final major project

Expozine, Montreal’s small press, comic and zine fair, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Having established itself as one of Canada and North America’s première fairs dedicated to independent publication, we interviewed organizer Louis Rastelli to talk about the Expozine’s history and how zine culture has and hasn’t changed over the years…


Drink & Draw: Thinking waaaay back, what first inspired you to put the festival together? What inspires you to keep it going?

Louis Rastelli: Starting a fair was one of the goals of the non-profit organization we set up in 1998, Archive Montreal. Our mandate is promoting local independently-produced culture while at the same time preserving samples of it (copies of local zines and posters etc.)

In the 90s there were some zine fairs elsewhere (Toronto, New York) and some annual comic book fairs in Montreal, then the Anarchist Book Fair started up. We totally felt the need for a small press fair in Montreal. We basically procrastinated doing one from 1998 until the first Expozine in October 2002. To be fair, another reason Expozine took a few years to start was that we first set up its sister project, theDistroboto vending machine network, developed in 1999 and 2000 and launched at the start of 2001.

Both Distroboto and Expozine were born from the frustration small publishers and self-publishers felt during the late 1990s—once you created a zine or a book, it was really difficult to distribute it. Several local bookstores had closed, the big Chapters chain went bankrupt and never paid what they owed to small publishers. Distribution is always a huge challenge for any independent creator, whether it’s books, music, or art prints.

It got to the point in 1999 that if it didn’t get easier to put one’s creations out there, our generation of artists in Montreal would gradually stop creating. It’s not very inspiring to spend time making a cool zine or album if you can’t think of a way of getting it out there.

We felt that starting non-profit community projects would be a good way to tackle common problems. It turned out it wasn’t just us who felt the need for such outlets—both Distroboto and Expozine have been overwhelmed with submissions and participants ever since. We’ve never been able to keep up with demand.

D&D: We are living in a time where people can communicate and express themselves with ease via a plethora of devices and webtools. Why do you feel it is still important to encourage a culture of creating and sharing independently published works? How have things changed in the “zine scene” since earlier decades?

LR: I don’t see much connection between cultural artifacts and ephemeral communication like texting or blogs. People express different things in a zine or a work of visual art than they do when they spout off in a blog post or rave about an album on facebook or twitter.

There have been changes in the zine scene in the past decade. Zine-makers connect more through the Internet than through mailing lists or review magazines like they used to do. In fact, most magazines that were devoted to reviewing zines or music have been replaced with websites. I like this development because there used to be way too many zines that just reviewed stuff, and lots of personal zines were focused on someone’s favourite bands or albums. With so much ephemeral and flaky content all over the web, I find that zines have generally focused on more original and interesting content.

I also find that the Internet hype has overshadowed the huge democratization of the means of production. In the 90s it would have cost a fortune to have the digital publishing software and quality colour printers that just about anyone can get today for cheap. The same thing has happened in the music and cinema realms—there are so many inexpensive professional resources at our disposal, these are excellent times to be DIY. I’m not surprised at all that there are more zines being made than ever.

D&D: So a 65 year old grandmother and her 11 year old granddaughter walk into the fair for the first time—what do you hope they get from the experience?

LR: I hope they both find some great books and zines and enjoy the fact that they met the person who made them. We’ve also had both 11 year old and 65 year old exhibitors selling their publications at Expozine too, so maybe visitors of that age could be inspired to create themselves.

D&D: Since 2005 you’ve held the Expozine Alternative Press Awards. Each participant at the festival is invited to submit one of their works for consideration, and winners for best comic, best zine and best book are selected for French and English submissions. What kinds of things are the judges looking for when it comes to selecting nominees and a winner?

LR: The judges change every year, but in general we ask that they consider both the presentation as well as the content of each publication. This especially applies to the “zine” category because there are a lot of interesting printing and binding methods being used in the self-publishing world lately.

D&D: What have you got planned to celebrate your 10th year? Do you see Expozine growing or changing in future years?

LR: We’re totally broke so we won’t be going nuts with anniversary celebrations. Expozine could have grown so much more in past years but it’s very difficult to get funding because of the prejudice against self-published, do-it-yourself artists. The arts councils generally still want to see a “professional” fair showcasing people who have degrees or are members of a professional association. We’ve even been told that the arts councils couldn’t possibly encourage self-publishing because, “this would deprive an author of the experience of working with a real editor, publisher, proofreaders,” etc. We usually reply that we love seeing our participants move on and get book deals with “real” publishers. I don’t understand how they can overlook the value of self-publishing when you’re just starting out—it’s a great way to learn how publications get made, get some initial feedback from friends, and get discovered by “real” publishers. We’ve heard of several authors and comic artists who got discovered at Expozine and later published by “real” publishers.

The core mission of Expozine hasn’t changed from the beginning—it’s a place where people just starting out can get exposure for the first time.