A Show of Hands #1

So. Last night, almost six months after actually buying a scanner so I could knock out this lil task, I finally (finally) scanned in A Show of Hands #1 for the edification of all and the glory of posterity. And doesn't it make me cringe! In these pages, you'll find me writing about friendship, feminism, hennaing your hair aaaaaaaand heartbreak. If I was Prince I could claim that ♫I was dreaming when I wrote this♫, but actually I was 21 when I wrote this. It was prepared over 1993 and 1994, and I well remember doing the cut and paste layout sitting on the loungeroom floor of my first home away from home. I inevitably got bits of shaggy carpet caught under the stickytape and in the gluestick, but the feeling I had of *creating* was so exciting. I'll always be thankful for having found out about the medium of zines because it really was life-changing for me, and during my twenties it was a big part of my identity.

This scan was created from the original master, which was so cut and paste that each page is about the thickness of four pieces of paper. In a lot of places you can see my woeful stickytaping job. Clearly I thought the photocopier would hide my ineptitude, but there's no escaping the critical eye of the scanner. Now that I've got the hang of it, I'll be scanning more issues in the near future. So stay tuned, but don't hold your breath either.

Oh yeah, and click on the link below to see this zine in glorious full size, 'cos the image below is just a wee little preview.

A Show of Hands #1