Author: UC Gargoyle

mail from the depths of your spam, from your junk drawer, from the word wide web and now in your hands. introducing our last issue of the year: garchives! what should be added to the archives? what would you put in a time capsule and bury for 100 years? what did 2025 mean to you? what idea did you mean to send into us that just didn’t happen? (╭ರ_•́)

send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by november 14 at 5 p.m. with “issue 5 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts are due november 19 at 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words. production night with scraps and scanning and old gargs will be happening at 5 p.m. on thursday, november 27th in the jcr.

some thoughts, musings, and wishes from our section editors: 

uc: tell us about your least favourite themes from student publications on campus. steal from each other, leave ransom notes, demand obscene payment. we’re all connected, no one is safe…

arts & culture: we’re taking a trip down memory lane this issue. tell us about the oldest art you can think of. get historical with it! renaissance paintings, early 2000s pop culture, medieval romances, 80s campy cult classics – it’s all fair game. tell us about firsts: the first video game, the first blockbuster, your first brush with art that left you begging for more. narrate your life in art. give us a genealogy of arts. a&c’s fave themes: renaissance, y2k, antiques roadshow

politics: everything but the kitchen sink politics prompts. are poli sci students like that on purpose? online politics deep dive: jubilee media, breadtube streamers, and substack thinkpieces. top 10 moments in toronto politics (rob ford biopic needed). politicians who would have been better off abandoning doing drag. 

opinions: this issue, anything goes. 

nandini wants to know: your hot takes, your guilty pleasures, your niche obsessions, the hill you’d die on, the truth you’d whisper at 3am, and what you really think. ola wants to see: cities and hometowns and space, parents and siblings and cousins, culture and memory and inheritance. ROOMMATES. or, anything you’ve wanted to yap about that you haven’t had the chance to do so for before.

avant garg: sunday, november 9th, 2025. first snow. the gargoyle vol 67 iss 5’s theme was seasonal affective disorder, the son of a bitch that just won’t let go. how are you planning on making it through the winter semester? tell me about your small saving graces.

comics: half-assed sketches that you never got around to finishing, ideas on napkins, classroom doodles, pencil marks and ink stains, whatever you have. Mix up characters from different stories and let them meet.  Dump everything you love into a box, give it a shake, and pour it out.  Let our humble section be your dumping ground.

issue 6 extra: we’ve dug into the back of our brains and the basement of uc to find some old gargs, and masthead has complied a list of their favourite old themes. feel free to draw from any of these: 

deep sea issue (vol 58, issue 3), the space issue (vol 59, issue 3), star wars issue (vol 65, issue 6), illusions issue (vol 56, issue 8), the clowns issue (vol 62, issue 1), the bread issue (vol 63, issue 7), the magical girls issue (vol 62, issue 3), cult (vol 66, issue 4; vol 69, issue 5), special renaissance issue (vol 21, october special), modern art (vol 68, issue 3), the sitcom issue (vol 61, issue 8),  the eddie murphy issue (vol 60, issue 11; vol 61, issue 6), the yuppies issue (vol 61, issue 2)

stay greasy,

amareena saleh

communications editor 

hello hello :> happy spooky season to all ↻(𓄼 .̀  ̮.́)Ψ for our halloween issue this year, we’re digging up issue 4: resurrection .˚⊹.₊˚𖦹⋆ what’s a little dirt under the nails? if the grave was shallow enough to claw your way back up from, the burial was never permanent. write about the things that just will NOT stay dead. habits, fandoms (looking at you, danganronpa), old tech, old selves. necromance the past if you will. 
drag up your forgotten phases and visit them one last time. tell us what you wish would make a comeback, or why it needs to stay dead, buried, and dematerialized. how do you feel about the inescapable regurgitation of references and remakes? 

send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday, october 10th, 5 p.m. with “issue 4 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. include a sample paragraph (~200 words) with your proposal. final drafts will be due wednesday, october 15th by 11:59 p.m. pieces can be anywhere from 1–1000 words.

we’re also looking for front and back cover art for this issue! please pitch us your most spooky concept art via email. also! for our centrefold, we’ll be accepting spooky undead doodles  (can be drawn irl at prod, or emailed as pdfs!) great opportunity to get a doodle in your journal printed and floating around campus. 

masthead will rise from the dead for production at 5 p.m. on thursday, october 23rd in the junior common room and will remain until the witching hour (more like 9-ish…). pizza will be summoned. possibly ghosts? if you’re interested in a less spooky time, come back by the issue 3: dreamgirl prod night this thursday (oct. 9).

some spooky prompts for the eager gargling: 

uc: how long have you been in the city? did you grow up in toronto or the gta, are there any places that remind you of better times…of worse times? we all have our favourite spots, did you ever abandon them and then find them again? talk about places you recently rediscovered in the city. tell us about all the places you have haunted in the late hours of the night or the early, slithering hours of the morning. carlton imagine cinemas at 1AM? lakeview diner at 1:15AM? the green room at 1:30AM? sneaky dee’s nachos at 1:45AM? sneaky link at wild wing at 1:55AM? someone watching you while you take the 2AM GO-train to Maple?

PS: if you’ve been on the uoft ghost tour please please please write about it i’ve always wanted to go.

arts & culture: talk about a piece of media that brought you to life. what cultural phenomena/trends need to make a comeback? how are you giving new lives to old hyperfixations? is fanfiction a type of rebirth? discuss revival genres. complain about remakes of remakes. what should stay dead? are we obsessed with revival because it’s comforting, or because we’ve run out of original thoughts? can anything ever truly die, or will it all be revived eventually?

politics: explore how empires “resurrect” myths of past glory to “give life” to nationalist rhetoric. what motivates gen z’s obsession with nostalgia and analog media’s “resurrection”? how do the ghosts of forgotten political history still haunt us? debunk right-wing nostalgia and the myth of restoration (“this is what they took from us”). what do political assassinations reveal about our cultural climate? the meaning behind the monster: political subtext in horror.

opinions: the horror of return. what’s something you buried that won’t stay buried? what do we owe the dead? talk about the most recent resurrection in your life, a relationship, a hobby, a trend…? who would you resurrect? what would you NEVER resurrect? god forbid, do YOU want to be resurrected? buried or cremated? tell us about loved cultural revivals in your cities or circles. also zombies. tell us about zombies.

avant garg: is to be resurrected to be reborn? can death absolve you of sin? narrate from a gravedigger’s perspective. storytell from six feet under. is that the tip of a shovel or are you just happy to see me? resurrect an old flame and journal how it burns this time around. tell us about people who came back wrong–or worse, right. dig your own grave. lie in it. 

comics:  resurrect your favourite dead shows and characters.  tell us about that one thing that just won’t die for good, no matter how many times you kill it. bring back your old art styles, OCs, favourite art trends, and comics! halloween is approaching…draw us some sick-ass zombies, ghouls, and goblins >:)

see you soon,

amareena saleh, communications editor

welcome to the Greasy Garg! your favourite restaurant for all things (legally) edible, questionably drinkable, and generally consumable. this week we’re cooking up issue 2: nom nom nom, which is dedicated to the culture of food in all its scrumptious and delectable forms. 

give us your takes on food as a love language, diet culture, the rise and fall of trendy cafes, to your favourite hole-in-the-wall places. your ideas are a bottomless buffet, and we’re starving (っ˘ڡ˘ς). pls bring us a bowl of your perpetual stew, dearest contributors. 

send all proposals or initial drafts to ucgargoyle@gmail.com by friday september 12th, 5 p.m. with “issue 2 proposal for section x, contributor’s name” as the subject line. please include a sample paragraph of 200 words with your proposals. your final drafts will be due wednesday, september 17th by 11:59 p.m. your article word count can be as few as 1 and as many as 1000. 

our production night will take place at 5 p.m. on thursday, september 25th in the junior common room until 9 ish pm. all this chat about food may make you hungry, but do not fret: pizza will be provided to satisfy all your cravings. if you want to meet with anyone from masthead irl prior to pitching, issue 1 production is happening this upcoming thursday (sept. 11) in the JCR. come say hi.. or heyyy

here are some prompts to the taste of our section editors:

uc: tell us about your favourite spots around the city to eat. tell us about your favourite caribbean food spot, your favourite place to get ramen, burgers, etc. what memories have you formed around these foods and these places. is there anywhere to stay clear of in the city? why? stories lie in food and food places, tell it to us…even if they’re secrets.

arts & culture: discuss relationships around food and consumption in the arts. talk about the gentrification of food spaces and the aesthetic of eating. explore how food ingredients are used in art. dig into the cultural experience of eating and how it is performed, and perform it yourself! can you eat a meal without also watching a show? how much consumption is too much consumption? 

politics: feeding fascism: how does the alt-right use thinness to radicalize young women? what’s up with the protein-ification of everything (fitness culture to conservative pipeline)? what are examples of cultural and spiritual wisdom stored in dishes/cuisines/cooking methods? unpack the history of national food guides and nutrition programs. how do trendy cafes, bars, and restaurants crowd ethnic neighbourhoods? why do certain food items go from taboo to trendy to obsolete?

opinions: describe to us your relationship with food. what does “appetite” mean to you: hunger, desire, or something else? detail out an old family recipe. tell us what would be on your death row meal. what are you gluttonous for, food not necessarily included? what does “indulgence” mean for you? tell us about your intersection between culture and food. what effect has diet culture had on your life?

avant garg: are lust and gluttony the same sin? do they both just mean excess? let us taste your mother’s cooking. invent a new food. did you ever eat paper as a kid? i did. explore food as a vessel for community and congregation. write us a recipe (for disaster). give us your handwritten grocery lists. annotate a restaurant receipt with your ratings. eat your heart out!

comics: mm…food. what does your ideal meal look like? what forbidden objects look just soooooo tasty to you? draw us some of your favourite recipes, dishes, and ingredients. design some dishware that tickles your culinary fancy, or, dishware for one very specific purpose only.

see you soon,

amareena saleh, communications editor