KCZC #6 Festivities: Workshops, Panels & Virtual Tables

Workshops, Panels, & Meet-ups

Panel Participants

We're excited to be hosting two panels during this year's festival, and you can watch them LIVE here at kczinecon.com! Can't watch the panels live? No worries! We'll be posting the video capture of the discussions here. The panels will be automatically captioned, and after the festival, we will be replacing the auto-generated captions with professionally-written captions thanks to our sponsor, Moosader.

Saturday, September 5 • 1pm CST

Zinesters & Astrology, Herbalism, and Witchcraft Panel

Ailin Lu (Mamagui Speaks) (She/They) - Ailin (she/they) of Mamagui Speaks is a self-taught Asian American and queer astrologer, interdiscplinarian, artist, and data nerd. In addition to consulting with clients, she acts as VP of programming at the Aquarian Organization of Astrologers. “Mamagui” is a play on words that draws on Ailin's Chinese American experience. Gui <鬼> is the word for ghost. Mama precedes gui to honor the wisdom and guidance of her maternal ancestors. You can find them on IG @mamagui_speaks or visit mamaguispeaks.com to peruse astrology content and book a reading.
Neelybat Chestnut (she/her) - author of Mend My Dress, and good witch/badwitch, publisher, Mend My Dress Press, and practicing JeWitch. @neelychestnut
Nikki Minor (she/they) - (chicory.) is a zine and line of small-batch herbal goods handmade in New Orleans, Louisiana by Nikki Minor. Nikki's passion is demystifying herbalism making it accessible to marginalized people and using plants as tools for liberation. To learn more follow @chicoryzine on Instagram or visit linktr.ee/chicoryzine.
Rayne Klar (they / them / theirs) - nonbinary witch living in the midwest making comics and zines . rayneklar.com

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Sunday, September 6 • 1pm CST

BIPOC Zinesters Panel

Alexa Lima (She/Her) - I am a Black zinester and musician based out of Atlanta, GA. I primarily make perzines and collage zines with a focus on political and social issues that affect Black people.
Carmen Pizarro (She/they) - Hey, I’m Carmen Pizarro, I’m a Latinx Illustrator based in NYC. My work ranges from making illustrations to comics and creating zines and other products in my spare time!
Jonas Cannon (They/them (preferred) or he/him) - I've made 45-50 zines, with topics ranging from punk to mental illness to parenting. I live in Chicago and am a founder and organizer of the Midwest Perzine Fest.
Kayla Shaggy (She/They) - Kayla Shaggy, a Two-Spirit woman of Dine and Annishinabe descent, is an artist specializing in illustrations and comic books. Her artwork is inspired by personal experiences and stories from her Indigenous heritage. She also tries to bring awareness to Indigenous and LGBTQ issues within her art as well.

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Workshop Descriptions

All of the workshops listed below will take place over Zoom, and require pre-registration in order to participate. Registration will close the day before each workshop. Click here to register for the panels you are interested in attending. We will send those who registers access information.

Saturday, September 5

Collage: The Art of Self-Creation Presented by Trish (she/her, they/them) + An Sasala (they/them, ze/zir)

Collage, the process of piecing together bodies, identities, and art, has long been a part of trans and nonbinary creative and self-making practices. Join us and learn about the history of trans artistic and zine making practices, make a self-portrait, and tell your story.

Tools needed: Good attitude, glue, tape, magazines, scissors, paper, pens and markers (the usual zine-making and collage supplies)
This workshop is for All Ages


One-sheet, eight-page books Presented by Matthew Friedrichs (any pronouns)

I love to read. I love works on paper. I love personal and quirky storytelling. I teach English. I used to edit. Rural. Both coasts. There are awesome people everywhere. Every kid can be a self-published author. All they need is one sheet of paper, using photos, collage, text, drawings, a simple cut, and three folds.

Tools needed: One sheet of paper
This workshop is for All Ages


Inclusive Digital Spaces for Women-Identified and LGBTQIA Creators Presented by Annie Brown (they/them)

Social media sucks, especially if you are woman-identified or a member of the LGBTQIA community. 73% of LGBTQ content online is flagged as inappropriate, and persons highlighting inequalities of sexuality, gender and race are removed from mainstream platforms by the thousands each day. In a socially-distanced world, this makes it incredibly hard for marginalized creators to thrive online. A better (digital) world is possible! We’ll share Lips’ 10+ years of research into mental health and inclusive digital spaces, and what you can do to make the Internet a better place for all of us. We’ll also have an interactive co-design session, where creators can give their say on what a more equal sharing platform looks like! For more info, click here.

Tools needed: Web browser! Ability to open a link for codesign session.
This workshop is for Teens, Adults


Successful Comics Collaboration Presented by Michael Sweater (he/him), Rachel Dukes

Michael Sweater and Rachel Dukes met at the Center for Cartoon Studies and are working together to create The Wizerd! For Oni Press. They will discuss how to start and keep a successful comics collaboration going through multiple books. From finding potential collaborators to different methods of collaboration this talk will discuss the ins and outs of team based comics projects. For more information about their work, visit www.mixtapecomics.com, @MichaelSweater, and @MixtapeComics

This workshop is for Adults

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Sunday, September 6

Quarantine Zines at The Ohio State University’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Library Presented by Jolie Braun (she/her)

When COVID-19 caused the world to go into lockdown, many found solace in creating quarantine zines documenting their lives during the pandemic. This spring, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (RBML) began seeking out these publications, and now has a collection of more than 50 zines from the United States, Canada, England, France, and Australia. This talk will discuss how and why RBML is building a quarantine zine collection, including the process of finding and acquiring zines, highlighting items from the collection, and reflecting on some common themes and experiences. Jolie Braun is the Curator of Modern Literature and Manuscripts in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at The Ohio State University, where she oversees the modern literature and history collections and provides special collections-based instruction. She is building the unit’s zine collections. Her research interests include women publishers and booksellers, zines, and self-publishing. Learn more about her at https://hcommons.org/members/joliebraun/ and https://twitter.com/joliebraun.

This discussion is for Teens, Adults


Political Comics That Spark Conversation Presented by Nhatt Nichols (she/her)

Do you want to create a comic that sparks real conversations and change in your community, but you're not sure where to start? We'll look at how to find a subject, and how to use language and visuals to that will inspire community engagement. Nhatt Nichols is a editorial cartoonist for the Port Townsend Leader. Every week she researches the issues in her community and distills them down to be easy to comprehend, and conversation provoking. Nhatt has a masters degree in drawing from the Royal Drawing School in London, and is the author of Boats, Bears, and Bad Life Choices: The Race to Alaska. You can find more of her work at nhattnichols.com. Instagram @nhatt_attack


Tools needed: A general idea of what is happening in your community, paper, and a pencil with a good erasure.
This workshop is for Teens, Adults