My Year in zines: 2012

I don’t really use thins space anymore but I thought I would round out the year with this post.

2012 was a ridiculously active zine year for me. It started with creating the StolenSharpieRevolution.org site to be a companion to my book. The site includes a Zine Event listing calendar. In February I attended the first L.A. Zine fest and it was great! In March I attended the Chicago Zine Fest and it was really fun. We even had a Zine Organizer’s Event where we met with other zine event organizers to talk shop and I released my very first fiction zines (Brainscan #29) as a split with No More Coffee #4. In April I helped the fine folks at Zine Works run zine workshops at Coachella. I made some really great friends and got to see some great bands for free.

In May I opened a brick and mortar storefront and online shop in Portland, Oregon called Portland Button Works and zine distro. July was International Zine Month and I created a poster of events to do for each day of the month.and participated in the 24 hour zine thing. August had the Portland Zine Symposium that I helped organize and I hosted a bunch of guest at my house. In September I quit volunteering at the Independent Publishing Resource Centerafter over a decade of volunteering because I just didn’t have any more time for it after opening the Portland Button Works shop.

October and November were big months. I had been saving for a UK trip for a few years and somehow we had also planned for The Copy Scams, our zine themed pop-punk band, to record and tour. We wrote 3 new songs that we hope to release next year. I got to hang out with a lot of my awesome Uk friends and attend the Leeds Zine Fair and the SE London Zine Fest. I kept a bit of a travelogue on tumblr and put out issue #7 ofNobody Cares About You Stupid Zine Podcast, it’s all about trading zine.

So, now it is December and I did a bit of updating to the Etsy Team Zine and my own Etsy shop and changing it over to a Portland Button Works shop. I’m also offering free shipping Sunday and Monday  in my Etsy shop when you use the discount code: POSTMAN. I also hope to work on my new zine this week. It’s all typed up and I just need to do layout. I also just signed up for the 2013 Chicago Zine Fest! Hope to see you there.

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Tomorrow is International Zine Library Day also, the Portland Zine Symposium 24 Hour Zine Challenge starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow is International Zine Library Day! What are you going to do to celebrate?

Tomorrow at 10 am I will be at the IPRC to spend 24 hours making a new zine! I don’t know what the new zine will be about yet, but I hope it will be awesome! the past two years have been really successful. If you would like to be the first to get your hand on the new issue of my zine you can sponsor me for $10 or more. The money goes to the Portland Zine Symposium to help it continue to be an awesome zine event!

Come on, $10 (or more!) will get you:

*my new zine

*button of new design

*31 Days of International Zine Month poster.

*a copy of my 1 page mini zine/com (that’s right! I attempt to draw stuff!)  made about the stuff that happened on July 10th when I worked a 10 hour shift at Portland Button Works.

Speaking of Portland Button Works, we are having a sale for International Zine Month from now until the rest of July! Use the Coupon code: IZM2012 for 10% off! We’d love for your to use it on zines, but it is good for anything in

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here’s the zine I made in 2010 at the 24 hour zine challenge. it was about all the postboxes  have ever had.

The cover is so-not my style at all- but I do like it. The new copier at the IPRC does color copies at a reasonable price. I cut all these irises out of an old iris catalog from the 60s. I’m not used to working in color so this was fun. The insert is also in color.

 

Fingers in too many pies and too many hats on my head…..

I turned 35 last week! It’s the Presidential Birthday (American civics lesson: as stated in Article 2, Section 1 of the US constitution the president must be at least 35 years old.) I don’t want to be President. It seems like a shitty and stressful job. I already have too many “jobs” that are stressful enough, but at least I don’t have to deal with congress.

Anyway, I’m so over trying to organize birthday parties. They end up being too much work with too much expectations. I just went out for a yummy vegan meal with Paul at Portobello and had a drink with some friends.

But there are lots of other things going on!

The Portland Button Works distro and shop are humming along beautifully.

Derek and I released the 6th episode of Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast! We talk about what we have been up to for the past year as well as the upcoming International Zine Month.

Derek and I also organized a 31 Days of International Zine Month with zine related things for you to do each day! What? Last year I wore a zine shirt for each day. How was I going to top that?

We also just put together the Portland Button works Quarterly. It is part zine/part catalog for PBW. It looks like this and is available free with every Portland Button Works order, free at the shop and other places around Portland, or a self addressed stamped envelope sent to the shop.

Two color risograph print, 8 pages.

Let’s see…paul and I have also been working in the garden but I haven’t been taking photos. They all just seem to look pretty similar as years past. I’m working on a new zine to have out by the symposium. I just need to sit down and work on it. I’m also working on the Portland Zine Symposium again and getting stoked for all the guests we are going to have!

30 Day Photo Meme- Day 20- Your mailbox

Day 20- Your mailbox

Wow, it has taken me a long time to get to this. Ok, here is my old post box:

Old green mail box that finally gave up the ghost.

Paul and I put in a new post and got a new post box that is while with a shiny new metal flag. Also, filled with orders going out!

My post box at the post office. I don't use it much but I still keep it.

Last weekend I was at the Chicago Zine Fest and it was awesome! I’m hoping to make it a yearly event to get to. I also got another tattoo from Alana in Chicago. This tattoo is of a post box with my address on it!

5307, I have lived here for over 11 years. It is home.

Some other stuff:

1. I have been updating Stolen Sharpie revolution.org pretty regularly.

2. I released Brainscan #29 as a split with No More Coffee #4 at the Chicago Zine Fest! I’ll be posting order details once Ben gets me the scans of his pages and I build a good master copy. They will be $3 and have two color risograph printed cardstock covers. stoked! Oh, also. It is my first fiction zine.

3. At the Chicago Zine Fest there were the Zine Olympics. I feel pretty safe in saying that our team, The Paper Sharks, won the Zine Olympics with two golds and two silvers. Check out some great photos here.

4. The Copy Scams UK tour is looking up! We may have at least one zine fest to get to while we were there.

5. Table registration for the 2012 Portland Zine Symposium (11-12 August) is open! All the full tables are gone and 1.2 tables are 3/4 gone so get your table now and start saving your pennies for travel! Go here to register.

Day 21- A photo you are proud of
Day 22- Something you cooked
Day 23- Your desk or work area
Day 24- Something important to you
Day 25- Graffiti you have seen
Day 26- Something you do everyday
Day 27- Your favorite place
Day 28- A favorite piece of clothing
Day 29- Something you like
Day 30- A photo of you today

2012 Portland Zine Symposium dates!

The 2012 Portland Zine Symposium will be held August 11-12, 2012!

The Portland Zine Symposium needs artwork for 2012, could it be yours?

taking a break from my 30 day photo meme to post this!

Hey zinesters!

The Portland Zine Symposium is looking for art submissions for the 2012 poster for the 12th annual Portland Zine Symposium. This year’s theme is “Sea of Zines.” Your art submission should be your creative interpretation of that theme.

We encourage artists to use any medium or style. We strongly prefer that the chosen artist is able to assist us in the process of transferring (resizing / cropping / etc) the image multiple mediums.

The formatting guidelines are simple:

– We are looking for a 11″ wide x 17″ tall poster that will also be used in other formats (the website, post cards, buttons, stickers, etc), so your design needs to be visible and striking at multiple sizes and resolutions (or have smaller, breakaway pieces).

– Only 3 colors! The design will eventually be silk screened / screen printed onto t-shirts, so limit your colors to black, white and one other color.

Your design should include (or be able to include once all details are finalized) the following:

– the theme –  Sea of Zines

– the dates – TBA (for now)

– the place –  Refuge 116 SE Yamhill

– the website  – http://www.pdxzines.com

– “12th Annual Portland Zine Symposium” and the year “2012”

– “A conference and zine social exploring facets of independent publishing and DIY culture.”

Submission deadline is February 25th.

Submissions can be emailed to pdxzines@gmail.com (most strongly preferred), mailed (to PO Box 5901 Portland, OR 97228-5901), or dropped off at the IPRC.

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The Portland Zine Symposium is free conference and zine social exploring facets of independent publishing and DIY culture. The Portland Zine Symposium is a two day event held in Portland, Oregon every summer since 2001. It consists of two days of of workshops, panels, discussions, games and tabling of zines and independent media.

The Portland Zine Symposium aims to promote greater community between diverse creators of independent publications and art. This fun and free event helps people share their work while exchanging their skills and information related to zine culture. Through workshops, panels and discussions, Portland Zine Symposium explores the role and effect of all types of zines.

First, my friend Kurt interviewed me while he was staying in our guest cave a few weeks ago. Go here and hear what I have to say about stuff and things when someone else asks the questions. Kurt is pretty great. We knew each other on the internet for years and I just knew we’d get along well in real life. We had some good conversations. I hope to do it again sometime.

Paul and I spent the weekend and the Riverhouse. We took the bus up to Battleground and rode up and down 7 miles of hills to get to there and then we rode all 35 miles back. The ride back seemed more difficult than usual, there was something heavy on my mind.

Saturday night my housemate Marc, who had been up at the Riverhouse earlier, called to say that our friend Dylan Williams had passed away. Dylan was a friend, fellow Portland Zine Symposium organizer, and teacher in the Independent Publishing Resource Center comics certificate program who had been fighting cancer for awhile now. It’s hard to imagine this world without him. Dylan was the mastermind behind Sparkplug comics and I had seen his own comic, Reporter, for years before we actually met.

One of the first real conversations we had was after one of his first few meeting organizing the Portland Zine Symposium. He came up to me after the meeting and asked how it was that we were able to make a new organizer feel so comfortable and valued in the organizing process. I took that as a great compliment about the Portland Zine Symposium and about Dylan’s insight into PZS.  I remember answering something to the tune of saying that I believe that everyone has a valuable perspective to bring to to table and that the Portland Zine Symposium can only grow and become better by listening.

Dylan’s input in this world was very valuable. His help with the Portland Zine Symposium, his ethics in zines/comics and his business were honorable. I’ve been working on a zine about zine event organizing and with with that memory of Dylan in my mind I’d like to dedicate the zine to him.

I’m going to miss his insights, his playful (not mean spirited) snark, and maybe most of all, his knowing smile.

Dylan Williams, you will be missed.

Portland-versary

I missed my Portland-versary! I moved to Portland at the end of  July 1999. That makes 12 years. I lived in Utah for just under 12 years and Houston for 10 year. So, that makes Portland the place I have lived longer than another other. By my calculations, that makes it home. Dear Portland, I still love you after 12 years as much as I did when I first moved here. I love the green earthy smell that I hoped I would never lose the ability to sense and I love that the smell of sun-baked bark dust is just as much a signifier of Portland summer as it was when my mother would bring us up here to her homeland when we were children.

I was also thinking how quickly time has gone when I realized that Paul and I have been living together for 5.5 years. How did that happen? That’s almost half of my time in Portland?! I know how we have done it, we have been enjoying ourselves. 5.5 years is longer than the 3 years I was married to someone else and almost as long as 6 years I was together with that person. It blows my mind at the drudgery those 6 years were vs. my life now. I can’t even imagine being in a relationship again where every day was a struggle, and I can’t even remember how I handled it. Oh wait, I handled it by sleeping a lot and crawling into a shell, too afraid to speak with people.

Anyway… I am thankful for my 12 years in Portland, 11 years of the Portland Zine Symposium, 10 years of living in my house, and 34 years on this planet. I am enjoying growing older and becoming more myself everyday.

I draw tarot cards daily as a sort of focus for the day. Yesterday morning, in the middle of the Portland Zine Symposium stress, I pulled a card. The card was the 3 of Cups. I saw it as a reminder that the symposium is supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be a celebration of zines and print and community. I’m going to try to keep that in mind in the upcoming hectic days.

2011 Portland Zine Symosium Workshop schedule!

WORKSHOPS
Saturday

Fund raising strategies for your do-it-yourself projects large and small by Eleanor Whitney 11:00AM – 12:30PM

An Introduction to zinesters, independent publishers, and independent artists and performers of all kinds to the basics of fund raising, whether they aim to raise several hundred or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Telling a Story Without Telling a Story by Martha Grover 11:00AM -12:30PM

This is an idea-generating workshop on how to structure perzines in an interesting way. Martha Grover will be bringing in examples and participants can read out loud from selections.

Zines 101 by A.M. O’Malley, 1:00PM – 12:00PM

An introduction for novitiates to the world of zines, learn the basics of zines, how to make zines and why you should with A.M. O’Malley.

Portrait Zine Class by ladypajama 1:00PM – 2:00PM

This class will explore the unconventional portrait.  The students will use words, collage, and drawing to capture a portrait of their classmates.  The pages will be collected at the end of class and compiled into a zine that will be available the next day for pickup. Students should bring any art supplies they might be able bring, and a donation to go for making photocopies of the zine.

Adventures in Drawing by Jesse Reklaw 2:00PM – 3:00PM

Participants will have fun and expand their artistic horizons through a series of drawing games. One exercise will involve re-purposing old envelopes & packaging because mail art is awesome!

ZOE (Zine Organizers Event)  by Alex Wrekk 2:30PM – 3:30PM

This is a discussion group for zine event organizers and would be zine event organizers to share experiences and swap tips on running zines events. Zine events are any event that focuses on zine from 24 hour zine challenges, zine readings, zine tours or zine fests. The first ZOE was held during the 2011 Chicago Zine Fest and we hope to have these conversations going at different zine events all over the world.

Practical Mimeograph Printing by Dan Hack and Jake Anderson 3:00PM-  4:30PM

Be the first on your block since the 1950s! This workshop will give the user the skills needed to print using the mimeograph, mutli stamp, and other antiquated methods of office duplication. Dan Hack and Jake Anderson will go over equipment set-up, stencil preparation, printing, and any other basics that will send the user into the wilderness of ragged, inky zine production. Most of the earliest zines – our roots – were printed using the mimeograph. It can be the most DIY method of zine production (short of scratching it out with a sharp rock on bark) – no electricity required!

Storytime with James Michael Williams 4:00PM-  4:30PM

Take a 15 minute break and enjoy a multimedia story called, JASON THE CATDOG OR DOGCAT told by James Michael Williams.  Rated M for Mature.

 

Sunday

Yoga For Zinesters by Korinna 10:00AM – 11:00PM

Yoga is great for relaxing and feeling good about yourself! Join Korinna for some yoga moves targeted specifically to relieve all your zine-making aches. It is not required, but you are encouraged to bring your own yoga mat.

No Shushing: Ask the Zine Librarian with Kelsey Smith, Milo Miller, Jerianne Thompson, and Joshua Barton 11:00AM – 12:30PM

A conversation between zinesters and the librarians who share their work with a broader audience.  Panelists will be giving an overview of their individual, zine library collections, which include public and academic collections as well as a web-accessible digital archive (QZAP).  Then the panelists will answer questions and solicit feedback on best practices for zine collections in libraries.  This workshop is for anyone interested in any aspect of zine librarianship!

JUST DRAW SOMETHING! by Rachel Lee-Carman 11:00AM – 12:00PM

The workshop is intended for zinesters to easily create illustrations. The workshop will help people who are daunted by drawing or those who know how to draw to explore new methods. Participants will use photographs (please bring your own, what we have will be really limited!) to create illustrations using a few easy and cheap transference techniques. The techniques demonstrated in this workshop create realistic illustrations in an easy way to make a zine fun and interesting without using often too-dark photographs. Zinesters can translate the skills they learn into making their mail more interesting, too!

“The Origin of You-ness”  with Cheyenne McClain and Sarah Curtis 12:30PM – 2:30PM

In this workshop we will explore the role of “Creation Stories” and “Coming Out Stories” in personal writing and exploration. We will practice writing together to engage with narratives surrounding the body in order to blur the lines between myth and reality in storytelling about ourselves. Together we will participate in activities and reflection that will illuminate specialness and you-ness! In the context of zine and DIY cultures, writing serves as an exercise in reconnecting agency and community, and establishes everyone’s capacity to create.

In Postage We Trust with Alex Wrekk 1:00PM-  2:00PM

The theme of this year’s Portland Zine Symposium is, postmarked. What better way to celebrate than by sending mail? So, let’s set aside some time for the ancient art of REAL mail. Bring the address of a penpal or a zine you have just read so you can send them a letter. PZS will supply paper,writing utincils, envelopes, and stamps. You provide your words and penmanship.

WOC Zine Workshops (club): Diversity and Self-Empowerment in DIY Culture with Tonya L Jones 2:30PM – 4:00PM

The Women of Color Zine Workshops has been going strong for over two years now at PZS. Tonya Jones attended a PZS one year and recognized a need to get more local, WOC involved in writing, activism, and zine culture. The workshop will provide a panel of current WOC club members. There will be an opportunity for Q&A and attendees to make a mini-zine!

Zines for Kids!  with Blue 2:30PM – 3:30PM

A zine-making workshop for kids. Fun is required!

Mail Art with Theresa Soto 3:30PM – 4:30PM

Zines and mail have long been partners.What if your mail can express another dimension of your creativity? This workshop explores mail art, ranging from ATC’s (artist trading cards) to Embellished Envelopes and other forms. All of them can enhance your mailing experience and make beautiful complements to your zines. Supplies will be provided for you to try some forms yourself. If you’d like to bring some lovely paper from your stash, you’ll have a chance to use it. Bring a Sharpie, if you can!

 

Portland Zine Symposium week plus a new episode of Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine podcast!

AAAHHHHH!!!

It’s Portland Zine Symposium week! Sunday we nailed down the workshop schedule that should be posted late today. I’ll have it posted here with descriptions tonight. I was totally exhausted by the end of Sunday and slept well.

Yesterday, I met with Blue and Doug for breakfast and then headed to Refuge for our last walk through, where we met Theresa and Nichole Anne. Then we headed to the IPRC and racked our brains working on table placement for SIX HOURS!!! I finally hit a wall and went home where I watched Paul watch Home Movies (the cartoon, not actually home movies) and then crashed out at 10. We got 75% done. I think that is a good start for a Monday.

Episode 5 of Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast is posted! I don’t even remember what I said because we recorded it in April or something. It was right after the Chicago Zine fest and right before Derek, my co-host, moved back to Buffalo. I’ll just trust that he made me sound smart when he edited it! Go and listen to it here:

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPID ZINE PODCAST EPISODE FIVE