#local creators

Grand Rapids Zine Fest is back! This annual event supports and celebrates self-publishing culture in West Michigan by holding a free day of exhibitors selling their zines, workshops, and more in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

GRZF2019 will take place from 1 - 6pm Saturday, August 31st at Fountain Street Church. This year's lineup includes a host of local superstars; check out the full Exhibitor List and don't forget to mark your calendar!

Join us as we explore the breadth and width of one of the most exciting, innovative, misunderstood, and spectacular art-forms in the world. Comic Book Club selections will represent the best that the medium has to offer, mediated to ensure fun, accessible, and thought provoking examinations and discussions by industry experts. All levels of comic book familiarity are welcome, from the seasoned veteran to the humble noob to the vaguely curious.

As always, we'll discuss your favorite recent comic book reads and our featured book of the month. January's book of the month is GIRL TOWN: Girl Town collects the Ignatz Award-winning stories "Radishes" and "Diana's Electric Tongue" together with several other tales of young adulthood and the search for connection. Here are her most acclaimed mini-comics and anthology contributions, enhanced with new colors and joined by brand-new work.

Bold, infatuated, wounded, or lost, Nowak's girls shine with life and longing. Their stories, depicted with remarkable charm and insight, capture the spirit of our time.

This is our first zine we have created as a group and were really excited about our first printing. We are making a little tally on how many people want to buy one (its only around 6 bucks) and i’m letting everyone know on every social media. The zine will be around 20 pages long and will feature each of our artwork on two pages. If you want to follow our group insta you can dm us there if you’re interested in picking up a copy, or if you dont have an insta, you can message me here. Reblog this as much as u want!!! Love you all!!  

our insta: https://www.instagram.com/thequietpipes_/?hl=en 

The Midwest Ethnic Convention for Comics and Arts [MECCA], or MECCAcon, is a large comic book convention and international film festival held annually in Detroit. MECCA was initially established to instill knowledge in the youth art culture, but mostly focuses on promoting comics, film, and art from young black indie creators.

Now in its 5th year, MECCAcon is stronger than ever, and will once again have a special pre-show signing at Vault of Midnight Detroit featuring some of MECCAcon's stars!

Signing schedule:

4 PM: J.M. Hunter [Pirate Santa Claus], Nick Allen [Rexco] 

5 PM: Dedren Snead [Sorghum & Spear], Greg Anderson Elysee [Is'Nana the Were-Spider]

6 PM: N Steven Harris [Wildstorm: Michael Cray]

Join Vault of Midnight and Grand Rapids Public Library for a panel discussion with some of Grand Rapids’ finest zine artists.

Cody Flowers (Neighborhood Watch), Lydia VanHoven (The Bandit Zine), Frankie Johnson (Glass Crayon), Kim Nguyen (FLAP), and Scott Wygmans (Metal Heads) will discuss their art and how you can get started making your own zine.

Each artist will be selling their artwork at the discussion and will be available to sign copies and answer questions.

Meet the Artists

Scott Wygmans is a traditional artist who began his career illustrating album covers and tee shirts for underground heavy metal music and has since rose to work with some of greats like GWAR and Motorhead. Self publishing comics since the early 2000s, Scott has worked on numerous titles including Metalheads, Black and White Nightmare, The Adventures of Momo, and Party Pizza (R.I.P.)

Frankie Johnson is a non-binary illustrator who makes comics about their day to day and other sweet things. They are mainly found scribbling in a sketchbook or playing animal crossing. recent titles include HUNGRY and Glass Crayon.

   Cody Flowers is a writer and artist from Grand Rapids, MI. He has been writing and self publishing comics for two years. He has worked on numerous titles including Neighborhood Watch and forthcoming comic book, Cause and Effect. 

   Kim Thai Nguyen is an artist and illustrator living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work is heavily influenced by the things she loves, which include comics, games, cartoons, and food. Kim's recent titles include Mom zine, FLAP, and most recently a collection of food enamel pins each with their own accompanying zine.

Lydia VanHoven co-runs The Bandit Zine which is a submission-based, social justice-focused zine. Their zine strives to be anti-oppressive and inclusive as possible. They are committed to fighting: sizeism, ableism, cissexism & transphobia, sexism, heteronormativity & homophobia/biphobia, classism, racism, and so forth. Always free, always radical with titles including Radical Self-Love, Feminism, Gender Stories, Body Image and Sizeism, among others.

West Michigan Zines Collection

We'll also be celebrating the GRPL local history department's brand new West Michigan Zines archival collection. This is a devised collection of zines from the Grand Rapids, Mich. area and West Michigan. The library began actively collecting zine material in 2014 and continues to add to the collection. Included in this collection are a number of classic 1980s punk rock fanzines as well as modern zines which tend to be more art or politics focused.

Grand Rapids Zine Fest is back! This annual event supports and celebrates self-publishing culture in West Michigan by holding a free day of exhibitors selling their zines, workshops, and more in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

GRZF2018 will take place from 1 - 6pm Saturday, August 25th at Fountain Street Church. This year's lineup includes a host of local superstars; check out the full Exhibitor List and don't forget to mark your calendar!