Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Digital Killed My Stapler

When I was in college, I had some buddies who wanted to form a subversive anti-government group. It was all the rage in '93. I blame it on grunge music and flannel shirts at The Gap.

They weren't really serious, of course, and the Oklahoma City Bombing in April of 1995 put the squash on anything of the sort. Like I said--they weren't really serious.

The point is, everybody had a 'zine back in the day. Photocopies, staples. Mine was called The Killing Field and I published essays by my "radical" friends. That all seems so long ago, but I'm a little misty for the days of staples and photocopies. That's why the Sand chapbooks have been decidedly "old school". I feel like I missed out because I came to writing after the era of fiction 'zines hand-assembled in someone's basement. Easy to use blog sites and POD have really changed the nature of punk-rock publishing.

I know there are 'zines out there, but it just isn't the same era.

(One of my poems did appear in The Nocturnal Lyric #68 way back in the Fall/Winter of 1908--er, 2008. They knew how to use staples for sure.)

9 comments:

Cate Gardner said...

I knew it, you're an ancient god... 2008 my ass. I'm not fooled.

Katey said...

Alas for the love that went into stapled zines. We trade wider distribution for losing a piece of our souls. Le sigh.

Jarrett Rush said...

I did a zine, too. Called it Utah for no good reason. I live in Texas.

It was all hand-stapled and photocopies at Office Max, the day job at the time. This was about 1993-1994 also. There were a total of, I think, four issues. But we did get a nice review in one of the bigger zines. And I got a few freebie things that some publicists sent me.

When I think back on it it's not really a surprise that I went the indie publishing route. It's, apparently, in my blood.

Aaron Polson said...

Cate - Ha! I wish. Maybe I could hob-nob with some really cool demigods.

Katey - Our souls and Kinkos.

Jarret - I bet issue #1 of Utah would go for a good penny on eBay. ;)

Robert said...

I started an underground paper too, just for fun. We did a few issues. We actually started with issue 2 and made reference to issue 1 (which didn't exist) to get the ball rolling. Ultimately, it took up too much time and money. And there were no staples.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the trees are grateful. The pulp mill workers, not so much.

Aaron Polson said...

Robert - One of the old EC comics (maybe Weird Fantasy) started with issue #13. A nice trick on both your parts.

Milo - True... Although my school tends to use too much paper.

Fox Lee said...

I remember campus comics. Now I feel old.

Fox Lee said...
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