#Unknown zine

[lavenders-and-carnations-zine]

Welcome to Lavender's and Carnation's, an MCYT Pride Month Zine!

This is a zine dedicated to and honoring the queer CC's who have made an impact on this fandom and their fans! It'll feature art, fanfic, and stories about how openly queer CC's have helped people accept/become more comfortable in their identities! (Which, by the way- you don't have to be signed up for the zine to share your story! Anyone can submit one!)

So, how exactly is this zine going to work?

Lavender and Carnation's will feature art and writing like most zines, but it has a special addition to the usual- you can submit your own stories without having to be an official contributor!

Have a CC who helped you become more comfortable with your identity? A CC's character who's impacted you via their story, or has helped you through a rough time in your life? Share your story (anon or not) and you can have it featured in the zine, interspersed with art of that CC's characters and stories!

Okay, this sounds awesome! But wait, how do I apply? What's the criteria for a CC getting nominated for this event? What's the schedule?

Great questions! Here's a basic run-down of the event (along with links to fully explain it)

Applications

There are four roles you can apply for within this event;

Mod

Mod's will help manage the discord server, answer questions, and offer any assistance you may need while creating your piece!

Cover Artist

Cover artists will either be able to apply for the zine cover (which will be a full page spread all the CC's featured in the zine), or as a CC cover artist (which will be a full page spread of all of a CC's character's/relevant side characters)

The applications are open for two zine cover artists, and one artist per however many CC's end up in the zine.

Artist

Non-cover artists will be creating half/quarter page illustrations to be featured along side submitted stories! These drawings can feature the CC themself, a character they portray (alone or with friends!)

If applicable, they can also apply to do a full page drawing of a canon queer relationship with a CC's character in it. (This will only include relationships that are explicitly stated to be romantic/queerplatonic. Examples of this are Milo and Scott from Witchcraft SMP and Aismey and Guqqie from Area Unknown.)

Writer

Writer's can apply to create a piece of writing exploring/featuring a canonical queer character’s identity/relationships. This can feature headcanons for other characters, but please avoid gender-bending for ships (ie, making a M/F ship M/M or a F/F ship M/M!) or changing the canon identity of the CC’s character!

(More information for contributors and mods)

CC Nominations

CC's are nominated based on what the community wants! A Google form with be posted on January 25th where you can nominate your favourite CC's to be featured in this zine. If your CC gets 10 nominations, they'll be considered for the zine!

After that, if enough people sign on to create for your CC, they'll be featured on the zine!

(CC Nomination Requirements)

Event Schedule

The event officially begins on January 12th with an interest check!

CC Nominations and Mod applications open on January 25th and end on February 5th.

The discord server opens on February 8th, followed by Contributor applications opening on February 10th and closing on February 23rd.

Story submissions will be open from February 10th till March 10th!

(How do I submit my personal stories?)

(Official event schedule)

If you've made it this far, please reblog this post so that people who would be interested are able to see it! Thank you for your time, and I'm really excited to see this zine through!

[moeggoi]

The Fair Unknown

My piece for the @GallantTrueZine! Still happy about how it turned out, even two years later <3 Leftover sales are available here

[markuseyes]

Цікаво чи люди були б зацікавлені у купівлі зінів з моїми фото(електронні для принту). Перший раз я почув про зіни коли шарився по сайту лаби, в якій я проявляю плівку, вони друкують зіни з твоїми фото. Потім мені стало цікаво, що воно таке і я б робив таке для людей на замовлення теж(зін з фото і спогадами на день народження наприклад). Люблю працювати з постерами і календарями, не вмію малювати, як хотілось би, але мав можливість оформлювати поліграфію під ілюстрації одного хорошого художника.

|•|

I wonder if ppl would be interested in buying zines with my photography, I saw my local film lab printing zines with ppl's photos(I heard about zines from them for the first time). I like making posters and calendars and shit, even tho I'm an insufferable perfectionist lol

[venterry]

genuinely i dont even care that im not working on an original project, usually for all these years i would rather spend my time on one of my own worlds but ive been having so much fun with sonic for like a Year now and its only going up

im actually serious about these fan works and loving every second of it, sorry to everyone whos looking for other stuff this is the only thing youre gonna get from me this next half decade minimum lol

[tina-aumont]

Two beautiful photos of Tina taken in the late 90s/early2000s. Unknown exact date or photographer, but these photos come from her personal collection and were published in 2002 Cine.Zine.Zone magazine number 134.

Very special thanks to @74paris for sharing these gems 💜💜

Another photo from this very same shot can be found here.

[abimee]

ill be honest with you im personally uninspired and bored by ''male character... but hes a butch lesbian'' because i think it shows a lot in how people are avoidant of looking at content thats not as popular/indie content actually made by lesbians and instead just cling to the newest fad/fandom on the block and make the same boring ''what if this skinny cis guy was actually a skinny cis butch lesbian in a white unbuttoned t-shirt and big boobs'' and the crowd goes wild. and then we continue to lack lesbian media getting popular and we continue this trend until the heat death of the universe. i think im also mostly bored of this because for all the ''but make them butch lesbians'' ive seen not one of them looks like me or my butch friends. you know. chubby and fat. disabled. sick. etc. im bored. IM BORED!

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

The Battle Drum

sequel to The Final Strife, a queer Ghanian/Arabian high fantasy world where people are divided by blood colour

the nightly hurricanes are getting more deadly, and Sylah travels to unknown lands to discover the truth and find help

meanwhile Anoor is trying to manage her new political position while framed for a murder she didn’t commit

[homonyat]

Tangentially related to my passion for communism themed degeneracy but my ancom homegirl has invited me over for dinner. Ma'am last time I came for a party someone ended up on a leash with a mouthful of jackboot plzzz (I ended up with a hangover X3)

[crow-caller]

My contribution:

Addicts also are often the people who need pain pills in the first place. That's often how they get addicted. It's a very hard situation, to find yourself reliant on something that both helps and hurts you- I speak from experience as someone prescribed to high opiates for my chronic health. Take your pills, because it's not noble to suffer and it's better to be alive and dependent then suffer in waiting because you are afraid. actually better to be dependent on pain pills than dead.

A lot of addiction can be a symptom, too. It's not a moral failing, and it might be a failing of something else: if you aren't getting any other help, it's no wonder people abuse the only thing that gives them relief. Look to addicts with sympathy, they are often the exact people you might try to divide them from

It is actually way better for 100 addicts to get their fix on pain pills than a single person in pain go without. I call this the "Torture is bad" principle. You should be able to get the good stuff forever after a single doctor's visit. If you're worried about addicts fund rehab centers and needle exchanges instead of torturing people.

[catrocketship]

[lavenders-and-carnations-zine]

Lavenders and Carnations Zine - Interest Check!

This is a zine dedicated to and honoring the queer CC's who have made an impact on this fandom and their fans! It'll feature art, fanfic, and stories about how openly queer CC's have helped people accept/become more comfortable in their identities! (Which, by the way- you don't have to be signed up for the zine to share your story! Anyone can submit one!)

If you're interested in participating, or submitting a story, please fill out this interest form! It'll be open from January 12th to January 26th, so make sure you remember to fill it out!

Interest Check is linked here!

[zombiesheartwaffles]

I could not be more excited about this zine and I literally cannot wait to see all the amazing content coming together

As promised, here's preview number two of Return to the Unknown's contributors, featuring some of our splendid writers!

CameronClaire ( @zombiesheartwaffles ) Salem ( @thebusytypewriter ) Jumi (twitter) @optimistic-violinist @uboacore Izaak ( @varibean ) @bibliophilea Sam ( @lucky-clover-gazette ) Ciel ( @huoyd ) @xovera-toz

Excited to see some of their work in print? So are we!

Next week, we'll show off some more of our page artists.

CARRD | TWITTER | RETROSPRING

[sabrinahawthorne]

Let’s Grow the RPG Hobby

Inspired by this post and the conversation surrounding it.

So the RPG world is facing a multitude of interconnected problems. Let’s talk about them, shall we?

---

1: The Problem(s)

Writing this, I find it hard to pinpoint a way to frame the subject of this post as a single thing. But it’s also impossible to treat it as it it’s a collection of separate problems. In reality, the issues facing the indie RPG world are A Hydra; a many-headed conglomeration of related issues, which each require organized, dedicated work to solve. A few examples:

The Normie-Indie Divide

A problem close to my heart, The Normie-Indie Divide describes the gradient between the mainstream of an artistic hobby and the really independent stuff. I compare this to movies a lot, but the more apt analogy is video games. The N-I-D in the videogame industry is so small as to be virtually nonexistent.

We can see this via a number of factors – one example being that the same outlets which cover massive blockbusters & sequels like Assassin’s Creed and God of War, also cover popular indie titles like Celeste and Hollow Knight. Then, freelance journalists who write for those publications (Jacob Geller is an example) go on to cover much smaller games on their own time, and so on. There’s a smooth gradient between the media coverage of the huge stuff, all the way down to a thriving (if still underserved) super-independant industry.

The N-I-D in RPGs feels uncrossable. The most well known RPG is so big it’s currenly riding the high of its second major hollywood adaptation in 20 years, and the second most popular – Vampire the Masquerade – is an unknown even to some indie RPG fans.* This hobby is shockingly impenetrable, even to those of us who spend our days swimming in the deepest end of the pool.

The Supply & Demand Problem

This one’s simple: People are pumping out RPGs by the truckload, and there are just too many! Not only does this make it hard to sift through everything to find the thing you want to read, play, or review, it also makes it nearly impossible to get anyone’s eyeballs on the cool thing you just released!

As others have pointed out, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that relative to some other art media, it’s pretty quick and painless to whip up your own zine or one-pager and publish it on itch. This disincentivises even the most invested of us from looking at a ton of new games, and means that sharing your work can feel like you’re being ignored by a huge crowd.

A Road To Solutions

If all of that is making you feel pretty bad for the future of this medium, you’re not alone. It can feel pretty hopeless facing all of these problems as an indie designer when all the tools you have at your disposal are a tumblr account and a few indie friends to complain to.

But the truth is, I think that this Hydra is eminently slayable. I just don’t think we can do it alone. That in mind, I’ve spent a large portion of my day putting together…

The Call to Action

I think there needs to be organized, persistent effort put into the future of this hobby and this industry, and I think it needs to start the way all good movements do: with a lot of petty, semantic argumentation over definitions and implementation. And to kick things off, here’s my step zero: If you’re reading this post because I’ve tagged you in it (or because I’ve sent you a link to it), my Dms are open. I want to put together a discord group chat† of my peers within RPG tumblr who are invested in tackling The Hydra, such that we can start brainstorming plans of attack to disseminate into the wider community.

The issues I wish to address are these:

The Normie-Indie Divide: How do we go about cultivating a casual audience of indie RPG fans who can bring sustainability and longevity to the industry?

The Supply & Demand Problem: How do we minimize the cognitive load of sorting through the huge volume of work extant in this medium, and more generally encourage peer-to-peer interaction within the community, like news coverage, reviews, and marketing?

The Cognitive Frontload Problem: How do we make it easier to actually engage with a given RPG, considering the amount of cognitive & temporal investment needed? Further, how do we make RPGs, both general and specific, more accessible to readers with a wide variety of abilities, preferences, and available time?

The Insular Community Problem: How do we better connect this hobby with itself, such that it feels a little less like several dozen cliques across 4-6 platforms, and more like the growing, evolving single hobbyist community that it is? Further, how do we make this hobby more accessible to newbies outside the influence of The Hegemons of the Coast?

And more. I’m positive I haven’t thought of everything, and that’s exactly why this needs to be a group effort.

As a last note: Please tag other people! The folks I’ve mentioned here are just those who I personally feel I know well enough to tag; let’s get the rest of the community involved! If you know someone who would be interested who isn’t on tumblr, they can email me: sabrinahawthornegames@proton.me.

*I’m not kidding. Multiple times within the last four months, I’ve introduced VtM to people who I would consider pretty in the sauce of RPGs. I’m talking folks who’ve played Heart: The City Beneath or Wanderhome. It’s bizarre.

†I need to stress that this is only a start. I’m not looking to start a big public discord unless that’s what a group of folks decide is the right call. By “group chat,” I mean “a chat which exists for long enough to hold 1-3 group voice calls to discuss and hash things out, before it’s dissolved in favor of the execution of whatever plans we devise.”

@theresattrpgforthat; @omophagic-beast; @ladytabletop; @rowansender; @monsterfactoryfanfic; @arsene-inc; @toyourstations

[tina-aumont]

Beautiful portrait of Tina Aumont taken circa 1974 or 1975 from her personal collection and published in 2002 Cine Zine Zone magazine.

Very special thanks to @74paris for sending me this photo and for the information given.

[spirk-trek]

Starship Kongo Fanzine [Japan] | Unknown artists & dates*

*Information on this zine is... well, almost nonexistent, but I still wanted to share these pages as an example of fan work outside of the US and UK. Star Trek knows no bounds! If anyone who happens upon this has additional information, I'd love to know more 🤍

[the-seraphim-weep]

NSFW under cut MDNI

I wonder if anyone would be intrigued if I started a Patreon for my NSFW art …

It was a pleasure to work on this project 😊

@wiltedmysmes thank you for having me

There are still digital versions of the zine if anyone is interested ♥️