* * *

Avant de reprendre une activité de fond épique (quelques billets longs patientent dans un coin de ma tête), nous proposons aujourd’hui la collecte d’une activité parallèle menée plus ou moins tous les mercredis (anciennement les lundis)  sur le site 1 fanzine par jour (créé par Jean-Philippe Garçon de 6 Pieds sous terre). Le principe y est simple, chaque jour, un chroniqueur déterre un fanzine -plus ou moins oublié- de sa collection. Ci-dessous, donc, la liste des participations de m. Petipont. Que cela ne vous empêche pas de consulter les autres missives des confrères*. Merci.

[cliquez sur les titres pour accéder aux billets]

Sweet sixteen, de Noga Rauch - – - Les Aventures de Daniel Cressan racontées par l’auteur, de Daniel Cressan – - - La revue de poésie argentine collective,Vox - – -  Cabot comix h-s #1, de Archie Parker – - - Le Livre de moi, de Julio Nesi – - – Blend Awake #1, du collectif rôliste éponyme – - - Package #5, de Steve Ditko – - - Les Eaux stagnantes, de Tristan Séré de Rivières – - – Vertébrale #1, collectif sous la direction de Maya Minhindou – - – Ultra-Violette, de Sylvain Moizie et Cº – - – Querencias, partie 1&2 (anonymes) – - – Le Grand Vide, d’Alain Munoz – - – Barbicue, de F.A. Byron Rink – - – Mes Fesses froides, de François Moll – - – Munpitz nr.1, de Andy – - – Miam-miam, de Benjamin Zafra – - – Troll-on, de Benjamin Bergman – - – Le Majeur / Badabing !, du collectif Sous Presse BLM – - - Des animaux morts Une vie ailleurs, de Sylvain Bouillard – - –  Michelle Mag (anonyme) – - – Ma Nuit Emily Nirlo, de Tristan Séré de Rivières et K. – - –  Popo Color #2 (collectif ) – - – Smells like teen spirit, de Charlotte Fréreau – - -

(cette liste sera mise à jour régulièrement)

- – - – - – - – - – - – -

* Confrères qui sont actuellement : Big Ben, June Julien Misery, Maël Ranou, Guénolé Boillot en feat. exclusif, et Philippe Dumez.

]]> http://robberie.com/2012/09/07/mini-interview-in-candy-twist-magazine/ Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:36:24 +0000 robin http://robberie.com/2012/09/07/mini-interview-in-candy-twist-magazine/

Candy Twist fanzine issue 3

The new issue of indiepop fanzine Candy Twist is out and we’re chuffed to say it includes a mini interview with us. Our copies haven’t arrived yet but we were asked about our first records, concerts plus the first bands that caught our eye, so the interview should include some of that vital information. You can probably guess that our answers were pretty uncool!

The magazine is 108 pages long and it looks like a cracking issue, with lots of good stuff including interviews with Allo Darlin’ and MJ Hibbett, an Indietracks journal by Colour Me Wednesday and a nice bit of Sheffield courtesy of a mini interview with Nat Johnson and our friend Pete Green contributing to a round table piece.

You can order a copy for just €0,75 plus shipping from candytwistfanzine.blogspot.nl.

Meanwhile, we all seem to have chosen different weeks to go on holiday over the summer so we’re still trying to squeeze in band practices where we can. Last weekend we were pleased to finally have our first get together in what seems like aaages. Hopefully we’ll be back up to speed soon!

I’ve already mentioned how I faded away from collecting fanzines in the late-1990s, and have only really rekindled the passion for zines again over the past five years or so. I’ve seen some really big changes since I came back to collecting fanzines again. The number of print zines has obviously declined drastically over the years, at least since I last collected fanzines on a regular basis, back in the mid-1990s. Things are obviously very different nowadays compared to how they were “back then”, and many former zine editors and writers have either turned professional, or moved on to different creative activities, totally unrelated to fanzines.

At one point, particularly in the 2000-2005 period, I was beginning to think that the traditional paper Doctor Who fanzine had become an extinct species (which is the main reason I didn’t get back into them again much sooner). But fortunately there are still a few traditional paper zines out there, if you look hard enough for them, and there seems to have been a minor resurgence in Doctor Who zines in recent years, most likely as a result of the popularity of the modern Doctor Who television series.

Of the modern DW “paper” zines, I’ve managed to get together a nice little collection of a few of the best:

Richard Farrell produces the excellent Plaything of Sutekh, a new A5 kid on the block, which has two issues under its belt so far. This one certainly looks like it’s going to be a front-runner among the new breed of Doctor Who zines. Richard also produces the equally excellent Andersonic, another high-quality A5 zine dedicated to the Gerry Anderson television shows, in particular the two live shows, UFO and Space: 1999. Both of Richard’s zines are inspired by the classic Circus, which he was a great fan of (and a contributor to, if I recall correctly). This should give you an idea of how high the quality is of both these zines.

Oliver Wake produced seven issues of the excellent Panic Moon, a sexy little A6 Doctor Who zine, before calling it a day. Most of the issues are still available from him.

Grant Bull edited three issues of Blue Box, before moving onto bigger things. Blue Box is an unashamedly retro/cheapo A5 zine, deliberately produced in the old pre-computer DTP style, paying tribute to the classic cut ‘n’ paste photocopied Doctor Who zines of yesteryear.

Kenny Smith has just put out the 12th issue of The Finished Product, an excellent A5 zine dedicated to the niche market of Big Finish audio adventures of the Doctor and his companions.

Richard Bignall has produced three issues of the classy Nothing at the End of the Lane, a huge A4 prozine of incredible quality, dedicated to behind the scenes aspects of Doctor Who. Issue three is available directly from him, and an omnibus of the first two issues is available from Lulu.com.

Colin Brockhurst and Gareth Kavanagh have put out two issues of the simply amazing Vworp Vworp!, another high-quality and colorful A4 prozine which pays tribute to the classic official Doctor Who Monthly/Magazine of days gone by.

Most of the above still have a few back issues in stock. All fans of Doctor Who, or of fanzines, or of both, should do themselves a huge favour and try out some of these zines. They cover a wide range of types, from tiny A6, through traditional A5 (both retro cut ‘n’ paste and more slick DTP), to gorgeous, full-sized A4 glossy colour prozines. They also cover an enormous range of subject matter, but each and every one of them is stuffed to the gills with amazing Doctor Who (and in the case of Andersonic, Gerry Anderson) goodness.

They’re unmissable gems, every single one of them, and there’s absolutely nothing on the newsstands remotely as good, as enjoyable or as deserving of your meagre pennies. Support these zines, buy a copy of each, and encourage the editors to keep producing these wonderful slices of fannish goodness. I know one thing for sure – my life would be a lot poorer and less interesting without them.

There are also many other fanzines out there, both physical/paper and electronic, most of which I haven’t gotten around to trying out yet (but I will). Go find them, and enjoy. Happy hunting!

The earliest zines that I collected date from the 1970s and early 1980s, and were mostly based around SF literature and comics. But these were sporadic, one-off zine purchases, and I didn’t really become a hardcore zine collector until well into the 1980s. The pattern of zine purchases in that latter period was also different to what it had been before, in that most of the zines that I collected from the mid-80s onwards were deliberate, regular purchases of individual titles, in order to have a complete collection of each of my favourite zines. The pattern was also different in that the vast majority of these newer zines were based around my favourite sci-fi television series, rather than SF literature and comics.

My first regular fanzine (which I have every issue of, more than twenty of them) was published in the mid-80s, the excellent Flickers ‘n’ Frames, a reviewzine, which now has its direct descendant on the internet in the form of The Borderland website. Flickers ‘n’ Frames ran the gamut of pretty much everything, publishing reviews of sci-fi films, TV series, books, graphic novels, music, and the occasional piece of fiction. This one zine pretty much kick-started my current obsession with collecting zines, and I immediately moved on to collecting other fanzines, mostly based around telefantasy and SF.

My main fanzine collecting years coincided with what is known as the “Golden Age” of Doctor Who fanzines, circa 1985-1995. And so most of the zines in my collection are therefore based on Doctor Who, which just happens also to be my favourite ever TV sci-fi series. Although I’ve got quite a few non-Doctor Who zines in my collection, such as the previously mentioned Flickers ‘n’ Frames, and a large number of other zines covering various cult television shows ranging from Star Trek, to Blake’s 7 and the various Gerry Anderson TV shows, the bulk of my collection is made up of Doctor Who zines. That love of Doctor Who zines continues right up until the present day, and I still collect as many of the current batch of zines as I can.

The hoard of zines that I collected over the years covered many different themes and types, but most of them tended to fall into several different categories.

The first, and largest, category was the general review and article-based zines, which covered not only Doctor Who and other telefantasy series, but often other completely unrelated topics as well. They usually also included the occasional piece of fan fiction. These were mostly traditional A5 zines, and included (off the top of my head):

Circus (which also went A4 for several issues out of the eight-issue run).
Star-Begotten.
Soft Targets (A6).
625.
Brave New World.
Purple Haze.
Peladon.
Cygnus Alpha.
Auton.
Game of Rassilon.
Club Tropicana.
Burning the Ground.
the original Skaro.
Rumours.
Apocrypha.
Shockeye’s Kitchen.
Timelines (the fanzine of the Grand Order of the Time Lords).
Frontios.
Cybermag.
Sonic Screwdriver.
Queen Bat/Space Rat.
Eye of Harmony.
Vipod Mor.
Drake’s Drum (an A5 Star Trek zine).

and a few others that I can’t recall right now. But occasionally the zines were A4 and glossy (or sometimes not), such as:

Celestial Toyroom (the news/reviewzine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society).
Second Dimension.
Matrix.
Skaro.
Antoinine Killer.
Metamorph.
Metamorph II.
Shadowsphere.
Neutron Flow.
The Tomb.

and a few others that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

The second category was fictionzines, mostly A5 but sometimes A4, zines composed almost totally of fan fiction based on Doctor Who, Star Trek or other telefantasy series. I’ve always had a soft spot for good quality fan fiction, so I have a LOT of fictionzines in my collection, including:

A5:
Mandria.
Silver Carrier and many other one-off fictionzine “novels” by the excellent Seventh Door Fanzines.
Chronicle.
Cosmic Masque (the fictionzine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society).
Inner Door.
The Key and The Key Presents.
the various Gallifreyan Presses publications.

A4:
Inferno Fiction.
Fan Aid – The Storytellers.
Wondrous Stories.
Black Pyramid.
Universal Dreamer.
Vortex.
Trenchcoat (US Letter).
Myth Makers (US Letter).

and, again, quite a few others that I can’t recall right now. Again, mostly Doctor Who zines.

The third category was the larger A4, glossy (and often more colourful) semiprozines such as:

The Frame, which contained an enormous amount of photographs and background information on Doctor Who.
DWB, which started off as a semi-prozine dedicated to Doctor Who, but then morphed into Dreamwatch Bulletin and finally the professional newsstand magazine Dreamwatch, which covered telefantasy and sci-fi cinema of all shades.
Century 21 (based, obviously, around Gerry Anderson shows).
Portal 31 (a tribute to the classic TV21 comic).

There are quite a few other zines that I haven’t mentioned, as this is all from memory, but this is a good sub-section of them, all falling into the three categories which cover most of the zines in my collection.

To Be Continued…

Den första juni 2013 släpptes The riot grrrl collection. Biblioteket Fales Library i New York har en gedigen samling av texter, film, aktivism, bilder, videoklipp, originalkonst samt dokumentation av konst och performance. Samlingen är från åren mellan 1989 – 1996.

Lisa Darms är grundare av The riot grrrl collection. Tillsammans med Johanna Fateman (musiker, producent och medlem i bandet Le Tigre) och Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, Julie Ruin) har hon sammanställt innehållet.

The riot grrrl collection och Grrrl collection har ingen direkt anknytning mer än att vi är riot grrrls som ser vikten av att dokumentera, spara och minnas kvinnliga kreatörer.

Jag har beställt min kopia av boken och väntar med spänning på att få den på posten.
Ni kan köpa den via Feministpress eller Adlibris.

Här kan ni höra Kathleen Hanna läsa riot grrrl-manifestet.

Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna : The Riot Grrrl Manifesto from Bicephaly Pictures on Vimeo.

Printing has always been a major source of grief and expense for zine publishers. Most printers deal in print runs of thousands or tens of thousands, and the more copies printed, the cheaper the cost of each individual copy. But fanzine editors deal with tiny print runs, maybe two or three hundred zines at most. This makes printing individual zines extremely expensive, relatively speaking. And once this is done, the zine editor also has to deal with the trouble and expense of mailing out a couple of hundred fanzines. A guy (or girl) has to be pretty dedicated to do this on a regular basis.

Since the second half of the 1990s, the explosive growth and widespread accessibility of the internet has given the vast majority of former and new zine creators a much easier and cheaper option. Many of these creative types have turned instead to producing online fanzines. Websites and blogs are now, for most editors and readers, the online equivalent of classic fanzines. They are certainly a lot easier and cheaper to produce, cutting out altogether the problematic and expensive final stages of dealing with print shops and postal distribution.

Except for the most dedicated tradzine publishers, most zine editors no longer go to the expense and trouble of doing it the old way, printing and posting out a small (but relatively expensive) print run of a couple of hundred zines. Why bother, when making the zine an online edition instead is much easier, has a potential audience of thousands, rather than hundreds, and costs virtually nothing to produce?

Some other editors have taken a “half-way” approach. Rather than translating the fanzine to a full website or blog format, they produce their zines as PDFzines, which are then made downloadable from their websites. PDF is a print format, used almost universally by the modern printing industry in the publication of magazines and books. An electronic PDF zine is the exact equivalent of the printed zine, except on a computer screen. Actually it often looks better, since you have the full-color, highest quality version of the zine. Most zine editors simply cannot afford to have their zines printed out in colour, on high-quality, glossy stock, and instead resort to black & white (even if the on-screen version of the zine is in colour), and cheaper paper.

For some people, zines in high-resolution PDF format are extremely useful if they actually want to print out the fanzine themselves, on a colour inkjet printer, and on nice, high-quality, glossy paper. Some of us more obsessive collectors even like to collect entire runs of their electronic/PDFzines. Maybe not quite as nice as a collection of paper zines, but a bit more coherent and less disjointed than a bunch of webpages.

To Be Continued…

(From Backlash, August-September 1988, p. 1)

J.R. Higgins’ article was about the rumors going around Mother Love Bone, a super-group made up of members of Malfunkshun, Green River, and Ten Minute Warning. Jokingly, it quotes frontman Andrew Wood on what would happen to the band after hitting the big time: “we won’t forget Seattle,” he said, “until we come back and we’re all at the Coliseum and we’re like, ‘Hello Portland! How ya doin! and everyone boos.”

Dawn Anderson’s piece was about how a stalwart of the Seattle punk scene left town and started a band in Los Angeles (hint: the group had a name that combined both guns and roses). Anderson playfully included old quotes from the migrant punk rocker, Andrew “Duff” McKagan on the topics of selling-out and community.

This fanzine page offers a glimpse into the Seattle music community in 1988. At the time nobody knew, of course, what would happen three years later. What folks did see was a) local musicians on the threshold of the supposed fame and fortune that comes along with signing a major-label contract and b) a guy that left the community for greener pastures and it had panned out.

Everyone knows that things ended up ok financially for McKagan. Mother Love Bone, unfortunately, ended up with a huge debt when Andrew Wood passed away on the eve of the release of Apple, their debut LP. The surviving band members were fronted a lot of money by their record company, which was now almost impossible to pay back.

Luckily, two of the members of Mother Love Bone, Jeff Ament and Stone Gosssard went on to form Pearl Jam. But the musicians mentioned in Backlash showcases the tension between local music scenes and major labels, and the dangers posed by being drawn further into the depths of the music industry.

…………

I’m really serious about the content warning.
This essay is potentially triggering and extremely NSFW.

…………

At the Toronto Comic Arts Festival last weekend, Picturebox announced their plan to publish a bara manga anthology titled Massive. This news has been met with congratulations from all corners of English-language manga fandom, which is fantastic, because congratulations are in order.

What this excitement has occasionally been accompanied by, however, are snide comments about BL manga. To summarize and simplify these comments:

Male sexuality is BEAUTIFUL.
Female sexuality is GROSS.

Pornography drawn by men is ART.
Pornography drawn by women is TRASH.

Male sexual fetishes are EXCITING AND REVOLUTIONARY.
Female sexual fetishes are DESTROYING FEMINISM AND/OR LGBT RIGHTS FOREVER.

In other words:

Bara manga is GOOD.
BL manga is BAD.

This sort of mentality is often accompanied by essentializing statements such as:

All bara manga is AUTHENTIC.
All BL manga is HOMOPHOBIC.

The idea behind the above sentiment seems to be that, while all bara manga is always, by its very nature, an accurate depiction of the realities of the gay male lifestyle (note that there is apparently only one gay male lifestyle), BL manga, because it is always drawn by straight women, cannot accurately depict the concerns of gay men.

Okay, so if bara manga is always an accurate depiction of the gay male lifestyle…

…then Tagame Gengorō’s one-shot manga “Standing Ovations” (pictured above), which is about a boxer who is drugged and forced to become a slave and repeatedly raped in front of a live audience, is apparently an accurate representation of the reality of what it means to be a gay man.

In another of Tagame’s stories…

…titled “Arena” (pictured above), a boxer is drugged and forced to become a slave and repeatedly raped in front of a live audience. Except he’s eventually chemically lobotomized, and he ends up loving the rape, so it’s not really rape anymore!

Wow. I had no idea that all gay men everywhere in the world are either attending or participating in these sorts of rape battles.

This makes me wonder about bisexual men, or straight men who participate in group sex. Do those guys have their own separate rape battles, or are they just not invited to the rape battles? What about transgender men? Do they still get to go to the rape battles? And what about the gay men who aren’t interested in rape battles? Do they still get to be gay? Or am I just being a silly vagina-head by assuming that all gay men are not all totally alike?

But wait! It turns out that Tagame also wrote stories that were published in BL magazines like June, as well as magazines that have a balanced male/female readership, such as Kinniku Otoko:

“I wrote ‘Hairy Oracle’ knowing that half of the readers were going to be women, so I tried to include some elements of romance and lightheartedness,” explains Tagame. “When I write for gay men’s magazines, it’s primarily about the hero’s initiative and interiority. When I know that women are also going to be reading it… they’re more interested in seeing actual relationships and coupling. So that’s a big difference when I go for writing for one or the other.”

Wait… So Tagame Gengorō has written BL manga… And BL manga is not authentic, because it’s all written by straight women… Which means that Tagame Gengorō is a straight woman?

My head just exploded.

Anyway, let’s consider the sick fantasies women have about gay men…

…like gay men in monogamous relationships raising children.

SO GROSS.

The really terrible thing about these twisted women is that they’re not content with stand-alone BL manga; they also have to get their dirty lady cooties on mainstream media as well. For example, Azuma Kiyohiko’s series Yotsuba to, which manga critic Kamiya Kōsetsu has called “an eternal summer vacation” meant to provide adult men with an escape from the real world, is a huge hit with adult women, who are attracted to the role-reversal of a single father raising a child and the strong friendships between the female characters. When these women get their filthy lady hands on the manga…

…they write dōjinshi fanzines that turn the escapist fantasy of the original manga into a serious exploration of adult male gay relationships and the social constraints against two men raising a child in Japan.

HOW DISGUSTING.

I am one hundred percent certain that it’s entirely possible to use different examples and thereby demonstrate how bara manga is not all about bondage and rape fetishes (it totally isn’t) and how some BL manga is nothing more than shallow, disposable pornography that conflates homosexuality with sexual deviance (some of it totally is). There is a great deal of porn in the world, and there is more than enough to go around. The point I’m trying to make here is that there is a wide variation in both bara and BL manga, and it’s useless to make absolute statements about the people who read and write manga belonging to either category.

According to Dan Savage, author of The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family, gay men can both be kinky and enjoy porn and raise children in stable families. In other words, gay men can have sexual fantasies and still be “normal” people; it’s not an issue of either/or.

So what about fujoshi, the women who read and write BL manga?

Here is a common conception of fujoshi:

The above image may seem like a caricature, but many critics have extremely uncharitable opinions of women who read manga.

In his Neo review of the BL manga periodical Dear+, Jonathan Clements mocks the magazine’s readers, saying, “one imagines an audience of shelf-stackers, burger-flippers and NEETS, smiling dreamily at the thought of a world where everyone can wear, and afford, posh clothes, and gets to sit in an office all day thinking of ways to sell perfume to people like them.” In other words, the women who read Dear+ are useless, lazy slackers who can’t get real jobs but like to fantasize about what a high-powered professional life in the creative industry is like through the bodies of the men who have these jobs in the real world. Right. Let’s put aside the realities of the professional world in Japan, where men do in fact hold jobs women are strongly discouraged from attaining, and assume that the glass ceiling exists because women are too wrapped up in the fantasies of BL manga to be functional adults. Obviously.

Clements concludes his essay with the argument that BL is more than a bit homophobic:

Dear Plus follows a format familiar to us from other magazines in the boys’-love genre, running the gamut of possible relationships in a single issue from chaste adoration to hardcore sex. But as noted in earlier Manga Snapshot columns on boys’ love, sometimes one detects that oddest of undertones, an arguably anti-gay assertion that all of this man-on-man action is merely a phase, and that what these lonely boys are really waiting for is the right girl to come along. In other words, these men are only snogging each other because the Reader hasn’t met them yet.

This is, we might say, another appropriation from the mainstream world, where myriads of lonely manga boys have suddenly received the girl of their dreams by some fiat of the fates, in which she drops out of the sky, appears in his wardrobe, or otherwise manifests through deeply unlikely means. In denying, however subtly, the desire of men who truly love men, Dear Plus suggests its true colors as a publication that is really aimed at lonely, heterosexual girls.

To summarize, all of these BL manga readers are terribly lonely (maybe because they’re such losers), and all they really want is a man of their very own. That sounds like an extreme projection of male heterosexuality to me, but it’s not as if Clements is the first man in the world to state that girls just wanna have cock.

In any case, it’s bizarre to me that Clements would identify fujoshi as man-hungry, lonely women, especially since the vast majority of scholarship on these women identifies them as participating in highly active homosocial communities. For example, in her monograph Fujoshika suru sekai, Sugiura Yumiko argues that the reason Ikebukuro became a fujoshi paradise (as opposed to somewhere like Nakano or Kichijōji) is because it’s a centrally located area that’s a convenient place for women to meet each other. In Ikebukuro, women can shop for both clothes and dōjinshi and then meet up with friends afterwards to have coffee in the cute and trendy cafes that dot the neighborhood. These women were early adapters to social networking sites like Mixi and Twitter, which they use to organize casual meetups. In fact, there’s a trend of fujoshi using Skype and Google Hangouts to talk to one another while and immediately after their favorite shows air live in the evening. It’s not that these women don’t have husbands and boyfriends, but rather that they also have female friends with whom they share their interests and hobbies.

Slash and BL fan communities in the West are highly social as well, with friends often forming offline clubs and art circles to share and promote their hobbies. In the vast majority of these communities, straight and gay men are totally welcome; and, in the artist alleys of American (and Canadian! and British! and French!) anime conventions, one is just as likely to see boys both in front of and behind the tables of artist collectives selling homegrown BL manga and fanzines. In some of the more commercially successful Western BL comics, such as the erotic comedy Teahouse, one can even spot the mention of the artists’ husbands (and life partners) on the acknowledgements pages.

I am not saying that everyone who reads and writes BL manga is female, straight, and cisgender. That’s a common assumption, but it’s not true. Even if it were true, however, it would not be an excuse for the misogyny that pervades opinions about manga not explicitly targeted at men.

So seriously guys? Cut that shit out.

People who read bara manga are okay.
People who read BL manga are okay.

Maybe you personally prefer one over the other. That’s okay too.

Non-normative sexualities are okay, and other people’s fantasies are okay, and there doesn’t need to be some sort of weird war on the internet over whose gender is the most “authentic.” Everyone is perfectly free to mock the ridiculousness of both bara tropes and BL tropes until global warming renders such trivialities inconsequential, but please take a moment to consider whether writing homophobic and misogynistic things about people who read comics is really the most productive exercise of social justice before you waste your time trying to convince women that girls are yucky.

After all, fujoshi are people too.

Reblogged from kentmcdanielwrites:

 The other day I ran across a copy of Outre #4 , a SF fanzine I published in 1969 for the Southern Fandom Press Alliance (SFPA). Took me back, allright. The cover is by Glen Brock, who was also in SFPA at the time, and I think it's pretty cool Sixties fanzine art. A lot of energy in that drawing. Debbi Staton, my girlfriend then, paintakingly cut the drawing onto a mimeograph stencil using a stylus, and we printed it up on my father's mimeograph.

Read more… 1,088 more words

Den internationella kvinnodagen till ära fylldes Globen i Falun i lördags till brädden av kulturintresserade feminister, då den relativt nystartade gruppen Riot grrrl Falun anordnade feministfestivalen Ladyfest.

Begreppet Riot grrrl är fortfarande obekant för de flesta, men denna rörelse är på rejäl uppgång just nu, inte minst här i Falun.

Riot grrrl-rörelsen uppstod redan i början av 90-talet på USA:s östkust med band som Bikini kill, Bratmobile och Heavens to bets y i spetsen. Tjejer som hade tröttnat på den extrema killdominansen i punkrörelsen tog helt enkelt tag i saken och började starta band, arrangera kvinnoseparatistiska spelningar och skriva fanzines, det vill säga helt egenproducerade tidningar.

Här i Sverige fanns visserligen redan 1997 bland annat Marit Bergmans tidigare band Candysuck som kallade sig Riot grrrls, men det är ändå inte förrän nu som rörelsen på allvar har börjat få fäste här.

I punkkretsar startar tjejer mängder av band, det produceras svenska feministfanzines som aldrig förr och här i Falun startade i november förra året Sveriges första så kallade Riot grrrl-chapter (Riot grrrl-avdelning) Riot grrrl Falun.

- Vi är en grupp på för tillfället 16 tjejer som vill träffas, peppa varandra, producera kultur och ha kul på våra egna villkor, utan att vara styrda av en mansmall, förklarar Josefine Andersson som tillsammans med sin kompis Siri Morawski var den som tog initiativet till att starta gruppen.

I lördags, på den internationella kvinnodagen, passade Riot grrrl Falun på att låta sitt hittills största projekt gå av stapeln. På feministfestivalen som gick under namnet Ladyfest uppträdde sex band från hela Sverige för en förvånansvärt stor publik.

På programmet fanns även föreläsningar, konstutställning och en demonstration. Skivor, kläder och fanzines fanns dessutom till försäljning och Falu djurrättsaktivister hade sitt vegancafé öppet.

- Det blev ett jättelyckat arrangemang. Vi fick positiv respons från både band och besökare i alla åldrar, så jag är jättenöjd. Det var roligt att så många fler människor än väntat kom, säger en något trött Josefine dagen efter att projektet har rotts i land.

Och trött har hon all rätt att vara, då det ligger mycket och hårt arbete bakom Ladyfesten. Som vanligt har det där med pengar varit struligt och är fortfarande.

- Kommunen gav oss ett muntligt löfte om ett bidrag på 10 000 kronor, men när det sedan kom till kritan fick vi bara 3 000. Det känns verkligen jättetråkigt om vi ska behöva gå back. Som det ser ut just nu har vi precis gått runt tack vare frivilliga bidrag från besökare, men då har inte banden fått ut sina fulla reseersättningar ännu.

MALIN RINGSBY

På bilden: Elina aka Radical E, ca 17 år. Bilden är tagen kring år 2003.

Nyligen skrev jag det här inlägget angående skunkgruppen Riotgrrrlbilder 2.0 och diskussionerna som ägde rum där – till exempel den om huruvida Christina Aguilera kunde tituleras riotgrrrl eller inte. Och som av en händelse hittade jag några dagar senare en text som Elina aka Radical E från Pirata radical cheerleaders skrev om just detta då det begav sig (år 2003 ca). Elina, då 17 år, skickade texten till mig och tanken var att jag skulle publicera den i det andra numret av mitt fanzine Such a killer, som dessvärre aldrig blev klart.

Så nu tio är senare publicerar vi den här istället (med Elinas tillåtelse, givetvis):

SYSTERSKAP GER STYRKA?

En feminist är en feminist är en feminist. Eller? Ju mer insatt jag blir i hela femininströrelsen desto mer rädd blir jag. Och arg. Och frustrerad. Det är fantastiskt hur fördomsfulla en del brudar faktiskt är. Och det är ett sorgligt faktum att det är en hel drös med brudar som har ganska underliga åsikter när det gäller feminism, systerskap och vad som egentligen är riotgrrrl och inte.

Jag har varit insatt i den feministiska rörelsen i ungefär 4-5 år skulle jag tro. Och jag har fått uppleva en hel del fördomar. När jag precis hade upptäckt feminismen gick jag i åttan. Då var det tabu att kalla sig själv för feminist. Sa man att man var feminist kopplades det genast samman med manshatare. Och det ville jag ju absolut inte vara. Så jag sa att jag var feminist, att jag var för jämställdhet och att det var löjligt med tjejer som inte rakade sig under armarna, det var ju mest äckligt och omoget. Ansåg jag.

Sen läste jag på mer och mer om feminism och insåg vikten av separatistiska engagemang och förstod också att det var helt okej att låta bli att raka sig på diverse ställen på kroppen där det inte är meningen att man ska raka sig, att det inte hade särskilt mycket med själva kampen att göra. Kroppshår är ju ändå bara kroppshår. Jag började förstå mer om olika inriktningar inom feminism och en ny värld öppnade sig för mig.

För lite mer än ett halvår sedan gick jag med i den feministiska punkföreningen Pirata (www.piratapunx.tx) här i Stockholm. Vi var ca 30 brudar som samlades på Lava för att diskutera den mansdominerade punkscenen och vad vi skulle kunna göra för att få mer inflytande där. Vi startade en spelningsgrupp som anordnar spelningar med band med endast kvinnliga medlemmar, vi startade en graffgrupp och nyligen startades en radical cheerleading grupp också. Och det kändes skitbra och så jävla kul att göra någonting konkret som dessutom är roligt.

Men nu till anledning med denna text. På communityt skunk finns det en grupp som heter riotgrrrlbilder 2.0 där coola brudar (och några få killar) lägger in schyssta bilder på brudar som gör bra saker. Det finns bilder på musiker, sångerskor, skådespelare, författare, graffittimålare, pinuppor, politiker, arga småbrudar, radikal cheerleaders, andra cheerleaders osv.

När jag först upptäckte riotgrrrlbilder gruppen blev jag helt till mig. En grupp med bilder på snygga riotgrrrls!! Snacka om en finfin inspirationskälla. Men sen kom bakslaget. Den bästa gruppen på skunk blev snart en av de jobbigaste. Petiga, griniga och fördomsfulla tjejer började klaga på bilder som las in. “Inte är den där tjejen riot, hon rakar sig ju”, “va, hon kan inte vara en riotgrrrl! Hon har ju smink och visar brösten!”, “hon är kommersiell, kommersiella brudar kan inte vara riot”. sådant skitsnack började cirkulera i gruppen. Men VAD I HELVETE DÅ TJEJER! Så jävla typiskt att vissa ska anse sig ha rätten att definiera feminism och vilka som får vara riotgrrrl och inte. Vad är det för fel på er?

Det har t.ex. vart diskussioner om huruvida lil’kim och christina aguilera är riot eller inte. Klart som fan att de är riot! Deras nya låt är bäst. De sjunger och rappar om att killarna ska sluta snacka skit om brudar, och att ifall en kille knullar runt så är han “the man” men om en brud gör detsamma blir hon kallad för “hoe”. Dessutom är refrängen hur peppande som helst. Jag menar, vem kan motstå detta:

“This is for my girls all around the world
Who’ve come across a man who don’t respect your worth
Thinkin’ all woman should be seen not heard
So what do we do girls, shout out loud
Lettin’ ‘em know we’re gonna stand our ground
So lift your hands high and wave ‘em proud
Take a deep breath and say it loud
Never can, never will
CAN’T HOLD US DOWN
Nobody can hold us down
Nobody can hold us down
Nobody can hold us down
Never can, never will”

Inte jag i alla fall!

Jag tror en av de viktigaste aspekter som en del brudar glömmer bort när det handlar om feminism och riotgrrrl är att alla inte har samma förutsättningar. Alla kan inte kämpa på samma sätt, och hela grejen med systerskap skulle ju försvinna om det bara var en viss sorts kvinnor som fick delta. Om bara tjejer med hår under armarna, knälånga dreads och massa patches fick tillåtelse att kalla sig feminister skulle ju hela rörelsen dö ut. Alla behövs. Långa, korta, smala, tjocka, punkare, popare, hip-hopare, gamla, unga, blonda, brudar med dreads, håriga, rakade, svarta, vita, gula, röda, alla alla alla.

Skitsamma att Christina och lil’kim är kommersiella och gör kommersiell musik som spelas på mtv och ztv och vad det nu kan vara. Skitsamma att de klär sig i små kläder och rakar sig under armarna. Men det är ju inte det som är det viktiga. Det viktiga är faktiskt att de sjunger om systerskap! De sjunger om att brudar ska slå tillbaka. Att vi är starka enade. Alla kan inte kämpa på samma plan och inom samma scen. Jag tycker att det är underbart att en låt som “can’t hold us down” spelas på mtv. Det är fantastiskt. Och musikvideon får mig på så bra humör. Dessutom, tror ni inte att det finns skitmånga unga tjejer som inte ens vet vad feminism är blir peppade av att se sina förebilder förklara för dem att de är bra och att de kan kämpa tillbaka mot all skit de utsätts för? Jag tycker i alla fall att det är skitbra. Och jag håller fast vid mitt motto:

EVERY GIRL IS A RIOTGRRRL!

/elina aka radical e

¿Para que me contáis este rollo? pensaréis algunos, ¿es que la primavera os afecta, os ponéis romanticones y os sale la vena poeta? Bueno…sí, pero también porque el otro día en Magasand (un lugar lleno de gente guapa y trendy con comida rica de nombres curiosos, decoración tipo nórdico y muy rollo artesanal, es decir, el paraíso de cualquier hipster) y mientras esperábamos a que nos diesen la comida vimos una estantería llena de revistas de las más variadas formas y colores, todas muy diferentes y dijimos, ¿porqué no? Las revistas alternativas se merece un post.

FRAME

Revista bi-mensual dedicada al diseño industrial y la arquitectura de interiores. tiene contenidos brutales si te interesan este tipo de temas, direcciones de tiendas muy especiales y unas fotografías muy cuidadas. 224 páginas de artículos bien escritos y contenido de calidad.

ELEPHANT

Revista cuatrimestral de arte contemporáneo y visual culture, entre sus páginas encontrarás buenas imágenes, contenidos punteros y material original de todas partes del mundo. ¿Lo mejor? el tono de la revista es accesible y cercano lo que la hace tan válida para entendidos como para aquellos que quieren iniciarse.

AORTICA

Según su página web AORTICA es “An International Magazine About Local Schopfungskraft And Hardworking Squirrels” diréis ¿What? No panic, esta revista alemana habla de Schopfungskraft ( el poder de la creatividad) y ardillas trabajadoras. Vale, seguís igual, pero quedaos con lo importante, Aortica es una mezcla perfecta de ilustración, diseño y fotos impresionantes, cuyos números están basados cada uno en un lugar del planeta, el número que os mostramos en Nueva Zelanda. Es una revista/guía de viajes nada convencional que nos descubre lugares de la mano de los locales de cada país (en este caso artistas, músicos, diseñadores todos de Nueva Zelanda claro), ¿lo mejor? las imágenes vienen acompañadas de un pequeño cuestionario a estos particulares guías que explican el porqué de su elección y puede ser desde sitios donde ver una buena perspectiva de una ciudad hasta lugares insólitos donde comer.

Hoy os dejamos sólo algunas de ellas, ya os iremos contando según veamos que el kiosko se llena de publicaciones nuevas e interesantes. Si queréis compraros estas revistas u otras suelen tenerlas en Magasand, en el kiosko de la Plaza de Colón, (el kioskero está muy acostumbrado a peticiones editoriales extrañas), o en la librería Pantha Rhei.

Riot grrrl är en feministisk rörelse som syftar till att samla och stärka tjejer/kvinnor som är verksamma inom kultur. Musiker, konstnärer, skribenter, distributörer, arrangörer, DJs osv i en stor fin samling.

Riot grrrl-rörelsen föddes i mitten av 90-talet i Olympia och Portland, USA. Till en början var det en feministisk punkrörelse. Bikini Kill, Bratmobile och Sleater Kinney var bland de första riot grrrl-banden.

D.I.Y – Gör det själv – är ett mantra i riot grrrl-rörelsen. Rörelsens anhängare skapar ofta fanzines, spelar och producerar egen musik samt arrangerar events. Allt detta med någon form av feministisk vinkel.

År 2000 arrangerades Ladyfest för första gången, i Olympia. Ladyfest är en ideell verksamhet, ett event som ofta består av band som spelar, workshops och föreläsningar.  Ladyfest kan vara ett separatistiskt event, men också ett event där alla är välkomna oavsett kön, huvudsaken är att syftet är att bryta normen – en mansdominerad representation av kreatörer som medverkar.

Ladyfest spred sig snabbt världen över. Sveriges första Ladyfest arrangerades i Falun våren 2003. 2004 arrangerades festen i Stockholm och Malmö. 2005 anslöt även Umeå. Alla som vill får arrangera en Ladyfest och fenomenet lever kvar än.

Riot grrrl-scenen spred sig inte bara genom Ladyfest till Sverige. Runt om i landet började det dyka upp fanzines, ”grrrl gangs”, diskussionsgrupper och band som anammade riot grrrlsens budskap. Äntligen, tänkte många som saknat kvinnors närvaro i kultursektorn.

Redan innan riot grrrl-rörelsen nått Sverige fanns det något som liknade riot grrrls här.  Även om de kanske inte definierade sig själva som det då, tycker vi på Grrrl Collection att band som Candysuck och Sindy Kills Me passar bra in på vad Riot grrrl står för. Vi tror att många med oss inte bara gillade deras musik utan också inspirerades av deras attityd och åsikter.

Definitionen av vad som är en riot grrrl är väldigt bred. Vi postar både om riot grrrls som definierar sig som det och om kvinnliga kreatörer som vi tycker är bra, peppande och viktiga utan att de definierar sig som riot grrrls. Alla riot grrrls definierar sig inte heller som feminister. Vi på Grrrl Collection gör det.

Grrrl Collection vill vara det Riot grrrl står för: ”En feministisk rörelse blogg som syftar till att samla och stärka kvinnor som är verksamma inom kultur.
Musiker, konstnärer, skribenter, distributörer, arrangörer, DJs osv i en stor fin samling.”

I kväll ska jag och Malin till Bio Rio och se dokumentären SHE SAID BOOM om postpunkbandet Fifth Column. (Filmen Dirty Girls, som jag postat här tidigare, är förfilm) Efter filmerna pratar Marit Bergman (Candysuck, tidningen Darling) samt Kakan Hermansson om Riot grrrl. Läs mer om eventet här, köp biljett på Bio Rios hemsida.

LÄS RIOT GRRRL MANIFESTET HÄR.

Vi har gjort flyers! Bra att ha-grejer som vi tänkte placera ut där vi tycker att det behövs.

Och den som vill får himla gärna hjälpa oss med den saken. Här nedan finns länkar till pdf:er i A4-format (en för färgskrivare och en i svartvitt) – bara att ladda ner, skriva ut och sprida!

Skicka gärna ett foto på flyers ni placerat ut till info@grrrlcollection.com, posta på vår facebooksida eller tagga #grrrlcollection på instagram.

Hämta filer här:
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Alien landscape by REG

With their generally bold simple lines, his drawings were perfect for the

An REG fanzine illo from the Sixties.

A few years ago I rejoined the Southern Fandom Press Alliance (SFPA), after having been away a mere four decades, and as SFPA’s 50th anniversary approached, some discussion arose about how to commemorate it. I suggested to the group’s official archivist, Ned Brooks, that a portfolio of REG

cover from, Amra, a Sixties Sword & Sorcery fanzine

Having thought of Robert E. Gilbert for the first time in years, I Googled him. I didn’t find a lot, but I did get two surprises. One was that REG had made three professional sales of SF stories. (These can be found at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34313) Another was that a gallery had purchased over 400 of his drawings and paintings. Paintings? I never knew REG painted. I found all that interesting but soon forgot about it.

November, 1952 issue of Galaxy, in which REG’s story, “A Thought for Tomorrow,” appeared.

That’s because, unlike my old friend, Bill Plott, I’m not a seasoned professional journalist. Back when he was in his teens and early twenties, Bill Plott edited a couple of now legendary zines, Maelstrom and Sporadic, before he left SF fandom behind for a distinguished career as a journalist. Much like myself, he was recently drawn back into publishing through SFPA, after four decades away, and resurrected his zine, Sporadic. As he relates in the latest issue (#18) of that zine, this eventually prompted him to delve into his boxes of old fannish material, where he discovered a trove of some 20 unpublished REG illos.

Once he stopped doing backflips around the neighborhood, he got curious: Maybe Robert E. Gilbert was still around. So he Googled him, as I had done, and found the site with all of REG’s paintings at http://www.folkartisans.com. Unlike me, though, he didn’t think, “Oh, that’s interesting,” and shrug it off; he eventually contacted Folk Artisans, a gallery in Mentone, Alabama. First, he went to their website, where he saw that REG, a Tennessean, had died in 1993. Bill sent that information to his friend, genealogist and fellow SFPA member, Larry Montgomery. Larry got back to him with the information that REG was born May 26, 1924 in Sullivan County, Tennessee and died April 4, 1993, seemingly in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Further REG had served in the US ARmy from January 31, 1943 to August 9, 1944.

That was pretty much all they had, until Bill reached one of the gallery owners, Matt Lippa, by phone. In Sporadic 18, Bill writes:

Another strange landscape by REG, 1964

The gallery acquired the collection in 2003.

Later in Sporadic 18, Bill writes:

I have speculated a lot on the estrangement from his [Gilbert's} estrangement from his family. Living in that mountainous region, I wondered if his family was very fundamentalist and found pictures of scantily clad women sinful. I wonder if it was science fiction, being something just too weird for them to relate to. Or some behavioral situation totally unrelated to his art. We will likely never know.

Like Bill, I’m curious about REG’s black sheep status. I’m also intrigued by the picture of REG that emerges. Estranged from his family, living in a small town in the rural South, creating hundreds of illos for fanzines, writing the occasional SF short story, and painting hundreds of unearthly paintings, few of which, it would seem, ever sold. It’s an archetypical image of the lonely artist, toiling in obscurity.

What parts of the picture are we missing though? Does anyone have any more information on Robert E. Gilbert?

To view more of REG’s artwork, go to http://www.folkartisans.com.

Helen Jewel roving reporter for Flipside Fanzine

Him all wait for, him all yield up to, his word is decisive and final, him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves as amid light, Him they immerse and he immerses them.

Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals, The profound earth and its attributes and unquiet ocean, ( so tell I my morning’s romanza.) All enjoyments and properties and money, and whatever money will buy, The best farms, others toiling and planting and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities, others grading and building and he domiciles there…”

~ Song of the Answerer by Walt Whitman from Leaves of Grass

elen was our roving reporter for Flipside Fanzine. She has an amazing character that challenges me to this day!  She grew up in Fullerton California and later ended up living in Whittier. She came from the kind of family that sat around the dinner table and talked.  Her mother and father expected the children to give a speech about their day. Helen’s father might ask her sternly,

“What did you learn today?”

Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac inspired her life as a teenager.  Helen was a few years older than the average punk during the 1980s punk scene.  When she asked us to include this interview with Allen Ginsberg we teased her.  It is a good thing she persisted.  Helen weaved together important elements in her short interview with Allen Ginsberg with what was happening at that time in punk rock history. It is an excellent read.

One can study the history and literary accomplishments of Whitman, Ginsberg and Kerouac but it is the link, the alignment, the spiritual rebellious thread that pulls me always!

 Thank you Helen !!

“Tell your friends everything. Give away your secrets.  “Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” “

Allen Ginsberg

Flipside Fanzine 36 Allen Ginsberg

“Punk shows suffering, so it acknowledges the real”

“A pain stabbed my heart, as it did every time I saw a girl I loved who was going the opposite direction in this too-big world.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Allen Ginsberg

http://www.allenginsberg.org/index.php?page=chronological-addenda

Jack Kerouac

http://www.answers.com/topic/jack-kerouac

Walt Whitman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman

Probably the main reason that I love fanzines is that, unlike the glossy, expensive newsstand mags, ANY one of us can produce a fanzine, if we put our minds to it. All you need is a computer and a cheap DTP program (or the old way, with a typewriter, scissors, glue and a photocopier). We can all get in on the act, if we’re determined enough. If you’ve got even a modicum of talent, and also the dedication needed to sacrifice the huge amount of time and effort required, virtually anybody can cobble together a fanzine.

But don’t forget the financial outlay on print fanzines (online zines are a lot less expensive to produce) and thick skins needed to protect you against the barrage of criticism that you’ll inevitably get from many quarters, should you publish anything controversial. Fanzine readers are extremely passionate about their little obsessions, and can be very critical and outspoken on matters that get their gander up. The flip side of that coin is that they can also be fanatical supporters of their favourite zines.

At their best, fanzines contain the type of raw, undiluted genius that you’d rarely find in commercial magazines. Fanzine editors and writers don’t have to abide by the same kind of rules as the pro publications, as they aren’t constrained by having to please a certain audience or market. The authors can write pretty much whatever they like. Fanzines can publish virtually ANYTHING, including stuff that you’d never see in mainstream mags. They can be rude and irreverant, as they don’t have to worry about offending publishers or readers. They can publish wacky, off-beat material, gems that pro magazines would never touch with a long pole. And they also contain the real, personal thoughts and opinions of the editors and contributors, who would be a lot more restrained if submitting an article to a “pro” magazine.

There are fanzines covering almost every conceivable topic. There are zines devoted to telefantasy, cult television and sci-fi cinema, Science Fiction in books, comics, music, sport, history, poetry, zines for amateur dramatic societies, club news and activities, indeed pretty much ANY subject you care to mention, or even a mix of many of the above. My favourites have always been the fanzines based on my favourite sci-fi television series, SF literature, and music. Doctor Who fanzines make up a considerable proportion of my large fanzine collection, and are probably my favourites of them all. Some of these are truly amazing publications.

Commercial publications are created by a nebulous elite, away “up there” in their ivory towers, far removed from we mere mortals. Fanzines are created by “one of us” (in most cases more than one) down here on Planet Earth, your average (although talented) “Joe Bloggs”, who wants to let his frustrated “inner writer” or editor out into the world at large. Any of us can potentially make a zine, focused on ANY subject, or we can at the very least contribute to a zine created by someone else. Very few of us would ever have any chance of being published in a pro magazine. As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the most exciting and attractive things about fanzines. It’s self-publishing BY the fans, FOR the fans.

I’d be the first to concede that the visual quality and production values in pro magazines are usually superior (after all, they DO have a much larger budget), although some of the higher-end fanzine and semi-prozine publications are just as slick as their pro counterparts. With a few notable exceptions, the classic fanzines of yesteryear were usually cheap ‘n’ cheerful A5 “cut ‘n’ paste” publications, mass-produced on photocopiers. But once computers, DTP software and fancy inkjet and laser printers became cheaper and more accessible for Joe Public (from about the late-1980s onwards), even low-end fanzine production took a quantum leap forwards in quality.

Compare the average A5 or A4 home-produced fanzine from the 1970s or early-to-mid 1980s with one produced today. At least in the area of production quality and visuals, there’s no comparison, with the exception of the occasional modern fanzine produced the old-fashioned way, to intentionally give it that retro feel, most often as a tribute to the classic zines. The one thing all the best fanzines over the years have had in common is in the single most important area, that of the content, which has remained consistently excellent.

I’d argue strongly with any assertion that pro magazines attract higher quality articles, writers and artwork. Some of the best articles I’ve ever read came out of fanzines, and some of the art I’ve seen in them over the years has also been top class, definitely pro quality. Many of the top “fan” writers are at least as good as their pro competitors, in some cases better. Being a long-time fan of a certain television show often means that they have a much more in-depth knowledge about their chosen subject than a pro writer, who has no personal interest in the topic in question, but has merely researched it for the purpose of writing an article. The quality of zines can admittedly vary drastically, from dire to sublime, but I’ve read fiction and articles in fanzines that beat seven shades of crap out of ANYTHING I’ve ever read in “pro” mags.

The people producing fanzines do it “for the sheer love of it”, not for money. There’s precious little of that available in publishing fanzines, as the vast majority of them barely recoup their costs at the best of times. And this “doing it for the sheer love of it” really shines through in the writing. I’ve read so many articles in pro magazines that were competent enough but obviously done just “by the numbers”, to earn a pay-packet. In comparison, a good fanzine article is a breath of fresh air, a jolt of high-octane enthusiasm and fanboy expertise, done simply for the sheer, obsessive love of the subject.

This goes much of the way towards explaining why I’d read articles in fanzines that are based on topics which wouldn’t interest me in the least if they were to appear in a commercial publication. Completely different sets of expectations and values for small press vs commercial press, I know. But both play by different rules, and are judged accordingly (at least by me).

Many of the “greats” of the past, as well as the current generation of pro writers and artists in SF and comics, started out originally in fanzines. There they honed their skills and gained experience, until their talents were eventually recognized and they were able to move on and work on pro publications. Unfortunately many others, just as talented, never make it into the pro field, and continue working for fanzines until they either give up altogether or just fade away, and return to having a Real Life, working, paying the bills and raising kids. But their legacy and talent lives on in the existing small print runs of the zines they’ve worked on over the years.

Fanzines, by their non-commercial nature and miniscule print runs are as rare as hen’s teeth, especially once they go out of print. They can be almost impossible to find. I know, because I’ve been looking for certain classic zines for years now without ever having any success. It’s just a matter of sheer luck if these zines turn up on Ebay. Many have disappeared into the mists of time, forgotten by all except for the tiny audience who had the pleasure of reading them. That, in my opinion, is a tragic loss. These gems are in dire need of rediscovery and preservation, which is why I’m a rabid supporter of any initiative to preserve small press publications of all kinds.

To Be Continued…

2013 Summer Special
This will be our 50th anniversary tribute looking at the results to our series survey conducted in early 2013
Tentative Release: June/July 2013

Issue 26
Back to our regular issues, columns, features and articles
Tentative Release: November 2013

We still need two pieces for the Summer Special (an overview and assessment of the Sarah Jane Adventures and an episode review of “Human Nature/Family of Blood“), and we will need material for issue 26. For more details and submission deadlines please keep tuned to our Facebook page or on the Whotopia blog.

I början av 2000-talet fanns sidan http://www.riotdistro.rocks.it/, en distro där vi kunde hitta fanzines, ny musik, tygmärken och annat fint.

Via http://archive.org/, en sida där du kan söka efter gamla hemsidor, har jag hittat (her) RIOT distro och en hel lista på fanzines som distroägaren och fanzinemakaren Stina Berggren sålde.

Vi kommer att återkomma till (her) RIOT distro och Stina längre fram. Vi har fått tillåtelse att publicera listan och här kommer en efterlysning:

NÅGON DÄR UTE SOM HAR NÅGOT AV FÖLJANDE FANZINES, ELLER ÄNNU BÄTTRE HAR SKAPAT NÅGOT AV FÖLJANDE FANZINES?

MAILA OSS: info@grrrlcollection.com Eller lämna en kommentar nedan.

PORTO TILLKOMMER (förutom till amazon #9) vissa fanzines är tyngre än andra men räkna att det blir 5kr i porto för 1 fanzine, 2 för 2-4, 4 för 4-6..

AMAZON #10 (30 kr inklusive porto!) (svenska)
Feministiskt fanzine. Tema: ett eget rum. Jubileumsnummer. Mycket fint tryck, mer magazine än fanzine! Innehåller hemma hos amazonerna bildserier, kvinnocafé antippa, fascism, she’s got the beat, dokusopor+sex m.m. Alltid lika inspirerande och upplysande!

ILJAS FEMINIST ALMANACKA (50 kr) (REA 40 kr)
4 tjejer har tagit 12 snygga kort och satt ihop dem till en snygg väggalmanacka som du kan köpa för 50 kr. Såhär skriver dom i efterordet: “Inspiration och arbete. Respekt, systerskap och kamp. För lustfyllt skapande på våra egna villkor. För att vi brinner av längtan att berätta om vår verklighet. För bilder från hjärtat, genom själen in i magen. För sena nätter av bildorgier i ödemarken. För att det mesta går att genomföra om en kan och vi vill.”

FIGHT BACK! / SLÅ TILLBAKA! (5 kr) (engelsk och svensk variant)
Mini zine, handbok i feministiskt självförsvar. Att kunna försvara sej själv som tjej är as viktigt! Både för självkänslan och för att det här samhället ska bli mer jämställt. Vägra vara offer!

GIRL CONSPIRACY #1 (10 kr) (engelska)
Riikka och Stinas musik fanzine är äntligen klart! Girl Conspiracy finns för att det skrivs så jäkla lite om sån musik vi gillar och definitivt om tjejer som spelar, därför har vi intervjuat Allison Wolfe från Bratmobile, Bangs, the Butchies ..etc..
G C innehåller även demo recensioner och favorit musik sommaren 2001.

GIRL CONSPIRACY #2 (10 kr) (engleska)
GC #2 är säkert dubbelt så tjockt och dubbelt så bra, men till samma pris! Lycka! Som vanligt har vi intervjuat de artister som vi tycker är asbäst, så som Allison Wolfe, Kat Bjelland, Dressy Bessy, Alien She, Delta Dart, Stereo Starboy, Yo Amoeba, Dyke Hard, Manda från Bis mfl mfl. I det här numret finns det också artiklar från olika scener; Tasha har skrivit om hur det är att vara svart i riot grrrl scenen, Wiktoria om hur det är att vara tjej och inte dösnygg i hardcore scenen och jag har skrivit en liten feministisk hip hop guide.

IT’S YOUR FUCKING BODY #1 (5 kr) (engelska)
Marie skriver om mens och mensskydd i första numret av mini zinet It’s Your Fucking Body. Hon tipsar om massa alternativa mensskydd, eftersom de du hittar i din matvarubutik både är farliga för miljön och din kropp och det är dessutom en ond industri man helst vill undvika.

IT’S YOUR FUCKING BODY #2 RECLAIM YOUR CUNT (5 kr) (engelska)
I andra numret fokuserar Marie sin energi på att lära dej mer om din fitta. Vi pumpas av information/reklam som säger att vi är äckliga mensmonster och det är något vi verkligen bör jobba bort från att våra medvetande. Marie berättar om hur hon har lärt känna sej själv bättre genom att göra egna bindor och prata öppet om menstruation. “stop feeling ashamed, stop feeling guilty. reclaim your fucking cunt” !!!

KILLED BY BEAUTY #3 (20 kr) (svenska)
Fett feministiskt fanzine, denna gång med temat utseende, ideal, makt och media. Krönikor, recensioner, skönhetsmyten, hjältinnor, unfucked pussy, det fallocentriska språket.. allt det och mycket därtill på 63 a4 sidor – yes du hörde rätt – fett!

KISS OF REVOLUTION #1 (15 kr) (svenska)
Kiss of Revolution #1, som är skrivet av Jenny, är ett samhällsdebatterande, poetiskt, musikaliskt, kulturälskande, riot, ilsket, politiskt zine med alternativ skönhet. Innehåller artiklar om att vägra kallas hora, barbie-hat, förebilder, USA- vän eller fiende? Favoritlåtar som får en att börja gråta, böcker som förändrar liv, m.m. (ps. 10 kr av Kiss of Revolution gå alltid till välgörande ändamål, Jenny vill på så sätt göra världen till ett finare ställe att leva på!)

KISS OF REVOLUTION #2 (15 kr) (svenska)
I Jennys andra nummer av Kiss of Revolution får vi läsa om Sylvia Plath, fåniga ideal, förhoppningar om fred p&airng; jorden, vredesutbrott, böcker, WTO och fiender (“du fattar väl att du har fiender?”). Jäkligt bra, rekommenderas varmt!

LILITH #7 (10 kr)(svenska)
Feministiskt fanzine. Tema: queer. Innehåller intervjuer med människorna bakom queerpunk festerna, sylvia.nu, ZON och bandet even. Artiklar om San Fransisco, queer teori m.m även diskussioner och fina citat. Ett grymt fanzine. Ett fint fanzine. Ett jäkligt bra fanzine.

OMSLAG #2 (10 kr) (svenska)
Erika skriver ett personligt och poetiskt pop fanzine. Recensioner, tankar och reflektioner om artister som Alien She, Ed Harcourt, Fint tillsammans, Kathryn Williams, Slagsmålsklubben, Tombola m.fl. Köp den och bli sådär lyckligt förälskad i bra musik!

RADARKA #3/2000 (20 kr) (svenska)
Radikal och anarkafeminitiskt fanzine men ett grymt innehåll bestående av kvinnoidentifiering, Reclaim the city – Stockholm, a natural history of rape, Ani Di franco, bibeln – av män för män, feministisk aktivism del 2 och mycket mycket mer. Alla artiklarna är mycket välskrivna och arga som vill en att göra revolution nu, genast, på en gång damn it!

RADARKA #4/2000 (20 kr) (svenska)
I detta nummer intervjuas svenska bandet Suck My Left One. Artiklar om att duga som man är, hur du gör för att anmäla reklam, om reklambranchens syn på kvinnor, könsstympning, våld mot lesbiska, feministisk aktivism del 3, filmen tillsammans, med mera.

RADARKA #11 (20 kr) (svenska)
I nummer 11 mördar Ruth May sin man, shengen rasism i lyxförpacking, radikalfeminister i Australien, suffragetterna, djurhemmet Olga, kamp mot kvinnohat, queerteori och girl power bland annat.

RADARKA #12 (20 kr) (svenska)
Radikalfeminist vs. staten, brand åtalet, Luleå kommun och anarkism, Young women – get mad!, direktaktion mot kvinnohandel, Attac, prostitution i Sverige, EU-toppmötet i Gbg. m.m.

(R)AGATA #1 (10 kr) (svenska)
(r)Agata är ett nytt feministisk fanzine som anser att det personliga är politiskt och att deras åsikter/erfarenheter/tankar/idéer är viktiga – och det är de!! I det här numret går de på konsert, ger dej onani tips, intervjuar devotchkas och skriver artiklar om bröst, vestibulit, killar+feminism, Dr Dre, om allt du inte visste om dina idoler och om att: Every girl is a riot grrrl.

TIGERSKOTT I BRALLAN #2 (10 kr) (svenska)
jättebra fanzine med artiklar om rakning, skönhet, Ricki Lake och The Simpsons. Intervjuer med The Donnas och Unfucked Pussy. + massa recensioner av böcker, fanzines och demos och roliga bilder och serier.

TIGERSKOTT I BRALLAN #3 (10 kr) (svenska)
Feministiskt fanzine. TIB är tillbaka med dåliga erfarenheter från kvinnojouren i Nyköping, kastrering, grymma serier, intervju med Pulp-malin, Harum Scarum och tjejerna bakom Lira. Recensioner av skivor och fanzines av tjejer. Så bra att man blir både avundsjuk och peppad att göra ett eget zine på en gång. Helt sjukt bra!

XANTIPPA #1 (10 kr) (svenska)
Wictoria är bruden som skev om hardcore scenen i Girl Conspiracy #2, kommer ni ihåg henne? Och du, missade du henne i GC så får du chansen igen för den är även med här. Nu har hon ett helt eget fanzine i alla fall som är döpt efter Sokrates fru som tydligen var en riktigt elak hustru. Fanzinet innehåller intervjuer med band som Last days of april, Seven feet four och Protestera, samt Wiktorias tankar om elitskolor, skönhetsoperationer och Straight Edge.

Deep in the bowels of The Nexus Art Café in Manchester’s Northern Quarter lies one of the city’s best kept secrets. Every day, multitudes of people meander past this unassuming building on Dale Street unaware of what’s awaiting their discovery inside one of its dusty backrooms.

Visited so rarely that the only indication of its existence is a website and one signpost above a door, The Manchester Zine Library isn’t exactly something you’d find in the tourism guides. So what exactly is this place?

In 1976, Manchester was at the heart of the UK punk explosion. Local bands like Joy Division were thrust into the spotlight on the back of Sex Pistols mania. The city was a sudden swarm of emerging punk and post-punk bands, bringing with them what was effectively their own subculture.

“Punk wasn’t just about music, it was about people participating and there was a lot of energy,” explains Dave Haslam, journalist, DJ and famous face on the Manchester music scene. Some of this new-found energy was channeled into something other than music: fanzines.

Fanzines were independent, handmade publications containing features, reviews, photography, poetry and more. Generally, these fanzines were created by those involved in the scene but not necessarily making music themselves. A lot of the time, these ‘zines’ – as they are now known – were cobbled together innovatively with off-cuts from existing magazines.

‘City Fun’ was one of the first, most notable examples to be found in Manchester, copies of which are still dotted around the zine library today and archived online. That said, City Fun was merely a trendsetter for the huge influx of fanzines that followed. “There were early fanzines like ‘Shy Talk’, ‘Ghast Up’ and ‘Girl Trouble’,” recalls Haslam, “these would be sold at gigs but just ran for a few issues and were mostly about music.”

Haslam himself played a significant role within the movement, running his very own fanzine for a number of years. It is likely that without embarking upon this venture, Haslam would never have landed a journalism job at The NME. “I made precisely no money from it but it was my first cultural intervention,” he recalls, “[my fanzine] ‘Debris’ was both the least financially successful but ironically – in all other ways – most valuable thing I’ve ever done.”

As the years went by, fanzines became much more than just a novel way of capturing the essence of the punk scene. They began to encompass many different cultural areas. Some believe that football and reggae fanzines were being circulated long before punks adopted the idea. No longer were these folded paper treasure troves solely there to feed the appetites of music fans.

A vast number of these publications can now be found strewn around inside the mother of ‘organised mess’ that is The Manchester Zine Library, with new ones being added on a day-to-day basis. Over the past few years the city has seen an increase in the popularity and demand of brand new zines covering more modern aspects of underground culture. But why now?

“The new zines have the same desire to participate as the punk generation but aren’t really music-oriented,” says Haslam, “I think the generation who got into their late teens in the 1990s and early part of this decade got a bit tied up in corporate nonsense and digital design as the best thing ever.”

He believes that those getting involved in the new zine uprising are using them as a way to escape or rebel against the lack of personality in a world of mass production. He continues, “the next generation that came along wanted things a bit more independent and quirky, weren’t so in thrall to online and digital and like the handmade and the limited edition.”

According to Haslam, the most appealing aspect of zine-making is that anyone can do it without the need for money or publishers. “They are very grassrootsy. You don’t need cash or anyone’s permission; you need imagination and desire. Manchester’s a good place for artistic and inspired people to network together and create a bit of an alternative to the mainstream. There’s just enough of us.”

Someone with a slightly different experience of independent publishing and the Manchester zine scene is comic book artist John Allison, who started his career online.

Although not directly linked to the zine world, John attended the Zine Dreams Fair at The Manchester Art Gallery back in 2012. This was an event hosted by Dave Haslam himself which showcased already-established zines alongside other, up-and-coming publications.

“I don’t find the creative community in Manchester particularly go-ahead,” the Sheffield University graduate and well-known ‘webcomic’ creator explains, “the people who succeed – or even try – all seem to be total one-offs and self-starters. There’s a lot more drive behind making artisanal ruddy hamburgers than great comics.”

Allison shares a somewhat less enthusiastic view of the music legacy left behind in the city. “Manchester has a huge chip on its shoulder,” he claims, “it’s still a heritage industry of The Smiths and The Stone Roses and The Hacienda, museum pieces are further away from us now than the Beatles were from World War 2.”

Although holding this slightly controversial opinion of the city’s music culture, there are still plenty of similarities between Allison and zine writers from then and now. “I got into comics because I didn’t want an office job and figured that this was something I was enthusiastic about and could maybe do,” he recalls, “I have no idea why I thought I could do it. At the time, there was very little competition in webcomics and so I was able to develop at my own pace.”

One positive thing he achieved by living in Manchester was being able to afford the upkeep on his home at the same time as trying to make a name for himself. He says, “I was only able to make a career for myself as a comic artist because my overheads were low. I live in north Manchester and the low cost of living meant I could have a house with space for a studio and not starve in the early days. If I lived in London – or really anywhere desirable in the south – I couldn’t have done that.”

Dave Haslam pins the cause of the increase of independent publications and zines partly on the internet, whereas Allison believes that the internet is an essential tool for promoting your work and achieving an audience in this day and age. Many modern zines now have a website accompanying them, some even swapping handmade publications for a purely online presence.

Thanks to his own web presence, Allison is now able to publish printed feature-length comics and sell them in independent book shops both in Manchester and further afield. “My first book was full colour and glossy,” he recalls, “which no one else in small press seemed to be doing at the time, but I had enough readers of my work online to be able to sustain something like that economically.”

Despite being grateful to the internet for it enabling him to fulfill his dream, Allison much prefers having his work published in a physical form. “I don’t like reading on screen,” he reveals, “I think the internet is distracting. There are things about the Internet, about the way people consume things on there, that I don’t like, but I know I wouldn’t have a career without [it].”

Much like zines, the popularity of comics comes and goes in phases. Comics, alongside nerd culture, were prevalent in the eighties, although they seem to be making a comeback in recent years. This may be down to the popularisation of things like internet memes which were once confined to the weird and wonderful corners of the web.

When speaking of comic book trends in general, John Allison believes that although comics lack substantial influence in modern times, there are communities out there working to keep the culture alive. “The comic industry doesn’t have anything like the hold on people’s attention that it did in the 1980s”, he says, “yet there are still proper shops that people can go to to buy these things. I think the sense of community is a big part of that.”

Allison’s full-length book series ‘Scary Go Round’ can be found prevalently in the Traveling Man comic book and board game store in Manchester. Unlike some of the larger chain stores such as Forbidden Planet, Travelling man is more prone to showcasing fringe and underground publications.

So other than the zine library, what places or events can be found in Manchester which are helping to keep these scenes alive? Allison admits that there are not many left, although he does try to get involved as much as he can.

“There was a monthly Manchester Drink And Draw but it was a strange sort of event,” he recalls, “a few artists would turn up but they tended to be put off by other people who came who just wanted to talk about Marvel comics or Transformers. Some months were great, others you’d wonder why you were there. But it was run with the best of intentions.”

To some extent, Allison blames this lack of interest and togetherness on the fact that even the more alternative parts of Manchester have now been overrun with tourism and trends. “There are so few ‘alternative’ areas that haven’t been co-opted by the mainstream,” he explains with displeasure, “comics and zines, at the fringes, are still something most people in the UK don’t like the look of.”

It is questionable as to whether or not the zine and comic scenes can be kept alive in Manchester. Although they are seen by many as countercultures, there is a danger that they could either become too adverse and die out, or suddenly find themselves the ‘in’ thing and be absorbed by the mainstream. Many of those involved would much rather remain on the fringes and continue to go against the grain.

Is it really a bad thing that places like The Manchester Zine Library remain untouched by the masses and act as ‘havens’ to those who are in the know? The answer could go either way. Haslam believes that there are two types of people within these kinds of cultures; those who want to shout it from the rooftops to influence society in any way they can and those who like to keep themselves to themselves.

“People who feel creative and maybe unhappy with the mainstream culture in some way always have a yearning to either hide away or to try to make a difference,” says Haslam, “as I always say, what I like to live by is the idea you make your own culture.”

Despite a distinct shift in content between zines published in the 1970s to now and a decline in the mainstream popularity of comics since the 80s, the reason people create them still remains the same. Haslam sums this up perfectly:

“I think zines start when people are determined to have their voice heard, by creative people willing to put themselves on the line and express themselves and, in the modern era, by people who aren’t bewitched by the internet and see something handmade as being of value.”

Perhaps, then, the fact that places like The Manchester Zine Library are so rarely visited and known to exist by few isn’t such a bad thing after all. “By its very nature,” concludes Haslam, “the [Manchester] zine scene is small, under-capitalised and hidden away, but so many of the best things in the world have to be searched for!”

“Thatcher for a Fortnight” is a fourteen-page, A5, black-and-white zine written by Sam Hunt. It is a reflection on British society’s attitudes towards its poorer classes, addressing class divide and class discrimination in light of Margaret Thatcher’s death.

This is the first release for Compassion Publications, and the zine is available to purchase here. Distros are more than welcome to get in touch for wholesale copies.

Class has evolved into an oft-ignored subject in the UK, and this is something I wish to change.

x

Ett av de centrala forumen för den svenska riotgrrrrlvågen vid sent nittiotal/tidigt 2000-tal var nätcommunityt skunk.nu (som nyligen återuppstod efter att ha varit nedlagt i flera år). På skunk kunde en ta kontakt med fanzinemakare och personer i band för att beställa demos och zines, och det var ett bra ställe för den som ville hålla sig uppdaterad om kommande spelningar. Men det var också en plats där mycket av diskussionen kring riotgrrrl – vad det var och vad det kunde vara – ägde rum.

I gruppen Riotgrrrlbilder 2.0 postade folk bilder på peppande tjejer, och vi var nog många som upptäckte nya band, artister och förebilder genom att scrolla igenom sida efter sida med bilder och beskrivningar av fantastiska personer.

Vissa av bilderna var mer kontroversiella än andra, och ibland blev det brinnande debatter kring huruvida någon förtjänades att tituleras riotgrrrl eller inte, om det hon stod för var förenligt med rörelsen. Ett exempel jag minns är när gruppen formligen exploderade av bilder på Christina Aguilera efter att hon släppt låten Can’t hold us down i samarbete med Lil’ Kim. Många blev peppade av det uppenbara systerskapspropagerandet i låten och tyckte att det var fantastiskt att hon förde in ett sådant budskap i ett populärkulturellt sammanhang där systerskapstanken i övrigt var(är) minst sagt frånvarande. Andra tyckte att den här låten inte hade en chans att väga upp de negativa sidorna som en ansåg att Christina Aguilera stod för med sitt artistskap – utseende- och sexighetskrav som satte orimlig press på unga tjejer etc. Jag minns de här som bra diskussioner, som höll scenen i rörelse och utvecklade den.

Minns ni fler av dem? Kommentera!

Apropå Christina Aguilera: 2010 Producerade Le Tigre låten “My Girls” tillsammans med Christina Aguilera och Peaches. Låten hittar ni på Aguileras album Bionic (2010)