Thirty titles will be featured, many others will be on display until July.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is such an accessible medium,\u201d said Jena, who was born and raised in Long Beach. \u201cIf you can access a piece of paper and a pencil, you can make a zine.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781958671_423_.jpeg\")
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Matt Carr and Jenna Winberry Carr.<\/p>\n
Handmade the old school way<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So he put out a call for submissions \u2014 \u201cYou just have to make a zine that features cats\u201d \u2014 and got responses from across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opening at the time was our busiest day ever,\u201d Matt said. \u201cIt was a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cool Cat Collective sells and displays only cat-themed things.<\/p>\n
Cat Zine Fest started in 2025, featuring homemade zines from around the world.<\/p>\n
Cool cats unite with a mission<\/p>\n
The annual zine fest is just one event held regularly at the boutique on Fourth Street.<\/p>\n
![\"Exterior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781958673_464_.jpeg\")
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Cool Cat Collective on Fourth Street in Long Beach.<\/p>\n
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\u2019re in luck.) But the shop also comes with a mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came up with the idea through being frustrated with the cat overpopulation problem in L.A. County,\u201d Jena said. Up to 4 million stray and feral cats live on the streets, according to estimates from the city<\/a> and county<\/a> of L.A. \u201cIt’s about being a collective solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Cool Cat Collective holds workshops on cat care, and regular fundraisers for TippedEars, a nonprofit that uses TNR \u2014 trap, neuter, return \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Interior of Cool Cat Collective in Long Beach.<\/p>\n A cat fostered by Cool Cat Collective that people can adopt.<\/p>\n Currently, six cats are crashing at the Cool Cat Collective; they roam among three \u201cpetting\u201d rooms through a custom-built cat walk near the ceiling.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s so fun for him to be able to come in and be around animals and learn to be gentle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Cat Zine Fest \u201cWe kept getting people that were visiting from out of town to go to Disneyland and making us a part of their itinerary,\u201d Matt said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Whoa, us and Disneyland in the same sentence. We’ve made it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A festival dedicated to handmade cat zines is taking place in Long Beach. Among the offerings: an illustrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-368294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Cool Cat Collective<\/a>, 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n