Zines

The brief says "Do some research into self-published comics, graphic novels, artist books or fanzines." I've already looked a bit at graphic novels here and I looked at artists books for Drawing 2 (you have to scroll down to the beginning of February to see the relevant posts) so I decided to focus on zines because its an area of publishing that I wasn't really familiar with.
I found an interview with some zine makers here
Also a Guardian article here which focuses on publications that appear to be quite slick, do they count as true zines? Wikipedia says that zines are "usually reproduced via photocopier." and whilst I hesitate to rely on a Wikipedia definition that was also my impression. A firm local to me is offering a zine printing service and agrees "We can produce high quality zines without betraying the rough and ready look and feel of an indie publication." (Mixam Print) Though a bit of me wonders whether that's a bit of an oxymoron coming from a professional printer.
Zine sellers seem to have moved online, I did find a cafe in Southampton which sold me a zine of poetry by Dave Hubble which was mainly text laid out in a variety of ways and fonts. He is very political and passionate about his cause but I did find the 16 page zine a bit repetitive. 
Looking online the zine offers an outlet for niche publishing, a bit like a blog but more finite. On Etsy you can pick up zines about sexual and mental health issues, autobiographical, personal experiences, like travel journals, and viewpoints or series of drawings. Prices range from £1 to more than £10 but sellers say that they don't expect to make money from the sales of their zines, just to get their ideas out there. Pogo Books also sell zines but they seemed more serious than the playful offerings on Etsy.
Their charm is in their honesty, unfiltered opinions, personal views and ideas. They are completely democratic, anyone with an idea and access to a printer or photocopier can make a zine and sell it on sites like Etsy, or in cafes or bookshops if they can find someone who shares their values. To an extent they have been superseded by blogs but there is nothing like a physical booklet, and a blog can be censored so a zine can be a home to extreme or unacceptable views. Maybe in these days of unlimited internet information and ideas we place more value on something that we pay for?
OCA students made a zine called Edge which was sometimes online, sometimes in print. We made work on a theme decided by the group such as sharing or growth. It was an opportunity to collaborate with other students on a subject not in the coursework.
I ordered Rozi Hathaway's Self care and vegetables which is a charming A6 zine drawn with 2 colours of Kuretake brush pens and a touch of what looks like ocean blue Graphitint pencil. The soft, limited colour palette gives the zine a restrained atmosphere which works well with the subject matter, the zine is about the break up of a relationship.
For comparison I ordered Andrea Joseph's How to Draw like a Barmpot which is A5 and again, properly printed. Its in her early style which is like the doodles we did in our school notebooks, and it has lots of handwritten text in all directions across the page. She built up a following on social media before the launch of her series of zines so she had made herself a customer base who would pay for a zine when they maybe couldn't afford, or find space for a print. It's a really nice piece of work.