Designing A Community Of Artists
A Conversation With Half Empty Zine Founder, Designer, And Art Archivist Marty Spellerberg
>>INTERVIEW BY Nathaniel G. Moore >>PIC Courtesy Of half empty

Since its inception in 1998, Half Empty has been the home to both paper and online artistic ventures spanning the globe. Verbicide correspondent Nathaniel G. Moore had a chance to pick the brain of superstar designer Marty Spellerberg, founder of Half Empty.

Half Empty started off in 1998. What was your goal then, and how have you seen it expand since this inception?
Half Empty began as an online artists community and zine, with member websites and articles updated weekly. Half Empty issue one was published in 2003, a 44-page broadsheet newspaper with interviews and original artwork.
What shows has Half Empty been a part of?
Half Empty is featured in the book Mag-Art, published in 2006 by RotoVision press. Also in 2006 the magazine was on display at Fabrica Features in Lisbon, Portugal and Visionaire Gallery in New York.
What were some of the hardships of going from online to a physical zine?
Last summer (2005) we signed on to be a media sponsor of a design conference. The audience was right, and we thought it would be good exposure. We were to supply a thousand magazines free of charge and deliver them to their offices in New York. We thought we could cover these costs by selling advertising in the issue, but the event was publishing its own program and didn’t share its sponsors with us. We didn’t sell a single ad, and the whole thing cost thousands of dollars. In the end we pulled out at the last minute. The event was mad, but they weren’t paying us, so what could they do?
When the next event approached us we were ready, and sent them an estimate for the costs involved. They responded with, “Oh, we don’t have a budget for this.” We wanted to be involved with them so agreed to run their message on our website in exchange for our logo on signage at the event.
What are some of the artists you've worked with that you really enjoyed?
My favorite feature ever was for the web, when we took designer Tiffany Malakooti to a Star Trek convention to interview men about their  “Riker Beards.” We saw Chekov and everything!
How many artists or pieces do you estimate are on the forthcoming halfempty.com archives?
Last winter I started compiling the Half Empty archive into a MySQL database. This winter I’ll finish it. It’s huge — everything we’ve published from 1998 ‘til now. New visitors to the site will be exposed to the depth and breadth of the project, and see what we’re doing now in the context of our history. It contains hundreds of pieces — articles, images, and Flash movies — by over 75 artists.
What is Half Empty’s mandate, and has it changed?
At the beginning we had this idea that Half Empty would simultaneously be both commercial and editorial. It’s very satisfying from a creative point of view, but it’s never really made any money. If we can continue to publish on paper and have it pay for itself, including fair pay for all contributors, I will be very happy.
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