Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Mini-Comics by Mark Todd & Esther Pearl Watson
Reviewer: Cindy, Youth Services Assistant
Genre: Nonfiction
Suggested Age: Teens, Adults
What is this book about? This book tells you pretty much everything you need to know to start making your own zines or mini comics. It starts off by explaining some of the many reasons people create and read zines and includes a brief history of zine culture and how it changed with various technological advances, most notably the copy machine. The bulk of Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? goes into the nitty gritty details of how to make a zine. There are several diagrams showing how to fold and cut paper in different ways and instructions for manipulating copiers to do what you want. If you’ve ever thought about making a zine or comic but didn’t know where to start, this book is exactly what you need.
My Review: This book is essentially a collection of zines that talk about making zines. I was already a little familiar with the concept of zines, but this taught me a lot of new methods for physically making them. Printing and binding your own work can be as simple or as complicated a process as you want it to be, and there are really no limits on what sort of content you create. The authors really emphasize the fact that no matter how weird or boring you might think your ideas are, the act of creating something on your own or with friends can be fun even if no one else ever reads it or gives you money for it. Pretty much the whole point of zines is creative expression.
I only have two slightly negative things to say about this book. One is that some of the pages are hard to read because they are handwritten and have a textured background. That’s pretty common with zines, though. The other is that the printer hacks they talk about probably wouldn’t work on many of the machines available these days. Most copy machines and printers work differently now than they did back in 2006 when this book was written, and it’s even easier for anyone to make art on a computer or tablet for free than it was a few years ago. All of the old-school methods they talk about in this book are definitely still useful, but it would be interesting to see an updated version that looks at some of the ways you can start making a zine online or on an app before printing it out.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Three Words That Describe This Book: practical, informative, artistic
Give This a Try if You Like… journaling, making your own comics, the Riot Grrrl movement
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.
