The true meaning of zines is an upcoming zine I'm hoping to put together around christmas time. it'll center on how much i fucking hate christmas but due to a near death experience i am trying to change my wicked ways. on the flipside it'll be about how i learned to make zines, focusing more on the connections that zines have provided in my life and how excited i am.
This zine will feature interviews with Maira McDermott Long Arm Stapler and Liz from Quimby's Chicago and Caboose Zine .
Liz Mason is an Illinois native, she publishes a zine called Caboose, she is also the manager of Quimby's Chicago, the iconic bookstore/zine haven known the world over, I sat down with her about zines and community
Maira McDermott is the founder of both the Long Arm Stapler podcast and the Bay Area Queer Zine Fest, I especially wanted to talk to them about starting a zine fest (because I have thought about starting one myself)
How did you get into zines?
How did the Bay Area queer zine fest come to be?
Did you ever feel like maybe having another zine fest would be too much?
How do you deal with feeling discouraged?
How do you recruit zine people
What advice would you have for someone who would like to start their own zine fest specifically for marginalized communities?
Do you feel like there are challenges making a zine fest specifically for queer people?
Zines and christmas have a lot in common, in essence they are about family, community, connection. I think Christmas is a good example about what happens when capitalism uses something with a good message as a shield. It goes without saying one of the things I enjoy about zines is it's anticaptalist bent-- it's very hard to make zines profitable which is why people who are interested in that generally leave it the hell alone
