Gay Goth Scene
Issue #1, 2001
Gay Goth Scene is a zine by Joel Gibb and Paul P.
Published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, three issues of Gay Goth Scene were released. The first issue appeared in 2001. The title was revived in 2014 for Issue #3.
Joel Gibb had previously published the zine Glamour Guide For Trash in the 1990s, and Tops and Bottoms in the 2000s.
It was a black and white zine consisting of mainly collage and photo manipulation of appropriated gay pornography and nudist magazines form the 1960s and 1970s. Using markers and white-out, the models were altered to look like Goths.
In the publication Queer Zines 2, edited by Philip Aarons and AA Bronson (Printed Matter/Witte de With, 2014), Paul P. states, "Gay Goth Scene zine was two things. First it was a marriage for our overlapping bred-in-the-bone fascinations - Joel had composed "Gay Goth Scene", a song about a vicious cycle of gay goth teenage alienation (a live favourite for years that has only recently been recorded and released), and I was making portraits of guys from vintage gay porn magazines painted wearing masks with bats flying in the background, albeit in a pink palette. Secondly though, Gay Goth Scene was also a loving homage, as well as a bit of send-up, of a zine phenomenon particular to Toronto, which with J.D.s and This Is The Salivation Army (it’s creator Scott Treleaven had recently become my boyfriend), was famous for purporting to the world a fully formed underground or riotous gang that never really quite existed outside the lives of its makers - though through self-publishing their scenes were eventually willed into existence! From Xeroxes of vintage porn embellished with Whiteout and a Sharpie, Gay Goth Scene was always earnest in its sentiment – “we crave evil cock”! The scene is (still) growing!"
Gay Goth Scene was one of the featured titles in the 2023-2024 Brooklyn Museum exhibition devoted to artist-made zines, Copy Machine Manifesto.
