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General Information and FAQ

Basics About the Zine

The Mod Team

Timeline

Handling, Production and Shipping

FAQ

Statement 1 - Addressing Sunshine

Document Edit History

BASICS ABOUT THE ZINE

  1. The main focus of the Zine will be centered around Task Force 141 characters

  1. The Zine will have two versions: SFW only and NSFW that will consist of both SFW and NSFW.

The SFW is expected to be between 66 and 96 pages whilst the NSFW version is expected to have up to 160 pages.

        

  1. There will be both digital and physical merchandise available for purchase.
  2. The physical zine and merch will be available internationally! The price suggested in the Interest Check does not account for shipping, however, and it will be calculated at the checkout.
  3. Charity of choice: World Central Kitchen (WCK)  

THE MOD TEAM:

Komi: Head Mod/Organiser, Logistics, Finance, Art Mod

(Modding experience: first time organising fanzine, three years admin community server; 4 years of experience in handling online shop and fulfilling orders)

Sin: Production, Finance, Art Mod

(first time organising fanzine, 10+ years experience in handling online shop and fulfilling orders)

Zain: Team organisation, Layout/Formatting, Writing Mod

(Modding experience: 3 zines - creative mod roles; community server mod for 2 years + event mod and organiser)

Kit: Social Media, Writing Mod

(Modding experience: 2 zines - creative mod roles; admin community/fandom server for 2 years)

Cryo: Merch Art Mod

(Modding experience: 3 zines - creative mod, community and budgeting roles; years of experience in handling online shop and fulfilling orders)

TIMELINE

Interest check: October 10 - November 8

Creation period: Late November (date TBC) - February 28

Check in #1 - Dec 30

Check in #2 - Jan 16

Check in #3 - Feb 10

Deadline/submission - Feb 28

May - June: Production period

May - June - July - Production, Pack and Ship + digital release (TBD)

June - July (subject to change): Shipping Orders

HANDLING, PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING

We know many people in the community might not feel comfortable or fond of the idea of yet another stranger online dealing with big amounts of money and the items they purchased.

It is a fair reaction after what happened with the Sunshine zine in 2025.

This project has been planned with that in mind and, although we know we can trust Komi and Sin with this responsibility and task, other people might not, and that is OK.

There are new ways to guarantee the supporters get their items without depending on us to hold onto the production money and inventory.

Obviously, this sounds great in theory and it does work in practice too BUT, things like these come with pros and cons that will be explained next.

Upon researching this, we found a service that falls under the umbrella of print-on-demand.

The manufacturer acts like the supplier and distributor.

This is a summarised explanation of how this works:

We can create a listing of our products (SFW only zine and NSFW version zine) and a link is created to provide our supporters, who can purchase the books directly from the supplier who will also distribute/ship it.

The money is withheld by the supplier who will then transfer to us the profit of the sales AFTER taking 20% of the fee for the service.

To note: the profit funds still need to be handled by us anyway. Funds will be pooled so by the end of the project we can donate it all together.

PROS AND CONS:

PROS:

  • No shipping or inventory handling by the mods
  • Supporters can feel like they can trust the process to obtain solely their books

CONS:

  • Individual production pricing - books will be priced higher since the production costs are also higher.
  • Consequently, less profit funds to donate
  • Supporters will have to place two separate orders to get the digital versions, digital merch and/or physical merch.
  • Can become inconvenient for people to pay shipping and/or duties twice and receive more than one package with their items

TO NOTE: Bulk ordering costs about two times less than using distribution service.

Distribution VS Bulk Order - comparison

The two companies that provide this service are: Lulu and Mixam.

SPECS

Bulk order: 50pcs

Size: A5

Perfect Bound/paperback

160 pages (NSFW version) ; 94 pages (SFW only version)

(Prices are in $USD)

ZINE PRODUCTION COST (distribution)

NSFW version

Cost per book: approx. $20.90

Ideal cost for profit: $35

Profit (after service fees and production costs): $11.28

SFW version

Cost per book: approx. $13.42

Ideal cost for profit: $25

Profit (after service fees and production costs): $9.26

For reference, and to support the above calculations, you can find the screenshot of how those were made, below.

You can also check it yourself: https://www.lulu.com/pricing

ZINE PRODUCTION COST (Bulk order)
To note: the bigger the order, the cheaper it becomes per book.

NSFW version

50PCS order (NSFW version) = $497

Cost per book: approx. $9.94

Ideal cost for profit: $15 - $20

SFW version

50PCS order (SFW version) = $374.00

Cost per book: approx. $7.48

Ideal cost for profit: $15

For reference of bulk order production, you can also check it yourself: https://mixam.com/graphicnovels

Conclusion: Bulk ordering costs about two times less than using distribution/bookstore service.

For the Merchandise the same applies: bulk order production or the usage of production and distribution services such as ACGGood or similar.

This, however, will reduce our product choices.

FAQ

Q. How can we contact the mods?

  • Via social media DMs on any of our platforms (Twitter, Instagram, BSKY and Tumblr).
  • Please refrain from messaging the mods on their personal accounts about Zine related questions. We are all in communication and are all available to help and answer any questions you may have!  

Q. Is the NSFW portion included in the physical copy the zine?

  • Depends. We will have a SFW only version of the zine and the option to buy a NSFW version which includes both SFW and NSFW content. If you are interested in the NSFW part of the project, this will be available on all NSFW bundles.

Q. Is the zine going to be available internationally?

  • Yes. We will ship internationally! If you have any concerns regarding shipping to your country, please reach out to us and we will confirm it.

Q: What is happening to extra funds acquired from Zine funding?

  • Our goal is to donate the remaining funds to charity (check our announced charity of choice)

Q. Who’s in charge of the funds, inventory and shipping?

  • Depends on what the supporters choose regarding the handling of the zine.
  • If most prefer to bulk produce everything, Komi and Sin will be in charge of the fulfillment of production and orders.

Q. Will the zine be soft cover or hardcover?

  • We are planning it to be a soft cover zine. The only reason that would justify changing it to a hardcover would be the thickness of the book. We will only be able to confirm this once all our contributors’ pieces are finished and we start with the layout and formatting.

Q. How many fanfics and art pages will the book consist of?

  • We have a team of 8 writers who will offer 5 SFW fics and 6 NSFW fics, each of them with a maximum word count of 3.5k.
  • The art team consists of 13 SFW artists and 9 NSFW artists which totals to 22 art pages.

 Q. Where is everything going to be shipped from?

  • The mods are working on a strategy to have two shipping HQ. One in the US and another in Europe. This is to avoid overly expensive shipping and extra fees that are usually required for international packages (duty and custom fees or tariffs)

Q. If distribution services are used for this zine, how will the merch be handled? Will the mods be in charge of it?

  • Depending on whether or not the distribution services are used for this zine, merchandise can follow the same model of production. It will be decided by popular demand.

Q. Will the content of this zine be exclusive or will it be available for free to the public?

  • Like most zines, we will make an exclusivity period for this zine. Only after that period ends, the contributors will be able to publicly post their works. The date is still TBD.

Q. Will this be a recurring event i.e., annual? With a new volume every year. And will the new projects be open for other contributors?

  • We didn’t think so ahead but we are glad to hear there is interest in more projects like these in the future. As of right now, we are focused on making this project go as smoothly as possible.
  • If there is a possibility of making more projects like these, contributor applications will most likely take place.

Q. Most artists involved make predominantly Ghost x Soap content, but this zine says it is a 141 zine. Which one is it?

  • Just because most artists draw a specific ship, does not mean they cannot draw other characters or ships.
  • Ghost x Soap might be a popular ship, and this zine might have plenty of it, but there will be other characters and content being created for this project.

Q. What content can we expect from the zine?

  • As mentioned in a previous post (pinned on twitter and highlighted on instagram), contributors are reaching the final stage of planning their creations.
  • Collabs are still being discussed.
  • The plan is to share a list of what the contributors are offering.
  • We gave our contributors some time to think and flexibility to change their pitches, also having in mind the new game is coming out, which may affect their interest and ideas for the creation of their pieces.

Q. What are the payment methods you’ll accept?

  • This information will be shared at a later date.

(FAQ will be kept updated as we receive questions)

Statement 1 - Addressing Sunshine

Hi there, this is Komi.

I come to you as myself as I don’t think this is a topic to be addressed in anonymity through the zine’s social media accounts.

There have been a handful of concerns being shared through the interest form regarding the Sunshine Zine and those who were involved in it. I will not redact the name of the zine, this time, because it is the targeted subject in this statement. Other questions will be answered here as they are closely related to this.

To shed some light on how this started: I was the one having the idea of making and kickstarting this zine. I have no qualms in claiming this responsibility that, pretty much, was born from a deep wish to revive the fandom and actually offer something we have been deprived of.

Yes, me and over a handful of contributors in this zine also contributed for the Sunshine Zine in 2024/25. Now, while none of us knew what was going on behind closed doors between the two organizers, the things that happened should not be blamed on anyone else other than the two main people in charge.

Many are concerned regarding how this zine is being handled financially and production wise. And many are concerned that the mods Zain, Kit (Helga) and Cryo are involved in the modding team for this project. (And I genuinely understand the apprehension, fears and doubts you have)

To make this abundantly clear: the roles these mods had in Sunshine were content based, NOT handling. As for this zine, their roles are as follows: Zain - Organisation (contributor list), Writing Mod, layout/formatting | Kit - Social Media, Writing Mod | Cryo - Merch Artist Mod.

None of the above will be handling finance, production or shipping. That will be tasked to me and Sin, who have enough experience and a clean history of handling funds and fulfilling orders.

We understand how this might still not be enough to make you believe we do not have any ill intentions with this project. And I foresaw this happening. This is why I did research and spoke to other mods from other fandoms regarding the distribution option instead of leaving the mods to handle funds, inventory and shipping. We wanted to give you the option to choose how we handle the production, believing this was perhaps the only way to make you trust us. Obviously, it is up to vote and we will adopt the method that is most wanted by the audience. Your input is to be considered. We are catering to what you want and prefer, because that is just how much your approval and support mean to us.

If there is one thing I pride myself in, it is my transparency, and many can vouch for that. This zine is being handled with care and transparency throughout the whole process. Both between mods and contributors as well as mods and supporters.

We have a plan down to share as much of the process as we can. From numbers, to behind the scenes and even receipts (we will, however, redact any sensitive and personal information from these documents for the protection of the mods’ privacy and identities). Proof of donation will also be posted at the end, as a closure post for the project.

As for another concern that has been raised by a handful of people: the process of choosing the contributors.

This stemmed from how Sunshine left the community. Broken, with trust issues.

The reason why there were no contributor applications was already explained in a post but since we had more questions on this topic, I will take the time to explain it thoroughly:

The reason this zine is a closed zine/invitation only, is because I was aware the community and fandom would be sensitive to a brand new project of this kind. I also knew, many would potentially think that it would be ‘’sus’’ to have only invited contributors, but I was willing to take the risk.

Now, these contributors are not my ‘’buddies’’ - they are fellow creators who I respect immensely, many of which I had never spoken to before. The contributors were picked based on previous participation on community projects, social presence and involvement (or lack thereof) in ‘’drama’’ or problematic situations/events.

Research was made, and I personally contacted every single artist and writer with the intention of speaking to them directly and honestly, allowing me to know their thoughts, concerns and intentions as artists/writers and as possible contributors in a new zine. This was my way of guaranteeing that the people involved in this were trustworthy, committed, and overall onboard with a bigger goal of providing some trust and healing to the community.

Some of you brought up the question of why did I handpick contributors without giving a chance to smaller creators so, I compiled the numbers from my spreadsheets and contributor list hoping this will provide some clearance:

Artists Contact List: 68 (corrected from 69 to 68)

Rejections: 3

No Answer: 20 (corrected from 21 to 20)

Could not commit/trust issues and doubt: 5

Unable to reach: 8

Artist accepted, but quit: 1

Writers Contacted: 21

Rejections: 2

Unable to commit: 1

No answer/inactive from socials/fandom: 6 (corrected from 9 to 6)

Unable to reach: 4

Accepted but MIA: 1

From the get-go, the goal of this project was made clear to my fellow mods and contributors, and most recently shared with the community. The objective is to offer as much variety of content as possible - that includes art/writing style, content (ships, characters, AUs), online presence (big or small). I did my part gathering talented and willing people to participate in this zine.

I recognise I cannot please everybody. I am here to attempt to give the artists, writers and audience what we were all robbed of last year. I do not expect you to read this and automatically trust me to handle this project, but I can definitely say I am serious and committed to make this project a success.

If your choice of not financially supporting this zine stems from feeling uncomfortable with how we are handling and who is involved in it, even after reading this statement, we will gracefully accept this decision as we understand your reasons.

I hope this brought some enlightenment to those who needed it.

With nothing more to add (for now),

Komi

This information will also be available on our main ‘’Info & FAQ’’ document available through our carrd link. FAQ will be updated closer to the end date of the interest check -  we will gather the remaining questions and provide clear answers.

Document Edit History

October 6: added Handling, Production and Shipping

October 10: Added Statement - Addressing Sunshine

October 11: added Mod Team, added FAQ questions, attached images to Handling, Production and Shipping