After a semester away, the Paper & Pixels Zine Club has been resurrected, hoping to rebuild a community for fellow communication design majors and anyone else interested in the world of zine creation.
“It’s like one of the only clubs that communication design majors feel like they can really have a community in,” said Metztli Barrera, a third-year communication design major and the club’s treasurer. “We love Game Development Club, but they definitely do work more related to computer science majors, so we are hoping to bring back this club so that the communication design students feel like they have a place to practice with the programs we are learning in our classes.”
When asked how the club made a comeback, Katherine Ann Johanson, a third year communication design major and president of the club shared that it was their “Typography professor, and club advisor Lindsey Brammel that recruited us all.” Brammel had absolutely adored the club prior to most of the original officers graduating and was really eager to find new students to take it over and bring it back to life.
When thinking about how the club will come together and what their future plans will look like Barrera is leaning into the connective power of zine creation. “There are issues we want to tackle and we all have varying perspectives and feel certain ways, it will be good to be able to all come together.”
“We also want to bring back how casual and friendly the meetings felt. I felt like I was friends with the people running it,” said Johanson.
Mia Criscione, a third year communication design major and vice president of the club is hopeful that the club can either run from the MakerSpace or host events in the space to teach others about how to make zines and to show people how great of a resource the MakerSpace can be for creatives on campus.
For anyone out of the know, a zine is a handmade micro magazine. Their origins date back to as early as the 1930s, as a means to share information in queer and underground spaces. They made a major resurgence in the 70s and 80s with the evolution of the punk scene. Zines are often used as an accessible way to get news spread without needing a publication to produce your work.
Criscione also reflected on how she fell in love with making zines, even prior to her time at Cal State Monterey Bay sharing, “I learned about it from my community college, Allan Hancock, they would do random zines outside the library, they would just have everything set up outside for us. I noticed there were a lot of punk elements to it as well, and I really enjoy being involved in that scene too.” Laughing, Criscione then quoted the 1997 song “Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger, “I want to make zines and rage against the machine.”
The club is still in its early stages of rebuilding, but they are active on Instagram @zine.csumb and -open to collaborating with other clubs. In fact they are in the works with both In the Ords and LitMatch about running events related to story telling with pictures instead of words, and an event focused on historical women figures. They also hope to run flash tattoo events, fundraising and participate in community service opportunities.
The club will be at Otter Showcase Feb. 4, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. looking for new members to recruit. They plan to host their meetings on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in a to-be-determined room.
Criscione thinks the club and growing community around zines can be very powerful.
“I don’t think you could come across anyone that doesn’t have a story to tell. Like there is always something that art can be made out of, I think it’s really important to have an outsource for that to express themselves,” Criscione said. “It doesn’t have to be cool or refined. We really want to encourage anyone interested to come and participate, I think we need art more than ever right now.”
Hayley Matto is president of Cal State Monterey Bay’s literary arts journal In the Ords.