Once upon a time the internet was exciting. A constellation of odd planets, filled with fandoms, creativity, exploration, expression and freaks. For a time, even social media helped, giving a platform to the average yolk without any coding knowhow. Throwing an art party? Put a word out. Make a short film? Post it. Have some micro-lit? Spill it. An era that felt like your audience and peers were within reach, that you could create an online ecosystem that enriched your art-self. We didn’t appreciate what we had. We didn’t have it for very long.
Now being online is exhausting. Platforms popularized for bringing people together found greater fortune in driving them insane. Ecosystems became enclosures, everything else became a wasteland. Online became Mega-City One, each denizen a judge, jury and executioner. Those little dollars you could nab for your work keep getting tugged further away like bait on a fishing line. Thankfully, this won’t go on much longer. It can’t go on much longer. It’s an era of digital detritus, all getting flushed down the crap hole. Whatever is around the corner may be dumber, but if we’re going to bid adieu, let’s put on our fancy wear and count down with the silver lining of logging on: Dril.
Online’s baddest boy graces Broken Pencil 101 with his presence. The humourist perfected his craft on Twitter, and even shaped how many write on the platform, but he’s grown too big for their britches. As he expands to books, live performances, even video games, we caught up with the world wide websmith to discuss art, philosophy, life beyond social media, all that garbage. On top of this feature, BP101 includes:
- The results of the 2023 Broken Pencil Zine Awards!
- How Silver Sprocket (and their books) survived the flood.
- Can 404 Media restore faith in tech reporting with an indie model?
- Film Diary NYC airs personal confessions on the big screen.
- Rock band Mike Adams At His Honest Weight takes on the lyric video phenomenon with zines.
- Hannah Epstein manifests the depraved and digital with rug hooking and walks us through her Maritimes art church.
- Will Sloan’s comprehensive Three Stooges fanzine bops us square on the noggin’.
- Cat Kidd remembers Montreal poet Ian Ferrier.
PLUS endless ZINE, COMICS, MUSIC, GAME, FILM, & INDIE BOOK reviews!
!!BUY THE ISSUE HERE!!
!!SUBSCRIBE NOW AND SAVE!!
About Broken Pencil Magazine
“Broken Pencil is the entertaining, indispensable guide to zines.” – The Toronto Star
Since 1995, we have been a print magazine and online hub dedicated exclusively to exploring independent creative action. Our mandate is to raise awareness of the possibilities of independent print publishing and underground creative action, with a special emphasis on the DIY zine scene. Published four times a year in full colour, each issue of Broken Pencil features reviews of hundreds of zines and small press books, plus comics, excerpts from the best of the underground/independent press, interviews, original fiction and advice/how-tos about all aspects of the independent printed arts. From the hilarious to the perverse, Broken Pencil challenges conformity and demands attention.
Newsletter: brokenpencil.com/newsletter/
Instagram: @brokenpencilmag
Twitter: @brokenpencilmag
Bluesky: @brokenpencil.bsky.social
Facebook: @brokenpencilmag