How can I get zines?

Out-of-print zines are sometimes sold by fans on the list, and can sometimes be found for sale at 
cons.  There is an out-of-print lending library also.  Ask Flamingo.

In-print zines (and SH has quite a few) can be found at cons, and can often be purchased through 
the mail.  Ask on the list about who has zines for sale, and you should receive current 
information.  Zine producers are often careful about privacy issues, so the information may come 
through a third party.  When all else fails, ask Flamingo.

Subject:  [VP] Good news for the Archive!
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 00:43:40 -0400 (EDT)
From:  AprilValen

In a message dated 8/26/99 2:35:57 PM, blue_starsk wrote:
<<Maybe the online version will spark a new interest in the author, and SH 
fans will be looking to get her paper zines. The online version is a 
substitute in a way. The paper zine is the real thing, it's the prize.>>

I have to agree with Blue and Alexis and I love the way Blue phrased this.  A 
paper zine is the *real* thing, the prize.  It was very interesting when I 
published Swords & Senses, the Net Edition -- one of the authors picked up 
her trib copy and held it to her bosum sighing, "it's so much more real when 
it's in print!" 

I think it's great that we can have access to old, out of print zines on the 
archive, don't get me wrong.  There were only so many copies of those early 
zines printed -- since they were done in the days before there was a xerox 
shop on every corner.  In a small fandom like SH, 100 was a big print run.  
So only so many people will ever be able to get hold of these rare treasures. 
 Today, it's so much easier to keep things in print.  But I remember some 
editors who made a conscious decision never to reprint their zines so the 
originals would retain value.

For those of you who've never actually seen a zine, it's hard to imagine the 
impact they can have.  It's like finding a little bit of Starsky & Hutch 
right in your arms.  It might have arrived in your mailbox (the snail mail 
one <g>) on a day when everything else had gone wrong.  Or you could have 
picked it up at a convention, just managing to get the last copy off the 
editor's table or being lucky enough to find it more recently in a box of 
used zines.  And if the crowd around Mysti's table when the new issue of a 
long-awaited Sentinel zine came out is anything to go by, zines are still 
certainly prized by some.

It might be hard to picture them -- they can be as thick as 450 pages (huge) 
or small as 50-60.  Full of art (when we could beg something from the 
wonderful artists!) and beautifully enhanced by graphics, special lettering, 
each one bears the stamp of it's producer.  I feel a zine is a work of art in 
itself -- a lot of thought goes into the arrangement of the stories and how 
they are presented.  It's more than just a few stories reformatted and 
printed out.  They are bound in plastic spirals, staples, or perfect bound 
usually.  And most of them are 8 1/2 by 11 in size (longer paper for the Brit 
zines) and there are some that are digest size (regular paper folded in half 
width-wize).

Sure, I'd like to have stories up on a web page someday too -- although I'm 
not nearly as prolific as I used to be.  And I enjoy reading stories on line, 
too.  I think fandom will continue to have both kinds of fiction to 
experience.  Fans love to communicate and they love to share and whenever a 
new way to communicate is found, we'll take advantage of it.  The net can 
bring in people who'd never have found fandom at all.  And zines, new or old, 
will *always* be more than worth the paper they're printed on.

Just my thoughts...
Martha


