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Guide to the West Coast Zines Collection
MS-0278
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Collection Title: West Coast Zines Collection
Dates: 1985-2011
Identification: MS-0278
Creator:
West Coast Zines
Physical Description: 25.00 linear ft
Repository:
Special Collections & University Archives
5500 Campanile Dr. MC 8050
San Diego, CA, 92182-8050
URL: http://library.sdsu.edu/scua
Email: scref@rohan.sdsu.edu
Phone: 619-594-6791
Zines are informal, personal mini-magazines on virtually any topic, written, published, and distributed by their creators.
The incredible breadth of zines make it difficult to classify them but several areas of focus consistently emerge such as
the political, personal, network, scene, grrrl/girl, art, fringe culture, sex, religious, health, vocational, travel, and
literary zine, as well as comix, and many, many more. Throughout their history, a unique and important publishing network
has been developed by the dedication of both zine creators and their readers. A large and complex subculture revolves around
the distribution of this literature where "zinesters" have created a self-supported underground rich with resourcefulness,
networking, and interaction. While types of zines and their content are as unique as the individuals who create them, all
zines present a social, if not political, challenge. Backed by a hardboiled Do-It-Yourself ethic, zines become a form of cultural
rebellion where individuals take initiative, community develops, and a movement is born.
Zines have been in circulation for over sixty years. The term comes from fan magazine. Fan magazines were first created in
the early 1930's by Science Fiction fans and often published by Sci-Fi club founders. These productions served as a way to
share science fiction stories and commentary and to widen communication between fans. Amazing Stories, published by Hugo Gernsback
in 1926, was the first creation of its kind. In the 1970's, fan magazines became known as "fanzines" as they were adopted
by the growing punk rock music scene in response to its neglect by and criticism of the mainstream music press. The world
of fanzines became greatly influenced by the punk scene as alternative music and politics met face to face. Early examples
of these fanzines were Punk and the now infamous Sniffin' Glue. By the 1980's, streams of publications by fans of other cultural
genres entered the scene, mixing with the writings of discouraged, disgruntled authors and the printed leftovers of 1960's-1970's
political dissent. At this time, fan was dropped and zine became the umbrella term for all genres encompassed within this
form of alternative press.
This collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Feminism
Gender
Music
Politics
Popular culture
Transgender people
Women
Young women
2002-present
The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with
the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Identification of item, folder title, box number, West Coast Zines Collection, Special Collections and University Archives,
Library and Information Access, San Diego State University.
The
West Coast Zines Collection consists of Fan Magazines and Zines dating from 1985 to the present. Topics include feminism, gender, sexuality, and women's
issues which generally cross race, class, and geographic boundaries. A few examples of girl print zines collected in the
SDSU Special Collections Archive include
Glue Magazine,
El Sueno de Venus,
Oya,
Hip Mama, and
Wive's Tales. Zines in the collection are arranged alphabetically by title. Author, date and volume, place of publication, and category
(i.e. music, technology, feminism, etc) are also included in each zine description.