Although liberally illustrated ‘Different Times – Drag, life, rock’n’roll: Five years in Six Inch Killaz, 1994-99‘ is quite a thick, text-heavy zine at 40 dense pages of A5. The zine looks back at a period of the author Simon’s life when they were very active in the drag punk scene of the 1990s as Mona in the aforementioned band. The zine is sold by Charlotte Cooper at their BigCartel store for £3.00. You can also view some its pages and llustrations on the author’s flickr.
To me the zine seemed almost like an oral history of a culture that I knew nothing about. I found it surprisingly interesting, especially the author’s passing mentions of Asperger’s and some of the resultant social complications, naiveties, and intense loyalties arising thereof. The zine’s first page reads, in part:
“It’s a long zine, so let me break it down: I’ll start with drag in the 90s, the clubs I went to and the wider drag and queer scenes. I’ll introduce you to the five members of the band, our early history, and my zine Girly. Then I’ll talk about the way the band worked and what led to our downfall, before bringing us up to date in a different kind of queer DIY music and drag world.
My memories and opinions may not be shared by the other Killaz, and in some places these are influenced by something I didn’t know about at the time, which is that I have Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s taken me a long time to get around to writing this stuff partly because of it.
Mona/Simon – London, 2013“
Autistic Zines 