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Since starting in 2001, the Portland Zine Symposium has grown into one of the largest annual zine events in the U.S., holding its own among events like L.A. Zine Fest and Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair, and bringing together more than 200 zinesters from Portland and beyond.
The symposium’s appeal, however, isn’t necessarily its size.
Founded by a group of artists, illustrators and zinesters—Eleanor Whitney, Elly Blue, Alex Wrekk and Nicole J. Georges—PZS has always been primarily invested in giving local and visiting creators a place to share their books, comics, zines and other self-published artifacts.
Wren McSherry remembers going to PZS as a teenager. It was an early introduction to Portland’s small press and indie comics communities. And years later, after COVID restrictions eased in 2023, McSherry became one of the event’s organizers.
“PZS is a really good stepping stone for first-time tablers and creators to get a shot at making a zine and selling it,” McSherry tells WW.
This year’s symposium runs Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18. The day before, Portland’s Independent Publishing Resource Center is extending its open hours to accommodate PZS’s “Zine Scramble” event, where tablers can stop by for “last minute printing, cutting and stapling.”
That low barrier to entry has the added benefit of gathering a huge range of people from different subcultures and interests, bringing zine-makers together that would not have met otherwise.
“I like that there’s a really wide breadth,” McSherry says, “of genre and subject matter, but also skill level and personality.”
The lineup features local university clubs like PNCA Zine Club, small presses like Bug Publishing and Portland-based multi-media artists groups like The Mold Collective. Roaming through the isles, you might also bump into veteran comic artists, zinesters and organizers like Emily Moroz, BB Andersson, Rainer Kannenstine and Emma Wiseman with deep ties to the Portland independent comic and zine community
After a hiatus in 2020 and a digital iteration the following year, PZS began working with Portland State University in 2022, and has held its two-day event on the university’s campus since. The move helped solve a longstanding problem: finding a venue large enough for the crowds that come through.
“Because we’ve been around for so long, we get a lot of people from out of town, as well as some professional creators,” McSherry said about the nearly 2,000 visitors the symposium expects to host. “Our space accommodates about 100 tables, which rotate tablers each day. That gives people a really good reason to come both days.”
Over two decades in, PZS remains a place where someone can show up with a stack of photocopies, a folding table and an idea—and find a community willing to take it seriously.
“You don’t know how lucky you punks are,” says a character in Dylan William’s black and white comic, I Remember My First Zine Symposium. “Half a century later the world is still full of bullshite. But there are way more zines!”
GO: Portland Zine Symposium at Portland State University’s Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, 1825 SW Broadway, portlandzinesymposium.org. 11 am–5 pm Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18. Free. All ages. Masks required.
