This art zine, Paper Scissors Clocks, was published from 1996 to 2002. Created by Erik Farseth, it was published annually (with an average length of 136 pages), and was illustrated with collage art and woodcuts. Issue 1, pictured above, featured satirical fashion tips (“The Mysterious Allure of the Walrus Moustache”), a history of piracy, and several remarks on the evolution of breakdancing.

“Paper Scissors Clocks is definitely in the old school of zines, genuine fanzines about music, but it is typical of more recent stuff in that it is very DIY and non-linear,” said Paul Gehl, Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing at the Newberry.

The Newberry has collected a wide array of Farseth’s works, including original woodcuts for the fanzine Wipe Away My Eyes. “We added these [woodcuts],” explained Gehl, “because of our commitment to documenting both the products and the processes of publishing. One of the neat things about zines is their personality: when you have one in your hand, you feel very close to the process and to the creator.”

Be sure to check out this Saturday’s “Outsiders: Zines, Samizdat, and Alternative Publishing.”

Excited for Chicago’s Zinefest? Or the Caxton Club’s “Outsiders: Zines, Samizdat, and Alternative Publishing”? This should tide you over: a World War II-era zine, Gesprek (“Conversation”), printed in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Above is its cover—a painting by Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman.

In May of 1940, Werkman, colluding with Friedrich Robert August Henkels, established a clandestine publishing house, De Blauwe Schuit (“The Blue Barge”). They produced 40-some publications, which called for spiritual resistance in the midst of Nazi cruelty.

In March of 1945, the Gestapo arrested Werkman, placing him and nine others before a firing squad. They died on the 10th of April, three days before Groningen was liberated.