Richmond’s artistically diverse Zine Fest returns this weekend

Lelia Contee, Contributing Writer

Platforming bold voices and eccentric storytelling with diverse creatives, a local zine festival will return for its 16th year this weekend at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library on Franklin Street. 

“Zine” is short for fanzine or magazine, referring to independently or self-published booklets featuring artists’ works, a practice dating back to the 1930s. It typically focuses on personal passions and empowers diverse communities, rather than aiming for broad appeal and profit-driven objectives.  

The Richmond Zine Fest is an all-ages event where zine creators and fans alike come together to exchange zines, enjoy DIY goods, attend workshops and build connections, according to its website. 

“I think events where people can encounter stories and people, and not some idea put out there by mass media or our government, is incredibly important,” co-organizer Celina Williams said. “It’s all the more important to support people who are putting their voices out there.” 

The two-day festival will be hosted on Friday, Oct. 10 and Saturday, Oct. 11. Face masks are required.  

Meet the Artists 

New York-based artist Michelle Spadafore started with creating zines, and now makes comic books, she said. She goes to Richmond’s Zine Fest for the positive atmosphere, interesting panel and strong community. 

“The great thing about the Zine Fest is that they’re just so open for any sort of artistic expression, and you don’t have to be perfect,” Spadafore said. “It just has to be you expressing yourself.” 

Spadafore’s original zine work is called Haiku & Holga, which contains haikus and 35-millimeter photographs taken on a Holga camera, according to her website Uopcomics.com. 

She recently published “The Sheeted Dead,” a supernatural mystery comic where the protagonist, Oscar, investigates a series of deaths in San Francisco with the help of a quirky team, including a defrocked priest and a tarot card reader, to stop a disco-obsessed ghost. 

Theodore Taylor III is an artist and illustrator who makes zines for the creative freedom they offer and the opportunity to share his work with his community, he said. 

Taylor III is currently working on “The Bear Maximum,” which is a collection of bear drawings, and the “Outsider,” a series of photography zines that features pictures of a Lakeside neighborhood.

“The spirit of zine [is] just being creative, also being independent and alternative, and against the grain, trying to share different views and ideas,” Taylor III said. 

C.A.P. Ward is a cartoonist and illustrator who creates genre fiction and reality-based works. Their work features a lot of diversity due to their Black and queer identity, and can be found on their website, artcward.com.  

For Ward, zine-making is about independence and its accessibility to different subcultures. 

“It’s just a way I can put my work out into the world where I get as much control as I can feasibly get and still make something that feels true to me and I can share with others,” Ward said. 

Brooke Inman is an artist and educator at VCUarts. Inman will not table at this year’s festival, but designed their t-shirts and tote bags.   

Inman’s zines focus on her personal life and interests, such as relationships and birdwatching. She attended the event in previous years and stressed the importance of supporting artists. 

“It’s really important for our culture and our society to support artists and support their voices,” she said. “Zine Fest just gives a space for folks to really speak their minds, and be themselves and it’s just a really awesome creative space.”