The Fool: Joker Zine

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Zine
Title: The Fool: Joker Zine
Publisher:
Editor(s): crowcinthus, theminiyuna, frosted_max, SoulImagines, Floeer, sheri2berry, Izzy_Beta
Type: Fanart, Fanfiction
Date(s): 2022-2023
Medium: PDF, Print
Fandom: Persona 5
Language: English
External Links: Twitter carrdarchived
Cover by Madame RinRin
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Fool: Joker Zine was a zine centered around the protagonist of Persona 5. The zine was originally made for physical and digital release, but due to productions issues, ended up being an exclusively digital release.

About

The zine's interest check opened from March 13 to April 3, 2022[1]. A reported total of 186 responses was submitted for the zine's interest check[2]. Applications opened for merch mods, art mods, graphics mods, layout mods, and intern mods from April 8 to April 26, 2022[3]. Applications for page artists, merch artists, and writers opened from May 15 to June 5, 2022[4].

Preorders opened on November 9, 2022, with the following pricing tiers[5]:

  • What's the Plan? ($15 USD) - Digital Zine, Desktop Backgrounds
  • See Ya! ($20 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Desktop Backgrounds
  • Leaving It To You ($35 USD) - Desktop Backgrounds, Acrylic Charms, Washi Tape, Notepad, Sticker Sheet, Die-cut Sticker, Print
  • I'll Just Add This ($35 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Desktop Backgrounds, Washi Tape, Notepad, Sticker Sheet, Die-cut Sticker
  • Show Me Your True Form! ($60 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Desktop Backgrounds, Washi Tape, Notepad, Sticker Sheet, Die-cut Sticker, Print, Acrylic Charms

An early bird bonus of a sticker designed by the project's art mod was offered for any order placed before November 11, 2022[6]. Preorders were originally set to end on December 7th, but was extended to December 15th[7].

On March 12, 2023, the project's Twitter account sent out an update informing followers that the zine had been fully formatted and reviewed, but the mod team was not able to get in contact with Soul, their shipping and finance mod since December 8th[8]. Shipping of physical orders would be pushed back from its original March 2023 date.

On March 23, 2023, an email was sent out to all customers reporting that because of no contact from their shipping and finance mod for several months, production was unable to be done[9]. Said mod was the only member of the team with full access to the zine's funds and continued to remain unresponsive. Customers were requested to file a dispute with their bank, credit card company, or PayPal to receive a refund. Customers who filed a dispute would receive a digital zine as compensation.

Project Schedule
Start End
Interest Check March 13, 2022 April 3, 2022
Mod Applications April 8. 2022 April 26, 2022
Contributor Applications May 15, 2022 June 5, 2022
Preorders November 9, 2022 December 14, 2022
Shipping - -
Leftover Sales - -

Guest Controversy

On October 9, 2022, guest artist Kekisu for the project was met with furor for supporting a callout post of another artist. This callout post, and subsequent quote retweets made by Kekisu, accused the targeted artist of immoral leanings for drawing subject matter on a separate NSFW account that Kekisu and the original poster of the callout post found personally objectionable [10]. After a burner account first pointed out Kekisu’s participation in this controversy[11], many concerned fans reached out repeatedly to the zine's social media account and asked that Kekisu be removed from the project for stoking harassment.

In response to the controversy, the project's social media account announced on October 10, 2022, that Kekisu would no longer be a part of the project, and that the project did not support harassment of any kind, as follows:

🗡☆ ANNOUNCEMENT ☆🗡 Hello everyone, tricksters and thieves alike! In light of recent discussion surrounding the zine, Kekisu is no longer involved with us. The mods would like to make it clear that we do not at all support harassment of anyone regardless of their views. ☆ Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for more contributor spotlights tomorrow![12]

This placated the fans that didn’t want Kekisu involved any longer, but it angered the fans of Kekisu and the original poster who supported the campaign against the targetted artist. Those fans accused the project mods for supporting the targetted artist and what they perceived to be morally objectionable content.

In response, this prompted the project’s social media account to add the following to their original announcement:

As an addition to this, please do not take this announcement as a judgement of the mods' opinions on anyone involved. This is simply an update on the status of the zine deemed necessary by current events, for the sake of potential buyers and anyone otherwise interested in the project, and it should not be taken as an assessment of the situation by the mod team. Have a wonderful day, tricksters![13]

The addition of this response upset the fans who were originally concerned about Kekisu’s involvement, and fans from both sides began to pull out from supporting this project.

The Missing Finance Mod

The finance mod's lack of activity which caused the project to downsize to a digital release also behaved similar on other concurrent zine projects she was working on. Other affected projects included but were not limited to: Phantasia: A Persona Fantasy Zine, BIG SHOT: A Spamton Zine, Desperately in Love: Dimileth Zine, Death's Final Dance (Dangan Ronpa), Wish Come True (Persona 5), COMET: a Pokémon Astrology Zine, Fire Blast! (Pokemon), PokéDogs Zine, By Your Side: a BOTW Zelink Scrapbook Zine, Curtain Call (Ace Attorney), Urano Metria - A Lucy Heartfilia Zine, Analogue: A Wilbur Soot Zine, Morte: A Nico Di Angelo Zine[14].

Several of these projects were able to find a replacement for finance and shippnig mod positions and continue with normal operations. Others were not able to recover as easily and either downsized their project to feature less items or organize a fundraiser to make up for the lost money.

Contributors

The following names were taken from the final copy of the zine/the project's social media account.

Page Artists

Merch Artists

Writers

Mods

  • Crow (crowcinthus) - Head Mod, Writing Mod
  • Miniyuna - Art Mod
  • MaxFrost (frosted_max) - Finance, Production
  • Soul (soulimagines) - Shipping
  • Floeer (floeer9) - Formatting
  • Sheri (sheri2berry) - Graphics
  • Izzy (Izzy_Beta) - Intern

Former Contributors

  • Kekisu - Guest Artist

Gallery

  • Cover by Madame RinRin

  • Full Bundle Listing

  • Mystery Charm Reveal

  • Early Bird Bonus Sticker

References

  1. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1503054510176063504
  2. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1511426394806444035
  3. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1525868617127972864
  4. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1525868617127972864
  5. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1590472029974974464
  6. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1590770205470625793
  7. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1601175497807122432
  8. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1635021630710882304
  9. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1661104925307183109
  10. ^ https://twitter.com/puppykechi/status/1579111937639866369
  11. ^ https://x.com/kairo_ro
  12. ^ https://twitter.com/joker_zine/status/1579597065587666944,
  13. ^ https://x.com/joker_zine/status/1579947610433290241?s=46
  14. ^ https://twitter.com/kukuguz/status/1642686936962703362
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