Editing Answer Me!

{{for|the song|Answer Me}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2014}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox magazine
|image_file =
|image_size =
|image_caption =
|editor = [[Jim Goad]]<br>[[Debbie Goad]]
|frequency = Annual
|circulation = 13,000
|category = Social [[pathology]]
|company =
|publisher = Jim Goad<br>Debbie Goad
|firstdate = 1991
|lastdate = 1994
|country = United States of America
|based   = Los Angeles
|language = [[English language|English]]
|website =
|issn =
}}
'''''Answer Me!''''' (typically rendered '''''ANSWER Me!''''') was a [[magazine]] edited by [[Jim Goad]] and [[Debbie Goad]] and published between 1991 and 1994. It focused on the social [[pathology|pathologies]] of interest to the [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]–based couple.

''Answer Me!'' also featured illustrations by  [[Racism|racist]] [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] cartoonist<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/the-surprisingly-mainstream-history-of-the-internets-favorit|title=The Surprisingly Mainstream History Of The Internet's Favorite Anti-Semitic Image|last1=Bernstein|first1=Joseph|date=February 5, 2015|work=BuzzFeed News|accessdate=December 4, 2018|language=en|quote=So. You could stop right there and say that Nick Bougas is the most widely disseminated anti-Semitic cartoonist of all time and not be wrong.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/story/ben-garrison-alt-right-cartoonist/|title=The Alt-Right Found Its Favorite Cartoonist—and Almost Ruined His Life|last=Ellis|first=Emma Grey|date=2017-06-19|magazine=Wired|access-date=2019-05-28|issn=1059-1028|quote=But internet anti-Semites (or at least people fishing for a reaction) started splicing Garrison's work together with the work of Nick Bougas, aka A. Wyatt Man, a director and illustrator responsible for one of the web's most enduring anti-Semitic images.}}</ref> [[Nick Bougas]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Fucking Andrea Dworkin|authorlink=Adam Parfrey|author=Pafrey, Adam|date=1994|journal=Answer Me!|pages=50–53|issue=4|publisher=Jimgoad.net|url=http://www.jimgoad.net/pdf/parfrey.pdf}}</ref>

Issue 4 of ''Answer Me!'' was the subject of a high-profile obscenity trial against two booksellers whose magazine store carried the issue.

==Issues==

===Issue No. 1===
Released 31 October 1991.

Featured interviews with [[Russ Meyer]], [[Timothy Leary]], [[Holly Woodlawn]], [[Frost (rapper)|Kid Frost]], [[Public Enemy (band)|Public Enemy]], [[Iceberg Slim]], and pieces on [[Bakersfield, California]], [[Sunset Boulevard]], [[masturbation]] in [[literature]], and [[Twelve-step program|Twelve-Step programs]].

===Issue No. 2===
Released 17 July 1992.

Featured [[Anton LaVey]], [[David Duke]], [[Al Goldstein]], [[El Duce (Mentors)|El Duce]] of [[The Mentors]], the [[Geto Boys]], [[Ray Dennis Steckler]], 100 [[serial killer]]s and [[mass murder]]ers, [[Vietnam]]ese [[gang]]s, and [[Mexico|Mexican]] [[¡Alarma! (magazine)|murder magazines]].

===Issue No. 3===
Released 19 July 1993.

Featured [[Jack Kevorkian]], [[Al Sharpton]], [[North American Man/Boy Love Association|NAMBLA]], the [[Kids of Widney High]], [[Boyd Rice]], [[Suzanne Muldowney]], 100 [[suicide]]s, [[gun]]s, [[Andrei Chikatilo]], [[pedophilia]] in [[Steven Spielberg]]'s work, [[Mexico|Mexican]] deformity comics{{Clarify|date=November 2024}}, paintings and drawings by murderers, and a prank call to a [[suicide hotline]].

===Issue No. 4===
Released 1994.

Known as "The [[Rape]] Issue", features a teen-mag-style interview with [[Richard Ramirez]], [[Donny the Punk]], work by [[Molly Kiely]], [[Boyd Rice]], Randall Phillip, Shaun Partridge, [[Adam Parfrey]] (on [[Andrea Dworkin]]), [[Peter Sotos]] (with [[illustration]]s by [[Trevor Brown (artist)|Trevor Brown]]), pieces on [[amputation]], the [[police]], [[Racism|racist]] [[Country music|country & western music]], and ''[[#Chocolate Impulse|Chocolate Impulse]]''.

===The book===
The first three issues were released in a collection with autobiographical introductory pieces by Debbie and Jim.  It was first published as ''Answer Me!: The First Three'' ({{ISBN|1-873176-03-1}}) by [[AK Press]].

It was reissued, along with 60 pages of new material, by Scapegoat Publishing ({{ISBN|0-9764035-3-6}}) in 2006.

According to Jim Goad's website {{as of|2012|lc=y}}, a collection of issues #1–4 "will be reprinted this year."<ref>{{cite web|title=BUY|url=http://www.jimgoad.net/index.shtml?buy|work=jimgoad.net|accessdate=11 June 2012}}</ref>

== Controversy ==
In 1995, a complaint about issue no. 4 being sold at a [[Bellingham, Washington]] magazine store known as The Newsstand resulted in owners Ira Stohl and Kristina Hjelsand being tried on charges of distribution of [[obscenity]].<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Question Put Before Court: Is Magazine Smut or Satire?
| work = [[The New York Times]]
| accessdate = 2012-06-11
| date = 1995-11-26
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/26/us/question-put-before-court-is-magazine-smut-or-satire.html
}}</ref> Charged with one felony count of promoting pornography, they faced a maximum sentence of five years in jail and a $10,000 fine. The defendants were found [[Acquittal|not guilty]].<ref>{{Cite news
| last = Bjorhus, Jennifer
| title = Not-Guilty Verdict In Bellingham Pornography Trial
| work = [[Seattle Times]]
| access-date = 2012-06-11
| date = 1996-02-02
| url = https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19960202/2312055/not-guilty-verdict-in-bellingham-pornography-trial----shopkeepers-knowledge-a-factor-says-jury
}}</ref><ref name=foerstel>{{Cite book
| publisher = Greenwood Press
| isbn = 0-313-30245-6
| last = Foerstel, Herbert N.
| title = Banned in the Media: A Reference Guide to Censorship in the Press, Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and the Internet
| year = 1998
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/bannedinmediaref0000foer
}} [https://archive.org/details/bannedinmediaref0000foer/page/16 p 16].</ref> A later lawsuit against the City of Bellingham by Stohl and Hjelsand resulted in the City paying $1.3 million to the plaintiffs on the grounds of violation of [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] rights and infliction of emotional distress.<ref name=foerstel/><ref>{{Cite news
| last = Schaefer, David
| title = Whatcom 'Porn' Case Gets Vendor $1.3 Million
| work = Seattle Times
| access-date = 2012-06-11
| date = 1997-04-13
| url = https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19970413/2533669/whatcom-porn-case-gets-vendor-13-million----judgment-in-free--speech-trial-is-largest-civil-rights-award-in-states-history-lawyer-says
}}</ref>

==''Chocolate Impulse''==
''Chocolate Impulse'' was a "[[hoax]] [[zine]]" created by Jim and Debbie Goad, publishers of ''Answer Me!''. Wanting to address the negative feedback they'd received from the zine community, the Goads wrote and distributed a pseudonymous screed against themselves (in which they claimed to be the lesbian couple "Valerie Chocolate" and "Faith Impulse"), going so far as to set up a fake address for it in [[Kentucky]]. The zine received some positive response from the publishers of ''Feminist Baseball'' and other zines that had negatively reviewed the Goads. In issue #4 of ''Answer Me!'', [[Jim Goad]] revealed the [[practical joke|prank]] and insulted those who had taken the bait.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040619195118/http://www.debased.com/debased/content/literature/a/answer-me.html Short survey with images from ''The First Three'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041012053142/http://www.thegline.com/book-of-the-week/2002/02-11-2002.htm Review of ''The First Three'']
* [[Amazon.com]] [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976403536/ page for ''The First Three'']
* "[http://www.xmag.com/archives/xmag-97/answer.html A Little 'zine Called ''ANSWER Me!'' Demands a Verdict] by Bob Armstrong, an article covering the obscenity trial in Bellingham, from ''[[X Magazine]]''
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120105052705/http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/10/zines.htm Zines, etc.]" by Carrie McLaren, a review of ''ANSWER Me!'' in ''[[Stay Free!]]'' (#10).  [https://web.archive.org/web/20120105052710/http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/letters/goad1.htm Letter to the editor from Jim Goad] in response.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Answer Me!}}
[[Category:Defunct political magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Satirical magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Annual magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Criticism of feminism]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1991]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1994]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:1991 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Magazines published in Los Angeles]]