#it was very fun being apart of this zine!

[smolcatpilot]

Here's the two versions of my piece for the Laika's Comet zine!!

[xenonarrow]

At last, my piece for the Moon Knight fanzine Lunar Labyrinth (@moon-knight-zine) from last year! This is the first time I work with a zine project and it was definitely a delight.

I had fun with the symbolism on this piece, more info under the crack:

Prompt/Subject: My place in this zine was part of the artists for the 4th chapters, Waxing Gibbous: Order. The prompt was changed and revised through the process, ultimately revolving around the concept of being reborn, rebuilding, discovering each other's strengths and ultimately the chapter's namesake order. I played with the concept of rebuilding a literal set of mirrors as a visual metaphor.

General setting: I chose to feature the MCU version of the character(s) with some elements from the comics since the time of the planning was very close to its release on D+. The scene is set inside one's house as I often use them with the symbolic value of one's personality and emotional state. I chose Steven's apartment from the MCU for two main reasons: 1) It's shown at the end after the events of the series, implying they still use it as home 2) The layout of the set is well documented and also nice and cosy. I used a combination of pictures from the behind the scenes and artbook + a rough scene I put up in Blender as reference for the subjects' placement, perspective and palette

Character(s) There is only one (physical) character in scene that I called "the body" since it's placed in a way so the face is not visible. This is deliberate so to not give away any clue about which alter is fronting - he can be any of them, all or none at the same time - it's just the body. The physical appearance. The medium with which the psyche interacts with the rest of the physical world. The body's clothes were a tough choice but I ended up with Steven's pyjamas since it was what they wearing at the end of the series. Steven, Marc and Jake are represented in the mirror with their Duat sequence clothes (except for Jake's attire for his only on-screen appearance + comics version fake moustache because honestly he feels naked without them) and in a pose reflecting as much as their individual vibe and role as I could in a single image: Steven and Jake are helping the body putting the mirror pieces back together in two different ways, one in a more concerned / affectionate manner and the other is slightly more blunt and direct. Marc is covering his face, as hiding away is kinda fitting for his character on different occasions (hiding memories in an attempt to protect Steven, Hiding parts of himself and his life to his loved ones, running away from his problems etc). Being dramatic as usual.

Mirrors I love using mirrors as visual metaphors. And I love how they used them in the series. I am very normal about it. In this piece the mirrors function as a reflection of the inner self (or selves, in this case): the same body is reflected in three different mirrors (the alters) which are more or less fractured based on the status of their relationship with a specific alter and themselves: Jake has the most pieces missing, since in the series he's the most elusive one to the point of the others not being aware of his existence up until the end despite still being active in protecting them in times of need. The background of the mirrors reflects the pattern of the (head)space as seen in some parts of the Moon Knight (2016) comics while the colours are chosen and assigned based on the box colours used in Moon Knight (2021). The pattern is not following the perspective of the shards on the floor because it's not a physical space the mirror is reflecting but it's more of a "door" to another dimension, the psychological one. The back of the mirrors has a hieroglyphic inscription vaguely inspired by those seen during the first costume sequence at the end of ep 1 (will be back at this later)

The moon dart (that shiny thing stuck in the rightmost mirror): The moon dart symbolises their connection and service under Khonshu. It was thrown diagonally hitting all three mirrors (and causing the fractures in them) and it got stuck in Jake's, symbolising his status as the one in the system still under the god's leash. The dart has also a side, positive connotation: despite the havoc that being Khonshu's avatar has brought, it also started to bring them together and work as a team.

Hieroglyphs: There is a thematic back-and-forth in this segment of the mirror, as the empty sections symbolises a loss of self in favour of being an Egyptian deity's puppet (hence the hieroglyphic inscriptions, vaguely resembling the pyramid texts where a certain hymn features an earlier and more violent version of the god Khonsu being a slayer for the king), but in the same inscriptions (see the second picture) carry a hopeful message: "There is no son who is strong against his father, but you are strong and mighty while Ma'at (personification of order, balance, harmony) dwells on your arms and your Ba (plural) will last forever, repeating rejuvenation like the Moon". I used "father" referencing the comics where Khonshu leans heavier into posing as a fatherly figure as a manipulation tactic, so the sentence can be interpreted as escaping from Khonshu's leash and finding strength and balance among themselves. It also echoes the usage of the moon dart.

Easter eggs: There are two easter eggs in here. Three Ba birds with the alters' faces can be seen over Steven's mirror, it's a little signature detail since a previous drawing with them apparently became iconic in my corner of MK fandom? They are also mentioned in the hieroglyphic text. There's a tiny Dracula hiding under the carpet layer. We can't see you in the finished piece, but we know you're here you big fucking nerd

WHEW that was a lot. Thank you for reading this far!

Here are some other progress pics if you fancy:

[draculovemp3]

@revenge-of-the-assbutt @firstaidspray @sachermorte thank u for enabling me NEWAY since I’ve been too dead to do any of my own hobbies here’s some thoughts on House & Co’s physical hobbies/lil crafts & such they do in the comfort of their home<3:

House: canonically does a ton of shit like piano/guitar/cooking/so on but In the spirit of him resisting change (At Times!) I think he’s gotten very good if not makes a fun time out of mending clothes🥺…. Didn’t wanna throw away his favorite shirts so it started w small hems+resizings until he looked up more tips online and get decorative w it. Pretty contrasting colors/patterns now randomly laid on his shirts and pants w only the careful eye(Cuddy+Wilson) to notice. If anyone cares

Wilson: gardening. Well as much one can do within his apartments/pretty nonplant friendly homes. He’s not a super greenthumb expert but it always gives him a lil confidence boost when he’s able to grow out spices and herbs & such to use in his cooking ♥️

Cuddy: she seems like a collage-making kind of girlie💗💗 no specific theme in em or anything but she still holds onto the potential self-aid of making vision boards and it’s relaxing for her to go thru magazines/etc + cut out whatever interests her enough to use. Rachel tries and cutely fails to help 💓💓💓

Chase: ironically enough for the prodigal son lol but . He genuinely seems like someone who enjoys spending time in silence/music doing puzzles w 1000+ pieces & such #DWEEB❤️. House once got him a 5000 piece puzzle of a kangaroo or w/e as a joke and he is Determined to complete it. In due time chase…

Foreman: the thought of Foreman crocheting is so dear to me….. he doesn’t rly tell anyone ab it but there’s a lot of half-finished + worn projects as proof around his home. #angsting it sorry but I think he took it up after his mom started deteriorating bc she crocheted too and it was a fonder reminder + sumn they could do together. One yr he gave the fellow ducklings scarves he made as Xmas gift. Not that he told him he made it tho😅#repressed

Cameron: I think she has a moderately sized zen garden on a table somewhere in her home she takes SERIOUS. Changes the lines/circles in the sand periodically, sees what new arrangement of rocks she can do etc etc. Girl that thing is meant to be relaxing!! also colorcodes/sticker-covers/etc her planner like a CHAMP.

Amber: she has the most well-detailed prettiest most concerning-when-read journal/diary everrrr. Dedicates a specific time in every day to it w specific pens of various colors. Some of the recounting even have lil doodles or if she takes the journal out w her she draws her view wherever she is<3 they’re literal chickenscratch but its still fun and fulfilling. It’s a bibleesque piece to Wilson’s Amber shrine btw

Thirteen: she’s hard to analyze for me soz 13heads I do love her #trust… nonetheless I bet she goes to hella dance classes. Partially for the exercise partially for the fun partially for the need to experience Life partially for the women. Heh. She’s rly into zumba, jazz, contemporary classes to be specific.

Taub: ok ok so remember when he did/bought pottery or w/e to convince his wife he was being faithful. I think he’d do it for real as a joke/alibi then be like wait…. This is kinda fun…? There’s no constraints to what he can make + the sculpting reminds him vaguely of plastic surgery work so he keeps it up.

Kutner: I think he draws + writes his own lil comics/zines 🫶 they’re mostly scifi or superhero and more than a lil inspired by his fave preexisting medias . He likes using the crazy cases he’s experienced w House as story inspo. Also he 4 sure runs dnd campaigns so well and fun. Btw

Masters: she’s a suckerrrr for trivia nights my lil nerd wife<3 but um anyway when she wants to relax she Really doesn’t want sumn that can become info overload so in free time she’ll make friendship bracelets, lil shapes/figures out of string, etc. Will someone please give this woman a full on loom to go cray with!!!!

Park: I can see it so clearly . I can see her lil handpainted warhammer and other tabletop game figures so perfectly in my head. She paints more than she actually plays(but she does !). God save you if you touch or tumble them.

Adams: I kinda DGAF about her sorry women… hmm there’s sumn compelling ab her doing blackout poetry plus occasionally full-on written when the inspo hits! started as a boredom thing in her job in the prison w whatever book she brought in then she kept on doing it w more and more written pieces she comes across.

I put so much time into this. Perhaps too much.😭feel free to gimme y’all’s thoughts on this/ur own ideas :3

[supercorpzine]

Over the years we’ve been asked many times about how to run a fandom zine, so to finally answer those questions here is our incomplete and rough guide/collection of questions to ask yourself on good practices for running a fandom event or charity zine. By no means is this an exact how-to, but we hope this will help answer questions and prompt you in the right direction for running a clean and organized event safely and responsibly!  

Purpose

What is the purpose of your zine (or event)? Why are you doing this? Is it for fun? Are you raising money for charity? Are you doing it because you just want to and because you love fandom and your ship? Is it a combination of all of the above? Will it be fan fiction? Fan art? Gifs? Video edits? Music? A combination of any? Are you going to run a big bang or reverse bang? Are you running a gift exchange for the holidays? These are all incredibly important questions to ask yourself when you first decide you want to lead a zine or event!

If this is for charity, decide your charities before you launch anything. It is good practice to have a solid plan on what you want to do and what you want to accomplish before posting an interest check. It is better to be prepared and have to postpone your zine or event than to try to run a project with no clear cut agenda. Projects that do not have a clear path or set agenda have a much higher risk of fizzling and falling apart.

When choosing your charity, make sure to research them first before making your final decision. To best protect yourself and make sure your money is going to a real cause your charity should be a 501(c)(3) registered charity and you should be able to view their IRS 990 form on their website, or on a helpful website called Charity Navigator.

WARNING. If you are involving money, it is in your best interest NOT to include photoshop manipulations, gifs, videos, or any other form of media that includes real photography or the voices of your characters (this includes voice actors). Actors and companies are very strict in their contracts about how their likenesses and voices can and can’t be used for profit. You would be risking the integrity of your event as well as financial responsibility. If anything, you could potentially receive a Cease & Desist with a threat of legal action.

If you are concerned about the safety of your money, draw up a contract with any partners that protect those funds from being stolen-or result in legal consequences if so. If you are running a non-fandom event and paying your artists, you will need to speak to a lawyer to make sure you safely and legally can compensate them for their work. Find and speak to a lawyer or financial advisor to see what your options are.

Audience

Who is your audience? Events and zines with narrower focuses are easier to maintain. Are you prepared to keep a close audience or are you going to go broader? If you are thinking of a broader event you should look and see if other people from different fandoms are interested in running a fandom project to help you organize the process and spread the word. Do your research on fandom relations. Some fandoms are often not held in favorable light by other fandoms and trying to marry two together may result in a failure to organize. If you are determined but may not have the audience, start small with something like a fic exchange and see how it goes.

Though not necessarily true, a good way to gain an audience is by generating content. Have you been active in the fandom you want to run your zine/event for? If so, how have your posts been doing and have you been interacting with other people? People are more likely to trust and join a project if they at least know of the person running it even if they aren’t a “BFN” (Big Fandom Name). There is no way to truly determine if you will even get an audience as much of fandom’s attention now is based on what’s the newest and what is going to bring the most instant gratification. Fandom events take a lot of time, how will you maintain your audience during the lulls?

Organization

How are you going to organize this? What social media platforms do you want to utilize? Will you set up a Discord? Only contact via Email? How will you collect and organize the contributions? Google drive folders or documents or an AO3 collection? Will you have your contributors email you word docs or PDFs if you are distributing? 

Is it a call for all admissions or will you have curated limited slots? Are you doing an invitation only event? If you are doing applications, what are the requirements? How will you vet people? Allowing transphobic creators into a zine raising money for trans charities is not ideal, which is why we encourage having the vision for your event before you put out an interest check. What is your schedule? How long do you want to dedicate to the entire process while still allowing adequate time for people to contribute? How are you going to share it?

What if it’s 100% digital? Will you do an online collection on AO3? If not AO3, how are you compiling it? Will you have the contributors send you a PDF that you will then stitch together? Will you find someone with design experience to do it for you?

What if you want to print? Who will you print with? How will you ship? Will you offer it internationally? It is possible some printers will not want to work with you if you are trying to do monetary sales on fan fiction and fan art for fear of copyright infringement. Make sure to do your research for online companies (Lulu does not like to do this, Smartpress is a decent option) or look around at a local printshop (tends to run more expensive, especially now with continuing material shortages). If you are doing print things get trickier, especially if you need to adhere to print specifications-usually CMYK, 300dpi, press ready PDFs following the printer’s templates for safety area and document bleed-at a minimum. You’ll have a smoother time if someone on your team (or you) have some sort of design experience. It’s easy to put words on a page to print. It’s hard to make them look good.

At a glance digital considerations:

Where to host (do not tie money to ao3, see note in Outreach & Promotion)

Create a visual standard (colors, sizes, ‘logos’, etc)

Create submission standard (word count or other content requirements, location, file type/size, etc)

At a glance print considerations:

Digital layout for print

If offering both digital & physical versions, you will want to have files tailored to each application (see notes about bleed & printer templates above)

Finding and working with a vendor

Shipping

-International packages come with their own caveats about where will accept what shipping companies -Physical items: generate labels, acquire boxes & protective stuffing, physically package items (where? Enough packagers?) -Schedule pickups -Size of product will affect size & therefore cost of shipping per item

At a glance overall considerations:

Sales vendor/storefront if applicable

Tracking sales items

Tracking costs & transparency documents

Tracking participant communications

Tracking customer communications

Upkeeping social media posts & communications (& generating content)

Tracking participant deliverables

With all of this considered, clear communication is key. Having clear expectations of deliverables, dates, and timelines for your participants and as well as clear responsibilities between leadership individuals will help you be successful.

Timeline

Your timeline is important and you should try your best to stick to it. Have it posted, have an FAQ, again be transparent about both internal scheduling for your contributors and public scheduling for those watching. 

When creating your schedule, it may be helpful to do a ‘workback’ schedule - pick an ideal final date, and working backwards, add in estimated times and dates for every single task and deliverable to see what is realistic to accomplish for contributors and for leadership. If you are ordering physical items, build in buffer times - particularly remembering that with today’s chaotic global supply chain, things may take more time. Required check-ins can be helpful for visibility and prevent procrastination.

Also do your research on your fandom. Have there been previous events? If so, are you potentially overlapping with other events? Potential overlap can harm both events, so look around and think about potentially starting when one is finishing up or has just finished so you can reach a bigger pool of creatives. Don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to other event organizers, they may be wanting to participate in other events that aren’t theirs but have been unable to due to scheduling. BUT, don’t let others’ schedule dictate your own, you need to stick to a calendar that you know you can abide by.

Quality and Curation

An “all welcome” zine or event is far different from a curated zine or event. What is the quality of work you are looking for? People are more likely to interact with work that is of better quality if it involves money, so if you are wanting to raise money or pay your participants (or have enough funds for production and shipping alone), then you might need to think about running a curated project. Even with talented contributors, if the time isn’t right or if something changes with the event leadership the quality can still be affected.

Another consideration when deciding on curation is physical (and to a lesser extent) real estate. If you are printing, costs of printing itself and shipping are affected by page size and number and weight, so remember to account for this when looking at curation, printers, shipping, and finances.

When thinking about curation and before opening applications, leadership should be in agreement on how many spots for each type of media are ideal, and what parameters the project is looking for ie x amount of fanfiction or fanart or both, certain styles, certain themes, certain content, certain subjective qualities etc. Those are qualities based on submitted work but there could be other factors you might filter your participants by, such as age if you have explicit content, previous participation in fandom work, etc. Having these clarified will help the team confidently select participants as well as give applicants better expectations and understanding of the decisions made.

Rejection, unfortunately, is the reality of a curated project. It can be difficult to turn an application down because you can see the passion and excitement, but the work isn’t right or ready for the project. Not everyone will be accepted if they don’t meet the standards that you are looking for, and not everyone has the formal creative background through school or career to teach them how to navigate these rejections. There will be some people who don’t have experience applying to something like this before or who won’t understand why they weren’t chosen or take a rejection as a personal attack. You must be prepared for upset or inappropriate responses and be able to act calmly and professionally while sticking to your decisions, and without lashing out. If you need someone on your team skilled in PR or customer service, this will be a good time for them to help you. This is your project, and you must stick by what you set out to do.

Outreach and Promotion

How are you going to find contributors? Are you going to rely on word of mouth or ask people to join? Do you have a minimum count of people you would like to join? How are you going to spread the word? Social media accounts? What kind of content are you going to generate to keep up the attention to the project? How will you get this content-yourself or asking those interested to help?

Find your core audience and cater your posts to catch their attention. Use hashtags, graphics, buzz words etc to bolster this. Retweet/reblog/share to your stories regularly a few times a week to keep the momentum. The more you put this on people’s radar, the better chance you’ll have at it stabilizing and gaining momentum. There is no “easy step” to starting and maintaining an event.

**Remember, please DO NOT use Ao3 as a platform for promoting a monetary project. You may use it as a means of distribution and sharing but be conscious of how that work is presented. Bringing money into Ao3 risks the legality of what the OTW’s legal team has fought and won for fandom.

Finances

Things get harder when money is involved. If you plan to sell your zine or raise money through your event it is in your best interest to make it 100% not for profit. If you are creating a fanzine it is highly recommended that it is solely for charity to protect yourself from copyright and receiving a cease and desist letter (and possible legal retaliation).

This means your contributors nor you will be receiving a single monetary amount for anything, everything will be going to the charity (or charities) you have chosen. If you choose to print, you will have to account for 30-50% of your gross going to production and shipping and any other materials you may need. If you are determined to raise money, offer your zine or the content as a limited exclusive offer for a few months before allowing your contributors to post. Doing so helps drum up excitement and generate sales therefore helping you raise more money.

An easy and clean way to raise money is either through PDF sales or a fundraiser where interested supporters share a receipt of a donation so you don’t have to touch a cent. Your gross profit would then become your net profit, and you can give the entirety of the funds raised without messing with the logistics of printing and shipping. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Taxes

Talk to a tax accountant for guidance for your state and country.

While you may not be planning on counting your raised money as taxable income and donate every cent, the IRS (or other government tax offices) may not think so. Make a financial plan that protects you from owing extra income tax as some charities don’t accept PayPal donations and you will need to transfer funds through a bank account-or plan to take a small percentage to pay taxes on or consider registering as an LLC depending on how long you want to be in operation. You can then of course turn around and donate the percentage taken to truly donate every cent. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Transparency

If money is involved you MUST be transparent.

This will not only protect you and your contributors in the long run, but gain trust. This means records of all receipts, record of orders, record of donations, EVERYTHING (with your personal information blacked out). Show a record for any reimbursement of materials if you choose to take that reimbursement. Not sharing the bare bones of your financial records can open you up to questions and criticisms and grow distrust-which would then hurt future endeavors. 

The first step is to open a new clean paypal account for zine-only transactions, this will help you with transparency. Don’t get yourself in trouble. Account for every cent.

Dedication

Here’s the kicker. If you don’t have the dedication to run your project, it will suffer and possibly even fail.

Running a fandom zine or event takes a lot of time and energy on your part. They simply don’t spring into existence just because you think it would be fun and you have the passion for it. Things would be so much easier if that were the case!

Some events will be easier to maintain than others, like fic exchanges. Big bangs can also be as easy or as hard as you want them to be depending on the number of contributors and if you are doing a regular-or reverse bang, or an open or closed big bang.

Zines usually require a lot more dedication and effort to complete because of printing, production, shipping, and finances. At the shortest, these endeavors can last from three months to six to eight months, with zines ranging up to a year or over depending on internal scheduling even if your supporters only see it publicly for a couple months. Even if you do try to do everything right, sometimes projects just don’t work out. Anything could happen to halt or slow down the process, but it’s up to you to keep it going if you can and if you want to.

In the end, this is a fun project that you can do. But there are many moving parts to make sure that it runs smoothly. In short: take your time, get your ducks in a row, and have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish because it will take a lot of work. Good luck!

[niennanir]

There was, in my experience, two solid ways to find a zine in 1985. This was the year Back to the Future, Enemy Mine, and Coocoon all came out. Star Trek returned to prime time two years later. It was a seismic shift in which sci-fi went from being for dorks to being cool. It was a hell of a time to be alive. It was also when I first started publishing fanfic.

The first most effective way to find a zine to subscribe to was to flip to the back of your StarLog magazine. Anyone who was into Sci-Fi or fantasy subscribed to StarLog. Wild stuff went on in the back of StarLog because this was where the classifieds were.

If you are younger than 20 you might not know what a Classified Ad is. Back in the dark times, before the internet, the way you got information out to the world was to mail a couple of lines of text, about the length of a short Tweet, to your favorite newspaper or magazine along with a very reasonable ad fee. The editorial staff would then put your classified ad in the classified section where there were hundreds of other tiny ads. The ads could be for anything from a car for sale to someone looking for a date.

But in StarLog the ads were usually one of two things: Sci-fi Conventions and Zines. You would also see a lot of ads labeled 'fan club' these were targeted at a younger audience, but apart from the lack of racy art and erotica they were, essentially, just Zines. both fan clubs and Zines were cheap to subscribe to. You would take 4 envelopes, put a stamp and your mailing address on each of them then put them in another envelope with a dollar bill and mail that to the Zine address. If you had aspirations of being a published fan fiction writer you would mail your manuscript to the zine as well. You may or may not make it into the Zine. I was 13 so I did not get into a lot of Zines this way.

The second way to find Zines was to get on your bike and ride down to the comic shop, or maybe the video rental store (Not Blockbuster usually) and check the public bulletin board. You might find ads for Zines stuck to the board, or you might even find the zines themselves. Our local comics shop had a Zine of the month, you could come in, pull the Zine off the bulletin board, read it while sitting on the crappy couch in the back corner and then stick it back to the board when you were done. I got into a lot more of these Zines.

I started writing fanfic when I was still very young, 10 or 11 I think, I didn't know at the time that it had a name, I was writing because it was important to who I was then. I suppose I began publishing because the classified ad said "Do you have Star Trek Stories you'd like to share?" and I did and they asked nicely so I sent them.

I have no idea what my readership might have been, I don't know if they enjoyed my stories, or if they even finished them, I can presume that the editors who chose to publish my work must have liked it. Or maybe they were just desperate for something to put in the Zine, I don't really know. The type of validation we have now wasn't achievable then so no one thought of it.

But it was a fun adventure all the same.

[mishacakes]

Hello, I'm making a magazine for a university project. I have a few questions:

What inspired you to make comics?

How were you inspired to make “Alice and the Nightmare”?

Apart from “Alice and the Nightmare”, do you plan to do more new stories?

Are you thinking about translating your comics into other languages to attract more audiences?

Have you participated in projects that are inside and/or outside of Hiveworks?

How do you feel that your comics are well received by the public?

Hi hi thanks for asking!! to answer, in order

I’ve been reading and making comics as long as I can remember. My first comic series i made when I was 8 years old of a stick figure princess beating up a dumb prince who keeps trying to rescue her, so you truly know i’ve Always Been Like This. I’d staple the pages together, baby’s first zine. I just never really stopped haha

Alice and the Nightmare happened cause I started drawing Alice in high school, and I liked her as a character so I kept drawing her. Edith came next, then Hatter, then other cast members, and I wanted to make a story for them. I’ve always loved Alice in Wonderland stuff, growing up on anime inspired by it, and it was fun to do my own take on it. As I researched Alice in Wonderland more it really made me fall in love with the classic book itself, which made me want to work on Alice and the Nightmare more. Now normally I’d say don’t make your high school story your first project, HOWEVER, “Alice” as it is now is sooooooo heavily edited and so far from where it started out over a decade ago. “Kill your darlings” is very real and it WORKS. Huge shoutout to my editor and dear friend @secondlina who’s so often saved my storytelling bacon <3

Of course!! I love storytelling and there’s so much I want to do! Light novels are something I really want to explore.

That’s not something I really think of? English is the only language I’m fluent in, so even if I wanted to I couldn’t. That’s up to Hiveworks and translators for if they think my work would benefit from having translations. However there have been fan translations of my work before which I think are cool!

Oh yea! I’m in two of the three Valor Anthologies (Bride of the Rose Beast being one), I’ve done a couple zines, short comics, Eldritch Darling, animated films in college (Panic and Bookaneer). I like having a wide variety.

Feels nice! It’s always a delight when someone tells me they love my work or it’s affected their life or how they view things. Comic making—and art as a career—is more often than not a lonely profession, so that human connection is always very special and lovely <3

Hope this helps! Best of luck with you magazine! Cheers!!

[kamenriderliveblog]

Guess what's ready for digital order! It's @ultra-zine!!!

Okay look I know that my very first post said that I wasn't a figure person. That has obviously changed and I have officially fallen into the SH Figuarts rabbit hole. I preordered Blazar plus I want to get Zero and all of Z's forms. Send help, lmao

Full disclosure: I did contribute something to this zine, which is one reason why I haven't done many liveblogs lately. (I'm still a little emotional about seeing something I've written in print.) I wrote Chill Out, It's Snow Problem, though that was before I saw the dub for Z. Watching that notably changed how I write Z's verbal tics.

I had a hard time with this story because my first draft was like 4500 words. I had to cut out a lot and that was a painful experience! Granted, for me editing is always a painful process, but I'm of the opinion that if it doesn't hurt in one way or another, I'm not editing enough. I'll probably toss up the longer version on AO3 eventually though. It actually really, really hurt to cut as much as I did and I want those parts to see the light of day in one way or another.

There were some scenes that I wanted to write but didn't even make it into the first draft. There was originally going to be a scene with Z taking control of Haruki's body with his permission and skating at an ice rink because my headcanon is that Z would be really good at it. Yes, that scene from episode 7 has been living rent-free in my head for way too long. I also thought Z skating in Haruki's body would be a fun scene for the artist (in this case the amazing @chacerider, though I didn't know that at the time) to use for the illustration if they wanted. Beliarok was going to appear too, but I couldn't think of a way to get him in there in a way that I was happy with.

Originally the story started in Haruki's apartment before going to STORAGE, which actually did make it into the first draft. I had to choose between scrapping that whole intro or paring down the emotional beats that came later. The choice was obvious. Oh yeah and I had Haruki nearly get hit by a truck in the first draft. Fun! Still had to cut it, though.

Haruki and Z being able to tell how the other is feeling or emotions bleeding from one to the other isn't exactly something that happens in canon, I know. It's pretty much me taking the idea of Haruki's emotional state having a big effect on Z in episode 12 and then dialing it up to 11. I like the idea of there being side effects (for lack of a better word) to merging, and I wanted to explore how the friendship between Z and Haruki might develop if there was a lot more unintentional emotional openness. I'll also fully admit that I stole some things from Geed. Leito and Zero's conversations when they're out and around regular people was the big one, and while Z does take control of Haruki's body in episode 7 for a second, I was really more thinking of Geed's early episodes and how Zero would take control of Leito's body basically whenever he felt he needed to.

If you made it to the end, thanks! The link to read my story on AO3 is below. If you didn't manage to grab a physical edition of the zine, you can get a digital version of it and the previous volumes here!

[fawn-eyed-girl]

For the writers truth and dare ask game😊

🪲,🍄,🪐,🎱,🏜️

Liz HELLO! Thank you so so much for the ask!

Let's see...

🎱: I try not to follow Ao3 stats too much, but I'll give you the one I'm most proud of

Word count: 3,271,798

With a goal to get to 4 million by the end of 2024!! We'll see if I can get there 💖

🏜️: my favorite type of comment: any comment that likes my work is my favorite! 😅 it's always nice to know someone is reading and appreciating

🪐: Three good things in my life right now... It's almost spring break 🫠 my kiddo got a good part in a play, and...the Haikyuu movie is doing amazingly well (although I wish I could fly to Japan to see it!)

🍄: Headcanons:

InuKag: Inuyasha loves to watch Kagome when he thinks she's not looking, but she totally knows he's watching her. She just...lets him think he's being sneaky 😅

BKDK: After the war, Katsuki and Izuku are basically inseparable. They try to sleep apart in their dorms, but one of them always shows up at the other's door at like 2am because nightmares are keeping them awake. Aizawa begrudgingly lets them share a dorm room because they're just impossible otherwise, and thus begins a new era where they're even more impossible, because they're attached to each other all of the time 😅

🪲: sooo I have a bunch of things I can't show yet, because they're for zines or events or other things, BUT I do have a little snippet of something I am working on for @takaobata that is part of our Inuyasha space AU that I am very happy to share! I've included it below the cut ⤵️

Thanks so much for the questions! These were fun to answer 💖

From the Writers Truth and Dare Ask Game

The flashing lights and high-pitched wails from the alarms fill Inuyasha’s eyes and ears as he races down the corridor. His half-demon hearing picks up on the voices of the enemy, infiltrating his ship from every corner, and he knows his time is short.

It’s not himself he worries for; he doesn’t care if he’s caught, if he lives, or if he dies.

But the precious item in his pocket…

He reaches the escape pod room and, frantically, punches in the code. The door shoots open, and he tears inside, stumbling to the nearest pod. He opens it and, with shaking hands, places the pouch he’s been carrying in his pocket all this time in the secret compartment only he and one other person in the galaxy know exists. 

He doesn’t necessarily believe in the gods and all that nonsense, but he says a quick prayer anyway. 

The coordinates he enters into the pod’s computer are ones he hopes are still accurate. Because if not…

He steps away; the door to the pod seals, and within seconds, it jettisons down the launch chute to be shot off into space. 

This better work, he thinks desperately. It’s our only hope.

[donnerpartyofone]

times they wouldn't let me just be a regular person (randomly selected)

My friend and I visited my stepmother, who I dearly love, but she is very much from a world of Wealth and Ambition and she doesn't totally "get" anything else. Friend and I had recently put together a little zine just for fun--something that would barely qualify in the zine world, it was just office paper and staples and scans of crude jokey drawings--and when we talked about how much fun we had with it, my stepmother insisted that we have a book launch party with wine and cheese. A bunch of her fancy friends were there, just looking at us. I could tell she thought she was being encouraging, and I could also tell that she thought I wouldn't know that it wasn't normal to have a formal launch event with canapes for something I printed out and stapled at work. Friend and I were in our mid- and late-30s. I absolutely could not risk acting offended, but it was pretty humiliating.

I was living way out in a frankly dangerous neighborhood in a big empty apartment that I had leased so my boyfriend and I could start living together, only to have him break up with me after I moved in. Life was pretty hard in most respects. When my grandmother sent me a check for Christmas it was a big relief; I called her and thanked her, telling her that I really needed help paying the rent that month and I was extremely grateful. A cold, weird silence followed. "Oh," she bit off. "I thought you would use it for something special." She made it really obvious that I had to apologize for using the Christmas present to do something boring and lame like avoiding homelessness, and I had to spend a few minutes trying to make her feel better about my disrespectful behavior. I don't think I totally succeeded.

[missanthropicprinciple]

Pacific Rim and Newmann: A 10 Year Retrospective.

Strictly speaking, I’ve only been a fan for 9 years. I was at the dentist when the film was released. I never went to see it in theatres even though I was interested. I’d seen the clip they showed on Leno when Charlie Day was on to promote the film, the bit where Hermann and Newt bicker while Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam, and Rinko Kikuchi look on. By the end of the year I saw people posting about it on Tumblr and I became increasingly intrigued. By the summer of 2014 I was shipping Newt and Hermann hard, getting sucked into very naughty fanfiction. 

That August I bought the DVD and then watched it into the early hours. The scene with Otachi’s baby blew my mind at 4am.

(gif from neillblomkamp)

I didn’t know then that it would change my life. I spend a lot of money on kaiju and a couple jaegers from NECA, books, clothing merch, stickers, doujinshi, zines, and several prints that adorned my apartment walls for years. I wrote a large volume of fanfiction, sometimes in a notebook at work. Other than academic work it was the most I’d written in years. I even created fan art which I had hardly done before that. I was so invested as a person and a writer.

Even more impactful was how it changed my social life. I made friends who sadly did not remain so. I miss those people, I truly do. And I feel very badly about how things either ended abruptly or faded away, regardless of it that was my fault or another’s, or simply life. The people have gone and the ghost of my love for them remains.

But the friends I have stayed close to changed my life more. I never thought I would gain a sister out of it. I met my best friend in October 2014 online through the fandom and as the years went by we became very close, closer than we are to our own families. I’m going to see her in person for the third time this summer. And of course I made so many other friends and mutuals who have been so kind and patient with me all these years, talented writers and artists, and very good people. I love them all.

And of course the sheer fun that came out of being in this fandom. The fact that we all mass-halucinated a lab couch, thereby proving the concept of the hivemind. The wonderful, unhinged conversations we’ve all had and the laughter we shared. Not to mention cosplaying as Hermann when I went to see the Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters exhibit.

The scene where Hermann says they’re going to drift together is STILL my alarm every morning after all these years.

I certainly love Newton and Hermann. They’re a part of me in many ways. Expressions of who I am. I never stray too far away from them. Even now after so much has happened in my life, they continue to be a comfort and conjure up so many fond memories and always will.

[mentalblabbermouth]

May the 4th hit me like a truck and i'm still stuck like a fly to a windshield 3 months later

(just posting notes from my ramble doc, i should just get the app at this point)

Man it’s lonely not having people outside of online spaces being just as obsessed with the same media. My sib and I have kind of drifted apart in terms of tastes in shows/fandoms and my folks aren’t interested at all. I don’t really have any friends in my hometown that I could just go on impromptu hangouts to the mall or park with, and the ones I do have their own long established clique and they’re into different stuff. It’s not like in college with living on campus, and all those friends are miles away. These days it’s hard to even find a free day. I think it really comes down to I wish I had someone to turn to and be like “this character connects to this and foreshadows this and did you know etc. etc.” basically infodumping but actually being listened to with the same amount of enthusiasm. 

   I want to talk about Star Wars, casual mainstream stuff I guess, like I’m late in the game but just started the Bad Batch and I got so excited hearing the narrator again. I used to watch the Clone Wars when I was little so it was a huge hit of nostalgia. Funnily enough I’ve basically gotten the highlights of the whole series through reaction posts, fanart, clips, and finally decided ok I’ll check it out after reading a fic (it was "Success Rate" on Ao3 btw). I wasn’t initially interested when the Bad Batch first came out until their personalities really started to show and of course sibling family moments. And I’ll admit the fandom space from what I could see on insta genuinely looked like fun from the sidelines. 

   The Dad Batch is so real, watching the very first episode knowing what happens later on and how much they grow it’s bittersweet and touching. Literally the moment Hunter sees Omega it’s like the remnants of the paternal Mandalorian instincts kicked in. This man was already set on becoming a father figure even if he hadn’t realized it. I just thought it was the fans doing their thing but no I witnessed it with my own eyes they’re all girldads and now I wish I got into the series sooner. 

   Also because I’m an animator at heart I love catching the little side glances between the brothers and the little quirks. For being voiced by the same guy, each of the Bad Batch have their own distinct personalities and mannerisms and I’m having such a good time.

   Omega is such a sweetheart, I don’t get how people could not like her! She’s literally baby and I know she grows up at the end of the series, so seeing how she started out she’s so small! She’s just a kid! She’s their little girl! They love her immediately and wholeheartedly! I didn’t know that in the first episode Order 66 just hits them like that, everything is confusing and chaos, the world they’ve known their whole lives is crumbling down. But they risk their lives and their freedom and return to Kamino for her! 

   The food fight scene was great, absolutely love how they’re ready to throw hands.

Nothing is more euphoric than finding a piece of fanart you remembered liking years ago but not remembering the artist so you go on a long search detective style and then find it! Yes it was Bad Batch content—I liked the occasional art even though I had never seen a single episode until now and I’m living rn absolutely delighted to find the piece was part of TBB Zine! Catching up on quality content now with context is healing rn (just in case the piece is by clone.enthusiast aka Bird on insta, forever treasuring this I’m smiling)-update: i think with the whole Meta AI thing the artist left Instagram and I'm so sad i can't find them.

Anyhoo, wanted to get that part out of my system. Been busy with a new job that's been so draining that I haven't finished Season 1 yet. Burnout has made picking up a pencil feel like holding a hot iron that it just hurts idk. Thinking of making a Tumblr blog just for professional art portfolio things since Instagram is now a hot garbage fire and lots of people are moving to Cara. I don't think i'll leave Insta myself since I've got mutuals there and there's still awesome art around. But yeah that's what's life been lately, if you've read this far, thanks!

[mlsquaredance]

ML Square Dance — Moderators

Noodles — Head Mod (@ladyofthenoodle)

Hi, I’m noodles! I’ve been in ML fandom for a few years now and my favorite side of the square is Ladynoir. I have moderated for a several events, including Coup de Foudre: An Adrinette Zine, Ladynoir July, and Miraculous Core Four Week. I’m really excited to be running this event and I can’t wait to see what everyone remixes!

Bren — Organizational Mod (@jattendschaton)

Hello! I'm bren and I'm excited to be an organization/matching mod for this event! I joined the ML fandom in 2015 and have since helped run the ML Secret Santa for several years as well as modded multiple zines such as the Ladynoir zine, the Ladrien zine, and the Adrien zine. I look forward to seeing everyone's creations!

Lettuce — Graphics Mod (@miraculosus)

Hey leafas here better known as Lettuce 🥬 I’m an artist who became a fan of Miraculous in 2015 but didn’t get too actively involved in the fandom until last year. This is my first time helping run an event like this and I’m excited to contribute as a graphics mod!

Asukiess — Discord Mod (@asukiess)

Hi, I’m asukiess (aka Autumn)! I’ll be helping moderate the discord as well as a point of contact for participants. I enjoy being silly and having fun with people, and I’m excited to be apart of such a fun event. I’m excited to see how creative people can get!

Mia — Social Media Mod (@miabrown007)

Hey, I'm Mia! I'm a writer, a Marichat/Ladrien solidarity advocate, and the social media mod for this event. I have experience with managing ship months, as well as running the ML Big Bang since 2021. I'm very pumped for this LS-centric event and can't wait to see everyone's creations!

For more information: Schedule || FAQ || Rules

[amazing-spiderling]

for the fandom ask game: 5 6 11 16 23 24

something you see in fics a lot and love

I really love seeing Foggy sort of leap-frogging over his panic and anger and confusion in moments of crisis to get right to the part where he works on being helpful. That, "We are going to fight about this later, but right now I need to stop that bleeding" sort of thing. Foggy is absolutely allowed to have emotions and fall apart in a crisis, but he has a good head on his shoulders and certainly after a certain point he's had to learn to compartmentalize just to survive being in Matt's life. I think it's comforting to imagine having a friend or partner like that- I guess it speaks to the idea of there always being an undercurrent of love. No matter what else is going on in the moment, no matter how furious or scared or worried the events taking place right now make them, they do not supplant the love that is at the basis of the relationship. I just think that's neat.

something you see in art a lot and love

When artists really have fun with the clothing, paying attention to details and making things really specific. When someone really pays attention to drawing a certain kind of shoe- I'm just... yeah, that's the good stuff. :)

if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

Well, I'm a little bit of both- but I guess a fic sprang to mind first so I'll answer for that. (tw for fictional CSA mention btw) So, as I've not-so-casually mentioned, one of my first big/long term fandoms was Metal Gear Solid. And I know that some of the memes from that series have escaped containment, and to the outsiders it might look like "Call of Duty but with the occasional zany moment" but it does have a lot of story (too much, some might say XD) and intricate character relationships and lore and, ugh it's just SUCH fertile ground for art and fic and all the things that make fandom great. But, it *does* also very much appeal to gamer dudes of the usual type. And normally this is fine, the transformative fans and the archival fans largely keep to their own fandom spaces- but sometimes there is crossover that rubs one group or the other the wrong way.

One such case is that there is a character who has an "affair" with his step-mother, but I put that in quotes because when the dust settles, it turns out this happened when the character in question was 16. There is TERRIBLE fallout from the event (family trauma, suicide, estrangement) and the game plays it all straight- this is something that broke the already fragile family to pieces. BUT for a long time, the joke was "haha character banged his stepmom". Which. Ew.

Anyways, I always really wanted to write a story that sort of expanded on those events, not the actual relationship/abuse/fallout, but more the events that precluded it, mostly what made the character an easy target. (Isolation, otherness, a lack of confidence in who they were as an individual). Basically, I wanted to really tell a story that treated the matter with the needed level of seriousness, if only to say, "hey, this isn't a punchline, this is a traumatic experience".

I ended up watching, "The Graduate" a few times as sort of... research? Partially for tone, partially because the themes and characterization in that movie matched the vibe I was trying to go for in my own story. (I can't help but think that Kojima, known for referencing movies in his games- might have had it in mind due to some shared imagery.) This was maybe the first time I did something like that, watching a movie to pick it apart for nuance in tone, as opposed to looking at it for canon events, timelines etc.

So that story ended up being, "Surface Tension", which first appeared in the "Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years" zine, and then eventually got posted to AO3. It's not my best reviewed fic by a long shot (understandably, it's a difficult subject material and not shippy or anything), but it's one that I can say I am proud of.

a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

Wow, this one is tricky for me- I feel like a lot of fans are way more detail oriented than I am when it comes to canon. I'm always the one in awe when people are like, "Oh in episode seven, this one song is playing in a car as it drives by, and that's significant because it came out in 2013 and that was the year that..." and i'm just like "you guys know the names of songs?"

I guess to that end- I always liked the line in, I think it's season 1 where Matt says it's a "90's Top 40" kind of guy. I think it's really funny because people characterize him as having... well, let's just say "better" musical taste, but like, no. That dude would bop his head if you played the Spin Doctors.

the fandom you’re curious about because of a mutual

I have no idea what's going on in the Trolls fandom, and at this point I'm afraid to ask. But they all look like they're having a great time.

how has fandom positively impacted your life?

I've made so many friends, and as someone who doesn't get out as much as I'd like (especially as an immunocompromised person in the middle of a pandemic), my fandom friends are so, so important to me. I love the feeling of having a group of people who love the thing I love and being able to waltz into a space and say, "Hey, who wants to do this crazy thing with me?" and have even a few people say "Yeah, let's fucking GOOOO". ^^

I also think I wouldn't write nearly as much if it wasn't for fandom, and writing has certainly gone a long way towards helping me become better at unraveling the balls of yarn in my brain and making them into sweaters and scarves, as it were. I think a lot of the time when you write, you're practicing empathy- because you're forcing yourself to see the world from someone else's perspective. Maybe the character you're writing about had something in common with you, maybe that's what drew you to them in the first place, but identifying that also helps you understand more about yourself *and* how you relate to others. So I like to think that writing has helped me relate better to other people, even the ones I disagree with, and made me more able to slow down and ask, "well, why does this person feel/think that way?" Storytelling is so important for a lot of reasons, but that's a big one for me.

[ghul-wein]

My finished piece for the @cartoonsaloonmythzine!

[do not ask me why I have not posted this yet,, I don’t have an answer]

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Cartoon Saloon stories & art style, they really helped spark/encourage a sorta kinda fixation into Irish folk myths & culture; very very fun watches that are all call for big emotions in their own way. Of the films so far Wolfwalkers, The Secret of Kells, & The Breadwinner are my favorites (though this zine was for their sort of trilogy films) and I am very excited to see what comes of their future projects!!

Ye yea :’-3

[Image Description:

An digital illustration of the main characters from Wolfwalkers and The Secret of Kells. Brendan and Robyn are siting together to the right of the page. Robyn is a young girl with blue eyes and blonde hair in a long, messy braid going over her shoulder. She has a flower in her hair and is smiling at a book in Brendan’s lap as he talks. Brendan is a young boy with red crop cut hair, green eyes and freckled skin. He is smiling excitedly and pointing to the book in his lap as he explains or discusses details of it to/with Robyn. In the midground we see Aisling, a little girl with pale white skin and white hair wearing a grey wolves pelt chasing Pangur Ban - a white cat who seems more than displeased with being the subject of a game of chase. Aisling is chasing after the cat with claws and teeth bared, smiling wide. Just behind her, as if also apart of this game of chase, we see Mébh hanging upside down from a tree. Mébh is a little girl with thick red hair full of foliage, a simple olive green dress and large, golden hoop earrings. Her cheeks are tattooed and her teeth are pointed, almost like fangs. The whole scene is set in bright and silhouetted forest. Glowing twin wolves and sun like stone frame the piece.]

[jlonejacketwthe30out]

continuing HAND & EYE - visual diary entries!

to help with creating a narrative for our publications/zines, as a course we were encouraged to hold a visual diary for a few weeks.

the *aim* of the visual diary was to capture everyday scenes or ideas in a pretty relaxed way; there wasn't any emphasis on anything looking neat or even coherent, so ofc i ran with that yfm🤣

these first two entries were two very ordinary sights for me at LCC; one being a super messy collage-ish sketch(?) of the table i was sat at, surrounded by my friends and their stuff. the other sketch was meant to be a first person view of the steps i was sat on (in the tower block) after staying back on campus. i wanted this sketch to be more realistic and focused but erm... yeah.

(the visual diaries themselves were part of a drawing kit we were given by the course for this project - containing an a4 sketchbook, a crayon, a stick of chalk, and a stick of charcoal. my chalk was yellow and my crayon was green!😁)

this next spread was my attempt at drawing a pair of BeReal photos that me and some buddies (hi star toni and julia🤗) took at a restaurant together - i don't know how but one of these a drew really well, and the other i totally messed up! must have been the change in perspective idk...

the pizza is what me and my buddies ate at the resturaunt!! so i thought it would be fitting to draw my next restaurant experience next to them - burgers at TGIF's for my 19th (super low maintenance. i'll try and be more excited for my 20th... not my fault my birthday is in between deadlines.... its hard to be happy during that time🛌🏾)

because it was my birthday, i was on the move w my family so i drew my sketches on post-it notes and stuck them into my visual diary later. my favorite out of these sketches is the one in the bottom left corner, which is a very loose sketch of the inside of my mums car from my perspective.

an actual spread to celebrate mine and my sisters birthdays (10 years and 8 days apart ???

below (1) was a super rough spread of the trains that pass by my back garden - i started focusing on trains a little bit after this!

the page in the middle was inspired by the song Day In Day Out by the band XTC, which i felt kind of resonated with the repetitive nature of getting the tube every day.

THIS SPREAD ON THE RIGHT ... was kind of a stream on consciousness ibsr. it was meant to be a sort of build on my ideas around trains and public transport, hence the priority symbols but its kind of devolved into me thinking about people who sit with their legs spread on public transport... annoying. and then thinking about eye catching trousers with logos on the crotch... not annoying. i love design like that, actually - its kinda... 🤭

along with getting input from friends for what i could add to it (including giving the little guy in bed a boner... cos like. do it for the bit ig💀) i just had a lot of fun with this one.

and below are some more chill drawings:

the first page - doodles on post - it notes again

the second page - a very normal view on my bedroom window and the outside, the colours are way off but that's fine; i really like this one lol.

the third page - the view of the main IVM class room YEAHHHH (but like. with no people... i drew this during a class)

there's another entry but i'm saving that for! another post !!

[fagexe]

my doc upped my adhd meds and my brain is rattling and nobody is home for me to talk to… so, here you go, it’s me! a machine of consciousness!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every once in a while i consider getting off tumblr, but then i remember that this is my main(only) source of people who care about mcr as much as i do. Don't get me wrong, i have friends who are always excited to hear me talk about whatever the fuck is going on with those freaks and i love them for it, but they don't really have a lot of opinions or things to say. They like to hear about it because they care about me and want to hear about the things that i care about, which is fucking wonderful! But, at a certain point i feel like a physicist talking to a first grader. They retain most of the information i give them and some of them listened to my chem growing up. But the ones that did were never like seriously into them. They know the hits or maybe had a bp cd in hs but that's it. Aka they weren't/aren't in the spaces and don't really have the full context and overflowing number of opinions that comes from being here for years and years and years. So.... i don't really know anybody irl who was and still is in the fandom. I had friends in “high school” that were into them at the same level i was at that point, but a lot of us have drifted apart or they've drifted away from mcr (i use quotation marks cuz i'm referring to the age range not actually going to high school ((since i didn't do that;) )). I think the third or fourth to last time i saw the person I talked about MCR the most with in hs was at a celebration show that absolutely rocked my world, but that was like 2014 or something idk. I still have that one on instagram:0 they're a dj now! it's so wonderful to see them finding success at something they were wanting to do back then. But like we don't really talk(meaning we don't talk). I want people to go off with irl so badly. dykegerard and amanda are the luckiest fucking duckies, also fievel is the cutest little baby!!!:) (ps i miss living with a dog so bad) (pps yes i know dykegerard has a real name but that's their name in my head) i want to marry somebody who cares about mcr as much as i do<3 it's nowhere near the top of what would be important for me to marry someone, but it would be cute.

Oh dear lord, okay, i went off for a second, give me a minute

Ok, my other thought was -> Yeah, i think i would miss having that (mcr besties) but like i only actually talk to a few people on here and if i wanted to i could talk to them somewhere else. But I like doing silly little zines!! And this is my main(only((unless one of my irl friends is doing one. But those zines are never fanzines, they are usually poetry or political, which I love, but it's definitely a different vibe )) source of knowing when those are happening and knowing when their apps are happening. I know a lot of them are promoted on twitter in addition to here. But! I absolutely refuse to go on twitter in any sort of real and sustained way. Yes, i have a twitter. Yes, i go on there occasionally. But no, i will not be replacing tumblr with twitter, doing that would keep all of the things i dislike about tumblr and the way i interact with it and get rid of most of the things i like about tumblr. Also as far as i can tell mcr twitter is absolutely fucking wild, and not in the way i want it to be.

Speaking of zines :) I've been looking through all of the final submissions for the swarm zine and everyone's work is so absolutely amazing, i'm so excited for it to come out. I'm also just generally like pretty proud of the piece I have in there:) Since going back to school for art stuff everything's gotten to feel much more serious, which isn't necessarily bad. I am genuinely very serious and care a lot about the work I make. But also like having a fun low stakes artistic outlet has been absolutely amazing :) Plus since the thing I work on at school is film/video/installation, working in a format that's not even kind of related to that is really wonderful:)) anyway, FFUCKING GET HYPE FOR SWARM TO COME OUT!! (Having all of that capitalized feels really aggressive and I don't like it but I wasn't sure which part to capitalize so I left it all capitalized. I thought about just having “fucking get hype” capitalized but then it seems weird to go from “high energy” to “low energy”:/, maybe just hype capitalized idk whatever.)

Ok i’m going to go see the regrettes at wickerfest see you later bye-bye <33