Virus Zine was cooked up in the summer of 1998, the first issue was released in September of 1998. Here's the link to an old Eye article that mentions the launch party. viruszine.com was launched on January 22, 2002.
We want this site to bring together aspects of independent culture, without the whole 'indier-than-thou' bullshit.
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Founder/Editor (Toronto, Ontario)
Virus Zine has been an on and off project for May for almost a decade, and after trying (unsuccessfully) to retire, it's clear that no matter how much life gets in the way, she'll keep coming back to work on this. May deals with all the basics; the mailing list, po box, coding and email.
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Contributer/Columnist - general content writer/columns (Toronto, Ontario)
Little sister to Maytina, she is often mistaken
as the older one, something they both have mixed feelings about. Nikki is a very crafty gal, making and designing jewelry, clothes, accessories and little treasures. She's into knitting, sleeping, streetcars, and weird boys who wear makeup.
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Columnist - column writer/collaborator (Toronto, Ontario)
Brad is the man behind Cyclone Records, a label that honestly cares more about the quality of the releases than hype, and is full of passion about all their releases, regardless of genre. He has been working in the independent music community all across Canada both as a musician and behind the scenes for many, many years. This is one dedicated guy. Brad and May met online and started collaborating right away, May has become notorious for missing Brad's shows, but it's never on purpose! Virus Zine and Cyclone Records support each other's indepednent projects, and Brad writes a column for Virus.
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Columnist - column writer (Toronto, Ontario)
Carolina Smart is originally from Wiarton, Ontario, Canada and needing to escape the shadow of Wiarton Willie, she ran away to Toronto and has lived there for the last twenty years. Carolina is also the creator of Shebytches.com and always biting off more than she can chew she is in the middle of writing her first book of 'Dark Tales' as well a book of short stories with Anna Fletcher and Viki Ackland. But if writing and running Shebytches wasn't enough, she is also the co-authour of a web site about a documentary on death (www.twocreepygirls.com) with fellow writer Anna Fletcher and is creating a line of products based on her alter ego lizzie violet (lizzieviolet.com), and writes her daily blog @ shebytches.blogspot.com. Carolina is also working on a book of poetry and short stories entitled ‘The Melancholy of Me’. This book will contain poetry and short stories about the things that really go on in her head.
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Contributer - general content writer/photographer (Chatham, Ontario)
Julie has been an avid writer since she was a child. Attending college for Graphic Advertising and Design she has been in charge of a variety of Enrollment books to advertisements for local businesses. She has an array of accomplishments under her belt: Promotional work, CD cover designs, band biographies, logo designs and labels, street teams, swag design, all artwork for various bands and yes even a tattoo artist. She lives by the moto 'Life isn't about finding yourself it is about creating yourself'. Julie is all about just being who you truley are. Julie manages a band May interviewed and when they learned they both had the same general outlook, there was no way they couldn't work together!
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Contributer - general content writer/photographer (Thunder Bay, Ontario)
We are really excited to have Angie join the family. She is the founding editor of ROCKIT a site dedicated to independent music in Thunder Bay, much like Virus, and also much like Virus, they have been around for years and show no signs of stopping, just the opposite, Angie and her crew are just as dedicated to their site as they always have been. She is majoring in English up in Thunder Bay, and makes fairly frequent trips down to Southern Ontario to check out shows. She writes for two local publication as well as the student newspaper at her school. She's at every rad show that hits Thunder Bay, interviewing bands and taking pics galore.
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Contributer/Columnist - artist/columns (Toronto, Ontario)
Charles J. Pillon: a Cuban-Canadian man of mysterious origin and behavior. Known to be skittish and easily startled. Often seen muttering arcane obscenities to himself. For more information on the rare Charlibeast (charlesis themaniam), visit http://themouthofsilence.blogspot.com
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Contributer/Columnist - artist/columns (London, Ontario)
Tabitha helped May with the art on short lived zines in '97 and she even did most of the artwork on the very first printed issue of Virus Zine in 1998! It is so exciting to have her back with her fresh outlook and take on things. Based in London, Ontario she'll be doing a column and, of course, helping out with the graphics.
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