Month: July 2018

Dirty Lesbian
Nina Echozina
https://echopublishing.wordpress.com

Dirty Lesbian is an A6 black and white 24-hour zine about reclaiming lesbian-feminism. Nina also writes this, which I think is fabulous:

“It is a call for a more radical feminism, for a lesbian and trans revolution, for getting rid of cishetpatriarchy instead of cutely smiling in the hopes of getting some crumbs.”

Wowza.

Dirty Lesbian opens with a comic about a homophobic comment made to Nina in what she thought was a positive feminist space – and her anger about it. From there, we jump into a cut and paste style zine that has a lot to offer.

There is plenty going on in this zine. Nina writes about the damage that homophobic – especially lesbian homophobic – comments can do and the fallout. She includes reminders of straight privilege, feminist history, examines words like ‘queer’ and ‘femme’, and there’s even a recommendation section with music, zines, films, and comics.

To top it off, Nina even includes some mini-posters for your enjoyment.

It’s clear from the beginning of this zine that Nina is angry about what happened, but it’s also clear that she still wants to educate people. I think that’s very admirable. When I’m angry, I want to eat cookies and play computer games. I adore that Nina has used her anger to make a zine that is so full of information and looks great, too.

I’m angry and sad that what happened happened, but I struggle to imagine a better response.

I think this is a great zine, whether you want to check in with your own behaviours, whether you are a lesbian wanting support and a louder voice, whether you’re interested in learning more… Nina’s mixture of passion and artistic skill make this zine one to check out.

Zine Crush: Volume 2
Editor
https://twitter.com/zinecrush (No longer updating)

Zine Crush: Volume 2 is a black and white ½ fold zine collection of affection in the zine world in comics and written pieces.

Zine Crush gets right into things from the get go, opening with a story of zine crushes and moving from penpals to friends. From there, we have comics, written pieces, and even a couple of photos. This zine describes itself as ‘like a missed connexion board’, but contributors took the prompt in a number of different directions. Along with the anonymous and direct confessions of like, there is a section of anonymous notes for the Richmond Zine Fest 2012, a piece from the editor about being Zine Crush, and even a funny comic about a cat.

When I opened this zine, I expected a more straightforward, ‘traditional’ sorts of tales of like – and I would have thought I’d prefer that as well. However, I ended up enjoying the different interpretations.

I really enjoyed ‘Creepsters United’ by Jonas which goes into the strange feelings of ‘knowing’ a zinemaker so utterly through their zine and yet feeling like you don’t know them at all when you meet them in person.

The thing that I appreciated most about this zine is that it was a mixture of ‘like’. It’s not all romantic or sexual. The crushes are of any nature – from be my friend plz to more intellectual crushes. I like to think that I can have zine crushes (which I definitely do), and they won’t all be assumed to be the romantic/sexual kind.

I really adore the concept for this zine and am sad that it seems to have ended on volume 4. Still, I shall continue my search and try to get volumes 1 and 4. If you see this zine series, pick it up and have a look.