Ben Byrne’s strawberry blonde curls buzzed like bumblebees around his face as he excitedly described his latest creative outlet for expounding ideas; a zine.

“It is not necessarily an underground thing. It is not contraband and doesn’t advocate the overthrow of the president or anything,” Byrne, a freshman in art and design from Edina, Minn. said.

The Milkman’s Zygote

More so, Byrne’s new zine The Milkman’s Zygote is for himself and others’ cerebral enjoyment. “I don’t have a specific aim. I did it mostly for myself. I enjoyed putting it together and it’s fun,” he said.

Byrne described a zine’s substance as random opinions from normal people. “It is cool to have someone who is just a plain old regular human being who is interested in the same stuff that you are, just doing this.”

He said he was tired of all other publications that are formal and “meticulously edited and created. … Most of the people that make zines aren’t going to make money off of them. They’re doing it because they like it and because they love the music they’re reviewing.”

After coming to Ames, Byrne found the atmosphere to be less than mentally stimulating. “It is a very suburban campus and most of the people are conservative and very plain.” He said he noticed this lack of culture especially after attending a punk fest in Minneapolis. “This place is so dead.”

Unlike his Minneapolis zine-making friends, who he says are more into the punk scene, Byrne categorizes himself somewhere in the middle of punk and mainstream.

“I’m not going for a strictly punk zine. Most of the stuff I’ve reviewed was punk or punk-related but not all of it. I’m trying to establish a medium between totally mainstream and totally punk,” he said.

Byrnes said a friend of his from Minneapolis disapproved of his publishing skills. “When Dave found out that I had been doing layout on the computer, he was in shock. He thought that I had somehow violated the ethical morals of underground publications.

“It is not as ragged as a punk zine might be but also not totally formal. I want it to be sort of grungy but still not totally like a hack did it.” He said although he has been a publication person since the days of high school yearbook and magazine staff, none of the journalistic outlets on campus seemed to speak to him.

“When I first got here I thought I might join something like Ethos or The Drummer but after reading through them I decided The Drummer was too political and no one ever reads Ethos,” he said. “Nothing seemed to be like an appropriate outlet.”

So he took matters into his own creative hands. “I just decided to do my own. I had been thinking of doing one for a while and then it was like okay, I will do one.”

His inspiration came from friends who had done their own zines. “I would read my friend’s and think ‘Dave is such a cool guy. Look at what he thinks about and look at what he writes.'”

Byrne distributed his copies of The Milkman’s Zygote randomly. He recognized the Maintenance Shop as one of his distribution cites. “I have no idea if there are any left, I just walked in and set them down. I haven’t heard anything yet.”

Chunk

Byrne is not the first student with a passion for do-it-yourself publishing. Stephanie Murphy, a junior in journalism and mass communication and Aaron Barstow, former ISU student, created their own form of a zine that consisted of photocopied pieces of paper with cardboard and twine. Chunk hit campus last semester.

“I think zines are a fun thing,” Murphy said. “It’s not like I would never not like a zine because it is someone’s own expression, kind of like a homemade card, except it has more pages.”

The goal of the creators of Chunk was to have something fun to give people. Part of the fun was in the distribution. Barstow and Murphy crept quietly around sleepers in Parks Library placing copies of Chunk on their unaware laps.

“I think it is a movement that is definitely growing, partly because it is an inexpensive way to express yourself.” Murphy has plans of making another Chunk before the semester is over.

Verbal masturbating

Giles Fowler, associate professor of journalism and mass communication, is all for creative expression through zines. “This is an unorthodox way to express yourself, but why not? Every time somebody takes on a creative challenge, how can you knock it?”

However, Fowler does see room for some definition in zines. “It seems to me that there is not going to be an enormous range of seriousness and quality. It might just be a self-indulgent whoop of ego. At the same time, I can see how it might be somebody’s quite serious effort to communicate something that is of importance.

“I can’t believe that a lot of them aren’t just verbal masturbating,” Fowler said.

He described zines as not having much discipline. “Zines are sort of ad hoc and grassroots. If Rolling Stone hadn’t been started by people who were wildly undisciplined and free-reigning, it would never have evolved into the high quality it is today.”

Fowler said it would be dangerous to generalize zines. “Like any other product of the imagination and talent, it has to have its bright side and its dark side.”

Attitude

Rob Ruminski, a sophomore in history, created his own zine in St. Louis called Attitude which gained national recognition in the zine-turned-magazine Maximum Rock and Roll.

He said the difference between a zine and a magazine is that it more has to do with the mind set used to create a zine. “A lot of the mainstream alternative magazines try to do layouts similar to zines. There’s a slickness that you don’t have with something that comes from the heart.”

Along with heart comes the many variations of theme in zines. “There are several types of zines, some people do strictly music or political.” Zines can also be personal, amateur cartoon zines, gothic, poetry and hip-hop. The list is endless.

Ruminski said he started Attitude, which was a personal/political project, when he was 16. “I was in the music scene and it also touched on that.” He said he would distribute his zine when his band would play at shows.

He said although many people can create zines, it is not a spectator sport. “You don’t get the full experience of doing a zine until you find yourself sitting at Kinko’s at 12 a.m. making a press run.”

He said creating Attitude was an emotional and learning experience. “It is the most empowering experience someone can have. It gives you something you can claim as your own. People are afraid to have opinions. When doing a zine, you are making your thoughts and beliefs known. However rough around the edges they might be, they’re still yours,” Ruminski said.

“By claiming these sheets of paper for yourself, you’re having the balls to put yourself on the table for the world to see.”