PENS ACROSS CANADA

It won’t make people forget Hands Across America, but 30 Canadian comic artists and writers--led by a teen-ager--have joined to raise money for their country’s food banks.

Gideon Steinberg, 16, editor of Canadian Comics Cavalcade, hopes its book will raise about $3,000 (press run: only 6,025). He also admitted that he hopes the project will help launch his own comic-book career.

“My heart is with the food banks,” Steinberg said, “but my mind is on seeing what can be done for myself and other artists.”