*** Welcome to piglix ***

Fanorama


Fanorama (also known as Fanorama Society and Fanorama Cabal) is a Rhode Island-based zine and zine-distro produced by journalist/activist REB (Richard E. Bump). According to their website it is the "grand-daddy of the queer zine scene".

First published in 1992, Fanorama emerged as part of the queercore movement, largely inspired by the zine J.D.s (edited by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce), and the Toronto scene from which J.D.s came. Initially a punk-edged collage of gay porn and commentary, REB soon added a strong, anti-assimilationist political voice to the mix, turning the zine into an artful version of the weekly "Queerbeat" column he contributed to Rhode Island's alternative arts newspaper, The NicePaper. The Fanorama tag line at the time became, "For those who want a little smut with their politics, or a little politics with their smut."

Fanorama began to generate controversy, particularly as it addressed racism and sexism in the gay mainstream establishment; one detractor in the media called REB a "kiddie pornographer-turned-moral watchdog". During this period, REB was instrumental in leading protests against a local gay bar over a management-led racist incident - a battle which would take center stage in the gay politics of Rhode Island for the better part of a year. Despite what he began to call his "infamy," REB's popularity as a personality grew, and he was invited to emcee a mid-1990s Rhode Island Gay Pride celebration; though accepting the position, he would take its organizers to task in later years for the increasing commercialism of the event.

Over the course of its publication, Fanorama ran interviews and photo essays with such queer counter-culture heroes as comic book artist Robert Kirby, punk rockers Pansy Division, filmmaker and zine editor Scott Treleaven, and Tommy Ace of the controversial AIDS humor zine, Diseased Pariah News. It has been dubbed "the Grandaddy of Queerzines" by Factsheet 5. After publishing an issue in which REB mourned his break-up with future Juha frontman Collin Clay, Fanorama took a turn towards pagan spirituality, influenced greatly by his work with the Radical Faeries.


...
Wikipedia

...