Hi all,

We are finally kicking One Beat Zines things off again in 2016 – we started last week by giving a talk about One Beat – how we came to be, our plans for the future, etc – for Laydeez do Comics at the House of Illustration (where you can buy copies of Identity and other OBZ stock now!). Thanks to everyone who came and said nice things after, and extra thanks to the organisers, Wallis Eates and Rachael Ball!

A couple of points we talked about which might be worth bringing up here:

1. We’ll probably return to crowdfunding for future anthologies, as the pre-order model we tried with Identity didn’t work enough for us to be able to print the quantities we like,
2. In the future we will always include payment for contributors in the amount we’ll crowdfund, as well as printing costs (and are willing to find cheaper routes for printing as a compromise – in this day and age it is definitely more important to us to pay our contributors in the future).
3. We are looking to produce some anthologies where we hand over the editing reigns to other women – partly to avoid picking the same contributors over and over and to get a pair or two of fresh eyes, and also because for some themes around intersectionality, it would be plain inappropriate for us to be in charge.

So, as you can see, exciting plans for the future!

Meanwhile, we’ve added two new things to our online shop:

The Comic Book Slumber Party anthology Greasy’s Guide To Nookie, and

Grimes: Art Angels Fanzine, edited and produced by Sammy Borras!

Due to work and deadlines, we’ve sadly missed the application to one of our favourite zine fair, DIY Cultures, which takes place in May here in London. Their line-up is totally amazing though, and I urge you to go and have a look around – we’ll be there as punters on the day for sure!

We ARE going to be at CECAF, the Crouch End Comics Arts Festival on June 18th, and once again at Thought Bubble in Leeds in November, sharing a table with our badass friends from Eliza Agar Press.

That’s all the news we have so far, but do keep an eye on this blog and our Twitter (@onebeatzines) for updates, calls for submissions, and new things coming to our distro very soon!

Team OBZ x