Phoenix’s Fluke Fanzine creates culture the old-school way

If you're familiar with the term “long game,” you'll appreciate the story I'm about to tell. When you play the “long game,” you're not looking for immediate satisfaction, but the much more satisfying achievement of knowing in the end that you were right all along. You won because you were willing to be patient, do things right and best your opponent out of sheer will.

In this particular case, though, the opponent is not a person and the thing Matthew Thompson, the brains and brawn behind Fluke Fanzine and Fluke Publishing, is competing against is himself. For much of the last 33 years, Thompson has worked hard to create a situation where the “long game” benefits not only himself, but the punk rock community at large.

“My thinking is that to build a culture of sorts — not that it is not already there — but if I walk into a bookstore and I look at the zine shelf and there is nothing but Fluke fanzines, then it’s not quite as appealing as when there is an issue of Fluke, an NXOEED (local artist James Hunt’s zine which is published by Fluke Publishing) and a collection of different zines. That, to me, sort of enhances and supports what I’m doing with my own zine,” Thompson says.

Fluke got started back in 1991 when Thompson, who has lived in Arizona since 2001, was still in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. An avid skateboarder and punk rock fan, Thompson became close friends with two other like-minded individuals, Steve Schmidt and Jason White. Schmidt tried to start a zine of his own after interviewing legendary Washington, D.C. punks Fugazi and the Visalia, California, band Plaid Retina in 1990. Thompson and White jumped in to make it a reality and Fluke was born.

“We all got together and did Fluke issue 1 together. It had those interviews in it and a bunch of other stuff,” says Thompson.

When Thompson says, “a bunch of other stuff,” he means it. Fluke Fanzine is chock full of information, not just because Thompson typically only releases one issue per year (or in the 90s and early 2000s, one every several years), but also because he takes his time curating each installment. You don’t need a magnifying glass to read Fluke, but you do need some time and a quiet place to concentrate if you want to try and take the whole thing in all at once. It’s better to be taken like a fine wine, letting it breathe while you enjoy it one sip at a time.

“I like to fill them up with a lot of information and ideas. Usually what happens is that I’ll have one thing that kind of kick-starts the idea for a new issue and I’ll kind of build around that. I say a lot that the magazine kind of drives itself and I just have to follow the lead,” Thompson says.

Over the years, Fluke has also covered musicians such as Mike Watt, Subhumans and the late Gary Floyd (Dicks, Sisterr Double Happiness) and a cavalcade of visual artists. The latest issue, Fluke 21, which was just released, focuses on artist buZ blur, a defining member of the mail art community.

Thompson and White, who later became the touring guitarist for Green Day, were on their high school yearbook staff and took journalism together, so they had an interest in the type of work that putting a zine entails. Schmidt had been a fellow skateboarder who Thompson became friends with due to their shared interest. While Schmidt and White quickly moved on to other pursuits, Thompson kept Fluke going on his own, but not without sharing the zine with his lifelong friends first every time.

“Sometimes they will add their two cents, you know, and I interviewed them both for the 20th anniversary issue of Fluke in 2011. They’re still good friends of mine and I love them dearly. They’re the ones who introduced me to punk rock and showed me what punk really is,” says Thompson.

Thompson believes in keeping Fluke an affordable product.

“The commodity of punk … I’m not into that …  the price gouging and such. I like to keep my prices low so someone like I was back in the day, a skater grom (slang for a young skateboarder) can walk into Stinkweeds (Records) and be like, ‘Oh, cool. (Fluke is) $5.’ A lot of publications are $10 and $15. It’s not about the money for me, it’s about sharing ideas and information and trying to inspire, but not at someone’s expense,” Thompson says.

Because of this ethos, Thompson uses a full year to put out Fluke along with now publishing the work of others. He says it takes him about half a year to put the content together and then the other half is spent working to get the zines (and now books) out to stores and online customers around the country and world.

Earlier this year, Thompson published "Toxic Shock Records: Assassin of Mediocrity" by Bill Sassenberger through Fluke Publishing.

“It is the first full-fledged book I’ve ever published. We’ve been booking tours for him, you know, signing events. It’s been going really well and has been really successful for him and for me as a publisher,” Thompson says.

Sassenberger’s book is a must read for anyone interested in the culture surrounding the infamous Tucson record store or the record label that predated it, but it's also a gripping narrative of how the author navigated his wife’s cancer diagnosis and battle with the disease. Thompson compiled an excellent collection of art and photographs for the book, including cover art by Brian Walsby.

Fluke Publishing is also the home to the NXOEED zines by local artist James Hunt. The two met each other at the FedEx/Kinko’s on Central Avenue in 2016 when both were working on separate projects.

“Watching James (Hunt) work a copy machine was like watching a jazz drummer,” says Thompson, who recently accompanied Hunt on a trip to San Francisco so both men could ply their wares.

Whether or not Thompson is really playing the long game or not, the future seems to be bright for Fluke, both the zine and publishing sides. The 53-year-old is the father of two teenagers and works a regular job when he's not making zines and books. He lives quietly in a central Phoenix neighborhood and does his best to catch the occasional punk rock show. The main thing, though, is staying busy and creating opportunities for himself and others to share.

“It’s very rewarding," Thompson says. "I like to help people where I can and it makes people happy to have their work out there. Some people may be good at drawing or painting or whatever it may be, but they have no clue how to put out a zine, so that’s where I come in. I get their work into stores because what is the point if no one sees it?”

You can find Fluke Fanzine, including Fluke 21, and Fluke Publishing products on the Fluke website and also locally at Stinkweeds, Zia Records and Wasted Ink Zine Distro.