In an era marked by the rapid centralization of corporate media, zines are independ-
ent and localized, coming out of the cities, suburbs and small towns across the USA,
assembled on the kitchen tables. They celebrate the everyperson in world of celebrity,
losers in a society that rewards the best and the brightest. Rejecting the corporate
dream of an atomized population broken down into discrete and instrumental target
markets, zine writers form networks and forge communities around diverse identities
and interests. (Duncombe 1997b: 2)In the everyday of Everyman lies the foundation of the “perzine”, the personal zine.
This part of zine culture highlights another side of the possibility of the zine. It is a
channel for the lonely, a tool for reflection and authorship for those without a
voice, a platform for personal creation. It is this aspect that makes the world of
zines “underground”. It moves through unofficial amateur channels, cleared and
created by the people on the ground, or below it.
It becomes a place where losers who have found their way into the underground can
have a voice, a home, and others to talk to. As individuals, zinesters may be losers in
the game of American meritocracy, but together they give the word a new meaning,
changing it from insult to accolade, and transforming personal failure into an indict-
ment of the alienating aspects of our society. (Duncombe 2002: 232)Duncombe means the zine culture of “losers” works in two ways. First it is a coun-
terculture based on supposed ideas of alienation, anti-consumerism and authen-
ticity, ideas all based on an opposition to the big “hegemonic culture” and a now
more fragmented media landscape. Equally participants are proud to be “passion-
ately indifferent”, defining themselves negatively, living a slacker life as a cultural
critique. These positions are quite problematic and are a form of resistance that is
hardly constructive or a real alternative. But more relevantly, the zines of “losers”
offer a form of politics of community, building relations and of talking back, prov-
ing that the official way to do things is not “The Only Answer”. By making zines the
Dishwasher Pete (a.k.a. Pete Jordan) created his
zine “Dishwasher” as he travelled the states earning his
living as a dishwasher. He turned his adventures in this
low-esteemed job into DIY copied and distributed stories
about his everyday life and shared the stories with fellow
zinesters. His journey through life proceeds with the goal
in sight: to wash dishes in every American state.