Liana Jegers is an illustrator in Los Angeles, CA. She also helps run a small publishing house with her husband called Caboose Books.
How did you get interested in zines?
I'm not sure when I first encountered them, but as a student in Chicago, I used to go to the Joan Flasch Artists Books Collection a lot, and it was a great place to explore a lot of different forms of books. You could see things made in large editions with exquisite materials and complicated construction, or xerox zines printed at Kinko's. Seeing the whole range of books made me a lot less precious about the things I would make, and zines are a cool way to get an idea out into the world without the weight, physically and metaphorically, of a book.
What are your zines about?
Mostly they're about places, or sort of a collection of drawings that have helped me find a sense of place in wherever I am.
What are some of your favorite zines and zine makers?
At the risk of writing a phone-book sized answer to this question, I'll just share the two that I most recently acquired. First, I love getting Mail Blog from Cortney Cassidy on a semi-regular schedule in my actual mailbox—it's great and thoughtful and a peek into Cortney's thoughts and process, and, well, a blog but in physical form. I also just re-subscribed to The Weaving Mill's "Weaving Mail" newsletter, which I would quantify as a zine. It consists of updates on their studio, but I also always end up learning about something fiber-related, which is a world I might not be able to peek into otherwise.
Your zines are in our library collection for patrons to borrow. What do you think about that?
I love it—the highest honor!
What do you think is the future of zines?
Zines aren't going anywhere. People are always saying that print is dead and/or dying, but it's still going strong—those people have chosen not to look at it! And the printed book form as we know it is only 600 years old or so (with scrolls going back even further), we have a lot more exploring to do with this form! In the grand scheme of time, we're only at the beginning of the book's lifespan.
Why are zines important?
Zines are important because of their accessibility. Anyone can make one and distribute it; whether it's, sharing it with their friends, selling it at a book fair, or leaving it on a park bench for some kindred soul to find—or checking it out from the library.
