Last weekend, on a whim, I attended the Chicago Zine Fest for the first time!
Fellow zine creator Erin Oh drove a car full of ladies down to the windy city for the fourth annual festival and its related events. We missed Friday afternoon’s organized readings, but managed to get to Quimby’s Bookstore in time for their event Zine, Lose, or Draw!: A Chicago Zine Fest Game Show. I think all of us were too distracted by the beautiful books at the shop to really focus on the game show they’d set up. Nonetheless, we made the best of the most important day: Saturday March 9th — the day of the festival!
The first, second and eighth floors of the Conaway Center at Columbia College were designated for sellers. Erin and I shared a table. The floors were overwhelming and filled with inspiring self-published works. It was rare to see a tabler selling handicrafts or other goods — it was all zines all the time. We were pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and freshness of the exhibitors. Miles away from Toronto, it was invigorating to meet all new artists. For me, some of the highlights were meeting *cool* illustrators like David Alvarado, and Laura Berger (Laura designed all of the merchandise for this year’s festival). The girls who created the Chicago-based 3rd Language Queer Artist Collective and its corresponding zine were totally inspiring to me (so much so, I’m going to submit to their next publication). Beautiful photography and art zines from Parking Block Publishing were also lovely keepsakes.
The Fest organizers provided delicious free food for everyone all day long, and complimentary coffee from Worm Hole — a local and revered coffee shop! We had the pleasure of sitting beside funny guys Mikie and Pat, who made zines about pizza, nudes, and the McDonald’s golden arches rollerblading. We were very well entertained. We all bought a bunch of zines, prints and books to take home to our special friends, and to read on the long ride back to Ontario.
I hope that we can return to Chicago in June for CAKE, the yearly comic art festival! And maybe next time we visit for the Zine Fest we won’t miss the free karaoke and vegan ice cream party at a vintage book store — whut!? Right?
photos by: Andrea Manica & Erin Oh