As I mentioned in Saturday’s post, it was the 25th anniversary of my move to New York yesterday. 1993 was also the year I started publishing my fanzine, fishwrap with artistic and layout help from my friend, Clare. Zines have been around for decades but in the mid ‘90’s they really took off and I was right there in the middle of this zine revolution, for whatever that was worth.

I was proud of fishwrap. We had nationwide distribution, it sold well and we got some decent publicity. Here’s something from the NY Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and Spin magazine made us the “Mag of the Month.” There was a lot of other press including write-ups in Sassy, USA Today, New York Post, Men’s Journal and others. Recently Jonathan Wright wrote a nice article in Peoria Art & Society magazine about myself and his father Dave Wright being desktop pioneer publishers and there’s a nice chunk of that feature devoted to the fishwrap years and you can read that here. This is my personal remembrance of my time in the zine bubble from Marty After Dark.

I met a lot of like-minded and creative people publishing zines back then and I feel like zines were the underground press of the ‘90’s and I’m happy that I was a part of it. Of course then the internet came along and wrecked the whole scene, but I’m glad to have the memories. So in honor of those pre-internet memories here’s a half a dozen zine related articles and then then there’s the weekly MBIP Coming Attractions!

A Brief History of Zines - This history of zines article shows that zines were first published in the sci-fi world back in the '30's. In the ‘70’s copy shops and punk rock changed the direction of the zine world and it shifted again in the ‘90’s due to the riot grrrl movement and computers.

With zines, the ’90s punk scene had a living history - I like the way this writer compares zines to blogs and notes how getting a zine in the mail was much more exciting than getting a notice in your email.

Zines of the 80s and 90s - A great collection of varied zine covers from the two decades. There was some wonderful artwork that came from zine covers.

Teen Zine Queens - Zines have made a comeback, but they’re now primarily online magazines. Times change and so do zines.

Why the Internet Didn’t Kill Zines - As this New York Times Magazine piece reveals, the internet didn’t kill zines, but it did change the culture and zines are have become what vinyl albums are today. I think the last paragraph in this article says it all perfectly!

E. 7th Shift - While looking for articles on zines on the internet, which is somewhat ironical unto itself, I came across this post on Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York which mentions See Hear. See Hear was a New York City fazine/comic book store in the East Village and if they carried your zine, it was a badge of honor. I was thrilled when they agreed to carry fishwrap and I have a comment on this post about that! It’s the sixth one down and it’s from 2011!

I finally got to have my Saturday night dinner at Rumberger's on Main Street after being shut down last week! They have a full menu there and I got something other than chicken wings and you can find out what I had tomorrow! Tuesday is our 6th week of the 13 month chicken tour and Jon Wright and I sampled some pollo at a Mexican restaurant for this week’s motherclucking chicken post. Wednesday will be a Peoria food duel between a member of the Chain Gang versus a Local Peoria Legend. I’m going to Portillo’s and the Spotted Cow to see who has the best Italian Beef and Chili Cheese Dog in Peoria! Thursday we’ll feature a random Peorian for the People of Peoria series and Friday will be the weekly MBIP Drink of the Week! Then there’s the Saturday Suggestions and then we’ll be back to another round of Sunday Links.

The wheel keeps spinning round and round and I have to keep running on it, so we’ll see you all tomorrow!

Related Posts: Sunday Links: Howard Stern and Donald Trump, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Andy Warhol.

Seen your pictures in the zines...

Surprise link...click on it, I dare you!

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WEEKLY CHURCH OF ROCK PLUGOLA!

I do a weekly MBIP segment on the radio show The Church Of Rock which is broadcast live on Sunday nights, worldwide out of Oregon on Sunday nights. Every week I pick a song and give a little talk about it before the song is played on the show. The hosts of the show are Rev. Derek Moody (some of you know him as Bloody Mess) and Sister Tracy. The show starts at 9PM CST and my segment will air around 9:15PM! The song I chose for this week is one by Herman's Hermits and we'll be talking about how it was on the first album I ever bought, "The Best of Herman's Hermits Vol. II."

You can listen live by streaming from the KSKQ website right here! You should also check out the Church of Rock YouTube channel with archived interviews with everyone from GG Allin to Davy Jones!