I was at York & Copy That Zine Fests over the past two weekends with our distro from work (at Footprint Workers Co-op). I used to do blog posts like this when at college years ago – it obviously helped me get points for ‘real life’ art activities – but also helped me to absorb and have a more in-depth think about the stuff I’d seen. It’s an enjoyable diary exercise and a way to do a small shout out to the cool people I met & share some of the art they make.
Jen / Oh Wibbles
Obviously I was going to be drawn to Jen’s lovely frog stickers & general sweet aesthetic, but I got all the more drawn in when I noticed this zine about emetophobia. Being a long-suffering emetophobe myself (someone phobic of vomit and/or vomiting), I really appreciate learning more about others’ experiences. Obviously, none of us are happy to hear that the other is/has been suffering from this verrry overpowering and pervasive phobia, but it is also such a relief to meet people irl who have been going through something similar.
This is especially as for so long, I felt like such an idiot-freak to have this intense a reaction to something basically normal. Something that people love to remind you is ‘a normal and natural bodily function’, and ‘can actually make you feel much better’!
This zine had me shouting out loud in recognition of some of the deeply painful underlying thoughts & feelings that I have experienced accompanying emetophobia. Thanks for sharing your experiences Jen. Some notes the physical zine itself: a lovely green stitched binding; multicolour print on white paper, A6 zine. Kind colours throughout that lend to a feeling of care, which made dealing with the difficult subject matter a soft and intimate experience.
Luca Shaw / Underbank Studios
As is often the case, I didn’t leave enough time to go round and see all the stalls at the fair, but I was excited to see another stall of riso printed goodness. What I learned from our very quick chat is that Luca (the artist behind the gorgeous image pictured) is a member of a collective in Stockport, called Underbank Studios, a community interest company ran by three female artists. They all seem very cool and I’m really excited to see more from them!
Erika Price
I was delighted to meet Erika and see her incredible work. Seriously spooky and gorgeous comics and art. It was also so amazing to meet someone whose work has been published by the suuuper cool Diskette Press!
Ursula was immersive, massive-feeling, and tragically beautiful. I’ll read it several more times cos I want to spend more time poring over the incredibly detailed panels.
Find more on her instagram and online shop. So so looking forward to seeing more in the future.
Hayley Dean
So lovely to meet Hayley! She’s volunteered with Leeds Queer Film Fest so we already have a couple of connections in common. This is a really lovely full colour A5 zine that she has curated as part of her MA, “30 pages of queer and non-binary creativity, from art and photography to poetry and interviews”. I’m not usually great with poetry, but some of the poems in this beautiful zine really touched my heart! <3
Sean / Bearded Horse
I can’t share the main thing I got from the very lovely and actually-quite-internet-famous cartoon machine that is Sean / Bearded Horse BECAUSE IT’S A PRESENT FOR SOMEONE. But please admire these stickers I will share. I’ve put the heart one on my sketchbook to remind me to do that, and the head-up-the-ass one… well I’ll have to think of an appropriate use for that.
He’s really funny and heartfelt – go check out his shoppe!!!
Paloma Armás Front
I met Paloma ages ago at a LDComics event in Wharf Chambers – here’s a link to my blog post from that nite in fact! I still wanna link it even though my drawing that night was a bit pants.
I love her art! I’m so so happy I got two comics as well as a collection of sketchbook content (not pictured here). I also got this sweeeet bookmark for my crow-befriending friend who I know will just love it. Check out Paloma’s superb work on her insta or look at her amazing website.
I’ve been having a lot of happy-to-be-here-in-Leeds feelings for the past couple of months, feeling really lovely to be part of the place (after more than 10 years of living here) and her zine metamorphocity made my heart swell for a lot of these same feelings. Beautiful drawings and gorgeously written, riso printed magic! Same again basically for maladroite, with recognisable experiences with anxiety this time! Yay. Paloma is really funny and cool.
Janice Leung
Flippin lovely cartooning and a beautifully told reflection on sadness in What am I to do?; and excellent brutal pics in I didn’t mean to hurt u 🙁
Very happy to have met Janice cos their work is gorgeous and there’s loads more too look at on their ultra cool website.
Verrry verry cool work. Here is insta too! Thank you for the free tangfastics as well >: )
Hollie Smith
OK I’m running out of steam to keep typing, but please please go see this Art. Hollie Smith is fucking amazing. I loved their art so much and am so happy I finally went to check out their stall after thinking about it for pretty much the whole fair. I also got a little print not pictured here. It’s all been lighting up my brain in the right places.
