breaking

this is a list of zines in my collection. note that i do not necessarily agree with the opinions in these zines, and that these happen to be what i have in my collection; many of these are flawed or outdated, but have interesting viewpoints. unfortunately i currently have more transmasc zines than transfem zines. also my critiques of them can be pretty strong, but i feel strongly about zines!

current zine count: 119!

Anarchy and Polyamory by Dysophia
- this zine is incredibly obviously about cishet polyamory. 0 doubt about it. when first reading it i was mildly confused at the lack of queer perspectives and then realised there kinda weren't any. it's interesting in how it discusses being attractive as a social power, and how women in leftist movements may be pushed into polyamory, welcomed only for what their bodies can provide. it's generally very critical of the state of polyamory, but imo isn't entirely useful for individual queer folk navigating relationships.

Trash Collector by ?
- interesting person zine about someone enjoying collages; very dense and high detail. not really commenting on much other than someone's desire to be shamelessly messy, but interesting for the visuals alone. though i'll note it's hard in places to identify what text is giving more context to the reader, but that's probably on purpose.

A Study In Clutter by Thursday
- lino print zine with various textures and linework. not really obvious what clutter exactly is being studied, looks a lot more like various blankets and clothes. cover has some interesting typography!

Thoughts from my tea cupboard by Sounds Like Shevek
- not particularly detailed; it's thoughts one person has about drinking tea, though there's a couple of tips about brewing + recommendations for a couple kinds of tea, and notes some mental stuff w/ prepping teas and akcnowledges colonial heritage of the industry. interesting, but nothing in depth.

Solidarity by Sounds Like Shevek
- interesting landscape and double page format i pretty much never see in 1 page zines! it's a zine in response to bigotry, and is just a few stylised quotes. nice for what it is!

Best Wishes...(?) by Sounds Like Shevek
- zine about online communication; it copies a few familiar formats seen often in online communication (such as emails and whatsapp), and talks about the stress of these methods of communicating. mentions professional + personal communications, but also notes how irl communications can be difficult. also a lot of activism stuff is only online, and this is something i find massively frustrating; for safety reasons it makes sense for things to be shared in 'in-groups', but it means that queer folk who haven't found those spaces struggle to find community! very very relevant to current times (2024)!

STOP!! VOLUNTEERING! by Sounds Like Shevek
- this zine is about reframing thinking about trying to build community; it's extremely accurate in pointing out that charities are being used to prop up failures of current systems, but also that volunteers themselves are at risk of burning out due to their own needs not being met. it's not exactly practical on how these things should be done, but it presents several points about current failures very well imo!!

Queer Fear by Sounds Like Shevek
- discusses relationship anarchy and fears of a future of where your support network has all coupled off. very interesting and has very good questions, and i think is good for ppl who are part of messy support networks that somewhat rely on people being happy to dedicate 'more' to each other than society typically allows!

And Still, I persist by Charlie Barton
- this zine compares several english animals in the countryside seen as pests, and compares their treatment to the way trans folk are treated. interesting insight into being rural and trans! the combination of photographs and overlaid sketches of animals is interesting; the zine is more of a reflection rather than an analysis.l

Gender as Reverberation? by Devin S. Turk
- discusses the small tradition of queer folk saying that something random is their gender. turning the outside world into the mirror for yourself, whatever resonates with you. doing it because it's fun and because it pisses some people off! gender can be something you and your friends have witnessed, the feeling of something witnessed, the utility of an object! nice little primer for the subject.

Productive by Bat Stanley
- poses a lot of interesting questions about what someone is if they're not productive in today's society. illustrations are very pretty. invokes the spottiness of disability, not knowing whether you'll be able to do something in the future / when you need it most. largely the zine contents speaks for itself

Respect by Bat Stanley
- raises a lot of extremely good points about how schools systematically do their best to remove students' autonomy. likely more of interest to a younger audience, purely bc resisting this is only possible when you're in school yourself, or a teacher of some kind (but how much individual teachers can do in such a system is debatable, as other teachers can pick up on uniform much more easily than other aspects of a student's identity that they only share with 1 adult). a zine that presents the problems rather than suggesting any solutions, but the latter isn't really its focus anyway.

You don't get to choose by Tiger Lily Zines
- this zine doesn't have much detail, but seems to mention confusion with being a second generation immigrant in the context of a chinese person, as far as i can gather. interesting, but doesn't really provide enough information to give the reader anything but more questions.

Wet on Wet Zine by Tefefe
- several watercolour images of blurry parts of people's bodies. interesting to parse out what the forms are!

Love Letter by Tefefe
- explicit t4t zine about two lovers temporarily seperated because one is travelling. once again not really in depth, but there's a lot of fun historical motifs

Wet Zine by Tefefe
- another explicit zine about queer zine, but the art is water damaged pen drawings. seems vouyeristic in nature and has some fun images of people existing in their own space.

An Autistic & Kinky Guidebook by Alder James
- a zine about kink, shockingly enough. refutes the idea that autistic adults can't handle sex and discussions of it. zine itself focuses on a few topics; sensory seeking with impact play, sensory avoiding with bondage, rules and dynamics which make things clearer for individuals involved, puppy play which can be a relief from needing to mask. coherently covers all four topics with a brief overview from an autistic point of view, and generally does what it sets out to do.

I'm a pillow princess because I'm autistic by Morrigan Ivy
- discusses assumptions that people have about autistic people and sex. mentions problems with sensory aspects of sex but also positives. pretty interesting and likely applicable to a lot of autistic people!

Brief Notes on Girlhood by Highlandesq
- seems to be from the perspective of someone who went to all girls school and feels though the sense of sisterhood was universal. seems to identify with the group of being 'girls' but not 'a girl', even though the writer now recognise themselves as nonbinary. lingers a lot more on childhood / girlhood and doesn't really discuss anything about the transition from it to adulthood.

I am a transmasc femboy by manmadezines
- resoundly rejects the idea that you need to want to be like a cis man to transition. rejects the idea of the 'acceptable trans' and does so pretty decently, though the writer doesn't go into detail on the points of how these 'acceptable trans' ideals fail in practice. pretty messy style so it's hard to parse in places, but i tend to have bad handwriting so i was alright w/ it! it praises 'cringy' trans folk with very good points for doing so.

How do you identify? Ace by katesartthings
- notes problems with ace erasure in communities; the feeling that ace identity is the absence of something rather than something different. talks about how important the label is and the recognition the writer gets from it; very short but also has a lot of clarity in its message!! and the art supporting the text is very beautiful

How to make a zine by G*ndershit
- touches extremely briefly on why zines are important to queer history (with some (hard to parse) images of zines from qzap!). mentions the supplies that can be used and has a visual guide on how to fold a7 zines, one stitching technique and mentions edinburgh zine scene locations. not exhaustive at all and much more of an 'easy guide' for those who are new to creating zines. serves its purpose, but a more detailed zine would be more useful to those already familiar with the extreme basics.

QUEERS: A dose of escapism by lesslikewaiting
- despite the title, it's definitely about lesbians. collaged with older art pieces of women and text about being a lesbian; has some praising of women's physical forms and sensuality, though at the end there's a brief mention of wlw invisibility. interesting zine, though i think there could be more different aspects handled if the zine was longer (and why is it named queers?)

You People Complain About Everything! by Thursday
- discusses the faulty belief that people talking about their struggled are just complaining about everything, and discusses how the real way to work on this is to improve people's conditions rather than to have them shut up (which only perpetuates cycles of misery). argues against divisions of people who are struggling. formatted really nicely with good art and excellent typography! very nice read.

Queer Archives Vol 1 to 6 by Rudy Tomala
- Vol 1: S.T.A.R, Vol 2: Trans Fag rag, Vol 3: FTM International + Newsletter, Vol 4: Cottaging, Vol 5: Queer Activist Badges, Vol 6: Homocore Zine
- these zines do go into fairly unknown queer history, but to be honest these are extremely annoying to read. the paper and riso colours are nice colours, but it's seriously awful trying to read any interspersed quotes; my eyes are good, but the text is small and grainy. this only gets worse with smaller quotes, often images copied wholesale from the period. the information is nice and the layout is fun, but i can't really recommend them because of the issues reading them. idk how this wasn't ironed out with later volumes!
- these zines do focus on accurate history, showing how a lot of organisations / publications were often very fleeting and how cultural aspects are often absorbed by outsiders. often allows space for people's own words to shine through (though one again, hampered by how hard to read these quotes are). i don't have any real complaints about the content itself, it's just that the printing method is extremely annoying.

Queer Northern series by Chris Printed This
- Queer Northern: Places, Folk, History, Mindfulness
- this set of zines is an interesting fold out layout, more similar to brocures. these are extremely brief, and seems like they're intended to be more like tourist guides of historical things rather than communities actively focused on furthering a goal. overall extreemly lacking in substance and more of a 'this is stuff you could research yourself' directory, which is a bit useless for informational zines.
- the places zine focuses largely on the areas around liverpool and manchester (which... doesn't really mention the east at all. the furthest north is goes is west yorkshire!). the history zine is really not in detail at all, seemingly struggling with things to add (the legalisation of gay marriage isn't really... northern history). the events mentioning anne lister and london pride moving up north probably could've had their own detailed zines rather than a brief paragraph. the folk zine i don't have any real significant comments on because i don't tend to idolise figures. the mindfulness zine is alright, it just has a few basic breathing techniques, but there are absolutely better zines (or hell, shit on the nhs website) that go into more detail. breathing techniques don't work for everyone! (and the poster with the caption 'chill out' on the back of this one feels a bit patronising if you have significant mental health issues.)

Top Trans Tips by Gender Identity Peer Support Group (Humankind)
- my first ever zine i collected :) geared more towards teens or children, or those very new to their own identity. urges the reader to find community and to do what they need to do. fairly simple but good for easing basic worries about stereotypes.

I see you: mini zine for trans visibility by Lex Kartanė
- very interesing but also slightly complicated layout; double sided zine but some parts are like a more typical page? lists a lot of things that trans folk deserve on one side and affirmations on another. the writer is a bit older and laments that they didn't see trans people growing up, and they want trans kids to know there's nothing wrong with them. the liofst what trans folk deserve goes into material, legal and emotional needs. decently detailed for what it is, though the target audience seems to be younger teenagers who haven't heard these sorts of messages before, as far as i can gather.

16 Trans Agendas For The Modern Queer by Devin S. Turk
- not as in depth as i thought it'd be; this is a list of 16 statements rather than the discussion of why they're needed, why trans people benefit from having these things... it's not all purely about being trans but there's a lot of quality of life things trans people often happen to lack. it's something you could definitely have a discussion about the contents over but it's not especially compelling on its own

DIY HRT Wisdom by ?
- the info itself is almost entirely qr codes. linkrot supreme! also some of them just flat out don't scan :/ the purpose page is succinct and mentions autonomy for trans people in treatment. the information itself is a mix of medical information sites. the info is okay, but there's info about E that's outdated (blood clot risk for surgery is now same as cis women as synthetics are no longer used, but surgeons still use this anyway) and baseline blood tests are not required. transharmreduction isn't really the most accurate on timings for tests, and other qr codes didn't really work. sigh

How to form an affinity group by Crimethinc
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How to do your t shot by saint.ass
- this zine is honestly only really useful for people using ampoules, it's pretty useless for diy. sustanon dosing is dreadful (250mg every 3 or 4 weeks... yikes) and so is nebido (1000mg every 3 months...... yeesh), but these are nhs dosages so i can't really blame op for talking about how to dose these. gel isn't necessarily slower than injections when you have the same levels, and injecting in the backside isn't really necessary, and you can just use unisharp fixed needles for subq... really it's a mess

A self defense study guide for trans women by Transfighters, Oakland
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The Pocket Guide to LGBTQIA+ Identities by Rainbow & Co
- accurate, though this reads like a huuuuge list / dictionary, rather than tying history of different identities together. that's probably the point, and they do mention details of older flags (like rubber and gilbert baker) so it's not as if they're ignoring history, but it feels very 2016.

Re/searching gender euphoria by Mika Gratzke
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eca graduate show project guide 2024 by kamal malhotra
- this isn't quite intended to be a zine, but it is in a similar format to an art zine, so i include it. honestly, i adore the artwork in this zine, and the descriptions are great. the layering of riso colours is excellent.

My time as LGBTQ by Cee
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How do I inject my DIY hormones?! by Atom
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Coarctation by Thursday
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The Trans Dimension: Guide To Inclusive Events by Gendered Intelligence
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Bi Plus Identities leaflet + Bi Progress Pride Flag leaflet by Biscuit
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Small Histories Vol 1 and 2 by Rudy Tomala
- Vol 1: Flagging, Vol 2: Polari
- these are much more in depth than tomala's a6 mini zines, though they suffer from the same pitfalls of images with text being barely readable, though the general text itself is a bit easier to read. i happen to have the lino print covers for both of these.

Trans Day of Visbility Collab Zine + Pride Collab Zine by MJS
- i have the march 2022 and july 2022 versions.

Girl, Subject To Change Vol 1 by Bat Stanley
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Wrong Body Right Time by Fae Wyld
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Gorgon by And About Sout
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Trans Masc Vibes by Sounds Like Shevek and Hail To The Zine Baby
- really undetailed zine, feels a little more like it'd work better as an a6 mini zine. it's effectively a bunch of trans headcanons; cool, but not really in depth at all. just gives characters + a couple quotes from them, if that.

Queer By Gum Issue 1 + Issue 3 by Queer By Gum
- Issue 1: Queer Spaces and Community, Queer in the North, Supporting + Protecting Community, Issue 3: Queer Eutopia

G*ndershit Issue 1 - 3 by G*ndershit
- Issue 1: Toilet talk, Issue 2: Queer Cyberspace, Issue 3: Partyscape
- i utterly adore g*ndershit's work!!!!! their collab zines are utterly amazing, and there's a really nice mix of text based and image based artworks!

Tidal Waves by Rein Lee
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Afterparty (Some) Kink Art by The Lions Mouth
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All the World's a Cage by Anon
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Fucked + 2Fucked 2 Furious by Kirsty, Anna, Hannah, Tasha Tristan
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Complicated Relationships by Ardent Press
- an interesting set of interviews about polyamory / non-monogamy + an faq, though i think the faq would be a bit better as the first thing in the zine. there's a lot of discussion about emotional asepects and how hard it is to get polyamory to work well, rather than to work in short isolated instances; though it also criticises the idea that either monogomy or non-monogamy is naturally better: they both have their own problems. it criticises the idea that you can just logic your way out of jealousy for instance, which is a pretty good point tbh. overall a decent introduction at the end + interesting overview of logistics in the interviews

went through so much, darling

please note that i review nsfw zines!

Zines in the order on my bookshelf

Mini Zines (largely A7)

Around A6

A5 Zines

A4 Zines