Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist

Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist

Author: Diane DiMassa

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2025-01-14

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1681378612

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“Hothead is the backlash to the backlash.” —Alison Bechdel Hothead Paisan, a murderous icon of the ’90s LGBTQ+ comics scene, comes roaring back into print in this fresh edition (including a new interview and supplemental materials) of one of the funniest, sharpest, and most unexpectedly warm comics of the late twentieth century, still as shocking today as it was more than two decades ago. Hothead Paisan is an icon of the ’90s lesbian DIY scene, a patron saint of those who wonder if going off the deep end is the only sane response to life in modern America. Diane DiMassa’s Hothead starts out in a murderous frenzy—taking out a variety of everyday chauvinists and creeps—but soon deepens into a reflection on oppression, self-destruction, and living it up outside the conservative norms of the ’90s. Hothead’s rage is sometimes tempered with the help of Thing #2, her defensive inner demon; Roz, her friend who offers Zen wisdom and tough love; and Chicken, her cat and constant companion. Drawn by DiMassa with an energetic line and rich detail, the Hothead comics recall the work of both R. Crumb and Julie Doucet. This collection includes a new interview with DiMassa along with a selection of fan mail and other materials that shed light on Hothead’s vast underground following. At last, the most thoughtful homicidal maniac is back in print.


Acts of Gaiety

Acts of Gaiety

Author: Sara Warner

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2012-10-26

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0472118536

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Against queer theory's long-suffering romance with mourning and melancholia and a national agenda that urges homosexuals to renounce pleasure if they want to be taken seriously, Acts of Gaiety seeks to reanimate notions of "gaiety" as a political value for LGBT activism by recovering earlier mirthful modes of political performance. The book mines the archives of lesbian-feminist activism of the 1960s–70s, highlighting the outrageous gaiety—including camp, kitsch, drag, guerrilla theater, zap actions, rallies, manifestos, pageants, and parades alongside "legitimate theater”-- at the center of the social and theatrical performances of the era. Juxtaposing figures such as Valerie Solanas and Jill Johnston with more recent performers and activists including Hothead Paisan, Bitch and Animal, and the Five Lesbian Brothers, Sara Warner shows how reclaiming this largely discarded and disavowed past elucidates possibilities for being and belonging. Acts of Gaiety explores the mutually informing histories of gayness as politics and as joie de vivre, along with the centrality of liveliness to queer performance and protest.


“Suffering Sappho!”

“Suffering Sappho!”

Author: Michelle Ann Abate

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-30

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1000460339

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Comics have been an important locus of queer female identity, community, and politics for generations. Whether taking the form of newspaper strips, comic books, or graphic novels and memoirs, the medium has a long history of featuring female same-sex attraction, relationships, and identity. This book explores the past place, current presence, and possible future status of lesbianism in comics. What role has the medium played in the cultural construction, social (and literal) visibility, and political advocacy of same-sex female attraction and identity? Likewise, how have these features changed over time? How have nonheteronormative female characters been raced, classed, and gendered? What is the relationship between lesbian comics and queer comics? What role has the medium played in establishing the distinction between lesbian and queer female identity as well as blurring, reinforcing, or policing it? What roles have queer female comics, characters, and cartoonists played in the origins, history, and evolution of sequential art as a genre? The essays in this book inspire an engagement with these and other questions as well as provide an exploration of possible answers. They provide a compelling examination of a variety of important titles, characters, creators, topics, themes, and issues. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.


No Straight Lines

No Straight Lines

Author: Justin Hall

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Published: 2013-08-03

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1606997181

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No Straight Lines showcases major names such as Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, and Ralf Koenig (one of Europe’s most popular cartoonists), as well as high-profile, crossover creators who have dabbled in LGBT cartooning, like legendary NYC artist David Wojnarowicz and media darling and advice columnist Dan Savage. No Straight Lines also spotlights many talented creators who never made it out of the queer comics ghetto, but produced amazing work that deserves wider attention. Queer cartooning encompasses some of the best and most interesting comics of the last four decades, with creators tackling complex issues of identity and a changing society with intelligence, humor, and imagination. This book celebrates this vibrant artistic underground by gathering together a collection of excellent stories that can be enjoyed by all. Until recently, queer cartooning existed in a parallel universe to the rest of comics, appearing only in gay newspapers and gay bookstores and not in comic book stores, mainstream bookstores or newspapers. The insular nature of the world of queer cartooning, however, created a fascinating artistic scene. LGBT comics have been an uncensored, internal conversation within the queer community, and thus provide a unique window into the hopes, fears, and fantasies of queer people for the last four decades. These comics have forged their aesthetics from the influences of underground comix, gay erotic art, punk zines, and the biting commentaries of drag queens, bull dykes, and other marginalized queers. They have analyzed their own communities, and their relationship with the broader society. They are smart, funny, and profound. No Straight Lines has been heralded by people interested in comics history, and people invested in LGBT culture will embrace it as a unique and invaluable collection.


Pussycat Fever

Pussycat Fever

Author: Kathy Acker

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13:

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"From the book 'Pussy, king of the pirates' by Kathy Acker"--Title page verso.


Jokes and the Unconscious

Jokes and the Unconscious

Author: Daphne Gottlieb

Publisher: Cleis Press

Published: 2006-06-29

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 157344250X

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A graphic tale presented through the collaborative efforts of a slam poet and the creator of Hothead Paisan follows the experiences of nineteen-year-old Sasha, who after losing her father to cancer, takes a form-filling job at a hospital, where she encounters an array of colorful characters. Original.


He Done Her Wrong

He Done Her Wrong

Author: Stuart M. Kaminsky

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2011-12-13

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1453232885

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Goodness has nothing to do with it as a hard-luck private eye in 1940s Hollywood takes a case for legendary silver screen sex symbol Mae West. In the early days of talking pictures, the greatest sex symbol in Hollywood was the platinum-blonde bad girl Mae West. Naughty and gorgeous with a razor-sharp wit, West wrote her own material and controlled her own image—until the censors came in and outlawed the racy repartee that made her famous. By the forties, her star has faded and she’s banking everything on a scandalous memoir that she hopes will set the stage for a comeback. When the only copy is stolen, she calls in a favor from an old beau—the brother of wisecracking PI Toby Peters. When Mae West asks, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” you don’t say no. Peters arrives at a party at West’s house, where every guest is a man dressed as the woman herself—and one of them may be the thief who stole the manuscript. But before he can tear off the culprit’s wig, Peters finds that this is about more than theft. The crook wants to destroy Mae West, and he has murder on his mind. The star of Edgar Award winner Stuart M. Kaminsky’s fun forties private eye series, “Peters is a good guy with a sense of humor, and every appearance he makes is a welcome one” (Booklist).


Un/Popular Culture

Un/Popular Culture

Author: Kathleen Martindale

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 1997-03-13

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 143841210X

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Theorizing lesbian, Kathleen Martindale writes, is like embarking on terra incognita. In this book, Martindale offers her lucidly written analysis as a guide through the complex and provocative terrain of lesbian literary and cultural theory. Using the publication of Adrienne Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence and the outbreak of the American sex wars as a starting point, Martindale traces the emergence of lesbian postmodernism and how lesbian-feminism changed from a popular to an un/popular culture and from a political vanguard into a cultural neo-avant garde. Martindale analyzes the theoretical implications of "creative" texts such as the graphic art and cultural commentary of Alison Bechdel and Diane DiMassa. She experiments in autobiography by Joan Nestle, and deconstructed lesbian genre fiction by Sarah Schulman to determine how these texts elaborate contemporary theoretical issues. These texts, she argues, are widely available and could be considered as postmodernist rewritings and revisions of the most characteristic and preferred lesbian-feminist modes of cultural expression. Her analysis raises poignant questions about how lesbians read, what they read, and what counts as lesbian theory. She concludes with a discussion of the status of queer pedagogy in academic institutions and what measures need to be taken to promote and safeguard its existence in what are often homophobic educational settings.