Zinefest draws writers, artists from across US
Wednesday 21 July @ 17:30:03 |
 by Emily Urness
Like many of us, Nate Gangelhoff spent middle school sitting bored in the back of class, vandalizing notebooks with drawings and writing. Unlike many of us, he found a forum for that creativity when he saw his first “zine” — a low-budget, self-published magazine. The zine that changed Gangelhoff’s life was “Cometbus,” a black-and-white booklet of stories from the life of infamous zinester Aaron Cometbus.
This weekend, Gangelhoff, now a member of the rock band Rivethead, will join dozens of other zinesters from across the United States for a three-day festival to swap zines and stories.
 Zines can be drawn, like comic books, or written as text; they can be political manifestos or stories of someone’s childhood abuse. They are all, however, personal creations instead of corporate products, labors of love created to show us a person’s point of view that could not heard through mainstream media. Some zines date back to the 1930s; “Superman” was one of the first zines.
Late 1970’s and early 1980’s punk culture saw a resurgence in the medium, with “fanzines” that brought the musicians into the underground limelight. An eclectic array of topics emerged in the zine heyday of the early nineties, and some zines were even discovered by and reviewed in the corporate media, which turned on many unaware readers to the culture.
A typical first reaction to zines is, “Wow, anyone can do this.” Gangelhoff is one of the crowd who stuck his neck out into this critical world and did. His first valiant attempt, “Pearl Jam Must Die,” he describes as “a miserable, awful, cringe-inducing mess,” of which only five issues were printed. But Gangelhoff stuck to his passion, and his subsequent projects, “Idiot” and “Pick Your Poison” have been reviewed as “entertaining and prolific” and “compulsively readable.”
“Zines are a do it yourself culture and the idea is to take back the medium (of print publications), rather than leaving it to professionals,” said local zinester and festival co-organizer Eric Farseth. “Anyone can be a writer, just get out there and do it.”
Because zine writers publish for the sake of publishing, not competing for advertising dollars, they can focus on content, not marketing. This is the quality that sets zines apart and makes zine readers go through copy after copy, finding creations that are spectacular, ridiculous or downright horrible.
“Even when they suck, they can sometimes still be pretty good, just due to their uniqueness,” Gangelhoff said.
 Independently distributed mail order catalogs became available to people seeking to read. Zines have been largely mail order, until the advent of Internet, where a local zinester (Pander Zine Distro) and many others have set up on-line Distros (zine shops) to help authors get their work around the globe. Zines have also been known to stock the shelves of independent record, book and comic stores, where they adorn the shelves with prices usually $1 to $3.
Hundreds of zines pass through the subculture daily, but public festivals and symposia are rare. This weekend’s festival will be at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts July 23 through July 25. The event is being held in conjunction with an exhibit of zines and the closely linked art of flyer and poster art that runs through August 14. Artists to be featured include among others, David Witt, Amy Jo, Cartoonist Conspiracy and others.
Witt’s poster for the show (above right) is also a promotion for the closing party, to be held Sunday at the Triple Rock Social Club with the Bleeding Hickeys, the Knotwells, and Gangelhoff’s band, Rivethead.
Whether you’re a newcomer to the zine world, a seasoned veteran or a middle school deviant, there should be something for you at the zinefest. The event will feature workshops and local and nationally-known zinesters will sell and trade their copies. Everyone is welcome, for as Gangelhoff says, “Anyone can join the ranks.”
The Zine Festival will begin Friday, July 23rd and close July 25th with a show/party at the Triple Rock Social Club. Doors at 6 p.m. All Ages. $5. Featuring The Bleeding Hickeys, The Knotwells, and Rivethead.
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