{"id":2594,"date":"2021-02-23T15:28:13","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T15:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.doxzoo.com\/?p=2594"},"modified":"2023-02-23T08:34:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:34:59","slug":"where-did-the-zine-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/where-did-the-zine-come-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Did The Zine Come From?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are few things as personal, passionate or interesting as homemade zines. These self-published journals, pamphlets and magazines have been a staple of so many counterculture and radical movements over the last two centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Whilst often connected to science fiction, or the punk scene or more niche topics, the only limit to a zine is the imagination of the editor and everyone involved with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst historically zines were handwritten or at least hand prepared via carbon copy, zine print<\/a> services offer a much easier path to production and distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But where did zines come from? When did independent publishing go from a distant fantasy to a common and incredibly personal reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First-Ever Zine<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If we define a zine as an independent, self-published work with no backing, then there are a few candidates for the first zine ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is 1775-6\u2019s Common Sense<\/a>, a polemic by Thomas Paine which advocated for American independence from Great Britain. It was clear, rational and highly persuasive, eventually becoming the highest-selling American book ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was self-published and independent, but later prototypical zines were closer to the spirit of what zines became. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller\u2019s 1840-44 literary zine, The Dial, was both highly regarded and highly controversial due to its transcendentalist beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was never successful at the time, but it left a lasting impact and would see two further revivals, finally publishing its last issue in 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Etymology Of Zine<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The name zine has a fascinating history dating back to the early days of science fiction and the birth of the concept of fandom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the golden age of pulp science fiction in the 1920s and 1930s, a wave of magazines would be published that would not only find an avid audience of kids but also another audience of enthusiastic young adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were enthralled but also highly critical of the impossibilities of these stories about aliens and distant planets, writing lengthy scrutinising letters criticising works published in these magazines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the solution the editors found was to publish these letters, complete with editors responses and, rather shockingly now, their full return addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new wave of fans would start skipping the magazine itself and start writing to each other, compiling a mailing list of like-minded individuals to create and send fanzines to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name itself came from Russ Chauvenet in October 1940<\/a>, eventually catching on as the catch-all term for fan-magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zine culture became incredibly influential very quickly, both in and out of science fiction. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster published a story called The Reign of the Superman, which would eventually lead to one of the most famous fictional characters in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As zines became more popular, they moved from being critiques of science fiction and reports on conventions and short stories to allowing marginalised groups the chance to have a voice. Vice Versa and ONE were two incredibly influential LGBT zines, which spawned from these early science fiction zines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few things as personal, passionate or interesting as homemade zines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[234],"class_list":{"0":"post-2594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-zine-printing-services"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doxzoo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}