Goodbye Zines For Lunch/Hello Learning Zone Blog

The OCAD Zine Library is retiring this blog in favour of our more-frequently-updated blog over here!

The OCAD Zine Library is housed in the Learning Zone at OCAD University and we will be keeping the Learning Zone blog updated with information about upcoming zine fairs, new additions to the zine collection, ways to access the zine collection in and out of the Learning Zone space and more. So please pop over to the LZ blog, or follow the OCAD Zine Library on Facebook, to keep up with our activities.

Thanks for visiting.

8th Annual OCAD U Zine Fair

The 8th Annual OCAD U Zine Fair took place March 9th and 10th this year, making this the first year that the fair ran over two days.

With different vendors each day, the fair was an opportunity for more students to show and sell the things they make (from zines to comics to buttons to t-shirts) to their fellow students and the general public who show up each year to check out the work of new talent.

An initiative of the Learning Zone and the OCAD Zine Library, the fair seems to be more popular every year, hence the expansion to two days. Between both days 45 vendors had an opportunity to share their work.

Meet some of the people who made up this year's OCAD U Zine Fair....

DAY 1:

Danielle Leigh is in her second year of the fibre program but she has a growing interest in printmaking. Her zines are about magic, girls and magical girls.

Emily studies advertising at OCADU. The two zines they had on display were about bipolar affective disorder and arcade games. The arcade zine was a game in itself, complete with white-out over text that needed to be scratched off to play the game.

Keight MacLean is in her last year of illustration with a minor in drawing and painting. The motivation for her zines is making fun stuff (look at that pizza!) and writing about mental health and addiction. One of her zines is about dying her hair and being raised by a witch.






DAY 2:

Jenn Woodall is in her third year of illustration. She had an amazing array of work with her, including comics, pins, prints and stickers. Her work focuses on powerful, magical women and mental health. Her newest work is a comic about anxiety called Marie and Worrywart.

Kai Lumbang is 2nd year graphic design student and a member of the OCADU Zine Collective. He had a packed table which included zines about Kanye West and Cobourg, Ontario.

Jennifer Fryer is a 4th year illustration student. Not only was she tabling her prints, zines and stickers, but she also contributed a mini comic and the design of the endpages for the OCADU Zine Collective's self care zine, Take Heart, which debuted (for free!) at the fair.














The majority of vendors were students, though a few graduates and artists outside the OCADU community also tabled their wares this year, including graduates Eli Howey & Chu Nap and Toronto creators Naomi Moyer, Matthew Daley and Whitney French.

Eli Howey

Naomi Moyer

Chu Nap

OCADU Zine Fair - now 2 days!!

The 8th Annual OCADU Zine Fair is coming up quick. For the first time the fair will last two days!

Starting Wednesday March 9th at 11am in the lobby of 100 McCaul and continuing on Thursday March 10th from 11am until 6pm, each day of the fair will feature different tablers and new zines to discover.

Every year the the OCADU community comes out for the zine fair and shares more than just zines. You'll find prints, comics, a button making table (proceeds from which will go to building the OCAD Zine Library's collection) and more.

This year, the OCADU Zine Collective will be launching its collaborative Self Care for Artists zine at the fair. The zine features stories, tips, artwork and comics about taking care of yourself mentally and physically as an artists.

For more information on the 8th Annual OCADU Zine Fair, check out the Facebook event page.

Call for Submissions: Self Care for Artists & Designers Zine

The OCAD U Zine Collective will be producing a zine this term about self care for artists and designers. Self care can be defined as any intentional act you take to care for your physical, mental and emotional health. We are interested in all kinds of interpretations of this topic, especially as they relate to the experiences of artists and designers.

We will accept images, writing, comics, poems and more from a serious/semi-serious/humorous/critical/any perspective.

Possible content could include:

• strategies for how to take care of yourself
• exercises for artists to help our bodies survive long work sessions
• workbook content: colouring pages, relaxing projects, connect-the-dots
• methods for coping with the specific pressures and anxieties creative people experience, such as deadlines, competition, financial struggles, etc.
• suggestions for how to maintain a healthy work/life balance or develop good routines (in creating or just living)
• recipes for healthy or comforting food to eat when you're stressed
• reviews of resources (books, websites, movies, music, podcasts, etc) that you've found to be helpful in staying healthy or reducing stress
• stories of successes or failures in practicing self care
• frustrations or challenges with practicing self care

Submission Guidelines:
Each page of the zine will be 8.5 inches x 11 inches in size. Please format your submission to fit this size. Each page of your submission should be submitted as a separate file. Please leave at least a 1/2 inch border on every page, meaning images and text should be centered on the page and no larger than 7.5" x 10". Please provide us with high quality files, with at least 300dpi/ppi resolution.

The zine will be printed in two colours on the risograph. This means that each colour will need to be printed separately, one after the other with time to dry in between. If you would like to use both colours in your submissions, you can do one of the following: 1) submit each page as a Photoshop file, with each colour on a separate layer (max. two colours/layers). 2) Submit each colour as a separate PDF file. All of your files should be submitted in grayscale. Please title your files/layers as "lighter colour" and "darker colour" so that we know how you would like the contrast of the image to work.

Feel free to email us with any questions you may have about formatting your submission(s) before the deadline.

Deadline: February 19th, 2016.

Send submissions to ocadzinelibrary@gmail.com

New to the Zine Collection

Over at the OCAD Zine Library's Facebook page, in honour of International Zine Month, we've been profiling IZM activities and newly catalogued zines. Here's a selection of zines we've catalogued this month.

Colour Coded: queer abstraction meets fruity frosting — a zine/exhibition guide that combines abstract artwork with queer theory by Jamie Q and Ian Phillips.

Errol Dynamic — a comic about the redemption of a down-and-out galactic hero by Cory McCallum and Matthew Daley.

How To Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat — a zine that lists the tools (including sheet music) for recreating the popular keyboard cat videos by Kristin Cheung.

Asexual Feminism — a series of collaborative zines that explore the connections between asexuality and feminism, edited and compiled by Mage.

Late Bloomers — a series of screenprinted illustrations of Victorian-era children, many of whom are doubled or twin-like, by Sasha Foster.

Stop by during International Zine Month to read these and any of the other 2,000-plus items in our collection.

International Zine Month 2015

July is fast approaching, which means zine libraries and lovers are gearing up for International Zine Month activities. Alex Wrekk has once again created a calendar of suggested ziney activities for every day of the month.

Suggestions include ordering from a zine distro (we suggest Brown Recluse Zine Distro that specializes in zines by people of colour), writing letters to zine makers (there's a letter-writing event coming up at Toronto's first post office on July 14), leaving zines in public for others to find and visiting your local zine library (come see us!).

Throughout International Zine Month, the Learning Zone will be open Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm and you can stop by any time to look at our zine collection and make a zine. Just ask a staff member for access to our craft materials. We have lots of collage materials, paper, pencils, staplers and other art supplies for your zine making needs.

We will also be profiling a different zine in our collection online every day, so check back regularly throughout July.

OCADU Ghost Stories Zine & Pumpkinpalooza

Seen ghosts at OCAD? Have a feeling we're not alone in this school? Put your experiences to paper by contributing to the first initiative for this iteration of the OCADU Zine Collective!

The collective reconvened for the 2014-2015 school year at the beginning of October and, for our first project, we decided to get spooky. Many of us have heard ghost stories from staff who have been at OCAD for years, or students who have felt a creepy presence when working late. So we're putting together a collection of ghost stories about OCAD.

Everyone is welcome to contribute. Submissions can include:

• Personal stories/comics/illustrations of encounters with ghosts at OCAD
• Fictional ghost stories relating to OCAD
• Drawings/photographs/collages of ghostly things

If you need help with ideas, supplies to put together your submission, or just want company while you're working on your contribution, join us on Tuesday, October 21 (at 1pm) for a zine making day in the Learning Zone (main floor, 113 McCaul).

Send your spooky submissions to ocadzinelibrary (at) gmail (dot) com by October 27th.

The zine will be released on October 30th at a launch party/pumpkin carving contest in the Student Gallery (52 McCaul). The event (n partnership with the Writing and Learning Centre) will featuring zine readings and a parade of jack-o-lanterns. Costumes are encouraged.

You can also take part the pumpkin carving contest by stopping by the Learning Zone from October 28th-30th to get your hands dirty. The winner of the pumpkin carving contest gets an Above Ground gift certificate.

Happy Halloween!

International Zine Month calendar

Each July Alex Wrekk creates a calendar of suggested events and activities for zinesters. This years list is available here. Inspired by Wrekk's calendar, OCAD Zine Library made its own calendar, geared more toward people who may never have made or read a zine before. Our calendar is up next to the zine collection throughout July.

The calendar includes activities such as visiting websites for the POC Zine Project, QZAP and Zine Wiki to learn more about a diverse collection of zine makers; starting a zine event with friends; visiting zine stores and libraries online and across Toronto; and reading zines from the OCAD Zine Library's collection.

Check out the OCAD Zine Library's Facebook page for daily Int'l Zine Month calendar updates.

Celebrate International Zine Month With Us July 16th

In 2009, July was declared International Zine Month by frequent zine maker and author Alex Wrekk. In honour of International Zine Month 2014, the OCAD Zine Library is also partnering with the Toronto Zine Library and Broken Pencil magazine to host an event where attendees can immerse themselves in zines on many levels.

Starting at 5pm on Wednesday, July 16th, attendees can come to OCAD University's Learning Zone to hang out, read zines, make zines, collage, make buttons, write letters and listen to readings by zine makers.

There will be a comfortable zine reading area where visitors can look at the over 2,000 zines in OCAD Zine Library's collection. A large maker station will be set up with zine making, collaging and letter writing supplies where attendees are welcome to create whatever they want. Visitors are also invited to either bring images or use the available materials to make their own buttons with a button maker we'll have on site. Buttons are 4 for $1, but you can have your first button for free! Zine readers will be announced shortly, so check back here, or at our Facebook event, for more information.

Finding the Learning Zone: We're located at 113 McCaul, though you can also access the building (a bit closer to the entrance to the Learning Zone) at 122 St. Patrick Street. We are the large glassed in room on the main floor near the Grange Food Court. There is a passkey lock on the door to the Learning Zone, so please knock to gain access.

The 6th Annual OCAD U Zine Fair is coming back to inspire and entertain again! The lobby of 100 McCaul will be packed with vendors selling zines and self-published materials on March 13th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
Join the event!

Nano Publishing Student Zines

Every year, Shannon Gerard's Nano Publishing class makes zines and other artist multiples. Their latest creations have just arrived at the Learning Zone including an art zine about feet, an etiquette guide in comic form and a series of postcards featuring x-rayed hands. 

Just above the general zine collection, we have put together a display of these new additions to the collection, as well as some items from past years so that you can easily browse the objects that have come out of the Nano Publishing: Independent Publications course. 

 

New Zines! New Zines!

Eat to the Beat: a rock'n'roll cookzine
Tara Bursey
"I embarked on this project because so many of my friends in 'rock'- whether they be musicians, DJ's, record store clerks, recording engineers or record collectors - are also total foodies," says Bursey. Featuring music and food in one tasty package. 


Idle Labour

newdrifters.tumblr.com

Woodsy adventures meets (sub)urban beer drinking and appearances from cats and dogs. An intriguing photographic work. 

In Bloom 

Samantha Meiler

A timely work with the coming of fall and winter this zine speaks to our "collection" of summers: "I've seen a lifetime of summers come and go; I've witnessed twenty-four seasons of storms, sweat and swarms pass by..."   

New Zine Library Acquisitions

Singles: a collection of punk romance short fiction
Chris Eng

The stories in this collection of short fiction are tied together by the theme of young punks navigating relationships. Some of the relationships we encounter are brand new (the shy guy meets comic shop worker girl who schools him in Doctor Who knowledge), some are casual (the on-again off-again couple who stop in an alleyway for a foiled quickie) and others are being nurtured (the collection is bookended by anniversary stories). Not all of them have happy endings, and there's even a twisted version of O. Henry's Gift of the Magi (better known to me as the Bert and Ernie Christmas gift exchange story) midway through the collection in the story "Feel Good Factor."

Stop by and read about punks in love.

Crud Three
Vicki Nerino

Vicki Nerino's Crud series features characters who live in a sewer doing appropriately disgusting things, like blowing snot on the cloth of a hot air balloon to mend it, and pooing off the edge of the balloon's basket (made of a garbage can) to propel it off the ground.

But each story is really about friendship and the struggles to keep friends safe and sound. With minimal dialogue, Crud Three follows the search for a turtle named Tuna through this underground mess.

If you like gross mixed in with tales of friendship, Vicki's work is for you!

How the world actually works: unscientifically proven facts from Finland
Liisa Aaltio

"Modern world theories, the development of science and growing technology has, for a long time, fogged our knowledge of the real facts about how the world actually works," writes Liisa Aaltio. She then proceeds to share "8 unscientifically proven facts" she learned growing up in Finland that explain everyday events.

Each fact is accompanied by drawings illustrating the point. Facts include collecting and placing flowers under your pillow to see your future spouse in your dreams, home gnomes who live behind fireplaces and mess up your house if you behave "improperly," and trolls that will build houses in your teeth if you don't brush the sugar away before bed.

Hello Sunshine
Emily Taylor

Using non-traditional storytelling — with images surrounding the text rather than following a paneled comic structure — this zine tells an abstract story of spending summers in a cabin and the experiences the characters (or the author) have with surrounding nature.

This brightly coloured, accordion folded zine depicts summery things such as triangular cabins, foxes, girls in summer dresses, forests and preserves such as jellies and jams.

Xpace Xmas Zine Fair

Looking for more opportunities to share your zines before the end of the year? Xpace Cultural Centre is looking for vendors for its 4th annual zine fair.

Santa's Choice Zine Fair will take place from 12 to 6pm on Saturday, December 21st at Xpace (303 Lansdowne Ave, unit 2 main floor — between College and Dundas).

The deadline to register is November 15th, and registrations can be made via email (alicia@xpace.info). Tables are free!

Xpace Cultural Centre is a membership driven artist-run centre supported by the OCAD Student Union and dedicated to providing emerging and student artists with the opportunity to showcase their work in a professional setting. Xpace's exhibit Queenston Quarry is currently showing in the Learning Zone until December 9th.

OCAD U ZINE FAIR

The OCAD U ZINE FAIR is soon approaching so come to 100 MCcaul next wednesday to check out what are local artist have been up too. Zines, Comics, Prints and more in OCAD's main lobby :)

poster by Emily Howey and Sab Meynert

WORKSHOP UPDATE

I ran a screen-printing workshop last wednesday for the OCAD Zine Library, for those who couldn’t attend here is the handout as promised. This will serve as a good enough reference to try it yourself at home. I recommend attempting the drawing fluid method first.

 Good luck and happy printing ;)

Emily Howey

Sell you stuff at OCAD University's annual Zine Fair.

It will be taking place March 6th in the main building (100 McCaul St) so join us to sell your zines or  check out the fair and see some independent artists hard work

Zine Workshops

Don't miss your chance to learn some new DIY skills!

level up in bookbinding, screen printing and block printing in the OCAD learning zone
where we will help you become beautiful, well-rounded zinesters.

New Zine Library Editions

Search Party
Nancy Zhang

Toronto

This compact little zine is done in modest black and white photocopy, held together with a band that sports Nancy's website on it. When taken off, 3 sheets of paper neatly accordion folded reveal their own landscape per sheet, with a legend of things for the reader to find in the illustration. This zine is cutely interactive with neat design and illustration that is both well balanced and nicely complex for the task at hand. Well done!

It Could Be

Sarah Ayton

Montreal

This 2 staple mini zine deals with the everyday anxieties that flash across the layperson's mind for a few seconds when something unexpected happens. The naïve way of drawing is charming and yet personable, with characterization that most can relate to in some sort of way. The narrative is the same; humanly vulnerable and diaristic, but not so self absorbed that one cannot connect. A nice little zine to read on a rainier day.

(How) I Stopped Washing My Hair

Alison Roth Cooley

Toronto

This zine is about alternative hair-care for those who are tired of the dangers of chemical washes via shampoos and other hair-care products. It goes on to chronicle Alison's journey to an alternative-shampoo lifestyle, and details the substances used and the effects they had.The little blip in this zine is the fact that chemical-hair-dye was used as a last resort to a natural look for the zinesters' "au natural" endeavours. While the zine does not talk about the dangers of such things or other hair products, for alternative shampoo-how-tos, this is a good start.

Fatty Fatty Boombalatty

Clara Bee Lavery

Toronto

This zine hones a wealth of topics on body, weight, gender, and generally emotionally sensitive issues of the writer and their partner Oz. Fat acceptance and body acceptance in general is something not widely talked about in this age where the body is seen as a platform for commentary. The zine is written in an honest and approachable way, gratifying the issues that many people  not limited to those categorized as 'fat', experience. The zine is also charasmatic enough to keep one reading through its many wall-text pages that are complimented with illustrations, motifs and cutouts. The end also has a little tip section for dealing with ones own issues, and they are good ones. A good read!

OZL NEEDS YOU *points finger*

Are you a Zinester?

Do you want to share your work with other Zine lovers?

The OCADU Zine Library can help.

We are always looking for more work to add to the library to support the growth of the OCAD community. For more information on the library or where to find us,  check out the link below...     http://www.ocadu.ca/library/learning_zone/zine_library.htm

To Donate your work or inquire about how you could get involved email this address.
Thank you and your support would be greatly appreciated,

OZL