Jane: Documents from Chicago’s Clandestine Abortion Service 1968-1973 Firestarter Press, 2004 January 22nd marked the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Perhaps it is more apt to say it sort of legalized abortion as, according to a recent article from Mother Jones, over 1,000 state laws restricting abortion…
Zine Review: The Gaysi Zine, Issue 04
The Gaysi Zine: Issue 04 Editor In Chief: Priya Gangwani Art Director: Sreejita Biswas Contributors: Karishma Dorai, Soumya Menon, Pratap Chalke, Nandini Moitra, Upasana Agarwal, Amruta Patil, Sajid Wajid Shaikh, Rachna Ravi, Ankita Ghosh, Kruttika Susarla, Karishma Dorai, Anushka Jhadav, Ojoswi, Sakshi Juneja,Amirkhan Pathan, Harshit Vishwakarma, Solo, Vivek Nag, Siddhi Surte, Vivek Tejuja, Prabha Mallya,…
Zine Review: British Values
British Values Editor: Kieran Yates Design Director: Amad Ilyas Designer: Tom Lloyd August 2015 Disclaimer: I worked with British Values editor Kieran Yates on Live Mag UK, a youth publication for 14 to 25 year olds from January 2014 to March 2015. Yates was the magazine’s mentor. Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May is the perfect…
Zine Review: Sporgo No. 1
Sporgo No. 1 Lara Pallmall Laura Pallmall is a relatively new comic creator, with only a couple years of zine-making under her belt. Like many artists working in the punk scene, she started out by illustrating album covers, posters and t-shirts. “My drawings would go on flyers and band merch and then just kind of…
Zine Review and Interview: Atalanta and the Footrace by Salt
Zines come in all different sizes. There are big, chunky anthology zines, slim fanzines, teeny minizines, and emotionally heavy perzines. The contrast between the size of a final publication and the incredible amount of effort put forth to create it really hit me when I received Kim Salt’s Atalanta and the Footrace. Specs from the etsy shop description highlight…
How to Pitch a Zine Review
I love reviewing zines. There is a huge volume of self published work sitting in independent bookstores and inventory piles in basements, waiting to be read and adored. I hope that by writing reviews and interviewing zine writers, artists, distributors and publishers I can demystify this world for new fans. However, while the number of outlets…
Zine Review: Not Trans Enough
Not Trans Enough: A Compilation Zine on the Erasure of Non Passing and Non Conforming Trans Identified People Editor: Eddie Jude Contributors: Megan Madden, Travis Alabanza, Tasha Tristan, Rhiannon Rober, Thryn Hare, Janae Shepherd, Amndissolved, Taylor Heywood, Maëlys Lecastor, Dani Ko Flux, Aya Mccabre, Dmitri-Coco Miller, Geoff, PAiNt, Rex Leonowicz, Rory, Clementine Morrigan, Girlie Wilson,…
Raising Dion Has a Lot of Potential
If you’ve ever wondered what life was like for Martha Kent, then Raising Dion, by Dennis Liu and Jason Piperberg, is your answer. About a woman raising a superpowered kid, Raising Dion is a warmer side of superhero comics, the domestic side that’s been so forgotten in recent years. I’m not going to lie, I’ve…
How to Make a Zine the Chicago Zine Fest Way
Hey there, baby zinesters! Have WWAC’s zine reviews left you itching to create something of your own? You’re in luck, because Chicago Zine Fest (CZF) organizers Savay, Heather and Johnny Wawrzaszek graciously taught my artist-friend Bike Morch and me a simple binding technique. The Chicago Publishers Resource Center (CHIPRC) lent us their space for this…
Zine Review: Nonbinary by Melanie Gillman
Nonbinary Melanie Gillman If you’re a webcomics reader, you may be familiar with Melanie Gillman’s beautifully illustrated As The Crow Flies. Nonbinary still features Gillman’s extraordinary shading and color-sense, but jumps genres into nonfiction, autobio comics. In sixteen pages, the artist crafts a highly accessible and very personal portrait of their experience coming out as…
Short & Sweet: Small Press Expo Edition!
On September 19 and 20, the 21st annual Small Press Expo was held in Bethesda, Maryland. WWAC writers Kat Overland, Rebecca Henely, and Kayleigh Hearn attended and wrote about notable new comics from the convention. Read on!
Zine Review: Hot Dog Beach #3
Hot Dog Beach #3 Art and words by Lale Westvind September 2015 Disclaimer: I received review copies of issues 1-3 of Hot Dog Beach from Lale Westvind. I discovered Lale Westvind’s comic zines when I attended a panel at the 2015 Chicago Alternative Comics Festival (CAKE) titled “Comic Books and Speculative Fiction.” When the conversation…