Zine work

Like eight-track cartridges before them, zines, the it form of cheap self-expression in the preblog ’90s, have struggled to maintain relevancy. (Granted, zines never aimed for commercial viability.) But the once-popular domain for alternative voices continues to thrive on the margins. On Thursday 30, the Queer Zinester Roadshow, a three-city Midwestern tour of readings by seven LGBT zinesters, hits Chicago.

Christopher Wilde, participant and Queer Zine Archive Project cofounder, says, “Queer zines provide realistic queer voices in a world saturated with rich, white, toned-bodied gay and lesbian imagery and marketing that rarely measure up to the day-to-day experiences of queers who struggle against oppression.”

While blogs arguably provide a similar function, Wilde points out their limitations: “They typically live on servers that may not be under the direct control of the blogger,” he says. “Zines, however, are a direct means of communication and represent the democratization of media.” And, he adds, zines can incorporate mixed-media elements, such as silk-screened and letterpress covers, that the Internet obviously can’t. As an artifact, a zine aims to be worthy of careful preservation.

Here’s a rundown of the seven zines on display at the Roadshow:

Black Carrot
In Black Carrot, Dave Fried, a 29-year-old queer Jewish man, wrestles with his ethnic heritage, sexual identity and radical-punk political beliefs. The Chicago resident also plays drums in the queer-punk band Bromance.

Fort Mortgage!
In Fort Mortgage!, cowritten with partner Fried, Kisha Hope, a queer, black, female-identified individual living in Chicago, writes about the ups and downs of first-time home buying. Hope just finished the first issue of A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, LIFE, a biomythography zine about growing up fat, poor and black.

Gendercide
Picking up where his gender-blurred former zine Mutate left off, Milo Miller’s Gendercide uses self-effacing humor and pop-culture references to explore brain-body identity issues and the mundanity of being cisgendered (i.e., not transgendered). Milwaukee-based Miller cofounded the Queer Zine Archive Project and also self-published SoyBoi: Queer Adventures in My Vegetarian Kitchen.

Shortandqueer
In his eponymously titled and personal zine, Kelly Shortandqueer discusses his experiences as a trans guy. Denver resident Shortandqueer cofounded both the Denver Zine Library (which houses more than 9,000 zines) and the Tranny Roadshow (a performance art tour with an all-transgender cast).

Mad Love
Jessica Max Stein, a Brooklyn-based writer and teacher, writes about mental health and advocates a radical rethinking of working with people who have mental-health issues. She also publishes the zine The Rainbow Connection, about gay Muppeteer Richard Hunt.

Gone to the Moon
In addition to writing Gone to the Moon, about his mixed-race heritage, John Thompson plays drums in the pop-punk band Everything Is Ruined and guitar in Bromance. The queer writer-activist Chicagoan is also involved in the Write to Win Collective, a prisoner-correspondence project that makes pen-pal matches between transgender, transsexual, queer and gender-nonconforming prisoners, and similarly identified folks on the outside.

Abrupt Lane Edge
Since 1992, Wilde has been publishing his zine Abrupt Lane Edge, named for the diamond-shaped orange street sign that indicates elevation in the road. Milwaukee-based Wilde also created the zine Wicked Wipeout, among others. In September, he’ll be an artist in residence at the Anchor Archive Zine Library in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Queer Zinester Roadshow happens Thursday 30 at Uncle Fun.

More Gay & Lesbian