#excelent concept zine

[linipik]

Good Omens Zine following Aziraphale and Crowley in one of their favorite spotson earth!

"From the Grand Opening in 1898 to modern times, follow this Demon and his Angel on their adventures, and the routines that surely follow at a table for two for An Evening At the Ritz!"

With profits going to the A4TE Advocates for Trans Equality and Joyful Heart Foundation.

The day has come at last... Ineffably Grey preorders are open!! Find our 200 page A5 zine, prints, charms, stickers, and other merch in our shop!

https://ineffablygreyfanzine.bigcartel.com/

[crescentfool]

ezekiel moon for @darknicjen!

[drowthelynes]

Woot woot finally yeeting our @zukkanovels piece on the socials (yes I had this in my drafts forever bc post deadline haze I Went Completely Blank Booboo Fool)

This was my first time in the zine and it was so Gud Soupe ✨✨✨

'I Gacha Back' - written and illustrated by yours twuly, betaed by @witchwhonevergottheletter MY LOVELY 💕💕💖💖

pluuuuus many more (and no spoilers but like, read in order, iykyk) excellent fics and art and concept! Real heartwarming stuff, all this bringing your AU to the table like a potluck shenanigans. So fun. Download the pdf here! (do it or Else.... /lh)

[incongruence-osaf]

EXCITING NEWS, SECRETS SHARED

Hello!! It is time for me to officially post the first two chapters of my first ever multi-chapter fanfiction story, The Incongruence of Stars and Flowers!!!

So far the word count has reached over 8,000 words, roughly 21 pages at 1.15 spacing (including the current WIP of Chapter Three). This was a huge challenge for me that I am so glad to have started. I'd been keeping this (mostly) a secret for many months during a collaborative creative process.

It started when I saw an application for Sonic Big Bang 2024 zine on Tumblr. Around 300 participants of fellow writers, artists and readers were sorted into secret groups of 2-4ish for developing writing and artwork surrounding story submissions! I had the pleasure of being paired with wonderful artists who made beautiful sketches, concept art, and illustrations based on my writing, linked here: @major-wren (ART) (ART) and @pastelspindash (ART)

Go check out their awesome art (and writing) as well as all the other amazing creatives featured in the zine on the official blog page @sthbigbang! My awesome and very helpful beta readers were/are @starredfishing (Tumblr) and @zaffretension (Instagram) who gave me excellent advice about dialogue, pacing, and plot. THANK YOU!!!

And also a big THANK YOU to the moderators of this expansive event for keeping it running so smoothly, for organizing everything, and for encouraging all of us in one of the most supportive and energizing creative environments I've ever been apart of!!! I have talked to many cool and talented people and I love the community that we have all been growing as a massive group.

I am excited to continue the adventure of learning, reading, and writing to see where this adventure goes with familiar characters. If you are too, I hope you enjoy <3

Without further ado, below is the summary for The Incongruence of Stars and Flowers.

This alternate universe combines the vibrant world and history of Sonic the Hedgehog with our very own, resulting in a version of Planet Mobius that’s both familiar and distant. Yet, this altered reality is neither idealized nor greater than the sum of its parts. 

Anthropomorphic beings, humans, and animals of Mobius are struggling to rebuild their cityscapes, ecosystems, communities, and personal lives in the wake of the cumulative devastation of the Perfect Chaos Flood and the Black Arms Invasion. Shadow the Hedgehog takes a leave of absence from G.U.N. to temporarily settle down in Station Square, laying low after the world-shattering encounter with his alien DNA donor Black Doom. While the cityfolk around him undergo the growing pains of instability, nonconformity, sociological upheaval, and corruption, so too does the alien hybrid. With the support of unyielding friendship in aloof activist Sonic the Hedgehog and cultured confidante Rouge the Bat, Shadow coasts in this new life chapter while feeling profound pulls to unravel memories surrounding his loving creator, Professor Gerald Robotnik and solve mysteries within his environment, mind, and body.

Past and present perspectives interweave to show slices of unordinary lives, drawing from early-to-mid 2000s culture shifts/natural disasters/political tensions, U.S. and European history, and various fields of science as inspiration for this multi-chapter science-fiction drama mystery.

PROMINENT CHARACTERS: 

Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, Professor Gerald Robotnik, Maria Robotnik, Black Doom(?), Commander Abraham Tower, Helen (from Sonic X)?, and new original character(s)

Body dysmorphia and dysphoria, racism/speciesism, internalized xenophobia, mentions and possible depictions of police violence, generational trauma, trauma and imagery from medicalized settings, processing grief

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

CHAPTER ONE HERE

[staticscreenz]

getting really into more obscure rogues recently... so please, take my Calculator !

and a cameo from my Bookworm, who I'll post... later.

character info under the cut

Noah Kuttler was one of Barbara Gordon's closest friends throughout her middle and high school years. A fandom geek and an excellent hacker, he developed a tool that would help him determine the physical statistics of real-life superheroes. This information was then printed into zines, which he shared with his fellow fanboy for record-keeping purposes. This passion turned to obsession, however, as his peers regularly doubted, criticized, and even stole from his work. Trying to keep his project afloat, Kuttler began to put himself in harm's way by stepping into hero fights, desperate to put something substantial on them to print. Eventually, collateral damage from an encounter with Superman left Kuttler grievously injured, requiring the removal of both his left arm and his voice box to save his life. Rather than acknowledge the limitations of his idols -- or even his own shortcomings -- Kuttler became antagonistic and bitter towards the very concept of heroes, an attitude aggravated by the delusions and loss he suffered after the accident. After a brief period of freelance work, Kuttler now works for the Penguin under the pseudonym "Calculator", remotely providing villains with vital information on how to take out down the caped crusader and any number of his so-called friends.

[vintagerpg]

Matt Sanders’ The Sealed Library (2020) is a very brief solo game for Chris Bissette’s The Wretched rules. I am not familiar with those, but if this zine is any indication, they’re lightweight and excel at presenting weighty topics in a thoughtful way.

The concept is straightforward. You’re a librarian in the greatest library ever known. The city is under siege. Everyone but you is dead. You have a barricade (represented by a Jenga tower) protecting you from the invaders . You need to save as much of the accumulated knowledge as you can before the barricade fails, or you starve to death. Lighthearted!

Play is a combination of journaling and drawing cards, then resolving the corresponding actions. Befitting a game bearing the logo “Wretched & Alone,” it is pretty agonizing. Progress on moving books to the vault is slow. Constant distractions divert your attention and waste your time. There is very little indication that you have any hope of success. You do! There is a single potential path to a victory. You can even survive, maybe. But that isn’t really the point. Rather, the player is meant to ponder the idea of preserving knowledge in the face of its destruction, the meaning of it all and their place in all of this, among other similar existential questions.

A thoughtful, if unrelentingly heavy, experience.

[lensman-arms-race]

Damn, I love Skibidi Toilet

Firstly, it's eternally hilarious that it started off as merely a shitpost about a janky Gmod head in a toilet, singing a silly song then biting the viewer's face, and then ramped up to what is essentially a mecha anime... but still with the evil singing toilets that bite you.

Secondly, I've said before on this blog that it's genuinely just plain glorious. Skibidi Toilet has provided me with more amusement, excitement and drama-induced anguish than literally anything on broadcast telly. DFB is a genuinely good storyteller and animator.

Thirdly, it's so high-concept (AV tech-themed robots versus singing toilets) that you can pretty much do anything with it. You can make it serious and sci-fi or you can be Looney Tunes batshit with it, and both would work with the source material. There's scope in it to add roving human survivors, alien origins (of the toilets or hardwares or both), Half Life-crossover stuff... you could pretty much add anything and make it work with the established canon.

Fourth, DFB hit upon an excellent formula in making it completely dialogueless (yes, TVs have voices but they're just easter eggs), relying on action, posture etc. (on mostly faceless characters, no less) to convey what's going on. It means pretty much anyone can understand what's going on regardless of age or language.

I wonder how long it'll be before we see Skibidi Toilet zines, or even its first fan convention?

[greenerteacups]

this might seem v random but, if you haven't come across it already, i would really recommend tavi gevinson's latest online zine 'fan fiction' -- not because of the fan fiction element of it, though, but because of your evident love of taylor swift (who it's about) and your impeccable literary taste. and would love to hear your thoughts!

This was an excellent recommendation, and I loved it. I will admit that the RPF segment had me leery (RPF throws me for reasons I have yet to intellectually inspect but believe may relate somehow to the concept of voyeurism) but I'm glad I finished it, because she pulls it together very well. The dialogue in the last segment is especially great, particularly these parts:

And this:

And this:

Because this gets at what I find so Gordian about Internet conversations among even relatively respectful/measured people about Swift's work and presence: we can't seem to figure out what it is we want from her. There is no right way for a woman to be more famous than most presidents. Do we want her to need us or not? Should she care about our approval or shouldn't she? Is the fact that she doesn't "feel" authentic to us the consequence of having demanded authenticity for so long she literally had to shape her personality to fit what "felt real" to millions of people, and in the process, of course, of course, inevitably, produced work that felt authentic to no one?

And then also, like. To what extent do fans use her autonomy/consent as a lever for bad behavior? I.e. does the "invitation" of personal information in her songs license us to speculate about her like she's a character on a TV show? Where is the line of appropriate speculation in an autobiographical medium? I was talking to my friend at dinner just tonight about how it's gross that people can't seem to give her the credit of writing songs that aren't 100% always About Her, and my friend pointed out that she invites comparisons to her own life by teasing names and iconography we identify with her public persona. It's like Brett Easton Ellis writing a book about a character named Brett Easton Ellis. Sure, they're not the same person, but you've invoked a symbol, and people are not being ridiculous for trying to analyze that symbol in the context of the work. In order to do that, they need to understand what the symbol is. Which means the biographical stuff actually is relevant to the text, and Swift's obvious irritation at her fans for failing to just... fuck off a little bit and let her live, while an entirely fair and morally defensible human response, is complicated by the way that her art is produced to resonate best for those who care most. Folklore and Evermore prove even Taylor is on some level aware of this, because she uses the third-person mechanic (and again in "Bolter") to differentiate those protagonists from the narrative construct of "Taylor Swift" in her other first-person work — i.e. pulling apart the Swift who is speaking and not the Swift who is singing (if that makes sense).

And then, finally: "The irony gets a bit tired. You can just say you like music. It's fine." What a deliciously recursive little bit of irony, considering it's a criticism being offered by a character whose ironic distance is itself being criticized. And the fact that the author is putting her own self-criticism in the mouth of a non-existent popstar who's deliberately flattening her take on her subject matter? Mingling valid with invalid criticism to establish a protective distance from her flaws and prove her smarty-pants intellectual self-awareness while also implicitly disowning the faults in her work, an (ironically) childish gesture of insecurity that stands at odds with the mature intellectual persona? Trying to have about seven or eight different cakes, and eat every one of them? "The irony gets a bit tired." Fucking perfect. I laughed.

[knightofsuperior]

Barnaby's Fashion Disaster and the Suffering of Those Caught in its Grip

Fandom: Tiger & Bunny

Summary:

Kotetsu and Barnaby have very different opinions on fashion, and once Barnaby's competitive streak and Kotetsu's stubbornness come out to play, it becomes everyone's problem. Or: My entry in the Sternbild Style: A Tiger and Bunny Fashion Zine's excellent library of fics!

Read the fic here and check out an excerpt/my thoughts below!

Excerpt:

“Still, I at least pull casual off without it costin’ an arm and a leg, compared to a certain someone I know.” Barnaby raised an eyebrow, his gaze shifting slightly from the phone, his finger hovering over the “purchase” button on one of his tabs. “And just what would that mean?” “You tell me, Mr. Fashion-Forward.” Kotetsu approached, slinging an arm around Barnaby as he raised his pointer finger. “What with the shiny necklace, the low-cut shirt ‘n jacket combo, the freakin’ belt!” “What’s wrong with the belt?” “Nothing,” Kotetsu replied, “But I can count the number of people who can pull off a belt with that many holes in it on one hand. Not to mention the specs. Probably custom-made—” “All glasses are custom-made, Kotetsu,” Antonio called out from the other side of the room. “The frames, Tonio!” Kotetsu grumbled something that sounded very similar to the word “smartass,” but Barnaby chose not to call attention to it.

Author's Note: Another zine work, this time for a fashion-centric Tiger & Bunny zine! As I mention in the AO3 notes, this concept came about from a riff on this scene from Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, and it turned out better than I initially expected it to by leaps and miles. Barnaby and Kotetsu share one brain cell and sometimes they lose it, what can I say?

You can see more fics from the zine here!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Afternoon!

You might already be aware of these TTRPG designers, but I figured I'd pass them on if they might add to the knowledge pool for recommendations!

Will Uhl: https://willuhl.itch.io/ Just an absurdly prolific games designer, with a grounding in rules-light action-y games but has a wide range of tones and genres in their work. Mystic Lilies comes strongly recommended, their most famous game, Netbattlers, isn't on itch.io as it's a fangame that uses the Megaman IP (and is also excellent if you like games with in-depth character building)

Nathan Blades: https://sixofspades.itch.io/ More of a performer than a designer but has written a number of games, generally focused on upbeat anime action with queer community subtext. Heartbeats in Perfect Sync is probably their best known; they also have a one-pager in The Ultimate One-Page RPG Book.

Farmer Gadda: https://farmergadda.itch.io/ Explores a lot of system kits (CaltropCore, Lasers & Feelings, etc) to make games that reference specific game series and the like. The energy of picking up your favourite toy and moving it around the room with whoosh noises.

Rook/RJK Games: https://rjkgames.itch.io/ Prime itchio game zine production; passionate, feelings-first releases that each put a spin of a different indie game or system kit. A transformation of the orginal tone of a game to something else, like a magic trick.

Thanks for the recs! I've heard of some of these designers, and some I haven't. Let's look at a highlight of theirs that stands out for each one!

Mystic Lilies, by Will Uhl.

In a sealed-off region full of fantastical phenomena, the land is falling out of balance. You will play to find what people take and what people lose to regain that balance.

It looks like it's a card-based roleplaying game about witches fighting to get what they want. I'm interested in the character abilities, and curious about how the PvP interacts with different player styles. I'd assume that safety tools are a given at this table, and I'm definitely drawn in by the art.

Heartbeats in Perfect Sync, by Nathan Blades. (@theneoncaster)

Heartbeats in Perfect Sync is a tabletop RPG inspired by the shounen battle aesthetic. Play as a group of ordinary people who fight monsters with ridiculously over-the-top weapons.

I have heard of Nathan Blades before! I can see how this game would appeal to folks who love TWEWY, or Persona 5. I'm curious about what kind of dice this system uses - is it safe to assume that you need d6's for this game if the page doesn't specify? Also, folks should check out Iera Entera, a game by the same designer about killing, butchering, and eating gods. I think the concept is amazing.

SW//NG, by Farmer Gadda. (@farmergadda)

Because you have Power, you have Responsibility. Because of your Responsibility, you have to face your Past. And your Past? That's the one thing your Power can never fix.

I love complicated superheroes! I love emotional superheroes! This game gives you complicated and emotional superheroes! It also has some lovely GM advice and I always always appreciate good GM advice.

Our Love Will Destroy Us, by RJK Games.

You did it, exactly what the old fools of the Hunters’ Guild warned you against. Fell in love with your target, the both of you. One of you was barely trained, untested, didn’t know any better; the Guild might forgive you, but the other? You were meant to know better.

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this one before when I covered Tragic Games, so that might be why this game stands out to me. I think the use of Tarot Cards to reveal what the Hunger does to hurt the Vampire Hunter who has fallen in love with a Vampire, is really emotionally fitting.

[archandshri]

12 April ‘24 - [arch] Making a Comic in a Week, Disability and Burnout (all unrelated, of course!)

Hey Shri and folks!! LOVED seeing part three of the Lionheart Brothers cover. Stunning!! And awesome to see your process. Also cool to see what you’ve been looking at lately - I’ve just finished a rewatch of Firefly and the characters are still living in my brain a bit. 

Life is a bit relentless, huh. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy working on disability stuff - meal prepping, sorting silly government forms, all that sort of thing. Exhausting and super easy to burn out on - but also sets me up for the future in my personal life and for illustration! I want to discuss the balance of pushing and burnout this week with an excellent example - I tried foreshadowing to make a comic in a week. 

When I was in uni, it was easy to create cool stuff regularly - you’re constantly receiving prompts, doing activities, getting feedback etc. I still have access to these things, especially through my shared studio community, but it’s not as easy as it used to be. I miss creating finished books, in particular, so frequently. So! I challenged myself to make a comic in time for Something’s Fishy Zine Fair in Plymouth tomorrow, which was just over a week from when I started.

I had come up with the concept for the comic while travelling, written the script and done a couple of sketches. I often come up with concepts while travelling - I just don’t often follow through :P Here’s a couple of sketches I did on the journey.

I’ve been chatting to lots of people about what they enjoy about art - I’ve noticed that I tend to crave the end of the project and having the physical thing with high expectations of myself, which doesn’t lead to a very enjoyable process. Many people I’ve spoken to enjoy the ‘zone’, the focus of the project where you’re just figuring stuff out and not thinking about anything else. Bearing this in mind, I wanted to make the process as fun as possible - this comic is for fun and not for the purpose of having the thing at the end. 

I started with a few development sketches of the characters and the vibe. I used ink and my funky kakimori dip pen, plus some brushes. These mediums are hard to control, which makes them good for development for me - they don’t have to be good, this time is for gestural drawings and ideas generation. Some continued doodles in my sketchbook from some downtime :) Fish wouldn't leave my brain.

After a bit of character development, I began by adapting my script into pages - I read the script and try to feel the vibes on how I want to pace the comic, considering:

How much dialogue and plot do I want to put on one page?

Do I want it to be more text or image-heavy?

Do I want it to feel fast and snappy, or slow and dreamy?

Which parts of dialogue feel like a page-turner?

Are there any twists that should be separated from the rest of the scene by a page-turn?

Are there any moments that should sit next to each other on spreads?

You can see me changing some dialogue around, writing as I draw a bit. Also playing around with some weird looking fish?? With noses???

I got a bit stuck at this stage. I was scared my script wasn’t good enough. And worried about if I could even draw fish. After a couple of chats with art friends, and some rambling in my slides, I reminded myself that the lesson this time is fun!! Have fun goddamn it!! No point doing it if you’re not having fun. (it’s not like we make any money from riso printed zines anyway)

Screenshots from my slides - these things are wonderful for gathering inspiration and venting when you run into a problem with the project.

So I decided to just go for it. Not even thumbnail, but just take a scene and draw it. I asked a studio friend to choose a number, and I drew that scene.

Because of the chatty style of the comic, and how much dialogue there was gonna be, I knew there would have to be a LOT of panels. I decided to make it A4, and use a 8x6 grid. I’ll draw the images at A3, and than scale them down to A4 when it comes to printing.

left: A3 grid on the lightbox, for tracing over || Right: A4 grid with boxes of different sizes for me to reference while choosing the layout - this way I can see the final print size

First drafts of a couple of random pages from Moon Noodles.

The first day I drew several pages that I was really happy with! It gave me a lot more confidence in my script - seeing it come to life with the characters on the page - some pages even got some laughs which was nice. I would look at the page plan, script, and spend a few minutes thinking about the pacing and how I wanted the dialogue on the page, and the go straight in with the dip pen - with the awareness that it might be wrong. This process taught me an important lesson - you have to just do it. The thing is, if you do it and it’s bad, you just do it again but different. Repeat. Staring at that script thinking it wasn’t good enough wasn’t actually going to get anything done, be fun OR make nice stuff. You have to do the thing. Then you make it better.

The other thing I learnt from this process was to give it space. There was a day where I did one page, hated it and thought the pacing was off, and spent the next day trying to translate it into two pages. It didn’t work. I came back the next day and realised the first page I’d done was fine and just needed a couple of tweaks. Do the thing. Let it be.

Here’s a little picture of my setup.

(Sorry all of Printhaus for hoarding the light box and getting ink all over it :( love u)

Useful stuff!!!!

Finished pages to refer to, plus more A3 paper underneath for future pages

Laptop with script

Dip pen, ink and water for keeping that little guy clean!

development sketches for relevant scenes

Page plan (you can see I have shortened it considerably since last time - now it's 20-24 pages and noted on scraps of paper so I can move them around if there's any changes of plan)

A4 sheet with boxes to show the sizes of the final print

also scissors??? i don't remember why they're here

But then monday morning came. I realised that if I wanted to get it all printed by friday, I needed to:

Plan and 12 pages on Monday, and 12 on tuesday

Get the final files for every one of the 24 pages by Thursday 

Print friday morning

Travel down to devon Friday afternoon

Fair Saturday

Not only is that basically impossible, but it would be very bad for my health, make for a rushed comic, and most importantly, not be fun. The thing is, I’ve made whole comics in a couple days before. I figured I could still do it. But that’s not actually a good thing - my skills and taste have increased, I'm aiming for bigger, more ambitious projects and yet I expect the timelines to stay the same? It doesn’t exactly work like that now, does it?

But I kept going anyway. 

Tuesday morning, I decide to get the cover put together so I can get the preorder post-out. I get pulled into an unexpected meeting, and then spend the rest of the day inking this thing and getting the files sorted. At this point, I know for sure It’s not possible to get this done. Thankfully my two Printhaus besties were in. They helped me drop it. I love this comic, it feels fun and joyous and I’ve enjoyed working on it - lets not rush it and end up with a bad product that will bother me. Let’s take time, explore it and really enjoy the process!!!

All is not lost for Something’s Fishy Zine Fair, though! Originally, I had planned to do a print of the Moon Noodles Cover for preorders only, but why not print that for Something’s Fishy?? Anyone who buys the print will also get a discount code for the pre-order :D (also here’s the pre-order link)

So here’s a few images of the Moon Noodles cover print and the process!! I hope to see some of you at Something’s Fishy. It’s a joy to visit Plym again :D

Sketch printed out at A3, and 2 of the layers. I scanned these in and edited them on photoshop to get the files ready to print.

Coming to terms with the fact that 1) I don’t have illustration superpowers even if my expectations are that high and 2) I’m disabled (yes it’s been years and it’s still hard to face) is really hard!! I need to spend most of my time when I’m well preparing for when I’m not AND fight the urge to work until I burn out, which I always lean towards because it’s nice escapism. 

The thing is that living, and not being too exhausted to move is much more important than a comic. And if I am gonna spend my functioning time making comics, they’re gonna have to be enjoyable to make. Otherwise your life slips away from you and you haven’t been really living it.

Hope that hasn’t got too deep for you. I think that stuff is important to face, especially since the creative life is so incredibly busy.

Thank you for reading this goddamn essay, I hope that it helped in some way! As usual, feel free to drop an ask if you have any questions. 

Chat soon :D Archie <3

[amazing-spiderling]

Getting the Band Together director's cut please

Yeahhhhhh! Band AU! Band AU!

This was an exchange fic where I combined two prompts, both a song ("No Other Heart") and the concept of a band meet-cute. I haven't done much in the way of writing Band-centric stories, so I wasn't 100% sure what a meet-cute scenario would mean, but I gave it my best shot.

While I don't know a lot about bands or how they work behind the scenes, I took a stab at it, basing most of that stuff off of television an movie tropes, as well as what I observed in my wizard rock days, when I very occasionally helped volunteer to help with shows (because what else are you supposed to do if you own a moon bounce in a college town). It was a sweet taste of nostalgia for me, getting to revisit some of those memories.

I *also* got to give a little nod to one of my favorite art forms, the zine/band poster. I have a deep love of the texture of photocopies, so I had a lot of fun designing the (totally unnecessary) banner for the story, and playing around with the image until it had that indie rock show poster look. It might actually be my favorite part of fic. XD

Even though this story takes place during the gang's college years, it also let me brush up against their high school experiences, with Foggy talking a lot about how he perceived things back then, and how much things felt like they had changed for the others while he had remained largely the same. Maybe that's why he's so determined to seek out his own path in the end, it was his opportunity for a metamorphosis.

I really enjoyed getting to bring Marci and Brett into things, especially as more meaty side characters who are help driving the events of the story rather than just being convenient exes etc, Marci especially. While I think she's probably a very capable attorney, I think she's also got a streak of perfectionism, she's someone who would seek excellence in any whatever field she chose, and if she was artistically inclined, she wouldn't settle for anything less than "making it". But I think her self assurance also comes with a price- in this case, being oblivious to the feelings of her bandmates, and never really talking things out with them.

And of COURSE it's a Christmas story- or at least Christmas makes an appearance. Is it even a thelonebamf joint if people aren't drinking hot chocolate and running around in the cold? But I needed to get Foggy into a church and if the Nelsons ever make a go at observing any kind of religion, I imagine they're Easter-Christmas Catholics, or at least some of them are- but they are more importantly family oriented, so if Grandma wants to go to mass, they're going to mass.

AND PIANO MATT. Defenders was mediocre but it gave us Matt playing the piano and I just think that's neat. More people should find a way to include this in their story. As whatever as Defenders was, I think it was a cool way to give us some information about Matt's character besides exposition, and a unique way of uncovering a clue. LET MATT PLAY THE PIANO.

Anyways- those are some of my feelings on that fic. I ended up liking it quite a bit, I don't think there's much I'd change about it, or anything I wasn't able to fit in. It's probably not a story I would have written for myself, which is why I enjoy participating in exchanges- they force you to get creative!

[summer-at-peel]

I worked a couple more days after my post last week. The first day, I started off the day by adding more books to the book inventory system I made. Through the process, I have learned a lot more about ISBNs than I ever expected to. I have also learned that not every book's information is complete, or even correct, in Google's books database, so we will definitely have some work ahead making sure everything is correct. However, it's provided an excellent start and saved us having to enter a ton of data manually.

Then, I used the scanner I set up last week to scan a zine my partner Cam made. I still need to work on cleaning up the scans to reprint it, but it's been great to work with professional-grade equipment rather than a basic home scanner. The level of quality I was able to get is honestly kind of absurd.

Later that night, we had our monthly collage night, but we also did a Polaroid transfer demo. The person demonstrating the process used a Polaroid of Cam and I that I printed from my phone using the Polaroid Lab.

Basically, you remove the protective plastic top, soak the Polaroid in hot water until the emulsion detaches from the back, then transfer that into cool water and carefully spread it out over a sheet of paper. I was shocked by how simple the process was in concept...

... and less shocked by how difficult it was in practice. Above is my one attempt, and below is Cam's two attempts. The emulsion layer is easy to damage and hard to get to stay in place. The most frustrating part is when one side would be in place but would then get messed up trying to smooth out the rest of the image. Black and white is even more frustrating, because it is harder to peel off the protective layer and the backing tends to flake instead of come off in one piece. I'm definitely going to try this process again and see what I can make with it, though! The event ended up running later than we planned because everyone was so engaged with what they were working on.

The next day was pretty slow, and I had to leave early for an appointment. However, I did learn to add products to our online Squarespace store. I added some books I had unpacked and inventoried the previous day, grabbing images and descriptions from the publisher and making sure to categorize them properly on our site.

Today so far has been more book inventorying, but we are approaching the end of that process! Once that's done, we will be able to import the data to our payment system to speed up checkout and make sure inventory levels of books are properly tracked.

I've only got a couple more days this week before I'm out of town next week to visit Cam's family. I'm hoping to finish the inventory before I leave.

[jinmalos]

id love to hear your thoughts on the teaser for wave 4

OK OK OK OK. I MEANT TO GET TO THIS SOONER BUT THEN I GOT CARRIED AWAY WITH SOME ZINES AND SOME OTHER PROJECTS. BUT, I just finished speedrunning the game for my sibling to catch them up, Future Redeemed comes out tomorrow, I am Not A Normal Person About This Game.

Spoilers below, not particularly thought out bc i've given myself a headache from finishing the game and sobbing my eyes out again as of 3 hours ago

I. Genuinely have a lot of thoughts and they've changed a bit since it was announced and the subsequent trailers we've had, as well as refreshing myself on XBC1 and XBC2 lore since then. I will start with my joke theory, For the longest time I had a joke that boiled down to "Alvis is Riku and he's really enjoying larping as a nopon rn." Why the fuck would that nopon know so much. NOW, I'm more in the "give me the name of your god you nopon piece of shit." who is this fucker loyal to. IS IT MELIA? IM P SURE ITS MELIA. BUT LIKE. STILL WHO TF IS HE. WHY DOES HE KNOW SO MUCH. WHAT HAS HE BEEN UP TO.

Also! I'm not actually sure how I'm feeling on this game being a prequel! I'm not fully convinced it is yet even though thats EXACTLY what it looks like. Part of me really wants an epilogue to the base game's story or at MOST something that is running concurrently. It's not that I dislike prequels, I LOVED torna i've genuinely played torna all the way through upwards of 6 times by now. It's just really enjoyable. I just kinda wanna know what happens...AFTER the plot. But I'm not gonna be DISAPPOINTED if it genuinely turns out to be a prequel.

Madly in love with A's design, I think someone may have transed their gender =w=

Jokes/wishful thinkin aside, I wonder if Ontos will be playing a role in this. Alvis claims to be from a long line of seers, I wondered if maybe the Processor that is Ontos has just been spitting out random entities and A + the mystery White Alvis are just consequences. I wanna know how Z ties into that. I also wanna know where everyone..IS. Like, where is Fiora or Reyn, or Pyra and Mythra, or even fucking Morag or Tora. No mention of them, so i'm curious to know...why. Shulk is clearly Shulk here, and Rex is clearly Rex, If they aren't part of the cycle there HAS to be an explanation as to how they're in Aionios and what happened to everyone else, right?

I'm excited to see what's up on that front though. I refuse to believe that Alvis has become evil, not because I think it's implausible, but just because i dont want that evil Alvis to be Alvis because his concept art is WHITE. My opinions on Alvis being DIRECTLY Ontos have shifted to being a bit more..flexible on the concept because of A and the revealed mystery character, but in my heart he's still directly Ontos and I hope the Shalvis Divorce Arc ends happily.

Wishful thinking, of course, is that i'd like to see the Trinity Processors reunited in some way, shape, or form. I love joking about Aegis Sibling Family Reunions/Learning Where tf Ontos is, but I'll admit the ending of xbc2 is a bit ambiguous on what exactly happens with Logos and Pneuma and how that relates to Ontos OR the continued existence of Pyra and Mythra. I'll actually be really sad if there's no way they can be reunited/bummed if something's happened to Pyra and Mythra as of a result of the ending of xbc2. I just kinda want Malos to get a minor redemption arc or st least know if the Logos and Pneuma cores of the Trinity Processor was relevant at all.

BUT YEAH. IM SO EXCITED. VERY, VERY EXCITED. I'm sad this is the end of the Klaus arc of Xenoblade/the Xeno series, but I'm excited to see where we go next! If this wave 4 dlc is even remotely as good as base xbc3, it'll be an excellent ending to such a good series!

[shara-capstone]

Keywords

Malaysian Cuisine Diversity 

Malaysian Food Cultural Influences

Settlers and Malaysian Cuisine

Malaysian Cuisine Influences

Food & Tourism in Malaysia 

Gastrodiplomacy 

Food Zines

1) 

Jaafar, Fayyadh. “The Cultural and Political Importance of Malaysian Cuisine.” Medium, Medium, 17 Sept. 2021, https://fayjaafar.medium.com/the-cultural-and-political-importance-of-malaysian-cuisine-f84aa2bd8149.  

This article highlights the importance and significance of Malaysia’s long history of immigration and settlement, as well as insight as to why food serves as a representation of Malaysia’s character. I believe this text helps to understand the influences that make the cuisine diverse and serves as a good initial foundation for the purpose of my project. 

2) 

“Traveling the Silk Road: AMNH.” American Museum of Natural History, 15 Aug. 2010, https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/traveling-the-silk-road.

This exhibition explores the complex network of trade routes, as well as the various ethnic groups that predominated each region. A part of my project’s focus is to identify geographic locations of which settlers and immigrants have traveled from to bring new forms of cooking and traditions to Malaysian cuisine, therefore this source is helpful as it gives a new perspective on how to visually explore this complex blend of cultural groups. 

3)

Mohd Nazri Abdul Raji, Shahrim Ab Karim, Farah Adibah Che Ishak, Mohd Mursyid Arshad, Past and present practices of the Malay food heritage and culture in Malaysia, Journal of Ethnic Foods, Volume 4, Issue 4, 2017, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352618117301737

This review delves more into the actual different preparations, methods of cooking, and use of prominent ingredients in Malay cuisine. I am able to gain a more clear understanding of the specific details within the cuisine and what makes it stand apart from the others, which reinforces the point of my project; to show the diversity. Though this article only talks about Malay food heritage and not much about the rest of the cuisines. 

4) 

Kosako Yoshino, Globalization, Food and Social Identities in the Asia Pacific Region, Chapter 9 Malaysian Cuisine: A Case of Neglected Culinary Globalization, 167-183

This case study is an excellent report into food and identity—Kosako Yoshino looks specifically into the (neglected) culinary globalization in Malaysia and why that may be the case. This was interesting to me; why does Malaysia’s multi ethnic cuisine not fare well on the global market? It brought up interesting points which could bring a new perspective to my project—how does food influence people (specifically the charm of a diverse, cultural cuisine?) In addition to this, it also breaks down the Malaysian cuisine into subcategories, which is what I intend to base my project around.  

5)

@thegodofcookery: Chinese Protest Recipes 

I think this is a great example of using design, along with the appeal and comfort of food, to express a specific agenda and story. The layout of this zine is creative, easy to follow, and clearly tells its story. I intend to use this as creative inspiration for zine layouts. The typography and style works for the story it’s telling.

6)

Parasecoli, Fabio. “How Countries Use Food to Win Friends and Influence People.” Foreign Policy, 20 Aug. 2022, https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/08/20/food-diplomacy-countries-identity-culture-marketing-gastrodiplomacy-gastronativism/. 

This FP article explores the concept of gastrodiplomacy—something I’ve never really looked into before, however relates closely to my project. Gastrodiplomacy refers to “the practice of sharing a country’s cultural heritage through food”, or even “winning hearts and minds through stomachs.” I chose this article because that’s exactly what I want the end goal of my project to do. I think a lot of what this article talks about could be a huge influence into how I display my “stalls” and even how I choose to layout my zines. 

7)

https://www.behance.net/gallery/162639661/Korean-street-food-Prints?tracking_source=search_projects%7Cfood+prints 

This short series of Korean food prints are visually appealing and though they’re simple, the layout clearly expresses cultural significance and are very cohesive. The hierarchy of text is also something that appeals to me and could potentially influence how I decide to use text in my zine or anywhere else I need to.

8)

https://www.behance.net/gallery/157332529/The-Four-Pastas-of-Roma-Infographic?tracking_source=search_projects%7Cmap+design 

I was interested in map design and how artists use maps to illustrate a geographical spread across different places. One of my main goals is to emphasize where these influences came from and I think maps are a great way to show that. This artist states “I’ve always been fascinated with how the four famous Roman pastas had such overlap in ingredients, yet were such distinct dishes.” There is a similar concept here in relation to my project and I think this artist does a beautiful job in illustrating their fascination. I hope to take a similar approach with my goal.

[aabadendingzine]

Hello! I really love the uniqueness of the concept of this zine so far!

However, i’m not old enough to be a contributor, but i really want to make a piece for the concept of “x character gets a bad ending” with some prompts to get my brain motivated and spark out some ideas

So i was wondering if there’s gonna be an accompanying week (like the aa siblings zine with their week) for this? I understand if you do not want to or can’t make a week dedicated to this

Thank you and good luck with the zine!

Thanks for your ask, anon!

As of right now we are not planning on running any sort of week/event to go with this zine. It sounds like an excellent idea and we definitely encourage creation of content outside of the zine, but our staff is currently focused on existing projects and may not be able to take on a second event.

Thank you so much for your support!

-Mod Sailor