“A celebration of print culture.” Savage Fst returns to DeSoto Row October 19th.

In an era when the major media companies are shuttering print operations, creators at the 2nd annual Savage Fst will be showcasing self-published alternatives to mainstream comics and news magazines.

[The Savage Fst 2024 Poster Courtesy Savage Fst]

“I think it is a celebration of DIY, especially anything that’s publishing oriented,” said Meredith Laxton of this Saturday’s Savage Fst, the annual comic and zine event that she puts on with fellow artist Kate Sherron. “You don’t have to have a contract with a big publisher to make a book. You can print it yourself, you can go to Staples, you can Xerox it, you can staple it, all that stuff.”

“It’s celebrating putting things back on the page, physical media,” added Sherron.

Savage Fst: Fluke East

On October 19th from 12-6pm, DeSoto Avenue in front of Two Tides Brewing Company will go pedestrian-only as it makes way for Savage Fst and it’s twenty-two, ten by ten foot booths of comic book and zine-makers. Those familiar with last year’s festival will be able to visit with a number of returning favorites, like Ugis Berzines, Jordan Fitch Mooney, and the creators behind The Slab and their monthly Shameless and Vile queer culture zine.

[Ugis Berzines does his best to weird away strangers at Savage Fst 2023 Courtesy Savage Fst]

There will also be new creators, including some of Savannah’s favorite artists.

“I come from a comics background, but I also come from a fine arts background,” Sherron explained of her choice to allow more visual artists into this year’s event. “Everything that Maxx Feist puts out, I just find it delightful and thrilling, and I just can’t wait to see what they do next.”

Sherron and Laxton have also invited a number of out-of-town guests as well, including Robert Newsome, creator of the underground hit comic “Atomic Elbow.” Newsome isn’t just a writer and illustrator, however: He’s one of the longtime organizers of Fluke, a similar mini-comics convention that has been taking place in a bar in Athens since 2002, and which has served as inspiration for Savage Fst.

“We’re fall; they’re spring,” Sherron noted. “We wanted to balance that out. Because what Fluke does is really impressive and really wonderful.”

Local favorite Neighborhood Comics will also have a booth, which will feature several Savannah-area illustrators including “Tempo” scribe and artist Kevin Betou, as will Level Ground Comics and Friendship House Books, small publishers based in the Hostess City of the South.

“Everyone’s got something that they’re bringing to the table,” Sherron said.

[Works by artist Maxx Fesit will be on display at Savage Fst 2024 Courtesy Savage Fst]

“It’s breaking down walls.”

This is the second iteration of Savage Fst, but Sherron and Laxton’s love for zines and the cultural around mini-comics goes back years. Sherron first got into the creative form during the Riot Grrl era, a feminist punk movement that sprung up in the 1990s, and Laxton has loved the do-it-yourself nature of the medium since they first started making comics as a professional.

As fellow SCAD professors who saw students working together to push creative boundaries in a university setting, the pair lamented the lack of community amongst independent creators in Savannah at-large. Although they’d not formally worked together before, the two frequently attended drawing sessions at Laxton’s house, and it was at one such gathering that they realized that together they could bring the kind of community that they were teaching to the city as a whole.

“I’m pretty sure we were sitting at that [drawing] table, and we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was something like Fluke here?’” Laxton recalled.

Before they knew it, they were working with Lee Heidel of Neighborhood Comics to gather talent, and with Liz Massey at Two Tides Brewing Company to secure DeSoto Row for the event.

A year later, both Heidel and Massey are once again involved, and, according to Sherron and Laxton, have both remained invaluable to the process. Like the festival’s organizers, they share a similar belief that independent, self-published art and writing holds value, and should be celebrated in our community.

“We’re losing so many large platforms for communication, for discussion, for creation,” Sherron related. “We’re seeing traditional publishing and comics shrinking, shrinking, shrinking in what they’re putting out, when it’s easier than ever, when it’s cheaper than ever, to self publish. You don’t have to wait. You don’t have to get permission.”

“The way that art and writing and media has been so commodified into ‘content…’ I like zines and mini comics because of the accessibility of them.” Laxton agreed, noting that many of the artists featured at this year’s Savage Fst are showcasing highly-personal subject matter. “I think something like that is so special. The more people that people see the value in that, the more we can divest ourselves from this content creation lifestyle, and think more about what are people making, and how does that connect us?’”

“It’s breaking down walls,” Sherron added. “This is for everyone. We want to make art accessible. We want to make words accessible.”

[Crowds check out numerous self-published zines and mini comics at the 2023 iteration of Savage Fst Courtesy Savage Fst]

Savage Fst 2024 will take place in Savannah on October 19th from noon-6pm on DeSoto Row in front of Two Tides Brewing Company at 12 W. 41st Street. Free.