Written Study Unit 3
Zines originally started off as a very underground way to express a very specific interest in something or some type of culture. These days it is estimated that there are over 20,000 zines in existence, all with multiple issues, so it is clear that they have become far less underground and are now almost becoming a recognised form of art. They are mainly a way for artists to express a particular interest in something and usually try to steer away from mainstream trends and ideas. But one thing that is great about zines is that they can be about literally anything, from your day to day life, to a collection of CD’s from your childhood; there are even zines that review other zines.
It is a common misconception that the word Zine is short for magazine. This implies that zines are just small, handmade magazines which is far from true and angers a lot of zine publishers. This is because although similar in the way they are both books, they couldn’t be more different. Magazines are published purely to make money off the information and adverts provided whereas zines don’t rely on advertising at all and are made purely for the enjoyment of anyone who wishes to pick one up and read it. Yes you do still have to pay for zines, but this money is purely to keep the zine being published and no profit is made. A quote from Larry-bob, publisher of Holytitclamps, explains this perfectly. He said "There is no apostrophe in zine. Zine is not short for magazine. A magazine is a product, a commercial commodity. A zine is a labor of love, producing no profit.” As I have said before, many other zine producers have the same view because zines are supposed to be produced purely to test the imagination of artists and be a pure form of expression.
Ever since printing presses were invented people have been self publishing their own opinions in one way or another. The first of these publications to start drawing attention was a pamphlet called ‘Common Sense’ which was published on January 10th 1776. It was basically a way for publisher Thomas Paine to express his feelings and opinions on current affairs, this pamphlet could be said to be the earliest ancestor of the modern day zine in terms of it’s reason for publication and the style of information it consisted of. But the first zine as we know them today was produced by Benjamin Franklin during the 18th century. He self published a small book for patients of a psychiatric hospital, the books would then be delivered by hand and the staff would even take copies. This is the first publication on record that really captures what a zine is all about; amateur printing which is done purely to entertain a specific audience at low cost. So this is said to be the first, or at least an extremely early zine. Naturally, like with any good idea it caught on and zines started popping up everywhere on all kinds of different topics.
In the 1930’s the zine world was mainly dominated by science fiction zines. This was because real sci-fi magazines had had enough of letters from fans telling them their stories were unrealistic and had started to publish the letters and the addresses of fans. These fans could then have access to each others addresses and write their own small comics and send them out to each other. This was the birth of the ‘Fanzine’ and this type of publication stayed popular all the way through to the late 60’s until the punk movement took the idea of zines to express their views on society and mainly promote their own bands. This appealed mostly to up and coming punk artists because they could make their zine and simply photocopy it onto bright paper to make a cheap but eye catching zine to promote their band. After about ten years in the early 80’s a zine called factsheet five then started up which reviewed other zines, this hugely increased the popularity of zines and people began to make them just so they could have the chance to appear in factsheet five.
In more recent years the idea behind factsheet five has spread to a wonderful invention called the internet and there are now whole websites dedicated to zines and reviewing them, there are also e-zines which never get printed as such, just created and then composed via computer to be then uploaded to the internet for all to see.
Feverzine
Feverzine was created by a London journalist called Alex Zamora and graphic designer Simon Whybrey. The zine itself covers a number of topics from music to art, fashion to e-culture and even other zines so it is a real all rounder in terms of its purpose to it’s target audience. It is hard to comment of the context of when/how this zine came to be because it is a collaboration of so many different peoples work from all over the world. This is due to the social networking pages also made by the same people that all tie into some part of the zine. It sets fever apart from other zines because it is not made by one sole artist, people send in different bits and pieces via the internet or fan mail and the two creators pick their favourites and compose them with their own artwork and writings to produce the zine.
A big influence to this zine in my own, and many others opinions is ‘Factsheet Five’, an early zine which rated and compared other zines. This is because Fever also has a section dedicated to this and everything else included also has a comparative and rating nature. This type of zine is made and sent out purely to inform and let the audience know what is best in the zine makers opinion. Although they do do this in a way that is very pleasing to the eye. Fever in particular does this by being unconventional in its layout and styles. For example, on the cover of its first issue there was nothing but a title, Fever, which was written in a distinctly handwritten style. Alex Zamora said this was to define fever as a brand so that people were drawn to nothing but the name of the zine and were left wondering about what was on the inside.
As with all zines there are aspects of Fever which are very unconventional such as some of the fonts used, some being hand written and the way that the publication has never actually gone to print because it is just photocopied onto plain A4 paper and sent out. These days however the things I have just mentioned are actually very conventional in the zine world, the handwritten typography, hand drawn pictures, stuck on images and photocopying are all part of what makes a zine a zine.
This leads me to mention that fanzines like this are conventionally black and white or grayscale
photocopies of an original. Mainly because they are first created by up and coming artists who don't necessarily have a lot of money to make hundreds of copies of a colour publication but still want to get their work seen and noticed. Fever is one of these fanzines and is entirely printed in black and white on pink paper for the covers and white for all the inside pages so in the case of this particular zine pink is the dominant colour as it is the only real colour in the publication. This reason why pink has been chosen to dominate might be explained by Fevers little slogan ‘The future is pink’ which means this colour has been chosen purely to promote fever as almost its own brand with its social networking also following similar colour schemes. The textures are fairly minimal in this particular zine, there’s the odd stuck in image which adds a bit of depth to some pages and sometimes pages can look a bit grainy from photocopying which gives a nice handmade touch to some of the articles/artwork. It is interesting to see this in work as people know that nothing in life is perfect so why try your best to make it that way, why not just be honest and express the fact that your work is handmade and treat imperfections as your work having its own personal touches.
I find that I am first drawn to Fever because of its distinct pink cover which is good because it means the colour is doing its job, promoting Fever as a brand and setting it aside from the rest. Apart from this though it does remind me of a lot of other zines which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just you are limited as to what you can do when you are producing a fanzine which has to be photocopied. However they aren’t as impressive compared to a one off zine or small press publication where you can really express yourself and let your creative juices flow. But this isn’t the main importance of a fanzine, their main function is to provide specialist information in a fun and quirky way which Fever does without a doubt.
Present Day
Nowadays there is a far more extensive variety in terms of the genre of zines, mainly due to all the different sub-cultures and groups around in the modern world. It seems the zine has become a recognised and established way for a small group or a minority to speak out and have their say. The introduction of e-zines has had a huge influence on many different groups of people, sometimes resulting in purely online based communities. I believe this is because online and office technology has made it more accessible for people to create zines if maybe their skills lie elsewhere from traditional pencils and brushes. Artists can now digitally create work or scan their own work onto computers and send it out to the online world. E-zines appeal to budding artists mainly because the work will be so much more widely viewed and the advertisement is free if people get talking about it, especially with the new ‘share’ option on most social networking sites. This leads me to mention that a lot of zine style artists are now turning to blogging their work as this can be updated daily and can show everything from little doodles, through to processes, through to experiments and full blown finished pieces.
American Elf by James Kochalka is a perfect example of a zine that has stuck with the times. Since 1998 he has produced small four or five panel comic strips on a daily basis which document little bits and pieces which have happened to him throughout his days. The drawings were originally published every now and then as ‘the sketchbook diaries’. He also produced and published various other comics and books along the way until the launch of his website in 2002. He then began uploading his autobiographical strips daily so that the whole world could see them and trawl through the archives of them to their hearts content. Jame now has his entire collection of daily drawings archived all the way back to his very first one in 1998. This is not all that is on his website. There are videos uploaded, links to other online comics of his and also to his musical works. You can even buy his printed publications via links to amazon and he still has room for a bit of advertising space. American Elf is like an online super zine.
Recent developments such as Open Zine even allow you to create a zine online from scratch or using various templates available. All you do is upload whatever artwork you want, write whatever you want to write, arrange it how you want and then you can self publish it as an online zine when you're done. Everything is fully customisable so you can be very creative and unique and while some say that this takes away from the roots and history of zines, others think this is marvellous and see it as another change in the times that is a natural progression for something with a growing online popularity. This is a very valid point because if something (in this case zines) is being uploaded, shared and read via the internet, then why not have the option to create it online too. It doesn’t stop people who want to hand make things from hand making them it is simply an alternative way to work.
Zines really are an art form all of their own and have progressed and evolved so much since their relatively recent invention, from hand drawn and written publications which were photocopied and given out for free to promote a particular view or message all the way through various weekly sometimes even annual publications up until the very recent e-zines and electronic publications of the present day which can now even have daily issues. The digitalisation of zines has happened over a number of years, the big push was the invention of the internet and prior to this, computers. But it just seems to make more sense that as times change and technology progresses, the format and conventions of zines change too. Now that zines can be purchased and read online, they are much more accessible to people who may not have the time or relevant knowledge to go to a zine or comic store to buy paper copies. Also people spend a lot more time on their computers these days so naturally people are going to virtually stumble across zines if they have an online presence. As things continue to progress it would not surprise me at all if apple or a similar company develop an app especially for the buying, selling and distribution of zines.
Bibliography
Websites:
Books:
- ‘Fanzines’ by Teal Triggs
- 'Under The Radar'
- 'Fever Zine' (technically a zine but I bought paper copies)
- 'Zines Volume 1' by V. Vale
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