Where Have All The Fanzines Gone?

[Rogmeister]

Today I pulled out my bound volumes of the first 12 issues of D.P. and I noticed all the other fanzines listed within it's pages...Phanzine Star, Video Views, Paradox, Project: Ignition, etc. I must've counted over 25 different ones. My question is...are they all gone? Obviously, D.P. is still around and I gather so is The 2600 Connection (though I read yesterday of someone complaining how it's taking longer and longer to get issues) but are the others all long gone? If so, I guess the internet is the main reason...it's probably easier to maintain a website than publish an independent publication. Still, there's something I like about having something permanent I can pick up and look through at any time. If anyone knows of any such publications still going, I'd like to hear about it.

[digitalpress]

What's interesting is that this question can be answered directly by many of the editors of the fanzines from that era!

Jess Ragan, Daniel Thomas, Chris Larson, Chris Johnston, Michael Palisano, Russ Perry Jr and a few others are members of this forum.

Three reasons I can think of why these 'zines no longer exist:

1. The editors graduated from school and discovered careers and/or home lives that absorbed whatever time they had to devote to fandom.

2. They converted to the internet, which wasn't the primary form of communication back in 1993 but soon after became a far more efficient tool to getting your message "out there".

3. They simply ran their course (not everyone had a lifetime charter to this duty).

Hopefully the faneds will chime in and give their personal story.

[hu6800]

I miss getting flyers in the mail from TZD .. and FOULMAGS from geelw.

[Sniderman]

I think the Internet/e-mail has a lot to do with it. Think about costs:

PRINT MEDIUM: - Have to purchase/invest in paper/printer/stapler/postage. Need to make sure all addresses of subscribers are correct. At some point during the month, a trip to the post office is needed. Overseas subscribers are few, due to increased postage costs.

INTERNET/MASS E-MAIL - Pretty much free (maybe webspace that you already had for another project or a free service like Geocities). Sit at the computer and - with a few button pushes - you fanzine is instantly sent out globally viz e-mail or is posted on your website for all to read. You never need to leave your computer desk.

There are a bunch of great on-line fanzines out there - Retrogaming Times springs immediately to mind. I am - in fact - stunned that Joe and gang still produce a hardcopy publication. (Of course, I'm a purist in that respect, as I prefer print over virtual mediums.)

[Flack]

From 1994-1996, a friend and I founded and ran Soulz At Zero, which is considered to be one of the first "lit groups" (similar to the ANSI groups that had been around before that). Our packs were spread through BBS's, and even though it was done electronically, we still racked up $30 a month or so in phone bills distributing the pack various places around the country. Shortly afterwards I founded and ran SITH (Sick In The Head e-zine), another goofy little ascii group.

In 1997 I started In-Tune Magazine, a tabloid style music paper in Spokane, WA. It cost around $400 a month to print 2,000 copies. That didn't include driving around to all the bars and clubs in town, dropping off copies, plus all the time spent selling ads, trying to collect money for ads, interviewing bands, and writing. Each month I was lucky to break even (of course as all zine owners know, it's never about the money).

Fast forward to 2003. I now run ReviewToAKill.com, a website dedicated to reviewing music, movies, and video games. It's a broad scope, but people can always find something to write about or read. RTAK costs me $8 a month to run. There's no publishing stress because I update whenever I want. There's no distribution, no ads (well, not yet), and pretty much no stress.

While I miss having that "physical" record of accomplishing something, I don't think I could go back to the print world. The ease in publishing and managing via electronic means is too ... me.

[Lasermouse]

I dunno if it was the Internet really, as the satisfaction of producing a real zine is much higher than doing a website. EG fandom kind of drifted away after 1996 or so, the community wasn't ever that tightly knit as it wanted to be, thanks to competitiveness and a lack of desire on the part of many to cooperate with one another. Of course, this wasn't true of everyone, but most people I think, put too much energy into their own zines and didn't have enough time left over for community building. There were several disastrous attempts at creating a Fanzine Organization, with I think NAEGE the most infamous example. Without a cohesive community to bind everyone together, it was inevitable that the hobby would quickly evaporate once people stopped doing their zines. However, it was a lot of fun while it lasted and definitely was an unforgettable time in my life and something I wish would come back one day. Sadly, it probably won't.

However, as Joe mentioned earlier in the thread many former faneds remain active in gaming these days, either on the internet or in professional magazines. Chris Johnston currently works at EGM as you may know, while former faneds Pat Reynolds, Ara Shirinian and Jess Ragan work for Tips and Tricks as does Joe. I also see Chris Kohler's byline in Wired frequently. There are a few others, so you get the idea. So, the experiment paid off for a lot of people involved in fanzines who were able to translate their passions for gaming and writing into professional jobs.

Of course, there were intangible rewards for doing fanzines, like meeting really cool people -- what price can you put on that? Of course, you can find many of us on the internet now as well, in various forms, just do a google search - you might be surprised who you might find - and what gender they are now!

- mp

[Dangerboy]

Having had a 40 page monthly fanzine (with 11 man staff!) for 3 and a half years, I can safely say that's it is pretty much a little bit of everything.

Reasons why?
Sadly, the collpase of Game Rave in 'zine format was a two edge sword. On the staff side, guys were heading off to college, full time jobs, and relationships, or even moving away (one to Minnesota, one to Japan!). Oddly enough, by the time I realized I wanted to end the mag, I was saved by landing a job at GameShark.com. I used that as my alibi to call it quits.

As far as financially, I was losing about $10 a month on it (after bills, etc), but I was having a fun time.

Satisfaction from it?
I am in HUGE agreement with Lasermouth: The satisfaction one got snatching the very first new issue of your efforts right off the press can never be topped by html. *Never* I used to look forward to Video Zone and Fantazine, plus other mags in the mail every month. Clicking things on the net just isn't as much fun as flipping pages. Especially when looking at layouts ideas / use of space, etc.

I have all the issues I ever received in binders, all neat and tidy. Since the internet revolution, I've lost interest in most of them, my own included. Heck, the only reason my "Game Rave" is still alive is because I turned it into a comic site to indulge my artistic side more. The fact that I have a 'cover page' and magazin-ish layout was an ode to the ol' Pagemaker days. I loved doing layout and covers. Web-sites are just...chores given form.

Plus, the sheer joy I felt at seeing my pages in magazines like EGM and Tips and Tricks (Thanks Pat!) can not be measured.

Moving on?
That's pretty true. After GameShark, the fanzine, and the freelancing, I am literally burned out on most canvases fanzines offered. There's only so many times you can write reviews before you realize its the same three reviews (Bad, Okay, Great) with just different names Mad Libbed in.

Even article writing seems lost to me. And that was my bread winner a few months back.

I'll be honest: I would LOVE for fanzines to make a comeback. But I highly doubt they'll ever be back to their full glory.

Maybe I'll start scanning the old issues into PDFs...

Jason
www.game-rave.com

[Daniel Thomas]

Those fanzines were great fun; great to read, great to create, and a wonderful comminuty. It was really just a moment whose time has come and gone; a little sad, perhaps, but most everyone was in high school or college. This was always a transitory thing.

To be honest, I'm amazed that there's still this community today. I didn't expect Digital Press to still be running (in print or web), especially after Kevin Oleniacz passed on. I'm glad that DP is still here, and I'm glad that many zine writers found paying jobs along the way.

If I was 19 again, I probably wouldn't be publishing a print zine. Considering the high costs of printing up all those zines (I could blow a hundred bucks without a sweat), publishing a website is far easier. Maybe I'm surprised that more zine-style websites aren't around, but there's only 20 billion sites on the Internet.

Then again, I've been reading about a new renaissance in zines. Teenagers always need to create something cool, and who doesn't dig a cool zine?

[larsoncc]

I was a faned - I produced The Panic Zone (the Panicked Player), and was a co-editor of CodeName: MegaZine. I loved the idea of many people contributing to a publication, so that's how I tried to run my zines.

I hold a great passion for those endeavors.

Frankly, there are parts of me that *wish* that I continued with zine publishing. That instead of school, I poured my life savings (at the time, a whopping 5 grand) into my rag. It probably would have been a horrible mistake, but I knew no matter what I chose to do, I wouldn't get much support. So, school was the safe choice.

5 grand is nothing in school. Absolutely nothing. And there are precious few financial opportunities in the first few years of school. I didn't go homeless or anything, but I had a few weeks where the I thanked my lucky stars I worked at resteraunts. It was also a devestating blow to my collection - I lost no fewer than 5 systems because of roommate abuse, etc. But school itself was great. Many of my closest friends I met in school.

I didn't lose my passion - I have a drawer full of crap that I wrote. I couldn't publish, both because I was broke, and because my address was changing too damn often to try to freelance it!

I did get lucky, though - I graduated at the height of the boom, had chanced my way into some great internships, and I ended up doing web work that has community impact (a hospital system). It's given me the freedom to do a web site (Fatman Games). That's nice.

I'm glad that there are a couple of people out there that think fanzines were / are pretty nifty. That's just... wow - people think about fanzines. Wow.

Now that I've started publishing again, I can't help but think that I have about 10 years of publishing to catch up on.

By the way... The web is the best for collaboration, and to get things out there, but it's not necessarily cheap - I know I've spent a lot more on my web site than my fanzine, by a long shot. I get a much more massive audience from the site, though. And that's kinda nice, too.

[slapdash]

Of course, you can find many of us on the internet now as well, in various forms, just do a google search - you might be surprised who you might find - and what gender they are now!

I assure you that charicature of me in the Sailor Moon schoolgirl uniform was purely fiction!

It's not you AS the polka-dotted woman, is it?

Seriously though, um... what? who?

[Lasermouse]

> I assure you that charicature of me in the Sailor Moon schoolgirl uniform was purely fiction!

That would have been pretty scary in real life, I think....

> It's not you AS the polka-dotted woman, is it?

... but that would have been even scarier!

> Seriously though, um... what? who?

Just a joke AFAIK, but I always wondered about a few of the kids who'd call me at 3AM and go into deranged rants and theories... Anyway good to hear that you're still around anyway Russ.. Take care and Happy Holidays! Will try and be a bit more active around these parts in 2004..

- Michael

[RetroYoungen]

You know, I was just thinking about fanzines, and that I never got a chance to experience them (nor had anyone I knew). I’m actually thinking right now of starting one up, and I’ve spent time trying to figure out just what would be the best way for me to do it. But I do agree that quite likely it was the Internet that killed the ‘zine, for the most part. Sad, really sad.

[larsoncc]

Well, you missed out on the fanzine "rush", sure, but you don't have to miss out on some of the zines themselves. I've been trying to get some of these old zines republished. Here is an article about fanzines, and you can download Dan Thomas' "V, The Video Game Experience" - http://www.fatmangames.com/News/news...asp?newsid=755

And issue 1 of CodeName: MegaZine is also available: http://www.fatmangames.com/News/news...asp?newsid=748

By the way, if anyone else will give me permission, I'd be happy to reprint their zine.

Downloading these, and printing them... Let me tell you, that'll bring you REALLY close to the experience of leafing through the xeroxed world of fanzines. You should also try an issue or two of Digital Press. Joe's zine is just about "the same" as in the 90's - heck, the experience of flipping through the pages is nearly the same!

Yeah, it might be time for a new project - but... It's REALLY about re-kindling the SPARK. The fact that so MANY people started to publish... THAT to me was what fandom was all about - it was the variety. I didn't care so much that these folks were only around a few months, because there were so many opinions from so many places out there. I wish we had access to an "Arnie Katz" of sorts - someone that has the attention of a large audience to get people excited about it again.

The fact that we often took the time to mention each others' work, positively and negatively - hey, that was something special, too. And that really fueled the scene.

Yup...Zines...

Yup.

[ManekiNeko]

Just a few notes and corrections for anyone who's interested... I do not write for Tips & Tricks magazine. I'd love to be a member of the staff, but editor Chris Bieniek made it clear to me several years ago that he wasn't interested in my services. Guess all that time I spent fighting with other fanzine editors made him a little gunshy.

I used to publish a fanzine called Project: Ignition, but that has since evolved into The Gameroom Blitz, a far superior publication which ran for about seven issues. I stopped publishing the newsletter a couple of years ago, but I still edit a web site with the same name. I find that it's just more cost-effective to publish a web site... underground publishing offers few rewards, but at least you're not wasting nearly as much money when you publish content on-line.

Since we're on the subject... is anyone interested in a revival of On-File? It's an on-line archive of content from over a dozen video game fanzines. I published it on the Internet several years ago, but it has since disappeared. I'd be willing to bring it back, but only if there's enough interest in the project to make it worth all the time and effort necessary to redesign the pages and include content from more fanzines.

JR

[gamergary]

I would be interested in seeing the On-File archive.

[slapdash]

I'd offered in the past to host it, and still might, though I'm getting close to the end of my current webspace... I wouldn't be able to do much updating though.

[Daniel Thomas]

Well, you missed out on the fanzine "rush", sure, but you don't have to miss out on some of the zines themselves. I've been trying to get some of these old zines republished. Here is an article about fanzines, and you can download Dan Thomas' "V, The Video Game Experience" - http://www.fatmangames.com/News/news...asp?newsid=755

Hey! Look at that! That really made my day to see that. I'm honored, and I'm glad that you enjoyed my zine enough to put the first issue on your website. It's funny, really, when you read something that old and have all those old memories flood back.

I've been wanting to post my old zines on my website for some time, so now I can put up the first issue. I promise to put a link to your site on my homepage this week (and if you could respond with a link to my site as well, I'd appreciate it).

If you have any other issues of V that you wanted to post, please, by all means, go ahead. And if there's anythiing I can do to help, feel free to ask.

Again, my thanks.

[larsoncc]

No sweat. I wish I had more than Issue 1. I'll post more, if I get more issues. I know that Joe probably has a few, and that Jess might have a couple, too.

I'd like to post more fanzines. Even though I "know" people wouldn't care, I worry about that oh-so-holy copyright. Heck, maybe some of these faneds wished their past would go away (???), and maybe they don't WANT their work out there for a larger audience to see.

I've got a stack about a mile deep. At work, I have a high-speed (kinda) sheetfed scanner, and a decent scanner at home. Realistically, I could make my way through an issue every few days, and have most of the fanzines on-line in a couple of months. So, an archive of about 100+ fanzine issues....

I've got the web space for it. But I don't know if I have the stomach for it.

What do you suppose would be the worst that could happen if I published these things, anyway? Strictly legally, it could be bad, but realistically, do you think people would be upset? Are there any faneds out there that you know of that don't want their material published?

Dan - I put a link to Dan Thomas on the Community page (under "Fun sites on the Net") on Fatman Games (http://www.fatmangames.com/community.asp).

Jess and Joe - I also figured that I should put a link to Digital Press up there... So, I did. That, and the Game Room Blitz... They're linked in the Game Related area (of that community page)...

[Daniel Thomas]

Thanks for adding a link to my site. Anything to add to the pagecount is a good thing. I should be updating any day now (I need a new password from the server.

As far as publishing the old zines go, you should go ahead and start posting. Better yet, add a "fanzine" section to your site, where you store all the zines and articles, etc. I can't imagine anyone being upset; I'll be willing to bet that many have completely forgotten about their zines. This was a decade ago, remember.

You also should not worry about legal issues. Put it out of your mind. These were simply-made rags thrown together by teenagers and then photocopied and mailed across the country. This isn't a subject for copywright law. Of course, it would be a courtesy to contact the authors whenever possible, but even then, I wouldn't ask permission so much as inform them that their work is being published.

If any of those zine writers discovered your site, I'm betting that they'll be thrilled. So, go ahead, and don't worry. That's my advice.

Finally, I'll do my part. If somebody sends me copies of my fanzine (the second issue on), I could scan them and post them on my website. I promise to return the zines to you, and I'll send you something in return. Of course, if you have a scanner yourself, you could just do this and skip the middleman althogether. Maybe that would be quicker. Whatever works for you..

Here's my current mailing address:

Daniel Thomas
2649 Fremont Avenue #2
Minneapolis, MN 55408

[ManekiNeko]

You also should not worry about legal issues. Put it out of your mind. These were simply-made rags thrown together by teenagers and then photocopied and mailed across the country. This isn't a subject for copywright law. Of course, it would be a courtesy to contact the authors whenever possible, but even then, I wouldn't ask permission so much as inform them that their work is being published.

I have to disagree with this. If I knew someone was publishing The Gameroom Blitz or especially (shudder) Project: Ignition without my knowledge or permission, I'd be pretty upset about it. Getting permission first is always the best, and the safest, way to go.

Chris, may I suggest that you become involved with the On-File project? We've got the publishing rights to over thirty fanzines, with more on the way. I think it would be best to consolidate our efforts, rather than have several small fanzine archives scattered throughout the Internet.

JR