Behind the Zines: A Zine About Zines #13
Anthology, Billy McCall, 40 pgs, $3
The latest issue in this rewarding compilation mega-/meta-zine offers several contributions that detail histories and origin stories (Calgary Tuffpoint’s brief history of fandom and zines, Todd Taylor’s origin story about Razorcake, Keith Helt’s retrospective reviews that go back to the mid 90s). Behind the Zines: A Zine About Zines offers practical risk and reward assessments of digital platforms (Kari Tervo’s story on quitting Etsy and Anna Jo Beck’s round up and analysis of zines that use Patreon), and shares vibrant reports of zines in different communities (Bonnie K.V. Cooper’s account of a community writing project started during the pandemic is one of the more interesting of the bunch).
Stitched together by Billy McCall, publisher of Proof I Exist (winner of Broken Pencil’s 2019 Zine Awards), the cut-and-paste layout of BTZ is idiosyncratic and rich, reflecting the sensibilities of each contributor. Pick up this one, of course, but and as many back issues as your purse can afford.