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grafficker alley 2025
Sep. 11th, 2025 10:52 pmSo this zine show happened! And it went pretty well, considering everything! Gonna do it again, I think!
This whole thing came out of us moving to Toronto right out of publishing JUKU and being accustomed to regularly getting behind a table and selling our comics and zines. It's easy when you're the con chair, or you know the con chair, or your convention has a table at the convention, you have an automatic "in" and can make it happen easily. When you are new in town, it's not so easy.
The established big zine show up here was Canzine, run by the magazine Broken Pencil. Shain and I tabled at one pretty soon after I got up here. Might have been that first November. It was at either the Drake or the Gladstone; tables were in the tiny rooms and hallways of a downtown historic building. We had a third of a six foot table. Do the math. Crowded in like sardines, half of what was being sold was fabric art or crafts or, you know, not zines, it wasn't great. Hard to get attention or get your work noticed.
In subsequent years I went to other Canzines and they weren't as cramped, but still kind of small. TCAF started soon after we moved here and that was a much better show, in a better space, comics-focused, with guests and programming and everything. In fact TCAF became a world class event attracting talent from around the globe, and as such got real hard to get a table at.
We spent a while simply focusing on webcomics, so tabling at shows wasn't that important, but the thing about print is, people like it. We like to make comics, people like to buy print comics, it's fun to table at a show and sell comics and see the other work and talk to other artists.
So I started paying attention again to the zine world, to the shows, trying to find out when the upcoming shows were happening so we could try to snag a table. Tried to get into TCAF a few times and didn't make the cut. Began thinking about renting the back room at Eyesore, which can fit eight or ten tables, and doing a zine show there. Then COVID hit and nobody was doing anything.
After the lockdowns ended I says to myself, I says I need to do that zine show, and I need to do it in a larger space than the back room of Eyesore. So I did some research and found some community centers and event spaces and started sending out some emails. Most of those emails did not get replies. The one reply I got wanted to know my budget, to which I replied, well, I am asking how much your space costs, so I know how much to charge my artists for tables, which will determine my budget... and I never got an actual number out of them. So whatever.
COVID shook everything up and one of the shakeups was that when TCAF came back in 2022 we somehow managed to get a table. Well, half a table. I didn't need to start my own show any more! So that's what I did a week after my mom died, I was behind a table in the library at TCAF selling copies of that SOUVENIR comic. And it sold pretty well, it didn't look like anything anybody else was selling, nobody's working that 'war comic' angle in the self published comic field. I didn't sell enough to make back my table fee, which was $225 (!!), but I sold enough to be happy. If Shain's bicycle hadn't been stolen right in front of the library, the experience would have been wholly positive.
Still had that idea in the back of my mind to do a zine show, and I was still keeping an eye on zine shows, and Canzine came back around and we got accepted to the 2024 Canzine. And then the guy behind Broken Pencil / Canzine decided that the Gaza war was the hill he was going to die on and he made a huge unnecessary fuss about it and as a result most everyone else that was making Canzine/Broken Pencil happen said "we quit" and Canzine guy took his ball and went home. The longest-running zine event/magazine in Canada, one with a great deal of grandfathered-in arts funding that no organization will ever be able to get again, just out like a light.
So when THAT happened, I was like OKAY GODDAMNIT, IT'S TIME. And I mentioned this to Donald, who's on the team that runs Anime North. And Donald replied with the fact that there are hundreds of Anime North artist alley applicants that get turned away every year because AN simply doesn't have enough space, and that AN was thinking of doing a separate event just for artists. So we figured we could put the zine show and the artist alley show together, and (and this is the important part) Anime North could finance it.
We put a little team together, we came up with a name for the thing, which is Grafficker Alley, hopefully one that splits the difference between the zine world and the artist alley world. We looked at some locations, did the math, nailed down the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga. I built a Google Forms questionnaire, a website was constructed, a domain was bought, social media accounts were acquired, and we went "live" in July, which was really too soon before a September show. Our social media guy had a heart attack while going to a Weird Al concert, and we really didn't want to bug him for passwords while he was getting bypass surgery.
We commissioned a poster and a logo and once we went live I printed some out and spent some time staple-gunning them to various notice boards around the city. We got flyers and postcards into some shops and we got out onto the social medias, and all 30,000+ people on the Anime North email list got emailed an email about Grafficker Alley.
Every single time I went out to do street postering I'd see even more places to staple flyers, every time I did a social media post I'd think of somewhere else I should be social-mediaing, it's a never-ending road of promotional work.
So the event did happen on September 6. It went... really well, I think. We sold 107 tables. Everybody got set up without too much hassle. The event was never crowded, but there was a steady stream of people coming through the building all day long. I sold more than enough zines to pay for my table. And here's the big thing, the table fee was $50, for a full six foot table. You don't have to sell a lot of zines to cover your table at that price point. I think this is why a lot of the artists seemed happy with the day; they covered their investment and had a pleasant afternoon in a pleasant space with fun people.
Grafficker Alley 2025 was a first time show that got a late start. I think when the show comes back in 2026 we'll have a proven track record, we'll be something people remember and have had in the back of their minds for months, and we'll have more artists and more customers for those artists.
The one big quibble is that the area is kind of a food desert. The SAIB is in a former industrial neighborhood that is slowly turning residential. Two towers are going up across the street, and there's a convenience store a block down, and then that's about it for a mile or so. The food vendors we tried to reach out to simply didn't return our contacts, but we have some new connections and we'll make food and drink happen next year.
I had fun, sold some comics, saw some friends, and generally am still kind of stunned there wasn't some sort of last minute disaster or flip out. I'll admit the last minute email questions were getting to me on Friday, but that's why I took the day off work. Next year I plan to have more zines and better table displays (that easel isn't gonna cut it). Honestly all I want is a regular show where we can get together and show off our latest work, one without the distractions of big name guests or big-time publishers, one where we aren't jostling against each other crowded into a too-small venue, and I think that's what we accomplished.
This whole thing came out of us moving to Toronto right out of publishing JUKU and being accustomed to regularly getting behind a table and selling our comics and zines. It's easy when you're the con chair, or you know the con chair, or your convention has a table at the convention, you have an automatic "in" and can make it happen easily. When you are new in town, it's not so easy.
The established big zine show up here was Canzine, run by the magazine Broken Pencil. Shain and I tabled at one pretty soon after I got up here. Might have been that first November. It was at either the Drake or the Gladstone; tables were in the tiny rooms and hallways of a downtown historic building. We had a third of a six foot table. Do the math. Crowded in like sardines, half of what was being sold was fabric art or crafts or, you know, not zines, it wasn't great. Hard to get attention or get your work noticed.
In subsequent years I went to other Canzines and they weren't as cramped, but still kind of small. TCAF started soon after we moved here and that was a much better show, in a better space, comics-focused, with guests and programming and everything. In fact TCAF became a world class event attracting talent from around the globe, and as such got real hard to get a table at.
We spent a while simply focusing on webcomics, so tabling at shows wasn't that important, but the thing about print is, people like it. We like to make comics, people like to buy print comics, it's fun to table at a show and sell comics and see the other work and talk to other artists.
So I started paying attention again to the zine world, to the shows, trying to find out when the upcoming shows were happening so we could try to snag a table. Tried to get into TCAF a few times and didn't make the cut. Began thinking about renting the back room at Eyesore, which can fit eight or ten tables, and doing a zine show there. Then COVID hit and nobody was doing anything.
After the lockdowns ended I says to myself, I says I need to do that zine show, and I need to do it in a larger space than the back room of Eyesore. So I did some research and found some community centers and event spaces and started sending out some emails. Most of those emails did not get replies. The one reply I got wanted to know my budget, to which I replied, well, I am asking how much your space costs, so I know how much to charge my artists for tables, which will determine my budget... and I never got an actual number out of them. So whatever.
COVID shook everything up and one of the shakeups was that when TCAF came back in 2022 we somehow managed to get a table. Well, half a table. I didn't need to start my own show any more! So that's what I did a week after my mom died, I was behind a table in the library at TCAF selling copies of that SOUVENIR comic. And it sold pretty well, it didn't look like anything anybody else was selling, nobody's working that 'war comic' angle in the self published comic field. I didn't sell enough to make back my table fee, which was $225 (!!), but I sold enough to be happy. If Shain's bicycle hadn't been stolen right in front of the library, the experience would have been wholly positive.
Still had that idea in the back of my mind to do a zine show, and I was still keeping an eye on zine shows, and Canzine came back around and we got accepted to the 2024 Canzine. And then the guy behind Broken Pencil / Canzine decided that the Gaza war was the hill he was going to die on and he made a huge unnecessary fuss about it and as a result most everyone else that was making Canzine/Broken Pencil happen said "we quit" and Canzine guy took his ball and went home. The longest-running zine event/magazine in Canada, one with a great deal of grandfathered-in arts funding that no organization will ever be able to get again, just out like a light.
So when THAT happened, I was like OKAY GODDAMNIT, IT'S TIME. And I mentioned this to Donald, who's on the team that runs Anime North. And Donald replied with the fact that there are hundreds of Anime North artist alley applicants that get turned away every year because AN simply doesn't have enough space, and that AN was thinking of doing a separate event just for artists. So we figured we could put the zine show and the artist alley show together, and (and this is the important part) Anime North could finance it.
We put a little team together, we came up with a name for the thing, which is Grafficker Alley, hopefully one that splits the difference between the zine world and the artist alley world. We looked at some locations, did the math, nailed down the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga. I built a Google Forms questionnaire, a website was constructed, a domain was bought, social media accounts were acquired, and we went "live" in July, which was really too soon before a September show. Our social media guy had a heart attack while going to a Weird Al concert, and we really didn't want to bug him for passwords while he was getting bypass surgery.
We commissioned a poster and a logo and once we went live I printed some out and spent some time staple-gunning them to various notice boards around the city. We got flyers and postcards into some shops and we got out onto the social medias, and all 30,000+ people on the Anime North email list got emailed an email about Grafficker Alley.
Every single time I went out to do street postering I'd see even more places to staple flyers, every time I did a social media post I'd think of somewhere else I should be social-mediaing, it's a never-ending road of promotional work.
So the event did happen on September 6. It went... really well, I think. We sold 107 tables. Everybody got set up without too much hassle. The event was never crowded, but there was a steady stream of people coming through the building all day long. I sold more than enough zines to pay for my table. And here's the big thing, the table fee was $50, for a full six foot table. You don't have to sell a lot of zines to cover your table at that price point. I think this is why a lot of the artists seemed happy with the day; they covered their investment and had a pleasant afternoon in a pleasant space with fun people.
Grafficker Alley 2025 was a first time show that got a late start. I think when the show comes back in 2026 we'll have a proven track record, we'll be something people remember and have had in the back of their minds for months, and we'll have more artists and more customers for those artists.
The one big quibble is that the area is kind of a food desert. The SAIB is in a former industrial neighborhood that is slowly turning residential. Two towers are going up across the street, and there's a convenience store a block down, and then that's about it for a mile or so. The food vendors we tried to reach out to simply didn't return our contacts, but we have some new connections and we'll make food and drink happen next year.
I had fun, sold some comics, saw some friends, and generally am still kind of stunned there wasn't some sort of last minute disaster or flip out. I'll admit the last minute email questions were getting to me on Friday, but that's why I took the day off work. Next year I plan to have more zines and better table displays (that easel isn't gonna cut it). Honestly all I want is a regular show where we can get together and show off our latest work, one without the distractions of big name guests or big-time publishers, one where we aren't jostling against each other crowded into a too-small venue, and I think that's what we accomplished.
