ANNOUNCING!
COMIX LAB with JOHN P. and LYNDA B.!!!
ONE-DAY COMICS WORKSHOP with John Porcellino and Lynda Barry
Saturday May 30, 2026
10 am to 4 pm
Madison, Wisconsin
(Exact class location revealed upon enrollment)
No Experience, No Problem! This class is for anyone and everyone!
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We're working on getting our shit together a whole week ahead of time this year!
Come visit @chrisqzap.bsky.social and @tea-spo0n.bsky.social who will be tabling for us this year while M is at UMD w/ @zinelib.bsky.social.
Flyer for Punk Resistance: Zines & Counter Culture Activism with the "punk resistance" letters in ransom text style, as if they were cut and pasted. Saturday, April 18, 1-3pm at MSPAL Text about the panel that I can't OCR; logos for co-sponsors AADHUM, University Libraries, and College of Information
I'm moderating a panel with my ZFF @miloblue.bsky.social from the @qzap.bsky.social, @jrdarchivist.bsky.social of the DC Punk Archive and students Diya Shah & Alexa Boltaz who edit a campus zine. It's at UMD on Sat 4/18. Join us! We'll talk about important stuff that makes you feel good, not bad.
While zines have been made by folks in an ongoing movement of self-publishing since the late 1970s and are (sub)culturally relevant always, somehow they've been "making a comeback" in the last year or two. 🙄
🌻Planting Seeds: An Indigenous Zine Fest hosted by ZINEmercado and @newberrylibrary.bsky.social on May 16 at The Newberry!🌻
www.newberry.org/calendar/zin...
Oh, HAY!! It's time for another Zine of the Gay! This week Erica is looking at just a few of the many 8 page mini-zines that we have in the collection.
gittings.qzap.org/small-but-mi...
Cool to see this in print! I contributed Chapter 11 From Mutiny to Community: Establishing Best Practices for Queer Zine Archives. Thanks to editors Vance Byrd and Javier Samper Vendrell for inviting me to write!
Escalate the War on AIDS - ACT-UP Chicago
The AIDS War is a Just War
Money for AIDS Not for War
The AIDS War is a just war - ACT-UP Chicago
Woke up thinking about this sticker folio from ACT-UP Chicago circa 1990ish.
archive.qzap.org/index.php/De...
#actup #actupfightback #nowar #fightaids
The Volcano #3 - A Subversive Dyke Reader. zine cover shows an erupting volcano and a person in a bathtub full of fruit. cover text says: Yeast: Lesbo cunts fight back! Gender Fuck girls, cocks, and cruising Dykes gettin' laid writing poetry Naked Ladies, Masturbation And Lots Lots More!! photo by Kati Tobler The Volcano reminds you that Shopping at yer Co-op is always a good idea:
Happy Sunday! A new Zine of the Gay dropped this morning. Rowan vs The Volcano 🌋
gittings.qzap.org/eruption-imm...
image is a grainy photocopy of a photo of a pill bottle with some pills next to it with the words Pathologize This! on it.
New Zine of the Gay post!!
This week Erica writes about Pathologize This!, the mental health comp zine by Sarah Tea Rex from 2008.
gittings.qzap.org/pathologize-...
Queers, Families and the Squat Community front cover. People standing in an open area looking at buildings
W00t! It's a new Zine of the Gay! This week Rowan takes a look at Queers, Families, and the Squat Community from 2011 Amsterdam.
gittings.qzap.org/queer-family...
We're getting ready to have this exact conversation with our writing interns tomorrow.
Yes, words have been weaponized against us. Also, those same words have contributed to us finding ourselves and each other and building communities and fighting back, too.
Flyer for the Twin Cities Zine Fest on Saturday February 7th from 10 am to 4 pm at Minneapolis Central Library. There is a fun Bug Girl illustration where she reads a zine in a fluorescent green nest. Words to the side read "Charming chatter and printed matter".
If you're near Minneapolis on Saturday, please consider coming out to the Twin Cities Zine Fest, where we'll have 80+ zinesters sharing their #zines & free workshops! tczinefest.org/tczf-2026/ #TCZF2026
If you're elsewhere, please send good vibes, we could use some fun.
Image of tote bags, rainbow flags, bracelets, and lanyards related to Southern LGBTQ and social justice organizations and causes. Text reads What can I donate to the archive? bags, flags, and merch
Who needs lions, tigers, and bears when you've got bags, flags, and merch! Do you have small items related to Southern LGBTQ history that you'd like us to preserve? Check out our website for how to contact us and let's save that history together.
The new Zine of the Gay post is up!
We've got a cohort of students who will be updating the QZAP blog this semester. They'll be exploring zines from our collections and writing about them every week or so. To start us off, Erica is taking on Some Boys Bleed
gittings.qzap.org/i-knew-a-boy...
@soljbrager.bsky.social's latest comic about watching and analyzing historic queer adult films is incredible, and seems very adjacent to some of the work we do at QZAP.
Amid the chaos and pain of this week, a couple of good things:
My partner-in-crime @chrisqzap.bsky.social has a chapter in Queer Print Cultures, which came out a few days ago, and I'm incredibly happy for him and all the other authors and editors...
utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...
[gasps] Wow! Your gay vibe is sooo BIG 🥵😵🥰
A photo of the zine "se familiariser avec le pronom iel et autres mots du genre", with an image from the Mr Men books. The cover is printed on hot pink paper and shown against a background of puffy clouds
Photo of the zine held open to its first page, titled "la langue francaise n'est pas neutre"
For anyone who struggles with gender-neutral language while speaking French, this zine will help!
Free download: sheerspite.ca/product/se-f...
Print version, $0-3: sheerspite.ca/product/se-f...
Two sides of a piece of "funny money" from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Image is of a fake $3 note with a drag nun in the center, and the text on it reads: “The sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - Holy Indulgence. You are hereby pre-forgiven for all sins committed in the next 24 hours. May pleasure be your god, lust your temple, & sex your sacrament.” “I cast responsibility for my actions into the capable lap of a fully professed member of the sisters of perpetual indulgence, so that i may fully surrender to the charms, ornaments, and wanton whims of desire. I do so with gratitude for existing high enough on evolution's ladder to enjoy the pleasures of diverse senses and opposable thumbs. I acknowledge that all pleasure is sourced in the divine, and ecstatically enter the vast and skillfully debauched company of those who have pleasured before me.”
We've got a new post up at QZAP talking about the grant that we just received from @sfsisters.bsky.social ! We're beyond thankful and honored to have been chosen as a recipient this cycle.
gittings.qzap.org/sisters-act/
Materials archived by Invisible Histories showcase the breadth of Southern queer culture, including a photo of a 1920s drag queen, a 1980s Dyke March, and a newspaper clipping about Alabama’s first Pride Parade, among other pieces.
As anti-queer backlash and state erasure intensify, citizen archivists are fighting back by saving LGBTQ+ history before it disappears.
Groups like @invisiblehistories.bsky.social and the @qzap.bsky.social show how preservation becomes resistance.
inthesetimes.com/article/figh...
Two green buttons, one larger, one smaller, that say "She/her/hers UAB"
Last week we picked up two pronoun buttons from someone who worked at a now closed university diversity office. This one hit hard as one of our founders used to work there. While it's egregious these services are being shut down, we are working to make sure their history is saved.
front cover from InStep Magazine, December 6 – 19, 1984. Volume 1, Issue 15
When thinking about queer publishing history, we place bar rags in a space adjacent to gay newspapers like The Wisconsin Light, the B.A.R. or The Blade. They seemed to be about building community through lesbian and gay capitalism. Less news, more local... literally meeting people where they gather.
A Tuneful Holiday As the holiday "party" days approach us, let's take a look at some serious partying music that you kids had better be restin' your dancin' shoes up for! Just as '84 is drawing to a close, the obvious, Sylvester, comes along with a gem to say the least. 10:15, Sylvester's current Megatone LP, is a combination of the famous "Patrick Cowley/San Francisco Sound, combined with Eurodisco. The first 12" release of Rock the Box caused some speculation that this would be more "hip-hop" but proved itself otherwise. Sylvester is in perfect voice and along with backups of Martha Wash (Weather Girls/Two Tons of Fun), Jo Carol Black and Lauren Carter (formerly the Patrick Cowley Singers, now Jo-Lo) and Lynette Hawkins Stevens with Nathaniel Best — they all work together to provide perfect harmony! Other standouts include Take Me To Heaven, Sex, Taking Love Into My Hands, and a great remake of Lovin' Is Really My Game. A great album for a major talent. - Top 10 Dance Hits Courtesy Of Tyrone (Ty) King — Ze Coet Aux Folles 1) Like A Virgin - Madonna 2) War Song - Culture Club 3) Swept Away - Diana Ross 4) I Feel For You - Chaka Kahn 5) Better Be Good To Me - Tina Turner 6) Centipede - Rebbie Jackson 7) Jungle Love - The Time 8) Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood 9) A Night With The Boys - Linda Clifford 10) Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham - Top 10 Video Hits - 1) Strut - Sheena Easton 2) Let It Blow - The Dazz Band 3) Pretty Mess - Vanity 4) I Need A Man In My Life - Katie Kissoon 5) Homecoming Queens Got A Gun - Julie Brown 6) I Just Called To Say - Stevie Wonder 7) Torture - Jackson 5 8) I Love Men - Eartha Kitt 9) Dr. Beat - Miami Sound Machine 10) I'm So Excited - Pointer Sisters - Hot Picks - 1) Sensual Sensations Lp (All Cuts)- Lime 2) Once Upon A Time - John Rocca 3) Burn For You - Inxs 4) Black Leather - Miquel Brown 5) Baja - Mascara
Competition for the top spot goes to who else but Madonna. Like A Virgin (Sire 12" and LP) is "burning up" the charts — see for yourself — the album is great. It's funny to see people in bars pack the floor to Like A Virgin — everybody has a good time, but I really wonder how many are virgins? Two faves on the album include Material Girl and the slow, searing Love Don't Live Here Anymore. Madonna's enough to make any grown man want to flirt!! Continued from page 32 Finally, some 12" records worth checking out include Back In My Arms by Hazell Dean on TSR; You Used To Hold Me So Tight by Thelma Houston on MCA; Last Call by Jo Lo on Megatone; Sensual Sensations LP by Lime on Prism; Baja by Mascara on Oh My Records; Black Leather by Miquel Brown on Radio Shack Records; and, Rain Forest by Paul Hardcastle on Profile Records. Lots of good listening listed above, and they also make nice Christmas gifts for that person who is a bona fide collector of 12" singles. Until next time — keep dancin'! K. A.
The other night we were working with our 22yo undergrad intern, and were trying to explain how "bar rags" fit into a broader view of queer publishing. We were showing them some of the copies of InStep and came across these listings of top dance music from the gay bars from this week in 1984.
This digital map and archive of Italian punk zines from the 1980s has been blowing my mind all day. Some of it is weird to load but it's worth the effort. Tons of energy! Some interesting art zines too. paolopalmacci.it/capitmundi/b...
"Jeff's radicalism made him fuckin' scary... ...and sexy." A one-panel comic from 1993 by Anonymous Boy. Image shows a person with a mohawk haircut wearing a tank top with a triangle jumping a barrier while at a protest. Around the central person are other figures holding signs and participating in the protest.
It's a little disjointed, but we did manage to get up our annual post about World AIDS Day.
gittings.qzap.org/world-aids-d...
Nothing is on sale :) everything is already cheap and priced on sliding scale already. why not just buy a zine regardless tho sheerspite.ca sheerspite.bigcartel.com the text is surrounded by a border of images of colourful zines sold by sheer spite, and a logo of a coiled snake.
i am not immune to the lure of a Hot Deal but the fact is, i do not build a huge margin into the prices, and already sell things on sliding scale, so i can't really do sales. however zines remain available for purchase.
sheerspite.ca
sheerspite.bigcartel.com
So apparently a conservative "journalist" attended the ZLuC over this past weekend, attended and live-streamed sessions without consent, and is trying to intimidate and dox attendees.
Here's the organizers' statement:
www.zinelibraries.info/wiki/zluc2025/
I also wrote about Gendertrash as a @qzap.bsky.social intern last summer:
gittings.qzap.org/gender-trash...
Florida folx, check this out! Our friends from @invisiblehistories.bsky.social are coming to you.