Heard a zine-maker at the coffee shop say 'real zines are photocopied' and it got under my skin

I was at Cuppa Joe on Tuesday waiting for my order and this guy next to me was explaining zines to someone. He said if you print them at a proper print shop they stop being DIY. I've been making zines for about 4 years now and I use a local print shop because my home printer jams every 3 pages. Plus I can print 50 copies for around 40 bucks which is way cheaper than buying toner. Are we really gatekeeping based on how the ink gets on the paper now? Has anyone else run into this kind of purist attitude in the scene?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tara17d ago

Right? The whole point of zines is getting your stuff out there, not proving you can wrestle a busted printer. If offset printing was good enough for the punk scene in the 70s, it's good enough for us.

betty_shah17d ago

@the_tara Totally agree, my zine setup involves way more swearing than actual printing.