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mostlysignssomeportents · 10 months ago

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Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris’s “Youth Group”

NEXT SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

Youth Group is Bowen McCurdy and Jordan Morris's new and delightful graphic novel from Firstsecond. It's a charming tale of 1990s ennui, cringe Sunday School – and demon hunting.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250789235/youthgroup

Kay is a bitter, cynical teenager who's doing her best to help her mother cope with an ugly divorce that has seen her dad check out on his former family. Mom is going back to church, and she talks Kay into coming along with her to attend the church youth group.

This is set in the 1990s, and the word "cringe" hasn't yet entered our lexicon as an adjective, but boy is the youth group cringe. The pastor is a guitar-strumming bearded dad who demonstrates how down he is with the kids by singing top 40 songs rewritten with evangelical lyrics (think Weird Al meets the 700 Club). Kay gamely struggles through a session and even makes a friend or two, and agrees to keep attending in deference to her mother's pleas.

But this is no ordinary youth group. Kay's ultra-boring suburban hometown is actually infested with demons who routinely possess the townspeople, and that baseline of demonic activity has suddenly gone critical, with a new wave of possessions. Suddenly, the possessed are everywhere – even Kay's shitty dad ends up with a demon inside of him.

That's when Kay discovers that the youth group and its corny pastor are also demon hunters par excellence. Their rec-rooms sport secret cubbies filled with holy weapons, and the words of exorcism come as readily to them as any embarrassing rewritten devotional pop song. Kay's discovery of this secret world convinces her that youth group isn't so bad after all, and soon she is initiated into its mysteries, including the existence of rival demon-hunting kids from the local synagogue, Catholic church, and Wiccan coven.

As the nature of the new demonic incursion becomes clearer, it falls on Kay and her pals to overcome these sectarian divisions over the protests of their guitar-strumming, magic-wielding leader. That takes on a special urgency when Kay learns why the demons are interested in her, personally, and a handful of other kids in town who all share a secret trait.

I confess that as someone who lived through the 1990s as a young man, there is something disorienting about experiencing the decade of my young adulthood through the kind of retro lens I associate with the 1950s or 1960s. But while the experience is disorienting, it's not unpleasant. McCurdy's artwork and Morris's snappy dialog conjure up that bygone decade in a way that is simultaneously affectionate and critical, exposing the hollowness of its performative ennui and the brave face that performance represented even as the world was being swept up in corporate gigantism.

McCurdy and Morris are really onto something here, implicitly asking us why the 1990s gave us Buffy and Sabrina (and The Coven, etc etc) – what was it about that decade in which Reaganomics and globalism consolidated the gains of the 1980s, where the climate emergency took on its undeniable urgency, where media monopolies mastered the art of commodifying counterculture faster than it could mutate into new forms?

Morris's writing really shines here. If you enjoyed Bubble, his earlier outing based on the post-apocalyptic comedy podcast of the same name, you will love this one:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

Morris is also half of Jordan, Jesse Go!, the long-running podcast where he and Jesse Thorn do a weekly ha-ha-only-serious goofball schtick that never fails to smuggle in really clever and insightful ideas amidst the poop jokes.

https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/jordan-jesse-go/

John Hodgman calls nostalgia a "toxic impulse." Church Group deftly avoids nostalgia's trap, managing to be a period piece without falling prey to the Happy Days pathology of ignoring the many flaws and problems of its era. And of course, it's a hoot and a blast.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/16/blight/#the-dream-of-the-nineties

#pluralistic #jordan morris #bowen mccurdy #firstsecond #graphic novels #comics #fantasy #reviews #gift guide #books

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mask131 · 4 months ago

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William Morris' works (2)

My very first contact with William Morris was through a recent, complete translation/edition of his work "The Well at the World's End". It had a preface by Anne Besson talking about the book, its author, and why it is at the root of the fantasy genre. Here are some highlights from it.

Morris' return to the stage is part of a movement wishing to return to the sources of fantasy. Now that the "big names" of fantasy (Besson mentions Tolkien, Rowling and Martin) have been explored fully and brought to life by many, there is a new interest and curiosity for the ones outside of them. The classical pioneers that are yet still ignored today, like George McDonald or Charles Kinglsey. The other British authors of the early 20th century that Tolkien overshadowed: Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, Hope Mirrlees, even T.H. White. And the parallel fecundity of the American pulp fiction - everybody knows of it Robert Howard for creating Conan, but now is the return of the others - Harold Lamb, Clark Ashton Smith, Abraham Merritt...

According to Anne Besson, William Morris is one of the greatest and most beautiful creators of the "unjustly neglected" literary monuments of early fantasy - and she considers his "The Well at the World's End" to be his masterpiece. Yet Morris is a very unique case, because he was first and foremost a material and visual artist. He was a drawer, a designer, a printer, and this is a part of his career that is still recognized to this day - often people only mention his crafts work, without a single word about the novels he wrote. Even in Encyclopedias of the fantasy, Morris' name often doesn't get a specific article, and is just a mention in either more general talks about the Preraphaelites, or an evocation in the articles of the authors he inspired (Tolkien, Howard, Eddings). This is the dual heritage of Morris - the great authors he inspired, and his carreer as the "Jack of All Arts" [a title Lyon Sprague de Camp gave him in 1974].

William Morris is first and foremost a part of the Confrery of the Preraphaelites, a group which deeply marked the art of England at the end of the 19th century. They had an hyper-realist technique mixed with a proud escapism when it came to selection their subjects ; this made them stand at odds to the abstractions and "progress" of the "modern" engaged art of the time, and as a result they were for a very long time neglected from the History of the Arts, deemed as being just "kitsch". But today, in England and France they have been fully rehabilitated.

William Morris stands proudly alongside the leader of the movement, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his great friend Edward Burne-Jones. They share common aspirations and inspirations, mixing the Primitives of the first Italian Renaissance (of which they recreated the realistic depictions of nature) and the Gothic (of which they admired the "spiritual purity") - the result were idealized Middle-Ages, "made of faith, heroism and purity" (words from Julia Drobinsky. But Morris is more unique as he is, first and foremost, a craftsman, a designer, a decorator - he was the one who inspired the movement "Arts & Craft". He doesn't just dream of a "golden age", he tries to make it real.

Morris designed beautiful items in the hope of raising the aesthetic level of the Victorian productions. He wanted England to find back its traditional, demanding crafts, so that the alliance of the beautiful and the useful could produce, among the creators and the users, the satisfaction of a "work well done". He is mainly famous for his creation of an intertwined-flowers decorative motif which covered a lot of furniture cloth and wallpapers. He also created a printing house dedicated to recreating medieval-like books, not just using vellum or specific inks, but also special fonts and marginalia - between 1891 and 1898 his Kelmscott Press published 54 books, 17 of which were his own creations.

Morris as such echoes our modern concern of fighting against mass-production and standardization, to have more personal, artistic productions, blurring the line between craftsman and designer, offering fluid artistic collaborations. Morris and Co.'s traditional floral motifs were for a very long time associated with "cosy British interiors" but are now all over the world. Morris himself lived by his aesthetic agenda, surrounding himself with his visual and ideological choices - first in his Red House in the South of London (he had a part in its construction), then at Kelmscott Manor, an idyllic countryside retreat near the Thames co-owned with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A lot of rumors and criticism was aimed towards the two men's relationships to one woman - Jane, who was the wife of Morris but the muse of Rossetti. Yet, these "loose morals" denounced at the time were in line with the Preraphaelites' protest against the normalized violence of the Victorian society, a protest that was mainly expressed through an exaltation of a proudly sensual feminity... In The Well at the World's End, this is found in the character of the Lady of Abundance, a third seductive fairy, a third jealousy-inducing witch, a third pagan goddess...

William Morris didn't just print beautiful books, theorized books in his crafting ideology, or collected medieval manuscripts - he also wrote many, many texts. His complete works, gathered by his daughter May, form 24 volumes (plus four volumes of corresponance, plus a hundred of articles and political conferences). And he did all that before dying at 62 years old. To give a few highlights, he started in the 1850s, under the influence of Thomas Malory's La Morte d'Arthur. He published medieval-inspired novellas in "The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine" (notably "The Hollow Land"), and he even decided to have an Arthurian dialogue with Lord Alfred Tennyson, the greatest poet of his time, by publishing in 1858 "The Defense of Guinevere".

Morris' works were a succession and mix of translations, adaptations and re-creations. A good example of this is his work on the Volsung Saga, the great myth of Sigurd that was the source of inspiration for Wagner's operas. Morris first learned Old Norse from an Iceland man named Eirikr Magnusson (who was the key person for the diffusion of Norse culture in the Oxonian circles). He then co-wrote an "archaic" translation: Völsunga Saga - The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, with Certain Songs from the Elder Edda, 1870. Five years later, he offered a vast epic versified rewrite: The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, 1876. He was very proud of this book.

He also translated various French medieval romances (notably "Ami et Amile" in 1896's Four French romances), and the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf (in 1895). But it is much more relevant to point out how close he was to the Greco-Latin tradition. Outside of a long poem dedicated to Jason (The Life and Death of Jason, 1867), he published a translation of Virgil's Aeneid (1875-76), and one of Homer's Odyssey (1887-88).

Finally, his enormous compilation of 24 narrative poems called "The Earthly Paradise" (3 volumes, 1868-70) was the encounter of his two ancient inspirations : Vikings of the North enter a heavenly otherworld where Ionians survived, and with whom they exchange stories - all to offer a beautiful metaphor on the role of the "transmission of culture".

His writing of "romances" is only a late stage of his production. The Well at the World's End was only published in 1896, the same year as Morris' death - even though it had been written some years earlier. It forms a greater whole alongside "The Story of the Glittering Plain" (1891), "The Wood Beyond the World" (1894), "The Water of the Wondrous Isles" (1897) and "The Sundering Flood" (1897, posthumous work). It is a late but logical development as Amanda Hodgson noted: before that, Morris' work oscillated between the "historical temptations" and the political utopias turned to the future. On one side his historical novel "The House of the Wolflings" in 1880, defending the Northern aristocracies against the Roman invasions ; on the other side his "A Dream of John Ball" about the Middle-Ages confronting the Industial Revolution, or his "News from Nowhere".

These romances, beyond showing the tiredness of the end of a life dedicated to an unflinching political engagement, allow Morris to unite these contrasting aspirations. Their "lightness" and their happy endings glorify the ability of individuals and communities to transform. Through escapist stories, Morris captures the same hope he tries to offers to the people of his time. It is the meaning of the fourth part of "The Well", dedicated to a return to the homeland, during which the hero and his beloved go back through the same places they crossed before and see their evolutions.

It seems every aspect of Morris' life lead to these romances. They feed on his nature as a scholar in literary and languages, they feed from his passion for Arthurian romances and Medieval chansons de geste ; they are born from his interests for myths, epics, fairytales and folklore. But they are also very visual productions. Sober yet strongly evocative descriptions through an insistance on color and light ; the use of typical hyperbola and a stylistic unity ; the "chromatic exuberance" through the union of "absolute colors" (yellow, gold, green, blue, scarlet) in a limited palette reminding of the Medieval illuminations... Morris wrote his texts like he painted his images. The very plots, with their constant duality and doubles and counter-points, reminds of the ornamental motifs of the Morris Company.

In the end the "birth of the fantasy" Morris is credited with is no more than the fusion of magnified Middle-Ages with socialist visions of another world more just and more beautiful. Poetic and politically engaged, these romances, through their initiation processes and their rich symbolism, offer questions about self-fulfilment, the formation of a couple, the need to be inserted in a collectivity - while also promoting the values that are loyalty, perseverance, care for desires, and the importance of the community.

Did William Morris invent fantasy? At least this is how he is perceived...

Originally, outside of the publication of Morris' completed works by May Morris, they were very hard to access, only available to the best experts of English literature, until Lin Carter offered them a second life in the USA, in the collection "Ballantine Adult Fantasy". We are in the huge wave caused by the success of "The Lord of the Rings" (its pocket-edition of the revised version in 1965). Ballantine Adult Fantasy, the first fantasy collection ever, was created to fulfill the needs of a Tolkien fan, by ambitiously reprinting all of the "classics". Lord Dunsany, George McDonald, George Meredith and... William Morris. In five years four of his books were re-published, starting with "The Wood" in 1969, and "The Well" in two volumes in 1970. Lin Carter is also a very fascinating name when it comes to the fantasy world, very divisive. On the "light side", Carter is remember as a scholar and lover of fantasy who maintained and enhanced the genre ; on the "dark side", Carter is recalled as a mediocre author and a shady editor, hated by fans of Tolkien and Robert Howard for shaping and exploiting a twisted version of their works...

It is under the pen of Carter that Morris' romances earned their title of "origins of fantasy". Carter presented them as such: "From the world of the "Wood" and the world of the "Well" descend all of the later worlds of fantastic literature, Poictesme, and Oz and Tormance, Barsoom and Narnia and Zothique, Gormenghast and Zimiamvia and Middle-Earth. When he sketched out the map of those imagined realms which lie between Upmeads and Utterbol, William Morris blazed the first trail into the unexplored universe of fantasy".

But Ballantine's Morris can be seen as almost a betrayal of the original spirit... It implies a new genealogy, a new target-audience, and a new interpretation. His romances are not part of a complete architectural unit. The American audience split them away from the rest of Morris work, differentiate the author from the artist. Yet, it was widely recognized at the time that the first English fantasy and artistic theories were closely linked... George MacDonald, the author of "Phantastes" and "The Princess and the goblin" was a friend of John Ruskin, an influent art theorician, whose texts were for Morris (just like for Proust) a massive revelation... Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the most famous of the Preraphaelites, belonged to a family of artists: his sister, Christina Rossetti, was a figure-head of a darker Victorian fantasy, with her poems (Goblin Market) or her Lewis Carroll-like fairytales (Speaking Likenesses).

The reason so many of these early names rarely reached us is because of the huge meteorite that crashed on the "fantasy land" - named Tolkien. A meteorite that changed forever the "fantastic ecosystem" - after him, all fantasy works shall be compared to Tolkien and no one else. It is unfair, but it is so. Anne Besson highlights how her work edition for writing this preface was a 2003's publication by the Inkling Books which claimed would "give back Morris to the people" and yet systematically and heavily referred to him as "the author who influenced Tokien". The editor, Michael W. Perry, seemed to strongly imply that the only reason Morris' Well deserved to be read, was because of its association with Tolkien. The first lines are: "On the lines of Morris's romances, two books that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien, The Wood beyond the world and The Well at the world's end, by William Morris". Tolkien's full name comes before Morris' own full name! And the introduction, titled "William Morris and J.R.R. Tolkien" is entirely about what Tolkien found in Morris for his own works... And the dedication is "For the fans of Tolkien who are wishing for books like the Lord of the Rings".

Despite everybody linking Morris to Tolkien, his influence is more relevant in th case of C.S. Lewis, who was very enthusiastic about the author and wrote a beautiful presentation of him in his 1939's "Rehabilitations". Tolkien's inspiration was there, though lesser and smaller... He mostly took broad elements (a hieratic style, a Medieval Northern Europe setting, a discreet ambiant magic) and punctual details (the malevolent Gandolf and the Silverfax horse of Morris predate Tolkien's Gandalf and Shadowfax). Tolkien did write that the Dead Marshes were more directly influenced by Morris' romances. And to this list of influences can be added two more things. One, the importance of the "return" of the characters - the story doesn't end with the quest, the characters have to go home. Two, the image of the dead tree brought back to life - brought back to life by the heroes' return, by the return of a vital harmony, of a just government. For Tolkien it is Gondor's White Tree, for Morris it is the Dry Tree, the opposite of both the Well with its waters of life and of the arms of Upmeads, a fruit-bearing apple-tree by a river.

To read "retrospectively" Morris as just another fantasy author, or as in the line of posterior creations, is thus for Anne Besson a big mistake, because Morris, who wrote at the very dawn of a new genre, is very "original" in his work compared to what is expected of a fantasy today, and what might seem in the context of modern fantasy as "naive" or "blinded" was very fresh, very troubling, very "primordial" in the light of the end of a life-time of social fighting alongside the poor and the victims of misery an injustice.

And it is not because Morris' work is great, or a classic, or very influential on modern works, that it means it is easy to read today. While the text feels simple, fresh, fluid, it is a false sense that is quickly broken down by how unfamiliar modern audiances will be with the content of the book. The book has a very ambivalent "moral system", where it is hard to discern what is good an what is evil - exemplified by the troubling relationship between religion and magic in this fictional universe. It is a work done in a style purposefully archaic, avoiding Latin-derived words to search for a purely English language paying homage to its Nordic roots. It is also a work with the traditional "flatness" of the medieval romances and illustrations: everybody happens on the same plane, there is no pause, no acme, everybody speaks the same way, and the same episodes return over and over again.

However as C.S. Lewis wrote, while Morris' style is very artificial, it shall be praised for being very simple, very obvious, very clear, "more so than any "natural" style could be". It is a form of stylistic sobriety that invites to see beyond the words. Morris' stories don't have a "set", a "stage" or a "decorum", they have a geography. Morris makes sure the reader can "breathe the air" of the mountains they read about. Morris started there this ideal that all fantasy authors seeks to reach, the same ideal that Tolkien popularized - but when Tolkien talks of the "tales of Faërie", he seems to be echoing and evoking the texts of William Morris. Simple, fundamental stories filled with light, that invite to look at things like everyday colors and rediscover them, and that get rid of banality and familiarity to literally "possess" the reader.

Anne Besson concludes by claiming Morris IS the Well which all the 1930s-onward fantasy authors drank from, as well as the more distant source of the flow of "new fantasy" of the 70s.

#williams morris #the well at the world's end #fantasy #fantasy literature #history of fantasy #tolkien #the lord of the rings #c.s. lewis #preraphaelites #anne besson #remember this is a loose translation/rushed info-mining by yours truly

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window-window · 26 days ago

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— VI. THE LOVERS

“NOW, MORE THAN EVER, YOU MUST CHOOSE LOVE -- FOR YOURSELF, FOR OTHERS, FOR THE UNIVERSE.”

UPRIGHT: love, partnerships, relationships, choices, balance, unity.

REVERSED: disharmony, imbalance, conflict, detachment, bad choices, indecision.

–––

DEX SABERHAGEN.

Last seen on January 20th. Dex was reportedly last at their university before his disappearance, participating in a survey related to Alon Agbayani's research for their dissertation. They'd arranged to stay later after school, and would return home late into the evening. Neither party left campus as far as anyone is aware.

PUBLIC BIOGRAPHY

A game design major with a minor in sociology. They were initially accepted into the college they attend on the grounds that they pursue studying applied analytical AI -- and allegedly knew enough about it to have already had experience building and working with professional programs, though that's only rumored -- but eventually changed degree programs with faculty permission.

Dex, under the online alias "Salem", is known to be working on several projects as we speak, largely by themself! These include Abyss, a game set at an unexplored depth in the ocean that draws inspiration from the escape room subgenre and survival horror, and I'll Be Better, a visual novel following an aromantic main character's slow detachment from their own personhood as they pursue compulsory romantic relationships and validation from several (terrible) choices to the extent that they lose who they are. He says he has more ideas, but none are fleshed out enough to formally bring up quite yet.

Not much is known about Dex. Public information just isn't really available; outside of their indie projects, any search of the name comes up nothing. The most you get is someone with the same surname who was once involved with an evangelical Protestant church in Morris County -- his mother, maybe? They look nothing alike, and Dex never talks about his home life ...

Interestingly, while they consider themself religious and attend church services, bot does not go to that one. In fact, he lives in an adjacent county altogether. Dex is noted to be friends with Leonid Simonyan, someone he sees both at these services and at school. He is also affiliated with voice actor Pablo Mercado-Moreno, though the exact nature of their relationship isn't clear.

He never brings that up, either. Aside from the technological world, and the topic of social interaction, they really don't bring things up on their own at all.

It's as if he appeared one day out of nowhere and is acting like he's been involved with the world the whole time. He also acts the part. Kind, social, but not engaged. Dex is often found in groups, rarely seen out and about by himself, but bot carries an air of detachment about them. They seem to like observing people more than they do actively interacting themself.

Dex isn't that talkative, often mumbles to himself and doesn't keep his hands still. Their speech feels almost scripted, and when not scripted it stilts. The way bot emotes in public spaces feels almost uncomfortable, like he somehow hasn't yet grown used to being around others. People find them strange.

An understanding person and fantastic listener. Indecisive, quick to fawn, folds under pressure. The universal donor.

FUN FACTS

– Cupioromantic. Specifying again here since not everyone may know what the fourth flag is, but Dex is canonically arospec.

– His hobbies outside of game development are very ... specific. They like painting rocks! And ... collecting sand samples? Why do they need that? They do not need to do that. Whatever, man, as long as he's having fun.

– Autistic; medium support needs. They particularly struggle with instrumental activities of daily living. Bot doubts he'll ever be able to live alone.

– They can write with both hands! Ambidextrous, if you will. (The joke here is that --)

– They don't swear, at all. They also rarely insult or even get openly upset with other people -- if they do, it's either accidental or their wording is light enough that the person may just not notice.

– Dex is terrible with directions. Just awful at navigating.

#window window #dex saberhagen ww

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being-of-rain · 2 months ago

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The last time I read an EDA, in 2024, I was on my flight to visit my girlfriend. This year I did the same thing. Which shows just how slowly I'm getting through this series. But hey, at least on this trip I read two of them! I'm forever optimistic that I'll pick up the pace eventually.

First things first, I'll talk about Anachrophobia. I'll make a second post about Trading Futures soon.

Anachrophobia is definitely one of the books that had been hyped up to me the most by EDA fans - and now that I've read it, I understand why! While I wouldn't personally rank it as one of my absolute favourites like some people would, it's an extremely atmospheric little sci-fi horror and it had me hooked. I'll start with what I liked, which is most of the book... and then move on to how the book ended. (So there'll be gradually heavier spoilers as this post goes on.)

Probably the best aspect of this book is how strong its aesthetics are. Consider the setting: A seemingly endless forest of dead trees that's forever a pitch black midnight and forever a bone-chilling snowy winter. An uninviting, utilitarian bunker with stark concrete walls that burrows several floors underground without much hope of protecting its occupants. Chunky computers and analogue clocks. Men in business suits and bowler hats. Soldiers and scientists being ground up by their capitalist system, who try not to give into despair while waiting for their next orders to help the war effort. Anachrophobia is bleak and brutalist, and, credit to Jonathan Morris, frankly a delight to read.

Add time-travel-related eldritch horror to this setting, and most of the book is a tense little base under siege story. I was almost surprised by how quickly things were moving when the majority of the supporting cast were dead (or undead) by the halfway point, but the remaining characters being forced to wait in a locked room while their enemy prowl the corridors outside just added to the claustrophobia. The book is well paced, and I'd say it definitely earns the eleventh hour setting change that it subtly builds up to.

It certainly doesn't earn every twist in its last act though. The book hopes that you overlook that one character vanishes for over fifty pages (which I didn't, as I was trying to keep track of where everyone was during the action), and then suddenly reveals that he's a robot. Which felt a little strange since I don't think it was hinted at before then. It makes for a good visual, at least.

The way that the Doctor defeats the unnamed antagonist is another thing that I'm not really sure if I liked or not. It played with the rules of the sci-fi elements in ways that hadn't been set up, and felt a little too much like making things up as it went for me. Which is a shame because it did have the makings of a great timey-wimey satisfying conclusion.

And another thing about the primary villain of the story (although not something that impacted my enjoyment of the book while reading it)... apparently they were intended by the author to be Faction Paradox, which is strange to me. That gels with their habit of forcing people to unwrite their own history, but in all other ways I really didn't get the Faction vibe. To me the villain felt far more like an eldritch and unknowable creature from outside spacetime than a society of refugees from another timeline.

Those are all minor nitpicks though. Now to talk about the other villain of the book, and the very ending. I might ramble a bit here. Halfway through the novel, it's heavily hinted that one of the characters, named Mr Mistletoe, is actually Sabbath. It's revealed that he has two hearts, and implies that one of them is the Doctor's. Now, I was a bit confused by that, because Mistletoe didn't act anything like Sabbath. And I was also excited by that, because ever since Henrietta Street I'd really been looking forward to Sabbath's proper second appearance. But that plot went nowhere for so long that I was starting to wonder if it was just trying to bait me into thinking Sabbath would be in this book. But then, literally two and a half pages before the end, Mistletoe reveals himself to be Sabbath. He tells team TARDIS that he brought them here, he "moulded your perceptions" of some of the adventure (with no explanation of how, why, when he did that, or what that means), tells them he's working with Evil Allies, then leaves as the book ends.

This all left me very disappointed. Not only did Sabbath only pop up at the very very end, but it felt like he was trying to take credit for everything while having seemingly no impact on the plot. I assume the "perceptions" he was moulding included Mistletoe's whole personality, but even so it felt more like something the Master would do than Sabbath, and one thing I really didn't want from Sabbath was to be a knock-off Master. The whole scene gave the impression that Sabbath was squeezed into the book at the list minute. And the fact that they didn't use his name during that scene also gave the strange impression that they were trying to avoid copyrite on him, which I have to assume wasn't the case(?) The arc elements that he hinted at didn't sound very interesting for the character either. Overall, the book raised my hopes for Sabbath's return, then made me wait over one hundred pages to disappoint me with a half-baked conversation at the end.

So yeah, it definitely felt like the book tripped and fell at the very last hurdle. It left a baffling and annoying taste in my mouth after finishing the book, but I'll try not to let that cloud my opinions of the rest of the story, which were very high. I can see why fans love this one so much. And it sure has motivated me to keep reading the series, so I can get up to a book where Sabbath actually fits into the plot.

#my thoughts #edas #eight #fitz #anji #the faction #sabbath

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todrobbins · 20 days ago

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vimeo

TREASURES OF SOVIET ANIMATION - VOLUME ONE from Deaf Crocodile on Vimeo.

Deaf Crocodile presents the first volume in a series of new restorations of classic and rare Soviet animated gems from the vaults of the legendary Soyuzmultfilm studios.

THE MYSTERY OF THE THIRD PLANET (TAYNA TRETEY PLANETY), 1981, Soyuzmultfilm, 48 min. Dir. Roman Kachanov. A trio of intrepid space explorers, Professor Seleznyov, his 9-year old daughter Alisa and the hilariously doom-and-gloom Captain Zelyonyy set off on a rocket ship in the year 2181 to collect rare alien creatures for the Moscow Zoo. They’re immediately drawn into an amazingly convoluted mystery involving a sinister doctor named Verkhovtsev, a nearly-extinct Chatter-bird, and two legendary missing cosmonauts, while galaxy hopping from one wildly colorful planet to the next. A delirious cosmic treat for fans of FANTASTIC PLANET and DELTA SPACE MISSION, MYSTERY… features a gallery of psychedelic space creatures straight out of YELLOW SUBMARINE. Based on “Alisa’s Voyage” by famed sci-fi author Kir Bulychev, Kachanov’s long sought-after gem packs enough plot, surreal imagery, and otherworldly worlds into its 48 minutes for an entire mini-series. In Russian with English subtitles. THE RETURN (VOZVRASHCHENIE), 1980, Soyuzmultfilm, 10 min. – In Vladimir Tarasov's mind bending psychedelic masterpiece, a sleeping cosmonaut hurtles unaware towards his home planet -- but will he awake in time? Newly restored by Deaf Crocodile. THE PASS (PEREVAL), 1988, Soyuzmultfilm, 30 min. “On this night, Oleg was on duty near the fence … He sensed the emptiness and the routine. Three times people went to the Pass. It was all in vain.” So begins Russian director Vladimir Tarasov’s sublime masterpiece of animated sci-fi in which a group of terrified human survivors on an alien world try to reach their derelict spacecraft 16 years after it crashed. On par with Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS and STALKER as one of the most hypnotic and visually stunning science-fiction stories ever filmed, THE PASS is filled with cascading, pulsating images: night creatures that bleed in from the darkness to attack, a cat’s eyes flickering in the candlelight, frightened children reciting stories of another planet, another time. THE PASS is the longest of Tarasov’s works and arguably his finest achievement, adapted from the first chapter in sci-fi author Kir Bulychev’s novel “The Settlement.” Both films were newly restored by Deaf Crocodile for their first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release. Co-presented with Seagull Films. In Russian with English subtitles.

Special Features:

Two new video essays on Roman Kachanov and Vladimir Tarasov by film historian Evan Chester New commentary track by Adam Rackoff, James Hancock and Martin Kessler New artwork by Beth Morris. Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion

Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:

Limited to 1250 units Slipcase featuring new artwork by Haleigh Buck 60-page illustrated book New essay by film historian & professor Jennifer Lynde Barker New essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central)

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mumblingsage · 27 days ago

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Remedy 1: Start at the End

If you start assessing the novel at the end you can see if the scenes all point in the direction you want them to. Or if there are bits missing, or parts that are too flabby.

Visual artists often do a similar thing. If they're drawing an object they're familiar with, they draw it upside down. [...] The purpose is the same--to see the detail and the shape afresh.

This is what happens if you assess the book as an end point and assemble it backwards. Suddenly you will see where you need to write more, and what is clogging the story up.

-Roz Morris, Nail Your Novel

#on writing #on editing #writing advice #revision advice #roz morris

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manicpixieyandere · 2 days ago

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An Analysis of the Vampire in Film Overtime

(You know what time it is, college essay time).

Vampires have always been one of the most popular monsters in horror. This all started with the release of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula in 1897. Ever since then, Dracula and vampires in general have been a part of mainstream pop culture. While vampires have extended to other genres beyond horror, they still reign supreme within the genre. As society has gotten more and more progressive, the vampires have been able to be more explicit in their metaphors of lust and desire without giving up their core roots.

In this essay three films from the vampire horror genre will be analyzed over time. All three of these films tie back to Dracula, some more than others. These three films are Dracula (1931), Fright Night (1985), and Nosferatu (2024). All of these films share similarities in the conventions of the genre. All of these films share the plot of a vampire causing many wrongs across town, and the protagonists must stop it while being hunted by the vampire. Within all of these films vampirism is sexualized and used as a metaphor for desire. Common visual indicators of the genre include dark gothic settings, fangs, blood, crucifixes. Vampires are known to blend desire with horror, and all three of these movies show that in their own ways, getting more and more explicit with time.

The 1931 Dracula movie is a condensed adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel. Many characters were eliminated from the movie all together, such as two of Lucy Westerna’ suitors: Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood. Lucy herself had most of her role within the story taken away and given to Wilhelmina Harker (such as the sleep walking). The character of R.M. Renfield within the movie is a combination of the book character Renfield and Johnathan Harker. Specifically taking Johnathan’s role as the real estate agent that sells Dracula his new home. Johnothan Harker is reduced to simply, John and stays the husband of Mina (Wilhelmina).

R.M. Renfield is sent to Transylvania to sell Count Dracula real estate in London. Dracula corrupts Renfield’s mind and the two sail to London together, master and familiar. The two share many scenes with queer coding, but as it was the 1930s; all hints are quite subtle. The two were also queer coded in the original novel. They can be read as a toxic romantic relationship (something expanded upon in the 2023 movie sequel, Renfield). It is also important to note that as stated previously, Renfield plays the role Johnothan Harker originally had in Dracula as the real estate agent trapped in Dracula's castle. Within the original book, Jonathan plays the role of Dracula’s gothic bride. The gothic bride is typically a damsel in distress, being held captive and manipulated by the monster, or are their prey. Johnathan in the book and Renfield in the movie fit this role well, all except of course that they are men.

Upon arriving in London, Dracula sets his focus on Mina while Renfield is locked in a mental ward. He tries to court Mina by biting her and turning her into a vampire. The vampire slayer Abraham Van Helsing (with the help of Dr. John Seward) is able to stake Dracula through the heart before Mina is fully turned. Dracula and Mina have a lot of romantic and sexual tension. For example, Dracula’s place of interest in biting Mina is her breast and he wishes her to be his. Mina though does not seem to be very interested in Dracula all that much. She has slight hints of desire but nothing more. This is as scandalous as the 1931 movie gets.

The movie follows the conventions of the genre quite closely and doesn't differ from them as it is really the inventor of such things in cinema. Or at least, one of the more well known ones. All the typical ones are there, a gothic setting, crucifixes, the vampire's fangs, the lust of vampirism.

Expanding on the genre is Fright Night. Times had drastically changed in the past 54 years between these two movies. While Fright Night is not a direct adaptation of Dracula, many of its characters and plot points come directly from the book / movie. The main character Charley Brewster is the Johnothan Harker of the movie, specifically the one who is there to protect his Mina. In this case the Mina of the story is Amy Peterson. Peter Vincent is a direct play on Van Helsing but with the twist he is really just an actor. Jerry Dandridge as the vampire is of course Dracula with his roommate, Billy Cole being a loose interpretation of Renfield, but instead of being his familiar, he is his golem.

In Fright Night Charley gets a new next door neighbor, Jerry. Many women go into Jerry’s house and are then later seen missing on the news. Charley also sees a coffin brought into Jerry’s home. This leads Charley to come to the conclusion his new neighbor is a vampire. None of his friends (Amy and Ed Thompson) believe him. He eventually gets so desperate he turns to an actor who plays a vampire hunter on TV, Peter Vincent. Peter doesn't believe him either but his friends are so desperate for help that they pay him to convince Charley he's wrong. The entire group soon find out Charley was right and must stop Jerry from killing them all. Jerry takes a particular interest in Amy.

Jerry lusts over Amy just as Dracula did with Mina. Fright Night gets more explicit though as more of Amy’s skin is seen when being bitten, there are also moans that can be read as sexual noises. Amy is also allowed to have stronger desire as she states in the movie she finds Jerry attractive. The queer coding of Jerry and Billy is also stronger than it was in the 1931 movie for Dracula and Renfield. Within the movie Jerry and Billy share a house, or as the kids say “and they were roommates”. They can be read as the weird gay couple next door. There are even scenes of them leaning on each other and wrapped around one another.

This movie breaks some conventions of the vampire genre. Yes, it has the typical vampire hunting the protagonist, crucifixes, fangs, blood, sexual desire, but it also breaks the visual settings. Most vampire stories are set in gothic settings, while Jerry’s house is gothic, the movie often leaves his house. A scene that really sticks out is Jerry hunting Charley and Amy at a nightclub. The scene is lit with neon colors and flashing lights, and yet the scene still retains its horrific elements, setting unease in the audience.

The last film of this essay is the 2024 version of Nosferatu. Ironically enough Nosferatu is a more faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula than the 1931 Dracula movie. Count Orlock is quite clearly Count Dracula. Thomas Hutter is Johnothan Harker (who is both the real estate salesman's and Mina’s husband). The Mina of the movie is Ellen Hutter. Lucy gets her major role back as Anna Harding. Albin Eberhart von Franz is Van Helsing. Dr. Wilhelm Sievers is Dr. Seward. Knock is Renfield (only the part of Renfield who is a patient at a psychiatric hospital). A character eliminated from the 1931 movie, Arthur Holmwood makes his grand appearance as the character Friedrich Harding, Anna’s husband.

The film first follows Thomas as he travels far out of the country to sell Orlock real estate, this time in Germany instead of London. Thomas gets trapped in Orlock’s castle but eventually escapes. It is important to note he played the role of the gothic bride here. Once Orlock is in Germany, the focus of the movie shifts more to Ellen and her connection to Orlock.

Both the lust of the monster and desire of the human have become much more explicit since the last film. Ellen explicitly explains to both Thomas and the audience that Nosferatu is a past lover of hers, a desire she is ashamed of. They even have sex at the end of the movie. Thomas gets a scene near identical to the one Jerry and Amy got in Fright Night. Orlock drinks from Thomas’ chest while Thomas moans: Additionally, Orlock is replaced with visions of Ellen in this scene, implying this is an act one would do with their lover. Ellen even directly states this later in the film. The Renfield character in this movie is also naked as he professes love to his master. All of these things would have never happened in 1931 and would most likely have the audience praying after seeing the film. Society has greatly progressed to allow these things to happen.

The film doesn't jeopardize its main conventions to have this evolution either. The gothic setting is even more intact than it was in Fright Night. The crucifixes, fangs, blood, desire, a vampire hunting the protagonists, it's all there. The movie is without a doubt a vampire horror film.

The main conventions of the vampire horror genre have not changed much if at all over time, but the explicitness of their metaphor of desire and lust has. The straight vampire human pairings do not have to hide their metaphor at all, the coding becomes text. The queer coding of the vampire and male human is still code but is slowly becoming more and more explicit. As the genre develops even more with time it is safe to say it will only get more explicit from here. Both in general and with queer representation. Maybe one day there will finally be a movie where Johnathan takes his rightful place as Dracula's gothic bride.

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renee-descartes · 8 months ago

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Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris

"'I never wanted this,' she confessed. 'Any of it- I'm sorry. I know I was supposed to. I really tried to want to be alive.'"

I thought it might be nice to do a book review (spoiler-free!) as I've just finished this one. Green Fuse Burning was recommended to me by a tumblr post about horror novels. I was drawn to it by published praise that Morris "masterfully reclaims cosmic horror from its white tradition," not that I can say I've read a lot of cosmic horror before, white or otherwise.

At 156 pages, I clocked a little under 2 hours read time, though I am a very fast reader. Though I sort of didn't expect it to after the first chunk, the novel drew me in. There isn't really a plot; if I described the main character's actions in chrono, it'd be about three sentences. It's a story told through dreamscapes so vivid it feels like you're seeing the paintings that are described every chapter. I just sank into the visions this book was portraying: of life coming from death, of alienation, of nature.

There were a couple moments where cliches dropped into the text in ways I found ineffectual. One line stuck out to me just because it felt so on the nose- "Her memories were colonized by trauma." These truly were my only gripes, though, and given they were specific lines rather than ongoing problems, it feels like nitpicking.

It's not that the book is art for art's sake- the themes are heavy with meaning, with importance. The book just cares a lot more about showing you those themes visually than acting them out narratively. If you're into that, I'd definitely recommend it. It was beautiful, it was easy, it made me want to go on my own weird artist swamp journey.

#green fuse burning #horror recs #horror books #book recs #book review #mine

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tattlestarbeepbop · 2 years ago

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I had to nab a no commentary playthrough to get the audio, but I really like how this turned out.

#cattrigger #date time #morris game #morris visual novel #date time morris #morris date time #joan and wes #if there are any more tags for this #please let me know

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borderlineseaweed · 2 years ago

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OKay! so I'm not dead,, yet-

So, I decided on the future of "One Day At a Time."

so far...

I will continue writing and expanding on it and the relationships/dynamics of the characters. (yippie)

The main point of view will still be in the eyes of Lizzie and Raz because I gravitated toward Lizzie once I saw her interactions with other interns and towards Raz. Although she is an overall jerk, she lightens up to Raz and the others later.

(Of course, she still teases him, calling him "pooter" and the confrontation with Cassie as the Green Needle Witch.)

More interestingly, Lizzie even later admits her true feelings towards her sister

"I just want to beat my sister, okay?!"

"I love my sister! There! I said it! I know she's a pill, but I love her anyway!"

Also, why did she sign up as an intern for the Psychonauts? Did Lizzie tag along because of her sister or because of something else?

I mean, everyone else has a reason:

Sam is already tied to the psychonauts with Compton Boole and family recognition.

Morris has a connection to Millia as a guardian/parental figure

Adam is a big psychonaut nut and the "big dog" of the group.

Gisu is a genius engineer working with Otto on dreams and psychic material.

Norma is an (egotistical) glory seeker seeking high recognition and a sense of accomplishment.

So yeah, just wanted to explore this character a little more.

Overall, this will be an add-on to my intentional one-shot

The setting is still around 1982-early 80's and will feature implied locations from memory vaults or ones already established. I do this because I love the lore and scraping everything I can from characters' dialogues.

Things might be expanded on:

Characters

Relationship building

Delugionists

Anti-psychic propaganda

International spy missions (MISSIONS! FUCK YEAH!)

Turmoil of elites and power

I will still make my art to coincide with my writing. I want to enrich my storytelling and aid as a visual guide. My guided style seems to lead into a graphic novel type and I suppose it is very fitting with the original idea of the fic. That, and I love maximalism art and I can sprinkle in Easter eggs.

I will open my ask box if you want one scene in particular to be drawn. I will gladly do so! :)

Given my circumstances as a (busy... Currently looking at my schedule, Jesus Christ-) student, updates will be sparse and few in-between.

However! Not all hope is lost because the Psychonauts 2 Art Book is close to finalization! The world of Psychonauts will be further explored, and more concepts will be covered! (double yippie)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Justice Warriors

Today (May 22), I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

Tomorrow (May 23), I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch for Red Team Blues that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

The internet did not create Matt Bors, but the internet would be a much poorer place without Bors and his acerbic, scorchingly funny webcomics, which he publishes at The Nib (a site he founded), amongst some of the web’s most iconic humor:

https://thenib.com/

Founding The Nib and creating a home for all those great webcomics would be legacy enough for one creator, but Bors monumental accomplishment with The Nib is topped by his savage creation, Mr Gotcha, the single most effective rebuttal to the most annoying Reply Guys on the whole internet:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Dayenu: if he had only founded The Nib, it would be enough. If he had only created Mr Gotcha, it would be enough. But Bors continues to amaze and delight. In Justice Warriors, a graphic novel he co-produced with Ben Clarkson, we get a distillate of all the weird, crazed things both grotesque and lovable about the net of a thousand lies:

https://membership.thenib.com/products/justice-warriors

Justice Warriors is what you’d get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola.

Outside of Bubble City is the Unoccupied Zone, which is very much occupied with a teeming assortment of motley mutants, themselves gripped by endless crazes, fads, and trending subjects. The Uzzers are Bubble City’s hated underclass, viciously policed by the Bubble City cops, who mow them down with impunity, crying about their impending PTSD as they work the trigger.

Justice Warriors is a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire. As Bors told Cy Beltran in Comics Beat, “The current moment is so many things at once, it’s an omni-crisis of politics and attention — that’s what felt important to tap into, that sense of frenzy you can barely keep up with.”

https://www.comicsbeat.com/matt-bors-justice-warriors-interview/

That’s the feeling of Justice Warriors, all right. As Bors puts it, they tackle “social media derangement, celebrity culture, investment schemes, mass movements, and A.I.” in a tale with more sight-gags, densely packed literary references, and savage takedowns per page than anything you’ve ever read.

The art in this book is spectacular, styled a bit like those ultra-busy Al Jaffee full-page MAD Magazine spreads, or the Moss Eisley Cantina, or the wild alien scenes from Ben Hatke’s YA classic Zita the Space Girl kids’ graphic novels:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/06/25/zita-the-space-girl-delightful-kids-science-fiction-comic-thats-part-vaughn-bode-part-mos-eisley-cantina/

But Justice Warriors is grosser, busier, and more frenetic than any of them. As Bors describes it, they created “a chaotic mutant-infested city that tops the most sensory-overloading cities in all of comics and animation.”

Justice Warriors is a mind-altering experience. If you liked Bubble, Jordan Morris and Sarah Morgan’s apocalyptic comedy podcast/graphic novel, you’ll love Justice Warriors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

This is a comic book the internet needs. In a century, when our mutant descendants wonder how it all went wrong, they can use Justice Warriors as a Rosetta Stone to make sense of the detritus of our civilization.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in DC, Toronto, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

[Image ID: A panel from Justice Warriors depicting a mob of motley mutants protesting over the financialization of bread. One shouts, 'Stabilize the economy!' Another shouts, 'Bread is not money!']

#pluralistic #gift guide #social media #reviews #books #graphic novels #science fiction #parody #matt bors

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byfurries4furries · 2 years ago

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Where the Demon Lurks (Supernatural Action Visual Novel)

So I've talked a lot about visual novels. As you may be able to tell, there's been a recent trend of thematically and emotionally intense furry visual novels in unconventional genres like horror, sci-fi, and fantasy (Well I haven't talked about any fantasy ones yet, but they are out there). And this bucks against the previous trend of most furry visual novels being slice of life dating sims. That isn't to say they're automatically bad, but they're typically not that enticing beyond aesthetics. Where the Demon Lurks doesn't fit either trend.

This game is much more in line with shonen anime and light novels. It takes a lot from the Devil is a Part Timer and borrows plenty from Mob Psycho 100, Naruto, Blue Exorcist, Black Butler, Sailor Moon, and even more unusual influences like Saiki K. It's not really common for even non-furry visual novels to stylistically be like this (at least for the ones that become popular in the West or are made by Western writers). It's very unique in that way.

But what is it about? Well you play as Kobu, the son of the last demon king who's inheriting his father's position after he died. Kobu, however, really hates this job. He at first tries to implement his own ideas, which constantly fail, because his assistant Vendrake flat out refuses to assist in implementing any of them because he is only really concerned with getting Kobu to basically do what his father did. Eventually, after years of this, he suspends Vendrake and contemplates quitting himself. Before he can make the decision though, Vendrake carries out a coup and drains Kobu of most of his magic, leaving him with only enough to open up one last portal to the mortal realm and put on his mortal disguise. There he builds a new life as a convenience store clerk along with his manager/new best friend, King. However, after a few years, Vendrake tracks him down and sends an assassin after him. In the scuffle though, King manages to get shot with the killing blow. Since harming mortals is EXTREMELY not allowed, the assassin is automatically returned to hell before he can finish off Kobu. King is fortunately still alive, but he's also transported to hell where the protocol is simply to immediately wipe his memory of hell and return him. Vendrake however exploits a loophole to hold him hostage so Kobu can come down to try to save him. He's going to need some help though. Fortunately, in the past few days, he's met some guys who might be able to figure out how to return him. There's Morris, the exorcist, Lucien, an angel sent by God to help Kobu take the throne back, and Toast, a very dumb ghost who somehow escaped hell.

Now there's a lot to love about this game. For one, it's pretty fun in the way a good shonen often can be and while it's not devoid of drama or emotion, it's certainly refreshing to see a furry VN that's funny and quirky more often than emotionally intense. There's also this amateurish charm to it. It's something I've always loved about Echo, but Where the Demon Lurks has a unique form of that charm. There's a sense that the developer, Bokedaidu, really loves what they're doing and are more concerned with making a fun story than making a very tightly written masterpiece. It's not trying to be the next Echo, Adastra, or Remember the Flowers. It's just trying to be entertaining. I can really admire that, especially as it fills a niche that most might not even notice was missing.

I would say if you don't want something as intense as the new crop of dramatic furry visual novels, but still want a story with higher stakes than "will the cute boy I like accept my love confession at the local festival?", then Where the Demon Lurks is perfect for you. However, if you do just want a slice-of-life smutty school romance, but with characters you can be sure are unique and likable enough that they could carry a higher stakes story if given the chance, then the spinoff, Kibbleton University, might be better for you. I will warn you that neither is very close to completion. Each route has barely even started and updates are pretty rare. Still, if you want a furry VN that stands out, Where the Demon Lurks might be for you. Until next time, keep on yiffing.

Links

Itch.io (Where the Demon Lurks)

Itch.io (Kibbleton University)

#furry game #furry media #furry #furry visual novel #visual novel #where the demon lurks #bokedaidu #bf4f

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cattrigger · 2 years ago

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The Making of 'No Robots Allowed'

A short visual novel I made, and how I made it.

No Robots Allowed - A Short Game in the Date Time❤️ Universe.

On Sunday, I released a small visual novel called 'No Robots Allowed', a post-apocalyptic comedy with a bit of romance & horror put in.

You’re at the doors of PARADISE…

…but it seems that the security protocol doesn’t trust you.

Can you prove you’re not a robot?

If you haven't played yet, check it out before reading the post!

Play the Game!

The Making of No Robots Allowed

This was for a game jam called "O2A2" (Only One of Any Asset), a minimalist focused jam that challenges developers to make a game with as little as possible:

-Only one character

-Only one background.

-Only one sound effect.

-Only one song.

-Less than a thousand words.

Game Jams are an amazing way to get started on game development, and O2A2 is both a challenge and an opportunity to work within constraints & make something without overexerting yourself with asset creation.

For last year's O2A2, I worked on "Long Time No Life", a romantic / comedy / drama about resurrection and love.

This year for "No Robots Allowed" I wanted to take the opportunity to expand a tiny bit into the universe of Date Time, while still making something unique that can stand on its own.

Design

Do you know I can do more than Pixel Art? It's true!

While the game does take place in the Date Time ❤️ universe, I also wanted to work on something that was very different from the 8-bit look.

I did want to make a more 'realistic' environment for this game, especially since it was going to be the environment the player was going to spend the entire time in. Even with Melissa❤️ & Morris❤️, I had different environments on screen to show variety.

The environment also had to be high detailed so that it wasn't tiresome to look at, and also allowed me the freedom to have the camera pan from one part to another to give a more dynamic feeling to a piece that would be largely static.

The environment is largely a mixture of flat color & texture, with blobs of lighting painted on top.

There were a few times I used photos, for instance, Petya's sides are actually ends of lightbulbs.

Our Robotic Protector

Petya, the security protocol, was originally a large robot with big hulking arms. On the screen, I drew them to have a head and face, similar to the characters of Melissa, Morris & Anna.

However, I made the decision to step back from giving them a 'human face', since technically Petya wasn't a "Date Time" software entity, they're developed for something completely different, and that would not require 'human features'.

I then made the decision to get rid of the 'body' in replacement of them being a hanging monitor.

Story-wise, it was convenient, as the entire theme of the game is about the separation of humans & robots, and having Petya being as visually non-human as possible was a cool way to drive the point home.

(Early version of the 'body-less' Petya concept)

A Mad Dash to the End

For me, development of a story for games is always an evolving element as the game gets closer and closer to finished.

I do always walk into a project with an outline, but things get altered so quickly as I begin drawing out assets and programming the game.

All of my game jam games have had some drastic changes late in their production cycle, and 'No Robots' is no different. A 'finished' version of the script was done Friday night, roughly a little over 24 hours until I was to publish the game.

Even during these late stages, I was still changing things. Adjusting designs of the face, adding / removing things in the story, and experimenting with new visual effects and shaders at my disposal.

I would love to say that I always walk into a game project with a strong and unchangeable plan, but that is just not how I work with games.

So much of my creative process is in the moment, and veering into new avenues that I may not have considered during the sketchbook / concept phases of the game.

Speaking of facial expressions, for instance, Petya's 'face' wasn't finalized until I was nearly done with the script. At the end of Thursday, I drew the first 'pack' of expressions for Petya based on what I 'felt' was most fitting for them.

Obviously, this system just wouldn't work under other team setups. If I was a dedicated artist on a project, and someone ELSE was writing. I definitely would be annoyed if the writer dropped me an insight on how a character would look 48 hours before everything was to be due.

I am a professional artist in another industry, and you never want to be 'that guy'.

Causing psychological damage ON YOURSELF though, is a little bit more acceptable. And... sometimes FUN! :D

Will We See Petya in Date Time?

I'm surprised by all the positive feedback I got for Petya, so I guess at this point I don't have any choice.

Thank you everyone for playing 'No Robots Allowed', more Date Time content is incoming.

#visualnovel #gaming #gamedev #indiegames #illustrator #vndev #vn development #indiedev

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