The Laguna Collective Brings the Zine Scene to Fresno

Riso printer and Zine prints hung on the wall in the shop.

Photo by: Ben Rodriguez

Riso printer and Zine prints hung on the wall in the shop.

Fresno City College students had the opportunity to print their own zines at 1418 Fulton St. on Sept. 28.
The beginning printmaking class is focused on small circulation, self-published pieces of art, also known as Zines.

The Laguna Collective is responsible for the event; they helped print the students work on a Riso printer, which is designed for high-volume photocopying.

Laguna Collective was founded by Jemimah Barba and Vicente Velazquez in June 2017. They are also the owners of the 1418 Fulton storefront which opened August 1 in downtown Fresno. The two have been pushing zines out to the Fresno community bringing in people with different interests.

The collective draws inspiration from the popular zine platform 8-ball community based out of New York. Eight ball holds zine fairs which are for people to connect and share their work. Laguna is all about that as they are open every art hop and encourage people to come check out the work they offer.

“It’s easy to sell what people are into, but we are just trying to push reading and writing in Fresno,”said Barba.

As well as printing work for others the shop carries a variety of different zines on topics that range from anarchy to feminism. Velazquez said the older crowd looks at the zines for the message and the younger people are attracted to the more polished put together artwork.

One thing is for sure, 1418 Fulton is bringing an old, yet new form of literature to the young crowd in Fresno.

“It’s such a joy to me when someone picks up a book during art hop and starts reading,” said Barba. “It is like reading a book at a party.”