Punk Lust #15

Punk Lust was a free zine created by W.H. Pugmire, chronicling the Seattle Punk scene in the 1980s and 1990s, billed as a “Militant Queer Gothique Punk Transvestite” publication. Pugmire published this 15th edition of Punk Lust in March 1995, as a tribute to his lover Todd Frank Nelson (b. unknown). This issue features two handwritten songs by Nelson, Wound Song Dumb and 24 Years. There is also a short story by Pugmire, called “The Boy with the Bloodstained Mouth.” On the back cover there is a photo of Pugmire and another of Nelson. Under Pugmire’s image, “Love Lies Choking” is written in pen. This issue was the second release of the second incarnation of Punk Lust, which Pugmire had stepped away from when Seattle’s hardcore punk scene became insular, intolerant, and violent, during which time he returned to the horror, fantasy, and sci-fi community. This edition and those following were more personal and introspective than his earlier issues, which were first published in 1981. 

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, born William Harry and published as W.H. Pugmire (1951 – 2019) was a weird fiction and horror writer in Seattle, Washington. He took the name Hopfrog from the Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name, and his fiction and prose poetry often also paid homage to H.P. Lovecraft Pugmire was openly gay since the early 1970s and referred to himself as a “punk rock queen and street transvestite.” He published numerous short fiction and poetry collections, and his work also appeared in anthologies such as The Year’s Best Horror Stories, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and Weird Tales. He died in 2019 after eight years of complications due to congestive heart failure.