Report from Zinefest Berlin 2012

I’ve been really bad at reporting from festivals this year, but now I’ll make an effort to better myself in that respect!

It was my first time at Zinefest Berlin (last year it coincided with the festival in Gothenburg), and I was a bit nervous that it would be full of hipsters who would only consider getting my comics zines in an ‘ironical’ way. But while the hipster density was somewhat high, there was still plenty of metalheads and nerdy and/or leftish people (my usual readership – people who are like me, I guess V^(oo)^V) who were interested in my zines in an honest and straightforward way.

I was superlucky and got such a beautiful table that I didn’t have to use my tablecloths:

There were quite many English speaking people, so I brought both my German and my English zines, and made little piggy signs:

At one point one person insisted on paying 2 € for the German edition of The Muggers (that I sold for only 1 €). That confused me so much that I tried to offer him the English edition instead, since it’s bigger, has thicker paper and actually costs 2 € … But he really wanted the German edition and he really wanted to pay 2 € for it. O_o

Someone else, who bought both of the German Eva zines, commented that she liked my stuff a lot and that it’s unusual to find both good stories and good drawings in the same comics. *Sigh*! <3

I sold several zines down to the last copy, so I guess I have to make more …

What happens when you don’t drink alcohol:

On Sunday, almost everybody else came a couple hours later than our schedule said, perhaps because they had been partying until 5 AM the night before …

During that deadtime I read a book on Russian art history that was lying around on the shelf behind my table (the festival was held in the rooms of the Berlin School for Adult Education). There were some comics in that book:

“How the mice buried the cat”, 18th century. Another comic featured was one of Mayakovsky’s Rosta windows. (More …)

Anyway, I sold surprisingly much, and I also traded for some interesting zines, like Meeresbande Zine (about living with disassociative identity disorder) and a couple of pretty comics zines by Lilli Loge.

As usual I did little sketches while attending my table, mostly of visiting doggies and random piggies.

Indeed, the doggie density was also very high. It was – of course! – a doggie friendly event.

This lovely puppy with a black muzzle and sad eyes played with his leash and lay down under a table at one point while his human was browsing zines. ,:o3
Also on this page: embarrassed piggy and Eva.

An old and kind of stiff Westie. Also on this page: a French guy and a blasé piggy.

A doggie wagging his tail like a maniac. Also on this page: a hipster piggy, an impostor trying to copy Ilan’s style, and a piggy who is angry at the design hipsters from Munich at the table next to me, who borrowed that pen and didn’t give it back until I asked, several hours later.

A big black doggie who also went to hang out under a table. :3

Various piggies. Piggy faces are a fun way to exercise drawing different facial expressions as simply as possible.

Bottom right above is a self-portrait – it was pretty cold in the rooms in the beginning of the days, before enough people had come along to warm them up.

… and even more piggies.

Yeah, Zinefest Berlin was a very nice experience!

But now it’s already time to prepare for AltCom Comics Festival in Malmö next weekend!

Packing Swedish-language books and zines. As always, the challenge is to find the perfect fit of books/boxes/bags …

(Photo by Ilan and his fruit device.)