I've messaged a bunch of new creators about being involved in the zine, extending the length, in fact nearly doubling it. I'm putting together a short written piece for it as well as some art. Will add some photos here soon for the added work! I'm also going to be turning this into a kickStarter project to not only reach a wider audience, but also to get some payment to the participants of this zine. Without you guys, this could not have happened. Stay tuned!
Hello everyone, I'm so, so sorry I've been away from here for so long. A lot of life things happened, and I have no excuse for the hiatus, so again, I sincerely apologize and thank you all for your patience and perseverance in messaging me with support or questions. The Tolkien Radical is still a thing and still happening. When last I dug deep into the project, there were some issues with printing, and one mess after another lead into a depressive, temperamental leave from the project. I am going to resume working on the zine shortly, and will be updating and adding new content on top of all the awesome work already contributed. Again, bless you guys for sticking with this, and I will update as soon as I've got new information to share!
Hello everyone! Apologies for the space in updates; it’s been a wild few weeks working full time, AND trying to get everything together. But tomorrow is the day! I’ll be taking everything to a printer to copy everything, staple like nuts, and get ready for the Chicago Zine Fest, where the Tolkien Radical will be premiering! Following the fest, a mass e-mail will be sent out to all you guys, the amazing contributors who made this zine possible, so I can get you hard copies. Again, thanks for your patience with the slowness of updates, and I look forward to seeing these guys in people’s hands being read!
HOLY CATS GUYS I CAN’T HELP BUT UPDATE AGAIN <3 There’s 40 pages of content on this bad boy! So much more than I ever dreamed. Seriously, to all who submitted, thank you so much. When I first began this project, it was just me making everything, and it wouldn’t have totaled like, 12 pages. It was so overwhelming. But now, the zine is better than ever, with tons of amazing content, all different perspectives, including bits about the books, the films, the fandom, everything!
Just a teensy preview of the behind the scenes work! Thanks to everyone who submitted, and hopefully the next update will include hard copies!
Greetings all! So it’s April 1st, AKA the start of the editing process! So far I’ve received some amazing entries of artwork, interviews, articles, and the like. It’s been such a blessing to look through such a huge range of talent and the variety of topics covered has me SO excited to have this thing finalized and in my hands to love forever~ BUT, before we get to that stage of things! A couple reminders and some questions that were commonly asked that I will answer for y’all~ For those who have not submitted yet and have gotten a hold of me about it, please, please, PLEASE have the work submitted AT LATEST by April 3rd. April 4th is when it’s all going to be laid out and permanently decided on, so if your work is not there, then I’m sorry, but your piece will not be included :( I have a lot of these guys to print and staple and sew together and to premiere it by May’s Chicago Zine Fest, I will need all the time I can get to complete everything. For those who have not submitted yet, and HAVE NOT spoken with me about it, I’m giving you until the end of the day to e-mail me, but after that, I will assume that you decided not to submit for the project. Here’s my email again, in case it was forgotten, deleted, etc: danielle.m.romero@gmail.com One question that was commonly asked: Will I ship the print zine to participants if they live outside the USA? And the answer is yes! No matter where you are from, you helped me enormously in this project, and you will be getting the result of that effort sent to you! Another: May I sell copies of the zine at fairs, conventions, etc? Once again, the answer is yes. HOWEVER, there are stipulations to that! I am going to be selling the zines at CZF for $5 a piece. The total print cost for each zine is going to be $7, so I ask that you NOT sell them for anymore than that, and here’s why. This zine is a non-profit project. I would rather not have the rights owners to anything Tolkien related coming after me or the creators for selling something involving their characters and titles. The only way to accomplish that is to keep this non-profit. I am going to include disclaimers ON THE ZINE that explicitly state that someone should not pay more than $7 for the zine, so yeah. Please don’t do that! :) This is meant to be shared with everyone, so I want it to remain affordable, and accessible~ And another: May I post my art on my tumblr/website/etc before the release of the zine? Of course! You worked hard on your entry, so please feel free to share away, I have no qualms with pieces of it being shown early :) In fact, let me know if you do, and I’ll reblog it to the zine’s tumblr! <3 That’s all I can think of for right now; if you have any questions, concerns, etc, feel free to e-mail me, and I’ll get back to you ASAP! Stay awesome Tolkienites!
TOLKIEN ZINE:
Races of Races in Middle Earth: Article: Art: Taken
How to: Silmarillion: Article: Taken Art: Taken
Feminist Theory and Gender in Tolkien: Article: Taken
Top 5 Pairings:
Aragorn/Arwen Article: Art: Taken
Frodo/Sam Article: Art:
Thorin/Bilbo Article: Art: Taken
Tauriel/Kili Article: Taken Art: Taken
Elrond/Thranduil Article: Taken Art:
The Rankin-Bass Middle Earth: Article:
Mini-Comic: Art: Taken
Anything that does not have the word taken next to it are things we still need to be filled in the zine. HOWEVER, I am still totally taking new ideas; I’d love for this zine to have a ton of content from all walks of life, so if you’ve got something special, e-mail me, and let’s share it with the world! :)
danielle.m.romero@gmail.com
To my friends on here who are writers of color! I'm currently working on a zine called 'The Tolkien Radical'. It's all about the books, the movies, the author, and the fandom as it has existed for years. I am looking for a writer of color particularly because I would like for this zine to include an article about the importance of race representation in worlds of fantasy --- in this case, Middle Earth. I have an artist who is currently drawing up a piece for it, but I don't feel that I would be able to give proper perspective into how important a topic this is! Would anyone be interested in helping out with this project? I am handmaking these zines, and in compensation for your help, I can make you some extra copies if you'd like to sell them at shows, on your websites, etc! Thanks everybody! (Copied from my Facebook; shoot me an e-mail if you’re interested! danielle.m.romero@gmail.com)
SEEKING WRITERS & ARTISTS
The Tolkien Radical is a non-profit fanzine that has been in the works for nearly a year. I wanted to create a zine for us geeks to enjoy, but that is easily accessible over the internet and at shows/fairs. This zine covers all sorts of topics involving the literary works of Tolkien, the Rankin-Bass films, the Peter Jackson films, and the fandom in its own right, as it has existed for decades. Everything is coming together now, but we could use your help! I am looking for writers and artists interested in contributing to the zine. I want this zine to be as inclusive as possible, and as an example, would love to see a writer take on such a prompt as ‘Races of Races in Middle Earth’, speaking about the importance of race representation in literature, but especially sci-fi/fantasy works. Or perhaps you’d like to draw an image to match an article already written about the fandom’s top 5 pairing choices, or your experiences watching the Rankin-Bass animated films as children, and how that changed your perspective on Middle Earth, and so on.
These are only examples of things I’d like to see included, but if you’ve got an idea, please share with us! Again, this project is non-profit; for compensation, I will hand-make copies of the zine to distribute to the lovely people involved. The sale of these zines will ONLY cover printing costs, so please keep this in mind! I can be reached most quickly by e-mail:
danielle.m.romero@gmail.com Thanks for your interest, and please share to anyone you think might like to be involved! :)
