In today’s digital age, sharing my passion for paper

Many of us spend all day looking at a screen–work, school, news, weather, games, sharing quick updates with friends and family.

My personal little break? Paper. Just me and something printed the old-fashioned way.

No autoplaying movies, no flashing bnnners, no ads clearly aimed at someone else.

Nothing tracking my movement, either. Anonymous, you could say.

Quiet. Relaxing. A few moments of serenity.

I’ve been doing this long enough to watch our industry–and the larger world–transition from print to digital. We’ve all been part of this revolution.

But this past Saturday evening, a bit of a throwback in a dimly lit cafe in Orlando: I hawked my zines–nothing to do with cars but my own little side hustle–to other fans of the medium.

I was the oldest person there.

Zines are simply short-run, self-produced publications. The subject matter can cover anything, from the most personal to the most ludicrous. A zine could detail someone’s coming out or just share silly photos.

Print runs tend to be short–from a handful to maybe a few hundred. Some are entirely produced by hand. No ads, though.

I now offer three titles. One’s assembled like a traditional magazine, meaning articles written from research and interviews. It centers around BMX–a passion since I was kid–but I’ve opened it up to include photography, music, life.

I have also written some of my most challenging pieces for it. Interviewing someone about their car? Fairly routine.

Asking a former BMX personality what it’s like to have been living on the streets for decades–while you’re sitting in your comfortable home office–doesn’t come as easily. See also: hearing about someone’s thoughts of self-harm.

Another title of mine simply compiles photos from recent model shoots. I figure it’s more fun for all involved than just leaving the images on my hard drive. I printed enough for those involved plus a few left over.

Finally, and for reasons I still need to figure out, I have been collecting memes and presenting them in book form. Here, I figure, they’re less likely to get lost. Each volume has been limited to 10 copies.

Orlando has a pretty healthy zine culture brewing. We meet monthly to chat about them, with two festivals on the calendar, like this past weekend’s affair, something called B.L.E.H. (That’s short for Bleh, Lousy Expo, Huh?) I sold enough zines to cover gas, food and my toll. I’ll call that a win. Most hobbies, I figure, don’t make money.

Our monthly zine group was recently invited to be part of the Orlando Literary Festival at the downtown library. Maybe we’re finally going legit.

A big takeaway from all this: meeting others who also enjoy print. Most of them grew up long after the age of dial-up internet.

Here, it’s less about the number of clicks and likes than about creating and sharing a tangible product: I made something rather personal and I’d like for you to take it home so you can enjoy it.

When it comes time to read for enjoyment, what’s your preference? And while I’m writing this on my computer, I can’t wait to crack open a book later tonight.

Comments

Displaying 1-10 of 18 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums

You'll need to log in to post.