Back in 1994 I was living in New York City and was doing a lot of freelance writing. I was writing for a lot of the weekly papers out there like the Manhattan Spirit, NY Weekly, Our Town and the NY Press.
I had also cracked a couple of the daily papers and had written features for the NY Daily News and NY Newsday. I was having trouble getting a staff writing position, mainly because when an editor found out I didn’t go to college, it killed my chances of getting on to a full-time writing position.
Back then there was a huge community of people publishing magazines and publications known as fanzines or “zines.”
Zines were personal publications that people wrote and laid out on home computers and then output them themselves or at copy shops and small printers. I decided that since I wasn’t going to get a full-time job in mainstream media, I would publish my own zine and ridicule the world of magazines, newspapers and mainstream media.
The zine I created was called fishwrap and I wrote and published it for six years from 1994 to 2000 and it became a cult hit in the world of zines and it’s something I’ve always been proud of. My friend Clare was the art director and it started out as a black and white 12 page zine and eventually it grew into a 48 page glossy magazine with a four color cover.
Fishwrap
Here’s an issue from 1998 when fishwrap was four years old. It’s “Our First Annual Celebrities Who Skied Into Trees and Died About A Year And A Half Ago Issue!” By this time we had grown from a zine that I’d just hand out and sell from my apartment to a magazine with a distribution deal that got us into Barnes & Noble and other bookstores across the country.
Just like ZZ Top, we were bad and nationwide, baby!
This is one of the first pieces of publicity and it helped put fishwrap on the map in New York City. This was a feature about the zine in the New York Daily News and it gave the zine a lot of credibility in New York.
That picture of me was taken in a shop called See Hear which only sold fanzines and Ted the owner was real picky about the zines he sold. It took me three issues but he finally started stocking fishwrap and it was a proud moment for me to have the zine being sold in his store in the East Village.
Our very first piece of publicity happened in 1994 and Sassy magazine named us their, “Zine of the Month.” All of a sudden we had hundreds of teenaged girls subscribing to the zine. I always wonder what happened to those girls who’s minds were polluted by fishwrap!
The New York Post featured us in their Sunday Pulp Culture column in 1996.
The Chicago Tribune put us on the front page of their Tempo section and you can read that article online by clicking right here. I loved the fact that it mentioned how the PJ Star rejected me but I was able to get freelance writing assignments in New York City.
In 1995 we were the “Mag Of The Month” in Spin magazine, which broadened our readership greatly.
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The whole zine community that I was part of, kind of died around 2001 and the internet took over. Suddenly everyone was blogging and eventually I became part of that world.
I knew that there were still people publishing zines, but I didn’t know there was still a zine community out there. I recently saw and started following someone on Twitter who I noticed was publishing a zine and I asked her about it and she sent me a batch of her zines and told me that the world of zines was still alive and well.
That was great news and so now let me introduce you to…
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Jordi, The Scottish Zine Queen!
I started following Jordi on Twitter because I noticed in her profile it said, “DM TO BUY A ZINE.”
I asked her about her zine and lo and behold a couple weeks later this package arrived at the MBIP World Headquarters.
Jordi sent me a whole batch of her pocket-sized zines which she produces from where she lives in Glenrothes, Scotland.
This is a one-woman zine and she does all the graphics, writing and production and they’re very impressive. Most of them are music related and the small issues are jam-packed with fun histories of bands, playlists and cool graphics and photos.
I asked Jordi some questions about what it’s like doing a zine these days and you can read those questions and look at photos of her wonderful and entertaining zines below!
MBIP: Way back in the early ’90’s I was living in New York and created my zine, fishwrap. There was a real big zine community back then, is there a zine community these days?
Jordi: There is quite a niche scene for zines nowadays, mostly online, which is great because you get a bigger international audience.
MBIP: What inspired you to start doing your own line of zines?
Jordi: I wanted to write something about music and considered studying journalism, but I absolutely hate being told what to do. So I figured if wanted to do it my way, I’d have to make zines.
MBIP: Outside of social media, does your zine have any online appearance?
Jordi: Not especially, not yet at least.
MBIP: What are your hopes for your zines or are you just happy to be publishing them?
Jordi: I’m happy to just publish them but I’d really love to maybe write a proper book on music or one specific musician like Roddy Frame.
MBIP: How many copies of each zine do you usually produce?
Jordi: I usually print on demand when I need them, the folding part takes hours, so I don’t have any sort of back-stock or anything.
MBIP: Are they sold in stores or online?
Jordi: They’re mostly sold online through my Twitter page, Instagram or facebook. They’re also sold at Avalanche Records in Edinburgh.
MBIP: If someone wants to buy a zine from you, what the best way to do so?
Jordi: The best way is to message me on Twitter.
MBIP: Thanks Jordi, good luck to you and the next generation of zinesters!
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Related Posts: Fishwrap Smile and Fishwrap Photo Phun.