Coming Soon on ZineMap: Behind the Zine Scenes - An Interview Series

Hi people!

I’m working on an interview series for ZineMap called Behind the Zine Scenes. It’s a collection of conversations with the people behind the pins you see on ZineMap - the ones running shops that stock zines, organizing zine festivals, maintaining zine archives, or hosting zine workshops.

This grew out of the many small conversations I had during the early days of building ZineMap, doing a lot of door-to-door walk-ins (because there was no map yet to tell me which shops stocked zines :P) I’d ask if they carried zines (and if they would take a look at my self-published comics please?), and if they said yes, I’d stay and chat, learning about how each shop handled things like consignment, curation, bookkeeping, etc., and the challenges and joys that come with running a zine space day to day. These early chats helped shape the first versions of ZineMap, and as the site slowly grew to include not only shops, but zine libraries, archives, festivals, and workshops across the globe, I started to get a clearer sense of the ecosystem around zines, how different it can vary from place to place, and the incredible amount of work and care that goes into running a zine space.

So this series is just me continuing and expanding these conversations, and putting them in one place for anyone curious about zine spaces to get a better feel for how they work, for people running them to pick up ideas, and for those without a local scene to maybe get inspired enough to start their own!

I’ve already chatted with a few folks and am really excited to share their stories soon! If you run a zine shop, library or event and would like to add your perspective, feel free to reach out. I’d love to learn about what you’re building and help others discover it too!

Lots of love!

CJ from ZineMap