Digging the dirt on ex-zinesters
For some people, a lot of their time and efforts are simply sucked up into the strange netherworld of magazine publishing. Recent magazine deaths are signal posts to the possible concept of independent arts becoming buried, debauched or fossilized like some antiquated civilization found in some Pompeii finish.
Recently, US-based DIY indie music rag Skyscraper is now RIP, but not down for the count. Though it was not my plan for this column to be about magazine closings this year, the fact that, for the second straight issue, Deleted zines has been devoted to such abject ISSN fates seems foreboding. I know what you may be saying: what happened to the zines? Those tiny stapled zines that get offed, deleted, orphaned (and that this column promises to be about); why not write about them? They are killed off far more often than regular magazines.
The point is however, no matter how widely these larger magazines are distributed, how many they employ, or how popular they are in some industry sects, they still have zine integrity and that lovely thing called indie cred. Zine dying traditionally comes as a result of the creator, whereas the recent deaths of indie magazines have been forced on the creators as a result of the economy, and it signifies a larger trend than individual zine deletions. Skyscraper was all independent music, all the time and came from the same creative place as most zines.
Peter and Andrew Bottomley started Skyscraper in 1998 while living in Boulder, Colorado, but spent teendom in Southern California’s hardcore punk scene of the early-to-mid-’90s which “provided the original impetus for the zine,” says Bottomley “We had gotten really involved in the music scene there and even started a record label, Satellite Transmissions, which put out six releases over about as many years.” The brothers also fooled around with cut-and-paste, Xerox style zines. “That was before most people knew anything about desktop publishing, so we’d do all the layouts on photocopiers at Kinko’s and by the time we had a master copy, everything was nth generation photocopies and the reproductions looked like rubbish.” The experience got them more and more interested in the zine community and soon they discovered that zine-making “gave us a way to actively participate in the music scene, so I think it was valuable.”
The recently released Issue 30 (Spring 2009) is the final issue of Skyscraper that will appear in the print format, but says the magazine’s editor, Andrew Bottomley, “the zine will continue online in an enhanced and expanded version.”
Despite the closure, Skyscraper is trying to keep their roster of writers busy. “We’re counting on our current group of contributors to follow us during this transition, because honestly, we won’t be able to do it without [them]. In fact, I’m going to be looking for a number of people willing to step up and take on more active roles, either as writers who can commit to contributing [web]content on a regular basis (say, one or two reviews/features every week) and/or as semi-autonomous section editors.”
Bottomley says many readers have expressed sadness over the news and they say that they’ll really miss seeing the magazine in print, but they’re also happy that it isn’t completely vanishing. “Everyone seems to understand our reasons for moving online. The way things are in the economy right now, and in the print press industry in particular, our decision isn’t taking anyone by surprise,” Bottomley says, continuing, “most people are actually shocked that we made it as long as we did; so many of our music zine peers that started up in the ’90s, like Punk Planet, Hit It or Quit It, Chunklet, Hanging Like a Hex, Muddle, Held Like Sound, and Hodgepodge, to name but a few, stopped publishing years ago, and really none of those are even around online still. So, as much as it appears that people are genuinely upset that Skyscraper will be disappearing from newsstands, I think what they’re really mourning is the death of fanzines as we used to know them. For a lot of people Skyscraper seems to represent the last publication in a long tradition of serious hardcore/punk/ indie/whatever music zines. We were kind of the last holdouts from that tradition.”
So in one way, the Internet has sucked up another magazine from the shelves, in another, it has kept it alive in another dimension and things could turn around for magazines like Skyscraper and Verbicide. Lord knows it would not be the first time.
This web site post is awarded a 2 thumbs way up from me.
some genuinely prize blog articles during this web site , saved to bookmarks .
Hi my friend! I wish to say that this post is amazing, nice written and include approximately all significant infos. I’d like to peer extra posts like this.
somehow found your internet site when i was kind of stoned. very good read
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My blog site is in the exact same niche as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit from a lot of the information you present here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Thanks!
Strong blog. I acquired several nice information. I?ve been keeping a watch on this technology for a couple of time. It?utes attention-grabbing the method it retains completely different, even so a lot of with the primary components remain a comparable. have you observed a whole lot change since Search engines created their very own latest purchase within the field?
I ran across this good from you beyond pure luck without believe it is fortunate enough to express too as credit you receive a very good.
This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks!
Great blog. Lots of websites like yours cover subjects that aren’t found in magazines. I don’t know how we got on 10 years ago with just newspapers and magazines.
I really enjoy reading on this website , it has excellent posts . “Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.” by Thornton.
I wish to show thanks to you for rescuing me from such a instance. Just after surfing throughout the world-wide-web and coming across ideas which are not powerful, I believed my life was gone. Living devoid of the approaches to the issues you have solved as a result of your main website is a critical case, as well as the ones that would have negatively damaged my career if I had not come across your blog. Your own personal know-how and kindness in maneuvering all areas was excellent. I don’t know what I would have done if I had not come upon such a point like this. It’s possible to at this moment relish my future. Thanks a lot very much for the high quality and results-oriented help. I won’t be reluctant to endorse your web sites to any person who should get guide on this matter.
You could have not supposed to do so, however I think you’ve managed to express the frame of mind that lots of people are in. The sense of wanting to help, but not figuring out how or the place, is one thing quite a lot of us are going through.
I¡¦ve recently started a web site, the info you offer on this website has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
I have been examinating out many of your posts and i must say nice stuff. I will make sure to bookmark your website.
of course like your website but you need to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling problems and I find it very bothersome to tell the truth nevertheless I’ll definitely come back again.
I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come further formerly again since exactly the same nearly very often inside case you shield this increase.
I just posted brokenpencil » Blog Archive » Deleted Zines on Digg, hope this helps get you more visitors. Correct with this write-up, I truly believe this website needs a lot more consideration. I’ll likely be returning once again to study more, thank you for the posting it is awesome
Cool blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme. With thanks