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A fanzine (
blend A blend is a mixture of two or more different things or substances; e.g., a product of a mixer or blender. Blend Blend may also refer to: * Blend word, a word formed from parts of other words * ''Blend'' (album), a 1996 album by BoDeans * Bl ...
of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-
zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to writ ...
'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by
enthusiasts In modern usage, enthusiasm refers to intense enjoyment, interest, or approval expressed by a person. The term is related to playfulness, inventiveness, optimism and high energy. The word was originally used to refer to a person possessed by Go ...
of a particular cultural
phenomenon A phenomenon ( : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried W ...
(such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940
science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...
by
Russ Chauvenet Louis Russell Chauvenet (February 12, 1920 – June 24, 2003) was a champion chess player and one of the founders of science fiction fandom. Biography Chess Chauvenet was the U.S. Amateur Champion in 1959, as well as state champion for Virginia i ...
and first popularized within
science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
, and from there the term was adopted by other communities. Typically, publishers, editors, writers and other contributors of
articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...
or
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
s to fanzines are not paid. Fanzines are traditionally circulated free of charge, or for a nominal cost to defray postage or production expenses. Copies are often offered in exchange for similar publications, or for contributions of art, articles, or letters of comment (LoCs), which are then published. Some fanzines are typed and photocopied by amateurs using standard home office equipment. A few fanzines have developed into professional publications (sometimes known as "prozines"), and many professional writers were first published in fanzines; some continue to contribute to them after establishing a professional reputation. The term fanzine is sometimes confused with "
fan magazine A fan magazine is a commercially written and published magazine intended for the amusement of fans of the popular culture subject matter which it covers. It is distinguished from a scholarly, literary or trade magazine on the one hand, by the targ ...
", but the latter term most often refers to commercially produced publications ''for'' (rather than ''by'') fans.


Origin

The origins of amateur
fanac Fanac is a fan slang term (from fannish activities) for activities within the realm of science fiction fandom, and occasionally used in media fandom. Bloch, Robert. "Some of My Best Fans Are Friends." ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', ...
"fan" publications are obscure, but can be traced at least back to 19th century literary groups in the United States which formed
amateur press association An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group. History The first APAs were formed by groups of amateur pr ...
s to publish collections of amateur fiction, poetry, and commentary, such as H. P. Lovecraft's ''United Amateur''. As professional printing technology progressed, so did the technology of fanzines. Early fanzines were hand-drafted or typed on a manual typewriter and printed using primitive reproduction techniques (e.g., the
spirit duplicator A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the r ...
or even the
hectograph The hectograph, gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process that involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame. While the original use of the technolo ...
). Only a very small number of copies could be made at a time, so circulation was extremely limited. The use of
mimeograph machine A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...
s enabled greater press runs, and the photocopier increased the speed and ease of publishing once more. Today, thanks to the advent of
desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
and self-publication, there is often little difference between the appearance of a fanzine and a professional magazine.


Genres


Science fiction

When
Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...
published the first
science fiction magazine A science fiction magazine is a publication that offers primarily science fiction, either in a hard-copy periodical format or on the Internet. Science fiction magazines traditionally featured speculative fiction in short story, novelette, nov ...
, ''
Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
'' in 1926, he allowed for a large letter column which printed reader's addresses. By 1927 readers, often young adults, would write to each other, bypassing the magazine. Science fiction fanzines had their beginnings in Serious & Constructive (later shortened to
sercon In science fiction, sercon is "serious and constructive" criticism, often published as science fiction fanzines. The term was originally coined in the 1950s by Canadian fan Boyd Raeburn as a pejorative to mock those fans who took science fiction, i ...
) correspondence. The fans would start up clubs to ease finding others with their same interests. Gernsback founded the Science Fiction League in 1934, where these clubs could advertise for more users. The first science fiction fanzine, '' The Comet'', was published in 1930 by the
Science Correspondence Club Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
in Chicago and edited by
Raymond A. Palmer Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and editor, best known as editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit '' Fate Magazine'', and eve ...
and Walter Dennis. The term "fanzine" was coined by
Russ Chauvenet Louis Russell Chauvenet (February 12, 1920 – June 24, 2003) was a champion chess player and one of the founders of science fiction fandom. Biography Chess Chauvenet was the U.S. Amateur Champion in 1959, as well as state champion for Virginia i ...
in the October 1940 edition of his fanzine ''Detours''. "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines," (a term Chauvenet also invented): that is, all professional magazines. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags". Science fiction fanzines used a variety of printing methods. Typewriters, school dittos, church mimeos and (if they could afford it) multi-color letterpress or other mid-to-high level printing. Some fans wanted their news spread, others reveled in the artistry and beauty of fine printing. The
hectograph The hectograph, gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process that involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame. While the original use of the technolo ...
, introduced around 1876, was so named because it could produce (in theory) up to a hundred copies. Hecto used an
aniline Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6 H5 NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine In organic chemistry, an aromatic amine is an organic compound consisting of an aroma ...
dye, transferred to a tray of gelatin, and paper would be placed on the gel, one sheet at a time, for transfer. Messy and smelly, the process could create vibrant colors for the few copies produced, the easiest aniline dye to make being purple (technically
indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
). The next small but significant technological step after hectography is the
spirit duplicator A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine in the UK, Gestetner machine in Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the r ...
, essentially the hectography process using a drum instead of the gelatin. Introduced by
Ditto Corporation DITTO is a company that sells software that aids eyewear companies sell their products online using virtual fitting. Originally DITTO was a retailer that sold designer prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. The company is based in San Francisco, ...
in 1923, these machines were known for the next six decades as Ditto Machines and used by fans because they were cheap to use and could (with a little effort) print in color. The
mimeograph A mimeograph machine (often abbreviated to mimeo, sometimes called a stencil duplicator) is a low-cost duplicating machine that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. The process is called mimeography, and a copy made by the pro ...
machine, which forced ink through a wax paper stencil cut by the keys of a typewriter, was the standard for many decades. A second-hand mimeo could print hundreds of copies and (with more than a little effort) print in color. The
electronic stencil cutter Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...
(shortened to "electrostencil" by most) could add photographs and illustrations to a mimeo stencil. A mimeo'd zine could look terrible or look beautiful, depending more on the skill of the mimeo operator than the quality of the equipment. Only a few fans could afford more professional printers, or the time it took them to print, until photocopying became cheap and ubiquitous in the 1970s. With the advent of computer printers and desktop publishing in the 1980s, fanzines began to look far more professional. The rise of the internet made correspondence cheaper and ''much'' faster, and the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
has made publishing a fanzine as simple as coding a web page. New technology brought various print style innovations. For example, there were alphanumeric contractions which are actually precursors to " leetspeak'. (A well-known example is the "initials" used by
Forrest J. Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a pr ...
in his fanzines from the 30s, and 40s, namely "4sj". Fans around the world knew Ackerman by three letters "4sj" or even two: "4e" for "Forry.")
Fanspeak Fanspeak is the slang or jargon current in science fiction and fantasy fandom, especially those terms in use among readers and writers of science fiction fanzines. Fanspeak is made up of acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, puns, coinages ...
is rich with abbreviations and concatenations. Where teenagers labored to save typing on ditto masters, they now save keystrokes when text messaging. Ackerman invented nonstoparagraphing as a space-saving measure. When the typist comes to the end of a paragraph, they simply moved the platen down one line. Never commercial enterprises, most
science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...
s were (and many still are) available for "the usual," a sample issue will be mailed on request. To receive further issues, a reader sends a "letter of comment" (LoC) about the fanzine to the editor. The LoC might be published in the next issue; some fanzines consisted almost exclusively of letter columns, where discussions were conducted in much the same way as they are in internet
newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...
s and
mailing list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...
s today, though at a relatively glacial pace. Often fanzine editors ("faneds") would simply swap issues with each other, not worrying too much about matching trade for trade, somewhat like being on one another's
friends list A contact list is a collection of screen names. It is a commonplace feature of instant messaging, Email clients, online games and mobile phones. It has various trademarked and proprietary names in different contexts. Contacts lists' windows sh ...
. Without being closely connected with the rest of fandom, a budding faned could read fanzine reviews in prozines, and fanzines reviewed other fanzines. Recent technology has changed the speed of communication between fans and the technology available, but the basic concepts developed by science fiction fanzines in the 1930s can be seen online today. Blogs – with their threaded comments, personalized illustrations, shorthand in-jokes, wide variety in quality and wider variety of content—follow the structure developed in science fiction fanzines, without (usually) realizing the antecedent. Since 1937, science fiction fans have formed
amateur press association An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group. History The first APAs were formed by groups of amateur pr ...
s (APAs); the members contribute to a collective assemblage or bundle that contains contributions from all of them, called apazines and often containing mailing comments. Some APAs are still active, and some are published as virtual "e-zines," distributed on the Internet. Specific
Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
s are given for
fanzines A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
, fan writing and
fanart Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to ...
.


Media

Media fanzines were originally merely a subgenre of SF fanzines, written by science fiction fans already familiar with apazines. The first media fanzine was a ''
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' fan publication called ''
Spockanalia Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is Fiction, fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by Fan (person), fans, unauthorized by, but derivative work, based on an existing work of fiction. Copyright ...
'', published in September 1967 by members of the Lunarians. They hoped that fanzines such as ''Spockanalia'' would be recognized by the broader science-fiction fan community in traditional ways, such as a
Hugo Award for Best Fanzine The Hugo Award for Best Fanzine is given each year for non professionally edited magazines, or "fanzines", related to science fiction or fantasy which has published four or more issues with at least one issue appearing in the previous calendar y ...
. All five of its issues were published while the show was still on the air, and included letters from
D. C. Fontana Dorothy Catherine Fontana (March 25, 1939 – December 2, 2019) was an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original '' Star Trek'' franchise and several Western television series. After a shor ...
,
Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and ''Sta ...
, and most of the cast members, and an article by future Hugo and Nebula winner
Lois McMaster Bujold Lois McMaster Bujold ( ; born November 2, 1949) is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record (not counting his Retro Hugos). Her no ...
. Many other Star Trek 'zines followed, then slowly zines appeared for other media sources, such as ''
Starsky and Hutch ''Starsky & Hutch'' is an American action television series, which consisted of a 72-minute pilot movie (originally aired as a ''Movie of the Week'' entry) and 92 episodes of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William Blinn (inspired by th ...
'', ''
Man from U.N.C.L.E. ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by MGM Television, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who wo ...
'' and ''
Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' (sometimes styled ''Blakes7'') is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four 13-episode series were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first ...
''. By the mid-1970s, there were enough media zines being published that adzines existed just to advertise all of the other zines available. Although ''Spockanalia'' had a mix of stories and essays, most zines were all fiction. Like SF fanzines, these media zines spanned the gamut of publishing quality from
digest-sized Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printin ...
mimeos to offset printed masterpieces with four-color covers. Men wrote and edited most previous science fiction fanzines, which typically published articles reporting on trips to conventions, and reviews of books and other fanzines. Camille Bacon-Smith later stated that "One thing you almost never find in a science fiction fanzine is science fiction. Rather ... fanzines were the social glue that created a community out of a worldwide scattering of readers." Women published most media fanzines, which by contrast also included
fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...
. By doing so, they "fill the need of a mostly female audience for fictional narratives that expand the boundary of the official source products offered on the television and movie screen." In addition to long and short stories, as well as poetry, many media fanzines included illustrated stories, as well as stand alone art, often featuring portraits of the show or film's principal characters. The art could range from simple sketches, to reproductions of large elaborate works painted in oil or acrylic, though most are created in ink. In the late 1970s, fiction that included a sexual relationship between two of the male characters of the media source (first
Kirk/Spock Kirk/Spock, commonly abbreviated as K/S or Spirk and referring to James T. Kirk and Spock from ''Star Trek'', is a pairing popular in slash fiction, possibly the first slash pairing, according to Henry Jenkins, an early slash fiction scholar. Ea ...
, then later Starsky/Hutch, Napoleon/Illya, and many others) started to appear in zines. These became known as
slash fiction Slash fiction (also known as "m/m slash") is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex.Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Spock Among the Women." New York Times Sunday Book Review, ...
from the '/' mark used in adzines. The slash help to differentiate a K&S story (which would have been a Kirk and Spock friendship story) from a K/S story, which would have been one with a romantic or sexual bent between the characters. Slash zines eventually had their own subgenres, such as
Femslash Femslash (also known as "f/f slash", "f/f", "femmeslash", "altfic" and "sapphic") is a subgenre of slash fan fiction which focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between female fictional characters. Characteristics Typically, chara ...
. By 2000, when web publishing of stories became more popular than zine publishing, thousands of media fanzines had been published; over 500 of them were k/s zines. Another popular franchise for fanzines was the "
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
" saga. By the time the film "
The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...
" was released in 1980, Star Wars fanzines had surpassed Star Trek zines in sales. An unfortunate episode in fanzine history occurred in 1981 when Star Wars director
George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...
threatened to sue fanzine publishers who distributed zines featuring the Star Wars characters in sexually explicit stories or art. Comics were mentioned and discussed as early as the late 1930s in the
fanzines A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
of
science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
. Famously, the first version of
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
(a bald-headed villain) appeared in the third issue of
Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...
and
Joe Shuster Joseph Shuster (; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992), professionally known simply as Joe Shuster, was a Canadian-American comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with Jerry Siegel, in ''Action Comics'' #1 (c ...
's 1933 fanzine ''Science Fiction''. In 1936,
David Kyle David A. Kyle (February 14, 1919 – September 18, 2016) was an American science fiction writer and member of science fiction fandom. Professional career Kyle served as a reporter in the Air Force Reserves with the rank of lieutenant colonel, ...
published '' The Fantasy World '', possibly the first comics fanzine. Malcolm Willits and Jim Bradley started '' The Comic Collector's News'' in October 1947. By 1952, Ted White had mimeographed a four-page pamphlet about
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
, and James Vincent Taurasi, Sr. issued the short-lived ''Fantasy Comics''. In 1953,
Bhob Stewart Robert Marion Stewart, known as Bhob Stewart (November 12, 1937 – February 24, 2014) was an American writer, editor, cartoonist, filmmaker, and active fan who contributed to a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles a ...
published ''The EC Fan Bulletin'', which launched EC fandom of imitative EC fanzines. A few months later, Stewart, White, and
Larry Stark Larry Stark (born August 4, 1932 in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is an American journalist and reviewer best known for his in-depth coverage of the Boston theater scene at his website, Theater Mirror. In newspapers and online, Stark has written hundr ...
produced ''Potrzebie'', planned as a literary journal of critical commentary about EC by Stark. Among the wave of EC fanzines that followed, the best-known was
Ron Parker Ron Parker (born August 17, 1987) is a former American football free safety. He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2011. He had also played for the Oakland Raiders, the Carolina Panthers, had a brief stint with the ...
's ''Hoo-Hah!''. After that came fanzines by the followers of
Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...
's '' Mad'', ''
Trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...
'' and ''
Humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclama ...
''. Publishers of these included future
underground comics Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
stars like
Jay Lynch Jay Patrick Lynch (January 7, 1945 – March 5, 2017) was an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his ''Bijou Funnies'' and other titles. He is best known for his comic strip ''Nard n' Pat'' and the r ...
and
Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...
. In 1960, Richard and Pat Lupoff launched their
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
and comics fanzine '' Xero''. In the second issue, "The Spawn of M.C. Gaines'" by Ted White was the first in a series of nostalgic, analytical articles about comics by Lupoff, Don Thompson,
Bill Blackbeard William Elsworth Blackbeard (April 28, 1926 – March 10, 2011), better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art fr ...
,
Jim Harmon James Judson Harmon (21 April 1933 – 16 February 2010), better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Gre ...
and others under the heading, ''All in Color for a Dime.'' In 1961,
Jerry Bails Jerry Gwin Bails (June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006) was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom," he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primar ...
' ''
Alter Ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...
'', devoted to costumed heroes, became a focal point for superhero comics fandom and is thus sometimes mistakenly cited as the first comics fanzine. Contacts through these magazines were instrumental in creating the culture of modern
comics fandom a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
: conventions, collecting, etc. Much of this, like comics fandom itself, began as part of standard
science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expres ...
s, but comics fans have developed their own traditions. Comics fanzines often include fan artwork based on existing characters as well as discussion of the history of comics. Through the 1960s, and 1970s, comic fanzines followed some general formats, such as the industry news and information magazine (''
The Comic Reader ''The Comic Reader'' (''TCR'') was a comics news-fanzine published from 1961 to 1984. Debuting in the pre-direct market era (before the proliferation of comics retailers), ''TCR'' was the first regularly published comics industry news fanzine, and ...
'' was one example), interview, history, and review-based fanzines, and the fanzines which basically represented independent comic book-format exercises. While perceived quality varied widely, the energy and enthusiasm involved tended to be communicated clearly to the readership, many of whom were also fanzine contributors. Prominent comics zines of this period included ''Alter Ego'', ''
The Comic Reader ''The Comic Reader'' (''TCR'') was a comics news-fanzine published from 1961 to 1984. Debuting in the pre-direct market era (before the proliferation of comics retailers), ''TCR'' was the first regularly published comics industry news fanzine, and ...
'', and ''
Rocket's Blast Comicollector ''Rocket's Blast Comicollector'' (''RBCC'') was a comics advertising fanzine published from 1964 to 1983. The result of a merger with a similar publication, ''RBCCs purpose was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book c ...
'', all started by
Jerry Bails Jerry Gwin Bails (June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006) was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom," he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primar ...
. During the 1970s, many fanzines (''
Squa Tront The English word ''squaw'' is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered derogatory, misogynist, and racist.King, C. Richard,De/Scri ...
'', as an example) also became partly distributed through certain comic book distributors. One of the first British comics fanzines was Phil Clarke's ''KA-POW'', launched in 1967. Prominent British comics fanzines of the 1970s and early 1980s included the long-running ''
Fantasy Advertiser ''Fantasy Advertiser'', later abbreviated to ''FA'', was a British fanzine focused on comic books, founded in 1965 by Frank Dobson, the "Godfather of British Fandom."Skinn, Dez"Early days of UK comics conventions and marts," DezSkinn.com. Access ...
'',
Martin Lock Martin Lock (born 1950Willis, Russell"AN INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN LOCK (PART THREE , THE HARRIER COMICS YEARS),"''Under the Stairs'' (2013). Accessed Feb. 8, 2020. in the United Kingdom) is a British comic book critic, writer, and publisher. As pu ...
's '' BEM'',
Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...
's ''
Comic Media News Richard Burton is a British comic publisher and editor who had a lengthy career at IPC Magazines. While an assistant editor at '' 2000 AD'', he became known to readers as Tharg the Mighty's bumbling assistant Burt, who appeared in a number of s ...
'', Alan Austin's ''Comics Unlimited'', George Barnett's ''The Panelologist'',Clarke, Theo. "And then nothing happened: THE ESCAPE INTERVIEW," ''The Comics Journal'' #122 (June 1988), p. 119. and Richard Ashford's '' Speakaeasy''. At times, the professional comics publishers have made overtures to fandom via 'prozines', in this case fanzine-like magazines put out by the major publishers. ''
The Amazing World of DC Comics ''The Amazing World of DC Comics'' was DC Comics' self-produced fan magazine of the mid-1970s. Running 17 issues, the fanzine featured DC characters and their creators, and was exclusively available through mail order. Primarily text articles, with ...
'' and the Marvel magazine ''
FOOM ''FOOM'' was Marvel Comics' self-produced fan magazine of the mid-1970s, following the canceled ''Marvelmania'' and preceding ''Marvel Age''. Running 22 quarterly issues (February 1973 – Fall 1978), it was initially designed and edited by comic ...
'' began and ceased publication in the 1970s. Priced significantly higher than standard comics of the period (''AWODCC'' was $1.50, ''FOOM'' was 75 cents), each house-organ magazine lasted a brief period of years. Since 2001 in Britain, there have been created a number of fanzines pastiching children's comics of the 1970s, and 1980s (e.g. ''
Solar Wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
'', ''Pony School'', etc.). These adopt a style of storytelling rather than specific characters from their sources, usually with a knowing or
ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...
twist.


Horror film

As with comics zines, horror film fanzines grew from related interest within science fiction fan publications. ''Trumpet,'' edited by
Tom Reamy Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...
, was a 1960s SF zine that branched into horror film coverage. Alex Soma's ''Horrors of the Screen,''
Calvin T. Beck Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvin ...
's ''Journal of Frankenstein'' (later ''
Castle of Frankenstein ''Castle of Frankenstein'' was an American horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, published between 1962 and 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company, distributed by Kable News. Larry Ivie—who also was cover art ...
'') and Gary Svehla's ''Gore Creatures'' were the first horror fanzines created as more serious alternatives to the popular
Forrest J Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction authors, science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror ...
1958 magazine ''
Famous Monsters of Filmland ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' is an American genre-specific film magazine, started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman. ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' directly inspired the creation of many other similar publicat ...
.'' ''Gore Creatures'' began in 1961 and continues today as the prozine (and specialty publisher) ''Midnight Marquee.'' ''Garden Ghouls Gazette'' – a 1960s horror title under the editorship of Dave Keil, then Gary Collins—was eventually headed by the late Frederick S. Clarke (1949–2000) and in 1967 became the respected journal ''
Cinefantastique ''Cinefantastique'' is an American horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine. History The magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset printed quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor ...
.'' It later became a prozine under journalist-screenwriter
Mark A. Altman Mark A. Altman is a writer, producer and actor. He is a former Los Angeles bureau chief for Cinefantastique magazine and was also a previous editor in chief of Sci-Fi Universe magazine. He has also been a writer for comic books. Credits Film ...
and has continued as a webzine. Mark Frank's ''Photon''—notable for the inclusion of an 8x10
photo A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now created ...
in each issue—was another 1960s zine that lasted into the 1970s. Richard Klemensen's ''
Little Shoppe of Horrors Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...
'', having a particular focus on "
Hammer Horrors A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...
," began in 1972 and is still publishing as of 2022. The
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
-based ''Black Oracle'' (1969–1978) from writer-turned-
John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...
repertory member George Stover was a diminutive zine that evolved into the larger-format ''Cinemacabre.'' Stover's ''Black Oracle'' partner Bill George published his own short-lived zine ''The Late Show'' (1974–1976; with co-editor Martin Falck), and later became editor of the ''Cinefantastique'' prozine spinoff '' Femme Fatales.'' In the mid-1970s,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
teenager
Sam Irvin Sam Irvin (born June 14, 1956) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, actor, author and film teacher. Irvin's directing credits include '' Guilty as Charged'', ''Oblivion'', ''Elvira's Haunted Hills'', and all the ...
published the horror/science-fiction fanzine ''Bizarre'', which included his original interviews with UK actors and filmmakers; Irvin would later become a producer-director in his own right. ''
Japanese Fantasy Film Journal Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
'' (JFFJ) (1968–1983) from Greg Shoemaker covered
Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...
's ''
Godzilla is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film ''Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films produc ...
'' and his Asian brethren.
Japanese Giants ''Japanese Giants'' was a kaiju (giant monster) fanzine with an emphasis on Japanese monsters, such as Godzilla. History ''Japanese Giants'' was inspired by the fanzine '' Japanese Fantasy Film Journal'' (JFFJ), edited and published by Greg Shoe ...
(JG) was founded by Stephen Mark Rainey in 1974 and was published for 30 years. In 1993, '' G-FAN'' was published, and reached its 100th regularly published issue in Fall 2012. ''FXRH'' (
Special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
by
Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Might ...
) (1971–1976) was a specialized zine co-created by future
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
FX artist Ernest D. Farino.


Rock and roll

By the mid-1960s, several fans active in science fiction and comics fandom recognized a shared interest in rock music, and the rock fanzine was born. Paul Williams and
Greg Shaw Greg Shaw (January 1949 – October 19, 2004) was an American writer, publisher, magazine editor, music historian and record executive. Biography Shaw was born in San Francisco, California. He began writing about rock and roll music as a ...
were two such SF-fans turned rock zine editors. Williams' ''
Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine ...
'' (1966) and Shaw's two California-based zines, ''Mojo Navigator'' (full title, "''Mojo-Navigator Rock and Roll News''") (1966) and '' Who Put the Bomp'', (1970), are among the most important early rock fanzines. ''
Crawdaddy! ''Crawdaddy'' was an American rock music magazine launched in 1966. It was created by Paul Williams, a Swarthmore College student at the time, in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music. The magazine ...
'' (1966) quickly moved from its fanzine roots to become one of the first rock music "prozines," with paid advertisers and newsstand distribution. ''Bomp'' remained a fanzine, featuring many writers who would later become prominent music journalists, including
Lester Bangs Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs (December 14, 1948 – April 30, 1982) was an American music journalist, critic, author, and musician. He wrote for ''Creem'' and ''Rolling Stone'' magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock music c ...
,
Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biography Marcus wa ...
, Ken Barnes, Ed Ward,
Dave Marsh Dave Marsh (born March 1, 1950) is an American music critic, and radio talk show host. He was an early editor of ''Creem'' magazine, has written for various publications such as ''Newsday'', ''The Village Voice'', and ''Rolling Stone (magazine), ...
, Mike Saunders and R. Meltzer. ''Bomp'' featured cover art by Jay Kinney and Bill Rotsler, both veterans of SF and Comics fandom. ''Bomp'' was not alone; an August 1970 issue of ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' included an article about the explosion of rock fanzines. Other rock fanzines of this period include ''
denim delinquent ''Denim Delinquent'' was an underground fanzine of seven issues in total, published from 1971 to 1976. It was the first rock and roll fanzine to come out of Canada. The zine began as a launching pad for the writing of Jymn Parrett and Mark Jones i ...
'' 1971, edited by Jymn Parrett, ''Flash,'' 1972, edited by Mark Shipper, ''Eurock Magazine'' (1973–1993) edited by Archie Patterson and ''Bam Balam,'' written and published by Brian Hogg in East Lothian, Scotland, beginning in 1974, and in the mid-1970s, ''
Back Door Man "Back Door Man" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1960. The lyrics draw on a Southern U.S. cultural term for an extramarital affair. The song is one of several Dixon-Wolf songs that became popular among roc ...
''. In the post-punk era, several well-written fanzines emerged that cast an almost academic look at earlier, neglected musical forms, including Mike Stax' ''
Ugly Things ''Ugly Things'' (''UT'') is a music magazine established in 1983, based in La Mesa, California. The editor is Mike Stax (born 1962 in England). The magazine covers mainly 1960s Beat, garage rock, and psychedelic music ("Wild Sounds From Past D ...
'', Billy Miller and
Miriam Linna Miriam Linna (born October 16, 1955 in Greater Sudbury, Sudbury, Ontario) is a Canadian-American drummer who has run the Brooklyn-based independent record label Norton Records since 1986, originally with her husband, the late producer and sing ...
's ''Kicks'', Jake Austen's '' Roctober'', Kim Cooper's ''
Scram A scram or SCRAM is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor effected by immediately terminating the fission reaction. It is also the name that is given to the manually operated kill switch that initiates the shutdown. In commercial reactor ...
'', P. Edwin Letcher's '' Garage & Beat'', and the UK's
Shindig! ''Shindig!'' is an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles,Misty Lane''. In the 1980s, with the rise of stadium superstars, many home-grown rock fanzines emerged. At the peak of
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
's megastardom following the ''
Born in the U.S.A. ''Born in the U.S.A.'' is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released by Columbia Records on June 4, 1984. It topped the charts in nine countries, including the US and UK, becoming his most commercially su ...
'' album and
Born in the U.S.A. Tour The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's '' Born in the U.S.A.'' album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen; after two years of bodybuil ...
in the mid-1980s, there were no less than five Springsteen fanzines circulating at the same time in the UK alone, and many others elsewhere. Gary Desmond's ''Candy's Room'', coming from Liverpool, was the first in 1980, quickly followed by Dan French's ''Point Blank'', Dave Percival's ''The Fever'', Jeff Matthews' ''Rendezvous'', and Paul Limbrick's ''Jackson Cage''. In the US, ''
Backstreets Magazine ''Backstreets Magazine'' is a published quarterly Bruce Springsteen fanzine that has been covering the music of Springsteen and other Jersey Shore sound artists since 1980. On February 3, 2023, the magazine's publisher and editor-in-chief announced ...
'' started in Seattle in 1980 and still continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website. In the late 1990s, notorious fanzines and e-zines flourished about electronic and
post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
music. ''Crème Brûlée'' fanzine was one of those that documented post-rock genre and experimental music.


Punk


UK

The
punk subculture The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedom ...
in the United Kingdom spearheaded a surge of interest in fanzines as a countercultural alternative to established print media. The first and still best known UK 'punk zine' was ''
Sniffin' Glue ''Sniffin' Glue and Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits...'', widely known as simply ''Sniffin' Glue'', was a monthly punk zine started by Mark Perry in July 1976 and released for about a year. The name is derived from a Ramones song " Now I Wanna Sniff ...
'', produced by
Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...
punk fan Mark Perry. ''Sniffin' Glue'' ran for 12 photocopied issues; the first issue was produced by Perry immediately following (and in response to) the London debut of
The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
on 4 July 1976. Other UK fanzines included '' Blam!'', ''
Bombsite A bombsite is the wreckage that remains after a bomb has destroyed a building or other structure. World War II bombsites After World War II many European cities remained severely damaged from bombing. London and other British cities which had su ...
'', ''Wool City Rocker'', ''Burnt Offering'', ''Sideburns'', ''
Chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, ...
'', '' New Crimes'', ''
Vague In linguistics and philosophy, a vague predicate is one which gives rise to borderline cases. For example, the English adjective "tall" is vague since it is not clearly true or false for someone of middling height. By contrast, the word "prime" i ...
'', '' Jamming'',
Artcore Fanzine ''Artcore Fanzine'' is a punk zine first published in January 1986, covering punk and hardcore music based out of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Br ...
, ''
Love and Molotov Cocktails Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
'', '' To Hell With Poverty'', ''
New Youth ''New Youth'' (french: La Jeunesse, lit=The Youth; ) was a Chinese literary magazine founded by Chen Duxiu and published between 1915 and 1926. It strongly influenced both the New Culture Movement and the later May Fourth Movement. Publishi ...
'', ''
Peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of compounds with the structure , where R = any element. The group in a peroxide is called the peroxide group or peroxo group. The nomenclature is somewhat variable. The most common peroxide is hydrogen p ...
'', ''
ENZK ''ENZK'' was a punk rock, punk and hardcore punk, hardcore fanzine from Scotland. 10 issues have been published to date. It was based on DIY ethics and non profit, low cost ideals. It was written by Graham Enzk and the first issue was published in ...
'', ''
Juniper beri-beri Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...
'', ''
No Cure ''No Cure'' was a fanzine based in Bracknell and Newbury, UK. Originally started by Richard Haworth, from issue 2 it was part-edited and produced by Richard Griffin and Richard H with regular contributions from Jah P. The fanzine took a major ...
'', ''
Communication Blur Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
'', '' Rox'', '' Grim Humour'', ''
Spuno ''Spuno'' was a punk fanzine, bizarrely subtitled Dressing Gown News after a song by local band Identity Crisis, based in Bath, UK. Edited and produced by Mark Price (AKA Eric Normal) & Marcus Pennington, it ran to 3 issues in 1980. The Spuno lo ...
'', ''
Cool Notes Cool commonly refers to: * Cool, a moderately low temperature * Cool (aesthetic), an aesthetic of attitude, behavior, and style Cool or COOL may also refer to: Economics * Country of origin labelling * mCOOL - US consumer legislation to enforc ...
'' and '' Fumes''. Of these, Tony Fletcher's ''Jamming'' was the most far reaching, becoming a nationally distributed mainstream magazine for several years before its demise.


US

In the US, '' Flipside'' and ''
Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...
'' were important punk zines for the Los Angeles scene, both debuting in 1977. In 1977 in Australia,
Bruce Milne Bruce Milne (born 1957) is an Australian radio presenter and music journalist. He co-founded Au-Go-Go Records and the cassette magazine ''Fast Forward'', and was owner of The Tote Hotel. Career Milne began his career in the 1970s hosting musi ...
and
Clinton Walker Clinton Walker is an Australian writer, best known for his works on popular music. He is known for his books ''Highway to Hell'' (1994; a biography of Bon Scott), ''Buried Country'' (2000; also a film and soundtrack album), ''History is Made a ...
fused their respective punk zines ''Plastered Press'' and ''Suicide Alley'' to launch ''Pulp''; Milne later went on to invent the cassette zine with ''Fast Forward'', in 1980. Starting earlier, in 1976, ''
Punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
'' was published in New York and played a major part in popularizing punk rock (a term coined a few years earlier in ''
Creem ''Creem'' (often stylized in all caps) is a monthly American music magazine, based in Detroit, whose main print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential criti ...
'') as the term for the music and the bands being written about. Among later titles, ''
Maximum RocknRoll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily featur ...
'' is a major punk zine, with over 300 issues published. As a result, in part, of the popular and commercial resurgence of punk in the late 1980s, and after, with the growing popularity of such bands as
Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
,
Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
,
Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-tr ...
,
Bikini Kill Bikini Kill is an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington, in October 1990. The group consisted of singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band pioneered the ...
,
Green Day Green Day is an American rock band formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt. For most of the band's career, they have been a powe ...
and
The Offspring The Offspring is an American rock band from Garden Grove, California, formed in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland, lead guita ...
, a number of other punk zines have appeared, such as ''
Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music ...
'', ''
Razorcake Razorcake is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that publishes the Razorcake fanzine, a DIY punk rock fanzine published bi-monthly out of Los Angeles, California. It was co-founded by Todd Taylor (former Flipside managing editor) and Sean Cars ...
'', '' Tail Spins'', ''
Sobriquet A sobriquet ( ), or soubriquet, is a nickname, sometimes assumed, but often given by another, that is descriptive. A sobriquet is distinct from a pseudonym, as it is typically a familiar name used in place of a real name, without the need of expla ...
'', ''
Profane Existence Profane Existence is a Minneapolis-based anarcho-punk collective. Established in 1989, the collective publishes a nationally known punk zine, zine (also called ''Profane Existence''), as well as releasing and distributing anarcho-punk, crust punk, ...
'' and ''
Slug and Lettuce Slug and Lettuce is a chain of bars that operate in the United Kingdom, with a large number located in London and South East England. As of 2017, there are a total of 70 outlets. Hugh Corbett opened the first Slug and Lettuce in Islington in ...
''. The early American punkzine ''
Search and Destroy Search and destroy, seek and destroy, or simply S&D is a military strategy best known for its employment in the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. The strategy consists of inserting ground forces into hostile territory, ''search''ing out ...
'' eventually became the influential fringe-cultural magazine ''
Re/Search RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded by its editor V. Vale in 1980. In several issues, Andrea Juno was also credited as an editor. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanz ...
''. Some punk fanzines from the 80s, like No Class fanzine, and Ugly American are experiencing a second life by placing all past content online for free and adding new content. For the past 6 years, Suburban Rebels in Northern California has been leading the Punk zine way. Many of the punk zines were printed in small quantities and promoted the local scene. They were often cheaply photocopied and many never survived beyond a few issues. Their greatest contribution was in promoting punk music, clothing and lifestyle in their local communities. Punk bands and independent labels often sent records to the zines for review and many of the people who started the zines became critical connections for punk bands on tour.


After the year 2000

In the UK ''
Fracture Fracture is the separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity surfaces within the solid. If a displa ...
'' and ''
Reason To Believe "Reason to Believe" is a song written, composed, and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965. It has since been recorded by artists including Bobby Darin in 1966, Karen Dalton also in 1966, Glen Campbell in 1968, the Nitty Gritty ...
'' were significant fanzines in the early 2000s, but both ended in late 2003. ''
Rancid News ''Last Hours'' (known as ''Rancid News'' prior to 2005) is an anti-authoritarian publishing collective. From 2003 to 2008 it produced a fanzine, initially called ''Rancid News'' until issue 9, changing its name to ''Last Hours'' from issue 10 till ...
'' filled the gap left by these two zines for a short while. On its tenth issue ''Rancid News'' changed its name to ''
Last Hours ''Last Hours'' (known as ''Rancid News'' prior to 2005) is an anti-authoritarian publishing collective. From 2003 to 2008 it produced a fanzine, initially called ''Rancid News'' until issue 9, changing its name to ''Last Hours'' from issue 10 till ...
'' with 7 issues published under this title before going on hiatus. ''Last Hours'' still operates as a
webzine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
though with more focus on the anti-authoritarian movement than its original title. ''
Artcore Fanzine ''Artcore Fanzine'' is a punk zine first published in January 1986, covering punk and hardcore music based out of the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Br ...
'' (established in 1986) continues to this day, recently publishing a number of 30-year anniversary issues. There are many smaller fanzines in existence throughout the UK that focus on punk.


=Mark Wilkins and Mystic records

= Mark Wilkins, the promotion director for 1982 onwards US punk/thrash label
Mystic Records Mystic Records is an American record label and music production company specializing in hardcore punk, crossover thrash, underground music, vintage and cult records. It is owned and operated by Doug Moody. The label was first established in Hollywo ...
, had over 450 US fanzines and 150 foreign fanzines he promoted to regularly. He and Mystic Records owner Doug Moody edited ''The Mystic News Newsletter'' which was published quarterly and went into every promo package to fanzines. Wilkins also published the highly successful Los Angeles punk humor zine ''Wild Times'' and when he ran out of funding for the zine syndicated some of the humorous material to over 100 US fanzines under the name of Mystic Mark.


Italy

In
Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...
, Italy, ''Mazquerade'' ran from 1979 to 1981. In
Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...
, Italy, ''Raw Art Fanzine'' ran from 1995 to 2000. In
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Italy, ''Gorezilla'' ran from 1988 to 1991.


Mod

In the United Kingdom, the 1979
Mod revival The mod revival was a subculture that started in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and later spread to other countries (to a lesser degree). The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence lasted for deca ...
, which was inspired by the 1960s
Mod subculture Mod, from the word modernist, is a subculture that began in London and spread throughout Great Britain and elsewhere, eventually influencing fashions and trends in other countries, and continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and ...
, brought with it a burst of fresh creativity from fanzines, and for the next decade, the youth
subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
inspired the production of dozens of independent publications. The most successful of the first wave was ''Maximum Speed'', which successfully captured the frenetic world of a
mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
revival scene that was propelling bands like
Secret Affair Secret Affair are a mod revival band, formed in 1978 and disbanded in 1982 during which period their work is predominantly best-known. They reformed in 2002 and have since then produced an album in 2012. Career Formed after the demise of the ...
, Purple Hearts and
The Chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...
into the UK charts. After the genre had started to go out of fashion with mainstream audiences in 1981, the mod revival scene went underground and successfully reinvented itself through a series of clubs, bands and fanzines that breathed fresh life into the genre, culminating in another burst of creative acceptance in 1985. This success was largely driven by the network of underground fanzines, the most important and far reaching of which were ''Extraordinary Sensations'', produced by future radio DJ
Eddie Piller Eddie Piller is a British DJ, radio show host, and founder/managing director of Acid Jazz Records. Early life and career Piller was born in 1962 and grew up in Essex. His father ran a firm of bookmakers and his mother ran the Small Faces' fa ...
, and ''Shadows & Reflections'', published by future national magazine editor
Chris Hunt Chris Hunt is a British journalist, magazine editor, and author.Chris Hunt intervi ...
. The latter in particular pushed back the boundaries of fanzine production, producing glossy, professionally written and printed publications at a time (1983–86) when most fanzines were produced via photocopier and letraset.


Local music

In the UK, there were also fanzines that covered the local music scene in a particular town or city. Mainly prevalent in the 1970s, and 1980s, all music styles were covered, whether the bands were playing rock, punk, metal, futurist, ska or dance. Featured were local gig reviews and articles that were below the radar of the mainstream music press. They were produced using the technology of the time, i.e. typewriter and
Letraset Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry transfer method. Letraset has been acquired by the Colart group and become part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton. Corporate histor ...
. Examples include ''
Bombsite Fanzine A bombsite is the wreckage that remains after a bomb has destroyed a building or other structure. World War II bombsites After World War II many European cities remained severely damaged from bombing. London and other British cities which had su ...
'' (Liverpool 1977), Wool City Rocker (Bradford 1979 – 1982), ''
City Fun ''City Fun'' was a magazine/fanzine documenting the music scene in Manchester, England between 1977 and 1984 and sold up to 2000 copies per issue via gigs, music stores, and selected news agents across Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds. Th ...
'' (Manchester), 1984, Spuno (Bath 1980) ''
No Cure ''No Cure'' was a fanzine based in Bracknell and Newbury, UK. Originally started by Richard Haworth, from issue 2 it was part-edited and produced by Richard Griffin and Richard H with regular contributions from Jah P. The fanzine took a major ...
'' (Berkshire) and '' Town Hall Steps'' (Bolton) and more recently ''mono'' (fanzine), (Bradford) with many more across the country, such as Premonition Tapes Tapezine on cassette (Sheffield 1987) and Crime Pays (Liverpool 1988).


Role-playing-game fanzines

Another sizable group of fanzines arose in
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
(RPG) fandom, where fanzines allowed people to publish their ideas and views on specific games and their role-playing campaigns. In 1975, was released the apazine ''
Alarums and Excursions ''Alarums and Excursions'' (''A&E'') is an amateur press association (APA) started in June 1975 by Lee Gold; publication continues to the present day. It was one of the first publications to focus solely on role-playing games. History In 1964, B ...
''. Role-playing fanzines allowed people to communicate in the 1970s, and 1980s with complete editorial control in the hands of the players, as opposed to the game publishers. These early RPG fanzines were generally typed, sold mostly in an A5 format (in the UK) and were usually illustrated with abysmal or indifferent artwork. A fanzine community developed and was based on sale to a reading public and exchanges by editor/publishers. Many of the pioneers of RPG got their start in, or remain part of,
science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
. This is also true of the small but still active
board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...
fandom scene, the most prolific subset of which is centered around
play-by-mail A play-by-mail game (also known as a PBM game, PBEM game, or a turn-based game) is a game played through postal mail, email or other digital media. Correspondence chess and Go were among the first PBM games. ''Diplomacy'' has been played by m ...
''
Diplomacy Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
''. The UK fanzine
Aslan Aslan () is a major character in C. S. Lewis's ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series. Unlike any other character, he appears in all seven chronicles of the series. Aslan is depicted as a talking lion, and is described as the King of Beasts, the ...
(1988–1991) was responsible for popularization of
freeform role-playing game Freeform role-playing games, also called freeforms, are a type of role-playing game which employ informal or simplified rule sets, emphasise costume and theatricality, and typically involve large numbers (eight to two hundred and fifty) of player ...
s in the UK.


Video gaming

Video game fanzines first emerged during the second generation period at a time when gaming stores and newsletters for computer
user group A users' group (also user's group or user group) is a type of Club (organization), club focused on the use of a particular technology, usually (but not always) computer-related. Overview Users' groups started in the early days of Mainframe compu ...
s were beginning to become established but had not yet receive significant recognition by purchasers and gamers. The earliest such publication was '' Joystick Jolter''. Other subscriber-based newsletters included '' 8:16'' (UK, all things Atari, 1st issue Nov 1987), '' The Video Game Update'', and later ''
Computer Entertainer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These program ...
''. As desktop publishing tools became more accessible, there was an increase in fanzine production. Fanzines generally emphasized either classic gaming (e.g. '' 2600 Connection'' and '' Classic Systems & Games Monthly''), or current gaming (e.g. ''
APE Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its siste ...
'' and '' The Subversive Sprite''). Less commonly, some fanzines covered both topics (e.g. ''
Digital Press Digital printing is a method of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format ...
'' and '' Joystick & Screen''). The number of zines grew with the development of
video game journalism Video game journalism is a branch of journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of video games, typically based on a core "reveal–preview–review" cycle. With the prevalence and rise of independent media online, online publicat ...
as writers like
Arnie Katz ''Video'' is a discontinued American consumer electronics magazine that was published from 1977 to 1999 by Reese Communications with a focus on video and audio devices. The magazine showcases new audiovisual products, analyzes current practices an ...
and Chris Bieniek used their columns in mainstream magazines like ''
Video Games & Computer Entertainment ''VideoGames & Computer Entertainment'' (abbreviated as ''VG&CE'') was an American magazine dedicated to covering video games on computers, home consoles and arcades. It was published by LFP, Inc. from the late 1980s until the mid-1990s. Offe ...
'', '' EGM'', and ''
Tips & Tricks ''Tips & Tricks'' was a monthly video game magazine devoted to the subjects of video game cheat codes, strategy guides and lifestyle content. Unlike most video game magazines, it did not include critical reviews of video games and was not a prim ...
'', to publish reviews of promising fanzines. These mainstream reviews had the effect of introducing fan editors to each other and of creating a fanzine scene. The popularity of video game fanzines diminished greatly with the rise of the internet, however some zines—particularly the classic gaming ones (e.g. '' Classic Gamer Magazine'' and '' Video Game Collector'')—continued beyond the mid-90s. The rise of "on demand" publishing has led to a new outlet for print zines, like '' Jumpbutton'' and ''
Scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus ...
''. The video game fanzine era was biggest in the US and Canada, but zines are also produced in other countries. Prominent video game fanzines produced in the UK include '' Retrogamer'', '' Pixel Nation'', '' Capcom Fanzine'', ''
Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...
'', and '' Super Famicom Mini Mag'' among others. In France fanzines like '' Revival'' were circulated, and Japan has seen the production of lavish
doujin In Japan, is a group of people who share an interest, activity, or hobby. The word is sometimes translated into English as "clique", "fandom", "coterie", "society", or "circle" (as in "sewing circle"). Self-published creative works produced b ...
works. More recently, there has been a mini-resurgence in video game fanzines, with the launch of '' HyperPlay RPG'' in 2015 and ''
Switch Player ''Switch Player'' is a video gaming magazine that features news and columns regarding the Nintendo Switch, first released in January 2017. The monthly release of the magazine features a print run, as well as a free PDF release. History ''Switch ...
'' in 2017. Based in part on ''Super Play''s focus on role-playing games and "any-bit" Nintendo, ''HyperPlay RPG'' received positive reviews by the mainstream video game media.


Wargaming

Several fanzines exist within the hobby of
wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
. Among them is '' Charge!'', a leading international fanzine exclusively for
miniature wargaming Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use ...
enthusiasts for the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
period. Other fanzines support
Warhammer Warhammer may refer to: * War hammer, a medieval weapon Warhammer media franchise *''Warhammer'', a series of games and related media: ** ''Warhammer'' (game), a table-top fantasy miniature wargame, and origin of the franchise ** ''Warhammer Fan ...
and other popular rules sets.


Sport

The first association football fanzine is regarded as being Foul, a publication that ran between 1972 and 1976. In the UK, most
Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
or
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
clubs have one or more fanzines which supplement, oppose and complement the club's official magazine or matchday programme. A reasonably priced 'zine has a guaranteed audience, as is the culture of passion in being a football fan. The longest running fanzine is '' The City Gent'', produced by supporters of
Bradford City FC Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...
, which first went on sale at Valley Parade in November 1984 and is now in its 26th season. Following close on its heels was Nike, Inc. which was first released in 1989. At the time it was not the first of its kind with ''Terrace Talk'' (York City), which was first published in November 1981 and ''Wanderers Worldwide'' (Bolton Wanderers) having already been established but since disappeared. In 1985 the emergent ''
When Saturday Comes ''When Saturday Comes'' (''WSC'') is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering all the ...
'' (a fanzine without a specific club focus that was subsequently launched as a mainstream magazine) promoted a 'fanzine movement' that gave birth to many more club titles during the late 1980s which was something of a glory period for fanzines. With the widespread availability of the Internet, much of the energy that was put into football fanzines subsequently went into the development of supporters' websites. Examples of other UK football fanzines include ''
A Love Supreme ''A Love Supreme'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Ga ...
'' (
Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
), '' TOOFIF'' (
Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...
), '' The Square Ball'' (
Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
), ''4,000 Holes'' (
Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...
) and '' War of the Monster Trucks'' (a
Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
fanzine named after a local TV station elected not to show the final scenes of an unlikely cup victory). The Queen's Park Rangers fanzine 'A Kick up the Rs' was first published in August 1987 and is still issuing an average of 10 issues per season. Fanzines are not exclusive to the top tiers of football however, with
Northern Counties East League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the football pyramid respectively. History Th ...
side
Scarborough Athletic FC Scarborough Athletic Football Club is an association football club based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. The club was formed on 25 June 2007 as a phoenix club (sports), phoenix club following the winding up of Scarborough F.C., Scarbo ...
having a fanzine titled '' Abandon Chip!'', a pun based on both the perilous situation of predecessor club
Scarborough FC Scarborough Football Club was a association football, football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, w ...
and that club's sponsors, McCain. And also away from the world of Football there were a number of established fanzines, for example
Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
has such notable publications as '' Who The Hell Was St. George Anyway?'' Rugby League fanzine, by supporters of Doncaster RLFC and ''Scarlet Turkey'' of
Salford City Reds The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been t ...
.However, due to pressure from the Internet etc. these publications no longer exist in printed form. The title of World's longest running Rugby League fanzine now belongs to '' The Aye of the Tigers'', by Castleford Tigers supporters. The fanzine movement has even spread to the United States, where ice hockey fans have produced several popular fanzines. In Chicago two examples include the formerly published ''Blue Line Magazine'' and currently ''The Committed Indian'', both produced by
Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...
fans. In
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
there are ''Game Night Revue'' and ''St Louis Game Time'' for the
St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the s ...
. There are also a number of fanzines to be found in Ireland of which Shelbourne's ''Red Inc.'' is the longest running since 1999. In the United States, sports fanzines are relatively rare. In
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
they are a bit more common. There are two fanzines sold outside Fenway Park including ''Yawkey Way Report'', which is run by a former Marine.


Recent developments

With the increasing availability of the Internet in the late 20th and the early 21st century, the traditional paper zine has begun to give way to the
webzine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
(or "e-zine") that is easier to produce and uses the potential of the Internet to reach an ever-larger, possibly global, audience. Nonetheless, printed fanzines are still produced, either out of preference for the format or to reach people who do not have convenient Web access. Online versions of approximately 200
science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...
s will be found at Bill Burns' eFanzines web site, along with links to other SF fanzine sites. In addition, zine festivals are held each year in American cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn, as well as internationally in cities including Melbourne, Australia, and Glasgow, UK.


See also

* alt.zines *
Amateur press association An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group. History The first APAs were formed by groups of amateur pr ...
*
British small press comics British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. They're comparable to similar movements internationally, such as American m ...
*
Desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online c ...
*
Dōjinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...
*
Fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
*
Hugo Award for Best Fanzine The Hugo Award for Best Fanzine is given each year for non professionally edited magazines, or "fanzines", related to science fiction or fantasy which has published four or more issues with at least one issue appearing in the previous calendar y ...
*
Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine The Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine is given each year to a periodical publication related to science fiction or fantasy that meets several criteria having to do with the number of issues published and who, if anyone, receives payment. The awar ...
* Literature *
Minicomic Co-ops Minicomics Co-ops are entities for trading and promoting small press comics and fanzines. The most well-known of these co-ops is the United Fanzine Organization, or UFO, a co-operative of minicomic creators that has existed since about 1968, when ...
(The United Fanzine Organization) *
Minicomics A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105& ...
* Printing * Publishing *
Revolutionart ''Revolutionart'' is an international magazine about graphic design, visual arts, and lifestyle. Some of their contributors were Floria Sigismondi, Mark Miremont, Andrzej Dragan, Matt Mignanelli, Skew Siskin, Jeremyville, Mandy Lynn Olivi ...
*
Science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...
*
Weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Zine Libraries
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
* *
Fandom-related Collections
at the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
Library {{Authority control * Zines Fanspeak 1940s neologisms