S.F. Zine Fest: Homage to little worlds on paper
Peering into the multi-platform media miasma of the ’10s, it can be tough to see where zines — and their rampaging girl gangs, gay bear wrestlers and outbreaks of camel toe — fit in amid the blogs, Pins, Instagrams, YouTube channels, Tumblrs, GIFs and Vines.Yet for a lonely Liz Mayorga, zines became a very tangible way to meet like-minded souls after moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. At the urging of a co-worker, she checked out S.F. Zine Fest about five years ago and tumbled head over heels for those myriad handmade worlds sandwiched between copy paper and staples.“I fell in love with what I saw,” says the San Francisco resident, 32. “It basically shut down any fear I had about creating.” Mayorga began to write and illustrate her own zines: coming-of-age yarns related to her day job with middle-schoolers with titles like “Outgrowing Plastic Dolls” and “Inked,” the latter about “realizing that small-town Mexico is probably not a good place to show off your tattoos.” Today, she’s also S.F. Zine Fest’s co-director. With about 140 zine makers and small-press artists and writers convening to show, sell, trade and support each other’s zines — along with workshops; spotlights on zine stars Hellen Jo, Ryan Sands and Tomas Moniz; and panels such as “Creating Feminist Spaces in DIY Culture” concerning hacker/maker zones — it’s clear that hard-copy booklets aren’t the only mode of connection here. “Before the Internet and social media, zines were a way to connect with people throughout the country and, really, the world,” says Mayorga, who compares them to records. Social media may have taken hold, but the trading publications by mail and “face-to-face” events like Zine Fest are still a crucial part of the support system. “It's nice to get something in the mail that isn’t a bill,” she says.Moniz, 45, is familiar with zines’ pre-Internet heyday: He’s worked on DIY publications like Slingshot in the past. These days his Rad Dad is gathering acclaim, scoring the Independent Media Award for Best Zine from the magazine Utne Reader. “In some ways, I give zines a lot of credit for both inspiring me and sometimes saving me,” says the Berkeley City College instructor, who gets his students to make their own. “I started Rad Dad, inspired by other people doing zines about issues like feminism and zines like Hip Mama about parenting. I'm a much better parent and person because of it.” Zine-making has been equally transformative for Mayorga, who now works as a graphic designer. “That’s the beauty, too,” she says. “You do something you like, not for profit, but you end up taking up a lot of skills in the process. It takes you to unexpected places.”Oh, the places Kimberly Chun’ll go in the East Bay. E-mail: Twitter: @kimberlychun