Zines have long since left the North American underground, and the alternative press has been going in other hemispheres for ages. This week we thought we’d highlight some of the incredibly cool zine scenes you might plug into in other parts of the globe.
Medellín, Colombia
A few years ago Assistant Editor Jonathan Valelly stumbled into a corner of the city museum of Medellín containing a tribute to the punk scene there, complete with a wall of old tapes and a bunch of awesome zines with titles like Exenax and La Sombra. These days there are a few zines till carrying on the punk and metal tradition there, such as Hell’Zine while Chilean zinester Jko Sanchez’s Medellín Error Zine honours the city with a more illustration based edge. And of course, the long tradition of political alternative press continues with publications like Diario ADN.
Cebu, The Phillipines
The first ever Cebu Zine Fest was held in April at 856G Gallery in Mandaue City, including 50+ vendors, workshops on lino prints and zine making, and the charmingly named “DEAR Time”, which stands for Drop Everything And Read. Check out the little write up in an English language Filipino news site.
Cape Town, South Africa
[image via warrenraysdorf.deviantart.com]
Zines continue to be a strong counterculture force in South Africa. Chimurenga’s quarterly Chronic zine, the Any Body Zine, Warren Raysdorf’s Freebeer Zine, Bikini Shark, Happy Circle Bicycle Friends are just a few zines keeping the spirit alive. The now defunct Cape Town Zine Project (ctzp.tumblr.com) still stands as a snapshot of cool zine stuff that was going on in South Africa in 2013— such as “African Pulp Fiction Galactic Zine Sweatshop.”
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
[image via timeout.com]
We were stoked to recently find a quick interview with Biawak Gemok Distro, who write mostly about LGBTQ issues and religion. Get into the world of Malaysian zines like Grrrl:Rebel and Koleksi Zine! Also loving this archive of a late 90s website from a zinester in Penang named Azim!
Bandung, Indonesia
Bandung Zine Fest is this August! There’s lots of metal and horror zines out of Indonesia as well, like House of Horror, Holy Noisey and Indonesian Sickness Zine.