80s Fanzines - Classic Or Dud?

Such an enormous presence that I think I asked this question before, long ago - but I couldnt find it in any of the likely places.

Conflict by G. Conloy.

I'd second Conflict. I don't think Gerard ever recovered from putting out such a great magazine. I know I'd have hated myself if I'd ever got as halfway successful as him after creating something as good as that. (chuckles)

And, of course, there was Forced Exposure.

Don't forget all the football fanzines in the 80s which revolutionised the way sport was written about in this country - and still enjoy great success with their dedicated audiences.

Don't forget Viz, either - started off with 100 copies, I believe.

Alistair doesn't actually edit anyone on Tangents, does he? That's one of its simultaneous great strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you could say the same about most webzines, indeed most fanzines. Maybe that's why CTCL isn't a fanzine? Is that the determining factor?

Because I just got the new issue in the mail, Bananafish?

I mainly read Diplomacy fanzines in the '80s.

Why Music Sucks (circ. circa 12) = most important fanzine EVAH?

never really got any fanzines myself,although there have been a few good freesheets in dublin over the years that i would occassionaly come across....however,my uncle had a fuckload of punk fanzines from the early nineties..most of them consisted mainly of reviews of impossibly obscure bands in tiny print,but there was one which i read quite a bit of called cometbus which was fairly interesting...basically it was a diary consisting of anecdotes about the american punk scene,written by a guy called aaron cometbus...a google search yields a few places to buy issue 45 or something online,but thats about it...anyone know anything about it?i'd love to find an online archive or something...

Huge amounts of my musical aesthetic were formed by the second and final issue of _Too Fun Too Huge!_ by Patrick Amory, who is now the general manager of Matador U.S. Really remarkably insightful and openminded and articulate.

Thurston Moore used to do a zine called _Killer_.

Mike McGonigal of _Chemical Imbalance_ is now starting a new label called Sad Robot.

I have no idea what kind of cultural capital Nancy Bonnell-Kangas of _Nancy's Magazine_ wields these days, but in my mind she is the czar of the American library system.

Another one from the American front -- Jack Rabid's The Big Takeover. Exhaustive and influential in its own way, though both for better and for worse generally divorced from engaging with the pop mainstream.

Kogan rates Cometbus (in fact i think the first thing FK evah wrote was in Cometbus): I've never seen it

I have some cometbus, which is still going strong. Lovely 'zine, tho less of a fanzine and more simply a well-written self-published literary project.

Good gawd, you'd think I don't know any html. RollerDERB Y

off the top of my head:

• Tim Ellison - Rock Mag/Modern Rock
• Mike McGonigal - Chemical Imbalance/Yeti/NoBrow
• Gerard Cosloy - Conflict
• Byron Coley - Forced Exposure/Spin
• Matt Kelly - Cool Beans
• Weasel Walter - Nice Slacks
• Tim Adams - Ajax/Pope
• Jay Hinman - Superdope
• Matthew St. Germain - The Continental
• Scott Rutherford - Speed Kills
• Chris Woo - Titanium Expose
• Thurston Moore - Ecstatic Peace/Killer

My beloved Swellsville, edited by Jack Thompson.

Tim Anstaett's _Offense_/_Offense Newsletter_, compulsory reading for US Anglophiles in the '80s.

Rollerderby is the alpha and omega here.

I want to be a pedant. Please?

Rollerderby was not an 80s 'zine.

Tips of the hat to CONFLICT, THE OFFENSE, FORCED EXPOSURE, A. McGee's COMMUNICATION BLUR, and from my personal Eighties neck of the woods - that being the Maryland/DC/Va. metropolitan area - CAPITAL CRISIS, THE INFILTRATOR, NOW WHAT?, THRILLSEEKER, MOST THINGS SUCK, TEENAGE GIRL DEBS, and last but not least, the late great TRULY NEEDY (Barbaranne Rice, editorix extraordinaire, now working as a paralegal in some godforsaken upstate Maryland backwater last I heard - quell horror). Sure would love to find copies of SCARED TO GET HAPPY and CAFF, though...JUNIOR BOYS OWN even, or was that more 90's?

Most of the British zines I read were from the North of England. The only Northern zine I remember that might be considered influential was "Ablaze" edited by Karren Ablaze in Yorkshire.

I lived in the North-West during the 80s and the two local zines I remember the best were "The Plane Truth" and "Blast Off!". "The Plane Truth" was edited by Andrew Truth in Preston. It reviewed lots of weird American bands such as the Happy Flowers and also featured noisy local bands such as the Dandelion Adventure. "Blast Off!" was edited by James Scanlon in Merseyside. He interviewed famous bands such as the Fall, R.E.M. and the Pixies when they did gigs in Liverpool. Articles were also written about local groups such as Barbel and Benny Profane.

I also read lots of U.K. hardcore punk zines. The only one I really remember is "Last Train to Cubesville".

"Factsheet Five" was an important American mag that listed hundreds of obscure zines. Through "Factsheet Five" I discovered "Retro- Futurism" which was the Tape-Beatles' fanzine.

Most of the zines I read in the 80s never had any far-reaching or long-lasting influence on anything but they were still classic because they reflected particular musical scenes very well. Most of the gigs I saw as a teenager were reviewed in local zines.

Fanzines also helped support a D.I.Y. tape network. I sent away for loads of obscure tapes that I saw listed in fanzines.

The only zine worth a damn was Ugly American -- they've turned me onto so many good records that I never would've thought to buy on my own that I wouldn't even know where to start...

hi joseph,

i don't think Ugly American was published in the 80's. I thought about that one too.

^_^

Factsheet 5 has come across tough times (or has been in tough times for a while.) The editors kept changing,

Cometbus is a great longstanding tradition, I agree. It's not as much about music, as it's sort of a personal handwritten diary/running commentary from one guy -- Aaron Cometbus. And other classic great zines like Dishwasher, and Beer Frame (though Beer Frame is more '90s.) I love Beer Frame.

― geeta, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)