Fanorama
Encyclopedia
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
-based zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
and zine-distro produced by journalist/activist REB (Richard E. Bump). According the their website it is the "grand-daddy of the queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
zine scene".
First published in 1992, Fanorama emerged as part of the queercore
Queercore
Queercore is a cultural and social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of punk. It is distinguished by being discontent with society in general and its rejection of the disapproval of the gay, bisexual, and lesbian communities and their "oppressive agenda"...
movement, largely inspired by the zine J.D.s
J.D.s
J.D.s is a queer punk zine founded in Toronto by G.B. Jones and co-published with Bruce LaBruce, that ran for eight issues from 1985 to 1991....
(edited by G.B. Jones and Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce
Bruce LaBruce is a Canadian writer, filmmaker, photographer and underground gay porn director based in Toronto, Ontario.-Biography:...
), 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 rag, 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
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
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
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
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
Robert Kirby (comics artist)
Robert Kirby is the creator of the syndicated comic Curbside.Curbside is the story of two young men, Drew, an aspiring writer, and Nathan, an aspiring musician, who meet and eventually form a tumultuous relationship...
, punk rockers Pansy Division
Pansy Division
Pansy Division is an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California in 1991. Featuring primarily gay musicians and focusing mostly on gay-related themes, Pansy Division is one of the more melodic-oriented bands to emerge from the "queercore" movement that began in the 1980s.-Early...
, filmmaker and zine editor Scott Treleaven
Scott Treleaven
Scott Treleaven is a Canadian artist whose work employs a variety of media including collage, film, video, drawing, photography and installation.-Artwork:...
, and Tommy Ace of the controversial AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
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
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
spirituality, influenced greatly by his work with the Radical Faeries
Radical Faeries
The Radical Faeries are a loosely-affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-imitation and redefine queer identity through spirituality. The Radical Faerie movement started in the United States among gay men during the 1970s sexual and counterculture...
.
The current incarnation of Fanorama is essentially as a prisoners' rights magazine influenced initially by the stories prisoners sent to its "Letters" section. It still retains pornography and spiritual angles. The relationships REB developed with prisoners over time were also the impetus for Fanorama to become a publisher of prisoner-authored works. This has led to its constituency expanding from its queer following to include an anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
/activist readership, particularly since having caught the attention of Maximum Rocknroll
Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum rocknroll is a widely distributed, monthly not-for-profit fanzine based in San Francisco, USA. It features interviews, columns, and reviews from international contributors...
and Punk Planet
Punk Planet
Punk Planet was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covered visual arts and a wide...
, and more recently gaining the praises of headbanger favorite, Metal Maniacs
Metal Maniacs
Metal Maniacs was a heavy metal magazine founded in 1989 by Mike G. and Katherine Ludwig of Metal Shop. It was focused largely on covering extreme metal, with emphasis on the black and death metal genres...
. REB told Punk Planet in 2005: "After doing my zine for over 12 years, after publishing and distributing countless inmate-produced publications, after corresponding with literally hundreds of prisoners, the only folks who ever made me feel 'unsafe' were folks in the free world."
The film division of Fanorama has included REB's documentary Queer Rage (chronicling events leading up to and coming out of a riot at the RI State House) and art films Nocturne In E Flat, Jerk Off '94, Waltz of the Flowers, and 13 Boys. Shot mostly on Super-8 film or video, they have been played at queer indie film festivals across the United States. REB also facilitates workshops and is a speaker on the issues of zine making, queer rights, and prisoners' rights. Excerpts from Fanorama have been published in the gay-oriented encyclopedia Out In All Directions (Warner Books), That's Revolting: Queer Strategies For Resisting Assimilation, edited by Matt Bernstein Sycamore (Suspect Thoughts), and Afterwords: Real Sex From Gay Men's Diaries.
In 2007, REB was part of a collective that opened The Earthworm, an underground live music venue and art gallery in Akron, Ohio. In 2008, after The Earthworm closed, REB founded Hellville Records. In October 2008, Fanorama was featured in a comprehensive retrospective of queer zines at The NY Art Book Fair held at Phillips de Pury & Company. He is currently working on a retrospective edition featuring the best of the Fanorama Society publications.
Zine'ography
- Ambiguous Ambrosia by Paul Moore
- Birdland by a Soledad State Prison collective
- Chairman Of The Bored by a Folsom State Prison collective
- Fanorama by REB
- Flakes by Darren Hamby
- Flowers From The Grave by Walter James
- The Hated by William Wright
- Left Back by Chadd Beverlin
- One Woman's Story by Kebby Warner
- Punk Pagan by Michael Killeen
- Reflections by Frederick Fisher
- Solitary Existence by Travis "SK8" Harramen
- Thoughts Of My Liberation by Frederick Fisher
- Unheard Silence by Devin Baker
- Wiener Society by Neil "Wiener" Edgar
- Obscene Emission by Neil Edgar