#ash spittal

[snappingthewalls]

[newzealandzinereview]

The Boys Club by Ash Spittal (2013)

The Boy’s Club is Ash Spittal’s first zine, which debuted at Auckland Zinefest in 2013. It’s a collection of illustrations of real and imagined people in the transmasculine community in Aotearoa. Ash’s zines are always elegant and refined, and The Boy’s Club is no exception. The zine is printed on off-white card, with a brown paper cover, and held together with a simple rubber band all allow you to focus on his amazing illustrations. The illustrations are lovingly drawn and range from hyper masculine bear-type men, to sweet femmey boys in dresses; which all work to reflect the idea that there are many ways to be a man. In short, beautiful and inspiring.

Zines’ of Year’s Past review by Sam Orchard, Rooster Tails.

Each print annual we ask zine-makers from around the country to share with us a zine that’s made an impact on them, from years gone by. This review features in our NZZR print annual #3, 2015.

[newzealandzinereview]

The Boys Club by Ash Spittal Cost: $3.50 Contact: ashspittal (at) gmail (dot) com twitter.com/ashspits

An intriguing plain brown paper cover and plastic wrapping cleverly sets up the readers expectations for the boys club, a collection of gorgeous pin-ups in both the beef cake and the comic book sense.

This is no pointless collection of character designs, or Brian Michael Bendis line up of high concept characters stranded without a plot. Spittal's character portraits are well observed and drawn with assurance and warmth. Like in Adrian Tomine's illustration work, each person drawn in this zine seems to be both caught in a unique moment, and to carry with them an entire implied narrative.

Bonus points as well for excellent use of a centre double page spread.

-CH

Claire is an artist and a recovering comic book nerd.