ELECTRIC ANT #1 IS DONE!

After months and months of planning and talking and working, I am happy to announce that the zine is finally done! I spent the last 5 days chained to my computer and InDesign, and with the help of Evan's graphical wizardly, I finalized the layout/proofing and sent ELECTRIC ANT #1 to the printer last night!

The good news is that the book will be done in time to debut at Alternative Press Expo 2008. For folks in the SF area, I will have copies on hand and available at the Bang Gang booth (alongside Hellen's new comic, Jin & Jam no.1 fuckyess)

Front cover

Back cover


ELECTRIC ANT #1: Your First Kiss
7" x 8.5" digest, 92 pages and bound like a paperback book
Color cover inside & out, B&W insides with a 4-page color first kiss survey spread
Printed locally at 1984 Printing in Oakland, CA (They publish some of Little Otsu's books)
Price: $8, debuting at APE, then sold via Same Hat & electricantzine.com and looking/hoping to get it carried by some comics & zine shops, and (maybe?) Last Gasp and Giant Robot

ABOUT THE CONTENTS
Features:
+ TALKING WITH THE MASTER OF MANGA
Author Frederik Schodt on translation, Tezuka, and life as a teenager in Tokyo
+ THE ILLUSTRATED HALL OF DARK LORDS
My favorite cartoonists take us on a tour of the darkest lords that ever lived!
+ YOUR FIRST KISS
Revisited in all its glory... in the form of comics, short fiction, and drawings
+ DEPARTMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING 15 KINDS OF VIOLENT DEATH
A photographic tour of Beijing's Dongyue Temple and its assorted hells
+ FEATURE COMIC: LOVE ENTITY BY SHUNGA (aaron k)
A beautiful and demiurgical tale of transtemporal love and destiny

Goodies:
+ 4-KOMA STRIPFEST
+ NIN LIBS
+ THE 5 WORST PLACES TO FIND YOURSELF AT THE START OF THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
+ NINE NUGGETS OF ZINE WISDOM FROM ERIC NAKAMURA

FULL CONTRIBUTOR LIST:
RYAN SANDS (me)
EVAN HAYDEN
ALICE KIM
ANTHONY HA
ANTHONY WU
CALVIN WONG
DAVID MURRAY
DEREK KIRK KIM
DEREK YU
ERIC NAKAMURA
GEA*
HELLEN JO
JENN YIN
JULIA WERTZ
JUSTINE LAI
MARINAOMI
MATT LOCK
MC LARS
MIMO
MICHAEL DEFORGE
MICHAELA COLETTE
NATE SHOCKEY
ROOT STUDIO
RYAN GERMICK
SHUNGA (AARON K)
SOPHIA FOSTER-DIMINO
TONY TULATHIMUTTE

I will be posting more information as APE (November 1-2) gets closer, with further details about each of the rad contributors and how to order the zine online. I'm planning to use Google Checkout and launch a proper site sometime between now and then.