Zine fest

I went to Zine Fest last Saturday, which was pretty cool. I think I first spotted something about it on upcoming, but for some reason didn't add it to my list of things I'm interested in as I usually would (and I can't even find it listed now), so I forgot all about it until Sarah McIntyre posted about it last week.

I didn't go to any of the talks, and ran into less people than I expected to, but I did bump into Sarah (her review of the event is here) and the lovely Mr Sheret of the Polaroid Press, as well as a couple of other familiar faces that I knew to say hello to, and was entertained by the mini-exhibition of zines and comics, not least because I discovered some new names amidst the usual faces, and blasts from the past.

I picked up a few good zines and comics, too, mostly of the cheaply printed/photocopied variety because they cost less! I haven't read them all, but so far think my favourite is This Was Before You Were Born, a little booklet of stories by Katie Haegele of The La-La Theory, which cost me the princely sum of 50p. They're all tales she's inherited from her family, which I found totally charming especially the story of her uncle Charlie who loved Christmas morning so much as a little boy that the whole family celebrated Christmas every morning morning until Epiphany, which involved wrapping all the presents up after they'd unwrapped them just so that they could unwrap them again the next morning! That's kind of crazy behaviour, but it's sweet rather than dangerous, just how I like my crazies.

Small press stalwart (and Space Station 65 partner) Rachael House made a good list of tips for making zines:

You can see all of them in the photoset on Flickr. (Tip #4 especially amused me, after all the computer vs. paper conversations I've been having/following lately.)

Zine Fest organiser Melanie Maddison also puts together a zine called Colouring Outside The Lines. I picked up the latest issue, #4, which is a great catalogue of female illustrators from around the globe, complete with spot pictures, website information and interviews. I haven't had a proper read yet, but it looks pretty inspiring. You can buy it via Folksy or via Etsy. It's well worth a look, and I suspect I'll be linking to some of the talented ladies I find in it when I finally get a moment to give it a proper read!

So far 2009 is shaping up to be a good one for zine and comics events. I picked up a couple of flyers for some more events coming up:

First up is this Sunday's Alternative Press Fair, back at St. Aloysius Social Club (a place I seem to be visiting often enough for it to deserve its own tag on my site). There's a good interview, full of self-pubishing tips from the guys behind the APF over at Spoonfed (which is a site I signed up to a few weeks ago but haven't really used yet, so I can't tell you how useful it is).

Brighton Zine fest is a two-day event on 21st-22nd of February. I'm hoping to get down for one of the days.

The London Zine Symposium returns on May 3rd. There was a lot of great stuff on sale last year, plus it's right next to one of my favourite pubs!

Via Dave Shelton comes news of a an event on the 14th-15th of February that's probably a bit more mainstream, but worth checking out if you're in the area, the Highland Expo in Inverness. I'm almost tempted to go myself. I like Inverness.