The Punk Movement: 10 Years of British Punk Chronicled By Zines (PHOTOS)

Before there were blogs, zines were the greatest mode of self-published expression. If we're being loose with our interpretation, the origins of zines can wind all the way back to Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," but they first really gained momentum in the 1930s within the science fiction genre. One of the largest subcultures to put its mark on zines came years later, in the 1970s as part of the punk movement. Zines were a way for punks to circulate their thoughts, frustrations and of course, show flyers, in a forum that wasn't available in the mainstream media.

100 of these vintage zines have now been compiled into one volume, titled "100 Fanzines/10 Years of British Punk: 1976-1985," which will be on display and discussed by a panel of experts at the NY Art Book Fair starting on Sept. 30. Below, we've compiled a selection of images featured the book, from the groundswell of the punk movement in the UK. Click on, and let us know in the comments how the punk movement resonated with you.

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Comments

[american-dolt]

11:33 AM on 09/27/2011

I made one with friends (bandmates) in the 80's called "The Replicant Rag", 2 issues, sold maybe 1. Very Rare and Valuable today, I will sell you my copy for $500,000. Hurry going on ebay next Tuesday.

[rabit818]

09:50 AM on 09/26/2011

The movement was an inspiration for a lot of my graphic design.

[misssooshi]

04:49 AM on 09/26/2011

AHHHH BRITISH PUNK. !!!! I have some local college publications from the era that look very much like this from Green Bay WI.

[cameron d]

12:13 AM on 09/26/2011

If you're thinking that I looked at these pictures and didn't put on The Jam's "In the City" you'd be dead wrong.

[Tom Hendricks]

10:07 PM on 09/25/2011

The media has done everything it can to alter publishing history and not tell about the zine explosion that came with desktop publishing. It's las if someone wrote the history of music but didn't talk about rock and roll from 1955-1970. The best and most innovative writing in the world was in zines during the years from 1990 - 2000+. There is a Zine Hall of Fame. So where has the media been? How many thousands and thousands of zines have not been reviewed since 1990 why generic publishing has gotten endless reviews? This article barely touches the tip of an iceberg that really came into its own in the 90's in a golden decade of writing, illustrating and bookmaking, still unknown to the majority of the world.

[mose joseph workman]

09:50 PM on 09/25/2011

...all the real punks are either dead or members of parliament.

[Pema]

02:50 AM on 09/26/2011

eh yea...

[misssooshi]

04:49 AM on 09/26/2011

Parliament was funk.

[mose joseph workman]

10:43 AM on 09/26/2011

...i think you mean funkadelic.

[Melanie226]

07:16 PM on 09/25/2011

Love zines, miss zines, my teenage and college years were made much better by zines.

[Skygazer]

04:30 PM on 09/25/2011

Zines were just the best. You found out about great new music, usually local and like it or hate it, you got some sort of unvarnished and truthful bit of knowledge, and an attempt at independence and thought. The DIY anti-corp ethic and the work involved in making them was incredibly admirable as well.

I would inhale zines basically like they were oxygen and I miss them terribly. The internet has basically co-opted the ethos to some extent, but it's a whole lot easier to wave away a web site and ignore it than it its to ignore a zine that shows up and sits there waiting for you to read it....and keeps showing up with new issues.

Ah well.

[JrayTo]

02:37 PM on 09/25/2011

zine power! zine art!

[Shesme]

01:22 PM on 09/25/2011

Had zines in the US too.

[Uh Yes Uh No]

01:05 PM on 09/25/2011

Their DIY graphics style--choppy and scattered cuz we didn't have scanners (or even T-squares sometimes!) and had to do this stuff on "borrowed" Xerox machines with stolen paper--was the most original look since pop art of the late-50s and early-60s, though certainly at least as much out of necessity as out of raw energy and inspiration. And yeah, kidnappers too.

Not sure if any of these zines have work by Jamie Reid (the man behind the Sex Pistols "cut-up letter" technique), but i'l certainly be at that show to find out.

I feel like the old punk I am right about now... and I don't care!

[Cassandra45]

01:50 PM on 09/26/2011

Me too, loved it. We were getting disco'd to death out in SF and I was listening to jazz on the radio because I couldn't stand it, and then suddenly these weird cut-and-paste'd flyers started showing up on telephone poles, then it was the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash, and then life was good again. Raw energy is right!

[Connie Markley Boppre]

11:55 AM on 09/25/2011

at least they had something to say