Review
The hype around the so called "zine revolution" seems to have finally subsided, and now, after all those terrible "inside the zine world" kind of books have long since disappeared into remainder table limbo, The Zine Yearbook gives us a clear glimpse of what is really going on in the world of zines. Not by telling us what the larger sociopolitical ramifications of desktop publishing may be, but by showing us, through excerpts from various fanzines, that all over the world people are taking over the means of production and glutting the market with reams of photocopied musings. Sure you may have to wade through more crap than ever to get the good stuff, (I sure don't envy the job Jen and whoever else worked on this project must have faced in going through the entires sent in for this year's Yearbook; the mountains of terrible "per-zine" submissions they must have waded through is frightening to even contemplate) but it's worth it, believe me.
All the usual punk political territory is covered. Including worrying about burning out politically while still in your twenties and the more valid, yet still often discussed, issues of the Zapatistas, pirate radio and queer youth issues. I don't want to invalidate these issues, but I also wish the sphere of subjects discussed in fanzines would broaden just a little bit.
There is some really incredible writing as well, including an absolutely amazing article on a home circumcision, a piece about racial issues and chan stores like Barnes and Noble (believe it or not, it's pro-chain store, and for very interesting reasons), and an article on the privileges implicit in being a vegan. There are very few interviews, and all those included are of very high quality. There are also submissions from some of the better known zines like Scam, Monozine, Contrascience, and DWGSHT. The mix between these pseudo famous zine and the lesser known submissions is well executed, you might be brought in by the article by Iggy Scam, but the writing from Pepperpot will blow you away.
One of the things that has always bothered me about books on zines is their sterile look, and it seems ridiculous to read about kids cutting and pasting int their basement in a book published by some academic press. The yearbook avoids that problem though, with a well done mix of standard book lay out, and the more familiar look of most fanzines: handwritten pages, old style typewritten articles, drawings and photocopied pictures.
Unfortunately, this edition doesn't seem to stray too far from the punk community. There are very few entries from the world of radical political zines, but perhaps that is explainable by the fact that the Yearbook is submission driven.
Small criticisms aside, the most important thing about The Yearbook is the resource it provides. A forty word review in MRR isn't going to give you as clear an idea of what a particular zine is about as a two page excerpt from the zine itself will. Addresses for all zines are listed at the beginning of their entries making this a wonderful resource for future access to the zine world. If you've got any interest in exploring the best that not for profit independent publishing has to offer, you should already own this.
-- Sean Sullivan, Maximum Rock N Roll #193
This is a book about zines. This is about recognizing the truly amazing stuff that exists in an underground we've created." I took the day off work specifically to catch up on mail, but the first envelope I opened was the only envelope I opened - it was the new Zine Yearbook, and there, wonderfully, went my whole fucking day. The book's goal is to assemble in one place a wide array of some of the best self-published writing out there, and that goal has been accomplished beautifully. If you have friends, acquaintances, or family who don't get the whole "zine thing," this is the book you want to leave on top of your unplugged TV set, because just by comparison, The Zine Yearbook shows how empty and uninteresting is virtually everything from the mainstream media. And this third annual collection of highlights from zineland is by far the best edition yet - a very broad selection, with an attractive layout, professional printing, and close-to-perfect proofreading. There are plenty of personal and political statements here, often in the same articles: Kate (cooties) remembers growing up as "the class fat kid," and gives a great list of fat-positive zines and other resources; Jeffrey Kidder (Slave) gives a rational yet passionate overview of Castro's regime in Cuba (reaching conclusions that wouldn't be allowed in the mainstream press); Keith Rosson (Avow) has a short but insightful essay on coming to grips with how much of society's ingrained sexism he's absorbed, just from growing up in America; Mike Albers (Antipathy) pisses off a lot of people (but makes me stand up and cheer) by coming out against the confiscation of firearms from all Americans; Cory and Giz from Punk Fiction dispel the perpetually-perpetrated mainstream rumor that skinheads are just Junior Nazis. But if you're fearful this book is all political, it ain't. From The Match!, Iris Lane's tale of telephone sales calls will make you laugh (and make you angry); and from Monozine, ! Davida Gypsy Breier's remembrance of having a roach crawl into her ear will make you squirm. Other articles, almost all uniformly excellent, cover topics as diverse as book publishing, staying underground vs. mainstream success, and door-to-door photography. There are also some excellent interviews, with a professor of punk, with parents of punk people, with photographer Glen Friedman, with Ninjalicious of Infiltration... Okay, enough already - here's my longwinded review, reduced to two easy-to-understand sentences: This book is fun, exciting, eye-opening, important, and seven bucks is a terrific price. You have no excuse for not ordering a copy, now. -- Doug Holland, A Reader's Guide To The Underground Press #11 Fall 1999
