I have been making zines consistently for ages. Zines are the root of my interests in alternative writing, authorship and publishing. My work in queer literature came out of them too. I really like paper, making things cheaply and connecting with people.
The most prolific queerziner of the last few years has been Charlotte Cooper, who has produced ten issues of her frequently jaw-dropping Kink and numerous autobiographical sheets. These can be sweet, filthy, unnerving, heart-warming and shocking, sometimes all at once. […] Recently – in the wake of Ladyfest – there’s been some new riot-style grrrl zines by people much too young to have been around for the first wave, but no-one’s doing anything quite like Charlotte. I want an army of Charlottes, a thousand fearless zinesters littering the streets with filth. Let’s see action!
Thigpen, H. (2008) ‘British Queer Zines’ in Bronson, A.A. and Aarons, P. (eds) Queer Zines. New York: Printed Matter, Inc. 147.
All my zines
I’ve played with different formats, made about 40 solo zines plus collective authorship and many more contributions. I like creating text-based and narrative zines, something good to read and think about. This is pretty much everything I have done as far as I can remember, roughly newest to oldest.
Solo zines
Bigger zines (2011 – 2016)
Encounters with Nature (2016), an autobiographical zine with stories told through my otherwordly encounters with wild animals. Buy a copy.
Fat Activist Vernacular (2016), a hefty zine, a list of words and definitions from a subversive point of view. An invitation for others to see the world through the eyes of fat people. Download a massively expanded and revised second edition.
How to Get Shit Done (2013), a zine for the avoiders and procrastinators, the non-finishers, the inert, the moribund, and the people who dwell on fear and anxiety.
A Queer and Trans Fat Activist Timeline (2011).
Tiny zines (2002-2013)
Very small folded A4 zines.
- Bad Poetry for Pro-Lifers (2013) A zine about anti-abortion crusades and non-violent resistance.
- Fat Stuff (2006) A zine to protest my college’s Obesity Awareness Week.
- Safety Pinz (2002) A zine made to go with a fancy dress outfit.
Story Zines (1997-2016)
I wanted to expand my subject matter so I made a series of simple, one-off zines about things that interest me. Some were autobiographical, others not. The main group ran January 1997 – October 2002 but I published Recycled in 2010 and The Blob in 2016. The full list, alphabetically: Beefer, The Blob, Dad, Dead, Dumb, Found, Fuck, Junk, Love, Norge, Nut, Play, Poly, Report, Scott, Sing, Spa, Spice, Stratford, Teeth, Versace, Village and Womyn.
Kink (1996-1999)
I produced ten issues of Kink. It started out as a queer grrrl sex zine, and ended up as a repository for odd little pieces of writing that I was doing. I saw it as an antidote to the trend at the time for rather humourless, glossy, very expensive sex rags for dykes and was influenced by Fish’s zine Brat Attack. I gave Kink away for free.
Best Friends (1993?)
My first attempt at making a comic of my own. It’s all about some of the intense friendships I had when I was a kid. I ripped-off the folded A3 format from Girly, one of Simon’s zines.
With Kay Hyatt and Simon Murphy/Mona Compleine
You’re Not My Dad (2016-2017) Autistic zine, paper and also digitial.
You’re Not My Dad! 1 November 2016 (.pdf, 5.2mb)
You’re Not My Dad! 2 March 2017 (.pdf, 5.5mb)
You’re Not My Dad! 3 July 2017 (.pdf, 7.6mb)
You’re Not My Dad! 4 October 2017 (.pdf, 6.1mb)
Homophobic Cat (2013) We wondered how our cat felt about living with queers.
Zines to accompany 123s performances: any woman can be a lesbian (2005) and You Are A Lucky Man (2006)
Cakey (2002) The cakes of Naples.
All Right (1992-1993) Comics and silliness.
With others
I started by writing for other people’s zines. In the early 1990s I was encouraged by Lee Kennedy, Living Large, FaT GiRL, ByPass and GirlFrenzy, all of whom published my work.
I continued to collabriate, writing for a great many zines, including plenty that never got off the ground after an initial call-out. I don’t have a record of everything that was published but I do know that my work has appeared in: Poor Lass, Qunst, Remembering Who We Are, Salvage, Scumbag, Shape & Situate, Size Queen, Working Class Queers, Hard Femme, Homocrime, EatMe and Unskinny Bop.
Others:
- Big Bums (2008) Bill Savage, Kay Hyatt, Simon Murphy and I made a fat zine, partially-funded by a grant from NOLOSE.
- Working With Transgender Clients (2007) A zine by and for trans people and therapists/counsellors.
- We Are The Charlotte Cooper (2007) About a bunch of gals who share the same name.
- Things That Help Us Feel Good (2007) In August 2007 I devised and facilitated a workshop about bodies with 13 and 14 year old girls for The Wellcome Institute.
- Lost (2003) A zine made with a workshop of students at Leeds University
- Some of my zine content appeared in Cooper, C. (2000) ‘I Heart Super-8’ and ‘Found’, in Jolliffe, K. (ed.), Cheap Date. Brighton: Slab-o-Concrete Publications.
Availability
My zines are mostly out of print and very rare, though The British Library and The Women’s Library in the UK hold full and partial sets respectively, and you can download copies of some of them from the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP). If you go to a zine library, a feminist library, an autonomous space, a queer archive anywhere else, it’s quite likely you will come across something I have made.