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Kinships Magazine

"The Magazine for People Who Exist Anyway," according to the subtitle.  It started as an otherkin magazine, with a heavy pagan bent, but over time, it marketed itself as a "Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Comic Anthology" (Issue #4, 2001).  It ran for eight issues, including Issue #0.

Though plurality was not a focus, plurals did take part in the magazine--most notably Criss Itterman, AKA the Crisses of Kinhost (Joyner and Silva, 2000 October).

Quick Details

Creators: Katrina Joyner (Editor), Gynn Stella (Submissions Editor for Issues #0 and #1) and Rick Silva (Marketing Director, Issues #0-#5); later Joyner ran it alone.
Time Published: 2000-2002 (original run), then 2004-2007
Location: Originally at spaceports.com/~tocosar/kinships (2001), then Pentegram Komix (2001-2002), and finally anotherotherkin.tripod.com (2006-2008)

Circumstances of Creation

According to Joyner's website, "Kinships started in 1999 when Katrina Joyner and Rick Silva met and decided to form a partnership. Katrina let Rick into her small business, Pentegram Komix and Graphix.  With a public Otherkin demand for their own magazine, Katrina and Rick stepped up to the task and a full-fledged magazine was born.  Kinships was the first in print magazine for Otherkin and other 'people who exist anyway'" (2006, May 10a).

Print Run and Contributors

  • Kinships Issue #0: released October 2000 (Joyner and Silva, 2001 April 19).  Contributors included Elise Baker, Rick Corbin, Ficanoss, Criss Itterman (the Crisses), Katrina Joyner, Sarah Mitchell, Rick Silva, and Gynn Stella.
  • Kinships Issue #1: released March 1, 2001 (Joyner and Silva, 2001 April 19).  Contributors include Ken St. Andre, Mary Soon Lee, Paul Bates, Terry Hickman, Gynn Stella, Rialian, and Roger Matthews Ten.
  • Kinships Issue #2:
  • Kinships Issue #3:
  • Kinships Issue #4: released after September 11, 2001.  Contributors included Mary Soon Lee, Shuk C. Susan Lee, Melissa Pinol, Nancy Bennett, Ficanoss, Lee Martindale, Tim Pratt, Samantha Chapin, Bryan Heyboer, and Elise Baker.
  • Kinships Issue #5: released winter 2001.  Contributors included Ficanoss, Laurie Tom, James S. Dorr, Katrina Joyner, Juha Vuorma, Rick Silva, and Elise Baker.
  • Kinships Issue #6:
  • Kinships Issue #7: Released summer 2007 (Dagstine, 2007).  Contributors included Jason Gaskell, Kristine Ong Muslim, Aurelio Rico Lopez, Lee Clark Zumpe, and Lawrence Dagstine.

Format

Kinships never had an ebook version; it was only print.  Under Joyner and Silva, Kinships printed Issues #0-5, a full-sized, black and white, saddle-stitched magazine filled with comics, fiction, poetry, and personal experiences.  It also had a lot of ads for various New Age, geek, and otherkin/paranormal websites.

Sometime between February and August 2002, "through unfortunate circumstances, Rick and Katrina had to part ways and Kinships as a magazine ended" (Joyner, 2006 May 10a; 2002 August 2; 2002 February 4).  However, in 2004, Joyner set off on her own, and "Kinships made a small comeback as a desktop magazine/newsletter. [...] Kinships remains an Otherkin-friendly paper with emphasis on metaphysical living and philosophies" (2019/04/22).  In this format, another two issues, #6 and #7 were put out, in rougher half-size format, more zine-like.  The last issue came out in July 2007 (Dagstine, 2007).

Kinships seemed to have gotten distributed through a fair number of stores, including Barnes and Noble (Joyner, 2006 May 10), and it paid submitters, though less and less over time.  Originally, the pay rate was 2 cents per word, $10 per poem, and $5-$20 per comics page or for black and white artwork (Joyner and Silva, 2001 April 3).  Later, the prose rate was halved to 1 cent per word, $5 per poem; the art and comics rate remained the same (Joyner and Silva, 2001 November 23).

By the end of its run, Kinships was paying $6 for prose, $6 per page on comics, and $2 per illustration (Joyner, 2006 May 10b).  Despite the cost-cutting, the magazine was not a lucrative endeavor.  According to Joyner, "Kinships and every other part of Angelicpress [Joyner's small press] is not about profit. Maybe someday if enough people read us we can change our minds, but let's face it. We spend 300 percent more than we make off of this baby. Why do we still do it? Because we love it" (2006, May 10b).

Content

Over time, Kinships shifted from a more explicit Otherkin magazine to focus more on fiction.

Citations

Dagstine, Lawrence. (2007). Kinships #7 (Now Available; Final Issue) [blog post].  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://lawrencedagstine.com/2007/07/16/kinships-7-now-available-final-issue/

Joyner and Silva. (2000, October) Kinships Magazine Issue #0.  Pentegram Comics.  Cover image retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20010611034738/http://www.spaceports.com:80/~tocosar/kinships/issue0.jpg

Joyner and Silva. (2001 April 3).  Pentegram Komix and Graphix, Kinships Submission Guidelines. http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/submission.html Internet Archive.  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20010430194358/http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/submission.html

Joyner and Silva. (2001 April 19).  Fantasy & Comics Anthology [web page]. http://www.spaceports.com/~tocosar/kinships/kinretail.htm Internet Archive.  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20010419164702/http://www.spaceports.com/~tocosar/kinships/kinretail.htm

Joyner and Silva. (2001 November 23).  Pentegram Komix and Graphix, Kinships Submission Guidelines. http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/submission.html Internet Archive.  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20011123072202/http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/submission.html

Joyner, Katrina. (2002, February 4). Kinships Magazine [web page]. www.pentegramkomix.com/kinships/kinships.html Internet Archive.  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20020204152114/http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/kinships.html

Joyner, Katrina. (2002, August 2). Kinships, The Magazine for People Who Exist Anyway, is no longer in publication. We regret the inconvenience. [web page]. www.pentegramkomix.com/kinships/kinships.html Internet Archive.  Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20020802201304/http://www.pentegramkomix.com:80/kinships/kinships.html

Joyner, Katrina. (2006, May 10a). Kinships [web page]. http://anotherotherkin.tripod.com/angelicpress/Kinships/index.htm Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20060510111138/http://anotherotherkin.tripod.com/angelicpress/Kinships/index.htm

Joyner, Katrina. (2006, May 10b). Submissions Guidelines [web page]. http://anotherotherkin.tripod.com/angelicpress/submission.htm Internet Archive. Retrieved 2019/04/22 from https://web.archive.org/web/20060510111015/http://anotherotherkin.tripod.com/angelicpress/submission.htm