Independent Publishing Resource Center

I can’t believe we stapled, folded and boxed up Stumptown-ready all 200 copies of the first Oregon History Comic in two hours this week at the IPRC! I think the box of a dozen cupcakes helped. And the long arm staplers.

Oregon History Comics is a project involving a dozen IPRC regulars, including myself, perfect-presser BT Livermore and talented comics teachers John Isaacson and Annie Murphy. Over the next year, in collaboration with the Dill Pickle Club, we’re putting together 10 short comics about Oregon history. 10 comics! 10 illustrators! 10 little-known stories from our local history! It’s a win-win-win.

We have just over 30 days to raise $2,500 to fund the project, via Kickstarter.com. Check out our video (plus a pdf of the first comic!) over at our Kickstarter page, and please consider kicking in a donation yourself to help us get off the ground!

After months of work, IPRC volunteer and membership coordinator (and excellent artist) Lori D. finally unveiled her new murals for the IPRC’s perfect binding room today.

“They’re the biggest paintings I’ve ever made,” says Lori, who hauled the two works to the center wrapped in three layers of garbage bags to keep off the rain.

The not-so-glamorous unveiling

The murals are tableus from the days when the IPRC stood for “Independent Pioneer Resource Center”—in one, a long-john clad cowboy hauls handmade books from a well, in the other, hardscrabble types consume flapjacks and zines while a yeti looks on.

A hearty breakfast! Flapjacks 'n zines.

IPRC regulars check out the new murals

You should come check murals tomorrow at their official wine and snacks unveiling for First Thursday. Stop by the IPRC anytime from 6-10 pm.

I made a business card on the IPRC letterpress using these found playing cards and printing my contact info on them.  These are a huge success when I hand them out.  People always like them.  Also I developed and maintain a website through knowledge gained in an IPRC “create a FREE website” workshop. I love that it is FREE and simple enough for me to use.
cynthialahti.blogspot.com
I love the IPRC
Cynthia Lahti
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May 6, 2010 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

“B is for Beard” by BT Livermore

BT will present pages from his new book, “B is for Beard,” a fully-illustrated, alphabet guide to the wonders of facial hair and the variety of people throughout history who have chosen to wear it. From Annie Jones, a bearded woman who worked with PT Barnum, all the way to the magnificent facial follicles of ZZ Top, “B is for Beard” has it all. Everyone is welcome, even the clean-shaven.

We have much to learn from mushrooms, says the just-released zine, Radical Mycology.  Authored by the self-identified Spore Liberation Front, the primer states in its “call to sporulate:”

The complex life of mushrooms provides profound and novel examples of networking between different species and environs not exhibited by most other life forms.  These actions show a sentient concern for not just the mushroom involved but for the surrounding environment as well.  We believe that as one learns more about these habits, and the ways in which they can influence our own human behavior, one quickly begins to perceive the interconnectedness of life surrounding them all the more clearly.

Clearly, this is no standard field Guide.  Radical Mycology is a political and spiritual call to humanity to look down at the ground and learn from one of the most wondrous living organisms known. Most mushroom affectionados will have no difficulty comparing their mycological friends to human existence and sustainability, but this zine brings this concern more sharply into focus than most publications.

The “networking” that the SLF are referring to is one of the major forms and life stages of mushrooms: mycelium.  The mycelium is the “vast underground web-like structure” that is the hidden vegetative body that produces the mushroom “fruit.”  Many mushrooms you see above ground can be part of the same mycelium below.  In fact, one single mycelium network in Eastern Oregon has been identified as possibly the largest living organism in the world, stretching over 2,400 acres! Mycelium have recently been understood to act as kind of underground economy for their habitat, not only providing nutrients for surrounding organisms, but actually acting as a middleman between them!  Radical Mycology contains a “Mycorestoration” section that details the new science of using mushrooms to restore habitats.

The zine discusses species identification and culinary uses, but this is often where other written works end.  Radical Mycology goes further by offering cultivation tips and other interesting tidbits, like stories of hunters intentionally causing forest fires to produce a flush of Morel mushrooms.  It freely discuss the psychedelic properties of mushrooms, both for spiritual and medicinal use.  Along with using mushrooms to dye fabric and make paper, the zine reveals the often misunderstood fungi to have a history of use as old as civilization itself.



Made at the IPRC by Derek Neuland

Derek says:

“This is a personal zine about the last month i spent in Buffalo, NY (where i have lived all 27 years of my life) before i moved to Portland, OR (where i’ve been living since April 2009). It mostly consists of reflections on my time in Buffalo, thoughts about what lies ahead of me in Portland (i had never visited Portland before i moved here), and things that happened to me during my last month living in Buffalo. It is 24 pages and quarter sized.

I love trading zines and would prefer that, but if you don’t want to/can’t trade it is $3.00ppd. “

For purchase, trade, or more info: http://allthingsordinary.wordpress.com/zines/

Atomic Books (Baltimore, MD)
City Lights Bookstore (San Francisco, CA)
Floating World Comics (Portland, OR)
Guapo Comics (Portland, OR)
Powell’s (Portland, OR)
Quimby’s (Chicago, IL)
Reading Frenzy (Portland, OR)

Check out the current issue of Bumpstart, made by IPRC Member Karen Giezyng!  You can get your very own copy HERE.

Since the IPRC has colonized the new room across the hall, Justin and A.M. get to have a spacious office of their very own. It’s better for their sanity and their paperwork but more importantly, it means we got to redecorate!

Thanks to some artfully repurposed wooden boards, a creative little nook and the beloved old fake campfire, the bigwigs’ office now resembles a cozy cabin.

Behold! The horror!

So fuzzy! So friendly!

I guess this means we have to think of a new name for it. What’s a good name for a Yeti who loves the taste of toner and text?

Here is the Yeti-fication in action:

caught!

Here is a lovely little one-sheet zine made by Lauren Hamilton…