The WELL: inkwell.vue.111: Jammin' about Zines and Blogs!

#119: Linda Castellani (castle) Fri 1 Jun 01 11:07

Fri, 01 Jun 2001 11:07:00 PDT

E-mail from Jeff Potter:

Bye everyone! Thanks for putting up with me and my lack of witty, punchy brief posts like all you expert Netizens put up! I'll keep looking into these blog things.

As for Tara's remark about finding zines at zinestores: she summed it up. The best of zining was always a MAIL ART thing. That underground Boy Scout camp counselor newsletter we talked about was probably never sold on a newstand. I do see the newstand emphasis on kiddy-punk zines as part of the decline in zining. When zining was big, Doug at Tower pushed my outdoor culture (bike) zine globally. The new Tower guy won't even stock it...probably coz it ain't about kiddy-punk. Well, maybe that's who buys from newstands. Except my zine always sold just fine. Oh well, who knows! Go mail, go real! All work hung as received! Talk about peer review... : )

Oh, one last thing: another resource that helped launch hardcore zining was "Anarchy" mag. It's really a zine itself. A one-man no-ads show. Thanks, Jason McQuinn! Their stable now also includes "Alternative Press Review." Their tiny team has always published good stuff steadily. They've been a good base. They've always had thoughtful reviews of diverse zines. Hmmm, but they don't review kiddy-punk zines. Maybe something about standards?

See ya'll---JP

Jeff Potter **** *Great Lakes Press * http://www.glpbooks.com (#1 publisher of engineering license reviews & discounts on techbooks) *Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com (friendly zine of modern folkways and cultural rescue...with bikes) [Read entire topic]

#118: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Thu 31 May 01 19:43

Thu, 31 May 2001 19:43:00 PDT

And it's okay to keep this conversation going forever, like the Neil Gaiman topics... [Read entire topic]

#117: Linda Castellani (castle) Wed 30 May 01 15:33

Wed, 30 May 2001 15:33:00 PDT

Hey Kalel, it's been great having you! We'll be wrapping up on Friday in time for the new interviews - we will be having our first-ever double-header. [Read entire topic]

#116: snow poster city (kalel) Wed 30 May 01 15:23

Wed, 30 May 2001 15:23:00 PDT

Anyway, isn't this scheduled to end tomorrow? If so -- and if I'm unable to get online to participate while I travel to Louisville, Kentucky -- let me just say that I've enjoyed this discussion, appreciate the ideas and involvement of everyone who joined this conversation, and encourage us all to continue this in the magazines.ind or media conferences here on the Well. Or hop over to alt.zines or something. It's been fun to think these thinks. [Read entire topic]

#115: snow poster city (kalel) Tue 29 May 01 15:50

Tue, 29 May 2001 15:50:00 PDT

More, yep.

Re: Mark's #99, the best and last two issues of Karma Lapel were made this way -- printout, waxing, clipart. I'd do another zine in this fashion in a minute.

Re: #107 on The Match. Fred Woodworth, publisher of the Match, is an offset printer. His almost-Luddite Zerzan-styled takes on printing technology fascinate me, but his productivity and sharp thinking fascinate me more. Since 1969, Woodworth has been practicing what he preaches -- and preaching what he practices. He's who Doug Holland went to when he wanted to start publishing Zine World.

While searching for Match references, I stumbled across Jim Romenesko's take on discovering zines -- http://www.poynter.org/centerpiece/060700.htm might make for an interesting read. [Read entire topic]

#114: snow poster city (kalel) Tue 29 May 01 15:42

Tue, 29 May 2001 15:42:00 PDT

Tara, while most zines are not about punk rock these days, one of the healthiest subsets of zinemaking is indeed music zines. Since its emergence in the late '70s, punk rock has fueled itself via zines... and while there are many Web sites dedicated to punk, the zines remain one of the best ways to enter this community of interest and practice.

(Sidenote: When I say "healthiest," I don't mean "best," but perhaps "most visible." Doing music zines is relatively easy. Doing GOOD music zines is slightly more challenging than doing good non-music zines.)

No longer a sidenote: Why is that? Largely format, I'd wager. Look at some of the biggest music zines today. Jersey Beat, Tail Spins, MRR, Hit List, HeartAttack, etc. all follow the same basic format -- columns, interviews, reviews. Punk Planet has shaken that up a bit, but for the most part, most punk -- most music -- zines follow the same format, largely riffing off MRR. In fact, in MRR's case, the direct descendents and lineage is clear. Kent McClard started HeartAttack while a columnist at MRR -- Tim Yo started dictating what "punk" was, and he started his own zine to have his own say. Ditto for Hit List -- Jeff Bale, again an MRR columnist, tired of MRR's dictums and started his more-inclusive zine in response.

This might be one reason why I'm tired of music zines... punk zines even moreso... and not overly interested in blogs. If people are creating blogs using the same one or two or three tool sets -- and modeling the same format and basic behavior, don't they quickly become the same? I miss old Web journal sites a la Justin' Links -- which is still up -- and Geek Cereal. Doubtless, they're not blogs, but they were navigational and formatting innovations -- somethings that's rare in zines and blogs alike.

Jimwich dropped Giant Robot. Full disclosure: I'm friends with Eric, Martin and the gang, a GR Foundation supporter, and an occasional contributor (look for several Haruki Murakami reviews in the upcoming issue -- by yours truly!). But GR has prided itself on design innovation. If you look at their Web site -- http://www.giantrobot.com -- it's not your usual Webzine. And if you recall their previous redesign, you'll know that they took some real design risks, some that didn't work so well, hence their retraction to a more staid design sensibility.

What zines and blogs are pushing the envelope and buttons in terms of design, format, and innovative content? Farm Pulp remains one of my favorites. Sam Pratt's old Ersatz rocked the boat. Cardhouse -- http://www.cardhouse.com/ -- continues to funk things up. As does McSweeney's -- http://www.mcsweeneys.net -- in its journal AND Web forms.

Any other groundbreakers not riffing on the Sniffin' Glue cut-and-paste or Raygun typographic-hell dynamics? (Or the MRR columns-interviews-reviews 1-2-3?) [Read entire topic]

#113: http://www.syntheticzero.com (mitsu) Tue 29 May 01 14:07

Tue, 29 May 2001 14:07:00 PDT

I should also note that there is an element of conversation that goes on in weblogs --- similar to the "conversation" that happens with zines or even just in the literary world, but much faster (so it's sort of halfway between a conferencing system like the WELL and regular literature), which is when weblogs "talk" to each other, respond to each other's posts. I do this fairly often myself, and other weblogs do this to me, which I read. So there is a community feeling without things tending to get semi-homogenized to a group voice. Individuality within community.

I should also mention that zines are far from dead where I live, Portland, they're still pretty alive and cooking. Our local zine/obscure books/small press store, Reading Frenzy, has tons of zines produced up to the minute, and it's always fun to browse in there. They're affiliated with the Independent Publishing Resource Center, http://iprc.org, which offers self- publishing help to the local community (similar to a place in Olympia with a similar mission, Community Print, I've actually helped a friend typeset once there on their old ink-based printing presses --- though they're now learning Photoshop and Pagemaker and stuff, too.) [Read entire topic]

#112: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 28 May 01 06:50

Mon, 28 May 2001 06:50:00 PDT

Thanks, Jim - hot links! [Read entire topic]

#111: http://www.jimwich.com/ (jleft) Sat 26 May 01 22:23

Sat, 26 May 2001 22:23:00 PDT

Here are some zine-related links from the web:

The zine resource start page: <http://www.zinebook.com/main.html>

The zines read by some of the leading zine editors: <http://www.zinebook.com/recom.html>

Big List o' Zines: (with mailing addresses and some links) <http://www.zinebook.com/rec-ord.html>

Interviews with various zine editors (contributors to The Book of Zines) <http://www.zinebook.com/interv/index.html>

Zine store of Giant Robot: <http://www.giantrobot.com/grstore/grstorezines.html>

Braincase Collective Zine Catalog: <http://www.olywa.net/braincase/zine%20catalog/zinecatalog.htm>

South Chicago ABC Zine Distro catalog: (anarchy, political, prison, art, miscellaneous) <http://members.nbci.com/thoughtbombs/zinecat.html>

Broken Pencil - the guide to alternative culture in Canada (zine reviews section) <http://www.brokenpencil.com/reviews.shtml>

The Zinemart's See Hear Web Catalog <http://www.zinemart.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/zinemart/order.seehear>

Fanzines Explained (by Jim Romenesko - 1993 - Published in the American Journalism Review) <http://www.primenet.com/~obscure/zinesajr.html> [Read entire topic]

#110: http://www.jimwich.com/ (jleft) Sat 26 May 01 21:11

Sat, 26 May 2001 21:11:00 PDT

One 'zine that has grown larger from its beginnings and also has a pretty good corresponding website, though it's not a blog, is Giant Robot, which centers around things Asian/Pac Rim. [Read entire topic]