Post 1 of 3! - the clearout

Since my return from Siberia, I have spent a lot of time sorting through the piles of things boxed up and forgotten in bags in my room, attic, etc...

I have tried to get rid of all my spare old zines in order to clear a space in which to do new ones (and especially the anarchist pilgrimage mega-zine). Still my two bedroom tables are covered in drifts of paper but I WILL clear them this week, I WILL! The Footprint zine fair in Leeds was great and it let me give out, sell & swap lots of zines. Since returning from there, I have established that I have SEVEN copies of each of the following seven zines:

secret anarchist history of newcastle (spring 2008)
examzine (summer 2008)
george zine (2008?)
bothy zine (autumn 2009)
Roman philosophers (early 2010?)
beach zine (summer 2010)
mongolian cartoon diary (autumn 2010)

I also have dozens more of the bothy and anarchist history zine, but these are not intended for zine swaps and stalls. Instead, they will continue to be left out in the spaces which they refer to: bothies and newcastle. (Incidentally, I am glad it is these 2 that will persist, because they are the most 'weighty' of my contributions in the last 2 years, most of which are pretty frivolous!)

Also I had 8 copies of george zine left, but serendipitously Matt came round and said he'd lost his copy and did I have any spare. So good, down to the magic number 7.
I have a few extra exam and roman philosophers zines, which will continue to refill the free zine boxes (1 is permanent on the bar of the Star & Shadow Cinema, no.2 is roaming and comes with me to gigs, where I leave it in a well-lit spot for punters to go 'oh, free zines!')

So what about these SEVEN? Well, today I am wrapping them up into bundles, and I will be sticking a price on them. Not to make any money, but to ensure that they only go to someone who's new to them and keen to see them. So I hope they will remain with me for at least a year, and then at some stall in the future or some encounter with someone perhaps newer to zines, I will flog them for £3.50. I just made up that price, 50p a zine, sounds alright to me.

I reckon this blog post is about the most boring I have ever and will ever make, but it is somehow satisfying to put into words where I am at with this side of my life. I have got really a bit over the top at zines in the last year or two, and loved it, really loved it. But it means I've got loads of oddities and leftovers and I've got a bit lost in what I've done, so it helps clear up your mind if you clear up the debris around you. I'm also very happy that zines of mine have gone off to exhibitions and libraries in Denmark, Australia, New York and Germany. And Alnwick this week! Through my unbalanced enthusiasm, quite a few people have encountered zines for the first time through me, especially amongst bothy-users and people who go out in the evenings in Newcastle. If I stop now and find a new hobby, like stamps, I will still have done a little bit for zine culture and so today I'm feeling quite happy about that. Coz making zines is a beautifully pointless thing to do. People occasionally suggest I should do stuff 'properly', get funding or try and make cash out of it. But I've been doing it for the opposite reason: because I love doing stuff amateurishly without planning, without corrections, when my heart is urging me to do it; and because fanzines are about fandom, about enthusiasm, NOT about career-building or commercialism. It's this other side of life that I want to be part of. Love, outpouring, messy experimentalism, temporary collaborations, not knowing how things are going to turn out, all that 'lifestyle anarchism' stuff!

And if in future I return to look at this zine blog of mine, finding it all dusty and a part of the past, remember this Mr.Mike:

- in Wainhope bothy last month, during the 'any other business' part of the meeting, when you piped up and said "I did a zine about..." and the whole room turned round and said "It's YOU!" and gave such love and appreciation for it.

Opinionated Geordie Monsters Review the Local Band Scene

These are the posters for a new fanzine which I hope other people will contribute to.
Suitable for all ages and levels of artistic ability!

And here is an early example:

75th post: 2 new zines ready

24 copies of the 24 page 24 hour comic diary thing i did in Helsinki. Just musing about myself and coffee and home, mostly. Unthought-through but illustrated.

60 copies of the Mongolian Cartoon Diary, again drawn while travelling and without planning, so you get exactly what the title describes.

Both A6, both free in the post (to the UK) if you email me with an address to post to.

Another blog.

Hi,

I am making most of my book collection available to users of the 'canny little library' (housed in the star & shadow cinema & open from 3 till 6 each Sunday).

I have opened a new blog, purely to list (by pictures) the available books.
There will be posts for each section I have books available in:

Philosophy
Anarchism
History
Politics
Global Struggles
Gender
Environment

Home to Newcastle.

Today I happily got off the ferry from Amsterdam, found myself locked out of the house (of course) and drew a few things.

Tomorrow I hope to pick up 2 packages from the Royal Mail, that I sent to myself and which include the Mongolia comic.

I then hope to print the Mongolia comic (40 copies) and the 24 hour comic from Helsinki (24 copies). I found the town different but the same. Spectrum copyshop has closed down (as has my favourite bargain bookshop and the 'made in newcastle' DIY craft place), but I found the new one, Mailboxes on Clayton st. As these pictures also tell, I spent a happy time re-embracing this city that I love and reading the comics that people have produced since I was gone.

My 24 hour comic result = at best a draw.

Hi,

Including the cover, I managed 23 pages in 24 hours, most of which were spent walking around the streets looking for stuff, and sleeping. So the actual drawing took place in coffee houses and pizza restaurants. I don't know if the results can really be called a comic, it's just reflections and my usual diary, with a couple of self portraits and pictures of Helsinki. I'll print it anyway, I LIKE my diaries, but it's really just an attempt and next year I will try and do a proper plotted thingamajig. As it is, I have a strong idea for a fiction-as-opposed-to-diary comic, which is basically political/historical porn. I hope I will make this happen when I return home, in 10 days.

I will stick a few pictures of the comic-zine here when & if I find a usb slot.
And it is odd to be writing a blog entry from the middle of the Baltic sea, but this Finland to Sweden ferry has an internet terminal. How odd.

Starting a 24 hour comic in Finland!

Hi, I have just realised that i have missed 24 hour comic day, and I wish I'd been with the paper jam crew back in Newcastle. But unless I got a plane up to Lapland I think I've just missed the local Finnish versions of it.

SO - with 2 minutes left of this internet station to declare it, I do declare that I will do my own 24 hour comic, starting from approximately one hour's time (after I've found a hostel and dumped my bag and got out a pad and pens.
I have no idea what it will be like, but it will be from Helsinki, and a day late but with the Newcastle crew in spirit!

love
Mike