SF Zine Fest Wrap Up: Thank you!!!

Hi everyone! First off, we'd like to thank everyone who helped to make the 2010 SF Zine Fest the most awesome one yet! A special thank you goes out to all the volunteers who helped organize the fest, spoke in a panel, put on a workshop, and came out to exhibit and show your wares! The Fest wouldn't be here without all your hard work and support!

Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who signed up for our email list, bought something, gave us compliments, and stopped by to talk to us. We are honored and touched by all the love. We hope that we can continue to aid and inspire other artists in one giant ball of artist-love for years to come. Thank you for buying all of our t-shirts (we sold out, but we'll print more!), ties, prints, postcards, and zines.

(Note: this is sort of a lengthy post, so just be warned!)

While we had a great weekend, we realized that there are a lot of people who we met who are artists (regardless of what you might say, we know you are artists are heart, and so do you!) who might be intimidated by something like tabling at the Zine Fest. Let us assure you, the Zine Fest is about as awesome as you can get for an artist who is just starting to get out there.

For one, it's inexpensive. Although rumor has it that table prices will go up a bit next year, the organizers like to keep it affordable. There were $30 "third-tables", which meant a 2x2 foot square for you to sell your work, which is great if you're just starting out with a few postcards or a comic or a zine or two. It's a far cry from something like Renegade Craft Fair or Wondercon, where $300-$800 for a booth is the norm.

Second, it's not a juried show. That means there is no non-refundable application fee - you only have to send in your application and payment before it sells out. Easy, right? No stress about whether or not a jury will like your work enough to get in. As long as you're on top of things (signing up for the mailing list might be a good idea) you'll do fine.

Third, it's THE place in the SF Bay Area to get your work out there. Monkey + Seal love the Zine Fest because it's a place where everyone is welcome. Whether you're working to make art for a living (like us) or just want to get some ideas/comics/stuff out there (like many zinesters), or are a crafter, there's a place for you. There's also a place for all styles and experience levels: from people putting out their published graphic novel to people photocopying their comics and self-publishing, it's a great place to be!

Anyway, we think the Zine Fest is great.

And for anyone who is new or curious about what's like to be an exhibitor, here is a glimpse in the life of Monkey and Seal: a behind-the-scenes look at our preparation and day of Fest.

Friday night was spent packing. We made a list of all the things we might need at the Fest and did our best to get everything ready. Prints, displays, table cloth, shirts, ties, tie packaging, painter's tape, masking tape, duct tape, pink fanny pack, zines, comics, small original pieces, and new postcards were all set aside. Monkey spent the night burning screens, packing ink, scoop coaters, old emulsion buckets, packing tape, squeegees, and everything else he would need for the screenprinting workshop. Seal was finishing up some freelance work, and this was all after helping set-up the comics reading at the Cartoon Art Museum.

We had dinner that night around 11pm, and then we were up doing more prep work, freelance work, and reserving our zipcar for the next morning. Due to lots of work to be done, (plus remembering we had to pack our painting supplies as we'd be live painting) we turned in for the night around 5am.

At 7am, the alarm went off, and we got up and got ready for the Fest. After some quick showers and a handful of chips for breakfast, we picked up the zipcar (or "zippy," as we like to call it) and loaded up all the stuff. We drove past an ATM to get money for change, then went to be at the SF County Fair building by 9 to help with set-up. We got there a bit early, so we got a warm white hot chocolate with soy for Seal and then headed over to the nearest bank to wait for them to open to change our 20's into change.

As soon as we lugged all of our stuff into the building, we split up. Seal would return the zippy and finish up some freelance work, while Monkey went about setting up tables and chairs for the Fest, and helped direct the volunteers.

By 9:30, other exhibitors began to come in, and while there was a bit of a delay due to the building not having enough 6-foot tables, we worked around it by using blocks of 8-foot tables and subdividing them into 6-foot spaces. Francois from Family Style, the lead organizer then started checking people in, and Monkey was then left to set up the table for the show.

By 10:30 or so, Monkey had the table set-up and started talking with neighbors (like the ever-friendly Kimmy Phi) and suddenly realized that he had forgotten our new product - the collaboration Steampunk Animal postcards! Oh nos! Fortunately, Seal was still at home working, so after a few phone calls, Seal had packed some cardboard and Simple Green (other things left behind necessary for the printing workshop), and the postcards, and would be on her way via bus.

The public started walking in about 10 minutes early (as they tend to do), and from then on, it was a fast 7 hours of talking with people who would stop by our table, trying to stay hydrated and well-fed, while we worked our creative magic during the live painting. Monkey painted a new zombie girl while the traffic was slow, but ended up stopping early as we fortunately got a lot of people stopping by for the rest of the Fest. We got lots of compliments on our new shirts, and were vastly unprepared for the positive response. We had ordered 17 extra shirts (besides the ones that were already sold via pre-order) and of those we had 3 misprints (which we sold at steep discounts). By the end of the Saturday, we had 4 shirts left and had sold out of the misprints.

Monkey was away from the table from about 3-5, as he was busy prepping, running, and then cleaning up after the silkscreen workshop. People seemed to enjoy it, and Monkey is happy to announce that he'll be soon running a more hands-on workshop at Big Umbrella Studios in the very near future. Unfortunately, he bit off a bit more than he could chew and some ink got dried up in some of his screens. While this can be a bit costly of a mistake if he can't get the ink out via power-washer, it is a good lesson learned on how to run the workshop in the future!

After we wrapped up the day at 6pm, we headed out via bus to the Mission district where there was an after-party mixer at Mission:Comics and Art, a cool new-ish space down on 20th st. Before going to the mixer we stopped by our favorite Mexican joint Mariachi's. After two big burritos there, we headed over to the mixer and got to hang out with the Family Style crew, as well as new friends Liz and Donna. We then headed home around 10.

We arrived back at our apartment around 11pm, then proceeded to print out more covers for the reprinted Bad Date Zine: No. 2. Monkey packed up more stuff to bring on Sunday for the bookbinding workshop he was running with bookbinding maverick Erin Fong. We then watched the latest episode of One Piece and then went to bed by 2am or so.

The next morning it was up at 8am. We were a bit late to catch the bus we wanted, but since most everything was set up, it wasn't a big deal and we ended up strolling into the Fest at 10:15. We set up the table again quickly (we had left most of the stuff locked in the building overnight) and Monkey then realized that he had foolishly only made singled-sided copies of BDZ2, effectively leaving out half the zine! We couldn't do anything about it at that point, so we re-worked the table, spreading out a bit to fill the spot of the sold-out zine, and as more prints and the shirts sold out, tweaked and reworked the table throughout the day.

Monkey left again at 12:15 to set-up for the bookbinding workshop, and returned at 1:30 to assist Seal in staffing the table. Monkey went on an interview with journalists from City College, and they then stopped by the table to film Seal live painting. Monkey and Seal would switch off between talking to customers and painting/eating snacks, and Seal then took a break to go and get a vegetarian plate from a nearby Mediterranean place. After Seal returned, Monkey then took a quick jaunt around the Fest to see what else was being sold, and was bummed when he found out that Vegansaurus' own Laura Beck's zine was already sold out! Drats!

Finally, at 5:40, Seal took off to go pick up the zippy we had rented to bring all of our stuff home. Monkey took down the table a bit after 6 (hoping for that last-minute sale), and then assisted all the other fine Zine Fest volunteers who took down tables, stacked chairs, and swept the humungo hall. By 6:30, Seal was back with the zippy and we packed up, said our good-byes, and were off!

Whew! It was quite a weekend (and quite a long post), and we're now taking it easy this Monday and are probably going to head off to Green Apple Bookstore (of which we are proudly and affiliate for) to further immerse ourselves in cool books, comics, and indie literature. Thanks again for stopping by, and we hope to see you next year at Zine Fest '11!

SF Zine Fest this weekend!

Hey all, we just wanted to remind everyone that we'll be at the SF Zine Fest this weekend from 11-6 (both Saturday and Sunday) at the SF Country Fair Building in Golden Gate park.

There are a ton of really awesome creators signed up, and after looking through some of their websites and what not, we're really looking forward to checking it out! Additionally, Monkey is currently prepping for the two workshops he's teaching, and Seal is proud to announce that we will be selling our new postcards as well as our "You're Not Alone Anymore" narwhal x unicorn t-shirts! We just shipped out all the pre-order shirts today, and Monkey had quite the trip to the post office! Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered! If you missed the pre-order, don't fret, as the shirt is now up in our store!


As incentive to come to the Fest where we are unveiling our postcards, which are all collaborations between both of us, here's a photo of them! You've only seen cropped previews before, but here's the real deal.

These postcards are especially cool (at least in our mind) as they're the first series of collaborations that we've worked on. Monkey + Seal usually work on their own pieces, but we've decided to try to start working together more and this is the outcome! They will be priced affordably, and you can pick up all four of the series at a discounted rate! Stop by the table, check them out, and let us know what you think!

Overcoming Difficulty - Silkscreening T-shirts

I totally needed a beer to handle this job...

Hi everyone! Monkey is here for our 200th post(!!!) and will be talking about the process of silkscreening the new "You're Not Alone Anymore" shirts aka the "Naricorn" (narwhal + unicorn=naricorn) shirt for short.

Hey all, so I won't be going into too many of the technical details of silkscreen printing here,because if you are interested, I'll be running a FREE demo/workshop on screenprinting at the SF Zine Fest, starting at 3:30 this Saturday, Sept. 4th. More details can be found here. So if you want to talk shop, I'll be there (also at the Monkey + Seal table the entire fest!).

Anyway, so on to the post. Overcoming difficulty. This past week, I have been a bit crazed, as trying to print 30-ish t-shirts with fairly tight registration with water-based textile inks when a)you don't have the right emulsion, b)you're used to printing with either water-based inks for PAPER, c)if you do print on shirts, you've only used plastisol inks, and d)you're out of screen opener. If this makes any sense to you great, if not, just know there were a lot of hurdles to making this shirt.

a)wax paper is not as good as freezer paper, b)my float coat was waaaay to thin for what I was doing

Besides only having one type of emulsion that doesn't hold up well to water-based textile inks (ie the stencil gets eaten away by the inks), the rest of the issues weren't so big. The main issue was that the emulsion (which our shop usually uses fine with plastisol inks). For those that have never screenprinted before, basically the emulsion is what is used to create a stencil of sort on the screen that prevents all the ink from seeping through your screen. Instead of a big huge flat of ink, you only get the parts that you want (the design) on the shirt. If you have holes in your emulsion, you'll get ink that you don't want onto whatever you're printing on. Thus, having ink that eats through your emulsion is a huge issue.

I had never used this current emulsion with the water-based textile inks, so I didn't know this might be a problem until I actually started printing. So with a screen with emulsion slowly degrading, I started to lose hope. I was frustrated at myself for not even considering the possibility, for not planning earlier (I was supposed to ship out the shirts the same day), and for not having all the supplies I needed to make the process easier.

The screen for printing the white layer

Thankfully, after a long day of experimentation and failure and being a bit of a rude jerk to Eve, I realized that being all upset was not going to solve anything. I apologized to Eve when I got home that night and started problem-solving. I started looking up emulsion comparisons and manufacturer's data sheets. I then started cross-referencing good emulsions with any local stores that might carry them. I then took care of the customer service issues, as many of these shirts were pre-ordered and I wanted to let our customers know what went wrong, and offered them a refund if they wanted to cancel. Finally, I took down the phone numbers of all the local stores that could possibly carry professional-level screenprinting supplies (speedball doesn't cut it! Sorry!) and then went to bed.

The next morning was spent on the phone trying to figure out where I could get some emulsion, and while I waited for a few return phone calls, I started systematically going through the process I had used to burn the screens, and realized that there were a few steps that I could have taken to potentially extended the life of the stencil. I then went to the studio, experimented again, and managed to find a way to use the emulsion I had (since I couldn't get the stuff I needed in a reasonable amount of time and at a decent price) and the shirts were printed!

The white layer printed!

White + blue layers = finished shirt! Now I just have to heat-set it.

The reason I wanted to share this story with you was that there were a lot of points where I wanted to just give up and refund everyone their money back. I wanted to curse the screenprinting gods and just kick a hole in my screens and knock buckets of ink over. I even contemplated outsourcing the printing to some other print shop. But I didn't. I stayed (relatively) calm, and by assessing and reassessing the situation, thinking outside the box, and going back to the basics, I was able to get the shirts printed!

The final shirt. Whew!

Panicking and freaking out is never going to make any situation any better. Stay rational, think creatively, and sometimes the most simple answer might be the one you're looking for. Anyone else with any good tips on how to handle adversary? Please share in the comments!

Learn Screenprinting! Learn Bookbinding!

Hi everyone! We just wanted to take the time to remind you all to stop by the San Francisco Zine Fest this weekend (September 4+5) from 11am-6pm at the SF County Fair Building (in Golden Gate Park at 9th + Irving).

The event is totally free, and Monkey + Seal will be there vending. We'll have our ties, prints, and our new postcard line for sale, as well as some new assorted paper products (if we can finish them in time, eep!).

Additionally, there are going to be a ton of great workshops, panels, and discussions going on, and Monkey will be teaching two of them!

Stop by at 3:30 on Saturday to get an insider's look to screenprinting! We'll have a screen or two for you to print from, so make sure that you bring some paper, or some clothing to print on! We'll provide the inks, screens, squeegees, etc., so just bring what you want to print on! PS - Give us some suggestions as to what exactly you'd like to print, and if you're early enough, you just might see it at the workshop!

If you want to get your bindery skills on (or learn some), swing by at 12:30 on Sunday as Monkey will also be an instructor for the bookbinding class. We'll go over some single-sheet books, a pamphlet stitch, and if time allows, for some simple Japanese stab-binding! Awesome! We'll have all the supplies you need, just bring yourself and your curiosity!

Besides the awesomeness of the Zine Fest itself, there are lots of other fun events being put on by the Fest! On Friday, there will be a reading at the Cartoon Art Museum from 7-9pm with super great comic creators. It's a line-up not to be missed, and Monkey will be there for sure!

Also check out our Afterparty and Mixer over at Mission: Comics & Art (3520 20th Street, San Francisco) on Saturday from 7-10pm! Meet and mingle with some of the vendors at the Fest and have some drinks and check out the art on the walls! Sweet!

If you still can't get enough of the Fest, come to our After-After party at the Knock Out (3223 Mission Street). It's a $5 cover for this 90's Alternative dance party, but if get in FREE with zines to trade, a flannel get-up, or if you rock a Baby-Doll dress! It'll be from 9pm-2am, so come and get your 90's indie, underground, and riot-grrl jams, and rock on!

Whew! It's going to be a jam-packed week for Monkey + Seal and we hope to see you at the Zine Fest!

When In Hell, Keep Running Forward!

Seal has this great quote: "When in hell, keep running forward." She's used this mantra for the last ten years to help her get through rough times. And you know what? It's totally true.

Simply put, it works this way. If you were dropped down into hell (as an actual space with flames or whatever) your situation is not going to get better by just sitting around on your toasty butt. If you do nothing, you're gonna just sit there and cook. However, if you take off running, no matter how painful the trek, you're eventually going to come to the borders of hell and get out of there.

The real world works the exact same way. If you're down on your luck - broke, 200k in debt with student loans, sick, mounting medical bills, whatever your circumstances, if you just sit there and focus on how crappy you think your life is, that's all you're ever going to know. But, if you get up and start taking action towards fixing your problem, no matter how much of a baby step you take you'll be that much closer to getting out of your predicament.

Things might seem impossible, but most likely they aren't. You just may require some creative thinking, a positive attitude, and the willingness to take action. Need fifty thousand dollars to start up a business? Think saving up that much would take too long? What about small business loans? Crappy credit? What about finding investors? No connections? What about looking on the internet, maybe kickstarter, perhaps? Can't get funding? What about donating a kidney or something? In all honesty, while we don't endorse selling off of body parts or prostitution or robbery (or crime, in general), if you really need money, there are lots of ways to get creative.

Want to get into a gallery? Have you submitted photos of your work yet? Still no answer? Have you tried all the galleries in town? What about finding out who these curators are and figuring out their friends and trying to get your work in front of them? What about schmoozing up the workers at the gallery? What about bribing them? (Again, crimes are discouraged.)

Our point is that if you are down on your luck, and you want to get someplace, don't sit around and wait for it to get better. It very well might, but your chances are a lot better if you start doing something about it. It's hard when you feel like crap, but if you keep on keeping on, no matter how you feel, things will take a turn for the better. It might be a while, and you'll probably feel like giving up most of the time. But it'll get better. We promise.

Eat the fattest frog first

Recently, Seal has realized how true the saying "Eat the fattest frog first" is (via Mark Twain). Unless you happen to really like eating frogs (we don't - no meat in the Monkey + Seal household), the fattest frog is always going to be the one thing that you don't want to do. It's working on that project for the client that you hate, or it's getting around to wash that huge moldy pile of dishes, or it's paying that overdue bill.

Whatever it is, take it out first thing. We've found that when you save it until there's no more time, everything else you do during the day is tainted by that lingering feeling of unease that is your subconscious telling you that you still have something left to do.

In another gross metaphor, think of it this way. Would you rather eat some whipped cream only to find poop at the bottom of your bowl, or the other way around? If we had to eat poop, you'd be sure we'd want to do it first so that you kill the taste with something decent at the end of the meal. When we go out for (vegetarian) sushi, Monkey always makes a big deal about lining up his sushi in the correct order to make sure that the "ending taste" is exactly what he's feeling up to that day. He knows that there is going to be a single taste that will linger in his mouth after dinner, so he wants it to be his favorite.

If you just get the worst out of the way early, not only will you have taken care of some chore that you have a big resistance to doing, but then your day will be filled with more and more good things. End on a happy note, so that's what you're thinking about when you go to bed, and you can get a decent night's sleep.

Speaking of a tasty note to end on, this is the last week to get your Narwhal x Unicorn t-shirt "You're Not Alone Anymore" for $5 off the normal price in our pre-order sale! The shirts are being printed this week and will go out soon! Get yours now!

Nourish Your Passions

While we might not have the best sleep schedules, please don't take this graph too seriously. Get some rest!

Most of what we write about on the blog deals with life as a professional artist. Usually, that means we talk about things like motivation, finding outlets for your work, inspiration, success, goals, and other stuff like that. However, today, we want to speak a little bit about the other, rarely-spoken-about aspect of an artist's life: other passions.

While it is hard enough to keep on nourishing your art, especially if you're not a 100% full-time artist (someone who is making a living solely off of their art), you also cannot neglect your other dreams and passions.

While this seems a bit contradictory to a lot of the success formulas we've talked about before, we think it's crucial as a human being, and will help prevent burnout as an artist. While this might not apply to you if your only passion in life is art, for us, we have many things in life that we enjoy besides just creating art. We both love to cook, like the outdoors, enjoy sports and dancing, and love music. Granted, painting, designing, and illustrating are our top choices of activities, but when it's all you do, you can easily burn out.

Recently, Monkey has taken a bit of time out of going 110% full-out art-business mode and taken a bit of time to experiment in the kitchen again. He really enjoys coming up with new recipes and recently made the time to come up with two gourmet vegan sandwiches.

While Saturday nights in the Monkey + Seal household are usually spent blogging, researching, or creating concept art, we took the night off recently to head out to a friend's birthday party. The 80's music was going non-stop and we had a blast dancing the night away.

We'll be the first to admit that we're not the all-art-all-the-time artists that some might aspire to be. We're not as famous as James Jean or David Choe or Sam Flores or Tim Burton, many of whom have hustled non-stop for years and worked their asses off to get where they are. But, we also know that while the hustle of an artist takes crazy amounts of dedication, time, and blood, sweat, and tears, if you go too long without a break you won't make it either.

Spend time with friends and family. If you enjoy writing, work on it for 15 minutes at least once a week. Take your time a bit in the kitchen if you like cooking. While we highly encourage you to prioritize your art, just make sure that you're not letting it completely take over your life. Having it take over most of your life is okay, but just don't give it all of it.