Watzek Library is not just home to hundreds of thousands of books or cozy nooks to cram before finals, but it is also a place to discover the clever and thought-provoking art of Emma Krall ’25. Since last academic year, they have been making and distributing zines around the library, free for anyone to pick up. For anyone unfamiliar with zines, Krall describes them as completely independently produced booklets, usually expressing progressive and creative ideas. For Krall, zines are an accessible way to express their imagination and emotions, engage with a community and break away from traditional norms.
While art is important to Krall, they do not have any formal training other than school art classes taken when they were younger. Though they have always enjoyed doodling, they never thought they would be an artist as they did not have the conventional skills they saw in other artists.
However, in Fall 2023, they made a zine for a class project and became enamored with the format. After that, they decided to use zines to express their thoughts through both illustrations and writing. Krall’s zines are stunning and engaging, featuring vivid, layered drawings and creative writing describing abstract emotional ideas. They often include a character loosely based on themself experiencing endearing stories spanning just six pages. Sometimes, Krall also includes the writing of others and experiments with different artistic styles, making each zine incredibly unique.
One of the key components of these zines is that they are entirely self-produced. This means Krall draws, writes, copies, prints, folds and distributes all of their zines. They do not prefer to use technology as an artistic tool, so all of the illustrations are hand-drawn. Krall has used a variety of mediums but recently settled on oil pastels for their ability to be blended and layered.
“Once I started using oil pastels I feel like I was able to unlearn a lot of those conventions and really embrace the punk rock attitude and also find my style,” Krall said.
The only step of the process where technology comes into play is printing. Fortunately, Krall can scan and print everything for free using the resources available at Watzek. Recently, they also subscribed to the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which they describe as the center of the zine landscape in Portland. This has allowed them to use a risograph press, a unique printing method that involves layering brightly colored ink, often compared to a digital screen-printer. This new resource has been fun for them to experiment with, leading to many distinct and bold pieces, but they still print many of their zines at the library.
Part of the reason why Krall loves zines is that they are easy and accessible for anyone to create as demonstrated by their assembly process. All of their zines are made with a standard piece of 8.5-inch by 11-inch piece of paper and folded with only their hands. In just a couple of minutes, they are able to fold, tear and seemingly magically form a small, beautiful booklet that can be easily unfolded and photocopied. This simple process demonstrates one of Krall’s main goals with zines.
“It’s super duper easy. I want literally everyone to make zines, that’s the whole point of them,” Krall said.
Krall also wants their zines to bring some joy to readers. Many of their zines are produced with a specific purpose in mind, like to celebrate a friend’s birthday or to recognize something they learned from someone. Their first zine, titled “Tiny Reasons to Not be Sad, Even Though It’s Really Hard Right Now,” illustrates part of their broader goal of improving others’ lives.
“They all kind of have different purposes, but in general, I would just want to make someone’s day a tiny bit better,” Krall said.
On a personal level, zines have allowed Krall to connect with the Lewis & Clark community and engage in class more. As someone with a disability, it can be difficult for them to be part of social life on campus. However, making and distributing zines has given them a greater place in the community.
“I find it pretty hard to engage with the social scene here, just because physically I’m not usually up for it,” Krall said. “So part of it is that I actually get to have a presence and be there in the community here when in general, I don’t really.”
Zines have helped their academics, too, as they draw them in class and help them focus.
“I do it all in class, and it’s actually changed my relationship with class quite a lot, because I’m able to pay way better attention when I have a thing that I am working on that has tangible progress and that I have a plan for,” Krall said. “It feels really good to just sit down and draw and then just kind of take in all the other information.”
This affinity for creating is important to Krall and a big part of why they continue to make zines. Their art allows them to express complex thoughts and let their mind wander in creative directions they never imagined. When asked about their inspiration, they talked about capturing their ideas.
“I would say feelings that I don’t want to go away, or thoughts that I don’t want to go away that I feel like I have the potential to develop more,” Krall said.
In terms of extrinsic inspiration, Krall cited the Portland art scene and Daniel Johnston. Krall admires Johnston’s music and illustrations and their work is similar in expressing many common emotions and being independently produced. Krall also wants to be part of the art and broader community at LC and making zines has given them a sense of belonging.
Krall wants other students to find community and self-expression through zines too, especially using the resources available through the school. One of their mantras is “Independent publishing is not the future, it’s the present.” While they are graduating this spring, they want other students to keep creating zines, citing it as incredibly empowering for students who are disabled.
“My ultimate goal is that other people make zines when I graduate because I think it’s such an important and empowering way to use the resources that higher education gives us for something more personal than that,” Krall said.
Much of Krall’s work can be found in the common areas of Watzek and they urge students to pick them up. They want their art to be free and spread all around campus. They will also be at the Reed College Zine Fest in late March. This will be their first zine-focused event and they are eager to connect with the broader Portland zine scene.
However, as Krall has shown, interacting with art and zines can happen right here on campus. So, take a page from Krall’s zine and try it out.
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