Let’s make zines for a damn good cause this Saturday!

Linette and I will be hosting an all-ages workshop this Saturday, from noon to 2:00, at FLY Children’s Art Center (40 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti). Ostensibly, the course, which is a fundraiser for FLY, is about how to create small, often quirky, self-published magazines, or, what we in the business call “zines.” Linette and I, however, given the fact that we’ve been mucking around in the zine underworld for over 20 years now, have a somewhat less utilitarian take on it. We don’t want to just show you how to fold and staple paper. We want to help you distill your thoughts and put them into a format that achieves your goals. We want to help you, as best that we can, try to change the world.

Whatever it is that you love, bring your passion for it, along with a crisp $10 bill, to Fly Children’s Art Center on Saturday, and Linette and I will help you to make something beautiful, satisfying and impactful… Allow us to use the skills we’ve attained over the last 20 years, as the co-publishers of Crimewave USA, to unlock the magic within you. We’ll have pens, paper, scissors, and access to the library’s photocopier. All you need is a willingness to honestly confront that which is inside of you, and pour it out onto a page. Whether it’s a story of unrequited love that you feel needs to be told in graphic form, a heartfelt appeal for drivers to respect the rights of cyclists, or a desperate plea to find others who share the same interest in Bigfoot, we can help. And, we’ll even have ideas ready to go for those of you who might come in without a clear vision already mapped out.

Two hours isn’t very long, and you’ll have to work super-fast, but we believe panic spurs creativity!

At the end of the workshop, we’ll trade — and you’ll go home with a set of mini-zines to treasure forever! (Don’t worry, we won’t give any adult-themed zines to the younger folks in the class.) And, if time allows, we may even take some of them and place them in one of the DIY micro-libraries set up around town, so everyone can check them out.

So, come out. You owe it to yourselves. It’ll be fun. And it’s for a damn good cause… FLY does vital work, helping kids develop the critical skills of creative thinking and problem solving. Seriously, they do incredible shit, and your ten bucks is better with them than in the till at your local bar. (With that said, though, maybe we can go to the bar afterward and continue our work.) So, whatdaya say? Will you join us?

[The Facebook event page for the workshop can be found here, in case you’d like to share it with friends.]