WOW! what a weekend… I’ve been participating in Expozine for the last 4 years and I honestly think that this year was the best one yet. The atmosphere was really great, and though the place was packed, it seemed easier to circulate and socialise than previous years. We did really well at our tables and met a ton of great, creative, friendly people.

Before I give props to our awesome corner, I think it’s important to give due credit to the crew of Archive Montreal (both past and present) who have worked so hard to make it all happen over the last seven years (for what I’m sure has been little monetary reward). Their personalities and energy imbue this festival with such an open, supportive and progressive community spirit that will keep it from ever becoming a snooty, trendy, book fair. Expozine really is by the people, for the people in the best possible way. So, to Billy, Dave, MC, Louis, Andy and all the other volunteers that I’m unaware of, a heartfelt thank you. You represent exactly why I love Montreal.

And now on to our amazing corner… Cat and I got there super early and managed to score a prime corner/wall location for all our wares. At the end of the row were the charming ladies from Place magazine. Alongside a few copies of their magazine (which, strangely, were only there for reference and not sale) they had some really interesting conceptual map posters. I got wonderfully lost for a while in their Montreal Musical Mitosis(sic) poster, that mapped the multitude of interconnections between Montreal bands. To their right and our left, good friend Erica Ruth Kelly was selling her latest chapbook, Symptoms, and collecting fears from passerbys into a Rainbow Brite lunchbox! I can’t wait to see what she does with them!

Cat (aka Oubliette) did so well with her beautiful hand-made crafts that out of jealousy I was prepared to rat her out for not having any printed matter (mushroom cards aside) on her table! John and I shared our table with Omen, who had some beautiful posters out after his Yves Laroche show. Lindsay had copies of a new zine, Under Control, on the topic of radical education, and John slaved all week to get his spoken word/noise CD, Triangles Falling, out there. Colin came down for the weekend to hawk some of his new comix compilations and kept us entertained with shenanigans alongside fellow comics artist and illustrator Naomi Cook. Marc Beauchamp was up on the stage selling his intricate sci-fi/fantasy posters. Together, we created a really cozy little corner for the weekend and I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did.

Aside from my usual pickups of Lickety Split and Ms. Guided, I was extremely excited by Yan’s new project Against Language (or AGNST LNGGE) and was honored that he let me pick up one of 3 unique handwritten journals he made specifically for Expozine. Vince (check out his thoughts on expozine here, thanks for the mad props!) has a ton of new stuff that I unfortunately didn’t manage to pick up (yet), but I’m sure it’s great. Some other good finds included the small illustrated zines from Unkindness of Ravens Press, Say it Again, a zine by the talented Georgia Webber, and Aaron McConomy‘s beautiful prints. I was also really happy to discover Naledi Jackson‘s animalistic poster art shortly before the end of it all…

Many, many thanks again to the organisers, and to everyone who came by our corner and picked stuff up or just stopped by to chat. I’d love to know what you think of the zine (I’ll have a post up soon for Issue 10, with a downloadable pdf for those that didn’t have the cash to throw down at the time) so please don’t hesitate to contact us. I can’t wait to see everyone again next year!