Health & Fitness
For Adult Eyes Only: Punk, The Best of Punk magazine
For adult eyes only is a series of blog posts featuring materials purchased for adult consumption. All views within are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the official policy of the Patchogue-Medford Library
Punk Magazine ran from 1975 to 1979. It hat eighteen issues, and its run ended 4 years before I was born. Honestly, I didn’t know it existed until my co-worker suggested I pick up this book. I’m not immersed in the punk scene, or any scene. It is just not my style. But the moment I picked up this book, I was immersed in the imagery from the magazine. Most of this book is pages, images and comics pulled right from the iconic magazine (I checked Wikipedia, it had real influence). The rest is a narrative of the magazine, of the challenges the magazine faced and a history of a single NYC counter culture in the seventies. For that reason alone, this book represents an important artifact.
It is difficult for someone who grows up in an era of instant communication to understand the work that went into zines. Yes, blogs are a thing. They require a lot of work. But Zines have significantly larger distribution challenges, and they require significantly more prep work. With one blog you can be a blogger, but with one page of a Zine…. This book was eye opening. I didn’t fully understand the importance of the punk scene despite listening to Blondie, the Ramones, the Dolls and other punk bands in the past. I did not, for instance, know how much it influenced my own outlook.
The Best of Punk magazine might bring you back to your youth, or it might be inspiration for your future. Whatever, the book has power and you should check it out. Great if your into underground comics, music, music history, punk or great rock photography.
