|
HISTORY OF ZINES
Zines are part of the long history of underground publishing and the
alternative press. They are by definition anti-establishment and non-commercial.
The term "zine" itself is a shortened version of "fanzine"
which refers to pamphlets that were produced from the fan club scene.
These publications started in the 1930s and originally related to science
fiction. Comet and Time Traveler are some of the earliest fanzines.
Since a fanzine relates to anything that has a specific following, they
quickly spread from the science fiction culture into other arenas.
In the 1970s, with the exploding punk music scene, came a resurgence
of fanzines. This time directly related to music, these fanzines articulated
the angst and alienation of the fans drawn to the punk rock scene. The
publications quickly expanded into general critics of the culture but
still retained a strong personal voice. By the early 1980s, the range
of topics and areas of interest for a fanzine grew. The "fan"
was dropped, and the zine emerged. The subject matter for zines ranged
from film, music, politics, shopping, perzines (personal zines), comix,
sex, literature, poetry and, of course, art. The movement was so large
that zines reviewing and critiquing other zines were published, most
famously Factsheet Five.
By the mid-1990s, the zine culture itself was being critiqued and documented
by mainstream culture with articles in Time magazine and anthologies
published by large publishing houses. Emerging chain bookstores like
Borders were even carrying many zines. Ironically, the exact establishments
that zinesters rebelled against now heralded and benefited from the
zine community’s products. Eventually the zine’s popularity
in the mainstream waned, and it dropped back to a more obscure subculture
status. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the question
is where the zine movement is today.
READ MORE ABOUT ZINE SCENE >>
|
|
