Zine - Fanlore

Production and distribution of fan fiction is another area that has been greatly affected by technology. The methods for producing and distributing fanzines have changed tremendously over the decades. Earlier methods known to SF fandom included hektography, spirit duplication (ditto), and mimeography. Almost all of the earliest ST fanzines were mimeographed—an extremely labor-intensive process.

Producing a mimeographed zine started with retyping the contributions, on manual typewriters, onto eye-straining wax stencil sheets. It required strong fingers, clean typewriter keys, and, for preference, a high-intensity lamp. If the typewriter didn't have a special stencil setting, the typewriter ribbon had to be disengaged manually (because typing a stencil wasn't typing onto the page, it was using the typewriter keys to cut holes in the stencil sheet). The final layout of the zine had to be considered even before the typing started, as the typists had to remember to leave assigned space for artwork when typing up the masters. (Zines were often typed by multiple volunteers, doing their "bit" for fandom, for which they were repaid with a contributor's copy of the zine.)

Errors were a bitch to correct and involved steps like physically cutting the error out of the stencil, typing a correction on another stencil, and using stencil cement to attach the corrected bit where the error had been. To do special titles on a stencil, special lettering guides were used, with a stylus made to incise stencils without ripping them. Artwork was sometimes done directly on the stencil, using a stylus (and sandpaper for shading, if desired). Otherwise, art was done on electro-stencils (an electro-stencil machine translated an illo to stencil by cutting hundreds of tiny holes into a plastic mimeo stencil).

The early models were hand-cranked (electric models appeared later, for those who could afford them). The mimeo drum had to be filled with ink, then the stencil masters were fastened to the drum (one master page at a time). The paper (special "pulp" paper was needed, as regular bond paper could not absorb the ink) was cranked through and slip-sheeted as it came out (putting a piece of paper between each freshly printed page, to prevent smearing). Once the first side of the page was printed and dry, the stack of half-printed paper was put back into the machine, to print on the other side. (If paper of insufficient quality was used, "bleed-through" could result, allowing text from one side of a page to be seen through on the opposite side.)

The result was many, many stacks of separate pages that would have to be collated together and bound. The tradition for many years was to hold a collating party—invite a bunch of fans over to assemble the pages, usually in return for some refreshments and a free copy of the zine. These zines were usually stapled for binding, or hole-punched, although other types of binding came into use with other printing methods (velo binding and perfect binding, for example).

Depending on the quality of equipment, supplies, and the experience of the individual zine producer, mimeo zines could range in visual quality from professional level to the well-you've-got-to-admire-her-enthusiasm-level.

And mimeographs weren't to be found on every street corner. Fans who wanted to produce zines had to get the use of one, probably at a local church or library; it was the rare fan who owned his or her own machine. These factors limited the number of fans who could get involved in publishing zines—it was not for the faint of fandom.

Mimeo fanzines began going out of fashion when offset print shops became more common, but I have in my collection beautiful mimeo zines produced as late as 1994.

Offset printing was the next generation of zine production, as it became much more available to fans in the mid-to-late seventies. For offset printing, the zine editor produced a camera-ready copy and handed it off to the printing shop. Depending on the services offered, the prices, and the editor's finances, some chose to have the print shop do the collating and binding as well as the printing. Others might pick it up after it was printed and complete the process in the more traditional way.

Electric typewriters—when they appeared and for those who had them—made the process of retyping the contributions easier. But, as these models were not yet self-correcting, there was still no easy way to correct errors. "Corflu" (correction fluid) was the zine publisher's best friend. For offset, the typed originals required nonerasable typing paper (put your hand up if you remember erasable typing paper), clean typewriter keys, and a fresh, dark typewriter ribbon (put your other hand up if you remember changing typewriter ribbons . . . and getting the ink all over yourself).

Offset production offered the zined formatting options not available to them in mimeo production, such as reduced print. Assembling the layout masters involved the use of rubber cement, rulers, photo-invisible blue pencils, scissors, liquid paper, and oversized layout sheets. To achieve, for example, reduced print, a typical method involved mathematically calculating the ratio of reduction desired and then taking the typed pages and literally cutting and pasting them, with rubber cement and a ruler for measurement, to oversized layout sheets. As another example, to get a two column format it was necessary to determine what the final width of a single column should be and set the typewriter margins accordingly, type a single column of text to a page, cut it and rubber cement it to a layout sheet, then paste the next column next to it. The blue pencil (which could not be picked up by the camera that was used to shoot the copy for printing) was used to mark margins and centers, align art, make notes to the printer, etc.

To change typefaces (with electric typewriters, not manuals) the typing element had to be taken out of the typewriter and a replacement element (such as an italic element) inserted, then switched back. Titles, borders, and page numbers were added with transfer lettering/border sets purchased at the office supply store, using a photo invisible blue pencil and ruler to mark where they went and then rubbing them on the page by hand. Artwork had its own requirements, such as photomechanical transfers for half-tone pencil work. Colored pencil work and watercolors also required special handling. Pen and ink work was usually camera-ready. Frequently, illustrations submitted had to be cropped and then rubber-cemented to the master. Some particulary ambitious zine editors and artists even produced artwork that was hand silk-screened, a particularly snazzy effect that you don’t see any more.

The option of offset printing not only enabled more fans to get into the zine-production game, but it also increased their ability to produce zines that looked more visually polished than most of their mimeo counterparts.

Some zines combined printing methods: using offset printing for the artwork, for example, while doing the text on mimeo. Whether the publication method used was mimeograph or offset, there were many other steps in the production of the zine that had to be accomplished without benefit of current technology. Soliciting contributions, working with the contributors on editing and revising, advertising, and sales relied on postal service communication and whatever long-distance phone calls the budget could handle. Editing could not be facilitated by turning on a "Track and Edit Changes" feature, either. Contributors mailed in their manuscripts double-spaced, the editor wielded his or her red pencil to greater or lesser extent, photocopied the edited manuscript for the file, then sent it back. If the editing was extensive, the contributor retyped the manuscript with the agreed-upon changes before returning it (how many times the submission went back and forth in this manner varied, obviously).^[2]

Categories: Glossary | Fan Activities | Fiction Writing | Print Media | Zines