{"id":429333,"date":"2026-08-11T01:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429333\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T01:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:38:12","slug":"san-diegos-zine-scene-has-no-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429333\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego\u2019s Zine Scene Has No Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

If magazines are like the adultier eldest daughters who know exactly how much anarchy they can get away with, zines are the far less predictable younger siblings going on whim and instinct. Those who draw on the walls around the house, DIY their own piercings, and experiment with different emo\/straight-edge\/back to emo phases (or not-phases). Boundaries and routines are what zines were created to rail against.<\/p>\n

Walk into Verbatim Books<\/a>\u2019 zine corner, and this rebellion is immediately clear. Zines have no singular form, no clean category or definition. Vintage magazine scraps are collaged into new meaning alongside mini fandom zines. Single sheets of plain white printer paper are covered in nothing but black ballpoint pen. Repurposed hardback book covers are folded into something entirely new. Some are duct-taped together, others stapled. Some glossy, others matte. There are guides to anything and everything, comic panels, photography, hand-drawn cartoons, poetry, recipes, diaries, and ramblings that only make sense to the person who made them\u2014and that\u2019s on purpose.<\/p>\n

Zines are creative magic. And with no rules, they\u2019re incredibly accessible. Anyone can zine and have a voice, regardless of artistic training or work life experience.<\/p>\n

You are your own Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, Ruth Whitney.<\/p>\n

San Diego\u2013based zine creator Lyssette Williams specializes in mini zines\u2014often limited to eight pages, they\u2019re meditations in abbreviation. Outlining, thumbnailing, and revision all move quickly from idea to page. Larger projects, including Williams\u2019 long-form graphic novel thesis, move at a slower pace. For those, she often returns to pen and ink, a choice that resists the over-editability of digital work.<\/p>\n

Raised by a single mother and navigating mixed-race identity in a predominantly white town, she finds a home for processing it all in zines. Her work deals in identity, belonging, self-definition, and punk-rock childhood. But it isn\u2019t always heavy; Williams creates a mini duck-themed zine called Backyard Duck Propaganda<\/a> that\u2019s hard not to love. \u201cWhen I create, I think about what would have helped me find the words back then, what my younger self would\u2019ve needed,\u201d Williams says. \u201c[Zines] put the tools in your hands and democratize art. They\u2019re translations of memories and identities.\u201d<\/p>\n

PARTNER CONTENT
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\n \"Chef
\n Chef Aidan Owens Thinks Your Fish is Boring
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\"\"Courtesy of Lyssette Williams<\/p>\n

For Williams, a big reason she keeps creating is being surrounded by other creatives\u2014a scene that extends across the border. She points to Verbatim and Comicbook Artists of San Diego<\/a>, plus events like Zine Fest<\/a> (October 17\u201318 this year at Woo in Barrio Logan) and Black Comix Day at the WorldBeat Cultural Center.<\/p>\n

Zines have always been a road for subcultures. During the Harlem Renaissance, Black creatives like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston self-published one issue of Fire!!, which inspired other Black authors. In the 1930s, zines (then called fanzines) were hubs for sci-fi nerds to write fanfiction, address the fandom, and create new characters. Superman actually made his public debut in a fanzine called Science Fiction (he was originally cast as a villain with a fully receded hairline). A couple decades later, zines about feminism and riot grrrl became subculture de rigueur.<\/p>\n

The internet nearly killed zines, of course. But now, people tired of the algorithm\u2019s firehose are finding comfort and renewed inspiration in analog. Zines, a salve for digital fatigue.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Duophobia<\/p>\n

A giant figure in San Diego zine culture is Burn All Books<\/a>. Founded by Amanda and Nick Bernal, BAB started as a risograph (digital screen printing) studio and turned into one of those places that keeps expanding the whole scene around it, even forming its own archive group, SCANNNERS. Since opening in January 2023, it has published over 35 works and collaborated with more than 100 artists, writers, and zinesters.<\/p>\n

For Duophobia, the pseudonym for local twin sisters Alora and Kiani Dotson (affectionately known as the \u201cpossum twins\u201d), zines make room for experimentation and play that doesn\u2019t fit anywhere else. Room for eclectic cartoons and dirty jokes. For sticker-covered sketchbooks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that same brand of nostalgia you might feel when, say, you walk past the carcass of an abandoned mall<\/a> and see a faded cartoon mural. Their work lives somewhere between childhood and adulthood, where being unserious is taken very, very seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re born and raised in San Diego, and the community of artists here is a main reason we started publishing,\u201d Kiani Dotson says. \u201cThere are people here like Trixxie Land who run open art gatherings. Show up, and you\u2019re part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Land, a zinester herself (she made 250 single-page zines during 2020\u2019s lockdown), is all about storytelling over hierarchy. Art shouldn\u2019t be about gatekeeping or intimidation, she says. So she holds open-invite arts shows at Subterranean Coffee.<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Lyssette Williams<\/p>\n

Duophobia regularly share their work at local galleries like Subterranean, filling that lowbrow space with pieces that answer: \u201cWhat would\u2019ve made us laugh as kids?\u201d Children are often the first to pick up their zines, unfolding them in every direction while parents briefly panic at the impulsive destruction. The twins always step in. \u201cNo, no, it\u2019s okay,\u201d they say, before showing how one sheet of paper folds into an entire little book. \u201cIt\u2019s like magic.\u201d More often than not, the kids leave with a tiny zine tucked under a tiny arm, future San Diego zinesters in the making.<\/p>\n

When asked what a zine really is, Alora Dotson\u2019s response was simple: \u201cIt\u2019s anything. Literally anything. The more genuine you are, the more people are going to hear what you have to say. Your voice matters, even if it\u2019s just a silly joke or story. People want to hear about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not a perfect definition? Exactly. Zines inherently resist categories. Want to turn a single playing card into a storybook? Do it. What about your favorite graffiti artist\u2019s signature tag at Prince Memorial Skatepark? Turn it into a zine.<\/p>\n

Everything\u2019s a zine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If magazines are like the adultier eldest daughters who know exactly how much anarchy they can get away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2308,44486,74,76,75,8419],"class_list":["post-429333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-art","tag-art-culture","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do-in-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}