December meme: Zines

[arduinna]

dorinda requested:

please talk about fanzines! For instance, maybe the first time you discovered them, your relationship to them, what you liked/didn't like about them, specific zines that might come to mind that were particularly good/interesting (or not)...just anything about zines that you care to share.

Oh, zines. <3

I may have seen them around earlier (probably did, in fact), but I discovered zines in the mid-80s. I was at an SF con, probably Boskone, and was in a dealer's room -- she didn't have space in the main Dealer's Room, she was selling out of a hotel room, and she had lots of zines. I was poking around, sort of vaguely interested but not enough to shell out any money; I was sadly too indoctrinated into the SF world's then-snobby response to media fandom, despite being at heart a media fan myself.

Then I hit the box marked with the strong, clear K/S on the top, and reached my hand in to poke around in there like I had everything else. I was in my early 20s, and looked like I was in my mid-teens, and the woman who owned everything (and who I suspect had been keeping a wary eye on me as I wandered toward the slash box) instantly asked if I knew what the slash meant. I didn't; she told me. My eyes went round, my eyebrows went up, and I held out my spending money for the weekend and asked her how much that would get me.

Seriously, nothing like discovering slash and zines basically at the same time. The money let me buy six zines, I think, all K/S, and I read them over and over again for the next several years. There were a few Naked Times, and a Daring Attempt, and maybe a couple As I Do Thees, and I thought they were the greatest things I'd ever read.

I was in college at the time, and didn't want to risk more issues coming to me either at the dorm or at my parents' place, so I just hoarded those few zines and hoped to find more at another SF con -- but I never saw that dealer again, and I don't think anyone else ever brought any, either. (Really, the mindset against media-fandom stuff was hard to break past back then.)

So technically I was reading zines in the zine heyday. But I was never part of zine culture; never wrote a LOC, never tribbed, never even wrote to a publisher asking for more, or for a flyer. Then I got online almost a decade later and discovered media fandom and realized I was home. <3 Online fanfic was amazing, but I still loved my zines, and when I got into Due South, I started buying everything I could.

This was a kinda dicey proposition; especially early on, almost everyone I ordered from was in the UK or Australia, and there was no Paypal then. I wrapped up cash carefully and sent it off, hoping to get a zine back. And I did, and they were fantastic. When I started buying from US publishers, I could use checks, and I wrote them religiously. For the next several years, I was buying zines as often as I could -- new, used, whatever -- and borrowing/swapping zines around with a bunch of people. DS, Pros, Starsky and Hutch, multi-media, Quantum Leap, Alias Smith and Jones, Sentinel, Ladyhawke, Robin of Sherwood, Equalizer, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, you name it.

I loved online fic and devoured it, but there was just something about holding a whole book of stories in your hands - especially if you'd tribbed to it. Which I didn't do often, but there were a few! So my collection grew. I was particularly determined to have a good Pros collection; so much good Pros fic was in zines, and the lists talked about them regularly. You could get really good recommendations just by hanging out on the list and watching the convos; you could figure out whose tastes aligned with yours, and whose tastes were exactly opposite to yours. You could also write to the list and say you wanted to order some zines, you liked x and y stories by a and b authors, what should you be looking for? And people would give you a list of things that would probably appeal to you. Fantastic resource, Pros fandom back then.

Anyway, so, I bought hundreds of zines over a few years. I loved them; I waxed enthusiastic about them to anyone who'd listen. But then somewhere in the very early '00s, I stopped buying so many, and then tailed off very fast into basically not buying any at all. It was a combination of things:

• Full-size zines then cost an average of $20 new, and roughly half that used. I was spending $20/disk on show DVDs, which at the time had priority for me, especially since I already had a decent zine collection. The idea of being able to rewatch a show any time I wanted -- wow.
  
• Online fanfic had exploded -- there was tons being posted every day, in easy to find and access spaces. It was faster and easier to get it and read it.
  
• While it's true that a well-edited zine is a joy forever, a lot of zines just honestly aren't that well edited. I was getting pickier and pickier about that, especially given the cost. I could read well-edited fic online for free. I started getting angry when I spent money on a zine that was poorly written or edited; it was no longer a chance I was willing to take.
  
• I was almost out of shelf space (which also means "I had zero room to add more bookshelves"). Seriously, huge consideration; I know lots of people go the plastic-tub route, but I didn't have any place to put those, either. I couldn't just randomly buy zines and assume they could fit anymore; I had to consider whether I could store them or not.
  
• Zines kept getting less comfortable to read. The full-size ones were an awkward size, and my eyes were starting to get middle-aged and unhappy with certain fonts and font sizes.

So in the space of 3-4 years, I went from avid zine-buyer, to picky zine-buyer, to basically not a zine buyer. I held on to my collection, though, because ZINES! I still loved the idea of them, I loved having these zines I'd loved (or liked, or at least had read...) But then after a few more years, I did the thing I'd never understood when other people did it: I weeded out my collection and sold a good half of it. And then a few years later, I did it again.

... I don't regret it. Well, not entirely true; I regret one or two Due South zines; it's hard to find Fraser/RayV, and most of those old stories never made it online, so they're just gone now. But honestly, that's kind of it. I kept the zines that I loved best, or that meant the most to me (I still have a few of those original First Times I bought almost 30 years ago <3). I don't re-read them very often; I don't read any of my physical books that often anymore. *hugs e-readers* But I love them, and I want to keep having them.

Some of my keepers:

• Crossroads -- Sentinel, anthology zine. This is the best Sentinel anthology zine I ever saw. Good writers, good editing, good layout, gorgeous cover. (I should put a disclaimer here that I'm in it as an author and editor: but I'm one of many authors, and one of several editors, and the overall zines is just aces.)


• The Gift of an Enemy, by Sylvia -- X-Files. Also good writing and good editing, with a great cover. I think this is the only XF zine I have left, and I can't see myself ever getting rid of it. It's just good.


• Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, by Cherilyn and HG -- The Fugitive (movie). Seriously one of my favorite fanfic novels of all time; it's post-movie, with emotional and physical h/c all over, a plotty case, great secondary characters, you name it.


• Twogether - Due South anthology zine. I actually loved Two, the first of these, best, but sold both of them at different times, because I'd moved on from DS and was still heartbroken and couldn't deal. Later I regretted it, and one day opened my mailbox to find a copy of Twogether from Snady, just so I could have a copy again. ♥ This one isn't going anywhere.


• Double, Double - Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, 2 novellas. KF:TLC fic is hard to come by these days; these are both gen novellas, one about Kermit, one about Peter, both fabulous. I wish they were online!

Huh. That's kind of it for that list, I think. I kept more, but those are the highlights. Also it's almost midnight, eep. Perhaps I shall ramble on another day about more zines.

---

Full request list here, still open!

(ETA: Wow, I feel like this is really disjointed and odd. I totally ran out of time. Sorry! If I wind up with empty slots maybe I'll take another stab at this...)

Comments

[elynross]

It doesn't read as disjointed and odd, at all, it reads like a fond love letter to a past love. <3 <3 <3

[dorinda]

I don't find it disjointed-and-odd either!

My eyes went round, my eyebrows went up, and I held out my spending money for the weekend and asked her how much that would get me.

HEE. I can totally see this. And it feels very familiar to my own memories. '...! HERE IS MONEYS O GIVE ME THESE PLEASE.'

I culled my zine pile very severely myself--first when I moved to my last apartment in my old city, and then again when I moved out here. I was glad to be able to hand them over to people who hadn't had a chance to see them before! I think many of the ones I ended up hanging on to were multi-media zines...a little bit like, the Yuletide before there was Yuletide, a bunch of little fandoms (and sometimes stories from bigger fandoms mixed in as well, either with the big pairings, or with rarepairs) all curated into one attractive package. I have some of the Homosapien zines, for instance.

[morgandawn]

I too began removing zines when the shelves became full. And with so much fanfic online, I had more choices of material to read. So sending my zines to the Fanzine Archives seemed like the perfect solution .....until the Sandy Project began. Now every bit of free floor space, bookshelf space and desk space is crammed with borrowed zines or zines on their way somewhere. It has been like going back in time. And I am getting to see zines I would never have bought (or been able to buy). I could never have afforded the Interphases and the Courts of Honor and Organia zines. Stunning art and beautifully bound.

And for all that, I am so grateful for A03 and the ability to download fic to read on my tablet in a compact and accessible fashion.

[dorinda]

Heh...I imagine your eyes blinking out from within a giant cave constructed of zines. Your own personal cave-fic!!

And yes indeed, the day Courts of Honor became available online in all those e-formats, I squeed the squee of a thousand squees. Now I have it in my pocket at all times, whenever I have an emergency that requires applying K/S directly to my face. :D

[morgandawn]

The outcry when Courts went online was (thankfully) drowned by the cries of joy when it went online. However, the outcry did cause a few wavering fans to leave the fandom for less outcry-ing circles.

It all boiled down to the fact that the cover of Courts of Honor (which had been commissioned by Syn and had been used to sell posters and postcards to raise funds to get the zine published) was included in the online version without Syn finding the fan (25+ years later) to get permission (again) to offer the cover of the zine with the zine. In fact, no one knows where the fan artist is - she left fandom shortly after Courts was published and is not locatable. But getting Syn's permission was not enough for some ...and thus the outcry.

I think that if a zine publisher continues to offer the zine - intact - as it was originally conceived and published - that should be....permitted (unless the publisher and contributors had decided to only offer a single print run). As one zine publisher said: "You know, I am still copying and printing and selling my zines. And I am using the art to market the zines on my website, my Facebook page, my eBay store and my flyers. I don't get permission every time I run off another copy. That would be silly."

[arduinna]

I don't find it disjointed-and-odd either!

\o/

I bought SO MANY multi-media zines! It really was like Yuletide, and it was the only way I could get hold of some of the smaller fandoms I liked (and I think that's what tipped me over into asking for Pros tapes; Pros was in everything, and I wanted to be able to read them). (And then, of course, I wound up buying some just to get the Pros stories...) Seriously, I just shake my head in bafflement any time someone says that people weren't multi-fannish before LJ because they had no way to be exposed to other fandoms - hundreds of mailing lists and newsgroups aside, I had ~15 years' of mm zines on my shelves covering dozens and dozens of fandoms.

I did eventually purge almost all of them, although some lasted longer, and I still have a few. I've still got the Alter Egos, and my copy of Nothing to Hide, a one-off mm zine from the late 90s. I've got two stories in that one, and am very fond of it. *g*

[terrio]

I still have some DS Fraser/RayV zines - were there any particular zines or stories that were especially dear to you? I have issues 1 - 7 of Pure Maple Syrup, Two (though not Two-gether, not sure I've ever heard about that one), some Due Friskies, and Thank You Kindly.

I have a scanner and I'm not afraid to use it!

[lightbird]

Linked here via metanews. I didn't find this disjointed or odd at all.

When I started reading fanfic I was only aware of stuff online and not really aware of fanzines. I'm not sure I even knew they existed. It was only after discovering and re-discovering 1980's and 1990's fandoms that I learned about zines. I've bought a few that are still available and was able to borrow others from friends who were into fandoms before me. I've really enjoyed the zines I have read. I've noticed that some authors who originally published in zines have been starting to put their stuff online at AO3, which is nice because I'm getting access to all these stories in zines that just aren't available anymore.

But this: While it's true that a well-edited zine is a joy forever, a lot of zines just honestly aren't that well edited. is an issue for me as well.

Even when it's a story I'm enjoying the editing issues can be very distracting and often end up taking me out of the story. Also, a couple of the zines I got had weird font issues where particular punctuation marks printed as squares. It was really weird. I could tell what it was supposed to be but still very annoying and distracting to come across it while reading. And not like I've never come across that online too but not very often and it tended to be on older, outdated sites.

With you on the whole shelf space issue too. I have way too many books.

[moonlightmead]

Hi there, Arduinna. Found this via metanews, and really enjoyed it. I arrived in fandom very recently, but I had something of a map because friends many years ago had been in fandom. They'd even shown me zines and tried to persuade me to cons. I said no, because I thought it wouldn't be my thing. Try not to laugh...

because...

I want to thank you for the zine culling! Because there are some of us who arrived way later than the rest who do like zines, and who are now trying to hunt down all the zines we missed through not being here. I am afraid to tell you how many I have acquired in only three years of fandom (Pros, largely, althoug I have my brief flings outside). Some of them were fresh from the publisher, some bought from other fans for various prices, and quite a lot from kind fans culling their collections because they want their shelves back. I don't think any of mine came ultimately from you, although who knows, but they did come from people who did the same.

I am sorry I missed the heyday of zines, but I am delighted they are still around for those of us interested.

Interesting what you say about multimedia zines bringing you to Pros. I try to spot multimedia zines with Pros in them and pick them up, and they point me at all manner of other fandoms.