#trad art zine

[hadespaint]

I can finally share my pieces for @aaweddingzine! This was a really fun project, and I loved being able to create so much for it. Make sure to check out all the amazing work everyone did on this zine!

[fratboystrider]

9/20

strangers

[clintcatalyst]

Poem by Lake Vajra From my ‘zine As If  — Issue Two, 1993 

[mildredpierce8]

Gothic Zine narrated by my OC Shelley. This is the last zine for the next couple of weeks. I'm working on some other projects, but for now enjoy this zine I've made :) (also thx @date-mate-re-animate for the movie recommendations found on page 9. :) Have fun!!!

thx for reading :)

[l-o-r-d-4]

Follow my instagram

[skunkes]

[tinybrie]

Guessed who trapped themselves into writing multiple ToT oneshots

[attyrocious]

its trad art weekend. have a law warm up before i go to zine dungeon

[the-ria]

In the spirit of trying something new to get out of my art block, I decided to return to trad art and make a new zine!

As soon as I saw this post I knew that wanted to create something fun and inspired by my own relationship with My Chem's music. Which in turn led me to this idea :D

I hope you like it and if you see any spelling mistakes, no you dont 🫥

Also I'm including printable files for standard A-sized paper, so feel free to print out and fold yourself a copy of the zine!

@mcrzines

[eddiediaaz]

from fanlore: A Big Bang is a specific type of challenge usually involving long fics and accompanying artwork. This type of challenge is a reprise of the old zine tradition of collaboration between artists and writers for internet fandoms. Most Big Bangs have a similar format: Writers sign up to take part in the challenge and begin writing stories. When the early drafts of the stories are available, each one is assigned one or more artists, or artists might claim stories from posted summaries. Artists create fanart to go along with the story. This art can take the form of illustrations, manips, photo collages, vids, etc.

i would really really love to see such an event in the fandom, so i am testing the water and see if people would be interested. fic requirement would probably be ~20k words minimum. and the deadline wouldn't be until around october 2024. please signal boost/reblog if you can!

[naamah-beherit]

On fanzines and the mess their current state is

Or: musings from a writer's biased perspective.

This post has been a long time coming, but always something else caught my attention and months passed as such. Finally, the time has come.

There was a zine wank recently. The mods proved to be quite ignorant how art works, kicked the artist, the artist went public with receipts, the mods insisted it wasn't like that, and the whole affair kept derailing with possibly another explanation for the kicking until at last the mods cancelled the zine. And it's just the latest wank of many. A zine here took money and never delivered the product, another zine there has a mod who hasn't read the book but only heard about it from their friends who, coincidentally, are the other mods. And so on, and so forth. Everywhere you look, there's a fanzine. Multiple fanzines in fact, sometimes at the same time. Which is understandable, given how old a concept of a zine is and how solid their foundations in fandoms.

Or, well, technically, because when I think about the zines of today, I can't help but realise they're gradually losing the connection to their roots.

(yes, this might be another post of the "old person yells at clouds" type. I'm fully aware of that)

I won't summarise a history of zines, because that's not the point here and also Fanlore has done a much better job in this article. It does serve as a good starting point, though, if you've never ventured past "zines are a thing that exist". The most important thing to keep in mind is: the zines used to be about much more than just art. And here lies some of my beef with them.

Nowadays, most if not all zines are art books. Worse than that: art books that refuse to acknowledge the fact, own it, and market themselves accordingly. I actually own an art book that was announced and sold as such (Ages of Arda Anthology), which to this day in all my fandoms¹ remains the only publication of that kind. And if the zines of today would have acknowledged their main focus is mostly if not only art, I wouldn't be writing this.

Alas, here we are. I participated in four zines. Additionally, I was one of the editors in one of those. It was the first English Hualian zine, actually, back in 2019 - unless another one somehow slipped my mind, but I don't think so. My 2019 was bad, but TGCF is the only thing I remember well from that time. I've also been traditionally published (three times so far), which is also relevant to the rant. I admit I don't remember how many check-ins we had for that one zine I was in the staff of. We had a word/size limit for the entries. As fas as I recall, that was the entry criteria. I might be missing details, though; I was hella depressed at the time. Like I said, bad year, few memories and 99% of them is TGCF.

But anyway, the other three zines I wrote for. I applied, was accepted, went through the process, saw it to the end. You know, the "usual" zine process. The one I've got Opinions™ about.

Let's start with submissions. x samples of works of y quality. Okay, sure, we all think without stopping to realise it's a tad weird to submit a selected portfolio of works for a hobby event as if it were a job application. It gets weirder the longer you think about it, because, as I once wrote, fandom is for fun. It's a hobby. Maybe I'm old and jaded, or an idealist, or an old jaded idealist, but I believe everyone has a place in something as deeply tied to the fandom as a fanzine.

Then comes what I've got a personal vendetta against: check-ins and deadlines. Sure, I know people create projects with specific time frames in mind, but dear gods, again, it's not a job. Nothing bad will happen if dates shift around a bit when there's no money involved. Maybe it's just me being bitter about putting fun, fannish activity into strict professional frames. again, I'm old and jaded. And dear gods, check-ins. Here's when my trad pub history comes into play, because in neither case I had to let the editorial staff know I was actually working. True, it might be a case for a story that isn't done yet, doubly so if there's a deadline looming over both an author and their editor, but when you submit something finished and aren't asked to revise&resubmit, you go over the editorial input, make the changes (or not if you're feeling brave, lol), send it back, go over the proof copy, submit possible adjustments, and that's it. Or at least that's how it worked for me for two magazines and a short story anthology.

What does it matter if someone writes a story the day before the zine submissions are due? If it works for them, then it shouldn't be an issue. Again, it might be just me, but standardising and project-managising a hobby activity doesn't really sit well with me. From my very biased perspective, I don't see fun in chasing deadlines and writing on the clock, but that's just me.

Zine being a project rather than fun activity also ties to it becoming a product. That means a zine has to sell to at least cover the production cost, and with the quality the organisers and the audience expect, the labour cost is basically non-existent. That at least remained from a fun hobby activity - people working for free, lol. It also enables situations when the same few highly popular artists partake in most or all zines in a fandom (often upon invitations, whose very existence makes my blood boil), leading to a reality where zines become an endless cycle of repetition. And don't even get me started on invitations that add to the marketing strategy of selling the zines. "Here are our wonderful, carefully selected artists, and here's everyone else". That's how I see it. Where has "we're all fans of the same thing" gone? Where's "share our mutual love for the same thing"? Instead, we get invited people and those who have to submit a CV-like application for a senior position.

You ruined a perfectly good fan activity, is what you did. Look at it, it's got capitalism.

And last but not least, art books that refuse to acknowledge what they are and the subsequent treatment of writers.

The longer I look at zines, the lower the artists:writers ratio is becoming. Sure, people like to look at art, because it's quite often easier and always quicker than reading. Sure, ain't nobody got time for reading these days. BUT. The growing disparity between respect and reception of works of artists vs writers is, well, growing, and by not giving writers an equal treatment and exposure in something as important to fandoms as fanzines doesn't help to improve the situation. Again, my opinion, but when seeing zine promos that have got approximately 20-30+ artists and 5-10 writers at most is not cool. This is why I say most of the zines these days are art books that refuse the name. And there's nothing wrong with that name, or with including only artists in something that's only about visual art. But when it's mixed for art and writing, then the least zine organisers could do is make the numbers equal. Again, we're all fans of the same thing, and no fan activity is better than the other when its outlet is meant to be varied. Also, where are cosplayers? Where are meta writers? Both of those have got a place in a fanzine as well and should be given a treatment equal to other expression of fannish love.

Am I trying to turn back a river with a stick? Probably. But I'm fed up with zines that fail because someone embezzles funds, zines that prioritise the same group of people over and over again over a more diverse crowd, or claim they're welcoming to all forms of expressions but obviously prefer to include only fanart. I'm fed up with manufacturing zine after zine after zine just because they sell. I'm fed up with fandom becoming more and more of a structured professional endeavour instead of a hobby. I'm fed up with audience that constantly demands a faster and faster stream of, well, content. Neither of those is what fandom and fanzines should be like.

.

PS. not proofread. Sorry, I'm too dead to do that, so mistakes may get fixed within the next few days, 'cause they sure as hell are many.

__

¹ - I don't know anything about other fandoms, though. Like I said: it's all opinions from a very personal angle.

[hadespaint]

I'm finally able to show my page for @onceuponaturnaboutzine !

My piece was based on stories of fairies as they appear in the works of Shakespeare. All of the plants that appear in the piece were chosen for their symbolic meanings in relation to Dahlia and Phoenix's relationship. I even made a little diagram explaining them that I'll put under the cut

transcript in case you can't read my terrible handwriting:

Wisteria: poisonous

Datura: poisonous, disguise, defeat

Baby's breath: poisonous, sweet love

Musk rose: referenced in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the standard garden rose of Shakespeare's time

Salix alba (willow): enchantment, love spells

Foxglove: poison, deception

Rosa carolina: love is dangerous

Bleeding heart: poisonous, love, it just looks sick as hell

Pink dahlia: femininity, love, I can't not include them

Ranunculus: attraction

Burgundy dahlia: betrayal

Rhododendron: poisonous, danger

Ranunculus sardous: madness, invitation

Sweet william: scorn, treachery, broken hearted men

Mallow: consumed by love

[fratboystrider]

tear the petals off of you

Canon Heartstrings lore: Dude & her parents pt. 2

While her parents did leave, Dude doesn’t outright resent them for the act. She’s mad them for not coming back for her, but ultimately she misses them more than anything. This is because she primarily holds on to the good memories she has and stories she was told. Her grandmother never spoke ill of them. It hurts her very much, but she tries her best to understand why they up and left. She knows it’s not that she wasn’t loved. She just doesn’t understand why that love wasn’t enough to keep them around. What she doesn’t know is that the main reason they even called her was because her grandmother forced them to.

She very much idealizes the relationship they had as teenagers. She was heartbroken to say the least when she found out they remarried and didn’t bother including her in the weddings let alone their new families. Of the 5 younger siblings she has, she doesn’t really have a relationship with any of them. They know of her, very little, and have never interacted with her. It’s probably for the best, because if she actually sat down and saw that they had the capacity to be good parents but just didn’t do that for her then she’d be absolutely devastated.

[bisonaari]

Hi! I'm Bison (she/her but I'll take any pronoun really)

For my Jukka tag, follow the duck 🦆

For my art tag, click here!

For my learning finnish tag, bison learns finnish

For Käärijä fanzine info (until I make actual social media for it), please check my fanzine tag!

OFFICIAL ZINE BLOG IS @kaarijazineofficial

Current stage of fanzine developpment: Shipped

Next step: selling the leftovers!

About me under the cut!

I'm Bison, but my usual username on other social media is Crevettola! (That'll teach me a lesson about making a username five seconds before going to bed lol). My first name would be Eléa !

I'm 31 years old, Canadian/Belgian/French citizen (yes)

I work in the animation industry :) I'm a 2D rigging artist (I make lil cartoon puppets that I don't neither draw myself nor animate myself lmao, I'm just in an organigram and hierarchy software all day)

Mini teeny tiny faq:

@i-wasnt-ready-for-this asked about my art journey:

Oh boy hahaha. So I'm a multicrafter kind of person. I embroider (cross stitch), sew, knit, crochet, and plenty other stuff. When I don't draw, I usually do one of those.

I've always made art since I was a little kid, I made comics, tried to join zines when I was a teen (that didn't work out but I still have the pages somewhere lol), and then my mom asked me to stop art to go into science. So I stopped drawing for 6 years, then fell into Undertale and started drawing fanart like there was no tomorrow and joined animation school for 3 years. (If you're curious you can watch my thesis film here, but be warned, all of it was done by myself so that's why the animation sucks ass lmao. I gave all my focus to rigging to land a job in this area of the industry. Which I did, thanks to this film!!!) That school burnt the living hell out of me and gave me hand injuries, so I can't draw trad anymore or even write more than two minutes without having to stop because of pain. So when I graduated in 2020, I stopped drawing almost completely. Then Käärijä happened and I'm back at it I guess??

Realistic art is my fav thing in the world, transcribing reality in 2D dimension is really my first passion in art. My dad introduced me to charcoal on paper at an early age, and I just never grew out of it I guess haha. People are my fav thing to draw. I find it so relaxing, I'm not a creative person whatsoever as in I don't like to INVENT stuff, so just transcribing shadows without thinking about it gives me peace of mind.

Two examples of the portraits I made before getting back into it this year

This drawing of my mom (graphite on paper) I made in 2009 (I was 18), and a drawing of my grandma (chinamarker on paper) while I was still attending school in 2019 (I was 28)

@c28hunter asked about first, my fav Käärijä outfit. And that's the WORST question can't I just say that I love all of them??????

But really I think the green bolero is just too much of my aesthetic to not reply with that hahaha. Second place would be that damn leather jacket it's BEAUTIFUL

Second question, my fav type of bread. And I a french person I take this answer extremely seriously. My ultimate favourite type of bread is

OLIVE FOUGASSE

Like I never buy any because I know that I'm gonna eat it all by myself in two minutes

[fantasyfantasygames]

40 Degree Fever

It's The End Of The World As We Know It And I Have a 40 Degree Fever, Ruritania Jones, 2020

(No relation to 40 Parsecs, another game on my review list.)

40-Degree Fever was written not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also while Ms. Ruritania Jones (pseudonym) was sick with COVID herself. For those of you stuck outside the metric system, 40°C is about 104°F, and let me tell you from personal experience it is no fun whatsoever.

The game is psychedelic, apocalyptic, and a little incoherent. The setting is our real world, but with odd creatures also around that look like Dr. Seuss met Dave McKean... but they don't really influence the world other than causing the occasional traffic jam. (The actual art of those appears to be done through analog photomanipulation.) It's near-future, just after Antarctica's and Greenland's glaciers have slid into the sea. Dr. Jones knows her climate science, even when she's delirious. The world is a mess politically and economically. Your characters are at the bottom of the hierarchy, trying to find water and shelter in a hostile environment when you have nothing.

As you might expect from someone in a literal fever-dream delirium, not all of the mechanics fit together properly. 40-Degree Fever's attributes are rated in dice (1d4 through 3d12), its stunts give you flat bonuses of +20 through +50, and three places in the investigation system refer to playing cards. The names for your stats are wild. Your attributes include Demon Seed and Boundlessness. There's a Truck-Kun stunt at the top of a tree that includes both Psychomobile and 8th-Dimensional Shift-Hunter. There's some potential for a system that hangs together well here, but honestly I'd strip out all the mechanics and build a new set of rules under the same names.

You can find 40-Degree Fever on new (at this time) social network Vizn. Vizn has a small but vibrant TTRPG community focused mostly on zine-length and zine-looking non-trad games.

[multifandom-fanfic-writer]

20 Questions for fic writers

Let's goooo

How many works do you have on Ao3?

36! Well that's certainly A Number

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

585,468 (gonna his the 600k soon)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Which don't I write for? Lol. Mostly Naruto and Hannibal. I've also written several fics for TMA, MCU, Ace Attorney, The Sandman, and fics for OFMD, GO and the Witcher.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Shinra Tensei (Naruto: Akatsuki!Sakura fic(

you may be a sinner, but your innocence is mine (cute hannigram)

howl (non-trad a/b/o hannigram)

brighten the darkest hour (sandman hob/dream, but only bc i posted it on the right time i think tbh)

hold me, kiss me, rip off my tongue (plot and porn hannigram)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! Not super fast, but I keep all the comment alerts in a folder of 'not yet answered' and move them from that folder when I've responded. In general the longer/more detailed the comment the more I try to give a very nice reply because I appriciated the comment. That can be hard to do without spoilers or leaving people to interpret the story how they like, sometimes.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

absolutely butterfly. I mean everyone dies. It's super tragic. Only time I really sat down to write an angst fic

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably Cooking for a Cutie (hannigram x queer eye). I mean, Will gets actual help, the Fab Five are wholesome and in character, and it's really just happy all is well vibe in general.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not on Ao3. I used to post on ff.net as well, both when I was a younger (and less good) writer, and got hate there. Even on Shinra Tensei when I used to post it there. Which I stopped. Because ff.net in my experience had so much haters compared to Ao3, where I've gotten criticism, yes, but not hate.

9. Do you write smut?

Heh. Yeah. Though often they are shorter fics that are centered around the sexual tension, with some exceptions (like my Steddy Hands fic) and for my big novels who are more dystopian vibe I don't write smut, because it doesn't fit. It has to fit the plot/themes of the story.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

A bit - I wrote a good omens/sandman crossover, and the aforementioned hannibal/queer eye crossover. But they are not very crazy, honestly, keep to both of their canons as much as possible, too. I wouldn't consider them crazy (though the second one more so than the first).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah! A couple of times, all of them Hannigram, I think. All of them in Russian at the Russian fic site, and they asked permission and I linked to that fic site too. I even went their once to read the comments there hihi

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope. I did do a collab once where someone made art and I wrote fic. That was nice, but honestly not my favourite experience, especially the deadline attached to it. Same reason I've done a zine once but aren't a fan of it (for me) or those weekly prompts thing or whatever. I want to write when my muse is on, when I have time and energy for it, otherwise it isn't fun anymore. Co-writing a fic would also only be pressure for me.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Hmm... honestly, I think my favourite thing to write is the dynamic between the protagonist and the fucked up world they live in (maybe personified through a saviour or villain). So... yeah?

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have two I want to finish but fear I'll never have the inspiration for again - one is a CR RPF fic that I have the second (smut) chapter half-written for, but I wrote such a long time ago I would have to re-write the whole thing, and I'm not sure I want to anymore. Second is a TMA JonElias fic I've written 4.5 out of 5 chapters for and I just don't have the muse for anymore. Maybe I'll finish the second one someday, but I'll probably won't finish the first.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Difficult for me to say about myself, lol. Uh. Worldbuilding, I think, and character voice? And fight scenes, or at least that's what people like about my Naruto fic. It also depends a bit on the thing I write fanfiction for. I'm honestly not quite sure. I'm not good at naming my own strengths lol

17. What are you writing weaknesses?

Writing things in too many words / using too many words, including over-used unnecessary words I think. Or worldbuiling something an obvious way and then missing an obvious question. Although that last one is also style, I don't worldbuild everything to the detail.

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

Not a fan, honestly. It can be done well - a very small couple of lines in another language said by a random not-even-minor character with the translation at the end of the chapter or otherwise somehow provided. But it can mostly be confusing and cause me to scroll up and down annoyingly.

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

LOL Jonas Brothers self-insert fic in my native language which thankfully never saw the light of day HAHA

20. Favorite fic you have written?

Oh most certainly my life's work Shinra Tensei and the sequel Bansho Ten'nin. Not only my biggest and longest fic, but also the one I love most. Which is why I started writing it around like 2015 (posted first chapter in like 2017) and am still writing it, and finally moving into the 4th and last arc soon.