zine

 

A zine—an abbreviation of the word fanzine, and originating from the word magazine^[1][2]—is most commonly a small circulation, non-commercial publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest.

A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less and the intention of the publication is not primarily to raise a profit.

Zines are written in a variety of formats, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text (an example being Cometbus). Print remains the most popular zine format, usually photo-copied with a small circulation. Topics covered are broad, including fanfiction, politics, art & design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, single topic obsession, or sexual content far enough outside of the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. The time and materials necessary to create a zine are seldom matched by revenue from sale of zines. Small circulation zines are often not explicitly copyrighted and there is a strong belief among many zine creators that the material within should be freely distributed. In recent years a number of photocopied zines have risen to professional status and have found wide bookstore distribution. Highly notable among these are Giant Robot, Bust, and Maximum RocknRoll.

History

Since the invention of the printing press (if not before), dissidents and marginalized citizens have published their own opinions in leaflet and pamphlet form. Thomas Paine published an exceptionally popular pamphlet titled "Common Sense" that led to insurrectionary revolution. Paine is considered to be a significant early independent publisher and a zinester in his own right, but then, the mass media as we now know it did not exist. A countless number of obscure and famous literary figures would self-publish at some time or another, sometimes as children (often writing out copies by hand), sometimes as adults.

The exact origins of the name "zine" and the moment when the word was first used are controversial. In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin also started a literary magazine for psychiatric patients at a Pennsylvania hospital, which was distributed amongst the patients and hospital staff. This could be considered the first zine, since it captures the essence of the philosophy and meaning of zines. The concept of zines clearly had an ancestor in the amateur press movement (a major preoccupation of H.P. Lovecraft), which would in its turn cross-pollinate with the subculture of science fiction fandom in the 1930s.

During and after the depression, editors of "pulps" became increasingly frustrated with letters detailing the impossibility of their science fiction story. Over time they began to publish these overly-scrutinizing letters, complete with return addresses. This caused these fans to begin writing to each other, now complete with a mailing list for their own science fiction and wrestling fanzines.

Fanzines enabled fans to write not only about science fiction but about fandom itself and, in soi dissant perzine (i.e. personal zine), about themselves. As the Damien Broderick novel Transmitters (1984) shows, unlike other, isolated, self-publishers, the more "fannish" (fandom-oriented) fanzine publishers had a shared sensibility and at least as much interest in their relationships between fans than in the literature that inspired it.

The punk zines that emerged as part of the punk movement in the late 1970s. These started in America and the UK and by March 1977 had spread to other countries such as Ireland.^[3] Such punk zines changed everything.^{[citation needed]} Created almost entirely by people who had never heard of fandom,^{[citation needed]} they owed nothing to their predecessors.^{[citation needed]} Simultaneously, cheap photocopying had made it easier than ever for anyone who could make a band flyer to make a zine.

During the 1980s and onwards, Factsheet Five (the name came from a short story by John Brunner), originally published by Mike Gunderloy and now defunct, catalogued and reviewed any zine or small press creation sent to it, along with their mailing addresses. In doing so, it formed a networking point for zine creators and readers (usually the same people). The concept of zine as an art form distinct from fanzine and of the "zinesters" as member of their own subculture, had emerged. Zines of this era ranged from perzines of all varieties to those which covered an assortment of different and obscure topics which web sites (such as Wikipedia) might cover today but for which no large audience existed in the pre-internet era.

The early 1990s riot grrrl scene encouraged an explosion of zines of a more raw and explicit, more confrontational and definitely more gender-balanced (until this time, males tended to make up the majority of zinesters) nature. Following this, zines enjoyed a brief period of attention from conventional media and a number of zines were collected and published in book form. Some believe that the widespread adoption of web browsers starting in 1996 marked a change for this period of print zines.

Between 1997 and present, now out of the limelight, zines have been adopted by those particularly attached to the print medium; for artistic purposes not able to be replicated on a computer, functional purposes (a zine is innately more portable than a computer), or for subcultural reasons.

Zines continue to be popular. Currently "zines" are important to the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) movement. Recently galvanizing social issues such as globalization, environmentalism, media conglomeration, American imperialism and consumerism have been addressed within the pages of zines. Not all zines endorse any particular ideology. Current trends are easing back towards obsessive fan culture about a specific topic as the personal zines are starting to dwindle in numbers, replaced primarily by blogging.

Distribution & circulation

Zines are often distributed through secondary circuits, such as: trade, zine symposia, record stores, concerts, independent media outlets, mailings, or zine "distros." Many zines are distributed for free or cost less than $1.00 and rarely more than $5.00. Webzines are to be found in many places on the Internet.

Distributors

Zines are most often obtained through mailorder distributors. There are many cataloged and online based mailorder distros for zines. Some of the longer running and more stable operations include Last Gasp in San Francisco, Parcell Press in Richmond, VA, Microcosm Publishing in Bloomington, IN, Loop Distro in Chicago, Great Worm Express Distribution in Toronto, and All That Glitters in Nottingham, England. Zine distros often have websites which you can place orders on. Because these are small scale DIY projects run by an individual or small group, they often close after only a short time of operation. Those that have been around the longest are often the most dependable.

Bookstores

Several urban bookstores stock zines. Notable examples include Reading Frenzy in Portland, OR, Needles and Pens in San Francisco, Quimby's in Chicago, Mac's Backs Paperbacks in Cleveland, OH, Arise Books in Minneapolis, Boxcar Books in Bloomington, IN, Wooden Shoe Books in Philadelphia, Bluestockings in NYC, Fifty-Two. Five in Charleston, SC, the Brian MacKenzie Infoshop in Washington, DC, and Book Beat & Co. in Oklahoma City, OK.

Libraries

Many major libraries carry zines and other small press publications, usually ones that are relevant to a local or special interest section. Three major US examples are the Salt Lake City Public Library, Multnomah County Library in Portland, and the San Francisco Public Library. Also, zine collections may be housed within a university library, usually in the Special Collections Department. US university libraries with zine collections include:

• Barnard College Library
• DePaul University library
• The original Factsheet Five collection at the New York State Library in Albany, New York[1]
• The Sarah Dyer Collection at Duke University
• The West Coast Zine Collection at the San Diego State University Library

In the UK a special collection is held at the London Met Women's Library.

There also exist libraries devoted entirely to zine production and/or archiving. Examples in the United States are:

• the ABC No Rio Zine Library in NYC
• the Chicago Underground Library
• the Denver Zine Library
• the Zine Archive and Publishing Project in Seattle, Washington
• the Papercut Zine Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• the Independent Publishing Resource Center, a Portland, Oregon zine library and resource for writing and distributing zines.

In Canada, there are:

• Bibliograph/e in Montréal
• the Toronto Zine Library
• the Welland Zine Library (11 Ascot Ct., Welland Ontario, Canada, L3C 6K7)

In Australia there are:

• the Copy & Destroy zine library in Brisbane at the Visible Ink Valley space

In the United states there are about 10 public libraries that have zine collections, but more public libraries are adopting these collections, using the models of the Salt Lake City Public Library, Independent Publishing Resource Center, and Barnard College; all of which are available for library consulting.

Zine events

In the United States, there are many high-profile annual events, such as:

• The 24 Hour Zine Thing
• The Zine-A-Palooza
• The Philly Zine Fest
• The San Francisco Zine Festival.
• The Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, California.
• The Portland Zine Symposiumin Portland, Oregon.
• The Allied Media Conference in Bowling Green, Ohio.
• The Boston Zine Fair, formerly known as Beantown Zinetown.
• The Madison Zine Fest in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Ephemera Festival in Chicago Ephemera Festival

In Canada, the largest annual event is Canzine in Toronto and Vancouver, organized by the publishers of Broken Pencil. Expozine is also held annually in Montréal, and the North of Nowhere (NoN) Expo is held in Edmonton.

In the United Kingdom, there are:

• The London Zine Symposium, which in 2006 was held in an autonomous social centre.
• The Manchester Zine Fest.

In Australia there is:

• The Emerging Writers' Festival's annual Independent Press and Zine Fair held each May in Melbourne, which is an offshoot of Express Media's Make It Up zine fair.
• The National Young Writers' Festival's annual Sunday Artists' Market & Zine Fair, which is held as a major part of the world-renowned This is Not Art festival in Newcastle, NSW.

Zines in fiction

The main character of a Canadian television show produced by the CBC called Our Hero, Kale Stiglic (Cara Pifko) created her own zine.

Damien Broderick's novel Transmitters follows a small group of Australian science fiction fans through their lives over several decades. Pastiches of fanzine writing (from fictitious fanzines) form some of the text of the novel.

In the novel Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger, the main character John begins writing a zine called Bananafish after reading other people's zines he found at Tower Records. One of these zines is written by a girl named Marisol who writes a zine called Escape Velocity. After reading her zine, John decides to meet her and their friendship grows from there.

Lunch Money, a children's book by Andrew Clements, has sixth-grader Greg Kenton creating and selling mini comic books, as a way to make money, which leads to one of his classmates making her own publication.

In the Nickelodeon cartoon show Rocket Power, one of main cast characters, Reggie, publishes her own zine, which she uses to expose embarrassing dirt on her brother, Otto and friend, Twister. In this way she is able to get back at them for mercilessly teasing her.

Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing is a semi-fictional depiction of the anarcho-punk and riot grrrl scene in early 90s Washington, DC.

See also

• List of zine distros
• Fanzine
• Perzine
• Samizdat
• Ezine
• Punk zine
• ZineWiki
• Minicomic
• List of minicomics creators
• Webzine
• Amateur press association
• Hugo Award for Best Fanzine
• United Fanzine Organization
• Cometbus
• Chapbook
• Comics
• Underground comix

Books about zines

• Bartel, Julie. From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library. American Library Association, 2004.
• Biel, Joe $100 & A T-Shirt: A Documentary About Zines in Portland. Microcosm Publishing, 2004 (Video)
• Brent, Bill Make a Zine. Black Books, 1999
• Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture. Verso, 1997. ISBN 1-85984-158-9
• Kennedy, Pagan. Zine: How I Spent Six Years of My Life in the Underground and Finally...Found Myself...I Think (1995) ISBN 0-312-13628-5
• Spencer, Amy. DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture. Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd., 2005.
• Watson, Esther and Todd, Mark. "Watcha Mean, What's a Zine?" Graphia, 2006. ISBN 978-0618563159
• Vale, V. Zines! Volume 1 (RE/Search, 1996) ISBN 0-9650469-0-7
• Vale, V. Zines! Volume 2 (RE/Search, 1996) ISBN 0-9650469-2-3
• Wrekk, Alex. Stolen Sharpie Revolution. Portland: Microcosm Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-9726967-2-5

References

1. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=zine&searchmode=none
2. ^ Spencer, A. (2005) DIY: The Rise of Lo-fi Culture, p.95
3. ^ Early Irish fanzines. Loserdomzine.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-16.

External links

• alt.zines Usenet Newsgroup
• Art Zines Reviewed
• Broken Pencil (Canadian zine review/digest)
• E-zine.com (Article Directory)
• Gigglebot Distro, Zine Distro
• North West Zine Works Zine reviews and distro, also contact information for the zine community at large
• Zine (zeen) listing
• Under the Volcano Fanzine
• MyZine self publishing media site
• Zine World (review zine)
• The Zine Yearbook, an annual zine anthology
• Zinebook.com
• Zinelibrary.net
• Zinestreet:A Goddamn Massive Directory Zine Distros, stores and libraries
• Zinetrade.net
• ZineWiki.com an independent wiki for zines and zinesters

Donate to Wikimedia