July is International Zine Month
Plus, there's a new Instagram Story font.
I’m writing from the West Coast this week! Today’s issue of PHONE TIME includes: some resources and fun things to do for International Zine Month. Plus, a new Instagram Story font, the r/Snoo art contest submissions are rolling in, and the Wayback Machine will soon reach one trillion webpages archived.
Read my story on Daughter Zine, published yesterday.
July is International Zine Month. It was created by Alex Wrekk, author of “Stolen Sharpie Revolution,” a beloved book within the zine community.
“International Zine Month was started in either 2008 or 2009, I don’t remember which. I mostly was just curious as to how fake holidays ended up on those lists of celebrations and wondered if I could do it for zines. It turned out to be super simple so I registered it with Chase’s Calendar of Events and that was it,” Wrekk told DIY Conspiracy in a 2022 interview.
I wrote in PHONE TIME last week that the framing around zines as making a comeback because of social media fatigue is somewhat oversimplified. “I joke that every few months there’s a ‘Zines are making a comeback!’ article when a bunch of us are looking around wondering why they never noticed us still making zines all these years,” Wrekk said in the DIY Conspiracy interview.
People are using the hashtag #IZM2025 to share events, information, and resources. Here’s a roundup of things that interested me, plus some other zine world news. If you’re making a zine, holding a zine festival, or doing anything else zine-related you think PHONE TIME should cover, reach out!
Alex Wrekk made a list of 31 prompts for 31 days.
There is a zine month display up at Middletown Township Public Library in N.J.
Midnight Care Collective and Sojourners for Justice Press are hosting the Mini Black Zine Fair in Detroit on Aug. 9 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. They’re looking for volunteers and zines to be included in the zinestand.
@nicezines compiles a list of zine events happening each month, many based in the U.K.
The Oregon Hill Review, put together by poet Mathias Svalina, prompted contributors to write about something in Richmond, Va., that they love. — Allison Kinney, The Richmonder
The Cool Cat Collective boutique in Long Beach, Calif. launched a “Cat Zine Fest” in-store and online on June 27. Zines available include a vintage photo zine, a hand-painted postage stamp zine, and “a cat-based reimagining of the Whole Earth Catalog.” A dollar from each zine goes to rescue organization TippedEars. — Kate Karp, Long Beach Watchdog
WIRED made a zine about how to win a fight. You can download the zine in English and Spanish.
Tom Devine is creating “Sporks,” what he calls comic books, and zines. — Erik Thorstenson, Dakota News Now
New Session is “an online literary zine accessed via the ancient-but-still-functional internet protocol Telnet.” — Janus Rose, 404 Media
Office Magazine and Joe & the Juice made a zine for the opening of the juice bar and coffee shop’s new location in Williamsburg. Yesterday’s PHONE TIME covers some of the discussion about what is or is not a zine.
Elsewhere online
There’s a new Instagram Story font, using singer Rosalía’s handwriting.
The submissions for the Reddit r/Snoo 20th “cakeday” original art contest have been rolling in. The deadline is July 3 at 9 p.m. ET. People have portrayed the Reddit mascot through acrylic paintings, crochet, watercolor, nail art, ASCII art, quilting, latte art, sugar cookies, cake, ravioli, 3D printing, and more. While AI is allowed in the subreddit, it isn’t allowed for the contest submissions.
X is launching a pilot for an AI Community Note writer API. The AI notes will be “clearly marked for users,” the Community Notes X account wrote in a post.
“The Museum That Forgot What Made MIT Famous”
“The new museum seems almost allergic to technical specificity. It favors safe abstractions, interactive video walls, and airy open space over crowded ideas. The exhibits don’t challenge. They don’t demand that you ask, What is this machine? How did it work? Who built it, and why? Instead, they offer mood boards and phrases like ‘impact,’ floating in the air, unmoored from the harsh beauty of hardware,” Forbes contributor Amir Husain writes. The MIT Museum reopened in 2022.
The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is set to hit one trillion web pages archived in October. The Internet Archive will be having an in-person event and livestream on Oct. 22 to commemorate the milestone.
