Behind the zines: Family portraits - Sam Orchard

Behind the Zines is our weekly series of zine readings by queer zine makers, and our latest episode featuring Sam Orchard reading from Family Portraits comic is out today!

Family Portraits tells the stories of a group of unique individuals, and explores the awesomeness of their sexual orientations and/or gender identities. These stories celebrate the differences and diversity in our communities. It looks at how our ages, histories, genders, beliefs and ethnicitities shape our experiences of ourselves, and how we live in the world.

This issue features the resource ‘Queer 101’, which has been used across the globe to help demistify gender, sex and sexual orientation. It introduces us to the author, Sam Orchard, and begins to explore his journey as a queer-identified transgender man. This issue also features the story of Peter, a young christian wrestling his beliefs and his sexuality

Sam Orchard writes comics, essays and children’s books, creates animated videos, podcasts, and resources with the aim of celebrating difference. His ongoing web comic 'Rooster Tails' has been running for over 10 years. Written from his life as a queer transgender man, the comic explores themes of mental health, fat embodiment, nerd culture, trans lives, and caring for a food-obsessed cat. Sam is also the author of 'Family Portraits', a series of short comic stories that amplify the stories of intersectional identities within Aotearoa’s rainbow communities.