Attention all ARTISTS! Your help is needed!

[Spudmobile]

Due to the lack of material available, I've taken it upon myself to create a tickling 'zine of artwork devoted to male tickling.

As much as I like tickling artwork on the internet, I've always thought there was something great about having a magazine that you can actually *gasp* hold in your hands! Call it retro, call me hopelessly backward, but I sometimes like having something tangible. Plus, you can take a magazine anywhere. I'm sure I'm not the only person that feels this way.

So, what will the zine contain? I would like it to be strictly drawings of male tickling. No photographs, no stories. I'll be contributing drawings to the zine, but I need help. That's where you, the tickling artist, come in.

I'm not planning on using this magazine as a money making venture for myself. The plan is to charge just enough to cover printing costs and postage for the zine. I'm doing this more as a "labor of love" than to come out with any financial gain. Saying that, I'm not going to be able to pay artists. (At least, not with the first issue. This may change in the future.) I'm hoping that I will be able to find people that will be happy to contribute, just to create a good product and see other work by other artists. All contributing artists will receive a free copy of the magazine. The zine will also be a way to reach potential commission customers; every drawing will be accompanied by contact information, so readers may commission artists. Any artists that wish to remain anonymous may either be contacted by readers through myself, or not at all.

Am I being completely naive? Probably. Who, after all, would want to do a drawing for free? Well, as I stated, it wouldn't be completely "for free." Every artist gets a free copy of the magazine, and free advertising for their work. And I'm hoping that there are others out there who, like myself, are willing to do something without an expectation for monetary gain, just to help create a "community" and bring a lot of enjoyment to a lot of people.

I am not restricting this to professional artists. Anyone that wishes to contribute, may. After all, you may think you're a terrible artist, and no one will like your work... but I guarantee there will be someone out there that will enjoy what you do. I don't consider myself a great artist, but I've doodled some things in the corners of notebooks that other ticklephiles have loved. So have some confidence in yourself! (There are some tickling artists that I know and enjoy that I will be contacting directly. If you have suggestions of tickling artists, I'd love to hear of them.)

Subjects are completely open. Want a female tickler? Fine. Nude ticklees? Fine. Rampaging tickle machines? Fine. Ticklemonsters? Fine. Innocent/playful tickling? Fine. My only requirements are:
1. Male ticklees
2. *NO* children.
I realize it's possible to draw a child being tickled in a non-sexual situation, but if I place this drawing in a zine with other drawings that are of a sexual nature, I could be accused of appealing to the prurient interest with these "innocent" drawings. This headache I do not need. So please, 18 and over only. (This 'zine will also only be made available for purchase to people 18 and over.)

Interested? Please feel free to email me. I'll be happy to accept any questions you may have. Once I have enough drawings (I'd love to make the first magazine a really big 'zine... fifty to a hundred pages?), I will go to press and take orders. Artists' copies will go out immediately after press time. I'm also open to any suggestions and constructive criticism. This is a rather poorly written plea for help... if you have ideas on how to communicate this better, I'm all ears.

Oh, and I'm aware that many people here are not "into" male ticklees. That's fine, just please don't clutter the thread with a lot of "eeew...gross!" responses. 😛

Thanks for reading; I hope to hear from you soon!

 

[revolter]

must ... not ... do it !!

ewwwwwwwwwwwww .... gross !!

Sorry, couldn't resist 🙄


Anyway, now that the sillynes is over, I think it's a good idea. While I'm not into */m tickling at all, I know others are. I think it would be best for zines to be strictly */m and other strictly */f. You know what a certain well known person once said ( although I can't recall his name right now 😕 🙄 )

"The best way to failure is to try and please everyone"

Good luck with this.

a male tickler who only likes to tickle gals, but who supports people with other ideas anyway 😀

 

[MTJpub]

Greetings,

The first step you should take if you would like to get a real feel for the cost involved in this venture is contact a local printer. Determine how many pages, interior paper quality, and cover quality of your magazine. Any printer can give a rough estimate as to the cost.

A few things you need to consider and factor in…

#1. The tickling community is a small market.
#2. The f/m tickling community is an even smaller market.
#3. The buyers market within our community is even smaller.
#4. Many people do not want fetish material mailed to their home. Thus the recent popularity of downloadable tickling videos and clips.
#5. Most if not all printers will require you to have QuarkXpress which runs about $400 possible less if you can get an older version on E-bay.
#6. If this is to be a legit business, local government and the state will cost you anywhere from $600 to $1200 in licensing fees, and other business related expenses.
#7. You will need a website to advertise from and if you wish to make more than a dozen sales you will need a credit card provider. {Pay Pal will not work because if they find out your business is adult in nature they will close down your account.}

To give you some idea on market potential… Back in 1997-98 I published a free online e-zine entitled “Morandilas’s Ticklers Journal.” At it’s height we had roughly 600 subscribers. Which was not bad considering the internet was a heck of a lot smaller back then. When I made the switch to the print publication “Tales from the Asylum.” Only about 100 members of the free e-zine’s base went on to subscribe to our print publication..

From August 1999 until April 2003 I published a 48 page tickling magazine entitled “Tales from the Asylum.” I published twenty-nine issues of this magazine. Each issue was filled with great fiction and art from some of the best known talent in the genre. Each issue was an absolute struggle for me to put out. The only way we covered the costs of a print run was because we sold three, six, and 12 issue subscriptions and they helped us get over the printing cost hump of the current issue being published. However from late 2001 until the last issue in April 2003 it was electronic publication sales that footed the cost of operating the magazine and without them we could not have continued to publish the magazine. In April 2003 the subscriber base had dropped to the point that it was best to finally give in and lay the magazine to rest.

With the possible exception of two or three issues. I can safely say that “Tales from the Asylum” magazine barely could cover it’s own costs half of the time it was being published and the other half of the time it flat out did not cover the costs. I did out of my pocket. Now if you take in consideration that I am still sitting on many cases of most of the issues that were printed the venture could eventually be considered a profitable success. However at the current sales rate of the print publications it will be a several more years before we reach that lofty goal.

I’m not sharing this information with you to discourage your plans. The best way to find out is to give it a try. I just want to share with you some of the information I had to find out for myself the hard way.

As the owner of MTJ Publishing and publisher of over 100 publications I have yet to profit the equivalent of a minimum wage salary earner per year. The vast majority of the money we make goes into the cost of doing business, the production of future publications and paying our talent via a combination of royalties and flat fees.

MTJ Publishing is without doubt a labor of love for me and our talented group of writers and artists.

I wish you the very best with this project.

Morandilas
MTJ Publishing

 

[ShadowTklr]

However at the current sales rate of the print publications it will be a several more years before we reach that lofty goal.

Hey, does this mean I'm not getting paid for the custom paint job I did on your new MTJ Publishing's Lamborghini Diablo?

Its always the little guy.

😛

 

[MTJpub]

Hey, does this mean I'm not getting paid for the custom paint job I did on your new MTJ Publishing's Lamborghini Diablo?

Its always the little guy.

😛

Put it on my tab with the other two😀

 

[Oblesklk]

I’m not sharing this information with you to discourage your plans. The best way to find out is to give it a try. I just want to share with you some of the information I had to find out for myself the hard way.

Yes, listen to the man, he knows what he speaks of.

You'll be amazed how many expenses pop up that you never really thought about until it's time to start things rolling. Get a good attorney and good accountant for starters. Find a reliable printer and get a few quotes, once you have an idea of what you want. Our print books were running about $5 each in print costs, with a limited run. Add postage onto that number, and the artists' cut, and you're talking a negative gross margin per book 😀 Not exactly where you want to be...

I have a finance/legal background, so I knew the venture wasn't going to be profitable from the start, so it didn't really bug me too much. I knew print publications were/are a dead-end, from a profit standpoint. But there is something to be said about holding a tangible product in your hand. Eventually we had to stop the print stuff because people were going to the digital formats anyway.

It is a lot of fun. You get to work with a lot of artists trained in varying backgrounds. But above all, it is a LOT of work.

Whatever you decide, best wishes.

 

[rajee]

[COLOR=E9FAFF]Good luck![/COLOR]

 

[Spudmobile]

Thanks...

Thanks for the comments and help. I'm not sure if I misrepresented myself... I didn't really want to start a business or try and make money off this... I'm doing it *very* lo-fi. It's just something I'm going to put together myself, and I'll be printing them once I get confirmed orders for them. I did something similar with a small 'zine in college, so I'm pretty familiar with how to put it together and possible costs. I'm just doing it as a fun project/hobby for myself and other people that enjoy male tickling artwork.

All of these suggestions are a great help, however. I'll keep them in mind. How can I ignore suggestions from the largest distributor of tickling media? 😉

Anyway, my offer still stands for any tickling artists that may wish to contribute. Like I said, I'm unable to compensate artists other than free copies of the magazine, and free advertising within. I'm going to be doing some of the artwork myself; to give you an idea of what my stuff looks like, here are three drawings I've done. Beware! Men being tickled! 😛 Avert your eyes!

I'm no Etienne, but I hope they'll do. 😉

Let me know what you think! Comments are always welcome.

Oh, and by the way, Revolter... you really cracked me up.

Spud😀

 

[rajee]

😀 cool sketches. 😀

 

[revolter]

Re: Thanks...

Oh, and by the way, Revolter... you really cracked me up.

Then my job here is done 😀

Now I'm off to my next adventure

 

[Spudmobile]

Heh....

I'm just picturing...


"Revolter... awayyyyyy!!!!!"

*flies off*

😀

 

[revolter]

Re: Heh....

I'm just picturing...


"Revolter... awayyyyyy!!!!!"

*flies off*

😀

oh yes, I can fly. I can fly like a brick 😀. Luckily, I always carry two feathers with me ( you never know !! ) so I'll just flap em real fast and get myself out of this situation you put me in 😀

 

[Spudmobile]

Hey, I didn't put you in any situation; you jumped in yourself. 😀

 

[ChadPetree]

It's a fascinating idea, no doubt. And if you can keep a thick skin and an open mind, you'll certainly be welcomed by the obvious minority of viewers who cotton to keeping the modern male in line.

Drawing for free isn't hard to get, it's just that you tend to get novices--people who either aren't very experienced or are utterly obscure. And need I even mention having to deal with artists... what a load of sodders! 🙂

Playing to a minority is going to give you several problems to deal with: small audience, dealing with prejudice (even within a subculture used to being minimalised, it still exists), and the inevitable "why haven't you done this exact, obscure thing that I like?" just to name a few.

On the other hand, you might be elevated to champion status for playing to a much-neglected crowd and opening up new directions for people to explore and new media to trade--I have a pile of stuff that doesn't float my boat, but it makes for good swap when I come upon someone who has something I want.

Not much advice I can give beyond that, but personally I'd keep it just between friends, like the majority of my work has been for the last several years. I get to enjoy the efforts of like-minded peers, there's a more intimate relationship as opposed to a corporate one, and there's that wonderful secret knowledge that you have something which zillions of other people will never see.

 

[TicklishKev]

#4. Many people do not want fetish material mailed to their home. Thus the recent popularity of downloadable tickling videos and clips.

I just want to point out that this is very true. And that BAC should jump on the bandwagon...it really would make him a fortune.

 

[Spudmobile]

Forgive the bump, folks..

... I just wanted to get this back up top and see if I couldn't collect a few more artists. Yes, the project is still going, so if you're interested, please drop me a line. 🙂 Any and all art is welcome.

Spud

EDIT: What, no comments or constructive criticism on my artwork? Of all the nerve. Snort. Harumph. 😉