I drew some roses on the cover and on some of the pages and they were pretty but then I had flashbacks to biochemistry and that we learned about the mechanisms of photosynthesis and decided to include that in my zine too because it relates to flowers. For my major, we really don’t focus on plants in general (and I always disliked learning about plants too) but I randomly remembered the pathway from which plants convert sunlight into ATP, which is used for energy and powering subsequent pathways.
I titled my Zine “Established 88” which is my birth year. Then I had a recipe to make Piña coladas. Followed by a colorful array of checkered boxes, a sketch of a city view, a page of math equations, the alphabet falling from the top to bottom, a love quote, an insert of my jury duty summons and finally a note that read “No ponies were harmed in the making of this product” on a my little pony backdrop.
I am a fashion student. I have just been so fascinated and mesmerized by the glitz, glamour, intensity and fashion that surrounded Studio 54. This week, I decided I would dedicate my zine to Studio 54 and use it as an inspiration book.
Studio 54 was the most legendary nightclub of the disco-era. In the late seventies, Studio 54 was probably the coolest place on Earth. It was started by socialites and entrepreneurs, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, and was located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. Regular visitors included Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Calvin Klein, Truman Capote, Cher, John Travolta, Tina Turner, Elton John and Salvador Dali, to name but a few.
I had already made a board on Pinterest of some of my favorite Studio 54 pictures, so I had a pretty good idea of where to start. Once I chose my pictures and found some cool graphics, I printed them out and wrote down some quotes from articles, as well as phrases or facts that I thought were interesting or related to the picture they were next to. I hole-punched my papers and decided that I didn’t want to use plain old thread or yarn to tie my zine together. I had some old headphones that stopped working, and I figured that would be a pretty unique way to tie this up. Studio 54 is synonymous with disco, so I wanted people to see the headphones, travel back to 1977 and imagine they’re listening to some Donna Summer or Bee Gees tunes.
Overall I had a really cool time making this zine. I enjoyed it because I felt like I could really show what inspired me. If I were to do this project again however, I think I would type the words and print them out rather than write them myself because I hate my handwriting. I would also try to find a better way to secure the headphones because they were kind of loose even after I knotted them in the back of the zine.
I thought, “let’s just draw old OC (original characters) and see how that goes.” So, I opened up sticky notes on my computer and made a list of all the ones I wanted to draw.
This child is Ryuhan Jang. I think I made this child last year(?) when I was trying to draw fanart but it turned out bad and turned into him. LOL (omg he was an accidental baby) Brian chose purple to be the background, so I painted that and double traced the boy with a 08 Sakura Pigma graphic pen (I got a pack as a Christmas present & it’s saved my life so many times).
The idea of “hAngry” came to mind because I was getting frustrated when my girlfriend and I could not pick somewhere where to eat. All the foods that I illustrated in my zine were foods that we discussed when trying to make a choice. We ended up going to El Pollo Loco (so I guess you can say that we settled with tacos.) My favorite part of the whole process was drawing all the foods and adding angry faces. I have always enjoyed drawing and especially drawing cartoons.
In high school I enjoyed drawing cartoon characters on the white board of my classes, most portraying a message or joke. I would spend a lot of time on some because I wanted them to look a very specific way, however for this zine I wanted it to be more spontaneous and more story driven instead of focusing on the art itself. I marvel at the entrepreneurs and leaders that can make things happen. Working day and night and never stopping to make our lives better. Being successful can have many meanings and varies from person to person. This zine represents the way that I view success, having the passion to work hard and reach a position of leadership and wealth by making other peoples lives better, striving to make yourself better than yesterday and having a positive impact in your community.
This zine was meant to be a sort of open letter to some of my coworkers. As I am learning more from wonderful, insightful, cultural classes, I am becoming more aware. I’m becoming aware of all the comments and demeaning behavior of others. I’m too aware and it’s impossible to unsee. I hear hundreds of microaggressions everyday from my coworkers towards me because I’m a girl. I see the way the men gather and gawk as a pretty girl walks into the store. I hear the way someone spits hate towards Black people because someone who was Black didn’t tip him once.
Jane Weibel’s exhibition last week actually gave me the sort of idea on what to make this zine about! I was really close to one of my coworkers and I saw him as a best friend even. It was only then after his fifth fucked up thing that I realized I was friends with someone who rejected all of my identities. He told me how he didn’t think gay couples should be able to adopt kids because they could force their “gay ways,” whatever that fucking means, how anyone who does drugs is stupid, a girl is at fault if she’s raped, and countless other ridiculous things. I’ve had enough and this zine was a way for me to release. I can only have so much patience at work.
For my zine I decided to illustrate a story I had read about why dogs do not live as long. The story is about a family dog who had to be put down and the 4 year old child in the family explaining why dogs don’t live as long. The child said people are born so that they can learn how to live a good life but dogs already know how to do that so they don’t live as long.
— Amy Song
“What does it mean to be human?” was a question that popped up in a fictional story I read a while back. It was a typical fantasy novel that looks at the relationships between those we considered monsters and those we consider to be human. I used this question to refer to reoccurring sentences that were said to me when I was growing from a small kid to the young adult I am today. The seventh picture was supposed to be a solitary picture of how I saw myself. But then I soon added a door. I wasn’t satisfied by how plain it looked, so I erased that door to draw an open door instead. Now the open door has people peeking from inside the door. The drawing progressed to symbolize the concept of a person having the power to pick whatever path they chose to follow, and where each door holds some kind of idea behind them. The door I picked would symbolize change, a change within myself because of the support I have from my friends today. The last two pages don’t have a message, but they were also things that related to me, ideas that made me who I am today.
— Cindy Le
As soon as I heard there was an option to make zines I came up with many ideas. I thought of comics, and Halloween themes, and so many others. Eventually I settled on dinosaurs. I have been in love with dinosaurs my whole life. My mother always groaned when my birthday would come around, because I would inevitably ask for a dinosaur themed party, which she always gave me for 12 long years. I like to include a little humor in my works, so for my book, I made scenes as if dinosaurs had never gone extinct, and as if they lived their lives like any ordinary citizen. It was a really fun project. What I love about zines is how easy they are to make. But they have room for so much creativity. They don’t have to have words, just pictures. And they can still be a complete work. I will certainly enjoy working with zines in the future.
I wanted my zine to represent myself and things I believe in so I went with a feminist themed zine. Starting with the title I wanted to name it something funny and clever so I went with “Hoe Confidential.” Recently my friends and I have been discussing slut shaming and talking about how much we hate seeing women putting each other down or judging based on their sex lives so we try to encourage other women to use the word “hoe” as a term of endearment.
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