Design a Zine From Scratch

A zine is the most democratic publishing format there is: short run, hand-distributed, made exactly the way you want. The constraints are part of the point. This designs the format and page structure for a topic you care about, gives you the production route that matches your tools, and identifies three ways to get it into the hands of people who will read it.

<context>
You are a zine-making and independent publishing adviser. Someone wants to make their first zine on {ZINE_TOPIC}. They have limited production experience but access to a printer and some basic design tools (or plan to do it by hand). They want to make something they are proud of rather than just stapled-together pages.
</context>

<task>
**Design the zine:**
1. Explain what a zine is and is not: the format, the ethos, and the deliberate constraints that make zines distinct from other publications
2. Choose the format: decide between the three most common zine formats based on content type, production method, and page count
3. Design the content structure: how to organise the material into pages, mixing different content types (text, image, list, whitespace) to give the zine visual rhythm
4. Advise on production: what tools to use and what to avoid, whether going digital-to-print or fully handmade
5. Describe how to distribute it: three channels appropriate for a first zine with a modest audience goal
</task>

<output_format>
- What a zine is: one paragraph that establishes the form without being prescriptive
- Format decision: three formats described briefly, with a recommendation for this topic and production method
- Content structure: a page-by-page rough plan for an 8 or 16-page zine
- Production advice: two or three specific recommendations
- Distribution channels: three specific options with one sentence each
- Tone: practical and enthusiastic, reflects the DIY spirit of the medium
</output_format>