Obscene Fanzine - A Brief History

A Brief History of Obscene Fanzine 

Origins (1992–1995): 

Obscene Fanzine was conceived in 1995 on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia— a region known more for beaches than for punk rock. But amidst the surf culture, a small but fierce underground scene was brewing….. And it all started like all good punk stories do — in the margins. Sometime around 1992 and somewhere between the static of late-night television and the hiss of a dubbed cassette,

Adam Obscene (later 085c3n3) a young art student and passionate punk looking to shake things up, was driven by a desire to challenge the norms of both the regional coast way of life and the art world. As he studied, he began imagining a different kind of Sunny Coast scene — raw, visually experimental, and rooted in the DIY ethic. 

Adam crossed paths with another local punker Marko Mark over a shared obsession with, the feral, the forgotten and the fiercely independent. Adam’s vision aligned with Mark’s, who was deeply embedded in the local scene with his band Disrupt Youth—a group that perfectly embodied the aggressive, DIY ethic Adam admired. 

The two came together through a mutual fascination of B-grade cinema, obscure hardcore records, and the cultural detritus of the Sunshine Coast. What began as banter about Poison Idea, Hammer horror and Penelope Spheeris flicks quickly spiralled into deeper conversations about the state of the tiny punk scene on the coast and lack of opportunities for those not wanting to join in the mainstream. 

Birth of Obscene Fanzine: So it all started with two  punks, an idea and a refusal to let the underground stay buried. Fueled by frustration and the desire to build a community of punks, they began working on zine that would become Obscene — a folded A4 cut n paste fanzine with the war cry “Support Your Local Scene”. They weren’t just trying to recreate the past punk glory of other city’s and scenes around the world. They saw it as a call to arms. A way to  bring together the freaks, weirdo’s and misfits from across the regional area. As well as documenting what was starting to ooze up from the underground with all the blood, sweat, and beers of an emerging scene in glorious photocopier toner. 

The Launch (August 1995): 

That original vision materialised in the first issue of Obscene Fanzine, released in August 1995. Entirely hand made, an old school ribbon typewriter used in some sections, handwritten in others, it was cut using scissors, pasted with glue, 100 copies were printed on a photocopier and handed out for free at gigs and distributed through local likeminded shops. it was a burst of chaos and creativity. The zine was filled with interviews, local scene reports, punk philosophy, and raw art that gave voice to a scene that rarely had one. — It captured the sound and fury of a generation of punks trying to carve out space in a place that didn’t quite know what to do with them. 

Publication Run (1995–2001): 

10 issues were released between August 1995 and August 1996, . A further 9 issues were compiled and released through to 2001, becoming an archive of the Punk scene and Adam’s creative evolution.

The zine became a platform for:

• promoting  bands that had not a chance in hell of getting any mainstream airplay or coverage. Bands like Disrupt Youth, Dry Heave, Must Kill Bobby, Punching Judy, Entropy, Tunnel Vision and Eisenstein's Lover to name a few graced those early pages,
• driving support towards local punk and independent businesses like Flex Your Head records, Backbeat records, the Gate T-shirt shop, Puncture body piercing in Maroochydore and Nambour institutions Nambour Music and the Nambour Book exchange,
• promoting local gigs like the Punk parties in Diddillibah and Woombye Halls, Primal Moves in the Eudlo Showgrounds, and Politricks in the Maroochydore AFL footy club house,
• showcasing local creatives artwork, and 
• giving aspiring writers and punk journalists a place to write columns, print interview, publish review, lament opinion pieces, pose poetry, and generally document the oral histories of the regional punk scene.

The zine wasn’t just about music. It was about injecting a cut n paste, halftone, punk, horror-pulp aesthetics and ransom type lettering style into the Sunny Coast’s DNA. It was about creating an alternative, reclaiming space, writing history, and building a new punk folklore from the cultural wasteland.

As Adam and Mark sprinted down the path of DIY publishing, a pattern emerged — a uniquely Queensland strain of punk: sun-scorched, heat-stroked, and isolation-fueled. Their collaboration helped define and laid the groundwork of a brand of punk born out of regional isolation, and a need to rebel against the clean, conservative veneer of coastal life. It embraced rural decay, heat-soaked aggression, and the outsider mentality that came from being far from the traditional punk epicentres.

They coined it Cane Punk — a genre, a vibe, a resistance. It was:

• Aggressive and swampy, like the sugarcane fields it grew from

• DIY to the bone, rejecting polished city-core aesthetics

• Rooted in regional rage, born from cultural neglect and climate-induced delirium

  — Cane Punk was sweaty, loud, political, and full of heart—just like the zine that would help define it.  

Digital Resurrection (Present): Today 30 years on, Obscene lives on in the digital realm. 

Adam Obscene has revived the project at: 👉 

www.085c3n3.com 

Facebook

Insta 

The site features: 

 • Digitized articles from past issues 

 • New content in the spirit of the original zine 

 • Visual art, punk writing, and more—channelling decades of DIY energy into the present Obscene 

 continues to document the raw underbelly of punk—from the Sunshine Coast’s early Cane Punk stirrings to today’s global underground.

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INTERVIEW: 

CUT, PASTE, REVOLT – A CONVERSATION WITH ADAM OBSCENE (085C3N3)

Adam Obscene’s artistic vision for Obscene Fanzine was ignited by a volatile mix of cultural vacuum, visual rebellion, and a relentless need to document what didn’t yet have a voice.  Adam’s vision wasn’t just to document a scene—it was to manifest it. With every photocopied spread, he sculpted an aesthetic that told punks in the least punk place on the planet: You’re not alone—and you’re not invisible.

Here’s a gritty, tape-hissed, DIY-as-hell- interview with Adam Obscene (aka 085c3n3) about launching Obscene Fanzine in what many might consider punk purgatory—sun-bleached suburban Queensland. This captures the spirit of a late-night photocopier session turned cultural revolution:

WASTELANDS: Adam, 1994, Sunshine Coast—a place known for surfboards and Bintang singlets. What possessed you to drop a punk zine in the heart of paradise?

ADAM OBSCENE: laughs Yeah, that’s the paradox, isn’t it? The place looked like utopia but felt like a vacuum. I wasn’t seeing myself—our anger, our noise—reflected anywhere. The idea for Obscene was a rejection of all that postcard perfection. I wanted to document the rot beneath the tourism brochure. We didn’t have city squats or warehouse gigs—we had heatstroke, sugarcane fields, community halls and apathy. That’s where Cane Punk was born.

 

WASTELANDS: You coined that term—Cane Punk. What defined it?

ADAM OBSCENE: It’s sweaty. It’s sunburnt. It’s punk that grows in the cracks of footpaths near servo carparks. It’s born from the isolation of being in a cultural wasteland. We were cut off, so we carved out our own thing. Bands like Disrupt Youth weren’t trying to be anyone else—they were loud, angry, political, and deeply local. And Obscene was the megaphone.

 

WASTELANDS: Talk us through those early issues. What did they look like?

ADAM OBSCENE: Chaotic. A blender of ransom-note text, Harry Chester-inspired lettering, smudged ink, grainy photos, and badly cropped gig flyers. But it wasn’t just about aesthetic—it was about urgency. Everything was hand-cut, glued, and run through photocopiers at the local print shop after hours. Ten issues in twelve months—pure insomnia, fuelled by rage and Red Eye.

 

WASTELANDS: Did you feel like anyone was listening?

ADAM OBSCENE: At first, it felt like screaming into a cane field. But slowly, letters came in. Tapes arrived in the mail. We started to feel like we were part of a bigger scene—it just didn’t know what it looked like yet. Obscene gave it a face.

 

WASTELANDS: And now, 30 years later?

ADAM OBSCENE: We’ve digitized it, given it a new lease on life. The energy’s the same—DIY, political, raw—but now we’ve got a digital photocopier and a louder megaphone. The world might’ve moved on, but Obscene is still here to disrupt the algorithm.

 

WASTELANDS: Final words to the punks hiding in beach towns and suburbia?

ADAM OBSCENE: Don’t wait for permission. Grab scissors, steal time, hit print. It doesn’t matter if it’s beautiful or polished—if it’s real, it matters. Make noise. Obscene forever.

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🔥 The Spark Behind the Scissors: Adam’s Vision for Obscene Fanzine

Here’s what brewed beneath the cut-and-paste chaos:

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🎨 1. Dissonance Between Paradise and Punk

• Growing up on the Sunshine Coast—a postcard-perfect place with little space for punks—Adam was struck by the contrast between pristine beaches and the undercurrent of alienation.

• Obscene became a visual middle finger to that glossy sheen. It sought to expose the cracks in the coastline veneer and broadcast the rage swelling beneath.

🗞️ 2. The Zine as Weapon

• Adam saw zines not just as publications, but as artistic acts of resistance.

• Influenced by raw, underground press and horror-pulp aesthetics (think Harry Chester’s aggressive lettering and overdriven compositions), he embraced imperfection: jagged lines, photocopy grime, visual noise.

• This was punk not just in sound—but in layout, typography, and ink-smeared attitude.

📼 3. DIY Grit Meets Art School Rebellion

• While studying art formally, Adam bristled at polished institutions. He channeled that frustration into Obscene—a defiant hybrid of zine punk and avant-garde collage.

• His influences were tactile: glue-stained fingers, Xerox toner, ransom note fonts, scratched-out margins. Every issue was a physical outburst.

🔥 4. Cane Punk’s Cultural Rebellion

• The rise of Cane Punk, the local genre Adam helped shape, was a defining force.

• It rejected big-city punk elitism in favour of Queensland-specific grit—sweltering heat, urban sprawl, rusted sugar mill aesthetics, and isolated rage. Obscene mirrored that: loud, humid, hostile, but full of honesty.

🖤 5. Community Through Chaos

• Visually, Obscene wasn’t about clean lines—it was about carving space for punk voices where none existed.

• Adam used visuals to build a subcultural identity, not just reflect one. Each ripped photo and scrawled lyric was a call to arms: if you don’t see yourself, make yourself known.