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SWK 2013: Diversity and Social Justice in San Antonio and Beyond (Todic)
Zines
Zines can be difficult to define. The word “zine” is a shortened form of the term fanzine, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Fanzines emerged as early as the 1930s among fans of science fiction. Zines also have roots in the informal, underground publications that focused on social and political activism in the ’60s. By the ’70s, zines were popular on the punk rock circuit. In the ’90s, the feminist punk scene propelled the medium and included such artists as Kathleen Hanna, who produced riot grrrl out of Olympia, Washington.
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published unique work of minority interest, usually reproduced via photocopier. A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000. Profit is not the primary intent of publication. There are so many types of zines: art and photography zines, literary zines, social and political zines, music zines, perzines (personal zines), travel zines, health zines, food zines. And the list goes on and on.
Attributions
This guide is a derivative work of Zines at the Fine Arts Library by Katy Parker at the Fine Arts Library at UT Austin. It is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC license. This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, and while new works based on this guide must also acknowledge it and be non-commercial, other guides don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.