General Excellence: zines

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'I think overall, the rule for zines is that there aren't any rules, and that most structures or formulas are meant to be broken,' says Alycia Sellie, newspapers and periodicals assistant at the Wisconsin Historical Society and founder of the Madison Zine Fest. 'And while zines may be unconventional and ephemeral, that doesn't necessarily make their content so.'

This is certainly true of Meyer's efforts, which are much more accessible than they are zany. He began tying twine five years ago, around the time his son Herbie (a budding zinester himself) was born. Since then, he has cranked out 13 issues, logging a finger-cramping 'knot count' of 29,566. For #9, the 'Dental Issue,' Meyer made the whimsical yet logical decision to bind his zine with floss, leaving some 'long and untrimmed so that you may actually use this very fanzine to floss your teeth.'

Twine rises above many other zines because, in addition to its energetic craftiness, the writing is excellent and the stories are engaging. Short as they may be, some zines can be difficult to read cover to cover because stories can easily fall into the rambling-about-myself trap. An added bonus is that Meyer copyedits his work-typographical and spelling errors are few and far between.

Surprisingly, the rise of blogs and social networking sites doesn't seem to have cut deeply into the world of zines. It's natural for those who aren't familiar with the medium to compare it to blogging, since they share a commitment to self-expression. In fact, part of what is so intriguing about contemporary zines is that people continue to make them even though blogging, arguably, is much less labor intensive.

Of course, that's why people make zines: They truly are labors of love. Barnard College zine librarian Jenna Freedman addresses this question in the Summer 2005 issue of Counterpoise with 'Zines Are Not Blogs: A Not Unbiased Analysis.' Her discussion suggests that zinesters prefer their medium for many reasons, not least because they are not accountable to anyone (whereas bloggers ultimately rely on Internet service providers) and because zines embody the do-it-yourself spirit.

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