SF Zine Fest Presents: Thinking Captions Zine Reading
“Excited for our annual Thinking Captions Zine Reading! You saw the teaser flyer by @henrywuart, now here’s more info about our four awesome guests… Thinking Captions 2026 will feature our Guest of Honor V. Vale and his invited guests Penelope Houston, Russ Forster and Joe Donohoe. Come experience their zines and learn their process as counterculture publishers in SF!
V. Vale
While working at City Lights Bookstore and witnessing the beginnings of the nascent Punk Rock scene in San Francisco, Vale was motivated to document the movement in a way he felt the “Hippie” scene had not been documented.
In 1977 Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti funded V. Vale's Search & Destroy punk rock tabloid (which morphed into the RE/Search series in 1980).
Goal: to document and catalyze underground and taboo-breaking artists and ideas. Vale continues dispersing countercultural ideas through publications, media, and personal appearances. He often sets up and vends his 48-year publishing output around town at events and music shows.
Russ Forster (aka F.R. "Russ" Forster) has been editor/publisher for the wily 8-Track Mind Magazine since 1990.
Started on a kind of personal dare with the help of several other Chicago-Area 8-track tape/player/culture enthusiasts, the magazine blew through 3 printings of its initial issue (cryptically numbered #69) and became a perfect example of a cult 1990s fanzine, popular enough to spawn a feature film (1995's So Wrong They're Right) and features in the like of Time Magazine and Rolling Stone.
Now on issue #106, the magazine comes out bi-annually (or so) and delves into far deeper cultural topics than its name would suggest.
Joe Donohoe is the publisher of Specious Species Culture zine/magazine. He is a former intern with Maximum Rock and Roll, Filth Tabloid editor/journalist and currently an AIDS nurse.
He has been a volunteer docent on Alcatraz, a community activist and volunteer and, for sixteen years, was a San Francisco taxi driver.
In 2012 he received a Kathy Acker Award for Avant Garde editing. Species, an ongoing project, features interviews and articles with movers, shakers and subversives in the worlds of art and activism.
In 2012 he received a Kathy Acker Award for Avant Garde editing. Species, an ongoing project, features interviews and articles with movers, shakers and subversives in the worlds of art and activism.
He has just published his memoir of driving a cab while working through nursing school: Get in the Cab.
www.speciousspecies.net
Penelope Houston
As a teenager, in 1977, Penelope moved from Seattle to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Quickly her career in visual arts was side-tracked by the formation of the critically acclaimed proto-punk band, the Avengers.
Since then she has performed over 1000 shows with the Avengers and her award-winning solo band throughout the USA and Europe. Venues include CBGB’s, The Whiskey a Go Go, Winterland Ballroom, as well as LA MOCA, SFMOMA, and the De Young Museum.
She has released thirteen albums on Warner Brothers and other independent labels with a musical career well-documented in publications from Newsweek to Slash.
Despite this detour, visual art has always been anchored in her mind and her return to two-dimensional imagery presents a seasoned world view.
In 2025 she self-published her first chapbook "early days: A conversation about art, punk and otherness" featuring a 20 page essay and ten drawings. A follow-up chapbook is in the works.