Fanzine

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A fanzine (see also: zine) is a nonprofessional publication produced by fans of a particular subject for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in October 1940 by Russ Chauvenet and first popularized within science fiction fandom, although self-published fanzine-like publications did not originate with science fiction fandom.

Fanzines are not funded or subsidized by commercial or public entities; publishers, editors and contributors receive no financial compensation. Fanzines are traditionally circulated for at most a nominal cost to defray postage or production expenses, in exchange for similar publications, or contributions for publication [art, articles, letters of comment (LoCs), etc.], or free of charge to any interested parties.

Some fanzines have evolved into professional publications, and many professional writers were first published in fanzines and even contributed to them after establishing a professional reputation. The term fanzine has, in recent times, come to be confused with "fan magazine", but the latter term refers to professionally-produced media intended for fan consumption.

1 Origin
2 Genres
3 Recent developments
4 See also
5 External links

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Origin

The origins of "fanzines" are obscure, but can be traced at least back to 19th-century literary groups in the United States which formed amateur press associations 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 machines enabled higher 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 professionally produced magazine.

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Genres

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Science fiction fanzines

The first science fiction fanzine, The Comet, was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. 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 magazines. Prior to that, the fan publications were known as "fanmags" or "letterzines."

These magazines used a variety of printing methods prior to the commercialization of the photocopier, let alone the computer printer, even a dot-matrix printer. The hectograph could produce a hundred copies by laying each page atop a tray of gelatin. The ditto machine, whose printing is purple, smells of hydrocarbons, and fades with exposure to light, was the next cheapest. But it was the true mimeograph machine, which forced ink through a wax paper stencil cut by the keys of a typewriter, which became the main standard. Shaded pictures, such as is customarily done by photolithography, could not be printed by any of these means. And true printing, with a pieces of type and a press, was the most expensive of all and was quite rare. In the 1960s, before there were machines in libraries and specialty shops, the first fanzine to be "printed" by surreptitiously photocopying its pages in an office was considered amazing.

The means of printing affected the style of writing. For example, there were alphanumeric contractions which are actually precursors to "leet-speak." The best-known example is the "initials" used by Forrest J. Ackerman in his fanzines, namely "4SJ."

As mentioned above, fanzines did not originate in science fiction fandom, although the term did. Never commercial enterprises, most science fiction fanzines 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 newsgroups and mailing lists today, though at a relatively glacial pace.

For several decades, science fiction fans have formed amateur press associations (APAs); the members contribute to a collective assemblage or bundle that contains contributions from all of them, called apazines. Some APAs are still active, and some are published as virtual "e-zines," distributed on the internet.

For additional information on specific science fiction fanzines and fanwriters, see: separate articles on David Langford (writer/editor of Ansible), Cheryl Morgan (Emerald City), Alison Scott, Steve Davies and Mike Scott (Plokta), Mike Glyer (File 770), Richard and Nicki Lynch, (Mimosa), and Christopher J. Garcia (The Drink Tank). Many artists working for fanzines have risen to prominence in the field, including Joe Mayhew, Brad W. Foster, Teddy Harvia, Ian Gunn and Frank Wu. Specific Hugo Awards are given for fanzines, fan writing and fanart.

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Comics and Graphic Arts fanzines

Comic book collectors and afficionados began to produce fanzines in the early 1960s: Alter Ego, devoted to costumed heroes, began in 1961, and is sometimes cited as the first comics fanzine. Other early comics fanzines included AE, Comic Art, and Xero. The zines were instrumental in creating the culture of comic fandom: conventions, collecting, etc.

Comics fanzines often include fan artwork based on existing characters as well as discussion of the history of comics.

In Britain, there have since 2001 been created a number of fanzines pastiching children's comics of the 1970s and '80s (eg 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.

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Rock fanzines

By the mid-1960s, several fans active in SF or Comic fandom recognized a shared interest in rock music, and the rock fanzine was born. Paul Williams 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, 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 & Miriam Linna's Kicks, Jake Austen's Roctober [1], Kim Cooper's Scram, P. Edwin Letcher's Garage & Beat, and the U.K.'s Shindig and Italy's Misty Lane.

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Punk fanzines

Main article: Punk zine

The punk explosion in the United Kingdom led to a massive upsurge of interest in fanzines as an alternative to the mainstream media that was felt to be too exploitative, capitalist, and essentially uninterested in the Punk Movement and the concerns of disaffected youth. The first and perhaps still best known UK 'punk zine' was Sniffin' Glue, produced by Deptford punk fan Mark Perry, which ran for 12 issues between 1976 to 1977. Other UK fanzines included Blam!, New Crimes, Vague fanzine, Juniper beri-beri and Coolnotes.

In the US, Flipside and Slash (fanzine) were important punk zines for the LA scene, both debuting in 1977. Among later titles, Maximum RocknRoll is a major punk zine, with over 250 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 Magazine, Sobriquet Magazine and Slug and Lettuce. The early American punkzine Search and Destroy eventually became the influential fringe-cultural magazine Re/Search.

In the UK Fracture and Reason To Believe have been the main fanzines in the recent past, but both closed their doors in late 2003. Though not technically a 'national' fanzine Rancid News has to a limited degree filled the gap left by these two zines.

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Role-playing fanzines

Another sizable group of fanzines arose in role-playing game (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 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.

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Sport

In the UK, most Premiership 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. Examples of UK football fanzines include TOOFIF, Oxtales, 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) a download can be found at the SheffieldWednesday.com site .

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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 or to reach people who don't have convenient Web access. One example of a zine is The Inner Swine. Online versions of approximately 200 science fiction fanzines will be found at the eFanzines site, along with links to other SF fanzine sites.

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