SHOWTIME (Persona 5 zine)

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Zine
Title: SHOWTIME
Publisher: wildcardzines
Editor(s):
Type: anthology
Date(s): 2022
Medium: PDF, print
Fandom: Persona 5
Language: English
External Links: Twitter, carrd archived, Etsy
Zine Logo
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SHOWTIME is an art, fancomics, and fanfiction zine focusing on the ship Joker/Crow, which ships the characters Ren Amamiya and Goro Akechi from the video game Persona 5.

About

SHOWTIME is a fan anthology focusing on the rivalry between Joker and Crow of Persona 5 featuring illustrations, comics, and fanfiction.[1]

The project was announced with an interest check on November 1, 2020 that ended on November 22, 2020. When asked, the project's social media account said there were no plans to open applications for contributors [2].

Preorders opened on May 31, 2021 with the following pricing tiers

  • Dark Sun ($20 USD) - Digital Zine
  • Prodigal Sons ($25 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Random Postcard
  • Black Knight ($25 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets
  • Bladed Runners ($35 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets, 3D Charm, Sliding Acrylic Standee
  • Proof of Justice ($45 USD) - Postcards, Acrylic Charm, Sticker Sheets, 3D Charm, Sliding Acrylic Standee

On June 2, 2021, the project announced that the project had reached 700 sales in a day and promised new free merch[3]. As promised, on June 4, 2021, the project announced that all physical zines would get a gold foil cover upgrade [4]. As thanks for hitting 900 sales in the first week of preorders, the project announced that they would add star-shaped buttons of Akechi Goro and the game protagonist for higher tier bundles [5].

To further promote the project, a giveaway for one Proof of Justice bundle was run from June 14, 2021 to June 16, 2021. The winner was announced to be a Twitter user named Tiny_Peachyy [6].

Preorders closed as planned on July 6, 2021 with a total of 1,518 orders. The mods also asked followers be patient with the production and shipping phase as this was a high volume of orders and they only had one person responsible for shipping [7]. During production, the team received too many unsellable zines from their original supplier and were forced to reprint the zines under a different supplier. However due to ongoing financial troubles, the project announced that the reprinted zines would not have the gold foiled covers as promised [8].

The digital zine was released on September 27, 2021, while shipping for physical orders began January 26, 2022 and lasted until October 26, 2022 [9]. Leftover sales for zine merch and fundraiser merch ran from October 28, 2022 to November 13, 2022.

Contributors

Page Artists

Merch Artists

Writers

Mods

  • kirvia - Co-Head
  • Aryll (aryllins) - Graphics
  • Madame Rin (MadameRinRin) - Graphics, Former Merch Artist
  • mints (kimdokjas) - Writing Mod
  • Nat (babelfell) - Shipping
  • Soren (spicykei, sugarkeine) - Finance, Former Merch Artist

The Mods Madame Rin and Soren are notable for being part of the group wildcardzines, who is also listed in moderator lists.

Former Contributors

Gallery

  • Zine logo

  • Zine cover

  • Proof of Justice Bundle Listing

Embezzlement Controversy

After closing preorders, the project faced multiple delays brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. These delays and other mishaps involved in production culminated in an embezzlement scandal.

Excess Shipment Delays

Throughout the production period, the project gave progress updates by email and on their social media accounts as the project ran into multiple delays and communication issues. Concurrently with these updates, a Twitter user named akechiphobic posted a thread with their findings and observations about the suspicious developments going on throughout the project's production and shipping troubles [10]. Such details included unprofessional responses to fan concerns about the delays on social media and release of private conversations and messages from the project's Discord server.

Delays by Illness and Bereavement

The team originally expected to ship orders in September, but due to potential delivery delays during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns, they announced that they would begin shipping in late October or November [11]. Although physical shipments were delayed, the project was able to release the digital bundles on September 24, 2021.

On January 13, 2021, the project announced that their sole shipping moderator, Ree, had fallen ill with COVID-19 and needed a break from packaging physical zines. The project asked that followers and customers be patient and give their shipping moderator time to recover [12]. In the meantime, physical orders began shipping on January 26, 2022. The mod team released a full schedule of when they expected to ship specific bundles [13].

By February 7, 2022, the team reported that only the merch bundles had been shipped out even though other bundles were slated to be sent out by then [14], and on February 12, 2022, the shipping mod would be changing to a different service for processing labels [15]. Another shipping update on February 19, 2021 announced a delay in shipping orders due to postal issues. The shipping mod reportedly hired outside help to assist with shipping [16]. An update on February 28, 2021, added that the shipping mod was still dealing with personal affairs and had been in slow communication with the rest of the team, effectively pausing shipments. The team was in discussions to ship out stock to another person, explaining that the decision was only made now instead of earlier because of concerns of damaging the merchandise in transit [17]. On March 9, the social media account announced that Ree would be unable to fulfill shipping the orders until March 25th, as she was dealing with funeral preparations [18], and that when she returned home, she would send packages to the new shipping moderators [19].

Change in Shipping Responsibilities

On April 1, 2022, the project came out with a major update to answer customer concerns about the latest delays, how to process refunds, and new developments in the shipping process. A new, anonymous mod was announced to have been hired to assist with shipping the merchandise, while the current shipping mod would continue to maintain communications. The update also reported that duplicate orders had been shipped out to customers. Some orders had been marked as shipped even though they had not been received by the customers. The mod team cited issues with the mailing labels that had been bought online and doubly scanned by accident when they were taken to the post office. To address concerns about financial transparency, the mod team promised to give contributors access to a financial sheet detaling income, expenses, and receipts [20].

A screenshot from Discord was posted on May 2, 2022 showing an apology from Ree for the delays and broken promises to ship the orders in a timely manner [21]. Ree cited plummeting mental health and stress that began when confronted with the high volume of orders during the preorder period and overestimating her ability to handle shipping alone. From then on, Ree announced she would relinquish her responsibilities as shipping moderator but would remain on the team to manage financials. She also arranged for Aryll, a member of the team, to fly in and see Ree in person and take all the orders and send them to Nat, the recently hired shipping moderator. Ree also reported in this Discord message that she had received damaged zines from their supplier and would be looking into getting a refund and finding a new supplier, another hit on the project's finances.

On a personal account and later retweeted by the project's social media account, Aryll posted a thread detailing her role in the project [22]. Aryll clarified that she was only involved in graphic design, was offering knowledge to Ree on shipping merchandise, and never had a role in finances or logistics. Aryll explained that she had not flown out to help Ree with shipping earlier as planned because of time conflicts made worse by the project not meeting production deadlines. In the thread, Aryll stated that she did not know how far behind the project was in production and apologized for not playing a more active role on the team while promising to fulfill the orders. The team would later confirm on May 9, 2022 that Aryll had arrived at Ree's place to help with packaging and shipping [23].

Nat, the newly announced shipping moderator, issued a statement on May 3, 2022 on the project's social media page to introduce themselves, clarify their role, and report on the project's shipping status [24]. Nat explained that they were only a customer of the project at first and reached out to offer assistance while Ree was reporting problems about being overwhelmed from her responsibilities. Initially, the offer was turned down, as they had planned for Aryll to assist Ree. Nat offered to help again when Ree announced the loss of her father and officially joined the mod team on February 28, 2022. Nat had remained anonymous until the time of this posting not to avoid accountability, but because they were waiting to receive the merchandise from Ree before they could officially assume shipping moderator responsibilities.

Unchecked Production Errors

Continuing from Nat's introductory post on May 3, upon being notified that the remaining merchandise were on the way to their location, Nat learned that the zines had not been graded (checked for errors and damage), after which they discovered a lot of the zines were defective or badly damaged in transit. Nat also stated that because they did not have enough viable merchandise to ship out, they would not be able to send orders out faster in spite of the complaints from customers threatening to take legal action or sue.

On May 18, 2022, a new update reported the bundles Ree packaged and sent to the new shipping mod had not been quality checked, requiring multiple bundles to be unpacked, quality checked on the new shipping mod's end, and repacked, leading to further delays.

Confession to Fraud

On Jun 24, 2022 the mods posted a thread as well as a Google on the zine's Twitter account that Ree, the head mod, confessed to stealing $27.6k CAD of zine funds for personal use and had been removed from the project [25]. Also attached to the thread was a Google Document containing the team's full statement on the situation [26].

The statement explained that Ree had been lying to the team by giving false reassurances and providing misleading, out-of-date screenshots of banking information to suggest nothing had been stolen. Ree only came forth with the confession when funds had been entirely depleted, and she could no longer fulfill requests for postage funds. The statement did not detail exactly what she spent the money on, only that she spent the funds on personal use. Ree returned $3000 CAD to the project by taking a loan and could not repay the remaining $24, 625.10 CAD of stolen funds. Consequently, Ree was immediately removed from the team and revoked of her access to the project's accounts and funds. Soren, another mod, would take over from Ree for finances from then on.

The mod team reported that they sought legal counsel and learned that they could not take legal action against Ree to get the money back because they did not hold formal contracts with Ree, and all transactions were processed through her Etsy and bank accounts. Instead, customers and contributors were encouraged to take action against Ree themselves and seek legal counsel. Since there were no longer any funds for postage or refunds, a fundraiser would be organized to recoup their losses.

On a personal account, zubatzo, one of the zine’s contributors, remarked that the mod spent the stolen funds on Genshin Impact[27]. This tweet, now deleted, went viral and was subsequently often brought up in online discussions about the zine. The games media outlet GamesRadar reported to have confirmed this when reaching out to Ree for comment while also adding that the mod also used the funds on electronics, merchandise, food, rent, and transportation [28].

Fundraiser

To gather funds to ship the remaining orders, the mod team organized began an fundraiser on June 25, 2022, to accept monetary donations for the shipping costs of someone else's unfulfilled preorder [29]. On a new bigcartel storefront, some amount of stock set aside for leftover sales and additional merch donated by artists involved in the project were also offered for purchase. The mod team promised that the funds would be used to make up for the embezzled funds and reimburse expenses that the mods had been paid for out of pocket for the past months. The rest would be divided evenly among the contributors.

The fundraiser was able to reach its goal by June 27, 2022. As thanks, the mod team released a letter to fans on the success of the fundraiser, reporting a combined total of over 750 orders and donations. The team also announced they would hire additional help with shipping the fundraiser orders and the remaining 650 and counting orders. Although monetary donations were closed, fans could still buy physical goods until July 1, 2022. As a demonstration of transparency, the mod team said that fundraiser purchases made after the donations were over would go to compensating the additional help being hired. [30].

Aftermath

In light of the embezzlement scandal, multiple concurrent zine projects put out statements in reaction to the project's controversy to promote the fundraiser.

Other projects' statements about the controversy involved detailing their plan and methods for ensuring accountability of their mods. Some solutions include implementing contracts, sharing their finance sheets and receipts with all project members, ensuring multiple parties have access to financial accounts, maintaining a dedicated account for zine funds, and public release of finances upon project completion.

The controversy also added to existing discussion throughout social media about online gambling addiction and predatory game design practices, since Genshin Impact, which the mod purportedly spent a majority of the zine's stolen funds on, is an online game with gambling mechanics. Games media outlets such as Kotaku[31] and GamesRadar[31] covered the controversy in relation to online gambling.

Fan Reception

Reactions to Products

The following are select social media posts about the zine retweeted by the project account:

Killian, posted on Twitter:

my @akeshuzine arrived today!!!!! it looks absolutely gorgeous and well worth the wait 🖤❤️ cannot wait to spend the afternoon looking through it :D plus I just love this standee, it's so cool *w*[32]

will, posted on Twitter:

so happy to finally have my @akeshuzine !!!!! it arrived a few days ago but was only able to retrieve it from my dad this weekend, everything looks amazing!!! tysm to the artists and mods who worked on this!!! 🥺[33]

Cosmic, posted on Twitter:

it arrived!! ✨ it took a long time, but I’m super happy with the zine, the quality is great and all of the artists in here are so talented. The gold foil on the cover is also a nice touch. Thank you @akeshuzine![34]

Cosmi, posted on Twitter:

My @akeshuzine finally came in! They worked super nicely with the mailing issue that sprung up and it ended up in my hands after a few days. Everything is in perfect condition too. Thank you for being so kind ♡[35]

Tabby, posted on Twitter:

I got my @akeshuzine zine today! Thank you to the mods who stepped up and helped get the situation under control, I greatly appreciate it.

Here are the pictures I took.

Everything is gorgeous. I was a little worried about the acrylic stand because it didn't want to go into the base but I got it working[36]

Rianka, posted on Twitter:

Its been a long time coming but I'm so glad its finally home! Thank you to the mods at @akeshuzine for stepping up and fixing the problem w Ree. I sincerely hope the team and contributors will be compensated soon. Thank you for your hard work! ❤️🖤[37]

rose, posted on Twitter:

my @akeshuzine is finally here '♡` the zine itself was a little damaged, but overall everything else came safely 🙏[38]

けっぱく, posted on Twitter:

I usually don't post stuff like this but! I wanted to show my support that it'd been a long journey for this lovely package and it's finally here and was definitely worth the wait! Also - I got the B4 and tracking info which informed me reliably. TYSM @akeshuzine ![39]

Reactions to Controversy

The following select tweets were found in discussion about the controversy.

kai, posted on Twitter:

didn’t have ‘lead mod on shuake zine embezzling $27.6k to spend on genshin impact and takeout’ on my 2022 bingo card but holy shit here we are

this is some ms officer and mr truffles shit. all or nothing fuckery. like i can’t imagine being known as the mf who stole almost 30k from anime fans to feed a gambling addiction.

will definitely b donating to the mods n shipping funds on this one- the zine was amazing and they did nothing to deserve something that came completely out of left field like this.[40]

sam, posted on Twitter:

genuinely as a zine mod please do not harass the showtime mods/condemn zines over this.... running a fanzine is a hobby that involves so much work done for zero compensation except the love you have for your media/fandom. there was no way for these mods to have predicted this lol

jesus the way this is going to have such an impact on the fanzine community 😭😭😭 fanzines are not professionally-funded undertakings and have always run on community trust and friendship and it is so so awful that someone would betray that to this extent[41]

jay, posted on Twitter:

Hearing about the disastrous outcome of the Showtime Zine makes my heart hurt. It's no easy feat to run a zine, so please don't let one bad faith actor ruin zines for everyone in the future. Most zine mods are very hardworking and will go to great lengths to finish the project

That said, the mods and zine projects who DO try to run away with other people's money should absolutely be exposed and held responsible. Zines who take year+ to get any production done should also be held accountable, and questions need to be asked[42]

bread, posted on Twitter:

A former head mod stole a shit ton of money and, because the project is technically hers and is a sole proprietorship, the current mod team can’t take legal action against her.

ZINE MODS, USE CONTRACTS. Download boilerplate contracts, free! They cover most of these scenarios.

The most foolproof way to go about it is for the mod team to all sign contracts that 1. Don’t let this shit fly, and 2. Indemnify themselves for other mods’ fuckups.

Ree, the swindler in question, stole an obscene amount and blew it on gacha. We don’t want that.

You can find template contracts online for free or for a nominal fee. In the face of an amount like what Ree stole, I’d say that coughing up a few bucks, if any, for a contract is a really good investment.

Zines have a lot at stake nowadays in terms of money and collateral![43]

lawa, posted on Twitter:

if you're making a Zine and it involves monetary transactions, you NEED to make contracts to try and avoid things like this

this is not targeting the mods of the zine, since they want to clear things up and try to fix this. this entire team got absolutely ruined by one person

i am shocked that a zine managed to gain that much funding and good on them for it, HOWEVER this is SO unfair to contributors of the zine and people that funded it. this is genuinely so damn awful[44]

slumberish, posted on Twitter:

I mean sign zine contracts all you want but the uncomfortable reality is those are only as enforceable as a) your willingness to go through a legal process that will cost $$ for legal fees etc, and b) culprits actually having $$$ left to pay for things 🧵

If the money is GONE you have nothing to get the money back from. At the end of the day, while zines have a business sheen to them, they are still heavily based on social contracts. No one is going through actual legal process to set up a business, nothing is actually formalized

(It's not worth it for one-off projects) but when it goes wrong that's when people realize just how shaky the foundations of zines are. It's a trust thing, and really all you can do is figure out who to trust, protect yourself if that trust fails, or NOT play into it at all.

If you are a MOD:

✅ Make sure you have ACCESS to PP accts. If those are connected to banks, make that bank accessible to everyone too. It's a bit of a pain but even if your co-mod doesn't steal from you, rl emergencies can still happen

✅ Be ready to take over if co-mods flake.

As a mod you are never JUST the position you hold. You are the backup plan if another mod flakes, so seriously consider worst-case scenarios when you take these positions on.

✅ In the same manner, you should try to understand all aspects of zine running. You should be familiar enough with processes so you can tell when something is a reasonable delay vs something to dig deeper into.

IF YOU ARE A BUYER:

✅ know how long you have before you can ask for a refund. Ask for it a week if you're getting nervous. Request a chargeback if you hear no response.

There's really no other viable recourse, and if the delays are reasonable then you weigh your options from there, but know it'll be harder to get any money back if you're past the # of days banks/PP will give you.

As a reminder for timeline estimates (this is pre-COVID but at the very least, you should be getting clear, transparent updates from mods):

Hindsight is 20/20 but I really don't know how much is 100% avoidable unless you just don't engage with fandom zines, period. There will always be a risk.[45]

References

  1. ^ https://akeshuzine.carrd.co/
  2. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1324814198438653953
  3. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1400214528441282561
  4. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1400879578470436865
  5. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1401966234862690335
  6. ^ [https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1405620559031848960
  7. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1412579658244136960
  8. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1524160189640761345
  9. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1583481750239719426
  10. ^ https://twitter.com/akechiphobic/status/1502854382379012097
  11. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1437397146857259010]
  12. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1481787170037792768
  13. ^ https://twitter.com/i/status/1486272886637740034
  14. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1490799084873027587
  15. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1490799084873027587
  16. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1495132698561548288
  17. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1498366585488113664
  18. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1501753254450909187]
  19. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1501753254450909187
  20. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1509861713570635776
  21. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1521166543429804033
  22. ^ https://twitter.com/aryllins/status/1521232665583697920
  23. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1523860240260689920
  24. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1521557598817996800
  25. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1540123546030026752
  26. ^ SHOWTIME Statement Regarding Stolen Funds, Statement by the SHOWTIME Mod Team on Google Docs
  27. ^ https://twitter.com/zubatzo/status/1540136041717317640, She spent it on Genshin Impact by the way. I cannot make this up.
  28. ^ Persona 5 fanzine derailed after founder spends $20k on "necessities" and Genshin Impact
  29. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1540804713767022592
  30. ^ https://twitter.com/akeshuzine/status/1541485985212538885
  31. ^ a b Persona 5 Fanzine In Disarray After Lead Organizer Allegedly Embezzles $20,000
  32. ^ https://twitter.com/SetsuntaMew/status/1525559015203344393
  33. ^ https://twitter.com/peratney/status/1528416347339767814
  34. ^ https://twitter.com/eelsake_/status/1530304073966276609
  35. ^ https://twitter.com/CosmicalPhantom/status/1530474290193252352
  36. ^ https://twitter.com/kibbyfight_club/status/1531359253763612677
  37. ^ https://twitter.com/Rianka8059/status/1531830682250809345
  38. ^ https://twitter.com/cururinoir/status/1535347460217851904
  39. ^ https://twitter.com/keppernicus/status/1534704994779377665
  40. ^ https://twitter.com/saintorae/status/1540152786083409920
  41. ^ https://twitter.com/kindlestuck/status/1540162833362874369
  42. ^ https://twitter.com/pineapplebreads/status/1540162408488046592
  43. ^ https://twitter.com/lao_you_tiao/status/1540152537202020352
  44. ^ https://twitter.com/DigitalLuver/status/1540137497669341184
  45. ^ https://twitter.com/slumberish/status/1540388569403068420
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