Screen Printing

Tropes and genres
See also	fanart, List of Fanart Genres
Related articles on Fanlore.

"Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink into the mesh openings for transfer by capillary action during the squeegee stroke. Basically, it is the process of using a stencil to apply ink onto another material whether it be t-shirts, posters, stickers, vinyl, wood, or any material that can keep the image onto its surface.

Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of polyester or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance. Ink is forced into the mesh openings by the fill blade or squeegee and onto the printing surface during the squeegee stroke. It is also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph printing. A number of screens can be used to produce a multicolored image or design."

Interphase, One Zine That Set the Bar High

The Star Trek: TOS zine Interphase set a high bar of fannish expectation for what could be done in terms of fan art and its production.

Connie Faddis, the editor of Interphase, wrote in the editorial of the second issue:

I don't plan (and never did) to reprint any issues of Interphase. Most reprinting is done for profit; I'm doing this for enjoyment. There are hassles involved in reprinting, too: copyright hassles over fiction may on the verge of becoming big ones. Another reason is that the silkscreen art can't be readily done again -- the stencils had to be destroyed at the end of each print run in order to free the screen for the next project. I don't want to get into xeroxing back issues, either; I'd prefer to put the time into the next, new issue. So, if you miss an issue that you want, the best that I can do is recommend that you contact a friend who has a copy, and borrow that.

A fan wrote about the difference in cost between sf and media zines:

The biggest difference is that most sf pubbers do their publishing as a hobby. That is, they foot the bill pretty much themselves... sf pubbers tend to use the cheapest method possible, that is, I see many more mimeo zines than offset. Media publishers, on the other hand, are much more concerned with how a zine looks and that requires fancy offset printing, metal plates, veloxes, and the works. I can recall a time in media fandom when there were plenty of mimeo zines, but when Connie Faddis published Interphase and showed zine editors what could be done, that spelled the writing on the wall for inexpensive methods of reproduction.

Another fan wrote in Interstat that perhaps the bar Interphase set is now too high:

[We] should write what his or her heart wants to, and have the right to publish it. Not everything looks like Interphase —not everyone has the talent, the time, or the money to do a major production; and in some ways everything should not look like Interphase. Phase was a beautiful, memorable fanzine, and Connie deserves a great deal of credit for producing those four issues. Phase also was, unfortunately, one of the instigators of the current "polished" look sought after in fanzines—almost pro—and the corresponding rise in prices, and I'm not sure that this is entirely a good thing. For one thing, it doesn't feel fannish, In a way it creates mistaken and somewhat unrealistic ideas in some people's minds...

In March 1981, a fan who had just bought a copy of Cheap Thrills, brought up the cost of zines in an issue of Interstat, and cited expansive art, including silkscreening, as a reason zines had gotten so expensive:

I did enjoy the zine, but that is beside the point. What I do want to bring up is that I am very excited that someone—FINALLY— is making a conscious effort to bring down the price of zines to an affordable level. This has long been a sore subject with me... Yes, I will agree that it IS beautiful and I enjoy it as much as anyone else, but lately editors seem to be in a competition to see who can put out the most beautiful zine. We are now starting to see silkscreening on covers and inside pages. Does the average fan have any idea how much this adds to the cost of a zine? Do color prints add that much more dimension to a story than black and white to justify the cost of printing them? Yes, we buy them, so editors think that is what we want so they print more—and we keep buying. I, for one, am getting frustrated.

Examples of Fanart

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

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  silkscreened front cover of Warped Space #14, artist is Marty Siegrist. Fans were impressed at the art medium, some saying that, aside from Interphase, they'd never seen silkscreen before. One fan complained the cover curls up. And from another in the LoCs in a later issue: "The cover was beautiful -- I like the silkscreening, but the ink gets on your fingers. I had blue on my fingers for days after reading it."

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  the front cover of one of the most famous media zines, Interphase -- "In her first issue of Interphase, printed in 1975, Connie Faddis employed a method called silk-screening for her cover – a detailed, time-consuming project which only an accomplished artist like Connie would have the skill to pull off. But the rest of us settled for what we could learn and do more easily. Artistically, Interphase set the bar for all the zines that followed, in more ways than one.

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  Scales of Justice contains dozens of black and white ink drawings, and intricate calligraphy, several interior silk screens, as well as a screened cover, artist is Connie Faddis

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  another example of the interior art in Scales of Justice -- "I've shown the book to art teachers who are as impressed as I with the precise silk-screening and copious detail work."

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  front cover of B7 Complex #3 -- The cover artist, Deb Walsh explained: "I always admired the work of Connie Faddis - brilliant artist, writer, and zine editor. Her Interphase zine was legendary, and featured absolutely gorgeous silk-screened art. I never achieved the level of Faddis, but this was a fun project to do. The basic artwork was printed on the card stock, and then I cut two silk screen stencils - one for the silver ink that forms the frame, the zine title, and Jenna's necklace, and the other for the blue of the wind behind her. The theme of the silk-screened art in the zine was the four elements. Jenna was wind, Cally was fire, Dayna was water, and Soolin was earth (and the back cover).

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  front cover of The Pits -- from the editor, Melanie R: "I would like to apologize for the cost of the thing. I would like to, but I really can't. The artwork needs special attention, and the contents really deserve a good print job, so I'm going to photo-offset with it. Plus I think my neighbor and printer for the first issue would have cardiac arrest if presented with 200-plus names to run off -- remind me to tell you sometime about what his garage looked like after he got through printing the silkscreen cover for issue #1."

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  front cover of Berengaria #9, artist is Amy Falkowitz from a silkscreen design by Mary G. Busar

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  the centerfold from Energize!, artist is Connie Faddis, see that zine page for controversy regarding this zine's art

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  front cover of Sahsheer, silkscreened by Mary G. Buser

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  front cover of Alpha Continuum #2, artist is Marty Siegrist