Review: Horrifying Beasts from our Trans Nightmares

Horrifying Beasts from our Trans Nightmares

Artzine, Sly Sketcher, instagram.com/slysketcher, $10

The more visible trans folks become, the more we deal with all kinds of weird and confusing transphobes. Literally so, so many. Endless. They lurk all over. They can be friends or family. They can be a random stranger on the street. All day, every single day we run into these horrifying beasts! Which makes Sly’s zine extremely endearing and fun. Essentially the bestiary of transphobes, Sly names these beasts, gives them a definition and a usage example, just like the dictionary. Each creature is also drawn by Sly so we can see how gnarly the beasts are.

Horrifying Beats from our Trans Nightmares is fun. It lets us make jokes and fight back against relentless transphobia in a goofy way. There’s a lot of struggle in being trans, but I wouldn’t change a thing and this zine is a reminder of the community I hold with so many wonderful people. 

We’re all out here dodging the boogeymen, trolls, and ghosts so why not be able to joke about them too?