Feminist Zines, Perzines, Punk Distribution, and DIY Youth Culture, Archive of 9 Zines Including Ego Records and Billy's Mitten, 1997 to 2003

Ego Records Billy's Mittens

Pamphlet

Eleven zines and related mail-order sheets, 1997 to 2003, produced for circulation within feminist, queer, punk, skate, and youth subcultures across the Midwest, Texas, California, and Olympia. The group brings together perzines, regional punk writing, queer autobiography, underground music catalogs, review sheets, and independent poetry, preserving the small-run print and postal networks through which young writers, artists, musicians, and distributors exchanged work outside commercial publishing. Several pieces retain the infrastructure of that circulation directly, including distro advertisements, mail-order catalogs, cross-promotion, and named regional outlets.

Archive of 9 independently produced zines and 2 zine related sheets, United States, 1997 to 2003.
[1] Theresa Molter. Billy's Mitten #10, circa 1997. Personal writing on girlhood, sexuality, relationships, and coming out, placing queer self narration within the feminist visual language of 1990s girl zines. [2] Kelli Callis. Kurt Cobain Was Lactose Intolerant Conspiracy Zine. San Francisco, May 1998. First printing, copy 00000183. A mock conspiracy tract combining grunge celebrity, bodily experience, and absurdist argument, concluding, “COURTNEY DIDN'T KILL KURT COBAIN, MILK DID.” [3] Jessica. Nerdica Zine #1. Houston, March 27, 1998. A perzine of personal writing, poetry, music, and adolescence whose creator also advertises her Project Left Undone distro. [4] Tom Watson. Corekillzine #5. Kettering, Ohio, Summer 1998. Regional punk writing, scene memory, interviews, and a Ben Schelker obituary, with advertising rates and named distribution outlets in Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati. [5] Riot Grrrl Review sheet, late 1990s, representing the review and recommendation network through which zines by young women circulated. [6] Candy Ass sheet, late 1990s, promotional material from the same independent music and zine economy. [7] Jolie Nuñez. Ego Records. Union City, Indiana, 2000. Catalog for Nuñez's cassette label and distro, advertising spoken word, punk releases, zine grab bags, samplers, stationery, and material connected to Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, Pretty Fury, and other underground artists. [8] Sucky My Left One #12, circa 1999 to 2000. A feminist perzine addressing friendship, femininity, social performance, and the idea of being “cool” or “dorky.” [9] Ointment Zine #12. Nicole. Carbondale, Illinois, Spring 2002. A 38 page perzine combining first person writing, girl culture, friendship, and skateboarding. [10] Octopussy Mailorder Catalog, circa 2000s, advertising T shirts, stickers, and patches through another small scale mail order operation. [11] S.S.O. Press. Building Rain in a Silent Movie. Free Poetry issue #8. Olympia, December 2003. Photocopied poetry and comics extending the DIY visual language into an independent literary setting.

The group also traces the afterlife of riot grrrl’s photocopied and mail-order publishing model as it moved into queer self-narration, perzines, skate culture, regional punk history, and independent literary production around the turn of the millennium. Jolie Nuñez’s Ego Records catalog is especially useful in this respect, documenting how from Union City, Indiana, Nuñez distributed spoken word and punk cassettes, zines, samplers, stationery, patches, buttons, and related DIY material through the mail.

Item #23753

Price: $385.00