Auckland Zinefest 2013: Comics Spotlight

Auckland Zinefest is happening this Saturday at St Kevin's Arcade, K'rd from 12 noon - 5pm.
Below is a handy guide to the comics related stall holders you can expect to see this weekend!

Potroast: Potroast, founded in April 2009, is a biannual literary magazine of original short-fiction, poetry, illustration, photography and art. Potroast has a focus on work which is exploratory and experimental. We look for work which is expanding boundaries within the literary concepts of poetry, short prose and dialogue based writing (i.e. short pieces for performance) and art & illustration which explores the boundaries between image and storytelling; narrative drawing, graphic storytelling.

Kakelake: Kakelake is a small zine distro/artist group in Auckland, stocking an indescribably rad selection of really good and recent local zines, small-press books and comix.

Sam Orchard: Sam Orchard is a queer and trans* comic artist who writes comics about the awesomeness of gender and sexual diversity in New Zealand.

Sophie Oiseau: Sophie Oiseau is an Auckland based illustrator who likes to draw weird plants and alligators with pineapples. She is currently working on a zine about annulai on legless squamata (i.e. snakes wearing watches/sweatbands etc).

Buzzferkchurnt: Illustrator, animator and graphic designer who likes melting, timetravel, interdimensional travel and freaks.

Actionman Adam: Marc likes drawing comics. The one he spends all his time on is called ActionMan Adam, a comic about a young Canadian trying to find love in Christchurch. He hopes it makes people smile.



The ComicBook Factory: Karl at the ComicBook Factory makes and self publish comics. Currently working on a Japanese superhero comic called 'Princess Seppuku', when she's not disguised as the toilet cleaning Maid Kyoko she flies about fighting crime.

Blastosaurus: Richard Fairgray self publishes a range of different comics and mini comics including: Blastosaurus, I Fight Crime, Ghost Ghost, Clip Show, The Darwin Faeries, Irrelevamp, Men on the Moon and others.

Adam Tan: Artist/Illustrator located in Auckland, New Zealand. Currently working on a comic anthology zine with other artists including Henry Christian-Slane, Maxi Quy, Nick Blazey and Alexander Martin.

Let Me Be Frank: Let Me Be Frank is a series of autobiographical comics by Sarah Laing. Themes range from writing, reading, parenting and angsting to consuming and being celebrity-obsessed, and are drawn from my every day experiences. Sarah will also have a number of mini-comics, a range of comic books published by Pikitia Press (AU), and will be sharing her stall with her son Otto Lane who draws comics about monsters/robots/lions, and sister Melissa who has published an art book 'Commonly Occurring'.

Richard Richards: The Shared Table is a mish-mash of zines ranging from comics & illustration to intellectual experimental writing by local artists and writers, including a couple of zines by students from Howick College. Artists and writers include Kelly Malone, Eli Lamont, Boris White, Makyla Curtis and Richard Richards.

Henry Christian-Slane: Henry Christian-Slane is an artist and illustrator working in New Zealand. His zine Myriad is a compilation of artwork and short comics by artists Henry Christian Slane, Adam Tan, Maxi Quy, Nick Blazey, Alex Martin and Kyle Boonzaier.

New Zealand Comics Creators: The NZCC represents a wide cross section of self-published New Zealand cartoonists from across the country. The stall will be manned by the Sheehan Bros, creators of The Inhabitants, and NZ Comics blogger/writer Adrian Kinnaird.

BCW Publishing: BCW Publishing have been self-publishing comics and zines since the mid '90s. Current projects include a quarterly zine called Whark which features comics, opinions on various esoteric subjects, travel stories, music and other stuff that feel appropriate at the time. Brent also edits and publishes an annual collection of comics The Bristle Annual which features cartoonists and zine makers from Wellington and further afield.

Marc Conaco: Marc is an Auckland-based graphic designer by day, and a freelance illustrator by night. Marc loves working with his hands; all his creative projects start as scribbles and sketches on scrap paper before finding its way to the computer.

Ducklingmonster: Zine/comic/zine/comic's of kipple crazes.

Seeing With Closed Eyes/Coolguys: Liam has been making comics and zines with my buddies since 2006. For the past 2 years he has been producing "Seeing With Closed Eyes", a comic series based entirely on dreams I've had.

XTOTL: Toby Morris is an illustrator, designer and comic artist who has been making zines for about 15 years (since he has 16!) Just recently he reprinted an old comic that he made in 2001, and has just completed a book of drawings about his first year as a parent.

Be sure to stick around for the after party held at Whammy Bar and The Wine Cellar in St Kevin's Arcade. Featuring the presentation of the 'Zine of The Festival' prize, as well as performances by: H D S P N S, Girls pissing on girls pissing, The Psychs, It Hurts and DAD JOKES. Doors open 8:30, first band at 9pm. See you there!

-AK!