SF Zine Fest

East Bay Alternative Press Book Fair Saturday, Dec. 10

2011-11-26T16:05:00.000-08:00

The SFZF's across the Bay sister show is coming up on Saturday, December 10th! This is the 2nd annual East Bay Alternative Press Bookfair (whew! That's a long name! But you can just say EBAP!), and w had such a nice time last year that we definitely reccomend you check it out... There's a great lineup of small-press creators and companies, including Rock Paper Scissors, Gnartoons, Endless Canvas, Family Style, Mission MiniComix, Jen Oaks Illustration, Rad Dad, Trackrabbit, Estrus Comics, Brooke Appler (creator of that bad-ass poster!) and many many more. Its a perfect opportunity to pick up DIY gifts and stocking stuffers for all your loved ones, while supporting local artists! And its FREE to get into the show! 100% Awesome.

EBAP Bookfair • Saturday, Dec. 10 • 10am - 4pm • Berkeley City College 2050 Center Street, Berkeley (right by Downtown Berkeley BART Station) • FREE! • RSVP on Facebook

Dylan Williams, Rest in Peace

2011-09-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Renee French and Dylan Williams at the 2008 SFZF, photo by Greg Means

Hamburger Eyes Art Show at the SFZF 2011!

2011-08-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

2011 marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most vibrant and influential publications of the last decade, the monumental photo-journal Hamburger Eyes. The loosely-organized Hamburger Eyes collective has been a major force in our contempary culture, simultaneously documenting and influencing the fashion, journalism, art, and music of the first decade of the 21st Century.

The SF Zine Fest is proud to present a free-wheeling, wide-ranging, and certainly non-exhaustive look at this Bay Area collective's impressive body of work. From early work from the archives to their new "Eyeland Editions," this exclusive, two-day showing is a must-visit for fans and a great way for new viewers to get to know Hamburger Eyes. And don't miss the Q + A with Ray Potes and other members of Hamburger Eyes on Saturday at 2:30pm!

SFZF 2011 Workshops + Panels Schedule

2011-08-29T18:20:00.001-07:00

Just like always, we've got an awesome assortment of panels, programs, and hands-on workshops for all of our attendeesand exhibitors this weekend! Swing by our Workshops + Panels Room for Q + A's with our Special Guests Hamburger Eyes and Lark Pien, learn how to stitch a booklet or screenprint on a t-shirt, watch movies about biking, gain insights into the lives and work of your favorite indie-cartoonists, and much more! All for free! For a full schedule with descriptions, head over to our Workshops + Panels page!

SATURDAY

Bookbinding: Basics and Beyond | 1:00pm - 2:00pm

Special Guest Spotlight: 10 Years of Hamburger Eyes | 2:30pm - 3:20pm

Rambling Road Show: Bike Culture | 3:30pm - 4:20pm

Memoir Comics: Life In Ink | 4:00pm - 4:50pm

SUNDAY

Intro to Screenprinting | 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Special Guest Spotlight: Lark Pien | 2:00pm - 2:50pm

Graphic Journos in Conversation | 3:00pm - 3:50pm

Making Time: An Artistsʼ Forum | 4:00pm - 4:50pm

Danielle de Picciotto Reading + Musical Performance

2011-07-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday, Needles & Pens will be hosting Danielle de Picciotto as she reads selections from her Berlin memoir, "The Beauty of Transgression" while her husband, Alexander Hacke of the legendary German Band Einsturzende Neubauten creates live electronic soundscapes. Yes! Sounds fun! Also: SF band Death Cheetah!

Danielle de Picciotto Reading + Musical Performance • Wednesday July 20, 2011 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. • Needles & Pens • 3253 16th Street, San Francisco

2011 SFZF Poster Art by Lark Pien!

2011-07-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

Special Guest! Hamburger Eyes!

2011-07-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

This year we are honored to host the highly influential Bay Area photography group Hamburger Eyes! Hamburger Eyes is a loosely-knit photographers' collective started by Ray Potes in 2001. Now in its tenth year (just like the SFZF!), Hamburger Eyes continues to publish photo zines and books, exhibit photo shows as well as run its own Mission District-based custom print darkroom project space, Photo Epicenter. With the launch of Hamburger Eyeland, they have expanded their print offerings to feature an even wider assortment of cutting-edge urban visual documentarians.

Photo by Alex Martinez

Photo by Ray Potes

Photo by David Potes

As always, we are so delighted to be hosting such amazing creators, testaments to the enduring awesomeness of the small-press community. We will be holding Q+A sessions with all of our Guests at the show!

Special Guest! Lark Pien!

2011-07-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

The SF Zine Fest is super proud to announce the first of this year's very Special Guests!

Our first Special Guest is the wonderful Lark Pien! Lark is a stalwart of the San Francisco small-press and comics scene;
she was born in San Francisco in 1972 and has been making minicomics since 1997. A true DIY success, Lark has continued to create small-press comics and hand-crafted art while also pursuing a carreer in the mainstream publishing industry; several of her stories like Long Tail Kitty and Mr. Elephanter have been adapted into children’s books. Lark is also the artist behind this year's SFZF poster art!

As always, we are so delighted to be hosting such amazing creators, testaments to the enduring awesomeness of the small-press community. We will be holding Q+A sessions with all of our Guests at the show!

This Friday! "Stupid Dreams" Release Party and Reading

2011-06-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Former SFZF Special Guest Joey Allison Sayers will be celebrating the release of her newest comics collection, "Stupid Dreams," this Friday at the newish Escapist Comics in Berkeley! Joey will be reading from her new, complete collection of five-minute comic strips, and will be joined by fellow Bay Area comics champs Sophie Yanow, Tessa Brunton, and Kane Lynch! What's not to love!

"Stupid Dreams" Release Party • Friday, June 24th, 7:00pm • The Escapist Comic Bookshop • 3090 Claremont Ave, Berkeley • FREE! • RSVP on Facebook

Exhibitor Applications now open!

2011-05-23T22:50:00.001-07:00

The SF Zine Fest is happy to announce that exhibitor applications are now open!

This year the SFZF will be celebrating our tenth anniversary in style, adding a whole extra exhibition hall to the event at the SF County Fair Building... that means nearly 50 more tables worth of zinesters, cartoonists, artists, print-makers, and other DIY and small-press creators! The SF Zine Fest (Sept. 3 +4, 2011) is one of the nation's best small-press fairs, with affordable table rates (just $100 for a full table and $50 for a half table until August 1st!) and a terrific, varied audience (since the Fest is always FREE to the public, we always get great foot traffic: last year we had over 3500 people come, and we expect many more this year!), the SF Zine Fest is a perfect venue for all sorts of small-press, from established companies and creators (past exhibitors include AK Press, Microcosm Publishing, Sparkplug Comic Books, Tugboat Press, RE/Search, and many others) to first-time zine makers and budding comics artists.

Sign up online with our handy registration form today; while we have more room than ever this time, last year the Fest sold out months early! Early Bird registration last until August 1st!

SFZF 2011 Exhibitor Registration Form

This Weekend! Latino Comics Expo

2011-05-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

We are stoked to report that a brand-new comics show is coming to San Francisco, the Latino Comics Expo! The Cartoon Art Museum will be hosting over a dozen latino cartoonists, including Mario Hernandez of Love & Rockets and Rafael Navarro of Somnambulo fame, focusing on the vibrant contempary Latin American comics scene... This seems like a perfect fit for the SF Bay Area, and an interesting model for other mini-shows to take.

Admission included with your ticket to the always fantastic CAM, which is also featuring exhibitions on Berkeley Breathed and a Small Press Spotlight on Tessa Brunton. A great excuse to check it out!

Latino Comics Expo • May 7 + 8, 2011, 11am - 5pm • Cartoon Art Museum • 655 Mission Street, SF

The Tenth Annual SFZF is Coming! Sept. 3 + 4, 2011

2011-04-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Zine Fest is returning for our tenth annual show! The San Francisco Zine Fest will be back on September 3 + 4 to celebrate small press, zines, comics, and all things DIY at the San Francisco County Fair Building, in Golden Gate Park. As always, the Zine Fest is FREE and open to the public! With an expanded exhibit hall, over 150 small-press and DIY creators will be selling, trading, and otherwise sharing their work with over three thousand attendees.

The Zine Fest serves as a vital annual showcase of the diversity, creativity, and ongoing exuberance of the small-press movement. In the ten years since the Festival's birth in 2001, tremendous changes have rocked the social, technological, and creative fronts, but the impulse to DIY art and small-press has only grown stronger. The SFZF is proud to serve as a venue for the writers, cartoonists, crafters, illustrators, printmakers, and other artists who exhibit each year to share their work with an ever expanding audience. We're planning on celebrating out big tenth anniversary in style, so stay tuned for more info on amazing Special Guests, workshops, events, and much more in the coming months!

Opening Tonight! Futuristic Textures From The Future @ Mission Comics & Art

2011-03-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

Another very cool show at Mission Comics and Art opens tonight: Futuristic Textures From The Future, Volume II: Interference Maps by collage artist Michael Mykola Haleta. Looks great!

Futuristic Textures From The Future, Volume II: Interference Maps • Opening Saturday, 3/12 Mission: Comics & Art • 3520 20th St. Suite B, San Francisco

The Escapist - New Comics Shop in Berkeley! Grand Opening Tuesday Night

2011-03-12T13:38:00.001-08:00

We were all very sad to see Comic Relief close after 20+ years of service to the SF Bay Area, the original "comic bookstore" was a major force for indy and mini-comics, and founder RoryRoot and Comic Relief's staff have done a lot for the small-press scene in general (we particularly like former Comic Relief staffer and Sparkplug Comic Books publisher Dylan William's thoughts on the subject).

And now, from the ashes of Comic Relief, Berkeley has a new and exciting comics shop: The Escapist! The folks at Dark Carnival Bookstore have purchased the entire stock from the closed Comic Relief (including the Comic Relief cats!). They are marking their opening with a special nighttime party, with the release of the new Wednesday comics at the stroke of midnight... very fun! There are some special guests expected too... We have some guesses who might be involved, but we won't go out on a limb with predictions. Suffice it to say it sounds like a very fun start to a new era in Bay Area comics culture, and we highly recommend that you drop by!

The Escapist Grand Opening • Tuesday, March 15th at 10pm • 3090 Claremont Ave, Berkeley, CA

SF Public Press Release Party - Tonight!

2010-11-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

The SF Public Press is one of our favorite developments in the ongoing "fate of journalism" saga: A local website taht also produces a lovely, ink and paper newspaper, Sf Public Press is created by volunteers yet maintains excellent quality standards (just this last Tuesday they won a Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Award!), with funding from some interesting and out of the box sources. Some of the SF Public Press folks participated in our rockin' DIY Journalism panel last year, and all together we think this organization has a lot to teach us about the future of journalism, print, and DIY projects in general.

Tonight (Thursday) SF Public Press is celebrating the release of their second issue at the Mechanics' Institute. Join them for drinks and appetizers, pick up a free copy of the fall 2010 edition of the newspaper, and meet the incredible volunteer team that pulled it all together! Tickets are $20 for non-members, and it is FREE for members (basic memberships start at $35), this is a great chance to support the paper.

SF Public Press Release Party • Nov. 11, 5:30pm-8:30pm • The Mechanics' Institute • 57 Post Street, San Francisco

Be About It Zine Release Party

2010-10-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

Local zine Be About It is having a release party for their latest issue on Thursday, 10/21 at Whiskey Thieves. This new issue sports a horror theme (just in time for All Hallows) and looks to be a lot of fun, with contributions from lots of local authors... check it out!

Be About It #2 Release Party • Thursday, 10/21 8:00pm • Whiskey Thieves (839 Geary Street, SF)

APE + More This Weekend!

2010-10-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Alternative Press Expo is coming to town this weekend, and tho' we love to joke about SFZF's rivalry with the big gorrilla, we whole-heartedly reccomend checking it out (there's room in this town for plenty of awesomeness)! It's a huge show (newly expanded this year) with tons of indy, small-press, and alternative comics, graphic novels, zines, books, art, and much more. Many SFZF alumni will be in attendance as well, including Susie Cagle, Doctor Popular, Family Style, Global Hobo, Goteblüd, Monkey & Seal, Malachi Ward, Two Fine Chaps, and many, many more...

Also this week are a panaply of APE-related readings, shows, and other events that are well worth your time. Highlights include Vanessa Davis at Needles & Pens on Friday at 7:00pm,
the Removable Pants art show (including work by Marc Bell), opening at GRSF on Saturday at 6:30pm, a double bill of a Doc Popular video shoot/art instalation and a release party for the SFSF (that's San Francisco Science Fiction, if you didn't know!) comic EGG at Mission: Comics on Saturday (6pm for Doc Pop, 9pm for EGG), and of course the ceremony for the Isotome Mini-Comics Award at Isotope Comics on Saturday at 8pm... who's gonna win? Nobody knows, but with the excellent pedigree of past winners it's sure to be a very talented guy or gal.

Alternative Press Expo • Saturday, 10/16 11:00am - 7:00pm + Sunday, 10/17 11:00am - 6:00pm • The Concourse
(635 8th Street San Francisco) • $10/one day $15/both days

Vanessa Davis Reading • Friday, 10/15 7:00pm • Needles & Pens (3253 16th Street, SF)
Removable Pants Art Opening • Saturday, 10/16 6:30pm • Giant Robot (
618 Shrader Street, SF)
Doctor Popular Video Shoot + Art Instalation • Saturday, 10/16 6:00pm • Mission: Comics (3520 20th St. Suite B, SF)
EGG Release Party • Saturday, 10/16 9:00pm • Mission: Comics (3520 20th St. Suite B, SF)
Isotope Excellence in Mini-Comics Award Ceremony • Saturday, 10/16 8:00pm •Isotope Comics (326 Fell Street, SF)

SFZF Reading Room @ Treasure Island Music Festival!

2010-10-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

We are super-duper excited to be taking the SFZF Reading Room on the road once more... or perhaps its more like we're sending our collection of zines and mini-comics on a merry voyage, cause we're setting sail for the Treasure Island Music Festival this weekend! The last time we had our zine librarians head out to Treasure Island two years ago we had a fantastic time meeting the festival attendees, talking about zines, and (occasionaly) sneaking off to catch one of our favorite bands. This year looks to be a winner, too, with killer bands ranging from The Sea & Cake and Belle & Sebastian to LCD Soundsystem & Miike Snow.... Plus lots and lots of fun DIY activities at the Treasure Trove: Hosted in association with Workshop, Etsy, GoGo Craft and Six-Word Memoirs, the Treasure Trove will be a place to create, learn, recycle, and build. The Zine Fest is delighted to be in such good company!

If you are gonna be there this weekend, make sure to check in with our zine librarians for a quick break from the rock. We'll have dozens of titles for your perusal, and friendly zine librarians to chat you up as well! Tickets for the Festival are still on sale, get 'em while you can!

Treasure Island Music Festival - Saturday & Sunday, 10/16 & 10/17 - Tickets start at $67.50

Cartoonists in The Mist Reading Tonight! Comics Relief in Berkeley

2010-10-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

APE weekend gets started a bit early with a crackerjack reading over in the East Bay at Comics Relief! Cartoonists in the Mist (Get it? APE... Gorrillas... Sigh) features seven indy darlings reading from their work, from auto-bio comics to science fiction: Tessa Brunton (In The Tall Grass), Susie Cagle (Nine Gallons), Justin Hall (True Travel Tales), Kane Lynch (The Relics), Jason Martin (Laterborn), MariNaomi (Estrus Comics) and Julia Wertz (Fart Party, and her new book, Drinking at the Movies). Sure to be a fun time, and gauranteed to get you in the mode for the big ol' APE this weekend!

Cartoonists in the Mist Reading • Thursday, 10/14 8:00pm • Comics Relief (2026 Shattuck Ave in Berkeley)

Help Pirate Cat Go Legal!

2010-10-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Pirate Cat Radio has a very rare chance to aquire a broadcasting liscence from the FCC! This would secure Pirate Cat's ability to keep broadcasting for years to come, and legally, too... but they only have until October 21st to raise the hefty $60,000 needed to pay for the license! If you wouold like to help, please consider going to Kickstarter to help wth their pledge drive... This is a pretty worthy cause, and we are happy to back them on it! If you have ever enjoyed PCR's very cool programing, musical sessions, or even that interview the SFZF did with them last year, please consider chipping in... there are cool prizes, too!

Pirate Cat Radio Kickstarter Campaign • Until 10/21/10

Knock Knock at Needles & Pens - Opening Saturday, 10/9

2010-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

The fine folks at Needles & Pens are finishing up their international cultural exchange with the Swedish Galleri KRETS by hosting a KRETS-curated art show here in San Francisco! The selection looks great, with dozens of artists both foreign and domestic, and music at the opening by Death Cheetah. Go and check out the vibes of international cooperation and creation!

Knock Knock Art Opening • Saturday, 10/9, 6:00 - 9:30pm • Needles & Pens, 3253 16th Street

Lit Crawl - Saturday, 10/9

2010-10-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

As you may know, the SF's massive, multi-venue literary festival Lit Quake is going on all this week, with tons of great events for you to check out. But if we were to choose just one event to attend, it would have to be the infamous Lit Crawl, taking place all throughout the Mission this Saturday! This huge event takes place in three phases and in tons of venues. Click on the links for full schedules starting with Phase I (6:00-7:00pm), which includes the ZYZZYVA Lit Quiz (Elixir, 3200 16th St.) and the "Questionable Behavior " reading from the folks at Instant City (Dalva, 3121 16th St.), moving on to Phase II (7:15-8:15pm), including the "Mystery & Mayhem" crime fiction reading at the Mission Police Station (!!!), the "Read on the Brat" punk reading at Amnesia (853 Valencia St.), and Susie Cagle, Jamaica Dyer, & Geoff Vasile reading at Mission Comics (3520 20th St.), and finally Phase III (8:30 - 9:30pm) icluding the Indie Fiction Extravaganza (Casa Bonampak, 1051 Valencia St.).

There's seriously something for everyone, from poetry to erotica, comics to comedians. Plus the whole damn thing is free! Definitely check it out!

Lit Crawl • Saturday, 10/9, 7:00pm - 9:30pm • Various Venues across the Mission • Free

Residual Energy II Zine Release Friday 10/8

2010-10-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Local artist and zinester extraordinaire Ryan De La Hoz will be having a release party for his latest issue of Residual Energy. There's gonna be an art exhibition with tons of great artists, along with a specially curated selection of zines from the likes of Hamburger Eyes, Skinner, John Kearns, and more... definitely worth a drop in!

Residual Energy II Release Party • Friday, 10/8 7pm - Midnight • Space Gallery, 1141 Polk Street San Francisco

Art Publishing Now - 10/9-10/10, SOEX

2010-10-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

The very nice and forward-thinking folks at Southern Exposure are hosting their first ever Art Publishing Now event, a two day summit and fair that will esamine, investigate, and celebrate the many-faceted world of Bay Area art publishing. The first day, Saturday, 10/9, features panels and discussions on a wide variety of topics, from creating sustainable publishing platforms to working in colaborative groups. The second day is a full-on publisher's fair, with dozens of Bay Area creators and publishers, including McSweeney's, Little Paper Planes, The Thing Quarterly, Zyzzyva, and many more. And there's and after-party on Saturday night, too! Sounds like a lot of fun, and it's FREE and open to the public (but register online for the summit on Saturday in advance)!

Art Publishing Now • 10/9 - 10/10, 11:00am - 6:00pm • Southern Exposure • 3030 20th Street San Francisco • Free!

24-Hour Comic Day! Oct. 2

2010-10-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey comics lovers! One of the most silly, fun, and interesting events of the comcis year is coming up on Oct. 2, 24-Hour Comic Day! Head on down to either Mission Comics in SF or Comics Relief in Berkeley to see dozens of cartoonists toiling away to write, draw, and fininish a 24-page comic in just as many hours! Who will be there? What will they be making? Will they finish?!

The whole thing starts at 11am on October 2 and wraps up one day later at 11am on October 3. Feel free to pop by anytime (2am anyone?) and show your support of these cartoonists on their comics-making marathons! This year's events are being put on by the very fun and hard-working SF Cartoonist Conspiracy.

24-Hour Comics Day • 10/2/10 11:00am - 10/3/10 11:00am
• Comics Relief 2026 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley
• Mission: Comics and Art 3520 20th St. Suite B San Francisco

SFZF 2010 Press Round-up!

2010-09-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry this has taken a little while to get together, while our lives have calmed down quite a bit since the Fest on Sept. 4 + 5, we (the SFZF Crew) are still busy preparing for our Reading Room field trip to the upcoming Treasure Island Music Festival, along with many of us getting our own creations ready for the Alternative Press Expo, happening the same weekend (Oct. 16 + 17)! But here, for your reading pleasure, is a quick list of various newspaper articles, photo sets, and blog posts reporting on the recently completed Zine Fest 2010! If we have left off some awesome coverage, please comment below and we will add it here and, eventually, to our permanant press clippings vault.

Press Clippings

SF Weekly SFoodie Blog

SF Bay Guardian pt. 1

SF Bay Guardian pt. 2SF

Broke-Ass Stuart

ReadyMade - Cool article about the author's history with zines.

SF Citizen

Not For Fun Only

Mission Local - Lots o' pics!

SF [X]Press

Exhibitor Memories

The Bold Italic - Very cool article by Laura Beck detailing the creation of her small press creation, Fat Zine.

Doc Pop - Several posts about the Fest.

The Flop Box

Monkey & Seal - Lengthy and informative post from an exhibitor/organizer... lots of good info on what it is like to exhibit, and why you should!

Susie Cagle

C. Cilla

Jamaica Dyer - Lots of cool drawings she made at the Fest!

and finally, some photos on Flickr! Please add yours, too... join the SF Zine Fest photo pool!

Expo for Independent Arts 9/25

2010-09-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

The very cool Indy Arts Expo is coming next week! This is a very fun event that celebrates and connects a wide variety of arts organizations, creators, and many others... Lots of independent publishers, too, including Flash Publications, Last Gasp Books, The Fabulist, PM Press, Re/Search Publications, The San Francisco Public Press, and many more... This a particularly cool fair to attend if you are a creative type, there are lots of opportunities to connect with resources for artists!

Indy Arts will also be hosting a full slate of panels and discussions leading up to the Expo, including the very interesting sounding "Independent Publishing: Where's It At?" on Monday, September 20, 6-8PM (Viracocha SF, 998 Valencia St. @ 21st. St., SF). For more workshops click here!

Expo for Independent Arts • Saturday, September 25 11am-6pm • CELLSpace • 2050 Bryant St. (x 18th St.), SF

Call for entries: ZineView in London - Deadline Tomorrow!

2010-09-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

We wanted to pass this on to all our beloved zinesters:

We want you (and your zines)!

To mark the publication of Fanzines, Teal Triggs, London College of Communication (LCC) and Thames & Hudson are curating a special pop-up reading room in The Well Gallery space at the LCC.

This temporary space will showcase rare publications from the LCC Zine Archive and the author's collection, but we want zine fans and zine makers to get involved too!

We are inviting submissions for the Reading Room as a representation of current publications and future collectibles. This includes independent publications in all formats: zines, newspapers, magazines, handmade or glossy ? we want them all! The pop-up room may be temporary, but selected submissions will then go on to live forever as part of the LCC Zine Archive.

How to get involved

The event is scheduled to take place on Monday 20 September 2010.

To submit your publication, please post two copies to the address below by Wednesday 8 September:

Angela Won-Yin Mak
Thames & Hudson
181A High Holborn
London
WC1V 7QX
and email a short bio and a picture of yourselves, your publication and/or your logo plus any contact details (website, facebook etc) which we can then include on any listings that we write up: a.mak@thameshudson.co.uk (emails not to exceed 3MB).

Please note, we will not be able to return any publications that we exhibit. Submission does not guarantee inclusion in the Reading Room.

More news on the event soon. We look forward to seeing you and your publications!

THANK YOU!

2010-09-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

Wow! What an awesome year... we'll be back in the next few days to re-cap this year's Zine Fest, direct you to some of the lovely media coverage we're getting, and more, but for now we just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who made this the biggest and best Fest in our nine-year history! The organizers, volunteers, exhibitors, special guests, raffle donors, workshop teachers, panelists, and our amazing attendees all work together to make this such fun. Some quick special shout-outs go to those organizations and individuals who worked with us on our special events this year; Goteblüd, the Cartoon Art Museum, Mission: Comics and Art, Debaser, Comics Relief, Needles and Pens, etc (many more thanks coming soon!). You are all the best!

Stay tuned throughout the year for more great SFZF events... coming up next, the Reading Room goes to the Treasure Island Music Fest!

Zine Fest Day 2!

2010-09-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for more awesomeness! We are! Come join us at the SF County Fair BLDG all day from 11-6 to meet over 100 zinesters, cartoonists, printmakers, and other DIY creators... From the political to the personal, from tear-jerking tales to hilarious comic strips, from the arty to the earnest, we've got a bit of something for everyone!

Today's workshops, panels, and readings:

Bookbinding: Basics & Beyond
• 12:30 – 1:45
Ready to take your zines beyond the staple? Would you like to learn how to create blank journals or other small books? We will cover a variety of useful bookbinding techniques, including single-sheet folded books, single & double signature pamphlet stitch, stab binding, and more. Something for all skill levels! Materials included.
-Rick Kitagawa + Erin Fong

DIY and Small-Press Journalism
• 2:00 – 2:50
Small press journalism -- you know, like, on paper -- is enjoying a bit of a renaissance in the Bay Area as of late. Come hear this star-studded panel discuss the trials and tribulations (and the rewards!) of the small press as old media meets new. Bring your tough questions and notepads. Our all-star panelists include Susie Cagle (journalist, cartoonist, critic about town), Michael Stoll (founder, SF Public Press), Dan Archer (reportage cartoonist and Knight fellow at Stanford), Josh Wilson (proprietor, Independent Arts + Media), Antonio Roman-Alcala (founder, SF Arts + Politics zine), and Mat Honan (Longshot Mag).
-moderated by Susie Cagle

Q+A with V. Vale
• 3:00 – 3:50
Moderated interview/presentation with guest V.Vale.

Zines on Toast
• 4:00 – 4:50
The Zines on Toast reading tour is stopping at the SF Zine Fest with a combination reading and panel! Join UK creators Isy Morgenmuffel, Edd Baldry, Steve Larder, Tom Fiction, Natalie Last Hours as they recount tales of the London Zine Symposium, failing to punch Tony Blair, ideas for radical health, creating a UK social centre, bike punks, regional dialects and more, as well as a discussion of UK zine culture in general. Audience Q+A to follow.
-moderated by Alex Wrekk

Watch for updates all day on our SFZF Twitter feed!

Zine Fest Day 1!

2010-09-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, the big day is here! Come join us at the SF County Fair BLDG all day from 11-6 to meet over 100 zinesters, cartoonists, printmakers, and other DIY creators... From the political to the personal, from tear-jerking tales to hilarious comic strips, from the arty to the earnest, we've got a bit of something for everyone!

Today's workshops and panels:

Q + A with Artnoose
• 12:30 – 1:20
An interview/presentation with Special Guest Artnoose. A slide show of her work and an audience Q + A will be included.
-in conversation with Greg Means

No, You Do It: Spotlight on Jesse Reklaw
• 1:30 – 2:20
Special Guest Jesse Reklaw unveils his new publishing ethos of NYDI: "No, You Do It." Chronicling 20 years of experience with publishing, from photocopied zines to hardback books by "real" publishers, Jesse shares what he learned along the way about the business and theory of publishing; working with editors, distributors, and agents; new formats like websites, e-books, and print-on-demand; as well as the history of publishing and some thoughts about its future. Audience Q+A to follow.

Punk Tabloid Panel
• 2:30 – 3:20
In conjunction with the SFZF's first-ever art exhibition, the panel for "Punk Tabloid" will feature creators V. Vale (Search & Destroy) and John Gullak (Another Room Magazine). Moderated by Matt Wobensmith of Goteblüd, this panel discussion will focus on the history of these late 70s Bay Area large format zines, as well as the environment and process that produced them.
-Moderated by Matt Wobensmith

DIY Screenprinting
• 3:30 – 4:45
Always a Zine Fest favorite! Learn the basics of screenprinting in this hands-on workshop. Discussion will include printing, screen construction, screen mesh, squeegee hardness, types of ink, emulsion coating and removal, and exposure of positive image. Students will also get the chance to pull prints from screens with pre-burned designs (bring clothes, paper, or any flat surface you would like the screenprint onto)! All inks, squeegees, and screens will be provided.
-Lords of Print

And don't forget about tonight's Afterparty at Mission Comics and out After-Afterparty at Debaser!

SFZF Afterparty and Mixer
Saturday, September 4, 7 pm - 10 pm - Mission: Comics and Art
3520 20th Street, San Francisco

Come out after the first day of the Zine Fest to relax, converse, and imbibe a few beverages with other DIY fans and creators. Reconnect with old friends and meet new ones, and recharge and get pumped for day two of the Fest!

Debaser:
SFZF After- Afterparty
Saturday, September 4, 9 pm - 2 am - The Knockout
3223 Mission Street, San Francisco
$5 cover, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the SF Zine Fest! FREE with Flannel or Baby Doll Dress before 11. FREE with zines to trade all night!
21+

But wait, there's more! Once you are nice and relaxed from chatting with your pals at the SFZF Afterparty, then it's high time for the SFZF After-Afterparty! Our pals at 90s music club Debaser will be hosting the SFZF faithful finto the wee hours. DJs Jamie Jams and Emdee play classic indie, underground and riot grrrl jams to get you in the mood to read zines & comix (or even to crowd surf and mosh!). Consistently one of the best music nights in the city!

Watch for updates all day on our SFZF Twitter feed!

Tonight! Two Big Readings!

2010-09-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

We just have too much zine and comix goodness lined up for you tonight! For your consideration, two fantastic readings to kick off your Zine Fest weekend in style! Comix or zines, its your choice!

First off, in downtown San Francisco:

Visit the Cartoon Art Museum for our third annual evening of live readings by some of the best indy-comics creators out there, including SFZF 2010 Special Guest Jesse Reklaw (10,000 Things To Do), John Porcellino (King-Cat Comics), Ed Luce (Wuvable Oaf), Jamaica Dyer (Weird Fishes), Hob (The Witness), Noah Van Sciver (Blammo), Susie Cagle (Nine Gallons), and Jonas Madden-Connor (Ochre Ellipse)! Come enjoy a glass of wine and experience comics in a whole new way!

• Friday, September 3rd, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m - Cartoon Art Museum - 655 Mission St between 3rd and New Montgomery
$5 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds) All proceeds benefit SFZF and CAM!

And across town, in the Mission:

Welcome the "our Other Weapon is a Zine" champs back to the City by the Bay for a radical reading on the eve of the Zine Fest! Some of our favorite zinesters just finished spreading the Zine Fest energy with a week-long, six-city reading tour of the greater Bay Area. "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" features contribution from terrific creators such as Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad), Dani Burlison & Leilani Clark (Petals & Bones) Andria Alefhi (We’ll Never Have Paris), and SFZF 2010 Special Guest Artnoose (Ker-Bloom!).

• Friday, September 3rd, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m - Needles and Pens - 3253 16th Street, San Francisco

Creator Q+A | Weasels

2010-09-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Nina of the zine Weasels.

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. When I was about 19 I got a hold of a book called "Vallomas" (the confession, in Hungarian). It was beautifully handwritten and illustrated; poems followed by a picture of a potted plant. In red ink and red velvet covers, with the title embossed. I fell in love with it and promised myself to do something like it some day.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. Absolutely embarrassing. It was a comic book in a notebook that got passed around in class. I re-discovered it recently, scanned it in and sent it to some friends. They laughed... hope with me. It centered around the day to day lives of a few skateboarders. I cringe as i think about it.

Q. Who is your DIY hero?
Definitely some of my girlfriends. My girl Psila is an awesome print maker, book maker and kick-ass street artist; just watching the love she pours into everything she does is really inspiring, her unapologetic and always positive attitude are really infectious. My friend Kim also inspires me a lot; she custom makes cards and collages and is a ring leader of the most awesome ladies crafting group.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. Not sure. Everyone comes into this from such a subjective place, it is difficult to say what's lacking and what's abundant. There's a saying where I'm from, "zivot pise romane". I know it's a cliche, but it basically comes down to the premise that everyone's got a story to tell. I guess more honesty. Honesty is always good.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. No matter how awful you feel just throw up and get on with it. Someone out there might actually like your vomit.

Q. What groups do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc about/for?
A. I guess as I get older I tend to want to see more people making things who are in their 30s, 40s, and onward. People who think their life is boring and/or passing them by, there's no such thing. You can keep your heart pumping like a teenager on a Friday just by engaging your creativity.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I like to walk a lot. Just me and my headphones and a cup of coffee. Also college radio. Radio rules!

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I've been trying to reconcile writing and illustrating, right now it's kind of all lumped together, as in story followed by picture followed by story etc. I have no formal training but I would love to do a graphic novel in the next few years.

Tonight! King-Cat/Blammo Reading at Comic Relief!

2010-09-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

The folks over at the venerable Comic Relief in Berkeley are hosting a crackerjack comics reading tonight: John Porcellino (King-Cat Comics) and Noah van Sciver (Blammo) will be reading from their work tonight as part of their cross-country tour! Both of these gentlemen are nominees for Ignatz awards this year, it's sure to be awesome! Oh, and don't forget that they'll both also be reading the the "Now See This" SFZF benefit reading at the Cartoon Art Museum tomorrow!

• King-Cat/Blammo Reading - Comic Relief - 2026 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley - Thursday, 9/2 7:00pm - RSVP on Facebook!

Creator Q+A | Bay Area Artists Unite

2010-09-02T00:13:00.001-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creators are the Bay Area Artists Unite (BAAU).

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. BAAU was founded in the late 1990s. A number of artists at an anime website realized they all lived in the Bay Area and decided to meet up in person. At its core BAAU has always been first a social community for artists and a network for sharing skills and ideas. The publishing started as a side project and has been continued as it's a great publicity and recruitment tool, and also helps cover the cost of attending conventions.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. In 2002, to pool resources and publish everyone's work, BAAU produced its first anthology, BAAU Down. Back then there were few options for individual self-publishing so it made sense to compile everyone's work into one book to keep costs down. A couple hundred copies were printed and sold at anime conventions both in the Bay Area and SoCal. It had about a dozen stories in it and is kind of a collector's item these days. We've since produced an anthology every year for nine years.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
We've got a couple of sister organizations that we swap ideas and publications with, notably Sacramento Comicbook Creators Group (SCCG) and Hanabi Studio in Honolulu. There's also an East Coast Artists Unite based out of New York.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. More collaboration.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. I once saw a sticker that said, "Do it yourself, but do it together!"

Q. What communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc for?
A. It'd be great to see a "read local" movement similar to the local food movement where locally produced media about local issues becomes a bigger part of everyday life and community activity.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. In addition to making individual zines and the group anthology, BAAU members do a wide range of things, including T-shirt design, art tutoring, magic shows, mural painting, dancing, karaoke, and working in supermarkets, video game companies, and the semiconductor industry.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Various members have their own projects and we'll have our 10th annual anthology coming out in May 2011.

Creator Q+A | Kane Lynch

2010-09-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Kane Lynch.

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. I want to get my work out there without waiting to be "discovered." It's also a great way to make friends with other creative people.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. When I was 12, my stepbrother got a job at the comic store and let me give them stacks of my photocopied comic books as a giveaway item. A Pokemon card-buying parent thought a spaceship on my cover resembled an erect penis, and complained. My comic got booted out and I was pretty embarrassed at the time, though in retrospect I'm kind of proud.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. There are a lot of cartoonists I love, but on the DIY level it would pretty much just be a list of my friends. I think the beauty of the DIY movement is that there are no heroes! Anybody can participate and may be make something great!

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
A. Last year was my first. As soon as I set up, a fellow came to my table and told me my book was absolutely beautiful. Then he saw the ad on the back cover and was aghast at how I'd compromised my vision to save a mere 40 cents per book. All around, flattering, but such an extreme reaction!

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. Specifically in comics, I'd like to see more long form stories. People are making prettier and prettier books, but they only take 10 dang minutes to read!

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. People are going to be indifferent, and they're not going to be polite about it. You have to be the better person, keep working, and win them over another day. Or not. You can only worry about it so much.

Q. What groups or communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc about/for?
A. There is no group that couldn't stand to have more zines and comics! The barrier for entry is so low, there's no excuse. Get writin' and drawin', everybody!

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. As welcoming attitude and increasing diversity of subject matter will hopefully bring more people into the scene. I think it's good for the community to grow, as long as the focus remains on zines and comics, and it doesn't degenerate into a market for generic hipster ephemera.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I'm a professional video editor, I'm vegan, and I love bikin' around the east bay. I am making a music video about a lonely robot.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I'm about 3/4 of the way through my graphic novel The Relics, which I'm serializing in a series of comic books. It's a low key slice-of-lifeish story about a group of people building a portal to another dimension! Next, I'm in the early planning stages for a historical fiction graphic novel collaboration with my friend Sophie Yanow. The Relics will hopefully be finished next year, and the other book will hopefully be out before we're all dead and buried. If not, I can always go back to leaving drawings of dicks at the comic book store.

Tonight in Davis: "Our Other Weapon is a Zine"

2010-09-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Some of our favorite zinesters are spreading the Zine Fest energy with a week-long, six-city reading tour of the greater Bay Area. "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" features contribution from terrific creators such as Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad), Dani Burlison & Leilani Clark (Petals & Bones), Renee Cashmere, and Katie McCleary (Biomythography). The whole tour wraps up with a big homecoming to San Francisco's Needles and Pens the night before the Fest!

• Wednesday, September 1, 7 pm to 9 pm - The Avid Reader - 617 Second Street, Davis

Creator Q+A | Rani Goel

2010-08-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight in Oakland: "Our Other Weapon is a Zine"

2010-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

Some of our favorite zinesters are spreading the Zine Fest energy with a week-long, six-city reading tour of the greater Bay Area. "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" features contribution from terrific creators such as Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad), Dani Burlison & Leilani Clark (Petals & Bones), Capella Parish and Ava Anderson, Anna Reutinger, & Roxie Perkins of Crosshatch Zine. The whole tour wraps up with a big homecoming to San Francisco's Needles and Pens the night before the Fest!

• Tuesday, August 31, 7 pm to 9 pm - Rock Paper Scissors Collective - 2278 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland

Creator Q+A | Mary Van Note

2010-08-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Mary Van Note. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. I wrote a novel before I got into comedy and shopped it around to a lot of micro-presses. It was close to getting published, but it didn’t happen. I wanted immediate gratification and small-press/DIY publishing could do that for me. There’s no middle man - just me, my ideas and a copier.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I made my first zine the first year I did stand-up comedy in San Francisco. I would read from my zine onstage and sell them after shows. I’m still proud of my first zine. It’s kind of a Mary Van Note classic. It’s called Mary Van Note’s Experiences (of the sexual variety) by Mary Van Note Volume 1. It details several funny and sordid MVN sexual experiences with accompanying stick-figure illustrations.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. That’s hard to say, there’s so many who I think are amazing. I like a lot of San Francisco based underground zines/comics. From R. Crumb to V. Vale’s RE/SEARCH, and John Marr’s Murder Can Be Fun. It’s neat to see people who started in underground publishing move on to getting their work published and recognized like John Porcellino’s Map of My Heart, Julia Wertz’ The Fart Party, and even Broke Ass Stuart.

Q. Do you have a favorite memory of the SF Zine Fest?
A. I have great memories of doing Zine Fest. I loved meeting and being tablemates with such interesting and diverse artists and writers. The first year I sat next to Julia Wertz, which was awesome. She came to my comedy show and drew a comic inspired by sitting at the table with me. She had all these fans coming up to our table and she graciously pimped out my zine to her fans.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. Along with performing stand-up comedy I make short films and webisodes.
My short film Papercuts won an IFC short film contest. I also fill my time with learning how to sew and knit so I can one day make my own clothes from vintage patterns. I’m a vintage addict and love
going to flea markets and swap meets.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Currently I’m working on things I’ll have for sale at zine fest like handmade zine holders/totes, and a new zine that’s a collection of my comic strips. I’m also starting pre-production on two new short films.

Tonight in San Jose: "Our Other Weapon is a Zine"

2010-08-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

Some of our favorite zinesters are spreading the Zine Fest energy with a week-long, six-city reading tour of the greater Bay Area. "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" features contribution from terrific creators such as Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad), Dani Burlison & Leilani Clark (Petals & Bones) Andria Alefhi (We’ll Never Have Paris), and John Bobst (I’m a Silly Bitch Zine). The whole tour wraps up with a big homecoming to San Francisco's Needles and Pens the night before the Fest!

• Sunday, August 29th, 5 pm to 7 pm - SLG Art Boutiki - 577 South Market Street, San Jose

Tonight in Santa Cruz: "Our Other Weapon is a Zine"

2010-08-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

First stop in the "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" Reading Tour!

Some of our favorite zinesters are spreading the Zine Fest energy with a week-long, six-city reading tour of the greater Bay Area. "Our Other Weapon is a Zine" features contribution from terrific creators such as Tomas Moniz (Rad Dad), Dani Burlison & Leilani Clark (Petals & Bones) Andria Alefhi (We’ll Never Have Paris), and John Bobst (I’m a Silly Bitch Zine). The whole tour wraps up with a big homecoming to San Francisco's Needles and Pens the night before the Fest!
• Saturday, August 28th, 7 pm to 9 pm - SubRosa - 703 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz

Creator Q+A | Malachi Ward

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Malachi Ward. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. My first comic was called Utu. It's a science fiction story, half of which takes place in early Sumeria, and half in sometime in the far future. I printed it up and brought it to last year's Alternative Press Expo. I'm still proud of it, but my learning curve is pretty steep right now, so the new work is a lot better, even though it wasn't that long ago.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. Jordan Crane makes some really beautifully crafted comics. His NON anthology had incredible DIY production. He also has scary/mesmerizing eyes.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I'm a particularly boring person, and my interests reflect that. I'm really into history, especially history of the ancient world, and I'm also into science. That makes it sound like I'm a lot smarter and sophisticated than I actually am, though. As far as other creative pursuits, I'm in a band called The Denouement... or at least that's what it's called right now. We're probably going to change the name, because The Denouement is hard to spell.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I'm going to have a new full color comic called "King Saul" at A.P.E. as well as a two-part collaborative comic called "Expansion" with my pal Matt Sheean. I'm also working on a longer comic called River Rock, but that won't be done for awhile.

TONIGHT!

2010-08-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

featuring

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (Record Release!)
SLEEPTALKS (unveiling their new drummer)
COLORING (w/ Nathan Moomaw & Duty DiMercurio – Record Release!)
UNI AND HER UKELELE and MIGUEL ZELAYA of The Harbours

DJ Neil Martinson (SMiLE!)

$5-$20 Sliding Scale
21+

Amnesia 853 Valencia Street

Band Q+A | Upstairs Downstairs

2010-08-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, the SF Zine Fest is having a terrific Benefit Show this Thursday at Amnesia, with some great indy bands contributing their time, energy, and musical awesomeness to the Zine Fest cause! Just as we've been been highlighting our amazing exhibitors in a series of Creator Q+As this month, over the next few days we'll be giving you a peek into the lives and thoughts of these great musicians. Today we're checking in with Tory Ford and Kyle McGraw of Upstairs Downstairs! Stay tuned for more, and we'll see you at the show!

Q. What inspired your current musical project? Influences?
TF: I think overall, it's inspired by a desire to participate in something I love. As far as influences go, if we're talking about writing material, it's a wide, wide range from disappointments and failures to successes in my life and those of others. Musically, again it's a wide range, from Erasure to Black Flag to the Carter Family; Go Sailor to the Wu Tang; Johnny Cash to Juno. For example, two people I would cite as influences, James Mercer and Slick Rick, can tell a damn good story. I'd love to achieve that level of prowess.

Q. What is your all-time favorite band/album/zine/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
TF: Sorry, I have a few...in the band-land, I have a rotating cast of 5 to 10 favorite bands and albums and it just depends on the situation. For example: long drive/problem-solving situation all time favorites are Built To Spill's "Perfect From Now On" and Juno's "This is the Way it Goes and Goes and Goes." But, let's say I'm just walking home from BART, I might need to rock Tilly and the Wall's "Wild Like Children" and sing along. As far as DIY heroes - Calvin Johnson is up there and so is my friend James. His work is super amazing.
KM: Outlaw con Bandana and Simon Joyner are my favorite, both are my DIY heroes as well.

Q. Do you have a personal connection to the DIY/small-press world? Did you ever do a zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us?
TF: We're in the midst of a DIY project at the moment - our album packaging - and it's pretty much done!! With the help of my buddy Kellie McCool, I silkscreened all of our CD packages. It was super fun and rewarding, but man, you don't know how many 400 of something is until you print two colors on each and every one.
Also, My friend John Trippe runs Fecal Face dot com which started out ten years ago as a zine and became a website. He and his awesome wife Jessica now have a gallery and giant website and a cat named Poo. Success! I had attended a lot of his FF Arty Parties and there were always amazing zines, mini-comics and works of art to enjoy.
KM- my good friend Pod in Portland has the best skateboarding zine called Sauce.

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite memory?
TF: Last year during SF Zine Fest, I saw my friend Ric Carrasquillo (SquilloIllo) do a visual comic reading at the Cartoon Art Museum and was completely blown away by his prowess. I've seen people read from novels, I've seen people's art, graphic novels and comics, but this was all that in one plus a stand-up bass player.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the indy-music world? What similarities do you see (if any) between the music scene and the small-press world?
TF: I'd like to see more house shows...and more free time! As far as similarities go, it seems like the one thing most of us have in common is that we are all pursuing these things in addition to maintaining a "real" job. That shows dedication. There are those who have been able to make their passion their "real" job and I'm super impressed.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring musician or other creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
TF: My advice would be to work as hard as you can, then double that effort. I can't say I always follow that, but when I do, awesome stuff happens. Also - don't be afraid to ask others for help.
I think I DID get the advice I needed when I was starting out in creative pursuits - basically it is "fail faster: " Don't be crippled by your attempts to create something perfect your first try...or ever. Don't be afraid to fail or make something bad, the sooner you get through those "failures", the sooner you'll arrive at something satisfying.

Q. In addition to the kind of music you will be playing at the SFZF Benefit Show, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
TF: I used to do a lot of drawing and painting and would love to free up some time to get back into it someday. I also snowboard and surf...not so great at the surfing though!
As for the rest of the band's hobbies and passions, all 3 of the guys skateboard (I try to sometimes), one is a major record collector. There's also a lot of sound recording and photography awesomeness.

KM- I record bands and photograph things.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
TF: tshirts! We're trying to get them done in time for the show on Thursday! I'm hitting the Mission Grafica tonight. Long-term, we're just writing some more songs and trying to keep the momentum going. Doug's other band AM Magic is working on a new album. They are rad. And Kyle and James are working on some new material in their other band They Drive By Night so stay tuned for that.

KM- writing songs for a project of mine that james and I are working on.

Band Q+A | Harbours + Uni & Her Ukelele

2010-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

"Zines on Toast" Tour Coming to SFZF

2010-08-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

The fantastic UK zinesters of the "Zines on Toast" tour are going to be making a two-day long stopover at the San Francisco Zine Fest! The tour features UK creators Isy Morgenmuffel, Edd Baldry, Steve Larder, Tom Fiction, Natalie Last Hours and is lead by the intrepid Alex Wrekk (Stolen Sharpie Revolution)! Make sure that you catch their reading and panel discussion on Sunday at 4:00pm, where they'll recount tales of the London Zine Symposium, failing to punch Tony Blair, ideas for radical health, creating a UK social centre, bike punks, regional dialects and much more!

Plus! Don't forget to check in on the "Zines on Toast" tour page for updates on the rest of their tour, which stretches over a whole month and wanders from Portland OR to New York City!

• "Zine on Toast" Tour - 8/25 thru 9/30

Band Q+A | Coloring

2010-08-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | François Vigneault

2010-08-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is François Vigneault. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. My first zine was called "The Comics Review," which I published when I was 16. It had started because my first girlfriend had put an ad in the back of "The Maxx," a quirky superhero comic, asking for contributions to a Maxx fanzine that never came together, but did attract a certain amount of attention from the fans. I took the project over, taking it waaaay too seriously! I was trying to make a really "professional" publication, which makes it all the more cringe-worthy when I look at it now! I did manage to interview Paul Pope (THB) and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), two of my then-favorite creators, with the intention of featuring them in the second and third issues, but the project folded after just a single issue!

Q. Do you have a favorite memory of the SF Zine Fest?
A. This is my fifth year organizing the Fest (!!!), and at this point I've got too many wonderful memories to narrow it down to one or two anecdotes. The best thing about the Fest has doubtlessly been all the wonderful people whom I have gotten to know over the years through the Fest... It's been such an honor to meet and become friends with so many amazing creators, volunteers, and fans!

Q. What subjects do you wish there were more comics about?
A. I’d like to see more non-fiction and journalism-oriented comics. It seems that there could be some really great work done in that field, either on the web or in print. Also, on the other end of the spectrum, some more indy-oriented fantasy and science fiction comics!

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. Since I am one of the organizers of the SF Zine Fest, I obviously think a lot about ways to expand the audience for small-press. One of the main things I'd like to see is more mini-fests cropping up around the nation; small, single-day regional shows with maybe only a dozen or so creators. If you set up a show that's fun, unique, and free (this last point can't be stressed enough! Don't charge the audience to come to your show!), then I think that the public will come out to it, and that is a tremendous boon to the small-press world in general.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. In the last year I've gotten into bird-watching, which I have been able to dovetail (no pun intended) with my self-publishing by doing a zine on the subject, Bird Brain.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I am working on the latest issue of Bird Brain, which will feature lots of stuff from a recent trip to the Gulf Coast. That should hopefully be out for the Zine Fest; a month or so later, at APE, I'll be bringing out the first issue of volume 2 of Elfworld, my alt-fantasy comics anthology! I'm incredibly excited about that, since it has been so long since the first volume came out.

This Thursday! SFZF Benefit Show!

2010-08-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

We are super pumped to be hosting our second annual SFZF Benefit Show this Thursday! The night is jam packed with excellent bands, DJ Neil Martinson is gonna be spinning lovely records all night, and we'll be selling limited edition SFZF 2010 posters and raffling of great prizes... This is a great chance to hang out with your pals, have a few beers, listen to great music, and give the Zine Fest some much-needed fiscal support! The door is $5-$10 sliding scale, which is a great deal for this full evening of entertainment... see you there!

featuring

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (Record Release!)
SLEEPTALKS (unveiling their new drummer)
COLORING (w/ Nathan Moomaw & Duty DiMercurio – Record Release!)
UNI AND HER UKELELE and MIGUEL ZELAYA of The Harbours

DJ Neil Martinson (SMiLE!)

$5-$20 Sliding Scale
21+

Amnesia 853 Valencia Street

Creator Q+A | Susie Cagle

2010-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Susie Cagle. Stay tuned for more!

Q. Do you have a favorite memory of the SF Zine Fest?
A. Jesse Reklaw's watercolor tutorial a couple years ago was really great -- it was awesome watching everyone work, and cringe-worthy realizing how terrible I was myself. I hope he's planning another one this year! I won't try to follow along this time with my own paints and brushes, though; I kept missing all the best action.

Q. What subjects do you wish there were more comics about?
A. I'd love to see more non-fiction comics on the whole. I think comics and journalism are really a perfect match: a lot of true stories are complicated and boring, and comics can not only elucidate the narrative but illuminate the story and characters with art. I'd say it's a spoon full of sugar for the medicine, though reportage doesn't taste bitter to me (I realize it does to some). Anything to bring broader and different attentions to real things. I like fiction too, it just doesn't hold the same power for me as a true story.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. Events like the SF Zine Fest are absolutely central to the continued success of small press. Especially when it comes to literary comics, which still don't really have mainstream acceptance or success, I think free events that expose people to new work are immensely important. Keeping things small doesn't benefit anyone; it's in our best interests as creators and consumers of small press to always be expanding our audience -- not by changing our work, but by finding new and creative ways of reaching more people. I think we're at a perfect point for this now: on the flip side of the economic collapse and the still-rising popularity of DIY, people want cheap entertainment and they want to know where their money is going. Now's our chance!

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I'm a journalist by trade, and I guess a simple question asker/friendly harasser by passion.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Besides the run of Nine Gallons (next issue out really soon, and then two more after that!), my next projects include some illustrated obituaries and a book of real-life gags from my time working with the Decennial Census.

Creator Q+A | Amy Martin

2010-08-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Amy Martin. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I made my first self-published book when I was six or so. It was called "Lin the Pin." Its hero was an anthropomorphic diaper pin (I have a lot of younger siblings). I stapled it backwards.
In adult life.... you can still read my first mini comics at the Isotope. They were 8-page stories written by my then-boyfriend, drawn by me. They were fantasy, not at all my kind of stories, but it got me going! Publishing my first book I created all by myself was one of my proudest moments. I still love that book.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. I am such a big fan of Team Atrox. Everything they do is pure comedy gold. And they don't waste time or energy on fancy printing or binding---stapled with a card stock cover, thank you! Though, that is changing, now that they are doing the world's first ever sculpted comics (the first I've ever seen anyway).

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
A. 2009, with a half hour to go before his live reading at the Cartoon Art Museum, my friend suffered complete brain crash at Kinko's. I took over and worked absolute copier fucking magic and printed the entire book in time. Double-sided pages, correctly aligned (they were an odd size), collated, stapled and I almost got 'em trimmed as well. I think they had the copier gilded.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. Mini comics with good, solid stories. There's a lot of beautiful art being done in minis, but substantial, well-developed stories are rare. Books that come out regularly and are consistently fun to read and engaging would also be swell.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. Definitely get to know other people. Make yourself a community. Don't create in a vacuum! It'll take you ten times as long to figure out how to do the things you want to do.
Also, done is better than perfect. Seriously, just get it done and print it up---what on earth's stopping you?!

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. Meh, I don't really care about getting the general public into small press. Then it's not really small press anymore, is it? It's fun when it's our. little. secret. Also I like when it's small and personal. I like that it's not an easy scene to crack. There's more reward for those who do.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I knit like crazy!! I love to knit toys. Toys are such wonderful things, capable of holding so much significance and representing so much about us. Plus, soooofffft. I love soft things. They calm me down.

Band Q+A | Sleeptalks

2010-08-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, the SF Zine Fest is having a terrific Benefit Show this Thursday at Amnesia, with some great indy bands contributing their time, energy, and musical awesomeness to the Zine Fest cause! Just as we've been been highlighting our amazing exhibitors in a series of Creator Q+As this month, over the next few days we'll be giving you a peek into the lives and thoughts of these great musicians. First up are Jim, MaryAnn, Jas, Will & Dan of Sleeptalks! Stay tuned for more, and we'll see you at the show!

Q. What inspired your current musical project? Influences?
A: Life in general and our good friendship. Of the musical influences we list here, these are some of the stereotypes: AIR, StereoLab, Broadcast, the Stranglers, the Pixies, the Zombies, Black Moth Super Rainbow, KptMichigan, Pinback & Yo La Tengo to name a few. However, our musical backgrounds are a mixed bag ranging from electro psychedelic pop to oldies to punk rock to classic hip hop, etc. All of these have directly influenced our approach as musicians and creators.

Q. What is your all-time favorite band/album/zine/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A: There are just too many great bands to declare a personal favorite and that's a positive thing. We live in an era with so many creative outlets it's almost overwhelming. Though I will say with out artists such as Andy Warhol, Richard Kern, Haruki Murakami, Melvins, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and the Pixies our world would be very very grey
My personal DIY hero: Thurston Moore

Q. Do you have a personal connection to the DIY/small-press world? Did you ever do a zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us?
A: Well our ages range from 21 to 32… some of us have been playing in the local scene for over 15 years and for some of us, this is our first band. All of us have a personal passion for music & art and it is who we are. Will has hosted a radio a show called Scatterbrain Radio on 90.1fm KZSU for the past 6 years and has hosted an annual 2 day benefit called 'The Scatterbrain Jamboree' for the past 4 years for the SF AIDS Foundation.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the indy-music world? What similarities do you see (if any) between the music scene and the small-press world?
A: More youth… you could never have too much of that and more connections between the art/music scenes within the Bay Area (ie SF, Oakland and SJ). All three areas have a host of bands that are amazing and we should be doing more to play & work together. The members of Sleeptalks all live in SF and there are so many great places to play, but what Todd is doing at the Gingerbread House in SJ and what Larry is doing at the Uptown in Oakland have been very positive contributions to the Bay Area music scene. The biggest similarity between the music scene (DIY specific) and the small-press world is freedom of expression and a genuine passion with out the influence of greed.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring musician or other creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A: Stick to your guns and believe in yourself. Don't take things personal when you fail, thicken your skin and keep working. Good projects come from hard work and dedication.

Q. In addition to the kind of music you will be playing at the SFZF Benefit Show, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A: Well music is pretty much the objective of our lives. I think it's safe to say we are who are as a direct result of the music we've surrounded ourselves with through out the years. As previously stated Will does college radio, but he as well as MaryAnn have done some low budget short films, while Jim & Jas have spent hours at their computers creating tones and new songs.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A: We've just mastered our debut EP and are looking to release it in the Fall. We've just worked in a new drummer Dan and we're already working on our next release and should be heading back into the studio in November.

Creator Q+A | Chris C. Cilla

2010-08-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Chris C. Cilla. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. In high school ('87?) I met a kid, Kevin Byrd who was xeroxing a comic book and selling it at punk shows & record stores; I was drawing comics & stuff in sketchbooks, and he asked for some contributions. After helping to copy, fold & staple a couple of issues of his comic digest, I realized that this was easy & fun, and I started to meet other people who were doing interesting things (thanks to Trevor Blake [ovo] for giving me a copy of Factsheet Five), and I've been photocopying booklets ever since.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I made proto-zine things as a kid, whenever I had opportunities to play around with xerox machines, but after 1988 or so, I started to make 8 page minicomics which I would sell for a quarter around town, then I got a job at a xerox shop & cranked out tons of different format zines by myself and others. The early comics & zines are pretty embarrassing, but I can see some good things here & there, and you have to do the work to make any progress.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. I don't have one favorite; I love all of Ryan Iverson's different sized zines, Zak Sally's Recidivist and John P's King Cat get re-read a lot, and Tom Hart & Jon Lewis' minicomics were (& still are) inspiring. I could go on & on with a list like this! I don't have a single zine hero, but I'd like to make special note of Jeff Zenick, his zines are grappling with the world around & within him, with comics & reviews and art.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. More home made comics.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. My full length book The Heavy Hand was just published by Sparkplug Comic Books, I have been working on that for several years. I just finished the cover & some gags for Tom Neely's Bound & Gagged, a couple of drawings for a show at Pony Club in Portland, some illustrations for The Pork Torta website, and Stun Nuts #7. I'm drawing more comics, on different sizes of paper, for books of various sizes. I'll also be making some novelty t-shirts soon.

Creator Q+A | Drippy Bone Books

2010-08-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Keenan Marshall Keller of Drippy Bone Books. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I hated zines all through life until I was much older. Everyone I knew whom made them through high school & college were poets or punkers and that shit was real boring…
It wasn’t until I was older and focusing on my own drawing and art that I started thinking about publishing, then started to think realistically about that and turned my focus to zines. The 1st zine I actually made was with a large group of people and it came out pretty lame, but it was only a year from then that I made Whore Eyes #1 & #2 (my first zines as part of DBB) and I’m very proud of those….

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is
your DIY hero?
A. Well my partners, Mario Zoots & Kristy Foom are 2 of my art heros…. They do it all,
art, publishing, curating, music and zines…. They’re like mini-mutant-moguls… Also
people like fore mentioned David Magdaleno, Mike Diana, Le Dernier Cri, Victor Cayro, and Gary Panter all whom endlessly inspires me.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. “Support Weird, Create Havoc, and Stay Savage.” Really, just keep it weird.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. Art. Books. Comix. Music. Everything we (DBB) love as a group, works it’s way into
our publishing. There isn’t really a separation between myself and what I do…. Oh
yeah, I also like weed.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. A shit-ton of stuff going down! We will have 4 new titles for SF ZINE Fest:
Galactic Breakdown #2, I Gotta Grunt, The Best Things in Life Are Free if You Are Rich, and Pushing It with Roids: a special SF Zine Fest release only!!! A life guide to bad-ass-ary.

Plus later in September, we are releasing our biggest book to date. Grawlix Comix #1 featuring the works of: Victor Cayro/Bald Eagles, Michael DeForge, Derek M Ballard, Matheiu Desjardins, Becca Kacanda, Evan Meister, and myself. A full color, uncensored collection of the best underground commix artists working today! Raw, deranged, graphic beauty for the enlightened savage in all of us.

Creator Q+A | The CAliCO Umbrella Collective

2010-08-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creators are Megan Quinn and Liz Brent CAliCO Umbrella Collective. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
MQ: Ten years ago, I saw my first-ever zine at a record store in CO. I thought, "I could do this! This is awesome!"
LB: My BFF and co-exhibitor, Megan Quinn, introduced me to zines when we were both at the University of Colorado at Boulder. My first zine festival was the '07 Denver Zine Fest, and when I saw all the ways people zine, that was it for me - I was hooked!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
LB: My first zine was a single poem that I spread across several pages using abstract illustrations. I still like the poem, and actually think it was a decent first project, but I would totally do it differently now!
MQ: When I was 15, I had much different priorities for my zines and was still figuring out my voice. Today, I'm happy I started self-publishing at all!

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
MQ: Kelly Shortandqueer really inspired me. His zines about his life as a trans author taught me more than school ever did. He is a brave, honest and visceral writer.
LB: Besides MQ here, my DIY comic hero is Amy Martin, who I met at SFZF last year and has become a great friend and continues to inspire me.

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
LB: Last year was our first year at SFZF, and our neighbors (Amy Martin & Ingrid Keir) were my favorite part of it because they are still my friends today! SFZF also was a major reason why I decided to move to San Francisco!
MQ: It was my first-ever trip to SF, and my face hurt from smiling and meeting new people!

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
MQ: In Denver, I'd like to see more resources for small press authors. That's part of why we created CAliCO Umbrella.
LB: In the arts in general, I would like to see more USA inter-state and international, cross communication/collaboration. The internet is a great medium for that, but there's a lot to be said for physical presence (especially with zines!), artists getting to take their work other places.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
MQ: I wrote lots of handwritten letters to zinesters I admired. I never met another real-life zine writer until I was in college. Now I'm a journalist, and I 100% value asking questions and putting yourself out there. I am so glad I made those connections! You never know who's out there until you ask.
LB: Mine would be pretty simple: Have no fear! Just go for it! Try it! It's way easier than you think. But I definitely second what MQ said. I had her to guide me in my first zines, but I think asking others for help - and now it's so easy with the Internet to find folks - is a great idea!

Q. What communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc for?
LB: A comic/zine I've had in mind for awhile to make, and a project I'm hoping to get started ASAP, is for dancers. It would be interesting to see zines for performers, actors, athletes... people in the physical arts.
MQ: I don't necessarily want to suggest a certain "shape" to the landscape of zine topics-- I just want to hear about what is important to the creative people in the small press community!

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
MQ: When I first started, zines were much more common. They have since faded somewhat in Denver. Nowadays, the scene here is quite a bit smaller but very supportive of each other. I'd love to let people know how easy and liberating zine writing is, and I know Denver zinesters do too!
LB: I'm honestly not sure what the "general public" knows... I think film, like the recent premiere of "Handmade Nation," is a strong way to reach people. Also, I find the Internet as a networking tool to be a powerful way to inform others.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
LB: LIFE is a creative pursuit! My life is all about dance, drawing, painting, sewing, crafts, exploring San Francisco, biking, hiking, yoga, rock climbing... and my amazing family and friends.
MQ: I love sewing things (badly) on my sewing machine. I'm not really religious, but I love my job as a religion columnist and blogger about all the zany weird connections between religion and pop culture.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
LB: I'm working on taking my various art and projects I've put on the backburner for a long time to a whole new, professional level. I'm revamping my website with and I just set up an Etsy account to sell various things I make. I have a part-time job, but these days I think of my main career as a freelance/professional multidisciplinary artist. Gotta make it happen!
MQ: I hope to continue writing for as many mediums as possible, though I consider zines to be the most creative and heartfelt means I have of expressing myself. Here's to more ideas and more photocopies!

Creator Q+A | Love Bunni Press

2010-08-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Cliterally Speaking

2010-08-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Lark Pien

2010-08-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creators are Lark Pien of Little Bird Books. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. I don't have an all time favorite zine, but i enjoyed Leland Myrick's run of Sweet, and Kevin Huizenga's black and white mini Gloriana with the fold-out centre left a deep impression on me.

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
A. SItting low on the floor in the middle of an island of tables and listening to the whir of jumbled voices and shuffling feet.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. More cartoonists drawing on each other's junk, please.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. Find and read as many minis as you can, whether they're interesting or not... Trading is good... If you loan out your long-arm stapler, be sure to remember who you loaned it to... Don't give your art away for free, unless of course this is what makes you happy....

Q. What subjects/groups/themes/ideas/communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc about/for?
A. I'd like comics to function as a common use tool in public forums (on billboards, restaurant menus, etc.) I'm tired of having to choose between the comic events that are fan driven and the comic events that are market driven. It would be really nice to just see comics around, all the time, as another form of communication.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. The general public and particularly the publishing world believe that small press stories (and comics) are inferior publications. while this may be true in terms of volume or sales, it is not true in terms of quality. Just as there is a gem that wins the National Book Award, there's is a gem of a mini-comic that deserves high praise (to keep things in perspective, the inverse is also true: there are also bad bestsellers and bad minis). Somewhere amidst the jungle of stories there will be ones that will find your fancy.

In deciding whether to look at small press work, I'd urge you to consider your personal penchant for originality. The experience of reading small press works provides viewpoints often unique and new. May it be autobiographic or fictional, the small press story offers the uncompromised voice of the creator. It may reveal the creator's personal strengths, insights, quirks, and flaws. Do we not find these things endearing, inspiring, entertaining? For the adventurous reader, small press stories and comics are not to be missed.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I paint and draw abstracts; like listening to Drei Fragezeichen (3 Investigator) stories and brainscience podcasts; love my wii fit; love Eiichiro Oda's One Piece.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I'm retiring the little 4x4 animal series, which I have been painting since 2003. The abstracts will continue. My first non-comics children's book Mr. Elephanter will debut in late September this year.

Creator Q+A | False Start

2010-08-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Meredith Wallace of False Start Independent Books & Zines. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. My love affair with zines began about 10 years ago, when I was 12 years old. I was a total internet dork and would spend hours looking at websites made by girls my age and reading the message boards they would write on. Through those message boards I found out about Bikini Kill, feminism and zines. Reading zines quickly became an obsession and shortly after discovering them, I jumped right in and started my own zine distro, named Supernova, that I ran until I left for college. There was something so immediate and honest about these perzines I was reading. As an incredibly shy and anxious teenager, it was freeing to read the words of young women just like myself, women who were able to write down the words I couldn't speak. Zines were incredibly life-changing for me.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I made my very first zine when I was 12, and it was absolutely ridiculous! It was your average hideous cut and paste zine filled with rants, lists, and pictures of the Smashing Pumpkins. Luckily I was only 12, so I have age as an excuse. My first really serious zines were done when I was 16 and 17 and are short fiction/memoir. Looking back on them, some pieces are pretty cringe-worthy, but I'm actually surprised that they really aren't all that bad. I'm surprised that I had such a strong style and voice as a writer at such a young age. I'm also proud of having the balls to just go for it and self-publish as a teenager. I've been sitting on what I know is a great piece of writing for a year now, just because I'm too nervous to publish it. I'm working on getting back that teenage fearlessness.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. This is such a hard question! Brainscan by Alex Wrekk is a classic, and she is someone I completely look up to for her DIY spirit and work ethic. She's a pretty amazing person. Truckface, by LB, is another long-time favorite of mine. There's something really beautiful about her writing. It's emotional, honest, smart, always makes me laugh and sometimes wanna cry. That's a rare combination. As for recent discoveries, I'm obsessed with Manderz Totally Top Private Diary. I could read each issue a million times and still never get bored of it.

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
A. No, I haven't! Which is insane considering I grew up in the Bay Area. I use the fact that I grew up in Marin County, the land of Volvo station wagons and soccer moms, as an excuse though. Without a license it's tough to get to San Francisco, and after going to Ladyfest with my mom when I was 13, she wasn't too keen on me going to any sort of 'fests' again for awhile. I think all the butch dykes did her in. It only made me love San Francisco even more.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. This is a tough question. I would like to see more short fiction, but mostly because that's what I write and it seems to be underrepresented. And I'd love more diary comics,for no good reason other than that I'm totally obsessed. Shotgun Seamstress, a zine by and for feminist, queer black punks, is also really amazing and probably the only one of it's kind. So more zines like that, please!

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. Stick with it! Don't get discouraged if people aren't into your project at first, but don't be too lazy about it either. Doing it yourself really is hard work, which is why most people get others to do it for them instead!! My main problem has always been staying motivated and on top of things. It's hard when you're juggling your day job, social obligations, remembering to feed yourself, etc., but if it truly is your passion, you'll make it work. That's just the way things go.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. When I'm tabling at an event I love nothing more than when someone who is completely new to zines picks one up, is totally blown away and starts asking me questions about it. I feel like the zine world can be a little intimidating if you've had no experience being a part of a subculture or a creative community before. I'd love it if zines were more accessible to people who don't venture into independent bookstores, or look online for distros. I feel like zines are kind of like a gateway drug to so many possibilities -- learning about alternative living, activism, feminism, anti-racism, sexuality, mental health. You get to read the stories that never get told. I would love it if somehow we could figure out a way to get zines into the hands of people that aren't out there looking for them already.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Right now I'm organizing the return of super*MARKET at Meltdown Comics, a little comics fest they put on a few years back. I'm making it a little more zine-oriented this time around, and am getting some really amazing bands to play (some members of which are writers, distro owners, or zinesters themselves). I'm really excited for it, but also beyond nervous! If you're in Los Angeles on August 14th get your ass down to Meltdown from 2-7 PM! Aside from that, I might be collaborating on publishing an anthology of one of my favorite zines. It's still in the works though and isn't a sure deal yet, but I'm hoping publishing will be False Start's next big thing!

Creator Q+A | superdilettante

2010-08-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Carolee of superdilettante. Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. I was disenchanted with the art world, and started exploring other ways to communicate with people.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I was working at a photo processing shop in Columbus, Ohio, and I started drawing the photos that ended up in the trash because they were underexposed or the wrong color balance. I drew people's bad vacation pictures, people's eye-boogery cats, and people's white trash wedding portraits. I started photocopying some of them to put in letters to my friend TC, and then one day I thought "hey...I should make this into something I can send in to Factsheet Five!" I called it "Bottom Feeder", because I was making no money and was digging junk out of the trash. It also featured the creepy interactions I had with my customers. Looking back, it was a total mash-up of "Moonlight Chronicles" and "McJob".
I am still pretty proud of the earliest issues of Bottom Feeder. I think it had a nice singular focus, initially, that got diluted later on. And every issue had a color photograph glued to the cover.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. Lynda Barry is for certain my DIY hero. She is psychological. As for all-time-favorites, does anyone remember Gogglebox?

Q. If you have been to the SF Zine Fest before, do you have a favorite/exciting/cringe-worthy memory?
A. Getting to hug, heckle, and throw stuff at Clutch McBastard is my kind of high.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. More zines, period! Everyone should make lots of zines!

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. My advice would be "get it out of your system", meaning "don't be such a perfectionist." The advice I wish I'd gotten would be to not worry so much about whether people liked or understood what I was up to. It's not like any of us do this to get famous or make money. I spent a lot of time worrying that no one cared what I had to say. Who cares? Just say what you want to say!

Q. What subjects/groups/themes/ideas/communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc about/for?
A. I just want to see more honesty and less posing. I really, really loved zines like "About My Disappearance" 1 and 2 because they deal with a subject that is still pretty taboo and isolating. I thought Dave Roche just did the most incredible job with such a difficult topic. I hope that it helped him as much as I know his zine has helped other people. I'd also like to see more zines by oldsters like me!

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. Not very much, to be honest. The general public doesn't understand anything that doesn't have a bar code; they also don't understand endeavors that are outside the realm of "how can I make the most money possible from this thing?" I think trying too hard to reach people is fraught with peril. I'm a firm believer in just doing what feels right and letting people get it on their own time.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I spend a lot of time writing letters. I've recently become very interested in philately and pigeons, and collaborative narrative experiences. I also spend a lot of time with glue, a guillotine, and a perforator, at the San Francisco Center for the Book.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I am putting the finishing touches on a comp zine about people's specific experiences of their surroundings, I have another one about fictional saints in the works, and I'm doing a little giveaway zine for the end of August (road trip from SF to PDX and back!) with my friend Marissa Falco of Miss Sequential. After that, it's all about this rather elaborate zine/book/zook thing about people who don't really exist.

Creator Q+A | Jamaica Dyer

2010-08-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Jamaica Dyer. You can also catch Jamaica reading her work at "Now See This", our third annual comics reading at the Comics Art Museum on Sept. 3! Stay tuned for more!

Q. What inspired you to get into small-press/DIY publishing?
A. I'd only seen newspaper comics and fully-colored superhero stuff as a kid, but as a teenager I started reading gritty little hand-drawn black and white photocopied comics that had such a hands-on personal approach that I realized it was something that I could make, too.

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. I was 15/16, and I created a comic called "Paranoia Park" about a girl who woke up in a coffin of circuitry after realizing the world around her was fake (original, I know). It was all inky and had mismatched text pasted onto backgrounds, very experimental, and looks NOTHING like what I do now. It feels a bit alien when I look at it now, but I'm proud of little me for taking that leap.

Q. Do you have a favorite memory the SF Zine Fest?
A. I stopped by last year, and met Susie Cagle and Helen Jo, and both of them are so talented and awesome! That was my favorite part. The whole place seemed very chill and everyone looked like they were having a good time, so of course I had to get a table of my own this time around.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. I like the unique touches, the slips of paper and cloth that some zine-makers paste into each copy of their books. With the ease of digital media all over the place, I'd like to see truly original pieces of DIY art coming out, I want to see more fantasy and fiction, and books that take advantage of the tactile experience.

Q. What subjects/groups do you wish there were more comics about/for?
A. I'd like to see more sci-fi monster stories geared at teenage girls, with screen-printed covers and kick-ass washable tattoos in every issue.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. I think it'd be better for the population as a whole if people made their own entertainment, when you realize that you can draw and write and create your own stories this puts the power back in your hands. I get nervous as technology gets more "user friendly" and gives the illusion of being creative, by customizing a character in a game or filling out questionnaires on a social networking site. I think kids are the ones that should be shown that they can make their own t-shirts, books, bags, animations and program their own websites, and not through some template, but by getting their hands dirty.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. Well gee, I love making comics and painting, but I currently work in animation, and that's pretty great. I really enjoy the music scene in San Francisco, and the energy from the shows gets reflected in my drawings, and now I'm working on my lettering so I can start putting out concert posters.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Currently working on my next graphic novel. Along the way I'm printing smaller booklets of the completed parts of the story and posting the finished pages online as I complete them. I'm aiming to get this book done by the end of the year, then I want to focus on a collaborative experimental animated film with a fascinating musician that I know.

Creator Q+A | ButterSword

2010-08-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creators are MC and Jen Miller of ButterSword. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. MC suffered from a lifetime of non-completion. After years upon years of unfinished comics, games, bands, films, and/or any other artistic pursuit, money scheme, or combination of both, MC finally took one of his abandoned webcomics and with it made his first zine in 2001. It was actually a pretty good zine about a band of drugged-out nerds and their misadventures. It was loosely based on a gimmick band that he played the drums in called, The Geeks. After the luck of his first zine being pretty ok, popular, and well selling, MC went on to make many very lousy zines that no one liked. When he looks back on his first zine, The Geeks, he still thinks it was a good zine.

Jen co-created her first zine in 2007. It was called, Helicopter Arms and was comprised of comics made by her and a friend. Most of the comics were lighthearted jokes with a few repeating characters; a spoon, a mosquito and a squirrel. However, like MC's comics the pages were also riddled with adult language. It was due to this zine that MC and Jen were able to meet at her first DIY/small-press event and trade zines. When Jen revisits Helicopter Arms, she isn't very proud of it. In fact, she cringes when MC gets nostalgic and pulls it off the bookcase.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)?
A. Long ago, MC ordered The Haunted House Handbook by Shawne Baines from the classified section of Fangoria magazine. It turned out to be a zine. It was a great zine.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. We'd like to see zines be more available. Every independent business across the nation with seating or a waiting room should have at least a small zine rack.
Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. As far as advice, MC thinks had anyone ever bothered to give it, he wouldn't have listened. So he'd rather not give it either. Just go for it. You'll figure it out in some way. Be influenced by yourself, otherwise you'll be an imitator. And after all, that's what zines are all about anyway.

Jen's advice to someone making a zine would be to really view every page in your zine as valuable real estate. Zines can get expensive to make the more pages there are, and that becomes a bigger problem the more zines you make.

Q. What subjects do you wish there were more zines about?
A. More informational zines and entertainment zines please. We grow weary of the perzine and poetry zine trend. This is opinion. Many are quite popular.

10. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
10. In addition to their webcomic ButterSword, MC and Jen also create a second comic for Vegan Mainstream called Plant Life. Aside from all this drawing, zine and game creation, and the making of grab bags, MC and Jen find the time for gardening, unusual home improvement projects, biking, hiking, knitting (Jen), scavenging for curbside treasure on bulky trash days, learning basic carpentry, and dealing with those damn day jobs.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. Currently we are making preparations for our 2010 late summer zine tour. We'll be tabling in Portland and Dallas as well as San Francisco. After those thirty days of for what is to us a vacation, we'll return to ButterSword, and we'll have to learn how to draw again. Hopefully it won't take as long as it did the first time.

Creator Q+A | Zebratron / ZFA Works

2010-08-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Mockery Press

2010-08-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Crude Dude

2010-08-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Ansel

2010-08-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Ansel Schmidt. Stay tuned for more!

A. How can folks find your zines?
Q. I have no website. You know how Mennonites just picked a decade in the 17th century and decided that technological development was irrelevant after that point? Well, my decade is the 1980s.

A. What is your all-time favorite zine (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
Q. My favorite zine ever is Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation, which was later expanded into a book. A cookbook. In my imagination, Sandor Katz is this superhero who battles capitalism by day and by night retreats to a giant cave lined with fermenting jars of glass and clay. He wears a suit made of living kelp which makes him nearly invulnerable to attack.

A. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be? What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
Q. I think I need some advice myself. When I was a teenager, I wish someone had told me to listen when people gave me advice--but then again, maybe they did tell me that and I ignored them.

A. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
Q. I play gamelan. Also I like woodcarving.

Creator Q+A | Melaina Comics

2010-08-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

SFZF 2010 Letterpress Posters!

2010-08-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Oh wow! The amazing Aaron Cohick of NewLights Press just finished printing up this year's SFZF posters, and they are beautiful! The design, illustrated by our Special Guest Jesse Reklaw, is truly a work of art, elegantly showcasing the joys (and occasional sorrows) of self-publishing! The posters themselves have an extraordinarily rich presence, seeing as each one was hand letterpress-printed with not one, not two, but three colors! Believe me, you'll definitely want to have one of these frame-ready limited edition prints for your wall, and lucky you: We'll be selling them at the Zine Fest and at some of our early fund-raising events (like the SFZF Benefit Show on 8/26 and the "Now See This" comics reading on 9/3)!

The SFZF crew would also like the take this chance to publically thank Hello! Lucky for donating the paper for this year's posters, and in particular to thank the one and only Aaron of NewLights Press. Aaron has been helping to run the Zine Fest for the last two years, and has just accepted a position as "Printer of the Press" at Colorado College! We are super proud of Aaron's big step, but at the same time we are truly sad to see him go... Our fondest thoughts and highest hopes go with him into the mountains!

Creator Q+A | 2LittleWings

2010-08-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Crosshatch

2010-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

New Special Guest! Artnoose!

2010-08-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Zine Fest is very proud to be adding one final Special Guest to our 2010 line up: Artnoose! The creator of the long-running and very popular Ker-Bloom! zine, Artnoose has a deep roots in the Bay Area and we are particularly delighted to welcome her back for a special visit all the way from Pittsburgh PA. A meticulous craftsperson (each issue of Ker-Bloom! is lovingly letterpress printed from carefully hand-set type) and a provocative and profound thinker, she has produced new issues on a remarkably regular schedule (a new issue has appeared every other month since 1996!) while also running a successful printing business, contributing to the Slingshot Organizer and other projects, and slowly converting an old Pittsburgh house into a print shop. Artnoose will be reading from her work and participating in a Q+A at the Fest.

Creator Q+A | Fritz Bogott

2010-08-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Fritz Bogott. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. The first noteworthy one was a mini-comic called "Toot, a Short Tract" featuring many-headed drug-seeking handymen. It took a very short time to draw and a weirdly long time in Kinko's to produce, but a bunch of my friends hung onto their copy for years, so something must have been going right.

Q. What is your all-time favorite zine/comic/etc (by someone other than you)? Who is your DIY hero?
A. My daughter draws many well-crafted mind-boggling non-sequiturs each day, occasionally with captions written in scratch-invented alphabets. I am in awe of the quality, quantity and oddity of her illustrations.

My current DIY hero is Kek-W. He always has a bunch of projects going in a bunch of different media and a suspiciously large number of them turn out great!

Q. What advice do you wish you had gotten when you were starting out?
A. I'm involved in DIY precisely so I don't have to listen to anybody's advice.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public?
A. The discoverability and availability of subcultural art, comics and literature is SO much better than the pre-ubiquitous-Internet days when I grew up. If I were fifteen now I'd be in heaven.

Q. In addition to the kind of work you will be showing at Zine Fest, what other creative pursuits do you have? Hobbies? Passions?
A. I'm a fanatical baker and collector of cooking literature. The International Cartoonist Conspiracy is doing a comic cookbook next summer, so I am a happy man.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
I'm writing a children's book about a hyperactive tropical-fruit-loving dragon for an eight-year-old friend of mine. Once that's done I'm planning a novella about a hash-smoking hard-boiled detective in 1930's Paris, inspired by a comment of Kek's after a pot of the seekrit Black Crack coffee he's been drinking lately.

Creator Q+A | The Force of Nature

2010-08-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Black Rain Press

2010-08-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Creator Q+A | Agent Agnes

2010-07-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

Throughout the month leading up the the SFZF we will be running daily mini-profiles of some of the many zinesters, cartoonists, and other creative types who make the Zine Fest what it is. Today's creator is Agnes Automatic. Stay tuned for more!

Q. When did you create your first zine or similar project? Can you describe it for us? When you look back, are you proud, embarrassed, both?
A. Oh no! If I'm totally honest, it was a comic I made in high school. It was about (surprise!) high school students. I had just discovered anime and was trying so hard to emulate Sailor Moon style that it actually HAD Sailor Moon make a guest appearance! I'm very glad those days are behind me.

Q. What is your all-time favorite comic (by someone other than you)?
A. Oof, hard to say which my favorite is. All of my best artist friends either have been or currently are involved in a DIY comics project of one kind or another. However, I have to say I admire Saico Ink a lot - she not only writes, pencils, inks, and lays her comics out for printing, she also screen-prints each cover, collates the pages by hand, and perfect binds them together. Every single copy! I feel like every book I have from her is a work of art thanks
to her savvy craftsmanship.

Q. What would you like to see more of in the small-press world?
A. Better distribution! Anyone can publish, and the community rocks, but getting it into people's hands is tough. I'm not sure what the answer is here, however.

Q. If you could give advice to an aspiring DIY creator, what would it be?
A. Expect your first project to sell 2 copies, both to your family members. It's supposed to work that way! Nothing will go perfectly and in two years you'll probably cringe at the material anyway. But it's never a waste - it's a learning process and a way of building an audience (very, very slowly!)

Q. What subjects/groups/themes/ideas/communities do you wish there were more zines/comics/etc about/for?
A. There are lots of perzines out there by women, and specifically queer women, but few fiction narrative comics. I feel like DIY press comics is one of the few places I can find female characters that I both like and identify with. But it's still a rare thing.

Q. What do you think the general public knows or thinks about small-press? How can the zine/comics community reach a greater segment of the public? Or is it better to keep the small-press scene more tightly knit?
A. I think the general public has no clue. When I tell people I make comics, but without superheroes, they ask if I do something like Garfield. I'm not sure how to expand the audience, because it's hard to think of anything more accessible than zine making!

I don't think getting a wider audience will necessarily also expand the creator pool to the point where it loses the coziness it has now. What keeps the zine scene so warm and vibrant is the focus on creators as much as the product - we get to know the people who make the zines we love. As long as big publishers don't find some way to worm in here and depersonalize things, I think the scene will stay as is regardless of size.

Q. What are you working on now? What are you gonna do next?
A. I have a comic that I update online once weekly which will eventually be self-published, an illustration project I am doing jointly with Socar Myles, a short story comic for a friend's anthology, and miscellaneous autobiographical and adult (not at the same time!!) comic work when I can fit it in.

Creator Q+A | Joe Biel

2010-07-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

On Your Mark! Get Set! Workshop Proposals!

2010-07-21T22:51:00.001-07:00

A huge part of the SF Zine Fest's ethos is captured in our wide range of stimulating panels and hands-on workshops. In past years, we have hosted everything from film screenings and group discussions on creative conflict resolution to classes on watercolor, screen printing, and bookbinding. We believe that SFZF's dedication to learning, conversation, and creative exploration are central to our position as one of the biggest and best small-press festivals in the nation, and we are already working hard at filling out our weekend with tons of great programing.

That's where you come in! Do you have a brilliant idea for a panel, workshop, or skill share? Well, please let us know via out handy Workshop Proposal Form! If you can organize a panel or teach a workshop, we'd love to get you on board! Furthermore, exhibitors who run a workshop get a significant discount to their table fee! It's a win-win!

Each year we have more proposals than we have room for, so get your ideas in soon!

First Person Launch Party @ Levi's Workshop

2010-07-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

The folks at First Person mag have been busily printing up their first-ever letterpress issue in-store at the Levi's Workshop for the last three days, and now they are about to unveil their fourth issue this Saturday with a big launch party. Musical performances by Laurel Halo (Brooklyn) + Honey (SF). The issue itself (really the most important thing at any release party!) features some big-name contributions from the likes of Lynda Benglis, Daniel Arsham, Bonnie Prince Billy, Yoko Ono, Ryan McGinley, and the late Louise Bourgeois.

First Person Launch Party • Saturday, July 17 7:00-9:00pm • Levi's Workshop • 580 Valencia Street

Kyle Ranson: Portraits @ Adobe Books

2010-07-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

SF art scene stalwart Kyle Ranson will be setting up shop at (the equally stalwart) Adobe Books for a month with a live, in-house portrait studio. Mixing the traditional elements of painted portraiture with his own very modern style, this is sure to be a very interesting show! Adobe Books will also be exhibiting a plethora of already completed pieces. Well worth a look! Portrait sittings dates are July 19 to August 5 on Monday afternoons, 1-4pm and Thursday evenings, 7-9pm.

Opening reception: Friday, July 16, 2010 7-10pm
with music performances by Little Wings and WR/DS

Kyle Ranson : Portraits • Adobe Books • July 16 - August 14

SFZF 2010 Exhibitor Tables Sold Out!

2010-07-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

We are now sold all of our exhibitor spots for the 2010 SF Zine Fest! Our big thanks to the creative community for signing up in droves to sell, trade, or otherwise share their work with the public! With well over 100 zinesters, cartoonists, printmakers, and other creative types in attendance, this is sure to be the best show in the Zine fest's nine-year history!

For those of you who did not get a table, we have made every effort to include everyone, even adding tables to the main exhibit hall. We hope that you will still be able to attend the Zine Fest and enjoy our many workshops, panels, readings, and other special events. We are happy to take names for an exhibitor wait list as well, just send in your completed application (no need to pay the registration fee) and we will contact you if anything opens up.

Please email us at sfzinefest@gmail.com with any questions.

ALIEN/ATION: An Illustration Show 7/10

2010-07-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Our good pals at Paper Hat Productions are teaming up with the editors of HYPHEN Magazine to host an awesome art show, featuring the work of illustrators who have appeared in HYPHEN over the years. With tons of art, a bar, live painting, DJs, and even vegan cupcakes, this is one art opening that you'll definitely want to mark down on your calendar! Oh, and the first 25 paid guests (after 7:00pm) get a free swag bag including an issue of Hyphen!

Featuring art by: Danny Neece, Eve Skylar, Jon Stich, Jorge Mascarenhas, Joseph To, Kim Herbst, Rick Kitagawa, Rob Sato, and Yoko Furusho.

ALIEN/ATION: An Illustration Show • Saturday, July 10th 5:30 pm (Artist's Reception), 7:00 pm (Art Riot Extravaganza) • $5 (free before 7:00pm) • Space Gallery • 1141 Polk St.

SFZF Reading Room Preview at Levi's Workshop

2010-07-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

The SF Zine Fest is very excited to be a community partner with Levi's at thier first Workshop, an interesting hybrid retail/community space on Valencia Street in the Mission. This is the first in a series of Workshops that will be opening up across the country, and this inaugural effort is a celebration of printmaking in a wide variety of formats, from letterpress and screen printing to photocopiers. Throughout July and August the Workshop will be presenting a wide variety of events, from a talk by designer Stefan Sagmeister (7/30) to a film screening of three documentaries on the beloved silk-screen artist Sister Corita (8/5). The Workshop is working with a wide array of local artists and organizations, including 826 Valencia, The Small Stakes, Mission Grafica, and many others, including the San Francisco Zine Fest!

For our part, we are doing an extended "library loan" of zines and comics from the SFZF Reading Room. Folks at the Workshop are encouraged to read and enjoy this sampling of Bay Area DIY creations, and to seek out the creators at the upcoming Zine Fest or online to purchase the works. This is just a small preview of the much more extensive Reading Room which we will have at the Zine Fest itself, which is going to be a great opportunity for the public to be exposed to all sorts of amazing small-press work in a quiet, relaxing environment!

We'll post here (and even more often on Facebook) again regarding some of the upcoming Workshop events that we think will be particularly interesting for Zine Fest fans, (we're esp. excited about the three-day in-house production of local art mag First Person from 7/15 - 7/17)but more info is available online at the Levi's Workshops website.

Levi's Workshop - Print • 580 Valencia Street, San Francisco• 7/1/10 - 8/28/10

SF Politics and Art Release - 7/1 (Tonight!)

2010-07-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

We're pretty excited by this new zine, which comes to us via our pal and man-about-town Antonio Roman-Alcalá. This free newspaper has been in the works for quite a long time, and we can't wait to check it out! The release party looks fun too, with performances by Thrips, Quite Polite, and Translators plus Political Puppetry by Emily Butterfly... The whole thing is free but donations are accepted for the newspaper available to all who come.

San Francisco Art and Politics Release Party • Thursday, July 1 at 8:00pm • FREE! • Sub-Mission Gallery • 2183 Mission Street (between 17th and 18th)

Indy Euphoria in Sacramento - This Sunday!

2010-06-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

The new alternative comics show Indy Euphoria returns this Sunday to Sacramento! We had a great time at their inagural event in January, but this promises to be even better, with tons of great comic, DIY, toy, and lowbrow creators on hand, including guests Johnny Ryan, Jordan Crane, Theo Ellsworth, and Tom Neely! They've also got musical guests and much more lined up... If you live in the Sacramento area, definitely drop by!

Indy Euphoria • Sunday, June 27, 10am - 6pm • $5.00 • Scottish Rite Center, 6151 H Street Sacramento (across from Sac State University)

Yss Yes Yes Magazine Release at the No Shop - Saturday

2010-06-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

The other day I popped into the newish NO. Shop on Valencia for the first time, and was sufficiently wowed by their top-notch, floor-to-ceiling selection of vintage fashions (and the super-swanky wooden fixtures the clothes are displayed on!)... but I was doubly delighted when proprietress Leah informed me of her upcoming plunge into the publishing world, with the release of the first issue of Yes Yes Yes Magazine! It sounds really great, lots of photography, art, and esp. some great interviews, which Leah mentioned are a passion of hers. I'm intrigued!

The release will be in-store at the No Shop from 12-4pm, followed by a post-release party with a very cool Surprise Musical Guest (honestly, I'll stand behind the SMG's coolness!) at Able & Baker Studio for $3. Definitely recommended!

Opening Reception and Release • 12-4pm • NO. Shop • 389 Valencia Street at 15th Street, San Francisco

Post-Release Party • 7-10 pm • Able & Baker Studio • 2710 16th Street at Harrison, San Francisco

"Riddler's Mother" Art Show @ Mission Comics

2010-06-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Comedian, cartoonist, and Zine Fest alumnus Michael Cappozola has an exhibit of his work at Mission: Comics & Art that just opened and runs for the remainder of the month. Go check out his very fun and funny originals from his weekly cartoon "Surveillance Caricatures" as well as pop-culture spoofs, etc. Should be a cool show!

Mission: Comics & Art • June 5 - July 6 • 3520 20th St. San Francisco

Hamburger Eyes

2010-05-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

The photo-zine powerhouses over at Hamburger Eyes are mounting one of their biggest-ever photography shows this week! Utilizing the fantastic space at the Mission Cultural Center to the max, "Casual Abyss" will feature tons of contributors, including many who are new to Hamburger Eyes, exploring the bizarre, beautiful, and suggestive moments that weave in and out of our daily lives. Lots of gorgeous photography in B&W and color! Highly recommended, this show should be wild!

Opening Reception Thursday, May 13 6pm - 9:30pm • Mission Cultural Center • 2868 Mission Street, San Francisco • $5 sliding scale

Streetworthy Zine Release Party - 5/21

2010-05-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

This Friday the clever kids over at Streetworthy will be celebrating the release of their latest issue (#5, the "Neverland" issue) in style, with a big ol' release party, including "kick-ass DJs, beer, wine, delicious food from local street vendors, dancing, art, camaraderie, and so much more!" Sounds good to us! They'll be partying down at The Box Factory, right by Pirate Cat Radio in the Mission! See you there!

Friday, May 21, 6-10 pm • The Box Factory •865 Florida St at 21st St, San Francisco

Streetworthy Zine Release Party - 5/21

2010-04-27T11:51:00.001-07:00

Amicvs Monstrvm - Nathan Stapley & Scott C. - 5/1

2010-04-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

Two fantastic artists, Nathan Stapley and Scott C., have a double show coming up at Gallery 1988 SF! "Amicvs Monstrvm" features lots of, well, monster action! Sure to be a great show, the opening is this Saturday, May 1st.

Amicvs Monstrum • Saturday, 5/1 7-10pm • Gallery 1988 • 1173 Sutter St, San Francisco

Special Guest: V. Vale

2010-04-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

V. Vale with Wm. S. Burroughs

We are super excited to announce our latest Special Guest, the San Francisco legend V. Vale! Publisher of RE/Search and the creator of the ne plus ultra of punk zines, Search & Destroy, Vale has served as a connection between the Beat Generation (Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg donated the initial funding for Search & Destroy!), punk rock, Burning Man, body art, and many other facets of alternative culture for the past 30 years. A familiar presence at every Zine Fest, this year Vale will be participating in some panels that will explore his own contributions to small-press culture as well as looking at zine culture of the past. We're very excited to be hosting Vale this year!

Microcosm in Oakland & SF - 4/11 & 4/12

2010-04-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

Our pals over at Microcosm Publishing are on tour, and they arrive in in Oakland TONIGHT and in San Francisco this Monday, 4/12! They've got lots of varied attractions to draw you out to ISSUES and Needles & Pens respectively, including "Joe Biel with short films ("If It Ain't Cheap, It Ain't Punk"!), publishing Q&A and the Microcosm book and zine store, Mia Partlow and Michael Hoerger of "Edible Secrets" with a touring museum and presentation on the secret history of food and espionage!, chef Joshua Ploeg with a cooking show and vegan snacks for all!" Should be an awesome night out for DIY types all stripes, from foodies to punks! It's like a mini Zine Fest!

Sunday, 4/11 @ 7pm • ISSUES • 20 Glen Ave. at Piedmont, Oakland • Donation

Monday, 4/12 @ 7pm • Needles and Pens • 3253 16th St., San Francisco • Donation

Special Guest: Jesse Reklaw

2010-04-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

It is with the greatest excitement and pleasure that the SF Zine Fest announces our first Special Guest for 2010: Jesse Reklaw! Jesse is a fantastic writer, illustrator, and painter, and has created work in a wide variety of formats, including self-published works (10,000 Thing to Do), a weekly strip (Slow Wave), zines (Applicant), and much more. A long time resident of the Bay Area, Jesse was a founding member of the mini-comics distro Global Hobo, helping dozens of local small-press cartoonists get their work out to shops and readers around the country. He continues to support small press and DIY publishing in his home of Portland, Oregon, where he teaches cartooning classes at the IPRC. We are so happy to have Jesse back in San Francisco for this year's Zine Fest!

Watch for more Special Guest announcements real soon!

Artists to check out at Wondercon!

2010-04-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid.

While you might think of this weekend's Wondercon as a place to find musty, Silver Age comics, catch some new Iron Man 2 footage, and gawk at folks in homemade superhero costumes, quite a few really excellent DIY/indy cartoonists exhibit in Artist's Alley (plenty of them Zine Fest alumni), making it well worth a quick stop this weekend for the small-press enthusiast. After a quick glance at the full list of exhibitors, a few jumped out at me: Dent Comics, Lark Pien, Double Fine Productions, 16th and Mission Comix, Josh Ellingson, and Kid Beowulf. And of course, there's tons of other great stuff there too... like the chance to finally get that autograph from the Bionic Woman!

Wondercon • Moscone Center South Hall, 747 Howard Street • April 2nd, 3rd, & 4th

Boredom=Death @ Goteblüd

2010-03-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

Image: Rick Seger and Nic Lawson-Padia

Our good friend Matt from Goteblüd is putting on a big show celebrating and exploring the legacy of the Popstitutes, a multi-platform gay artistic collective that created a totally unique and inspiring community mixing proto-rave, club-kid asthetics with a DIY punk sensibility. Combining music, cabaret, drag kings and queens, spoken word, and much more, the Popstitutes and their home base, Klubstitute, redefined the SF nightlife of the late 80s and early 90s, presenting a deeply interactive and avant-garde alternative to anything that was to be found in either the straight or gay scenes of the era.

Goteblüd will be presenting a mixed-media installation of paper ephemera - "flyers, letters, zines, lyrics and handbills - along with banners, photographs and mylar party ornaments, paying homage to the playful fluorescent chaos that the Popstitutes are known for." Highly recommended for anyone who wants to get a peek at a fascinating period of SF's DIY/gay/Music culture!

The show opens tonight and continues weekends from 12-5pm through 5/29/10.

Goteblüd • 766 Valencia, San Francisco, CA • 3/20 - 5/29

SFZF Exhibitor Applications Now Open!

2010-03-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

Photo by Potato Potato

We are now accepting exhibitor applications for the 2010 SF Zine Fest! If you make zines, comics, prints, posters, crafts, or other DIY artwork, we want you at the Fest! The SFZF is one of the biggest and best DIY small-press events in the country, a FREE annual event with over 100 exhibitors and 2600+ attendees interacting over the Labor Day weekend of Sept. 4 + 5.

Exhibitors come from across the West Coast and beyond to sell, trade, or otherwise share their work with the public, and our great table rates ensure that everyone can have a spot at our show, from first-time zinesters to major indy publishers.

We are proud to say we are keeping our table rates exactly the same prices as they were last year! The "early bird" rate, good until July 1st, is just $45 for a half table and $90 for a full table. What's more, we have a limited amount of 1/3 table artist spaces for just $30! These bargain rates, combined with the SFZF's dedication to creating a terrific environment for both exhibitors and the public, makes the SFZF one of the BEST shows for small-press exhibitors in the country. But don't take our word for it; here's some quotes from previous exhibitors:

"... the vibe was great and everyone seemed enthusiastic and interested."

"Once again, you guys put on a great show!"

"We had a great time, we'll be back next year!"

And check out this great article in the Daily Cross Hatch on the great exhibitor experience from last year's Fest: The Cross Hatch Rehash: SF Zine Fest

Exhibitor applications are available online at the SF Zine Fest site!

Women In Publishing

2010-03-07T16:18:00.001-08:00

There's a great panel coming up this Wednesday at Intersection for the Arts that should be quite interesting to zine lovers. Several publishers and editors including Lex McQuilkin, co-founder ArtXX Magazine; Lisa Jervis, co-founder and former editor, Bitch Magazine; and Daisy Hernandez, editor Colorlines Magazine will be discussing the history and current state of feminist publishing as well as the current landscape for women in publishing. Good stuff!

Wednesday, 3/10 7:00 PM • $5-$15 Sliding Scale • Intersection for the Arts • 446 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA 94103

"Out of Place" Art Show @ SPACE Gallery - 3/12

2010-03-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

There's a great art show opening up at SPACE Gallery on Saturday 3/12. In addition to a group show featuring nine artists (including several Zine Fest alumni), "Out of Place" will have a collaborative art battle, live painting, art raffle, zines, comics, and prints from the artists, baked goods from Black Orchid Bakery, tunes by DJ Zaion, and swag bags for the first 25 guests! The art riot starts at 8pm (if you show up earlier you get in free, after 8pm its $3, not bad!) and runs deep into the night... a great chance to have a fun evening out and meet some great local talent. Artists include:

Alexander Shen
Alyss Estay
Eve Skylar
François Vigneault
Haruka Seki
Jonas Madden-Connor
Lavit Sea
Rick Kitagawa
Xiau-Fong Wee

Friday, 3/12 7pm onwards • SPACE Gallery, 1141 Polk Street, SF • $3 after 8pm

Monster Drawing Rally @ Southern Exposure - 3/5

2010-02-27T13:49:00.000-08:00

Beloved (and recently re-opened) art behemoth Southern Exposure is putting on their 10th annual Monster Drawing Rally this Friday, 3/5! Over 130 artists will be drawing live at the show, with art being available for purchase (at the excellent rate of $60 each!) within minutes of a piece's completion... This is one of the most fun, most energetic art events of the year, and the proceeds benefit SOEX's year-round work in promoting Bay Area art and artists. Beer, curbside tacos for sale, and valet bike parking, too!

Friday, 3/5, 6-11pm • Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa St. • Donation $10