Boy Crazy Boy

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve been able to catch our breath and post a Queer Zine of The Day.  Lots has been going on with us. Chris went to the Lexington Zine Fest in September to do a presentation.  Milo is getting geared up for the Olympia Zine Fest next week where ze is participating on a panel.  We’ve also been busy with the planning of the Milwaukee Zine Fest, of which we’re part of the organizng committee.  That weekend, November 14, we’ll also be hosting our last zinester-in-residence for the season.  Last year’s Z-i-R program created the awesome “From the Punked Out Files of the Queer Zine Archive Project,” and we’re super excited to publish the work from this year’s residents.  Expect that to come out sometime at the beginning of 2016.

Moving on to the QZOTD, we are happy to present Sina Sparrow’s Boy Crazy Boy #1.  Sina has been a long-time QZAP pal and is an amazing and active comic artist.  In BCB #1 we can see the beginnings of his sweet style, and are treated to some delicious early 1990s pop humor.

Up The Gay Punks

It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve posted a QZOTD.  We’ve been quite busy with our QZAP summer residency, reading queer fanzines, and getting ready for the autumn zine fest season.  On that note, Chris, one of QZAP’s co-founders, will be in Lexington, KY this weekend at the Kentucky Fried Zine Fest.  If you’re in the area you should stop by and see him.  He’ll have copies of “From the Punked Out Files of the Queer Zine Archive Project“, among other things.

Now, for today’s QZOTD we’ve got a blast from the past…  It’s Anonymous Boy!!!  Specifically, Anonymous Boy Collection #2, but really you should check all of them out.  Anonymous Boy has been making comics and music and DJing since the late 1980s.  His work has appeared in a number of different publications, including JDs and several of the Y.E.L.L. zines from ACT-UP/NY.  Most recently he was on a panel with Chris (QZAP), Rachael House (Red Hanky Panky, among others) and Elvis B. (Homos in Herstory) at the Queers and Comics conference that took place this past spring in New York City.

 

Unsafe Zone Training

As we quietly slide into September we begin to think about what are, for North Americans, annual end of summer rituals and events.  In the U.S. we get a day off from work to honor workers.  We get ready to pack up our children, our siblings, and ourselves and head back to school, where ever that may be.  In these postmodern times there may be a GSA (gay/straight alliance) in middle and high schools to support LGBTQ+ students.  At the Uni there may be an LGBT Resource Center, there may be a Women’s and Gender Studies program, and a way for queer students to socialize and learn without fear of violence interrupting their studies.  Many uni’s across the country have even taken on a Safe Zone training series to help faculty and staff who might not be queer themselves help students.  But what if the very institution hates you and wants to inflict violence on you for being queer?  Who do you turn to?  How do you survive?  Several years ago a group of anonymous students at Harding University put out a zine telling their stories about being queer at an ultra-conservative Christian university.  The State of the Gay at Harding University is an act of bravery in and of itself, and we’re lucky and proud to have such a courageous document in the archive at QZAP.

Angst In Our Pants

SO, it’s not totally fair to say that Busy Bea’s Bush #3 is all teen angst.  There’s a little bit of that, but really it’s just a great zine of it’s time.  Nicole captures 1993 perfectly with rainbow taped backpacks and freedom rings acting as a hanky code for another queer girl in her school.  She writes about getting to meet G.B. Jones, has a current play list of stuff she’s listening to, participaing in Pittsburgh’s Riot Grrrl chapter, and getting a painful tattoo.

Hell Yeah!!!

Hell Yeah!!!  Hell Yeah for weekends, Hell Yeah for zines, and double Hell Yeah for consent-based porn zines!!!!  The creator calls it porn.  Maybe it’s more erotica? There’s some gender fucking.  There’s some masturbation.  There’s some hand-holding.    Either way, this Hell Yeah makes for some delightful reading with ones hands on ones sexy bits on this warm afternoon.

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