Thanks to 856 G Gallery and Tropical Futures Institute, Cebu has had its second zine fest last June 3 and 4.
But what’s a zine? Let good old Wikipedia brief us on it: “Zines are written in a variety of formats, from desktop-published text
to comics to handwritten text (an example being the hardcore punk zine Cometbus). Print remains the most popular zine format, usually photocopied with a small circulation. Topics covered are broad, including fan fiction, politics, poetry, art and design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, riot grrrl and intersectional feminism, single-topic obsession, or sexual content far outside of the mainstream enough to be prohibitive of inclusion
in more traditional media.”
A child of the photocopier and DIY culture, zine is nothing more than a small magazine whose primary intention is not to make a profit but to share and/or spread the view of the publisher. The zine fests however seem to accommodate all kinds of printed matter, from posters to postcards to stickers to live sketches.
The Cebu event turned out to be interschool (members from USC’s Palabra and UP’s Tinta interisland with delegates from Bohol, Iloilo and Manila), intercontinental (with zines from Europe, America, Asia and Australia), interdisciplinary (poets, cartonists, visual artists), intergenerational (X, Y and Z) and intermedia (zines, posters, mixed media booklets, postcards, paintings and some vintage CDs).
Among the eye-catchers were “Pak!”, a sexually graphic zine; “Katkat,” a collection of visual poetry by JL Calvoro published by USC’s
Palabra; “Yoyoy,” a booklet from a group of local cartoonists who call themselves Satiristang Bisaya and published by Campo Santo; Josua Cabrera’s “Super Moon;” the glowing posters of Boholano visual artist J Jawzip King (Joseph Inking); the postcards depicting paintings of popular icons by the Happy Garaje couple Mark and Johanna Deutsch; the “Ligaya” and “Friendzoned” comics by Faye Bergonia and the hip little stickers and miniature booklets peddled by Eric Tuban of Bomba Press.
Coffee, doughnut, beer, lectures and music were also part of the two-day affair, which was fairly well-attended.
It was both a celebration of the off mainstream perspectives and the continuity of the print medium.