"Most definitions of zines include the fact that they are small-circulation, self-published, and often inexpensive or free. That’s generally true, although these are more guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. The most important aspect of a zine is generally that the publication identifies as one. Many zine-makers will say zines are as much about the community as the product, and that identifying as a zine is what separates these publications from comics, literary journals, websites, and other types of independent publications."

"Zines are handmade and self-published print media. With relatively limited amounts of copies in circulation – both a practical constraint and ideological decision – they critique for-profit mass production. Zines often draw from the personal perspectives. As such, they tend to cover niche topics and come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and formats."

"Distributed by mail or by hand through “underground, subversive, and circuitous” channels, “a zine is like yelling from a mountaintop and hearing faraway echoes come back to you. It is burning earnest words in the fireplace and having them arrive inexplicably into the hands of Mary Poppins. Nobody is looking, but anyone can see.”"

"All of these diverse and dissident strands can still be found on the zine scene today. In contrast to mainstream publishing, every voice and viewpoint, no matter how marginalised in general society, has a right to be heard. By making it specific and personal, zines allow us to experience alternate perspectives, through the eyes and in the shoes of the people for whom these are their everyday lived realities."

"Requiring little more than paper, scissors, glue, a photocopier and an idea, it wasn't long before people began committing their personal, political or cultural ideologies to paper-led testimonies, cutting and pasting nonconformist voices and circulating them where and how they saw fit."