Support four more issues of From The QILT2BAG+!

Reading time: About 4 mins

Issues 1 to 3 on display in coppery coloured metal baskets.

Today is National Coming Out Day and launch day for a little crowdfunding campaign I’m doing to fund the next four issues of From the QILT2BAG+!

From the QILT2BAG+ is a themed collaborative community ‘zine project I started for several reasons:

1. I love doing print design. It’s one of my favourite things and I wanted a project where I could regularly play around with laying out and designing things that would become physical copies of something people can actually hold in their hands.

2. Physical stuff is great and increasingly rare in this current stage of history. Everything operates on subscription models where we spend hundred of dollars on media we don’t own that can be taken away on the whims of some executive in a board room. It’s becoming weirdly precious and rare to get to have a piece of media you can hold and keep and share.

3. I love collaborating with others and uplifting and sharing the work of amazing humans in my community. I am a writer and an artist even if I don’t make my living as either, and it has always meant a lot when anyone supports my creative work. This is why I always do everything I can to support the creative work of others, and ‘zines, as small indie publications, are a great way to connect with other writers and artists and put their work out in the world.

4. I want to kill the idea of the starving artist. Art is necessary to human thriving. Some of the earliest items we have from the very first humans are artistic creations—jewelry, sculptures, carvings, cave paintings. Without art the world would be a lot less interesting and enjoyable, and yet, artists continue to be undervalued and underappreciated. I wanted to create a project that not just shares writing and art, but helps those who make it get paid for the labour.¹

So I set about the first issue by reaching out to fellow writer/polymath Cece Chow, finding others writers and artists through her, and inviting in Spencer of Prairie Fruit Arts to make a cover. I used funds from my Thangka art commission to offer payment to all the contributors, if they wanted it, along with the copies they each got to distribute and keep funds from. I also used my own art income to pay for printing and posting that first copy to contributors outside the city where I live.

It was amazing and everything I wanted it to be.

Since producing issue 1, I have produced two more issues and am in the midst of producing issue number 4. I’ve been able to pay contributors, cover the costs of printing, and get copies posted out to everyone thanks to my small art income. But I am coming to the end of those funds, which is where ya’ll come in.

I have several plans for projects in 2025, including producing four more issues of this ‘zine. I want to keep being able to offer sliding scale payment to contributors, keep printing the ‘zine in full colour so the art and photography can be the best it can be, and continue to invite contributors from far and wide.²

All funds I get from my creative work go right back into my creative work, including the cost of my Adobe subscriptions ($82/month), web hosting fees, art supplies for Sacred Love/Sacred Lives, and getting prints and cards made of my artwork.

My hope with this campaign is to ensure that I have the funds to cover the next four ‘zine issues, while also ensuring I have extra cash to cover my other projects and another little something in the works…

Even if you can only afford $10 for one ‘zine, it matters to me. You can also share the link with anyone you know who might want to be part of this project and support a bunch of 2SLGBTQIA+ folks in our creativity.

I know it’s not 2025 yet, but 2025 is a BIG deal year. It marks twenty years since gay marriage was legalized across Canada and 20 years since I set up and hosted the first ever Fake Mustache show. Fake Mustache is still going strong, and 2025 will be my wife’s and my tenth wedding anniversary—a right neither of us had when we were born. Your support of this campaign will help me celebrate 2025 to the fullest, sharing art and writing from some incredible folks from my community and helping all of us get paid for our labour.

Our stories matter. Our history matters. Having physical copies of a queer produced community ‘zine as a record that we are here, we have always been here, and we will always be here, is powerful.

Please help get the next four issues funded. Share this post. Share the kickstarter page. Tell all your friends.

1. As of the publication of this post, I have been able to pay an accumulative $717.99 to twelve of the contributors.

2. There have been seventeen contributors from across Canada and a few Stateside for the first four issues.