Underdogs (Boku no Hero Academia zine)

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Zine
Title: Underdogs
Publisher:
Editor(s): Saturn, Mahogany Doodles, Savannah
Type: Fanart, Fanfiction
Date(s): 2021
Medium: PDF, Print
Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia
Language: English
External Links: Twitter Tumblr carrdarchived
Zine Cover
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Underdogs is a fashion zine focused on underrated student characters from Boku no Hero Academia. The project was cancelled after struggling to recover from a case of moderator misconduct in 2021 that affected other zines in the fandom.

About

The project's interest check began on September 4, 2020 and would end on October 31, 2020[1]. Moderator applications for Finance, Shipping, Beta Writer, Graphics, and Formatting ran from November 7 to November 28, 2020[2]. Contributor applications for writers, artists, and merch artists ran from December 12, 2020 to January 9, 2021[3]. A new round of applications for a formatting mod opened on February 11 to February 25, 2021[4].

Preorders were expected to begin July 24, 2021, but on that day, the project announced they would delay preorders by a week[5]. The announcement expected to open preorders by July 31 and end on October 2, 2021, but actual preorders ended up opening on September 3, 2021[6]. The following pricing tiers were offered:

  • Mori ($15 USD) - Digital Zine
  • Yume Kawaii ($20 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine
  • Bosozuku ($45 USD) - Physical Zine, Digial Zine, Prints, Buttons, Sticker Sheet, Sticker
  • Lolita ($50 USD) - Face Mask, Charms, Prints, Buttons, Sticker Sheet, Sticker
  • Decora ($65 USD) - Physical Zine, Digital Zine, Face Mask, Charms, Prints, Buttons, Sticker Sheet, Sticker

A tote bag, packaged as Sukeban, could be added to orders at $12 USD. Stretch goals included a Hatsume themed Handkerchief at 50 orders, and a Kuroiro patch at 100 orders[7].

Preorders closed on November 6, 2021, citing issues with their finance mod and that they would hire a new finance mod to handle preorders[8]. The project began to handle mainly with refunding buyers. Applications for a new finance and shipping mod ran from January 3 to January 31, 2022[9]. After repeated deadline extensions for applications, the project entered a dormant state for the rest of the year.

On December 17, 2022, the head mod posted on Tumblr the following message:

Hello Everyone.

Due to the various delays of the project, it was decided that it would be best for the contributors to release their work if they would still like to.

Please support all our contributors and their work! So many of the contributors completed multiple pieces and collaborations for the zine, and the work is still outstanding despite how much time has passed.

Thank you all for the support, and I’m truly very sorry for all of the delays with the project.

Thank you,

-Mod Saturn[10]

Old Timeline
Start End
Interest Check September 4, 2020 October 31, 2020
Mod Applications November 7, 2020 November 28, 2020
Contributor Applications November 7, 2020 November 28, 2020
Preorders September 3, 2021 November 5, 2021

Moderator Misconduct

On November 12, 2021, the mods of Underdogs were featured in Boom Brigade's statement on unprofessional behavior of their finance mod, Silver[11]. The document contained screenshots of Discord server conversations as evidence. The following is a summary of the zine's situation.

Silver joined their mod team as a finance and shipping mod with no prior zine experience. Up until preorders, Silver was responsive with team members and on the project server. Silver posted information for the online storefront but did not post full finance information or breakdowns of costs at this time.

As the project approahced the scheduled dates for preorders in August, Silver made a last minute addition on for merchandise, suggesting a patch and accepting responsibility for preparing it. The mod team did not hear from Silver about the patch and attempts to remind them was met with excuses and delays. The patch's design submitted to Discord was official art overlaid with text. When the project could not open preorders as scheduled, Silver organized the team into a meeting on voice chat to discuss preparing for preorders.

After the new preorders date, when another mod commented that they had not followed the promotion plan, Silver organized another meeting where they told the other team members that a minimum of 50 full bundles had to be purchased to break even. Concerned by this claim, other mods requested to see the budget sheet, which had not been shown to them at this point. For the rest of the meeting, the other mods requested Silver to break down the budget and present other ways to break even. Afterwards, Silver would ignore all questions and pings in the chat and did not show up on planned meetings.

On October 14, the mod team discovered their Big Cartel storefront had been locked due to missing payments. As the mod in charge of finance, Silver had set up the storefront and connected it to their own billing information. Attempts to contact Silver to resolve this issue did not resolve successfully until October 21, 2022, when they responded on Discord. Afterwards, the mod team observed multiple times that Silver was active online but made no effort to respond to the mod team's messages regarding the zine's finances. Ultimatums to hand over access to the project's Paypal and Stripe accounts were ignored, even when the mod team resorted to announcing to buyers to request refunds.

Contributors

The following names were taken from the project's social media account[12].

Page Artists

Merch Artists

Writers

Mods

Former Contributors

  • Silver (Silverstring000) - Finance, Shipping

Gallery

  • Zine cover by Vanillasacs

  • Full Bundle Listing

  • Tote Bag Design

  • Stretch Goals (Locked)

References

  1. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1302135639392083968
  2. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1325090631371399171
  3. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1337925253901770756
  4. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1360077141560418304
  5. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1419094469950025728
  6. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1434003124868485123
  7. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1430741680999763969
  8. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1457028960257249280
  9. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1478189153263235072
  10. ^ https://underdogszine.tumblr.com/day/2022/12/17/
  11. ^ https://twitter.com/bakusquadcal/status/1459206240744222725
  12. ^ https://twitter.com/Underdogszine/status/1382192722111512577
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