Erica - QZAP - The Queer Zine Archive Project

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!

Pathologize This!

February 18, 2026February 18, 2026Erica

Mental health is a reoccurring topic in my life. At the age of eight I was diagnosed with ADHD and put on a prescription. I began to see therapists, psychiatrists, whatever they were called, they were all the same to me. In elementary school I was pulled aside from class for counseling. In middle and high school I was put in separate classes to better my focus on schoolwork. I had very few friends and felt distant from most of the student body. I was always told by my family to “fake it ‘til you make it” but that’s as much damage control as putting a rug over a hole. The problem’s still there, but by masking it you choose to ignore it until it becomes unavoidable.

For the myriads of mental health problems I’ve had growing up, it’s only been in the past few years where I’ve started to work on addressing my emotions on my own. Training myself to not run away from each problem is tough when it’s been baked into my brain by repetition, but slowly each day I feel like I’m making progress at addressing my mental health.

Pathologize This! #1 is an submission anthology zine created by Sarah Tea Rex. It consists stories and poems centered around mental health issues and topics. The stories presented address each author’s experience with their mental health and how they feel it is responded to by others.

One section that stood out to me was titled Not just and angry brown girl. It is about the author’s experience growing up in an immigrant family with a history of mental health issues, and how she fears being seen as s a burden to them. Her family immigrated for better opportunities, but she is afraid of being seen by them as “dumb” due to her mental health impacting her studies. This is compounded by her being a woman on color in a world held up by systemic racism, so the feeling of never fitting in was only worsened by her mental health. She would find solace in her college years, where she finds out about activism. Even then she still feels that she has no one to turn to for her OCD and anxiety. She says:

I am already an angry brown girl in a racist fucking world, how the fuck do I tell everyone that I’m crazy too?

She ends off with how she feels hurt by jokes that mock her for how crazy she is, because to her, it’s not a joke, it’s her life. The feeling of not ‘fitting in’ is something that has haunted me for a long time. I’ve been ostracized by others by not knowing how to navigate social situations, either by not responding or saying something at the wrong time. Sometimes my anxiety would get so bad I began to stay away from all social situations. In recent years, my socialization skills have improved, and while I still have a long ways to go, I’m quite proud of how far I’ve come.

Another section that stood out to me, an untitled one, is about the author’s experience in listening to music from the late musician Elliot Smith.

A quick summary for those who don’t know him: He was a musician who suffered from ADHD and depression. During his childhood he was routinely abused by his stepfather, and he would struggle with addiction in his adult years. Most of his music touches on his mental state through layered vocals and acoustics. He would sadly die in 2003 due to stab wounds. While the author refers to it as suicide, according to Wikipedia, the cause of his death is still undetermined.

The author writes that they, a mental health advocate, would often get questioned for listening to his music since he was someone who was thought to have killed himself over his mental health. While they say that the answer to those kinds of questions is complicated, they find that his music to speak to them on a level that touches them personally. They cite lyrics from one of his songs, No Name #1:

At the party he was waiting/Looking kind of spooky and withdrawn/Like he could be underwater/The mighty mother with her hundred arms

The lyrics aren’t the only aspect of his music that spoke to them. Smith’s use of layering tracks over one another to create a dissonant effect while listening. Towards the end they state:

To me, listening to Elliot Smith is like listening to someone who knows my brain very well

As I also use media as a coping mechanism, this section resonated with me heavily. Music, as with every creative medium, can be a powerful outlet for when spoken words aren’t enough, and a beacon to those who feel invisible.

One other section that caught my, simply titled Anxiety, details the author’s feelings towards anxiety in their life. They begin by comparing anxiety to a battle that must be fought. On some days they are victorious and are able to cull the feeling, but on most it takes a grip on their mind and dictates their actions. Entire days are lost to acting on autopilot as they grapple with the feeling behind the scenes. They fear that they’re being annoying for their constant need to be reassured by others.

They write about sitting in their dark room, overcome by paralyzing thoughts. During this, they recall when one of their therapists told them that they were ‘addicted to the romance of madness’. To that they say that she was crazy. It ends with them clinging to their childhood toy bear, affirming to themselves that things will get better.

Grappling with feelings of anxiety each day is an upwards battle for many, including me. It manages to find a way into every aspect of your life and control you from the inside. Unseen battled are fought each day. But still, I, and many others, persevere. We find sanctuary in friends, family and community.

Issues with mental health often feel like doom and gloom, and for the most part they are. But reaching out to someone you can trust when you need it most is how we win. Anxiety and other related mental health conditions thrive on loneliness, but they can be thwarted by care.

I Knew a Boy who Bled

January 30, 2026January 30, 2026Erica

Trigger Warning for mentions of suicide attempts

Some Boys Bleed is a zine written by Samb about his experience with dysphoria and how he eventually overcame it. The zine seeks to help other trans people who may be experiencing similar feelings of distress that he once did.

The first two pages of text give a striking description of the dysphoria that Samb had been feeling while performing for classical music, feeling that these performances were something that was inseparable from his identity. He described how his gender identity and singing countered each other, being forced to carry the burden of dysphoria while acting out gender roles that no longer fit him.

What was once something he felt he could walk away from was now rearing its ugly head towards him. Suddenly, he feels stiff and his voice falters as he walks into the studio. It gets to a point where he has to leave it because he was using his performance to hide from his problems. As he writes:

“I have used having a singing voice as an excuse to not explore what transitioning might look like for me”

Leaving with the full support of his teacher, he had time to reflect. Soon, he realized that the reason he’d been stricken with years of mental health issues and suicide attempts was because of his dysphoria. By going out and acting as someone he knew he never was had hurt him. He found immediate support from his mom, noting that sometimes it’s the people who know the least that offer the most comforting support. He finishes off by asserting that he will go through with his transition for himself. The silent recognition that comes with it is all he needs.

The zine included several block print illustrations, all drawn by Samb.

The first shows a trans man binding his chest, all in red and engulfed in scratch-like flames. The illustration feels like a visual representation of the physical pain that can come with binding one’s chest, and the mental anguish that comes with dysphoria.

The next features several pairs of underwear, likely a way for Samb to parse his identity. The one following features two trans people passionately making out, with not a care for anything else but each other. After that is a much simpler illustration featuring a person in front of a gender-neutral bathroom as onlookers appear to judge them for their decision.

The final illustration is the most striking one to me. It depicts a trans man, like the one form the first illustration. Here he is posing in underwear with top surgery scars on his chest. The illustration oozes with confidence, as if it’s screaming “This is me, and I love myself for that.”

The zine also includes a section titled Some Ways to be an Ally, a list of ways the reader can help their trans peers out. It includes topics such as practicing names and pronouns, not commenting on if someone passes or not, reading books or websites that focus on trans topics and talking about them with cis people, but one of them stood out to me in particular:

“Medical information is none of your business. Some trans folks take hormones, get surgery, (change names), some don’t – and it’s not a hierarchy of being “more trans”

To me, this may be the single most important part of the entire section, let alone the entire zine. If cis people get break conventional gender norms without being questioned, then trans people should also get this freedom. Hormone therapy and surgery is not the “goal” that trans people should be expected to reach, but rather an option for those who know it will help them feel fulfilled. No amount of ‘transness’ is owed to anyone at all.

I think back to my time in middle school. In the wake of gay marriage being legalized and queer topics being discussed on a wider scale, I felt like I was caught in the middle of crossfire. I’ve had thoughts like these pass through my mind before. Romance by logic shouldn’t always be between a man and woman, and things being tied to gender was weird. But for all the positive conversation that was going on around these things, there was also a load of negative content being shared online. Much of it was towards trans people, and I was being exposed to both at the same time. I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about it.

And then one day one, during a group counseling session, one of my friends would approach me, and come out as trans. In that moment I realized that trans people were real, and not just something that existed on my phone. Since he was too young at the time to get any form of hormone therapy, I naïvely told him that exercise could produce extra testosterone, (although true, it is not a replacement for HRT) as, in my mind, it would help him on his journey through transitioning. Even then, I never questioned his mannerisms or looks, since to me all I needed to know is that he was what he asserted himself to be – a trans guy.

He even supported me as much as I did to him when I came out as bisexual, supplementing the support I didn’t get from my mother at the time (though thankfully she would turn this around). He made me a lacquer-coated wooden charm with the colors of the pride flag. It has become one of my most cherished possessions.

Time passed, and eventually we saw each other less until he and his family moved down to Florida. Since then, I have learned more about myself, like how my gender and sexuality feel mold-able, like putty. I haven’t heard or seen him since, but I’ll always remember the mutual support we shared for each other.

Author: Erica

Coolest Cat on the Block – Hello Pussy! #1

Small But Mighty – The Eight Page Mini-Zine!

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

Pathologize This!

I Knew a Boy who Bled

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