Punk Zines Today

Over time, zines have changed and adapted to modern technology, society and trends. In this 21st century, technology has grown exponentially and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. During the 70's, photocopiers were the simplest and most cost effective way to create zines on mass, using methods such as cut and paste, staple binding and black and white imagery. Today things are significantly different.

If I were to create a zine today, I would open Adobe InDesign on my computer and digitally format and layout the individual pages. This allows me to check spelling, import high quality images, meticulously tweak dimensions and add a variety of digital effects that during the 70's would have only been possible in post, pre or during physical production. This digital file would then be sent to a printer, digitally printed, with the option of millions of colours to choose from. The next stage would then be binding which could be done through a machine or by hand. Nowadays, this process of creating a zine can be kept at a very cost effective budget, and reproduced at any time with the file saved, safely on a computer. Zines nowadays don't even have to be printed, but exported into a PDF format and uploaded to the Internet for millions to enjoy.

Despite this new method of zine creation, the zine hasn't lost its DIY origins. Millions of zines are still being created and distributed today, for a variety of different reasons and within a huge array of subcultures. However, to get a good idea of how punk zines have adapted to the modern day, let's follow some of the big names of the scene.

Cometbus, created by Aaron Cometbus was one of the biggest punk zine names of the 1980's. It began as an outlet for Aaron to write about his experiences, opinions and interviews with bands. Like with many zines, Cometbus became popular due to the Aaron's likeable nature, and his easy writing style. Throughout it's hayday, Cometbus was a black and white zine at an A5 size, however, as time has moved on and technology developed, Aaron decided to go down the route of seeking a publisher. Many could accuse him of 'selling out' (a subject I will be touching on later), however I believe Aaron saw it as meeting the demand. This adaptation to modern society does unfortunately take away many aspects of the DIY principle away from the product, however it's been deemed necessary for the zine to continue and to reach as many people who want it.

Some Will Never Know was a zine created in 2008 based in the Netherlands. It began as a paper format zine, with almost 100 pages, with a hugely positive response. Another issue was released in 2010, but due to the complicated and labourious nature of printing a 100 page zine, the zine in its entirety was taken online. This pattern of behaviour is fast becoming common in the zine community, with e-zines being highly cost effective, simpler and with a quicker turn around.

Ian P Moran, in his article Punk: The Do It Yourself Subculture, (2011) talks about how the distribution of zines are a projection of self-philsophy and a direct insight into the mind of the writer. Combined with the physical aesthetic of punk zines, the reader gets an idea of the process of thought involved with its creation. This personal connection is one that many worry is going to be lost with the introduction of the Internet into the zine community.

Ian P.Moran. (2011). Punk: The Do-It-Yourself Subculture. Social Sciences Journal. 10 (1), p7.