At Ease, Soldier

"At Ease, Soldier" is a tribute to late voice actor and theatrical performer, director, and teacher, Rick May, who died on April 8th of 2020 due to COVID-19 related complications. Since he was the voice actor of TF2's Soldier, this Soldier-centric zine was made to honor him and his legacy and show just how much his work as impacted us as TF2 fans.

General Information

Some general info on the zine:
This zine is ONLY available digitally. There were no official physical copies or additional merch created.There is no limit for how many contributors we will accept and there will be no application process. If you have something you want to contribute, by all means, please do so!We well be accepting art (both digital and traditional), SFM/GMOD, and writing contributions!The zine is SFW. We allowed for cartoon/canon compliant gore and slightly suggestive pieces but do keep in mind that we intend for both minors and adults to be able to contribute. Don't submit anything you wouldn't show an 14 year old is what I'm saying.There will be NO profit made from this zine and contributors will NOT be monetarily compensated for their works.The zine is "name your price" and any and all proceeds will be donated to the charity Child's Play in Rick May's honor/memory.
Read the zine? Click the bread ration below for a fun bonus activity!

Who's in Charge?

Mod Archimedes
Hey hi! I'm Mod Archimedes, head mod of the zine! I'll be in charge of everything from formatting to wrangling contributor submissions and I'm the main person to ask if you have any questions. Any pronouns except for she/her are a'ok :]
I'm also @sodafrog13/@fuckyeahscienceparty on Tumblr and @enbyfroggy on Twitter if you'd wanna check me out/DM me anything!

Mod Muffin
Hello I'm Mod Muffin, you can also call me Kitty, my pronouns are she/her. I serve as moderator for the discord server and spokesperson in case you have problems or other issues.
On Tumblr I'm @kitty-unlimited, my personal blog is @l-i-n-u-s-k-a in case you need to contact me

mod mich
Hey y'all! I'm mod mich (lowercase m only). My pronouns are they/them. I'm the mind behind the dontneedadispenser tumblr/twitter and the dontneedadiscord TF2 community. I'll be helping with social media & discord management for the project primarily. Aside from my tf2 socials, you can follow me generally everywhere as either @r2mich2 or @oreganojscudworth.

Mod Lucafont
Hello! I’m Mod Lucafont, or Lucky for short, and I primarily go by she/her and ae/aer pronouns. I’ll be assisting as a moderator for the discord server. I’m also on Tumblr as @lizhouette.

Lt. Bites
Lieutenant Bites aka TB reporting for duty! I've most recently taken part in the latest TF2 Calendar Zine as a contributor and intern graphics mod. This time I'm here as a graphics mod to help with the zine's promo pics and layouts, and as a diehard Soldier fan to commemorate him as one of my absolute favourite characters. I'm OK with any pronouns, and you can find my art and other nonsense at @tangentburd on tumblr + twitter Thanks for having me!

Contributor Quick Guide

Interested in being a contributor? Here's a general guide to help you out!

ARTISTS AND SFM/GMOD CREATORS
We will be accepting two types of art/SFM submissions: spreads and spot art.Spreads will be standalone page(s) that only has YOUR work on it. Though it would be appreciated, these pieces are not required to have full backgrounds. Ideal for full digitial/SFM/GMOD pieces and traditional art.Spreads MUST be either A3 (2 pages) or A4 (1 page) resolution, more info on which you can find here.Spot art will be transparent images that are smaller than full pieces and have little to no background. These will either be used to accompany writing pieces or put into a collage, similar to the one created as tribute for Rick May in 2021, featured above.Digital/SFM/GMOD work is ideal for spot art, HOWEVER if you are a traditional artist and are able to make your image transparent, it will still be accepted.If making something in SFM, paintover is allowed!
WRITERS
Writing pieces must be anywhere from 500-1750 words total.If a suitable piece can be matched, writing pieces will likely be accompanied by one (or more) spot arts, which are detailed above.Writing will be spell/grammar checked, upon request.
ALL CONTRIBUTORS
First check in is required by February 18th, essentially just needs to be proof that you're working on something. Sketches/ideas/very unrefined work is fine (and expected) at this stage.Second check in is required by March 11th, requiring more progress than what you showed in check in #1. Piece does not have to be finished at this stage.Final check in is required by March 25th. This is the time to submit your final piece, what you want to end up in the final zine.If needed, you may ask for a 1 week extension but there will be NO submissions accepted after April 1st and you have to let the mods know in advance that you intend to submit your contribution late.You are required to be part of the Discord server to participate. This is so that the other mods and I can keep better track of everyone and their progress.If you need to drop out for any reason, PLEASE let a mod know that you need to do so. You will not be judged for dropping out at any time, we understand that IRL complications may occur, but we need this information as soon as possible.

Resolutions for Spreads

There are 2 different acceptable resolutions for spreads: A3, which represents 2 pages of space, and A4, which represents 1 page of space. The image above shows an image that, in full, is in A3 size. Each half of the image is in A4 size.
If doing a spread, you MUST choose either A3 or A4.A3 is better for wider pieces, such as full SFM renders and long comics.The ratio for an A3 canvas is 2:1.414.A4 is better for things like portraits and single full bodies.The ratio for an A4 canvas is 1:1.414.If filling all this space seems too daunting, you may be more interested in doing spot work, as was detailed in the Contributor Quick Guide.

Schedule

January 14th: interst check opensJanuary 21st: interest check closes, contributor Discord server opensJanuary 21st - 31st: planningFebraury 18th: first check inMarch 11th: second check inMarch 25th: final checkin/due dateApril 1st: FINAL due date for extensionsApril 8th: zine is posted, RIP Rick May <3

Contributor Credits

COVER
Waterwindow (pg 1): Tumblr // Twitter
PAGE ILLUSTRATORS
Abi B (pg 7): Tumblr // TwitterAlexander (pg 28): Tumblr // Twitter // InstagramAlexPDCL (pg 58): Tumblr // Twitter // InstagramAngel Dearest (pg 26-27): TwitterAnt (pg 18): Twitter // InstagramArchie :) (pg 59): Tumblr // TwitterBecca (pg 7): TumblrBird (pg 10): Twitter // InstagramChar (pg 3): Tumblr // TwitterChiers (pg 36-37): TwitterChococo (pg 21): Instagram // YouTubeDoppo (pg 56-57): TwitterEnyda (pg 25): Twitterepi (pg 4-5): TumblrFlame (pg 28-29): TumblrJuniper (pg 29): Twitter // InstagramLou (pg 19): Tumblr // TwitterMae (pg 6): Tumblrmich/doneneedadispenser (pg 12): Tumblr // Twitter // InstagramMGAINNOKO (pg 18): Tumblr // TwitterMonty (pg 44-45): TumblrMorf (pg 42-43): Tumblr // Instagramrin (pg 38): TwitterRye/Hyper (pg 40-41): TumblrSoldierburger (pg 16-17): InstagramSussuri (pg 22-23): Tumblr // DeviantArtTerra (pg 24, 30): Tumblr // Twitter // Instagramvinny (pg 53): Tumblr // Instagram呉 (pg 39): Tumblr
SFM ARTISTS
Dummy/Bread (pg 35, 52): TumblrMinty (pg 11): TumblrPivobaltika (pg 8-9): TumblrSam (pg 20): InstagramTerribless (pg 54-55): Twitter
WRITERS
Aifas (pg 46-52): Tumblr // Twitter // InstagramHank (pg 12-15): TumblrTB (pg 30-34): Tumblr // Twitter

Well done, private!

You have mastered the super secret art of teleporting bread like I did! Except these are bread rations and not bread monsters! If you had the eyes of an eagle and the brains of Sun Tzu you should have found EIGHT bread rations in the zine-book, and you deserve a medal for that! If you didn't, look again and LOOK AT IT GOOD!

Now get your eyes and ass back to the zine-book and enjoy the rest of the not-bread good stuff in it put together by all these good people! Disss-missed!