I love pro-human humans
Hello! Welcome, everyone who’s new here as of SF Zine Fest 2026. Let’s talk zines n more~
Want more zines? Bay Area Queer Zine Fest has begun!
I’m obsessed with this poster by Caspian Walters for Bay Area Queer Zine Fest (BAQZF)! I adore a queer medieval moment. Anyway, in case you’re already yearning for more zines after SFZF 2026, fear not!
Virtual BAQZF: happening now thru 9/26 here. I have a table, and so do lots of talented people! This is a great way to get your zine fix if you can’t attend the irl event.
In-person BAQZF: happening Sunday, September 27, 11am-5pm at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center 🐉 I will be tabling here, too! If you like a smaller event, this is WAY more chill than SF Zine Fest.
I love pro-human humans: SFZF 2026 retrospective
As usual, I found the large and in-charge zine fest that is SF Zine Fest incredibly inspiring. It’s breathtaking to see so many people making so much deeply personal stuff, and in ways that are so magnificently human. Here I say “human” because zines, more than many other media, get at the raw intensity of the creative process while simultaneously encapsulating hyper-specific moments of life and observation. So many zines throb with a frantic energy, the energy of someone scribbling down thoughts at 3am. Yet others are elaborately written treatises or highly detailed comics that clearly are labors of many hours of love.
The human hand is evident in more literal ways, too. Many zines are handwritten instead of typed; many are assembled by hand, and you can notice some zig-zagged cutting patterns or off-kilter staplers; sometimes you can find a smudge or a typo; getting a consistent fold on tens or hundreds of mini-zines is downright impossible, and you can practically hear someone swear when they get a papercut doing it.
I don’t have official counts on attendance, but I got the impression attendance was even higher for SFZF 2026 than it was last year. Maybe it was the new venue, maybe it was something deeper. Like most things, it’s often a messy combination of factors. Zines clearly are a medium for this moment, which I think plays a role: they are an inherently DIY kinda art, they are an offline way to disseminate information, and the government views them as a threat. They are an obvious antidote to AI-generated images and writing. All the crazy shit happening sociopolitically is pissing a lot of people off and making them seek out truly human connection and creation, and I see zines as part of that.
I have some very anecdotal data to back this up: I made a bunch of pins critical of Big Tech that I like to call my pro-human pins, and they were a hit, one of my items that flew the fastest away from my table. People were visibly sad when I was out of certain colors or sayings. People who picked one up pinned them to their shirts or bags immediately.
On a more individual note, I was very happy that my new perzine, “The Invisibility of Spouse”, was quite popular. A talented creative friend said it was one of her favorite findings at the fest. My other zine from this year, “How to do a book swap with friends”, was also well-received. This was a much-needed validation of my evolving zine-making practice!
There was some stuff I didn’t enjoy as much, like being in the basement all day (I need to bring a friend next year so I can walk around more) and the heat. I also have complicated feelings about what feel like increasingly elaborate tabling setups (I will probs write about this soon). But overall, thanks, zine fans, for giving me a little hope!
latest inspo
Obviously I’m going to share a couple fun finds from SFZF 2026.
I finally got a couple of Rena Tom’s zines, and I especially liked “The C Word”.
My SFZF neighbor, Eli Sachse, just made this very beautiful zine called “Arctic Ice” that’s his drawings of various parts of the planet as viewed from airplanes or maps juxtaposed with feelings about climate change. Sadly it’s not in his online shop yet, but you should buy stuff from him anyway.
Since it’s Virgo season (happy bday to me 🎂) I’d like to honor two talented San Francisco Virgos:
I finally caught up on Natalie McKean’s latest queer sci-fi comic, M33: Galaxy of Hybrids. It’s kinda gay, it’s kinda mystical, and the latest issue has some cool world-building.
My friend Daphne Gottlieb’s latest poetry collection, Requiem, is devastating and gorgeous. You should read it, especially if you like work about death or grief.
Pokemon World Championships were just in SF, and in case you forgot, Pokemon is for the gays. I don’t make the rules.
Ok one last zine thing: Sheer Spite’s zine about making and keeping friends through the medium of zines is really heartfelt and informative and wonderful. I’m a huge fan of Lee’s work.
