Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Codename Stasis found its format at SDSU

Local zine tells a magical local story

Jet, one of the characters from Codename Stasis
Jet, one of the characters from Codename Stasis

On a sweltering El Cajon evening this past summer, I found myself inside Testo Pepesto, the Main Street Italian restaurant. As I waited for the hostess, I inspected a wall next to the entrance that was generously layered in flyers and posters. I was looking for concerts, mostly, but a different sort of flyer caught my eye. “Codename Stasis,” it read. “San Diego-based urban fantasy via zine, printed locally, distributed by foot and public transit!” The flyer had those little tearable pieces at the bottom, like an ad for a tutor or a dog walker might have.

I thought it was a neat idea to offer a paper-based publication like that, and the summary made this one feel particularly cozy, specific to San Diego, and personal: “distributed by foot and public transit.” I tore a piece off of the flyer and soon got in touch with the author. She uses the nom de plume A.E. Amor. She is a local substitute teacher, a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, and the wife of a long-haul truck driver, who is also, at times, conceptually involved in the project. His pseudonym is A.C. Dnor. She sometimes accompanies him on trips, spreading the current issue of her zine farther and wider than usual.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The origin of the project? “I’ve seen the girl with the white hair since I was 17, so for over two decades,” she says. She’s referring to one of her main characters, Soleil. The girl would show up in Amor’s imagination and in her artwork — Amor is also the zine’s illustrator. Amor would draw her repeatedly, “obsessively.” One day while riding a San Diego bus in 2008, she says, “I saw her falling from the sky — in my head.” A nugget of a plot began to develop around the character. Later, at SDSU in 2019, when she was a student there, she began to produce more notes and narrative material, and was helpfully pushed by her teachers to develop her ideas. One SDSU class in particular provided her with an introduction to bookmaking, and also the world of zines, of which the university’s Love Library has a sizable collection. The slitted and folded single-sheet form that Codename comes in derives from that class. But all this was prelude to Codename as it is exists now. The first issue didn’t come out until June of last year.

I ask Amor and Dnor how they might summarize the story. He gives me a fairly abstract account of the shape of the story, saying that it’s about a world in which “a universal balance has gotten off track,” with some characters working to fix that, and others working to further the problem. Amor says, alternatively, “It’s a story about burritos, magical girls, and the apocalypse.” She also notes that it takes place in a world in which magic has gone dormant from people ignoring it, but which returns, and returns here in San Diego.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Norteño, Mariachi, and Banda groups hire out at T.J. cemeteries

Death always comes with music
Next Article

Michael Tiernan doesn’t toot his own horn

Instead, he writes songs for other people — and companies
Jet, one of the characters from Codename Stasis
Jet, one of the characters from Codename Stasis

On a sweltering El Cajon evening this past summer, I found myself inside Testo Pepesto, the Main Street Italian restaurant. As I waited for the hostess, I inspected a wall next to the entrance that was generously layered in flyers and posters. I was looking for concerts, mostly, but a different sort of flyer caught my eye. “Codename Stasis,” it read. “San Diego-based urban fantasy via zine, printed locally, distributed by foot and public transit!” The flyer had those little tearable pieces at the bottom, like an ad for a tutor or a dog walker might have.

I thought it was a neat idea to offer a paper-based publication like that, and the summary made this one feel particularly cozy, specific to San Diego, and personal: “distributed by foot and public transit.” I tore a piece off of the flyer and soon got in touch with the author. She uses the nom de plume A.E. Amor. She is a local substitute teacher, a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, and the wife of a long-haul truck driver, who is also, at times, conceptually involved in the project. His pseudonym is A.C. Dnor. She sometimes accompanies him on trips, spreading the current issue of her zine farther and wider than usual.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The origin of the project? “I’ve seen the girl with the white hair since I was 17, so for over two decades,” she says. She’s referring to one of her main characters, Soleil. The girl would show up in Amor’s imagination and in her artwork — Amor is also the zine’s illustrator. Amor would draw her repeatedly, “obsessively.” One day while riding a San Diego bus in 2008, she says, “I saw her falling from the sky — in my head.” A nugget of a plot began to develop around the character. Later, at SDSU in 2019, when she was a student there, she began to produce more notes and narrative material, and was helpfully pushed by her teachers to develop her ideas. One SDSU class in particular provided her with an introduction to bookmaking, and also the world of zines, of which the university’s Love Library has a sizable collection. The slitted and folded single-sheet form that Codename comes in derives from that class. But all this was prelude to Codename as it is exists now. The first issue didn’t come out until June of last year.

I ask Amor and Dnor how they might summarize the story. He gives me a fairly abstract account of the shape of the story, saying that it’s about a world in which “a universal balance has gotten off track,” with some characters working to fix that, and others working to further the problem. Amor says, alternatively, “It’s a story about burritos, magical girls, and the apocalypse.” She also notes that it takes place in a world in which magic has gone dormant from people ignoring it, but which returns, and returns here in San Diego.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pastor Lisa Perry finds God in dive bars

Conversations about tattoos turn into conversations about grace
Next Article

San Diego Opera revives the Covid version of La Boheme

The show starts with Mimi already dead
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader