WHAT’S A ZINE?
for me, Zines are about creativity & community.
Zines (pronounced zeens) are inexpensively printed, self-published books that occupy a liminal space between magazines and artist’s books. They can be printed and folded a thousand ways, stapled or sewn, polished or rough. It’s a very immediate medium with little overhead and a passionate following. My zines are sometimes produced in a day (24 Hour Zines), sometimes with collaborators (Sinkhole Fever) and other times to address a specific topic (Bird Ladies). I love the immediacy and flexibility of the format, and even more, I love sharing them at zine fests. In fact, I make zines to connect and trade with other zinesters, to be part of a dynamic community of artists & writers, and to introduce my students to the zine community. The photos above are from various years from 2018 onwards at Orlando Zine Fest, Grandma Party Bazaar, B.L.E.H., Blackbird Micro-con, St. Pete Zine Fest and an event I co-organized, Inky Fingers Printmaking & Zine Fest in the fall of 2023 at the Space Station Orlando. This event was staffed by volunteers from Rollins and the Book Arts Guild of Central Florida and featured free papermaking, screen printing and zine activities.
In term of content, my zines explore many aspects of my life and my creative practice— from documenting travel experiences to thinking through new ideas for bigger projects— offering an outlet for my visual ideas and writing.
ZINE CLUB
Join the Heartbreaker Zine Maker Club for and receive quarterly deliveries of my zines and comics. It’s so fun to get art in the mail!!! Scroll down to see my most recent zines and check out my comics, too.
BLOX, 2024, by Rachel Simmons The changing folds of this single sheet mini zig zag zine encourages the reader to turn its pages from different directions and create their own story from the resulting sequences. The imagery, which speaks to the nature of human existence, was drawn digitally and then printed on both sides. The front cover is holographic vinyl. More info at www.rachelsimmons.net
Cover image for “Copenhagen & Malmö, May 2022” a memoir on understanding new places by connecting with local artists
zine archive 2018-2024
KEEP MAKING TYPOS is a collaborative community zine created by the Book Arts Guild of Central Florida along with students, staff and faculty at Rollins College. The Rollins printmaking & book arts studio was set up with 12 typewriters, each machine with its own prompt. These were: On a Soapbox, Love Notes, Secrets, Advice, That's Absurd, Use Your Sensei, and My History. Participants would work on a typewriter for a few minutes then move along to the next one like a game of musical chairs. The writing--all anonymous-- was a surprising mix of intense personal revelations, political protest, self-reflection and absurdity. Most of the contributors had never used a typewriter and were surprised at how difficult things can be without Command Z. After about a week, all the typed pages were collected and organized into a zine by Rachel Simmons. The first edition was produced in December 2019 for Orlando Zine Fest, and the second edition came out at the end of 2021. Many thanks to Nick Georgoudiou for making his fleet of awesome typewriters available for this project, including one that types in cursive!