An Abridged History of Zines

So... What exactly is a zine, anyway?

I'm glad you asked! The term Zine refers to any self-published (or published on a smaller scale by independent publishers) publication, most commonly in the format of a printed or digital book. Zines and artists' books (art pieces in the form of books) go hand-in-hand, and you might see these terms being used interchangably.

Why self-publish? Why go through all the trouble of making everything yourself? Because you can express yourself however you want. Share your art, share your feelings, share information on a subject that interests you, or spread awareness about a topic you care about. Be strange, be cringe, be uniquely you.

Self publishing has been around for a while (technically speaking, Martin Luther's 95 theses could count as a self-publication), but zine creation became more accessible and widespread when photocopier technology began spreading around the 70s... but as early as the Harlem Renaissance, Black writers were making little magazines to share essays and prose. Before the photocopier came around, many early zines were created through the Amateur Press Movement. An Amateur Press Assocation (APA) is a group of creatives who all make contributions to one publication, then one member (a central mailer) makes physical copies and distributes them to the other members of the group. Many early fanzines were produced by APAs.

Zines have had a long history with fan communities and comic artists — the term zine was actually coined by sci-fi fans in the 30s, who made collaborative fanzines dedicated to their favorite pulp sci-fi novels. If you're in online fan-artist spaces, there's a chance the first time you've heard of zines was in the context of fanzines.

A huge advantage of self publishing is freedom of expression. In the 60s, partly spurred by the introduction of strict comic censorship guidelines in the 50s, was the beginning of the Underground Comix movement. During this era, many artists and cartoonists would make collaborative zines, which provided a space for them to freely share political, satirical, and raunchy art without having to follow the standards of publishers.

The photocopier began to spread through the 70s, and was quickly adopted by the punk scene as another rejection of mainstream corporate publishing. The accessibility of this tech allowed them to easily make and share zines about music and their ideas. Besides that, even more marginalized communities were able to begin using zines to share their voice outside of the mainstream media and freely speak without censorship. This was especially important for the queer community to build connections and spread awareness during the AIDs crisis of the 80s.

But, beginning in the 90s, a huge change was about to happen— the introduction and spread of the internet. Many of the conversations and subjects that would've happened via zines have shifted toward online spaces, and many zines themselves have adapted to digital formats, but physical zines are still alive as ever. In our present day, zines primarily exist as a form of artistic expression, and they continue to be collected and celebrated by people everywhere.