Macross "Insider" ? Fan Magazine Proposal

[boinger]

After reading many issues of "Protoculture Addict", "Star Wars Insider" and the two issues

of Apollo Leader's "Gunsight-1" Macross fanzine, I think a new Macross fanzine would be a good thing!

Gunsight-1 Issue 01 and 02 are available!

You can see just by reading the two issues that quite a lot has changed

for Macross in terms of toys, models and the series itself.

The Gunsight-1 fanzine was made when Macross Zero was being released.

The Macross fan magazine could focus as much on fan works and as

the ongoing Macross series.

A quarterly publication schedule might be reasonable.

Here are some unorganized ideas thatt could be included in a new Macross fanzine.

1. Macross interviews

a. translations of older interviews of the original production staff

b. interviews of Macross fans about their macross projects

or personal experiences

2. Macross Essays / Editorials

a. Some Macross fan websites that are not frequently visited have

long essays about Macross episodes or movies. I think that those

essays need to be "preserved" before the websites vanish.

b. any new Macross fan essays that people would like to share,

but are a little too long for Macross World forum posts.

3. Macross fan fiction

I know there is a lot of fan fiction out there.

I would like to see some of these stories nicely presented and even

reviewed.

4. Macross fan art

a. 2D - painted, drawn

b. 3D CGI

c. posters

d. statues

e. decals?

5. Macross World : The ongoing saga

a. past and present Macross World convention articles

b. Interesting past MW forum posts

c. Interviews from the founding members

d. looking at specific sections of the Macross World

legacy front page

6. Macross music reviews

a. past

b. current

c. upcoming

I know VF5SS and Gubaba have done a very good series

of Macross music reviews. A transcript of the podcast

could be done if permission was given.

7. Macross cosplay

8. Macross merchandise reviews

9. Macross book reviews

a. past

b. current

c. upcoming

10. Macross World Current Events

11. Upcoming Macross projects

a. new series

b. concerts

12. Macross game reviews

a. past

b. current

c. upcoming

13. Macross fan music compositions

I have seen some Macross fan made music videos and

even Macross Frontier cover songs all done by electronic organ.

PDF and Word doc files now can have video and audio incorporated,

so that is a possibility for the online fan-zine.

14. Macross model reviews

a. past

b. current

c. upcoming

15. Macross fan projects

a. models

b. toy customs

c. Macross Aria anime project

d. ?

15. Macross DVD / Bluray / LD reviews

16. Macross fan comics

17. Toy / Model / Anime convention Reviews

that have Macross in them

18. Macross toy reviews

19. Macross model reviews

What else do might be good in a fan magazine?

Just as many boys/men and girls/women are now

interested in Macross. What makes Macross fun

for everybody?

Then again, Macross Ace magazine didn't do that well in Japan.

[EXO]

Sounds good Boinger... good timing too since the new series will be around the corner. Good luck!

[boinger]

Actually, I was just putting this e-Magazine / newsletter idea out there and seeing if anybody would like to

get this going. I am currently working on a project with Mechtech that could take me a few months

to complete. I'm not likely to get the Macross fan magazine started just now.

Besides, any substantial fan magazine is a lot of work for any one person to do.

I suspect that's the reason why Apollo Leader was not able to put together

Gunsight-1 issue 03.

A fan magazine would likely need some regular staff and field reporters, etc.

I'll have to check my copies of Star Wars Insider to see how the work is divvied up.

And then there's the big problem of what to call the fanzine as well as how to present

the fanzine without copyright lawsuits ensuing. I just don't know.

The Super Dimensional Fanzine

Macross FanZine

Super Dimension Fans

Macross Insider

Superfly Macross

Never Enough Love for Macross

[VF-15 Banshee]

Also there should be a section for Macross cosplay.

This sounds like a pretty good idea and I'd be glad to work on it but you're right about needing a staff.

[boinger]

Looking at SW Insider #148, it has some information on how a really good fan magazine is staffed.

Star Wars Insider production staff:

(4 regular staff)

1. Editor

2. Senior Editor

3. Art Editor

4. Editorial Assistant

And most of the official SW material is provided by Lucasfilm:

(9 regular staff, not including many 14 free-lance contributors)

1. Executive Editor : J. W. Rinzler

2. Brand Communications Manager

3. Image Archives (At least, 4 people searching for pictures

and getting copyright permissions)

4. Art Director

5. Bantha Tracks (fan newsletter included with the

SW Insider. The newsletter has its own production staff.)

6. Director of Publishing

Titan Magazine

A whole production staff for the physical marketing, production and

distribution of the magazine.

Then there's the Protoculture Addicts fan-zine that changed into one the longest running

North American anime magazines.

(6 - 9 regular staff at issue 16)

1. Publisher / Editor

2. Assistant Editor

3. Copy Editor

4. Contributing Editors

5. Art and Graphics

6. Proofreader

7. Marketing

8. Public Relations

9. Colourist for the front title page and

adding some colour throughout the magazine.

*********************************

So, a fanzine looks like it would need at least 3 - 4 people as regular staff, but who

can be comfortable in changing roles in case someone gets sick or too busy or

just gets tired. And then there is all the rest of the contributors who actually write the articles and

do the interviews, etc!

**********************************

Hi VF-15 Banshee:

I did type in Macross Cosplay as idea # 7

20. Macross RPG Statistics / Short Stories

21. Editiorial Page

22. Letters Page / Emails for feedback on the magazine

23. Advertising for Ongoing or Upcoming Macross fan projects, e.g. Shapeways parts

24. Macross RPG Statistics

25. Short Stories based on Macross RPG

26. Whole magazine issue focused on one part of Macross (Cosplay or Macross M3 or DYRL? or ?)

And then there's the fanzine name, logo and and front cover design.

That's all I can think of for the magazine for now.

******************************

More Macross Magazine Titles:

Gun Sight-2

MegaRoad Magazine

Macross Attack!

Macross World Insider

Edited April 21, 2014 by boinger

[Zinjo]

I like the idea

[boinger]

Every magazine has a disclaimer to cover their liabilities (butt).

The "Disclaimer" for the new fanzine could be the

same as Apollo Leader's Gun Sight-1 disclaimer.

"(name of magazine) is an unofficial magazine made by fans for fans.

(name of magazine) is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Big West,

Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd., Harmony Gold,

or any other company with ownership of,

license to, or claim to the Macross property."

Protoculture Addicts #10 also has a disclaimer:

"The writers / contributors are responsible for their views, which

are not necessarily those of (name of magazine)..."

So, if the magazine is unofficial, fan-produced and non-profit, then

we could possibly use some Macross line art, anime screenshots or

other Macross art supplement the articles as long as the art work is

clearly shown who it was made or owned by?

What other technical / legal parts of a magazine are needed?

******************************

I suppose the magazine could have a separate email address for contributors to

submit articles or artwork or stories or feedback to submit to the regular staff to

edit into the magazine.

The regular staff could share a dropbox folder, so everybody could keep updated with the latest

edits to the magazine.

What software would be good to use for magazine page making?

Word doc, Adobe Acrobat XI or treat every page like a photo with Paint.net?

[sketchley]

So, if the magazine is unofficial, fan-produced and non-profit, then

we could possibly use some Macross line art, anime screenshots or

other Macross art supplement the articles as long as the art work is

clearly shown who it was made or owned by?

What other technical / legal parts of a magazine are needed?

To play it safe, when it comes to reprinting images, you willhave to ask the appropriate rights holder (in your territory of publication would be safest) to get permission. Also refer to copyright law - specifically the sections about "for review purposes" etc..

Even safer would be to commission your own artwork and limit screenshots to actual reviews (and even then, limit the number of images to a bare minimum).

For some more ideas on the legal aspect, here's the legal notice for my translations site:

http://sketchleytranslation.host-ed.me/Legal.php (and its twin: http://sketchleytranslation.host-ed.me/About.php )

Both of those were sourced from sites like Jammer's Reviews (Star Trek and more), Gateworld (Stargate) and other sites. It wasn't written by a lawyer and has not been challenged, but the one common thread throughout it is that it isn't for profit nor to take profit away from someone else (both of those are the ones that set lawyers off).

I've also deliberately avoided including images as it's a lot smaller a headache not to deal with it (I'm in Japan and trying to follow the Japanese legal copyright code as much as possible, and they don't have "fair use" provisions in it. As near as I can interpret, what that site is doing is in the same legal grey zone as Doujinshi).

Anyhow, do as much research as you can for the legal aspects. The broader range of legal notices you reference, the better.

I suppose the magazine could have a separate email address for contributors to

submit articles or artwork or stories or feedback to submit to the regular staff to

edit into the magazine.

The regular staff could share a dropbox folder, so everybody could keep updated with the latest

edits to the magazine.

You may want to keep it simpler (especially at the beginning): 1 e-mail for submissions, 1 for feedback. Once things get rolling, you can think about setting up other things (free e-mail takes what, 2 minutes to set up? Drop-boxes take how long? Be careful to keep your energies focused on what's important -> getting the finished product out.)

What software would be good to use for magazine page making?

Word doc, Adobe Acrobat XI or treat every page like a photo with Paint.net?

It doesn't matter as long as it can be exported into HTML (pretty much every text editor does that nowadays) or PDF (especially if it's graphic intensive). If you use a non-universal format, you're bound to loose readers.

The other thing to keep in mind is how this is going to be published. Is it going to be hosted on a site where readers visit and they navigate around the 'zine like a traditional website? (a lot of text in HTML with few images (like my site = low bandwidth), or a 'virtual bookshelf' where readers download the 'zine/newsletter, and the scroll threw it consecutively (which also enables the other extreme of being full of raster graphic images and could be bandwidth intensive - PDF being the way to go)?

Both have there merits.

Edited April 22, 2014 by sketchley

[chillyche]

This is an interesting concept.

Something I would certainly be interested in reading.

I think we should look at a couple of intersecting factors.

Is Print Media Is Dead?

As we know, subscriptions to print media have been dwindling for years, particularly in the US (I know that this is an international fandom, and MW here is an international site), in part due to reduced focus on the written word as the medium of choice for news, and in part due to new media, interactive media and the like. I don't think anybody here is suggesting actually printing a newsletter/fanzine, but rather creating a digital version of such.

That said, is there a value to modeling this work after a print publication, or does it make more sense to make it highly interactive and hyperlinked -- that is -- a webpage? If we determine that the market/userbase for such a publication would prefer an online delivery system, in what way would this publication differ or differentiate from MacrossWorld itself? In a large respect, news, reviews, and fanworks are all heavily featured here on MacrossWorld.

To that end, MacrossWorld is huge, with tons of users, posts, threads, and nobody but the most diehard MWer has combed through all of the material. This suggests a possible use for the fanzine, which is to reduce MW to a digest format.

Should it differentiate itself further by being "higher-bandwidth?" That is, a more graphically intense experience? Or should it be more accessible, by remaining "lower-bandwidth?" That is, largely based on HTML text with images when called for? If high-bandwidth, is it interactive, or is it a virtual magazine? Is it rich with HTML5 parallax and media, overlays and motion? Or is it a PDF people download that's just super graphics heavy? What value does each approach have?

And what value does a publication which must surely only be updated a few times a year versus dynamically, every day like MW offer us fans?

If I had to guess, I would say that it could offer more in-depth reporting. That is, news and reviews wouldn't be buried within endless threads of commentary. And it could look slick.

[boinger]

Sketchley:

The magazine would be offered online for potentially world-wide distribution, so I can't

say for certain which country's copyright law will be in effect.

An official magazine has a lot of legal implications to consider.

Here's what I found so far.

http://www.magazinelaunch.com/how-to/legal-considerations/copyright-permission-and-copyrighted-intellectual-property-myths#comments

http://www.magazinelaunch.com/how-to/legal-considerations/some-internet-legal-resources-magazine-publishers#comments

Photograph legal implications

Personally, I think copyrights have gotten beyond reasonable when every idea, potential idea or derivative of a potential

idea can be copyrighted indefinitely and so would be considered illegal to use by anyone else.

And yet Celestial Toyroom (Doctor Who fanzine produced by The Doctor Who

Appreciation Society) has been around since the 1970s.

Their fanzine has lots of doctor who artwork and screenshots and even a subscription service.

How does that happen?

They have several email addresses; maybe, they could answer how they do it?

Also Colony Drop produced two "slick" fanzines in 2011/12 through HP Magcloud.com.

MagCloud produces ebook or physical copies of the magazine for paypal purchase.

Word doc and PDF files can now incorporate video and audio clips within the document,

so I don't think html will be needed. But, the document file just gets that much bigger with

the included video and audio. To save personal bandwidth, the magazine could be posted

as a PDF on Scribd.com or shared via filelockers or thru a bittorrent sync folder.

Then the magazine weblinks could be posted on the MW forum when available rather than create a blog.

chillyche:

A MW digest of past and current Macross World events? with more details might be useful / interesting.

MW has its own history with interesting members and an ongoing forum tends to be focused on

the current discussions. Also, I would like to read more details about the history of Macross that Japanese reading Macross fans

would have access to. If only Pen Scanners with OCR translators could be more reliable, then

so many Macross magazine articles could be made into English?

After listening to the Macross Speaker Podcast crew talk about the ongoing events in Japan, I still

like to hear about previous Macross history. I might be just getting old and nostalgic though.

Sometimes, I have to do a lot of searching on the MW forum and the Legacy MW forum

to find some older info. and even then the forum posts lack detail / specifics. A magazine

could offer expanded descriptions / analyses / essays.

******

How is "Macross: Aria" progressing, chillyche?

*******************

And another fanzine that is still going strong.

Famous Monsters from Filmland

Edited April 23, 2014 by boinger

[EXO]

That colony drop fanzine also has some slick fan art...

[yellowlightman]

If you're only planning on releasing it online, you'd probably be better off starting a Macross website. PDFs can be nifty for tablets, but there's not a whole lot they can do that a decently coded website couldn't. Plus, with an actual site managed through blog or CMS software, you'd benefit from the pages being indexable by search engines and more conducive to discussion (via comments, etc) than you would with a PDF.

If you're intent on doing a closed-format fanzine through a PDF, you might as well look at options for printing, as well. MagCloud does a really good job of that, although it's not particularly cheap. If you're curious about the specifics of that sort of stuff, let me know, as I handled organizational, editing and design duties for the two Colony Drop fanzines.

[boinger]

Hi yellowlightman:

I think I would prefer seeing a magazine style pdf first before any blog or website development.

MW's forum, front webpage and forum do a very good job at posting the latest Macross news items.

The Macross Speaker Podcasts are also an enjoyable way to keep current with the latest

Macross developments.

I guess I see the Macross fanzine as something not so much about

the latest Macross series or toys or models or games or news, but more putting more detailed

anlayses / essays or reviews or interviews on historical Macross stuff and production staff

and Macross fan projects found on the MW forum and throughout the internet into context.

I suppose I'm just getting my ideas by reading older Star Wars Insider magazines and not getting the

sense that the SW magazines were trying to stay current and show all the other aspects of ongoing

SW projects. But the SW magazine did look at older SW projects with interviews and essays to

place the current stuff in context.

SW Insider is an officially sponsored magazine that does have a lot of official access

in English to Lucasfilm archives. The Macross fan magazine could only remain as

unofficial and non-profit. If I were editor or contributor, then I would end up relying

a lot on other websites / people for translated articles.

So, yellowlightman, I would like to learn more about you have learned from putting

together that fanzine. Thanks!

How were your experiences in putting together that fanzine?

Were a lot of other people involved in that fanzine and how were they involved?

How did you work with so many other people around the world?

What was your role?

What software did you use?

Was there a framework / guideline you used to organize, edit and design the fanzine?

Were there any specific ways your fanzine worked at avoiding legal issues?

Did you have translators on staff?

How did you get the articles for the magazine?

Were there difficulties involved in selecting or editing the articles?

Any pros and cons to MagCloud?

I downloaded the 1st issue of the Colony Drop fanzine,

but I haven't read it just yet. Wow, that artwork in the fanzine looks really good!

I thought that was official anime artwork.

I sent a pm to Apollo Leader about this thread to see if he had any insights or experences

he wanted to share about putting together the two Macross newsletters.

Edited April 24, 2014 by boinger

[EXO]

You guys can use the front page as the web version. I think boinger already has access. We can also put up links on how to order the fanzine on the corner if you guys get it going. It'll make it searchable and save time from developing the webpage.

[boinger]

I'm doing a little research on "fan" magazines.

Star Wars Insider

Doctor Who magazine

Wrapped in Plastic magazine (Twin Peaks)

Colony Drop #1

MegaLord fanzine

Protoculture Addicts

Starlog magazine

Then there is the problem of getting permissions for official or fan artwork and

writing some new Macross articles and interviews and getting some old

Macross articles / interviews.

Has anybody had any good experiences with Scanning Pen translators for

Japanese?

Otherwise, a translator guy/gal would be needed for any old Macross articles / interviews

or someone to just try to find an already translated Macross articles / interviews online.

It might be a little easier if the magazine were more like a Macross World (tribute / promotional) Insider magazine.

Then all the artwork and articles could be gathered from the forum and MW members.

But I would also like to read more about the range and variety of Macross from initial productions,

the creation of the shows and the mecha and merchandise,

production staff interviews and ongoing careers and upcoming Macross projects.

Edited April 29, 2014 by boinger

[sketchley]

I think if you want this magazine to thrive, you have to find a niche for it - specifically offering things that are both relevant, and not readily available (or making them conveniently available in one location).

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, having a section devoted to news that's buried in threads in MW would be a major drawing point for a lot of Macross fans (an excellent idea mentioned earlier). Sections on RPG stats, fanfics and translations of old magazine articles are more niche, but are also strong points to build a regular readership around.

Also, I've noticed that you're asking a lot of questions about what software/hardware/whatever-ware one needs to do a fanzine. IMHO, that's getting in the way of making the fanzine.

I'd like to remind you of the "Robert Rodriguez List": "make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list".

Although that list is geared toward making films, it's just as valid for making a fanzine (replace the list with information for articles, desktop publishing software, and hosting).

At this point, the biggest challenge isn't what software you need to get, but what the content of the fanzine will be (and part of that includes whittling down the big dreams to what is possible for one person (for the time being) to produce), and what content you have access to.

Once the project starts moving, I'm sure that more people will offer articles/fanzines/stats/translations and/or production assistance, but until then, I'm certain that there are people waiting to see what this looks like before committing to help - and that brings us to reality: right now, the fanzine has a production staff of one, and you have to base your expectations around that cold hard truth.

Apologies. Once more my post has become rather long. Nevertheless, it comes from experience. In the late 1990's, I was the editor for an anime club (JAC Vic), and created and published a fanzine for the club (The SDF [super Deformed Fanzine]) with similar big dreams.

[boinger]

I know what you're saying Sketchley.

If the MW Insider magazine were up to me, then

the main feature articles would be derived from the

MW website and all of its past and current forum members

and their Macross fan projects.

I could only do 3-4 interviews with MW members in a 4 month time frame.

All the information sources would have

to be in English or google translated into English. Then the rest of the

magazine would be made up of articles either

copied from MW or from other English Macross fan websites with

reprint permission.

Interviews and Reviews of Macross fans and their projects:

1. Model build-ups / Dioramas

e.g. wmcheng, etc.

2. Scratch built models (Resin / Plastic / Papercraft / Shapeways)

e.g. Captain America, Mechtech, mslz22, etc.

3. Toy customizations and modifications

e.g. kyekye, Kurt, etc.

4. Animation

e.g. Macross Frontier Stop Motion Animation, Macross Aria

5. Music videos and fan editing

e.g. Macross anthology

6. Music: covers songs / karaoke / lyrics

7. Fan dubbing

e.g. Hikuro

8. Translations

e.g. Sketchley, Gubaba, ?

9. Essay analyses / reviews on the

Macross franchise from the forum or from other Macross fan websites

e.g. Remember love defunct website

10. Fan fiction

11. Fan comics

e.g. Remove before Flight

12. Video games and game mods

e.g. Macross VO Plus or HW mod

13. Role playing games (2050 or Horizon MUSH)

e.g. Sketchley

14. Drawings / Decals / Stickers

e.g. Takatoys

15. Paintings

e.g. Honneamise's Ghost painting

16. CGI models and animation

e.g. Jay Lew, mac666er, etc.

17. Older translated Macross articles

18. Toy reviews

i.e. from MW website or forum

19. Book reviews

i.e. artbooks, manga, novels, etc.

20. Music / Drama CD reviews

21. Macross Collection:

Other merchandise reviews

new stuff: Masei DYRL Helmets, Cards, T-Shirts, Decals

old stuff: e.g. jvmacross' Macross collection

22. Anime VHS / LD / DVD / BD reviews

23. Game reviews

24. Macross fan website admin interviews

e.g. Shawn, Mr March, Egan Loo, Nanashi

25. Cosplay !

26. MW Convention and Macross related convention reviews

e.g. BlackAce's reports and previous MW conventions

27. Macross magazine and furoku reviews

28. MW forum Chronology

i.e. looking though the forum to see what topics

most forum members were keen on or what events made

the MW forum the way it is today

29. Macross doujinshi reviews

i.e. fan made publications

Variable fighter master file or MAT #3 Sky Angels or ?

30. Macross production staff interviews

i.e. reprints of old interviews

31. Macross fan photography

i.e. toys / models set in realistic backgrounds

32. And then there's articles that could be made

of all of the new Macross stuff !

I already have a some MW forum member interviews done and transcribed with a couple

of more interviews to be done in the next few months.

Magazine name and Logo ?:

MW Insider

M-World Insider

Megaroad Works

MW Chronology

Gun Sight-2

MegaRoad Magazine

Macross Attack!

Super Dimension Fans

Macross Insider

And I need to pm Shawn and Graham about reprint permissions

from the website or forum.

I didn't see yellowlightman post more about his Anime Colony

magazine experiences. I'll have to pm him to remind him.

Edited May 8, 2014 by boinger

[Mr March]

Interviews and Reviews of Macross fans and their projects:24. Macross fan website admin interviews

e.g. Shawn, Mr March

Aw, you shouldn't have

Edited May 4, 2014 by Mr March

[replicant2019]

I love the idea. In fact, I just published the second issue of my ongoing science fiction "2019 fanzine and it's all about Macross. I published this myself and I can tell you it is a lot of work.

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=41064

[boinger]

I played around with Paint.net to come up with a name and logo for the MW fanzine.

Now I would need to gather some articles together and organize them in a magazine format.

I figured out where and how to upload images my MW account, but not post them in the forum yet.

Edited May 10, 2014 by boinger

[Apollo Leader]

Besides, any substantial fan magazine is a lot of work for any one person to do.

I suspect that's the reason why Apollo Leader was not able to put together

Gunsight-1 issue 03.

So my old Gunsight-1 newsletters are being hosted in places other than Macross World? Interesting...

When I started doing the newsletter back in 2002, I was also doing the newsletter for a hobby rocketry club here in southeast Nebraska. I really love writing about my interests and passions. I am also big on history and preserving it. At that time there was just so much going on in the Macross fandom: all the activity and community of the Macross World forums, all the new Macross/Robotech toys and models that were coming out (Yamato, Toynami, Bandai, etc.), the Macross DVD set by Animeigo, Macross Zero, the legal battles between Big West and Harmony Gold, and so on and so on. There was just so much going on and it was some pretty exciting times. I was so enthused by all of it that I thought it would be neat if some of that history, news, and fan content could be compiled into a document that could easily be saved in both electronic (PDF) and physical form (hard paper copy). My intro in the first issue expressed my concern about all the content and history that might be lost when some of these websites go down/disappear; it's a point of view I 100% believe in today.

As you (boinger) guessed, by the time 2003 rolled around and I started laying out an outline for a third issue, I realized I was way in over my head. I was only one person and I had many other things going on in life. Also, what should have been a source of fun and enjoyment started to become too much stress so I had to let go.

I wish you well in trying to bring about another Macross fanzine.