My friend Sarah Arr! led a workshop on the basics of zine-making at the Philly Zine Fest Oct. 5. Sarah publishes a terrific perzine called Tazewell's Favorite Eccentric.

About 20 people participated in the workshop. Some were first-timers, others were veteran zine makers. Sarah asked everyone to make a page on the theme of "What do zines mean to you." She is compiling them into a zine that will be used to raise funds for the zine fest.

Sarah supplied us with lots of materials, including paper, background paper, magazine, comics, scissors, stickers, glue sticks, markers, pens, crayons and colored pencils, to name a few!

This was my page:

And this was my table at the fest:

That's the title anyway: Sometimes Things Get Confusing When You're Mentally Ill.

It's a brief comix history of my struggles with depression, PTSD, abuse, marriage and fatherhood, recovery and struggling to reclaim a sense of self. It's cartoony but not light hearted. There is lots of potentially triggering stuff here. Consider yourself warned.

It's yours for a buck, a couple of stamps or a trade. If you would like a copy, you can order it from my etsy store or shoot me an email.

redguard@gmail.com
http://redguard.etsy.com
www.absent-cause.org

Absent Cause
PO Box 1568
New York, NY 10276

SUBMIT SOMETHING FOR NEXT ISSUE!

I'm thinking about duality as a theme -- things like doppelgangers, mirrors, shadows, doubles, vampires casting no reflection, twins, split or multiple personalities, bipolarism, bisexuality, gender swapping and gender play, immigrants living in a foreign culture without losing their identities, interracial identity, etc. But don't feel bound by this if you want to contribute ... there are no hard and fast rules.

I'm proud to announce some early contributors to the second issue. AC will have the pleasure to publish "Changeling," a powerful piece of short fiction with a transgender theme, by Isabella Wolgoth. Disdane, creator of the stunning Elizabeth Bathory artwork in the color centerfold of AC 1, will create an original cover. I've also conducted an interview with an amazing Egyptian activist student, Walaa Quisay.

Please submit your harrowing stories of survival, writing, poetry, artwork, photography, comix, recipes, reviews, crazy evil kinky DIY projects, etc. And of course, there will be interviews...

The second issue of Absent Cause will be published in January 2009. The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2008.

Contact me with your submissions and feedback: redguard@gmail.com

redguard@gmail.com
http://redguard.etsy.com
www.absent-cause.org

Absent Cause
PO Box 1568
New York, NY 10276

That's the title anyway: Sometimes Things Get Confusing When You're Mentally Ill.

It's a brief comix history of my struggles with depression, PTSD, abuse, marriage and fatherhood, recovery and struggling to reclaim a sense of self. It's cartoony but not light hearted. There is lots of potentially triggering stuff here. Consider yourself warned.

It's yours for a buck, a couple of stamps or a trade. If you would like a copy, you can order it from my etsy store or shoot me an email.

redguard@gmail.com
http://redguard.etsy.com
www.absent-cause.org

Absent Cause
PO Box 1568
New York, NY 10276

I want to apologize to Cat and all my friends at CO+K. I kinda disappeared after the new year and got sucked into other things... producing a collaborative zine about underground cultures, radical politics and mental health, as it turns out. My zine is called Absent Cause and you can see what it's about at www.absent-cause.org

Lately I've been using mind maps to spark my creative thinking. What are mind maps, you ask? I think of it as "organized, visual brainstorming."

Take a big sheet of paper, and draw a box or circle in the middle with a 1- or 2-word description of your idea. Then draw a line outward and write the first word that comes into your head. Continue outward from that until you exhaust all the associations. Then go back to your main concept and start another line of thought.

Here's what it looks like, in the case of mind-mapping my zine character, Mighty Girl:
http://redguard1.deviantart.com/art/Mighty-Girl-mind-map-74718986

For more on mind maps, check out this:
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/2222

For those who don't know me, I'm Greg, a radical political activist and journalist from Brooklyn, New York. Like many people, I'm fit to burst with creative ideas but have very little time, energy, or (let's face it) self-discipline to engage with them.

I'm a relative newbie to Cut Out + Keep, and I tend more toward the artsy than the craftsy side of things. But I also believe that any art worth its salt has a practical application. That's why I feel so at home with the wonderful creative community here.

Recently I've become fascinated with collage as a form of self-expression. I was working on my very first collage project when I joined Cut Out + Keep a few months ago, and I got great support and feedback.

Now I'm about to engage in a new project: a series of mini-collages documenting the cases of revolutionary and progressive political prisoners, especially those held by the U.S. It's an issue that is very important to me, one I have worked on in a variety of ways for many years, and these folks have inspired me. I hope to give something back to the cause of these courageous fighters, past and present.

At the same time I undertake this ambitious effort, I'm also going to try and document the process step-by-step, from conception to (I hope!) completion.

Along the way, there will be diversions. I have a 3-year-old daughter who loves arts and crafts projects. With the winter holidays fast approaching, I'm sure some of our joint efforts will be documented here too.

A big thank you to Cat for giving me the opportunity to explore and share with the Cut Out + Keep community!