While I've never really been much into the fringe art culture, I can appreciate the freedom that zines provide to artists. Public, mass-produced magazines, art magazines included, are often subject to editing and restrictions in order to remain fit to print. By self-publishing, individuals and groups can express their ideas without having to appeal to a wide audience. Their cheap and easy creation also allows artists to focus on the art itself, rather than the need to turn a profit.
When we looked at zines in class, I didn't really "get" it--the contents were nonsensical to me, and I didn't find them appealing from an artistic point of view. I doubt I'd ever publish a zine myself. That's not to say they weren't good, I could respect the effort that went into the zines, they just weren't my cup of tea.
As for my own class zine page, I'm going to be combining Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran The Zoo with The Island of Dr. Moreau, a novel written in 1896 by H.G. Wells. In it, a shipwrecked man named Edward Prendick finds himself on an island of surgically altered man-beasts and hybridized creatures created by the titular Dr. Moreau. Therefore, my zine page is going to be a photo collage of Seuss characters stuck together into new creatures Frankenstein's Monster-style. I might include a little poem to go with it, if I can think of one,
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