This Document Has Self-Destructed!

Recently, I was surprised to get a letter in the mail requesting a copy of a thesis I did on zines back in the 1990s.  I had interviewed a number of zine publishers and others associated with zines for the thesis and as a thank you, I put together a zine version of the thesis to send them.  Being zinesters, they, of course, reviewed it in their zines and soon I had other zinesters contacting me to trade or buy a copy.  One of those old zines must still be floating around somewhere because recently someone wrote me for a copy, enclosing $3 to cover postage and printing.

Well, there's been a bit of inflation since 1996, so $3 doesn't cover production costs anymore.  Charmed by the request, I honored it, but this post serves as notice that this thesis is out of print.  If anyone sends me $3 for a 20-year-old zine, then he or she will receive $3 back in the mail minus the cost of a stamp plus an offer to email a copy of the thesis to them.

Plus I've written better work about zines since the thesis.  There's the dissertation, and, best of all, an article I wrote for Books And Beyond (get it from your local academic library).

It's nice to see that people are still interested in academic studies of zines and zines themselves.  I have had a number of requests over the years from other scholars interested in zines for interviews and whatnot, but seldom does anyone remember to send me a copy of the finished work.  If more academics could emulate This Document Will Self Destruct In 30 Seconds (which actually wasn't the title of the thesis; it was just a sticker from a set of spy-themed stickers that my mom gave me that I threw on the front of the zine for giggles), then that would be a good thing.  Please share the results of your work with those who helped you achieve it.