Church Times
Zine, Set of 4, 6pgs each, Mazek, [email protected]
A zine series that is as frenetic as it is illegible (literally, not figuratively), Mazek’s zine series Church Times is a charismatic, if hard-to-decipher set that focuses on queer, trans, non-binary, and intersex discourse. Comprised almost wholly of quotes from LGBTQ pioneers — Kate Bornstein, Aiki Wilchins, Leslie Feinberg, Cristine Jorgensen, Sadie Switchblade, Tom of Finland, Venus Xtravaganza, I could go on — Church Times has an energy behind it that is palpable and charged, alongside a style that is much the same.
Each individual zine is folded using a single page, with a quartet of word and image on either side. The illustrations are emphatic and bare bones, using its icons as muses and producing a series of portraits and tonally appropriate drawings with LGBTQIA+ phrases to accompany them (“ASS PIRATE” with an ass below it being my personal favourite). While the rough-and-tumble style of the zine is an aesthetic choice that I think speaks to the political frame of its con-tent — the writing and drawing here is angry and hectic, and appropriately so — it does, at times, make for a zine that is not particularly accessible in its use of type.
Church Times knows its audience for sure. Scrappy, scratchy queer radicals. But I wonder, will this audience actually be able to read it?