Kindly give us a short description of yourself and the work you do
I’m Stevie Wilson, serial zinest, maker of things, crafty costuming painted up lady. I do a variety of different comics but I’ve been putting out a couple zines a year made up of Auto-bio essay comics. I’ve been putting comics on the web since the early webcomic days. I’ve been told I’m more honest and open as my comic self then perhaps I can be in person.
My ongoing collection “You’re doing it wrong”
How did you get introduced to zines? Were you influenced by anyone?
My dad had a collection of sci-fi zines from the 70’s and I grew up surrounded by my parents underground comic friends. Shary flenniken being one of them, I guess she inspired me to start writing notes about conversations I had or things I overheard to draw on for writing inspiration. I started keeping journal comics in high school and over the last couple of years they transformed into my personal platform for social equality. Like mini essays with pictures and a lot of sarcasm. I’ve probably been making zines for about 10 years at this point.
How did you come to collect zines? Why are they important to your collection?
I went to school for comics, so my zine collection started out as stuff my classmates and friends made. A lot of them were trades or bought to support artists who were near and dear to my heart.
What does it mean to do “feminist zine-making”? Does feminism appear in your work (explicitly or implicitly)?
Well most of my current zine series is about different aspects of feminism and gender issues by reacting to stuff in media, I try to break down issues into points and use personal experiences to make light of what society is doing wrong. I feel like giving a voice to under represented or marginalized issues is a way to give people something to relate to, especially issues that are day to day sexism that people often shrug off and are told to “get over it”.
What is your favorite zine or piece of mail art? Do you like any specific style/part of a zine?
Its some where between my friend Miriam Gibson’s group pokemon zine, which comes in an amazing pokemon envelope. Its so clever it makes me angry, or Megan Brennan’s “Comics the cat” which is a hysterical mini mini about the comics industry being gross but as represented by an adorable cat.
I like zines that make me smile, I guess at heart I like a well crafted joke and some good writing.
If you could sum up your zinester life in a kitchen appliance, what appliance would it be?
My nearly 40 years old Kitchen-aid mixer, it’s stylishly retro and a work horse beast. (I’m pretty mean with a stapler)
NYC Feminist Zinefest 