QZAP - The Queer Zine Archive Project - Archiving Queer zines since 2003

Heed the call: Siren

October 15, 2026October 15, 2026Arabella

Siren is a fanzine by Kathie Bergquite about local and not local queer/fem music. Kathie encouraged fans to send in things to be added to the zine. The zine is an amalgamation of interviews, newspaper articles, reviews, and more.

Hello Dykes, Spikes, and everyone nice! Arabella here, and welcome back to Zine of The Gay! This week I chose a musiczine recommended to me by my Milo, one of QZAP’s Co-founders.

I am going to see Weird Al Yankovic on Saturday, so I thought focusing on a music zine would make for an interesting post. While Weird Al may not be exactly queer, he has shown major support for the community, so props to the freak himself.

Queer music is such a great outlet for not only getting words out to yourself but others as well. Think of yourself when you were a queer teen, or maybe you are a queer teen now; either way, what music represented you? Was it literal in its lyrics, or did you have to read between the lines? I probably listened to Scary Monsters and Supercreeps by David Bowie a thousand times from the age of 16-19. But I always yearned for something outright and raw.

Songs that read between the lines are important, but having more explicit songs to describe what you are feeling and how other queer people are feeling too is life-changing. It helps connect people with identities and phrases and even politics. I thought I was libertarian until I heard Baby, I’m an Anarchist! By Against Me for the first time. Music opens our worldview and fucks our ears. You can decide if it’s in a good way or a bad way.

The first band featured in the zine is an all-female punk group from the 1970s called the slits. Their song Typical Girls describes what society traditionally expects from a woman, with the song ending with “The typical girl gets the typical boy”. The lyrics are hard to ignore, which I love; reading between the lines can also mean ignoring. The typical girl persona keeps evolving to adapt to new versions of our society, but at its core it is all to control women. It is important for us to find new ways to keep talking about it and reference ways we have talked about it in the past.

The Slits – Typical Girls

Camille Rocha holding a saxaphone — Camille Rocha

The next section got me very excited personally; it was an interview with a lesbian saxophonist. I am also a lesbian saxophonist! I started in late high school, and I decided to become a high school band director, but the community was so swamped with misogyny that I passed on it to pursue Women and Gender Studies. It feels good to be reminded that queerness isn’t the only thing we have in common with each other; we have all kinds of hobbies and worlds that connect with our queerness in interesting ways. Camille talked about having to play classical saxophone, and as a female saxophone player, I can confirm that is how it feels. Jazz is labeled “for the men,” and women are pushed to the outskirts and expected to stay soft. To combat this, I played Baritone Saxophone. It is hard to force that instrument to be soft. Camille rebelled by playing pop in groups outside of a concert ensemble setting. It is a nice reminder to know you are not alone, and that there is always another lesbo somewhere in the crowd with you.

“Yeah, all the women were probably turned on by this mysterious leather-clad sax player.”

Girls in the Nose flyer — Girls in the Nose

Girls in the Nose were the next band talked about in the zine. They are a female punk band who have been active since 1985. In January, they did their 40th anniversary show, which I have inserted a clip of below! Their name came from men telling them they needed nose jobs, hence the name Girls in the Nose. Their song More Madonna, Less Jesus is about rejecting purist culture and embracing pleasure. In an article quoted from the zine, Tipper Gore’s wife had this to say about the band, “What this band, Girls in the Nose, are trying to do to our innocent young citizens is convert them to an anti-family lifestyle that is sure to lead them on a path straight to hell!”

This giant fear of conversion is always lurking; people think if you look at em too funny, it’ll “turn them queer”. Honey, if you’re queer from a queer person looking at you, I can guarantee it is not their fault. Girls in the Nose has a very fun energy to them, and I can’t wait to dig my teeth into more of their work. Viva La Vulva!!

“I prefer to think of these bands as girls who strap it on and rock it hard.”

So what’s on your turntable this week? If you need any ideas, I hope this zine gave you some. If it didn’t, here are some albums that have been on my turntable this week that might pique your interest

By The Time We Get to Colorado by Tribe 8

Tribe 8 is a lesbian punk band that was active in the San Francisco area from 1991-2005. Through writing this post, I found there is a documentary about Tribe 8, which I will be watching promptly after this post is finished. The song Lezbophobia is one of my favorite songs of all time. Growing up a lesbian teen in small-town Wisconsin, I felt like I was constantly being accused of flirting with girls or chased out of locker rooms when I was just trying to change for gym; keep in mind I didn’t even fucking like gym. Lezbophobia takes the words right from my mouth and puts them into context. Fist City is my favorite album of theirs, so I recommend checking that out too.

Bitch and Animal

Bitch and Animal met in Chicago theater school and started making music together around 1995. The duo lasted until about 2004 before going their separate ways to work on solo projects. My dog Magdalena is obsessed with this album. I played it a ton when she was a puppy, so I wonder if the influence rubbed off on her. Either way, her and my favorite song on the album is Drag King Bar. I’m into it for the drag kings and their allure, and I think Magdalena is just into it for the fiddle, but who knows her inner psyche? I let her choose her sexuality, and she chose butch radical feminist, so I suppose she could be like her mom.

“If you treat a woman like a dog, she will piss on you.”

Arabella (She/They) is interning at QZAP fall of 2026. She is an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee finishing her last year in Women’s and Gender studies. In her free time Arabella likes to spend time with her dog Magdalena and butchering the banjo.

Honey, I think I’m Going Homo!

September 30, 2026September 30, 2026Arabella

I don’t want to make queer history clean.

That was probably the biggest takeaway from reading Going Homo #2. I don’t want to turn this zine into a neat little artifact of queer progress, where everyone was brave and political and knew exactly what they were doing.

I was reading this zine with a close friend of mine when they mentioned how the zine was “A little misleading about how gay people held themselves.”, and of course that made my ears perk right up. I asked them to elaborate, and they said, “Well, being gay in the 90s was more about fighting for equality; we had to be respectful.” This coming from a person born in 2003 confused me.

Their version of gay 90s is Ellen and Will and Grace. This is exactly why I love queer zines; it allows us to be horny and remember the horny that came before us. I love that the zine is horny, angry, political, personal, and sometimes completely unhinged. I love that it feels like somebody made it because they had a lot to say and nowhere else to put it. Thank god for zines

“{Queer zine N. A sexy, subversive and explicit publication devoted to enlarging and examining our cultural assumptions.”

I tend to lean into lesbian works, but I am trying to push myself to discover more; that is what pulled me into Going Homo #2. It is so important to engage with other queer people and their sexuality and/or gender, especially right now. We need to be able to understand each other and where we are all coming from.

Stephen Dedalus wanted submissions that are “outrageous, thoughtful, provocative, enraged or excited.” That list feels like the entire personality of the zine. Personally, I clung to the outrageous, and the “A dirty story” segment on page 9 absolutely floored me.

I am sure we all remember the first time we became aware of our own bodies’ gross puberty stuff, yeah, yeah. Who hasn’t had at least one terribly embarrassing masturbation story? Well, the writer describes his first time trying to masturbate, and he ended up pissing on himself. I feel like that perfectly describes being a queer teen and growing up different without knowing why. Everyone else is always cumming, but here you are pissing on yourself.

In the zine, there are letters from readers, reviews of other zines, music recommendations, personal stories, political arguments, artwork, sex writing, and long angry rants. Some of it is genuinely funny. Some of it is uncomfortable. Some of it is really dated. I appreciated Going homo #2’s attitude toward language (for the most part). One of the writers says, “Words are powerful tools for both liberation and oppression.” The discussion isn’t presented as some settled conclusion. I use the term queer and alot and I most often identify myself as a dyke. I have noticed from talking to older gay people it is about 50/50 whether they use the same terms or it makes their skin absolutely crawl.

As a queer person, I often find myself in a world that can turn hostile quickly, especially at night. In another section, a writer talks about types of boots you can wear to protect yourself. They are something you can wear because you are afraid of what might happen, but they can also become part of how you present yourself. I wear my brown leather Doc Martens everywhere, not only for looks, but for practicality too.

There can be an appeal to the heavy boots. I love leather *wink wink*, so big, heavy boots are already part of the day-to-day me. I like the feeling of putting them on and suddenly feeling a little more grounded. There is something satisfying about a shoe that feels substantial. Queer clothing can carry multiple meanings at once. A pair of heavy boots can be fashion but also a reminder that you are moving through a world where you sometimes have to be more aware.

There is also something kind of melancholy about how familiar that feeling still is. I was excited to be able to relate to it. Then I very quickly was upset that I was able to relate to it so well.

When it came to the bands mentioned in the music section, I felt lost as hell. The only familiar band I saw was Bikini Kill, whom my partner and I actually saw earlier this month. There is something strange and wonderful about reading this old queer zine and seeing a band that exists in my own life now.

Sidebar: I think punk shows are great for relationships; there’s nothing sexier than throwing yourself at your partner head to head, sweating, touching, and getting bruised to hell and back. If you need something to do on Saturday night, go find a fucking show. If you play your cards right, maybe you can bring home your own sexy queer 😉

The last couple of pages are a rant about the relationship between white Christian heterosexual power and the oppression of queer people, but Jazmyn does not stop there. They connect homophobia to racism, sexism, and the political power of religious and social institutions. The argument keeps expanding because these systems of oppression all rely on each other to keep perpetuating them. It is so important to talk about how these systems of oppression coexist and collide to understand harmful rhetoric.

Jazmyn refuses to separate queer issues from everything else happening around them. The KKK, Christianity, racism, sexism, heterosexuality, and mainstream political power all become part of the same conversation. All of these things affect us, and all of them intersect in some form or another. We cannot divide queer issues into their own category separated from race, gender, and religion.

Bitchin about systems designed to keep us in a perpetual loop of shit is my favorite thing. The more we bitch, the more will change. Rant up a fucking storm and stay classy, queers.

Buzzed and Broken Hearted – Dykes and Their Hair

September 16, 2026September 16, 2026Arabella

This is one of the first zines I ever read in the archive. Chris, QZAP’s co-founder, recommended it and pulled it out for me to read. Up until then, I had been a very academic reader, and my whole zine collection was academic zines. This zine opened up my world to a whole new queer world.

illustration of a haircut. fig 10. — figure 10

At age 14, I was a baby dyke with nothing but scissors and a dream. Naturally, I chopped all my hair off and gave myself what I like to call to this day the shark cut. In the zine I am about to discuss, it is figure number 10. Since then I have probably given myself and other dykes dozens of haircuts over the last eight years. Like many lesbians, hair is so important to how I express my queerness.

DYKES and THEIR HAIR by Teresa Chun-Wen Cheng was published in April of 2008. The zine is both a satirical take on dykes and their particular trim choices and a commentary on what has commonly been accepted as dyke culture. It is another situation of who gets remembered in the collective, and who gets left out. Cheng comments, “So this is simply laughing at ourselves, or being pissed off that oftentimes “dyke” is a reserved term for non-heterosexual white women.”

The art is very simple, showing no faces and only hair. Yet with its simplicity, it tells a million stories. I myself have had four of the haircuts shown. As I am sure others can also say, they have had multiple of the haircuts shown as well. This zine is tied to a very particular era of hair. At (almost) 22 years old, these are the lesbians I grew up admiring from afar. These were my teenage sister’s friends who I would feel connected with and not know why. The age range displayed in the zine, to my best guess, would be eighteen to fifty-four.

illustration of a haircut. fig 12. — figure 12

Figure 12 in particular reminds me of the scene subculture that emerged in the early 2000’s. This would have been a popular style during the time that Dykes and Their Hair was written. There are a lot of hairstyles in the zine that I have not seen since I was a kid. There is a large chance I have just not been looking that closely at other people’s haircuts. Or a lot of these hairstyles have died out in popularity. That being said, I constantly see the comb-overs and mullet hairstyles. The most popular haircut I see with queer women my age is some form of a shaggy mullet. They are also the most requested haircut I get when people sit down in my chair.

While I was pursuing this zine, the way Cheng uses scraggly lines in the hair reminded me of my favorite comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. While I was searching for a snippet to include in my blog post, I came across this snippet of characters: Mo, Jezanna, and Lois. I was struck immediately by the realization that Jezanna’s hairstyle could not be found. Lois and Mo’s hairstyles can be found within the first eight pages of the twenty-page zine.

“It must be noted that the most recognizable dyke hairstyles only cater to those with hair that is straight, straight–ish, able to be straightened, or wavy.”

Dyke styles often cater to a particular style of white, masculine-presenting lesbians. There is a pressure that comes along with the first queer haircut, because you want it to be queer, but what is collectivized as queer isn’t always what might be right for you. Especially because, as Cheng talks about, these hairstyles are catered to a demographic with no textured hair patterns, leaving out a large chunk of queer women of color.

illustration of a haircut. fig 2. — figure 2

There is a very baseline level of “greaser” that comes with a lot of these haircuts. They draw on classic working-class masculinity and rebellious fashion. Short haircuts also provide a relief from male-approved hairstyles for women. Allowing them to put space between themselves and the crushing weight of patriarchal expectations. This can be seen in figure 2 with a shaved side comb-over.

Another interesting thing about this zine is that it is a pre-2010s lesbian, not dyke, hairstyle takeover. Think Kristin Stewart and Ruby Rose circa 2015. That style of cut, I feel like, is inescapable when talking about lesbian haircuts. If you google lesbian haircut, the second picture is the style I am referring to. If you Google “dyke haircut,” it is the FIRST image I am referring to. I would describe this haircut as a volumized comb-over with a fade. There is probably an actual name for it, but my searches all led back to pixie cut. Maybe it is a form of a pixie cut.

From my experience, there are a lot of lesbians who do not play around with their haircut. Even if it is a choppy mullet cut with a two-blade razor in the bathroom. Once you gain some level of autonomy, whether that be at the beginning of adulthood or not, hair is a popular first choice for how you want to represent yourself. A good haircut can make or break the next couple of months afterwards. It can transcend your sense of self and belonging, not just with a group, but with yourself.

I would love to see an updated version of this zine. After all, it is almost twenty years old. There are so many hairstyles that I consider core dyke hairstyles that are really popular with other dykes my age that you NEED curly hair for. Everything can change, and everything can evolve. Even dykes and their precious hair.

So what is your next haircut going to be? Haven’t decided yet? Well, maybe Dykes and their hair is just the zine you are looking for! Or maybe it is the exact opposite. Either way, I hope you are left with the same joy and frustration I was after reading it.

Digging Through the Malebag with Oi Boy!

July 2, 2026July 2, 2026Milo

I made it to Milwaukee! I’ve been here for a month now which is crazy to think about. In such a short amount of time I have situated myself quite well here. I have a job, I’ve made friends, and I’m slowly learning about the hardcore scene. I feel a sense of urgency having dropped myself into a completely unfamiliar place. I need to experience life in the city because there’s opportunities for connections I didn’t have before. Growing up on Long Island, there aren’t many places to meet people. There’s school, work, and that’s about it. You take the friends you can get.

When I meet someone in Milwaukee, and I think they’d be interested, I hand them my zine. It’s an object that exemplifies my work as an art curator, but also a sense for the kind of person I am through the things I make. My zine’s called GenderFuck, a submission-based anthology of trans art and writing. The idea my co-editor and I always had was to find and communicate with other trans people, and we have achieved that, but the audience we’ve accumulated is at a distance from us. Most people know of us through the internet, or from going to school with us. I’ve met people through the zine, but being in Milwaukee has challenged the way I think of zines to introduce yourself to people. The question now is how do we communicate with our audience through the zine itself?

In the 90’s this guy named Judge started a zine called Oi Boy. It’s quite similar in style to GenderFuck: an anthology of art and writing with a central topic. Oi Boy is about removing masculinity from its societal pedestal by critiquing toxic men and telling stories where men aren’t sex-crazed misogynists, but loving friends, caring boyfriends, and disgruntled townies who hate jocks. But there’s a central difference to Oi Boy; they have a letter-to-the-editors section.

The Oi Boy “Male Box” features letters from readers requesting copies of the zine or responding to stories from previous issues. What stuck out to me was how casual and conversational some of these letters were. The first one opens, “RE: that particular article you caught me reading earlier today…” I was kind of shocked to see that the people writing letters to them were not a faceless readership, but people the editors know/have met before or interacted with. I remember when I was a kid listening to the Delila radio show: a call-in romance advice segment. You’d get a sense for the callers from the story they told, but you knew this was the first and last time Delila would talk to these people. Delila is the voice, the personality, whereas the callers are faceless contributors. Oi Boy, on the other hand, feels like a community.

One of the stories is called “Excerpts from Acid,” by Phobrek Hei (not sure if there is a longer piece called “Acid,” I’ll have to look into that). It follows three friends, Raphi, Sasha, and the narrator, dropping acid then going to a corporate park to look at a sculpture Sasha’s brothers friend made. The sculpture is a penis. It’s got some scratches on the metal, and the base is meant to be shower tiles, but other than that, it’s just a penis. Raphi is whatever about the sculpture, and Sasha rambles on about art history shit, but the narrator has a bit of a crisis from it. He rejects the sculptures’ projection of masculinity. Not in the, “this is art sucks” way, but more in the, “this makes me question if I even like being a man,” kind of way.

The narrator remembers this party he went to. “My body from the neck down had been so classically feminine that night, yet it seemed somewhat cheap, unreal: sadly imitative. At that point, I was startled to find Sasha telling me the exact same thing I thought without the judgment: that I had been a woman from the neck down all night.” Sasha is the kind of straight friend you wish to have when coming out as trans; the kind of guy who may not fully understand what you’re doing, but who loves and cares about you, nonetheless.

I’ve co-edited my zine, GenderFuck, for over a year, but we’ve been operating almost in isolation from other zinsters. I’ve worked with people who made or would go on to make zines, but zinemaking as a community is still very new to me. GenderFuck is first and foremost about distributing other queer people’s art, but the community building has happened largely outside the zine, through punk shows we’d put on in support of each new issue (mind you these shows were at my college so the audience was limited to students). Oi Boy is also a zine collecting peoples art, but they interact with their community directly through the zine, and the community contributes to it, through the “male box.”

Oi Boy has inspired me to put in a call for letters in the fourth issue of GenderFuck. We know that we have an audience through our Instagram and the little comments people write when they submit to us, but I want to interact with them more. I want what Oi Boy has, a web of people talking to each other through the zine. That’s what we started GenderFuck to do but I’m not sure we’ve achieved that yet. The shows have been fulfilling that desire, in how we’ve facilitated an event for people to hang out and talk to each other. Now we just need to integrate that into the zine itself.

June Horbach is the co-editor of the zine GenderFuck. She is interning at QZAP before her last year of undergrad. She hails from Long Island, hates malls, but loves the Southern State Parkway.

Image is a black box with a white skull and crossbones. The skull has pigtails, and the crossbones are lollipops. Queer Spotlight presents: The Lollipop Generation - A film by G.B. Jones. With opening shorts curated by SEEN. Sunday, June 7th, 2026 at 6:00pm. Cactus Club. 2496 S. Wentworth. First Milwaukee Screening in 18 Years!

Return of the Lollipop Generation

May 15, 2026May 15, 2026Milo

We are super excited to announce that we’re collaborating with our friends at SEEN and Cactus+ to bring The Lollipop Generation back to Milwaukee. This is the 2nd time we’ve been able to screen this raucous and radical movie by one of the pioneers of the queercore movement, filmmaker, artist and zinester G.B. Jones, and we’re beyond thrilled to share it again.

Sunday, June 7th, 2026 at 6:00pm.
Cactus Club
2496 S. Wentworth Ave.
Sliding Scale $10-15
GET TICKETS HERE

ALL HAIL RAPTOR JESUS

April 28, 2026May 7, 2026Rowan

Hello, queer zine lovers!

I must admit, I’ve been having a hard time with creative output lately. As the last semester of my senior year of undergrad comes to a close, I’m under a lot of pressure – I’ve been having trouble writing anything that makes much sense, I’m worried about my last ever undergrad finals (yikes!), and everyone keeps asking what I’m up to post grad (double yikes!)

And, of course, all of these things are on my plate at a time when I’m less motivated than ever. Well, I have a zillion things sure I would like to do, but oh my god, I’m exhausted from making senior thesis, and I’m also exhausted from the 4 years of nonstop 2 – to – 4 – week art project turnarounds! (…which can’t get me anymore! Hooray, graduation!)

This perfect storm has been a) leaving me unsure what to write about for Zine of the Gay, and b) walking into the archive every other Thursday afternoon looking like roadkill. Upon hearing all of this from me (and seeing me in roadkill-mode,) Milo asked if I could use some guidance on what to write about, and I was more than happy to hear what suggestions they might have.

Milo told me to check out today’s zine: Raptor Fancy. They mentioned to me that they thought it might be the perfect thing for me to read right now, so I pulled it out and gave it a read.

Raptor Fancy is one of the silliest things I think I’ve stumbled upon in the archive. For those who may be unfamiliar, as I was until Chris mentioned it to me, the title is a play off of Cat Fancy, a magazine catered towards cat lovers (one of many animal lover magazines no longer in print). Issue one of Raptor Fancy is a collection of many, many, many 2000’s-style Raptor Jesus memes (images in which the head of Jesus Christ has been replaced with that of a velociraptor, often accompanied by snarky or downright silly captions). Along with Even More Raptor Jesus Memes, volume two of Raptor Fancy includes several text excerpts detailing Raptor Jesus’s extended lore, including information about his licensure to perform miracles, his ability to turn water into diet Fresca®, his position within the traditional biblical canon, and several other prayers, chants, and religious texts (several of which I have also found on online meme wikis such as Encyclopedia Dramatica.) Many of these are parodies of common religious songs or chants, such as:

Our God’s a Jurassic God

He reigns from 4chan above

With wisdom, power and lulz

Our God’s a Jurassic God

(I’m so sorry to be that guy, but I must note that, while they do star in the film Jurassic Park, the velociraptor was, in fact, alive during the Cretaceous period, which came after the Jurassic.)

This about sums up the contents of Raptor Fancy — Pages and pages of memes, spoofing paintings of and quotes/teachings from the Christian biblical canon.

This zine was a really good comedic break from the world for me – each page had me giggling. It’s all just so weird! And, while reading Raptor Fancy, for just enough time, I forgot all about what has been stressing me out, everything weighing down on me. How can you be upset when looking at pictures of a velociraptor giving a sermon?

One other thing I want to touch on are the origins of Raptor Jesus. The phenomenon of Raptor Jesus memes began circa 2005, when the first Raptor Jesus edit was posted to the /b/ 4chan page, where it took off both on the basis of being a ha ha funny random picture, and as a criticism of Catholicism and Catholics. Although I have a lot of complex (and often negative) feelings about 4-chan, the people who frequent it, and the way in which 4-chan users tend to go about critiquing religion, I think it’s definitely interesting to think about freedom of expression and the freedom to create and enjoy “shocking imagery” (stay with me).

To many, seeing the head of a Velociraptor on the head of Jesus Christ was offensive and shocking. However, when the separation of church and state functions properly, there’s (thankfully) no way to ban anyone from making any silly images they please, and harmless images of Jesus with the head of a velociraptor, amongst many other things, can be born.

I think humor can be a really important tool for criticism, and it’s important that we retain our rights to do whatever we want to pictures of Jesus (and more broadly, to say and do as we please as we move through the world.) In volume 2, several memes deviate from the traditional religious Raptor Jesus format, instead utilizing the iconic uncle sam posters, alongside other traditional stars-n-stripes imagery with captions such as “Raptor Jesus for President” and “I want you to worship Raptor Jesus! Lol.” I’m thinking about the world right now, and looking back at Raptor Jesus makes me think about what I can do to images of people or icons I find distasteful, and poke fun publicly while being able to hind behind the “I’m kidding! What’s so wrong with Velociraptors, anyway? It’s just a picture!” shield.

Here is my own rendition of Raptor Jesus, spreading the good word and combining church and state.

Bam! Look ma, I just made queer art!

I think humor and low stakes creativity is something I need/want to focus more on right now, and I think that as we all move through the world, we should all strive to make whatever we can. Sometimes, you take on the biggest project yet of your entire career, and sometimes, you collect all of your favorite Velociraptor Jesus memes into a zine, and make yourself and those you love laugh. Both are vital! And a great thanks to @raptor_fancy, for curating a beautiful, hilarious, and thought provoking collection of sacred depictions of our lord and savior, Raptor Jesus!

Rowan (He/it/they) is an intern at QZAP in spring of 2026, focusing on Zine of the Gay posts specifically. He ~~is completing~~ just completed his final semester at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and is a sculptor, zinester, and library lover. In their free time, Rowan likes to read, play puzzles and word games, and care for his concerning number of houseplants.

Coolest Cat on the Block – Hello Pussy! #1

April 23, 2026April 23, 2026Erica

With a cover so striking and in-your-face, Hello Pussy! #1 hides nothing from the reader. It is a compilation art zine written by drag artist Mimi, which they created while studying abroad in Amsterdam. The zine is an exploration of themes regarding gender, sex, sexuality, and activism with influences from the riot grrl movement. The text in the book is both a combination of Mimi’s own writing and from excerpts that they found from other sources. Nearly all pages of the zine are artistic collages of text and images, and despite having been made over twenty years ago, it is by far one of the most topical zines I have read from the archives. It feels as if every corner of the globe has been going backwards on ‘progressive’ ideas and policies, plunging us back into the dark. In times like this it is more important than ever to form an environment that you can feel safe in, even if it starts with a couple of your friends in a messaging group. It’s also just as important to use your voice when you can to stand up yourself and others while giving a nice ‘up-yours’ to those who look down on you.

After the introductory page is a collage about the art of drag, featuring an image macro of “Transgender Barbie” and a person in a princess dress. The images are overlaid with a poem about the art of drag, which opens with the line,

“There is nothing in the concept of drag-queen that requires a penis”

The poem goes into how drag is about performance of exaggerated gender roles and it’s over-exaggerated portrayals of stereotypical depictions of femininity and masculinity. The poem also mentions several absurd methods of self-defense as an allusion to how drag performers are often considered to be some of the strongest members of the wider queer community, since they are so overt about their presentation. Drag has always been so alluring to me, and now more than ever each performance feels like an act of resistance. The thought of doing drag has crossed my mind for a while, and I how I’d look as a frat boy or dressing myself up in an elaborate ball gown for the fun of it.

Another page features an image of two walruses resting next to each other above an excerpt of Dutch text, with an English translation below it. The passage in question admonishes laziness, specifically lazy women, as it open with:

“Even worse is the lazy woman who does not care about anything.”

It goes on to talk about how laziness is an evil vice that should be gotten rid of as soon as possible, and that it can only be cured through hard work. It then goes back to targeting these ‘lazy’ women who supposedly choose to be this way and take advantage of their husband’s hard work. Although the page itself does not add anything else to the passage, within the context of the rest of the zine, it is clearly critical of the passage and forces the reader to challenge it.

The zine also makes several references to Hello Kitty, the namesake of its title. One page features an illustration of the titular cat with a myriad of text overlaid on top of it, regarding her lack of a mouth. Such statements written include:

“Hello Kitty has no mouth, but she must scream. That is why her head is so big.

Hello Kitty has no mouth, yet she speaks the truth.

Hello Kitty has no mouth, so where has all the porridge gone?”

The way the collage is arranged to avoid going over her eyes, giving them the impression of looking directly at the reader, possibly as a cry for help. While the page is fairly humorous, this little detail is, in an odd way, relatable to me. I sometimes find myself unable to fully describe how I feel to others, especially when I’m highly distressed. Those small, beady eyes are the same as in every other drawing of Hello Kitty, but here, they feel more desperate. I feel your existentialism, Kitty!

The following page features several illustrations of Hello Kitty doing things that she would not often be associated with, such as smoking weed, wearing “alt” clothing and being a dominatrix, all surrounding an expert of text. The section, titled “Femininity”, is about Mimi recalling an experience with an online quiz on a Hello Kitty website. The quiz was about how passionate the user is, and the result that they got said that they are not ‘feminine’ and are always hanging out with men. The website attempts to reaffirm them by saying that, at the very least, some men would find them attractive. While the result only frustrated them for a day, they said:

If I would have gotten his answer when I was in puberty, I would have killed myself.

Having expectations like these hang around my head while growing up, I relate heavily to Mimi’s comment. Right now, I only feel somewhat frustrated reading that, but if twelve year old me took that quiz? It would’ve ruined my day.

Several of the pages are written in German, written in the Fraktur typeface. Fraktur has become synonymous with Germany, having been developed there. It is now mostly used as a decorative font due to it becoming harder for most people to read the script. Two of these pages feature back-to-back descriptions on fetishism, intersexuality and homosexuality. The excerpts are accompanied with various illustrations, such as a dominatrix near ‘fetishism’ and two naked Barbie dolls on top of one another near ‘homosexuality’.

Based on the terms used and ways they are worded, these excerpts appear to be from older written sources, likely from Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (The Institute for Sexual Science), a sexology research institution that had its archive destroyed by the Nazi government. This is likely the reason why the Fraktur typeface was chosen, as aside from it’s association with Germany, it was banned by the Nazi government.

By far one of the most intriguing sections of the zine is that of a questionnaire regarding the reader’s genitals. Lined with a border of flowers, the page is filled with questions, asking how the reader’s genitals look, if they’ve changed appearance, how they relate to their gender, and how they effect masturbation/sex. On the side is a small textbox with German text, which when translated reads:

“Fantasy: Explain to the group the advantages of being a woman versus being a man”

At the bottom of the page is a link that leads to the website the text was sources from. The page is titled The GenderQueer Monologues, and was created by a person named Toby Davis. Clicking on the (now broken) image leads to an about page for the project, revealing that it was written in response to Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, a play that intended to remove the stigma from the word ‘vagina’. Davis felt it correlated having a vagina being the sole thing that made someone a woman and made the page to challenge that view.

This zine encompasses nearly everything this archive is about: Being queer, sex-positive, radical while challenging conformity along the way. All it’s missing is a soup recipe! It’s also quickly become one of my favorite zines I’ve ever read anywhere. On one of the last pages of the zine is an introduction to Radical Cheerleading, an act of performance and resistance in the style of typical cheers. As a sendoff, I present a cheer from the zine:

“1-2-3-4 We want freedom! Stop the war!
5-6-7-8 Fuck the state! Masturbate!”

Erica (she/they) is a QZAP intern working virtually for the blog. She is in her fourth year of school and second year at SUNY Purchase, studying New Media. They are queer in gender and sexuality. She enjoys photography, playing video games and working on her website.

Small But Mighty – The Eight Page Mini-Zine!

March 25, 2026March 25, 2026Erica

What do Emily Dickinson, anthropomorphic shapes, a questionnaire, and Barbie dolls have in common? Well, it sure sounds like one hell of a party, but they’re the topic of eight-paged zines available to read right here in the archive!

The eight-page booklet is a flexible and accessible format for zines that only need a single sheet of paper to create. It is easy to make and quick to distribute around. Like any other zine, it can cover a wide range of topics and is a great format to follow if it’s someone’s first time making a zine.

Emily Dickinson Was A Fucking Ninja, by Mara Williams, is an adaptation of Dickinson poem Wild Nights – Wild Nights! Here, however, instead of it being about emotional desire and yearning, it is instead adapted into an action sequence featuring Dickinson in ninja garb and a hooded figure breaking into a heavily guarded room, fighting them together, and looting it. The duo leaps out of a window and escape on a boat.

I’m Queer. You’re Straight, by Vaz, is a manifesto for the future of queer liberation. The zine looks for a world that is free from the pressure of having to conform, free from labels and full of respect for everyone’s sexuality. It portrays queer people as free and communal and straight people as stuck within a system. They also advocate for sexual empowerment. It also features a ‘pig page’ a page that criticizes police and their frequent targeting of queer people. The back page features a message from a person named Alice, which reads:

Jesus died for somebodies’ sins but not mine, fuck you! Go to hell & burn away!

Which is one tough quote to end on!

A Trans Questionnaire , by Monet, is an artistic zine that takes on the experiences of trans people while in the process of self-discovery. The zine itself is mostly comprised of illustrations followed by several questions. The questions themselves all range in form, from invasive and nosy to self-loathing and critiquing. The last page features a barrage of questions from the perspective of an outsider questioning a trans person. This is starkly contrasted by the back cover, which features a robotic heart with the caption “Still human…”, as the author proclaims that no matter how much they’re probed at by others, they are still human at heart.

Finally, 575, by Gillian Beck, is a compilation of haiku. Each haiku is prefaced as a ‘report’ of some kind. Notably, there are three ‘Barbie’ reports, each with a different view on the mass-produced plastic dolls. The first one equates her to a sex symbol, as those she was molded directly by the hands of higher beings to be placed on a pedestal and worshiped for her perfect, PCP form. The next appears to be a decry for the nigh-impossible standards that Barbie dolls emulate in their form, and that they like their body. The last report implies that Barbie is looking to find more relevance in her fading audience, falling being times…

…or at least, that’s my interpretation of the poems. The great thing about art is how one can string together their own interpretation of one’s words!

The eight-page zine is a great format to get ideas across in a timely manner. With a little bit of time, one idea could be quickly spread and distributed across dozens of small little booklets. And you, too can make one for yourself by following these instructions below!

To start, grab a piece of paper and divide it into eight rectangles as so.

Each section will become the following page in the zine:

Add anything you want to these eight pages. It could be a story, a guide, a how-to, a collection of drawings, or even some crumpled up trash glued to the page. Get creative! If you prefer, you can even do this step digitally in a drawing or Photoshop-like program, but make sure the dimensions are set to the size of the paper.

Once the pages are done, fold the paper again and cut a slit in the middle as so:

Finally, fold into a booklet shape. If done correctly, you should now have a little booklet with all eight pages visible. Now that you have the master copy, take it over to a photocopier and start making copies!

Eruption Imminent! – The Volcano (Issue #3)

March 8, 2026March 8, 2026Rowan

They say “never judge a book by its cover”, but with a zine like The Volcano #3 (a subversive dyke reader), how could I not? Someone with a contagious grin covered in nothing but plentiful fruits and vegetables captured my attention, calling me in like a siren to read more!

The five different fonts used on the cover of this zine are a good indicator of what lies within. The Volcano is an eclectic selection of written and visual works addressing a wide variety of topics. From the editor’s updates on adjusting to the San Francisco dyke scene, to tantalizing, gender-fuckery erotica, to a yeast infection treatment guide, The Volcano has it all. Poetry? The Volcano has it. A book review? The Volcano has it. A reflection on working with queer homeless youth? The Volcano has it – a true one-stop-shop for anything you could ever need! This is what makes The Volcano so wonderful, in my opinion. Like its namesake might suggest, this zine explodes in your face! Reading it, I found my full spectrum of emotions erupting forth.

Boys Will Be Boys by Jocelyn Johnson is unlike anything I’ve read before. The story begins at a drag party, and the main character, a drag king by the name of jack, takes us with them as they explore. After taking in the crowd and having a drink, they step out into the backyard, where they encounter an intense, mysterious stranger in the shadows. The spontaneity, the tension, the gender! And oh, when – well… I don’t want to spoil it for you, now, do I? Give it a read for yourself, and I promise it’ll leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more!

Riding hot off the tails of Boys will be Boys is The Volcano Manifesto. The editors at The Volcano boldly declare their values and political stances, and as a reader, it’s comforting to see. There’s something refreshing about it – while reading the zine, I have the comfort of knowing what the editors believe in, and knowing that the people who put the thing together are on my side. The manifesto is perfect – loud, to-the-point, and unapologetic.

On the informative side, we have Girl, Ya Got the Yeasties! by Kristin Redmon. If you’ve ever had a yeast infection, you’ll know exactly the kind of hell that is to deal with. As someone who just happens to get frequent UTIs and has had the occasional yeast infection, it’s easy to feel gross or unhygienic for something I can’t control. Reading someone else’s experience with the very same thing feels really good; it helps me to feel normal, to feel seen. In addition to feeling seen about having infections in general, it’s cathartic to hear someone else criticize the same old shit I’ve had to put up with. Buying “feminine” care products while being visibly queer, trying to find the stuff you need in the pharmacy to begin with, the cost (and theft prevention measures) keeping treatments out of peoples hands, and the lack of helpful information out there – it’s all incredibly real, and incredibly frustrating!

Redmon shares what foods to avoid if you feel a yeast infection coming on, things that tend to trigger infections, at-home remedies, and prevention methods. Everything is written super accessibly, and reads like advice from one friend to another. And it’s funny, too, which definitely lightens the mood!

I also found myself enjoying the selection of poems included in this issue. Since reading it, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Be The Bomb You Throw by Irene Snyder of the Lesbian Avengers.

I work at a music venue, and my most recent shift was a Country show. I don’t want to generalize – There’s some Country I enjoy, and I have a huge appreciation for American folk, and Country’s roots in Gospel and European Folk music is incredibly interesting, but there is no denying the nationalist propaganda tool that Country music has become, and there’s no denying the crowd that it pulls in. Standing there, in a sea of people, I felt something strange and heavy inside of me when the singer praised the United States, and the crowd chanted “U! S! A!” along with him. I felt that discomfort grow as the singer proclaimed that we live in the greatest country that has ever been. I felt my stomach sink as the singer thanked all of the police officers in the country, and the crowd cheered louder than I had heard all night.

Worse than the singer’s words was the cheering crowd. The knowledge of what the people around me might feel about me, and those I love, was upsetting. In that moment, this poem came to mind. Similarly to Girl, Ya Got the Yeasties!, feeling like your experience is seen and felt by others is empowering. Standing in a room full of people whose world does not include me, whose visions for the country necessitate my conversion, I hold dear to me the experiences of others.

Right now, it’s important to remember that we have each other, and that there are so many people with similar thoughts, feelings, and ways of life to us. In the face of a world against us, we can take a page out of The Volcano’s book, and boldly be ourselves, and speak our minds, uncensored and unrestrained!

Rowan (He/it/they) is an intern at QZAP in spring of 2026, focusing on Zine of the Gay posts specifically. He is completing his final semester at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and is a sculptor, zinester, and library lover. In their free time, Rowan likes to read, play puzzles and word games, and care for its concerning number of houseplants.

DevOps Volunteer Wanted!

March 7, 2026March 7, 2026Milo

We’re looking for a volunteer Linux system admin/web developer to join our collective. If this is you or someone you know, please check out the details here.

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