These are my zines! Everything in the “In Stock” section can be ordered on my Etsy store, shipping to anywhere in the US.
Things in the “Free!” section are free for you to read online or print yourself. To print one, download the “print imposed” PDF and print double-sided, short edge binding.
If you’re in Philadelphia though and want anything on this page, reach out to me at Francis.R.Bass [at] gmail [dot] com and I should be able to get it to you in-person, a little cheaper than the Etsy price.
In stock
Is Magic School Still Worth It?
A fantasy short story about trying to put a price tag on our nobler aspirations (i.e., magic.)
Ezze recently graduated from magic school, but she hasn’t practiced magic at all since then. She volunteers at a magazine, works at a hotel, and had to sell her silkbud glove to get by. When the magazine assigns her to write an article about whether or not magic school is still worth it, she struggles to find an answer.
The zine also contains a brief afterword by the author.
12 pages, B&W, cardstock cover, staple bound
The War on Hormones
A story about pharmaceutically asexual high school students, performing arts, and relationships.
Silver Path, a performing arts high school, is a pioneer in requiring that its students use neutralizers—bioengineered organisms that destroy sex hormones. This kind of environment is perfect for Edward, a 12th-grader intensely dedicated to acting and intensely wary of romantic distractions. But over the course of his senior year at Silver Path, it becomes clear that there are many hormones other than testosterone and estrogen, and making it out of high school without any drama may not be as easy as a monthly neutralizer check-up.
The zine also includes a brief foreword by the author.
37 pages, B&W, cardstock cover, staple bound
Fires Burn Forever in this World
A short story about a city where the antiquated practice of leaving firefighting to private insurance companies, and letting uninsured buildings burn, has persisted right up to the modern era. And also fires burn for a very, very long time.
The zine also contains a brief afterword by the author.
14 pages, B&W, cardstock cover, staple bound
Free!
Masters of the Wine Printers Guild
An economic fantasy about a conspiracy of apprentices who decide to defy the masters and print their own wine.
The printers guilds in the city of Viz can use ink, paper, and carved woodblocks to create any food or drink—but this magic is only possible using the precise techniques and designs kept secret by the masters.
In earlier times, any apprentice could be certain that they would one day become a master, learn fully their trade, and earn more than just food money. But now the guilds are printing more and more, and the apprentices outnumber the masters, and it seems that Aon of the Wine Printers Guild may live her entire life without even becoming a journeyman.
So Aon and a few co-conspirators plot to steal the masters’ book of designs, print their own wine, and perhaps upend the entire guild system.
This story was ceded to the public domain by its author, in celebration of Public Domain Day 2023.
PDF — Print Imposed PDF — Docx — Epub — Mobi — Read Online
Francis Bass 