Old-school publishers gather at the library Saturday
What are you doing this Saturday? If you don’t know yet, the answer is: Going to Chattanooga Zine Fest 2018! Held at the downtown library from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Zine Fest is organized by Chattanooga Public Library along with UTC’s graphic design program and the Society of Ink & Paper. The festival features work by zine-creators from across Tennessee and beyond.
Why zines? In an online-only era when we sometimes even read our comic books in electronic form, a zine is an artifact that can seem quaint but is in fact constantly being re-envisioned: a physical book that’s generally independently published and produced. Typically having a small circulation, a zine is the opposite of viral. Fandom, comic art, social critique and fiction are common genres for zines.
“Zines can be large, small, slick or rough around the edges,” Chattanooga Public Library Head Librarian Jackie Anderson tells me. “They’re created by authors, illustrators and cartoonists. They concern many genres or subjects. They may be hand-printed works about anarchy, or journals or collections of comics.”
Anderson is a zine-maker herself; in fact, she requested to be on the Zine Fest committee when the library hired her.
“It’s a fun community, a really supportive community,” she says. “A lot of us work independently, so it’s a good time for the makers of that community to come celebrate each other.”
Anderson, who’s organizing this year’s Zine Fest, shows me the library’s collection of zines. They’re surprisingly varied and almost all minutely detailed. Some look like they’re printed on an old-school mimeograph machine; others are hand-drawn or appear to be wood-block prints.
They’re newsstand magazine-size down to itty-bitty booklets that would fit in a wallet. Some are black-and-white; some are color. The variety of weights and textures of paper in particular draws my hand; I’m moved to pick up what feels interesting.
“There is a certain tactility to a zine that’s hard to replace with anything electronic or digital,” Anderson tells me. “It’s a craft. [The artist asks] ‘What aesthetic choices that reflect the content?’”
What to Expect
Old-timer or new guest, Zine Fest has something for everyone who likes to handle their books, comics, magazines, pamphlets and ephemera. Featured guests include the Chattanooga Roller Girls, who create their own zine; local zinester Tom Foote, maker of the long-running Spare Change; evey in orbit (also known as zinester Veronica Leto of Nashville); JP Press of New Orleans; and so many more! WonderPress of Chattanooga, Zine Fest’s partner and the creators of the striking black-and-single-color Zine Fest posters you may have seen around town, will also have a rep in attendance, Anderson tells me.
Vendors will sell prints, stickers, cards, calendars, buttons and plenty of other indie-art bling.
“It’s a celebration of independent publishing,” Anderson says. “We’ll have regional artists, live music, readings and an art show.”
In fact, Zine Fest is the same day as the library’s Square Fair outside on the plaza, and just a hop and skip upstairs from a children’s piñata-making workshop on the second floor. Truly, something for everyone—and best of all, Zine Fest is TOTALLY FREE!
Photo courtesy of Chattanooga Public Library