San Francisco Zine Fest From François Vigneault, SFZF 2007 organizing committee:

"The San Francisco Zine Fest is returning October 5th and 6th. The Bay Area’s most beloved conference for zines, comics, and crafts, the Zine Fest is celebrating its sixth anniversary with a move to a beautiful new location, the Women’s Building. As always, the Zine Fest is free and open to the public! Over 50 small-press and DIY creators will be selling, trading, and otherwise sharing their work with over a thousand attendees. The exhibitors, from elder statesmen of the DIY movement such as RE/Search Publications to first time self-publishers, showcase the diversity, vitality, and ongoing exuberance of the small press movement. While the majority of the exhibitors hail from the Bay Area, creators from across the West Coast and country will be present.

Special guests this year are John Marr, writer of the seminal zine Murder Can Be Fun, a cavalcade of bizarre and often very funny tales of untimely death; and Joe Sayers, the cartoonist behind the weekly strip Thingpart and the recently released Teen Power!, a collection of hilarious comics all drawn in five minutes or less. Q&A sessions will be held with both special guests on Saturday. Several panel discussions and hands-on workshops will be held throughout the day on Saturday, including a class on the basics of silk screening taught by John Isaacson, whose book Do It Yourself Screenprinting was recently released by Microcosm Publishing. Other events include ongoing raffle drawings throughout the Fest and a special awards ceremony.

The San Francisco Zine Fest was begun in 2001 by Jenn Starfiend, and is currently run by a hard-working group of volunteers, including members of Family Style, Just Visiting and 327 Market, along with many others.

The San Francisco Zine Fest will be held from 2:00pm-8:00pm on Friday, October 5th, and from 11:00am-7:00pm on Saturday, October 6th. Admission is free on both days.

The Women’s Building is located at 3543 18th St. #8 San Francisco, CA 94110 (between Valencia and Guerrero in the Mission).

For more information, including a full list of exhibitors and workshop schedule, visit the website."

Trains are Mint #3 by Oliver East

Hey look, it's another issue of Trains Are Mint! If you don't already read Oliver East's wonderful mini-comic, then take a glance at these pages.
I prattled on about Trains Are Mint Issue 1 in this post. From last Neovembert:

Trains Are Mint is a great example of what mini-comics do so well. East takes something important or interesting to him, and puts it on the page for a small audience to discover. What I like about East’s effort is the extra touches. The watercolor art is gorgeous. He uses a neutral, stiff card stock for the cover with plenty of information for the reader inside the back cover.

This goes triple for issue three. Oliver is a little more adventurous in his panel layouts this time around. There's a very funny bit where he encounters a lady jogging; he throws you off a bit until your eyes hit the last panel at the bottom of the page.

Oliver's website is here. Click on any of the three issues (the man is leaning on them) for page samples and ordering information.