Vendors sell their work at Canzine 2018.On Saturday, September 22nd, over 200 artists and writers gathered to sell their zines, prints, and handmade items at Canzine, Canada’s largest festival of zines and underground culture. The festival is organized and run by Broken Pencil and is hosted at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

Canzine is an important event for local artists, as it’s one of the most accessible festivals in Toronto. Table fees are low and the festival is not juried, instead operating on a first-come-first-serve basis for table space. This makes it easy for emerging artists and students to participate and also allows for diverse content to thrive.

That said, the event is not without its hiccups. Many vendors did not receive set-up instructions and were left scrambling the day of the festival. In addition, there was supposed to be a new Small Press area this year – a privilege that small publishers paid extra for – but no such section actually materialized. As such, Canzine can be a bit of haphazard event for vendors selling their zines and artwork. Regardless, the aforementioned accessible nature of the event and the enthusiasm of the artists and writers who participate still make Canzine well worth it for those beginning their careers. Furthermore, the community support for the handmade, DYI content is contagious and benefits both the vendors and the art community of Toronto.

Seneca College’s Canzine Comic Jam

As a sponsor of Canzine, Seneca College is allocated space to promote the college’s art programs and to run programming. This year Seneca hosted a comic jam, where attendees of the event could sit and draw a panel or two of a comic page. The next person would continue where the comic left off, resulting in a collaborative comic. A few of Seneca’s illustration students were on-site to facilitate the comic jam and a total of 14 finished comics were completed over the course of the afternoon.