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antiquatedfuture · 5 years ago

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Antiquated Future Holiday Newsletter Of Zine-Like Delights

First off: We just made our 2019 bestsellers list! (We love lists.) Of the over 600 different items in our shop, these are the 20 zines, 10 albums, 5 books, and 5 miscellany things that sold the most. In other news: We now have all our favorite calendars & planners in stock, we're having a temporary store-wide cassette sale (that also includes a decent handful of LPs and CDs, as well), a zine sale on select titles, and we're restocking things every single day. In terms of holiday stuff: We'll be sending orders most days until December 23rd. We'll also be tabling here in Portland, Oregon at Publication Fair on December 22nd, for all your last-minute gift needs. And, if you can, please support the many fine brick and mortar stores that sell Antiquated Future goods. Oh, also: we just celebrated our 11-year anniversary! Thanks (as always) for supporting what we do and making it possible to continue this long. We're so grateful.

NEW ZINES Cat Party #2- Essays and comics about cats. Highlight: a wild, long-form fairytale cat comic from Dame Darcy of MeatCake fame! ($3) Cat Party #3: The Collectible Cat- An entire Cat Party issue about cat collectibles. TV lamps, cross-stich samplers, bone-China mugs, and the stories behind their existence. ($3) Country Songs For Driverless Trucks- A second short collection of short poems from Murder City Devils' frontman Spencer Moody. Playful, silly, occasionally gruesome. ($5) Delicate Pipes- A distilled personal history of digestive issues. Coming at the material from a variety of different approaches and interspersing collage work, Delicate Pipes is part personal zine, part art object. ($7)

DRIVEL #1- It's finally here: the new zine from our all-time best-selling zinester, Gina Sarti! Welcome to DRIVEL, her new zine series, an old-school variety zine in all its glory ($5) Eulalia #2- A gorgeous little zine dedicated to friends dealing with grief and to a late great cat. Words and images in tribute, in support, in mourning. ($5) Lullaby for the Drowned- A heartfelt, compact zine from Jonas (Fixer Eraser, We the Drowned, a million other great zine series). ($1)

Mugs- A mug-shaped zine about mugs called, simply, Mugs. Collecting them, loving them, stories about them. ($4) Pro Wrestling Feelings #7- The latest issue of everyone's favorite wrestling zine. A cool deep-dive for wrestling fans and a curious peek into a very specific subculture for everyone else. Comes with two wrestling DVDs! ($10)

Radical Domesticity Zine Gift Pack- All current issues of the ever-lovable Radical Domesticity, wrapped up and stuffed full of extras. Comes with a handmade card, a double-sided fortune teller. Nicely wrapped, tied with a bow. ($20) Self-Guide- An illustrated series of "ten guiding principles" from Portland zinester and comic artist Michelle Zellers. Inspiring, useful, aesthetically pleasing. ($4) Shared Sentiments- A visually lovely, simple, straightforward zine that brings a lot of joy. The perfect little gift for the person in your life who likes perfect little things. ($4) Terrestrial Invaders- A series of encyclopedic entries written as though insects are constantly at war with humans. So good and weird and fun. ($1.50) What's a Per-Zyne?- An introduction to the personal zine (by way of a big box, full of zines, opened decades ago). ($1)

NEW CALENDARS & PLANNERS

2020 Famous Faces Calendar- Paintings of legends from across the musical map: soul to country, garage rock to jazz, surf to folk revival, and beyond. From Shana "Crawdad" Cleveland, from La Luz and Shana Cleveland & The Sandcastles. ($8) 2020 Justseeds & Eberhardt Press Organizer- A stunning planner, unlike any other. Each month features a full-color, politically-minded spread from a different Justseeds artist. (Pocket & Planner-Size) ($15 & $18) 2020 Lunar Phase Calendar Poster- The lunar phases among night-blooming flowers. ($18)

NEW STICKERS Cat In Mirror Sticker- Some mirror time. For all self-appreciation states and existential crises. ($1) Deth P. Sun Sticker Pack- Five stickers from comic artist extraordinaire Deth P. Sun, detailing the adventures of a cat-like creature traversing fantasy realms. ($4) I See It All Surfer Cat Sticker- Good eyes, on a surfboard. ($1) Pumpkin Patch Sticker- Cute ghosts, black cat, pumpkin patch. ($1)

NEW POSTCARDS Home is a Feeling Postcard- The feeling of home. Perfect for all wanderers. From letterpress artist Hope Amico. ($3) Keep Writing Postcard Pack- An assortment of postcards from letterpress artist Hope Amico and her long-running Keep Writing postcard project. Get yourself a pack of five or a pack of ten. You won't regret it. (5 for $10, 10 for $20) What Have You Got To Lose Postcard- A handsome letterpressed tooth. ($3) You Are Your Only Critic Postcard- An ever-important letterpressed reminder. ($3)

NEW BOOKS All Friends Are Necessary- A new novella from Tomas Moniz, one of our all-time favorite writers. ($12) NEW MISCELLANY Raven Notepad- A raven, looking cool and spooky. On a notepad. ($4) Zine Fest Bingo- One perforated sheet of four bingo cards to play during those long days at zine fests and events. A lot of fun for those who love zine culture. ($2)

NEW MUSIC Adam Lipman- The Slouch- An absolute gem of low-key indie rock. A casual croon over warm tones, a rhythm section moseying sweetly along, feeling good. Musical contributions from David-Ivar Herman Düne and Franklin Bruno (Nothing Painted Blue, The Extra Lens). (cassette tape) ($8) Failed Flowers- Faces- Led by Anna Burch and Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me, City Center), Failed Flowers is an overlooked supergroup of power-pop perfection. Released on Slumberland, as part of their 30th anniversary seven-inch series. (7" + digital download) ($8) Half Shadow- Dream Weather Its Electric Song- Long one of Portland's best kept secrets, Half Shadow makes dream narratives into softly psychedelic minimalist dark-folk anthems. (LP or cassette tape) ($8 & $15)

Haunted & Comme À La Radio- Split LP- A split LP of "not noise, not music, not poetry" from Haunted and Comme À La Radio, two artists pushing boundaries. Spoken word cut-up broken-sound collage. (LP) ($20) Lisa Schonberg- UAU: Music for Percussion- From ace percussionist Lisa Schonberg (Secret Drum Band, Kickball, Explode Into Colors) comes a song cycle made at "the intersection of art, ecology, entomology, and bioacoustics." (CD) ($7) Strange Parts & Ogikubo Station- Split Tape- A split between psych-poppers Strange Parts and punky power-pop band Ogikubo Station (Mike Park of Asian Man Records and Maura Weaver of Boys). (cassette + digital download) ($8) Various Artists- Dreamlife: A Summer Mixtape to Benefit Womanly Mag- A benefit compilation full of gifts: synth-pop, bedroom-folk, post-punk, hip-hop, electro-pop, and many things in between. (cassette + digital download) ($8)

NEWS *In addition to the wonderful novella above, Tomas Moniz just released his first full-length novel, Big Familia, on University of Chicago Press. *For all you zine readers and creators who have opinions: Quimby's Books zine queen Liz Mason is conducting a zine survey, as part of a bigger project. Make your voice a part of it!

*On January 2nd, we’ll be kicking off a new series at Powell’s City of Books called First Word. We’ll be curating a night of readings and music in the biggest indie bookstore in the world! Very exciting. Free and open to the public. See you there. Until next year, Antiquated Future

#holiday newsletter #new zines #new music #2020 calendars #2020 planners

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believexfanzine · 5 years ago

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Emmanuel Jasmin of DELUSION OF TERROR RECORDS

(Manila, Philippines)

April 2015/Believe Fanzine issue #4

[email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/dotrecordsdistroph03

instagram: dotrecordsph

Kamusta Emman? What made you want to start a label? How was the first release?

Hi Rann! All is well. Just finish listening to Feral Trash 'Trashfiction'LP. Awesome stuff,i highly recommend it. Regarding the label,the label started out after me and my younger brother went on a small South East Asian tour back in 2003. It started out as a distro at first since i've acquired a lot of Hc punk titles from those places i've visited. The label part was born a couple of months after with the idea of releasing local and foreign bands that i like. The 1st official release came out as a collaboration with friends from the now defunct Take 4 Collective. That was the Vitamin X "Pissed Off" CD back in 2005, since the band was currently on tour in the region at that time. Working with friends make things more easier and less complicated so to speak.

Since that time, where have you looked for inspiration and guidance in running the label? How much have your ideals and views changed since the beginning of it all?

Running the label is more of a trial and error thing for me. It has been a learning curve for sure. One thing i learned about running the label is that you need to have a steady source of income to finance it, in other words you need to have a regular job. Since i consider the label more of a hobby, I always save up money from my work to keep the financial side of the label active and current. I dont rely much on label/distro sales to finance or cover up the cost of running the label. There are expenses that will surely arise when you least expect it. So the best way for me to deal with it is to allocate some of my personal earnings which would serve as the backbone of the label/distro finances. So far i was able to manage it. I always keep in mind that the main reason why the label got started is to release bands that i LIKE regardless if its going to sell or not, at least I'm able to see something materialize out of the band's hard work. That is more than enough for me.

Along with the label, you've obviously expanded your focus beyond just local bands and included mostly bands from Asia. What made you focus on such area?

As previously mentioned my idea of starting the label is to release bands that i like. So i dont confine my releases to just local bands. I do think that there are tons of good bands out there that needs to be heard beyond our waters. I believe that we should keep an active and open communication with neighboring scenes in our region. Doing co releases with other labels/bands outside our country is a good way to promote our own scene to them,the same goes with their scene to us. Having our own releases being available in other countries means a lot as well. It's more of a mutual cooperation.

How did you start connecting with bands outside your own country?

I started being in contact with bands outside our country thru zine writing and tape trading. Prior to me having a label/distro i used to edit my own fanzine called Resist To Exist. Thru my zine i was able to reach out to various zinester outside our local scene. It gives me a better perspective / insight to know whats going on beyond our own scene at that time.

In relation to the previous question, how do you choose the bands that you want to release/ co-relase or distro?

Before i join a particular release i always make sure that i like the band. That's the most important thing. Music & lyric wise should be appealing to me. I want the band to be part of the label for the right reasons, at the same time most of the bands i work with are the ones i have an affinity with. As for the distro titles,same thing. I always carry titles that i like. I often distribute bands that have made an impression or impact on me. The distro part pretty much describes my musical taste.

Doing record label over the years, what's your stand in this digital age with free download of music from the internet and at the same time vinyl records started to increase its demand?

It always goes down to the listener if they ought to get thier music online for free or buy the actual physical copies. To each thier own. If you think that it would be more convenient to just download the music online and just pop it on your ipod or whatever devices you have then feel free to do it. Maximize the technology you have but i do hope that you'll be able to get something out of it. Whatever floats your boat.

As for Vinyl records making a huge comeback,it's kinda like a double edge sword. It's good in a sense that a lot of bands are able to release their stuff in that format and it's one of the many ways to properly document thier recorded material which is great. The only problem that im seeing is that the prices of vinyl records are getting more expensive. Expensive in a sense that there those who would sell a particular release higher than the normal price. I mean i dont have a problem if you make money out of your label releases as long as you do it fair & square. What i dont really like are the bootleg copies which are being sold at insane prices. Just because this release was done in a limited pressing doesn't justify the idea of selling it 5x times the original price when it 1st came out. A bootleg is a bootleg.

What is your favorite thing about running Delusion of Terror Records/Distro?

The thing i like most about running the label is being able to release bands that i love and adore. It's an awesome feeling working with bands that you strongly believe in. Helping them spread thier releases to a wide array of folks and getting positive & not so good feedback makes you want to strive more and work harder for future projects.

Do you think the future is still bright in the Philippine hardcore punk scene?

The local scene is pretty much alive and kicking and it still has a lot to offer in my opinion.There are a lot of good bands here that are worth checking out. We just need to go over the extra mile to further boost our scene here. If a band releases a demo or zine maker has new issue out go buy and pick a copy. If someone puts on a show always pay the required entrance fee and dont fuck things up. Small stuff like these definitely helps the scene. Complaining and whining about everything you despise about the scene wont do you any good if your not doing anything to help or rectify the situation. Talk without action equates to nothing.

What advice can you give to kids who want to start a label/distro?

- If you’re going to do a particular release always try to check which format suits your budget so you can plan it well.

-Release bands that you strongly believe in.

- Always do a test print of the cover/sleeve of your releases to ensure that you have the right information,same goes with the proper length & width of the layout before sending them to the printing press.

-Feel free to trade your own releases with other label/distros. It helps spread the label name and it promotes the bands as well.

Maraming Salamat Emman! Where can we check out your distro and releases?

Thanks Rann for the interview, appreciate the support. All the best with your upcoming projects. Mabuhay ka!

For updates regarding the label/distro you can check the following pages. Thank you for reading and have a good day! :)

#delusionofterror #manilahardcorepunk

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sticky-institute · 7 years ago

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Travel Diary: Zinefest Christchurch, by Bryce Galloway

I used to go to all of New Zealand’s annual zinefests, but now that there’s six of them (!?!?) I only go to my hometown zinefests - Hamilton/Wellington, and one other, in strict rotation. I’m weird like that, just ask my friends.

Last time I was here (2013) I was in a lonely hotel on the edge of Cathedral Square, telling the assembled locals to go zine, cos it was one of the best cultural vehicles for a city lacking infrastructure. Christchurch (Ōtautahi) was post-quake. Christchurch is still post-quake, just a little less so.

This time round I’m staying with friend, artist, musician and Content Manager at inde radio station RDU - Gemma Syme. I slept on Gemma’s coach, until drunken friends and flatmates woke me with their banter and late-night fry-up. I listened to the drunken Pakeha boys try and argue their iwi (tribal) status with the Māori girls. What, with the sleeping bag over my head, I totally missed that one of the boys in question was friend and zinester Spencer Hall. Once they’d left I got up and checked they’d turned the oven off. Those, “don’t drink and fry” ads, ya know?

I see nobody from Christchurch Zinefest 2013 at the 2017 event. This must be a completely new local zine spasm. However, Christchurch’s ongoing love of the risograph and the influence of designer/art school lecturer Luke Wood are still present, extended by Jane Maloney’s riso press (M/K Press Ltd) and her pre-Zinefest riso-zine workshops.

Christchurch Art Centre are providing this space by virtue of the fact that they have a zinester in their ranks - Louise Sutherland. Otherwise, Alice Bush is the primary organizer of this year’s event.

Louise’s zines precede her. She be the author of the wonderful Coaster Frenzy, here today for just “$1 or swaps”. Alice and I gush our respective roller coaster stories at the Coaster Frenzy author. Alice has the world’s highest rollercoaster under her belt. I have the world’s highest vertical-drop rollercoaster under mine, which is surprising, I HATE heights. I launch into the Dead Kennedy’s rollercoaster disaster anthem Funland at the Beach, and later kick myself for the inappropriateness of that song in the context of post-quake Christchurch!!!

Louise says she feels privileged to have been part of the Christchurch rebuild, “It’s a moment in history. How many of those do we get to share.” Louise contends that Christchurch art and music have benefitted from the quakes; that a formerly closed scene, full of hierarchies, is now open to all players. That’s very ziney. It’s a sentiment echoed in issue two of the riso music journal Cheap Thrills (at Zinefest with editor - Erin Kimber). In the opening article - On the Value of Music - Matt Scobie writes, “I believe these events allowed or encouraged us to break free of the shackles of competitive individualism driven by exchange values and start acknowledging the importance of seeing the Ōtautahi music community as a synergetic whole…”

Hey, there’s Cameron from riso design journal Strips Club. His Strips Club collaborator’s moved to Berlin. Maybe there won’t be another volume of Strips Club. “Awe, do a White Fungus.” I encourage. “Berlin/Chch to their Taiwan/Wellington. Interview White Fungus’s Hanson brothers.” We talk politics, voting patterns, Winston Peters, the “king-maker” in post-election New Zealand. Cameron tells me about the massive Justice Building, that cynically opened for election season photo ops with members of the incumbent National party, closing again for ongoing construction as soon as the polling booths were shut.

I do the stall-holder circuit, it probably takes about an hour to get a reasonable handle on the qualities of the various zines on offer. All the zinesters are doing the same thing; doing the whole circuit before deciding how to spend their budget of $5, $10, or $20. I spend every cent that I make in sales of my own zine - Incredibly Hot Sex with Hideous People. I get all zinesters to sign their work.

There are approximately 20 stall-holders here according to Alice: Asian exchange students have written about racism against their own, David Merritt has his foldout poetry housed in upcycled books and banana box linings, there’s a zine from the Christchurch Women’s Centre, Spencer’s pop-up comics and satirical propaganda commands (Spencer also passes round a folded piece of paper for a comics jam on fictitious FX pedals), there are other inde comics, second hand books, witch zines, potion zines, stickers, handmade jewelry, cassettes, CD-zines, creative writing, sci fi stories, photo zines, travel zines, cat zines, music zines, even a zine about zines.

I sell more zines when I’m not on my stall than when I am there!?!? I’m not surprised, zine shopping is a potentially self-consciousness experience in the extreme. Where else do you examine someone’s art while they examine your face for signs of enjoyment, waiting for you to decide whether their art’s good enough to purchase. Imagine being installed next to your own gallery painting, with your hand out!? But that’s also the best thing about zinefest, you meet ALL the artists.

Bleeeurh! A bit tired and hungover now. Need coffee. The worst busker in the world sits in her wheelchair outside Bunsen Café warbling some churchy dirges over karaoke backing. Too good to be full-o-character, too bad to forgive her genre of choice.

My zinefest neighbor is a scrapbooker from the US, so I’m compelled to ask her if she thinks the scrapbooker kits one finds in art/stationary shops are a rip. Thankfully, she does. She appears to be afloat in NZ, not knowing if her art school back in the US will be restructured out of existence or not. Is looking to find an arts program in New Zealand.

Cameron of Strip Club packs up early. Bastard! Makes a huge hole in the wee zinefest presence/footprint.

I’m just not acclimatized to this Christchurch cold. They’ve put the Wellington guy in exactly the wrong place, by the draughty doorway. Locals chit chat in tee shirts while I hug myself, jacket zipped, hat pulled tight!?!?

I’m encouraging Louie of Dunedin Zinefest and Alice of Christchurch to get committees of helpers. They’re both currently running their zinefests solo!?!?

Spencer tells me to check out his story about NZ alt rock legend Bruce Russel being the alter-ego of NZ alt rock legend Martin Phillips, as printed in his Lyttelton Rotten Radio zine.

It’s nearly 5 PM. I pack up and make short work of my farewells so that I can catch a bus to the airport and relax knowing I’m in the right place for my flight back to Wellington.

Back home and checking the best of my haul:

Cheap Thrills Issue 2 - an elegant risographed volume of NZ music past and present

Wandering Wolves is a gorgeous riso, the very first zine of Prabha Mallya, made at one of the workshops leading up to zinefest. Poetic mix of tagged animal narrative, poetry, illustration, photo and collage.

Field Notes from The Crescent City – July 2017 “It’s a very efficient and sensible method of burial that ensures you can never ever escape your family, even in death.”

Louise Sutherland’s holiday snaps and memories of New Orleans (including its cemeteries), well enough written and photographed to transcend any photo album limitations

A Most Elusive Species – by Louise Sutherland’s brother Robert. Photo essay of seemingly empty zoo enclosures. A subtle variety to the picture-by-picture approach creating a rewarding sense of narrative.

Burn Out is a pun. Yes, there are cars, but the scars are not the result of spinning tyres but of the sun’s rays peeling the paint off that once proud finish - by Robert Sutherland.

The cutest wee Untitled zine that pitches it’s teensiness against clipped horror narratives from Greek myth.

Cuss Weird cussing birds. Inexplicable.

OX OX OX... a CDR economically clothed in a folded A3. Rockabilly are the first chords, with hints of Ramones and Stooges. Next song is quite different, same vocal stylings but over “Dunedin Sound” meets Fall repetition. In the zine, we’re regaled with some pretty compelling “um and ah” misadventures from the band’s singer. Now they play a kiwified Joy Division cover. Sweeet!

Strawberry Stories runs some loopy narrative logic, or lack thereof. And some nice red spot-colour on the strawberry coloured one, though s/he’s not actually a strawberry eh, s/he’s like a person with a tree growing outta their head!?!?

A Zine Fanzine Beautifully designed and laid out riso about zines. Tightened up my own understanding about the provenance of zines, though changes to conjecture when talking about post internet zines.

Misc - Excellent poems by Arwen Miriama Sommer. “Snow is built of feathers and birds are built of trees”

All About the Sex* The Christchurch Women’s Centre decide to distribute their newsletter at zinefest, so it’s a zine now. An intro to the Woman’s Centre and their weekly discussion forum, plus an intro to the Red Tent movement and editorial about aging women’s identity.

Rotten Radio Zine - Spencer Hall’s good at writing original meandering comedy nonsense about music and culture.

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houseofvans · 8 years ago

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Sketchy Behavior | Hellen Jo

Never afraid to speak and/or draw her mind, Los Angeles based artist and illustrator, Hellen Jo and her characters can be described as rough, vulgar, tough, jaded, powerful, bratty and bad-ass - AKA her own brand of femininity. Known for her comic Jin & Jam, and her work as an illustrator and storyboard artist for shows such as Steven Universe and Regular Show, Hellen’s rebellious, and sometimes grotesque artwork and illustrations are redefining Asian American women and women of color in comics. In fact, that’s why Hellen Jo was a must-interviewee for our latest Sketchy Behavior where we talk to her about her love of comics and zines, her antiheroines, and redefining what Asian American women identity is or can be; and what her ultimate dream project realized would be.

Tell folks a little about yourself. So is it Helllen with three “l”’s? Mainly because your IG handle and website has a whole lot of extra “l”’s?

Haha my actual name is Hellen with two L’s. All my emails and urls contain a different number of L’s to confuse everyone. My grandfather took my American name from the Catholic saint, but he spelled it wrong, and now I share the same name as the mythological progenitor of the Greek people. But I like it better than my Korean name, which literally means, “graceful water lily” HAHAHA. I am an illustrator-slash-painter-slash-I-don’t-know-what living and working in Los Angeles.

Let’s talk about your early childhood / background. I read you’re from San Jose, CA and both your folks were professors, which is really cool!! How did you end up making art instead of teaching a room full of students about Hotel Management or Medieval History? Just curious where you got your “creative bug” and what early comics, arts, and/or influences led you down the road to becoming an artist?

I grew up in South San Jose, and yes, both of my parents are professors, of finance and of applied linguistics. A lot of my extended family are professors too, so I grew up parroting their desire for academia, but really, I started drawing when I was a wee babe, and I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist. When I was really young, my parents drew for fun, really rarely; my dad could draw the shit out of fish and dogs, and my mom painted these really beautiful watercolor still lifes. I was fascinated, and I’d spend all my time drawing on stacks and stacks of dot matrix paper by myself. My parents also had a few art books around the house, and I remember staring so hard at a book of Modigliani nudes that my eyes burned holes through the pages.

What was the first comics you came across?

The first comics I ever got were translated mangas that were given to me by relatives when we’d visit Korea. I remember getting Candy Candy, a flowery glittery shojo manga for girls, and I was mesmerized by all the sparkly romance and starry huge eyes. I was also enthralled by Ranma ½, a gender bending teen manga that was equal parts cute art, cuss words, and shit too sexy for a kid my age. However, I was mostly thrilled that I could understand the stories with really minimal Korean reading skills, thus cementing a forever love of comics. In junior high and high school, I read a mix of newspaper strips and some limited manga, and I was enthralled with MTV cartoons “Daria” and “Aeon Flux”, but I wasn’t exposed to zines or graphic novels until I moved to Berkeley for college.

Did you have a first comic shop you haunted? What did you fill your comic art hunger with?

Being a super sheltered teen with not-great social skills, I was lonely my first semester, so I would lurk at Cody’s Books and Comic Relief every single day after classes. I read the entirety of Xaime Hernandez’s Love & Rockets volume, The Death of Speedy one afternoon at Cody’s, and it literally made me high; I was so hooked. I amassed some massive credit card debt buying and reading as many amazing comics as I could those first (and only) couple years of school: all of Los Bros Hernandez’s Love & Rockets, Dan Clowes’ Eightball, Julie Doucet’s Dirty Plotte comics, Peter Bagge’s Hate series, Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, Charles Burns’ Black Hole, Taiyo Matsumoto’s Black and White, Junji Ito’s Tomie and Uzumaki volumes… I could not believe the scope and breadth of the alternative comics genre, and the stories were so insanely good; they literally mesmerized me. I was so obsessed; I even skulked around the tiny comics section at UC Berkeley’s Moffitt Library in search of books I hadn’t read, and amid the fifty volumes of Doonesbury strips, some sick university librarian had included an early English translation of the Suehiro Maruo collection, Ultra Gash Inferno. That book blew my tiny mind about a hundred times; it’s totally fucked up erotic-grotesque horror porn, but the art is unbelievably beautiful. I read that entire thing sitting on the floor in the aisle, feverishly praying to God to forgive my sins after I finished the book, because I was way too ashamed to check it out of the library.

How about zines? I imagine a comic devouring ….

I devoured zines at a nearly equally fervent pace, including those by Aaron Cometbus, Al Burian (Burn Collector), Doris, John Pham, Jason Shiga, Lark Pien, Mimi Thi Nguyen, etc. I had never seen a zine before in my life, and suddenly, I was living in a town full of zinesters. I was drowning in inspiration. I tried to copy the art and writing of everything I read, and I spent a lot of my time making band flyers, trying to pass off zines as suitable replacements for term papers (this worked just once), and making monthly auto-bio comics for a few student publications. Eventually, I dropped out of school, then dropped out of school again, and I made my first published comic, Jin & Jam; then it all became real.

What was your early works like? and how did these become fodder for your self-published stuff later? What about your own experiences did you feel needed to be expressed in your own comics and artwork?

As a kid I was mostly copying sparkly girl manga and Sailor Moon stickers, and I don’t think I’ve really strayed all that far from that. My first few zines were cutesy autobiographical comics about crushes and falling asleep at the library; incredibly dull stuff. I made a super fun split comic/ep with this band I loved, The Clarendon Hills, but after that point, I was tired of drawing cute, goofy shit.

I had also really been obsessed with Korean ghost horror movies in high school, and I wanted to make comics that reflected more of that kind of coming-of-age violence and rage, so I made a couple standalone horror comics, Paralysis and Blister. These were longer than anything I’d ever done (forty to fifty pages each), and I felt like I was finally figuring out how to write interesting stories. I eventually dropped out of school and made Jin & Jam, based a bit on growing up in San Jose and on other kids I had grown up with.

At the time, there were still relatively few Asian American women in comics, and I was tired of whatever hyper-cute, yellow-fever, Japanified shit we were being pigeon-holed into, so I reacted by writing and drawing vulgar girls who started fights and didn’t give a fuck. I went to art school for a few semesters, got better at drawing people, and went on to draw nothing but mean bad girl ne'erdowells. I’d never been a very strong or defiant personality outwardly, but I’ve always been a pretty big fuckin bitch on the inside, and I just wanted to draw how I feel, in the most sincere way possible. And naturally, over the years, as I continued to develop this attitude in my art, I was able to express it better in person as well. Self-actualization through making comics!

For folks who don’t read comics, can you explain why they are SO AMAZING and moving to you! What about the format, art and overall genre makes them so great and not just your typical “funnies.”

I truly believe that comics are the greatest narrative format and art medium of all time! They are completely full of potential; you can draw and write whatever the hell you can think of, there are no real rules, and you as author and artist can create a deep and intimate experience for your reader. You can bare your vulnerabilities or yell at the world or create a visual masterpiece or inform people, visually and narratively. I don’t even believe that good art makes good comics; writing is king, and the art should really serve to further the story. Some of the worst comics I’ve ever seen had the most amazing art, and some of the greatest comics I’ve loved have the plainest, most naive, even ugly visuals, but those authors were able to finesse a symbiotic relationship between the text and the images to tell a compelling story. People are already so drawn to images, so it makes sense to me that they can enhance a reader’s literary experience so much.

I read that Taiyo Matsumoto is one of your all time inspirations. Most folks probably don’t know much about this master of comics, heck my knowledge is limited, so what makes his work speak to you so much? Perhaps it’ll encourage folks to venture into a new world of art exploration through visual comics.

Taiyo Matsumoto is the all time master of coming-of-age comics. I worship at his altar, for real. He is a Japanese artist, so technically his work is manga, but his masterful storytelling and singular visuals are so different from most manga, beyond categorization. He writes quiet, powerful stories about boys, girls, and teens who live in uncaring worlds surrounded by unfeeling adults, but they rise to these challenges and thrive in spite of themselves. The characters feel deeply, and the reader can’t help but ache and rage and celebrate just as fully. The drawings are beautiful and sensitive, with rough, loose artwork consisting of scratchy lines and cinematically composed shots.

What were some of your first memories with his work?

I remember buying the first two Pulp volumes of Black and White (also published as Tekkonkinkreet) at Comic Relief, reading them both at home that day, and then, covered in tears, literally *running* back that evening to buy the last volume before the store closed. I probably cried a dozen times while reading it; it’s a story about two orphan boys who protect each other in a neo-Vegas-like city of vice, but the characters were so brutal and brilliant and poignant. I had never read anything like that before, and it literally made me sick that, at the time, none of his other works were available in English. Eventually, I figured out that he was more widely published in Korea, so on every family trip, I’d run away from my folks for a day and buy as many of his books as I could carry back to the US. I made my way, slowly, through the Korean translations of Hana-otoko, Ping Pong (another incredible favorite!), and Zero. A beautiful collection of short stories, Blue Spring, was published in English, and then VIZ began translating the series No. 5, but they abruptly stopped mid-series due to low book sales. I was so starved for his work that at that point, I’d ebay his art books and comics only available in Japanese and just stare at them. Eventually, Black and White was made into the anime film, Tekkonkinkreet, and Ping Pong was made into an anime mini-series, and his rise in popularity ensured a wider English availability of his work. His current series, Sunny, is being translated and published here, and every volume breaks my heart a million times.

I’m sorry, this just turned into a gushy, gross fan fest, but Matsumoto’s books really changed my entire perspective on how comics can be written and paced, how characters can be developed fully, and how important comics really are to me. I love them so much!!!!!

You’ve worked in so many cool fields such as a storyboard artist and designer, and on various cartoons, such as Steven Universe. For folks who are interested in those fields, what can you tell folks about that? I’m sure like most artists, you’d rather be spending those long hours working on your own personal art, so how do you balance them? How did you move from a comic artist to working as a storyboarding artist?

I stopped working in animation about a year and a half ago, but the transition from indie comics to storyboarding was rough one, for me. I got into storyboarding at a time when a lot of kids’ animation networks were starting to hire outside the pool of animation school graduates and reach into the scummy ponds of comics. In my case, the creator of Regular Show, JG Quintel, had bought some of my comics at San Diego Comic-Con from my publisher, and he offered me a storyboard revisionist test.

Some cartoonists, like my partner Calvin Wong, were able to transition wonderfully; cartoonists and board artists are both visual storytellers, and once they’d learn the ropes, many of them thrived and succeeded. I can’t say the same for myself; I have major time management issues, I draw and write incredibly slowly, and going from working completely alone to pitching and revising stories with directors and showrunners was just a real shock to my system. For most of my time at Cartoon Network and FOX ADHD, I wasn’t able to do much personal work, but I crammed it in where I could.

Storyboarding also requires a lot of late nights and crazy work hours, to meet pitch deadlines and to rewrite and redraw large portions of your board. I just couldn’t deal. I lost a lot of weight, more of my hair fell out, and the extreme stress of the job put my undiagnosed diabetes into overdrive (stress makes your liver pump out sugar like crazy, look it up, people!) I realized that this industry was not meant for lard lads like me, and when the opportunity came to stop, I did. I could never figure out the balance between my job and my personal work, and I finally chose the latter. Now I’m trying to figure out the balance between making personal work and surviving, but I’ve yet to crack that nut either!

From your art I get a sense of rebellion and angst, how did this morph into an outlet through comics, cartoons, and illustration? Some aspects of your work that are so cool is the fact that your characters are female and women of color and in a completely new way. Asian characters definitely get stereotype in art and comics, so when did you consciously start to create these awesome antiheroines and redefine what Asian/Asian American women/girl identity is or can be?

A lot of the seething rage bubbling behind my eyes has been simmering there since childhood, and a very large portion of that anger comes directly from all the racism and sexism I’ve experienced as a child and adult. I’ve been treated patronizingly by boys and men who expect an Asian girl to be frail, demure, receptive, and soft-spoken. I’ve experienced yellow fever from dudes who are clearly more interested in my slanted eyes and sideways cunt than in whatever it is I have to say. Even in comics and illustration, people constantly tell me I must be influenced by Japanese woodblock print (pray tell, where in the holy fuck does that come from???), or they’ll look at a painting I’ve done of a girl bleeding from her mouth and dismiss my work as “cute”. I despise this complete lack of respect, for me and for Asian American women in general, and I’ve made it my life mission to depict my girls as I would prefer to be seen: fucking angry, violent, mean, dirty and gross, unapproachable, tough, jaded, ugly, powerful, and completely apathetic to you and your shit. Any rebellion and angst in my work comes directly from my own anger, and in my opinion, it makes that shit way better. Girls and women of color get so little respect in real life, so why not “be the change I want to see” in my drawings?

I think I was always aware of this lack of respect, and the “othering” of Asian American women, but once I got to college and learned to put a name to the racism and xenophobia and sexism and fetishism that we experience, my heart burst into angry flames, and it exploded into all of my art. I’ve never been able to hold that back, and I’m not interested in doing so, ever.

Talk about your process and mediums and process. Are you a night owl or an early bird artist? Do you have stacks of in-progress works or are you a one and down drawing person? Do you jot down notes or are you a sketch book person.

I am a paper and pencil artist all the way; I do work digitally sometimes, to make gifs or to storyboard, but I hate drawing and coloring on the computer. I’m terrible at it! I draw everything in pencil first, erasing a hundred thousand times along the way toward a good drawing. For my paintings, I’ll then ink with brush pen and paint with watercolor, all on coldpress Arches. For comics, I ink with whatever, brush pen or fountain pen, or leave the pencil, usually on bristol board. I’ve also been keeping sketchbooks more recently (never really maintained the habit before), where I like to doodle fountain pen and color with Copic markers. In sketchbooks, I’ll slap post-its on mistakes, a trick I learned from paper storyboarding on Regular Show.

I am a total night owl and a hermit; I have to be really isolated to get anything done, but at the same time, being so alone makes me crave social interaction in quick, fiery bursts. I’ll go on social rampages for a week at a time, and then jump back into my hidey hole and stay hidden for months, avoiding everyone. It’s not a very productive or healthy way to be, but it’s how I’ve always been.

I have great difficulty trying to juggle multiple tasks; I tend to devote all my mental energy and focus into whatever I’m working on at the time, so I need to complete each piece before I can do anything else. It’s an incredibly inefficient, time-wasting way of making art, but it’s also the only way I can produce drawings that I am satisfied with.

If we were to bust into your workspace or studio, what would we find? and what would you not want us to find?

You’d find an unshowered me, drawing in my underwear, which coincidentally is also what I do not want you to find!

You’d also find a room half made into workspace (more below), and half taken over by boxes of t-shirts and sweatshirts (I do all my own mailorder fulfillment, like an idiot!) I also like to surround myself with junk I find inspiring, so the walls are covered in prints and originals by some of my favorite artists, a bookshelf along the back wall is filled with about a third of my favorite comics and books and zines, and every available non-work surface (including desk, wall shelves, and bulletin boards) are covered in vintage toys, dice, tchotchkes, bottles, lighters and folding knives, weird dolls and figurines, a variety of fake cigarettes (I have a collection…)

Work-space wise, I have two long desks placed along a wall; the left desk has my computer and Cintiq, as well as my ancient laptop. Underneath and to the side of this desk are my large-format Epson scanner, fancy-ass Epson giclee printer, and a Brother double-sided laser printer. The right desk has a cutting mat, an adjustable drawing surface, and a hundred million pens and half my supplies/crafts hoard. I have a giant guillotine paper cutter for zines underneath this desk. I’ve got two closets filled with button making supplies, additional supplies/crafts hoard, and all kinds of watercolor paper, bristol paper, and mailing envelopes are crammed into every shelf, alcove, gap. This room has five lamps because I need my eyes to burn when I’m working. Also, everything is covered in stickers because I am obsessed with stickers.

What is something you’d like to see happen more often if at all in the contemporary art world? How’s the LA art scene holding up? Whaddya think?

As an artist who adores comics, I have a deep affection for low-brow mediums getting high-art and high-literary respect. Not that a comic needs to be shown in a gallery to be a valid art form, but I am so excited that comics that used to be considered fringe or underground are gaining traction as important works of art and literature. I wish this upward trajectory would continue forever, until everyone understands the love I feel for comics, but who knows what the future holds: the New York Times just recently stopped publishing their Graphic Novel Best Seller lists, and I think it’s a damn shame.

The LA art scene is really interesting to me, because it embraces both hi and lo brow work so readily; fancy pants galleries that make catalogues and sell to art dealers have openings right alongside pop-art stores that sell zines and comics, and I enjoy having access to both. I will say that I think LA galleries are a bit oversaturated with art shows devoted to television and pop culture fan art; yeah, I get that you loooooooove that crazy 70s cult classic sci-fi series and you want to draw Mulder and Scully and Boba Fett in sexual repose for the rest of your life, but I’m more excited about seeing new and original work from everyone. I know you have something to say, and I want to see it.

Mostly, I’d obviously love to see more women of color making art and making comics; we’ve come a long way since I started making zines in 2002, and there are some incredible WOC cartoonists making amazing work right now, but we need more more MORE!

What would be your ultimate dream project? What is something you haven’t tried and would love to give it a go at? Dream collaborations?

My ultimate dream project is the Great American Graphic Novel, but I am so shit at finishing anything that I have not been able to even approach this terrifying prospect. But I figure I have until the day of my death to make something, so … one step at a time?

As far as something I’ve never tried, I’ve been recently interested in site-specific installation; I’ve always been a drawer for print, confined to the desk, and I’m in awe of cartoonists and illustrators who have transitioned to other forms of visual media, whether it be video, sculpture, performance, whatever. I know my personality tends toward repeating the same motions forever and ever, and I hope I can break out of that and make something really different and challenging for myself. I also secretly want to make music but I am the shittiest guitarist ever so maybe it’s better for the world that I don’t!

The dreamiest collaboration I can think of is to illustrate a skate deck for any sick-ass teen girl or woman skater. Seriously, if any board companies wanna make this happen, EMAIL ME

Give us your top 5 of your current favorite comic artists as well as your top 5 artists in general.

Top 5 Current Favorite Comic Artists:

1. Jonny Negron 2. Jillian Tamaki 3. Michael DeForge 4. Ines Estrada 5. Anna Haifisch

Top 5 Artists of All Time

1. Taiyo Matsumoto 2. Xaime Hernandez 3. David Shrigley 4. Julie Doucet 5. Daniel Clowes

What are your favorite style of VANS? And how would you describe your own personal style?

My favorite VANS are the all-black Authentic Lo Pros, although I have a soft spot for my first pair of Cara Beth Burnsides in high school (they were so ugly and I never skated, but I loved them).

My personal style can be described as aging colorblind tomboy who dresses herself in the dark; my favorite outfit is a black hoodie with black denim shorts and black socks and black sneakers.

What do you have planned for this 2017? New shows? New published works?

I’ve got two group shows with some of my favorite artists in the works; I’m so excited but I can’t share any details yet. I’ve also been writing a new comic, but don’t believe it til ya see it!

Best bit of advice and worse advice in regards to art?

Best Advice: Never be satisfied; always challenge yourself to make your art better than everything you’ve done previously.

Worst Advice: Make comics as a stepping stone towards getting a job in animation. When people do this, you can smell the stink of insincerity a mile away. Fuck you, comics are a beautiful medium, and every shitty asshole who does this, I hate your guts!

Follow Hellen Jo

Website: http://helllllen.org Shop: http://helllllen.bigcartel.com Instagram: @helllllenjjjjjo

Images courtesy of the artist

#vans #vans art #hellen jo #comic #cartoonist #indie #zine #sketchy thursdays #interview

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femmekbir-comix-blog · 8 years ago

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AMRIT BRAR (MUSTERNI) is an illustrator and zinester based out of Brampton and Toronto, Ontario. She is well known for her Shitty Horoscopes series which she posts to her Instagram @amrit.s.brar and Tumblr. Identifying as a QPOC and Punjabi, she is also working on a comic zine series called Baat Sana, which addresses “sex and gender disparity in the South Asian community” through illustrated personal stories and anecdotes. On her website, she notes:

“Baat Sana is not an invitation to saviour complexes...I really wish there was a means of talking about [these issues] without always worrying about white western perspectives appointing themselves saviours and guardians. This is a discussion among South Asians, about South Asians, and we are many and varied and faceted.”

Broadly speaking, her work deals with issues of death, the otherworldly, race, gender/sexuality, and the occult. Other zines she has created include: “Guide to Baby’s First Existential Crisis,” “Raised by the Internet,” and “Inhuman Connections: Some Gay Illuminati Shit”

Support her by buying some zines or merch from her shop. Also keep an eye on her website, amritbrarillustration.com, for Baat Sana Vol. III.

#amritbrar #musterni #southasia #gender #sexuality #comix #comics #zines #shittyhoroscopes

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bookclub4m · 4 years ago

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Episode 108 - Visual Novels

This episode we’re discussing Visual Novels! We talk about what visual novels are, whether they count as books, reading novels we’re much too young for, being unable to suspend our disbelief, watching videos at 2x speed, monetization, watching vs playing, linear vs divergent stories, and more! Plus, this episode is like 75% tangents!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (Played?) This Month

Bury Me, My Love

Dungeons & Lesbians

Stream with Matthew and RJ

Serre - “A visual novel about a girl and an alien drinking tea and falling in love!”

Stream with Matthew and Meghan

Speed Dating for Ghosts

Order a Pizza: A Visual Novel

Stream with Matthew and hosts of Finish It! Podcast

All the streams on YouTube!

Our Twitch channel

Matthews list of (more) Visual Novels he enjoyed playing

A Mortician's Tale - “a story-driven death positive video game where you play as a mortician tasked with running a funeral home.”

Arcade Spirits - “a romantic visual novel that follows an alternative timeline where the 1983 video game crash never occurred.”

Don’t Take It Personally, I Just Don’t Like You: The Camping Trip - “a lo-fi relationship dramedy about camping illegally on government property in the chill of early autumn, having public anxiety attacks in crowded shopping malls, the people we choose to be with, and what we do when they don't choose us back.”

The Night Fisherman - “A short tale of inhumanity in the English channel."

The Outcast Lovers - “Driving home late one night you encounter a refugee in distress.” (Sequel to The Night Fisherman.)

Us Lovely Corpses - “a short surreal-horror-romance visual novel about helping a friend.”

Watch Me Jump - “a digital story of scandal and betrayal, played out in four quarters.”

Mission: It's Complicated - “a visual novel about getting superheroes to fall in love, and the shenanigans that happen along the way.”

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator - “a game where you play as a Dad and your goal is to meet and romance other hot Dads.”

Other Media We Mentioned

Choose Your Own Adventure (Wikipedia)

Doki Doki Literature Club! (Wikipedia)

Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (Wikipedia)

Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim

Orcs that RJ drew!

More orc(cupation)s that RJ drew

Radical Dreamers (Wikipedia)

Butterfly Soup - “A visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.”

2064: Read Only Memories (Wikipedia)

Now Kiss! YouTube Playlist of visual novel streams by Kathleen de Vere

Finish It! Podcast

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form by Anna Anthropy

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty

Ask a Mortician

Signs of the Sojourner - “a narrative card game about relationships and connecting with people.”

Links, Articles, and Things

Bingo Sheets for podcast

Visual novel (Wikipedia)

Gamebook (Wikipedia)

Text-based game (Wikipedia)

Interactive fiction (Wikipedia)

Point-and-click adventure games (Wikipedia)

Twine (software) (Wikipedia)

Pandemic (board game) (Wikipedia)

RJ’s itch.io page

Pricing Hobby Games: An argument for pricing your small independent games.

How One Gameplay Decision Changed Diablo Forever

Why So Few Violent Games?

Visual Novel Maker Says It Will Replace Its Striking Writers

Visual Novel Writers Win Pay Raise After 21 Day Strike

Visual Novels (TV Tropes)

5 Visual Novels (and 1 amazing resource) by People of Colour

Blerdy Otome: this episode’s list would not be possible without Blerdy Otome, who reviews otome games, visual novels, and related media! Check out the Blerdy Tribe page of her website for tons of Black game developers, artists, podcasters, and other folks to follow!

ValiDate: a forthcoming romantic visual novel about 12 adults in Jercy City navigating new relationships and the harsh realities that come alongside them. Features an array of character art by artists of color and a narrative developed by an all people of color writing team.

One Thousand and One Days: an LGBTQ+ fantasy otome based on the mythology of ancient Persia and Islamic lore.

Pairs: a romantic sci-fi visual novel featuring two superheroic couples and four perspectives to see their stories from.

Us Lovely Corpses: a short surreal-horror-romance visual novel about helping a friend. Matthew’s stream of this game can be found here (check the content warning in the video description).

Order a Pizza: play as a divorced dad trying to order the perfect pizza. Matthew’s stream of this game can be found here.

Suggest new genres or titles!

Fill out the form to suggest a genre or title!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, September 15th we’ll be giving an update on media we’ve been consuming that’s not for the podcast!

Then on Tuesday, October 15th we’ll be reading Comedic/Humourous Novels!

#visual novels #episodes

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