness of the world and the discourse going on, or risk that becoming all that my life is.

This sounds like a wonderful idea. A few years ago I put together an annual annual (like the British comics used to (still do?) every Christmas) for a comedy forum I was a member of. It was quite hard work, but well worth it and it raised a few quid to keep the site up and running.

now that's an interesting thing. I've played with doing some standup comedy stuff as one of my monthly challenges, and I was contemplating what that would be like as a zine if I were to make a zine for each monthly challenge I did. Things like a craft project for each letter of the alphabet during the month of february (28 days, 26 letters) is easy enough to take a picture of. but what to do for a comedy routine zine?

One trick I quickly learned was to provide them as a pdf file as well as printed. Some folks would prefer their nostalgia digitised, it appears.

yeah reaching people would be one of the hard things. I might be able to attend a con or something locally but I think being able to download and print out the zine allows for a greater reach. as far as going with embedded sound etc at that point I might just stick with youtube, podcasting and game creation.

Since many of my ideas would likely be done as single sheets folded into multi page booklets, half the fun is figuring out tricks of formatting that become features of the physical booklet.

for example, there is a tabletop RPG zine event on kickstarter in February each year for the last few years where people create games, settings, adventures, or gameplay tools in zine format and launch them on kickstarter. What I'm thinking of is a variant on the standard single sheet of paper into an 8 page booklet. making two of them and staple binding them into a card cover in such a way that you get 16 pages, plus front and back cover and inside covers. and the 8 page fold format allows that they can be unfolded to a large blank back for a full sized sheet of paper. and I'm reminded of the Dragon Quest/Warrior NES game I loved as a kid... that came with a chart that had all the monsters, weapons and items etc on one side, and a world map with small dungeon maps around the edge on the other. I should be able to make charts similar to that on the unfolded pages, and a guide on othe 16 folded pages.

there are also things like a tetraflexagon that would be fun to make a zine on. a complex folded sheet that ends us looking like a 2x2 flat square that can seemingly like a magic trick can change what's on it 4-6-8 times.

[Sir Henry]

I tried looking into that after your post and it sounds like less artistic and creative and more manifestos and underground political organization than I'm likely to get with anything I do in the zine scene.

True, though the only two I ever saw were punk zines (this was around 1978), which were fanzines really, but being in the Soviet Union they became rather more political than such things were in the UK, just by their existence.

but what to do for a comedy routine zine?

The forum in question had a lot of its own memes and in-jokes, so the annuals were heavily based around those. A sort of annual State Of The Forum, if you will. I can't immediately see how a stand-up routine could benefit from being converted to print, but it could be worth exploring.

there are also things like a tetraflexagon that would be fun to make a zine on. a complex folded sheet that ends us looking like a 2x2 flat square that can seemingly like a magic trick can change what's on it 4-6-8 times.

Yes, playing with the medium in ways that can't be done on screen would be the way to go, I think. Things like the old Mad magazine folded pages which, when folded along the dotted lines to 2/3 of its original width shows a very different picture. Hopefully you know what I mean because last time I looked for examples on line there was nothing to be found.

Definitely an idea worth exploring, please let us know if it comes to fruition.

[rovingjack]

Yes, playing with the medium in ways that can't be done on screen would be the way to go, I think. Things like the old Mad magazine folded pages which, when folded along the dotted lines to 2/3 of its original width shows a very different picture. Hopefully you know what I mean because last time I looked for examples on line there was nothing to be found.

Definitely an idea worth exploring, please let us know if it comes to fruition.

Homer does one of the mad magazine fold riddles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3UcR7nAbo

some examples of tetra-flexagons
http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/tetraflexagons.htm

a demo of making a hexa-tetra-flexagon and showing how they function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-H-33DYHdg

I actually entertained the idea some years back of making a Harry Potters maurauders map from a tetra-flexagon to make it more like how the book makes it seem like a sheet of paper that shows different maps when looked at it on different occasisions.

[Sir Henry]

some examples of tetra-flexagons
http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/tetraflexagons.htm

a demo of making a hexa-tetra-flexagon and showing how they function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-H-33DYHdg

Wow!. Never seen those before, but it instantly suggests itself for use in my next puzzle box. Thanks!

I actually entertained the idea some years back of making a Harry Potters maurauders map from a tetra-flexagon to make it more like how the book makes it seem like a sheet of paper that shows different maps when looked at it on different occasisions.

That sounds like a very good idea for promotion or if you're aiming to reach a wider market. I suspect a lot of HP fans would jump at the chance of getting a working Marauder's Map.

[rovingjack]

Wow!. Never seen those before, but it instantly suggests itself for use in my next puzzle box. Thanks!

if you like that, this one looks like a proper mind bender, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpJbBYPmAz4 

there are a host of 3d transforming things I've found over the years too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIABSDHosEg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty_hqZlscJg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEcqVGBEhtI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40TQuIcHKjs

are some of my favorites.