On toner-stained hands

Back on the “old” PGTI blog, I posted this gem on August 6, 2008:

A recent post by Warren Ellis over on his site lauded the continued perseverance of the DIY press:

” …I’m delighted by it, as a toner-stained Eighties kid who still remembers having to bend over staple tines with his thumbs because he didn’t have access to a longarm stapler…”

Five/One Magazine, R.I.P.

For about five or six years in the late ’90s, I published zines and chapbooks, and yes, I used to sit on the floor of my studio apartment, stapling through the center of folded 11×17 sheets with a pulled-open stapler, bending over the tines by hand. To this day, the greatest office supply item I have ever owned is the long-arm stapler I bought in the latter years of my DIY publishing empire. No, seriously, I was called “The Dean of Zines” at some point in my life.

I kind of miss that. I mean, the ease of the internet for publishing and reaching a mass audience is great, but I might write a blog post that 20 people will read, whereas if I printed 200 copies of a zine back in the day, not only would those 200 copies get picked up at coffeehouses, record shops and bars, but they’d also be read by multiple people at some of those locations. And I always like having something to hold, to collect — which is why I’m working on creating printed comics and not doing a webcomic.

I just found it vaguely ironic that I AM now creating a webcomic. Then again, it will be collected in print soon enough, so I guess I get to satisfy both media in which I love to work. And, you know, get copies of my comics into the hands of those who might otherwise never visit the website.