Cotton Fist

Cotton Fist is a D.I.Y. punk zine from Dublin, Ireland.

Cotton Fist is written by Eric. He started the zine in 1997, as he’d come across various zines and freesheets but felt they weren’t dealing with subjects that he was interested in, such as animal liberation/rights and anti-fascism, which would make up the content of early issues along with record and cider reviews. Getting more aware of other zines and avenues of writing, Eric tried to put more of a personal perspective on political issues. There has been around 18 issues of Cotton Fist done, with the 17th issue being a split zine with another Dublin punk zine.

Over the years of doing Cotton Fist Eric has expanded its distribution from purely local by sending it for trade/ review to other zines and to various shops, distros and individuals in Australia, North America and all over Europe. As Eric is also in a band (Easpa Measa), he realises that some people in the music obsessed culture that is punk/ D.I.Y. will still attribute more importance to bands than zines, but he feels that there is a place for both mediums and when on tour with the band he tries to bring a distro of zines.