
A zine ( ; short for ''
magazine'' or ''
fanzine'') is a small-circulation
self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a
copy machine
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...
. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A
fanzine (
blend of ''
fan'' and ''magazine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by
enthusiasts of a particular cultural
phenomenon
A phenomenon (plural, : phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be directly observed. Kant was heavily influe ...
(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 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 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 ...
, entering the
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
in 1949.
Popularly defined within a circulation of 1,000 or fewer copies, in practice many zines are produced in editions of fewer than 100. Among the various intentions for creation and publication are developing one's identity, sharing a niche skill or art, or developing a story, as opposed to seeking profit. Zines have served as a significant medium of communication in various
subcultures, and frequently draw inspiration from a
"do-it-yourself" philosophy that disregards the traditional conventions of professional design and publishing houses, proposing an alternative, confident, and ''self-aware'' contribution.
Handwritten zines, or carbon zines, are individually made, emphasizing a personal connection between creator and reader,
turning imagined communities into embodied ones.
Historically, zines have provided community for socially isolated individuals or groups through the ability to express and pursue common ideas and subjects. For this reason, zines have cultural and academic value as tangible traces of marginal communities, many of which are otherwise little-documented. Zines present groups that have been dismissed with an opportunity to voice their opinion, both with other members of their own communities or with a larger audience. This has been reflected in the creation of zine archives and related programming in such mainstream institutions as the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
museum and the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
.
Written in a variety of formats from
desktop-published
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 ...
text to
comics,
collages and stories, zines cover broad topics including
fanfiction, politics, poetry, art & design,
ephemera, personal journals, social theory,
intersectional feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, single-topic obsession, or sexual content far outside the
mainstream enough to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. (An example of the latter is
Boyd McDonald's ''Straight to Hell'', which reached a circulation of 20,000.) Although there are a few eras associated with zine-making, this "wave" narrative proposes a limited view of the vast range of topics, styles and environments zines occupied.
History
Overview and origins
Dissidents, under-represented, and marginalized groups have published their own opinions in leaflet and pamphlet form for as long as such technology has been available. The concept of zines can be traced to the
amateur press movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, which would in turn intersect with Black literary magazines during the
Harlem Renaissance, and the
subculture 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 ...
in the 1930s. The popular graphic-style associated with zines is influenced artistically and politically by the subcultures of
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
,
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
,
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
, and
Situationism.
Many trace zines' lineage from as far back as
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
's exceptionally popular 1775 pamphlet ''
Common Sense
''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arg ...
'',
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a m ...
's literary magazine for psychiatric patients at a Pennsylvania hospital and ''
The Dial
''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...
'' (1840–44) by
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...
and
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...
.
Zines were given a pop culture revival in March 2021 with the release of the
Amy Poehler-directed film
Moxie
Moxie is a brand of carbonated beverage that is among the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It was created around 1876 by Augustin Thompson as a patent medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food" and was produced in Lowell, Massa ...
, released by
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
, about a 16-year old high school student who starts a feminist zine to empower the young women at her school.
1920s
Little Magazines during the Harlem Renaissance
In the 1920s, a group of Black creatives in Harlem began a literary magazine "the better to express ourselves freely and independently – without interference from old heads, white or Negro." This led to the creation of a "little magazine" entitled
Fire!!'' Only one issue of ''Fire!!'' was released, but this inspired the creation of other "little magazines" by Black authors. Contributions by Black writers, artists, and activists to the zine movement are often overlooked, in part "because they had such short runs and were spearheaded by a single or small group of individuals."
1930s–1960s and science fiction

During and after the
Great Depression, editors of "pulp" science fiction magazines became increasingly frustrated with letters detailing the impossibilities of their science fiction stories. Over time they began to publish these overly-scrutinizing letters, complete with their return addresses.
Hugo Gernsback published the first
science fiction magazine, ''
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 ...
'' in 1926, and 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. Now complete with a mailing list for their own
science fiction fanzines, fans began writing to each other not only about science fiction but about fandom itself. This also led to
perzines, zines about themselves.
Science fiction fanzines vary in content, from short stories to convention reports to fanfiction were one of the earliest incarnations of the zine and influenced subsequent publications. "Zinesters" like
Lisa Ben and
Jim Kepner honed their talents in the science fiction fandom before tackling gay rights, creating zines such as "Vice Versa" and "ONE" that drew networking and distribution ideas from their science fiction roots. A number of leading science fiction and fantasy authors rose through the ranks of fandom, creating "pro-zines" such as
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite ...
and
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and ...
. The first science fiction fanzine, ''
The Comet'', was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club 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 first version of
Superman (a bald-headed villain) appeared in the third issue of
Jerry Siegel 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 ...
's 1933 fanzine ''Science Fiction''.
''Star Trek''
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 vario ...
'' fan publication called ''Spockanalia'', published in September 1967
by members of the
Lunarians.
Some of the earliest examples of academic fandom were written on ''Star Trek'' zines, specifically K/S (
Kirk
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it.
Basic meaning and etymology
As a common noun, ''kirk' ...
/
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as science officer and first officer (and Kirk's Second-in-command) 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 th ...
zines, which featured a gay relationship between the two. Author
Joanna Russ wrote in her 1985 analysis of K/S zines that slash fandom at the time consisted of around 500 core fans and was 100% female.
"K/S not only speaks to my condition. It is written in Female. I don't mean that literally, of course. What I mean is that I can read it without translating it from the consensual, public world, which is sexist, and unconcerned with women per se, and managing to make it make sense to me and my condition."
Russ observed that while science fiction fans looked down on ''Star Trek'' fans, ''Star Trek'' fans looked down on K/S writers.
["Concerning K/S." Joanna Russ Papers, Series II: Literary Works: Box 13, Folder #, Page 25. University of Oregon Special Collections.] Kirk/Spock zines contained
fanfiction, artwork, and poetry created by fans. Zines were then sent to fans on a mailing list or sold at conventions. Many had high production values and some were sold at convention auctions for hundreds of dollars.
''Janus'' and ''Aurora''
''
Janus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus ( ; la, Ianvs ) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janu ...
'', later called ''Aurora'', was a science fiction feminist zine created by Janice Bogstad and
Jeanne Gomoll in 1975. It contained short stories, essays, and film reviews. Among its contributors were authors such as
Octavia Butler
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowsh ...
,
Joanna Russ,
Samuel R. Delany, and
Suzette Hayden Elgin. ''Janus/Aurora'' was nominated for the
Hugo Award for "Best Fanzine" in 1978, 1979, and 1980. ''Janus/Aurora'' was the most prominent science fiction feminist zine during its run, as well as one of the only zines that dealt with such content.
Comics
Comics were mentioned and discussed as early as the late 1930s in the
fanzines 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 ...
. They often included fan artwork based on existing characters as well as discussion of the history of comics. Through the 1960s, and 1970s, comic fanzines followed general formats, such as the industry news and information magazine (''
The Comic Reader'' was one example), interview, history and review-based fanzines, and the fanzines which basically represented independent comic book-format exercises.
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
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'' in October 1947. In 1953,
Bhob Stewart published ''The EC Fan Bulletin'',
which launched
EC fandom of imitative Entertaining Comic fanzines. 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!'' 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 imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
and comics fanzine
Xero
Xero may refer to:
*Xero (band), an Australian punk band
*Xero (company), a New Zealand financial software company
* ''Xero'' (film), an experimental 2010 German film
*Xero (Linkin Park), an early name for the band Linkin Park, as well as a demo ...
and in 1961,
Jerry Bails'
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 differe ...
, devoted to
costumed heroes, became a focal point for superhero comics fandom.
Horror
Calvin T. Beck's ''Journal of Frankenstein'' (later ''
Castle of Frankenstein'') 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 writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a pr ...
1958 magazine ''
Famous Monsters of Filmland.'' ''Garden Ghouls Gazette'' – a 1960s horror title under the editorship of Dave Keil, then Gary Collins—was later headed by
Frederick S. Clarke Frederick may refer to:
People
* Frederick (given name), the name
Nobility
Anhalt-Harzgerode
*Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670)
Austria
* Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198
* Frederick ...
and in 1967 became the respected journal ''
Cinefantastique.'' It later became a prozine under journalist-screenwriter
Mark A. Altman and has continued as a webzine. Richard Klemensen's ''
Little Shoppe of Horrors'', 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 2017. 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 repertory member
George Stover
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
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 a ...
teenager
Sam Irvin 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 produc ...
'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 produ ...
'' 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) appeared 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 by
Ray Harryhausen) (1971–1976) was a specialized zine co-created by future
Hollywood FX artist
Ernest D. Farino
Ernest is a given name derived from Germanic word ''ernst'', meaning "serious". Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
People
*Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553–1595), son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
*Ernest, M ...
.
Rock and roll
Several fans active in science fiction and comics fandom recognized a shared interest in rock music, and the rock fanzine was born.
Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to:
Authors
* Paul O. Williams (1935–2009), American science-fiction author and poet
* Paul L. Williams (author) (born 1944), FBI consultant, journalist
* Paul Williams (journalist) (1948–2013), American founder of mu ...
and
Greg Shaw were two such science fiction fans turned rock zine editors. Williams' ''
Crawdaddy!'' (1966) and Shaw's two California-based zines, ''Mojo Navigator'' ''Rock and Roll News'' (1966) and ''
Who Put the Bomp'' (1970), are among the most popular early rock fanzines.
''
Crawdaddy!'' (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,
Greil Marcus, Ken Barnes,
Ed Ward,
Dave Marsh,
Mike Saunders Michael Saunders (born 1986) is a Canadian Major League Baseball center fielder.
Michael Saunders may also refer to:
* Michael Saunders (academic) (born 1944), American numerical analyst and computer scientist
* Michael Saunders (economist), Ba ...
and
R. Meltzer
Richard Meltzer (born May 10, 1945) is an American rock critic, performer, writer and songwriter. He is considered by some rock historians to be the first to write real analysis of rock and roll and is credited with inventing "rock criticism".
B ...
as well as cover art by Jay Kinney and Bill Rotsler (both veterans of science fiction and Comics fandom). Other rock fanzines of this period include ''
denim delinquent'' (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, (1974).
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.'' album and
Born in the U.S.A. Tour 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. This was 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'' started in Seattle in 1980 and still continues today as a glossy publication, now in communication with Springsteen's management and official website. ''Crème Brûlée'' documented post-rock genre and experimental music (1990s).
1970s and punk
Punk zines emerged as part of 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 freedo ...
in the late 1970s, along with the increasing accessibility to copy machines, publishing software, and home printing technologies.
Punk became a genre for the working class because of the economic necessity to use creative DIY methods, which were echoed in both zine and Punk music creation. Zines became vital to the popularization and spread of punk spreading to countries outside the UK and America, such as Ireland, Indonesia, and more by 1977. Amateur, fan-created zines played an important role in spreading information about different scenes (city or regional-based subcultures) and bands (e.g. British fanzines like Mark Perry's ''Sniffin Glue'' and Shane MacGowan's ''Bondage'') in the pre-Internet era. They typically included reviews of shows and records, interviews with bands, letters, and ads for records and labels.
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 freedo ...
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'', produced by
Deptford punk fan
Mark Perry which ran for 12 photocopied issues; the first issue produced by Perry immediately following (and in response to) the London debut of
The Ramones on 4 July 1976. Other UK fanzines included ''
Blam!'', ''
Bombsite'', ''Burnt Offering'', ''
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, Log bucking, bucki ...
'', ''
New Crimes
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'', ''
Vague'', ''
Jamming'',
Artcore Fanzine, ''
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'', ''
ENZK ''ENZK'' was a punk and 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 1989. It was originally la ...
'', ''
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'',''
Communication Blur'', ''
Rox'', ''
Grim Humour
Fourth Dimension Records is a British record label, specialising in international underground music. It was founded by Gary Levermore as an offshoot of his Third Mind label before being taken over by Richard Johnson (aka Richo) in 1984. The l ...
'', ''
Spuno'', ''
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''.

By 1990, ''
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 fea ...
'' "had become the de facto bible of the scene, presenting a "passionate yet dogmatic view" of what
hardcore was supposed to be." ''HeartattaCk'' and ''
Profane Existence'' took the DIY lifestyle to a religious level for
emo and
post-hardcore and
crust punk culture. ''
Slug and Lettuce'' started at the state college of PA and became an international 10,000 copy production – all for free. In Canada, the zine ''Standard Issue'' chronicles the Ottawa hardcore scene. The Bay Area zine ''
Cometbus'' was first created at Berkeley by the zinester and musician
Aaron Cometbus. ''Gearhead Nation'' was a monthly punk freesheet that lasted from the early 1990s to 1997 in Dublin, Ireland. Some hardcore punk zines became available online such as the e-zine chronicling the
Australian hardcore scene, ''RestAssured.'' In Italy, ''Mazquerade'' ran from 1979 to 1981 and Raw Art Fanzine ran from 1995 to 2000.
In the US, ''
Flipside'' (created by Al Kowalewski, Pooch (Patrick DiPuccio), Larry Lash (Steven Shoemaker), Tory, X-8 (Sam Diaz)) 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 th ...
'' (created by Steve Samioff and Claude Bessy) were important punk zines for the Los Angeles scene, both debuting in 1977. In 1977 in Australia,
Bruce Milne and
Clinton Walker 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. In the American Midwest, a zine called Touch and Go described the area's hardcore scene from 1979 to 1983. We Got Power described the LA scene from 1981 to 1984, and included show reviews and band interviews with groups including
DOA
DOA may refer to:
* Dead on arrival
* Dead or Alive (disambiguation)
Film
* ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir''
* ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film
* '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the genes ...
, the
Misfits,
Black Flag,
Suicidal Tendencies
Suicidal Tendencies is an American crossover thrash band formed in 1980 in Venice, Los Angeles, Venice in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Mike Muir. Muir is the only remaining original member of the band. Along with Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, ...
, and the
Circle Jerks. My Rules was a photo zine that included photos of hardcore shows from across the US an in Effect, launched in 1988 described the New York City punk scene. 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 fea ...
'' 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,
Nirvana,
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,
Green Day 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 gui ...
, a number of other punk zines have appeared, such as ''
Dagger'', ''
Profane Existence'', ''
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'', ''
Slug and Lettuce'', ''
Sobriquet'' and ''
Tail Spins
The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals ...
''. The early American punk zine ''
Search and Destroy'' eventually became the influential fringe-cultural magazine ''
Re/Search''.
"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'', Billy Miller and
Miriam Linna'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! and Italy's ''
Misty Lane
Misty may refer to:
Music
* ''Misty'' (Ray Stevens album), an album by Ray Stevens featuring the above song
* ''Misty'' (Richard "Groove" Holmes album), an album by Richard "Groove" Holmes featuring the above song
* ''Misty'' (Eddie "Lockjaw" ...
''." 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 Hol ...
, 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.
''Factsheet Five''
During the 1980s and onwards, ''
Factsheet Five
''Factsheet Five'' was a periodical mostly consisting of short reviews of privately produced printed matter along with contact details of the editors and publishers.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, its comprehensive reviews (thousands in each issue ...
'' (the name came from a short story by
John Brunner John Brunner may refer to:
* Sir John Brunner, 1st Baronet (1842–1919), British industrialist and Liberal Member of Parliament
* John L. Brunner (1929–1980), Pennsylvania politician
* Sir John Brunner, 2nd Baronet (1865–1929), British Libera ...
), originally published by
Mike Gunderloy and now defunct, catalogued and reviewed any zine or small press creation sent to it, along with their mailing addresses. In doing so, it formed a networking point for zine creators and readers (usually the same people). The concept of ''zine'' as an art form distinct from ''fanzine'', and of the "zinesters" as member of their own subculture, had emerged. Zines of this era ranged from perzines of all varieties to those that covered an assortment of different and obscure topics. Genres reviewed by Factsheet Five included quirky, medley, fringe, music, punk, grrrlz, personal, science fiction, food, humour, spirituality, politics, queer, arts & letters, comix.
1990s and riot grrrl
The
riot grrrl
Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a sub ...
movement emerged from the DIY Punk subculture in tandem with the American era of
third-wave feminism, and used the consciousness-raising method of organizing and communication.
As feminist documents, they follow a longer legacy of feminist and women's self-publication that includes
scrapbooking, periodicals and health publications, allowing women to circulate ideas that would not otherwise be published.
The American publication ''Bikini Kill'' (1990) introduced the Riot Grrrl Manifesto in their second issue as a way of establishing space.
Zinesters Erika Reinstein and May Summer founded the Riot Grrrl Press to serve as a zine distribution network that would allow riot grrrls to "express themselves and reach large audiences without having to rely on the mainstream press".
Girls use this grassroots medium to discuss their personal lived experiences, and themes including body image, sexuality, gender norms, and violence to express anger, and reclaim/refigure femininity.
Scholar and zinester Mimi Thi Nguyen notes that these norms unequally burdened riot grrrls of color with allowing white riot grrrls access to their personal experiences, an act which in itself was supposed to address systemic racism.
BUST - "The voice of the new world order" was created by Debbie Stoller, Laurie Hanzel and Marcelle Karp in 1993 to propose an alternate to the popular mainstream magazines
Cosmopolitan and
Glamour
Glamour may refer to:
Arts
Film
* ''Glamour'' (1931 film), a British film
* ''Glamour'' (1934 film), an American film
* ''Glamour'' (2000 film), a Hungarian film
Writing
* ''Glamour'' (magazine), a magazine for women
* ''The Glamour ...
.
Additional zines following this path are Shocking Pink (1981–82, 1987–92), Jigsaw (1988– ), Not Your Bitch 1989-1992 (Gypsy X, ed.)
Bikini Kill (1990),
Girl Germs (1990), Bamboo Girl (1995– ),
BITCH Magazine (1996– ),
Hip Mama (1997– ), Kitten Scratches (1999) and
ROCKRGRL
''ROCKRGRL'' was the first national publication for female musicians in the United States. Created by Carla DeSantis Black, Carla DeSantis, the magazine purely focused on women in music and highlighted the artistic diversity of women musicians, of ...
(1995–2005).
In the mid-1990s, zines were also published on the Internet as
e-zines.
Websites such as
Gurl.com and
ChickClick were created out of dissatisfaction of media available to women and parodied content found in mainstream
teen and women's magazines.
Both Gurl.com and ChickClick had a message board and free web hosting services, where users could also create and contribute their own content, which in turn created a reciprocal relationship where women could also be seen as creators rather than consumers.
Commercialization
Starting in this decade, multinational companies started appropriating and commodifying zines and DIY culture.
Their faux zines created a commercialized
''hipster'' lifestyle. By late in the decade, independent zinesters were accused of "selling out" to make a profit.
Distribution and circulation
Zines are sold, traded or given as gifts at symposiums, publishing fairs, record and book stores and concerts, via independent media outlets, zine 'distros', mail order or through direct correspondence with the author. They are also sold online on distro websites, Etsy shops, blogs, or social networking profiles and are available for download. While zines are generally self-published, there are a few independent publishers who specialize in art zines such as Nieves Books in Zürich, Zurich, founded by Benjamin Sommerhalder, and Café Royal Books founded by Craig Atkinson in 2005. In recent years a number of photocopied zines have risen to prominence or professional status and have found wide bookstore and online distribution. Notable among these are ''Giant Robot (magazine), Giant Robot'', ''Dazed, Dazed & Confused'', ''Bust (magazine), Bust'', ''Bitch (magazine), Bitch'', ''Aaron Cometbus, Cometbus'', ''Doris'', ''Brainscan'', The Miscreant, and ''
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 fea ...
''.
Live map of zine distributors worldwide
There are many catalogued and online based mail-order distros for zines. The longest running distribution operation is Microcosm Publishing in Portland, Oregon. Some other longstanding operations include Great Worm Express Distribution in Toronto, CornDog Publishing in Ipswich in the UK, Café Royal Books in Southport in the UK, AK Press in Oakland, California, Missing Link Records in Melbourne. and Wasted Ink Zine Distro in Phoenix, AZ.
Libraries and archives
A number of major public and academic Library, libraries and museums carry zines and other small press publications, often with a specific focus (e.g. women's studies) or those that are relevant to a local region.
Libraries and institutions with notable zine collections include:
* Barnard College Library
* The University of Iowa Special Collections
* The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University
* The
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
Museum
* The
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
* Harvard University, Harvard University's Schlesinger Library
* Los Angeles Public Library
* San Francisco Public Library
* Jacksonville Public Library
The Indie Photobook Library, an independent archive in the Washington, DC area, is a large collection of photobooks and photo zines dating from 2008 to 2016 which the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University acquired in 2016. In California, the Long Beach Public Library began to be the first public library in the state to start circulating zines for three weeks at a time in 2015. In 2017 the Los Angeles Public Library started to circulate zines publicly to its patrons as well. Both projects have been credited to librarian Ziba Zehdar who has been an advocate in promoting circulating zines publicly at libraries in California.
It has been suggested that the adoption of zine culture by powerful and prestigious institutions contradicts their function as declarations of agency by marginalized groups.
Zine fests, workshops, and clubs

There has been a resurgence in the alternative publication culture beginning in the 2010s, in tandem with the influx of zine libraries and as a result of the digital age, which has sparked zine festivals across the globe. The San Francisco Zine Fest started in 2001 and features up to 200+ exhibitors, while the Los Angeles Zine Fest started in 2012 with only a handful of exhibitors, now hosting over 200 exhibitors.These are considered to be some of the biggest zine fests in the United States,

Other big zine fests across the globe include, San Francisco Zine Fest, Brooklyn Zine Fest, Chicago Zine Fest, Feminist Zine Fest, Amsterdam Zine Jam, and Sticky Zine Fair. At each zine fest, the zinester can be their own independent distributor and publisher simply by standing behind a table to sell or barter their work. Over time, zinesters have added posters, stickers, buttons and patches to these events. In many libraries, schools and community centers around the world, zinesters hold meetings to create, share, and pass down the art of making zines.
2000s and the effect of the Internet
With the rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s, zines initially faded from public awareness possibly due to the ability of private web-pages to fulfill much the same role of personal expression. Indeed, many zines were transformed into Webzines, such as ''Boing Boing'' or ''monochrom''. The metadata standard for cataloging zines is ''xZineCorex'', which maps to Dublin Core. E-zine creators were originally referred to as "adopters" because of their use of pre-made type and layouts, making the process less ambiguous.
Since, social media, blogging and vlogging have adopted a similar do-it-yourself publication model.
In the UK ''Fracture (fanzine), Fracture'' and ''Reason To Believe (fanzine), Reason To Believe'' were significant fanzines in the early 2000s, both ending in late 2003. ''Rancid News'' filled the gap left by these two zines for a short while. On its tenth issue ''Rancid News'' changed its name to ''Last Hours'' with 7 issues published under this title before going on hiatus. ''Last Hours'' still operates as a webzine though with more focus on the anti-authoritarian movement than its original title. ''
Artcore Fanzine'' (established in 1986) continues to this day, recently publishing a number of 30-year anniversary issues.
Mira Bellwether's zine ''Fucking Trans Women'', published in 2010 online and 2013 in print, proved influential in the field of transgender sexuality, receiving both scholarly
and popular-culture attention.
It was described in ''Sexuality & Culture'' as "a comprehensive guide to trans women's sexuality"
and ''The Mary Sue'' as "the gold standard in transfeminine sex and masturbation".
alt.zines
The Usenet newsgroup ''alt.zines'' was created in 1992 by Jerod Pore and Edward Vielmetti for the discussion of zines and zine-related topics.
Television shows
Two popular kids shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s featured zine-making: ''Our Hero'' (2000–02) and ''Rocket Power'' (1999–2004).
The main character in ''Our Hero'', Kale Stiglic, writes about her life in the Toronto suburbs. The episodes are narrated and presented in the form of zine issues that she creates, inheriting her father's storytelling passion. The show won titles from the Canadian Comedy Awards and Gemini Awards during its development.
See also
* Artist's book
* Broken Pencil (with zine reviews)
* Chapbook
* Copybook (education), Copybook
* Doujinshi
* Ezine
* Hugo Award for Best Fanzine
* Information activist
* List of minicomics creators
* Minicomic
* Pamphlet
* Pop-up book
* Samizdat
* Underground comix
* United Fanzine Organization
References
Further reading
* Anderberg, Kirsten. ''Alternative Economies, Underground Communities: A First Hand Account of Barter Fairs, Food Co-ops, Community Clinics, Social Protests and Underground Cultures in the Pacific Northwest & CA 1978–2012''. USA: 2012.
* Anderberg, Kirsten. ''Zine Culture: Brilliance Under the Radar''. Seattle, USA: 2005.
* Bartel, Julie. ''From A to Zine: Building a Winning Zine Collection in Your Library''. American Library Association, 2004.
* Biel, Joe ''$100 & a T-shirt: A Documentary About Zines in the Northwest''. Microcosm Publishing, 2004, 2005, 2008 (Video)
* Biel, Joe ''Make a Zine: Start Your Own Underground Publishing Revolution'' (20th anniversary 3rd edn) Microcosm Publishing, 1997, 2008, 2017
* Francesca Lia Block, Block, Francesca Lia and Hillary Carlip. ''Zine Scene: The Do It Yourself Guide to Zines''. Girl Press, 1998.
* Brent, Bill. ''Make a Zine!''. Black Books, 1997 (1st edn.), . Microcosm Publishing, with Biel, Joe, 2008 (2nd edn.), .
* Brown, Tim W. ''Walking Man, A Novel''. Bronx River Press, 2008. .
* Duncombe, Stephen. ''Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture''. Microcosm Publishing, 1997, 2008, 2017. .
* Kennedy, Pagan. ''Zine: How I Spent Six Years of My Life in the Underground and Finally...Found Myself...I Think'' (1995) .
* Klanten, Robert, Adeline Mollard, Matthias Hübner, and Sonja Commentz, eds. ''Behind the Zines: Self-Publishing Culture''. Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2011.
* Piepmeier, Alison . ''Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism''. NYU Press. (2009) .
* Spencer, Amy. ''DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture''. Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd., 2005.
* Watson, Esther and Todd, Mark. "Watcha Mean, What's a Zine?" Graphia, 2006. .
* Vale, V. ''Zines! Volume 1'' (RE/Search, 1996) .
* Vale, V. ''Zines! Volume 2'' (RE/Search, 1996) .
* Wrekk, Alex. ''Stolen Sharpie Revolution''. Portland: Microcosm Publishing, 2003. .
* Richard Hugo House Zine Archives and Publishing Project (ZAPP). "ZAPP Seattle". Seattle, USA.
* "The Ragged Edge Collection," Skateboarding, Music, and Art Zines from the ‘1980s and’1990s
Internet Archive
{{Authority control
DIY culture
Fanzines
Publications by format
Subcultures
Zines,
Publishing
Underground culture