By Amanda Dyslin
MANKATO — Dustin Wilmes and his friends are pretty surprised that Mankato doesn’t have more outlets for youth voices.
Centered magazine, previously Static, was one place young people could submit poetry and other musings, but that wasn’t a lot of space for so many thousands of young people who live in the area. That’s what prompted Wilmes, Sitha Im and John Maiers to start putting together Save The Crumbs in February.
They refer to it as a D.I.Y. ’zine — short for fanzine, which means a small, non-commercial publication of original material — that they hope will inspire others to put together their own. It doesn’t take much, they’ve discovered.
Issue No. 4 consists of five 81⁄2-inch by 11-inch sheets of printing paper folded over and stapled. It’s printed in black and white at River Bend Business Products, with about 100 issues costing $50 or $60. And its content consists of poetry, editorials, comics, photos and other writings submitted by friends.
What makes it worth reading? Because it isn’t motivated by profit, political interests or self-glorification. They do it for fun and to have a forum for their peers to express whatever they’d like.
“We were just kind of hoping (to) prove it can be done,” said Wilmes, who has a degree in mass communications from Minnesota State University. “I think it’s a good idea, especially in a town like this with so many young people and so many colleges. I think it’s a good idea to get their voices out there.”
Wilmes accepts pretty much whatever people turn in. It just has to be short enough to fit in the space allotted.
“It’s kind of a grab bag,” he said.
He and his fellow Crumbs editors lay out the pages on their home computers. They pull some of the art from the Web, which includes humorous pictures of Rod Stewart in skimpy briefs and a large man smoking a cigar in a bath tub.
The result, after it’s printed, isn’t anything flashy to look at. That’s not really the point. It’s just a fun read.
“If there’s something political or something that makes you think in there, that’s good, too,” Wilmes said. “The Free Press can’t always push people’s buttons, and we can pretty much do anything we want. ... It’s kind of our duty in a sense.”
The ’zine publishes bi-monthly, with Issue No. 5 just hitting stands now. As more people have heard about it, Wilmes has started to get submissions from people outside of his circle.
Im, a public relations major at MSU, said there’s no plan to run advertisements in the mag to help with costs. She, Wilmes and Maiers are happy to pay out of pocket to keep those kind of influences out of the publication.
“I think we have more freedom to write about whatever we want without being concerned about people being involved financially,” she said.
Save the Crumbs can be found at the Fillin’ Station, Coffee Hag, Tune Town, Professor’s and other area businesses downtown.
For more information and to read an electronic version of the mag visit www.myspace.com⁄
savethecrumbs.
