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.

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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...)