Not the capricious ramblings of isolated

cranks:

A zine chronology

100sUse 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.

105Paper refined and popularized in China by Ts’ai-Lin. Invented at least two centuries earlier in China.

1041Printing with movable type in China

1151First papermill in Europe (Spain)

1403First book printed with movable type in Korea

1450Gutenberg prints first book (the Bible) with movable type in Europe.

1500sAppearance in the British Isles of inexpensive ballad literature printed on one sheet of paper and folded twice or more to make a small pamphlet.

1690First papermill in what is now the US(Philadelphia).

1699The 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.

1760-1791American revolution pamphlets; most notable being Common Sense by Thomas Paine published in 1776.

1788-1791The US Constitution and Bill of Rights including the First Amendment.

1790-1870

1790The first United States copyright law enacted under the new U.S. Constitution. Books, maps, and charts protected.

1831First 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.

1825-1880Pamphlets associated with western expansionism in North America.

1850-1865Emancipation and Civil War pamphlets

1856Invention 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.

1874First perfected typewriter by Remington

before word processing…

1885First 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.”

Votes for Women!

1900 Increase leisure time and the rise of popular and mass culture

Invention of rotary stencil machine

1926Hugo 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.

1926-1930Science fiction associations and discussion groups formed.

1930The Comet published by the Science Correspondence Club believed to be the first fanzine

1930-1960mimeograph duplicating machine available

1944Xerography invented

1952World Copyright Union founded in Geneva

1960IBM Selectric Typewriter (multiple typefaces)

1960s/1970szines 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 1960sinexpensive offset printing used to create alternative newspapers association with the political unrest of the time, underground comics.

1966Paul Williams – Crawdaddy (rock and roll mimeo); Mojo Navigator

1967UPS (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.

1968artists interested in creating “artist’s books” at a high point

1970Artists Richard Kostelanetz and Henry Korn publish Assembling, a compilation of artists writings and images.

Mail art exhibit at the Whitney

1970sArtists magazines devoted to genres such as Surrealism, Fluxus, Situationists, Neo-Dada

Mid-1970sPunk rock zines begin to emerge to supplant mainstream music press

1976John 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 1970sinnumerable punk fanzines published

Birth of the DIY movement and indie music scene2

1980scopy machines and zine publishing combine, Kinko’s copy shops appear on street corners

Early 1980sMike Gunderloy published mimeographed list Factsheet Five. Within a few years turns into a 124 page magazine that proceeded to consume his entire life

reproduction made easy and free…

1981Bikini Girl – “I found freedom in high heels” – inspired Summer Star, Jig Saw, Girl Germs

1990sRiot 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

GRRLS

!

1990s cont.emergence of cyberpunk zines

Zines created with desk top publishing programs, ezines distributed via the WWW, zines distributed via CD-ROMs

1997Zined a video documentary by Marc Moscato

ENTER WORLD WIDE WEB…

1998Independent 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

2002Zine 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 "high-brow" 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