{"id":370445,"date":"2026-06-22T18:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/370445\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T18:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:28:12","slug":"a-long-beach-shop-is-throwing-a-cat-zine-festival-its-also-trying-to-fix-l-a-s-stray-cat-problem-eat-see-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/370445\/","title":{"rendered":"A Long Beach shop is throwing a cat zine festival. It’s also trying to fix L.A.’s stray cat problem \u2022 Eat. See. Do."},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by LAist<\/a> on June 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some just really silly ones about cat buttholes and different cats cleaning themselves,\u201d said Matt Carr, mastermind of Cat Zine Fest.<\/p>\n

\"\"Matt Carr, co-founder of Cool Cat Collective and Cat Zine Fest. Photo by Fiona Ng LAist.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s festival, kicking off June 26, at their shop,\u00a0Cool Cat Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"Matt Carr and Jenna Winberry Carr. Photo by Fiona Ng\/LAist.<\/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. Photo by Fiona Ng\/LAist.<\/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

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\u00a0city<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0county<\/a>\u00a0of L.A. \u201cIt\u2019s 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

\"\"Cool Cat Collective on Fourth Street in Long Beach. Photo by Fiona Ng\/LAist.<\/p>\n

Currently, six cats are crashing at the Cool Cat Collective; they roam among three \u201cpetting\u201d rooms through a custom-built catwalk 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\u2019s so fun for him to be able to come in and be around animals and learn to be gentle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Interior of Cool Cat Collective in Long Beach. Photo by Fiona Ng\/LAist.<\/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

\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\u2019ve made it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cat Zine Fest:<\/p>\n

Cool Cat Collective<\/a>, 2741 E. Fourth St., Suite C, Long Beach<\/p>\n

Opening reception: 6 \u2013 9 p.m., Friday, June 26<\/p>\n

Admission: free<\/p>\n

The shop holds regular events. Check out its\u00a0calendar<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was originally published by LAist on June 20, 2026. A festival dedicated to handmade cat zines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-370445","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\/370445","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=370445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}