There are brighter days underground. The biggest, most blusterous games have become creatively stagnant. Ville Kallio’s Cruelty Squad was as dark a horse as it gets. Visually garish. Politically bleak. The opposite of what conventional wisdom says gamers want. They couldn’t get enough of it.
Ahead of his follow-up, Psycho Patrol R, Broken Pencil catches up with Kallio to discuss how an underground artist stumbles backwards into game making, rising above the most annoying tendencies of your audience and the Nokiacore culture that fostered the Finnish zinester.
On top of the Kallio profile, this edition of Broken Pencil features a look at:
- Live comedy cult Car World is rapidly growing its congregation, but what does leader William Banks really believe?
- The Asianadian co-creator Cheuk C. Kwan reflects on the influential publication and the critical importance of Asian voices.
- Porch Beers‘ Elliott Stewart returns to the Appalachian zine scene with newfound sobriety.
- Julian Glander gives us a more alien tour of Florida in Boys Go to Jupiter.
- How are indie booksellers navigating the sudden closure of Small Press Distribution?
- Nik October humbles your Easter, turning the interior of an egg into a canvas for mysterious creatures.
- Remembering Trina Robbins.
- Introducing our all-new classifieds section!
PLUS endless ZINE, COMICS, MUSIC, GAME, FILM, & INDIE BOOK reviews!
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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.
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