#tmazine

Thank you for asking! When COVID-19 began sweeping through North America, our contributors found themselves in a state of upheaval of which we’re now all too familiar. A full third of the confirmed list privately messaged the mods to take a leave and prioritize their own welfare. Our printers also were forced to shutter up to protect their workforce. We briefly considered having a shorter, digital-only volume without their work to come out in April, but the moderators ultimately decided that would be unfair to the work the absent members had already put in. April 23, we made the decision to temporarily suspend work on the zine until life found some form of stability. Below, I’ve screencapped from our announcements to our members. (More contributions reached our inbox through April; the “five” is a bit of an exaggeration.)

Although the pandemic has not abated, society is re-learning tools to navigate a world with plague at the forefront of thought. We have received assurances that our printers have refitted their production line to protect their workers, and we’ve developed a tentative new timeline for PDFs and prints to make their way to you! We expect to receive the last of the contributions at or before August 15 at the latest, and are aiming for the PDF availability starting August 22, with contributor promotions beginning this evening.

However, should the second wave present itself, our timeline bows to the demands of Real Life. These deadlines are tentatively thrust out in the face of an uncaring virus, and if the winds turn unkind again, we’re not going to contribute to the detriment of mental health or make impositions on the safety of our printers and mail carriers. If we need to make any further adjustments, we’ll keep everyone updated paralleling local news.

Thank you, once again, for your interest in the zine, and we hope that the podcast and fan-enthusiasm can provide some comfort in these bleak times.

[Image credits: Mysterious Ways magazine Dec/Jan 2017, via Magzter, 

Hello! I’m working on a comprehensive FAQ right now, but I’m happy to address some of those concerns.

First, regarding fiction submissions and length, the following is our submission guidelines:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r9ZC8oPkTekKL8g6G2KRiBcJxDyc6WCMbYrJH4fUf6g/edit?usp=sharing

The zine itself can have both soft, gentle “G” rated submissions and more mature subjects therein. Because The Magnus Archives is an adult-themed podcast, where any written or visual depiction of the subjects may bump those depictions to an M rating, and because we do not wish to put a cap on creative spirit, we have to mark the entire zine as containing mature materials. This could be violence, cosmic horror, vomit, sensuality, mind-control, or even in some localities, the implication of LGBT+ themes. We’re not happy with the assumption that LGBT+ itself is inherently sexual and mature content, but we have to respect the laws of the land if we’re selling a copy to someone who lives there (Russia, for example).

Likewise, to protect ourselves, and our consumers, we have to make sure the zine is appropriately marked, the packaging is marked when necessary, and that our creators and customers are over the legal age of majority. Two of our moderators are from Canada, and there are presently laws in place regarding the mailing of comic books/art books/fiction with “adult themes”. There are different laws in place regarding freedom of expression there, and accessing or disseminating print materials is a little different than putting it up on AO3.

Thank you for asking this! I’ve put this information together previously in individual inquiries, but I will create a dedicated FAQ page across the board: Google Drive, Tumblr page, and on our Discord server.

Let me tell you about our present moderator lineup, to assuage some concerns.

Moderator Egon (Egon on AO3) is a researcher and academic publisher with strong nonfiction credentials and experience in editing/calls for papers. He will be the primary point of contact for emails/twitter/discord inquiries. Egon has been writing fanfiction for approximately 15 years, across LJ kink-memes, Dreamwidth, fic-exchanges and more. His experience with zines largely comes from the editorial aspect and writing bios, and he’ll function as our administrator and line editor.

Moderator Jack (jackcloverway) is a commercial illustrator and comic convention vendor. They have contributed to half a dozen zines as guest-art, and have produced art books, colouring books, and more for their own ventures. Most of these zines have been charity zines, so they’re familiar with the preorder practices, communicating transparency, and ensuring that everything is above-board. Jack has also worked with the Artist Alley Network International, and AANI-Group Orders for bulk shipments and fulfillment, and will likely be handling the financial transfers/storefront/fulfillment so that Paypal does not put a freeze on our funding. Jack has hooked us up with all of our manufacturers, and we look forward to introducing some of the stickers, prints, charms, and more for future volumes.

Moderator Deebs (fini-mun) is a freelance illustrator and popular fandom artist, with children’s book illustrations and commission streams alike under their belt. Deebs has contributed to another half-dozen zines, and is a close collaborator with Jack. They will primarily focus on helping Jack with book formatting for the printer, and minor art adjustments, but the first volume will probably see less involvement from them as they finish up a personal project. Deebs will work on overviews for art submissions and make revision requests so all the art will print beautifully and represent the artists’ visions as best as possible.

Moderator Emma (dogsarerad?) is a recent addition with the departure of another editor mod for health reasons. Her primary involvement is going to be on the administrative end, functioning as a transitional between Egon’s communications between artists and customers, and spreadsheets/fulfillment arrangements for Jack. In addition to being a genuinely cool human being, Emma also has a Great Dog, and if you’re part of our staff, you might just see pictures in the break room!

All funding will be accounted for. At time of posting, we have 23 confirmed creators on staff, including mods-who-are-creating, which will give us a minimum print run of 50 copies. The digital/physical preorders will allow us to gauge consumer interest and compensate the creators with a copy of the volume they contributed to, but the initial print run itself will be funded by Mod Egon, so we are guaranteeing that it will be printed. The print run size determines the Price Per Quantity of books; a larger print run means each individual copy is cheaper, which allows us to lower the asking price for the books, and donate more to the selected charity. Once the initial print run has been reimbursed, all proceeds will go to the charity – for the first volume, it’s the Internet Archive. Any future editions of that book will follow the initial funding strategy: Egon or Jack will purchase a set quantity, and a portion of each sale will go to reimbursement (re PPQ) with the remainder donated to the charity it is associated with.