Gay Goth Scene

[Joel Gibb and Paul P]
Gay Goth Scene
Toronto, Canada: Middle Path Prints, 2016
12 x 16"
Edition of 25 signed copies


The Gay Goth Scene zine was a collaboration between painter Paul P and musician Joel Gibb, created when they held jobs at Coles Books and Sam the Record Man, under the pseudonyms Bones and Raven. The full bleed screenprint is printed in goth black and semi-transparent white to mimic photocopy and liquid paper, on pearl grey Stonehenge paper. It is available for $300 CDN at /edition Toronto this week, from Daryl Vocat's Middle Path Prints.

Paul P (Bones) has subsequently exhibited in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, as well as in group shows at MoMA, and the Freud Museum, London.  His work is in the collections of MoMA, LACMA, The Brooklyn Museum, SFMoMA, The AGO, and The Whitney among others.

Joel Gibb (Raven) is the songwriter and leader of The Hidden Cameras, who signed to Rough Trade in 2002, have since released 5 studio records. The band's 6th LP, Home on native land, will be released at the end of next month.  Hear the b-side to their 2003 single Ban Marriage, an ode to self-publishing called Fear of Zine Failure, here.

"We've been friends since we were ten years old and grew up together in suburbia, living one street away, going to the same church, bonded by our love of making campy jokes and by music (including a shared goth phase).  We were obsessed with bands and went to the city to see shows several times a week, for years and years.  We loved the idea of the underground, and sonically it ministered to us, but for all of our efforts (making zines, having a band, and loitering in cool places) we never managed to find the underground, at least nothing more interesting that what we'd cultivated between just the two of us.  Years later, at the photocopy store, we'd already each embarked upon our principle artistic métiers: Joel as a musician with his newly inaugurated The Hidden Cameras, and me, as a painter.  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!"

- Paul P. , Queer Zines 2. Philip Aarons, AA Bronson. Printed Matter/Witte de With, 2014.