The first time I saw the term “zine” was 2 weeks ago when I read “Just Make Your Magazine” by Josh Jones. My creative potential started showing signs of aliveness after leaving my super secure tech job earlier this year, and I was battling the dilemma of making my own magazine or book.

I could just as well say that I’ve been living under a rock this entire time, but that’s not very true. What I can, proudly, state is that I haven’t been consuming enough social media in the past 5 years (becoming a parent does that to you). And most likely, my feed was too aggressively fine-tuned to all things digital and tech-forward.

Now that I’m intentionally diluting it with tech-backward, I’m starting to see the light. I’m seeing the zines. Lots of them. I’m seeing traditional zines, mixed media zines, therapeutic zines, political zines. Zines that are first created on paper, then scanned, edited in Photoshop and printed again. Big and small. In color or not. The choice is so luscious that it’s hard not to get inspired.

So I got inspired and decided to make a zine for the sake of making a zine. No clever idea or punchy message behind. I just wanted to fold the paper, make a cut, mark the pages, unfold, and draw the dudes. The dudes? The dudes. The wormy characters that became my signature style years ago. The ones I was trying to escape in my previous tech role till I realized there’s no escape (there is, but more on that later).

I didn’t want to just draw random dudes though so I ended up drawing random dudes fashionably. In alignment with my personal understanding of style, patterns and textures. There isn’t a lot but I tried. Indulging on spring fashion week shows could have something to do with this choice. Le freak, c'est chic. But mostly, Le freak.

My little zine ended up featuring eight overdressed characters and some plants. All drawn on Hahnemühle sketch paper using gouache, colored pencils, pastels, water-based acrylic markers and some acrylic inks. An unnecessarily complex toolkit for a ridiculously simple project. In defense of Hahnemühle, not a stroke seeped through.

This project taught me that if you want to make a zine, go make a zine. It doesn’t need to be big, pretty or intellectually motivating. It doesn't need to be artistic. Your zine can be as silly or as serious as you want for it to be. Self-express, have some fun and maybe consider photocopy to share it with friends and rivals.

My 2-day experience shows that making a zine is easy. Much easier than origami. It could have been the same day result if I didn’t find myself in the art supplies store after cutting and folding the paper. So maybe don't go to the art supplies store if you want to make a zine sooner.

All you really need is a piece of paper, scissors and a pen. Maybe a marker. A fountain pen? Sailor Fude with a 55° nib is particularly sexy, but the basic pen will also do.