Notes from underground : zines and the politics of alternative culture

"Slug and "Lettuce", "Pathetic Life", "I Hate Brenda", "Dishwasher", "Punk and "Destroy", "Sweet Jesus", "Scrambled Eggs", "Maximumrocknroll" - these are among the thousands of publications which circulate in the subterranean world rarely illuminated by the searchlights of mainstream media commentary.In this multifarious underground, Pynchonesque misfits rant and rave, fans eulogize, hobbyists obsess.

Together they form a low-tech publishing network of extraordinary richness and variety.This is a comprehensive study of zine publishing.

The book describes their origins in early-20th-century science fiction cults, their more proximate roots in 1960s counter-culture and their rapid proliferation in the wake of punk rock.

While the book pays full due to the political importance of zines as a vital web of popular culture, it also notes the shortcomings of their utopian and escapist outlook in achieving fundamental social change.Packed with extracts and illustrations from a wide array of publications, past and present, the book explores the full range of zine culture, and provides a portrait of the contemporary underground in all its facets.