Don & Steve Steinberg, Meanwhile...
Selections: "Final Exits for Aquatic
Species" by Don (page 71); "Jim and Mr. Peanut,"
by Steve (page 72); "Can't Beat Sisyphus," by Steve
(page 128); "Penalty Boxes: The World of Hockey Fight Videos"
by Don (page 129)
Recent reviews (from Out Your Backdoor):
"Well-designed, well-written, creative, wacked-out, funny
culture commentary."
Sample: A limited number of "boxed
sets" of Meanwhile... back issues are available for $9.
Write Don for information.
When did you launch your zine? What inspired you to do so?
Steve: My brother
Don (who I bet he could go on and on about the history of Meanwhile...,
complete with the name-dropping of several established TV writers
and Art Garfunkel, of all people!) asked for my help.
Don: As long as I
can remember, I've been thrilled by the idea that you could write
something down, hand it to someone, and they would laugh. My
brother Steve and I were doing a Mad-style humor magazine, called
"Slopp," when we were in elementary school. We worked
with two other funny kids, who also were each other's brothers.
One of them is now a prosecuting attorney and the other is a
staff joke-writer for Conan O'Brien. As a college freshman I
received a visit from Art Garfunkel; he'd lived in the same dorm
room as a student. After that I started "Art for Art's Sake,"
a humor newsletter that was purportedly the house-organ of the
Garfunkel museum but actually was a vehicle for printing and
distributing inane material. After I graduated, I got my hands
on Paul Krassner's The Realist and
Army Man, the legendary funzine that "Simpsons" writer
George Meyer put out to kill time during the TV writers' strike.
I thought it should be my calling. He had all of his most brilliant
friends submit hilarious stuff. Other inspirations were with
Mad magazine, Harper's, and Processed World. I put out the first
Meanwhile... in 1990, only moments after I obtained Adobe Type
Manager software for Windows and it suddenly became possible
to typeset on my computer.
Why publish a zine?
Steve: A lot of ideas
you come up with are so timely that if you were to go through
normal publishing channels, the joke would be ancient by the
time it saw daylight. Also, with a zine you cut out several hundred
middlemen. There's no query letters, no editors to deal with,
and no paycheck to endorse. It's the best of all possible worlds.
Don: I've published
about 40 percent for professional reasons. As a freelance writer,
I have a lot of weird story ideas that don't fit squarely into
magazine editors' round, firm editorial holes. I thought that
by putting all my great, unrequited, rejected and half-baked
ideas into Meanwhile..., then sending it as a fait-accompli to
influential and sympathetic people in the publishing business,
it would be better than trying to pitch dozens of doomed story
ideas. The plan worked; Meanwhile... has without doubt earned
me more paying work than my college degree has.
Any general tips for aspiring zinesters?
Steve: Don't get
too discouraged when you return to the copy place to pick up
your finished product and the guy behind the counter yells out
to his co-workers, "El Sucko is back!"
Don: Create a lovable,
running character that can eventually be licensed to be put on
school notebooks, mouse pads, etc.
What's your favorite part of doing a zine?
Steve: Having someone
you've never met come up and say, "Hey, I really like your
stuff. Don't you have a spell-checker?"
Don: Getting the
box of newly printed, still-warm copies back from the photocopy
shop, carrying it home, reading the final product, and not seeing
too many typos.
In my other life, I'm a:
Steve: Guy who complains
about having to write computer game reviews.
Don: Contributing
writer and columnist for GQ.
Don
Steinberg
Steve Steinberg
Meanwhile...
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