MY LITTLE MEMOIR

     I've now completed three issues of MY LITTLE MEMOIR, a perzine about me, in which I spill all the embarrassing/weird/funny/sad secrets of my childhood and teen years. I'm listing them on Etsy as I complete them. They are all "chapters" culled from my writings during November 2017's National Novel Writing Month, or "NaNoWriMo." It's super fun, and also a little bittersweet sometimes, going through old photos, and reliving significant (to me) events.

     You can find these, plus other zines & comics & art prints, in the TOMMY KOVAC ETSY SHOP.

     "Fatty Fatboobs" parts one and two is about my first high school "girlfriend," and some really shitty stuff my friend "Abby" (real name withheld to protect the not-so-innocent) and I did to her, because we were ALL fucked up back then, being tormented by various factions, and taking it out on each other. And of course I was closeted, and terrified of anyone finding out I was gay. Also terrified of BEING gay. But there's humor in just about anything, in retrospect.

     "1975: Now We Are Four" is the first portion I wrote during NaNoWriMo, and reads the most straightforward as memoir. I don't embellish or fictionalize in that one. And I used lots of photos. Topics include: stuffed animals, the house I grew up in, my dog Happy, grandparents, an awesome avocado tree, Santa, and the Easter Bunny.

#TommyKovac #perzine #zine #diy #writing #indie #autobiography #memoir #humor #bildungsroman #MyLittlePony #gay #LGBTQ #LGBT #queer #nostalgia #1980s #1970s

STAR HITS : Pete Burns

     So I may have had a few issues of Star Hits in my time, during the 1980s. And I may have obsessively combed each issue for pictures of the Cure, Dead or Alive, Siouxsie, Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, etc. 

     I was out in the garage a week or so ago, and found just some of my old collection. Tucked carefully inside the front cover of the Star Hits 1987 Yearbook were the following. Behold, the Pete Burns pin-ups that used to grace the mint green walls of my teenage bedroom...

     I had these and even several full-size posters of Pete Burns on the walls, ceiling, and door of my bedroom when I was about 15 or 16, and it still came as a somewhat shocking surprise to most of my friends and family that I'm gay. Those were the '80s, though.

     NOTE: I never had a boner for Pete Burns, because he's way too feminine, and I'm gay. I just thought he was the coolest thing ever, and I wanted to BE him. I even had a black eyepatch and a Triumph belt buckle like you see in the first picture. But I never could make them work in an outfit. I knew my limitations.

PONY COMPETITION

     I found a great shelf in an antique store that I knew would be perfect for displaying My Little Ponys. All it needed was a new paint job. The problem is there are only 18 spots, and I'll have to select the very best ones out of my collection of over 70 ponies. I have new ones, old ones from the '80s, and random ones from decades between then and now. I appreciate the newer Friendship Is Magic ponies, but I prefer the vintage 1980s originals, especially when they started getting really weird and doing carousel ponies, glitter ponies, and ponies that aren't even ponies. (camel, zebra, lion, giraffe, etc.)
   
Pony Competition Staging Area

     All ponies gather in a staging area on the card catalog beneath the display shelf, to await judgement.

Tier One of nervous contestants

     Some ponies, like some people, just aren't good enough. Some of them wonder, "Am I too dirty? Mane too tangled?" 
     One vintage pony notices newer ponies scoffing at her partially rubbed off cutie mark. She lowers her head, hope fading with the sunset.

Tier 2 pony contestants wonder, "Are we on the lower tier for a reason? Did we do something wrong?"
Baby Rattles: ridden hard and put away wet?
     Baby Rattles is clearly vintage, and looking the worse for wear. He (she?) is a sleepy-time pony whose eyes are supposed to close when you tip her back into sleeping position. They only partially work now, and are pink-tinged and swollen around the edges. Has she been crying?
     Buck up, Baby Rattles. Judgement Day is upon you.

(to be continued)