Fray is the magazine of true stories and original art.
Issue 3: Sex & Death
Issue 3 is the product of months of work by dozens of people. It is 60 pages, 8.5x11, perfect bound, offset printed on FSC-certified paper. It includes 28 original illustrations, 18 true stories, one interview, and a full-page spread of 36 lips. It includes the phrases: opposed to cunnilingus, atrocity before dinner, sticky wetness on my palm, volcano of inappropriateness, and zipping up the darkness. Buy it now.
Video by Kevin Meredith
Contents
- Sunglasses Man
- Story by Lindsay Champion
- Illustration by Andrew Wilson
-
Sucks To Be a Straight Guy
Dan Savage on Sex, Drugs, and Santorum - Interview by Jesse Thorn
- Illustration by Ramsey Sibaja
- Braces
- Story by Daniel McDermott
- Illustration by Chad Essley
- Seeds of Love
- Story by John Halcyon Styn
- Illustration by Chris Bishop
- Five Rules for Living
- Story by J. Tarin Towers
-
The Letters Project
Both Sides of the World’s Oldest Profession - By Susannah Breslin
- Illustrations by Jim Unwin
- Of Silence and Oranges
- Story by William Hastings.
- Illustration by Ray Frenden
- Fucking Death
- Story by Derek Powazek
- Illustration by Ana Benaroya
-
Dead Sexy
36 Playboy Bunnies’ Last Centerfold - By Jennifer Daniel
- The Opened Hand
- Story by Ed Wolf
- Illustration by Jim Unwin
- A Day in the Life of a Killer
- Story by Xep Levy
- Illustration by Paul O’Sullivan
- Orphans
- By Steve Silberman
- Coffin Cornered
- Story by Jack Boulware
- Illustration by Rex Crowle
- A Death of Coincidence
- Story by Eric Meyer
- Illustrations by Brooke Nuñez Fetissoff
- What We Talk About When We’re Trying Not To Talk About Death
- Story by Eric Spitznagel
- Illustration by Stefan Grambart
- Diary of the Dead
- Story by Carolyn Sortor
- Illustration by Mal Jones
- Once Around the Corpse
- Story by Jarret Liotta
- Illustration by Andrew Fulton
- Nest
- Story by Emily Morris
- Illustration by Claire Robertson
Introduction
I’d long considered doing a sex-themed issue of Fray, but I was worried that it would end up sounding like an alternate-reality version of Penthouse Letters. Dear Fray, I never thought it would happen to me, but...
I’d also always wanted to do a death-themed issue, but how could we do it in a way that didn’t make the reader want to slit their wrists? By the time I got to these questions, I’d moved on to other theme ideas.
Still, the themes haunted me. Can you think of two subjects we spend more time thinking about, but discuss less? Sex motivates us in ways almost nothing else does – ask any teenage boy why he started playing the guitar. And death lurks in every conversation about age, health, or the future. The fear of it drives the jogger out at 5am and the smoker standing outside in the rain. Run from it or toward it, death is always there.
Something interesting happened when we put the two themes together. At first, the pairing seemed like a simple combination of opposites, but sex and death have a deeper connection. A part of each inhabits the other. That’s why the French called orgasm la petite mort – the little death.
In assembling this issue, I found that death stories are not always sad. At their best, death stories celebrate life. And while sex stories can be funny, they can also be serious. It’s these surprising turnabouts we focused on in this issue.
I also naïvely thought that there would be a hard line between the two themes, but it ended up a spectrum. It turned out that even I had a story that dealt with both. So we’ve structured the issue with the sex stories in front, the death stories in back, and the stories that blur the line nestled in the middle.
As usual in Fray, all the stories here are true. But this issue is special in how close to the core all these stories are. I want to thank our contributors for sharing them with us, and proving my worries wrong. These are some of the most intimate stories we’ve ever published.
I hope this issue helps you see your stories as part of a larger context. Whether tragedy or comedy, sex or death, true stories remind us to enjoy life for all its sharp corners.
Credits
- Derek Powazek
- Frayer-in-chief
- Magdalen Powers
- Managing Editor
- Chris Bishop
- Illustration Editor
- Heather Champ
- Fulfillment
- Frank Barbara
- Cover illustration
- James Goode
- Web menagerie
- Contributors
- Adam Kidder, Ana Benaroya, Andrew Fulton, Andrew Wilson, Brooke Nuñez Fetissoff, Carolyn Sortor, Chad Essley, Claire Roberston, Daniel McDermott, Derek Chatwood, Devin McGrath, Ed Wolf, Edward Chow, Emily Morris, Eric Meyer, Eric Spitznagel, Frank Barbara, Goopymart, J. Tarin Towers, Jack Boulware, Jarret Liotta, Jennifer Daniel, Jesse Thorn, Jim Unwin, John Halcyon Styn, Lindsay Champion, Mal Jones, Miguel Cervantes, Paul O’Sullivan, Ramsey Sibaja, Ray Frenden, Rex Crowle, Stefan Grambart, Steve Silberman, Susannah Breslin, William Hastings, Xep Levy.
