Abstract/Summary

This chapter offers a case study of three punk-related fanzines. The three ‘zines considered – JOLT, Anathema and Hard As Nails – each, in their different ways, sought to inform and (re)direct the cultures of which they formed part. They voiced opinion and contributed to a conversation. Beneath any prevailing cultural narrative, be it defined in newsprint or captured on film to be replayed over-and-over as disembodied spectacle, lay alternate interpretations scribbled, typed and held together with glue and staples. In fanzines we find cultures recorded from the bottom-up rather than the top-down.