But forms of analog media—supported by folks with nostalgic attachments to the tactile—always seem to find a comfortable niche decade after decade. There’s been the resurgence of vinyl records and cassette tapes, newfound popularity of film photography and the post-pandemic rise of independent bookstores—but the art of zinemaking has consistently stood the test of time.
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art traces the origins of zines in the U.S. back to the self-published magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, but the medium didn’t really become accessible until the ‘70s and ‘80s, when the popularization of copy machines coincided with punk culture and its fanzines. The self-produced and published booklets can be filled with photography, political content, illustrations, poetry, nonfiction prose or whatever else the creator wants—zines have no official standards or criteria, and never really have.
But do zines serve the same purpose or relevance in 2024 as they did during their heyday?
Organizers of both Tampa and St. Pete’s upcoming zine fests unequivocally say “yes,” and the hundreds of vendors, performers, independent publishers and attendees slated to attend each event agree.
Both festivals happening on consecutive weekends this month will host dozens of local print makers, writers and artists all tapping into the very ethos of zine culture: uncensored access to information, community building, and unadulterated creativity beyond the confines of the mainstream.
While some zines can be serious and address topics of activism, liberation and climate change, others can wax poetic or delve into niche topics far outside social media’s algorithmic echo-chamber.
Tampa resident Micaela Lydon has attended several of the city’s zine fests over the years and one of her all-time favorite acquired works is a simple, straightforward, and highly-educational piece about jumping spiders that she purchased from a zine-making park ranger in 2023.
Ross Wood Studlar’s “Can Jumping Spiders See the Moon?” wasn’t the most groundbreaking zine ever made (or even in her collection), but she learned things that she would’ve never researched on her own and was able to directly connect with the person who made it—two aspects of zine culture that has encouraged her to come back to Tampa’s fest year after year.
“Zines create this atmosphere where you’re getting just total open access to ideas from curious, passionate people,” Lydon tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Maybe they didn’t go to school for it or didn’t have access to a publisher—but what they have to say is still important.”
After years of tabling as a vendor, being an attendee and performer, Lydon decided to step up as an event organizer this year, alongside fellow zinesters Dezeray Lyn and Jimmy Dunson. The trio has been attending Tampa’s zine fest since its inception roughly 10 years ago.
Lydon credits the zine festival’s grassroots structure and mutual aid-focused ethos for its organic ability to last throughout the years; when someone steps away from an organizational role, another zinester is always there to take their place.
“One of the most beautiful things about zine fest is that it’s so accessible to be a part of—every time I go I’m just filled with such creativity and inspiration that it makes you want to become more and more involved,“ she says in a phone call.
Both fests are free for patrons and vendors, and will boast a variety of live music and poetry performances plus food and drink options, in addition to dozens of zine vendors, artists and other community organizations that will sling their intellectual and creative wares. Some zines will be free or pay-what-you can while others will have a set price.
And it wouldn’t be a zine fest without creators swapping and baterting content, because according to Print St. Pete’s Kaitlin Crockett, zinesters absolutely love trading their art with each other. After all, Lydon refers to her zine collection as “little treasures.”
Crockett is college librarian by day and leader of a community letterpress with an educational bent by night, and ultimately felt inspired to merge her profession and passion after seeing how popular Jacksonville Public Library’s annual zine fest has become.
Some St. Pete zine fest festivities that Crockett is particularly excited about include a program called “The Symposium”—where a demonstration on political activism, a poetry reading by Dr. Tyler Gillespie and zine “show and tell”—will happen inside of the library’s multi-purpose room, alongside tunes from a DJ and a handful of both local and out-of-town zine vendors. A collective called “Girls on Film” that creates zines about niche ‘80s movies is traveling all the way from Washington D.C. to participate in Crockett’s inaugural zine fest next week.
While this library-hosted zine fest is certainly not St. Pete’s first, it’s been quite a few years since anyone has stepped up to organize one.
“I had this moment where I was like—why am I not combining these two forces in my life? My boss, the director of the library, and a few other of my colleagues make zines and they’re also participating in the fest, so everything has just kind of organically fallen into place,” Crockett tells CL. “In both of my roles now, I’m able to kind of tap into that analog nature of things and celebrate the connection between community and print.”
And with the recent rise of censorship and decrease of funding of public libraries across the country, the connection between the accessible nature of zines and free institutions like libraries may be more apparent (and needed) than ever.
And like her passion for libraries, Crockett’s love of printmaking and zine culture has led her to create one of Tampa Bay’s best resources for up-and-coming zinesters.
Print St. Pete offers a variety of affordable workshops, artist meetups and events that welcomes anyone who’s interested to use its community letterpress. The organization—founded by Crockett and her former professor at Florida State University, Bridget Elmer, in 2016—is anchored at a studio in Gulfport and offers an inclusive space to share equipment and resources to Tampa Bay’s analog-loving community.
Print St. Pete’s cast iron letterpress dates back to the late-1800s and creates prints by physically pressing wood, metal or carved linoleum blocks against paper, while its Japan-imported risograph machine is a slightly more modern approach that uses the same principles as screen printing. Letterpress is a labor intensive process while risograph duplication offers a relatively easy entryway into the world of zines, prints, posters and more.
For Crockett, teaching workshops and hosting creative meetups is the heartbeat of Print St. Pete, located at 4903 8th Ave S in Gulfport. Just because zines are embedded in DIY culture does not mean that they have to be created by one person. Both Crockett and Lydon agree that collaboration is key.
“There’s kind of this history of community within the realm of print products. Newspapers especially were a cooperative effort with big teams of people behind them,” Crockett says. “So it’s nice to have as many people as we can come to the studio, learn these skills and make stuff that means the world to them.”
Both Lydon and Crockett agree that despite living in the 21st century—during times that are vastly different from what can be considered the heyday of zine culture— modern DIY publications function on the same impetus of resistance, freedom and creativity as they did forty or so years ago.
“I think essentially they’re serving the same purpose—If you think about the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s, zines were distributed in these communities because mainstream media was not providing the proper information about it,” Crockett explains. “Even though we’re so connected to the world today through the internet, zine culture creates this way to authentically share things and give people access to your story in a way that maybe you couldn’t do on social media.”
The presence of community care and mutual aid organizations like Found Family Collective, Love Has No Borders, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and radical independent press Rebel Hearts Publishing at Tampa’s zine fest this weekend taps into the innately radical nature of the zine counter-culture. Folks can expect to find zines that cover topics like activism, politics, LGBTQIA+ rights, feminism, mutual aid and more at Tampa and St. Pete’s festivals—conventionally “controversial” ideas that physically cannot be censored in this intimate and direct exchange of information.
And while Lydon, alongside Tampa’s other organizers, and Crockett prepare for the zine fests on their respective sides of the bridge, the idea of perhaps joining forces for a Bay area-wide celebration of underground arts is a prospective idea that both of them are certainly open to.
“I think there’s a desire to connect those different creative communities—throughout the years I’ve definitely noticed that people in one place are interested in what the other city is doing, ” Crockett says.
And while Lydon agrees with the notion of connecting these cross-bay communities, she also sees the innate value in “experiencing the two unique art communities of St. Pete and Tampa.”
Since both Tampa and St. Pete’s upcoming zine fests popped up in an organic way, the possibility of a Bay area-wide zine fest may still happen in the future.
And perhaps after attending these local zine events this month, there may be folks inspired to create their own works to share at future festivals—the same way that Lydon and many others like her found their own voices many years ago.
“This event is really just a celebration of the creative arts of DIY culture, accessibility and community building in general,” Lydon explains passionately. “A lot of other art festivals have paywalls for both vendors and patrons, and one of the best parts about the zine fest is that it’s always been free to everyone.”
For more information about Tampa and St. Pete’s respective zine fests happening this month, head to @TampaZineFest on Facebook or printstpete.org for more event details. Both events are still looking for volunteers; interested folks can reach out to the organizers via social media.
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This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2024.