Links & Zine Resources

tutorials

How to Make a Zine

So You Want To Make A Zine from Carnage NYC -- A great guide from an old punk.

Zine Making on Wikibooks

tools

Bookbinder JS -- An in-browser tool to reformat PDFs for bookbinding, or in our case, zinemaking. Lots of customization and options for foldlines, signatures, all sorts of stuff.

Electric Zine Maker

Spectrolite (Booklet app) -- Free app for Mac only, sorts individual pages into booklet print layout

Zine Arranger -- Super simple in-browser tool to arrange single-page PDFs into printable zines. Multiple size options and even includes folding instructions!

assets & public domain

Artvee -- Free hi-res downloads of public domain artworks.

Free Typewriter Fonts -- Made from actual typewriters! All Creative Commons licensed.

Museum of Modern Gifs -- Public domain gifs for your digital zinemaking pleasure.

Open Clip Art Project -- Huge collection of contemporary and vintage public domain clip art.

The Public Domain Review -- Essays and themed collections of items now in the public domain. Focuses on older works.

Reusable Art -- Collection of free vintage art helpfully organized in the way artists are likely to need them!

Security Envelope Patterns -- A big collection of scans of security patterns in envelopes from around the world. These make great backgrounds for zine pages too. Creative Commons licensed.

my favorite zine book

Remember to check your local library! Even if it's not in their catalog, they can usually get it from other libraries.

Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine? by Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd

This is my favorite zine-related book of all time, and I've read a shitton. It was the first book on zines I ever encountered, and I think it captures the energy and spirit of zines while still providing useful ideas and information. The book isn't organized as a numbered list, series of tutorials, or any kind of step-by-step progression; it's instead organized loosely by themed sections. You could basically open it up to any page in any order and get something interesting and valuable.
P.S. You can get it directly from the authors/editors here! (Or steal it from your middle school library like I did...)

things about zines

A brief history of zines -- Great historical context from people who are actually in the scene, not hyper-academic or dismissive in any way

Echo Zines blog -- Nina's blog about adventures in the zine scene, advice, ideas, reviews, all sorts of good stuff! Also check out her resources page.

Long Arm Stapler podcast -- Podcast about zines with guest zinesters

Sea Green Zines -- Nyx's blog/vlog/reviews of zines. An absolutely huge collection of zine highlights and reviews! Also check out her resources page.

Zine Zone podcast -- Zine review and chat podcast

zine hubs/groups

Queer Zest Zine Fest Discord -- Server run by the folx behind the online Queer Zest Zine Fest

we ♥ zines -- Zine tumblr reblogging news, fests, and calls for submissions

ZCMAG -- Zine Crisis Mutual Assistance Group, an open zine group with a hoppin' Discord channel, resources directory, free printing for those in need, grants, idea generators, a print-at-home library, and lots more

Zine Crisis Discord -- Zine discord server that shares a lot of submission opportunities, fests, etc.

Zines & GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) Discord -- Discord server for zinesters who are also involved in GLAMs in some way, or want to know about zines in these places

Zines & Zinesters Discord -- Server run by veteran zinester Olivia M/Metaparadox.

Zine Swap -- Swapping through the mail--mail in copies of your zine, get copies back!

Zine Wiki -- CURRENTLY DOWN AS OF OCT 2025

doing more with zines

Barnard's Zine Libraries list -- Regularly updated list of zine libraries

nonmachineable distro guide -- List of zine distros as of 2022.

pen fight distro -- A cool UK-based distro with news, linked resources and distros, and a UK events calendar

Printed Matter list of fairs

Singular Papers blog -- Actively updated list of zine fests and events

Things to Consider When Starting a Zine Fest -- Collaborative document full of advice from veteran zine fest hosts

How to Run a Zine Event -- Practical and grounded how-to guide for running a zine fest

zinelibraries.info -- Hub for zine librarianship and creators of Zine Librarians Code of Ethics

tutorials/resources

90s Anime/Manga Style Tutorials -- A huge Google Drive gathering scanned images of tutorials and examples from Japanese art books from the 90s.

Animal Photo Art References Search -- Select the animal you want to draw, orient the 3D skull to the angle you want to draw them from, and the tool pulls reference images from Flickr that roughly match that angle!

How to THINK when you DRAW tutorials -- I've been using these tutorials for YEARS and they are always so incredible. My favorite ones are the subjects on composition. They are great for idea generating, general reference, and they're always interesting, cute, and fun to look at. I still can't believe how many of these are free.

comix to read

Band vs. Band by Kathleen Jacques -- This comic is about two rival bands whose lead singers are totally gay and totally crushing on each other. The limited color palette, varied fonts and shapes are unique and completely adorable. It's also the sort of comic that you can jump in at basically any page--of course, if you have the time, it's great starting from page 1! It's like if Archie comics were super gay, super colorful and super good.

Bonnie N. Collide by Monica Gallagher --An awesome comic strip about roller derbyist Bonnie N. Collide (best name) and her adventures around the business office and the track. So cute and peppy and motivating. I wanna be a badass roller derby bitch T^T

Brain Injury Comix by Erin Roseberry -- Also check out Erin's store & other comix & zines here!

The Whiteboard -- A still-updating (since fucking 2002) newspaper-style gag strip about a polar bear named Doc: owner of a paintball shop, but more accurately described as an inventor/handyman/pushing the laws of physics to their inevitably destructive conclusions. The creator has a handy list of beginning plot points on the front page for new readers! Also, don’t skip on this behind-the-scenes look at how the comic is made.

groups

ComicFury -- The best place to hang out, discover indie webcomics, and chat with comic creators and lovers.

Radiator Comics Events & Talks -- Radiator Comics runs a bunch of cool, free, ongoing Zoom events for cartoonists/creators! Open Studio for parallel work time, Feedback Space for work swaps & critique, and Cartoonist Coffee for socializing with other cartoonists. There's also a bunch of recorded talks and comic-making tutorial videos.

tools

TinyPNG -- Free image compression for web--help sites run faster!

Become a Compression Sorcerer -- Learn more about image compression for reducing website bloat--lots of tools linked there.

theory/philosophy

Data Detox Kit -- A bunch of fun and informative guides on digital privacy, wellbeing, security, and tech and the environment. It's also got great guides on the ethical issues of AI, as well as practical suggestions for improving your digital security and health.

Web Revival Manifestos

The Website Obesity Crisis -- I prefer the term "website bloat" to try not to medicalize shit unnecesarrily, but otherwise this is a great post on the ridiculousness that is website bloat.

Gothic Nature Journal -- A publicly available, peer-reviewed literary journal on Ecohorror, the EcoGothic, and dark environmental themes. They have a blog too with some great one-off pieces; I particularly like "Vegetal Violence, or When Plants Commit Murder" by Dr. Joela Jacobs.

Historical Playing Cards -- A "family tree" of European playing cards of various types as they slowly became standardized. Give this to anyone who thinks Tarot comes from ancient Egypt lol.

The Skeptical Occultist -- Blog by Eldritch Wormwood on approaching occultism from a skeptical lens--getting value from components of occultic thought from a non-devotional, non-hierarchical, non-faith-based perspective. Check out their Library for lots more literature.

Typewriter Revoluion -- Typewriter appreciation, resources, and musings. See the Classic Typewriter Page in particular for a big list.