Most Unwanted Zine

Description

Liz Mason here. So I did it. I made The Most Unwanted Zine, based on data I amassed from a zine survey filled out by zine makers and readers (combined with my experiences selling customized zine packs here at Quimby’s).

The #1 thing people said they didn’t want in a zine? Poetry. So there’s that. The #2 thing people complained about zines? Shitty construction. So there’s that. But also, don’t miss a self-involved perzine rant, ridiculous font decisions with bad letting/kerning, a poorly laid out photo spread, the obligatory punk scene report, vague or meandering ramblings, lecturing with pedantically big academic words, whining and more!

In some ways, this zine is a collaboration with the zine-reading public, a democratically constructed People’s Zine. It was inspired by the work of Russian conceptual artists Komar and Melamid’s forays into the worlds of Most Wanted and Most Unwanted art and music. I also used it as a loving and snarky satire of zine culture, of which I have an intimate knowledge of based on my experiences being part of the culture.

Want to look at my data? It’s here: https://bit.ly/3e6FPOm

-LM

8.5″x5.5″, 20p, purple risographed cover (printed by Flatlands Press), b+w photocopied inside, saddle stitched (though don’t think I wasn’t tempted to leave it unbound with pages floating in the wind, or bind it with rubber bands guaranteed to fall apart in 6 months)