A media empire built with scissors and tape

News Media Commentary
Title:	A media empire built with scissors and tape
Commentator:	Patrick Evans
Date(s):	June 1, 2005
Venue:	Toronto Star
Fandom:	Zine fandom
External Links:
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A media empire built with scissors and tape was an article in the Toronto Star about zines. its focus is mostly about people still choosing to create physical zines instead of online content, although it does mention e-zines.

Excerpts

They're a proud people.

They use primitive tools like scissors and glue. They worship at altars called photocopiers. Their elaborate rituals of com- munication involve strange drum-shaped objects known as mailboxes. They're called ziners. They make zines -- a bunch of photo-

copies stapled together and handed out at bars and conven- tions, sold in independent book- stores, and mailed to anybody willing to pay the cost of stamps.

But if you want to call ziners di- nosaurs, make sure there's none in earshot.

"Zines have not been killed off by blogs," says Anna Bowness, editor of Broken Pencil, a Toron- to-based magazine about zines. "The people who are devoted to the paper zine are devoted to it because of its tangibility and its limited access. People have to go out and find them. It's the thrill of the chase.

"I think zinesters choose one form over another for very spe-cific artistic reasons; they're not inter- changeable and it's not random."

Not every kid has a computer at home. But a blank piece of paper is a different story. "I think it's the first attempt by people to reach out to the world," she says. "So many of them are made by teenagers; so many are made at night in the bed- room."