May 31, 2017 LA Zine Fest 2017 recap
The LA Zine Fest is humble and great like the medium itself. Made with various levels of production value or proficiency, the booklets are lovingly stapled and folded by hand. It is the ultimate DIY form of communication that is handed over in person or via snail mail–not always but often traded with a hug or sealed with a kiss. I helped make GR mag for 16 years, have contributed to various other indie publications over the years, and will never get tired of them!
On Sunday in the basement at California Mart, my family and I went, saw a lot of old friends, and made some new ones. The first folks we spotted were Todd and Daryl at the RazorCake table. Awesome! After we met at the Zine Fest two years ago, I mentioned that it was my dream for our Save Music in Chinatown project to be covered by the post-Flipside zine. They actually did it! We’ve been friends and co-conspirators ever since, although I would have been a fan no matter what.
George Chen and Angi Brzycki are recent transplants from the Bay Area and brought new zines that present baby versions of Betsy DeVos, Ann Coulter, Tomi Lahren, and the like, mashing up the idea of younger, cuter versions of familiar faces in Tiny Toons and the super villain origin story in the Star Wars prequels with actual quotes. George also brought a stash of Zum vinyl and zines for the hardcore indie punks! Check out the goods at zum.bigcartel.com.
In the corner, we spotted Hellen Jo and her number-one Calvin Wong. Fresh off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, they had zines, buttons, T-shirts, and more. I got the Southwest Road Trip zine that was made by Helen’s friend Ines Estrada. It’s is a real treat for us hardcore fans of Jo’s underground comix and art–sort of the equivalent of Neal Cassady’s letters for Jack Kerouac freaks, with a lot of cool photos. Eloise grabbed some buttons and is holding out for smaller sized T-shirts.
Javier Hernandez is an artist and convention fixture (Comic-Con, APE, Zine Fest) who has branched out to spreading the new works of Steve Ditko. Did you know that the artist who first drew Spider-Man and Dr. Strange not only still draws comics today but self-publishes? Javier provides an outlet for those hard-to-find works and has also made a zine dedicated to the influential, ultimate outsider artist. Check out his original comics at elmuerto.com and get the latest on the upcoming Tijuana Zine Fest (15 de julio) and Latin Comics Expo (11-12 de noviembre) too!
My pal Sarah Bennett is the coolest. Besides teaching journalism, she only writes about stuff she loves (music, food, beer) for the LA Times, OC Weekly, etc., and flies the flag for zines, too. She was promoting Long Beach Zine Fest 3, which will be taking place in her beloved hometown at the Museum of Latin American Art on August 6. Every town needs a champion like her.
In my past life as a magazine editor, Keenan Keller used to sit at the same long desk as me working on mail order and stuff like that. These days he’s one of my underground comix heroes who is universally worshiped for writing the bikersploitation-flicks-meet-Planet-of-the-Apes-sequels series for Image Comics, The Humans, but I dig his solo stuff even more! I was stoked to get the latest installment of Force Majeure (sorta like Chuck Norris movies on steroids but also acid), the first issue of Free Tokyo Don (an aborted series that recalls Billy Jack, Zardoz, and The Story of Riki-Oh), and a zine that collects art from flyers and record packaging (The Spits, Zig-Zags, and other bands that rule). I’m glad he always allows me to loiter at his table and gush, and one day I will convince him to make a Save Music in Chinatown show flyer.
I saw my friend Rudy Bleu at the show, too. Even though he’s a big-time producer of RuPaul’s DragCon and in-demand DJ for los queerdos, he made time to present a table of zines, shirts, bags, and buttons for the people. My type of scum!
I also stopped at a few tables that were new to me. Couldn’t resist the (626) zine about my favorite place to see Chinese movies and scarf all sorts of dumplings, dim sum, noodles, and tacos. Lina Yu is an Art Center illustration graduate who has dedicated at least one thin volume of her rendering skills the signage, shopping bags, and real estate bus ads from the San Gabriel Valley. Check her out at linayu.info.
What a cool, free event–made even better when my brother and sister showed up so all of our families (including our dad) were there! I’m almost done plowing through my pickups and look forward to next year’s event. We should have a couple of new publications by then. Let’s trade!
Make your own zines, check out lazinefest.com, and follow Imprint on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, too.