
Music and Sappyfest-inspired Zines
To celebrate the long weekend of music, art, and community love that is Sappyfest, we have highlighted our favourite indie music and Sappy-inspired zines from the Owens’ Teeny Tiny Zine Library. These zines document Sappyfests of years gone by, offer tips to enjoy the festival, review beloved bands, share playlists, and fill in missing gaps in mainstream media coverage of music.
Zines and music have always gone hand in hand, with early music fanzines dating back to the 1930s and flourishing during the 1970s as a vital source for spreading information about punk music. Today, music zines cover all genres, often containing art, record reviews, and interviews with artists.
Sappyfest-inspired Zines

Various Artists
2020
A zine that appears on occasion during SappyFest, The Sappy Post has evolved and changed greatly from year to year. Maybe you knew it as The Rag & Review, Scraps of Time, or Telegraphic—either way, these publications serve to document the festival through art and writing. The Sappy Post was inspired by the inimitable Sappy Times, created by Sean Michaels to “collect my thoughts on all the marvels I heard” each SappyFest. Michaels would stay up all night preparing The Times and have it available at sunrise each day of the festival.
Capturing the festival and impressionistic memories, The Sappy Post creates an “ad hoc memory bloc.”
This issue is a retrospective of The Sappy Post, including contributions from nearly every previous contributor, as well as an essay by Geordie Miller and an interview with Sean Michaels.

Tori Weldon
2019
Tori Weldon’s Sappy Survival Guide contains tidbits of wisdom from an experienced Sappy attendee. It is filled with good reminders—like having coffee, checking the schedule, and wearing a hat—to ease you through the long weekend.

Della and Theo Crocker
2020
Perfectly fitting for the year 2020, SappyFest: Near and Far‘s mascot was “a flying cat with a forest/world growing on its back with a population of children that hatch out of eggs.” Do you remember it glowing across the Cube? This fantastic creature also serves as the backdrop for the otherworldly stories in Gritty by Della and Theo Crocker.

Patrick Allaby
With four-panel comic strips, Patrick Allaby recounts some of his Sappy memories, including discovering new musicians, applying to work as a SappyFest summer intern, and scandalously sneaking in underage as a high school student.
Music Zines

Evan Furness
In the most apt, tape-like format, Evan Furness’ Mixtape Vol. 1 illustrates 14 of his top Valentine’s Day tracks and love songs.
When you get halfway through this zine, you can flip it over and read the B-side. From Joy Division to Björk, Tom Waits to Sun Kil Moon, this zine will have you feeling the love.

Published by Pentagon Black
2020
Black Dots: An Afropunk Primer is the first installment of the Pentagon Black Information Pamphlet series from Pentagon Black. This essential eight-page pamphlet profiles Black punks of the early British and US punk and hardcore scenes, written by Chris Murdoch.
The second pamphlet in the series, 25 Queer Country Hot Hits, 1938–2020, includes writing by Steacy Easton which fills the LGBTQIA+ gaps that you might be missing from your country/western repertoire.
Both zines include illustrations by Raymond Biesinger and are the perfect pocket-sized resources to expand your music history knowledge.

Jeff Oulton
2022
>>untitled was made by McKenzie College student Jeff Oulton for a graphic design course assignment that asked students to each make a zine on the theme of spring. Oulton’s illustrations and paintings accompany lyrics and song titles from Nine Inch Nails’ album The Fragile.

Dave Dyment
2010
Pop Quiz by artist Dave Dyment is a nearly comprehensive collection of all of the questions posed in pop songs from the artist’s music collection. Each copy from the edition of 500 includes a unique handwritten question. Our copy reads “Don’t you know I breathe in fire?” from tUnE-yArDs’ Fiya.

Tara Bursey and Ben Needham
Continuing your deep dive into esoteric rock’n’roll and musical movements across time and space, Strange Notes is a printed companion to Tara Bursey and Ben Needham’s radio show of the same name. This issue documents the show’s themes, playlists, and artists featured in episodes 10–16.
Each zine comes with QR codes to access the show on its two stations, CHMA 106.9 in Sackville, NB and CFMU in Hamilton, ON.

Sophia L
2022
With all the new knowledge and inspiration from these music-inspired zines, if you feel tempted to dust off an old instrument and join some friends to make a band, Sophie L.’s zine, 36 Band Name Ideas, could help you name your new ensemble.

Ben Beaumont
2025
This zine describes the author’s personal experience with using music in galleries to combat the brightness and quietness of the traditional gallery setting. The sensory environment is something many people struggle with in museums. Music has been a personal remedy for Ben. Included in this zine is Ben’s playlist for traveling through the museum space in a calm, relaxed manner.

Lila
2024
In this short zine, Lila reminds us just how many different kinds of music there are in the world, and that it’s perfectly okay to like different things. Some of their favourites are Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Adele.

Amanda Fauteux
2018
Inside the pages of songs unsung by Amanda Fauteux are remnants of karaoke song requests. Most are torn or crumpled, obscuring the singers’ selections, but we can read a few requests like Summer Nights for Tara and Eye in the Sky for Ad + Amanda.

Demon Pie
2022
Created in the spirit of trickery, false expectation, and outright lying, Demon Pie is an art band created by Jerry Ropson’s FINA 3611 Intermediate Open Media class as a surprise for Jerry. Meet the members behind the mischief in this chaotic, clever bio-zine: Hazel Bite (Libbie Farrell), Atomic Chivalry (Olivia McCarthy), Monarch Motel (Chloe Mantrom), Dishrag Maya (Daisy Graham), Charlie Weapons (Sophia Lawrence) and Lichen Lunar God (Chloe Lundrigan).