A Month of Zinesters: Krissy Durden

Heading to the States, we visit zinester and We Make Zines creator Krissy Durden.

Based in: Portland, Oregon

Bio: Krissy has been making zines under the name PonyBoy Press since 1994. Her zines include Figure 8, Imaginary Life and Current Resident. In 2008 she created the zine community site We Make Zines and these days she seems to create about one zine per year.

“I like making zines because with zines you can control the reader’s breath. Like a poem you can break up lines and feed the reader the text and images in the way you want. You can arrange blank space, white space and images that will add to the readers experience, sometimes just subconsciously. I’m often inspired to make a zine not just because of what I want to say, but because of how I can present it.

“As a collector of antique postcards, photographs and ephemera, zines also give me a place to share those long forgotten and unwanted images. Sometimes the old images inspire me to write and sometimes I write first and find images in my collection to illustrate my words.

“I’ve also created many zines that aren’t that poetic in lay-out and are pretty straight forward. My motivation for those is usually largely based on what I want to say and the need I feel to share it with other people.

“The zine is like a little fort, hidden from obvious view, welcoming to all who find it – you walk in, take a seat and stay for a while.”

To read Krissy’s blog and to check out her zines and crafts visit ponyboypress.com