A (very short) timeline of zine history:
- 1517?: Luther’s 95 Theses as the first major zine (specific, self-made and published)
- 1770s: American Revolution broadsides
- 1920s: Surrealist and dada (artists and the avant garde critique of the bourgeois)
- 1930s: Sci-fi (fans met at conventions and readings; the publication of zines such as Amazing Stories and Weird Tales)
- 1940s: Beat poetry chapbooks, such as Allen Ginsburg and San Fran friends
- 1950s: Samizdat (Soviet Union DIY; this was literature secretly written, copied, and circulated in the former Soviet Union and usually critical of practices of the Soviet government)
- 1960s: Comics (industry news and information magazines, such as The Comic Reader, as well as interview, history and review-based fanzines)
- 1970s: Punk fanzines and zines (zines about established punk culture, bands, direct action and non-conformity)
- 1990s: Riot grrl zines
- Today: Zinefests, zine distros/small presses, and zine libraries galore!
-from Conner-Gaten, A. (2019). Zines 101 [PowerPoint slides].
Source: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/zines101/history
Note: This timeline is Western-centric in its current form.