There’s a question I’ve wanted to tackle for a while but it’s one that’s going to take more time than I have this morning to figure out. So, I’m just going to throw down some thoughts and maybe something will come of it. In short, my question is this: is there such a thing as a picture book zine?
Zines, by definition and by legacy are usually for mature audiences. They were born of the punk rock music scene and tend to stay in the “alternative press” world and they are (or were) seldom created with a kid audience in mind. Often zines were text heavy and read as (punk) music reviews of personal manifestos. Still, though, you do find kid-friendly zines from time to time (and lately, more and more) and some actually work as picture books. Here are a few from my collection with the barest bit of commentary:
PICKLE by Alina Chau
PICKLE, I think, is more picture book than zine. In form, it’s absolutely a zine. But in production quality it’s a picture book. That’s due in no small part to Chau’s exquisite watercolor illustrations but also because this book was meant to accompany a companion app. If you remember the mid to late 2000s, apps were (as CD roms were in the 90s) poised to make books obsolete. This project, I think, was meant to bridge those media.
THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE by Kristyna Baczynski
THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE always stood out in my mind as almost a picture book. The story feels like such a classic “how a (thing) got its name” fable but it’s told in comic form (Baczynski is an excellent cartoonist) so maybe I should be thinking of it as a graphic novel. It’s short, though, so it’s maybe a minicomic.
DOG BREATH by Joe Maccarone
There’s an energy in Joe Maccarone’s DOG BREATH that reminds me of Marc Simont’s illustrations in THE STRAY DOG. I could see this as a picture book, probably published by Enchanted Lion.
A POCKET BOOK OF WITCHFOLK AND DEMONS by Nat Andrewson
Everything Natalie Andrewson makes is magic. And, lucky for us, she’s making a lot of things. This one’s definitely a zine, but it feels like something from the Nutshell Library. It’s kind of its own thing but its very close to a picture book.
THE HELENA SERIES by Michael Furler
The Helena comics by Michael Furler feel like something between TALES OF A FOURTH GRADE NOTHING and DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. I would call them… MG autobio comics. Not quite a picture book but really, really good.
LITTLE TADPOLE MAN by Steve Steiner
Charmingly bizarre and bizarrely charming, LITTLE TADPOLE MAN is like the kind of comic you’d get in the middle of the old Nickelodeon Magazine. I think this also falls in the graphic novel camp (and I think it could be really popular with upper elementary readers).
OUR HOME by Angela Poom
Not only is Angela Poon’s OUR HOME is a straight up picture book I think it’s a Caldecott-level picture book (Poon being Canadian notwithstanding). Wholly original in technique (at least in the US, I think Korea has a tradition of using photographs of handmade dioramas like this) OUR HOME is an intimate and warm story about a kid and their grandmother moving into a new home. I have to share more pictures of this one.
I think at this point, though, you don’t call them zines. You call them “mini books”. It’s a weird nebulous distinction between the two, but I think that makes the most sense. Then again, I’m not sure I like the diminutive prefix. Here’s another “mini book” that offers as much as any traditionally published picture book.
MY BROTHER THE DRAGON by Galen Goodwin Longstreth and Jonathan Hill
See, again I feel weird calling this a mini book. To be sure, it’s small (measures 6×6 inches), but it’s also a really fun and funny (and brilliantly illustrated) annoying sibling story. And maybe I don’t need to call it a mini book. Maybe it’s just me and my need for tidy labels that’s making me draw these arbitrary distinctions. After all, I bought MY BROTHER THE DRAGON at Powell’s Bookstore in Portland where it sat proudly and legitimately amongst many other picture books, including the similarly sized Mr. Men volumes.
IN CONLUSION
So, can zines be picture books? I guess? I think in form and content, yes, absolutely. In public perception? Probably not. I think the buying public still likes knowing that picture books are vetted, to some degree, by publishers, editors, librarians, reviewers (in that order) to be made sure they are good and safe for young readers. Zines, by their very nature, are independent works and come with no such guarantee (irrespective of whether a guarantee is even needed).