I was just thinking the other day that blogs picked up where the early 90s zines left off actually. That is to say, Zines had died mostly out well before blogs came on the scene from what I know

No?

I spent some time with a young artist a while ago who told me that zines are more popular than ever - part of a digital backlash, a great way of getting your art/writing seen, ad if anything the internet has facilitated zine creators' getting connected. There are a couple organizations archiving them. So, no.

During my the years I was most heavily into zines (mid 80's through the mid 90's) zines were about the only way for me read reviews, interviews, and news about the music I loved. But once blogs came along and I found some I loved and trusted I noticed I was buying less zines. I went a few years without buying any zines until I had a run at Quimby's a few months ago and picked up a stack "for old times sake". I'm always pleasantly surprised to see the variety and number of zines out there currently.

It was fun looking through them, but I didn't study the reviews and interviews like I used to. I was more interested in the more personal features (ie: introduction and commentary) and graphic design and cartoons. It felt good to be reading the zines, but I didn't need the content that used to be so vital to me - especially since most of the records discussed were things I already looked into half a year ago. Next time I'm in the city I'll pick up a stack of zines again, but I'll probably focus more on zines with lots of illustrations. I might end up buying more mini comics than music zines, which never happened before.

I hope not. I remember the golden days of 'zines in which people like Jeffrey Jones did art before going stellar, and even the comics "fan zines" that spawned now-legendary artists and writers.

If they've mostly died out, they should be revived.

I personally thought Facebook had killed 'blogs (or pared them down to the most popular and institutionalized), at least personal ones, the days when we all had our own website/'blog (and everyone had to know at least a little HTML/CSS or hang your head amongst the hip peeps) instead of being funneled into the huge (more and more) corporate Zuckerberg entity.

Thanks for the info, Miko!

Great answers. It is heartening to know zines are still around. Several of your answers led me to a number of interesting zine sources (for example the Brooklyn Zine Festival link has a list of zines). Someone, in one of the linked resources, mentioned Etsy as a place where people sell zines which had never occurred to me. Somewhere in my peregrinations I also ran across the Zine Wiki which is pretty cool.

Thanks, everyone. I'll keep checking this, would definitely like to hear what others say.