What can the publishing industry learn from a bunch of DIY ‘zine makers and punk rock fans from the 1980s? A lot.
Today’s guest on the Morning Media Menu was rock journalist and publisher Ian Christe–talking about his indie press, Bazillion Points. Christe explained how his press assembled Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83, a collection of writing from Michigan-based punk fans. He also shared advice for aspiring rock writers.
He explained his fascination with zine culture: “There’s something about the documentation of 1981 and 1982–what the look was. What these people were doing with scissors and tape and Xerox machines. Sometimes writing a record review and cutting and pasting each strip individually over a dark photograph of Elvis Presley–it completely decimates anything that can be done with Adobe Creative Suite. Everything we see now is so cool and stylized and slick. This was an elementary school teacher who was sneaking in at night to use the Xerox machine at school with sheaf of dirty papers in his pocket.”
Christe concluded: “This is our eighth book … we’ve tapped into an innate, die-hard interest in a rich subculture. There are definitely people who live for hardcore punk. Those people range in age from 15 to 55 … I know already, just in three weeks, that we’re totally wiped out with this Touch and Go book. We’re reprinting already.”
Read more about rock & roll events to support the book at the publisher’s Facebook page. Full Disclosure: Christe is married to eBookNewser editor Dianna Dilworth.