Zines

 

Zines, you heard about them. 

In the past, they were cheaply produced and distributed for free or cheap. There is rarely ever any merch added to them. 

The point was to spread the word and to reach the community in a way that is easily distributed. 

Nowadays, less so. I feel that unless the fic is uploaded into AO3, I cannot read shit except excerpts. I want to take part in the community that I dearly love but because of the priceyness, I can't buy it easily. 

Okay, so zines nowadays are essentially booklets instead of cheaply made and distributed. 

A reasonable price for a zine is 5 or less. More than that is not a zine. In fact, it’s best to get it free even as I read free zines before. 

This isn’t gatekeeping or imaginary semantics. It’s about the exploitation of punk amateur production values to induce creators to work for less and eschew of formal guarantees and protections they are entitled. Best of all, they are accessible to the community for cheap. 

I made the exception of getting the Dabihawks Lunar Flare zine because multiple of my favorite Dabihawks writers and artists are on there and not much more. The creator was out front admitting it was for profit. If it wasn’t for the sheer fact that they gathered the best of the best of the Dabihawks community, I never would’ve looked at it twice since I prefer to read mine for free or cheap. 

Once leftover sales opened up, fanfics and fanart that were created for it began spilling for free so yeah, these people want the fandom to at least have that much even if they can't pay for it. I wanted the zine and the pin and that's it. I can look at the pretty art on social media. 

I do not plan on creating a MHA or a dedicated specific pairing board. Having OTPs is enough for me as well as having an expensive Hawks figure. Just putting one Dabihawks and multiple SatoSugu is enough for me whereas I’m putting the Timkon pin with the other DC pins because of how rare I found Kon. 

Fuck, I’m not creating a Haikaveh or a Ratiorine board entirely. I rarely get sets unless I really like the art of them. Hunky guys typically aren’t my cup of tea (still don’t get when Touya got the time to work out?? I wasn’t planning to collect MHA that only a zine pin satisfied me but even from a story standpoint, why the hell is Touya that way?? I get Hawks but not Touya.) so it will take something interesting for me to collect them. I want emphasis on Ratio’s weirdo behavior for one thing. I love Haitham and Ratio but they are buff guys and buff guys aren't something I usually collect or bother to collect. I've preordered a Haitham (a Velkia one but that's one required and I wanted a Haitham for a long time that Velkia is perfect) so I'm just waiting for Ratio pins that just make me want to make their forever homes. Even Itto suffers from this. Buff guys aren't for me, only bishies. 

My primary focus is Kaveh and Aventurine with sprinkles of Haitham and Ratio. Love Zhongli, Childe, and Neuvi but I’m even more pickier. I collect other miscellaneous characters so they are there but cluttered. Kaveh is just growing a collection at this point because I really love his character so much that is not healthy. It’s about 3 preordered pins with one Haitham and an upcoming Haitham from Putorblue. I got about 3 Saturns and an upcoming Saturn preorder in June. Need to see cutematter Saturn and others in order to make it since I’m planning to get the Aventurine anyhow. I only got 3 chibi PGSM pins and that’s all I have to declare my love for PGSM. 

I collect every single character of ORV because ORV isn’t that popular and small by comparison. There’s a difference. I can find lots of Genshin and HSR’s popular characters whereas I can only find the main three and their incarnations and Biyoo and Uriel. With the exception of Punisher which I cannot find a pin of, ORV just makes me start a collection later due to that fact. 

I don’t collect ALST and Solo Leveling no matter how much I like the series. My priority is one of my favorite books of all time. At least fans have food, ORV fans likely won’t have the chance of their fave book officially published for a while if at all. Would we see an upward of pins once the movie comes out in 2025? I hope so. Korean movies are well known to be good so I hope the ORV does go over well. 

I'd rather have all of the fanfics and fanart that are supposed to be free and cheap for zines to be available to see and read after everything is done and over rather than having to pay for that is not really a zine in the end. 

Again, the only reason I got the physical zine is because of the sheer fact that the zine itself gathered the best of the best of the Dabihawks community. 

They are essentially art books that aren’t accessible to the rest of the fandom. Fans are either building a shrine of manga or figures rather than having an art book of their fave OTP. 

Worst yet, they also have appealing merchandise. Finding pins of ORV is so slim I was forced to rely on zines. I was also lucky that ORV pins are still available as overall ORV isn’t Solo Leveling popularity. I can only find two ORV kickstarters and that’s it. Starting the ORV collection with that scene is a great banging start. 

Very rarely do I see a zine pin be presold separately from the bundles. 

I was freaking lucky that I managed to find a pin maker who was willing to make ORV pins due to me following as many creators as I can. I was damn lucky that I managed to get the Velkia Haikaveh pin set (ordered separately but are a set regardless because they were supposed to be released during Valentines' but pushed back to March and April. Really, because I was collecting Kaveh as a major point at this point, I hummed in interest but kept an eye out for the story just in case. When I recognized Velkia's art style, it went from tiny interest to need because I've been trying to get Velkia's art as pins for a while now. It's definitely in my forever home pins though most of my pins are typically.) as much as I did due to following a prominent pin maker that allowed an open order on those pins. 

Preorders for pins are taken as nicely for me since I'm so used to fanfiction not updating for a long time. At least fanfiction is a hobby whereas pin businesses are small businesses and thus I have to research businesses that sufficiently fulfill my order reliably. It does help that I have a Mamo discord which is my main pin discord. 

It's preferable for me to secure a spot and I have a tendency to hyperfocus on a pin preorder period so I can get it. 

It was a bloodbath during the Dabihawks zine release but I secured what I wanted due to my quick training from Mamo's in-hand releases. 

Now popularity in a general fandom does not always translate to the pin community. There are famous anime that are talked about that rarely if ever get pins. Take Monster but you hardly ever find fan-made pins. 

Anime pins are expensive with Shounen being regarded as the stock market hilariously. Disney and Sailor Moon pins are more expensive than others. 

CSM pins aren't as in demand now as during its hype. The fandom all but died but there are still people who are fans who collect stuff from it. 

What I paid for my expensive pins typically would give me looks. Had they been sold for retail, they would've averaged from 30 at the very least. Even official Disney pins are around that frame upon release; it's only after everything's sold, that it's upsold for much higher due to its scarcity. 

I really don’t want to pay over 100 for one hunk of metal. Unless it’s really worth it or I can work up my feeling to get a HederaHelix pin, I usually don’t spend that much unless I really want the pin. 

My family is already judging me for my purchases. What I purchase doesn’t scratch other pin collectors’ collections. 

I’m usually picky and buy to keep therefore I usually judge by whether I really want it or not. For example, I was considering Witchxing Chimera Falin but decided against now the release of other Falin Chimera pins. I’m just going to wait to see future musical installments since she did Phantom of the Opera. The only musical I ever collect is Moulin Rouge so hoping for that. 

My monthly purchases do not scratch even those who buy at a higher rate than I. The sets I buy are typically from Mamobot so it’s rare for me to get them. I got the Velkia HaikAveh because it’s Velkia. I’m very happy to get the set not just because of Velkia but also because of 4.6, it felt right. Now I’m on the hunt for another set or a pin that got both of them. 

From the beginning, I only collected what is best for me, concentrating on my planned purchases from Mamobot which took up a lot of my budget frequently. The final set of the Eevee Fusions and another of the Fashion Gardevoirs as well as the Project Voltage until later this year. I’m still debating getting which of the new Pika Spooky designs outside of getting the stickers of the old designs. 

The small businesses have that much pricing due to the effects, size, etc that it raised its price up. Mamo and Nuwa are far more reasonable with their pricing but still I followed pin makers who have daily 100 or just scraping 85 for the lowest grades. Really the highest I ever spent in one month was just a little over 500. 

Nowadays because of the economy, people aren’t spending too much on pins and focusing on certain characters. Even in the previous fandoms and outright medium of anime, people are focusing on what they want. 

Yeah, there are pin makers who focus on extremely detailed PoPs and large pins with lots of detail effects and mechanics that are costly still. The Venn diagram of pin makers who throw effects at the wall to see what works and pin makers who don't really think what looks good on enamel pins vs printed art is a circle. 

In fact, I only read zine fics after the fact when they are uploaded on AO3. If they were uploaded at all. 

I refuse to get a Twitter X account for the sake of my sanity. I got myself an Instagram if only because I need to see accounts. In the end, I end up participating in pin community like C2C groups. 

However, in the pin community, due to small businesses and how easily they can be ripped off or lose money, it’s easy for people to feel personal. In all my nearly two decades-long fandom curation, I never witnessed more arguments and boiling unreasonableness to the point of hatred almost, dragging innocent people into the crossfire. I’m mainly just there trying not to read the stories. In the end, good intentions have the road to hell, and unreasonable anger is felt in the pin community. Due to my research, I know which shops are definitely to avoid and to make sure I get into something that is reliable and gives updates. 

I have seen way too many pin makers complain about customers' complaints. It's too commonplace to see these rants alongside the rants of people who felt they were ripped off or lost money and weren't even refunded. Customer service is part of the deal of business. Why are you treating your customers so poorly when you could just have highlights or a separate account for progress alone? So unprofessional and mental gymnastics that it's fine to be unprofessional in what the end is a business that concerns money and products that can lead to fraud and thievery in the worst case.  

Considering how pins exploded during the pandemic, it's much easier now to see when a pin isn't put into production or not paying the rest of the money for the pins they made where delays can't no longer be blamed on the pandemic. The issues of cut-and-run makers are rampant with so much theft and fraud that these guys are either unprepared for the workload of a pin maker and overwhelmed due to excessive preorders or just shut down or criminal fraudsters thieves just made it clear there is a thin line to prepare for this line of work. Apparently, it's much easier to take money rather than make pins. 

The other ones that got overwhelmed and just disappeared are unprepared which the buyer usually doesn't see. All the cost for production and other additional effects is overwhelming. They treat it as a hobby and not an actual business with customers who need to see where their money is going and when they are going to receive the product. 

I have seen this even in a previously well-respected Disney fantasy pinmaker no less. He used to create pins that go for a lot in the pin community. Now after his divorce, he just vanished and doesn't respond to customers' concerns at all to the point that customers at this time could freely discuss now. 

If you are planning to go into pin-making, just understand there is a workload that we buyers don't see at all. Be prepared to spend a lot of money or lose a lot of money if you do pay for production for official arts and the like. 

Since I don’t collect P4P outside of ORV, I am decidedly not the best person for that due to my own pickiness. I’m too picky. Because there are so many Kaveh to choose from, I only pick out the ones I know I cannot live without. I’m still gonna collect him even after I fill up the ita bag. 

Y’know after getting into the same hyper fixation levels since Kaveh with Aventurine and noticing my link with Hawks, yeah, give me blond self-destructive morally gray or in Kaveh’s case good at the very least alignment with issues and a complicated relationship with their foil. While I don’t think Aventurine is Ratio’s foil, there are still some parallels to be made such as the god’s eyes on them and such. 

I’m a sucker for foils complicated relationships hence shooting up to OTP levels quick. I know when I see a foil relationship. Even without the popular Dabi is a Todoroki theory, I just know Dabihawks is like Shizaya and Suzululu from the flashback alone. I know my preferred ships well. Heck, when I finally got to Sumeru, after meeting Kaveh and Alhaitham's story quest, I knew immediately that this was the ship for me more than Zhongchi which I still read. Just to note, I missed how the fandom reacted to Haikaveh so Ratiorine is just what I needed. Considering my obsession with ORV, it's understandable about that too. Give me self-destructive fictional men who don't know love or have felt love but fear/feel they don't deserve it now. 

I’m getting way off-topic. Zines!

There are cases where a zine is just stopped. Back when I was able to access Twitter, I remember an infamous case of a mod using funds gathered for a Genshin gacha and was kicked off as a result. 

Zines need a lot of care at least in the days of not cheaply-made ones and there are loads of scandals more than misused money. 

It’s a great way for popular fan writers and artists to get together to create an art book really. Again, it’s not a zine if it isn’t as cheap as dirt. 

Again, there is so much money at stake if these things don’t go into production correctly. 

In the current zine time, too much money is poured into this since it’s a for-profit generally. 

At least they are upfront about that. 

At least the creators have some claim of power instead of their shitty entitled fans who cared more about their own profit. 

Sometimes zines might be the only chance you can score a merch from a popular fan merch maker. 

I think I’m just gonna get the Ratiorine merch for the zine precisely since it has both Velkia and Lushiette, the latter of which is hard to secure. It was difficult scouring if Velkia had any collaborations with pin makers so it’s a relief that I got the Insomniapins Velkia Haikaveh set. 

It's better for peace of mind that if you are planning to get some merch from a fan artist who just quickly sells out. If there is a zine out there that has them on there on the merch front, get theirs! 

Zines are often preorders til a certain month. So yeah, if you want to get a creator's work, then it's better to get it that way. 

The zines of today are not zines but artbooks with accompanied fics. There is great merch that went with it. 

Zines demand so much time and effort certainly in these times when it could’ve been solved by giving to the community in its free state at the cheapest. 

While I would like some physical zines then and there, my main preference would be the merch. I’m getting Lushiette’s merch one way or another. 

I would like zines to go back to the cheapness so that it can be easily accessed. Sure, everything will be released after the leftovers but it'll be a year at least. That is nothing compared to fanfics updating after so long. 

If it was a year at that, I heard cases where the printed zines weren’t produced in over two years. I was lucky enough to be near zines that have dedicated parts to show everything. 

I’m so used to fanfics not updating for a long time that preordering pins and waiting for 3-6 months from reliable pin makers (or pin makers who used to be reliable and big in the community backed out due to stress and just ran with the money; since it’s a long time now, Pin it on Magic and Archibald pins are just disappointing considering their pins are now sold for cheap now or DSS in comparison to how they were sold before they left a disappointed base of customers). 

I'm not hammering against these artists who want to make artbooks of their fave ships and characters but it's not truly a zine if it's that expensive and only applicable to release to the wider fanbase during leftovers for the entirety of the reveal.