Giant Robot at Long Beach Zine Fest 2018
Giant Robot made it's return to the Long Beach Zine Fest at the Expo Art Center in Bixby Knolls. First the location is larger than the Museum space of previous years, the tables shorter at six feet to fit more vendors, and although I was handling the table space, from what I could see and feel, it was an overall positive event. I'd like to say thousands came, but I'm unsure of the attendance numbers, but you can see for yourself in some of the photos. It was busy.
I haven't been to a zine fest in a few years, and it was great to bring assorted Giant Robot back issues, From the Pit zine, and publications by Deth P Sun, Theo Ellsworth and Yumi Sakugawa to the show. It was great to turn-on new folks to GR and to see past readers turn up and say how instrumental it was in their lives.
It's also amazing how far zine fests have come. First, are most of the publications even zines? Many old schoolers will say, no they aren't zines. They're art monographs. Yet in my opinion, they're indie published, fun, and they're close enough. Second, zines fests are gigantic. The Long Beach zine fest looks like a step behind the LA Zine Fest in terms of size. It's huge with well over 100 vendors, food trucks, zine library, panels, and more. Third, it's undoubtedly worth a drive down from LA.
With the experience of a zine fest, I'd like to boast about doing more publishing, but we'll see.