Manip

A manip is a photo manipulation, often depicting TV and movie characters in situations different from canon. 
Manips alter and manipulate the photo source (often a screencap or promo picture) in such a way that it shows something different than it did before. There are also crossover manips that depict characters from difference source materials interacting together. Within book and comics fandoms, manips can also be used to depict a fancast; showing a fan's preferred actor/actors playing the role of canon characters. 
Manips can be used as fanfiction covers, banners, and illustrations. They are also used in vids, icons, and multimedia installations, and of course they can stand on their own as individual artworks.
A vernacular non-fannish equivalent is a photoshopped image. The technical term for this process and the resulting image is photomontage, "combinations of photographic images, or photographic with other images, such as architectural drawings, usually arranged into a somewhat unified image."photomontages entry at Getty's Art & Architecture Thesaurus According to Getty, photomontage is distinct from collage, which is an assemblage not intended to look seamless. However, photomontage is often used to describe a collage composed of photographs.Usage in zines quoted on Fanlore, plus the Wikipedia article on Collage: "Collage made from photographs, or parts of photographs, is called photomontage." Some manips are done crudely on purpose and could be described as examples of collage.
The term fan edit is used on Tumblr more frequently than manip; however, fan edit is broader and potentially includes almost any digital manipulation of photographs, including changing the color. (On Wikipedia, fan edit is defined exclusively as a video fanwork: the fan equivalent of a director's cut.) 
An early term for manips used in K/S fandom was CGA.
==Origins==
A fan in 1994 asked: 
Another fan replied: 
The most well-known manip artists in the mailing list age of online fandom were The Theban Band, with their highly refined and realistic slash manips in several fandoms. Since that time, better tools have also made it easier to produce high quality manips, and DVD source has made it easier to acquire high-quality screencaps. Eventually, more and more fanartists began to create artistic works in this medium.
The first use of a photomanipped image in a fanzine is not known. However, fanzine publisher Kathy Resch remembers that: 
From Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art: 
===Sample of Some Very Early Manips===
 File:additionsandcorrections.jpg|The 1974 cover of Additions and Corrections to the Star Trek Concordance and Supplement. The second image is an early, early photomanip. From the zine: "'Gentle on my Mind,' a double exposure from an off-the-tv shot of "Day of the Dove" [taken] by Tim Courtney." 
 File:Febharry-1.jpg|thumb|Early photomanips consisted of cutting photos on paper apart and pasting them on other photos. This is an example from the 1981 Harry/Johnny zine, February, in which a fan cut a photo of either Kenneth Hutchinson from Starsky & Hutch or John Davis from Dirty Harry and pasted it on the body of a woman in bed with Harry Callahan. It has a bit of My hed iz pastede on yay going on.
==Controversy==
===External Material===
Sometimes external material (ie, not a screencap) is used in a photomanip. In the 1990s when this kind of fanart first began to appear, it occasionally was referred to derisively as "head replacement pictures" (My hed iz pastede on yay) implying that no great artistic skill was needed to create photomanips. Other fans felt uncomfortable about explicit manips because they appeared to be too close to RPFMichelle Christian. RPS, Boybands, and Dead Guy RPS posted 06/21/03 at Fanfic Symposium (accessed 3 Jan 2010)Justine. I Don't Believe in Real People posted 03/04/03 at Fanfic Symposium (accessed 3 Jan 2010), especially when the "base" pictures used were of the actor, not the character. Within some fan communities, explicit or even romantic RPF manips were frowned upon or outright banned., a Legend of the Seeker community had a rule stating that Fan art celebrating the actors as cute co-workers is fine, manipping them into lewd and suggestive poses is not. Access 2 Jan 2023
===Pros and Cons===
From a fan in 1997: 
In 1999, a fan wrote that she didn't consider this sort of artwork "real": 
A fan in 2001 wrote: 
Another fan in 2001 drew a different sort of line: 
In 2002,a fan had this to say: 
In 2006, a fan wrote: 
In 2008, a fan extolls Photoshop and how it can make anyone an artist: 
A fan in 2014 commented about early manips, explicitness, and realism: 
A fan in 2016 explained how she felt fandom tastes and changed, and explained the differences between collages and manips: 
===Crossing the Streams===
It is generally considered bad fannish behavior to show sexually explicit or nude photomanips of characters to the actors who play them, as it is considered creepy. It is usually a third party, not the actual photomanip artist, who decides it would be a good idea to do this. The Theban Band has been especially visible in this regard.
==Fanworks==
*Of the Earth by newkidfan, a Merlin manip (half drawing, half collage)
*Master and Commander by beeej, a Master & Commander/Stargate Atlantis crossover manip
*Zelenkamatch.com by LillyJK and newkidfan, a comic strip using screencaps from Stargate Atlantis
*Escape Velocity by dogeared and aesc, another comic using screencaps from Stargate Atlantis, for the artword lj challenge community
*Supernaturally Twisted a manip collection by KaylaShay featuring Supernatural crossover manips
===Examples of Different Styles and Fandoms===
File:Dead-boy and Xander 2000.png|Circa 1999 Dead-boy and Xander archive home page (BTVS)
File:Lyingtogether.jpg|Circa 2000 Angel/Spike manip by Meg Bernstein
File:Luciferrising Calli.jpg|2000 uber novel cover by Calli (Xena)
File:Kentauroi.jpg|Circa 2001 Centaur!Mulder and Centaur!Krycek by The Theban Band (The X-Files)
File:Cover duet 1 old.jpg|alt=photo manipulation of Fraser embracing Ray Kowalski from behind, in background are pine trees and mountains. Text reads 'Duet'.|2002 Due South slash zine cover by Killa
File:Coming Home cover by Bluespirit.jpg|2006 fanfic cover by Bluespirit for Coming Home (SGA)
File:Protected.jpg|2009 Kirk/Spock zine art by Nicci Mac
File:Ginny and draco by kittycreed007-d307w8n.jpg|2010 Ginny and Draco manip by kittycreed007
File:0024gab3.jpg|2010 Dean Winchester manip by Digitalwave. Characters in many fandoms have been given wings in art.
File:It's Keeping You Alive.jpg|2012 Steve/Tony manip by meantforeyesurgery on Tumblr (Avengers)
File:Punklouis.jpg|2012 Tumblr punk edit of Louis Tomlinson of One Direction. This edit is unusual for Punk Direction edits in that Louis's head was photoshopped onto the body of someone who already had tattoos.
File:Punkdirection.jpg|Another One Direction edit, by punkdirections. This example is more typical of Punk Direction edits in that tattoos were photoshopped onto an existing photograph of the band.
File:Jaffarprincessanimated.gif|2013: an example of an animated gif manip. Jaffar/Princess from The Thief of Bagdad (1940) by Snowgrouse.
File:Even If the Skies Get Rough Manip.png|2016:Manip by nonexistenz created for the fic Even If the Skies Get Rough as part of the Sastiel Big Bang (Supernatural)
File:Marge simpson and loki.png|2019: Marge Simpson is holding a 18th-century depiction of the Norse god Loki, manip by papasmoke 
==Example Archives and Websites with Manip Galleries==
*BossLogic
*Fi's Place - X-Files MSR manips, some NC-17 (via wayback
*Harry Potter Art
*MSRsecrets on instagram - X-Files MSR manips, some NC-17
*Night666's Homepage
*The Theban Band
==Fan Comments==
==Further Reading==
* 
* Slash Manips: Remixing Popular Media with Gay Pornography (explicit) by Joseph Brennan (2013)
* "You gave me no choice": A queer reading of Mordred’s journey to villainy and struggle for identity in BBC’s Merlin by Joseph Brennan/chewablepros (2015)
==References==
Category:Visual Art