Broken Strings
The first major concert in the series.
Publishing · Nonprofit · Creative community
VOICEMagazine
Eighteen issues created to give comics, music, art and emerging creative talent a place to be seen.
The publication
A magazine built to make room for other voices.
VOICE grew from Youth on the Ridge, the nonprofit arts organization Dan founded and led as Executive Director. An eight-page preview appeared in June 2002, followed by the first issue that October. Across eighteen issues, young artists and writers helped shape a publication combining illustration, comics, poetry, interviews, music and editorial design.
Although contemporary coverage described Dan by the deliberately modest public title of "adviser," his role encompassed founding and leading the organization, helping produce the magazine's layouts and contributing his Oggy's Army comic. He kept the public focus on the young contributors and their work. The larger aim was to bring youth and adults together through art—not simply to publish work, but to give emerging creatives a serious place to collaborate and be seen.
- Run18 issues
- OrganizationYouth on the Ridge
- LeadershipFounder and Executive Director
- First issueOctober 2002
Inside the archive
Every issue became its own visual world.
The surviving production archive holds cover studies, final page layouts, contributor artwork, photography, editorial files, event materials and press. The covers alone show how deliberately each theme was given a distinct identity—from drugs and popularity to war, dreams, heroes, comics and adventure.
From local newsletter to full-color magazine
Young contributors did the real work of making it.
Early production was resourceful and informal: volunteers met in local coffee shops and built issues on four laptops. By 2005, VOICE had a dedicated Paradise workspace where teens and twenty-somethings planned stories, produced pages and worked through deadline weeks together.
The publication grew from its newsletter beginnings into a quarterly, full-color glossy magazine. Issues explored subjects including drug use, popularity and war, while interviews and contributed artwork connected local youth with established creative professionals such as Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and artist Celia Calle.
VOICE also extended beyond the printed page. Youth on the Ridge organized workshops and live events, including the Broken Strings concert and later benefit performances intended to help establish a regular youth music venue with open-mic nights.
Read "Vision and Voice" in the Chico News & Review archive ↗︎
Events · Youth on the Ridge
The magazine became a live gathering place.
VOICE and Youth on the Ridge carried the same creative mission beyond the printed page through three major Broken Strings concerts and a handful of smaller community events. Music gave young performers and audiences another way to meet, participate and build something together.
Broken Strings · archival concert video
Broken Strings 2
The event returned with another major youth-music gathering.
Broken Strings 3: The Bridge
The third major concert carried the series forward under a new title.
Alongside the three headline concerts, Youth on the Ridge organized a number of smaller performances and community events.
The people behind the pages
VOICE was made by a community.
Staff, contributors and participants carried the project from sketches and production nights into workshops, conventions, outdoor programs and live events. These photographs preserve the human side of the publication.
View staff portrait
Selected editorial layouts
Feature stories shaped around the work.
VOICE had to hold interviews, illustration, comics, photography and reporting without flattening contributors into one house style. These selected layouts show the magazine at its most deliberate: clear editorial hierarchy, expressive typography and page structures built around each featured artist. Artwork shown remains the work of the credited contributors.
More than a magazine
Publishing was the framework. Participation was the point.
The archive documents a working creative community: young people learning to interview, write, draw, design, organize events and bring finished issues into the world. VOICE was both the record of that activity and the place where it became visible.