the rise and fall of fanzines

[@ColeyDoesThings]

Have you witnessed zine drama? :o Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor aura.com/coleydoesthings to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold!!

[@gabrielintano2202]

Nope😅

[@wolfyakubo148]

Please do a video on one piece, Ill scream this from the rooftops till it happens

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

No but I remember when that anime pin maker ran off with 50k. I think it was madame made pins?

[@idkwhattoputhere853]

it's so odd watching a fandom video repeatedly refer to "shipping" and meaning the package delivery kind rather than the blorbos kissing kind

[@Ceruleansquid-lo3iv]

Next video is about some fandom drama involving an actual cannon and/or a Canon camera

[@WorldThatNeverWas08]

wh... kicked off a zine for using... references? For their art? Man, those mods who decided that would flip their lid if they walked into a classical art museum.

[@bogwife7942]

i'm still blown away by a zine i saw that banned ALL mentions or depictions of blood or violence. the zine was for _interview with a vampire._ I think it's time to self reflect if what you find reprehensible in fanworks has become more strict than the original work itself....

[@Ceruleansquid-lo3iv]

I legitimately don't know what you could do if you didn't have any blood. like, no one could ever get turned into a vampire because that's pretty gory, and from what I remember of those books, that's like... 10% of the books.

[@LizzieShiro]

I’m flabbergasted over the fact that these are fans with Interview With A Vampire, a pretty bloody and violent property, have problems with depictions of blood and violence? What movie did they watch? What show did they watch? How are they fans?

[@actualgoblin]

The only explanation I can think of is that it might be some kind gimmick?? A lot of fanworks lovingly parody their source material and/or fanbase. It's possible that rule was put in for irony's sake. I am terrible at comedy though so I could be way off the mark on this one

[@koichijenius]

Perhaps they wanted to take inspiration from 90s Spiderman Morbius and his "HUNGER FOR PLASMA"

[@bluchismoon]

How did they not get in trouble with Anne Rice/her estate? I thought she was against fan works.

[@matchamochi781]

Not being able to use references is the dumbest art thing the internet does. You shouldn’t be tracing but I’m an animation student the professors beat us over the head in critique if we don’t use references because our art looks uninspired because we didn’t do research. Believe it or not you can’t draw something well off your head unless you’ve seen it a lot.

[@melemon810]

YEAH I wanna be a storyboarder and a large part of preparing is learning how to film myself for references! I have a friend in australia I ask for references for horse riding! I have another friend I ask for cool knife tricks! You can’t know how everything looks all the time, and asking for help (or just looking stuff up) is important.

[@greenknight421]

I would say that a mix of tracing and referencing to a point is fine if there is attribute and just not outright stealing something. After all, art is remixing, if you couldn't trace, some art probably wouldn't exist. But it's not a solid border and depends on context.

[@AmuletRebel]

I was part of a mod team for a smaller zine back when the Showtime embezzlement took place. The head mod of the small zine proposed typing up a contract in the face of this that every mod would provide their digital signature on. This would ensure that contributors and customers could rest easy knowing that if someone did try to steal funds, they wouldn't get far since there was a legal agreement that would allow the thief to possibly be sued.

[@serenegenerally]

What zine was this? Just curious ^^

[@AmuletRebel]

@@serenegenerally It's called the Spot of Serenitea Zine

[@Nassifeh]

Oh god, I hate to break it to you, but this... does not prevent anything. And it probably doesn't even help afterwards. Lawsuits are only an effective remedy against people with money. Like, currently with money, not who had money in the past and then spent it all on Genshin pulls. For a small project, your risk isn't that you can't sue them--you probably can, even without a formal contract--but that it will cost you more to collect the money than they will actually have to collect. The best prevention, unfortunately, for a project like this is to make sure whoever is collecting the money is someone could pay the entire cost of the print run out of personal funds if necessary.

[@wyrmghost]

The ace attorney fandom loves their zines

[@greenbeansrtasty]

How did I not know about this

[@wyrmghost]

Currently the Franmaya zine I’m apart of just entered the preorder period and the ace attorney wedding design I did starts shipping soon and I’m so excited

[@eustacewinner]

i was gonna make a comment about this too!! i ordered the wedding one and im very happy ^_^ might get the franmaya one too :p

[@lorelaimorace-kk1xz]

what's a zine

[@gailhanako]

​@@lorelaimorace-kk1xz 1:05 watch from here

[@yoshi12370]

Domino Effect: Lucille Ball starring in I Love Lucy led to people getting their money stolen to be used for Genshin Impact

[@punchbuggy13]

HAHA, I absolutely hate that you're correct

[@taylorslade8080]

????? How???

[@punchbuggy13]

@@taylorslade8080 Lucille Ball, having gained a lot of notoriety in Hollywood for having "I Love Lucy" be so popular, was able to have the influence and knowledge to get Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek) his own show (because of this, many people call her the "mother of sci-fi"). Star Trek ofc, as explained in the video was largely responsible for the creation/popularity of fanzines. And as also explained in the video, someone stole a huge amount of funds for a fanzine that was being created to buy Genshin Impact related things.

[@ilidawg20]

I have quite a few fanzines and I've never ended up having a zine that turned out to be a scam or unable to follow through on expectations. That's probably becauae I'm really picky on zines I decide to pick up. Usually, I'll look into the artists that are part of the project and make sure they haven't had any previous issues or controversies. For everyone who has fallen victim to scams or supported zines that fell through, I truly feel bad for them. It's really hard to tell a potential cash grab from an actual group of creators trying to put out something great.

[@meowmeow7476]

Funny, me too! Now albeit I don't have a LOT of zines (I only have 4), but I've yet to run into one that had any crazy drama surrounding it! In all fairness though, I also tend to be in muuuuch smaller fandoms, so that could have something to do with this

[@dontperceiveme3025]

The fall was finding out it's pronounced "zeen"

[@TheDanibits]

I'm impressed so many people didn't know it's short for fanzine, which in turn is short for fan magazine.

[@DanialTarki]

@@TheDanibitsI second this.

[@mane53017]

​@@TheDanibits Ikr? When I learned about it in school they pronounced it as cine with emphasis in the e, and realising it was zeen because it came from magazine was mind blowing

[@kay-jay1581]

I know it’s shot for fan magazine but Zines (cynes) had a better ring ti it for me. I like both it doesn’t matter hehe

[@joshuasgameplays9850]

How the hell did you think it was pronounced???

[@galaxykitsune]

I’d actually love to see you cover the recent surge of purity culture that’s risen around fandoms online; the need many feel to censor and delete any content that makes them personally uncomfortable. art existing does not mean the thing it depicts should exist in real life, but many miss that memo these days. In some cases, art is there to disturb the comfortable, and comfort the disturbed. every day we see more scenarios where creators and fans are attacked for simply engaging with media where the literal villain character is morally reprehensible. despite them being yknow. the villain. I just think it’s important to spread awareness on this sort of thing so we can catch ourselves. Is this actually something that shouldn’t exist (rare)? Or is this a situation where you just block/hide content and move on (don’t like don’t read/watch mindset)? To sum it up, your thoughts on media literacy and the comeback of purity culture would be a really cool video to see

[@sbondiw7943]

Same, it's one of the biggest tensions I see today as fandom spaces and culture continue to shift, and I feel like it's very much a fandom generational divide. Which is super interesting!

[@crazytooley]

This gives me the idea of someone running a shop that has fan merch, but like fanzines, prints, keychains, and other fan made items. To have a store front that creators sell their items in person, help promote other and build local community

[@thoughtsofaleo2916]

Do you mean a place for anyone to create a zine or print or like a platform to host all of those items from various creators where you can search for specific things or artists?

[@nunyabusiness42069]

​@thoughtsofaleo2916 it sounds to me like they're talking about an irl storefront where independent artists can have their fanworks sold in a physical location. As cool as that sounds it's probably a legal nightmare (esp in the us) 😅

[@keystone9920]

Places like this exist, some local comic shops or merch stores for anime or kpop will have stuff from independent artists in the area. I went to a local bookstore on summer vacation in California and found a small shelf in a corner full of zines. There's also a small (usually about 30-50 vendors) art convention that's free to attend that comes through my local area every two months or so, so I can buy a lot there and a lot of the same artists return each time so I can reliably get their work.

[@strangevol5264]

That’s called a convention stand!

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

Yoyothepinstar just made her first brick and mortar 😊 I’m not really sure though how she’s doing it, since these are all IP is owned by somebody else. I mean fanart is one thing, but when you go into a brick and mortar it becomes a little different. I think that’s why there aren’t as many.

[@luvslotsastuff]

A modern trend I like a lot are free, digital-only zines. Every single free digital only zine I've been in has gone off without a hitch, while every physical zine I've contributed something to has crashed and burned. Honestly, while it's not quite as getting to hold the physical object in your hands, it is so so so so much less complicated and stressful to arrange a digital zine. Without needing to be printed there is no limit to the number of contributors you can have, which means there's no application drama. With no cost there's absolutely zero money involved, so no one has to worry about embezzlement or scams. It's just a fun project for fans to make together.

[@bonetrixarts]

The absolute whiplash of seeing Karina’s art in that hanzo one really shook me /pos

[@clockworkmonsters8590]

I thought it looked familiar!! I was like, "KARINA DRAWFEE??" XD

[@Hazyla]

Me too! Was drawing, but when I saw it flash on screen I yelled,”IS THAT A KARINA?”

[@ez-cookie]

Everyone in the shuake fandom (Akechi x Joker) knows where they were when the tweets starting coming out about the showtime zine embezzlement. The worst thing is that it wasn't even the last time a person ran off with funds specifically for a zine related to that very ship...tragic, really. At least in the case of SHOWTIME, I really respect everyone in the fandom who banded together to help pick up the pieces and ship out the zines and merch that they could for people who had had their money stolen. Scammers like these give a bad name to creators who use zines as a way to connect with their communities, create art for their passions, and even donate to charities.

[@JeromeSankara]

It really did show how much the community cared when they came together. Super proud of them. (Also hi cookie

[@liz_violet]

now i have a **story** for when someone likes my shuake pin lol

[@teamprkr2550]

the funniest part to me still is the stealing money happened for the persona 5 zine. like. of course it had to be the game where the main cast are thieves. the comedy writes itself. (LITERALLY GASPED WHEN I READ YOUR NAME BC I WAS LIKE “WAIT THAT PERSON IS THE ONE WHO MAKES BANGER FICS” !! ALSO HIIII I AM IN LOVE WITN YOUR FICS !!)

[@ez-cookie]

@@teamprkr2550hiiiiii yep thats me. thank you!

[@BelBelle468]

There’s something deeply ironic about ppl stealing and being immoral regarding a ship that involves a thief and death. I really wish it was possible to hold those ppl accountable. But I guess that makes it even more ironic

[@Wublingify]

i think if anyone is really worried about getting scammed, it might be safe at this point to focus on simpler print zines or fully digital ones. but i cannot deny the joy of getting a pristine physical fanzine in the mail. i have a shadow the hedgehog one that’s HARDCOVER. never seen a zine do that before! and all the work inside is gorgeous of course. but as much as i love that zine, i don’t think that should be the standard at all. fanzines could be so much more accessible than a lot of them are nowadays and, again, with the controversies, it can be harder to place your trust in these bigger projects

[@milkystar8950]

Was it the “All Hail Shadow!” fanzine? A friend and I split the Ultimate bundle and that hardcover book was really nice! Def one of the best zine bundles I got, especially for the price ($40 iirc). It did take a couple of months to get it in, and that was after I had sent a email asking for a status update and them taking a month to respond back. 😅

[@Wublingify]

@@milkystar8950 YES that's the one! it's so lovely. i didn't remember that it took awhile to get, but now that you mentioned it, i think i had a moment or two where i was like "oh yeah i ordered that zine. hope that's still coming" lol. def was worth the wait tho!

[@bazreadsbooks]

I just remember an Elden Ring fanzine kicking out an artist for "problematic" content and then every other participant left because they thought it was really stupid because... Elden Ring the M rated game has stuff like canon insc*st in the game lore. The whole thing very quickly fell apart after that

[@ghoulchan7525]

was that one because the artist Miracide? yeah that situation was stupid.

[@aquaabouttogetfunky]

Anti shippers are so up their ass

[@KindaErudite]

I did back a few fanzines in the past (thankfully all of them turned out fine, no issues with the goods). But I noticed some people in fandom join zine teams for the glory and clout, not knowing that the logistics behind zines (Procuring a place that can produce the merch, QC to ensure the quality, shipping logistics) is a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately for the Showtime Zine, the rogue person on the team had hidden their impulsive spending habits well, and had worked on other zines with no major issues, so I can't blame the team for thinking the money would have been handled responsibly.

[@JustAnotherHaiku]

as someone who was (and still is) part of both the persona and genshin fandoms...the showtime incident was a wild time.

[@mystique3645]

I use to be very big into participating with zines, but between the dramas/full blown scams happening mixed with my personal experiences, I stopped all together and the most I do now is small friend things. It isn't worth the stress and really the heartbreak. I know this isn't across the board over all western fandoms, but unfortunately the fandoms I frequented in really treated fic writers like shit in the zine scene. Nearly every zine I was in, we were excluded from group talks or ignored when we spoke. Most of us did not have support from a writing mod (despite them being there) so we just sorta modded ourselves. I think the worst I went through personally was receiving the first draft of the zine and realizing we were excluded from the credits because, "fic already takes up too much room. I'll put your pen name under your fic titles" while everyone else got flashy graphics with their socials listed under a "Our Wonderful Contributors!" And it really broke me when no one batted an eye except one illustrator who spoke up with me to say it wasn't right and THEN the mods threw us on the page. I didn't see why they even had fic author slots to begin with if they were going to treat us like we were some unwanted weight on the project. Art only zines exist. And that's another slice of drama there. Fic ends up taking more pages so if the project is physical, the slots are severely limited. Fic authors get competitive. I dealt with backlash from authors who didn't make the cut taking it out on the authors who did get in and some of that backlash led to some serious burned bridges. Mods get stressed because you need to print on good paper for the illustrations which already increases production cost and then with writers, I think they come to resent their contributions because even with a 2k word limit, it's several pages that doesn't need those pages illustrators need. It's complicated. I get the frustration, but it's something you have to account for as a zine mod. In the end, I've been more enjoying keeping to the traditional roots. Printing my own fic zines to trade and give out for free or just sticking with friend projects meant for ourselves. I have several artist friends that keep involvement and relay to me what's going on and the same issues I faced repeat. So, I don't regret bowing out besides the lost sense of working together on a piece of physical fandom history. I am also of the personal mindset that zines now have surpassed the original spirit of the zine and as professional as they have become, they should be rebranded as anthologies or something similar. But that's another conversation.

[@AyresPilot]

this, all of this honestly as a fic writer myself who has contributed to a MAJOR zine in the fe3h fandom, I saw some of the backlash that people were saying on twitter I even had a good friend in the scene with me and they got a lot more spots than I did on zines we both enjoyed, and that hurt Im not gonna lie, but it didnt ruin the friendship luckily

[@ghoulchan7525]

i think in some places they are called Fanbooks. insted of Zines.

[@evermorestation]

omg THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS UP I went through SO much grief with fanzines being a fic writer. Even advertising your own fic in fandom spaces is so hard now because of how image-centric social media algorithms are and sadly fanzine mods operate on the same principle because it gets them more eyeballs than words. I had to teach myself to draw basic cover images to get SOME form of traction but of course that wouldn't fly with fanzine standards of ~perfection~. It was all so insane and culty especially for someone old enough to understand zines as their traditional printer-paper-folded-handmade form. That's what I've gone back to aside from sharing stuff with like 5 friends. There's a safety in those things I could never find in fandom spaces. And you're right, these fancy glossy paper bound books should be called anthologies, not zines. I kept parroting this point any time some new fanzine drama came up in chat but nobody would listen!!! That's YOUR money babes, make better choices!!!

[@TheDimensionDweller]

I preordered Showtime so I was paying attention to the blips and then the Head Mod drama. The content of the zine itself is actually pretty fantastic, so it's a shame that the mismanagement and embezzlement of the head mod necessitated the community banding together to actually get the zines in people's hands

[@UsagiNeko4Ever]

There's a Sailor Moon fanzine called "Drops of Moonlight" that's been "in production" for 3 years now. Contributors, including me, are getting more frustrated as more time passes with barely any change, lack of communication, and supposedly everything that can go wrong with suppliers and printing keeps happening. It's a mess, and I sadly don't expect anything to be sent out at all at this point.

[@Katy133]

I've been a part of several fan zines (for Good Omens) and I've been lucky enough to have had good experiences with them. The only fan zine I joined that ended up having to stop production before completion was a fan zine for Disco Elysium. This wasn't the coordinator's fault, it was because the zine started work just before the start of the war in Ukraine, and the zine had to stop because many of the artists/writers were being directly affected by it.

[@indigozie]

oh godddd I REMEMBER the infamous mchanzo zine incident... i had actually briefly met Lynn at a convention not too long before everything went down 😭 it's SO crazy to me how these people literally stole from CHARITY FUNDS????? let alone for fandom trinkets n stuff?? shameless and embarrassing behavior

[@cattt316]

I love the Luigi and bowser plushies together LMAO!!! Bowluigi hit like a truck

[@SecretIdentityStudio]

As fun as the polished artbooks that cost a lot to make may be, I miss when fanzines were made on the cheap. Old zines were full of art, fic, and essays; printed and stapled at the copy shop; and distributed in secret at conventions for fear of what we today would call copyright claims. It was harder for sure, but it felt cool.

[@TheChaoticAsexual]

The fact that this came out the day preorders started for the very first fanzine I’m considering buying-genuinely want to get it but I don’t want to accidentally get scammed

[@KhyannArts]

im happy that something like "the scarland artbook" fanzine (a sort of concept art book based of a recent mega project by hermitcraft youtuber goodtimeswithscar) did well

[@trixie7759]

Tbh Hermitcraft Zines are always bangers, adore that horror hermitcraft one, I actually applied for Hermitzine and Trafficzine for their most recent editions! Doubt I’ll get in but I have my hopes :3

[@KhyannArts]

@@trixie7759 yeee. recently applied for an empires smp one (the empiropedia zine, basically about s1 worldbuilding), wont know if i got picked until august tho lol

[@kittykatz2781]

^^ the mcyt fanzine scene is doing pretty well!!

[@2Navalie]

traffic zines!

[@grimaussiewitch]

I love that one so much! And scar showed the physical copy on his most recent stream so I’m happy he’s got a physical copy of that zine.

[@ash899]

OH MAN..... I REMEMBER SHOWTIME ZINE.... A FRIEND OF MINE WORKED ON IT 😭

[@thoughtsofaleo2916]

The craziest thing about the showtime zine is that the head mod was still online for a good bit, unboxing rare pokemon cards on twitch as if they hadn't stolen several thousand dollars from people on the internet. So far I've had mostly good luck with zines, but I've also had three cancelled on me because a mod (who worked on two of them coincidentally!) completely ghosted the project - shoutout to the Pokemon Comet zine mods who are still trying to get orders to people over two years after pre-orders closed 🙃 (the other two straight up just got cancelled out right) I unfortunately don't know of any Trigun/Star Wars zines, BUT I have been following a few Trigun specific zines: Bullet Crescendo (on pre-orders), Lovecore (in creation mode), and Trigun Cookbook (application period)!

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

It really is so cool when you look into fandom culture, how much Star Trek impacted it. It’s why we have slash ships too!! 💗

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

Btw you have the cutest sanpaku eyes 💗☺

[@milkteamachine]

I recently organised and printed a zine with 8 people, not a fandom thing, just a self-funded themed group project. I was NOT prepared for it to be as stressful as it was, having to run after people, getting everything set up on time for print, I can see someone getting overwhelmed and just bouncing mid project. It’s still unacceptable but especially if someone with no project management experience starts a large zine project I can easily see it all go south.

[@fauxsynder]

As someone who has modded zines for years, this was a very accurate and needed deep dive. I hope that people can take this advice to heart and I hope it helps people who haven’t participated (only bought) really see what it takes to make one and give some love those contributors and mods who work so hard to bring them to life!

[@KingKuron_]

It's always surprising to learn how early fanzines were made--I only learned of the early Transformers fanzines back in 1986 some months ago! That was when Generation 1 was still airing!

[@Sunrose-]

I’ve bought a few digital zines before because I didn’t want my mum to sift through my mail and question me lol but now that I’m an adult I think it’d be cool to collect them physically too. The artwork is always so gorgeous

[@artie2822]

Hearing about the messier side of fanzines is wild to hear about---I'm in the hermitcraft fandom, and zines are very popular, but the ones that get a lot of attention also tend to be very prestigious and well-run. Stuff like the Scarland Artbook and the Hermitzine projects are very exclusive and professional, often run by people with a ton of experience in project organization. But just about anyone can start up a zine or similar project if they have an idea. Management is a skill, and its extremely necessary for these types of projects, but it is not a skill everyone has. Especially considering the people who think to start zines are often artists and creatives themselves, rather than being a project manager first. Protip, outsource your management to someone who knows what they're doing if you start a fanzine. Great ideas alone do not a well-organized project make.

[@grimaussiewitch]

I don’t think I’ve seen any dramas from hermitcraft zines so I agree!

[@rensretry]

Shout-out to the persona 5 fandom for being half known for that one time there was embezzlement for a zine of all things for our token tragic gays

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

27:58 It’s honestly so crazy to me how GenZ, is so sex negative....and how they’re advocating for censorship of art. Does this generation not remember when they were told that video games make people violent? You would think by now that people would realize that people can infect separate fiction and reality. Otherwise we have every GTA player running around acting like a criminal. It is honestly so aggravating the amount of discourse I see in fandom communities about that. Where people try to cancel creators. It’s ridiculous.

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

30:51 What is so wild is I guarantee you that person is most likely GenZ or a younger millennial like me.... people are so sex negative, to the point that they’re trying to police peoples personal lives and what they do in their own fandom spaces. Which is so scary. I don’t think people understand when you start censoring art like this, it starts with all you can’t make that about this character....too you can’t make any ships that are gay....too we don’t want to have any representation that isn’t a white heteronormative representation. It is a slippery slope, and that is where it’ll end up. They literally sound like baby boomers and what is so crazy is they don’t even realize this. I see it all the time without people shit on BDSM, I’m not understanding that these are consenting adults.

[@youtubeobserver-vj4bp]

You really needed to copy paste that comment to boost it didn't you 😂

[@randomtinypotatocried]

What Gen z people have you been interacting with? Also, I think the "violent video games making people violent" was more of a Gen x/ millennial memory

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

@@youtubeobserver-vj4bp copy and pasted ? It may be a glitch ? Or did I comment a similar comment on somebody else's comment? Typically I do that because I'm trying to engage in a conversation with people 💀

[@xdani_thethinkingneko]

@@randomtinypotatocried yeah of course it is from my generation when the video games making people violent, was a big thing. But is generation Z not aware of that history? Wouldn't they be aware of it? Especially if they're in fandom spaces? Most of the people in generation Z that I interact with are online, because I'm almost 30 years old(and when someone says their generation Z I get nervous they're a minor, so I don't interact besides comments sections) I see a lot of discourse from smaller creators, who based on the slang they use, and the way they speak, and some directly say how old they are - where they are trying to police fiction, and don't have media literacy. Where are they assume just because someone write something in fiction, that means they condone it in real life. The big issue here is Media literacy, which is part of why I think generation Z can be sex negative sometimes. I just saw a comment the other day, on a very sex negative video - it was a top comment, with thousands likes and it said "I can see if the boyfriend was a bad guy, and then he went through a character arc, where he ended up realizing how bad his actions are" Not every villain needs to have redeeming qualities & some fiction is written strictly for erotica purposes, but some people don't understand that. It's not something that is to be transferred irl unless it's fantasy based play. I genuinely believe censorship of any kind is a slippery slope, and that when things are done in a fictional world, it is fictional. I think fictional worlds can be a way for us to explore things, that we can't explore in the real world and for some people can be great escapism - even if it is sexually based. I don't see a lot of younger people having the same sentiment. Which is sad. That's why you see so many anti's who twist the word pro ship. When pro ship just means anti censorship and understanding there is a separation between reality and fiction.

[@jasmine82]

I have never heard of fanzines and oh my gosh I truly wish I did, having a physical book of art and fan fiction of my favourite ship, characters, series, game, etc. just sounds amazing though it is truly sad that I found out about these wonderful works through a video talking about issues plaguing the creation of them I can only hope that creators, contributers, mods, etc. take more care in the future with their mental health, managing expectations as well as their work and a general understanding that creating these beautiful works isn't so easy thank you so much for making such an informative video on them as well as showing off the lovely fanzines you've collected over the years! it really made me want to revisit old works as well as discover new ones! much love ❤

[@zhenia2511]

I love the one-shots from zines that are published on AO3.

[@LilyLewis771]

I’ve never bought a fanzine but I do collect zines for an alt fashion subculture I’m in- they’re basically the same thing, just with fashion photos, art, writing, and brand features instead of shipping art/fanfic. (Which makes me wonder- are there cosplay zines, where instead of fanart there’s cosplay photoshoots of the characters?) I really love them so I understand the love for fanzines! It’s a much smaller community so there’s not as many zine projects, but also I think it means there’s less drama/scams around zines. Everyone knows who you are (since your face is in your outfit photos), your real life friends are probably in the community too) so you can’t just, commit a crime and vanish if you’re a well-known creator since you can’t really be anonymous.

[@andreagrubaugh9699]

I've participated in a few Rise of the TMNT zines - Mad Dogz Zine Vol. 2, both volumes of Style on the Rise, and a smaller TMNT in general one I can't remember the name of rn - and while thankfully none of them have turned out to be scams, the most frustrating thing about being in zines is the "sit around and wait" phase (AKA, when you've got your zine submissions completed, and you're just kinda waiting for everyone else to finish theirs, usually expanding the deadline long past what was originally planned). I've also had several instances where I, as a fic writer, have been paired up with artists/illustrators who end up ghosting me :/ Still, I have to say that, for the Style on the Rise zine crew especially, I really appreciated the consistent communication, even when things really slowed down. Not sure when vol. 2 is gonna come out, but given that it'll probably be the last fanzine I participate in, I'd say it was a good one to end off on.

[@MlleAdler]

First 'zine ST in '70s and was introduced to Kirk/Spock. Lost in a move. 😿 Loved the smell of mimeo!

[@doom9564]

While the drama with the Showtime anthology was happening, a whole ass war started and also I graduated ☠️☠️ I got it shipped to Moscow even later than everybody else

[@mitkitty]

Ive only been tangentially related to three zines (my roommate wrote for three Rise of the TMNT zines-one's not out yet) and it was generally really positive! Two of those are fashion-focused, and theyre so much fun

[@sanashi27]

I got into zines a couple od years ago by chance when I got into an active fandom which had some ongoing ones. A friend of mine bought me my first zine as a present and I thought it was so cool that I wanted to join in making them. I ended up being accepted to 2 zines from that fandom - one is a digital only and the other had physical zines. I got both and things thankfully went well. I have heard of fallouts and some were featured here with the embezzlements which made me cautious of even joining zines. The more recent troubles I've seen happened in zines which either haven't been made or are being made at the time something went wrong. It was mentioned here about mods policing people and the zine troubles I've seen got cancelled cause of that. They accept or even invite artist/writers, find out that those artist/writers have ships they don't like or even created works for those problematic ships and then boot them out unceremoniously. Even though whatever those artist/writers are making for the zine and their fanworks for the problematic ships are separate things. It's hard to trust mods for zines like those cause if these people are willing to villify someone and call them a criminal just cause of their fictional tastes, what makes anyone think they won't use people's personal information to harass them in real life? Another issue I've seen that I don't think was mentioned here was that some zines are asking contributors to show some legal IDs or whatever real life document to prove they're of legal age to join. While I understand they wanted to make sure their members are 18+ especially if a zine isn't entirely family friendly, it's still suspicious and not safe for them to get legal information about strangers on the internet.

[@hvittgrass100]

I'm an artist myself. I've drawn in 5 different zines over the past couple of years and I have never been scammed. Maybe I'm lucky. 🙃 Don't get me wrong, in the process of creating a zine there were always misunderstandings, sometimes even fights over the organization of the process, deadlines, ships and other things. But otherwise, creating a zine is an unforgettable and very enjoyable process. You find yourself surrounded by very talented people who teach you something new every time? and you feel not alone. The feeling of belonging to something that you create together is very addictive and very good. 😘

[@LightbladeAbsol]

The only fanzines I've gotten were BNHA themed. Mostly DabiHawks because I was obsessed with them a few years ago

[@fireruby1882]

I bought 2 Bnha themed ones of a different ship and I have yet to receive the first one :(

[@Janawrites]

HOW did I not know fanzines were a thing?! Now I have a solid goal to save up money for at least. I need some Star Wars zines in my life ASAP.

[@Timbeon]

I'm kinda worried that zines are in an arms race of print and binding quality and bonus goodies on offer (charms, pins, etc). That stuff is *expensive*, and if it becomes just an expected part of zines, then it makes projects more likely to fall apart due to going over budget or the team getting overwhelmed and burning out, and it intimidates people away from starting or supporting projects for more niche fandoms / characters / ships / themes, which are less likely to sell enough copies to meet the inflated production costs.

[@CinnamonCaramelStick]

"If the zine team doesn't like something in an artists past they will publically out them, shame them, and kick them off the project" This is honestly really disgusting and vile. Because I just KNOW the people doing this like being messy and have extreme holier than thou mindsets. Just dismiss creators in private if you find out they've been doing creepy stuff and if they haven't been then LEAVE THEM ALONE. Nobody has to conform to your morals, standards, or taste.

[@wyrmghost]

COLEY I HEARD THE WORDS STAR WARS THEMED VASH WOOD ZINE AND I AM OVER THE MOON

[@kimisea]

This may be cringe but as an artist it was always a small dream of mine to get into a zine, as someone who didn't think their ability was very good it felt like validation, which perhaps is unhealthy but it was important to me. I applied many times over the years for different fandoms but was consistently rejected. A few more years passed and I've now been a member of three zines ⭐ I've taken a step back from having a public social media presence for my art at the minute, but I'm so proud of myself for having achieved that small dream 😊

[@lys8779]

Not cringe at all! You've worked hard on your art and kept applying and you made it and reached that dream! That's really amazing and cool so congratulations!

[@milkflavored]

This was my dream as well, so not cringe at all!! I got to do the cover for my first zine (Drarry) and it was a lot more pressure than I realized BUT I’m so happy I finally did it! And I’m going to keep applying to others so I can gain more experience ❤

[@lilyawoodburn]

I was the finance and shipping mod for a zine a couple years ago, and can confirm it was hard as fuck. There's a lot of mistakes I made and a lot I'd now do differently, but overall I enjoyed the experience! Also the way we stayed transparent about funds was that even though it was tied to only my bank account, all the mods could log into the PayPal and see the transaction history, so it was pretty easy to prove I was running the account honestly

[@axlorg89]

With fanzine favoritism, there's also disparity between written and drawn works. Usually they'll be seeking at least 2 writers and let artists fill up other slots. All this just makes it even more blatantly hard to get in as well as just puts down writers on how writing is seen as lesser.

[@Novixus800]

I am super new to zine culture but ever since I’ve gotten into TGCF, I’m now pretty dedicated to collecting as many TGCF zines I can find. They’re some of the coolest art books I own. (I’m actually waiting for some Russian ones atm. Am I super nervous about giving random people my info? Yeah. Is the art worth it?…. Yeah) Edit: actually I’ve been so obsessed with MXTX zines in general that I literally made a spreadsheet of all published MXTX zines I could find :3

[@PinkNymphetamine22]

seeing this happen in real time as a shuake fan was... something, to say the least.

[@justviniana]

I've been reading fanfiction for about 10 years but I never really heard of Fanzines. (only online for free ones) This may be because I'm not from america but it may also just be coincidence. But damn this is so cool!

[@jaimebluesq]

Oh how far zines have come! I contributed to a handful of multimedia zines around 2000-2001 - It's Raining Men and Horizontal Mosaic - and it was such an experience having a physical book in my hands with my penname and my fic, and since those were the days before AO3 or even ffn, some of those zines were the only places you could ever read those stories. It's sad to hear of so many issues in the last few years, butI'll cross my fingers that fandom can weather the storm. It's a piece of fandom history that's worth keeping.

[@mahooi]

The only fanzine I ever wanted to purchase was the GhostSoap one and I didnt even got to own it cause I was distracted with a load of college work! I am still quite upset-

[@starlight-j956]

Most fanzines I've collected are either from Toranoana or Booth, both Japanese sites made to sell fanzines/ fanart. While the fanzines they sell are mainly Eastern media and in a different language, I still really admire the art put into it and I do get what I paid for. The shipping is pricey, but I still love to indulge in fan works of my fave eastern artists. I rarely come across or own fanzines from the west due to how too spread out they are across websites. They either don't show up due to the algorithm, they are already sold out by the time I find one, or have something shady surrounding them that discourages me from purchasing one.

[@proudvballmom4142]

i've been noticing you're pumping out a lot more longer videos!!! i'm really happy about that since that means more coley content, but don't forget to take breaks and don't push yourself too hard! you're doing really great :D

[@CreatrixTiara]

This video is giving me an idea for a zine/merch project: Lyney and Lynette's First Magic Book, a zine wit work related to Lyney/Lynette/other stage magic in Genshin Impact and also includes instructions for magic tricks! And the merch would be custom L&L themed playing cards. (I just looked this up and it's possible to get custom playing cards printed in many places) I've done stage magic semi-pro and it seems to be a Thing TM that you keep your first ever magic book. I have mine still! A zine in that format but themed towards Genshin Impact would be cute. I've been on the periphery of zine culture and man, the professional design of modern day fanzines is out of this world. Zines elsewhere tend to still be very DIY lo-fi projects, usually solo endeavours, cut & paste & photocopy. Colour was a whole extra expense, never mind glossy book prints and merch! You'd be lucky if you made even a dollar back. It looks like the first part of getting a modern day fanzine together is to find a team. I'm not deep into the Genshin fandom per se (mostly because as someone pushing 40 i feel like I'm considered "too old" even if I've been in fandom most of my life) so i wonder where people even find people!

[@karenfield3665]

The only zine I own is a MZDS one that a fan girlie made by herself and distributed through the bookstore she works at, which is local to me. It has her sketch art and was typed in Courier in the style of old school mimeo zines. Really cool and I'm glad I stumbled across it! There was a Hannibal zine a few years ago I always regretted not buying in on, it was so beautiful.

[@AzuraiFrostwing]

Sorry to hear you got bamboozled about the Haikyuu zine! Funnily (or sadly) enough, I know the mod irl that ran off with the money. We haven't been on speaking terms for a while but I occasionally see them around my area. Hearing about this incident from a friend shortly after the official account broke the news disappointed me on a lot of levels. They've always been awful with money, but I never though they would actually stoop this low and hurt so many people.

[@jeanot9622]

I had the chance to participate in, and organize a lot of great zines ! Recently, I don't do it much, except if the mod is a friend. I've heard of such tales from a friend who still does some fandom zines, it's disheartening :(

[@jademonass2954]

had no idea zines could look so pretty!! youre making me want to spend MORE money on fan merch istg 😭

[@tiffany-chan1235]

I have been pretty thankful to be in fandoms that don't have any Zine Drama (Ultraman, Precure, Kamen Rider, and even Project Sekai shockingly enough) really interesting video and holy shit I need a video on Doujinshi's!

[@Caterfree10]

See, my thing about policing who can be in a zine based on what they ship is like. Say someone ships both FinnRey and Reylo. If someone is just showing off their Finnrey art for a zine application and in the server for the zine contributors, why does their also shipping Reylo matter? It’s so frustrating, and I’m just someone who buys zines. I just want to know the contributors are being treated fairly. And like, I’ve seen so many artist treated like crap, like one who was kicked out of a couple of zines bc of accusations of p3do over a goddamn drawing of a child Minotaur licking a piece of chalk. A PIECE OF CHALK. AAAAAAAAAA And then another artist I follow on both their main and private has some ships they like in fucked up fashion. And they’ve been the target of callouts for the inc3st ships they like, leading to being removed from zines for vanilla ships they’re also a fan of. It’s so awful. I think the worse zine I’ve bought into is this Crisis Core zine, not being of shipping nonsense, but at least a couple of mods disappeared, with one of those leading to the tumblr account for the zine being unable to be used anymore! We’re still getting updates via emails and the twitter account though, so while it’s taking way longer than the remaining mods’ previous zine projects (which include the FFVII trans zines), we are still set to get the zine when it’s done. Overall though, I’m just glad my pickiness has lead to less heartbreak in my zine buying. I especially feel bad for those who’ve ended up burned by that one jerk who just is a finance mod on dozens of disparate zines and takes the money. Screw that person and may they rot.

[@themangofandango]

People should be vetting the mod team more thoroughly. A really, really big red flag is if the finance/shipping mod is handling MULTIPLE projects at once. One zine alone is already a lot of responsibility- I cannot stress enough how much work goes into contacting the manufacturers and printers, budgeting for the different merch items, going through them to see if they need corrections or are defective... For ONE zine!!! Then these people juggle multiple at once, saying it's alright if the projects aren't at the same point on the production schedule. But it's not simple. Schedules tend to go off track. And then what? Anyone who assumes the role of handling the finances and shipping should dedicate 100% to ONE project at a time. That way there'll be no confusion, no fund getting mixed up, and less chance of being overwhelmed by the manufacturers and the packaging.

[@p0cky_addict]

Holy shit I heard about the akeshu fanzine fiasco but I didn't realize it was THIS bad. I've only ever bought zines at conventions so that could be alternative, although I understand this may not be accessible to everyone...It's disheartening to hear about all these scams especially with the fact that there are people with genuine intentions that want to create/buy zines but now have to be more cautious than ever...formal contracts and keeping things professional sound like a must at this rate.

[@canyyon247]

personally I'm the biggest fan of fan food zines. I bought a recipe/art/fanfic zine for food fantasy and stardew valley and use some of the recipes to this day

[@materialgirlyunjin]

Everytime Coley uploads my shitty day is saved

[@adelinegardner]

i love how people started making zines even back then; so inspiring and adorable how fandoms connect people

[@Meimoons]

Can you do a short video on the history of anime plushies? I used to have a weird old Roxas plushie (kingdom hearts) from early 2010s and now I have a few recent plushies from asia that are essentially beautified and they’re so cute! It’s usually the cute and beautified ones that are popular. You can go into depth about the indie sellers and upcoming businesses like Plush Wonderland becoming popular, which is great for the fandoms all around.

[@r05km]

Modded for a zine a few years back for the first time and another mod ghosted early in the process, which we thought was weird but just quietly removed her. Turned out on another zine she made off with something like $4k in merch, so probably ditched us as soon as she realised we were a fully free charity zine and the only merch would be paid for and and posted by the head mod.

[@LuckyRyo9989]

I understand pre-ordering a Zine is so the creator can know exactly how many to print but that's what stresses me out specially hearing stories like this and seeing them happen live I wish they could just be purchased at a later date already finished. But that's not gonna happen anytime soon understandably that being said this ironically inspired me to want to make my own zine (by myself i would never do a team cause my procrastination butt wouldn't work well xD) for a fandom/ship/AU i've got brainrot for probably never gonna happen but hey its kinda a fun little brainworm for maybe one day

[@randomtinypotatocried]

My dad has his old Star Trek fanzines from back in the day when he use to go to the original Star Trek conventions. It was cool to flip through a few of them

[@gabieldenstierna]

It’s sad that I just learned about fanzines because of the amount of scams… Sure feels safe trusting these projects now :’)

[@Marukiswife]

I own a couple of Danganronpa digital zines and love them.💕 My two personal favorites are a Kuzupeko zine and a Remnants of Despair zine. Even though I wasn’t as heavily into Shuake as much as I am now during the time of the “Showtime” drama, I did hear about it and felt so genuinely heartbroken for everyone who worked on the zine and everyone who were looking forward to seeing the zine as well. I’m very happy that despite the mod running off with the money that the Shuake community was able to come together and make sure everyone who purchased the zine and the goodies were able to get their products. 💕

[@ConvincingPeople]

5:22 Sniffin' Glue, Swell Maps and Throbbing Gristle spotted. Never expected my extensive knowledge of post-punk and industrial culture to be relevant to a Coley video but here we are I guess.

[@TamNguyen-gs7lr]

The XiaoLumi zine in Vietnam also got scam by one of the mods. Most of the mods were just high-school students so they dediced to leave all of the money to the only staff who is in uni. However, after getting the money she disappeared. They couldn't find her and could not get the money back neither.

[@AnixDraws93]

Man, I was a part of a The World Ends with you Zine when the Showtime zine controversy broke out. I remember how much discomfort it cause in me at the time since I was still new to zines and contributing. Luckily TWEWY zines have been kind to me and my other art friends (and if you’re a twewy fan, hello there) but this was one of the controversies that made me back off from joining other fandoms zines 😱

[@Rosenbird]

honestly the biggest thing to improve current zine culture would be to encourage smaller simpler projects. Little two or three person projects, or even solo projects- just building up experience, confidence and reputation over time rather than jumping straight to massive 50 page 25 person projects where thousands of dollars are involved. Like sure, those are the big hype machine projects, but much like building a con, I think people desperately need to think 1000 times smaller and work towards the dream project with all the hype get everything figured out on much smaller scales before they try to go big.

[@bunnvoid]

I’ve contributed to a few zines, but I love when they have fun gimmicks. There was a batfam Au zine I took part in, where the box it was delivered in, could be undone into a little board game with playable characters on the box as well. Was super cute and fun!

[@jennymckenzie5304]

I have personally been blacklisted from zines in a few fandoms because I called out the wrong person for shitty behavious depite them being widely beloved, but I had no idea the rabbit hole went this deep!

[@Scaredy_balloon]

I'm only one minute in but thank you so much for explaining what zines are Coley! Theres only been one or two in the fandoms I've been in so their definitions have all been kinda lackluster and whenever i did my own research i couldn't see the appeal. Now I completely understand, I'll love to pick up ones of my own now!

[@LuC-k777]

I’m just interested in collecting vintage lgbtq+ zines

[@mrhare00]

The first zine I ran ended up with a lot of miscommunication that I am ultimately super ashamed of, would not recommend running zines unless you're capable of handling that many people relying on your ability to keep your shit together. Also? We paid a *lot* in taxes afterwards that really hit the wallet in an awful way.

[@GibusWearingMann]

possibly the wildest fanzine incident i've ever heard of is that a han/leia zine had to cancel production because too many of the contributors were reacting to 9/11 like "ooh now i know how leia felt seeing alderaan blow up! this will be great to spice up my fics" and that was simply too much brainrot for the mods to handle

[@RoseWaltz]

recently a Trigun fanzine tried to get started, and it banned relationships between Knives and Vash Knives is canonically in line with his brother and uses his brother to make babies of their species i had no idea zines were so old! i had assumed they started with Star Trek so that was neat to learn

[@Alice-not-Alice]

If you do ever end up running/contributing to a zine, be it Star Wars Vashwood themed or otherwise, I’d love to see a video documenting the experience!

[@Fujoshi1412]

I’m still shocked anyone who got the Showtime zine ever left a kind review for the head mod at the time’s Etsy. I know I didn’t. Sure the others took it over but it was still HER account and frankly she deserved no stars if possible and all praise to the rest of the team that pulled through getting customers what they paid for. Sure it took fundraising but they made sure to make it right unlike Ree.

[@averagepenguin9034]

gosh i was there when yuri on ice had this really intense zine phase. i think born to make art history was one of the most ambitious zines i've ever seen? the mods, the team, and the quality of organization. chills.

[@aboutrainbow8614]

I've always wanted to be in a zine!! Love learning more about the online art world through your videos.

[@shirapyon_]

Hey, Coley! I absolutely love your videos, it's always amazing to hear someone talk about fandom culture as someone who has been indulging for more than a decade! ❤ Just as a FYI (for other people who might get inspiration from your video), some artists (especially Japanese artists) are uncomfortable with content of their doujinshis being shown beyond the previews they upload themselves on social media, even if it's not NSFW. Some of them actually don't even condone second-hand sales of their doujinshis or their books leaving Japanese territory because they end up having less control on the way their works are spread.

[@buttercatrho]

It's always p wild to hear what the wider zine landscape can be like, the genshin impact banner spending situation especially(for some reason i thought that happened with a genshin impact zine though I guess my wires got crossed). I've only been in a couple of zines and they were v good times, I ended up making some good friends in the fandom cause of two of them, so it sucks a bit zines have some negative connotations around em. They're still v cool events and items though, similar to MAPS but more widespread across fandoms and also sometimes you get a book to hoard out of it.

[@birdcrossing]

i was so excited with the showtime! zine too, i noped out after witnessing all the drama. waiting for a new p5 ship zine to get me interested again

[@milkflavored]

There’s a Shuake travel zine in the works! Keep an eye out for that ❤

[@CarrionCata]

showtime zine jump scare, i got the biggest bundle and still have it (worth the year wait)(im coping)

[@lys8779]

I LOVED seeing your zine collection! I've seen them around in the ten years or so I've been in fandom but back when I was a teen I didn't really get the chance to purchase any I saw around in my fandoms online besides one voltron one at a con. It's only in the past year that I've purchased a couple more online (remembering that wow Im an adult now and I have money and I can!) and my love for zines has reignited and I want to collect more! Or even participate in one!