We are pumped to be back at Pop Hop for our first ever collaborative zine workshop! Participate and you can tell people with full honesty that your work is being sold at an awesome independent bookstore. 

We are looking for volunteers!

We’re really excited for our events this summer, like our upcoming collaborative zinemaking workshop at Pop Hop, and we’d love an extra pair of hands during these events. We can always use people to help us do things like loading and unloading workshop supplies, helping with setup, and other general tasks.  If you’d like to give us a couple hours, we would really appreciate your help!

We’re always excited to meet people who are interested in helping us strengthen LA’s great DIY community one zine at a time. We’ve been so lucky with previous volunteers and are looking forward to meeting more good people!

For more information, send LA Zine Fest a Facebook message!

Mark Your Calendars: May 18 is Riverside DIY Printfest!!

Riverside Print Fest is back and I am so happy to see it! Zinesters will have their wares on display, and there will be workshops and readings for you to attend throughout the day. Don’t forget to stop by the zine library, too!  Exhibitors include a lot of titles that are new (and exciting) to me, plus former LAZF tablers like She’s Not A Morning Person, Double Fur Press, Pimpkillah, and Seite Books.

BONUS: just after the Fest, there will be a screening of DIY: We’re Doin’ It, a short documentary about women in DIY culture–artists, zinesters, musicians–that stars two amazing ladies from Zineworks, Annie Knight and Angela Asbell. Can’t wait to check this one out!

Zine recommendations

We’ve had a lot of questions via the internet about where to get good zines. It’s kind of hard to say “Everywhere!” without feeling a little unhelpful, so we’re going to stop telling people that zines are all around them and try to give a little direction. We’ll be posting here every few weeks or so with reading suggestions from trusted sources,  plus the information needed to get the zine for yourself. This first rec comes from LAZF organizer Bianca Barragan. 

What: Lady Teeth #2 by Taryn Hipp 
Where I got it: Gifted from a friend!
Why I liked it: Before I get going on this, I just have to advise you to talk about zines when you meet new people. Like, right off the bat. If someone seems interesting, tell them you like zines because you will eventually get people giving you awesome things to read. Case in point: this zine, gifted to me by Brodie Foster Hubbard of Fair Dig zine and Shakeytown Radio Hour. 37 pages fly by as Taryn talks about self-care, attending zine fests, keeping friends, getting healthy (mentally, physically), music, food, and a handful of other topics.  By the time I reached the back cover, I felt like she and I had gone on a really solid road trip together because we’d had such an in-depth, varied conversation. I have always been a huge fan of perzines because I can’t imagine myself spilling intimate words onto pages and then sending those pages out for other people to see.  I admire deeply the brave people who can do that repeatedly and always keep it engaging.  For this reason (and others, I’m sure), Taryn Hipp is a total badass.
Other places to get it: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ladyteeth

From Lady Teeth #2:

“The truth is, my life has never been better & it really sucks that I am missing it. I am so stuck inside my sick brain that I can’t appreciate it fully. Some days it feels amazing & I can actually see that. I can actually feel it in my gut, how wonderful life is & how it will be ok. I will be okay. But other days I take it for granted because I am in a dark, dark place.  I try to go outside, lay in the driveway with my dog & let the sun soak through my skin. I let it warm my bones & breathe life into my sadness. I dig in the dirt , plant things that will grow, vegetables & fruits to consume, herbs to dry & turn to tinctures to heal & I feel proud of my bounty, even when the bunnies chew up my tomatoes or my dog eats my strawberries.”

Great trades from Claremont Zinefest!

Trades garnered from Claremont Zinefest. We’re going to have a few more pictures and a recap up soon! If you’d like to see what the Claremont ZF was like, you should probably check out this recap.

It was great to meet some new people! We traded with A Shop Called Quest (Skinner; ColorInkBook), Rusty Jordan (History In Ruins), Zineworks (Pocket Guide to Being a Safe & Sane Zine Pal), Allied Forces Press (Raw Bones, New Observations, ALFQuarterly, Battle Toads), Julia Glassman (Formulaic), SPEW Stickers (Midnight Madness), and Camera Creeps (Loophole). The superheroes-as-cats-in-costumes cards are by Nathaniel Osollo.

“The greatest compliment we’ve ever been told was that they read it every time they’re on the toilet.”

Alxis Ratkevich covered LAZF for ESPN and already gave us this awesome snapshot of what she saw.  Guess she just had an excess of great footage, because this new video shows a different but equally awesome perspective of inspiring, creative people making cool stuff–be it zines about mind-altering drugs or punk rock, or a whole community.