I had this vague idea that zines started in the 70s, but no. They started in the 1930s. Was there a zine scene in my hometown in the 1980s? I’ve no idea. I wasn’t cool and I didn’t hang out in cool places where such things existed.

When did I first learn about zines? I can’t remember. In any case, many decades later, I’ve been embracing my long-ignored love for them. Well, I love paper, obviously, and have been making not only zines but little books, fortune tellers, flag books, and volvelles.

I’m even making a shelf for the zines I’ve made and bought. This might be a silly endeavor since it is unlikely anyone I invite over will actually read one, but it’ll make me happy anyway. And you never know.

I was about to say that I have found it challenging to get grownups to engage with whimsical things–our chalkboard wall, the slinky, the card catalogue filled with random objects. Few guests will draw on the wall, no one picks up the slinky, and everyone seems too polite to ask what’s in the card catalogue. Well, one time someone asked, and I, delighted, said they could open it, but they didn’t. Maybe they thought they’d see something shocking! Ha!

Maybe I just don’t invite enough people over.

In any event, I’m going to make more zines and paper things. By the end of August, I’m going to have them on Etsy. And along with some art, I send a lot of these paper creations to Patrons.

Here are some zines I recently bought for myself:

A Creative Writing Guide to Help When You’re Feeling Stuck

Haunted Houses Fiction Zine

Familiar Accordion Mini Comic Zine

My Neighbor Has 5 Secret Dogs

The Witchy Zinester’s Pocket Book of Spells

If you have any to recommend, please do! And what about you? Have you ever made zines? Bought zines? What do you think?