Let me start by saying I’m just about to slide out of the key demographic for just about everything. I’m nearly 50, and I’ve been around long enough to have met the folks who published in Weird Tales and Amazing Stories prior to WWII. I also happen to be a fanzine fan, having done zines for nearly 20 years now. I’ve even won a couple of Hugos for Best Fanzine in that time. I started at a time when folks were asking what the point of zines were in the early 21st century. Why? Well, I remember the old days, the zines Dad kept and I had colored on as a kid. After coming across an issue of Niekas in a fanzine lounge at a Westercon, I just had to give it a go. 

And now, the question is what’s the point of traditional zines in the 2020s?

Let’s define some terms—I’ll call fanzines the stuff that looks like the zines of the 1970s and before. The printing techniques are different, the duplication and presentation technologies advanced, but there are many zines that would sit alongside those legendary zines of the sepia-toned past. Banana Wings instantly comes to mind, but there are several others. There are zines that are like those zines, but are presented differently, i.e. online. eZines, like The Drink Tank or Perryscope (both available on eFanzines.com) trod half in the world of old-timey zines, with laid-out pages and the idea of the “issue” as central ideas, but also using the Internet as the distribution method. Of course, there’s also the fannish blogosphere, with blogs like Unofficial Hugo Book Club, nerds of a feather, Lady Business, The Full Lid, and Galactic Journey all coming to mind. These are certainly tied to the older fanzine world by content type, though they eschew the traditional forms that defined zines. You could argue these aren’t zines (and many have), but you can’t deny that the audience they pull actually harkens back to the olden days of zines. 

This is a bit philosophical, but stick with me. 

In the days of many weekends when there wasn’t a convention somewhere and it was possible to read almost everything published as SF, zines performed a service allowing people to stay in touch and present their opinions to a large audience. Well, larger than those in their immediate surroundings. Blogs and forums can be seen to perform the same role today and can reach so many more than anyone could have in the before times, especially in this day of social media commentary and instant sharing.

This, of course, gives people a way to rage against their non-preferred form. 

Many traditional zine fans see the blogs and forums and say they’re not fannish and have foolishly abandoned the forms that defined our fandom for decades. More modern Internet-type fans see the zinesters as behind the times, insular, and out of touch with what’s going on. 

Of course, everything today has been done before. 

Yes, I hear your “whaaaaa?” emanating from deep within your soul. There were the letter columns in magazines in the old days, and those are so close to our forums today. Blogs and zines have a lot in common in general concept. “What about podcasts?” you ask, exasperated. Guess what; as early as the 1940s there were audio-zines, usually recorded on wire, or later, audio tapes, and sent just like zines. The ideas of today existed way back when, but the Internet, well, it’s changed everything, no? 

Personally, as a guy who has feet in both worlds, I think there’s something to every form. 

The thing about today is that all these forms are available, and with the right attention, can enhance one another. Let’s look at my zine Journey Planet, a former Hugo-winner and one of the absolute pure pleasures I’ve had in my life. We’re a distributed group, rotating editors around the world, content from many countries and points of view. There were people doing this in the 1950s and 60s, but today, it’s so much faster and easier. We can also use our social media to gather people to our projects and topics. We can distribute it on our website, and various other places. 

A number of blogs work in the world of fan history, bringing out the stories of the past for a modern look at the work of writers and editors of the past. Folks like FANAC.org or The Unofficial Hugo Book Club show great respect for the past, but realize that making it available to a wider modern audience requires a reconsideration of format. This is the same reason remaking old movies has been a tradition since before the movies we’re currently remaking were re-made for the first time. 

Multiple formats make it possible to reach all of us. I love the idea of the contained page, and the haiku-like brevity of a smart Twitter post. All of these are valid, and when a piece fits one or the other, the availability of these various forms makes content approachable, enhanced by tailoring it to different audiences’ preferences. Some would say that makes zines of the traditional variety pointless. In that case, printed books are pointless, no? Even discarding the idea that an electromagnetic pulse could take out our power grid for a long time, there are times when a printed image has a greater impact than an image on a screen. Maybe it’s the museum nerd in me, but there’s something to the concept of experientiality, the encounter with the physical object that goes beyond the object itself. There’s something about holding a paper zine that moves beyond mere words on the page. That’s not to say there’s no comparable experience in reading a blog or forum or social media post, there sure is, and to some, those can be just as impressive, if not more so.  The fact is, we’re in a time when we can have it all, and if we discount a form based on its presentation, we limit our reach. Traditional zines can’t compete with the immediacy of blogs and forums, though the presentation forms tend to be more flexible.  

So, why create traditional zines today? Because there are things that feel different when you see ‘em on a page. I read nearly endlessly, hundreds of thousands of words a day, on screens and on paper. With screen-presented works, there’s interaction with the words, their meanings and ideas connected, but it does seem to be less about the presentation to me. On the other hand, when I’m holding a printed piece, staring at it, I’m drawn in to the presentation, the layout, and god help me, even the font! It’s a purely emotional experience for me, and I find it more well-rounded. With zines especially, I find myself digging deeper into those where I’m able to engage the entire range of my senses. 

We tend to live in a world where we think that only massive, widely seen work is valid. Printed materials are limited resources. My thought is it’s not about the breadth, it’s about getting it to that one right person. It’s about someone happening upon your work and realizing something about fandom, or about themselves. It’s about providing the magic to anyone. You may never know who that person might be, but to try and get it to them is a little bit of magic. We can’t all manage to do it, of course, but when we can, it’s wonderful. 

Is all fan activity valid? Absolutely.

Is all fan activity equal? We are creatures who have preferences, and those preferences matter to us. Fandom, ultimately, lives in our hearts and heads, and no two hearts or heads are the same. Some forms hit us in the feels, and that can certainly be unequal to any other form. Just because something isn’t our flavor doesn’t mean that it’s not a flavor that someone might love.  

So, all in all, why fanzines now? 

Because some of us can, and because you might discover something you never had before when you’re holding one in your hand.

© 2023 Christopher J Garcia