Zineopolis Collection

Art-Zines, The Self-Publishing Revolution: The Zineopolis Art-Zine Collection Dr Jackie Batey 1

This paper is specifically about Zineopolis - the art zine collection at the University of Portsmouth UK, curated by Dr Jackie Batey

www.zineopolis.blogspot.co.uk

Abstract As the curator of Zineopolis-Art-Zine collection at the University of Portsmouth, I set the aim of the collection to archive and reflect the diversity of thought and talent that exists outside the traditional publishing arena. Zines are one of the few areas left where creative people can speak without censorship to an audience beyond the gallery. This makes the world of zines new and exciting as well as challenging, with ArtZines especially-the tactility and aesthetic of the self-published artifact is an important consideration. The nature of production, often cheap and quick, means these Art-Zines reflect the thoughts and hopes of the day (quite literally). Zineopolis is located within the School of Art and Design so it was a deliberate choice to focus upon image-heavy zines, although we have examples of poetry-zines, personal-zines and fan-zines. The culture of zines shows us that people do still have opinions, it also shows us that traditional conduits for sharing thoughts are probably not as accessible as we’d like to think. The Zineopolis collection seeks to archive and celebrate the self-publishing boom. Zineopolis is primarily a non-virtual collection where items can be handled and flicked-through, many have novelty items, unusual packaging, unconventional bindings, or unusual materials, this collection (although archived online) is sensorial delight in the ‘physical’. This paper will show examples of what, zineopolis considers, constitutes the Art-Zine.

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Fig.1 A selection of Art-Zines

Introduction Prior to the foundation of Zineopolis it had been noticed by academic staff at the University of Portsmouth, UK., that more and more students within the School of Art & Design were creating self-published, editioned artifacts including: comics, books, promotional packs, artist’s books, multiples, flyers, portfolios, booklets and stickers.

It was also apparent that many of these artifacts had a commonality within the genre of zines – typically a self-published low-run, low-tech magazine. A research project by illustration academic staff (Dr. Maureen O’Neill and Dr. Jackie Batey) suggested the setting-up of two archives to support Learning & Teaching within the School of Art & Design.

• The Ministry of Books - Artists’ Books Collection The aim was to collect and archive artists’ books, mail-art and multiples, by both students and creative professionals. Includes teaching and learning materials. Curated by Dr Maureen O’Neill

• Zineopolis - Art-Zines Collection The aim was to collect Art-Zines, by both students and creative professionals.

Includes teaching and learning materials. Curated by Dr Jackie Batey 3

The School already had a small and disparate collection of artists’ books but they were not kept in the University library (due mainly to concerns about unusual shelving requirements). The artists’ books were, in practice, locked away with little or no access permitted. The School was keen to support the research project and in 2007 the artists’ books were relocated and the collection was re-catalogued by Dr. Maureen O’Neill.

The Zineopolis collection was started shortly afterwards by Dr. Jackie Batey. During the initial phase it was noticed that some of the artists’ books seemed to sit more comfortably within the Art-Zine genre, so they were moved to the newly formed Zineopolis collection. The two collections were designed to support each other in order to form a varied resource that would support student projects in artists’ books, book-binding, self-published comics and graphic novels, small press magazines, group zines, self-publishing/promotion and creating batch-productions. The two collections now share a dedicated room within the Illustration space so that staff, researchers and students can now access both the Artists’ Books and Art-Zines with ease. i-macs, a scanner and digital camera are also available for student use.

From Zines to Art-Zines The genre of Artists’ Books has become familiar but zines are still open to confusion.

The term ‘zine’ (short for magazine or fanzine) became popular during the 1970s and is used to refer generally to self-published pamphlets, magazines and leaflets. They were bought to prominence during the ‘20s and ‘30s with many science fiction fanzines appearing. Zines became a way for groups and individuals sidelined by mainstream publishing to communicate with each other. There are examples of ‘zine’ like publications appearing from the 18th century onwards. Zines currently are still often assumed to be associated with punk, riot Grrrl or science fiction. But the Zineopolis collection hopes to reveal the delightful variety of zines that now exists beyond this initial assumption.

The general history of zine culture through punk during the ‘70s and Riot Grrrl of the ‘90s has been well documented previously and it is not my intention to repeat it here.

(A great example of a history and overview of zines can be found in Fanzines by Teal Triggs, Thames & Hudson 2010). It should be mentioned that these earlier zines are more text orientated and their purpose of conveying the author’s message is generally tackled through words; images (when they appear) mainly serve as decoration.

It has been great to note that libraries and special collections have been quick to archive and actively collect this genre with zine collections also appearing in lending libraries, University special collections and independent collections and distros (distro = independent shop/workshop/community centre and/or café). Kelsey Smith curator of Olympia Library’s zine collection in the US outlined why the library was so passionate about zines.

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“Zines hold appeal for many library users (or potential library users) in the late teen to early thirties age groups. Zines may attract new users in this age bracket to the library. The small-press voice represents the counterculture and offers even greater diversity in our materials.”

Following on from this enthusiasm for zines, TRL’s Zine Curator, at a presentation given at the first Zine Librarian Unconference at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle.

March, 2009, answered the question, “Why do you have zines in the library?” with this wonderful response: “Zines are the purest form of counterculture expression that exists in printed form, and insightful indicators of current times. They represent the under-represented and give voice to marginalized members of society. Zines are interesting and cheap, and as a public library, it is our job to provide access to all types of information”

There are many other notable zine collections internationally, such as: Barnard College Collection in New York, USA The Women’s Library Zine Collection, London Metropolitan University, UK Printed Historical Sources, 1914-present, The British Library, London, U.K. Library and Archive, Tate, Millbank, London, U.K. Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, IL, U.S.A. Duke University, Durham NC, U.S.A. Aboveground ZIne Library, Kenner, LA, U.S.A. Colorado College Special collections, Colorado Springs, CO, U.S.A. {Disarmed}, Bedeteca de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.

TRL Collection, Olympia, USA Toronto Zine Library, Canada Papercut Zine Library, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA Centre for Fine Print Research, UWE, Bristol, School of Creative Arts, U.K. Salt Lake City Public Libraries

many more zine collections are listed on the Zineopolis blog:

http://www.zineopolis.blogspot.co.uk/ Although it is interesting to note, from the point of view of Zineopolis, that Art-Zines only form one category out of 24 of the TRL’s Zine Collection.

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So what is an Art-Zine and how does it differ from a regular zine?

The desktop publishing boom of the late ‘80s served to develop a zine culture but as scanners and digital cameras become more affordable for home users throughout the late ‘90s the possibilities of the zine became more appealing to artists and imagemakers. Commercial publishing is expensive and time consuming. Most publishers are looking to attract large audiences (for financial return) which means they will avoid controversial or specialist material. The home computer and photocopier meant that anyone with something to say could simply self-publish and distribute. More recently the internet has made the problem of distribution world-wide almost disappear e.g. selling zines on Etsy is very simple with even currency conversion handled by the computer - all the seller needs to do is post the product.

As zine culture has grown in popularity we have also seen a growth in a new sub-genre of zine, created by image-makers, known widely as the ‘Art-Zine’. Defining the Art-Zine is difficult as the genre works by not following direct rules, but the Zineopolis collection generally responds to these seven statements: 1. The Art-Zine should be a non-commercial publication that has a small circulation (under 1,000 but more commonly below 100).

2. Many Art-Zines are produced intending to sustain a regular edition - but in practice, few exceed 16 issues. Many run only to 2 or 3 issues.

3. This includes self-published works on any theme, most commonly by illustrators, crafts people, artists, designers and photographers.

4. They are not subject to outside editorial control or censorship. This rule is the sine qua non of all zines.

5. Art-Zines are commonly reproduced via photocopier or home computer printers - very few are produced by commercial printers. Many may utilise techniques such as screen printing, block or lino printing and letterpress.

6. They are sold in specialist shops or via the internet. Many are swapped or given away free. Some may be intended as self-promotion.

7. Visual content (images) will be larger than textual content. Some may contain only images. (This means we are open to collect zines in any language).

The Zineopolis collection at Portsmouth has a range of Art-Zines produced from the ‘80s onwards including artifacts by art professionals and students.

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The Zineopolis structure and some examples The Zineopolis collection has been organized into the following seven categories. This reflects that the collection is housed within a School of Art & Design and currently is a resource for University of Portsmouth Students but is open to researchers by appointment.

• Small Press Comic

• Small Press Graphic Novel

• Art Fanzine

• Small Run Magazine

• Visual Manifesto

• Portfolio/promotion

• Miscellaneous – this includes maps, sticker books and visual diaries.

There now follows some visual examples from the Zineopolis collection to illustrate the categories above.

• The Small Press Comic

Comics generally contain visual narratives, a selection of tableaus or strips but in some cases containing the single complete narrative. Audience can be children, young adults and mature readers. Small press comics may be distributed by the artist or via specialist shops or websites. Some may be part of a series, but in practice many small press comics don’t last beyond about 16 issues.

Fig.2 Celebrity Deaths by Dave Shelton (1998).

Dave Shelton is a comic artist who has most recently had his strip “Good Dog Bad Dog’ 7

serialized in the Guardian newspaper. Before he achieved recognition as a comic artist he studied at The University of Brighton MA and experimented with the production of self-published comics. We hold several examples of his early handmade books including The Wrong Dog. This comic was created by scanning images from Dave’s sketchbooks and then writing a humorous surreal narrative to loosely link them together. Small press comics and hand made comics are often a way for artists to show their work in a format that can inspire prospective publishers as to their potential. Celebrity Deaths is a great early example of Dave’s work and shows how his storytelling and visuals have developed. Dave has just won the Branford Boase award for outstanding debut children’s novel with A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. So we are lucky to be able to hold his fledgling narratives for future researchers.

Fig.3 Blue Inks by Andy Smith (2009).

Andy is an illustrator/screenprinter, as well as working as a freelance illustrator. He draws, prints and markets his own limited edition books/comics. Often situated on the cross-over between artist’s books and zines, Andy’s books have high production values being hand-screened and bound his work is humorous and bizarre. This example, The Blue Inks is a short narrative about a strange family of characters called the Blue Inks.

There are many puns on print technology within the story, as they argue with their neighbours ‘the magentas’. Andy’s illustration is known particularly for his visual jokes and puns along with his hand drawn typography.

Three Very Small Comics, Vol.II (2004) Tom Gauld. (Fig.4) Tom is now a very highly regarded illustrator in the UK. He is known particularly for his sequential illustrations that often have amusing or visually surreal conclusions.

Interestingly his earlier work consisted of producing sequential illustrations and formatting them into small hand made comics. The comics were reprinted when demand increased and subsequently produced in several volumes.

His work is now being published by Drawn and Quarterly, Montréal, Canada.

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With these small press and hand-made comics we can often see the early development of illustrators and comic artists prior to their achieving commercial success/recognition.

The Zineopolis collection archives these early works which are a valuable resource for students looking at developing a career in art & design. They chart how visual work is explored, how ideas are tested and how narratives are explored before a more fixed ‘style’ is adopted.

Fig.4 Three Very Small Comics, Vol.II by Tom Gauld, showing packaging and spreads from two comics.

• The Small Press Graphic Novel

There are many cross-overs between graphic novels and comics but generally a graphic novel could be said to be intended at a older readership, from young teen to adult.

Content may be more controversial and most graphic novels cover one long narrative that is resolved by the end of the book. Small press graphic novels are often produced and distributed by the creators, again via specialist shops or websites.For an example we’ll look at the work of Le Dernier Cri are a collective of artists/screenprinters in Marseilles, France. As described on their website, “French publisher specialized in rather disturbing sick screen and comics with a very low print run, depuis 17 ans Le Dernier Cri vomit des livres…”

The collective invites artists to work with them at their studios and produce limited edition silk-screened artworks. The collective is run by Pakito Bolino and Caroline Sury 9

who run the silkscreening studio from which they’ve produced, through painstaking handmade effort, a decade worth of books, comics, monographs, print-medium objets d’art and their flagship magazine Hopital Brut. The work is all basically in the horror genre and deals with issues not normally covered within mainstream publishing. The collective also exhibits internationally.

“Our main aim is to help expose artists from the margins, whether they’re in contemporary art or comics.”

Fig.5 Caroline Et Ses Amis No.2 (2004) Caroline Surys. Le Dernier Cri Collective.

This darkly humorous comic is an illustrated photo album of Caroline’s friends, in all their macabre glory. The title is a pun on the popular French children’s tales (43 in all) Caroline et ses amis, by Pierre Probst dating from 1953, about a young girl and her band of friends including cats and dogs. In this version the friends are gruesome and twisted and become more so as the pages turn. Bart Beaty, writing for The Comic’s Reporter said of Sury’s publications; “She says things that aren’t talked about in polite company, and she says them in a way that is both highly personal and totally uncompromising.”

The next example is called ‘From the Secret Laboratory’ (2001) by Hendrik Dorgathen (Fig.6) a German artist and performer, who produces illustrations, animations, comics, graphic novels and fine art works and performance for exhibitions. ‘From the Secret Laboratory’ was produced in collaboration with Le Denrier Cri Collective. Hendrik is a great example of an artist that seems at home in any media, ‘From the Secret Laboratory’ is a dream-like narrative that explores humans as robots/machines. From the perspective of the Zineopolis Collection, his publications can be compared with the 10

work he produces in other formats to see how the ‘artist’s vision’ can adapt when the medium changes. Due to the narrative being completely without text it means there are no language issues for any of our readers.

Fig.6 From The Secret Laboratory (2001) Hendrik Dorgathen.

The Zineopolis collection should be an archive where all points of view can be housed, from the lightly humorous to the difficult or controversial. We are looking to collect ArtZines that may not necessarily be represented within mainstream publishing or located within public libraries but it’s important to evidence the wealth of opinion raging currently, with many of these items ephemeral in nature it’s vital they are stored for future researchers.

• Art Fanzine

Fig.7 Love To Print Patterns, by the ‘Love To Print Collective’ ed. Karoline Rerrie (2010).

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This genre is all about obsessions. Art Fanzines are often created to celebrate a specific theme or concept. There follows two examples from our collection.

Karoline Rerrie is part of the collective ‘Girls Who Draw’ and as well as producing individual hand produced books they also get together to create fanzines on shared delights. This example showcases 6 women artists that explore how their love of patterns has inspired their artwork. Other fanzines include, ‘Love to Print’, ‘Magic’ and ‘Dogs’. The work is generally humorous in tone and illustrative. As a collective they consider how their illustration styles together and colour palettes are shared to bring harmony to the whole. The zines are often screenprinted which means some unusual inks can be used such as metallic colours (something that can’t currently be appreciated on the online screen version). The beetles in Fig.7 are screen printed using metallic copper ink.

Fig.8 Gloom#1 by David Millhouse & Eloise Parrack (2008).

FIg. 8 is an example of an anti-fanzine. Produced as a limited edition magazine ‘Gloom’ (now on it’s 3rd issue) is an anti-fashion statement. This is a black & white magazine with a melancholy tone with images of deserted buildings and unsuccessful urban design. ‘Fashion’ images are interwoven with interviews, features, graphics and creative writing. David Millhouse says of ‘Gloom’, “I got it selling in BStore, Saville Row, London, and they sold out in 5 days, I went to stock-up their shelves again last week and they invited me to a mothafukin’ fashion show! Arrrghhh!!... I see it as an experiment to see how far I can mess with the bullshit in fashion, it’s directed to people on edge of becoming hated... I want to destroy my audience!”

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Art-Fanzines are useful to see how the fashions and passions of the age are changing and developing. Unlike Fanzines (mainly text based) the Art-Fanzine show us visually what is enjoyed or derided. The interesting note with ‘Gloom’, is that David Millhouse describes it as a fashion magazine that he’d like to read, filling a perceived gap in the market. Since producing ‘Gloom’, David (under the name Defalign) has gone on to work on ‘Currency Magazine’ a Paris based fashion magazine with Sico Carlier. The mission statement on the ‘Currency’ website is as follows: “Capturing a spirit of inclusivity through validation of art or design regardless of critique, CURRENCY aims to levitate theory, poetry and literature beyond journalism to broaden discussion. CURRENCY refers to a diverse range of imagery surrounding pop, neo-digital and cultural debris, it invites sophisticated conversation. The magazine channels a conscious non-conformity, to explore and challenge the constraints of formal publishing, positioning itself between mainstream printed-matter and luxury object.”

‘Gloom’ can be seen as a precursor to ideas now expressed through ‘Currency’.

• Small Run Magazine

Advertising pays for the publication of most popular magazines, so any articles that seemly contradict the advertising are unlikely to be included as revenue could be endangered. It’s a lesser known fact within publishing that a magazine’s purpose is to sell advertising to as many people as possible. Small Run Magazines often ignore advertising revenue and try to exist on either a subscription basis or by government grants and other such funding. These Small Run Magazines generally have a circulation of less than 5000. The examples included here, although professionally printed and bound, would have a print run of less than 1000. The audience would be targeted almost directly through mailing lists and contacts, as opposed to being sold in stationers or book shops. Here are two examples of this form of publishing held within the Zineopolis collection.

‘Ken360’ (Fig.9) Produced by Luce Choules creator of Foldedsheet, this range of small run publications printed in map format covers a range of subjects from travel diaries to contemporary photography. The folded magazines – known as ‘Mappazines’ are printed by Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency of Great Britain. Luce says of her publishing project, in her promotional material, “Since 2004, Foldedsheet has developed, designed and produced innovative and bespoke publications that visually ‘map’ information. In the digital age our range of paper based planning tools and mappazines offer an alternative medium for 13

presenting and documenting data, knowledge, thoughts, ideas, facts, figures and stories…This mappazine is an independent forum for travel writing and photography. ken360 is a publication about journeys – an amazing sheet of stories and photographs from around the world. A collection of inspirational people, places and experiences fill each issue.”

Fig.9 Ken360 by Luce Choules (2004).

Luce was very keen to produce a special interest magazine that wasn’t funded by any advertising. She set up a series of contacts with potential contributors and subscribers, this led to her getting readers to sign-up and pay for several issues in advance. The subscription money then paid for printing costs (a tactic popular with the Victorians).

This is a great example of one of the various strategies that can be employed to fund a limited edition publication.

Fig.10 Modern Toss, Issue No.3 by Mick Bunnage and Jon Link (2003).

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‘Modern Toss’, Issue No.3 (Fig.10) by Mick Bunnage and Jon Link, Brighton based satirists collected together a series of cartoons and vignettes around the concept of ‘work’. The early publications were created as small run comics but later, due to their popularity, were reprinted commercially as small run magazines and more recently as small anthology publications available through commercial bookshop chains. The themes are generally modern life, work, leisure, travel and entertainment. They are probably best known for the ‘periodic table of swearing’ as celebrated in Creative Review Magazine. But the earlier small run magazines show how the Modern Toss brand has been extended and developed. The cartoons have more recently been extended into animation and television.

• Visual Manifesto

Visual Manifestos are about artist’s trying to rationalize their perspective. They contain work that aims to change opinions. Sometimes the books in this category use humour or subtlety and sometimes they seek to unsettle the reader, but the aim generally is to make the reader question some part of their life/understanding. We would like to think of BLAST magazine (1914) as a wonderful example of how we see the ‘visual manifesto’ category (copies are held by the V&A National Art Library). There follows two examples of manifesto-style art-zines at Zineopolis.

Fig.11 Monkey Trapped by Michael Ball (2003).

This is an anti-animal testing narrative that uses humour and pathos to create sympathy for the lead character, a monkey that eventually escapes from a laboratory.

The author’s intention was to create empathy within the reader towards the monkey to appreciate how animals are treated in some facilities. This is a good example how 15

communicating controversial subjects can be done with humour and a lightness of touch.

Fig.12 Future Fantasteek! Art-Zine series by Damp Flat Books, large cover and spread taken from #10

Future Fantasteek! serial art-zine now in its 16th issue seeks to highlight modern life issues, such as over-reliance on computers, stupidity, blame and anxiety. Many images seek to highlight the banality of mobile phone conversations, rudeness, political mishaps and environmental issues. Widely collected, Future Fantasteek! has recently toured the UK and USA and (at the time of writing) showing in Russia. The zines are drawn whilst the author commutes by train, so wobbly drawings often reflect the issues of the day, this makes the titles of the series interesting when viewed with hindsight since the main body of the work covers the economic downturn and beyond.

The titles over this period, in sequence read: Credit Crunch #5: Quantitative Easing #6: Fiddle Your Expenses #7: Phlogiston #8: Deepwater Horizon #9: Royal Wedding Souvenir #10. The sequence seeks to remind of what was happening in Britain, from the larger issues to the trivail details, often including pointless newspaper headlines and broken technology, these issues tend to focus when we look back on a longer running serial zine. From the Future Fantasteek! manifesto: “Future Fantasteek! seeks to explore the artist as social commentator using drawing as a means of immediate visual communication. The series explores obdurate boundaries between journalism and authorial illustration using satire to reflect notions of ‘Britishness’. The series can be read as a sequence, from just prior to the ‘credit crunch’ through to the ‘age of austerity’... The approach is experimental, incremental and reflective focussing on both the microcosm and macrocosm of living in the UK. Visual humour is developed throughout as a vehicle 16

for change, combining techniques such as pastichĂŠ, parody and socratic irony.

Fig.13 Future Fantasteek! #5 Fig.15 Future Fantasteek! #7

Fig.14 Future Fantasteek! #6 Fig.16 Future Fantasteek! #9

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• Portfolio/promotion

This category includes small run items that are often intended as self-promotion by the artist, some may be given away free. In many cases self-published artifacts can be more visually striking when sent to prospective publishers or commissioners than postcard examples or another PDF attachment. Published items to own have a tactile quality that induces them to be kept - it’s not easy to throw a book in the bin. The following examples seek to showcase the illustrators/artists vision and artwork.

Fig.17 Lairs by Daniel Swan (2008).

A collection of illustrations depicting homes and hiding places. The main purpose is to show the range of the illustrator’s work, the use of tinted paper showcases the drawing skills beautifully.

Fig.18 Little Book of Weird Dreams by D.Churm, F.Dalton, J.Keaveny, S.Payne.

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‘Little Book of Weird Dreams’ is an art-zine is about dreams and the subconscious mind. The illustrations are concerned with the most popular dreams, such as flying or losing teeth. It is inkjet printed on brown paper with a red paper central section. The intention was that it could be produced in an edition and mailed to prospective clients.

The notion of a collective of artists working together for promotion is not a new one working as a group more can achieve more in terms of distribution and publicity. In this case four illustrators at the start of their careers worked together for mutual promotion and support. This concept of the collaborative zine is helpful in the context of teaching and learning as it shows how artist’s can work collectively to achieve a shared aim.

• Miscellaneous - this includes maps, sticker books and visual diaries.

This category is basically a ‘catch-all’ for things we have not anticipated as yet. For an example of a travel diary.

Fig.19 America 2008 – A Travel Diary (2008) Gemma Correll.

The travel diary covers food and drink, observations, people, Halloween and the Elections. There is a delightful jumble of speech and drawings all mixed together.

Gemma Correll is a well known UK based illustrator who makes many cartoons, illustrations on various themes, mostly humorous. This travel diary is a collection of images from a sketchbook kept whilst traveling. It’s a lovely example how easy it can be to move from sketchbook to publication, this zine has the wonderful quality of a sketchbook but available as a limited edition publication.

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Art zines for Children?

Whilst compiling this overview of the art zines within the Zineopolis Collection, I’ve been asked whether we have any art zines aimed at children, until a few years ago I would have said ‘no’. However, in the last few years we have seen some great examples of art zines aimed at children or by them. Generally this is a small section of the collection but it is growning, so in updating this paper I’d like to add an example here.

Fig.20 Lonely Panda’s very little colouring book by Karoline Rerrie

This art zine is A6 landscape, a small format designed for small hands, created as a colouring book printed in black and white on smooth paper that would suit felt tipped pens. So, although art zines seemed to be made by and for ages 15 to adult the age ranges are increasing as more people experiment with self-publishing (this underlines the growing popularity of zines and the desire of creatives to make and share their own publications).

The Online Catalogue The Art-Zines were formally listed on a website with a .html page for each Art-Zine processed. This has now moved to a Blogger account for ease of updating. The categories are virtual as each art-zine is archived, in reality, alphabetically in shelved magazine box files. The online catalogue can be searched via user keyword, date, title or author (using an internal Google search engine) so the categories are registered on each art-zine’s post entry. Each art-zine’s post contains information including; title, author, sample images, publication date, binding method and print technologies used.

The graphic style is listed along with a short synopsis and further links to the artist’s website or blog. All images used online are there to aid visitors to the actual collection 20

and approval has been sought from as many authors as were contactable.

It is important to note that Zineopolis is intended to be a physical collection, we want the art-zines to be handled and interacted with. We are keen that the tactile nature of the handmade art-zines should be experienced first-hand by our students. There is a sensory delight in unfolding of handmade paper that has the wonderful smell of letterpress ink with indented letterforms from the bite of the press. The element of expectation and surprise, can only really be experienced by interacting with the actual book. Narrative sequences unfold with the turning of pages rather than the clicking of buttons. The image scans we show online are to be seen as an indicator of the content rather than a replacement for it.

The future for Zineopolis We are looking to extend the collection by more programming & outreach. We have an art-zines unit that runs within the illustration BA(HONS) course to encourage students to explore the collection and add to it. We have also invited guest groups from neighboring colleges to visit the collection. We have run small art-zine workshops and added ‘how to’ information online. As well as sharing the collection’s work internationally, we are also hoping to move towards, being able to support an art-zine fair in Portsmouth to encourage the growth of this exciting area for visual creatives.

The main focus of the Zineopolis collection is to try and expand the concept of a ‘zine’ beyond the expectation of a black and white, badly photocopied booklet. We want to promote and celebrate the many art-zines that should be taken seriously for their artistic merit. We would like art-zines considered and possibly exhibited alongside the genre of Artists’ Books.

Fig.21 Zineopolis promotional postcard 21

References Zineopolis can be viewed at http://www.zineopolis.blogspot.co.uk/ All the art-zines listed in this paper can be accessed from this site, where further information on the zines and artists are available.

There can also be found web links to other collections worldwide. http://www.zineopolis.blogspot.co.uk/p/links.html

ARCHIZINES http://www.archizines.com/2ha

Barnard College Zine Collection, U.S.A. www.barnard.edu/library/zines/

British LIbrary Zine Collection, U.K. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/news/zines(part1)/zines1.html

Colorado College Zine Collection U.S.A. http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/library/specialcollections/zines/

Farrelly, L, 2001, Zines, London, Booth-Clibborn.

Todd,M., & Watson,E.P., 2006, Whatcha mean, what’s a zine?: the art of making zines and minicomics. Boston, Mass., Graphia 200

Block, F.L., 1998, Zine scene, USA, Girl Press.

Angel, J., & Kucsma, J., 2003, The zine yearbook, Vol. 7., New York, Soft Skull

Brent ,B., 1997, Make a zine!: a guide to self-publishing disguised as a book on how to produce a zine. San Francisco, Calif., Black Books.

Rowe, C., 1997, The book of zines: readings from the fringe, New York, Owl

Walton, R.,1997, Typographics, 2, Cybertype: ‘zines and screens, London, Hearst Books International.

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Future Fantasteek! Zine series, Brighton, U.K. http://www.futurefantasteek.blogspot.co.uk/

Duncombe, S., 1997, Notes from underground: zines and the politics of alternative culture, London, Verso.

Gunderloy, M., 1992, The world of zines: a guide to the independent magazine revolution, New York, Penguin Books

Triggs, T., 2010, Fanzines, London, Thames & Hudson.

ENDNOTES This paper publication is an updated version (2014) of one originally presented at the Ninth International Conference of the Book, 14-16 October 2011 University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto, Canada in 2011 by Dr. Jackie Batey from the University of Portsmouth, UK. First version of this paper was published in the International Journal of the Book, Volume 9, Issue 4, pp.69-86. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 22.010MB). http://ijb.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.27/prod.478

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Zineopolis Art-Zine Collection University of Portsmouth School of Art, and Design Eldon Building Winston Churchill Avenue Portsmouth Hampshire PO1 2DJ United Kingdom

www.zineopolis.blogspot.co.uk 24