ZINE CREAMERS - FRENCHING #4

Two years ago my friend Tod Seelie was in a thrift store in Ohio and found some negatives of students circa 1970. There is little evidence that points to who these teenagers are, exactly, but he gave me those black-and-white film negatives and said something like, "You have to take this and make something cool." Here's what I did...

Lloyd was sent to a farm for adjustment, Mabel's overprotected, Marcia was a sex delinquent, Catherine wants attention, Dennis has many undesirable practices, Mary is unsocial, Olive's troubles are emotional as well as physical.... The story line is taken from Lester and Alice Crow's Our Teen-age Boys and Girls, a social survey of and guidebook to adolescence for parents (and teachers and other "youth leaders") that was published in 1945. These are case studies of wayward youth and how to care for these troubled adolescents.

 

Frenching # 4: Our Teen-age Boys and Girls





Gordon's the baby.



David's the babe!





And here's how it was made:



Readiris text converter



This 22-page, handbound, hand-cut zine was produced on a Risograph, which is this incredible device that operates somewhat like the offset printing process. A print can be registered and ran through the press multiple times; it works in layers of color like a silk screen.

This is Duncan, a professor whom I studied with, preparing one of the four colored drums. For each layer, a new ink drum must be installed. What's really nice about the Risograph is that it uses ink as opposed to toner, and that makes machine technology appear similar to handmade pulled print.

It spits them out pretty fast like it does not even give a shit. You can't tell from this photo though.

Found imagery and text from different sources, now ready to be combined to form new ideas, all pages back and front.



 A guillotine makes cutting easy-peasy, yet this project took forever!

Anyway, Frenching #4 is an edition of 23 and you can pick one up at Spoonbill & Sugartown. If you don't live in the area and are interested, there are two copies left and each is $6. Get it by contacting me here.

MAGGIE LEE

Comments

[martha]

i wasn't blown away by the other frenchings but this one looks nice. readiris looks really neat. i'll have to check that out.

[TK]

I wish more zines were this pretty. The xerox collage aesthetic has been done so many times it takes something out of this world to impress me anymore.

[whimsical]

i think chapter 2 "the teenager lives and grows" is one of the best titled things ive ever seen. pretty zine.

[Jules]

What a wonderful idea. This is so great, Maggie. The reason zines throw me off is they are often so self-absorbed it sickens me.

A project like this that focuses on others, and strangers at that, is a refreshing look at a genre that was beginning to bore me.

[sirhans]

maggie lee is better than me at everything except for at not being from new jersey.

[Leper]

That who process was pretty fucking amazing. This girl just took blackmail to a whole new level. Think about it.

[dash snow]

you look like a retarded down syndrome cancer patient that survived multiple nuclear attacks with terrible side effects afters..atleast in that above photo...gross.

oh and this zine is lacking..you half ass your zines..get more interesting content.

[less_cunning]

IDK. IMO the minimal girly letterpress thing has been overwrought, recently; i think it work both wayz, either way, whichever one choses: zines still kinda beating the INTERNET cuz i spent an afternoon w/ "Permanent Ink #11" & i'm already regretting that i have an online connection if that makes sense???

[avoid]

Permanent Ink #11 - Available from Avoid PI directly... diovaone@yahoo.com or www.myspace.com/picrew