PREVIEW: Gobble, Gobble, Hey! Zine and Small Press Fest coming to Lowe Mill AE

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — A zine (pronounced ZEEN) is short for “fanzine.” It is “a small-circulation print or online publication produced through noncommercial means and meant to appeal to a niche audience,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment Gallery Coordinator Robert Daniel founded the Gobble Gobble Hey! Zine and Small Press Fest to help bring people interested in zines together.

“There are many talented writers and creators in the area,” Robert reveals. “I created Gobble Gobble Hey! Zine and Small Press Fest because I wanted a market focused on the zine makers, bookmakers, and printmakers, and I felt this was a group that didn’t have its event unto itself, except the folks who fit into the world of ‘Cons,'” he explains.

Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment will host its 3rd annual Gobble, Gobble, Hey! Zine and Small Press Fest. It is a FREE event held on Saturday, November 23rd, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“It’s still a young event, so it’s still forming its personality,” he says.

A zine can be published on various topics, such as art, photography, literary, social, political, music, perzines (personal zines), travel, health, food, etc. Zines are a flexible medium—any topic can be presented in any format, whether its text only, original drawings, collages, photography, interviews, poetry, or any combination. It could also be an online publication.

According to Purdue University , “zines have been around since the 1500s when Martin Luther published the 95 Theses . Still, zines began to flourish in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, and in the 1930s, science fiction zines circulated among fans to build a community in a pre-digital age. By the 1970s, zines gained popularity in punk circles as creators shared information about bands and punk culture and promoted nonconformity. The punk feminist movement Riot Grrrl continued this legacy of zine production in the 1990s and published zines as part of an activist movement against sexism.”

Daniel said most of the vendors would be from the Tennessee Valley and hoped some would come across state lines to participate. He hopes this zine fest will lead to more creators being seen by the general public and each other.

“Lots of bigger cities have events that celebrate zines and independent comics and small presses, but Alabama doesn’t have anything to my knowledge, so hopefully, this will grow and become a destination for folks, both vendors and patrons, in the future,” Daniel says.

This year, many vendors will be at the event, from zine makers to authors to printmakers.

“I think the diversity makes it very interesting.  You will be able to find romance novels next to role-playing, next to short comics, next to sci-fi stories, next to hand-crafted books, and all kinds of things as unique as the folks who create them,” Daniel says.

Before the age of the internet, zines were primarily created to spread a message the creator was passionate about and find a community of like-minded people.

Robert said that his favorite part of organizing the event was finding other people who were just as interested in something like this as he was.

“I think a wonderful thing about the event is that someone might be coming to Lowe Mill A&E for something completely unrelated and end up coming across all of these creators and finding something right up their alley,” he added.

Anyone interested in being a vendor guideline can apply on the Gobble, Gobble, Hey! website. Lowe Mill A&E is located at 2211 Seminole Dr SW, Huntsville, AL 35805.

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