Fanzine
Encyclopedia
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon
(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
and first popularized within science fiction fandom
, from whom it was adopted by others.
Typically, publishers, editors
and contributors of articles
or illustration
s to fanzines receive no financial compensation. 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.
A few fanzines have evolved 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
", but the latter term most often refers to commercially-produced publications for (rather than by) fans.
"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
s to publish collections of amateur fiction, poetry and commentary. These publications were produced first on small tabletop printing presses, often by students.
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
or even the hectograph
). Only a very small number of copies could be made at a time, so circulation was extremely limited. The use of mimeograph machine
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
and self-publication
, there is often little difference between the appearance of a fanzine and a professional magazine.
published the first scientifiction magazine, Amazing Stories
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
) correspondence. Fans finding themselves writing the same letter to several correspondents sought to save themselves a lot of typing by duplicating their letters.
Early efforts included simple carbon copies
but that proved insufficient. The first science fiction fanzine, The Comet
, was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago
and edited by Raymond A. Palmer
and Walter Dennis. The term "fanzine" was coined by Russ Chauvenet
in the October 1940 edition of his fanzine Detours. "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines," (a term Chauvenet also invented): that is, all professional magazine
s. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags" or "letterzines".
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
, introduced around 1876, was so named because it could produce (in theory) up to a hundred copies. Hecto used an aniline
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
). The next small but significant technological step after hecto is the spirit duplicator
, essentially the hectography process using a drum instead of the gelatin. Introduced by Ditto Corporation 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 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 (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
has made publishing a fanzine as simple as coding a web page.
The printing technology affected the style of writing. For example, there were alphanumeric contractions which are actually precursors to "leet
-speak". (A well-known example is the "initials" used by Forrest J. Ackerman 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
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
s were (and many still are) available for "the usual," meaning that 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
s and mailing list
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. 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. Blog
s – 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
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
s are given for fanzines
, fan writing
and fanart
.
zine called Spockanalia published in September 1967 by long time SF fans (members of the Lunarians), who definitely hoped for Spockanalia to be included in the Hugo ballot for best fanzine. The first two of its five issues were published while the show was still on the air, and included snippets from DC Fontana and Gene Roddenberry
and a letter from Leonard Nimoy
. Many, many other Star Trek zines followed, then slowly zines appeared for other media sources, such as Starsky and Hutch
, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Blake's 7
. 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 mimeos to offset printed masterpieces with four-color covers.
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
, then later Starsky/Hutch, Napoleon/Illya, and many others) started to appear in zines. This became known as slash
from the '/' mark used in adzines 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 became their own sub-sub-genre; in many fandoms you rarely saw slash and non-slash stories appear in the same zines. 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
" saga. By the time the film "The Empire Strikes Back" 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
threatened to sue fanzine publishers who distributed zines featuring the Star Wars characters in sexually explicit stories or art.
. Famously, the first version of Superman
(a bald-headed villain) appeared in the third issue of Jerry Siegel
and Joe Shuster
's 1933 fanzine Science Fiction. Malcolm Willits and Jim Bradley started The Comic Collector's News, the first comics fanzine, in October, 1947. By 1952, Ted White
had mimeographed a four-page pamphlet about Superman
, and James Taurasi issued the short-lived Fantasy Comics. In 1953, Bhob Stewart
published The EC Fan Bulletin, which launched EC
fandom of imitative EC fanzines. A few months later, Stewart, White and Larry Stark
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's Hoo-Hah!. After that came fanzines by the followers of Harvey Kurtzman
's Mad
, Trump
and Humbug
. Publishers of these included future underground comics stars like Jay Lynch
and Robert Crumb
.
In 1960, Richard and Pat Lupoff
launched their science fiction
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
, Jim Harmon
and others under the heading, All In Color For A Dime. In 1961, Jerry Bails
' Alter Ego
, 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: conventions, collecting, etc. Much of this, like comics fandom itself, began as part of standard science fiction convention
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 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 who were also fanzine contributors. During the 1970s, many fanzines (Squa Tront, as example) also became partly distributed through certain comic book distributors.
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 and the Marvel magazine FOOM
began and ceased publication in the 1970s. Priced significantly higher that standard comics of the period (AWODCC was $1.50, FOOM was 75 cents), each house-organ magazine lasted a brief period of years.
In Britain, there have since 2001 been created a number of fanzines pastiching children's comics of the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. Solar Wind
, Pony School, etc.). These adopt a style of storytelling rather than specific characters from their sources, usually with a knowing or ironic
twist.
, was a 1960s SF zine that branched into horror film coverage. Alex Soma's Horrors of the Screen, 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
1958 magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland
. Gore Creatures began in 1961 and continues today as the prozine (turned webzine
) Midnight Marquee. Garden Ghouls Gazette – a 1960s horror title under the editorship of Dave Keil, then Gary Collins—was later headed by the late Frederick S. Clarke 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.
Mark Frank’s Photon—notable for the inclusion of an 8x10 photo
in each issue—was another 1960s zine that lasted into the 1980s. Richard Klemensen’s Little Shoppe of Horrors has a particular focus on "Hammer Horrors
" and has been publishing issues on an irregular schedule since 1972.
The Baltimore
-based Black Oracle (1969-1978) from writer-turned-John Waters
repertory member George Stover was a small 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
teenager Sam Irvin
published the horror/science-fiction fanzine Bizarre which included his original interviews with U.K. actors and filmmakers; Irvin would later become a producer-director in his own right. Japanese Fantasy Film Journal (JFFJ) (1968-1983) from Greg Shoemaker covered Toho
's Godzilla
and his Asian brethren when no other publications much cared. In 1993, G-FAN
picked up where JFFJ left off, and is approaching its 100th regularly published issue. FXRH (Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen
) (1971-1976) was a specialized zine co-created by future Hollywood
FX
artist Ernest D. Farino.
and Greg Shaw
were two such SF-fans turned rock zine editors. Williams' Crawdaddy!
(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!
(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
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
included an article about the explosion of rock fanzines. Other rock fanzines of this period include 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 and denim delinquent
.
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, P. Edwin Letcher's Garage & Beat, and the UK's Shindig! and Italy's Misty Lane.
In the 1980s, with the rise of stadium superstars, many home-grown rock fanzines emerged. At the peak of Bruce Springsteen
'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, 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.
In the late 1990s, notorious fanzines and e-zines flourished about electronic and post-rock
music. Crème Brûlée fanzine
was one of those that documented post-rock genre and experimental music.
in the United Kingdom
spearheaded a surge of interest in fanzines as a countercultural alternative to established print media. The first and perhaps still best known UK 'punk zine' was Sniffin' Glue
, produced by Deptford 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 on July 4, 1976. Other UK fanzines included Blam!
, Bombsite, Wool City Rocker, Burnt Offering
, Chainsaw
, New Crimes, Vague, Jamming, Love and Molotov Cocktails,To Hell With Poverty, New Youth, Peroxide
, ENZK
, Juniper beri-beri, Communication Blur, Rox
, Grim Humour
, Spuno and Cool Notes. Of these, Tony Fletcher's Jamming was the most far reaching, becoming a nationally distributed mainstream magazine for several years before its demise.
In the US, Flipside
and Slash
were important punk zines for the Los Angeles scene, both debuting in 1977. Starting earlier, in 1976, Punk
was published in New York and played a major part in popularizing punk rock (a term coined a few years earlier in Creem
) as the term for the music and the bands being written about. Among later titles, Maximum RocknRoll
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
, Bikini Kill
, Green Day
and The Offspring
, a number of other punk zines have appeared, such as Punk Planet
, Razorcake
, Tail Spins, Sobriquet, Profane Existence
and Slug and Lettuce
. The early American punkzine Search and Destroy
eventually became the influential fringe-cultural magazine Re/Search
. Some punk fanzines from the 80s, like Threatening Society are experiencing a second life by placing all past content online for free and adding new content.
Many of the punk zines were printed in small quantities and promoted the local scene. Each copy however, was shared by up to 30 people who would pass it on from friend to friend. 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. Mark Wilkins, the promotion director for punk/thrash label Mystic Records
, had over 450 U.S. 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 U.S. fanzines under the name of Mystic Mark.
In the UK Fracture and Reason To Believe were significant fanzines in the early 2000s, but both ended 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. There are many smaller fanzines in existence throughout the UK that focus on punk.
In Perugia
, Italy
, Mazquerade ran from 1979 - 1981
, the 1979 Mod revival
brought with it a burst of fresh creativity from fanzines, and for the next decade, the youth subculture
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 revival scene that was propelling bands like Secret Affair
, Purple Hearts
and The Chords
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
, and Shadows & Reflections, published by future national magazine editor Chris Hunt
. 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.
. Examples include Bombsite Fanzine (Liverpool 1977), Wool City Rocker (Bradford 1979 - 1982), City Fun
(Manchester), 1984, Spuno (Bath 1980) and Town Hall Steps
(Bolton) and more recently mono (fanzine), (Bradford) with many more across the country.
(RPG) fandom, where fanzines allowed people to publish their ideas and views on specific games and their role-playing campaigns. 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 zinedom got their start in, or remain part of, science fiction fandom
. This is also true of the small but still active board game
fandom scene, the most prolific subset of which is centered around play-by-mail
Diplomacy.
. Among them is Charge!
, a leading international fanzine exclusively for miniature wargaming
enthusiasts for the American Civil War
period. Other fanzines support Warhammer
and other popular rules sets.
, a publication that ran between 1972 and 1976. In the UK
, most Premier League or Football League
football 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, 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) and Wanderers Worldwide (Bolton Wanderers) having already been established but since disappeared. In 1985 the emergent When Saturday Comes
(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 80's which was something of a glory period for fanzines. 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
, TOOFIF, 4000 Holes and War of the Monster Trucks
(a Sheffield Wednesday fanzine named after a local TV station elected not to show the final scenes of an unlikely cup victory).
Fanzines are not exclusive to the top tiers of football however, with Northern Counties East League side Scarborough Athletic FC having a fanzine titled Abandon Chip!, a pun based on both the perilous situation of predecessor club Scarborough FC and that club's sponsors, McCain
.
And also away from the world of Football there are a number of established fanzines, for example Rugby League
has such notable publications as Who The Hell Was St. George Anyway? (the world's longest-running Rugby League fanzine, by supporters of Doncaster RLFC) and Scarlet Turkey of National League One club Salford City Reds
. The fanzine movement has even spread to the United States
, where ice hockey fans in Chicago
and St. Louis have produced several popular fanzines, including Blue Line Magazine and The Committed Indian for the Chicago Blackhawks
, along with Game Night Revue and St Louis Game Time for the St. Louis Blues
.
There are also a number of fanzines to be found in Ireland
of which Shelbourne
's Red Inc. is the longest running.
s will be found at Bill Burns' eFanzines web site, along with links to other SF fanzine
sites.
Phenomenon
A phenomenon , plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'...
(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
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...
by Russ Chauvenet
Russ Chauvenet
Louis Russell "Russ" Chauvenet was a champion chess player and one of the founders of science fiction fandom.-Chess:...
and first popularized within science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, from whom it was adopted by others.
Typically, publishers, editors
Editors
Editors are a British indie rock band based in Birmingham, who formed in 2002. Previously known as Pilot, The Pride and Snowfield, the band consists of Tom Smith , Chris Urbanowicz , Russell Leetch and Ed Lay .Editors have so far released two platinum studio...
and contributors of articles
Article (publishing)
An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium. It may be for the purpose of propagating the news, research results, academic analysis or debate.-News articles:...
or illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
s to fanzines receive no financial compensation. 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.
A few fanzines have evolved 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
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 or literary magazine on the one hand, by the target audience of its contents, and from a fanzine on the...
", but the latter term most often refers to commercially-produced publications for (rather than by) fans.
Origin
The origins of amateur fanacFanac
Fanac is a fan slang term for activities within the realm of science fiction fandom, and occasionally used in media fandom...
"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
Amateur press association
An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
s to publish collections of amateur fiction, poetry and commentary. These publications were produced first on small tabletop printing presses, often by students.
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
Spirit duplicator
A spirit duplicator was a low-volume printing method used mainly by schools and churches. It was also used by members of science fiction fandom and early comic book fandom to produce fanzines...
or even the hectograph
Hectograph
The hectograph or gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process which involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.-Process:...
). Only a very small number of copies could be made at a time, so circulation was extremely limited. The use of mimeograph machine
Mimeograph machine
The stencil duplicator or mimeograph machine is a low-cost printing press that works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper....
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
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
and self-publication
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...
, there is often little difference between the appearance of a fanzine and a professional magazine.
Science fiction fanzines
When Hugo GernsbackHugo Gernsback
Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...
published the first scientifiction magazine, Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was 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...
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
Sercon
Sercon is a word used to denote "Serious and Constructive" science fiction criticism, as well as the science fiction fanzines in which such criticism is published...
) correspondence. Fans finding themselves writing the same letter to several correspondents sought to save themselves a lot of typing by duplicating their letters.
Early efforts included simple carbon copies
Carbon copy
Carbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents...
but that proved insufficient. The first science fiction fanzine, The Comet
The Comet
The Comet was an American science fiction fanzine, the first of its kind.-History:It was first published in May 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago, Illinois....
, was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and edited by Raymond A. Palmer
Raymond A. Palmer
Raymond Arthur Palmer was the influential editor of Amazing Stories from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit Fate Magazine, and eventually many other magazines and books through his own publishing houses, including Amherst Press and Palmer Publications...
and Walter Dennis. The term "fanzine" was coined by Russ Chauvenet
Russ Chauvenet
Louis Russell "Russ" Chauvenet was a champion chess player and one of the founders of science fiction fandom.-Chess:...
in the October 1940 edition of his fanzine Detours. "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines," (a term Chauvenet also invented): that is, all professional magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags" or "letterzines".
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
Hectograph
The hectograph or gelatin duplicator or jellygraph is a printing process which involves transfer of an original, prepared with special inks, to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad pulled tight on a metal frame.-Process:...
, introduced around 1876, was so named because it could produce (in theory) up to a hundred copies. Hecto used an aniline
Aniline
Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the prototypical aromatic amine. Being a precursor to many industrial chemicals, its main use is in the manufacture of precursors to polyurethane...
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
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
). The next small but significant technological step after hecto is the spirit duplicator
Spirit duplicator
A spirit duplicator was a low-volume printing method used mainly by schools and churches. It was also used by members of science fiction fandom and early comic book fandom to produce fanzines...
, essentially the hectography process using a drum instead of the gelatin. Introduced by Ditto Corporation 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 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 (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
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
made correspondence cheaper and much faster, and the world wide web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
has made publishing a fanzine as simple as coding a web page.
The printing technology affected the style of writing. For example, there were alphanumeric contractions which are actually precursors to "leet
Leet
Leet , also known as eleet or leetspeak, is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters...
-speak". (A well-known example is the "initials" used by Forrest J. Ackerman 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
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....
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
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...
s were (and many still are) available for "the usual," meaning that 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
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
s and mailing list
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 referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
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. 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. Blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s – 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
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
fans have formed amateur press association
Amateur press association
An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
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
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Specific Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
s are given for fanzines
Hugo Award for Best Fanzine
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
, fan writing
Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer
The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
and fanart
Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist
The Hugo Awards are presented every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
.
Media fanzines
Media fanzines were originally merely a sub-genre of SF fanzines, written by science fiction fans already familiar with apazines. The first media fanzine was a Star TrekStar Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
zine called Spockanalia published in September 1967 by long time SF fans (members of the Lunarians), who definitely hoped for Spockanalia to be included in the Hugo ballot for best fanzine. The first two of its five issues were published while the show was still on the air, and included snippets from DC Fontana and Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
and a letter from Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
. Many, many other Star Trek zines followed, then slowly zines appeared for other media sources, such as Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
, Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
. 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 mimeos to offset printed masterpieces with four-color covers.
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
Kirk/Spock, also commonly referred to as "K/S" 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. Early on, a few fan writers started speculating about the possibility of a sexual relationship...
, then later Starsky/Hutch, Napoleon/Illya, and many others) started to appear in zines. This became known as slash
Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex...
from the '/' mark used in adzines 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 became their own sub-sub-genre; in many fandoms you rarely saw slash and non-slash stories appear in the same zines. 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
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
" saga. By the time the film "The Empire Strikes Back" 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 Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
threatened to sue fanzine publishers who distributed zines featuring the Star Wars characters in sexually explicit stories or art.
Comics and graphic arts fanzines
Comics were mentioned and discussed as early as the late 1930s in the fanzines of science fiction fandomScience fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
. Famously, the first version of Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
(a bald-headed villain) appeared in the third issue of Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
and Joe Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
's 1933 fanzine Science Fiction. Malcolm Willits and Jim Bradley started The Comic Collector's News, the first comics fanzine, in October, 1947. By 1952, Ted White
Ted White (author)
Ted White is a Hugo Award-winning American writer, known as a science fiction author and editor and fan, as well as a music critic...
had mimeographed a four-page pamphlet about Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, and James Taurasi issued the short-lived Fantasy Comics. In 1953, Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart
Bhob Stewart is an American writer, editor, artist and film maker who has written for a variety of publications over a span of five decades. His articles and reviews have appeared in TV Guide, Publishers Weekly and other publications, along with online contributions to Allmovie, the Collecting...
published The EC Fan Bulletin, which launched EC
EC Comics
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books specializing in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series...
fandom of imitative EC fanzines. A few months later, Stewart, White and Larry Stark
Larry Stark
Larry Stark 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 hundreds of reviews of local productions and Broadway tryouts from 1962 to the present...
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's Hoo-Hah!. After that came fanzines by the followers of Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
's Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, Trump
Trump (magazine)
Trump was a glossy magazine of satire and humor, mostly in the forms of comic-strip features and short stories. It was edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by Hugh Hefner, with only two issues produced in 1957...
and Humbug
Humbug (magazine)
Humbug was a humor magazine edited 1957–1958 by Harvey Kurtzman with satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs...
. Publishers of these included future underground comics stars like Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch
Jay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
and Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
.
In 1960, Richard and Pat Lupoff
Richard A. Lupoff
Richard Allen Lupoff is an American science fiction and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice...
launched their science fiction
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
and comics fanzine Xero
Xero (SF fanzine)
Xero was a fanzine edited and published from 1960 to 1963 by Dick Lupoff, Pat Lupoff and Bhob Stewart. With a main focus on science fiction and comic books, Xero also featured essays, satire, articles, poetry, artwork and cartoons on a wide range of other topics.The articles and letter columns...
. 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
Bill Blackbeard
William Elsworth Blackbeard , 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 from American newspapers...
, Jim Harmon
Jim Harmon
James Judson Harmon , 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 Grey, and occasionally he was labeled Mr...
and others under the heading, All In Color For A Dime. In 1961, Jerry Bails
Jerry Bails
Jerry Gwin Bails 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 primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.- Early life :Jerry G. Bails was born June...
' Alter Ego
Alter Ego (fanzine)
Alter Ego is an American magazine devoted to comic books and comic-book creators of the 1930s to late-1960s periods comprising what fans and historians call the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comic Books....
, devoted to costumed heroes
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
, 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: conventions, collecting, etc. Much of this, like comics fandom itself, began as part of standard science fiction convention
Science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...
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 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 who were also fanzine contributors. During the 1970s, many fanzines (Squa Tront, as example) also became partly distributed through certain comic book distributors.
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 and the Marvel magazine FOOM
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 FOOM (also written as F.O.O.M.) was Marvel Comics' self-produced fan magazine of the mid-1970s, following the canceled Marvelmania and...
began and ceased publication in the 1970s. Priced significantly higher that standard comics of the period (AWODCC was $1.50, FOOM was 75 cents), each house-organ magazine lasted a brief period of years.
In Britain, there have since 2001 been created a number of fanzines pastiching children's comics of the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. Solar Wind
Solar Wind (comic)
Solar Wind is a British small press comics anthology. Edited by Cosmic Ray , the comic is devoted to gentle parodies of British boys' comics of the 1970s and 80s...
, Pony School, etc.). These adopt a style of storytelling rather than specific characters from their sources, usually with a knowing or ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
twist.
Horror film fanzines
As with comics zines, horror film fanzines grew from related interest within science fiction fan publications. Trumpet, edited by the late Tom ReamyTom Reamy
Tom Reamy was an American science fiction and fantasy author and a key figure in 1960s and 1970s science fiction fandom. He died prior to the publication of his first novel; his work is primarily dark fantasy....
, was a 1960s SF zine that branched into horror film coverage. Alex Soma's Horrors of the Screen, Calvin T. Beck's Journal of Frankenstein (later Castle of Frankenstein
Castle of Frankenstein
Castle of Frankenstein was an American horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine, distributed by Kable News and published in New Jersey from 1962 to 1975 by Calvin Thomas Beck's Gothic Castle Publishing Company. The first three issues were edited by Larry Ivie and Ken Beale. From 1963 and...
) and Gary Svehla’s Gore Creatures were the first horror fanzines created as more serious alternatives to the popular Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan...
1958 magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland
Famous Monsters of Filmland
Famous Monsters of Filmland is a genre-specific film magazine started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman.-Magazine history :...
. Gore Creatures began in 1961 and continues today as the prozine (turned webzine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...
) Midnight Marquee. Garden Ghouls Gazette – a 1960s horror title under the editorship of Dave Keil, then Gary Collins—was later headed by the late Frederick S. Clarke and in 1967 became the respected journal Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
. It later became a prozine under journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
-screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
Mark A. Altman
Mark A. Altman
Mark A. Altman is a film producer, screenwriter and actor. In 1998, he won Best New Writer at AFI Fest. His credits include:*DOA: Dead or Alive *The Specials *Free Enterprise...
and has continued as a webzine.
Mark Frank’s Photon—notable for the inclusion of an 8x10 photo
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
in each issue—was another 1960s zine that lasted into the 1980s. Richard Klemensen’s Little Shoppe of Horrors has a particular focus on "Hammer Horrors
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies and in later...
" and has been publishing issues on an irregular schedule since 1972.
The Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
-based Black Oracle (1969-1978) from writer-turned-John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
repertory member George Stover was a small 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
Femme Fatales (magazine)
Femme Fatales is an American men's magazine focusing on film and television actresses.Femme Fatales was founded by Frederick S. Clarke in the summer of 1992, as the sister publication of his science fiction film magazine Cinefantastique. Published by Clarke, it was originally edited by pin-up...
. In the mid-1970s, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
teenager Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin
Sam Irvin is a film and television director, producer, screen writer, and author.-Career:Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios...
published the horror/science-fiction fanzine Bizarre which included his original interviews with U.K. actors and filmmakers; Irvin would later become a producer-director in his own right. Japanese Fantasy Film Journal (JFFJ) (1968-1983) from Greg Shoemaker covered Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
's Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
and his Asian brethren when no other publications much cared. In 1993, G-FAN
G-Fan
G-Fan is a magazine dedicated to the Japanese kaiju film genre. It is published quarterly and long-running . It was created by J. D. Lees. G-Fan serves as the official magazine of the Godzilla Society of North America, but it also has subscribers and retailers in Europe and Asia...
picked up where JFFJ left off, and is approaching its 100th regularly published issue. FXRH (Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
) (1971-1976) was a specialized zine co-created by future Hollywood
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
FX
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
artist Ernest D. Farino.
Rock & roll music fanzines
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 WilliamsPaul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)
Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...
and Greg Shaw
Greg Shaw
Greg Shaw was a Los Angeles-based fanzine publisher, music historian and record label owner. He grew up near San Francisco, California.It was as a young teenager that he started writing about rock and roll music...
were two such SF-fans turned rock zine editors. Williams' Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
(1966) and Shaw's two California-based zines, Mojo Navigator (full title, "Mojo-Navigator Rock and Roll News") (1966) and Who Put the Bomp
Who Put the Bomp
Who Put The Bomp was a rock music fanzine edited and published by Greg Shaw from 1970-79. Later its name was shortened to "Bomp!". Shaw was one of the first and best known rock fanzine editors. Active in science fiction fandom as a young man, he became familiar with fanzines...
, (1970), are among the most important early rock fanzines.
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
(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
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
, Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
, Ken Barnes, Ed Ward
Ed Ward (writer)
Edmund P. "Ed" Ward is an American writer and radio commenter, known since 1986 as the "rock-and-roll historian" for NPR's program Fresh Air and one of the original founders of Austin's South by Southwest music festival....
, Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
, Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders , better known as "Metal Mike" Saunders, is a rock critic and the singer of the Californian punk band Angry Samoans...
and R. Meltzer
Richard Meltzer
Richard Meltzer was one of the earliest rock music critics. His first book, The Aesthetics of Rock, evolved out of his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and graduate studies at Yale University...
. 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
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
included an article about the explosion of rock fanzines. Other rock fanzines of this period include Flash, 1972, edited by Mark Shipper, Eurock
Eurock
Eurock is a worldwide music promotion company founded by Archie Patterson in 1971. The name "Eurock" is short for "European Rock" although the scope of the company quickly expanded worldwide.There are over 2,700 bands profiled in Eurock's index....
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 and denim delinquent
Denim delinquent
denim delinquent was an influential rock and roll fanzine of seven issues in total, published from 1971 to 1976. The zine began as a launching pad for the writing of Jymn Parrett and Mark Jones in Ottawa, Ontario....
.
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
Ugly Things is a music magazine established in 1983, based in La Mesa, CA. Editor is Mike Stax, born 1962, England. It covers mainly 1960s Beat, Garage rock, and Psychedelic music...
, Billy Miller and Miriam Linna
Miriam Linna
Miriam Linna has run the Brooklyn-based independent record label Norton Records since 1986 with her husband—the producer and singer-songwriter Billy Miller...
's Kicks, Jake Austen's Roctober, Kim Cooper's Scram, P. Edwin Letcher's Garage & Beat, and the UK's Shindig! and Italy's Misty Lane.
In the 1980s, with the rise of stadium superstars, many home-grown rock fanzines emerged. At the peak of Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
's megastardom following the Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound...
album and Born in the U.S.A. Tour
Born in the U.S.A. Tour
The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's massively popular 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 bodybuilding, Springsteen had bulked up...
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
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.- History :...
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
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
music. Crème Brûlée fanzine
Crème Brûlée fanzine
Crème Brulée was a pioneer rock fanzine from France.Founded by Stéphane Sommet in 1996 after the title of a Sonic Youth song, Crème Brûlée became a reference for post-rock music. Due to its close relationships with bands such as Sonic Youth, Labradford and the independent labels, Crème Brûlée was...
was one of those that documented post-rock genre and experimental music.
Punk fanzines
The punk subculturePunk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
spearheaded a surge of interest in fanzines as a countercultural alternative to established print media. The first and perhaps still best known UK 'punk zine' was Sniffin' Glue
Sniffin' Glue
Sniffin' Glue is the name of 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 Some Glue." Others that wrote for the magazine that later became well known journalists include Danny Baker.Although initial...
, produced by Deptford punk fan Mark Perry
Mark Perry (musician)
Mark Perry, also known as Mark P, was a British fanzine publisher and is a writer and musician.Perry was a bank clerk when, inspired by The Ramones, he founded the punk fanzine Sniffin' Glue in 1976...
. 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 on July 4, 1976. Other UK fanzines included Blam!
Blam!
"Blam!" is a self-released album by JME on October 4, 2010. It includes the single "Sidetracked". It was released independently on Boy Better Know Records...
, Bombsite, Wool City Rocker, Burnt Offering
Burnt Offering
Burnt Offering was a punk fanzine based in and around Northampton, England, from 1979 to 1980.In keeping with the DIY style of the time, Burnt Offerings house style was a mixture of badly-typed articles, ransom note effect lettering and cartoon drawings...
, Chainsaw
Chainsaw (punk zine)
Chainsaw, a punk zine edited by "Charlie Chainsaw" was published in suburban Croydon in 1977 and ran to fourteen issues before ceasing publication in 1984. A hand-lettered 'n' became a stylised trademark in articles after the 'n' key broke on the editor's typewriter...
, New Crimes, Vague, Jamming, Love and Molotov Cocktails,To Hell With Poverty, New Youth, Peroxide
Peroxide (punk zine)
Peroxide was a punk fanzine published and edited during the late 1970s by Andrew Thomas, Quentin Cook and Ian McKay . Inspired by punk zines such as Chainsaw, Peroxide lasted only two issues, with McKay being ousted by Cook after the first issue...
, ENZK
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....
, Juniper beri-beri, Communication Blur, Rox
Rox
Rox or ROX may refer to the following:* Rox , an album by California punk band Supernova* Rox , London-based singer* Rox * Roxithromycin, with trade name ROX...
, Grim Humour
Grim Humour
Grim Humour was a UK based fanzine/underground magazine edited and published by Richard Johnson between 1983 and 1993...
, Spuno and Cool Notes. Of these, Tony Fletcher's Jamming was the most far reaching, becoming a nationally distributed mainstream magazine for several years before its demise.
In the US, Flipside
Flipside (fanzine)
Flipside was a punk rock fanzine published in Los Angeles, California from 1977 to 2000.As one of the first and longest running US punk rock fanzines, this publication extensively chronicled the world of independent and underground music during this era. Known for its highly opinionated cast of...
and Slash
Slash (fanzine)
Slash was a punk rock-related fanzine published in the United States from 1977 to 1980.The magazine was a large-format tabloid focused on the Los Angeles punk scene, though it did not restrict itself to local acts: its first cover featured Dave Vanian of The Damned. It regularly covered such L.A....
were important punk zines for the Los Angeles scene, both debuting in 1977. Starting earlier, in 1976, Punk
Punk (magazine)
Punk is a music magazine/fanzine created by cartoonist John Holmstrom, publisher Ged Dunn and "resident punk" Legs McNeil in 1975. Its use of the term "punk rock," coined by writers for Creem magazine a few years earlier, led to its worldwide acceptance as the definition for the new bands that were...
was published in New York and played a major part in popularizing punk rock (a term coined a few years earlier in Creem
Creem
Creem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
) as the term for the music and the bands being written about. Among later titles, Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum rocknroll is a widely distributed, monthly not-for-profit fanzine based in San Francisco, USA. It features interviews, columns, and reviews from international contributors...
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
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, Fugazi
Fugazi (band)
Fugazi is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1987. The band's continual members are guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty....
, Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill
Bikini Kill was an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington in October 1990. The group consisted of vocalist and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band is widely considered to be the pioneer of the riot grrrl movement,...
, Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
and The Offspring
The Offspring
The Offspring is an American punk rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1984. Known as Manic Subsidal until 1986, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dexter Holland, lead guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman, bassist Greg K. and drummer Pete Parada...
, a number of other punk zines have appeared, such as Punk Planet
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, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide...
, Razorcake
Razorcake
Razorcake is a 501 non-profit organization that publishes the Razorcake fanzine, a DIY punk rock fanzine published bi-monthly out of Los Angeles, California...
, Tail Spins, Sobriquet, Profane Existence
Profane Existence
The Profane Existence Collective is a Minneapolis-based anarcho-punk collective. Established in 1989, the collective publishes a nationally-known zine , as well as releasing and distributing anarcho-punk, crust, and grindcore music, and printing and publishing pamphlets and literature...
and Slug and Lettuce
Slug and Lettuce (fanzine)
Slug and Lettuce is a free newsprint punk zine started in New York City and currently based in Richmond, Virginia. Its byline reads "A zine supporting the Do-It-Yourself ethics of the punk community". It is published quarterly and in spring 2012, it will be twenty five years old...
. The early American punkzine Search and Destroy
RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
eventually became the influential fringe-cultural magazine Re/Search
RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
. Some punk fanzines from the 80s, like Threatening Society are experiencing a second life by placing all past content online for free and adding new content.
Many of the punk zines were printed in small quantities and promoted the local scene. Each copy however, was shared by up to 30 people who would pass it on from friend to friend. 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. Mark Wilkins, the promotion director for punk/thrash label Mystic Records
Mystic Records
Mystic Records is a record label and music production company that was based in Hollywood CA one block south of Hollywood and Vine and later moved to Oceanside, California...
, had over 450 U.S. 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 U.S. fanzines under the name of Mystic Mark.
In the UK Fracture and Reason To Believe were significant fanzines in the early 2000s, but both ended in late 2003. Rancid News
Rancid News
Last Hours 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 the final issue, 17, in May 2008. All 17 issues were edited by Edd Baldry before he stood down as editor...
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. There are many smaller fanzines in existence throughout the UK that focus on punk.
In Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Mazquerade ran from 1979 - 1981
Mod fanzines
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the 1979 Mod revival
Mod Revival
The mod revival was a music genre and subculture that started in England in 1978 and later spread to other countries . The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence has lasted for decades...
brought with it a burst of fresh creativity from fanzines, and for the next decade, the youth subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
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 revival scene that was propelling bands like Secret Affair
Secret Affair
Secret Affair were a mod revival band, formed in 1978 and disbanded in 1982. They reformed to perform and record in the 2000s.-Career:In a period of a little over two years, Secret Affair posted five releases in the UK Singles Chart and released three albums...
, Purple Hearts
Purple Hearts (UK band)
The Purple Hearts were often considered one of the best English mod revival groups, the NME calling them "one of the few mod bands to actually cut it on rock’n’roll terms”.-Career:...
and The Chords
The Chords
The Chords are a 1970s British pop music group, commonly associated with the 1970s mod revival, who had several hits in their homeland, before the decline of the trend brought about their break-up...
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
Eddie Piller is an English DJ and record label entrepreneur.Starting his career in the 1980s as a part of the English mod revival, Piller launched the underground fanzine Extraordinary Sensations and operated as a DJ and concert promoter. In 1985, he started the Countdown Records label, through...
, and Shadows & Reflections, published by future national magazine editor Chris Hunt
Chris Hunt
Chris Hunt is a magazine editor, journalist and author. He has worked in journalism for over twenty years, most often writing about football or rock music. He was managing editor of Match from 1993 to 2001, a period that saw the weekly title become Britain's biggest selling football magazine...
. 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 fanzines
In the UK, there were also fanzines that covered the local music scene in a particular town or city. Mainly prevalent in the 70s and 80s, 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 LetrasetLetraset
Letraset is a company based in the Kingsnorth Industrial Estate in Ashford, Kent, UK.It is known mainly for manufacturing sheets of artwork elements which can be transferred to artwork being prepared. The name Letraset was often used to refer generically to sheets of dry transferrable lettering of...
. Examples include Bombsite Fanzine (Liverpool 1977), Wool City Rocker (Bradford 1979 - 1982), City Fun
City Fun
City Fun was a magazine/fanzine documenting the music scene in Manchester, England between 1977 and 1984. Initially run by a collective, its editors included Martin Wade, Liz Naylor, Cath Carroll and Nigel Chatfield....
(Manchester), 1984, Spuno (Bath 1980) and Town Hall Steps
Town Hall Steps (fanzine)
Town Hall Steps was a local music fanzine in Bolton, England from 1981 to 1983. Featured were bands and artists of all styles.Some of the bands featured were Fashions of Fate, Medusa, Peruvian Drumstix, Rivington Spyke, Wiffer, Export, Shader, Wrathchild, Que Bono, Body, Buffalo, 100% Proof,...
(Bolton) and more recently mono (fanzine), (Bradford) with many more across the country.
Role-playing-game fanzines
Another sizable group of fanzines arose in role-playing gameRole-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
(RPG) fandom, where fanzines allowed people to publish their ideas and views on specific games and their role-playing campaigns. 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 zinedom got their start in, or remain part of, science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
. This is also true of the small but still active board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
fandom scene, the most prolific subset of which is centered around play-by-mail
Play-by-mail game
Play-by-mail games, sometimes known as "Play-by-post", are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. One example, chess, has been played by mail for centuries . Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter written by John...
Diplomacy.
Wargaming fanzines
Several fanzines exist within the hobby of wargamingWargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
. Among them is Charge!
CHARGE! (magazine)
CHARGE! is a miniature wargaming newsletter / fanzine published quarterly by the Johnny Reb Gaming Society, headquartered in York, Pennsylvania...
, a leading international fanzine exclusively for miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain as the main components of play...
enthusiasts for the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
period. Other fanzines support Warhammer
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles is a tabletop wargame created by Games Workshop. It is the origin of the Warhammer Fantasy setting....
and other popular rules sets.
Sport fanzines
The first association football fanzine is regarded as being FoulFoul (fanzine)
Foul was a football fanzine that was first published in the United Kingdom in October 1972 by Cambridge University students. It is regarded as being the first recognisable football fanzine, and continued until 1976. One of its writers was Chris Lightbown...
, a publication that ran between 1972 and 1976. In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, most Premier League or Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
football 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, 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) and Wanderers Worldwide (Bolton Wanderers) having already been established but since disappeared. In 1985 the emergent When Saturday Comes
When Saturday Comes
When Saturday Comes 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 topics that fans are likely to talk about, whether serious or...
(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 80's which was something of a glory period for fanzines. 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
A Love Supreme is a studio album recorded by John Coltrane's quartet in December 1964 and released by Impulse! Records in February 1965...
, TOOFIF, 4000 Holes and War of the Monster Trucks
War of the Monster Trucks
War of the Monster Trucks is a fanzine for the English football club Sheffield Wednesday.Brainchild of David Richards and Matthew Cooper, War of the Monster Trucks first hit the shelves in 1993 with the now famous headline Lucan Alive! Found in Sheffield United Trophy Room.The name of the fanzine...
(a Sheffield Wednesday fanzine named after a local TV station elected not to show the final scenes of an unlikely cup victory).
Fanzines are not exclusive to the top tiers of football however, with Northern Counties East League side Scarborough Athletic FC having a fanzine titled Abandon Chip!, a pun based on both the perilous situation of predecessor club Scarborough FC and that club's sponsors, McCain
McCain Foods Limited
McCain Foods Limited is a privately owned company established in 1957 by four brothers—Harrison McCain, Wallace McCain, Robert McCain, and Andrew McCain—in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada...
.
And also away from the world of Football there are a number of established fanzines, for example Rugby League
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
has such notable publications as Who The Hell Was St. George Anyway? (the world's longest-running Rugby League fanzine, by supporters of Doncaster RLFC) and Scarlet Turkey of National League One club Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds are an English rugby league club based in Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1873, they currently play in the Super League. They have won six Rugby Football League Championships and one Challenge Cup...
. The fanzine movement has even spread to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where ice hockey fans in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and St. Louis have produced several popular fanzines, including Blue Line Magazine and The Committed Indian for the Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
, along with Game Night Revue and St Louis Game Time for the St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The team is named after the famous W. C. Handy song "St. Louis Blues", and plays in the 19,150-seat Scottrade...
.
There are also a number of fanzines to be found in Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
of which Shelbourne
Shelbourne F.C.
Shelbourne Football Club is an Irish professional football club based in the Drumcondra area of Dublin, currently playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division....
's Red Inc. is the longest running.
Recent developments
In recent years the traditional paper zine has begun to give way to the webzine (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 fanzineScience 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...
s will be found at Bill Burns' eFanzines web site, along with links to other SF fanzine
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...
sites.
See also
- Alt.zines
- Amateur press associationAmateur press associationAn amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...
- British small press comicsBritish small press comicsBritish 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. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
- Desktop publishingDesktop publishingDesktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
- DōjinshiDojinshiis the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
- FandomFandomFandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
- Hugo Award for Best FanzineHugo Award for Best FanzineThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
- Hugo Award for Best SemiprozineHugo Award for Best SemiprozineThe Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
- LiteratureLiteratureLiterature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
- Minicomic Co-opsMinicomic Co-opsMinicomics Co-Ops: The United Fanzine Organization, or UFO, is a co-operative of minicomic creators that has existed since about 1968. The group was created by Carl Gafford as an entity for trading and promoting small press comics and fanzines. Gafford was the publisher of a comic called Minotaur....
(The United Fanzine Organization) - Minicomics
- PrintingPrintingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
- PublishingPublishingPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
- Science fiction fandomScience fiction fandomScience fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
- Weblog
- ZineWikiZineWikiZineWiki is an open-source online wiki devoted to zines, fanzines, small press publications, chapbooks, and independent media. It covers the history, production, distribution and culture of the small press.-History:...
External links
- How the fanzine refused to die
- Citations for "fanzine" collected by the Oxford English Dictionary
- Origins of the amateur press associations
- Historic science fiction fanzines at Fanac.org
- Current and archived science fiction fanzines at eFanzines.com
- An article by critic Roger Ebert describing his involvement with science fiction fanzines in the 1950s.
- An interview with Bomp! publisher Greg Shaw discussing his experience as a teenage SF fanzine and rock zine publisher, and the evolution of zines through the '90s.
- The Underground Comix movement began as a network of fanzines.
- Ink Stains (column on comics fanzines of the 60s, 70s and 80s)
- M. Horvat Fanzine Collection at the U. of Iowa
- Fanlore includes an extensive resource of media fanzines including table of contents, awards and covers
- Zinelibrary Italy
- Football-Fanzinelibrary worldwide from Germany