Zine

A zine (an abbreviation of the word "fanzine," or magazine; pronounced|ziːn, "zeen") 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 usually reproduced via photocopier on a variety of colored paper stock.

A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 100, 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 and 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 prominence or professional status and have found wide bookstore and online distribution. Highly notable among these are "Giant Robot", "Dazed & Confused", "Bust", "Fever Zine" 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 "pulp" SF magazines became increasingly frustrated with letters detailing the impossibilities of their science fiction stories. Over time they began to publish these overly-scrutinizing letters, complete with their return addresses. This caused these fans to begin writing to each other, now complete with a mailing list for their own science fiction fanzines.

Fanzines enabled fans to write not only about science fiction but about fandom itself and, in soi dissant perzine (i.e. "per"sonal "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 as in the literature that inspired it.

The punk zines emerged as part of the punk movement in the late 1970s. These started in the UK and the U.S.A. and by March 1977 had spread to other countries such as Ireland. [cite web|url=http://www.loserdomzine.com/earlyirishfanzines.htm|title=Early Irish fanzines|publisher=Loserdomzine.com|accessdate=2007-08-16] 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.

Zines faded from public awareness in the late 1990s. It can be argued that this was the natural course of a declining fad, though it can also be stated with some justification that the sudden growth of the internet, and the ability of private web-pages to fulfill much the same role of personal expression, was a stronger contributor to their pop culture expiration. Indeed, many zines were transformed into websites, such as Boingboing.

After 1997, now out of the limelight, zines have been adopted by those particularly attached to the print medium; for artistic expressions not replicable 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 and circulation

Zines are sold through many different outlets, from zine symposiums and publishing fairs to record stores, book stores, at concerts, independent media outlets, zine 'distros' and via mail order. They are also sold online either via websites or social networking profiles.

Zines which are distributed for free are either traded directly between zinesters or given away at the outlets mentioned.

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 [http://www.lastgasp.com/ Last Gasp] in San Francisco, [http://parcellpress.com/ Parcell Press] in Richmond, VA, Microcosm Publishing in Bloomington, IN, [http://www.loopdistro.com/ Loop Distro] in Chicago, [http://greatworm.ca Great Worm Express Distribution] in Toronto, and in the UK [http://www.caferoyal.org Café Royal zines + underground press] , [http://www.allthatglitters.co.uk All That Glitters] in Nottingham, and [http://corndog.co.uk/zine-distro/ CornDog Publishing] in Ipswich. 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 bookstores stock zines. Notable examples include [http://www.caferoyal.org Cafe Royal] in the UK; [http://www.platform.org.au/sticky/door.html Sticky] in Melbourne; Reading Frenzy and Powell's in Portland; 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; Civic Media Center in Gainesville, FL; [http://www.bluestockings.com/ Bluestockings] in NYC; Five in Charleston, SC; Brian MacKenzie Infoshop in Washington, DC; and Book Beat & Co. in Oklahoma City, OK.

Libraries

A number of major public and academic libraries carry zines and other small press publications, often with a specific focus (e.g. women's studies) or those that are relevant to a local region.

Notable U.S.A. public and academic library zine collections include:
* the Salt Lake City Public Library, Multnomah County Library in Portland
* the San Francisco Public Library
* the [http://www.ypsilibrary.org Ypsilanti District Library] in Michigan
* [http://barnard.edu/library/zines Barnard College Library]
* [http://www.lib.depaul.edu/speccoll/guides/upc.htm DePaul University library]
* The original Factsheet Five collection at the New York State Library in Albany, New York [http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/]
* The Sarah Dyer Collection at [http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/zines/collections.html Duke University]
* The [http://infodome.sdsu.edu/about/depts/spcollections/collections/zinesfindingaid.shtml West Coast Zine Collection] at the San Diego State University Library

The U.S.A. also has a number of libraries devoted entirely to zine production and/or archiving, including:
*the [http://www.abcnorio.org/facilities/zine_library.html ABC No Rio Zine Library] in New York
*the Chicago Underground Library
*the [http://www.denverzinelibrary.org/ Denver Zine Library]
*the [http://www.hugohouse.org/events/zapp/ Zine Archive and Publishing Project] in Seattle, Washington
*the Papercut Zine Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts
*the [http://www.iprc.org/ Independent Publishing Resource Center] , a Portland, Oregon zine library and resource for writing and distributing zines.

In the UK a special collection is held at the [http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/thewomenslibrary/searchthecollections/printed-collections/zines/ London Met Women's Library] .

In Canada, there is:
* [http://bibliograph.ca/ Bibliograph/e] in Montréal
* the [http://www.sitekreator.com/zinelibrary Toronto Zine Library] (Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Ave. Toronto, ON)
* the Welland Zine Library (11 Ascot Ct., Welland Ontario, Canada, L3C 6K7)
* the [http://anchor.revolt.org/library.html Anchor Archive Zine Library] (5684 Roberts Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
* the Hamilton Zine Library (27 King William St Hamilton Ontario)

In Australia there is:
* the Copy & Destroy zine library in Brisbane at the [http://www.visible-ink.org/ Visible Ink] Valley space
* the [http://www.octapod.org/ Octapod Association Zine Library] in Newcastle
* the [http://www.nla.gov.au/collect/s-clarke.html Susan Smith-Clarke Fanzine Collection] at the [http://www.nla.gov.au National Library of Australia] in Canberra
* the [http://www.slv.vic.gov.au State Library of Victoria] zine collection in Melbourne
* the [http://www.library.act.gov.au/find/history ACT Heritage Library] zine collection in Canberra

Zine events

In Canada, there is:
* [http://brokenpencil.com/canzine/index.php Canzine] in Toronto and Vancouver, the largest annual Canadian zine event, organised by the publishers of [http://brokenpencil.com Broken Pencil] .
* [http://www.expozine.archivemontreal.org/ Expozine] held annually in Montréal
* [http://www.lerendezvous.org] Le Rendez-vous des publications parallèles -Québec city
* [http://www.edmontonsmallpress.org/non2005.html North of Nowhere (NoN) Expo] in Edmonton.

In the United Kingdom, there are:
* The [http://www.londonzinesymposium.org.uk London Zine Symposium] .
* The [http://www.manchesterzinefest.org.uk Manchester Zine Fest] .
* Publish And Be Damned

In Australia there is:
* The biannual [http://stickyinstitute.com/vault/vault.html Festival of the Photocopier] , run by the Sticky Institute, in Melbourne in February.
* The [http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/ Emerging Writers' Festival's] annual Independent Press and Zine Fair held each May in Melbourne, which is an offshoot of [http://www.expressmedia.org.au/ Express Media] 's Make It Up zine fair.
* The [http://www.youngwritersfestival.org/ National Young Writers' Festival's] annual Sunday Artists' Market & Zine Fair] , part of the This is Not Art festival in Newcastle, NSW.
* The [http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au Adelaide Fringe Festival zine fair] held every March.
* The [http://www.actwriters.org.au/ACT Writers' Festival zine fair] each June

In Germany there is:
* The [http://zinefestmh.wordpress.com/ Zinefest Mülheim] in Mülheim an der Ruhr

In the United States, there is:
*The [http://www.24hourzines.com/ 24 Hour Zine Thing]
*The [http://www.zine-a-polooza.info/ Zine-A-Palooza]
*The [http://www.phillyzinefest.com/ Philly Zine Fest]
*The [http://www.sfzinefest.com/ San Francisco Zine Festival] .
*The [http://www.comic-con.org/ape/index.shtml Alternative Press Expo] in San Francisco, California.
*The [http://www.pdxzines.com/ Portland Zine Symposium] in Portland, Oregon.
*The [http://alliedmediaconference.org/node/ Allied Media Conference] in Bowling Green, Ohio.
*The [http://www.bostonzinefair.org/ Boston Zine Fair] , formerly known as Beantown Zinetown.
*The [http://madisonzinefest.org/ Madison Zine Fest] in Madison, Wisconsin.
*The NJ Zine Fest in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
* Ephemera Festival in Chicago [http://indigozine.com/ Ephemera Festival]

In France there is:
*The [http://explozine.propagande.org/ Explosion du Zine] in Toulouse

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.

Set in the 80s and 90s zine heyday, "Walking Man" by Tim W. Brown is a comic novel written in the form of a scandalous tell-all biography that portrays the life and times of Brian Walker, publisher of the zine "Walking Man", who rises from humble origins to become the most famous zinester in America.

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 about action sports.

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

ee 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
* [http://www.ayunhalliday.com/inky/ The East Village Inky]
*Chapbook
*Comics
*Underground comix
*Artist's book
* LMGSOT, located in Los Angeles, Ca, is an independent magzine that focuses on Celebrity Gossip, Music and Fashion Trends, founded by two anonymous teenagers in 2007.

Books and Films about zines

*Bartel, Julie. "From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library". American Library Association, 2004.
*Biel, Joe "A hundred dollars and a T-shirt: A Documentary About Zines in Portland". Microcosm Publishing, 2004, 2005, 2008 (Video)
*Brent, Bill "Make a Zine". Microcosm Publishing, 1999, 2008
*Brown, Tim W. "Walking Man, A Novel". Bronx River Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9789847-0-0
*Duncombe, Stephen. "Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture". Microcosm Publishing, 1997, 2008. 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
*samproof [http://revver.com/video/417265/diy-how-to-make-a-zine-paper-scissors-pen-rockin/ DIY Video]

References

External links

* [http://www.americannonfiction.com American NonFiction A Binary Zine for the Written Revolution.]
* [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.zines alt.zines Usenet Newsgroup]
* [http://www.northwestzineworks.com/ North West Zine Works Zine reviews and distro, also contact information for the zine community at large]
* [http://www.undergroundpress.org/infoshops.html Zine (zeen) listing]
* [http://www.undergroundpress.org Zine World] (review zine)
* [http://www.diysearch.com DIYSearch] * search engine and community for the DIY underground with numerous zine listings