10 Dec East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest

Yesterday I attended the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine fest to table for my zine PISSWIFE. I had tabled at various zine events in the Netherlands before, and last summer I attended SF Zine Fest as well.

The zine community is nice because zines are a space where activism, personal stories and creativity come together. I feel like compared to Amsterdam, the zine community is much bigger here in the Bay Area. At the zine fair a lot of people already knew each other and were very excited to be reunited with their old friends. The people who were tabling there had a lot of new stuff on show and were very curious to see what new stuff their fellow zine makers had on display.

Zine culture is especially liberating because there are a wide variety of zines and there is always something you can relate to. There are a lot of fanzines, for when you’re interested in a fan culture of a specific movie, tv-series, comic book or video game you are obsessed with. There are a lot of zines about more personal identities like gender identity or ethnic groups, often also touching upon the political dimensions of these identities.

Besides my zine Pisswife, I can definitely recommend zines like IvyRoseZines, who makes comics about her daily life and the people she loves, or Breenache who makes comics about her Afro-Latinx identity and experiences.