Not-so-small press

Part of the Newcastle Young Writer's Festival, the Zine Fair was held in a restored railway shed behind Civic Station. It seriously dwarfed my expectations - tens of dealers and hundreds of stickybeaks. There were almost too many wacky homemade publications to choose from. I exercised restraint but still came away with 10 fanzines and a sticker or two. (Details in a future post.) Continuing a trend I've noticed at anime cons, a fair percentage of writers/artists had expanded into handicrafts. There were enough toy monsters on sale to populate a platform game. In the room adjoining the main hall was a presentation area where I stood through a tops slideshow on Rocket Car Day, an annual NSW event I'd love to attend. Among the alt.types circulating were assorted circus performers and a gang of shambling, groaning zombies. (Was that Baron Samedi among them?) As I was heading back to my oldies' to watch the NRL grand final with Dad, DL arrived late, but I'm glad we at least got to chinwag for 10 minutes. Were it not for him, I wouldn't have even known about the Zine Fair. The sheer amount of creativity - of art for art's sake - was inspirational.