What Are You Doing to Participate?

So earlier this year my friend and I went to a zine art show. Or rather, we tried to go. I saw an event listing on Facebok, and thought it was kind of confusing. "INVITE IS FREE BY RSVP", followed by an email address. What did that mean, and why would I have to RSVP for an art show? I asked on the event page, but the only response I received was "RSVP FOR FREE BEER", and since I don't drink, I didn't bother to email them.

So on the night in question my friend and I went to try to find this art show, but outside the bar/club where it was apparently taking place we were confronted by a doorkeeper who was dressed far fancier than I think anyone I have ever seen at a zine event. They wouldn't let us in. After much discussion and waiting, my friend just left, but I eventually got someone (an organizer?) to let me in. I went upstairs to the bar place, and then down another flight of stairs to some bizarre intermediate floor of the building. Inside was not zine art (or not much of it), as you might have expected, but just actual zines hanging from walls and on tables for people to look at.

I still don't really understand why this was an event, or an art show. Perhaps the fact that it seems to have had some connection with LA people should have tipped me off that this was not the sort of zine event I was used to (though I have since met some lovely zine people from LA). But I still don't know why this event happened, or why there was so much free beer available. I did get to see a friend who was leaving town in a few days, so it wasn't a total waste, but still, it was odd.

This zine is made up of photo collages of zines (presumably the ones from the art show, it was six months ago, give me a break!). It could be fine, but just looking at it leaves a bad taste in my mouth from going to this event. I hope other zine events in Vancouver are more fun. (If there actually are any...)

Two Fisted Librarians at the Portland Zine Symposium!

I'll be tabling (and helping to run a discussion about zine libraries) this weekend (August 10th and 11th) at the Portland Zine Symposium! I can't wait. I'll see you there!

The ICZL(u)C

So this past weekend I got to attend the Iowa City Zine Librarian (un)Conference. It was a pretty awesome experience. I got to meet a bunch of librarians who deal with zines in their collections, participate in some great discussions, and volunteer to do more work. Yay! (Wait, more work? Yay?)

If you didn't get to attend there should be notes on each of the sessions up on the wiki (check the schedule page), and there are youtube channels with recordings of at least some of goings on too.

One of the things we decided on doing was putting more content on zinelibraries.info, so hopefully in the next few months you'll start to see photo tours of zine collections, zine reading lists on various topics, and more. Awesome!

I can't wait until the one next year. Hopefully I'll be able to attend!

The Zine Pavilion

Recently I got to help run the Zine Pavilion at the American Library Association annual conference. It was in Chicago, and the conference had about 27,000 people attend. Wow!

Overall the conference was really cool, I met lots of awesome librarians, got to interview some comic book creators and zinesters, ran a Call of Cthulhu game, and helped educate a lot of people about zines. You can check out the Zine Pavilion tumblr which has photos and videos and other stuff on it.

July is International Zine Month!

Did you know that July is International Zine Month? It is! You should check out the website and the facebook page to find out the full list of events, but here are some that I'm excited about!

July 2nd: Make a Top 10 list of reasons why your love zines, post them online if you would like.
(We're going to be doing this at the Zine Pavilion at the ALA conference in Chicago!)

July 13th: Zine Trade Day! Ask someone if they would like to trade zines with you.
(I'm totally going to do this at the Iowa City Zine Librarian (un)Conference!)

July 15th: Leave a zine in public for someone else to find.
(I do this all the time at the #UBCnoox!)

July 17th: Review a zine online or write a review of a zine to add to your zine.
(Okay, well this one is kind of obvious...)

July 27th: Organize a zine event! A zine reading or a zine fair or fest or even just for friends to get together and work on their zines.
(I think I'll be in Toronto on this date, and I'd love to go to a zine event! Does anyone know of any happening there?)

I'm also totally going to make a 24 hour zine at some point during the month. Exciting!

Donate your zines to the Zine Pavilion at the ALA conference!

I'm one of the people helping with the Zine Pavilion at the American Library Association conference in Chicago from June 27th to July 2nd.

You should check out the Zine Pavilion Tumblr which has lots of photos from last year's pavilion. That's also where we'll be releasing the schedule of readings and other zine events happening during the conference.

If you are interested in donating some zines to the pavilion please send them to:
Sarah G. Wenzel (ALA Zines)
University of Chicago Library
JRL 363
1100 E 57th St
Chicago, IL
60637
USA

Alternative Press Spring Fair, North London, June 1st

 
I  was asked to post about this event on my blog. So here are the details!

Alternative Press Spring Fair
Saturday, June 1st, 11am-5pm
The Albert, 1 Albert Road, London
www.alternativepress.org.uk

There's still time to apply for a table, but the deadline for applications is Friday 17th May at 9am (tomorrow!).

Halifax Comix Jam Number 13

It's time once again for me to "review" one of these jam comics and tell you about this month's Halifax Comics Jam!

This month's is tonight (Tuesday, April 3rd), from 7-10pm, at the Roberts Street Social Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You should come! No artistic talent is required, and there are usually cookies or some other snack. Here's the facebook event.

For those that don't know, Jam comics are comics where one person starts a page by drawing a panel, and then another person draws the next panel, and so on until the page is finished. They usually don't make a lot of sense, but they can be pretty funny at times. This one actually has a remarkably coherent, and amusing story about the adventures of a soul. Hurray!

Here's a video you can watch that possibly explains it better.

Roberts Street Social Centre Fundraising!

(Photo by Krista Leger, and taken from this article.)

I volunteer at a place called the Roberts Street Social Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It's a pretty awesome place, with a zine library (where I volunteer as a librarian), a screen printing studio, a rad summer residency program for zinesters and artists, and a space where we run games nights and comics jams, hold movie showings, and do lots of other fun stuff. It's an awesome space and I spend a lot of time there doing stuff.

On May 1st we're being evicted from our current space, and we're hoping to collect some money for our new (yet to be determined) location! We've created an indiegogo fundraiser page where you can donate money to us in return for some prizes. It may say that we've exceeded our goal, but we're actually trying to get more money than that (as $500 wouldn't even pay a month's rent in our current location) and apparently can't change the amount.

If you're interested in donating, please do! If you'd rather donate in another manner you can send us an email and we'll work out the details. If you don't have any money, I encourage you to spread the word, and tell other people who would be interested in donating about the fundraiser.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for reading my blog in general.

To do this Sunday in London: Zulu Christmas Zine Symposium

This is happening on Sunday! I have no further details. Maybe I'll be there? (Probably not...)

Alternative Press Fair!

Guess what! I suck! I went to the Alternative Press Fair over a week ago and still haven't posted my photos! Gah!

Hell, even worse, I uploaded them days ago and just haven't made this post. : (

Anyway, Jimi Gherkin invited me to come down for it when I saw him at the Birmingham Zine Festival. I was up for it, and some friends of mine from Canada were over and they planned to be in London that weekend so I got to meet up with them too. Hurray!

I helped work at the "everybody" table (which had another name, but I can't remember what). I met some nice people, traded a bunch of my zines, and sold a bunch of other people's (and even one of mine!). I sadly didn't get to talk to as many people as I'd hoped (sometimes tabling sucks). Still! I had a totally awesome time anyway.

They also announced that they're currently planning the first International Alternative Press Festival in London next year. The festival will be held over the final weekend in May (27th-29th), and will feature parties, the alternative press festival, workshops, performances, and lots of other stuff!

So if you're an artist, zinemaker, printer, publisher, art gallery, or anything else crative you should definitely get in touch with them. You can also keep an eye on their blog. Hopefully I'll see you there! I can't wait!

(Unrelated but interesting: An article on the Japanese zine scene.)

And now the photos! (Click for bigger.) I love all the terrible decorations that were hanging up at the venue.

Zine in a Day

By The Birmingham Zine Festival
Printed by Foot Print and Get a Grip
www.footprinters.co.uk
www.getagripstudio.com

Why have I not reviewed this yet? It’s been almost two weeks since the Birmingham Zine Festival happened! I have clearly been too awesomed by zines/comics and overwhelmed by illness to realize that I had this incredible zine to check out.

Why is it so incredible? Well because this is a zine made entirely on the day of the festival! Anyone who showed up could submit something (by two in the afternoon I think), then it was printed by Foot Print, while the covers were screen printed by Get a Grip, and for sale by the end of the day. Fantastic! It’s just too bad I was too busy/tired/overwhelmed to sit down for a while and create something. (Plus my handwriting is terrible, and I feel incapable of creating anything that is not mostly text. Please see this blog for exhibit A.)

However, lots of other people who attended the festival did have time to create content for this zine. There’s art by loads of people, and text pieces by people with much nicer handwriting than mine. It’s a nice souvenir for the day if you where there, and it’s actually a pretty cool zine. Check it out if you can find a copy.

The year is two thirds over.

It's kind of crazy to think that I started this blog eight months ago and have so far written almost 250 reviews. Crazy.

So! Today is the start of the Birmingham Zine Festival, which will continue in some way another for the next few weeks.

Today (Thursday) at 5pm is the launch of the Zine Art Exhibition, which I wish I could go to, but won't see until next week.

Then, tomorrow (Friday) at 7:30pm, is the launch of the Postcard Art Exhibit, which I have art in! Hurray. I also won't see it until next Friday when the festival kicks into high gear, with a movie night, a zine fair, a club night, and a picnic. I can't wait!

In other news I was asked to link to this Pop-Up Zine Reading Room, that's happening in London on Monday, September 20th. It's in support of a book about zines by Teal Triggs (here's an interview with her on the Birmingham Zine Festival site). However, the book has caused some controversy amongst zinesters over the use of their zines.

London Zine Symposium This weekend!

Do you live in London? Will you be there for the London Zine Symposium on Saturday? I will be! I'll be tabling and also running an artist trading card workshop.

I'm on the schedules/maps/whatever as "Stumptown Underground", but it looks like I haven't actually managed to get copies of that in time. I will have lots of my zines available to trade (and I guess sell), so you should come by and say "hi".

Hurray zines!



(I'm not even finished making half of mine, I better get a table on the train down or I'm screweeeeeddd.)