Zine Fest

4 minute read

One of my goals for 2025 was to “table” at a creative event. Enter Zine Fest, hosted by Zine and Heard, an opportunity for youth-in-care to sell their creative wares with the support of their community.

Now, you may be thinking, Lisa you are not a youth in care, and that is true. Thankfully, this festival is open to zine creators of all backgrounds, and has a low barrier to entry. Perfect for me!

I treated it like a craft fair–something I have experience in–and spent 3 months early in the year creating and copying enough zines to make a good show.

I approached this opportunity and event in two ways:

1. It scratched an itch for a personal creative project, and gave me a firm date to align with my creative goals for the year.
2. Its alignment with the values, vision, and mission of Not Ladylike Community to meet new people and build community.

THE EVENT

My table mate cancelled at the last minute so I got to spread out. The free postcards were a hit, and I answered a lot of questions about Crafternoon and Not Ladylike thanks to the posters and event schedule I displayed.

It got really hot in the space, and it was super busy, which aggravated mine and others’ public spaces anxiety. I heard that from a few folks who stopped at my table, and I think the festival suffered for it. I hate complaining about the amount of visitors, because hopefully that just meant everyone sold a lot of zines!

My table was at the end of the loop, next to the zine-making station, which saw very steady attendance for the whole fair. What can I say, people love putting stickers on paper. And it gave the organization hosting this (Cherry Pit) a nice audience to share their message with.

Three friends came by to say hi and support me, which was such a nice surprise! I sometimes forget that people care about me and want to help me out. One of them snapped this sweet photo of me and my table.

MY ZINES

I created 11 zines in time for the event, and while I had a few printing misshaps, had copies of all to sell.

The most popular one for folks to grab when they approached my booth was “My Little Sister Hates Me”, but it had low sales once people looked at it. I thought “Dead Mom’s Club” would be more popular, but the folks who did buy it seemed to genuinely connect with the subject matter.

All of the zines I made were either “for me” on a topic I am interested in, or “for community”, giving easy tips for community building. I don’t have a favourite, but I am excited or proud about each of them for a different reason.

• The art in “My Little Sister Hates Me” was so much fun to create.
• “Learning [and Doing] Boundaries” helped me work through a big decision I made in 2024 (cancelling Not Ladylike Hikes).
• The art in “Feelings Map” was also fun to create, and I felt very accomplished when I finally got it printed correctly!
• The four “How To Build A Better World” issues are my way to share some of my community-building knowledge and skills with the world in a fun, creative, easy-to-digest way.
• I would like to continue making issues of “Crafternoon Feelings and Feedback” as a way to celebrate Crafternoon attendees and advertise.
• “Mother’s Day Sucks” and “Dead Moms Club” were cathartic.
• And finally, “Jasper After” allowed me to combined photos, painted collage, and a story, stretching my creative muscles.

You can buy any of these zines through my “online store” or in person at a Not Ladylike Community event. I still have a few copies of each, and sales help me pay for my website and domain registration. Thanks for your support!