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.