Tonight: Zinester and graphic novelist Cristy Road at the Denver Zine Library

"Medusa," by Cristy Road.

​Cristy Road is a queer punk-rocker radical feminist Cubana artist and writer; her career as a 'zinester dates back to the 7th grade and a time when she struggled with personal gender and identity issues, masking over her true feelings with a combination of deep-felt loneliness and an obsession with the band Green Day. And it's Green Day that led her into the 'zine world.

​"I started my Green Day fanzine in 1996. I wanted to be in the punk community, to really contribute to its politics. Then, it snowballed, and I started to also do interviews of local band punk bands and stuff like that. I got a positive response, so I started being more open with with my identity, and I became more political. The last two issues of Green'Zine were about mental health and the community response to violence that happens in queer communities."

The increasingly politicized Road graduated from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, and eventually landed in Brooklyn, with new ideas boiling. Though she loved the milieu of the Xerox machine, she was ready to move on.

"I was at a turning point in life. I had just moved to New York City, and started thinking, 'I want this to have a spine. I want it to be accessible outside of a small community. So it became a book. It seemed like the biggest opportunity for me to set myself apart from the DIY punk lifestyle as a writer -- though that is still my lifestyle." That urge turned into her first illustrated paperback book, the autobiographical Indestructible.

"Ten of Swords," Cristy Road.

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"Then I went on the Sister Spit tour, and it was so amazing: There were all these great queer writers, and it had a summer camp feeling to it. I learned so much about myself and how I can still be real to myself and my politics and still progress as a writer."