A Deadpool mask stares out from a pointed white shield on black, and underneath it the masthead spells DEADOLDTREE in red comic book capitals. That cover belongs to Old Dead Tree, the independent fanzine of Salford City supporters, and Issue 2 is where its sense of humour put on a costume. Inside, its contributors pack the pages with an A to Z from a former player, a former club secretary’s memoir, puzzles and previews of the teams heading to Moor Lane. Our presses turned it into a 36 page A5 zine, stapled, full colour on 130gsm gloss with no separate cover stock, through our zine printing service.
“A5, 36 pages, 130gsm self cover”
That was the whole brief, typed by the fanzine’s designer, Dan at Devote Associates, into his file transfer message.
Self cover is the term for a zine whose outer four pages are simply part of the run, printed on that 130gsm gloss with no heavier card wrapped round them. Mike had offered the committee a thicker cover from the start. They kept the self cover, and for a fanzine sold by hand outside a football ground it is the better build: one paper through the press, a lighter bundle to carry, and a cover that bends into a coat pocket without complaint. The paper is FSC certified. Gloss earns its place because the content is colour led: squad photographs, club crests and flat fields of red, green and yellow sit up bright on a coated sheet, where uncoated paper would drink a little ink and soften those reds.
Then there is 36. When Danny phoned about this issue, Harriet’s follow up asked whether anything in the spec had changed, page count included. A stapled zine has to land on a page count divisible by four, anywhere from 8 up to 72, because one sheet folded in half gives you two leaves, front and back. Plan extra content in fours and the layout never fights the binding. Our guide to wire stitched zine binding shows how the staples pass through the fold.
“Put a tick in the box when you’ve had a selfie”
That line heads the centre spread, pages 18 and 19, where the two staples sit in the fold. The squad is laid out like a sticker album on a green pitch, goalkeepers through to forwards, each player with a shirt number, a portrait and an empty box to tick once you have your photo with him. It is the page most likely to be filled in at home, and the centre of a stapled zine is the spread that opens flattest.
The rest of the printed text keeps the same terrace voice. Gareth Seddon answers an A to Z in white type on solid red, ending with “Z is for zero chance… Liverpool”. A former club secretary looks back on thirteen seasons and recalls being told “There’s no money involved”, beside a green maze captioned “Complete the maze to score a goal!” The previews of visiting clubs come from their own supporters and run on full colour pages, blue for Carlisle and yellow for Harrogate Town, whose writer opens with “Got to be honest, I do like a trip to Salford.” Those colour pages bleed off every edge, and on gloss the solid areas print smooth from gutter to trim.
“Selling them on the morning of Saturday”
Danny rang Harriet on a Monday and followed up by email: the file would probably come over on Wednesday. Harriet’s reply, under half an hour later, set the spec out again for him to check. The artwork landed on Friday, late morning, and the invoice went back before one o’clock with the proof link eight minutes behind it.
On Monday morning Danny approved the proof and asked when the copies would arrive, since “we are planning to be selling them on the morning of Saturday”. Mike answered that afternoon: payment was in, and the zines would ship on Tuesday for Wednesday delivery. “Music to my ears,” Danny wrote back. On Tuesday the boxes left with Mike’s note, “Super fast again”, and on Wednesday Harriet sent the courier tracking so someone would be home in Salford to take them in. That left three days in hand before the first copy changed hands outside the ground.
The lesson for any club fanzine is to work backwards from the day you sell, never from the day the file is finished, and to tell your printer that date as early as you can. Danny’s approval came with the date attached, Mike set the dispatch round it, and Danny’s reply once the zines were on the van said the rest: “You’re all incredible.”
Old Dead Tree has come back to us issue after issue. For another football zine on our presses, see the Chinatown Soccer Club booklet we printed for Extra Time. If your supporters’ group has a fixture list and a stack of opinions, try the numbers in our instant quote calculator, then tell us your selling date so we can plan the print round your kick off.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
