hieronzine

[hieronzine]

Northern Gaza has been starving for 2 months now

[hieronzine]

Hieron Zine Comic: The Violence of Its Maintenance

[Read the left side as one storyline, the right side as another]

"For every inside, an outside." / "Every border implies the violence of its maintenance."

For me and @wellnoe's piece for the Hieron Zine, we were excited to tell a story about Hella’s semi-involuntary status as a mascot of Ordennan empire and borders as a literal technology of death that played with comic borders and formatting! The title is, of course, from the Ayesha A. Siddiqi quote.

Script for the comic below the cut, which also serves as a rough image description:

Layout note: Panels are small relative to the page and “float” in the gutter space. Adelaide swims freely between them and speaks to Hella inside the panels’ borders. The comic is laid out vertically, mostly in two columns. Panels on the left are labeled L, the center labeled M, and right labeled R. Panel numbers denote which row of the overall page they’re on.

Page 1: 3 Rows 

Panel M.1.A: Adaire hunched over a map of Hieron in a dimming twilight room.

Panel M.1.B: Close up of the map having Nacre added to it near the shore, and an outline sketched of its border, the pencil in Adaire’s hand. 

Panel M.1.C: Adaire’s hand in close-up, partially erasing the border around Nacre. 

Panel L.2: Hella outside the Ordennan border, at a tall gate. A guard looks at her suspiciously from the other side. 

Adelaide to Panel L.2: Adelaide looks at Hella condescendingly. 

Adelaide: Do you imagine that walls will keep Nacre’s gift out? 

Panel R.2: Hella and Hadrian ride in a halfling-driven cart through the refugee camp towards the Ordennan military camp. Hadrian watches Hella for her reaction to seeing the refugees. 

Panel L.3: Hella displays the emblem of the Tristes to a crowd of cheering soldiers, brandishing her sword in a stabbing gesture. 

Soldiers: Is that– From the cleansing of Nacre– She killed the queen! 

Adelaide to panel L.3: For every inside…

Panel R.3: Stornras Glasseye shows Hella and Hadrian a map of Ordenna’s planned invasion of Velas. 

Adelaide to panel R.3: …an outside. 

Page 2: 4 Rows

Panel L.1: Hella reads the book about her family being a line of traitors, inside the undersea cave. She is hunched over awkwardly, wet from swimming in, and visibly perturbed. 

Adelaide to Panel L.1: Adelaide reads over Hella’s shoulder. She’s draped over the panel like a cat, one hand dangling inside and the other holding an apple to her mouth.  

Adelaide: Our dear father did like that ancestor of yours, only for her to betray Nacre and then Ordenna. Varals love to hang people out to dry.  

Panel R.1: Hadrian and Hella interrogating Iduna Fel. Hella holds a torch up. Iduna, seated and hands bound, looks up at them and snarls at the torch, speaking of how Quintrona should burn Rosemerrow to stop the undead. 

Iduna Fel: We should be burning every place–every person–the curse has touched. 

Adelaide to Panel R.1: A family of traitors fits right in with the Tristes.

Panel L.2.A: Hella is on tour of Ordenna. She looks out distantly at the countryside. A clothesline with clothing hanging from them forming figures like people separates Hella in the panel from a mine like the ones her father worked.

Panel L.3.B: Hella on tour in an urban center, looking lost. Train tracks separate Hella from a guard station. 

Ordennan soldiers: Queenkiller! It’s the Queenkiller! 

Adelaide to panels L.2: Adelaide’s teeth are bared, her lazy demeanor dropping for one vicious moment. 

Adelaide:At least I remember that you should be called Kingkiller as well. 

Panel R.2: Hella and Hadrian walking back through the refugee camp. Refugees do laundry, multiple clotheslines crossing the panel, the clothes partially obscuring Hella and Hadrian. 

Adelaide to panel R.2: Do you believe your people to be better than me? They decide who dies to expand the borders of Ordenna. 

Panel L.3: Hella marching in front of a company of Anchor in a square formation, Ordennan soldiers crowding around them. Hella is smiling stiffly, uncomfortable. She is wearing a shiny new uniform. 

Panel R.3: Hella standing equally stiffly in front of a line of Pala-din that guard the Ordennan camp from the refugees. She watches a circle of refugees cooking and crafting, going about the business of their survival. Some are visibly undead. Two of the refugees are a Nacreite young Black sibling pair with an older boy and younger girl, invoking Calhoun and Adelaide.  Hadrian in the background examines a pala-din, his stance mirroring theirs. 

Adelaide to panel R.3: Adelaide looks at the siblings in panel R.3 but speaks over her shoulder to Hella on the left. 

Adelaide: Is it so monstrous that Nacre grows so that more may live after death? 

Panel L.4: Hella alone in a lavish Ordennan bedroom, looking out of place and small. Maybe in plain underclothes and curled up on a chair, looking angry.

Hella: Yes! 

Her dialogue fills up the panel, crowding her. 

Panel R.4: The refugees notice Hella and Hadrian and look at them warily. The boy steps in front of his sister. Hella looks small in the crowd of people. She holds a hand out to the boy. 

Page 3: 3 Rows

Panel L.1: Hella in a lavish Ordennan ceremonial chamber, on a stage. She is dressed in fine clothing given to her. A pearl-studded brooch with an Ordennan motif is being pinned on her by some military-uniformed functionary. 

Military functionary: For you, the spoils of our first battle. 

Gathered soldiers and civilians: Queenkiller! Queenkiller! Queenkiller! 

Panel R.1: Hella makes an awkward ‘open your hand’ gesture to the boy, who warily opens his hand. 

Refugees: Isn’t she….That’s the Queenkiller. The Queenkiller?

Panel L2: Hella, with her head bowed, has her arms and shoulders draped with garlands of gems and pearls looted from Nacre. The ends of the strands run down out of the bottom and side of the panel. 

Military functionary: May you always bear the fruits of our holy empire. 

Panel R.2: The boy has a handful of apple candies poured into his palm. He looks up, defiantly. A few candies fall down outside the panel. 

Adelaide, to both panels L.2 and R.2: She holds the end of a pearl garland in one hand and an apple candy in another 

Adelaide: Then tell me…What are you going to do about it, Hella Varal? 

Panel M.3.A: Adaire’s hand drawing the refugee camp in Knoll Hollow into a map of Rosemerrow. 

Panel M.3.B: The Ordennan military camp being drawn outside the refugee camp. 

Panel M.3.C: The wall around Rosemerrow being drawn between the refugee and Ordennan camps as a border. 

Title Text: The Violence of Its Maintenance 

Subtitle: Story and words by Will Xia (boo-cool-robot)

Art and lettering by Brenna (wellnoe)

[hieronzine]

My piece for @hieronzine! This was so fun to work on, I had a ton of fun figuring out designs for some of Fero's creatures!

I took so long to post this that extra zines and stickers and digital community copies are up in the zine shop here now if anyone missed it who wanted one!

[hieronzine]

Donation Update!

Hi Everyone -

We're happy to announce that fulfillment of A Chaotic Cataloging zine & merch is complete, and the mod team has made the donation to PCRF - totaling $6,941.59!

When printing the zine & other merch, our team ordered excess copies in case anything was damaged or lost in the mail. But now that all orders are fulfilled - we do have a small batch of b-grade quality zines & extra merch for sale! We'll be selling these through our ko-fi shop; including over 100 free digital download community copies available. If you know anyone who wanted a copy or a merch item but didn't have a chance to grab one in the original printing, let them know they have a second chance!

We do have copies reserved in case folks may need replacements (was something damaged in shipping? Did your zine somehow get printed fully upside down or backwards?) Email us at HieronZine@gmail.com with any questions/concerns and we'll help get a solution sent your way!

Once we sell out of the excess copies - or we reach the end of 2025, whichever is sooner - we will make one final donation with any funds collected during this sale. Please do not send us any other donations on ko-fi - if you want to give more to PCRF, please donate to them directly.

We wanted to take one last time to thank you all for contributing to the zine! We've been planning this project for years, and are thrilled with the support we received from the FatT community. Because of y'all, we were able to celebrate Seasons of Hieron and donate to an important cause.

[hieronzine]

Here's the piece that I did for @hieronzine the Friends at the Table Hieron zine! I really wanted to do something that showed off Chapter and what Chapter was trying to build in Aubade.

This particular piece is inspired by vintage etchings!

[hieronzine]

My piece for @hieronzine

[image ID: a two page spread of Hadrian, Rosana, Ace, Throndir, Kodiak and Red Jack walking down a winding path through the rhizome to visit their children and grandchildren. Hadrian, Rosana, and KodiaK are all visibly aging.

Red Jack leads the procession of grandparents, holding a lantern up in one hand and a picnic basket in the other. He's following a fox made entirely of flowers that stands on a tuft of moss farther down the path. In a sling on Red Jack's back is Kodiak (too old to walk very far), who rests a paw on Throndir's shoulder.

Throndir is smiling up at Kodiak and leading Ace by the reins. Small in Ace's saddle are Hadrian and Rosana; Rosana is knitting and Hadrian is slumped against her asleep but still holding her yarn ball.

On the opposite page in the distance Benjamin and Blue J tend a campfire. Ben has a horned toddler in his lap and is helping it stir a large pot of soup. Blue J is helping a curly haired toddler carry a giant piece of bark to add to the flame.

Around them is evidence of an established camp; their tent is two giant leaves held together with stitching and a twig. nearby on a lawn of moss there are two gigantic tree hopper nymphs, a rope tied around the spines on their backs leashing them to the area. one feeds on a large root that has grown over the branch, producing a bead of honeydew.]

[hieronzine]

My piece for @hieronzine ~ events in and around Old Man’s Chin. 🦋🪵❄️

[hieronzine]

My piece for the @hieronzine book! I love Red Jack and I’ve wanted to make something about the cycle of Red Jacks for SO long!

[hieronzine]

The piece I did for @hieronzine . I had a lot of fun working on it, and I'm pretty glad with how it turned out.

[hieronzine]

Yay yippee @hieronzine posting day! It was so fun working on this big cool thing with all of you!

[hieronzine]

My piece, A Day at the Rodeo, for the @hieronzine!

+ details!

[hieronzine]

"From the Editor's Desk" Can't believe its finally time to share my piece for @hieronzine! I love thinking about Adaire's catalogue for her department store in Aubade and everything she might sell there...

[hieronzine]

his summer son <3 for @hieronzine ! thanks to @dancy-nrew for the costume design toooooo

bonus from our photoshoot day too lol

[hieronzine]

"Give Him A Chance."

my piece for @hieronzine - "A Chaotic Cataloging: A Seasons of Hieron Fanzine" 🧡

i'm still incrediby happy i got to participate in the project & realize an idea about this trifecta of characters that i've carried with me since i first listened to SiH a few years back - three last conversations :')

[hieronzine]

my piece for @hieronzine! it was so much fun being part of this project with so many amazing artists 🍰🎻

[hieronzine]

"This is the trial of Hella Varal for the killing of Angelo Tristé, Lord Tristan the Ninth, The Ivory Crown, Our Brother, The Prince of Pearls, The Emir of Alabaster, The Reluctant, The Betrayer, The Coward, The Wretched, The Abdicator of Hope." my piece for A Chaotic Cataloging: A Seasons of Hieron Fanzine @hieronzine

[hieronzine]

oh i can post this now- samsam for @hieronzine 🍷☀️📖

(it ties in with finch's fic for the zine - concept is a page from a codex samot has in his rooms illustrating the founding of the university. i had a lot of fun with it, was so glad to be part of the project)