World AIDS Day with PATS

Photo of a mural that says “ACT UP! Bi Queer!” over an anarchist circle-A with a pink triangle. Floating around the image are Keith Haring-esque characters and pink triangles with lightning bolts indicating that this probably came from a squatted space.

We’ve crossposted our annual World AIDS Day post to Instagram. This year is a look at some pages from the queer anarchist zine PATS. PATS ran for 28 issues from the summer of 1992 through December of 1999. Published by Frankie, Christine and Oscar in Utrecht, The Netherlands, the majority of the zine is in Dutch with some English and French smatterings.

ID1: From PATS No.3 (Summer 1993), an illustration of a priest nailing Christ to the cross, the word Queer over his head, and the text “AIDS, Unlike Homophobia, Cannot Be Spread Through Casual Contact”

ID2: From PATS No.7 (August 1994), a flyer from ACT UP New York in Spanish for a demonstration during the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Text in English reads “STONEWALL DESPERATE TIMES. DESPERATE ACTIONS. AIDS ON THE STREET! SUN JUNE 26 ’94 10AM: SHERIDAN SQ—>CENTRAL PK”

ID3: A review of Pansy Division’s album Deflowered and the printed lyrics to their song Denny, about a man who’s sick with opportunistic infections as a result of having AIDS.

ID4: From PATS No.9 (March 1995) – A fundraising appeal for ACT UP – Amsterdam – Image depicts a person screaming and the translated text reads “STILL AIDS! SEE, HEAR and SCREAM! ACT UP!”

ID5: From PATS No.12 (December 1995) – An blurb about ACT UP/SF storming the San Francisco offices of the Republican Party and burning Senator Jesse Helms in effigy next to a sticker that says The AIDS Crisis is Not Over. On the lower half is a piece about the 8th annual World AIDS day event happening in Utrecht.

ID6: A photo postcard of a colorful banner that says ACT UP – Utrecht

ID7: From PATS No.8 (December 1994) – An article about an action that ACT UP – Utrecht members participated in at the Forbidden Fruits of Civil Society Festival from Sept. 8-18, 1994 in Slovenia teaching safer sex practices.

ID8: From PATS No.8 (December 1994) – A continuation of the previous page and some graphic propaganda including images of unrolled condoms.

ID9: From PATS No.20 (December 1997) – Making Dams for Beavers – illustrated instructions on how to make barriers for performing safer oral sex on orifices using latex gloves.

ID10: Photo of a mural that says “ACT UP! Bi Queer!” over an anarchist circle-A with a pink triangle. Floating around the image are Keith Haring-esque characters and pink triangles with lightning bolts indicating that this probably came from a squatted space.

The Toni Compendium

Advertisement for The Toni Compendium. The cartoon adventures of a transgendered high school student, as originally presented in "Cross-Talk” from 1989 to 1991. Also includes four single-panel cartoons never published in "Cross-Talk and a self-portrait of the artist, Angel.This story is likely part one of what might be several posts, and it goes something like this:

Sometime in the autumn of 2018 during one of our evening work sessions we were making our way through a collection of materials that had been deassessioned from an academic library and came across a couple of copies of Cross-Talk Magazine, “The Gender Community’s News & Information Monthly.”

Amongst ads for other queer publications like Dragazine, Black Sheets, and a note that Cross-Talk can now be reached on FidoNet (started by Tom Jennings, one of folks who made Homocore zine) was an ad for The Toni Compendium. The Toni Compendium is an anthology of Toni comics, written and illustrated by Angel, that appeared in Cross-Talk in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Thus began our 5-year journey of trying to acquire a copy.

After tracking down a copy in a different library (and subsequently being turned down when we asked if they could digitize it so we could check it out) eventually we discovered that Kym, the original publisher, had an online presence. So we contacted her to see if there was any chance that she might possibly still have a copy. This was in April of 2020, just as we were mostly staying at home for the foreseeable future.The Toni Compendium cover

After sending the initial email, we waited a couple of days, and she got back to us to let us know that, in fact, she had had the foresight at some point to take the remaining issues of Cross-Talk and bundle up whole collections – not a complete run, but a lot – including The Toni Compendium, and pack them away. Unfortunately, the bundled collections were in their storage space, and it would be a little bit until she could get to them. So far, so awesome!

And then life happened, the pandemic shifted, time marched forward, etc. etc. We hadn’t forgotten about it, but as is always the case, we at QZAP are usually juggling several projects at once, and we figured we’d get back to this eventually. Also, with COVID being in play, we had no idea how it effected Kym or her folk.
Fast forward to February, 2023. Kym reached out to us to say that she had finally gotten access to where the Cross-Talk bundles were stored, and did we still want a set? We jumped on it, to say the least. After a couple more emails back-and-fort, the PayPaling of postage fees, and a few severe weather incidents, and they were as good as shipped.

Thus concludes the long and maybe-not-that-interesting story of how we came to finally possess a copy of this long-sought comic book about a teenage trans woman.

Cover for Khen-Draa, Transgender Warrior comicAs an added bonus, there also was a copy of Khen-Draa, Transgender Warrior, from 1995 by Kym and Beppi. But that’s another blog post.

As of this publishing, we haven’t had a chance to get to digitizing these comics, but we’ll update when we do.

Sometimes You Just Want to YELL!!!

YELL coverWhen things turn bad, when all your worst fears come true, when that thing you always said could never happen actually does, sometimes the only option left is to square your shoulders, takes a deep breath, and yell with all your might. Trust us- it can feel really, really good.

Once you’re all screamed out, take some of that excess energy and check out a YELL zine. YELL, or the Youth Education Life Line, is an affinity group within ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. YELL was founded in 1989 as the youth arm of ACT UP, to work on AIDS issues facing young people, especially AIDS education. Based out of NYC, YELL was born in response to the failings of the public education system to educate its students about HIV and AIDS, and the largely unaddressed issue of HIV transmission between young people.. At the time of publishing YELL #1, (1994) AIDS was the leading cause of death for NYC women 25-34, and “since the average incubation period for HIV to progress to AIDS is 10.5 years, most of these people were probably infected as teens.”

Despite (or perhaps because of) this grim reality, the pages of YELL #1 are full of humor and fun, as well as the spirit of punk rebelliousness and fierce strength. Its splashy pages feature pictures of Big Bird, Lucille Ball, Queen Latifah, Bart Simpson and Rupaul, all with mouths open wide and, clearly, voices up. The newsprint-style of this zine gives it the urgency it needs, along with a sense of pragmatism. Far from pandering or condescending, as so many youth-oriented publications do, YELL feels like it had actual teens on staff. Frank and effective guides on condom use and infection risk are mixed with articles about the triumphs and challenges facing youth AIDS activists in the 90s.

who YELLIt’s easy to get discouraged. Easy, and understandable. At times like these, it can be helpful to look back and see how others handled times of crisis. YELL is unfortunately, at the moment, defunct. However, its achievements (as listed near the beginning of YELL #1) are nothing short of inspiring. From handing out condoms and safer sex literature to over 45,000 NYC students, to enacting change in NYC public education policy, to representing youth interests at the international conference on AIDS, it’s clear the body of this organization was just as energetic as its publication.

And that’s the thing- when you raise your voice, the rest of you is sure to follow. The worst thing is to stay paralyzed. If you get active by volunteering time or money, that’s amazing. If you do it simply by existing in the world as a queer person or a POC, or a staunch and vocal ally, that’s amazing too. Maybe, right now, all we can do is yell- and maybe, for now, that’s enough.


Dac Cederberg is a former QZAP intern, now residing in Spain.  He will be periodically blogging about zines from our collection.
Dac recently graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. He’s a cisgender gay man, he/him pronouns, from Missoula Montana. His alter ego is drag-queen bombshell Lady Dee. He doesn’t quite know what he wants to do with his life yet, but he loves reading, writing, TV, pop culture, and all things queer. He’s a Gemini and his favorite color is purple. Feel free to contact Dac through QZAP with any questions or comments.

 

Pussy Grazer

We’re still well ensconsed in Larry-Bob’s collection and making out way through it.  We’ve recently added two issues of Pussy Grazer, both from the early 1990s.  As was popular at the time there are lots or scene reports, zine reviews, and tons of cut-and-paste delights.  Make sure to check out the critiques of Out Magazine, the gay and lesbian glossy made for straigh folks 😉

Going Homo

{queerzine n. a sexy, subversive and explicit publication devoted to enlarging and examining our culture assumptions}

There’s something about zines from the 1990s… they’ve often got common elements that make them instantly recognizeable as being from their time.  It’s an aesthetic, and a way of writing.  There’s a call to arms, a calling out of cops and governments and the military and anti-gay bigots.  There’s a calling in of other queers and zinesters. a “hey, find me, I’m stuck in this shite town and need to connect” vibe… (though this is not at all limited to time – it’s kind of part of zinester DNA.)  There are zine reviews, and lists without being listicles, bands listened to, and shows attended.  Pop culture drips from the pages, fuelled by cut-and-paste in a pre-WWW, pre-Photoshop world.
Lately we’ve been scanning a bunch of zines from the Emma Center collection which have this vibe.  They’re very much of their time, and also rediculously fun and important.  Going Homo #2 is a fine example.  It’s got all of the above and more.

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