1. Fanzine Evaluation
Charley Jackson

2. Planning
It took me a while to decide on a topic for my fanzine but when I came to a decision I ensured
that I did some planning before creating my Breaking Bad fanzine. Firstly, I looked in to a
colour scheme, in wanted to find the right colour which I could use throughout my fanzine
that would match the topic and have a relevance to the show. I have watched the show so I
was already aware of a few things that would make my fanzine suited to the topic, such as
a deep green with grey text, this combination can be seen on the opening scenes of the show
itself. So I decided to go with deep green backgrounds for my pages, However I felt that just
having my pages green would make them a little bit dull and uninteresting; I felt like it
wouldn’t reel the audience's attention in as much as I am intending to.
So, I also decided that to switch up my fanzine that it would be best if I used some images
relevant to the show but keep the colour scheme I have chosen by ensuring I use white text
and by adding a deep green tint on to the pictures added to the fanzine (I tested this out first
and was happy with the outcome of it). Secondly, I looked at font styles, I did some searching
on DaFont.com to see if I could find any fonts that are similar to the one used on Breaking
Bad, I didn’t have much luck with this so I decided that I wanted to use more of a basic font
that can be easily read by all.

3. Planning
The first font that I looked at contained symbols that made the text appear in different sizes,
it also contained symbols from the show but they were not very clear. I didn’t feel as though
this font was appropriate because it was hard to read and it made my fanzine look messy to an
extent. I usually find font from DaFont but this time I chose to have a look though the fonts
that photoshop had to offer. Below is an example of the Breaking Bad fonts I found (but didn’t
use for my fanzine) along with the font style I used from Photoshop. The font I chose is called
Helvetica Neue, I like this font in particular because it made my text look bold and very clear
to read.
First font tested
Second font tested
Third font tested/font
used for the fanzine

4. Preparation
I did some preparation before making a start on my fanzine. Firstly, I started off by doing some
more research on the show and the cast to gain some expanded knowledge on the show. Extended
research made me think about what I would like in my fanzine, so I created a draft article based
on the research I had found which ranged from characters, to the cast, to some facts about both.
After finishing my draft article and reading back through it, I felt as though I didn’t have much
structure; meaning that at the time I was finding it difficult to pick a section of Breaking bad that
I wanted to stick with and expand on within the fanzine. I came to the conclusion that it would be
a much more structured idea to just look in to a selected amount of characters, so I chose to look
in to the main protagonists which are Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. I felt that with picking the
main two that there would be lots that I could look in to about them both and with having
already watched the show, I would be able to add some of my own knowledge about the
characters/show.
After creating my first draft and making a few changes (mentioned above) I decided to use some
parts of my first draft to create my final which were relevant to my new focus; which is looking in
to the characters but looking more closely in to their behavior and how it alters throughout the
seasons. I felt this would be more interesting for the audience to read instead of having a fanzine
that is more like a book of facts. When creating my final draft I separated it in to sections, such
as: a smaller introduction, the behavior change of Walter White and then Jesse Pinkman

5. Preparation
After finalizing my final draft, I made a start on the pages by titling them all. My reason for
titling the pages first is because I wanted to do some research in to ensuring that all of my
titles contain letters that can act as an element from the periodic table. This was an
important aspect for me because it is seen on the show's title and within the credits for the
show. I felt that this would be a feature that Breaking Bad viewers would notice and I also felt
that it would be good to keep a theme going across the pages rather than just on the front
cover.
Another preparation was ensuring that the green used for the elements within the titles
doesn’t clash with the background or look odd. I spent a little bit of time testing different
shades of green in a square against the back ground colour to see which shades work better
together. Examples of the test I did are below:
Test 1 Test 2 Chosen colour scheme

6. Time Management
I had 3 and a half weeks to create and finalise my breaking bad fanzine and I think that I was able
to make this work in most aspects but I knew that in order to have my fanzine finished in this
timescale I would have to divide my time as best as I possibly could.
Firstly, before production had started I already had the fanzines content planned out with a first
and final draft of an article I’d written (which contained the content that was going to be spread
across the pages of the fanzine). Within the first few days of production I decided to do some last
minute research to see if there would be any extra detail/inspiration that I’d want to add to my
fanzine, I also decided to spend these few days (around 2-3 days) looking in to/picking a colour
scheme and font that I think perfectly matched the tv show. This required spending time
matching/comparing colours to see what works best along with finding a font that is clear for the
audience to read.
There was one particular detail that I wanted to add to every page of the fanzine which is having
the first letter within the headings styled to look like elements of the periodic table (this can be
seen on the breaking bad logo and also on the credits at the beginning and end). I had already
made 12 A5 pages that didn’t have any content on them except the shade of green that I had
picked at the start. I spent Wednesday to Saturday creating the headings with the periodic table
feature first and then I added the effects/images on to the pages and finished it the fanzine by
adding article text to the pages.

7. Time Management
The second and third week was spent going back though each different page and ensuring
that everything was spelt correctly and where I wanted it to be. I then went though the pages
and began looking at what improvements I could make, for example; I felt as though I could
have picked a font that was easier to read so I picked another font from Photoshop (rather
than from dafont.com) and altered it on every page. I also added some extra effects such as
finding extra images and embedding them in to the page (so that the image would not be in
colour), this made the images look like part of the page and made some pages look better.
Overall, I think that my time could have been managed better when it came to the creation
of my first and final draft. Another reason I feel my time could have been managed better is
speed, some things too much longer than they should have. I think that I managed time well
when it came to most of the production parts.