#Friends Of Comic Con Forum

[sunshine-zenith]

This is kinda a part two to this post here, about Ballister’s scar. Specifically I wanted to speculate a bit on Ballister’s relationship with Queen Valerin when you consider the fact that he was a mistreated and vulnerable child when he met her

Like. Look at this moment here

She’s reassuring him. She genuinely believes in him, and it’s clear from the knighting ceremony, when she specifically lowers her voice to tell him how much she’s been looking forward to this moment that her intentions around him a pure. She wants to change things, she wants to give this kid a chance, and she’s killing two birds with one stone by making him a knight

But like Nimona herself says, question everything

Look a little bit closer at this image — the queen is well dressed and already had a statement prepared. Ballister is dressed in rags and looks like he hasn’t even been given the chance to wash his hair. He looks surprised and a little scared when the media erupts with questions. And I don’t think this was the Queen’s doing, necessarily — odds are the Director was the one who was supposed to prepare Ballister, and chose not to, because she probably knew that while the Queen wouldn’t judge him for looking like the homeless kid he was, the media would. Still, it shows that while the Queen has overall say on Ballister’s future, she doesn’t have a lot to do about his present

Ballister says he loves the Queen, but it’s hard to tell if he meant he loves her like you’d love a family member, or if he “loves” her like someone who has been raised to not question authority “loves” said authority. He took a deep breath and looked to Ambrosius during the knighting ceremony, not to her. She realistically probably wasn’t super involved, even if she wanted to be — she had an entire kingdom to run, other knights to knight, and likely spent her days making progressive decisions that were controversial with the conservatives in her kingdom. Plus, if she had been super involved, it could’ve increased bias against him, like she was favoring him above everyone else — Ambrosius seemed overall not sure popular among the knights, and while they respected his authority when he was put it charge, there was definitely a vibe that they resented him for being the “Golden Boy” descendant of Gloreth.

Let’s compare Bal and Queen Valerin to Comic!Ballister Blackheart and one of the Queen’s inspirations, Dr. Blitzmeyer (the other was the king, who was a basically prop that was referenced heavily in relation to Ballister as someone he should kill before dying off screen).

Blackheart and Blitzmeyer end the comic opening a lab together, working as co-scientists. Blackheart clearly thinks of her as a friend, but she thinks of him as a fond colleague for most of the comic — she’s happy to offer help in the form of exposition, and she helps him save the day by giving him a McGuffin That You Just Gotta Read The Comic To Understand, but part of her is worried he’s a rival scientist that wants to steal her ideas. She still welcomes him in her home and offers him team. When he’s at the end of his rope and needs a comfort hug, she awkwardly indulges him

She’s surprised when he puts her down as his emergency contact

Dr. Blitzmeyer is a quirky scientist that hangs out on conspiracy forums and probably practices witchcraft for the sake of scientific study. Queen Valerin is a warm and progressive monarch who makes controversial decisions. And they make big decisions regarding helping Ballister

Remember the reluctant McGuffin handover?

She’s weighing the odds of him lying to her and stealing/tampering with/destroying it, hesitating before trusting him. If she had said no, a lot more people would’ve died in the comic, but she had no way of knowing that. She was barely interested in looking out her window and just worried the thing she spent years on would be wrecked

Now, the Queen — we don’t see her weigh the pros and cons of letting Bal become a knight, but she had to. And consider what she was presented with: a homeless kid with either no family or an abusive one judging from his scars and bruises. He had no adults in his life to protect him. No one to tell her no, making him essentially a child soldier might not be in his best interest. And he jumped a fence into the middle of a knight training session declaring he wanted to be a knight, basically coming to her — essentially the perfect candidate for her semi-social experiment

I can totally see her in another world letting this kid into her home and giving him tea and comfort, but I don’t think she could here. While she meant good, she took in a kid with nothing to lose and gave him everything to lose (a home, education, likely his first friend, safety), while also putting him under unavoidable social pressure. And she did it while the only adult figure other than her in his life, the one who would actually be involved in his upbringing — the Director — openly and defiantly failed him from the get go, and protested letting him join the knights to her face

Y’all I adore Queen Valerin, even if we only got her for like five minutes. Even if it’s in a speculative sense I like that she’s a good person while morally gray actions. She very much improved Ballister’s circumstances by giving him a home and the opportunity to pursue his interests. She clearly cared about him. She’s also a politician who, even if unavoidably, lowkey set him up to be a scapegoat without a backup plan and no outside support

Like. Y’all.

[spottheantisemitism]

Magneto and Holocaust Inversion (Many Such Cases)

Case #1: He who fights monsters ( UXM #150 I, Magneto - Chris Claremont)

So this was my first X-men comic I got at a con at a discount so THIS was my introduction to Magneto. I love this comic to bits. It's a great scene

While this sudden breakdown is quite good there's the pieta symbolism between two jews and there's the distinct implication of "I'm no better than the Nazis" in his breakdown (you are allowed to fight me on this as not counting as holocaust inversion)

to pivot Magneto this much Claremont pretty much had to do something akin to holocaust inversion because Lee and Kirby wrote him as a fascist coded character and Claremont couldn't not have Jewish (and Romani?*) holocaust survivor who was likely sonderkommando not realize the irony of his actions.

Also we get more Magneto backstory and depth in ONE PAGE than any comic before and most comics since

Case #2: No equals (Magneto Rex episode 3- Joe Pruitt)

Listen the Genosha metaphor was clumsy when Claremont wrote it but the hands of Joe Pruitt, it sounds like a Soviet psyop about the evil colonizer Jews who like apartheid.

While Pietro is one of the few people who get to say the "you're making us look bad" line and it landing in and out of universe the way it's presented is the most simplistic argument possible

The implication of "he's gone full circle and become the oppressor" is clear and this time painfully intentional. The fact that these people are imprisoned for having legacy virus- the x-men equivalent of aids just makes it all worse

Case #3: A mad old terrorist twat (New X-men: Planet X -Grant Morrison)

^ tw for misgendering Grant Morrison who used he/him at the time of publication but use they/them now.

Many people have pointed out that part of what stings when Morrison separates McKellen from the "schizoid-conflicted" Hitler reborn terrorist twat Magneto is the former is a gentile and therefore more deserving of their respect. The implications that Magneto is like that because his ideas are dumb and out-dated mirrors the way antisemites claim that Jews are gentiles over "their made up fairy tales".

I don't think Morrison is so much an antisemite as the kind of fanenby hypocritical chud who loves the silver age (bad era to fandomize and idolize, Grant) exactly as it was. They love when THEY get to make Beast or Ice man gay but hate when a Jewish writer makes a wannabe dictator a Jewish holocaust survivor. We get it Grant, rules for thee but not for Jews. No, no they'll rewrite the character as literally Hitler to show that only Morrison gets to re-write X-men comics, antisemitic implications be damned.

Well you made one thing clear, Grant sweaty, you hate retcons and the art of Jewish writers whose politics and visions you dislike.

screenshot source:

Case #4: when your boyfriend invokes Godwin's law (House of M: Civil war #3)

I feel like Charles only gets away with this because they're such close friends (who canonically share a room) and he's been through a lot in this issue.

To be fair "you twisting semantics won't save people from fanatics who want genocide" is the BEST comeback to holocaust inversion I've seen in an X-men comic

the framing here is both of them are wrong and Magnus (that's one of Magneto's human names) is clearly in the right about this. The humans may think he's Mutant Hitler but that's because they're projecting

(sorry for making you read sideways and making you read something I took a picture of IRL)

Case #5: The oppressed becomes the oppressor (X-men 97 episode 2)

Magneto's speech in X-97 has been said as a watered down version of his speech in Uncanny X-Men 200

What is pointed out many times is the line where he claims "his own people joined the nazis to betray him". Never expanded upon, never brought up again. There are no other Jewish character in 97, no foils. It feels almost gross and tokenistic, like Marvel wanted Magneto be the good token self-hating Jews. Since at that was the only acceptable type of Jew in early 2024.

I do hope to see a course correction seasons 2 and 3 as something as simple as showing a flashback of his past or just showing a character like Kitty would go a long way to dispel the accidental implication that Magneto thinks all other Jews are evil

*While Magneto's children Wanda and Pietro are explicitly Jewish-Romani everywhere BUT the MCU in some universes like House of M, so is he. These intermarriages happened in Weimar Germany all the time so these universes are quite plausible

[bandofchimeras]

this is for displaced trans autistic adult isolation science - trying to figure out how people form lifelong relationships (besides childhood/high school & family friends)

this is not very scientific but i'm curious. i forgot to put other, but if i missed something just select "being gay" and put your answer in the tags :)

[mystybelle]

...

D&D is good at the kind of fantasy stories that have old and faded, hand painted covers with the hyper realistic style of art on them.

Epic fantasy with extremely archetypal heroes, where players are larger than life distillations of details into tropes.

So I think it makes sense that people who play DnD are hesitant to try much else.

Other games don't deliver what they're looking for, the designs are fundamentally different.

I think that as indie or just non-wotc designers, we might be reaching out to the wrong demographic. Because the kids I knew when I was still flesh, and even millennials (who were all adults to me at the time); they were constantly building their own games in order to RP.

I only knew what DnD thanks to my mom, because she was a huge Tolkien fan and desperately wanted to play but, (christianity) said no. But the first ttRPG I read was in the back of a Yu-Gi-Oh manga that used (an apparently very) simplified version of THAC0, and the first I ever played was Pathfinder. But I only played it twice.

The rpgs I played, that weren't on a PlayStation, were writing RPs. Made up stuff my friends and I pulled together; that wouldn't work in DnD for various reasons, and a massive RP on a single dying forum.

The game was only still going because the 28/30+ year olds that ran it had been writing together since they were kids. I assumed that was an outlier until I started talking to more weeb elders, comic con vets, survivors of the "yaoi paddle," and the kids they raised and made chill spaces for. But they've been making and playing games besides DnD forever, and from what I could see, would've had a lotta fun with systems that fit the games they were actually trying to play.

[jayalaw]

I Saw the TV Glow Deviation: If Owen Had Social Media

This obviously has spoilers. The film is on streaming so definitely watch it if you can first. Using they/them pronouns for Owen given those spoilers.

Most viewers accept the hypothesis that Maddy is right, and the mundane world where she and Owen live is the Midnight Realm, meant to torture Tara and Isabel while they slowly suffocate. It explains why there is no social media, memes or mentions of current events. This life is a cheap copy of our world, and no dental insurance even!

But what if it did?

Suppose the 2010s arrived the way they did in our world. Meaning Owen has seen social media rise. On a whim they google the Pink Opaque, and find fanart on deviantart, fic on A03, headcanons and video edits. People have written their continuations of the show. One blog even reviews each episode, having a "Racism Alert" and tracking all the microaggressions and subtext that plagues poor Isabel. So that when Owen on streaming sees the other version of The Pink Opaque and sees Isabel is a white blond girl, they know something is very wrong. Especially thanks to the black fandom of The Pink Opaque. They also call bullshit and some teens talk about a class-action suit against Netflix for fraud and whitewashing.

In their free time, Owen keeps Googling. And they have a LOT of free time during COVID lockdowns, when his boss keeps paying all the employees not working. Owen insists he is grateful for having a nice boss and being able to pay his bills.

Tumblr exposes Owen to fandom. They sees the good and the bad: the rule 34 art, people who insist that fanfic authors continue their stories after abandoning them for ten years, some fan-artists getting shamed for not drawing Isabel's hair and skin properly. Wikipedia tells Owen that Tara's actress went on to do a sitcom about friends doing wacky side hustles when their jobs get outsourced. Isabel's actress quietly retired after season five of The Pink Opaque. Some forums and YouTube videos quietly assert that being a black teen lead in the 90s-- both actresses were the age. oftheir characters-- was not a safe career choice.

Other people talk about queerness. Owen learns the terms for asexual and aroace. They feel a sense of relief. This is a part of them. It's perfectly normal to not like girls or boys, or men and women in this case because Owen is no creeper. Others talk about transitioning, and the symptoms for gender dysphoria. For some reason, these posts make Owen's heart pound and he gasps for air. He doesn't follow those users.

It leads to the same conclusion: this isn't his home, or his world. Because the kinning culture reminds him that another random stranger isn't Isabel. Even Isabel's actress isn't Isabel; Owen watches a video where, at the first San Diego Comic Con held since lockdown ended, she talks quite calmly about how she was blacklisted, no pun intended, after The Pink Opaque ended. In fact, the showrunner fired her because he insisted she was "difficult to work with" when in fact, Isabel's actress was pointing out that the Luna Juice drugging looked too similar to a drug overdose and the writers hadn't considered how traumatic filming such a scene would be for her and Tara's actress. Isabel's actress said she didn't want other black girls to watch the show and feel that horrible fate engrained into their minds; she's introspective, talking more confidently than her character ever had. Marco and Polo's actors, a set of identical twins who went on to film an evil wizard movie, had taken the time to check on her after the multiple takes, and even bringing her chocolates as an apology. They argued with the showrunner a lot about some of the raunchier jokes and fanservice, despite knowing they could be replaced at anytime.

She discusses how she had pushed back before, how her parents were constantly on set and making sure no one was hurting their daughter because her parents were not stupid about Hollywood dynamics or racist subtext, and their protection had worked for years until it didn't. There was a reason Isabel had curly hair and not ironed waves, why her bathroom had pomades and picks that her actress used.

Maybe the showrunner had gained too much of an ego after five seasons of success. Or maybe he wanted to move on to direct the next X-Men film. He had beaten out Bryan Singer for the part.

There were rumors he slept with the underage teens on the show, extras and regular characters alike, grooming them; Tara's actress refused to confirm that rumor because she would play the game to fulfill her dream of becoming a serious performer. Isabel's actress understood, even if she didn't agree. But Isabel's actress asserts the rumors were very true, and she doesn't care anymore because she refused to sign NDAs about illegal behavior no matter the hush money or the harassment. It's not like she's returning to Hollywood; she does the convention circuit for the fans who thanked her for saving them, for being a positive role model. Tara's actress is currently married to a former producer on The Pink Opaque, who looks no different from other genetic white dudes. She and Isabel's actress meet up for drinks occasionally.

Isabel's actress apparently went to college and got her PhD in anthropology. Though the revenue from The Pink Opaque and its reruns meant that she never had to work again, she didn't want to be Isabel anymore. Because Isabel no longer belonged to her. Isabel belonged to the fans that saw her, saw themselves in a black teen facing a hostile magical world. And Isabel belongs to the people watching this video. Like Owen.

Owen sits long after the video ends. Most of the comments say in all caps, "I KNEW IT!" and "There goes my childhood." On Tumblr, the post with the video gains 100,000 notes in less than five hours.

They could respond. Perhaps they could say, "She isn't Isabel. And this isn't the show I remember." Or, "Maddy was right."

Owen doesn't respond.

The next shift at the Fun Center starts a few hours later.

Owen doesn't call in sick, send an email apologizing. They just don't go. Because it's a new moon, meaning no one is watching from the sky. It's time to leave.

[kustas]

do you have any recommendations for manga that someone new might not find? i read your post and really agreed but am not sure how to look for new manga other than what’s talked about

My favorite method for finding new comics in general is heading to a secondhand store, or any place where you can find large quantities of books you can browse who aren't sorted nicely. A random arrangement of books in a box makes it incredibly easy to find cool new stuff, and secondhand stores, by nature, tend to have old/weird/obscure series in a larger proportions than brand new bookstores have (and for much cheaper!). I am lucky to have two in town, as well as regularly attending flea markets and the like - comics being very popular in my country and having been for generations now, bargain bins of stuff for a few bucks apiece are a staple of any antiques market.

My second favorite method is...asking! Friends, online forums, discord chats, randos at your local anime con. This blog is an example of it alone, but when people like stuff, they're eager to share it! There are many places both online and in real life where you can walk to and say "hey, any recs for weird manga?" and people can and will line up to give you their favorites. I have a few mutuals on here I know I share many tastes with, so such people are typically high up on the list of who I'd ask. If there's a piece of media, especially a more obscure/weird one that you enjoy, it's safe to assume other people who are passionate about it and you will share tastes and might have other things they like that you will like too. For manga especially, if you have discord, I recommend the server of the youtuber Koenji Shawn Reviews, a book collector. The people there are avid fans of a lot of stuff with a focus on vintage adult manga and have helped me many times in the past to find rare stuff! They also regularly share informations about exhibits, new editions, and their readings.

And finally, if you're just looking for anything to read, there are online manga repertories with tagging systems. I personally use Anilist, which has a search function that lets you input a large variety of tags, stuff like year, genre, tropes.... I find it fun sometimes to look up random arrangements of tags and see what pops up. Additionally, looking up a manga on Anilist will give you forum topics about it, sometimes critiques, and series users think are similar - you can also look up who worked on it and find their other stuff, if there's any adaptations, all of which are great for link-hopping into obscure rabbit holes. Not everything is on there, but it can be a good start!

[emsiecat]

I had a fantastic day yesterday!

As many of you know this year marks 25 years since Pokémon: The First Movie ‘Mewtwo Strikes Back’ was released. To celebrate, MCM London Comic Con - which was held this weekend - decided to stage a reunion for the original English dub cast of the anime. The convention organisers had managed to get the amazing Veronica Taylor (Ash), Eric Stuart (Brock and James), Jay Goede aka Philip Bartlett (Mewtwo in ‘Mewtwo Strikes Back’), and Rachael Lillis (Misty and Jessie), plus Dan Green (Mewtwo in ‘Mewtwo Returns’ and Entei in ‘Spell of the Unown’) as guests!

As you can imagine thousands of fans descended on the convention to have the chance to meet their childhood heroes, myself included. (I’ll pop the rest under a read-more to save your dashboards lol).

I still have a real soft spot for Pokémon and it has, to date, been my longest loved fandom; especially the character Mewtwo. As a kid and then teen, he was the character I really felt a connection to. I think a lot of fans did. It was also thanks to the first movie that I met a lot of friends in online fan forums and websites (ah, Geocities fan-sites and the ToM forum, you will always be missed).

I have actually met Jay once before at Wales Comic Con in April 2022 and I found him to be very friendly and charming, making time for everyone who came to his autograph booth. So, when I found he had a Facebook and Instagram account following Wales Comic Con, I followed him there as he makes some really great artwork. I never expected him to follow me back, or just casually chat with me! (If you had told 11-16 year old me that she would meet and chat online with the voice of Mewtwo, she would have melted into a puddle of fangirl goo 😂, and to be honest, I’m still kind of star-struck now)!

Naturally, I wore a lot of Mewtwo and Pokémon themed items to celebrate the occasion and made my way over to the autograph tables when I eventually got in the venue. It was so crowded! I’d made sure to bring a little something for the voice actors to say thank you for basically making my childhood and teen years special, and queued up to see them all, starting with Jay.

Jay recognised me as soon as I got to the front of the queue at his table and greeted me with a big smile and ‘Oh wow you’re here, that’s great!’ after we chatted briefly he asked if it was okay to give me a hug. I said sure, though he couldn’t find a way around the tables (they were all in a long line reaching right down the main hall) so saying ‘Hold on I’m finding a way round’ he then (to the amusement of his assistant and others in the queue) proceeded to crawl under the autograph tables, got up and gave me a big hug, then took a selfie with me. He’s an absolute sweetheart. My day was made right there! I also managed to get two of his original Mewtwo paintings. They’re brilliant, and I love them to bits.

I got my Mewtwo Strikes Back novel autographed and chatted with Jay a bit more before going to queue for the photo-ops. They were great fun.

I queued back up again after to try to get the rest of the casts’ autographs. The lines for them all, especially Veronica, were huge! I loved chatting with fellow fans whilst we waited, and every single cast member was so friendly, taking the time to really interact with everyone.

Dan Green made me laugh as when he gave me his autograph, he saw Jay’s signature and signed his ‘Dan “Mew-too” Green’ and explained he did it because ‘We share him, he was first though, so Mew-too for me makes sense’ 😆 He’s a sweet guy.

Eric and Veronica were so cool, doing impressions for younger fans who came to see them, and making sure all the fans had a great experience. Veronica spends a good amount of time with every single fan, which is just amazing considering the sheer amount of people who were waiting to meet her.

Rachael and her assistant loved my denim jacket (it has a huge embroidered Jigglypuff patch on the back as well as other iron on patches on the sleeves) and as Jigglypuff’s VA, Rachael was happy to see it.

It was such a great atmosphere there and a lot of fun. I’m so glad I went and got to meet the cast that defined my childhood.

[sarahlynndawson]

San Diego Comic Con

I'm super excited to be appearing on my first panel at San Diego Comic Con on the fan forum - The Future of Doctor who! Moderated by my great friend CNN & BBC Journalist, Sandro Monetti the panel promises to be a lot of fun! Hope to see and meet all the Whovians there!

Here is a cool article about the event:

[ezzyrebel413]

I miss when people took "don't like, don't read" seriously. I miss when there weren't people invading fandom spaces and trying to force real world morals on fiction. I miss when people in fandom spaces encouraged each other rather than tear each other down for disagreeing with them. Sure, we had our fair share of disputes and ship wars, but it wasn't that serious and it stayed in forums instead of spilling over into other aspects of our lives. Nowadays there are so many new fans coming into established fandom spaces and trying to push real world morals on these works of fiction. There's antis around every digital corner. People are mocking cosplayers online simply for doing what cosplayers do. You can't even post a funny comic to a dedicated Facebook group without the comments turning into a war zone, despite the group having a strict no bullying policy. (Currently in an argument about this one in the ATLA Facebook group. Seriously that comic is cute not gross. Stop being mean to the person who posted it.) Between the discourse and the censorship on most platforms, what used to be a safe space has become very hostile and discouraging. I've watched some of my favorite creators disappear from social media because of this. I've had friends quit their hobbies because people were so awful to them for not catering to the opinions of others. Despite how I may act, even I find it difficult sometimes to do things I used to be excited for. Cons aren't as fun anymore. The last con I went to, the highlight of my weekend wasn't even related to the con. I don't post even a fraction of what I write and draw. I was called out by one of my readers on Ao3 tonight for being too hard on myself in the author's note of a chapter I just posted on one of my fics. I miss when this was fun and not stressful.

[janecrocker]

who did you kill for this url and do you still like/associate with homestuck

I didn't kill anyone lol- it was passed down a line of friends/lovers of Jane. I used to be super active in the community, did a lot of cosplay and ran several RP blogs dedicated to her.

Your second question has a complicated answer. I love what Homestuck did for me. I met my partner of now ten years in Homestuck cosplay (as Jane!) at a con meetup. I met one of my dearest friends in an RP forum (as Jane!), and they went on to be in my wedding; not to mention the countless other friends I made as a result of the comic. It was a huge part of my life for a long time, and I'll always have a fondness in my heart for it and for Jane specifically. I, like many others, was frustrated by the ending and was left conflicted/even more frustrated by meat/candy. So no, I'm not nearly as active in the fandom as I was. But I still love Homestuck for what it meant to me and for all the people I was able to meet. And yeah, I still like it, ~despite it all~ lol.

[notophelia]

I was just thinking the other day about how this shift happened.

Because when I started participating in fandom (which I count as when I started going to cons, since there was no such thing as the internet), I was in middle school and the overwhelming majority of everyone else was an adult. I semi-joke that it was my gifted program (a thing that my rural school very much did not have) because, a couple times a year for a weekend at a time, I went to panels and stood in autograph lines with adults who conversed with me as an equal about mythological themes and constructed languages and redemption narratives.

The first time I went to MediaWest*Con, my freshman year of college, I met a pair of best friends who had come from California and immediately became lifelong friends with them. By Saturday dinnertime, in the midst of some intense Star Wars discussion, one of those present declared the three of us “future BNFs” [Big Name Fan, for those unfamiliar]. “Future,” because everyone else at the table was in their 30s or 40s while we were 18.

The demographics of cons have shifted a little - especially if you’re looking specifically at anime or comic/pop-culture cons as opposed to “literary” SFF cons - but only a little. They’re still overwhelmingly populated by adults, and largely by over-30s.

Because cons cost money.

The internet also costs money, but not in a way that most teens or even college kids are conscious of. From their perspective, the way they participate in fandom is essentially free, or at least a standard feature of life, in a way that in-person fan gatherings - and indeed, all the ways we shared our joy in the days of zines and newsletters and APAs, with their printing costs and postage and long-distance phone bills - weren’t.

When I was a kid, even if you knew about fandom, you could not do it for free.

And when that started to change? When we had BBSes and Usenet and listservs, and then forums and boards and then LJ and…? All the way through that, my default mental image of the humans on the other side of the text was someone in their 30s or 40s, the “typical” fan I had known since the early 80s.

I barely noticed when I became that demographic, and took a bit longer to realize more and more of my fannish circle was younger and younger. Meanwhile, those younger folks were increasingly startled by my age… because as digital natives they defaulted - entirely reasonably - to assuming other people online were their peers.

I’m still not quite sure how this last bit of the shift happened, how we got to the place where not all, not even most, but a not-insignificant chunk of young fanfolk are not merely startled but… disgusted? Threatened? There’s more to it than just this anon’s “embarrassed”… by the existence of fannish elders.

Maybe it’s just that they can’t imagine the adults in their face-to-face lives having fannish interests, or even that those adults have sent the message that they should be embarrassed by them.

Which leaves it to us to show there’s another way.

You're not embarrassed being an old woman and being in tumblr? I would rather die that my grannies have an actual account on tumblr for celebrities rho

Why would I be embarrassed for having interests I enjoy? My guess is that you’re really, really young. And that maybe you don’t actually have solid relationships with adults who have lives outside of parenting or work. But I hope for you that when you’re my age you have hobbies that bring you happiness. And that by that point you realize that trying to shame someone for being an adult only makes you look too immature to be in adult spaces, which Tumblr is.

When I was 20, I loved music, making art, writing and reading good stories, fashion, talking about popular culture, making friends, going to concerts… You’d be surprised how little changes when you’re my age. I just have way more money and time to enjoy those things now. I’m only 55. I’m not dead. I’m also not a “granny”, but even if I was, I’d probably still like all of those things.

Ageism isn’t cute, love. And I sure don’t ever see people telling men they shouldn’t go to football games or have their little “fantasy football leagues” or wear their favorite player’s merch. For every comment you guys like to say is misogynistic (but isn’t), this is one that really reeks of it.

[epacer]

Remembering Greg Bear

A posthumous award for our dear friend. David Clark, Class of 1969

2023 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards Go to Cerece Rennie Murphy and Greg Bear

We are pleased to announce that the 2023 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards will be presented to Cerece Rennie Murphy and posthumously, to Greg Bear at the 58th Annual SFWA Nebula Awards® ceremony in May.

The Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award is given by SFWA for significant contributions to the science fiction, fantasy, and related genres community. The award was created in 2008, with Wilhelm named as one of the three original recipients, and was renamed in her honor in 2016. Murphy and Bear join the ranks of distinguished previous Solstice Award winners, including Petra Mayer, Carl Sagan, Octavia Butler, and Gardner Dozois.

Greg Bear, Class of 1968

The literary achievements of Greg Bear (1951–2022), including over 50 books and multiple Nebula Awards and nominations, constitute a significant contribution to the science fiction and fantasy fields on their own. But Bear also spent decades building up the SFF community by volunteering his time and efforts to many different projects that left a mark. Those include his terms as vice president and president of SFWA, his time spent editing the SFWA Forum and the 2015 SFWA Nebula Showcase, his service on the board of advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction, and being part of the founding group of the Golden State Comic Book Convention, the predecessor to what is now known as the San Diego Comic-Con International.

Our November 2022 In Memoriam in honor of Bear attests to the lasting influence of his personal relationships with writers as well. In it, several SFWA past presidents comment on how he positively affected their lives and work.

SFWA President Jeffe Kennedy offered the following remarks on this year’s recipients: “Congratulations to Cerece Rennie Murphy on her extraordinary contributions to the SFF community. We look forward to seeing what she’ll do next. It’s bittersweet to honor Greg Bear for the legacy of a lifetime, knowing how greatly he’ll be missed.”

The 58th Annual Nebula Awards Ceremony will stream live to the public on SFWA’s YouTube and Facebook channels in May. The ceremony will be held during the 2023 Nebula Conference, taking place online and in-person in Anaheim, CA. Registration for the annual professional development conference for aspiring and established professionals of the speculative fiction industry can be purchased here: https://membership.sfwa.org/event-4734389.

March 02, 2023

[swreactions]

Welcome to a special edition of the Star Wars Reactions!

For this special episode, Aaron Harris and David Modders venture through the floor at Central Florida Comic Con sharing their experiences. Joining them on their journey is none other than our old friend Greg McLaughlin from Rebel Base Card who they finally got to meet face to face.

Continue listening for their discussion with Jessica and Todd from the R2 Builder’s Club to learn about the club and their droids.

Then to wrap things up, Aaron and David cross of a member of their bucket list with an interview with the one and only Timothy Zahn. Zahn’s achievements in fandom are monumental, from kicking off the expanded universe of novels with “Heir to the Empire” to the creation of such characters as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade.

This is one experience you don’t want to miss!

Star Wars Reactions: Elegant discussions for a more civilized age!

Follow Greg on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!

Check out the Rebel Base Card podcast!

Check out the R2 Builder’s forums!

For information about future events, check out Central Florida Comic Con’s website!

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Subscribe on YouTube!

Follow Aaron and David on Twitter!

Follow David on Instagram!

[norealgoodbyes]

Been trying to think about the news today and it still really doesn’t feel real. Or at least the meaning hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m not sure if or when it will. If I were an artist maybe I get some of what I’m feeling out of my system that way, but I’m not. I’m not much of a writer either, but I’ve seen a few people talk about what Yu-Gi-Oh! meant to them personally and I figure maybe I could try that.

One of the clearest memories of my childhood is of watching the precipice duel- I’d think I’d been casually watching the show for a while up till then, but that’s when it totally changed to me. My parents had routinely been getting me into various sports and extracurriculars that I did not want to be in and that Saturday morning I had a softball game to get to. My dad basically had to drag me out of the house to get me there and I missed the last half of the episode. I remember seeing the rotting BEWD melt around Mokuba in Kaiba’s hallucination and it stuck with me through the entire drizzly game. It had to have been the first time I think I really cared about characters in a piece of media to that extent. And I didn’t have anyone to talk about it with. 

I had friends as a kid, but kids can be cruel. I’d learned a few years prior that Pokemon was no longer a safe thing to talk about at school if I wanted to enjoy my recess. It was clear from the get go that Yu-Gi-Oh would fall into the same category. It’s not like I was getting beaten up, but I was a dumb, sensitive kid who was painfully honest. Kindof an easy target. I didn’t have the kinds of friends who would stick up for me for liking something “uncool”. I wished I had Yuugi and his friends. Instead I learned to lie about my interests at school and hoard manga and cards in a cabinet in my room. I’m not sure it was a happy time, but I wouldn’t have given up on Yu-Gi-Oh for the world. It meant so much to me. I loved the characters, the drama, the card game, the lore, the mystery of the millennium items. All of it. 

I remember when I started getting access to the internet and learning about how different the show I’d been watching was from its Japanese counterpart. It was so exciting! It was like ‘here’s this thing that I already love, but there’s an entirely different version out there with swears, violence,’ -blackjack, and hookers, you get the idea. It was absolutely tantalizing to a slightly edgy tween. I remember there was a fansite that hosted episode summaries and a forum; I think it also had scans of the GX manga, which had just started coming out in Japan? If anyone knows what it was called, please let me know. I don’t remember the name, just that it had a white, sortof silvery layout. It also had a modest little fanfiction section which I poured over religiously. I hadn’t written any myself, but I had so many ideas. Something about a sprawling mess of a story involving magic and other worlds I think? I don’t remember the details, but it kept my mind occupied through a lot of middle school.

I managed to push my love for the series away for a long time after that. Bits and pieces of it would filter over into my life from time to time and I’d pretend it was meaningless, or ridicule it as that ‘dumb card game show’. I’d push it down and try to forget. It wasn’t till I was at a con back in 2016 walking around with my best friend that I confessed that I’d earnestly loved it. I knew he wouldn’t mock me for it, but god. His quiet affirmation that that was ok, cool even, almost brought me to tears while walking through the dealers hall. I don’t talk with that friend very much these days for complicated reasons, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. 

I started this blog the following year, in 2017. Since then, it has been an absolutely incredible time to see the amazing outpouring of fanart, comics, fanfiction, meta essays, and love for a series that I had thought I was years late to joining. Even if I’d only vaguely known that there were other people out there who were as deeply affected by this series as I was, I would’ve been happy. To experience what I have since starting this tumblr goes way beyond that. Every day I get to see someone else who's fallen in love with some aspect of the series that I’d never considered, a character examined from a new angle, a piece of art capturing something new about it. It’s so beautiful to me and makes me love the series even more. And it’s so wonderful to not feel alone in that. There is such an incredible community here that I am so glad to be a part of it, even in my own small way.. 

I’ve since gotten better about being more transparent in my love for the series in real life too and the support I’ve gotten from my friends still takes my breath away. I’ve gotten bold enough to hang a print in my room! My boyfriend got me Pot of Greed earrings for my birthday! I don’t feel like I’m hiding my love in cabinets anymore and I’m not wishing I had some else’s friends. A lot of that has to do with who I am and how I’ve grown up, but I think a lot has to do with you all too- and of course, Kazuki Takashi. I’m so glad to be here with you and I know I wouldn’t have any of that if it weren’t for him. 

Thank you so much, Takahashi-sensei, for the gift you have given us and the friends we’ve made through it.

[centrally-unplanned]

I actually do have some insights now on this question, funnily enough - mainly from this interview and a few pieces elsewhere. The big one is that O'Malley had a shoulder injury while making Seconds, which impacted his ability to draw. He had to 'relearn' his process and it never fully recovered, a not uncommon story (Rich Burlew of Order of the Stick comes to mind). Which is fair enough, can't really fault that one. You can tell it was serious, too - in his streams he has physical therapy equipment right in his room almost a decade later (feels weird to say this, the amount of access we have to people these days is creepy).

I don't think this is the biggest cause though. The other one is the Scott Pilgrim of it all, directly - he has commented explicitly that "managing Scott Pilgrim is a full time job", dealing with the brand. He in particular is not someone who likes to let go of control, from what I gathered - at one point after the movie came out his agent had him do talks with animation companies to maybe pivot to cartoons, and he was very disparaging of the whole process from a "cog in a corporate machine" standpoint. So I think this is a combination of A: its just true, brands are a big deal and certainly can be a full time job, B: a consequence of him being unwilling to just outsource the whole thing to a brand manager like others do, which I totally get, and C: an emotional thing where that kind of brand management just isn't his calling, so it drains him.

The third cause is the most tealeaves but imo the most important; he kind of quit the comic scene. He talks about how with the success of SP he couldn't attend cons like SPX anymore, he was no longer small, he didn't fit in. And on top of that he started getting comments from other creators, aspersions he reads as coming from jealously and resentment. And he was always a 'community' guy, talking about his ideas with co-creators and such. He left Toronto to move to Novia Scotia, very remote, in the late 2000's, then moved to LA but is a self-described hermit there. I remember in another interview, people asked him about how all the people he based the characters in SP on thought about the comic or the movie, and he said it was pretty uncomfortable actually. It made those relationships too raw, and he doesn't talk to most of them anymore.

Seems like the success of Scott Pilgrim burned O'Malley out hard on the very nature of the comic industry as like something worth the struggle of being a part of, and that was a big part of his drive. He was a community building guy, as mentioned with Impromanga, how he moved to LA on a whim to hang with online friends (who went on to found Gaia Online, apparently), how he was a big member of the Warren Ellis forums in their heydey, etc. It looks like that whole part of his life changed, and he changed. He says very explicitly that he did change his habits, he wanted to enjoy life and not be burdened by work as much. Which, mood, but I also can bet has a lot to do with how he just wasn't part of a group that made that kind work enjoyable anymore.

Okay okay ONE MORE THING about O'Malley, and I will say what I am sure many have thought, but its rude to say - we can say it here anonymously on tumblr where he will never see it. He got successful way too early. 20's O'Malley is hungry as fuck to do "his art"; this guy is living it hard in the indie rock scene and the comic scene, sardine-bunked up with roommates for rent, prep cook by day, drawing comics by night. He goes from these one-shots to Lost At Sea and you can see exactly what he was working on, then Scott Pilgrim hits and all the growth is present again, the world building and naturalness and sense of breadth that Lost At Sea couldn't have. He feels like he has ideas and purpose and wants to push his style farther.

Then Scott Pilgrim drags on for six years, you can tell he wanted out by the final volume. Its suddenly a multi-media franchise, he is wealthy and successful but presumably also stressed out. He divorces his wife in 2014, he makes Seconds which is good, but its definitely limited, more about art evolution while a bit of a retreat on the characters - and a lot of that art evolution should be credited to his colorist Nathan Fairbairn or his co-artist Jason Fischer. And then he writes, but doesn't art...sometimes. Averages like two works a decade.

Obviously just reading the tea leaves but this guy burned out on 'having it all', the drive was clearly gone. Maybe it always would have, idk, you get older right. But Scott Pilgrim is unpolished, its great but its not your Lolita or anything. If it had just done 'fine', maybe he wraps it up in half the time, has a better idea, really learns and polishes...just seems like that could have happened.

He certainly isn't the first favourite creator of mine who flaked out halfway through their career to do bullshit in the second half, Anno.

[ichinoue]

My thing has always been why aren't IR fans mad at studio pierrot instead of Kubo? Kubo has always known Ichihime was going to be end game. He never led them on to believe otherwise. It's the studio that jumped the gun giving them filler IR scenes that never existed in the manga because they wrongly assumed IR would be endgame. They have all this anger towards kubo when they should've been pointing their pitch forks studio pierrot's way. Even then if they bothered to read the manga despite pierrot fucking up they still would've seen Ichihime coming a mile away and not been surprised they were endgame. I understand if they didn't like the fact that their ship wasn't endgame. For me sometimes I like canon ships and sometimes I like fanon ones. Depends on the dynamic and how well written the ships are. However in the case of Ichihime even if you didn't like the ship, how you can say it came out of nowhere is mind boggling. The signs were so blatant that even if you had shipping goggles on you still would've noticed it. To say otherwise is the living embodiment of delusional at it's finest.

The crazy thing is that before Bleach ended, IR shippers were like....weirdly affectionate with Kubo??? They would talk to/about him as if they were in on some ~open secret~ with him in regards to him shipping IR. Like if Kubo drew a colorspread featuring Ichigo and Rukia they would worship and praise the fuck out of him like "omg, sensei is SO good to us! We're so spoiled!!! :) He wants their love to be known!" or "oooooh sneaky sensei, look at him drawing all that IR eye-smex ;)" or they would be like "the number one ichiruki shipper is Kubo sensei!!!" and it was just like....??? Why? Because he drew a colorspread featuring his two main characters? Wow, *shocking* Maybe that would actually mean something if Bleach weren't a shounen...y'know...where platonic nakama bonds are featured on the colorspreads the most but okay, sure, w/e.

Like I get that all shipping fandoms do that, we thank the creator when they give us new content for our pairings and stuff but idk dude, some of it just seemed excessive at times I guess?

Some of them even believed some forum post from an IR fan who claimed to have made friends with Kubo at San Diego Comic Con (lmfao) and that he promised her he would "put a little love in for IR" which was just like ??? (here's a screenshot) So obviously, it wasn't that this random forum person was lying, it was that KuBO lied!!! he BETRAYed us!!! he promised us the ichiruki!!!!!

So that's what's so weird to me, it's not even just that the anime led them on, it's that they genuinely believed Kubo was a die-hard IR stan and that Bleach was clearly all about the """IR fated lovers, story of destiny!!!!""

...Even though he said a long time ago that he didn't want to focus on romance. And then in an interview he gave post-bleach he said: “Given that bleach is not a romance manga, the romance is drawn purely as a supplementary component.”

Bleach is not a romance manga....Romance is supplementary....But yeah, his intentions all along were to make bleach a love story between Ichigo and Rukia. Do you see how strange and hilarious this is?

They truly convinced themselves that this man "shipped" IR and wrote Ichigo and Rukia's characters to be ~~destined fated lovers~~ They would ignore the blatant shipteases and ramped up screentime and romantic hints he wrote for IH. They ignored how he starved IR of content for years, left their development stagnant after the arrancar arc, and greatly decreased their screentime together ever since. It was so clear that IR was doomed to remain platonic. Especially when you remember that Kubo literally shut ichiruki down in an official interview, wayyyy back in 2008, when he said, and I quote, "It’s not friendship but it’s not an amorous feeling either…Despite standing in a close position with each other, it is not romance." And there you have it. A flat-out denial. But they ignored him. They wouldn't listen to him. And then they had the audacity to claim he "betrayed" them.

But given the continuous smackdown he handed them in the final arc, I really don't think he gives a shit lmao.