Cartoon You: Zoom Rockman is an award-winning comic book artist from London. His book The Zoom! comes out every six months and has been covered by the BBC, praised by his local MP, and his work has won awards at both the Band Dessinée & Comics Passion Festival in London and the Bucheon International Comics Festival in South Korea. He teaches workshops on comic book art and is an inspiration to many. Oh, and did I mention he’s only 11 years old? This profile explores what it’s like being Zoom.
Zines on Wheels: The New York times blog recently gave props to Canadian zinester Leah Buckareff, who rides around Berlin on a bike toting a mobile zine library called the Lesen Lounge. Buckareff makes hand-drawn maps and posts her itinerary on her blog so people know where she’ll be going, and the library itself is a sight to behold – painted bright,beautiful blue, a green flag juts upward announcing its presence in public parks and other shared spaces. How great is that?
If you want to learn more about Leah and her projects, check out our piece on the zine exhibition series The Reading Raum from Issue 52. It’s also worth mentioning that the NYT blog post’s author Nadja Sayej is a former Broken Pencil contributor.
In Other Bike Zine News… I’ve been trying to follow the progress of this cool Kickstarter funding a zine encouraging motorists to go car-free. Happily, the zinemakers Un Friandise Press reached their fundraising goal of $1,500 yesterday, exceeding it by $100.00. This is pretty encouraging! Hopefully this will help these zinesters continuing pursuing their goal of changing the world through zines and ideas.
Free Pussy Riot: Today is the global day to raise support and awareness for Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk rock collective who were found guilty of anti-religious “hooliganism” today after they staged an anti-Putin protest at a Moscow church in February. They face up to three years in jail. They’ve received support from people all over the world (there is an awesome video of Patti Smith shouting her support at a recent concert here) and we’ve noticed benefit shows have started popping up in Toronto and Halifax. Learn more about the story of these three women and how you can help here. If you know of more tribute shows anywhere in Canada, let me know!
Eat Drink Write: Let’s end on a slightly happier note, and take a look at these famous authors’ signature dishes, complete with recipes. Salman Rushdie’s lamb korma sounds miiiighty tasty, though I am less jazzed about Nabokov’s “Eggs à la Nabocoque” which sound, frankly, a little bland. Put some hot sauce on those things!