Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2! needs your help...

[Alex Wrekk]

Sorry if this seems self serving to post about, but I sort of see my project Stolen Sharpie Revolution as a community project and the more info I get from the rad zine community the better it will be!

Stolen Sharpie Revolution is a book I put together as a DIY giude for zines. There have been 3 printings since 2002 and I'm working on the 4th right now. I'm actually calling it Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 because a lot has changed over the years and I had added a lot of new stuff. The printing has been delayed forever due to a large variety of things... usually money related. But I have the funds together now so here's where I need your help.

In the back of each edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution I have listings of distros, stores that sell zines, zine libraries, zine events and more. I need you help because I can't really travel all over the world in search of illusive zine events (but that would be awesome!) I need your eyes and ears in the corners of the world to help SSR2 be the best print resource for zines.

I have pretty extensive listings as it is but the more the merrier. I would love it if you would mention shops or distros or whatever in this discussion thread and I'll let you know if they are included. Also, if you have a new distro let me know and I'll let you know the info I need to get it included in SSR2.

Thanks so much for being patient with me!

[Mongrel Zine]

Spartacus Books in Vancouver carries a lot of zines
www.spartacusbooks.org
Spartacus Books
684 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1R1
From their website: "Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer & collectively run bookstore & resource center located right on the edge of Vancouver's Eastside (now we're in Strathcona!). The store has been successfully run for 35 years by a collective of volunteers, serving as a hub for radical education and action in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland:
· Offering a wealth of progressive and radical material unavailable through corporate outlets
· Bringing people together across political stripes in a community space on the edge of the Downtown Eastside
· Hosting a wide range of events for groups, individuals and artists active in social change – readings, movies, shows, workshops and much more."

Misti Ko mentioned Regional Assembly of Text upthread. Here's some more info on them:
www.assemblyoftext.com
3934 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V5V 3P2
From their website: "Previously a storage closet, currently a reading room, the lowercase is home to hundreds of zines and self published books. It features the former collections of the (over)view gallery and cyclops library, with a cozy little sitting area, all in a space measuring less than 9 by 3 feet."

Two Canadian zine fests that definitely should be included are ExpoZine (www.expozine.ca) which is Montreal's Annual Small Press, Comic and Zine Fair; and Toronto's Canzine (www.brokenpencil.com/) hosted by Broken Pencil mag and billed as "Canada's largest zine fair and festival of alternative culture."

The same organizer of Expozine runs DISTROBOTO. (www.distroboto.archivemontreal.org) "DISTROBOTO machines are former cigarette machines which no longer sell cigarettes, but instead, sell art in the form of miniature books, crafts, comics, music, film, animation and more!" Distroboto is probably the coolest thing you'll find in any bar in Montreal! I've got awesome 2" CDs and zines outta the Distroboto machines. Very, very cool.

My zine is a garage rock fanzine so it's mostly sold in record stores, gallery shops, and cool vintage clothing stores. I don't know if those are the types of places you're looking for but if so, the following carry Mongrel...
In Vancouver, BC: Dandelion Records (228 East Broadway), The JEM Gallery (225 Broadway East), Red Cat Records (4307 Main Street), Scratch Records (726 Richards Street), The Fall/Flaming Angels Boutique (644 Seymour Street), The Sweatshop (1943 East Hastings), Tiger Tiger (2471 East Hastings), Zulu Records (1972 West 4th Avenue), Mintage (1714 Commercial).
In Montreal: Primitive Records (3828 Saint-Denis) and Les Disques Sonik (4050 Berri at Duluth)
And in Toronto: Frantic City (123 Ossington Avenue)

~Janelle

[Alex Wrekk]

Thanks!

I have Spartacus (I've been to both locations!) and I have the regional assembly of text.

I also have both canzine and ExpoZine.

I'm trying to figure out where to put Distoboto. I have heard of it but haven't seen it. Should it be under distro or general zine resource?

Do any of those shops have several zines for sale for people to look at? also do you think they are open for carrying more?

Mongrel Zine said:

Spartacus Books in Vancouver carries a lot of zines
www.spartacusbooks.org
Spartacus Books
684 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1R1
From their website: "Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer & collectively run bookstore & resource center located right on the edge of Vancouver's Eastside (now we're in Strathcona!). The store has been successfully run for 35 years by a collective of volunteers, serving as a hub for radical education and action in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland:
· Offering a wealth of progressive and radical material unavailable through corporate outlets
· Bringing people together across political stripes in a community space on the edge of the Downtown Eastside
· Hosting a wide range of events for groups, individuals and artists active in social change – readings, movies, shows, workshops and much more."

Misti Ko mentioned Regional Assembly of Text upthread. Here's some more info on them:
www.assemblyoftext.com
3934 Main Street
Vancouver, BC V5V 3P2
From their website: "Previously a storage closet, currently a reading room, the lowercase is home to hundreds of zines and self published books. It features the former collections of the (over)view gallery and cyclops library, with a cozy little sitting area, all in a space measuring less than 9 by 3 feet."

Two Canadian zine fests that definitely should be included are ExpoZine (www.expozine.ca) which is Montreal's Annual Small Press, Comic and Zine Fair; and Toronto's Canzine (www.brokenpencil.com/) hosted by Broken Pencil mag and billed as "Canada's largest zine fair and festival of alternative culture."

The same organizer of Expozine runs DISTROBOTO. (www.distroboto.archivemontreal.org) "DISTROBOTO machines are former cigarette machines which no longer sell cigarettes, but instead, sell art in the form of miniature books, crafts, comics, music, film, animation and more!" Distroboto is probably the coolest thing you'll find in any bar in Montreal! I've got awesome 2" CDs and zines outta the Distroboto machines. Very, very cool.

My zine is a garage rock fanzine so it's mostly sold in record stores, gallery shops, and cool vintage clothing stores. I don't know if those are the types of places you're looking for but if so, the following carry Mongrel...
In Vancouver, BC: Dandelion Records (228 East Broadway), The JEM Gallery (225 Broadway East), Red Cat Records (4307 Main Street), Scratch Records (726 Richards Street), The Fall/Flaming Angels Boutique (644 Seymour Street), The Sweatshop (1943 East Hastings), Tiger Tiger (2471 East Hastings), Zulu Records (1972 West 4th Avenue), Mintage (1714 Commercial).
In Montreal: Primitive Records (3828 Saint-Denis) and Les Disques Sonik (4050 Berri at Duluth)
And in Toronto: Frantic City (123 Ossington Avenue)

~Janelle

[Mongrel Zine]

I forgot to add Galerie Monastiraki to the list of shops (5478 St-Laurent, Montreal, http://monastiraki.blogspot.com).


I would put Distoboto under distros.


I can't speak with authority for any of the shops on whether they are open to carrying more zines. None of them seem like Spartacus, for example, where zines are something they actively buy and sell. Most seem to carry Mongrel only because either my boyfriend or I know the owner or a staff member personally or because the zine has local content of interest to their shop. So okay, with that disclaimer outta the way...

Monastiraki and The JEM Gallery do have a couple other art and comic zines.

Scratch Records, Sonik, Primitive, Red Cat, and Zulu are record shops so they have music zines like Razorcake and Maximumrocknroll.

Frantic City is a used record and bookstore. I've never physically been inside but I do think they carry other fanzines.

Flaming Angels Boutique has glossy mags but I've never seen any other zines. She might be open to carrying some dark/gothic zines.

I haven't seen other zines at Dandelion Records, The Sweatshop, Tiger Tiger, or Mintage.

Alex Wrekk said:

I'm trying to figure out where to put Distoboto. I have heard of it but haven't seen it. Should it be under distro or general zine resource?

Do any of those shops have several zines for sale for people to look at? also do you think they are open for carrying more?

[Alex Wrekk]

I have been sort of keeping a video log... or vlog if you will, of my progress on Stolen Sharpie revolution. Here are two of my videos that I made last night if you wanted to take a look. There are more of them on my youtube page if you want to check them out:

There are actually 4 of them I think but I'm just going to post these two.

I need a shower... I have been working on SSR for about 3 days now and every time I look for a Sharpie it seems that I have put my hair up with it. I have been wearing the same pajama style clothes: long johns, a thread bare velour leopard print skirt, a 2008 Portland zine symposium shirt and the same sweatshirt I have worn everyday for the past week. I am a model of class!

Still, I'm getting things done. I moved from my dining room where my housemate's cat was playing with my paper scraps into my office. I like to put stuff together while sitting on the floor so, that's where I'm at. I Organized zine libraries by region, redid a good portion of the skill share section with my own drawing and have finished about 50 pages of layout so far!


I look less crazy in this, I promise! After a haircut and a shower I show off a bit of the layout that is done. I'm over 50 pages now! Every step closer I get makes me realize just how much work I still have to do.

[The East Village Inky]

Hey Alex. I would love to trade places this morning! i'll video myself putting together a worthy project and you feed my bottomless stomached, bouncing off the walls children. Actually, they'll simmer down when I take em to Paping zine's puppet show (i hope)

A wonderful comic / graphic novel shop that carries DIY comics and heavily illustrated zines is
Rocketship
http://rocketshipstore.blogspot.com/
208 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201
1-718-797-1348
Owners are Alex and Mary - they're good people who pay on time too!

[Isy Morgenmuffel]

Hi
I can't remember if I already replied in some way about this but here is some info about our social centre, which also includes a bookshop as well as a library that stocks zines. We have been going for 6 years now!

The Cowley Club
Anarchist volunteer run social centre with radical bookshop and also a lending and reference library both stocking zines (plus vegan cafe, bar, venue, grassroots projects)
12 London Road, Brighton BN1 4ZQ, UK
www.cowleyclub.org.uk

[Serah-Marie]

A bit on Distroboto: They ask for specific dimensions anbd price points (I tried to find it but I the info is burried in my books somewhere...the guy who runs it is super friendly and will reply fast with info you need). Then they will stock the accepted zines in their machines and pay you for whatever sells. The machines are scattered around Montreal in cafes and bars and are very beautiful even just to look at. Very unique way to get zines out there!

[Alex Wrekk]

Excellent! Thanks Ayun. I'm jsut barely able to sneak it in!

The East Village Inky said:

Hey Alex. I would love to trade places this morning! i'll video myself putting together a worthy project and you feed my bottomless stomached, bouncing off the walls children. Actually, they'll simmer down when I take em to Paping zine's puppet show (i hope)

A wonderful comic / graphic novel shop that carries DIY comics and heavily illustrated zines is
Rocketship
http://rocketshipstore.blogspot.com/
208 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201
1-718-797-1348
Owners are Alex and Mary - they're good people who pay on time too!

[Alex Wrekk]

Hey! thanks for the info I'm going to be able to barely get this in! I also wanna say that I remember reading your zine years ago and I really liked it. I'm headed to the UK for the London Zine Symposium, maybe we'll meet in real life?

Isy Morgenmuffel said:

Hi
I can't remember if I already replied in some way about this but here is some info about our social centre, which also includes a bookshop as well as a library that stocks zines. We have been going for 6 years now!

The Cowley Club
Anarchist volunteer run social centre with radical bookshop and also a lending and reference library both stocking zines (plus vegan cafe, bar, venue, grassroots projects)
12 London Road, Brighton BN1 4ZQ, UK
www.cowleyclub.org.uk

[Alex Wrekk]

Ok, that's it. It's official I am closed for submissions!

I somehow spent 10 hours sitting on the floor of my office cutting and pasting until my body couldn't take it and I had a beer and vegan ice cream treat for dinner! I feel a huge step closer to having this done today. Thank you all for all of your help, you are fantastic!

[The East Village Inky]

You're in the homestretch, now, li'l pony, so run for the roses! I was going to lay another comic-zine store on your, but you know what? Next edition.

x
ayun

[Ms Valerie Park Distro]

Whoops, yeah, I meant distro...shucks, typos. More heavily weighted towards music, but more zines to be added in the next couple months.

Ms Valerie Park Distro said:

I would love it if you listed my zine, Ms Valerie Park (http://www.msvaleriepark.blogspot.com/)
It's out of Olympia, Washington.
There's also a good zine library at Last Word Books (211 East 4th Ave. Olympia, WA 98501) and at the Olympia Library (313 8th Ave SE, Olympia, Wa 98501).
Thanks for asking!