Broken Pencil, the “magazine of zine culture and the independent arts,” has collapsed. Its downfall is not the result of shrinking interest or financial stress, but rather a conflict between its owner and publisher, Hal Niedzviecki, and the artists and editors who have sustained it for almost 30 years.
Based in Toronto, Broken Pencil (a.k.a. BP) was founded by Niedzviecki in 1995. It very quickly filled a void. BP was one of the only organizations cataloguing key history and publications from the international zine scene. Other than perhaps the long-defunct Factsheet Five, no other publication has come close to documenting, disseminating and celebrating the mostly marginal world of self-publishing.
Zines emerged out of the Dada art movement more than a century ago, and they highlight ideas and attitudes that often take decades to percolate into mainstream discourse. Before the internet, zines were essential for sharing radical politics and forging new communities and identities. As the digital world has become more corporate and subject to state surveillance, zines remain a vital alternative terrain for disseminating challenging, progressive thought.
I attended my first Canzine, BP’s annual zine fair, in 2007 and became a zinester tabling the event the following year. In a brilliant move, the tabling fee for Canzine included a year-long subscription to BP, bolstering the magazine’s circulation and ensuring makers became part of the BP community. As a result of these positive experiences, I was inspired to make zines and have self-published comics ever since.
By 2024, BP had grown from a quarterly print magazine to also include a sprawling website, a series of essential zine fairs and even a zine awards program. But it began to unravel after Niedzviecki’s pro-Israel statements on X.com (formerly Twitter). In a handful of posts since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Niedzviecki expressed support for Israel and appeared to deny well-documented claims of human rights abuses by the Israeli state against Palestinians in Gaza, which has been described as a “textbook case of genocide.”
One comment in particular caught the attention of the zinester community. In response to a post by U.S. Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres, who denied claims that humanitarian aid is being blocked from entering Gaza, Niedzviecki replied in July 2024, “Once again, there is no genocide or mass starvation in Gaza. Nothing even close. There is a horrible war started by Hamas that they can end at any moment.” His post is still live at the time of writing.
Once Niedzviecki’s public posts began circulating, the wider BP community decried what was generally perceived as Niedzviecki’s anti-Palestinian opinions. People demanded accountability from Niedzviecki through conversations, social media posts and eventually an open letter campaign.
This wasn’t Niedzviecki’s first brush with controversy. In 2017, when he served as editor-in-chief of the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Write Magazine, Niedzviecki published a column advocating for a “Cultural Appropriation Prize” for the writer who best took on the voice from another identity group in their writing. The column was in reaction to growing awareness and concern about the negative effects of cultural appropriation, which the Oxford English dictionary describes as the “inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.”
Niedzviecki flatly stated that “I don’t believe in cultural appropriation” and went on to defend and celebrate the practice, encouraging others to do the same. He later apologized.
At the time, powerful personalities from Canada’s right wing came to Niedzviecki’s defence. After tweeting his support for the prize, Jonathan Kay resigned as editor- in-chief of The Walrus, while industry veteran Ken Whyte stated he would “donate $500 to the founding of the appropriation prize if someone else wants to organize.”
The fallout led to Niedzviecki leaving his editorial role at Write.
However, because he was the publisher and sole owner of BP, there was essentially no mechanism to hold Niedzviecki accountable at that publication.
A past BP editor told me that after the appropriation prize controversy the editors and Niedzviecki made a deal that BP would continue with Niedzviecki no longer involved in day-to-day editorial activities.
BP carried on until Niedzviecki, in my opinion, stepped in it again with his totally unnecessary tweet about conditions in Gaza. As the crisis among zinesters grew, the editors of BP posted a statement on BP’s Instagram page distancing themselves from Niedzviecki and asserting their support for Palestine.
A group of GTA zinesters launched an open letter campaign calling for Niedzviecki to resign. As a past contributor to BP and a maker whose zines have been reviewed in the pages of BP, I signed the letter.
More recently fellow zinesters told me that editor-in-chief Zack Kotzer resigned his position in a personal Instagram story, although his account is private and the story post in question is gone. Next, co-editor Olea Kim took to their personal Instagram on Oct. 4 to announce that BP and all its various sub-projects were closing for good. (Kim is The Grind’s comics editor.)
According to Kim’s statement, the decision was made by the publisher. Kim went on to say that the editors were not able to convince Niedzviecki to stay on as founder while ceding control of the publications to others.
While this pales in comparison to the sickening slaughter in Palestine and now Lebanon, BP is now another casualty of Israel’s occupation.
Though legally owned by Niedzviecki, BP’s success was the result of a collective effort, so it is especially disheartening to see one person put a stop to decades of shared building.
(The Grind reached out to Niedziecki for comment but did not receive a response before publication. After we printed and started distribution of this issue, Niedziecki published a piece on on the BP site about the closure.)
As a legacy publication from a past era of government and foundational support, BP was basically guaranteed vested financial backing that no brand new publication will ever be able to secure again.
Beyond the zines, this is deeply personal for me. I am the Jewish grandchild of four Holocaust survivors. I also am firmly opposed to Israel’s occupation and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
BP was a beloved resource that harnessed progressive energy, and it is a shame to see it fail because of the founder’s bull-headed prejudices.
This article appeared in the 2024 Dec - 2025 Jan issue.