The Winter of Art's Discontent
During a recession, governments both federal and municipal are on the hunt for places to cut costs and the arts seem to be an easy target. Laura Trethewey followed the carnage of arts funding cuts across the country to see the effect on local artists and, ultimately, our culture.
By Laura Trethewey
Grease Lightening
Poet Billeh Nickerson's latest offering is fresh from the deep fryer and teeming with substance
By Nathaniel G. Moore
Flatmancrooked
The US micropress with mega-ideas
By Nathaniel G. Moore
Philip Quinn's The Skeleton Dance
An online exclusive interview
By Nathaniel G. Moore
An Interview with Kaie Kellough
An online exclusive
By Joel Deshaye
Don't Forget the Ampersand
IAIN BAXTER& has been making conceptual art for 45 years. David Silverberg talks to the artist about the mysteries of what comes next
By David Silverberg
Carrying the Torch
On the eve of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Maggie MacDonald travels across Canada to map out indie culture in our small towns
By Maggie MacDonald
Vancouver Mass Exodus
Artists are leaving Vancouver and it's not just to escape Olympic madness. Robert Dayton examines the reasons why
By Robert Dayton
The Fall of Books
Jurassic erotica, those who can't, quarter-life crises, paramedic muses and so much poetry you'll puke. It's a round-up of all things small press and then some
By Nathaniel G. Moore
From Her Mouth
The Dirty, Pretty Prose of Lisa Foad
By Stacey May Fowles
Jeff Parker Can't Lose
The US author is here to stay, but what's with all the ties to Russia?
By Spencer Gordon
A Painful Place
An interview with Michael Blouin
By Spencer Gordon
Schultz's Circuit
A Broken Pencil online exclusive interview
By Stacey May Fowles
Vanity Treasures
By Robert Dayton
Combatting CanCon
By Katie Addleman
John Goldbach's Selected Blackouts
By Spencer Gordon
Post More Bills
Against most city by-laws, telephone poles and hoarding in major cities are covered in a mixture of commercial advertisements and handmade posters for local events. Dave Silverberg explores the culture behind poster making, from its DIY roots to its semi-mainstream popularity and collectability
By Dave Silverberg
Best Practices for Making your own Show Poster
Now that you've read about the culture behind gigposters and learned how to build your own screenprinting press, we may as well get you started making your own. Here Michelle Kay takes us down the path to poster making
By Michelle Kay
How to Make a Screen Printing Press
Every good independent artist has, at one time or another, had the need to screen print something. Whether it be a poster to advertise an upcoming event, a piece of clothing to exhibit a personal design or a banner to hang behind the table at a zine fair, it's a useful skill to have; so Broken Pencil editor Lindsay Gibb investigated and tested the cheapest and easiest way to build a screen and print at home.
By Lindsay Gibb
How to Make Your first Video Game
In the last issue of Broken Pencil we covered Jim Munroe's Game Incubator, a project that brings artists and writers together to learn to create their own video games. Here Derek Winkler explains how, without joining a game incubator, you can make a video game all by yourself without any human interaction.
By Derek Winkler
New Micro Press Publisher
Brooklyn's The Crumpled Press
By Nathaniel G. Moore
Jen Miller Loves Edward Cullen
Some confessions of Lower East Side's DIY elf
By Erin Kobayashi
Fuck You, I Love You
The sinister and perverse affections of Loose Teeth Press
By Stacey May Fowles
How to do Screen Printing
An expert guide. An online video exclusive.
By Lindsay Gibb
An Indie Recession
By Laura Trethewey
Thug Life
Fledgling avant-garde press brings substance to the TorLit turf war
By Karen Correia Da Silva
State of the craft economy
The handmade aesthetic is hitting home with mainstream audiences. A combination of recession and buy-local environmental awareness is getting more and more people interested in craft. It looks like a good climate for craft and DIY culture. But is it?
By Lindsay Gibb
From Paint to Pixels
Comic creators learn to trade in their pens for joysticks
By Derek Winkler
The Least Worst Form of Poetry
Reflections on Jen's Anti-Slam, Bowery Poetry Club
By Jacob Sceier
Who Killed the Third Person?
Does anyone write in the third person anymore?
By Nathaniel G. Moore
Newer Features | Older Features