about
Hello! I'm J.C. Rodriguez, a poet & cartoonist from Long Island, NY. I was first exposed to zines when they were (literally) thrown at me while I was babysitting my cousin at New York Comic Con/Anime Fest (it used to be a single event) & immediately became obsessed. In those moist, dirty stapled pages were worlds where anyone could have something to say. I saw an outlet to be punky, artsy, nerdy, political, & most importantly, free.Wanting to be a part of that world, I started FOLLOW THE SEA in high school. I don't remember exactly where the name came from, I just know my girlfriend at the time said it in a quote for an English project & it sounded cool. I was interested in poetry & short stories & I was working at a Hot Topic. I wanted to document this weird emo mallrat culture I was in & I wanted to put my friends in stories. At some point, I went to college & got into writing about the children of immigrants (like me) who were going against stereotypes.
Then I stopped writing, for like 5 years. I still went to shows. I was still punk AF. I was still supporting my "local scene." But that was the one passion I allowed myself. I didn't write. I didn't read comics. I didn't even really play video games. I had to work a bunch of jobs for a while. I had to work on myself, too. I had to figure some shit out.
Eventually, I started writing again. I even started drawing again. I got into an MFA program & started moonlighting at an ER. The former was making me feel like a sell-out, the latter gave me an immense need for catharsis. So, I brought back FOLLOW THE SEA. Because I wanted to make stuff for fun again. I wanted to say shit against institutions again.
This is a zine about subculture, poetics, & play. Whatever that means. Issues can have everything from comics to essays, to poems, to short stories. This zine will always be free as a digital zine or as a print-it-yourself doc. It will also probably be always wordy too. Get in touch if you wanna do a trade. Open to contributers & guest issues.
I hope you enjoy these pages. I put a medium amount of work & a double-XL amount of heart into them & I'm also thrilled to now have the opportunity to champion art from the very cool people who send me very cool shit.
~J.C.