the zine group

DIY Comix & Zine-Making Workshop!!

nick — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:01:23 -0700

Our friend Fly just sent us this email. Anyone interested in comics who can go ought to.

(please post & forward!)

DIY Comix & Zine-Making Workshop!!

with Fly!

at the Museum of Comic & Cartoon Art - 594 Broadway suite 401 (btwn Houston & Prince)

5 Saturdays from 5:30- 7:30 PM • July 7 - August 4

Learn to make your own comix from story ideas to sketches & thumbnails, through to finished product! I will take you through 4 steps to creating your own personal photocopied comic book (zine). At the end you will have produced your own comix "zine"!! The workshop will concentrate on the idea of the personal comic with a focus on the photocopied zine - we will not be discussing in depth complex printing techniques.

Schedule

Week 1 (July 7) will introduce the process & talk about story ideas & thumbnails - planning for finished sketches. With guest speaker Abby Denson - http://www.abbycomix.com/

Week 2 (July 14) will discuss page design, pencils & planning for inks. With guest speaker Seth Tobocman. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Tobocman

Week 3 (July 21) will concentrate on inking techniques & planning for paste-ups. With guest speaker Edowyn Vazkez. - http://www.aperfectempire.com/edowynvazkez.htm
Week 4 (July 28) will be devoted to finishing the project - having the comic ready to be copied - and discussing ideas for DIY distribution. With guest speaker John Holmstrom. - http://www.punkmagazine.com/

Week 5 (August 4) will be a Zine trading party open to all those who attended the workshop & open to the public. Admission will be $5 donation or zines to trade (no one turned away).

the zine group

zine group - what should we do?

mynweb — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:33:57 -0800

Alright, a zine group is going to be our first group. Here are some questions and comments to figure out what we can do.

Who here has made a zine before? Misled Youth will buy a copy...

What are peoples strengths? Hopefully lots of poetry and writing, since that's kinda integral.

We can make anything - youth related or not. So long as it's made by young people who learned things while they were making it...

who wants to make a comic? I sure as hell don't... the last comic I tried to make took me months to get one page done.

Collages are one of those all-purpose zine things. Winston Smith has always been the first thing that popped into my mind since I was 14... he's a great source of inspiration for collages.

Silk screened covers are cool and make zines seem far more important and precious. I'd be into figuring out a design for the cover...

Do people want to do columns? About what?

I'm basically willing to do any design and some illustration. Sarah would probably do the same, plus writing. I should also mention that we're also hoping to make a more info-packet style thing, which would be separate (unless people just wanted to help with that), because our previous info-packet is getting outdated and there are some conferences coming up that we want a spiffy new one for.

We tried to do a collaborative zine back around June but it fell through. I could dig through old meeting notes for more ideas... but only if others express some interest.

this is exciting... I'd put one of those smileys here if they weren't so hideous.

the zine group

quality control

nick — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:45:02 -0800

The thing that makes zines so cool is there are no restrictions to what you can do or say in them (except color might be a little expensive to photocopy). Just about all other printed media has editors, art directors, or publishers who control what you say, how much space you get, etc., but with zines you have far more creative control. The problem with this, however, is there is often far less quality control.

Some people think that zines are less thought through than glossy, "real" print media. That's because there are some people who make horrible, mindless, pointless zines that make everyone else look bad. I guess it's a lot like any other form of art. Some people are just mesmerized by the fact that they can create something that they make anything. This is definitely a necessary experience - my first zine was a comic about toxic squatter-goblins battling obese McDonald's patrons. Looking back, that was a very large waste of paper, but the experience of creating anything was enough to make me decide I wanted to seriously learn how to draw. Some people though, never reach a point where they decide to get better... they just keep going, making zines that are illegible, cut-off on every page, have no substantial, educational, creative, intelligent or even entertaining content.

Zines are an art. In fact, zines are several forms of art rolled up into one super-art. If I were to give any advice to people beginning to self-educate themselves in art (which I've been doing for the past 2 or 3 years) it would be this:

1) Art, it has been said, is a measure of intelligence. Neither knowledge nor wisdom, which make up a the vast majority of intelligence, are things you are born with, they are acquired. Just about every artist who got anywhere had to study a lot. Picasso was born with natural talent. Van Gogh had almost no real skill initially, but he learned and struggled all the way until the end. Far more artists will tell you they identify with Van Gogh than Picasso.

2)The word "creativity" used to be a word reserved for divine inspiration. While man "made" things, God "created" things. In fact, Michaelangelo thought that God was speaking directly through him. Nowadays, kindergarten teachers pass out glue sticks and sparkles and tell their class to be be "creative". My definition of "creativity" is something in the middle. It is attainable by anyone with strong enough will power and the right state of mind, but not everything art-related is "creative".

3)"The sooner you make your first 5000 mistakes, the sooner you'll be able to correct them." -Kimon Nicolaides. That's been my mantra ever since I read it. In the case of zines, just don't photocopy your first 5000 mistakes.

My point is to take this project seriously... it is SO frustrating to have to weed through racks and racks of zines to find good ones. That's all! Check out the forum thread, where you can help decide what we're actually gonna do in this group...

the zine group