By Kendrick Brown

Zines aren’t just comics — they are the creator’s artistic expression made manifest.

The University of Maryland’s LGBTQ+ Equity Center hosted a zine-making workshop on April 16. The workshop was led by Milo Miller, co-founder of the Queer Zine Archive Project, and Max Barnewitz, a professor who works with the University Honors program as a Collegiate Fellow.

Barnewitz held a brief lecture at the beginning of the workshop on the history of zines and their contributions to the culture of marginalized communities.

The birth of zines, according to Barnewitz, started with the creation of the original portable printing machine, the mimeograph. Using this tool, people were able to replicate and print any design they wanted for distribution, leading science fiction fans Raymond A. Palmer and Walter Dennis to create the very first zine, The Comet, in 1930.

Zines were special because creators didn’t focus only on their preferred topic, such as science fiction, but also on the communities that had formed around them. 

Many zines allowed anyone to contribute anything they wanted, as their limited print runs and distribution through mail subscriptions meant that other fans were usually the primary readers.

This made zines popular with minority groups, particularly the queer community.

These independent publications gave young queer artists the ability to express their thoughts and feelings about the world during a time when there was real concern that they could be killed for even hinting at being gay.

Zines became the community’s way to circumvent that and safely spread their ideas to the only other people who would understand.

“Zines are speaking to a sense of queerness. They’re a little bit out there, a little bit underground, they’re a little different,” Barnewitz said.

Beyond their nature as underground works, zines are also notable for being anything one wants them to be. 

At the workshop, multiple zines were on display for inspiration. All of them were sheets of paper folded into eight panels with either drawings or old magazine pictures glued onto them.

The low-effort nature of the creativity that goes into making zines is part of the appeal, allowing someone to get their feelings out without the commitment of putting them into a real magazine or comic, according to medical anthropology graduate student Helen Obuna.

“I like that I can be creative if I want, and it can look any way that I prefer it to look, and it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Obuna said.

Students like freshman astronomy major Basil Brooks enjoyed the freedom that zines give people to make whatever they want.

“There’s such a wide range of zines you can make,” Brooks said. “They can be a tool for progress and storytelling, but you can also just make silly ones if you want.”

When asked why someone who has never made a zine should make one, Barnewitz said to just get your idea out there. Zines are ultimately all about expressing yourself, and as long as you do that, whatever you make has value.

“Zines are also a great way to process your feelings, so even if you just make it for yourself, it’s a worthwhile experience,” Barnewitz said.

Featured Image: Zines on display in Studio A at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union during a zine-making workshop on April 16, 2026.