Is it time for another 24 hour zine? Virtual zine-making weekend: April 21-23

I’ve made a bunch of 24 hour zines (zines made in 24 hours, often with at least 24 pages) before, usually as part of a 24-hour-zine-event (some of which I (co)organised) and I always enjoyed the process a lot. It’s a collaborative project even if we’re all working on – and very concentrated on – our own individual zines.

Because my birthday happens in April and I’ve been wanting to make a new 24 hour zine for a while, I thought: why not this month? And why not make it a virtual event and invite others to participate?

Zine weekend

The 24 hour zine weekend will take place from Friday April 21st till Sunday April 23rd. You can participate whenever fits for you, create your own 24 hour zine, make a 48 hour zine, work on a zine during a few moments in the weekend, write a mini-zine in 1 hour, or whatever you prefer.

The idea is for participants to work on their zine at home (or wherever you want), knowing that other zinesters will be creating and writing at the same time. We can show our work-in-progress online and encourage each other virtually.

I want this to be a low-stress activity:

• I’m not setting up any video calls but you can post about your progress online (and I will too).
• The number of pages doesn’t matter – any zine size is a good size – but I’ll probably try to make 24 pages or more myself.
• I’ll have my regular night sleep during those 24 hours because I’m not able to stay awake for 24 hours. 🙂
• You can start and stop when you want, do only a few hours of zine-making or go for an entire 24 or 48 hour zine weekend. And no worries if your zine doesn’t get finished! It’s not a competition.
• Your zine can have any theme you like or multiple themes at once.
• You don’t need fancy supplies or special skills to make a zine. Pen and paper are the basics. Scissors, glue, and old magazines always come in handy, and use anything else you have lying around: markers, coloured paper, wrapping paper, old flyers, washi tape, stickers, yarn… And then of course you’ll need a way to print your zine: for example at a copy shop / library / school / office or your home printer. You can also make your zine entirely on your computer and create a pdf booklet or you can combine the analog with the digital. Here are some ideas for free zine supplies and here are some zine-making guides.
• Anyone can make a zine! Your story matters. Your zine matters.

Participate!

If you participate, I’d love to see the zine you’re going to make! You can post work-in-progress or finished zine photos on social media and tag @echozines on Instagram or @EchoPublishingArt on Facebook or use the hashtag #24hourzineweekend or #24hourzinefun. No pressure, but if you’d like to send me the zine you’ve made, I will review it in my “Zines I’ve read” posts. (And it will feel like a very special birthday present 🙂 ).

My plan

I intend to make an ABC issue of Witches’ Brew. I’ve never made an ABC zine before but I’ve read a few and they look like fun to make. The idea is to write/draw something about 26 words that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

I’m already curious to see what you’ll be working on!

My 24 hour zines

If you’re curious, here are my previous 24 hour zines:

• CuNt & Paste (2014)
• Space Invasion (2014)
• Letter Soup (2015)
• In Movement (2016
• From Spice Girls to Riot Grrrls (2017)
• Dirty Lesbian (2018)
• Dancing Drawing and Day Dreaming (2020)
• Same Heartbeats #18 (2021)