Zines NZ: Punk to present

by Bryce Galloway

304 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 1, 2026

About the author

'Wrote for Physics Room art rag 'Log' back in the 90s.

Cranked up in my mid-30s after starting a zine called 'Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People' as a prankish response to getting lousy media coverage for a solo LP, i.e. thought I'd best stop whinging and make some DIY press of my own.

Twenty five years later and 'Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People' is at 90+ issues. Two anthologies of the zine have been published: '...Before Marriage' with Clouds Publishing in 2011; and '...Diary Comics' with Pikitia Press in 2017.

A member of the Wellington Zinefest Board and instigator of Hamilton Zinefest.

Author of the first extensive history of zine making in Aotearoa - 'Zines NZ (punk to present)' through Massey University Press. Book design by Greg Simpson.

Reviews

[Mat Tait · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love an oral history. While they're not un-curated, they feel off the cuff; unguarded and informal in a way that makes them engaging and very immediate. Which is perfect for a history of zine-making. So yeah, I love this, with one caveat: I wish some of the zine spreads had got more space. My aging eyes couldn't cope with a lot of the tiny reproduced copy.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Bought because of my autistic hyper focus and obsession with New Zealand music, and particularly as a companion to the Pull Down the Shades and Archive Fever books, but it slowly dawned on me that this is about so much more than that. I’ve been making comics and zines or whatever for about fifteen years (although overwhelm and my accident have significantly curtailed that recently), and this is an incredible book for articulating how zines exist as an almost alternative word of publishing genuinely accessible to all. I’ve been told at shows my stuff is not political or angry enough, so I decided to try and make a satirical book about Megs Jenkins, an actor I adore but the least likely subject of a book like this I could think of. I never finished it but the idea was solid and you read things in here and think “oceans may separate us, but zines are genuinely universal”

And it’s a fantastic oral and sideways history of politics and culture and creativity and finding your tribe, and supporting other tribes. It’s also - and most significantly - about fighting the homogenisation of culture. AI exists to turn things into one uniform gloop of cultural slop. Zines exists because you suddenly think it’s funny to do a book about swearing birds or a tribute to golden age murder mysteries where the criminals are evil monkeys wearing a fez (both available from me, by the way). Or even zines exist because you’re lonely and sad and feel isolated and just want to find someone or something else. And the stories in here reiterate just how special it is to create something spurred on by the most random thing nobody else loves. I know I have. Weirdly I wonder if I have in my own way spurred on others. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just a huge ocean of creativity and this is a gorgeous celebration of one island of that and the wider place it has in our culture. Celebrate and treasure it and maybe even throw in your own ideas maybe?