Fall of Autumn
Fall of Autumn is an online publisher, creative resource and distribution site dedicated to promoting and developing community via tutorials, audio readings from zines and open-forum discussions. Fall of Autumn is a co-op run by Alan Lastufka, Aaron Cynic and Kate Sandler.
History
Fall of Autumn began as a small online forum by Alan Lastufka. Members posted short stories and poems for review or discussion. In December of 2005, Lastufka published the first Zinester Podcast, an audio interview with Microcosm Publishing’s Joe Biel.
With the help of Aaron Cynic, the site soon expanded and began publishing a number of original pieces online. Interviews and tutorials were added, with zine reviews following shortly thereafter.
Fall of Autumn went through a major redesign in February of 2006; Kate Sandler became an active team member and a zine distro section was added. Fall of Autumn’s current distro stock is housed in Kate’s apartment. By this time, Fall of Autumn had held a short story contest, began work on its first compzine Pride & Photocopies and was receiving weekly submissions to the Zinester Podcast series.
Spring 2006 saw the addition of Sarah Rose to the team, as well as the launch of the unique Punk Rock Clip Art resource. Punk Rock Clip Art is a section of royalty-free, original drawings by prominent comic book artists and artistic zinesters - past contributors have included Cristy Road, Liz Baillie and Nell Taylor. Sarah has since left Fall of Autumn.
The Fall of Autumn distro and forum were closed in 2008, the Zinester Podcasts ended at this time as well. Most of the content such as the past podcasts and "Punk Rock Clip Art" will remain on the site as an archive. Alan Lastufka has since gone on to be a minor Youtube celebrity and has written a book on how to be successful on Youtube that was published in the fall of 2008.
Current Staff
- Alan Lastufka - founder, co-owner, contributor
- Aaron Cynic - co-owner, contributor
- Kate Sandler - co-owner, contributor
Columnists
- Andrew Laties - Rebel Bookseller
- Jamina Lin - Oh My Stars
- Spydr - Conscious Defect
- Elliott Stewart - Rhododendron Reader
Notable Projects
- December 2005: Launched the Zinester Podcast series, the first podcast exclusively for zinesters.
- January 2006: 1st Annual Short Story contest held, Eric Lab Rat won first place, judges included Alex Wrekk, Emerson Dameron and Steph Haverstock.
- February 2006: The Fall of Autumn distro opens.
- March 2006: Andrew Laties read from Rebel Bookseller, the first time a novel was read for the Zinester Podcast series.
- April 2006: Alex Wrekk reads for fifteen minutes from Brainscan #21 for the Zinester Podcast series, the first time a reading has been released before the zine was even published.
- April 2006: Select Zinester Podcasts are rebroadcast on CHMR 93.5 FM in St. Johns, NL Canada.
- June 2006: Fall of Autumn published the first series of Punk Rock Clip Art, original royalty-free images for use in zines and other media, drawn by zinesters and comic authors.
- October 2006: The first issue of the Fall of Autumn Quarterly free print zine is mailed out.
- February 2007: On Valentine's Day, Fall of Autumn premiered Liz Baillie's new webcomic, Freewheel. The webcomic is updated every Wednesday.
