We’ve Still Got Zines: A Series on Print, Protest, and Possibility

Inside bookstores in San Francisco like Silver Sprocket and Bound Together Books, you’ll find racks of smaller booklets and pamphlets on stand-alone racks or perched on the front counter, some from publishing houses like Microcosm Books and some DIY eight-fold booklets direct from the hands of artists and creatives. These are called zines. Zines can be very difficult to define, as they have evolved with several counter-cultural movements since their inception in the mid to late 20th century. Zine expert Dr. Stephen Duncombe of NYU writes in his book Notes from Underground that his impulse when people ask him to define a zine is to “hand over a stack of zines and let the person asking the question decide.”

This series about zines speaks to the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The use of zines by many creators as a means to share information, reflect on injustice, and create more access points for art highlights their role as powerful grassroots tools that democratize knowledge, foster civic engagement, and amplify marginalized voices often left out of mainstream discourse.

San Francisco is part of the Northern California region, the Bay Area. The region—home to both this infamous city and the notoriously moneyed Silicon Valley—embodies the extremes of American wealth inequality. As of this year, the average cost of a house in San Francisco is $1,272,219, while the average cost of a house in the Bay Area is $1,155,199. Meanwhile, the number of houseless folks across the Bay continues to creep upward, as do city sweeps of homeless encampments. 

Zines have historically been created by people whose voices were, and are, pushed to the margins of society, politics, and culture. In the Mental Floss’ “A Brief History of Zines,” Chloe Arnold writes that the first zine is often traced back to a publication in the 1930s by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. The technological innovations of the ‘70s, particularly the photocopier and copy shop, allowed zine-makers to copy and print cheap zines. From an interview in 2016, punk zine maker Steven Samiof (who created the fanzine Slash with Melanie Nissan) told Dazed magazine that in the 1970s, someone could pay $800 for 5,000 copies, “and that would be the actual printing cost.” Although zines were still booming in popularity in countercultural spaces like punk until as recently as the end of the 20th century, they are far less regularly circulated now. They are, however, still being printed and circulated—if you know where to look. 

While this series will spotlight zines I encounter while living in the Bay Area, it will also highlight some zines and some creators from outside the Bay Area. I remain committed to showcasing the cultural impact of Bay Area zines, but there are zines by many creators from many places that have moved me and countless others that also deserve a spotlight. 

Dr. Stephen Duncombe, in an interview with Arts Help, said that the zine culture or scene of the 1990s that he was a part of 'no longer exists.' While this is true, zines have survived nonetheless, existing in as many forms as there are definitions of the medium. For instance, zine creator Jack (also known as Genderplasmic online) showcases their work on a stylized website they created, demonstrating some of the artistry they bring to their zines. Their work includes titles like The DIY Guide to Making your own Tux Dress, F–-k u I Love Punks, and Feminist Disability Zine among others. Jay has started a monthly zine titled Paper Rag in an attempt to “escape the algorithm,” made to physically fit in an envelope and easily mailed out to readers. Paper Rag is filled with political satire, poetry, articles, and more, through which he welcomes contributors who are all paid for their work. Evolving formats—whether digital, handmade, or mailed—show that while the 1990s zine scene may no longer exist in the same way, its radical ethos of autonomy, inclusion, and disruption continues to shape how creators communicate and connect today.

Zines in the Bay Area can be found in a tremendous number of places and from a variety of creative outlooks. The same is true for zines made outside of the Bay. Though, if there were ever such a thing as quintessential counterculture, Bay Area zines would fit the bill. Situated in a state that is now the fourth largest economy in the world—home to vast concentrations of both wealth and poverty and a tech elite that increasingly doubles as a political one—the Bay Area remains the birthplace of many social movements. If that doesn’t encapsulate the contradictions and tensions at the heart of America, what does? Zines exist in the heart of this tension, as their creators continue to try to find a way through it by pitching art as a mirror to society, a form of resistance, and a tool for the re-imagination of our futures.