Every wonder about the history of blogs? The real history? The deep dark history? Before Winer and the Net and all that. I did after realizing that BoingBoing was profiled in Rushkoff’s Media Virus! as a zine. A zine? A Zine!…at least I think that is the BoingBoing I know- it was known originally as bOING bOING and started in 1988. I was just graduating high school and publishing “Poor Anthony’s Almanac”- which got me into a lot of trouble- as well as my satirical “Amerikano Politiko” which featured Colonel Sanders, Che, Jerry Ruben, Jim and Tammy Faye and Sam Walton…who said “It’s only money” or something like that…it was a neat piece and I regret not having it anymore.

I know of only one expert on zines- so I did some digging….

Rowe on zines in Washington Post circa 2004

Rowe summarizes the movement of zines onto the Web thusly: “Fanzines became paper zines became webzines became blogs. That’s where we are now.” But he’s not just being blithe. He sees in the current blog craze something akin to the paper zine craze of the early ’90’s. “The same spirit is there,” Rowe says. “Everybody feels powerless to one degree or another and is looking to get some kind of reaction. They want people to care about what they think. It’s heartening seeing blogs, even if a lot of them will go away as the novelty wears off.”

Maybe Chip- maybe…I think the diehards will go on…and unlike the distribution problems of the past- there is a place, an outlet, for any blog, vlog, slog- any letter prefacing a “log”- be it folks who like drinking the blood of pink zebras with radiation exposure…or people who like to paint luxury items on their chests. Diversity.

I proudly own the book Chip edited: The Book of Zines: Readings from the Fringe (Ok autographed even… I know Chip as a fellow book lover and I badgered him…)- and it is destined to be one of those weird classics we look back on and go- oh yeah- that fringe…if you want to understand blogs- understand what came first (not counting geocities pages)- understand zines and the social signals they send and the counter culture that sends it. Chip puts the fringe together nicely and at an aftermarket price that makes it a deal and a freakish cover to boot. To be curated in the reading library…

Thank the Zine for the state of the blogosphere and boing in BoingBoing….too bad Chip couldn’t make wicked charts like that back then…then again…distribution was tough enough. Seriously the text is well worth the read if you are any sort of “blog” pundit. Think of it as an Old Testament of sorts.

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