They are generally noted for their enthusiam and vigour and some fanzines have been known to turn professional once their market has been established.
[Amateur journalism]? is an an important precursor to fanzines.
The first fanzine came from science fiction fandom and was published in 1929. In SF fandom, many if not most science fiction fanzines are published without intending to make money and are given away to anyone who asks for them. Many fanzines are available for "the usual", meaning that you need to ask for it to get it. If you want to receive further issues, it's a good idea to send a LoC? (letter of comment) about it to the editor. The LoC? might be published in the next issue, in whole or in part. It was not unusual, especially in pre-Internet-times, that fanzines consisted almost exclusively of letter columns where debates where conducted in much the same way as they are in newsgroups and mailinglists today, but at a glacial pace in comparison.
The Punk explosion in the UK lead to a massive upsurge of interest in fanzines as an alternative to a "mainstream" media that was felt too exploitative, captialist and essentially disinterested in the Punk Movement and the concerns of disaffected youth.
The appearance of the photocopier? allowed the fanzines to be easily reproduced and thus widely distributed. The Punk influence of depreciating aesthetic or intellectual qualities and instead placing great emphasis on the importance of enthusiasm and the rejection of apathy by "doing" something has endured in the decades after the substantial decline of Punk.
Another sizable group of fanzines came from role-playing games where fanzines allowed people to publish their ideas and views on specific games and their [role-playing campaigns]?.
In the United Kingdom role-playing fanzines allowed people to communicate in the 1970s and 1980s with complete editorial control. These early fanzines were generally typed, sold in an A5 format and were often illustrated with abysmal or indifferent artwork. A fanzine community developed and was based on sale to a reading public and exchanges by editor/publishers. This community provided the most visible evidence of the wave of [Evangelical Christianity]? that swept through the hobby, with the fanzine [Demons Drawl]? changing to [Telegraph Road]? after the conversion of the fanzine's editor. These conversion were part of the [role-playing satanic accusations]? of the period.
In recent years the traditional paper zine has given rise to the webzine? that is easier to produce and uses the potential of the Internet to reach an ever larger, possibly global, audience. Nonetheless, some people are still producing paper fanzines, either out of simple preference or to reach people who don't have easy Web access.
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