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Underground > Creation >

Who makes zines?

02:11 / 24.11.06

cos i want to read some zines. Minicomics too. swappage is what i'm up for. postal delivery! archaic! real! PM me for addresses and let's gogo (caveat: we may almost certainly be talking international postage)

my stuff his here all zeeny and minicomicky. place yer orders...

10:14 / 24.11.06

I used to make zine before the real world started bludgeoning me about the head and I had to stop. Now it is a weblog instead: www.stereosanctity.blogspot.com .

But you know this already.

I hope to finish a comic soon; ETA a coupla months.

Matsya, your stuff is always always awesome - a couple of yr old zines unexpectedly jumped out of my box-fulla-books&comics when moving into my new flat and they're now fixtures in our living room and much read/appreciated.

I would very much like to swap anything new you've got for...um, something.

Closed for Business Time

12:56 / 24.11.06

matsya, your zine looks fine. reminds me of ye olde good days, when i had the spunk to do the same... ah, the joys of weed and adobe indesign...

00:17 / 25.11.06

I've seen your site before, and your zines always looked interesting to me

I co-edit a zine called Off-Kilter
the first issue is all sold out, but we're working on the second (and expected to be final) issue and it'll hopefully be out sometime early 2007
I might be up for a swap once it comes out

I'm looking to start something new as well... something with more of a distinct focus than O-K
the two ideas floating around my head are 1) a zine about mail art, and 2) a zine called "figment." (what Andy Warhol wanted written on his tombstone) about the the intersection of pop culture with art, politics, and philosophy.

I only wish art school wasn't eating up all my free time... maybe it'll have to just be something I do during breaks

06:09 / 25.11.06

riz - which comics are those?

I also did a bit of a move recently and came across burn prom queen (that was the title, yeah?) - with the malkmus PI bit in it? lovverly.

i don't have anything new out at the moment, per se, but am perfectly happy to reprint old gear for swaps.

weed and adobe? no weed here. just adobe. and quark.

09:22 / 25.11.06

I have a couple of old comics here if you're interested.

22:11 / 25.11.06

they're ace, broom! nice one. playing some fine games with some genre tropes there. I like the fact that li'l pig doesn't need help walking through the desert even though he needs to be told where the wall is to bust out of jail.

i shall linger over these as I procrastinate at work.

17:38 / 28.11.06

Glad you like them.

Mojo Jones is a strange piece of work which was intended to get far stranger. I could bore you for some time with details of how I intended the story to develop, so all I shall say is that every bizarre element in the first few pages is actually significant.

I like the look of Turtle Soup, that minature book is nice format I'm tempted to try something similar myself.

23:41 / 29.11.06

TS was an exercise is randomness - I had found the illustrations in an old science-for-kids book and was charmed by them no end. I copied them and drew them out of a hat at random, and then stitched a narrative together from that.

The first iteration was a little bit nasty - cruel to the protagonist in a very indifferent way - so I rewrote it with a bit more hope and optimism.

Broom - do you have anything in print that you would like to swap for a copy of TS?

03:35 / 30.11.06

a friend and I just decided to compile a one-off zine at the end of the academic year based around the most memorable quotations of one of our RAs, complete with illustrations
some examples:
"Nazis are crazy!"
"Before I die, I want to fist someone's asshole."
"I think North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana are the only states I'd ever do Acid or Meth in."
"I'd say I piss my pants probably about once a year."
I'm thinking I might call it Cold Back Fat, since she once told me that she's attracted to fat men because they have cold back fat.
I'm thinking I might also make it a two-in one zine, the second part being in the same vein, except with quotes from my drawing professor.
some examples:
"Don't you think that bunnies are the most innocent creatures? I guess my son wasn't as affected as I was. The truck ran over the bunny and it screamed."
"I'm the Colormeister."
"You know Mr. Rogers? How many people here know Mr. Rogers? [people raise hands] I want to go to a bar where the jukebox plays nothing but Mr. Rogers music. [starts singing a song] Wouldn't that be cool? Maybe I should open one."

10:35 / 30.11.06

One's just popped up in my leafy Surrey burb: though the town is populated by tweed botherers and boutiques we also have a fairly prominent art college. A bunch of em' have put out this thing - "strange/lands". It's very art studenty, all bastardised Debord and Patti Smith. I want to beat em' at their own game, but am very much on my own with this endeavour. Hmph.

Any suggestions?

17:33 / 30.11.06

Matsya - I'd love to send you something but as it stands the only thing I have to hand is a slightly water damaged copy of 'Invaders from Earth'. I can't find the original files to print you a new copy at the moment which is a bit of a shame. If you still want to swap just PM me and we can exchange addresses.

Mick - my suggestion would be to not 'beat them at their own game' at all because, by the sound of things, that would involve producing some contrived slogan-heavy, pseudo-anarchist, middle class, brainless, student drivel. Make something that you and you friends would actually enjoy reading and that might inspire other people to produce their own work. I'd be happy to contribute a page or two.

18:22 / 30.11.06

I agree with Broomvondle about your conundrum, Mick

00:29 / 03.12.06

yup. that's what i'd do too, mick. take that energy and spend it wisely.

and TeN - it sounds like a worthy idea for a project. what's an RA thingo?

04:56 / 04.12.06

resident advisor

21:33 / 06.12.06

ah.

i like 'cold back fat'. i useta do a zine called 'duck fat'. so snap, sort of...

09:16 / 07.12.06

Mick now makes zines - or, at least, has been giving them a lot of thought.

SO.

I have settled on this: "sore sites" will be a meditation on forgotten history, unloved art and obnoxious figures of due repute. The concept I have in mind is that I might produce the sort of mongrel paper which a character in an M.R. James story would read when no-one was looking: academia with attitude. I'm thinking freemasonry, radicalism, buried histories, obscuro cinema, etc etc. Articles on Madam Blatavsky side by with appraisals of the Bonzo Dog band back catalogue, followed by studies upon modern radical geography. Sort of like the Chap, if it took itself a little more seriously.

2 big questions, therefore:-

-where do I start? Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software I might use? How about printing and distribution - any advice/contacts?

-Who wants in?

11:20 / 07.12.06

That sounds like an interesting zine - good luck!

Some rather uninspiring answers to your questions though I'm afraid;

Software: microsoft word, glue and scissors

Printing: is over-expensive, demands a large print-run and is generally of poor quality

Distribution: basically, THERE IS NONE.