Trace Ramsey is the creator of Quitter zine. This from Pioneer Press: “What do you do when you realize the whole system is chock full of faulty wiring and institutionalized myths? Do you stay behind that desk (whether metaphorical or literal) and burrow into the security of “living in the first world” or do you throw yourself into the wilds? Sometimes it’s not so black and white, and sometimes “cutting ties” requires a privilege and skill-set we don’t have.

In this anthology of Quitter issues 1-6, we see Ramsey battling fear and freedom, history and an uncertain future. There are no hard and fast answers; nothing set in stone besides the guarantee of chaos and troubled waters ahead. Over the course of 64 pages, Trace struggles through life, winning and failing, looking for a better path but not always finding it.”

Corina Dross is an artist, writer, and rabble-rouser best known for
her illustrated card deck, Portable Fortitude. Her zines range from anticapitalist intimacy theory to queer micro-fiction. As an artist she illustrates useful, if sometimes obscure, talismans. She also write horoscopes for Mask Magazine and is a consulting astrologer under the name Flax and Gold.

Zine Machine Fest co-organizer Everett Rand will be presenting his legendary Mineshaft Magazine, on whose pages has regularly appeared the work of R. Crumb, Billy Childish, Christoph Mueller, Jay Lynch, Mary Fleener, Art Spiegelman, and Bill Griffith among many others. Writes Gioia Palmieri: “It was in Vermont that Everett said to me that he would like to start a magazine. I asked him what the name should be and he said that he had liked “Mineshaft”. This was the name translated into English of our favorite bar in La Paz, Bolivia where we had lived in the early ‘90s. El Socovan was on a side street a few blocks from the university. The entrance was a red door that opened onto stairs leading into a basement. The owner supported the arts and there was always a band or performance group, and art covering the walls. A bowl of coca leaves sat on the end of the bar.” Everett and Gioia live in Durham with their daughter Irena.

The folks at Harrington Comics write: “Harrington Comics is a new alternative comics group from Norfolk, VA, which includes Matt Harrison (rootbeercomics.com), Todd Webb (toddbot.com), and Greg Steele (thesebearsarehappy.tumblr.com). We make zines, comics, original art/prints, and t-shirts.”

Tori from glittermeat writes: “Prints and stickers will be tucked between selections from my webcomic, glittermeat.com, as well as a horror zine, “Scan Omit Loop”,  whose text is culled and remixed from Cosmo magazine. Also making its way to Zine Machine is “Odd South”, a travelogue about roadside oddities and living in the South.” Coolness!

Jenny Zervakis does the beautiful Strange Growths zine. She writes: “I will be selling Strange Growths 14 1/2, 15, and 16, and Bumbalo 1 and 2. Besides doing Strange Growths since 1990, I’ve contributed to such zines as Urban Hiker, White Buffalo Gazette, Top Shelf, Bogus Dead, Flying Saucer Attack, Optical Sloth, Rocktober, Salon, and Not My Small Diary, and co-edited comix anthology Zoomcranks with husband Mark Cunningham.”

Matt writes: “I’ll have a spread of comics and zines by yours truly. My work is generally about queer & trans identity and the resulting life experiences.”

Check out Matt’s artful tumblr, Inkmaggot.

Durham’s Supergraphic printshop will be tabling at the Zine Machine. They tell us that they might be selling some skull linocut prints and other similar imagery. Durham will be printed matter central on February 20th!

11-year-old Nathan McMurray will be presenting his fantastic full color comic, Lightning Bolt. He’ll also bring some comics by his dad and their friends under the Our Friend the Atom imprint .

Zine Machine is thrilled to welcome CURTIS ELLER, who will bring his jaw-dropping banjo stylings to the Durham Armory to help celebrate the zine fest:

“Having spent a decade toiling in the musical sweatshops of New York City, banjo player and songwriter, Curtis Eller uprooted his family and resettled in some faded, tobacco town in the North Carolina Piedmont to begin the arduous task of assembling a new version of his band, The American Circus. The latest version of the band is a brutish and inelegant rock & roll outfit, known to haunt the beer halls, burlesque houses and underground theaters of the eastern seaboard. They specialize in banjo music for funerals, gospel tunes for atheists and novelty dance fads for amputees. A lavish, Hollywood, dance sequence unfolding on the floor of a Chicago meatpacking plant in 1894.” (from curtiseller.com)