Erotica. Sometimes that word feels super loaded. Like it thinks it's BETTER than pornography. But it's not, really. And it doesn't think that. It's just different. Maybe a little more 'arty.' Possibly less visual, though not necessarily. Here at QZAP we've got a good mix of both porn zines and erotica zines. While it's sometimes hard to know the difference, we think that these two zines lean more toward erotica.
First, there's IQ: The Sex-zine for Girls who like Girls who wear Glasses. It's more of a traditional zine of it's era in that aesthetically it's of a cut-and-paste / clip art / rando shit visual style. The content is sexy and funny and as the title suggests, aimed at a certain demographic.
The next zine that we added this week is Inciting Desire #2. This is further along on the artsy-fartsy erotica spectrum. The production values are much higher with some slick 1992-era desktop publishing layouts, deliberate typography, and artful black and white photos.
Finally, we also added Gawk #6 from the good folks who brought us Diseased Pariah News. This is NOT erotica, but it is the comics issue. There's a delightful multi-page spread of Gay World: 3025, the continuing adventures of Captain Condom, and as with the other two, a page of zine reviews amongst other great comics panels.
On a completely different topic, we've been playing around with Instagram, so if that's your jam you can follow us at @queerzines. We've got it set up to post to our Facebook page and Twitter feed, too. Isn't technology neat?
Spring is here!!!! Well, almost. It's still in the 40s here at QZAP HQ, but the daffodils have come up, the lilacs are starting to bud, and us pansies have started to ride our bykes on the regular. Speaking of bykes, we've got a number of zines in the archive that are about queers and their bicycles. Here are some to get started...
Finally, our newest addition to the archive is Raw Vulva #2. It's a fantastic snapshot of queer lady bike culture in San Francisco from 1993.
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 ;-)
Archive.qzap.org has 500 zines and bits of ephemera in it. Our 500th record is a zine out of Boston called Rock Against Sexism. This it the 4th issue, from 1992. It's got a ton of interviews, a discussion about Political Correctness (funny, we're having similar discussions almost 25 years later), zine reviews, and a report back from an ACT UP/Boston fundraiser
