Philly Zine Fest 2012 Write-Up

A few Saturdays ago, Erica and wrapped up our tabling for the year at what I expect will be the penultimate show of the year, the Philly Zine Fest.  (Weather permitting, we'll be in Philly one more time for the Locust Moon Comics Festival in December.)  This is another great little show that I was pleased moved to Saturday this year, giving those of us who come in from out of town a day of rest after the show.

We've been coming to the Philly Zine Fest every year since since 2009, and hope to do so as long as we live close enough to get there (though this might have been our last year as an exhibitor).  It's located at the Rotunda, a perfect venue because of its closeness to the UPenn campus.  Because of its proximity to a high number of teens and 20-somethings, there is a lot of traffic for those who are at the show to share their personal experiences, comics, and other hand-crafted items.  I can't speak for any others but Erica's zine distro has always done very well at Philly.

I also really like the openness of the Rotunda.  Despite not having a huge spacial area, the dimensions lend themselves to packing in a lot of zinesters without it feeling crowded.  That's a good thing, because this year probably had the most tablers I can remember, possibly due to the change in date and day of the week.

Unfortunately, Erica and I were late this year and missed the opening of the show.  Sometimes getting up on Saturday can be a bit difficult!  Still, we made it and got a spot on the stage, and soon were soaking in the atmosphere of zines.  (I did take a detour to photograph UPenn for a bit, it was their homecoming weekend.)

A lot of our friends we see at zine shows were there and, as with Richmond, a lot more comics creators were present than in prior years.  I've discussed that before, so I won't go over it again, but is a definite trend.  In fact, we were asked multiple times about what comic zines the distro carried, something that rarely happened in the past.

As the day wore on, things slowed down a bit.  Erica and I selected our new zines to read over, one of which was on the joys of discovering good beer (How I remember my first import, even if I don't remember *what* the import was!) and I got another about the integration of baseball.  The fact that both were at the same show just indicate how wide the variety is in the zine world!

Before long it was time to pack up and head for home.  We cleaned up our area and set off for Baltimore, another happy zine fest behind us.  We hope to see many of you in 2013!

You can find more of my 2012 Philly Zine Fest pictures on my Flickr page.