requirements are uploaded
no plagiarism, college level writing
i will provide the five sources
four page no more than five
72Fall 2015 Broken Pencil
Zine Philosophy
As a somewhat lost punk delinquent in the re-
gional town of Toowoomba, in Queensland,
Australia, I grew up listening to punk bands,
then progressed on to researching and reading
about these bands. Out of nowhere, I stumbled
upon these raw, crudely produced publications:
Zines! I started making my own fanzines short-
ly after that. I was just doing my own thing with
a group of friends who wanted to support the
local music and art community. None of us had
skills in design, layout or journalism. We did it
together and it was completely DIY. The DIY
process, complete freedom and lack of rules is
what got me into zines and why I keep coming
back to them.
My first zine Bizoo was a music and arts
zine that grew from the regional town of
Toowoomba, borne from a lack of live music in
the area in 2001. Over 25 issues, Bizoo became
a lot more than a little black and white zine.
Each issue was free and featured over 60 con-
tributors from across the country and we print-
ed every submission we received. Its final re-
lease was titled Bizoo: The Best, The Worst & The
Trash that Never Made It. It’s a retrospective
book that documents and revisits the bands and
the community it grew from, as well as the tales
behind the fights and legal cases, including a
defamation case…but that’s another story!
History defines us, inspires us to create,
which builds culture and provides a sense of
place and/or purpose. This is one of the many
things I love about these raw publications: they
capture a time period that might otherwise be
lost to the ages. Without this history being
shared, do we have a cultural identity?
This was one of my main motivations in
producing Copier Jam!, an exhibition which
highlights zinemakers, independent comic cre-
ators, collectives and distributors from across
Puke Dongs & Copier Jams:
Zine Culture Down Under
by Jeremy Staples
IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, ZINES have slowly
taken over my life since the early 2000’s. I’ve gone from creating zines to running
workshops, co-founding the Zine and Indie Comic Symposium in Brisbane, Aus-
tralia and curating a zine exhibition. Upon reflection, it might seem strange that I’ve
stuck so closely to self-publishing and the printed word, as I failed English at school
and continue to battle with dyslexia. With all that said, zines have made me a bet-
ter person and I’ve become a strong advocate of zines and independent publishing.
Australia. The zine creators featured in this exhibition are some of the most pro-
lific, talented and creative in Australia. Some have been publishing for close to
three decades while others are full-time artists in their own right, and still others
are washing your dirty dishes to put food, paper and pens on the table. A lot of
them are constantly hitchhiking, squatting and protesting the front lines for a
better world. The seventeen creators, publishers and distributors at the fair share
a common passion for the printed word and image.
Some of the Copier Jam participants included:
Outsider artist Philip Dearest — an artist who knows how to shock even the
most seasoned fan of underground art. The titles of his zines alone would raise
a few eyebrows, ranging from Puke Dong, a zine about vomiting on the male ap-
pendage to Crust Punks with Tummy Troubles, an art zine covering all the joys of
diarrhoea. One of Dearest’s most renowned releases to date is the aptly titled Off
My Meds, in which he undertakes a study of creativity during a month-long break
from his regular medication.
Ashley Ronning is an illustrator, risograph printer and zine creator based in
Melbourne. Ronning’s work was recently plastered throughout Melbourne as part
of the promotion for the annual Festival of the Photocopier hosted by Australia’s
largest dedicated zine shop, Sticky Institute.
Vanessa Berry is one of Australia’s most respected zine creators, and she has
been publishing since the mid-nineties. She is best known for her I am a Camera
series, which began in 1999 and covers personal tales, travel stories and reflections.
Iain McIntyre is an author, musician and one half of the notorious Woozy zine
that ran from 1992 to 2001 which produced twenty-two issues in a variety of
formats that ranges from mini zines to cassette tapes. Woozy brought together
politics, DIY art, comics and alterative views that rounded up over 100 contribu-
tors, laid out prominently by hand.
It’s impossible to list every Copier Jam participant, but I hope the ones I’ve men-
tioned will pique your interest and encourage you to learn more about Australia’s
zine culture. And if you’re a creator yourself, I implore you — dream with your
eyes open, step away from the TV, put your dreams down on paper and start
writing and scribbling your own revolution!
Jeremy Staples is a Scorpio who enjoys documenting, questioning, community
engagement, providing a voice to the voiceless and skill-sharing. Turn-ons include:
reading, writing and making people think. Learn more at copierjam.com.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.
71English Journal 102.2 (2012): 71–77
Rebekah Buchanan
The author offers a brief
history of zines and zine
culture and describes
several ways to bring zines
into the ELA classroom to
address NCTE/IRA and
Common Core standards.
Zines in the Classroom:
Reading Culture
experiences, music, politics, parenting, travel, com-
ics, sewing, or anything else one chooses to write
about. Zine scholar Stephen Duncombe lists 15
broad zine categories including Fanzines, Political
zines, Personal zines (known as perzines), Health
zines, Comix, and Literary zines (11–13). Zines
may last for one issue or for a number of years, and
zine creators are a variety of ages and come from
varied backgrounds. The texts in zines use words,
images, art, and other tools of production, creating
usable multimodal literacy sites.
When Did Zines Start?
Some argue that when Martin Luther hammered his
Ninety-Five Theses on the door at Castle Church in
1517, he created the first zine. Since that time, there
have been varied examples of zinesque publishing
throughout print history. In the United States,
zines can be traced back to the Revolutionary War
and colonial pamphlets and broadsides, with pam-
phleteers such as Thomas Paine and printers such as
Ben Franklin playing a role in their history.
The modern-day zine descends directly from
the science fiction fanzines of the late 1920s and
1930s (Wright). During this time, science fiction
fans looked for ways to connect with one another.
Fans began to publish their own magazines, call-
ing them fanzines, a term that differentiated them
from the “fan magazines” of the time that were
commercial, newsstand publications geared toward
fans of pop movie stars and singers. Over time, the
name fanzine was shortened to zine. These zines
unther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen
assert that language-based peda-
gogy is not sufficient reading in our
technology-driven society. We need
to incorporate ways for students to read other signs
and symbols and redefine what it means to be liter-
ate in a digital age. Still, there are many ways in
which print-based texts can be used effectively in
the classroom. The key is finding texts that engage
and motivate students to become involved with the
written word. Zines provide a way to motivate stu-
dents. They are visually appealing, and they are easy
to hold, manipulate, and access. They present short,
attention-getting narratives, and they are written in
language and vernacular most students understand
and appreciate. Students can interact with zines and
zine creators in personal ways, creating a sense of in-
volvement and connection not found in traditional
stories and texts. All the elements of zines and the
zine culture make for engaging, multimodal literacy
projects for both students and teachers.
So, What’s a Zine?
Zines can best be described as independent, self-
published works created for pleasure that earn little
or no profit. They have print runs from a few to
thousands, most averaging around 100–200. They
are less formal and commercial than most maga-
zines (their closest literary relative), and they are an
immediate way to participate in the literary scene.
Zines can be compiled by one person or a group
of people. They can cover topics including personal
G
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 71 11/7/12 1:24 PM
selson
Text Box
Copyright © 2012 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
72 November 2012
Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture
resources creating a cut-and-paste aesthetic, and
access to photocopiers—something not as readily
available before this time. Zines became the pre-
dominant tool for the promotion of bands, review-
ing shows and recordings, interviews with band
members, and the promotion of the DIY ethic.
In the past two decades, there has been an ex-
plosion of zines created for and by young women.
With ready access to computers, copiers, and other
production supplies, young women use zines to
share their stories, find communities, and create
dialogue. Popular teen magazines, such as Sassy,
regularly published zine reviews with contact in-
formation for readers to contact zine writers and
obtain their work. Started in the early 1980s by
zinesters such as Mike Gunderloy and his publica-
tion Factsheet Five, large circulation review publi-
cations along with mainstream press publications,
such as Pagan Kennedy’s Zine: How I Spent Six Years
of My Life in the Underground and Finally . . . Found
Myself . . . I Think and Stephen Duncombe’s Notes
from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alterna-
tive Culture, began to bring zines to the attention
of mainstream audiences. Larger independent pub-
lishing companies, such as Parcell Press, mass pub-
lish and distribute zines and other DIY products,
yet the majority of zine writing and distribution
still occurs underground by individuals or small
groups who solely use their own time and resources
to promote their work.
The late 1990s and 2000s also brought about
the increased daily use of computer technology as a
means of communication and community formation
among zine writers and readers. Participants in zine
culture formed zine communities through Yahoo
groups and blogs such as Live Journal. Zine Distro
(see Key Terms sidebar) owners formed websites
with easy access for the browsing and purchasing of
zines, and some zine writers supplemented paper-
based products with websites and blogs because
they allow zine writers to easily change and add in-
formation and they cut down on the costs of compil-
ing, printing, and publishing paper-based zines.
Reading Zines in the Classroom
Zines are a great classroom resource. Once you
know where to find them, they are easily accessible
and also inexpensive. (See the Zine Distros sidebar.)
contained many of the elements of the zines of
today, such as stories, reviews, and letters, and they
eventually moved beyond science fiction and fan-
tasy to address other interests of the publishers and
readers. It was at this time that zine hallmarks such
as self-publishing by an individual or small group,
the preference to trade publications versus selling
for commercial profit, filling a void in mainstream
publications, and the erratic and sporadic attempts
at publishing all became commonplace.
With the inception of the fanzine, science fic-
tion fandom crossed over into the realm of comic
books and other works of fiction. This movement
into comics created a large subculture for artists and
illustrators to have their works seen and move into
mainstream, professional arenas as artists. Like sci-
ence fanzines before them, the first comics created
inspired others to create their own comics, creat-
ing a world of independent and self-published com-
ics. Starting in the 1940s, comics began to hold a
prominent position in underground publishing.
As comic zines were evolving, so were rock-
and-roll subcultures, and by the 1960s individuals
involved in science fiction begin to find a niche in
the creation of rock-and-roll fanzines. Unlike the
mainstream rock-and-roll publications of the time,
creators of rock-and-roll fanzines of the 1960s were
able to write about music in a non-regulated way.
The writers shared their love for little-known musi-
cians and bands and were also able to be as critical or
adoring as they wanted. Because of its affordability
at the time, the use of mimeograph machines as a
means of producing fanzines became the norm. In-
dividuals and small groups created zines, and, like
modern-day zines, they called for communication
and dialogue among fans. Though the early zines of
the 1960s and 1970s set a precedent for rock fan-
zines, it was not until the punk-rock and new-wave
era that fanzine publication and distribution surged.
In the late 1970s, a series of events influenced
zine writing. During the punk-rock movement,
fans became frustrated with the treatment of their
music and scenes in the mainstream press. Fans of
punk-rock bands and lifestyles showed open hostil-
ity toward mainstream media as well as mainstream
culture and ideologies. As part of the strong DIY
(Do It Yourself) culture surrounding punk, zines
dedicated to the music began to form. Punk zine
designers shared art school backgrounds, a lack of
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 72 11/7/12 1:24 PM
73English Journal
Rebekah Buchanan
you may want to start with zines that are image
heavy. There are a number of great comic zines that
draw students in and get them interested in the
genre. If you are doing a unit on poetry or short sto-
ries, you might want to start with poetry or liter-
ary zines. Many students are drawn to zines because
of the personal content of perzines (see Key Terms
sidebar). They like learning about other people’s
lives and experiences. Contact Distro owners and
ask them to send you a “grab bag” of zines they
think might be of interest to your students. The
assortment will give you and your students the op-
portunity to look through a variety of zines and get
more of a feel for the medium.
How will you use zines in your English lan-
guage arts classroom? There are several ways to
approach using zines in the classroom. You could
design an entire unit on zines and include read-
ing and analyzing zines as well as creating zines
for your classroom collection. Or, you could opt to
read a novel, such as Ellen Wittlinger’s young adult
novel Hard Love, which focuses on two zine-writing
teens, and supplement the discussion of the novel
with an exploration into the world of zines. Cre-
ating a print-rich classroom with zines and books
throughout encourages students to read different
varieties of texts, allowing students to explore me-
dium and genre. Using zines as a way to examine
the use of images and their relation to text, or im-
ages as primary text, opens up opportunities around
information literacy.
Examples of Zines in the Classroom
The following are a few ways in which secondary
and middle school teachers could incorporate zines
into their reading curricula.
Exploring Consumer Culture:
Zines and Mainstream Magazines
One interesting lesson with zines is to compare and
contrast them with mainstream magazines. I usually
focus this unit around consumer culture and how
media advertise to teens. We watch and discuss ex-
cerpts from videos such as PBS’s Frontline segment
“The Merchants of Cool” and discuss teen marketing
and media giants. Students then break into groups
and are given piles of zines and piles of mainstream
“glossy” magazines. They start by creating a Venn
At $1 to $3 per zine on average, a classroom set
could cost under $50, making them more afford-
able than a set of paperback novels. There are also
numerous ways to have students create zines for the
classroom. For example, in a recent English Journal
article on creating novelzines as a way to comple-
ment novel reading in their classrooms, Karin H.
deGravelles and colleagues discuss the use of zines
as a tool to help students learn about and build
community (55). After students create novelzines,
teachers can use them in future classrooms as a way
to engage students in reading novels or learning
about classmates. Once you have decided to in-
tegrate zines into your classroom, there are a few
things to think about before you incorporate them
into your reading curriculum.
Start with the type of zines you believe will
interest your students most. If you are working
with middle school students or struggling readers,
Zine (zeen): Independent, self-published work often
created by a single person. Most zines are created
by an individual physically cutting and pasting
images and texts onto a master copy, photocopying
the pages, and compiling them through folding and
stapling. Some zines are made through computer
programs and other forms of printing and binding.
Zinester: An individual who creates zines.
Perzine: Short for personal zine. A zine written by an
individual that discusses personal thoughts, experi-
ences, and everyday events.
Zine Distro: Short for Zine Distribution. Distros are
places that distribute zines. Many individuals run
Distros out of their homes, mailing zines out to
those who order them, and some independent book
and record stores carry zines as well.
K E Y T E R M S
Atomic Books: http://www.atomicbooks.com/ (They
also have a store in Baltimore.)
Click Clack Distro: http://www.clickclackdistro.com/
Parcell Press: http://www.parcellpress.com/
Quimby’s: http://www.quimbys.com/ (They also
have a store in Chicago.)
Sweet Candy Distro: http://sweetcandydistro
.weebly.com/
S u G G E S T E D Z i N E D i S T R O S
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 73 11/7/12 1:24 PM
74 November 2012
Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture
students through this process (see fig. 2). We then
come back together and discuss the different ways
that magazines and zines are part of consumer and
producer cultures and how who produces culture
changes what is consumed and how ideas and opin-
ions are presented as well as whose ideas and opin-
ions are presented and valued. We focus on images,
advertising, and ownership of media.
I use this lesson (sometimes expanding it
over two days and having the groups look at mul-
tiple sets of zines) to continue a larger discussion
into media, consumerism, and images of youth.
We also spend time discussing how adolescents can
be passive consumers or become more active consum-
ers and producers of culture. The students are drawn
to zines, want to work to create their own zines,
want to know where they can find more, and usu-
ally ask to take some home. Because they are so easy
to access (once you know how) and because they are
portable—most zines will fit in your pocket—I be-
lieve students develop a bond with zines that they
sometimes don’t feel with traditional books or even
glossy magazines.
Zine Reviews
Another fun project is to create zine review blogs
or even databases. There are several online data-
bases used to log and keep track of book collections
(e.g., BookCrossing at http://www.bookcrossing
.com, Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com,
diagram to compare and contrast the two types of
publication. For many of the students, this is their
first introduction to zines and zine culture. They are
excited to learn more about the alternative media
form, where zines come from, who makes them, and
where they can find their own copies. Often students
become so engrossed in the zines that they spend
a large chunk of the class period just reading and
exploring the texts. I’ve noticed this happens more
often when students are given a variety of zines of
various sizes, cover types, and focus, and I strongly
encourage students to browse and explore (see fig. 1
for an example of what I gave students to help them
examine zines).
After giving students ample time to explore
the zines, discuss the differences, and complete
their Venn diagrams, we come back together as a
larger group and a I offer direct instruction around
what zines are, what they are used for, and the dif-
ferent types of zines available. I then explain that
we are going to focus on how we can be both cul-
tural producers and consumers of zines.
Students again break into small groups, and
this time each group is given one zine and one
mainstream magazine, both with similar content,
and are asked to look at audience, purpose, lan-
guage, and layout of both texts. For example, stu-
dents compare Rolling Stone to Maxim Rock-n-Roll or
Seventeen to Bamboo Girl or Home and Garden to Di-
manche. I created a graphic organizer to help guide
FiGuRE 1. Analyzing a Zine
In groups, use the following chart to analyze your zine.
Title of Zine: Author’s Name:
What are some words
the author uses to show
the theme?
What is the theme of the zine? Draw or write about
some of the pictures the
author uses to show the
theme.
Write about the ways you thought the
author successfully presented his or her
theme.
How do you know?
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 74 11/7/12 1:24 PM
75English Journal
Rebekah Buchanan
FiGuRE 2. Comparing Zines and Magazines
In small groups you will answer two of the sections below. (Feel free to use additional paper.) In each section, give
specific examples to support your answers. Once you’ve completed your work you will share your answers with the
class, so make sure you are thorough and have data and evidence to support your claims.
Title Zine Magazine
Who is the audience? Be specific. Why
do you believe this is the audience for
the publication?
What is the purpose of the publication?
What themes, topic, and ideas is the
publication presenting to its audience?
In what ways is it attempting to per-
suade the reader? How does the publi-
cation accomplish its purpose/goal?
What is the layout of the publication?
How are images and texts presented?
How “professional” is the layout? Are
there advertisements? If so, for what
products, goods, or services?
What language is being used in the
publication? What is the style of the
writing? Is the writing more formal or is
there a great deal of slang and every-
day language? Is the publication well
proofread and edited?
Who is in control of what goes into the
publication? How are the choices as to
what should be published made? How
does this impact the content of the
publication?
Who owns this publication? Who is
allowed to make decisions about sell-
ing, publishing, promoting, and includ-
ing information into the publication?
How does this impact the overall
publication?
and LibraryThing at http://www.librarything.com).
Zines must be tagged in some form, which makes
BookCrossing a useful database because the sys-
tem for tagging and blogging about books is al-
ready in place. Students read zines, write reviews,
and post them. Students can rate the zines, react to
other students’ reviews, learn about zines they may
want to read, and keep a list of what they have read.
A database or review blog is also a nice way for
teachers to keep track of their zines. Students may
choose to add their own zines as well, swap with
one another, or even create zines, add a tag to them,
and “follow” their zine around. You can also com-
bine zine reviews with other review projects.
Discovering Biography
One of the elements that draw students to zines is
the personal nature of the medium. Students enjoy
reading about the lives of others and finding out
how zinesters deal with conflict and tackle tough
situations. Creating an autobiography unit and
incorporating perzines gives students unique op-
portunities to interact with authors in ways that
mainstream autobiographical texts do not. Dur-
ing the zine section of the unit I divide the class
into small groups and give each group a collection
of perzines by one author, trying to find zinesters
who have written a larger number of perzines about
their lives and experiences.1 I try to find zinesters
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 75 11/7/12 1:24 PM
76 November 2012
Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture
trade it with members of the class, and send one to
the zinester herself or himself.
Reading Culture
In Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research
Brief, NCTE leaders argue that “adolescent literacy
is social, drawing from various communities in and
out of school” (3) and that students have access to
a variety of discourses that we as teachers need to
value in our classrooms. The brief further argues
that adolescents are successful in the classroom
when they bridge everyday and classroom practices
and realize the social nature of literacy. In addition,
it addresses the importance of motivating students
by actively engaging them through inquiry-based
activities that present diverse texts and multiple
life perspectives, “particularly if texts include elec-
tronic and visual media” (4). Bringing zines into
the classroom fosters a reading culture that engages
in research-based teaching practices such as those
addressed in NCTE’s important document. Zines
are textual forums that students may engage in and
out of school and that many participants use as a so-
cial activity and a way to communicate with others.
Zine readers share diverse and multiple viewpoints
and zines allow readers to engage with not only the
visual texts, but the authors as well.
In addition, zines can easily be aligned with
NCTE/IRA Standards for English Language Arts.
For example, Standard 7 states,
Students conduct research on issues and interests
by generating ideas and questions, and by posing
problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data
from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint
texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discov-
eries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
Having students compare and contrast zines
with mainstream magazines and viewing documen-
taries on teen marketing allows students to gather
and synthesize data from both mainstream and al-
ternative media sources as well as explore and bet-
ter understand primary and secondary sources and
the ways in which media engage teens. Encourag-
ing students to design questions and contact zine-
sters about their zines also teaches students to be
active researchers and readers, pushing them to use
zines as texts and data.
that students can relate to in some way to engage
students in the stories. Students are given a list of
questions to answer as they look through each zine
collection. Questions cover basic biographical in-
formation—age, hometown, family history, school
and work history, etc.—seeing what groups can
compile by looking through the zines.
Students then come up with questions they
would like to ask the writers about their lives. Stu-
dents write or email the authors, explaining they
are creating biographies and asking the questions
compiled by the group. Most zinesters are respon-
sive to questions about their lives and their work
and are happy to answer any questions the students
ask. By contacting the zinesters, students have ac-
cess to a primary source and begin to understand
biography and narrative in ways they would not
when reading texts by authors they cannot easily
communicate with. With zinesters, students are
able to fill in the gaps and learn details that would
many times go unaddressed in other biographical
works. Jacqueline Edmondson’s English Journal ar-
ticle on biography urges English teachers to take
a new approach to the genre as a way to better en-
gage students with biography and to allow them a
“more nuanced understanding of the complexities,
challenges, contradictions, and consequences of life
stories” (45). Zines’ ready access to their authors,
as well as other primary sources and artifacts, make
them one way teachers can encourage students to
consider the complexities of biographies and the
stories authors choose to share.
Once groups get basic biographical informa-
tion together and have sent their emails, I have
students divide the life of their zinester and then
individually select one or two stories from each
zinester to use as part of the section of the biog-
raphy they create. We discuss which stories might
be relevant to the biography as a whole and how
different parts of and experiences in a person’s life
may be important to the larger biography. Students
then work to write a biography on their zinester.
I usually incorporate the reading and discussion of
other biographies, drafting, peer reviews, and revi-
sion and give time for students to receive and incor-
porate the responses they get from the zinester they
are writing about. Students then compile their bio-
graphical sections, create a zine about the zinester,
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 76 11/7/12 1:24 PM
77English Journal
Rebekah Buchanan
ages them to actively participate in reading and
creating culture.
Note
1. Cindy Crabb (Doris: An Anthology, 1991–2001;
Portland: Microcosm, 2005), China Martens (Future Genera-
tion: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and
Others; Baltimore: Atomic Book, 2007), and Marilyn Wann
(Fat!So?: Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size!
Berkeley: Ten Speed, 1998) all have compiled their zines
into anthologies. These may be best suited for a college
classroom, but they are also helpful in understanding how
biographies and narratives come together over time.
Works Cited
deGravelles, Karin H., Jacqueline Bach, Yvette Hyde, and
Angelle Hebert, with Debra Hale, Alesha Cava-
naugh, and Monica Kimbrough. “Novelzine: Read-
ing and Writing Community.” English Journal 101.4
(2012):55–63. Print.
Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground: Zines and the
Politics of Alternative Culture. New York: Verso, 1997.
Print.
Edmondson, Jacqueline. “Constructing and Engaging
Biography: Considerations for High School English
Teachers.” English Journal 101.5 (2012): 44–50.
Print.
Kennedy, Pagan. Zine: How I Spent Six Years of My Life in the
Underground and Finally . . . Found Myself . . . I Think.
New York: St. Martin’s, 1995. Print.
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. Multimodal Dis-
course. London: Routledge, 2001. Print.
———. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Lon-
don: Routledge, 1996. Print.
“The Merchants of Cool.” Frontline. PBS. Web. 21 Oct.
2009.
NCTE. Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research Brief.
Urbana: NCTE, 2007. Print.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love. New York: Simon, 1999.
Print.
Wright, Fred. “The History and Characteristics of Zines.”
The Zine and E-Zine Resource Guide. Zinebook.com.
1997. Web. 28 Mar. 2009.
Similar activities can also be aligned with
Common Core State Standards now adopted by most
states. For example, in the Reading Informational
Text Strand for high school, Indicator 7 asks ninth
through tenth graders and eleventh through twelfth
graders to be able to Integrate Knowledge and Ideas:
CC. 9-10. R.I.7 Integration of Knowledge and
Ideas: Analyze various accounts of a subject told
in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in
both print and multimedia), determining which
details are emphasized in each account.
CC. 11-12. R.I.7 Integration of Knowledge and
Ideas: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of
information presented in different media or formats
(e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in
order to address a question or solve a problem.
Reading zines as autobiographies, contacting
zinesters about their stories, looking at multiple
representations of stories addressed in zines, and
looking at how zinesters tell similar (or different)
stories than those represented in mainstream media
are all ways of taking best practices of incorporat-
ing high interest readings that students can (and
do) engage in outside of the classroom and aligning
them with the Common Core.
We are continually bombarded with media,
messages, and information using written, visual,
and oral texts. Learning to decode the various ways
we “read” media, images, and text is rapidly be-
coming important in the classroom. With so many
different media and images, finding new ways to
bring nontraditional hybrid texts into the English
language arts classroom—especially printed text—
that engage students and make them think can be
challenging. Bringing zines into the classroom en-
gages students in multimodal literacy and encour-
Rebekah Buchanan is assistant professor of English and Journalism at Western Illinois University where she teaches English
education and writing courses. Her research examines how zines and other narrative writing can be used in the classroom as
well as how personal narratives published in alternative spaces create sites where participants challenge traditionally accepted
public narratives. She can be reached at rj-buchanan@wiu.edu.
R E A D W R i T E T H i N K C O N N E C T i O N Lisa Storm Fink, RWT
Writing professional reviews teaches students to understand audience, content, and publication guidelines. In
“Professional Writing in Action! Publishing Student Reviews Online,” students put these skills into practice as real
writers critiquing, designing, and publishing reviews on Amazon.com. http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-
resources/lesson-plans/professional-writing-action-publishing-30754.html
EJ_Nov2012_B.indd 77 11/7/12 1:24 PM
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without
permission.
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Zichun Gao
professor Kaz
English 1A
13 May 2020
Annotated Bibliography:The Cultural Value of Zines
Kristopher Jansma “you say you want a revolution? Zines at the Brooklyn college
library.”vice 22 oct 2012,
“https://electricliterature.com/literary-artifacts-you-say-you-want-a-revolution-zines-a
t-the-brooklyn-college-library/ (Links
to an external site.)
Kristopher Jansma is an American fiction writer and essayist. Born in the Lincroft
section of Middletown Township, New Jersey, he attended Johns Hopkins University
and Columbia University.Kristopher Jansma wrote that Brooklyn College curator
Alycia Sellie said that zines was a DIY art from the beginning, composed of
appropriate text and images, and finally composed of scissors and glue. The “zinc acid
esters” they collected represent every element of this society, and these views are not
inconsistent with the articles we discussed earlier. And I also think this article is the
same as I thought. One writer in the article stressed the importance of seeing “real
handwriting” all over the finished product, saying that it was a lot more fun to cut
things out of magazines than to write in HTML. She compared the experience of
assembling a zine to the primal thrill of hunting and gathering, and confessed to “the
idealistic notion that [she] could feed everyone with what’s inside.” (Kristopher
Jansma 2012) He talked about the social unrest and cultural war in 1990. The younger
generation of artists began to move away from the mainstream. At this time, zine was
LITERARY ARTIFACTS: You Say You Want a Revolution? Zines at the Brooklyn College Library
LITERARY ARTIFACTS: You Say You Want a Revolution? Zines at the Brooklyn College Library
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established to let people hear and see the mainstream. For other events, dare to face
reality, do not be led by others, firmly believe that you are right, and contrary to social
ideas is not necessarily wrong. “Are librarians drawn to zines because they recognize
in these bizarre, photocopied publications the passion for freedom of expression tha t
they themselves so proudly stand for?” (Kristopher Jansma 2012) I will use the views
of the author of this resource on zine and his In the history of how zine was
mentioned in, I think this article is very consistent with the views I want to express.
Gamble, Ione. “How Feminist Zine Culture Has Evolved.” Vice, 14 June 2018,
www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjbbbb/how-feminist-zine-culture-has-evolved (Links
to an external site.)
Ione Gamble is editor and writer based in London. She is the editor of Polyester zine,
With a focus on contemporary feminism, arts and culture and identity; I also regularly
freelance for both print and online publications, including Vice, Noisey, Huck
Magazine Dazed , iD, Riposte, and more. This article is also Ione Gamble discussing
her own the culture of women’s magazines.mainly about the her feminist art and
magazines The views of many years of research. The article mentioned that after
2000, the content of high -priced magazines and politicized magazines began to blur,
and a new era of female-led magazines began to be ushered in, combining the high
output value of magazines with feminism. The focus is on visual effects, rather than
the previous DIY cut and paste but mainly on content. “Zines obviously create
alternative visual viewpoints to mainstream representation and put marginalized
bodies front and center.” (Lone gamble 2018) I will be in my essay The use of this
resource in t h e magazine has shifted from manual art to mass production and is
http://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjbbbb/how-feminist-zine-culture-has-evolved
http://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjbbbb/how-feminist-zine-culture-has-evolved
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centered on feminism. This historical change is something I think is worth writing
into my essay.
Staples, Jeremy. “Puke Dongs & Copier Jams: Zine Culture Down Under.” Broken Pencil,
no.
69,Fall, 2015, pp. 72. ProQuest,
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.ed
u/docview/1728292080?accountid=28371.
Jeremy Staples is a writer And the founder of the magazine. Jeremy holds a Master’s
Degree in Higher Education from University of Toronto-OISE and a Bachelors
Management Degree from the University of Surrey, England. This article is Jeremy
Staples tells, from starting in the early 2000s, zines occupied the author’s life in
different ways. At first, he and a group of friends who supported local music and
community art started DIY zine, but later because DIY lacked rules and the content
was too free, he began to insist on self-publishing and printing text magazines. he also
found some local writers and painters to help him start the magazine workshop. he
created zines because she wanted more people to understand the magazine culture. “If
you’re a creator yourself, I implore you-dream with your eyes open, step away from
the TV, put your dreams down on paper and start writing and scribbling your own
revolution! “(Staples, Jeremy) This is the last sentence in the source, which is also my
favorite sentence, is consistent with the idea I want to present in essay, so I want to
use this resource in my essay.
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.edu/docview/1728292080?accountid=28371
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.edu/docview/1728292080?accountid=28371
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Buchanan, Rebekah, and Lisa S. Fink R.W.T. “Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture.”
English Journal, vol. 102, no. 2, 2012, pp. 71-77. ProQuest,
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.ed
u/docview/1315166545?accountid=28371.
Dr. Rebekah Buchanan teaches English Education, Basic Writing, and Professional
Writing Courses, and leads a Harry Potter Study Abroad course. Her research focuses
on feminism, activism, and literacy practices in youth culture, specifically through
zines and music. Buchanan, Rebekah, and Lisa S. Fink RWT The author briefly
introduces Zine and Zine culture, and introduces the introduction of Zine into ELA
Classroom to solve several methods of NCTE / IRA and Common Core. They also
talked about “What is Zine”, “When did Zines start?”, “Reading Zines in the
Classroom” and “Examples of Zines in the Classroom” are very important for us to
understand the culture of zines, So I will use this source in my essay.
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.edu/docview/1315166545?accountid=28371
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezp.pasadena.edu/docview/1315166545?accountid=28371