Aspie Zine

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Hey guys. I've been thinking about starting up a small, non-profit, and self-published literary zine. Would anyone be interested in contributing? It will take a while to get off the ground, because it's all very new, but it'd be good to give a platform to any literary and artistic aspies. I was thinking a mix of short stories and comics.

We'd need:

- Short stories (between 1000 and 4000 words, at a rough guess)
- Short comics (say, between one and two pages, max)
- Graphic artist to design the cover, and do a template for the zine as a whole

And I'd probably do an editorial, and talk about some political issues relating to Asperger's.

and potentially at some point down the line:
- computer programmers (to do an online version of the zine)

The stories and comics wouldn't necessarily have to be about Asperger's, though if anyone wants to write about that it'd definitely be a plus for awareness etc. The main objective would be a sort of punk-aspie-culture-building. Naturally, this is inspired by my Film Studies course, and looking at different minority groups and their film movements (check out things like Third Cinema, Cinema Novo, Queer Cinema, etc).

I think a positive of collaborating online is that we could all print the zine in our respective countries, so it's not focused on just where one of us lives. Obviously Ireland is not the most central place.

It'd be a great outlet for us, and seeing as the first wave of mass-diagnosed aspies are now in their twenties, it'd be good to get some aspie-culture going. Not every submission would be published, naturally, because there'd have to be some quality control, but everyone should be encouraged to develop

What does everyone think? Obviously, as it'd be a group effort, feedback would be appreciated!

brilliant idea, check out this website for funding,

kickstarter.com

Ah, I had forgotten about Kickstarter. I was just planning on doing the first one out of my own pocket, but that's definitely worth a try. Thanks.

wowser. you read my mind, i wanted to do the exact same thing but wasn't sure how i'd handle it myself. thing is i only write poetry and prose, but i could possibly in addition to you letting me contribute just that much i'll most definitely consider designing the front pg and template and all that considering i love doing art.
The below website in my signature features my art skills, meager though they are, and here are 2 tumblr blogs i keep that feature some poems so you can look at the gist of my skill:

oaklanechishs.tumblr.com
areverieinpassing.tumblr.com

so let me know what you think. Se La Vie (such is life in french, but you probably know that) was also a title you could possibly use unless you already have one. if you don't mind, we can exchange via email to share ideas because i really would love to be a constant contributor to look at autism in a different light, an objective i'm sure you intend to have.

thanks!
the faerie

Hey. Your art looks great. What I'm going to do is set a deadline for the cover design, and for submissions, and then I'll pick whichever things suit the project best. I'll try fit as many people's work in as possible. I'll set the deadline once I get a bit more feedback and the like. Definitely submit some pieces.

If you (or anyone else) want to email ideas back and forth a bit, I've set up an email: I'll PM you with it, so I don't get spammed for putting it on here! If anyone else is interested, post here or PM me and I'll send you the address.

For the title I'm going to try use something with Asperger's or Aspie, or some such, because I want it to be very overtly Aspergian. That title sounds like it'd suit plenty of the submissions though!

I'd be interested in writing rants and being a columnist... How does that sound?

id be interested in occasionaly submiting a poem

also in followeing the zine is this going to be online or paper?

That sounds terrific. I would definitely be interested in submitting short fiction for that.

Hey guys, I'll PM you all now in a second.

I should make it clear to everyone that the zine will be 100% fiction. Short fiction, and comics. The reason for this is that I think it's better to focus on filling a niche, rather than trying to do everything at once. So there won't be articles or columns, or anything more journalistic like that. It's not that those things aren't good, it's just that there are a lot of other websites doing things like that, and this needs to be very focused.

The deadline for submissions of short stories and comics is 1st June. Again, PM me or post here if you want any guidelines or anything, and also to get the email address for submissions.

I'll post guidelines for cover art in a few days when I've figured that out. We'll also need someone who's good at formatting, to help put the zine together.


Ravenclawgurl: it's going to be print, but only by virtue of my lack of computer knowledge. I should make clear that it's only going to be a very small publication; I'll maybe get it selling in a couple of independent shops in Dublin, and at a zine fair. If anyone is interested in printing and distributing in their city, I'll be happy to send on the files when everything's finished.

And if anyone is very good at website design, programming, etc, then feel free to get in touch and maybe we can do an online version.

Hey guys. I've set up a facebook to try cast the net out a bit. If you want to join it, or let potential contributors know, it's facebook.com/aspiecollective

That's certainly a neat idea; I'd be willing to contribute as a fiction writer or maybe a graphic artist.

It's really much easier to do it as an e-zine (free digital distribution as, say, a PDF, to any computer with an internet connection) than it is to gather the resources for a hard-copy magazine. For a hard-copy edition you'd need to pay for ink, toner, paper, and access to a printing company; and all that can get really expensive, really fast (I've worked in a print shop recently and learned a few things about printing and how printing presses operate).

You wouldn't need a specialist to design an e-zine, either. Anyone with Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator can do it without too much effort, if they know how to use the programs.

I would definitely love to contribute some short fiction to this Zine in the future.

Okay, I may have jumped the gun in setting a deadline. I've set up a facebook and twitter for the group. While I'm building that I might have to let the entries trickle in until there's more of a presence.

I've never done this before, so it may take some time.

I'm very interested in this! Please let me know how I can help.

I've just set up my own publishing company to print up a book of aspie poems no one will buy (not because they aren't good, but because...who BUYs poetry these days?!). I've got some short stories ready to go and can lend some help with articles, editing (reading submissions) or what ever you might need.