A festival dedicated to handmade cat zines is taking place in Long Beach. Among the offerings: an illustrated ode to Filipino snacks and a cat army overthrowing an authoritarian regime.
The zines come in all formats and topics, including collages, illustrations and poetry, created by makers from as young as 10 to professionals in the animation industry.
“There’s some just really silly ones about cat buttholes and different cats cleaning themselves,” said Matt Carr, mastermind of Cat Zine Fest.
Matt Carr, co-founder of Cool Cat Collective and Cat Zine Fest.
A zine from Serbia featured in this year’s Cat Zine Fest.
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Those titles are a tiny fraction of some 250 zines Carr and his partner, Jena Winberry Carr, received in the one-month submission period for this year’s festival, kicking off June 26, at their shop, Cool Cat Collective.
Thirty titles will be featured, many others will be on display until July.
“It is such an accessible medium,” said Jena, who was born and raised in Long Beach. “If you can access a piece of paper and a pencil, you can make a zine.”
Matt Carr and Jenna Winberry Carr.
Handmade the old school way
Matt started the festival last year after searching high and low for DIY zines to stock at their cat-themed shop but came up short.
So he put out a call for submissions — “You just have to make a zine that features cats” — and got responses from across the world.
“The opening at the time was our busiest day ever,” Matt said. “It was a big success.”
Cool Cat Collective sells and displays only cat-themed things.
Cat Zine Fest started in 2025, featuring homemade zines from around the world.
Cool cats unite with a mission
The annual zine fest is just one event held regularly at the boutique on Fourth Street.
Cool Cat Collective on Fourth Street in Long Beach.
The Carrs opened Cool Cat Collective in 2024 to proffer the coolest cat-related products imaginable. (Fancy scratch pads that look like a set of DJ turntables? You’re in luck.) But the shop also comes with a mission.
“We came up with the idea through being frustrated with the cat overpopulation problem in L.A. County,” Jena said. Up to 4 million stray and feral cats live on the streets, according to estimates from the city and county of L.A. “It’s about being a collective solution.”
Cool Cat Collective holds workshops on cat care, and regular fundraisers for TippedEars, a nonprofit that uses TNR — trap, neuter, return — to reduce cat populations in Compton. (Groups like ASPCA endorse the method, while others, like PETA, do not.) The shop also fosters cats rescued by the organization to promote adoption.
Interior of Cool Cat Collective in Long Beach.
A cat fostered by Cool Cat Collective that people can adopt.
Currently, six cats are crashing at the Cool Cat Collective; they roam among three “petting” rooms through a custom-built cat walk near the ceiling.
Long Beach resident Lindsay Flaming Yeats and her son Ryan were playing with the kittens. She said her wife is allergic and so the collective is a good alternative.
“It’s so fun for him to be able to come in and be around animals and learn to be gentle,” she said.
In two years, the cat-themed space has become a destination amid a community of independent businesses that has made the Fourth Street corridor unique.
Cat Zine Fest
Cool Cat Collective, 2741 E. Fourth St., Suite C, Long Beach
Opening reception: 6 – 9 p.m., Friday, June 26
Admission: free
The shop holds regular events. Check out its calendar.
“We kept getting people that were visiting from out of town to go to Disneyland and making us a part of their itinerary,” Matt said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, us and Disneyland in the same sentence. We’ve made it.’”