Fanzines about Small-Press Comics

Below I list U.S. publications that focus most of their coverage on small press, independent, and/or minicomics and their creators from the early 1970s to today. While magazines like The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes have given a lot of attention to independent comics over the years, I didn’t include them here for two reasons. First, they also gave a lot of attention to the Big Two, and there are plenty of magazines in the 80s and 90s that could also be added to this list because they moved beyond the Big Two and gave coverage to indies particularly during the b&w boom. In other words, including TCJ and Amazing Heroes begins to blur the lines, which is great in one sense, but it makes a list like this impossible. Second, all the publications on this list were essentially self-published. While their creators often list publishing companies in their pub’s indicia, the zines, magazines, and newspapers were put together by a few people who weren’t making much money off the work. For example, Tim Corrigan lists C+T Graphics and later New Voice Media as the publishers for Small Press Comics Explosion and Small Press Creative Explosion respectively, but he did most of the work writing and distributing the publications himself. That said, The Comics Journal, Amazing Heroes, David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview, and many other publications from the 1980s and 1990s are definitely worth checking out, and I encourage you to do so.

Furthermore, this list does not include publications that featured only artwork or strips, though some of them include comics. It also does not include industry newsletters and guides, such as The Academy of Comic Book Arts Newsletter or The Aspiring Cartoonist. It also does not include zines that were part of amateur press associations (APAs). At some point, I will create separate lists for industry newsletters and APA zines about indie and small press comics, but that’s not this list.

The publications on the list featured news, interviews, ads, reviews, con reports, and columns on small press and independent comics. Oftentimes, they also included articles on how to create, publish, and distribute comics. 

The list is organized chronologically by year. For publications that are available online or are currently publishing, I include links.

Name	Creator	Years Published	Total Issues
Comix World Newsletter	Clay Gerdes	1973—1980	143 (& specials)
City Limits Gazette	Bruce Chrislip	1980—1986	15
Fandom Times	Kevin Collier	1984—1985	10
Fan Scene	Kevin Collier	1984—1985	5
Quimby Quarterly	Geary Kaczoroski	1985—1989	20*
Small Press Comics Explosion	Tim Corrigan	1986—1990	vol 1=20 vol 2=8
Greed	Kurt Sayenga	1986—1989	3
The Comic Book Newsletter	Jim Pack	1986—1988	24*
Fandom Forum	Olas Manns	1986—1987	3
Alter Limits	Tim Janson	mid 1980s	3*
Comics F/X	The Seattle 4: Jeff Wood Ed Vick Hal Hargit Wade Busby	1987—1989	14
Comix Talk	Kevin Collier	1987	4*
Small Press Comix Observer	Kevin Collier	1987—??	??
Oh, No! Not Another Fanzine!	Mike Leuszler	1987	??
Oh, No!	Mike Leuszler Olas Manns	late 1980s	??
The Comicist	Jim Pack	1989—1993	29*
City Limits Gazette ver 2	Steve Willis	1991—1993	15*
Poopsheet	Rick Bradford	1992—2000	21 (& specials)
Indy: The Independent Guide	Jeff Mason	1993—1997	18
I Like Comics	Peter Bagge	1993	1
White Buffalo Gazette	Catherine Noel Jeff Zenick Lanerd Justin Buzz Buzzizyk aka Max Traffic	1994—2014	21
Destroy All Comics	Jeff LeVines	1994—1996	5
Crash: The Quarterly Comic Book Review	Steve Solomos	1994—1995	2*
Small Press Express	Elaine Oldham	mid to late 1990s	??
Comic Attractions Magazine	Fat Cat Studios	1996—1998?	4*
Small Press Creative Explosion	Tim Corrigan	1997—1998	9*
Comic Book Publisher	Joe Bagdon	1997—??	??
Comixville: A Quick Little Guide to Self-Published Comics	Comixville Collective	2002—2004	8*
Indy Magazine: The Source for Independent Comics Coverage (PDF zine)	Bill Kartalopoulos	2004—2005	2
Comics Comics (print ed.)	T. Holder Frank Santoro Dan Nadel	2007—2008	4*
Study Group Magazine	Zack Soto Milo George	2011—2016	4*
The Tiny Report	Robyn Chapman	2013—2017	5
Comics Workbook Magazine (print ed.)	Andrew White Zach Mason Frank Santoro	2014—2016	10*
Copy This! (Copy That! as of #51)	D. Blake Werts	2014—2019	60*
AltComics	Blaise Larmee	2015—2017	5*
Indy Magazine: The Source for Independent Comics Coverage (PDF zine)	Bill Kartalopoulos Jeff Mason	2015	1
Windy Corner Magazine	Austin English	2016	3
But Is It Comic…Aht?	Austin English	2018—present	2
Bubbles Fanzine	??	2019—present	6 (& specials)
Strangers Fanzine	Eddie Raymond	2020—present	2 (& specials)

* Denotes that I am not certain about the number of issues, but that the number listed was the last issue that I was able to locate. 

Special thanks to folks in the Cartoonist Kayfabe Ringside Seats Facebook group for helping me add titles and fill in some information.

If you want to see examples of these zines, cover photos for some of them are available on the Poopsheet Foundation’s Minicomics and Zine Database.