The purpose of this article is to encourage you to start the fun hobby of sending away for things in the mail. It's a weird world out there and you can get all kinds of interesting and personal alternative media. Everybody is passionate about something and many people self publish zines about their hobbies and interests. You can get these small magazines by sending out a dollar or two or better yet by publishing your own zine and trading.
My own mail hobby started when I was in my young teens in the early 90's. I guess this was a golden age for zines. Two zines I subscribed to and loved were Thrift Score, a thrift store themed zine, and a Crispin Glover fan zine. The main source where I found addresses and reviews was a magazine called Factsheet Five. It was basically a big catalog of stuff you could mail for. The other source was a SubGenius book called High Weirdness By Mail. Upon doing a little research I found a webpage with updated links to most of the publishers featured in High Weirdness By Mail.
Being the horny teenager that I was also mailed away for anything with naked ladies or that had to do with sex. In the back of photography magazines there was addresses that for a few bucks would send you glossy photographs of nude models. I ordered catalogs of pornographic videos and magazines. I even subscribed to some catalogs of mail order brides.
So yeah, the early 90's was definitely a golden age for the mail. Mail order and zines are still very much alive though! I receive many interesting zines in the mail to this day. Recently I have received a wonderful new style of zine, a pocket zine with several pages that is comprised of one piece of paper folded several times with a cut down the middle. You open it up and read through the pages the when you are done you unfold it and there is art and more text inside. I also was just notified that my own paper zine is about to be reviewed in the newest issue of Xerography Debt. Xerography Debt is a current zine review magazine filled with addresses you can send requests to. I am hoping to get lots of trades!
I strongly suggest that you take few moments out of your day and send out a nice letter with dollar or two to some interesting people. It is totally fun to receive interesting alternative media in your mail box.
My own mail hobby started when I was in my young teens in the early 90's. I guess this was a golden age for zines. Two zines I subscribed to and loved were Thrift Score, a thrift store themed zine, and a Crispin Glover fan zine. The main source where I found addresses and reviews was a magazine called Factsheet Five. It was basically a big catalog of stuff you could mail for. The other source was a SubGenius book called High Weirdness By Mail. Upon doing a little research I found a webpage with updated links to most of the publishers featured in High Weirdness By Mail.
Being the horny teenager that I was also mailed away for anything with naked ladies or that had to do with sex. In the back of photography magazines there was addresses that for a few bucks would send you glossy photographs of nude models. I ordered catalogs of pornographic videos and magazines. I even subscribed to some catalogs of mail order brides.
So yeah, the early 90's was definitely a golden age for the mail. Mail order and zines are still very much alive though! I receive many interesting zines in the mail to this day. Recently I have received a wonderful new style of zine, a pocket zine with several pages that is comprised of one piece of paper folded several times with a cut down the middle. You open it up and read through the pages the when you are done you unfold it and there is art and more text inside. I also was just notified that my own paper zine is about to be reviewed in the newest issue of Xerography Debt. Xerography Debt is a current zine review magazine filled with addresses you can send requests to. I am hoping to get lots of trades!
I strongly suggest that you take few moments out of your day and send out a nice letter with dollar or two to some interesting people. It is totally fun to receive interesting alternative media in your mail box.
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