Really juicy secrets
Political comics magazine The Nib has themed issues around drugs and death, but this edition, themed ‘Secrets’, might be their juiciest yet. “The foundation of human existence is attraction to, or repulsion from, the unknown”, associate editor Mattie Lubchansky explains in their opening letter. “The release of tension when a secret is broken into your confidence is maybe the most satisfying feeling in the world… in this issue we wanted to pass that feeling onto you: our beloved reader.”
The secrets in here are personal and political: one comic, for example, tells the story of Israel’s “not-so-secret nukes”; another tells the story of a gay woman who became a straight girl’s secret.
But the most compelling revelations are saved for the final pages. Every issue, The Nib asks its readers to send in letters to the editor related to the theme; this time it asked for secrets. The stories are wild, made wilder by the fact that they were divulged not by writers or artists for “content”, but by readers at home, sending off their deepest darkest secret on a whim, or because they simply couldn’t keep it inside a second longer.
The Nib gave us permission to reprint our favourites here.
“Our kids had a pet turtle but never fed it. So I told them it had died when really I tossed it in the garbage still alive and let them think they were horrible for starving it to death.”
“For my birthday this year a kinky friend has set up a gang bang for me. Happy birthday to me!”
“I balanced careers in the bay area tech and (gay male) BDSM sex industries for twenty years.”
“My brother isn’t my brother and he’ll never know.”
