"Darn! One of our editors is dead."

May 6, 2010 6:07 AM

Diseased Pariah News started in 1990 as "a patently offensive publication of, by, and for people with HIV disease (and their friends and loved ones). We are a forum for infected people to share their thoughts, feelings, art, writing and brownie recipes in an atmosphere free of teddy bears, magic rocks, and seronegative guilt." It ran for 11 issues over the next 9 years, 8 of which can be found here. (NSFW, irritating interface)

Featuring bitterly amusing columns (cooking advice under "Get Fat, Don't Die"), amusingly bitter commentary ("Together for Eternity: Roy Cohn and Kimberly Bergalis"), and often clever centerfolds of HIV positive models (including one that could only be viewed by using a cylindrical mirror), this zine was a breath of fresh air during its run, and is still interesting reading today.

In the interests of full disclosure, I used to sell a lot of copies at my store.

posted by GenjiandProust (4 comments total)

So what is this? A bunch of AIDS jokes? What's so damn funny about a pandemic devastating the world? Well, we have it and sometimes we find it amusing. After all, life itself kill everybody, and there's much about life that is purty darn funny, if you like humor.

I'll never stop being amazed at people's ability to be so damn full of life in the midst of so much death.
posted by Kattullus at 6:30 AM on May 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

I loved DPN, it was a real eye-opener for me. Somewhere in a box I still have my old issues. The online versions are awesome, nice find. But my actual print copy of issue #5 was printed with ink made from the cremains of Tom Shearer. Actual plague ashes right on the page, just a little extra contrast.

DPN has a great series from porn star Scott O'Hara. Issue 3 has one on page 7. He was an interesting guy, good writer. Scott later brought us Steam Magazine, another document from the decade of ACT-UP and Queer Nation. While we're on topic, Queers Read This.
posted by Nelson at 6:40 AM on May 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh, and "paper view" is the least annoying of the viewing options (click the button up top that's two little boxes in front of a bigger one). The pages can also be printed-to-document, which is also fairly handy.
posted by Kattullus at 6:46 AM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, I was such a fan back when I was into the world of zines. I had a T-shirt, even. Something along the lines of "The blood of over 100,000 Americans who've died of AIDS, Mr. President? You're soaking in it!"
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:16 PM on May 6, 2010 [1 favorite]