State of the Zine

Continuing Call for Entries: Meta-Comics Issue

Most important announcement: I am still accepting submissions for the Meta-Comics Issue. The absolute, final, for-real-this-time deadline is JUNE 30, 2011. All information is here. Thanks to everyone who has already sent in their contributions, and I apologize for the long delay in publishing the issue. When it’s finally published, it will be awesome.

x x x x x x

Two new zines available!

(2011 is The Revenge of Print, after all.) Both of these are consumption zines, and both are available in the SPCHQ Etsy Store.

Syndicate Product 17.0
Syndicate Consumption 2010 
(in 140 characters or less)
20 pages / Digest / $2

From the introduction:

[...] I wanted to compile a consumption log that was more than just a list, but didn’t have the energy to write full reviews of books, movies, etc., as previously. As a jokey experiment, I wrote movie reviews Twitter-style in 140 characters or less.

I thought this was going to be a lazy alternative, but discovered differently.

It was a challenge to sum up a book, comic, album, or movie using only 140 characters. It forced me to edit ruthlessly and be concise while still being descriptive and critical as opposed to purely snarky. [...]

Sculpting reviews into 140 characters required finesse to come in under limit. Although I didn’t keep count, some of these reviews were probably “rewritten” ten or twelve times. As a self publisher who doesn’t answer to editors, it’s so easy to blather on without restraint or editing, resulting in overlong articles, reviews, blog posts, and essays that actually say very little. Imposing structural limits cuts the crap. It also prevented continual over-editing, because for every letter added, another would have to drop. (Note: Titles and authors/artists do not count toward the 140 character limit, only the actual commentary.) [...]

Syndicate Product 18.1
Syndicate Consumption First Quarter 2011 (January-March)
16 pages / Quarter-legal vertical / $1

From the introduction:

Instead of waiting until the year’s end to write about books, movies, music, and television consumed, I’ve decided instead to release quarterly reports designed as small pamphlets of commentary. Fingers crossed that I can complete the three more installments in a timely fashion.

There were lots of books, comics, and zines consumed this quarter, but little new music or movies. The ongoing miserable weather between January and March made it just right for hours of reading, plus some television, too. I still have an enormous to-read list that keeps growing, despite my best efforts to quit buying books.

x x x x x x 

Low Hug/Syndicate Product/One-shot Digital Archives

In February, I decided that it was finally time to sort the print and digital files of every zine I had produced since 1998, and create a complete digital archive. Some parts of the process were easy to complete (e.g., recent issues), and other were much, much more difficult (e.g., files with missing fonts, issues created using WordPerfect 8, issues that had to be scanned from disintegrating, pasted-up master copies). After a solid month, I had archived the issues in TIF, JPG, and PDF formats (both for printing and reading), and produced a CD with readable PDFs of all issues plus “bonus materials” (alternate cover galleries). An article on this process is pending (I should have written it as I went through it, but I do have some notes) to help other zine publishers if they chose to do this. Currently, I am not wide-distributing or selling these archives, but may do so eventually. I’m just so relieved that everything is now archived across three (hopefully relatively stable) digital formats, and backed up in multiple places.

x x x x x x 

Zine Weeding Project

After my book evacuation project of 2010, this year I decided to start weeding zines. I had six “bankers boxes” full to the top of zines I’d been collecting for nearly 20 years. At one time, I promised myself that I would never, never weed my zine collection, but I’ve changed my mind. (And yes, this is another subject for a pending article.) There are many places to donate zines (mostly academic collections, but a few large infoshops as well) that will take good care of these ephemeral items, and make them available for research and reading. To date, I’ve weeded out about 40% of my original zine and comic collection, with another “pass” happening this weekend. I’ve sent boxes of donations to the Barnard Zine Library, the Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University (Go Falcons!), and the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies (I weeded a small amount of minicomics). There’s still an entire box crammed full of zines waiting for a good home(s), and I’m sure that will increase throughout the spring. While I ideally want them to go to archives and libraries, I may offer them as $5 grab bags if the process drags on too long.

x x x x x x  

Zine Events (where I’ll be tabling)

Pete’s Mini Zine Fest! is on Saturday, May 28, 2011 from 3pm-7pm at Pete’s Candy Store in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. It features about twenty tables and live music. What’s not to enjoy?

I also hope to be tabling at this year’s Philadelphia Alternative Comic Con, if they’ll allow zines.