Turn and Face the Strange

Big News is registration for the Chicago Zine Fest is now open!

We're anticipating being able to sell out 100 tables this year--pretty crazy.

Also have some big name special guests including Aaron Cometbus, Al Burian, Cindy Crabb, Anne Elizabeth Moore, John Porcellino, Lilli Carre, Jeffrey Brown, and more!

It's going to be an awesome time!

Please visit our website and check out our new artwork done by the amazing Edie Fake

http://www.chicagozinefest.org/

I'm also taking on a new project down at the 64th Street Print Shop, which is basically an abandoned print shop funded by U of C that myself and 3 other girls from my letterpress class have decided to start up again. We went down last Wednesday to scope it out and do some cleaning. It's going to take a lot of work but I think we can get it up and running soon. Here's a photo Elizabeth snapped after moving all the drawers of type and stacking them in the shelving. Moving drawers of type around is definitely going to help my triceps!

I also became a very proud and happy Aunt the day after Thanksgiving.

Here's a comic about that..sort of...

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

End of November, already.

This past week was my last week of my letterpress class. The first day of class our teacher Pamela told us that a book for a final project was probably a little much to try for. Of course in my head I'm thinking, "Noooo problem!" I quickly discovered she was probably right. But none the less here it is--my tiny book final letterpress project:

I'm happy with how it came out. If you would like one, I'm selling them for two dollars. Please email me.

Also, the slug prints I posted before are now available on my fabulous etsy page!

Exciting Exciting News Part 1: Chicago Zine Fest has announced it's dates March 25th and 26th! and will happen at the Conoway Student Center at Columbia College again. I am so excited about the programming and actual event, I can't wait until March. I'll share information soon, just know it's going to be AWESOME.

And Exciting Exciting News Part 2: I'm going to be an aunt probably within this week!!! Here is a comic about it. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Staying in on a Friday Night

Spending the night in, catching up on so many projects and things I've wanted to do all week is nice. Not having my computer all week due to it breaking (again!) means lots of stuff to get done on the internets. Also, a new episode of Glee to watch! This is what I did while I watched Glee:

I've been meaning to have a tabling tablecloth for a long time now, but am always so behind before shows that I don't get around to it.

Tomorrow is the Milwaukee Zine Fest!!!

Come, if you are in the area!

My friend Shannon asked me to be a part of a "punk house" zine she's putting out specifically for the Milwaukee Zine Fest.

Here's my comic contribution:

Excited to see it all together!

Pressing it all Out

I've been taking a letterpress class for the first time ever, which has been so exciting and great! I totally love it and love the process of placing each letter and space into place.

Our first assignment was to do some wood type and metal type on one page with a quote or definition. I did a Frank O'Hara quote from my favorite poem of his "Having a Coke with You."

We also did images by doing linocuts and then setting them up on the printing press as well. This was my favorite thing we did and mostly what I'm doing for my big final project. I did a linocut of a page from my new mini-comic bananaslug! I will have some of these for sale in Milwaukee next weekend. I did 3 separate runs in three different colors.

As mentioned, next weekend already is the Milwaukee Zine Fest! Which holds a sentimental place in my heart since, not only was it my first zine fest I tabled at, it was also when we got the idea to start working on Chicago Zine Fest. Crazy it was only a year ago!

So I will be busy all weekend getting stuff made and put together for that.

Also, bananaslug! is up on my etsy now.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/leslieperrine

And here's a little comic I've had for a bit..

The banana slugs are coming!

Just arrived back from this Philly Zine Fest this weekend. I met some of the nicest people ever there. And ate some super good, amazing food. And got to hang out with my good friend Ramsey away from Chicago, which was awesome.

In preparation for Philly I was going nuts finishing my first official MINI-COMIC! I'm very pleased to be able to say I got it finished in time, and it's now available. If anyone is interested let me know..it's $2 plus a stamps worth of shipping. Here's some samples from it:

this is the cover which is stencil painted and hand bound.

a few pages:

Also, in exciting news I'm doing a reading October 23rd. Here's the flier I made for it:

happy fall everyone! I can't wait to be in michigan this weekend and do some apple picking!

October! Aaaah!

This is possibly the busiest October OF MY LIFE. Which means a lot to talk about!

Tomorrow a whole slew of us Chicago kids are heading up to Madison to table for the Madison Zine Fest it should be a good time. If anyone knows any great Madison hotspots--let me know!

Then next weekend Ramsey and I head out to Philly for the Philly Zine Fest

I'm mostly just excited about being on the East Coast for a bit and meeting a bunch of zine kids I haven't met before.

In preparation for these two events I've been working on something totally new...a mini-comic! And it's not even just drawings of myself over and over! It's been fun to try to make a story move without a narrator. Seems totally backwards from being a writer. Here's a sample page:

The weekend after next I head to Michigan for my brother/sister-in-law's baby shower. I made the invitations for it:

Such a fun project to have. I forgot how much I love just doing the tedious work of the same thing over and over (I made 20 of them) when it's not the same two books I spend hours making over and over.

Then the weekend of the 23rd I will be doing a reading at The Moving Castle House. I will post a flier (when I make it).

And lastly, what should I be for Halloween?!

Here's another long lost summer comic about feeling out of touch with Chicago...

I'm back!

I've been away so long! I've had a lot of summer adventures and then my computer died and my scanner stopped working. This is the main reason I haven't been able to upload stuff lately. But I finally found the right driver online and now I can sort of scan things again in a round about way. Hooray!

Things are in full swing in my studio this fall.

I'm starting a new project to hopefully have done for the Madison Zine Fest, which I'll be tabling at October 2nd.

Also, on a whim, I'm flying to Philadelphia with Ramsey (who just put out List #14 --and it's awesome!) to table at the Philly Zine Fest October 11th.

Very excited about all of this!

I'll be updating a lot more regularly in the coming weeks since I have a lot of backed up work to upload onto here.

Here's one of the long lost comics of the summer:

July, July

On my way to Minneapolis today to participate in the Twin Cities Zine Fest!

it should be a lot of fun! I'm very excited. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hello.

Also, I'll be doing a reading shortly after I get back here's the info:

July 31st, 2010

Fritz Pastry (they have vegan donuts!!)

4-6pm

We had our first Chicago Zine Fest 2011 Meeting this week!

So much to think about! I can't wait to get the ball rolling for it.

We're trying to get some flyers together to hand out at the Printer's Ball, which is an awesome event also, at the same venue we held the zine fest!

This is somehow all the info online about it:

http://printersball.org/

Here is one of my first finished pages from the paper cut book I've been working on:

Comic_june25th

I just got back from a great trip to California, it was nice to see people I hadn't seen in a long time.

I visited Mills College while I was there to look into their creative writing and book arts degree. Unfortunately only one student is in the program and hasn't graduated yet! So they are still figuring a lot of things out. I'd like to find a bookmaking and creative writing program but maybe one that's a little more flushed out. I'm going to find out more about SAIC and their interdisciplinary program.

Tomorrow I will be tabling at this event:

which is sure to be really awesome, AND a lot of the tablers (including myself, Neil Brideau, Matt Whispers, Michelle Aiello and Busy Beaver Buttons!) will be donating a percentage of their proceeds to The Chicago Zine Fest!

And we are starting to talk about the 2011 Chicago Zine Fest already. Very exciting stuff.

Also, if some certain things work out and stars align I will be tabling at the Twin Cities Zine Fest on July 10th

And lastly, here's a comic I drew while I was in California...

Happy Summertime!

This is what my days have been like lately.

Nice weather makes it so hard to get things done!

Rainy weather makes it so hard to get motivated!

Mondays are hard to get things done.

Blah, Blah.

But progress is being made.

Drawing groups are hopefully getting together.

I'm cutting bits of paper at an alarmingly slow rate.

Here's a comic about it:

paper cuts

I've been busy but not with drawing comics lately. I've been mostly working on making the backgrounds for a new book I'm making. The pictures are going to be done all in paper cuts. Here's the start of one of them:

I will share more as I go.

In practice for that I've made a lot of other paper cuts for different projects I've been doing

Here's a birthday card I made for the little girl I nanny for:

And here's a flier for a show at our house coming up:

I'm sure I'll get some more writing and drawing done soon, but so far this has been keeping me very busy.

Who knew grey construction paper was so hard to find!!!

comic_may6th

Nothing makes you feel weirder about things than friends having babies.

I'm trying to start some bigger new projects for the summer and getting back on a writing schedule. Hopefully, you'll see some things from this soon!

Comic_april13

Trying to get work done is hard when it's nice and springy out. I came home from tour with tons of ideas and things I wanted to get done, but once I got home I got distracted by a messy house and things I needed to take care of.

Spring is also the season for long walks and hang outs.

So here's a funny thing I drew about that.

Happy nice weather finally everyone!

making things happen

Tour with Paul is over. I was really surprised at what a warm response my readings got at our shows. Lots of people came up and said how nice it was to see someone reading at a show. This made me feel really great.

The biggest show we had was in Grand Rapids, our old stomping grounds, where over 100 people showed up to watch and I read into a microphone on a stage.

I am lucky enough to be friends with such talented people and to let them welcome me into their lives. Paul works really hard to have the kind of crowds he does at house shows so it was pretty incredible to get to read in front of such large groups.

In other news my friend James Payne asked me to do a drawing for an anthology the amazing Anne Elizabeth Moore was putting together for the Chicago Zine Fest.

It's a really neat zine about women's representation in the comic book world. I was honored to be asked to do it. Here's the beautiful cover by the ultra talented Sara Drake:

I was lucky enough to share the middle spread with Ramsey Beyer. Here is our page:

For now, I have to work on getting things together. I have several whale books to make from tour since I ran out and had to start a mailing list for them. I also want to start another large project now that my last book is done.

It's nice to have everything you feel you should be doing reaffirmed in just 12 days.

I started an etsy shop with all my goodies available there.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/leslieperrine

Some New Things

The Chicago Zine Fest is over. It was a pretty amazing weekend and made me really feel like part of something in Chicago. It was wonderful to see so many talented people able to get together in one place and share what they love doing. It was very inspiring. Here's the little daily comic I drew about it:

In other news, I'm going on a little mini-tour with my good friend Paul Baribeau. This is our tentative schedule:

03/27 Chicago

03/38 Grand Rapids, MI

03/30 Cleveland, OH

03/31 Columbus, OH

04/01 Bloomington, IN

04/03 Louisville, KY

04/05 Milwaukee, WI

If we're coming your way, please come say hi to me, I'll be at the table with my books, and maybe doing a reading here and there. Should be a lot of fun. I'm very excited to leave and city and hang out with Paul for awhile.

Here's the flier for the show at my house that I made:

Thanks everyone who came to the zine fest and supported us! It really meant a lot!!

It's Here!

Tomorrow we are hanging art for the Chicago Zine Fest! It's hard to believe--this is really happening!

We have had a crazy amount of hype and it's getting so exciting. I feel like I used to before Christmas, or a trip to Cedar Point. I would get so excited about an event coming up that I would actually make myself sick. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Although I haven't slept really or taken a break in about a week..

Here's what I've been working on:

My new book!

Here's a sample page:

This will be available at The Chicago Zine Fest 1104 S Wabash Saturday March 13th from 10-5pm

Don't forget Friday night there is a reading at Quimby's Bookstore at 7pm and a zine-related art show/gadabout film fest showing at Johalla Projects 1561 N Milwaukee.

Please come!!!

Also, tomorrow 4:30-7pm and Friday 4:30-7pm is the Comic Symposium down at SAIC

and Friday from I think 5:45-7 is a reading at 826CHI

All of these events are free and going to be AWESOME!!

Here's a funny article Matt and I were interviewed for with the Onion's AvClub.

http://www.avclub.com/chicago/

Well, it's February! Actually it's over half-way through February. I'm not sure how that happened. The Zine Fest is less than a month away. Things are going great. We filled all 45 tables we had planned to fit in the space, and we have a lot of amazing people signed up to participate. I've been so busy I haven't been working on my own stuff a lot. I'm hoping to have a new book finished for it, but that deadline is looking completely unrealistic now, but however much work I get done this week will determine if that's true or not! Wish me luck!!

Here's a comic I managed to finish while I was away in Milwaukee this weekend. Milwaukee is such a nice place, so much quieter and welcoming than Chicago.

Comic_jan28th

Chicago Zine Fest

I've been planning this zine fest for months now with three friends and we finally have everything confirmed enough to start inviting people to come!!!

The set up goes like this:
Friday March 12th
Reading and Talking @ Quimby's bookstore (6:30-8)
Art show and Gadabout film fest @ Johalla Gallery (7-11)

Saturday March 13th
Exhibiting and Workshops @ Conoway Center at Columbia College (10-5)

It's going to be super fun, and we also need a lot of help with volunteers and getting the word out to people who would like to table. Let me know if you want to do any of this stuff. Or just come and have fun with us!!!
Check out our website at chicagozinefest.org (still under construction a bit)