The zines we make will likely outlast us. This is not meant to be a daunting statement, situating your chapbooks into the fabric of the cosmos or self-inflating to say we are Xeroxing our own pyramids, but to address that many of us make zines to be passed down between strangers, friends and family for as long as the staples can hold them together.
For the 100th issue of Broken Pencil, we felt it appropriate to deconstruct this essential element of zines. How they, as objects, serve to communicate meaning and message throughout generations. A resource for art and expression through its very act of survival.
In our main feature, we meet the Lim family out of Singapore, better known as the Holycrap collective behind Rubbish FAMZine. Parents Pann and Claire, and children Renn and Aira, transform their shared ephemera into decadent acts of zine creation, inviting the world into their funhouse of a home. On top of this profile, Issue 100 includes:
- Michael Novick, creator of the political action zine Turning the Tide, on why the fight must never cease.
- Guitarist Norman Brannon on reviving his hardcore zine Anti-Matter after 25 years in the void.
- Best Show’s Tom Scharpling remembers Joe Matt, the most honest cartoonist in town.
- Real Deal Comix creator Lawrence “Rawdog” Hubbard shows us the spartan studio that births his radical artwork.
- James Michael Yeoman on the grassroots print that became foundational for history’s largest anarchist movement.
- The legacy of the Northern Woman Journal, an early feminist voice that fostered the movement across Canada.
- How a prolifically multidisciplinary Matt Farley created a no-budget Hollywood in the Boston suburbs.
- 50 years of Devo and their uncanny influence on the underground art world.
- Who are the paleoartists, and how have they opened the world of dinosaur science to outsiders?
- How does the mysterious German/Texan collective Analog Sea remain a purely physical publication in a digital era.
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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