Hello,

Thank you for bringing your concerns to the moderator team, and we do apologize for any undo stress that our production delays have caused for anyone that supported Ex Umbra.

We understand that, over recent years, zine scams have become more frequent, so we first want to clarify that we will see this project to the end.

The issues with our formatting have, sadly, been a reoccurring issue for the Ex Umbra team. Our initial formatting mod, which we had from applications, was with the team until late last year when they informed the team they would not be able to complete their duties and left the server. Following their sudden departure the remaining team members discussed our options, and our graphics mod, Mizu, offered to take over formatting.

However, we decided to search for a pinch hitter formatting mod as Mizu's schedule with their personal life (school, work, other zines) was getting increasingly heavy, and we did not want to give them more stress.

Around the start of preorders we found our second formatting mod and worked with them tirelessly over the start of this year to ensure the zine was perfect. As we have expressed before on our social media accounts, their PDF was complete and only had a few adjustments that would be needed for production. That is when we lost contact (and still have not be able to reestablish contact) with our second formatting mod in July.

At that time again, we reassessed our options, and Mizu offered once more to take over formatting.

Mizu has been a diligent worker in the sparse amount of time they have been given to completely reformat a zine. We have been providing updates via formatting teases these past few months. We do not believe onboarding yet another formatting mod, one that would be completely new to the project and would need to be brought up to speed, would be a wise decision. It is also not always possible to provide weekly updates when there may not be substantial new progress made on a weekly basis.

We are thrilled to announce that we have recently a provided completed version of the PDF to our contributors for them to begin approving.

We understand delays are something no one wishes to have, and we do apologize for our zine's mishaps with formatting mods over the production period. Rest assured that as soon as the proof is ordered and the zines arrive, we will promptly begin shipping out to all buyers.

Thank you for your continued support of Ex Umbra.