30th Anniversary Fanzine Project
Project Info
On April 30th, 1988, The Legendary Armor Samurai Troopers anime aired across Japan on Nagoya Television. Now, 30 years later, the fans have come together to honor this classic show with a not-for-profit fanzine featuring art and prose, by fans for fans. The goal was to create a quality, professional, and printed fan magazine that will be available to all fans for purchase online at cost—no profit is to be made by the project staff in the sales of the fanzine. Donations are welcome to help recover the pre-production costs.
About the Cover
Artist Griseldajane's entry received the highest points in our cover contest!
Many thanks to all the contestants and to everyone who voted!
Get the Fanzine
The zine is finished and ready for purchase from the online on-demand book printer! Please note that you will need to sign up for an account in order to make your purchase; however, you can delete your account later (be sure to keep it long enough that you can track and review your order).
Preview the zine before you buy (it's really beautiful!!!):
Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.
Click here to purchase a physical copy of the book.
Or click here to download the free .pdf version. Please note that the .pdf is locked for digital viewing only to protect the participants' works. If you would like permission to print the book via a local or personal printer, please contact me.
If you like what we've created, please consider donating to help the staff recover the zine's pre-production costs.
If you enjoyed any of the content in the zine, please support the participants whenever possible!
Newsletters
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question or looking for more info about the project? Check here:
- Some of your answers in the FAQ have changed, why?
- Some of the answers have been updated to better reflect the current status of the project, which is done. For example, when this project started, the means for producing and distributing a physical copy of the zine were unknown. Now, they are known, and are much simpler than previously thought, so the answer was modified to keep up with the new information.
- What do you mean by, "not-for-profit", and at cost?
- This means that the purpose of the project is not to make any money, and that the organizer, aka me, is not making or taking any money for the production or distribution of the fanzine. Once the fanzine is compiled, the electronic file will be made available to anyone who wants it, and a version printed by an online on-demand book-printer will be available for purchase through the on-demand printer's site. Any form of payment for the production and shipping of the fanzine would be paid to the online on-demand book-printer. Donations to help reimburse the staff for the pre-production costs of the zine are welcome at:
- The zine doesn't seem to be in any kind of logical order. How was the layout determined?
- Every participant was listed in my project tracker with a random number associated to them. I then used an online number randomizer to help get the initial layout and order of the zine established, then rearranged to what I thought was a good rhythm of images and text.
- Is anyone going to make money off of this project? I don't want someone else making money off of my work.
- My hope is that the online on-demand book-printer would be the only one profiting from producing the fanzine. There's no way to police the production or distribution of the fanzine once it's made public. As with any personal belonging, people are free to purchase mass quantities and sell it themselves to make back the cost or make a profit. While that's not the intention of the project, there's no way to stop this from happening. Our fandom is small enough that I'd hope word would spread that the fanzine is not meant to be for sale for profit, and any sighting of it in mass quantities or online would be ignored. One can only hope, right?
- Why is the digital download locked? I want to print it at home for free.
- The .pdf was locked to help prevent the zine from being "broken apart" and the individual pieces reproduced. All participants submitted their work generously did so under the context that their submissions could only be publicly reproduced within the zine as a whole.
- Participants still hold all rights to their work, and they have every right to print and sell their own submissions separately. We're hoping to help accommodate and enforce that right by providing a controlled digital file.
- The on-demand printer does an amazing job of putting the zine together, and I highly recommend making your purchase through them. However, if you would like to print yourself a copy on your home printer for your personal enjoyment, let me know, and I'll send an unlocked version. But be aware that if you are granted the unlocked digital file, your information may be distributed to the participants for possible follow-up. It is also expected that the print file will not be distributed.
- The .pdf is also formatted differently than the file used by the on-demand printer (margins, spine, etc). So if you are looking to use a local book-maker, let me know and I'll provide the appropriate file.
- Can I send you money and you buy and ship the book for and to me?
- While it's helpful and cheaper for the online on-demand book-printer to "mass-produce" the fanzine in one large order, the savings would not outweigh the complexity of managing inventory, orders, and shipping costs. So, no.
- I found something wrong with/in the zine. Can you fix it?
- Depending on what you mean, yes and no. If it's a mistake with physical zine itself, please contact the vendor from whom you ordered it. If it's a mistake with the text, images, or information in the zine, yes! Let me know and I'll update the file. However, you'll need to reorder and pay again for an updated copy. Neither I nor the vendor will reimburse for mistakes in the file. If you're having trouble viewing (not printing) the .pdf, let me know and I'll try to troubleshoot.
- Can I send you money to support you? What's the new "Support the Fanzine" button mean?
- I've set up a Ko-fi account for donations. Any support will go towards covering the cost of the zine's pre-production costs. The zine itself will remain not-for-profit. Thank you!
- So if you're not doing this for profit, why are you? Who are you?
- I'm a fan! I've loved the show since it first aired in the US. It's had a big influence on my art style. I'm a comic artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and am currently learning web design so I'll definitely be ordering a copy of the fanzine for myself and putting this project on my resume and portfolio.
Contact Info
The project is over, and there are no more new newsletters. But feel free to stay in touch! Who knows, maybe there'll be a 31st Anniversary Fanzine.