Check out Brendan Kiefer’s website here and be sure to stop by his table to pick up Pissy Pants #1 & #2!

How did you become interested in zines?
My interest in zines stems from my interest in comics. I appreciate the notion that art shouldn’t be something only the wealthy can afford but should be something that you can hold in your hand and have an intimate experience with.

Why do you like zines?
Zines are full of endless possibility. They can tell stories, they can tell jokes, they can say nothing at all. I find the intersection between ideas and physical reality to be a disconcerting and ellating place.

Why do you create zines?

I’d like to think it has to do with decluttering the information and biases floating around in my brain. Plus, having control over something — no matter how small brings satisfaction.

What is the concept behind your zine/zines? The world is a crazy place. I want to make a tiny little pond to reflect in.

What new projects are you working on this year? Pissy Pants #2, a collection of horrible cat comics, and some collaborations with friends under the moniker “Hats & Belts.”

What made you decide to participate in 2012 Zine Fest Houston?
Stubbornness. How could I let something like that go on without me?

What are your favorite zines/minicomics/etc?
I thought that “Incinerator” by Michael Deforge was a pretty good testament to justifying his recent popularity — though I guess it might be a stretch to call it a minicomic since it’s not self-published. I also thought Stiff Whiff / Tranquil Time by John Hankiewicz and Onsmith was a pretty gorgeous little book.

What other creative ventures do you have besides making zines? Since I live in Austin, I naturally play in a couple bands. I also enjoy painting when I have the time – that’s what I got a degree in.

How long have you been creating zines? I’ve been drawing all my life but have really only gotten into zine-making in the past couple years.

What is something you think people should know about DIY in Houston?
Zines are people too.

What made you decide to participate in 2012 Zine Fest Houston?

I’ve visited Zine Fest Houston in previous years and this year, I’m thrilled to add my own twist to the mix.  I’m a Book Artist, meaning I’m a bookbinder, a hand papermaker, collector, teacher, designer, re-purposer, writer, and generally love anything/everything involving paper and the printed word.

What will be on your table at this year’s Zine Fest?

I’m creating interactive book formats for ziners who want a prompt they can grab and run with—bound sketchbooks featuring vintage pages from 1920’s encyclopedias with panels left blank for the artist’s own creations.  Other zine book formats of mine will contain mysterious old black and white photos with space to write your own captions or a short story. I’ve also got some cool graffiti sequences I photographed in Europe that need a narrative to tell their tale.  Kind of like ‘Mad Libs’ for the madly imaginative.

I’ve combined my love of vintage ephemera, ancient bookbinding techniques, and modern non-sensibilities to create unique blank books and zines that are beautiful, touchable, and adaptable to your own creative needs.

Why does self-publishing appeal to you?

I love the idea that we can take our one-of-a-kind ideas to an Epson printer and, behold, we can multiply them for the masses!  I’ll have a few of my very limited edition books on hand, too. I love old library book discards. I get a kick out of rescuing the often lovely illustrations inside and re-interpreting them to fit my own storytelling needs.  Sometimes the book’s cover is just too good to lose so I’ll rebind it into a blank book. And sometimes the whole book inspires a whole new venture.  I’m a big believer in re-inventing oneself and that philosophy is carried out in my handmade books as well.

What is your favorite part of Zine Fests?

Being with other people who “get” what you are doing! We can skip the long explanations and get right to that collaborative spirit that inspires us to share our creations with others.

What other creative ventures do you have besides making zines?

I teach bookbinding at the Museum of Printing History, The Papershell Garden Gallery, and for special events such as the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Summer Camp.  I enjoy making everyday objects into books and making books into everyday objects! Check out my website to see my recent custom and “rebound” book projects, then please click on a link to visit my Domestic Papers etsy.com shop with my very newest books.

Check out her table at Zine Fest Houston this year!

Why do you create zines?

I started making zines about 1 1/2 years ago as a way to keep myself from total overwhelm of a tricky mix of anxiety and boredom. Making zines makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile with my time, something I can share with other people and get a sense of personal satisfaction. Whenever I feel like I’m wasting my life or I feel listless or too anxious, I put on a tv show and start drawing and writing. It’s so exciting to finish a set of zines and give them to people.

What is the concept behind your zine/zines?

I think someone described my zines one time as dripping with self-deprecation which I sort of took as a compliment. They’re largely self-centered, indulgent, and a bit silly really, but I make them primarily for my own fulfillment not for an audience. A lot of people seem to make super cool amazing zines with hip art that seem pretty marketable but my zines are just a by-product of my coping method. My art focused zines revolve around a certain topic (for instance: the idea of being “dateable”). Only recently have I started making more writing based zines, which center around the four seasons. I try to pick a few themes in my life during the said season and reflect on the events.

What new projects are you working on this year?

I really want to make a zine called “I Hope You Die in A Fire And Other Love Stories” about the people I’ve dated etc. But I would never want it to fall into the wrong hands so I guess I will just make it for myself.

What will be on your table at this year’s zine fest?

The zine I’ve recently made that I’m most excited about is a zine about my trip to London. I spent a lot of time working on it and it has really good stories about my time in the UK with my family who just moved there. I also have a guide to cheap eats in Houston that I put a lot of love in to, mostly just because I love to go out to eat. You can have a good meal for under $10 at every restaurant I listed. I also have the first 3 installments of my quarterly zine, Girl Afraid, which is hugely self-absorbed and a little embarrassing but I tell a lot of personal stories.

What is something you think people should know about DIY in Houston?

Wise advice about DIY culture from a naive 22 year old: First, if you think there’s nothing cool about Houston, you’re just not looking in the right places. Second, the more you put in to your community the more you get back. For instance, I used to think there were not many political people in Houston, but as I put more personally into local politics, the more I got out of it. Same with art, spirituality, music etc. If you are dissatisfied with your community, maybe you need to start changing your behavior first.

Why does self-publishing appeal to you?

I like self-publishing because it is the anti-thesis of everything I learned in business school. I never think about profit when I make zines. I do think about the cool zines I will get to trade and how inspired I will be by other people’s works. I like bartering and I like making something expecting nothing in return. It’s the opposite of a market system. It’s nice not to worry about maximizing profits, or increasing efficiency in production, or marketing a product (can you tell I take a lot of business classes?).  Bet you wouldn’t guess from all this talk that I’m actually pretty conservative…!

 

Zine Fest Houston

“I am writing from the stand point that we are not being sold on this cookie cutter idea of how we are supposed to look, act, dress, and be.”

Noel will be one of our tablers this year. Check out her flickr page here for samples of her work.

Why do you create zines?

In kindergarten my teacher stapled together little blank books with construction paper covers. Whenever we had free time I would take a book from the box and fill it with stories and drawings. Any type of book has always made the most sense to me as a space for my work. Sketchbooks are of course essential, but when the book is reproducible and shareable, that’s when it becomes really fun.

Why do you like love zines? I love books, I love small things, I love looking at other peoples’ drawings, I love collecting things, I love hand-made things, I love making things, I love the community/collaborating, I love how innovative you can be when it comes to content, materials used, binding, etc. 



What is something you’re looking forward to about the 2012 zine fest Houston?

I’ve only tabled at Staple! in Austin so far, so I’m excited to meet different people and see a bunch of new work and experience the culture of a different zine fest. Also hopefully visiting Houston’s Domy for the first time, and seeing one of my favorite friends.


What are your favorite zines/minicomics/etc?

I am drawn to experimental art/drawing that takes risks and is innovative as well as graphite drawings and printmaking processes. Unfortunately my book collection is temporarily packed away so I will inevitably forget something, but the ones that come to mind are Christina and Charles by Austin English, Goodness by Mel Stringer, Boys Club by Matt Furie, Jin & Jam by Hellen Jo. And I’m going to stop there because I could just go on forever…man I am not looking forward to suddenly remembering all the amazing books I forgot here.

What new projects are you working on this year?

I graduate from Southwestern University with an art degree in December, so I am taking advantage of access to the printshop and making intaglio, relief and litho prints, and drinking lots of coffee to be able to fit comic making in with that. I’m constantly drawing in my sketchbook so those drawings will be included in future zines. I have a story/drawings for my next comic in an embryonic state.

What is the concept behind your zine/zines?

I have many long hours of drawing and writing ahead of me to discover that. Honestly I struggle with disciplining myself and my work ethic but I do know that I was born with a passionate desire to put my drawings in little books, and that zine and comic making is not an endeavor that can be accomplished with intermittent bouts of work. So I guess right now my zines deal with the themes of anxiety, low brow humor, and more anxiety.

Below you’ll find an interview with poster/comic/zine creator Mitch Clem. There is also a Wikipedia page about him.

How did you become interested in zines?

I’d gotten into punk rock somewhere in my early teens, and, from there, the transition to zines is pretty natural. It started as would be expected, Maximumrockandroll, Flipside, Punk Planet (realizing now I’m dating myself a bit, as only one of those is even still published). But the zine that really changed things for me was Cometbus. Not even sure how specifically I got into it other than it’s just sort of the ubiquitous punk-lit zine, but the first time I read it I was just floored by how much it resonated with me as a writer, and the handwritten pages instilled in me for the first time just how approachable the zinemaking process was. Even though now everything I make is comics, I still consider Cometbus a huge inspiration.

What is your favorite part of zine fests?

Oh my god you guys I’ve never been to one before! Since all my self-publishing to speak of has been comics, and I’ve made friends with some other cartoonists, we’d always just go to comic book conventions. Which, you know, doesn’t really cater to anything I’m about or anything my art is about. That world’s more “hey look at my drawing of an impossibly-proportioned mostly-nude woman holding a light saber in a provocative fashion” type stuff. And, I mean this in the nicest, most open-minded way possible, that shit completely fucking sucks. Eventually I made a cartoonist friend who also makes comics about punk rock and she told me to go to some zine fests or indie expos, and that I’d have a better time. And then this one happened and I got excited! Is there gonna be a ton of Star Wars stuff or what?

What new projects are you working on this year?

Right now Amanda and I are working tirelessly to finish issue #2 of Turnstile Comix, starring a very very exciting band that we’re keeping secret as of right now. That is taking up ALL our time. But I have recently started curating the first issue of a project called As You Were, which is a zine comprised entirely of comics by punk rock cartoonists/comickers. Assuming everyone turns in their submissions on time, the first issue should be out soon! Aside from that, the usual stuff: I still do Nothing Nice to Say, my webcomic about punk rock stuff, with my friend and co-writer Joe Briggs, and I still do the autobiographical comic My Stupid Life with my girlfriend and watercolorerist Nation of Amanda which appears in every issue of Razorcake magazine. I also bought some wild berry Pop Tarts, which I feel like should be super amazing and exciting but really taste almost indiscernable from the cherry ones except that the icing is a way more fun color. Oh, and I started making my own cold press coffee, but I’m not gonna bring that to the fest or anything, that’s just for me.

What will be on your table at this year’s zine fest?

The best thing will be the debut issue of my new series, Turnstile Comix, where we adapt a band’s craziest road stories into a comic book that comes with a 7″ by the band. The first issue stars Minneapolis punk rock quartet the Slow Death (featuring members of Pretty Boy Thorson and the Falling Angels and the Ergs). Issue two should be out pretty soon, though doubtfully soon enough to have for the zine fest. I also made a zine collection of some of the recent incarnation of my webcomic Nothing Nice to Say. I may also bring the Nothing Nice to Say book, but maybe not? Oh, and I made some shirts making fun of crust punks which I might bring because it’s printed on organic, cruelty-free, USA union-made cotton shirts, so the crusters can’t even get mad about them. It’s not like they’re made out of plastic bags, ya know? I’m rambling. Are you guys getting dizzy too or is that just me?

How long have you been creating zines?

I started my first zine in high school (late 90s). It was called Summer’s Over. I published ten issues over the course of five years and then retired it when I eventually started doing the webcomic Nothing Nice to Say. From there it was all webcomics for a number of years, but over the past couple years I’ve regained a passion of actual print stuff, and have shifted most of my focus there. Boy it sure takes longer to fill a whole bunch of pages of drawings than it does to just scribble out three panels at a time a couple days out of the week! Yeesh.