s h a r k b u n s

A collaborative charity art zine paying tribute to sharks. 59 amazing artists added their talents to this zine with 69 full-colour illustrations.

All proceeds that this zine makes will be sent directly to sharksavers.org on a yearly basis.

Help us help the sharks by buying shark art!

Buy the zine here for $1+

Commissioned by @sharkbvns 

He’s a cute little bean! >v<

Thank you for your support, dear! 💙

This is for @sharkbvns, I had a great time making it and I really hope they like it! @undertalesecretsanta

The first time you met him was because he was drunk and had gotten himself caught in the tidepools, something he’s rather proud of considering he couldn’t even remember how he did it.

You were cleaning up the beach after a storm, grumbling at the amount of plastic and garbage that had washed up from the sea as well as the amount of old netting and broken glass.

Maybe you’d go searching for sea glass later to add to your collection…

Your last stop was the tide pools, knowing that if you had gone there first you probably wouldn’t have gotten to the rest of the beach until well past noon, spending too much time looking at all the fish and whatnot, so you grabbed a new bag and hurried to your favorite spot.

Your steps were light and sure on the sharp slippery boulders while your attention focused on the cracks in between, searching for any bits of trash that could’ve lodged there, so you didn’t immediately notice the massive skeleton lounging in one of the larger tide pools.

You were too busy scrambling up the side of the pool to notice hazy red eyelights focusing on you, or the way his bones clicked together as he adjusted himself.

But you noticed his tail.

it glowed a deep burgundy, striped with black and dotted with white, you could kinda see through it, it filled the pool and spilled out to another pool a foot or so away, nearly filling that one as well.

You’d never seen anything like it.

Cleaning forgotten, you waded into the shallowest part of the pool and studied it, reaching out to touch it while steadying yourself on a boulder so you didn’t accidentally fall on it.

Maybe it’s an unknown sea-creature? Maybe you would get to name it! Be in one of those really neat magazines and-

“wouldn’ do tha minnow.”

You shrieked and jerked away, slamming into the side of the pool and scraping up your back and elbows. “FISH DON’T TALK!”

Yeah, not the smartest thing to say, but in your defense, you were startled and in a bit of pain.

The tail moved and for a second you thought that you were finally going to see it’s head, ya know, as it tried to eat you.

You didn’t expect it to be attached to an absolutely massive skeleton, who was swaying slightly and reaching for you. “ya ‘lright minnow? didn’ mean ta scare ya. look at ya, so tiny, tiny land fishy.”

You nodded and accepted the hand he offered, ignoring his odd word spew and feeling like a child with the way his bony hand completely engulfed your own. “I’m sorry for screaming, ummm, are you stuck?”

His skull flushed dark red and he ground his teeth. “no! ’m not stuck! can get outta here no prob! mean land fishy…”

…riiight

You started climbing back out of the pool before a gentle tug on your ankle had you sliding back in.

You looked at him and raised a brow, silently asking what he wanted.

“i uh… ’m a lil’ stuck, mind helpin’ a fella out?”

It took you, three of your friends, and some full body gear that your nurse friend said was an isolation gown, due to the fact that he secreted some pretty strong toxins and none of you wanted to deal with that unpleasantness.

Even if it felt like a freaking sauna in one of those things…

Of course, he was no help at all, drunkenly singing as you all hoisted him over the rocks, unceremoniously dumping him back into the ocean and watching as he flailed for a minute.

“i’m drownin’!” He hollered, thrashing around in the chest deep water and rattling in distress.

“You can breathe underwater!” You called back, rolling your eyes as he freezes and ducks underwater, popping back up and throwing you guys a shaky thumbs up.

He was an idiot, and you’d be happy if you didn’t have to deal with him again.

~~~

It’d been a year and you’d seen him nearly every day after the initial rescue, lounging on your dock with his tail trailing below him in the water or at the edge of the waves, unperturbed with their steady push and pull as he munched on some fish.

“heya minnow, how’s it shakin’?” He gestured to the bag at your side that clicked and clattered with every step.

You waved off his question. “Close your sockets and wait til I tell you to open 'em, I got a surprise for you!”

He regarded you skeptically, but complied, burying his skull in his arms before disappearing under an oncoming wave.

Drama queen…

You took care in retrieving your treasures, carefully nestling each in the sand a foot past the water, not wanting them to wash away before he got a chance to get to them. “Alright!”

He erupted out of the water to your right and lunged for you, jaws open as he roared.

Honestly? That stopped scaring you after the fifth time he’d done it…

“wha, no scream? not even a fake…”

He trailed off as his eyelights focused on your treasure; a massive collection of antique and just plain weird glass bottles, all stripped of their labels and cleaned as best as you could. “You like 'em?” `

He didn’t answer, instead half wiggling himself onto the beach and gingerly picking one up, an old green medicine bottle that you’d found at a swap meet, his claws trailing over it softly, like he was afraid it might shatter at any moment. “minnow, wha-”

You laughed softly and plopped down beside him. “They’re gifts, I thought you’d want a few more for your collection, do you like 'em?” You picked up a twisted purple one. “This one’s my favorite, it used to be a perfume bottle, the lady gave it to me cause there was a small flaw in the glass, see?”

You showed him the small blue dot near the bottom, smiling as he took that bottle in hand and inspected it as carefully as the other. “is beautiful minnow, don’ think i deserve all this tho…”

You scoffed and fished out a gold coin from your pocket, one of many he’d given you. “Ya know these go for a lot right? It’s old money, worth a ton, and I can do what I want!” You stuck out your tongue at him petulantly while stuffing the coin back into your pocket.

Ever since the rescue, he’d brought you gifts; gold coins, rare seashells, ancient carvings and crystals, even a skull on one occasion…

But he only ever showed you his bottles, telling you all about them and how he came to have them, so you thought it was long past time for you to give him some gifts.

“So… like 'em?”

His teeth stretched wider and his normal grin was the most sincere you’d ever seen it. “heh, more than tha’, fuckin’ love 'em, thank ya minnow.”

Your own smile nearly split your face as you picked up another bottle, explaining how this one you’d found at a church sale and that you’d had to fight off an older lady for it.

Swim On: Coral Reef - A Shark zine for charity applications are OPEN

Apply Here

Swim On is a yearly charity zine dedicated to shark preservation. All proceeds the zine makes go directly to sharksavers.org

The zine will go up on gumroad for $1+

Previous Swim On zines can be purchased at https://gumroad.com/swimonzines Submission Guidlines -must be 6”x9” (1800x2700px) at 300dpi JPG or PNG -a shark must be the focus of the piece (humans & other animals are allowed to be present) -traditional and digital artwork, original photography, and comics are what will be accepted -you are more than welcome to submit more than one piece -only new pieces will be accepted, please do not submit a piece that you have made previously -lesser known species are encouraged! -no anthropomorphic sharks -no nsfw content (including gore, death, blood - this is a G-rated zine)

Complete zine schedule Applications close May 25th 11:59EST