Students who crave truly independent media may find just what they’re looking for at this Thursday’s free event hosted by the UO Cultural Forum.
“This event is all about zines,” Linda Archuletta, the Cultural Forum’s visual arts coordinator, said.
Zine enthusiast Joe Biel organized the event, titled Cocoon: The Road Trip Zine, Video and Book Tour. Biel runs Microcosm Publishing, a Portland-based publisher of over 1,200 zines.
“A zine is a self-published periodical,” Biel said. The idea is that without a “higher power” telling you what to write about, the work should come out being more original, he said.
Three performers are scheduled to present during the two-hour session.
One of the performers, Dave Roche, writes zines about his experiences as a substitute teacher with developmentally disabled students, Biel said. He will read from his zine, which was recently republished as a book titled “On Subbing.”
Nicole Georges has written comics and has completed a book called “Interactive Summer.”
“She will be presenting an interactive slide show that takes the comic’s main concepts and involves the audience,” Biel said.

Finally, Biel himself will present an 83-minute video, “$100 and a T-shirt,” a documentary about zines in the Northwest, according to an e-mail from Archuletta.
“It’s about what zines are, how to start one, about the social phenomenon and what’s happening now,” Biel said. “Hopefully people will walk away excited.”
Zines are often distributed and publicized by word of mouth, Biel said. People give them out to anyone who is interested, often using networks where people distribute other people’s zines. A lot of libraries are beginning to shelve zines as well, he said.
Consequently, Biel will be bringing various books, zines and videos from Microcosm Publishing to be distributed and purchased at the event.
“We want to bolster enthusiasm in the medium,” Biel said.

Tiffany Jow is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald.