Skip to main content

Zine Collection

 Collection
Identifier: SCA-0068

Scope and Content Note

The Queens College Zine Collection contains independent zines from the mid 1980’s to 2014. The collection covers a variety of genres, styles and formats including fanzine, perzines, radical politics, and creative writing. The Brooklyn Artists Alliance series consists of four zines donated Marshall Weber of the Brooklyn Artists Alliance. The zines in this series consist of perzines and poetry/creative writing zines. One zine of note is the “Not My Enemy” zine, printed in collaboration between Brooklyn Artists Alliance and Iraq Veterans Against The War. The Printed Matter series consists of four zines acquired from Printed Matter. These zines are all fanzines from the 1980’s to the early 2000’s and focus on punk, skate, and DIY culture.The Brooklyn Zine Fest 2014 series consists of 15 zines acquired at the 2014 Brooklyn Zine Fest. These zines cover subjects ranging from radical politics, feminism, race, and perzines. The Additional series consists of one independently donated zine from 2019, with a focus on social media and privacy initiatives.

Dates

  • 1986 - 2014

Creator

Access

Collection is open for research. Contact Department of Special Collections and Archives. Staff may restrict access at its discretion on the basis of physical condition.

Copyright

The Queens College Zine Collection is physically owned by the Queens College Libraries. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assignees. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Queens College assumes no responsibility for the infringement of copyrights held by the original authors, creators, or producers of materials.

Historical Note

Zines are self-published, independent publications that offer perspectives not typically found in mainstream press and media. Operating with a DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic, zines are often printed in small-scale runs and cover a large variety of subjects. First appearing in the 1930’s in the form science fiction fan magazines. This was eventually shortened to “fanzine,” denoting a type of publication written by a fan of a certain topic. Writers of these fanzines would communicate with other writers, trading copies of their issues and creating a network of like-minded individuals devoted to zine culture. With the rise of punk culture in the 1970’s an emphasis on self-published documents proliferated throughout the scene. Drawing from the politics of underground press, the techniques of fanzines, and the mentality of punk, zines and their many varieties spread through the 1980’s. While the subject matter of zines can vary from political documents to personal reflections to fanzines, the true defining merit of a zine is the ethic, passion, and self-published motives behind them. The result is a subculture movement that focuses on individuality and the sense of community that can be drawn from connecting with other like-minded people. Stephen Duncome in Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture writes, “zines are as much about the communities that arise out of their circulation as they are artifacts of personal expression. People create zines to scream out ‘I exist,’ they also do it to connect to others saying the same thing.” (1997, p. 44) As unique, one-of-a-kind objects, zines are important for providing information about the thinking and motives of radical and underground communities in the late 20th and early 21 centuries. Everything from the media format chosen (print, type, photocopy, etc.) to the topics covered, to the cost of an issue provide insight into the thinking of both the individual creator and the community at large.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Queens College Zine Collection documents the wide-ranging styles and tones of underground culture. The collection holds self-published issues from 1986 to the present and covers a variety of topics and formats

Arrangement Note

Items in the collection are arranged in series based on point of acquisition; within each series items are arranged chronologically. Series I: Brooklyn Artist Alliance Series II: Printed Matter Series III: Brooklyn Zine Fest 2014

Source

Series I: Donated by Marshall Weber of the Brooklyn Artists Alliance, September 2010. Series II: Acquired from Printed Matter, 195 10th Ave. New York, NY. Series III: Acquired at the Brooklyn Zine Fest, Sunday, April 27, 2014 at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Creator

Source

Title
Queens College Zine Collection
Author
Christopher Arena and Alexandra Dolan-Mescal
Date
2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Queens College (New York, N.Y.) Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Queens College Library, CUNY
Benjamin Rosenthal Library RO317
65-30 Kissena Boulevard
Flushing 11367 USA us