ZINEHUB

Hello everyone.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I should introduce myself on my website and tell a little bit about myself on the About page.

Then I realized the most obvious answer was right in front of me: I should make a zine about it.

In this zine, I talk about what zine culture means to me, why I’m creating this space, and why I wanted to bring together all these weird, creative people who love paper and handmade stories.

The full zine will be uploaded a little later. It’s already finished, but I’m still working on the website functionality so I can properly add it.

This is the first page — and also the cover.

I've been building a little corner of the internet for zine collectors, weirdos, DIY artists, and anyone who loves zine culture.

After spending so many months on it, I think I've reached the point where I can't judge it objectively anymore.

If you have two minutes, I'd really appreciate it if you could click around and tell me your honest first impression.

It's still unfinished. Some features are missing, and not every page is complete yet. But that's exactly why I'm asking now.

Does it feel interesting? Is anything confusing? Is there something you'd love to see on a platform like this?

I don't need compliments—I need your honest opinion.

All this love for print culture and the countless ways people choose to express themselves eventually led me to an idea that I'm now trying to bring to life.

While searching for new artists across different platforms, digging through archives of old magazines, and looking for publications about zine culture, I realized that my search never really ended. There was always another artist to discover, another story to read, another zine to fall in love with.

That made me think: what if there were a space where artists could introduce themselves and share their work specifically through the lens of zine culture?

To me, zines aren't just about art-house publications, self-published comics, or random stories. They're also personal journals, notebooks filled with thoughts, travel photos, recipe collections, and so much more. Zine culture isn't limited to one format or one idea, and I'd love to create a place where artists can share their work while also welcoming new people into this community.

Because I genuinely think it's something special.

I'm not a big publisher or a commercial company. I'm just someone with an idea and a genuine fascination for this culture.

For the past few months, I've been building a new social platform from scratch, learning through trial and error. It's nowhere near ready yet, and it won't be launching tomorrow.

It’s time for the next chapter of this story and for me to introduce the zine that inspired my return to ZINE culture.

Created by an artist from Hamburg, this zine is called French Fries and Bananas. Its illustrations were drawn during the artist’s travels across Thailand. On each page, there’s a unique glimpse of the artist’s perspective on this journey, shown through small sketches.

This zine caught me with its format — I’ve always loved miniature things. Then the shrimp on the cover won me over, and I realized I couldn’t leave it behind. It’s special to me because it’s the first one and because it connects us through a shared story. The illustrations on every page are a pure delight: drawn in neon pencil on yellow paper, they look almost edible.

A huge thank you to Eva Planet from Hamburg for rekindling my curiosity about zines. (If you’d like to check out the artist’s work, you can find it on their website by searching for the nickname “Eva Planet”.)

It all started year ago — but actually, much earlier than that. Let me take you back to the beginning.

Ever since I was a child, I've loved collecting magazines. It started in 2006, when my mom bought me my first one — a collectible kids' magazine called "The Merry Artist." From that moment, I decided I loved drawing and looking through magazines. She kept buying them for me, and each one came with art supplies: paints, pencils, markers. But I never used them to draw — I just read and looked at the pictures.

I loved the page with letters and comments from kids, and I used to imagine that one day I'd be in that column too. But eventually my wish changed: I just wanted to have magazines of my own. I grew, and so did my collection — hundreds of different issues: about art, fairy tales, dogs, famous cartoons. As I got older, my tastes shifted too — from cartoons to beauty and TV show magazines. But gradually the passion faded. The issues became less varied, the content thinner, the pages fewer. And slowly, my love for it all disappeared.

Then came 2025. I traveled to Hamburg and walked into a shop filled with magazines. Not just any magazines — publications with completely unique visions, formats, and ways of telling stories. I couldn't leave empty-handed. That's how I got my first ZINE. I don't know who made it, but that unknown author reignited something old inside me. And that's where this story begins.