HEY Y'ALL 

We’ve made it to season two of TIME SPIRALS

I'm gonna be real with you, I'm still reeling from the eclipse last week. It was a new moon in ARIES and I saw it with my own eyes pass over the sun. I had special glasses tho. I don't have much else to say about it but damn, being alive is kinda crazy. I’m continuing to manifest by not manifesting, hope you're doing ALRIGHT.

For this spiral, we’re taking it back to the ACID GIRLS ERA circa 2019-2021.

When I talk about making PSYCHEDELIC BLACK POWER COMICS— this is wtf I'm talking about.

I made ACID GIRLS while I was holed away in my rooftop studio in Mexico City. It was a sacred place where no one was allowed to enter. I’m selfish like that. There, I was also safe from my roommate and her boyfriend, who hated me. 

The story and drawings in ACID GIRLS are based on a wild ass random ass trip (PUN INTENDED) I went on with a new friend. I tagged along on a beach vacation to Holbox, Mexico with a virtual stranger, and pure chaos ensued (go figure). Though I'd been living in Mexico City for a couple years at that point, I'd never really for real for real been to a Mexican tourist destination until then. As much as I like to travel, relax by the beach, see new cultures and places, acting as a traditional tourist from the USA is not that fun for me. It's hard to suspend disbelief of enjoying a cabana while the world burns around you and the ocean, polluted by the tourism industry+, is filled with dead seaweed that smells like rotten eggs. That's just me tho.

This is my "queer, erotic, post-apocalyptic, climate disaster zine"

I wrote this comic in 2019, but did not print it until sometime after the pandemic with a print studio in CDMX which shall remain unnamed, because although the zines came out really cool, I definitely had some issues working with the printers. Before this, I had only ever printed on riso with other punks and feminist collectives, scanning off the glass and using tracing paper. As studios got shut down and connections were lost during the pandemic, I found this printshop, but we had some problems communicating and it was not because of a language barrier. Acid Girls was my first longer form riso zine, and I was also still learning about “the limitations of riso.'' So I found it a bit frustrating working with this printer, since I came from a DIY background and am used to having more agency in my work and collaboration. I showed up with my flat spreads and drawn on tracing paper ready to print off the glass they all but laughed in my face lol. But that's how I learned photoshop! In the end I'm glad I started with a manual construction of the zine before taking it to photoshop, because it helped me figure out my style, and I think it adds a certain JE NE SAIS QUOI that would be lost if I made a purely digital creation. Manual assembly is still a key to my understanding of working with layers in risograph design and printing technique. 

The thing about riso printing is you have to make SO MANY CHOICES so it can be kinda hard to collaborate if your files aren't perfect. In the end, I love how ACID GIRLS came out, these zines are super special, and I am AT PEACE,  but I know that the issues I had with the printer still inform the way I work today as an independent artist who now also prints for others. I’m an artist and I'm sensitive about my shit, and I know that you are too! It's ok!!

Anyway, I'm happy to say, the original ACID GIRLS zines have sold out, and there's new editions in the shop that I printed with my BARE HANDS!  All mistakes you’ll find are my own. I’m so happy with these and the new colorway, they are like little ocean gems. Technically 3 colors: Mint wash with teal and black for a muy aquatio kinda vibe. Printed at the Risolab in 2024. 

Next week, for the scroll, you're in luck, because I found my old notebook from when I was tryna take Acid Girls all the way. Yes, next week I will give you a triumphant glimpse into my failures, with a song and a bits of screenplay. Yeah I tried to make a whole franchise from this lil zine. What can I say, it was a helluva trip. 

Until then —-

STAY ATTUNED

xoxoxo Paige

Leonard Abrams, of East Village Eye, has died. In fact he has been dead for a year, but I only found out when I was invited to his memorial service a few days ago.

I met Leonard in 2017 at a RAKTA  show on a rooftop in Mexico City. I remember it was a “rough” neighborhood, and when I got off the train, a couple of police officers stopped me, concerned that I was alone… please let us escort you? You really don’t want to be out here by yourself.  I was more concerned that I would lose all of my punk credentials if I pulled up to this show escorted by the police, so I told them that I would take the risk. It's not like I had any money. 
 

It felt like a full moon but it wasn't. At the time I was seeing an “older man” who was friends with Leonard and introduced us. Leonard told me that he frequented Mexico City to buy esoteric witchcraft items, like shrunken heads and shit, and then resell them at a high markup to gringos back in the states. Another devil businessman, I thought, but I did like him. The guy I was seeing at the time was a blonde haired blue eyed finance bro with a tattoo above his heart that said “LUCIFER.” I have type. Or I had one. Now I choose to be alone. We hung out into the night, and over the years I kept in touch with Leonard just a little bit. We connected as artists, and I was inspired by the history of his life, his work as a publisher, his unrelenting creativity, his continued curiosity and interest in the world despite his normie exterior. He was a funny and interesting man and I'm happy to have met him. In a timely, cosmic, eclipse season meets mercury retrograde kinda way, I was the one who ultimately delivered the news to my old lover about the passing of his friend, one year after the fact. I was just trying to invite him to the memorial, but he was unaware of his passing at all. As was I; I had messaged Leonard almost a year ago, looking to reconnect. I felt like it was unlike him to not respond, but I didn't realize he was already dead. 

I did not know him very well, but he seemed like a man who had a lot of friends, and so I'm extending this invitation to you in case you knew him. 

The memorial is this Tuesday at the Bowery Poetry Club

𝘉𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣, 308, 𝘉𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘯, 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬

𝘛𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭 16𝘵𝘩. 6 𝘗.𝘔.—9 𝘗.𝘔

doors at 5:30.

"It felt like a full moon but it wasn't." Video of RAKTA on the rooftop in cdmx in 2017, where I first met Leonard Abrams