Michelle Rau

Michelle Rau is an American cartoonist, writer, and artist known for publishing her cartoon zine, Lana's World. She was an active contributor in the alternative publishing, queer zine, and comics landscape of the 1980s and 1990s.

Life

Rau received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Oregon and later completed graduate studies in journalism and communication.[1] [2]

Career

Contributions

Rau has contributed to a number of publications, collaborating alongside many well-known queer cartoonists, editors, and publishers.

  • Strange Looking Exile, issues no. 2, 3, and 5, created and published by Robert Kirby[3]
  • Girljock Magazine, issue no. 2, created and edited by Roxxie
  • Holy Titclamps, issues no. 4, 10, and 11, created by Larry Bob Roberts[3]
  • Lesbian Contradiction, issue no. 30

Factsheet Five

Rau assisted R. Seth Friedman after he became the publisher and editor of Factsheet Five.[4] Rau worked as a staff reviewer, using the staff reviewer tag MIR. In Issue no. 38, Rau contributed her experience to the "Why Publish?" article.[5]

Lana's World

In 1989 Rau started creating a comic book, Lucky Rabbit's Reality No.1, which instead became the first issue of Lana's World, her cartoon zine.[6] Lana's World circulated from 1989 to 1992.[7]

Lana's World began as a solo endeavor, but quickly featured editorials, book, comic, and zine reviews, advertisements, and comics by many cartoonists in the total of 11 issues that were published between 1989 and 1991.[8]

Rau collaborated with and received support from many in the field. Lana's World includes contributions from Gail Elber, Trina Robbins, Roxxie, Heather Perkins, Anne Lehmer, Nikki Gosch, Karen Platt, Angela Bocage, Rhonda Dicksion, Roberta Gregory, Dawn Manna, among many others. Rau frequently credits names like Mike Gunderloy and Alison Bechdel in the issues for their support in publishing Lana's World.[8]

"From APA to Zines"

Rau While attending graduate school, Rau studied fanzines, zines, and alternative media publishing.[1] She continued researching the history of zines, publishing "From APA to Zines: Towards a History of Fanzine Publishing" in the Alternative Press Media in 1994.[9] Rau's work has been referenced a number of times by scholars of zines, alternative media, underground publishing, and self-publishing.[10][11][12][13]

Self-publishing

Rau was frequently acknowledged for her work in the zine and self-publishing world.[14] Kirby repeatedly acknowledged Rau in the forewords of Strange Looking Exile issues, and later commented crediting Rau as one of his inspirations for self-publishing Strange Looking Exile.[6]

Rau is not a career cartoonist or author, but she has continued to write, publish, and pursue creative projects including works like her 2011 novel Guest Room of the Heart. Rau works as a technical writer and she also started a company, How Do You Spell It Productions. Rau has written and published in recent years sharing work through her website, Medium account, email newsletter, and social media.[2]

References
  1. Warren, Roz, editor. “Michelle Rau.” Dyke Strippers: Lesbian Cartoonists A to Z, Cleis Press, 1995, pp. 164–165.
  2. "About". michelle rau. 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  3. Zine Collection Catalog Excel Spreadsheet, Steven McNabb Archives of Social Research, 2020https://mcnabbarchives.wordpress.com/2020/09/17/zine-cataloging-finished/ https://mcnabbarchives.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/mcnabbarchiveszinecollection.xlsx
  4. Friedman, Seth R. “The Factsheet Five Story: Or... Zines Are My Life.” Factsheet Five, no. #64, 1998, pp. 10–12. Factsheet Five Archive Project, 2022, f5archive.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Friedman-The-F5-Story.pdf.
  5. Rau, Michelle. “Why Publish?” Factsheet Five, Oct. 1990, pp. 94–95, archive.org/details/factsheet_five_38/page/n96/mode/1up?q=Rau.
  6. Rau, Michelle (2018-02-18). "It ain't Kansas, Toto, it's Lana's World". Medium.
  7. Rubenstein, Anne. “Designing Women.” OutWeek, 30 May 1990, pp. 44–53, www.outweek.net/pdfs/ow_48.pdf.
  8. Rau, Michelle (2019). It Ain't Kansas, Toto, it's Lana's World: Feminist cartoons and humor from Lana's World fanzine 1989-1991 (Print ebook replica). Vancouver, Washington. ISBN 978-0-9832405-4-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. Rau, Michelle. “From APA to Zines: Towards a History of Fanzine Publishing.” Alternative Press Review, 1994, pp. 2–10-13, archive.org/details/AlternativePressReview/mode/2up.
  10. Atton, Chris. Alternative Media. SAGE, 2002, SAGE Books, sk.sagepub.com/books/alternative-media.
  11. Duncombe, Stephen. Notes from Underground: Zines and The Politics of Alternative Culture. Verso, 1997. 2nd ed., Microcosm Publishing, 2008.
  12. Dodge, Chris. “An Annotated List of Books and Articles about Zines.” A Zine-Ography, Nov. 1998, www.geocities.ws/curvyedge/zineog2.html.
  13. Baines, Jess, et al. “Doing It Ourselves: Countercultural and Alternative Radical Publishing in the Decade before Punk.” Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines from 1976, Edited by Subcultures Network, Aug. 2018, doi:10.7765/9781526120601.00009.
  14. “E- Mail Addresses for Many 'Zine Publishers.” The FACTSHEET FIVE Electronic Mail Address List::: Release 4.0, Totse.com, 23 Sept. 1990, totseans.com/totse/en/ego/on_line_zines/zmail.html.
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