Ink and Paper: First FilAm Jam Zine is here!

Our first printed version of FilAm Jam is here! My thought was to continue to have this substack in the digital realm but also have a quarterly printed zine. Issue No. 1 is now available!

True confession: when I was a young nerd in Manila , I published a fan zine (because that’s what they were called then “fan” zines) for a British new wave band. This was before desktop publishing or Adobe anything, let alone, the internet. The Philippines was just a baby democracy. It had been only a few years since the peaceful revolution. We didn’t have MTV or any foreign magazines, so any information I had about this band came from news from people in the UK via Hong Kong and through magazine articles and from people coming back from the U.S. with cassette tapes of the band. (Side note:  the band hadn’t even made it yet in the US so no American TV shows were covering them.) 

None of my school friends knew about this little zine of mine. No one was really into the band like me anyway. I wrote the articles, cut and pasted the layout and had my mom help me “xerox” (photocopy) some copies. I put an ad out in the local music magazine which featured mostly misheard lyrics and guitar chords. I don’t think I even charged for the zine except to ask that they send me an S.A.S.E. ( a self addressed stamped envelope) so I could mail them a  copy.

I don’t remember how many issues I published but I do remember that I made a couple of pen pals because of it and I ended up even meeting one of my fellow fans IRL. (And we are still friends to this day!)

Anyway, my point is… I have been in love with zines and zine culture since I was a young warthog! And so, I am so excited to share with you all,  the print edition of filamjam. (Cue applause.)

Big shout out to Minuteman Press Orange for donatinig the printing of the first 100 copies (still had to pay for the paper though. Hopefully, the next issue will be fully sponsored.) And of course Timothy Obar for the beautiful cover. My sounding board and regular contributor, Jamin Reyes, who wrote the center spread on music - thank you! To everyone I shared the initial idea about the zine with, maraming salamat for encouraging me! 

I dropped copies of the zine at Teofilo Coffee Company in Los Alamitos, Libro Mobile in Santa Ana and Arvida Books in Tusin. They are FREE for now and I still have a few printed copies if you want one, please message me. 

You can also check out the digital copy here.