Zines and the Law

To me, zines are print blogs. I’m not talking about e-zines (they are just blogs – aren’t they?). I think print zines should be encouraged because 1) lots of creative young, and not so young, people are making zines, 2) zine creators are obviously still enjoying the tactile pleasures of print, paper, binding, and books. Isn’t this to be celebrated by bibliophiles? I love looking at zines – the artwork, the bookmaking, the writing (not always good but usually smile-inducing) are all pleasing and stimulate the bibliophile brain the way looking at art stimulates the artist in us all.

I don’t know of any print LAW zines, though. Surely there is a place for a law zine, isn’t there? The new-ish Oregon Appellate Almanac, a publication of the Appellate Practice Section of the Oregon State Bar, could have been a zine. The editors might have had a bit more fun with it if it had been. Not that they didn’t have fun, but I’m just saying they would have had MORE fun, if they could have had the freedom of creating a Zine. See, that’s the other thing I like about Zines – creative license and fun.

Anyway, if you live in the Portland metro area, here’s the Multnomah County public library’s Zine zone and their Zine Collection Party.