Wednesday, October 08, 2008

ELECTRIC ANT #1 IS DONE!

After months and months of planning and talking and working, I am happy to announce that the zine is finally done! I spent the last 5 days chained to my computer and InDesign, and with the help of Evan's graphical wizardly, I finalized the layout/proofing and sent ELECTRIC ANT #1 to the printer last night!

The good news is that the book will be done in time to debut at Alternative Press Expo 2008. For folks in the SF area, I will have copies on hand and available at the Bang Gang booth (alongside Hellen's new comic, Jin & Jam no.1 fuckyess)

Front cover

Back cover


ELECTRIC ANT #1: Your First Kiss
7" x 8.5" digest, 92 pages and bound like a paperback book
Color cover inside & out, B&W insides with a 4-page color first kiss survey spread
Printed locally at 1984 Printing in Oakland, CA (They publish some of Little Otsu's books)
Price: $8, debuting at APE, then sold via Same Hat & electricantzine.com and looking/hoping to get it carried by some comics & zine shops, and (maybe?) Last Gasp and Giant Robot

ABOUT THE CONTENTS
Features:
+ TALKING WITH THE MASTER OF MANGA
Author Frederik Schodt on translation, Tezuka, and life as a teenager in Tokyo
+ THE ILLUSTRATED HALL OF DARK LORDS
My favorite cartoonists take us on a tour of the darkest lords that ever lived!
+ YOUR FIRST KISS
Revisited in all its glory... in the form of comics, short fiction, and drawings
+ DEPARTMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING 15 KINDS OF VIOLENT DEATH
A photographic tour of Beijing's Dongyue Temple and its assorted hells
+ FEATURE COMIC: LOVE ENTITY BY SHUNGA (aaron k)
A beautiful and demiurgical tale of transtemporal love and destiny

Goodies:
+ 4-KOMA STRIPFEST
+ NIN LIBS
+ THE 5 WORST PLACES TO FIND YOURSELF AT THE START OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
+ NINE NUGGETS OF ZINE WISDOM FROM ERIC NAKAMURA

FULL CONTRIBUTOR LIST:
RYAN SANDS (me)
EVAN HAYDEN
ALICE KIM
ANTHONY HA
ANTHONY WU
CALVIN WONG
DAVID MURRAY
DEREK KIRK KIM
DEREK YU
ERIC NAKAMURA
GEA*
HELLEN JO
JENN YIN
JULIA WERTZ
JUSTINE LAI
MARINAOMI
MATT LOCK
MC LARS
MIMO
MICHAEL DEFORGE
MICHAELA COLETTE
NATE SHOCKEY
ROOT STUDIO
RYAN GERMICK
SHUNGA (AARON K)
SOPHIA FOSTER-DIMINO
TONY TULATHIMUTTE

I will be posting more information as APE (November 1-2) gets closer, with further details about each of the rad contributors and how to order the zine online. I'm planning to use Google Checkout and launch a proper site sometime between now and then.

6 comments:

Nobody said...

Psst. Is Same Hat aware of ZAPP (Zine Archive and Publishing Project) in Seattle? It has over 20,000 zines in its collection and is supposedly the largest zine archive in the world. I am interning there and it is awesome.

Here is a link to one of their crappy web pages.

ZAPP

There is a zine donation form as a PDF on the site above, if you're interested. I'll probably buy a copy anyway, though. Can't wait!

Anonymous said...

When the time comes, you're gonna let those of us in the "International Community" know how we can get our hands on this, right?

myrto said...

Can't wait for it! The cover rocks!

zytroop said...

SWEET, about time!

Ryan S said...

@mare: Thanks for the detail! I know there are a few zine archive places to send copies for posterity-- I had Richard Hugo on my list. Thanks for the reminder! I just printed out the submission form and will send my mini from Japan (MY SEAT IS YOUR BEHIND) and also Electric Ant.

Of course, buying more copies is always encouraged :)

@Johnny: Most definitely. This time around I'll have to charge appropriate shipping for overseas, but I'll try it a few ways (media mail, etc) and try to keep it cheap. I believe the shopping cart and checkout system I'm gonna use allows for numerous shipping options! Thanks :)

@myrto: Great! I'll keep you posted!

@zytroop: I know, right? The time spent on this thing got really out of hand. I'm telling myself maybe I can get issue 2 out in time for Comic-Con 2009, now that I know InDesign. We'll see.... haha

Ivan said...

Cool! I'll definitely order me up a copy when it's available.