Fanzine

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, though that group did not invent the concept.

Genres

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 in 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."

Related Topics:
1930 - Science Correspondence Club - Chicago - Russ Chauvenet - Magazine

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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.

Related Topics:
Science fiction fandom - Science fiction fanzine - Newsgroup - Mailing list

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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.

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Amateur press association - Apazines - Internet

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Comics and Graphic Arts fanzines

Usually artwork based on another company's copyrighted characters, and not usually printed in comic form, a lot of the time in fan-fiction story form, accompanied by images.

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

Related Topics:
Solar Wind - Pony School - Ironic

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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.

Related Topics:
Paul Williams - Greg Shaw - Crawdaddy! - Who Put the Bomp

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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.

Related Topics:
Crawdaddy! - Lester Bangs - Greil Marcus - Ken Barnes - Ed Ward - Dave Marsh - Mike Saunders - R. Meltzer - Rolling Stone - Back Door Man - Denim Delinquent

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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 Roctoberhttp://www.roctober.com/roctober/, Kim Cooper's Scram, P. Edwin Letcher's Garage & Beat, and the U.K.'s Shindig and Italy's Misty Lane.

Related Topics:
Ugly Things - Kicks - Roctober - Scram - Garage & Beat - Shindig - Misty Lane

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Punk fanzines

Main article: Punk zine

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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 'punkzine' 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.

Related Topics:
Punk - United Kingdom - Exploitative - Capitalist - Punkzine - Sniffin' Glue - Deptford - Mark Perry - 1976 - 1977 - Blam! - New Crimes - Vague fanzine - Juniper beri-beri - Coolnotes

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In the US, Flipside and Slash (fanzine) were important punk fanzines for the LA scene, both debuting in 1977. Among later titles, Maximum RocknRoll is a major punk zine, with over 250 issues published. Since the explosion of 1994 (when Green Day and Offspring made punk commercial again) a number of other punk zines have appeared, such as Punk Planet, Razorcake, Sobriquet Magazine and Slug and Lettuce.

Related Topics:
Flipside - Slash (fanzine) - Maximum RocknRoll - 1994 - Green Day - Offspring - Punk Planet - Razorcake - Sobriquet Magazine - Slug and Lettuce

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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.

Related Topics:
Fracture - Reason To Believe - Rancid News

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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 often illustrated with abysmal or indifferent artwork.

Related Topics:
Role-playing game - Role-playing campaigns - 1970s - 1980s

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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.

Related Topics:
Science fiction fandom - Board game - 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, 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 .

Related Topics:
UK - Premiership - Football League - Football - TOOFIF - 4000 Holes - War of the Monster Trucks

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