Transcript here - University of Oregon

Not the capricious ramblings
of isolated cranks:
A zine chronology

100s
Use of codex (leaf-form of papyrus book) comes into use in the
church; allows binding all four Gospels together, all Epistles of
Paul. Gentile Christians adopt the codex-form for their
Scripture to differentiate Church from Synagogue, which
used scrolls.

105
Paper refined and popularized in
China by Ts’ai-Lin. Invented at
least two centuries earlier in China.

1041
Printing with movable type in China

1151
First papermill in Europe
(Spain)

1403
First book printed with
movable type in Korea

1450
Gutenberg prints first book (the Bible) with
movable type in Europe.

1500s
Appearance in the British Isles of inexpensive ballad
literature printed on one sheet of paper and folded twice or
more to make a small pamphlet.

1690
First papermill in what is now the US(Philadelphia).

1699
The pamphlet becomes the most effective means of
persuasion and communication creating moral and political
communities of readers forms a ‘public sphere’ of popular,
political opinion in Britain.1
1699
cont.
Chapbooks (cheap books) become a
primary source of prose, religion,
folktales, poems, politics, and music
for the so-called lower classes in the
British Isles. Sold door to door or in
stalls in town or city markets for
pennies by chapmen. Often times
chapbooks contained material
borrowed (stolen) from other sources
without permission. Chapbook is a
term still used today to describe a
small book of poetry.

1760-1791
American revolution pamphlets;
most notable being Common Sense
by Thomas Paine published in 1776.

1788-1791
The US Constitution and Bill of
Rights including the First
Amendment.

1790-1870
1790
The first United States copyright law enacted under the new
U.S. Constitution. Books, maps, and charts protected.
1831
First general revision of United States copyright law. Music
added to works
1870
Second generation revision of United States copyright law.
Works of art are now protected. The Library of Congress
centralizes copyright activities, such as deposit and
registration.

1825-1880
Pamphlets associated with western
expansionism in North America.

1850-1865
Emancipation and Civil War
pamphlets

1856
Invention of aniline purple, a synthetic dye, by William
Perkins. Made possible duplication technologies of 1870s
and 1880s such as the hectograph, Thomas Edison’s
Electric Pen, Cyclostyle, and the Mimeograph.

1874
First perfected typewriter by
Remington
before word processing…
Votes for Women!

1885
First pop-up book (an anatomical
study)

Late 18th/Early 19th
Women’s suffrage pamphleteering
Co-op ownership pamphlets
DIY Movement in Europe – a
reaction to industrialization and
Victorian bric-a-brac; sometimes
referred to as the “arts and crafts
movement.”

1900
Increase leisure time and
the rise of popular and mass
culture
Invention of rotary stencil
machine

1926
Hugo Gernsback launched
Amazing Stories, the first magazine
devoted exclusively to publishing
original stories of scientific-based
fiction. This magazine featured a
special letters section where readers
could discuss the scientific bases of the published stories.
Gernsback made a minor decision that changed the face of
science fiction forever- he printed the full addresses of the letter
writers so they could contact each other directly.

1926-1930
Science fiction associations and discussion groups formed.

1930
The Comet published by the Science Correspondence Club
believed to be the first fanzine

1930-1960
mimeograph duplicating machine available

1944
Xerography invented

1952
World Copyright Union founded in Geneva

1960
IBM Selectric Typewriter (multiple typefaces)

1960s/1970s
zines characterized by a synergy between outspoken political
commentary, literary experimentation, heartfelt critiques of
rock and roll music, influence of drugs on visual
communication, revolution in layout and design.

Mid 1960s
inexpensive offset printing
used to create alternative
newspapers association
with the political unrest of
the time, underground
comics.

1966
Paul Williams – Crawdaddy
(rock and roll mimeo);
Mojo Navigator

1967
UPS (Underground Press
Syndicate) founded. Founding
members include the Los Angeles
Free Press, the East Village Other,
the Berkeley Barb, San Francisco’s
Oracle, Detroit’s Fifth Estate,
Chicago’s Seed, and Austin’s Rag.

1968
artists interested in creating
“artist’s books” at a high point

1970
Artists Richard Kostelanetz and Henry Korn publish
Assembling, a compilation of artists writings and images.
Mail art exhibit at the Whitney

1970s
Artists magazines devoted to genres such as Surrealism,
Fluxus, Situationists, Neo-Dada

Mid-1970s
Punk rock zines begin to emerge to supplant mainstream
music press

1976
John Holstrom, along with “Legs”
McNeil and Ged Dunne published the
small-circulation fanzine/comix
magazine Punk.
Sniffin’ Glue made its appearance as
the leading British punk music
fanzine. Sniffin’ Glue featured
sloppy hand lettering, uneven
typewritten interviews, and darkly
reproduced pictures.

Late 1970s
innumerable punk fanzines
published
Birth of the DIY movement and indie
music scene2
reproduction made easy and
free…

1980s
copy machines and zine publishing combine, Kinko’s copy
shops appear on street corners

Early 1980s
Mike Gunderloy published mimeographed list Factsheet
Five. Within a few years turns into a 124 page magazine
that proceeded to consume his entire life

1981
Bikini Girl – “I found freedom in high
heels” – inspired Summer Star, Jig
Saw, Girl Germs

1990s
Riot Grrls movement with zines like
Queenie, Heck, Yummi Hussi, Literal
Bitch, and Conscious Clit; Mad
Planet and Kikizine by Sarah Dryer
are featured in Seventeen
ENTER WORLD WIDE WEB…

1990s cont.
emergence of cyberpunk zines
Zines created with desk top publishing programs, ezines
distributed via the WWW, zines distributed via CD-ROMs

1997
Zined a video documentary by Marc Moscato

1998
Independent Publishing Resource Center
(IPRC) is founded in Portland, OR
Digital Millennium Copyright Act was
passed into law giving more protection
to copyright owners against digital
copyright infringement

2002
Zine Librarian Zine #1 by Greg Meins
is published in Portland, OR. This zine
marks the first attempt to document the
creation, mission, and organization of zine libraries
nationally.
Death and resurrection of hardcopy zines.
Footnotes:
1Pamplets
were booklets consisting of a few printer's sheets, folded
in various ways so as to make various sizes and numbers of
pages, and sold -- the pages stitched together loosely, unbound
and uncovered -- usually for a shilling or two. The pamphlet
[George Orwell, a modern pamphleteer, has written] “is a one
man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if
one chooses, the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious;
or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and "highbrow" than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of
periodicals... “ (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
2DIY
stands for: Do It Yourself and it describes an ethic and a
community. The ethic is one of not needing the assistance of a
large company of producing a service or a product. The ethic is
about being able to stand on your own two feet, its about
developing your own ideas and carrying them out, without the
backing of a corporation. The community is built up of those who
believe in DIY. Those people who would rather produce their own
"thing" without going and getting help from big business. The
whole idea is, that once big business is involved, that the original
creator of the "thing" is cut out of the creative process, and thus
the "thing" is tarnished. The DIY community is composed of
independent publishers, Artists, musicians, writers, artisans and
thinkers.” (diysearch, 2002)
References:
Bricklin, D. (2002). Pamphleteers and websites. [WWW document]. URL
http:// www.bricklin.com
Cambridge University Press. (2002). Pamphlets and pamphleteering in
early modern
Britain by Joan Raymond. [WWW document]. URL Diysearch. (2002).
Diysearch. [WWW document]. URL
http://www.diysearch.com/addurlfaq.cfm
Duncombe, S. (1997). Notes from the underground: Zines and the
politics of alternative culture. New York: Verso.
Friedman, R. S. (2002) A brief history of zines. [WWW document]. URL
http://www.zinebook.com/directory/zine-history.html
Perkins, S. (2002). Approaching the 80s zine scene. [WWW document].
URL http://www.zinebook.com/resource/perkins.html
UMI Research Collections. (2002). Pamphlets in American history. [WWW
document]. URL
http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/Research/Files/308.html
Timeline compiled by D. Blandy
PowerPoint layout by M. Finison