April 2021

While our two chufty boxes of zines are trekking across the Canadian landscape and dodging province lockdowns, we can enjoy another stunning promo from Emperiocism. When not having copious amounts of feelings for fictional foggy sea captains, Emperio can be found watching a vast array of terrible horror game let’s plays, with an empty canvas beside her, open and waiting. Delight in more of her amazing work at emperiocism on twitter, and keep your eye out for our upcoming test copy sneak peek!

Our copy editor, Egon Vogel, has provided a page of poetry and a longform dark fic to the Magnus Collection. While Egon is primarily an academic researcher, he also has a strong passion for fandom and all the incredible things we can do when we love something strongly and communally. He’s excited to get the books sent out to all these fans and to play a part in the collaborative creative process.

[Image Description: A segment of a larger piece of work, screenshot for promo. This snippet of poetry is typewritten onto a crinkled, folded, aged piece of paper. 

Transcription:

“The Eye - Jonathan Sims (18 June 2007)

When I was a child I used to think

That the world could be made and unmade

When I closed my eyes

And that all the adults in my life

Were actors in a cosmic story”]

Second Printing!

If you’ve missed out on your chance to purchase a physical copy of The Magnus Collection Volume 1, we’ve opened up a second printing of it, again limited to 100 copies in total, and split between 50 standard and 50 deluxe. These are anticipated to arrive to our studio early May, but we caution against delays which may occur as a result of Covid-times affecting transport estimates.

As a reminder, if you are looking to purchase 3 or more copies of the zine at once, please email us at magnuscollectionzine@gmail.com for a better (tracked!) shipping rate.

Visit our store now!

It’s really difficult to find a fun promo screencap for @marimo-art because everything in this piece is gorgeous, and we don’t want to give all the grandeur away. There are so many fantastic details, all done up in traditional pen and ink, by a real master of the medium. 

Marimo says: “Hey folks! I’ve been drawing since I was about three years old and have always loved doing traditional art over all other art types. I listen to music constantly all day, every day but especially when drawing. Spooky stuff has always interested me but I only within the last three years got into listening to TMA and I’ve fallen down the hole of liking horror content more and more.” Check out her twitter at MarimoJenn and her instagram at artbymarimo, and join us in waiting with bated breath for those books to get to our studio!

If you want to pick up a pdf or reserve a physical copy, check out our storefront. We’ve got 80% remaining on the second print run, and the first print run will be sent out for mail starting the day we receive it.

Some pages from our production copy flip-through. We’re tremendously excited to receive copies and begin sending them out. Cover, Credits, Statements, and Afterword page designed by Jack Cloverway, pg 22 by Kait McQueen, pg 23 by Leedzie, pgs 50 and 51 by Kellan B, pg 56 by Madeline CB, pg 57 by Egon Vogel with design by Jack Cloverway.

Selection processes are already underway to invite our guest contributors for Volume 2, and then we’ll have an open call for submissions posted to all our social media. If we do not sell the entirety of the second printing, we will create a combined Vol 1+Vol 2 package of whatever remains for the people who would like to get up-to-speed conveniently. Our goal is to double our page count for Volume 2, which will mean more fiction, poetry, statements, song playlists, artwork, needlepoint, knitting, photo-manips, post-it art, and more.

Still have questions about the Volume 1 book or its distribution? Please feel free to message a moderator on tumblr, twitter, or via email at magnuscollectionzine@gmail.com.

[ID: The weathered top half of the first page of a statement, with elements like address and phone number redacted, and a ‘file copy’ stamp obscuring additional information.

Transcript: “My name is Eric Connors, and I was married to my wife for 46 years. There were many details to sort out following Mary’s passing, but the most pressing by far was the mountain of debt we’d accrued for her treatments. We had once built up a nice nest egg over the years in hopes of a pleasant retirement, however, with the aggressive nature of her illness, we blew through our savings within two years. I then maxed out credit cards, took out loans, and remortgaged our house before Mary’s health took its final turn. I barely had any time to grieve at all before life demanded I stride on and get back to business. I still had the shop to run, but thrifting isn’t exactly a Fortune 500 business, and I doubted it would bring in enough to pay down these debts, even if I ran it for two lifetimes. I made what payments I could when I could make them, but the calls from the bill collectors became so frequent that I eventually stopped answering my phone all together.”]

Leedzie is a prolific writer with work appearing in several zines. Though best known for her analyses and humor articles, she has also done extensive work in the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. Leedzie was drawn to the Magnus Archives for its eerie mood and unique presentation, and couldn’t wait to take a crack at it herself. Find more of her work, visit https://leedzie.wordpress.com/

Contributor Applications Open

Hello!

While our books are on their way to our studio, we are opening up contributor applications again for the second volume of The Magnus Collection. This time, we will be fundraising for The Trevor Project, in response to the recent anti-Trans* legislation in the United States. 

Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading (American) national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. For more information, visit https://www.thetrevorproject.com/ 

Applications will be open from 19 April to 1 May. We have two loose themes for this volume that you should consider when applying:

Looking Backward - Unearth statements, vignettes, moments, and memories from our time at the institute. Do you have illicit pictures of the Archivist’s cat? Favourite recipes shared from the winter potluck? The secretarial pool’s Spotify playlist? We want it all!

What Is and Can Be - A flash-sideways exploration of the time we’ve shared half a step out of alignment with our reality. The calm at the center of the chaos is the Eye.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, visit the links below and send an application to magnuscollectionzine@gmail.com

Info and Timeline:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SEzZmRUi6TVD1FNovyuAsPbO3A0jkAqcMfikBQylUkc/edit?usp=sharing

FAQ: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YwHQCJYKPyxozXzDul04JktOQv9wn4gBB8pEpOdZghg/edit?usp=sharing

Sales Update

The Magnus Collection Vol 1 Reprint is at 50% sold. We have 11 copies of the Standard Edition and 38 copies of the Deluxe Edition remaining. Once these are gone, we will not run another print!

Shipping Update

We’re delighted to announce that the books are finally on their way to our studio. Canada Post does not ship over the weekend, so we will be using the weekend to package and prepare the shipments, and take Monday (and potentially also Tuesday) to send all packages out. 

It appears that the printer held the first printing back until the second printing was finalized before shipping it all out. While this saved us a little money, we had not communicated this request to them. Our team is working on adding a little something onto the orders to make up for this extended shipping delay.

I’m so excited to finalize this volume and begin promotions for our Summer Volume. We’ll be increasing the page count and having some fun new Deluxe perks, so stay tuned for more! And if you’re looking to apply for Volume 2, we’ll be accepting applications until April 30.