APA-50, #196

I've long wondered what zines' fanzine predecessors looked like. Finally, through the son of a friend of my father, I've managed to see one--or a modern incarnation of one at least. APA-50 was born in 1974 and its membership was originally limited to those born after 1950 and was meant for science fiction fans as a venue for their own contributions to the genre. Per the introduction, each member's contribution is called a zine (or an ish), and all of the contributions compiled is a mailing. The most viable link I found for the APA is appropriately an Angelfire site. I'm not sure how private the contents are since membership is small, and my copy was sent on spec that I might consider joining, so I'll keep my contents somewhat general.

What really interests me anyway are the similarities and differences between APA zine mailings and what I consider to be zines--punk/DIY self-publications. The same is the community. With an APA, at least with this one, it's a pretty closed community. The mailings go to the members and maybe a few others. The content, which felt to me like each writer's inner dialogue, plus movie and other media reviews, seems to require that you have read a few issues to start to really get it. Most of the columns in the issue I read were named, and presumably picks up where the last one left off. One of them was even independently numbered, so APA-50 contains Title Withheld #s 9 and 10. Some of the zines contain photographs, and other images include a couple of original cartoons, and a logo reprint from the internet. Each writer is expected to comment within their zine on the zines of the previous mailings, so that's sort of similar to the editors letters in what I'll call for now punk zines to differentiate. Zine/mailings came from science fiction, even if the current versions don't mention sf even once, just as the zines I collect come from punk whether or not their authors' espouse that ethos or have ever owned a single Ramones or Bikini Kill record.

The differences--who knew punk zines could be considered wide distribution?!? APA distribution appears to be way more tightly controlled. I've seen some "trade only" zines, but that's not the norm. With at least this APA, you generally need to give to get, and you can't buy your way in. Members are encouraged to drop out, no hard feelings, if they can't manage to put together two full pages of writing four times a year. Nowadays punk zines, while available from the author, are also often purchasable from one or more distros and even bookstores. I don't know enough about the APA zinesters (I doubt they call themselves that!) to speculate on their age or other demographics, but I don't think I'd be far wrong if I suggested that APA zine writers are older than more punk zine publishers. Also, punk zines are shall we say more individualist. Other than split zines and some collaborations, they're the work of one person. Even compilation zines are edited by one person or group, and from my observation comp zines are far less likely than individual personal zines to make it past issue 2.

I may be making APA zines sound ideologically pure to punk zines--more collective, more contained, less ego driven, but that doesn't mean the content is superior, or even more pure. With the disclaimer that I've seen one APA zine and a few thousand punk zines, I am making an uninformed guess that punk zines represent a bit more visual creativity and varied content. That is not to say that each type of publication doesn't have its advantages and disadvantages. As a GenX anarchist type punk zines speak to me, but I did find APA-50 #196 fascinating, especially from a sort of sociological viewpoint. Now I've got to start digging around for APAs in NYC libraries so I can see some more. I'm also still anxious to see a 1930sish science fiction fanzine, if anyone has one handy.