Clanzine is a Warrior Cats-themed collaborative fanzine with a focus on aesthetics and themes associated with Warrior Cats fans from 2003-2014. Clanzine celebrates the days of cats with emo hair, excessive blood, tears and run cycles, and when Firestar Doesn’t Like Waffles was the pinnacle of humour.
The project started as a one-off zine, gathering Warriors artists who were popular on YouTube and DeviantArt during those early years. Now, the zine features contemporary Warrior Cats artists making throwback content - doing new things with old material.
We also want Clanzine to serve as a physical reminder of an online community where a lot has changed over time. Many classic Warriors animations and artwork have disappeared from the internet, big names have dropped off the face of the earth. Clanzine in physical form will always be a way to hold that energy in your hands, long after the original art that inspired it is gone.
I’m Al (they/them) - I’m a 26 year old nonbinary person from the west coast of Canada. I’ve been a fan of Warriors since the publication of Into the Wild in 2003, and I was one of the first people to make Warrior Cats fan animations on YouTube in 2006 under the name AlliKatNya. So many of the best years of my life were spent imagining and drawing edgy cats doing edgy things. Warriors is just one of those interests that I don’t think will ever leave me. (I even have a StarClan cat tattoo!) I’ve been a frequent attendee of small press fairs and zine libraries since 2012, and during the pandemic I needed to channel my love for those projects somewhere.
My partner Laz (xx_Froststar_xx, they/them) is the co-host for Issue 3 and onward, though they’ve been there since the beginning helping pack and ship out orders. They’ve also been a Warriors fan since they were a kid, and only after we became close did we realize we had interacted years ago in the same online spaces! Laz is also a fan of comics, nightcore music, and emo aesthetics, so they’re a perfect fit for this project.
We're both so honoured to be able to collaborate with such a range of fantastic artists! This zine is 100% a team project and without our awesome contributors it just wouldn't be possible!
We run Clanzine from Coquitlam, Canada - we acknowledge we are on the unceded traditional territory of the Kwikwetlem First Nation, which lies within the shared territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Katzie, Musqueam, Qayqayt, Squamish and Sto':lo Nations.
(Art by Hyde @eekyrat)
“A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine (blend of fan and magazine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.
Popularly defined within a circulation of 1,000 or fewer copies, in practice many zines are produced in editions of fewer than 100. Among the various intentions for creation and publication are developing one's identity, sharing a niche skill or art, or developing a story, as opposed to seeking profit. Zines have served as a significant medium of communication in various subcultures, and frequently draw inspiration from a "do-it-yourself" philosophy that disregards the traditional conventions of professional design and publishing houses, proposing an alternative, confident and self-aware contribution. Handwritten zines, or carbon zines, are individually made, emphasizing a personal connection between creator and reader, turning imagined communities into embodied ones. Zines have cultural and academic value as tangible evidence of marginal communities, many of which are otherwise little-documented.
Written in a variety of formats from desktop-published text to comics, collages and stories, zines cover broad topics including fanfiction, politics, poetry, art & design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, intersectional feminism, single-topic obsession, or other content far outside the mainstream enough to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media.”
~ from Wikipedia
Recently there seems to be a bit of a push for fandom-based zines to be more and more polished and artbook-like; Clanzine is very much a "traditional" zine in the sense that it is small, scrappy, and unprofessional.
ARTISTS WITH WORK FEATURED IN CLANZINE SO FAR!
(UPDATED FOR ISSUE 4!)
Dominique Ramsey
Lunepools
3000yorkies
Nifty-senpai
Eberkonig
Velo_cira
Sweetcroc
Meow286
Corvidkatana
Muscovee
Cuchulainn_4
Etourvol
Harlo_martens
Clairecomics
Fishfoodsss
Ursiday
Paigumondus
Grimxing
Whiskermoon
Kabuto
Frankiebcatt
Iidalus
Runiiko
xxLunawarriorxx
Blynkbatz
Rowan Tobias
Roarinsaurus
Chamochomps
Zapxys
Mudshadow
Xyzcards
Artisminerva
Ryeven
Larkingy
APPLESTAR__
Fishyartist
Alex Harrier
Montejeska
Beetlepuddy
Satuwn
CommanderCarrot
Loafpaw
Bella Exclamation
HOW MANY ISSUES OF CLANZINE ARE THERE?
There are four issues so far, with a fifth on the way! Issue 1 featured artists who were around during the early days of Warrior Cats animation (2007-2011), and Issue 2 was more of a a tribute to the archaic software early WC artists would use (specifically MS Paint!) Issue 3 is all about people's over-the-top Warriors fan-characters from their childhoods! Issue 4 is a tribute to the classic fan animation SSS Warrior Cats, featuring many artists from the original team!
Sometimes we also sell non-Clanzine zines in the store. These range from collaborative zines that aren't technically issues of Clanzine, to small personal projects created by just Laz and I.
WHY DON'T YOU MAKE DIGITAL COPIES / WHY ARE THERE SO FEW COPIES OF EACH ISSUE?
To me, a huge part of the appeal of a zine is its tactile nature. A physical zine won’t disappear when the site that hosts it shuts down. So much old Warrior Cats art has been lost this way! For this reason I want Clanzine to exist physically only - plus, it’s just cool holding something in your hands! Not only this, but the artists are specifically creating their pieces to be seen in print, and we find the zines don't "hit" quite the same in digital form.
This is a double-edged sword however. Because I have limited income, I can only afford to do small print runs, and because Laz and I are only two people, we can only mail out so many orders at a time. This is why Clanzine is released in very small, limited runs of 100 at a time.
ARE YOU PROFITING?
We make almost nothing from Clanzine. We explicitly calculate printing costs, shipping costs, and supplies costs so that we don’t make over $100 CAD per issue. There is a huge amount of time and effort that goes into the background of running a zine like this, and when artwork is done on a volunteer basis, I don’t think it’s ethical to make a significant amount of money from such a project.
We price the zines as low as possible so they are accessible. Zines are supposed to be something DIY, without barriers, something that can be passed around and gotten for cheap. I’m committing to keeping Clanzine affordable.
There may occassionally be small, non-Clanzine zines in the store that we do profit from, but these will always feature only the hosts' art, or will be commissioned from an artist.
WHY DO ZINE CONTRIBUTORS NEED TO BE 18+?
Although there are lots of fantastic artists under 18 in the Warrior Cats fandom, participants need to be adults for a few reasons. One, I need to collect artists' addresses to send physical copies of the zine to and this could lead to privacy concerns. Two, some issues may feature a Discord server for the artists, and I don't want to risk any sort of inappropriate interactions between adults and minors. I figure a person can never be too careful about that kind of thing. The content of the zines will always be all-ages friendly though!
