5 Questions for Rick Silva

July is all about zines. With the 24 Hour Zine Thing (which is in its 6th year!) and International Zine Month issuing the challenge to create and celebrate zines during the month of July, more about a handful of bookstores, ampoule distros, and other individuals in the zine world has issued another challenge that will last the whole year.

Revenge of Print 2011 started from all those stories about technology taking over and making print and publishing a thing of the past. The challenge presented is to put down that e-reader and bust out another issue of your zine! A Facebook group has been created along with discussion forums so you can interact and share your creation, ideas, and resources with others. Distros and review sites are encouraged to post contact information, and individuals are encouraged to contact these sources and share their zine out into the world!

If you have already created your zine, then you have already completed this challenge as well! But don’t let that stop you from creating more. If you have not yet created your 24 hour zine, right now is a great time to start! And if you have not signed up yet, head over to the “signup” tab, fill out the form, and get started!

The wonderful folks over at Rotherham Zine Library in Rotherham, buy more about
England interviewed me about the 24 Hour Zine Thing, arthritis
and asked some really great questions. You can read the interview here! Check out the rest of their blog, which features tons of great zine reviews, or if you are in the area, stop by!

Rick Silva is the creator of the wonderful zine Caravan, and has participated in the event for three years now! Who better to ask about conquering the 24 Hour Zine Thing challenge?

Why did you decide to participate in the 24 Hour Zine Thing challenge?
It’s a great excuse to exercise some creativity. If not for the zine challenge, well, I didn’t HAVE to put a zine together this summer. It’s a great motivator to do something extra.

What type of pre-planning, if any, did you do before starting on your 24 hour zine?
My only pre-planning was to brainstorm a bit for ideas. With any kind of writing, I tend to mull it over in my head for quite a bit before I actually sit down to write it out.

How did you get your idea for the topic of your 24 hour zine?
My inspiration is right there (usually demanding that I play with him or feed him!). My wife did one minicomic about our first summer with our son. I wanted to do my own autobiographical piece. I also thought that I had enough fun material stored up from the past two years or so, that I could really do a fun take on “geeky parenting”.

How did you come to the decision to use the type of binding method and size that you chose?
I wanted to do some cartooning, so I knew I had to go pretty small or else I’d never get the zine done in time. I can’t draw at all, so I was using really crude stick figures, and I didn’t want to agonize over re-drawing them every time, so I knew I’d need to digitally copy/paste. Thus the decision for quarter-sized and to lay the whole thing out in MS Word.

Was completing the challenge harder than you expected?
Definitely harder. It took me longer than I thought it would to come up with dialogue for some of the situations. I also ran into a lot of technical problems with getting the images where I needed them to be. MS Word is NOT designed to be a layout program, but it worked for me because I’m very familiar with its functions, so I knew how to work around its limitations. It wasn’t always easy, though.

What advice would you give to others who are attempting the 24 Hour Zine Thing challenge?
Avoid preconceived notions about what the project needs to be. The really great thing about zines is that they can take any shape/size/form. So stretch the boundaries of your ideas. Don’t feel like your zine needs to look like other zines you’re seen or read. It only needs to look like YOUR zine.

Be sure to check out Rick’s comic company at dandelionstudios.com

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