This past weekend, I went on a spur of the moment trip with my friend Silvia to the San Francisco Zine Fest!

I will admit it, I’m not really all that zine savvy…I knew what they were, but I hadn’t been exposed to the culture and I’m so glad I was.

For those of you who don’t know about Zines, here’s an explanation here. There weren’t just zines at the fair, there were actually illustrations, books, stickers, buttons, and other crafts being sold. The thing about zines is that, in general, only a few are created by the artist (usually they are self-published) and they are either very cheap or given away for free. I saw many zines that were raunchy in nature, some that were political, some that were goofy, and some that were fact-based. The following people at the Fest caught my eye 🙂

Andrew’s work caught my eye (of course)! His Ogner Stump zines, books, and stickers were reminded me of old movie poster art. I love the simplicity of color and personality of his characters. Also stopped by the Giant Robot store and saw his work in there as well.

Stopped by the Fun Chicken booth and purchased one of these great Hero Land zines. I am going to send this to a friend who will really enjoy it. It’s so funny…kinda the behind the scenes of what super heroes do in their daily life. This zine is by Esther Pearl Watson…her illustrations are always on the last page of Bust. So cool to see the connection!

Loved Marisa Falco’s work of Miss Sequential. She had a cute, retro style. Definitely girly and witty! She was doing drawings for only a dollar, so I had her draw me as Betty Draper of Mad Men.

Finally, I stopped by Everybody Get Up’s booth. They were so nice and had a lot of cool street + pop culture art. They were doing portraits for 25¢. Can you believe that? That’s one of their things…they love art and want to make it accessible for everyone. I had an illustration made for a friend, so I can’t share it just yet. They were fun…I enjoyed talking to them!

Hope this gives you a little more clue into the Zine scene and that world. It was a really great and unexpected day and I had a great time with Silvia! We have a lot in common and had so much fun chatting!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa