Culture
Bumming Indie Artwork From Retro Cigarette Machines
In Montreal and beyond, vintage dispensers get locals hooked on zines and cassettes.
A few nights ago, as my friends dodged elbows at a sticky bar top in Montreal, I crouched and fed quarters into a rejiggered vending machine humming, fluorescent, in the corner.
I was hoping to fish out a booklet with a constellation freckled across its cover. The machine used to spit out cigarettes; now, it dispenses pocket-sized works of art—everything from comic books to cassettes—for $2 apiece.