Mono-Printing / Zinefest

At the SPX last month I picked up a flier for the Richmond Zine Fest. Having no prior knowledge of the fest, knowing little to nothing about Richmond, and with mini-comics piled up, the Vagabonds headed two hours due south of DC for adventure. I had never made what I considered a "zine" before, but during the week, in a fit of middle of the night dreaming, I realized that this blog thing could be organized, jazzed up, and turned to print. The organization was pretty easy. Microsoft Word and I got along pretty decently, and the copy machine only gave me a few minor headaches. Still, the book looked kind of dull. Arting up the cover was something that sprang to mind, though I don't readily have access to screen printing materials these days. With an old 45 from my brother's abandoned collection, a brush, and a tub of screen ink I went to work.

Pretty easy to do with only a minor mess. The 45 (The Other Ones - Holiday) will likely never spin again, but my books were complete. Folks at the fest reacted well to the vinyl-file content, the snazzy covers, and the VVers had they-selves a true zine. Records; is there nothing they can't do? Up to this point my love of 45s had been pretty low, mostly due to the fact that I always feel like I have to get up to change the record the moment I have sat down. Even recent acquisitions by local DC band “The Shirks” have done little to dull my pain in this department (nothing personal The Shirks, but how about a full length already?). Using a slab of forgotten vinyl to make a project come together really was an unexpected delight.

Several books were swapped and a good time was had by the zinesters.

P.S. Richmond is a super sweet town. Laid back and collegiate, there are heaps of things to do. We found our way to Deep Groove Vinyl after the fest and the friendly owner had a sidewalk sale going on to benefit the local park. Twenty-five cent records (which he eventually made free for a donation to the park fund) netted us a stack of gems. Reviews to come soon...

Thanks Richmond!


P.P.S. Making a zine really got us to look over the blog again and do some cleaning up. Sloppy editing? None more...we hopes.