The The Zine Volume 5 Issue 4

We have a big issue with lots of comics, art, great stories and only one page to introduce it so lets get started!
The beautiful cover by Shadow marks a change in style for his work. It seems more confident and less heavily rendered. Time will tell if he chooses to keep with this new approach, but I for one like where he’s going.
Matabo created a gruesome back cover for us and also what looks like some Jhonen Vasquez fan art (page 4). I hope to see more of his original work in the future, but this will tide me over till then.
Star is all over this issue starting with several animal pictures (page 21, 22, 24); a new comic (page 26-29); and some illustrations for Larka’s story (page 41, 43). Where does she find the time to make all this great work and still get her homework done? Star, you are getting your homework done, right? STAR!!!
Zeeze created a nice little post punk character illustration (page 23). Who doesn’t like checkered belts and razor cut hairstyles? I’ve owned a few myself.
We have a variety of small one page comics. This issue features the first comics by Delante (page 30, 31); Wil McCloud is back with a one pager extolling the virtues of a free market and free speech (page 20); and another new contributor Jon explores some non-sequential slapstick violence (page 25).
A.I.  continues the lives of Terra, Wrath and Vira in a new comic (page 32-35).
Konoha begins rehashing the Dragon’s Dream story in Zaj’s Dream (page 5-19). She has put a lot of work into polishing every page till it sparkles.
Mukey is back again with Cold War chapter 1 part 2 (page 36-39). We are sorry that we miss titled the initial installment in our last issue as World War. Hopefully no one is too confused. I strongly encourage everyone to go back and start reading this great story! It’s an exciting adventure tale with an extensive cast and great dialogue. The stuff I’ve seen for the next few issues is great!
Larka is back and breaking it up a little with a short story called Rebirth of a Legacy (page 40-42). For those following her longer work she says she will be returning to Shadow’s Within the Soul soon.
Well that’s it and I still have a few lines to spare! Until next time!
-The Harding Comic Club

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The The Zine Volume 5 Issue 3

Salutations valued readers!

Thank you for taking the time to pick us up. Harding Comic Book Club has a great treat for you all today!

With a beautiful cover drawn by our long time comic artist A.I. we get hitched off with KAI’s heart touching poem “His Touch, His Protection, My Ruin” (1). Following after are Twigy’s poems “Lord of Life” and “Flame” (2).Next the amazing ZeZee gives us her drawing of “Gir”(3) – what a cuddly dog~  ^_^

Now, a new and exciting thing that everyone at Harding Comic Book Club would like to announce! Check out this fashion design on those girls! These were all drawn by none other than the amazing prodigy, Black Paradise! (4-5) Then we have Tangerine’s wonderful artwork following (6). With that the next to come is another amazing couple artwork with a school-love affair based on it (7).

An enchanting drawing by Ghost (8) opens a space for our final great artwork of this issue by Mukey (9).

Now, we enter the first part of Chapter 1 of Mukey’s story World War I (10-14), if you want to see how the characters look like then please look back on Mukey’s artwork on page 9.

What everyone has all been waiting for! Comics! Comics! And more Comics! Now, the Zine seems to have gone through a period of comic block! So everyone, please send in any comics/manga that you would like to submit!

Coming to save the day is S.L.K.N.! These guys sent in comics based on a “how-to” theme. The first is by their member LeafThoj titled “How-To Tham Hluas Nkauj” (15) or translated as “How to Court a Girl”—but wait, what’s why’s the girl outside?! Next up after LeafThoj is K one of the originators of S.L.K.N. with his “Kuv Paub Txog Koj Lub Qe Tas Lawm!” want to know what this weird Hmong title is about? Well then, why don’t you read to page 16 and find out this hilarious story? Afterwards, of course, best for last, we have originator of S.L.K.N. … none other than N with his “How-To Scare People” (17) comic to finish us of! Please enjoy!

From the Officers of Harding Senior High School’s Comic Club!

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The The Zine Volume 5 Issue 2

Welcome valued readers and friends!
Our Second Issue of The The Zine5 has been released! We apologize for the long wait, but please, we assure you that the enjoyment is worth the wait. This time we begin off with a One-Pager comic by our great artist Ze! Don’t miss out on “Candy” (1) everyone.
Next, check him out! If it isn’t the one and only, the king created by our Yami Tsukiyomi (a.k.a Mukey), adorned in his armor he’s more charming than a prince and even more chivalrous than a knight in shining armor.
Following after our handsome King, we have a comic by Konoha. Her preview chapter Marriage!? of “Bliss and Blessed” (3) from the last issue of The The Zine4 is continued here. If you feel you might be
missing out, or need reminding, please check out the last issue from The The Zine4 to know, exactly what happens when the hero of this story sneaks into a girl’s room, climbs up her bed and gives her a kiss? Well, why don’t you find out about these two strange fiancées? Go on and read this comic, because you won’t be able to put The The Zine down just yet!
Okay, everyone. Now, I guarantee you that you’ll be sucked into the story of “Shadows of the Soul – Chapter One: A Lost Prince” (7). The beautiful cover was drawn by our president Star, and the story written by Larka. This is the first chapter continuing on from the prologue last time, thus keep on reading you might just find a new favorit author.
After the astounding chapter “A Lost Prince” we have the great legendary comic artist, A.I.’s. The best for last~! Let’s see what happens in “Tsumi!”(13) Here’s the only place to find out how Tera, the son of Wrath, became the way he is… tum-tuum-TUUMMM!!!!
In addition Mukey gives up another wonderfully drawn illustration. Wanna fall in love with this guy too girls?
AND finishing off we have Kaname’s first time publishing a story, hers is titled “First Glance”(21) take a read, you’ll definitely enjoy this!

Greetings from the officers of Harding High School Comic Club

Peace out!

LETTER FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT

What’s up guys?
This is your bedridden president Star reporting for duty as usual. I’m sad to say that I am sick with pneumonia so some of my work may be put on hold for a little while. )= However, even if I am put on hold, the rest of our artists will go on, working hard to get their work published in the zine! In this issue we have great comics, great art work and a few great stories to boot! In fact it seems we have the same amount of stories we do comics! They’re catching up! However, we have very few poems. Please, come to comic club and show us your great poems! Anyways, enjoy this great new issue of the zine! This is president Star, hoping we see you next week!

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We have decided to discontinue offering galleries for the issues because no one seems to be using them. We are also looking into publishing some comics as web comics that will be readable on the website. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

The The Zine Volume 5 Issue 1

Hey everyone! Welcome and thanks for continuing to read The The Zine, now in our FIFTH edition! (Applause) Many hopes are in our artists and we hope you, as readers will take the time to enjoy these fabulous artworks and comics. Hopefully one day as a reader you will come in and become a contributor to The The Zine yourself.

Starting The The Zine off are a few old and new names that everyone knows.  The first issue of the fifth edition is kicked off by our beloved Kage, newcomer Curly Xiong, prodigical Tangerine, the enchanting Ryvirus, and our mastermind Suzu (formerly Cocoa). Following is a wonderful how-to by our lovable Squishy. CAUTION: ZOMBIE ALERT! (Pg 6)

Now, the wonderful return of A.I. has arrived. The long awaited but hilarious father-and-son-clash storyline has come to us as “Tsumi” the 2^nd installment of “Sin”. And if you all haven’t known, here’s a Japanese lesson for you! Tsumi means “sin”, and thus the story of our favorite hero of Sin, Wrath and his friends return. This time it is his son Tera who will run the show! – Or maybe not. (Pg 7)

The long anticipated Tribal by our web wizard master Charles has finally come. Kira and her friends have finally reunited. Now there’s trouble brewing… (Pg 18)

The finishing art is by none other than our very own president Star, with a story the goes along with it! Enjoy the amazing prologue by Larka our writer who’ll steal your breath away! DON’T FORGEET TO CHEECK OUT THE EXTRAVAGENT COVER BY KAGE!!! Well, from the officers of The The Zine, please enjoy! ^^

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The The Zine Volume 4 Issue 10

There’s Anakin Skywalker, not even ten years old, piloting a pod racer around a tight curve. Another pod is closing in on him, the other pilot (who is not human, nor a close approximation) snarls or maybe burps, when suddenly his pod bursts into flame. A small clique of Tuskan Raiders (or Sand People to the uninitiated) is perched above the bend, the one holding a still smoking rifle raises it over his head and bellows an all to familiar sound.

This sequence takes all of five or maybe seven seconds. It does not advance the plot and it does not advance character, and yet here it is. A part of film history, so to speak. It’s been ten years of Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and yet this one instance, the Raider with his gun and his immediately recognizable yawp of victory and success, how many Star Wars fans remember it happening?

While it’s hard to call this sequence “fan service,” given that the limited Tuskan Raider dialect has no word for “lewd” or “racy,” it’s not hard to draw a connection between the two.

Some readers of anime and manga, certain fans of the genre, have an appetite for titillation. The human form, as idealized by the artist’s hand, should never be censored even at the expense of narrative. Yes, Story should be God in the hearts and minds of aspiring writers, but every now and then, eye candy plays the scantily-clad emissary of His word. And comics, while being a medium to convey the tenets of Story, are first and foremost a visual medium. (They won’t be releasing a Watchmen audiobook anytime soon, or at the very least, they shouldn’t.)

There are aspects of this issue which are explicit. Young artists have bravely tackled human sexuality, homosexuality, lust and other prurient tracks often thought of as
“mature.” But this issue isn’t trying to titillate for the sake of titillation (unlike “professional” fan services). These writers aren’t composing (ahem) “dirty pictures” for the sake of being dirty. This issue is, by this writer’s estimation, a reflection of an entire culture’s current trend towards provocation. If there is a controversy at the heart of fan service, it’s this: Why be titillating for the sake of titillation? Should anyone hear such a
question posed in earnest, respond simply, “Why not?”

What you, dear reader, will find within this issue is nothing more or less than a testament to the human condition. And to the artists who bravely submitted their most personal works for this issue, you have my sincerest gratitude.

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The The Zine Volume 4 Issue 10: Special Manga Supplement

What is this? Why is it laid out in this strange way? Why can’t I read these comics like other comics?

What you are looking at is a peculiar and beautiful product of trade, war, occupation, and several generations of cultural cross pollination. All of this taking place between two countries: the United States and Japan.

It all started in the 1930’s when American publishers started packaging old newspaper comic strips into what we today call the comic book. These were wildly popular among youth at the time and soon original stories were being created exclusively for the new comic book format.

The children who grew up reading these comics were the same people who invaded and occupied Japan after World War Two. Occupation can be a boring way to spend your time so they brought their comic books with. These comic books were among the many cultural products of the United States that entered Japan after the war.

Soon artists like Osamu Tezuka were applying Japanese concepts, language, and aesthetics to the American comic book format. This has continued to develop into the Japanese comic format called Manga. It would be easy to assume that Manga is a derivation of American comics, but its ties to historically Japanese forms of art are just as influential making it just as much Japanese as it is American.

Manga artists changed the direction in which page elements were read to match the conventions of Japanese language. Pictures were streamlined and facial expressions exaggerated to mimic the fast paced reading style of Kanji and to speed up production. To this day they continue to add to the ever-growing catalogue of unique comics language called symbolia. [Examples of symbolia would be the symbolic use of stars around the head called squeans signifying disorientation, a sweat droplets called plewds to signify stress (see page 2 panel 1), and a bulging vein symbol for anger (see page 10 panel 1 bottom of balloon on left)].

Through the red scare of the 1950’s and the cultural disillusion of the 1960’s censorship and stagnation combined so that American Comics lost their relevance and readers lost interest. However in the 1980’s and 1990’s American soldiers based in Japan were reading Manga and watching Anime (Japanese Animation). Soon they were bringing these cultural products back with them to share with other Americans. As demand has grown Japanese publishers have translated and published a wider variety of Manga for the American market with it’s own distinctive look and language.

During this period kids in St. Paul developed an insatiable appetite for Manga due to the fact that censorship killed stories of romance, horror, war, and crime produced by American comic publishers. Girls learned that there are places in the world where women make comics that are fun to read. These students started making stories of their own heavily influenced by Manga and these budding efforts are what you are about to read. No one knows what exciting developments they will contribute to the language of comics or if these American Manga artists will be adored by future generations of Japanese and American readers, but here we see the continuation of history looping back on its self.

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The The Zine Voume 4 Issue 9

Whether you are feeling the heat of deadline pressures of the warmth of summer this issue has the perfect theme for you: fire!

Did you see our new Zine header on the cover? Chiefly designed by A.I. and if you look in the upper left corner you will see the mini version of the new comic club logo chiefly designed by Kanami. Both the logo and the header contain embellishments by Kage, and Matabo. Thank you to everyone who sent in submissions there were so many great ideas!

So many people are interested in our end of year party, May 27th, we have had to make it invite only. All comic club contributors are allowed 2 tickets each. We will be showing animation and giving prizes for best costume.

Another great cover by Max.J. A flaming angel? Where does he think of these things?

Matabo’s burning with passion so this time he decided to write a poem rather than make an illustration (p1).

The Dark Rabbit: Little Usagi Riku is back with a short strip “The Fire Trick” (p2). I love her unique and nuanced style full of grit and detail!

On page 3 Kaname is reverting to her older toning technique, which should look better with our new production methods. Kaname joined Aidou, Makoto, & Itachi, in helping with Kami’s Chibi Adventures (p9) a team effort that reads a like an episode of Zippy.

K.K. has a cute cat for you to enjoy on page 4. It’s a happy kitty!

Then we have the beautiful drawing talents of Ryvirus starting on page 5. Lots and lots of Fire and don’t forget to check out the burning back cover she created for this issue.

We have the second installment of the late blooming hit “Fated” by Tangerine and the little cliff hanger at the end left my heart racing. Make sure your sitting down when you read this one. Where did she get those wonderful story telling skills?

AI is bringing back Sin on page 15. It’s an amazing 10 pages that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you wonder why, and it may even leave you a little itchy. It looks like all of the work pestering her has paid off because there are quite a few things resolved in this episode. For all fans of Sin, including myself, this issue is not to be missed.

Konoha ends the issue with a 4-page installment of Bonded with another beautiful cover by our art director Kage. If you want the lowdown skinny on all things bonded you will have to read her letter (which can be found on pIV of the readable pdf file).

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The The Zine Volume 4 Issue 8

This is the Demonic Issue of The The Zine. Wonderful happy topics like love or puppies can be fun, but there is something about the scary dark and dirty topics that gets my mind spinning.

Building on the success of Shine we are publishing more work beyond The The Zine. Given our theme for this issue it seems appropriate to be releasing Kurai The Demon Kid.

Our icon contest is over, but we are still trying to pick a winner. There were so many great entries. Hopefully you will be seeing the winner on the cover of our next issue.

The next big event is our end of year party on May 27 coinciding with the publication of our last issue. Were planning on having food, a cosplay contest, and maybe show some animation. No matter what we do I’m sure it will be fun for everyone who attends. As usual all are welcome and it doesn’t matter if you have been to comic club before or if you have not.

It’s spring so our poets are all occupied with unrequited love. On page 1 we have Michael Folayan’s first poem and illustration in The The Zine? “You and Me.”

On Page 2 Max.Jay’s poem “Now What?” is complemented by a nice illustration by Pa-san. Max.Jay also created the alluring and disturbingly ambiguous image on page 9.

Konoha is dreaming away with her first poem in The The Zine? (p4) and she doesn’t stop there. She has a Inuyasha piece for the fan art section (p6), continues here team up with Kage in Bonded (p22) and finishes the issue with an episode of Dragon’s Dream joined again by Ryuun doing backgrounds (p34).

Flare closes the poetry section with his poem Love (p5).

Star did the cover and submitted some fan art (p7). Both are inspired by characters from the Subeta website. She wasn’t able to finish a comic for this issue because she lost track of time and she’s experiencing some writer’s block. If you have some suggestions for her comic she would enjoy hearing them. Hopefully she will be back in the next issue with an update for Shadows of Doubt!

Lliloshortie has a crusading image on page 8. It looks like he’s getting ready to tear things up.

Sanji has a heavily rendered drawing in graphite on page 10. From what I hear it’s preceding a story yet to be finished. The image depicts a normal high school romance, except the girl, Kairi, makes a contract with a vampire and her jealous friend. The friend has a secret of his own. I’m curious to learn more about Kairi and her bloody path to true happiness.

Matabo has his first comic in The The Zine starting on page 11. I’m not surprised that he named one of his characters after himself and made him a god.

I am very excited to tell you about Tangerine’s work in this issue it’s 5 great pages, splendid layout, pacing, and a touch of humor, with a nice cliffhanger ending (p13). Just read it and you’ll see why I am eagerly anticipating the next episode of Fated.

A.I. doesn’t think I write enough about her so the rest of this is about her. It looks like A.I. is starting a new series called Mortal (p18). Cute demons manipulating cute young gods! What is the world coming too? It’s dark and dramatic. What’s darker than being forced to get married on your 100th birthday?

Mortal is good, but what I really want to know is what happened to the princess in Sin? Please A.I. don’t abandon Sin! It was so funny and cool and I want to know if Wrath gets the girl in the end or if everyone ends up with Ninja flees!

Maybe you can help me out. If you see A.I. around start dropping subliminal hints like this. “Hey, you have got to try one of these cookies. They are SINful.” or “AI you are looking SINsational today.” or “Could you help me with my math homework I’m trying to figure out the difference between SIN and coSIN.” “The stars SINtillate so beautifully.” “Oh just leave the dirty dishes in the SIN-k.” I have a feeling if we’re consistent we will be seeing another quality episode of Sin in no time!

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Kurai The Demon Kid

What is this strange little thing?

It is Kurai The Demon Kid: a hellish action tale ground from paper, pen, and graphite by its creator: Kari. Effort and pain poured into pages once, twice, and sometimes three times over in a search for coherence.

It is easy to cast these pages aside and disregard them as something less than ‘pretty’. Most of us seek some ideal form, a perfect truth, the next step, respect. In this effort we search for the easiest path and only value that which gets us there quicker. No wonder these pages seem so strange.

We appreciate the struggle in action films and romances filled with unrequited love, but these are poor imitations of the real thing.

What you hold here is real. The story: an allegory of ones struggle in a search for love. The art: a record of work done. The dragging of semantic boulders gouging marks across a cellulose floor.

Those who take the time to look will find a few points of dirty beauty, the places where paradise resides in hell. Layers of lost drawings fight their way to the surface showing the struggles for composition. Figures both cryptic and clear look out with anxiety and ferocity. In the margin explanations desperately guide lost readers. Every so often one finds a mark that just seems to hold your attention. You may never know what it represents or what it means, but you will feel happy someone took the time to put it there.

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The The Zine Volume 4 Issue 7

The topic for this issue of The The Zine is Random. What on earth were we thinking with such a random topic? That could mean anything! Flinging the doors open to such creative possibilities is overwhelming! For some of our contributors pent up objectives, an open topic, and spring break all came together to produce some serious output!

Speaking of output: Waoooweee! What a week! The Harding Comic Club is releasing two, count them, TWO publications simultaneously! First the one everyone has been expecting Issue 7 of The The Zine, but we are also releasing the first volume collecting Annie Moua’s Shine!

Shine is the story of a sophomore attending Harding High School and all the dramatic heartache and romantic intrigue that faces her. It’s full of fun and excitement set in dream locations with an astronomical costuming budget. I highly recommend finding a copy or checking it out online. You will not regret reading Shine!

We are announcing the every hive needs a queen logo design contest! The solitary queen is a matriarch and symbol of the honey bee colony. Thousands of worker bees labor tirelessly toward a common objective under her unwavering leadership. The Harding Comic Club is just like a bee colony, except we have no symbol to guide us. Nothing, but you could change all that in our logo design contest! The winner will have their logo represent The Harding Comic Club and will be featured on our publications like The The Zine and on our website www.hscclub. net. It will be seen everywhere the Harding Comic Club is seen!

As with all comic club activities everyone is welcome to submit an entry whether or not you have ever attended Comic Club.

Entries are due at the comic club meeting April 22nd immediately after school in room 1440. If you can’t get your entry to the meeting an entry can be turned into a comic club officer or Mr. Brandt before the due date.

OK, now for the meat and potatoes!

We start off with an illustration by Maxamillian Jay on (page 1) this leads us into another example of his masterful poetry (page 2). If you still haven’t caught the bug for his poetry and are scratching your head wondering “Why do so many people think this stuff is great?” Do yourself a favor and lock yourself in the bathroom. Then read it aloud to your self. Max. J’s genius really comes out when you read his work out loud. It’s meant to be performed. His sense of rhythm turns words on a page into music. While the imagery he writes will make movies in your head.

Following Max. J are two Naruto parodies the first is by Nana in which Sasuke must make a choice. Nana is experimenting with new pencil shading techniques (page 3). The second parody by Wangsta is a great example of her inking talent and a fun submission as well (page 4).

We have another exciting moment in the life of Hue Lor (page 5). He’s sorry he was unable to ink it, but this gives you a chance to see how tight his pencil work is.

Robert Griffen and Hannah Moreno are back with another Angry Eddie comic (page 6). Pore Angry Eddie always tormented by his creators.

A I has a fun new two page story called Tazan (page 7). If you ever wanted to see Tarzan as a girl check it out something that is like Tarzan with a guy named Tazan (who isn’t a girl) check it out. She also did our beautiful cover!

Star felt very random for her submission in this issue (page 9). What does it mean!?! Then continued the senseless randominity on our back cover.

Now our editor Konoha is the heavy hitter for this issue coming in with a whopping 14 pages! Her first submission is a short autobiographical piece (page 10). She follows this with a random episode of Dragon’s Dream (page 12). Finally she closes the issue with a bit of a formatting experiment that reads Japanese manga style starting on page 28.

Wait! What’s this? Oh my, you’re going to have to sit down for this one. Are you sitting? Good because the second installment of Charles McGregor’s action story ‘Tribal’ is hitting the presses! (page 20) Ok, ok stop screaming and start reading. There are some very happy Tribal fans out there. Wow, I have a feeling we are going to be seeing some serious exposition in the next episode.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this issue. Don’t forget to check out Shine and your logo contest designs are due in one week!

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