Making Oppositional Means: The Illustrated Zine Literature of Queer Activist Groups in Spain, 1970s to the Present

Abstract

This article traces a brief history of zine literature produced by gay and lesbian activist circles in Spain from the late Francoist years to present, paying specific attention to the publications by the queer Madrid-based groups La Radical Gai and Lesbianas Sin Duda (LSD) in the 1990s. Self-published graphic content is analysed alongside the collective process to produce this literature in an effort to question the ways in which these publications articulate and enact the activist values of the social group in the practice of fanzine creation itself. This article proposes that the collective creation of zine literature in queer activist collectives has operated as both a mode of and means for sustaining oppositional mobilization.