Another comics and zine event is happening in London on Saturday 19th July which I thought people who came to the London Zine Symposium would be interested in.

From 11am to 7pm zines and comics are being brought together at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, London. Its right next door to the Cartoon Museum and promises to be a pretty amazing day with some of the confirmed attendees being Hey Monkey Riot, Gavin Burrows, Lizz Lunney, Chris Getliffe, Peter Lally and a whole load more (full list is here)

More details are on the Pens, pencils and photocopiers website - http://comicsandzines.wordpress.com/

This is an all too short account of my day at the Zine Symposium, and some photo’s I took (apologies for how crap they are - I fully intend to blame the flash!). There are some other reviews online [1], [2], [3] (and even a film), check them out if you want a fuller picture!

It was raining when I woke up. Not a good sign for the start of the zine symposium. Thankfully the forecast deluge never arrived and instead we just had the odd shower.

It seems hard to believe this was the fourth London Zine Symposium, it seems like only yesterday we did the first one. This year was the biggest yet. Over 30 stalls from across the UK and bits of Europe, spread across two large rooms, then in addition to that we had the radical history tour, a screenprinting workshop, a guide to internet radio, zine readings, a discussion about food and zines, plus of course the obligatory cake.

It’s difficult to review something when you’re frantically running around hoping nothing’s going wrong, but from my vantage point, it looked like it all went really well. Nothing caught on fire (always a worry with that much paper – serious!) and depending on who you choose to believe between 500 and 1,500 came down to buy some zines, and explore DIY culture. Plus the venue worked out really well too, a good amount of space and a great atmosphere. Here’s to 2008.

Well, this year’s symposium was a roaring success. There’s mad fluxtuation over how many people came along but we reckon between 750 - 1,000 people came down, enjoyed the stalls, workshops and the rest. Photos and a report should be up in the next week or so. Thanks to everyone who came down, and to everyone who helped out and made it such an awesome day.

In case people are curious as to where individual stalls are placed within the room we’ve uploaded a copy of the table plan here. We’ll also be uploading the programme later today. Download the Zine Symposium table plan

There’s only a week left till this year’s Symposium; time to announce the confirmed workshops, talks and walks at this year’s event plus times and locations at the venue. We’ll be handing out a programme on the day, which will have these details and a map of where they are in the building.

Workshops at LZS ‘08

A list of some of the workshops and events happening at this year’s Symposium are listed below. A schedule will be online by April 17th with room details etc.

Workshops

Screenprinting (large workshop room: 1pm-2pm)
An introduction to screenprinting, with a brief talk on various dos and don’ts, as well as talks about equipment etc. This will be followed by a hands on session where people can screenprint a London Zine Symposium t-shirt (you need to bring your own t-shirt!). Screenprinting is often seen as something quite daunting, and the workshop aims to introduce to people how they could use screenprinting for their own projects.

A zine making primer (large workshop room: 5pm-6pm)
The basics of making your own zine. It’ll be a hands on workshop looking at different ways to create zines. Looking at different folds, pagination and reproduction techniques. It’ll incorporate both the traditional cut n paste methods and using a computer.

Online radio (large workshop room: 2pm-3pm)
Dissident Island Radio, an online radio station based out of RampART social centre will be running a workshop about online radio; what it is, why its useful, and how people can create their own radio programs.

Talks

Zine readings (upstairs stage room: 3pm-4pm)
An hour of zine readings from Phil Chokeword (of Facial Disobedience zine) and two more to be confirmed!

Food and fanzines (large workshop room: 4pm-5pm)
A talk, followed by discussion, with Isy (from Morgenmuffel zine and the Anarchist Teapot) and Hannah (from South Coast Vegan cooking zine) about food.

Walks

Radical History Walk (outside main building: 4pm)
A walk around the local area of Spitalfields, Bricklane and Whitechapel looking at where riots, marches, raves, squats and other exciting events occured.

Scavenger hunt (outside main building: 5pm)
Taking a twist on last year’s scavenger hunt, this year will be about discovering specific information about the area as much as its about finding specific items.

Films

Comic Book Confidential (small film room: 12.30pm-2pm)
A look at the comic book world in the late 80s and early 90s with a number of interesting discussions about comic zines.

DIE or DIY (small film room: 4pm-5.30pm)
An inspiring film about how to survive on a DIY existence!

This year, we’re happy to be hosting another Radical History Walk, which take in the radical sights and sounds around the Rag Factory where this year’s symposium is happening. Taking in talks about rioting silkweavers; Jewish radicals; east London anarchists; antifascist struggles; gentrification and more its sure to be an illuminating event. The walk will be meeting outsite the Symposium at 4pm on the day. View the Radical history flier here.

Many of the stalls for this year’s London Zine Symposium have been confirmed. Full details of which room they’ll be in, and where they’ll be in that room will be updated soon. There are still a few zines/ distros to confirm, but this will make up the bulk of the stalls at the event! Its going to be great, there’s a really good mix of different type of zines at this year’s event. Anyhow, the confirmed stalls are below:

Active Distribution - www.activedistribution.org
One of Europe’s largest zine, book, comic, everything distro for all things anarcho.

Black and White Cat Press - www.blackandwhitecatpress.org
Black and White Cat Press has been publishing zines, comics, CDs and making prints since 2002. It is based around the Manchester/ Salford area.

Brass buttons zine distro - www.buttonsmadefrombrass.blogspot.com
Carries a variety of music zines, and radical culture stuff.

Brighton University illustration BA
Around 10 people from the Brighton illustration BA course. The zines vary from purely illustration based to themed comic/ narrative based. There will also be a range of crafts and posters. Some photos of a previous stall they’ve run is at http://bleachingstream. blogspot.com/2008/ 01/our-stall-at-art-junky-fair. html

Corndog Publishing - www.corndog.co.uk
Corndog zine distro is relatively new but already stocks over 200 zines, books and comics from the UK, USA and Australia.

Dans Le Matin - web site coming soon!
Dans Le Matin is a new zine collective based around the work of Matt Walkerdine (www.damnsealegs.co.uk), Seb Wheeler (www.myspace.com/powerpoprocks) and Owen Richards (www.owenrichards.co.uk). We are embarking on a project which focuses on publishing hand assembled, limited edition zines that celebrate the fine details of life.

Dead Trees and Dye - www.deadtreesanddye.com
A relatively long running zine distro now based in South London. Has a number of art and comic zines as well as the more standard music/ radical zines.

eCartilage - www.ecartilage.co.uk
eCartilage zine is a mix of writing and artwork. Also on the table will be Attack!!!, which is a themed collection of people’s work with music. Also on the table will be zines/ comics by Gethan Dick (www.gethan.org) and Eleanor Jane Parsons (www.eleanorjane.co.uk)

Fanzine Ynfytyn - www.emmajanefalconer.co.uk
Fanzine Ynfytyn has stories, recipes and photography. Emma will also be bringing a selection of her cut and paste zines, and colour pocket poloroid zine. She’ll be sharing her stall with Scott Jason Smith who draws comics of everyday life.

Fever zine - www.myspace.com/feverzine
Fever zine is a lo-fi publication printed quarterly in a5 black & white, covering a mixture of music, art, fashion, zine culture, and blogs. Also on the stall will be comic/ zine People I know (www.myspace.com/dumpme) and Sketch Stance Colouring zine (www.myspace.com/sketchstance)

The Forest - http://theforest.org.uk
The Forest is a free arts and events space in central Edinburgh. We have aided production and distribution for a wide variety of publications. Our own fortnightly zine, CIA Nights, has recently published its hundredth issue. To celebrate, we turned colour.

Hey Monkey Riot zine - http://heymonkey.lasthours.org.uk
Hey Monkey Riot is a daily comic written by Edd, the editor of Last Hours, which as been collected into a series of collections. There are also two stand alone issues still in print (issue 2 and issue 3). A new issue will be released for the Zine Symposium! Edd is taking part in this year’s Zine Symposium exhibition.

Last Hours zine - www.lasthours.org.uk
A punk rock and radical culture bi-annual zine. Its very, very good!

Loserdom zine - www.loserdomzine.com
A personal zine based in Dublin, Ireland with comics, stories and reviews. Now on its 17th issue. It will also have copies of Rag, and Irish anarcha-feminist zine.

Marching Stars distro - www.marchingstars.co.uk
A small distro mostly selling perzines covering a range of issues such as feminism, queer, mental health, veg*nism, travel, body image and racial identity.

Morgenmuffel zine & Cowley Bookshop - www.morgemuffel.co.uk
A comic zine made by Isy, with the distro that she helps run at the Brighton Cowley Club, which carries a range of radical and alternative culture zines.

Voices of Resistance from Occupied London journal - www.occupiedlondon.org
A relatively new journal about London everyday life and how to make it better.

Paper Tiger comics - www.papertigercomix.com
Brighton based comic anthology. Also on the table will be Lucid Frenzy zine and The Bedsit Journal (www.bedsitjournal.com)

Pogo Cafe - www.pogocafe.co.uk
A hip East London vegan cafe that’ll be serving refreshments to everyone on the day.

Ricochet! Ricochet! and Lets Just Pretend zines - www.myspace.com/ricochetricochet
Colette and Patrick will be running their Ricochet! Ricochet! distro and selling their own zine, and some records from Colette’s record distro. There’ll also be Kate selling copies of Lets Just Pretend, Matthew Hell and other stuff of hers.

Savage Messiah zine - http://www.savagemessiahzine.com/
Is an ongoing psychogeographic drift with a collection of drawings, stories, and ideas about East London. Laura Oldfield Ford who writes Savage Messiah is part of this year’s Zine Symposium exhibition.

Sticks and Stones distro - www.myspace.com/sticksandstoneszinedistr
Stocks a variety of US and Euro zines. Will be sharing the table with Steve Larder (www.stevelarder.co.uk) who writes Rum Lad, a illustration/ comic-zine. Steve Larder is also taking part in this year’s Zine Symposium exhibition.

What they could do, they did - www.theydid.org.uk
What they could do, they did is a non-profit group working in South London that promotes the work of emerging artists through grassroots publishing. We have collectively written, edited, published and distributed zines, travelogues, printed art pieces and handmade art books.

We’re having a zine feast at POGO CAFE on April 1st after the Zine Symposium exhibition’s private view. The zine feast is a benefit for the London Zine Symposium and will be a lot fun. There’ll be a selection of vegan roast dishes, zinester games (oh yes!) and also some zines & comix for sale too!

The private view, which is free, will be from 6pm. We’ll be starting the food orders for the Zine Feast at 7pm. Food will be £8 and includes a choice of roast and a free organic coke or lemonade.

More details about the exhibition can be found on the exhibition page. Hopefully see you all there!

Thanks for everyone who applied for a stall at the Zine Symposium, the application form has now closed though. It looks like there’s going to be an amazing array of people coming and tabling. We’ll keep everyone posted about what’s going on in the next few days.

To make life easier for everyone this year we’re asking that distros/ zines/ etc. that want stalls at this year’s Zine Symposium fill in the application form on the LZS ‘08 site (at http://londonzinesymposium.lasthours.org.uk/stalls/). The application deadline is March 18th - full details on the application process are in the stalls section on the site.