Today in zines

So I recently (perhaps last week) added the zine_scene community to my Flist just to see what I could see. Today someone has posted a notice about their new zine, Late Night Cuddle Date: "And in case you wwant to know the zine is my journal from the last month or so typed up and made pretty with art and what not. Very personal if you like that kind of stuff... I plan on doing an issue every few months."

That seems to be the zining impulse in a nutshell, doesn't it? "My journal typed up and made pretty with art and what not." Could describe my impulse to do Way, for example. What's missing when compared to fanzines, I guess, is the community aspect. This is someone looking for a niche or an audience. Fanzines come with a built-in audience, although it's variable.

I'm also struck by the apparent lack of controversy on zine_scene about continuing to do paper zines. That may be partly because people usually ask for money for their zines (although not in this case), or because the distribution is so small per issue that it doesn't actually cost much. I suppose most people are now back to printing their own zines rather than taking them to a copy shop, except now they're printing them on laser printers or inkjets rather than mimeographs.