Zines, a funky word used to express creativity and individuality.
The Zine club is a student-led club at James Bowie High School created by senior, Otto Wu. Zines are a small box of self-published work texts and images similar to a cartoon, but can be used in multiple ways. Zines is a club where students create their zines together and express their creativity in a safe space.
“I like making zines. They’re these little booklets that you can make on whatever, bands, music, or recipes. You can do collages of photos,” Wu said. “They’re really easy to make. You can just draw it on a piece of paper, make copies of it, staple things together, so it’s very easy, cheap, and affordable.”
Zines Club offers opportunities for students to start expressing their art to an audience. They meet in Matt Flickinger FIT in A206 every Friday.
“An average day at the club I would say we usually have a table that’s got supplies and blank zines that people can use,” Wu said. “Then we’ve got some examples of zines that people can bring in and I usually bring some that people can look at for inspiration. People talk and we kind of make our little groups and we just hang out and draw and write. It’s pretty fun.”
Not only does joining the Zines club provide the chance for students to create zines, but also make new friends
“My favorite part of the zines club is probably the people,” senior Raven Kemenesi said. “I’ve met a lot of really awesome and creative people. I also love how it gives me a space to be creative.”
Zines have been around for a long time, but are often unrecognized. There are numerous events and festivals dedicated to zines, such as the Lone Star Zine Fest, which takes place in Austin.
“I love finding community and making art,” said senior Vivian Jordan said. “I’ve been to some zine fests before and love the idea of trying to make my work too, and Zine club is perfect for that. People are so creative and nice with zine making, it’s super cool to see what everybody makes.”
According to Kemenesi, Wu is an amazing leader and creator of the Zines Club. With his strong passion for zines, many people in the club look up to him.
“Otto is one of the nicest people I know. I’ve known him for years at this point, and he’s just a genuinely good person,” Kemenesi said. “He’s very relaxed and happy to teach new people and talk about zines. He’s a passionate person who loves art, and that much is clear with his love for the Zine club.”
Wu’s art comes in all shapes and sizes and has gone viral on Instagram since he was in middle school. Wu currently has almost 76,000 followers and is gaining more and more each day. With his fame, Wu has many fans who look up to him and make art inspired by his work.
“I started taking it seriously around middle school and in high school,” Wu said. “It’s just something that’s always been in my life as something that I can do for fun and as a job. I started posting on Instagram when I was 11 because I draw a lot of fan-art for shows that I like and I just wanted somewhere to post that. But then I started blowing up like. When I was 13-14, it was stressful. Because I spent all of my teens with a bunch of people looking at my art it was so much pressure. I’ve kind of grown into it now and I can handle it better. It’s not a big deal.”
Wu’s process of making art can depend on the piece, but finds that it’s not that difficult with zines. This is one of the main reasons Wu made the club, so everyone can express themselves.
“I think it’s just really accessible. It is an accessible way to self-publish your work,” Wu said.
The Zine club is a way for Wu to express their imagination in a mannered environment with friends. Wu also focuses on more complicated and mixed art pieces.
“I’m working on one right now at home. It’s pretty big. I think it’s 12 by 18 inches. I do all the pencils and then I do it over in ink. Then I color with markers and I go over the marker with colored pencils if I want to grab details,” Wu said. “That one’s been pretty hard because I am using a lot of photo references for it. It is like a picture of me, like a cartoon version of me. Then the background is a bunch of drawings I made based on photos of me, my family, and my friends. Those are in black and white and not in color. It’s cool.”
Due to Wu’s willingness to use different types of complicated art styles, their dedication can lead to a possible future career.
“I’m applying to college. My first choice major is drawing and painting,” Wu said. “I made these digital brushes. I have them up on my shop online, but I don’t advertise. I think they cost $1.00 now. I mean, they’re just brushes. I don’t want to gate-keep because they’re good versions.”
According to members, the zine club can have many positive outcomes for students. It provides supplies and time for members to create their masterpieces.
“Zines are a great way to express yourself in ways that I feel are kind of hard to do in other forms of publishing your work,” Wu said. “Zines it’s all up to you. You decide what’s in your zine. You’re printing your zines, you’re distributing them so you can put what you want to be in there. There’s very minimal interference from publishers, editors, and stuff like that. It’s very freeing.”
