Step Forward

Step Forward is a charity zine centered on the character Kairi from the Kingdom Hearts games. This is the first zine produced by the kairizines.
==About==
The zine was first announced on July 6, 2019https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/186089549645. Applications opened for story writers, illustrators, and visual writers on August 9, 2019, until September 9, 2019https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/186881135205.
Preorders opened on January 29, 2020, with the following pricing tiershttps://twitter.com/kairizine/status/1222595404996337664:
* Starcracker ($10 USD) - Digital Zine, Cover Art Wallpaper, Avatars
* Seven Wishes ($25 USD) - Physical Zine
* Heart of a Princess ($37 USD) - Physical Zine, Sticker Sheet, Buttons, Doubled-Sided Acrylic Charm
* One Heart ($50 USD, Limited to 50) - Physical Zine, Sticker Sheet, Buttons, Doubled-Sided Acrylic Charm, Pearl Bracelet, Enamel Pin, Acrylic Standee
Stretch goals included an additional postcard at 50 orders, washi tape at 100 orderes, and a magnet at 150 ordershttps://twitter.com/kairizine/status/1222595440878600193. Additional rewards such as early access to the digital zine, featurette graphics, personal shout-outs, and hand-made wayfinders were available through Ko-fi.
The limited bundle sold out by the first day and had to be restocked with 50 more units. All limited bundles sold out by January 30, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/190559045045. Another restock of 80 copies was added on February 3, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/190628845376. A giveaway for one of these limited bundle began on January 30, 2020, and ran until February 6, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/190554679440. The winner of this giveaway was declared to be Twitter user RibbonedScarshttps://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/190685013530. Preorders closed on March 28, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/613905418383753216.
Early access digital buyers received their zine on June 11, 2020, while regular buyers received theirs on June 25, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/620654374171049984.
A second round of preorders opened on July 5, 2020, until August 9, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/622824883349553152. The limited bundle in this round sold out on the same dayhttps://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/622842754604711936. All preorders were sent out by November 6, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/634058241829191680. The project announced that $5,035.79 USD was made and donated to Futures Without Violence on November 13, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/634696804260347904.
Leftovers opened on November 25, 2020 until all physical merchandise was sold outhttps://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/635783963761426432. Leftovers cloesed on December 31, 2020https://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/639087574935273472. The additional $359.85 USD made from leftovers was also donated to the project's chosen charity, totalling up to $5,395.63 USD madehttps://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/639860854071885824. With this, the project closed, with hints of a future project in 2022, later revealed to be the account's second zine volume, Destiny's Embrace.
==Contributors==
The following names were taken from the project's social media accounthttps://kairizine.tumblr.com/post/187966650090.
===Illustrators===
* Amyhayanora
* Cece (CelienaPrisia)
* coffee (cappurii)
* cypii
* Dera (DeraMoui)
* Destiny Islanders (DaPandaBanda)
* Holly (nbgrey)
* Jax (artofjax)
* Kou (koukoupepia)
* littlesat
* Luce (hallousy)
* lucifer (gothcores)
* May (littlemay528)
* Naussi
* Nico (tinyshoopuf)
* Nocoil
* Nymph (mimibani)
* PIN6 (onlytoeight)
* Polka (Little_Polka)
* rain (AkimetsuAkii)
* ruburee (rubysueyeon)
* schnumn
* Sera (seraphily) - Cover Artist
* sicklyjelly
* Sky (skyblitzhart)
* Space Penguin (SpacePenguin10)
* tama (sokairikuu, yukianesa)
* Tara (taradienes)
* teary (tearystarz)
* teganberry (Tegan_Nat)
* Walter Mitty (WaltYaMart)
===Story Writers===
* Alja
* BlissfulNightRain
* Diz/Dizzy (kingdomdizzy)
* Heather (NekoNikki)
* phoenix-downer PhoenixDowner
* Pia (nana-princess)
* Tara (Six_Piece_Chicken_McNobody)
===Visual Writers===
* Dark-Mage-13
* Kalapenopeppers (myosctis)
* Kari (kawree)
* Light (lightwithinthedarkness)
===Mods===
* Sora (liesles_loop)
* Naminé (clerithraven)
* Roxas (mage_13)
==Gallery==
File:Kh step forward kairi zine banner.png|Social Media Banner
File:Kh step forward kairi zine limited bundle.png|Full Bundle Listing
File:Kh step forward kairi zine stretch goals.png|Stretch Goals
== Fan Reception ==
The following posts are a sample of posts retweeted by the project's social media account about the zine.
kawree wrote on Tumblr
hazelestelle wrote on Tumblr
Ray wrote on Twitter
miqoeffect wrote on Twitter
Kairi Heartless wrote on Twitter
ruburee wrote on Twitter
Tory wrote on Twitter
Den-izen wrote on Twitter
Gaby wrote on Twitter
Yuwu wrote on Twitter
mandi♡dandi wrote on Twitter
PoH connouisseur wrote on Twitter
== References ==
Category:Kingdom Hearts Zines
Category:2020 Zines
Category:Charity Zines