Talk:Fanzine
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Regarding "punkzine"
Punkzine has not, is not, probably never will be a widely used to term to describe punk rock fanzines. Punk zine, as two words, is a different matter altogether and perfectly acceptable. Punkzine as a neologism is not.
Compare:
- punkzine - 2030 hits on google
- "punk zine" (two words, not one, quoted search) - 3,990 hits on google
- punk zine (two words, unquoted) - 180,000 hits on google
And I do know what I'm talking about, maintaining one of the largest punk zine libraries on the east coast (dating from 1976 to the present).
- See my reply at Talk:Punkzine quercus robur 00:24, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)
while i am in no position to disagree with the statement, the google stats are not valid evidence. A two word term will always garner more hits than a compound, and the same is true for an unquoted or quoted term.
I wonder whether Paul Williams' "Crawdaddy!" belongs in the Fanzine category. I believe he also came out of SF fandom, but at some point early on, "Crawdaddy!" became a "prozine." My sense (and I'm not an expert on this) is that was always his intention. Even though it started out as a homemade mimeo zine from a teenager, he initially sent it to potential advertisers, with talk of national distribution. There's no doubt that "Crawdaddy!" is important in the history of rock journalism, but if it is to be listed as a fanzine, its move into prozine status, at which point it could no longer be called a fanzine, should be described. Also, links to Paul Williams(editor) and Crawdaddy!(magazine) need to be created--the link now sends you to Crayfish.
[edit] problems with recent "sophisticating" of the history
Recent edits that claimed to be "correcting and sophisticating" the piece have inserted problems that need to be addressed. The origins of fanzines have been rewritten, and the original fanzines are now claimed to be 19th century amateur literary publications. If true, this claim needs substantiation--some specifics about these publications, and some clarification as to why those publications count as fanzines (as opposed to precursors to fanzines). Since the concept of fanzine didn't occur until sixty-five years after those amateur literary pubications were first produced, and since the concept was not, to my knowledge, applied to those early apas when it did appear (please feel free to correct me with some citations), this seems like dubious history. I'm not an expert here: if there are historians who agree that those were the first fanzines, we should report that. Otherwise, we can mention those as early examples of amateur presses, but talk about "fanzines" as a development within SF fandom in the 1930s, which is what every account that I've ever come across has stated.
Another change to the definition was introduced in that edit, changing the subject matter of fanzines from "a particular cultural phenomena (such as a literary genre or type of music)" to "a particular subject." Thus, fanzines can apparently be devoted to gardening, cancer treatments, macroeconomics, etc. I don't think this is accurate: while there may indeed be amateur publications discussing such topics, a fanzine, in my view, needs to be connected to a community of devotees of a cultural form. BTfromLA 2 July 2005 18:10 (UTC)
[edit] Fanatic & Fantasy
many times catch phrases have a dual purpose / meaning.. im not sure about this but i would be willing to make a good guess that fanzine not only implies a magaZINE created by a "FAN"atic but also a "FAN"tasy publication. im putting this in the discussion section in the off chance that someone with sources might be able to back it up. at the very least, its a little observation 38.115.160.250 07:41, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Was Punk Magazine a fanzine?
I think it wasn't a fanzine, so I removed the paragraph about it. My reasoning: right from the start, it was professionally printed, carried advertising, and had national newsstand distribution. These seem to be contrary to any definition of fanzine of which I'm aware. BTfromLA 00:13, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
