#I can’t believe I’m drawing fan art for a podcast that has existed for like 3 weeks I need to be doing my thesis

[squigglywitch]

Okay I KNOW we don’t know anything about their relationship yet, but hear me out,,, they are red and blue and sunshine and grumpy . . . Suvi said her favorite color was red as a kid . . . They have so much History . . .

[noa-nightingale]

Queer Watcher 2020

I am looking back on this weird, not-so-wonderful year - and on the ways @wearewatcher made my 2020 so much more wonderful. Originally, I wanted to list all the highlights I could think of, but one of the things I am most grateful for is Watcher’s inclusion and support of LGBTQ+ folks. I am just one queer person but I know there are many more in this fandom.

So, this ended up being a list of things I, as a queer person, appreciate and enjoy, and I am so so happy that I can write this. Buckle up, I have Things to say, and it is going to be emotional.

Ryan’s Pride shoes. I sometimes wonder how many sales Converse owes him. I love my own pair btw.

“Look, all I’m sayin’ is, y’know, hey, uh, love everybody.” - Shane Madej, Gangly Puppet Freak. A PSA from the Weird/Wonderful Shakespeare Theatre vid, regarding bisexuality - he is so awkward with it lmao. Whole video has really great vibes too.

Steve/Stephanos.

Various tweets, including wishing us a happy Non-Binary People’s Day and a happy Trans Awareness week.

Ryan and Shane including their pronouns in their twitter bio. (Little things like this don’t go unnoticed, and they are very appreciated.)

Gay Oars! Ugh, my heart. Their first appearance totally caught me off guard, and I haven’t recovered since. (I also causes me no small amount of joy that the most romantic and tragic song of all time is called “Gore on the Shore”.) I could yell about my love for these guys all day. It is a beautiful thing that these characters exist.

Gay Oars, again - I knew they would show up and I still was not prepared. The song made me cry. I haven’t recovered from that one either. I love the progression from the first, tragic song to the second, joyful and loving song. I have so many emotions about these oars, I probably could make an entire list just for them. (Little fun fact: Even though the song made me cry, my first reaction to that episode was to go on tumblr and yell about it excitedly. Like, I was emotional but in an enthusiastic kind of way. The more difficult emotions hit me about four days later, for some reason. And then I sat in my room and cried my eyes out. Like, as much as I like being queer, sometimes it is just damn hard and the pain seems too much and you have been hurt over and over and don’t know if you can ever recover from it. And it is just really good to know that someone cares about your wellbeing as a queer person. Even if you have never spoken to that someone and he does not even know of your existence. And to be honest, I don’t always know how to deal with that. The kindness? The genuine allyship? I have no idea how to handle that, and it simultaneously heals and breaks my heart.)

Every time the words “his boyfriend” were uttered; I am especially thinking of Are You Scared here.

All the fan art Watcher inspired and continues to encourage and to support. There are many great artists in the fandom! And Watcher’s content inspires me to draw and create more myself! How wonderful!

Toxic masculinity who? It is nowhere to be found.

This... special kind of gentle and kind weirdness? It honestly had such a positive impact on me and the way I interact with other people and let them interact with me.

All of the wonderful people Watcher brought in. I am sure they will work with more amazing folks and I am really looking forward to that. Personally, I am hoping to see Eugene Lee Yang at some point. (Would be really happy to see Thomas Sanders too.)

Here’s What You Do. Just the whole podcast. It was such a delight.

I was hesitant to include this because I believe many of us have negative memories attached to it, and it was not a fun time for anyone (including the lovely people at Watcher themselves). But, yes, I am mentioning it: That one HWYD episode and the follow-up. I can only speak for myself, but the follow-up has an incredibly special place in my heart. To me, it is one of the most important videos Watcher has created. I watched it several times, I journaled about it extensively and it made me a better ally. Hell, I even showed it to my mother and one of my siblings (like, the entire video). I know it was a difficult thing to talk about but at this point: A HUGE thank you to Steven, Ryan, Katie and Shane for handling this in an absolutely fantastic way. I feel welcome and seen and appreciated, and in the end all I want is this: For people to genuinely give a shit about me as a queer person.

On a more lighthearted note, I enjoy it way too much that Ryan is able to say “LGBTQ” without stumbling over the letters. It seems like such a tiny thing but it brings me an unholy amount of joy.

The Professor. I don’t want to call him LGBTQ+ because that has not been confirmed as canon but he IS comfortable wearing clothes that are typically seen as “women’s clothing”, and as a trans/non-binary person I am kind of obligated to mention it.

I think I had an out of body experience when Ryan said “Oh thank you baby” to Steven in Too Many Spirits. Then I had to pause the episode to finish laughing. And then they brought it back in the next episode. Bless them.

Every time they/them pronouns were said.

The entire Hatshepsut PH episode. What can I say, I like it when gender norms/expectations/roles are broken. And even if we can’t call Hatshepsut trans by today’s standards, declaring yourself another gender has such power.

Without giving too many details: I had my struggles and problems in the past with Christianity and ~certain~ Christian people, and it is really good (and I mean REALLY good) to see someone whose faith and integrity are so interwoven and who is inspired by his faith to do good things and to do right by people. I obviously only know the things about his belief that Steven decides to put on the internet but what I’ve seen is almost healing to me, in a way. I am very grateful and happy that he is willing to educate others and to keep working on himself. Warms my heart.

The certainty with which these beautiful people call themselves allies.

Just... the general kindness and compassion, and the willingness to listen and to grow. I promise you, we notice and we love you for it.

I could have expanded on all of these points but I tried to keep this short.

And look. I don’t want to put anyone on a pedestal; that would not be fair. I am just immensely grateful for kind people who genuinely care and who genuinely try to do right by others and to bring joy to others.

And I know we like to have fun here but Watcher’s content is just a lot more than entertaining, meme-able fun (although it is that too, of course).

I had a blast with it this year and I am very much looking forward to the next year. I feel like I can’t adequately put into words the myriad of little (and not so little) ways these people have made my life better this year. Thank you from the bottom of my aroace, non-binary heart.

[arecomicsevengood]

“Follow Your Own Star”

Lately I’ve found it hard to shake the feeling that everything of value is being destroyed, but we are being given simulacra in exchange, while we wait, to soften the blow. The relationship between the U.S. economy and what actually has value is basically nil, obviously, and COVID has only highlighted that, but beyond that, being in isolation has brought to light how much of what I consider “real” because it exists outside the bounds of money is nonetheless vulnerable. We’ve been given podcasts to fill our working hours with parasocial relationships where once we may’ve had genuine camaraderie with our coworkers. We’re given desultory political candidates to vote for in the absence of those who would govern in accordance with our actual beliefs. It feels like an elaborate art heist is taking place, where the masterpieces are exchanged for forgeries, and the endgame of those seeking to enrich themselves is to set a bonfire of all that’s made us human, all we’ve invested our true selves into. All this can occur only because our relationships have been made increasingly transactional already. I wondered at the start of quarantine how many couples, with the ability to see one another in the flesh compromised, had switched to having “sex” over Skype, how many intimate relationships were compromised by distance into resembling cam shows. Partly this curiosity was a way of comforting myself, as I came to the understanding that I would not be entering into anything approaching a real romantic relationship for the foreseeable future.

In the context of all of this, reading a book that feels reminiscent of the work of another artist feels like a minor thing, but it slips easily enough into the larger pattern. After reading Roaming Foliage by Patrick Kyle, I thought “Huh, this is very much a CF/Brian Chippendale thing.” Then, after reading Eight-Lane Runaways by Henry McCausland, I thought, “Oh, this is even more like a CF thing.” Both are, I think, appropriate for kids, which Powr Mastrs isn’t, but I also never read Powr Mastrs and felt like the thing that made it good was its BDSM pornography elements. People have been biting CF’s style for years — enough for him to address it with a little note in the third Powr Mastrs book, instructing them to “follow your own star.” Simon Hanselmann admits the similarities between the character design for Owl and a character in CF’s story in Kramers Ergot 5, Hanselmann’s subsequent popularity seems to suggest a moment where something becomes less of a direct influence and more just something that exists generally in the world. It’s art: Inspiration, influence, and appropriation are all part of the game. Reading Hanselmann, I’ve wondered what his work would’ve been like before exposure to his most obvious influences; reading these, I wondered instead if they would still have been made had Powr Mastrs 4 ever come out, to finish out the story and close the system; it feels like, in a transactional relationship between artist and audience, the fact of a work remaining unfinished makes it more socially acceptable to steal from. For instance, think of the debt Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain owes to Rene Daumal’s Mount Analogue. It feels like an attempt to create something with an ending, to satisfy a desire for the logic to reach its conclusion. The comics fulfill a certain set of expectations, I found them a pleasant enough experience, satisfying on a certain level. However, on a deeper level, I found them completely unsatisfying, because they speak so directly to a sense of unfulfilled potential. They lack the thrill that CF’s comics provide, of totally transcending any expectations placed on them.

Measuring the impact made by CF, Paper Rad, and the Fort Thunder contingent is difficult to calculate, because there were so many radical gestures inside that work, and while some have been metabolized, others have not. The “reclamation of genre material in an art-school context” is maybe the most readily understood. Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit probably wouldn’t exist were it not for these comics, but that’s such a “who cares” for me, such a dumbed-down and simplistic understanding of what makes these comics good. The silkscreening of covers is close behind, in terms of something that people really ran with. That’s fine, no one owns silkscreening, it looks great. What hasn’t really been reckoned with are the gestures against commodity fetishism. Paper Rodeo is progenitor of the free comics newspaper format, but the work that ran there is so much wilder than what you see in what followed, and most of it was anonymous. I understand why that was a gauntlet that wasn’t picked up, but is still one of the things that made an impact on its initial readership. Similarly, I haven’t seen anyone steal the CF format of the single-sheet xerox, with comics on the front and back. I guess that’s not surprising! But honestly? Sick format.

I’ve just been talking about comics, but Lightning Bolt playing on the floor is its own radical gesture, albeit one with an obvious precedent in the form of Crash Worship. The Forcefield oeuvre is its own thing. Those videos are great! The animation made out of photographing the cutting layers of multicolored clay… I wonder how much of this stuff hasn’t been picked up on because it’s the last stand of working with real world physical materials, before the coming of digital as the default medium for art students to work in. Obviously, the silkscreening has similar roots in physical media, and playing on floors relates directly to how you communicate with people when you’re in the same physical space as them. Real world community has distinct advantages, but many that came after took the trade for the benefits working digitally provides. Anyway. I could write a 33 1/3 book proposal for Lightning Bolt’s Ride The Skies that addresses all this stuff, but I also believe I would not be the best person to write such a book; I suspect those better suited would not be interested.

There is something so exciting about artists whose work feels overflowing with ideas, not just on a level of concept or drawing but also in terms of how the work is presented. That whole Providence/Picturebox crew was so abundant with this creative ferment that when I see others picking up on individual threads it makes sense on a certain level — you want more of a certain thing — but if it’s not backed up by something distinctly unique, as a reader I’m hyper-aware of what’s absent.

These artists also made books, and records, and it was their doing so that brought their work to a larger audience, including me. Not everything has to be a gesture against making money. But at the same time, radical gestures suggest the benefits made in fostering community work out better in the long term than leveraging oneself to be consumed as a commodity does. This is not to suggest that McCausland or Kyle are doing something wrong that will sabotage some sort of grand plan for utopia: I’m really just riffing here. If I buy electronic music mp3s online, I’m not necessarily going to lament the death of live music performance the same way I do when buying the mp3s of a jazz act. Looking at a contemporary superhero comic that feels dire and ugly will make me nostalgic for the Mike Parobeck comics of my youth, but a contemporary black and white zine exists in a completely different universe and might not remind me of anything. Certain things make you miss the world that was more than others.

It’s also worth noting that by all accounts Patrick Kyle has a bunch of people online ripping off his style but I have successfully been able to avoid such people. While Roaming Foliage is consciously modeled after the sort of weird adventure comics of not just Powr Mastrs, but also Brian Chippendale’s If N Oof,  What I am most often seeing and thinking “that’s a ripoff” is the presence of these geometrical patterns which are also similar to design choices made throughout his oeuvre. There’s a chaotic, obfuscatory energy approach to comics that he works with frequently, but so much of his other comics feel dark, melancholy, or paranoid whereas this feels much lighter in its tone. At the same time, compared to the claustrophobia of Don’t Come In Here, having his characters move about makes for an adventure narrative. Watching them wander, interact, and be given quests and goals belongs to this tradition that’s not unique to the Picturebox artists — but the feeling that this fantasy material was arrived at through adventure games like Zelda moreso than Tolkien makes for this sort of… generational level of familiarity, rather than seeming to occupy some sort of Campbellian myth-space, if that makes sense. The strangeness of Kyle’s art, where backgrounds overtake figures, suggests a sort of PC glitching, almost like the Cory Arcangel/Paper Rad collaboration Super Mario Movie, but achieved through photocopier technology of blowing up and distorting images. It is the sensation of a feeling being chased after that makes the book feel less exciting and more melancholy, though subsequently, that darker feeling might make the book slot into Kyle’s oeuvre so much that bigger fans of his might not even notice the resemblance I’m seeing.

McCausland has a list of acknowledgments in his book which includes CF alongside Herge and Otomo. I can sort of see them all, but Herge especially is an influence that’s been so widely absorbed by comics as a whole that I really only feel particularly aware of it in the case of Joost Swarte or something. McCausland’s resemblance to CF is reinforced by things as molecular as a resemblance in the lettering, which is really odd. The figures all have this youthful smallness to them, and I can’t tell if the characters are meant to be young specifically or if it’s just the way he’s learned to draw. I can see Otomo, but it’s definitely approached through the CF filter. Other trademarks, like the rendering of geometric shapes, the patterns of parallel lines, seems integrated, highlighted, by the “racetrack” premise that gives the book its name. However, he distinguishes himself because his work is more constantly busy, with the same general level of detail. There’s also these trees in the background, which seem like they’re rendered as these painted soft grey daubs, a type of texture you don’t see in CF’s darkened pencil work.

His storytelling is different, prone to large spreads, or showing the same character multiple times in a panel as they move across the landscape. (The dimensions of Eight-Lane Runaways are considerably larger than those of Powr Mastrs.) There are nonetheless panels that seem exactly like CF drawings, but with a less cryptic sense of humor. It feels more populist, like it’s based around what a person liked, and in the act of working it out, subtracted the mystery. What would’ve been a detailed “money shot” in a CF sequence is here the baseline level of drawing detail that never gets subtracted from. It’s really fascinating to me how this makes it less good, I think many people would prefer it.

I wrote most of this before learning that Anthology is releasing a new CF book next week. You can order it and see preview images at the Floating World site. You can draw your own conclusions. CF’s on his own path such that you might not even note a resemblance between his new images and McCausland’s. We’re all living on the same planet, orbiting the same sun in an expanding universe, subject to the will of an accelerating time.

[wholelotofweird]

Hi! Hello!

I recently had the huge privilege of working on the Season 4 Cover Art for the Actual Play Podcast @crudelydrawnswords​ (listen here!! or on your podcatcher of choice).

Part of that process was helping design new outfits for The Hawks and I just want to talk about my thoughts through that process! 

First, I think the evolution of my personal designs for them is important because it fully informs where we ended up, I think. 

When I first considered doing fan art I looked around for any existing fan art, this is something I always do, I think maybe to feel like I’m not WAY off base? (Which is super silly, get off base with fan art! That’s why it’s fan art!) But I do it. 

I think this piece of art by CDS’s own Magnus (follow Mag on twitter!) was if not THE first, one of the very first pieces I saw:

This image really heavily played into how I drew The Hawks. ESPECIALLY the color pallets. There are some real obvious similarities between this and where I ended up for a couple reasons. 

Despite the changes I’ve made to their designs I’ve always thought it was important to keep their main colors intact, Bambari in browns, Tristan in reds, Percy in stark silver, and Enigma in green. 

Keeping their colors consistent has been a specific choice on my part, largely to pay homage to this specific image, and partially for visual consistency. Meaning, even if I messed with the structure of the outfit, the vibe would remain (hopefully). 

I think this is most obvious with every group and “special” group art I’ve done of The Hawks. Here’s a couple examples of what I mean by “different structure, same vibe”:

The two pieces have very different fashion choices, but the intent was to remain true to the characters through the use of color. 

Percy: Well put together with colors that invoke the sky just before a storm, combined with over-polished silver. 

Tristian: Reds and blacks, with pieces that are very flashy. 

Enigma: Green and simple, something easy to move in. The one time I drew her in a skirt I tried to make it obvious that it was as easy to move in as possible. 

Bambri: Browns, simple, fabric textures that are basic, no attempts to evoke fancy fabric. 

Color, for me, does a lot of heavy lifting when I draw The Hawks, the colors are always a conscious choice, even down to the little stuff like “How sunburned should Tristan be?” “Which of them should have similar eye colors?”. I mention this, because it was a factor I very much kept in mind when designing the Season 4 art. 

Sooo, with all that in mind, let’s chat about the outfit drafts I came up with! Shout out to Ben (twitter here!) who was my point of contact for all of this. He had a very clear vision for what the energy of the cover art should be, as well as passed on the style references from The Hawks. 

We’ll start with Percy, I’m just going to cut and paste the brief I got from Ben: 

Percy will look less the knight in shining armour. The armour is tarnished, he is wearing tattered robes over it, he perhaps looks a little careworn but there is focus in him as well. 

He also sent a couple of reference pics that were very influential. With those together I ended up with these 4 variations: 

There’s some real difference from 1 to 4. The thoughts I had were along the lines of:

1: Very close to the reference image I liked most

2: Fun, funky, more visual interest and still very much showing off his Paladin garb.

3: Low key, with still a touch of the regal vibe I try to insert into him (it’s the cape.)

4: VERY MUCH PALLY, despite liking this choice, It is def the furthest from the reference I was sent. I included because I wanted to make sure there was still the option of showing off his Pally side. 

In each of the 4 designs there is either an obvious scarf or (in the case of 1) the hint of a scarf shape. A scarf was not a feature of his design before this, it was a feature of the design I had most recently landed on for Bambari. It was VERY important to me to have SOME sort of visual touch that connected the two. 

You can also see I went for similar brown shades and Fabric Styles, again, it was absolutely on purpose to draw a connection between the two. 

Onto Tristan!

Again, from Ben:

I think we have already raised the likelihood of Tristan being dressed absolutely in the style of "Welcome To The Black Parade" era MCR.

I wish I could describe the feeling I had when I read this. It was intense, visceral, joy. Not only were MCR a part of my heavy rotation through High School, but The Black Parade is so visually “my shit” it’s not funny. If I could draw every character in a Marching Band Inspired Outfit I would 1000% do it. 

The downside of this specifically, is there aren’t a TON of variations to play with. So, I mostly went wild with Jackets. 

I wanted to make sure I kept the very ornate feel, while also staying true to marching band. For folks that were part of marching band (waddup), you’ll notice that the pants in 1 and 3 are absolutely the baggy look that that is the most true to the vibe, but they aren’t the most true to Tristan T. Wilde, world famous bard. 

One of the extra variations of this I sent off for approval had red accents, but I’ll be honest, I’m glad that the final choice was for all sliver and white. Choosing to remove the red from his outfit completely sends a big visual message about where his character is at currently. 

You can see in all 4 options the coat has some form of sharp arrow style cut. I was important to me to keep him from looking boxy, and keep his outfits looking very specifically Fit For Him. 

And Enigma! Once more from Ben:

I don't have a definite visual reference for Enigma yet, but she is a Ranger now.

And she has a magpie.  

So. Uh. Initially that isn’t a lot to go on. But, I’ve been drawing Enigma for A WHILE, I felt confidant that I could direct myself to something that was very “Authentic” Ranger. 

After about 9000 google searches, I came up with 4 ideas. 

Boy howdy. I think her’s may be the most diverse, style wise. I’ll be honest, I love all of these. There are certainly a couple who are less Her than I would normally go for, but in each of them, I tried to make sure there were Obvious Engima Touches.

3 is perhaps the least interesting, as it was the most similar to how I had already been drawing her. 

1 & 2 (and a little bit 4) were an excuse to draw muscle definition, no doubt, don’t @ me, I think it’s important to note that by this point I had been binging F@TT, so 1 is ABSOLUTELY inspired by art I have seen of Hella, you are free to @ me about that. thank you. 

ANYWAY, with all of these I again considered the fact that even if she was no longer a rogue, she wouldn’t be giving up her amazing parkour skills, so she would still need to flip about. 

2 & 4 were designed specifically with that in mind, as in: What will look coolest when she’s flippin’ around? 

And if you’re looking at any of these and thinking: Hm, there are some design elements here that I used for Bambari’s design, again you are correct. I was less concerned with making the connection obvious here than I was with Percy, but I still wanted to insert some of that. 

Later, Ben mentioned that if we could a little more Aloy from HZD that would be ideal. 

SO! HOW DID ALL OF THAT COME TOGETHER?

I’m glad you asked. 

I’m so glad that even with these changes I was able to keep most of the color standards for The Hawks. 

Enigma is still in green. 

Percy still has that silver, even if it isn’t as bright. 

Tristan no longer has red, but my hope is that his attitude still stands out. 

They’ve been through a lot, but they are still them. 

I will admit, there was a selfish part of me that was truly glad with the choices the players made here. Despite really loving all of the outfit choices, these were my favorite from a narrative arc standpoint and also from a re-draw-ability standpoint. 

If you’ve made it this far... Shit dude. 

Thank you. 

I have a lot of feelings about this show and I still can’t really believe I was asked to do this. It was a delight working with Ben to make this vision into a reality. 

The Hawks truly are rad as heck. 

[nirvhannahcornell]

Firstly I would like to mention this is NOT the real nirvhannahcornell, this is a burner account made to call out her questionable and horrible actions. The real nirvhannah is known now as “josiebelladonna” and can be found here: @josiebelladonna​. She changed her URL and didn’t save this one so I jumped on the golden opportunity. 

Some of you may be familiar with Hannah, you’ve probably seen her around on your dash, in the tags of your favorites. She’s there posting fanart and fanfiction, it seems all like harmless fun on the surface. But deep below there’s a grim fuckin reality, a reality no one is talking about. We’ve all sat back and watched her hellish meltdowns. Picking fights with her “fans” because they like her post opposed to reblogging them, getting in public squabbles with her friends over petty shit. We’ve sat back and stayed silent, but I’m not staying quiet any longer. I’ve tried sending her asks to explain herself and without fail every time she’s said tumblr fuckin “ate them” so the next best thing was a public callout. Let’s see the matrix glitch this shit.

The perfect place to begin with her fucking crimes have to be how she tries to push the idea that she’s mixed. I’m fully aware it’s fucked up to call someone’s race to attention like this, and I definitely wouldn’t be if she wasn’t completely faking and tossing racial slurs around like her lilywhite ass can claim them. To my knowledge and to the research I’ve done, Hannah isn’t mixed. Her dad and brother are fully white and so is she. She’s tried to claim having “african blood” and “native american blood” (of course she says I*dian but we’ll get into that later), but from what I’ve seen there is no “african blood”, I’m 100% sure she did a test on ancestry.com and saw she was .0000001% african american and decided to call herself mixed. The “native american blood” she claims to have is ALLEGEDLY from her great grandfather, but I’d take that fact with a grain of salt because she seems to be a compulsive liar.

(Note how her racist ass unabashedly says I*jun for everyone to see. But it’s okay guys, she’s 1/64th Native American!)

(Here she is claiming to be mixed race. Notice how she says “I*dian roots” and “African Blood”. That shit busted as fuck like what the fuck does she even…)

(Here’s some more posts claiming to have “black heritage” and then somehow making it about how Joey “talked about her” on a podcast. (I’ll get into that too (: )

This isn’t the first instance of her using racial slurs publicly for you me and god to see. We’re all looking and I wish I couldn’t see. Here’s a few examples. 

(“My I*jun boy” “I*jun orange” I literally cannot make this bullshit up.)

(“My I*dian beauty” “my favorite I*dian'' (she is also grungeandmetalfanfics btw!!))

She claims she can say these things, I guess because she’s .0000000004% Native American! Makes it a-OK! I guess because she has “African Blood” she can say the N-Word then? No? Oh well, she did it anyway! 

(Her argument, I’m guessing, is she can say I*jun because Joey (an actual Native American man) says it. Which makes no fucking sense because shes fucking white she can’t say it.)

If this wasn’t insane enough. As if it could possibly get even more horrible. She is overall just genuinely a bad person. If you ever supported her art with a like, you would know. Because apparently that shit peeves the fuck out of her. Even though you’re showing your support she loses her fucking mind when you don’t reblog anything she’s produced. (I don’t blame you it’s shit anyways) And then tries to guilt all of her followers into reblogging her shit. It’s manipulative and horrible. 

(this didn’t last of course she's too full of herself to stay away.) 

Note how she makes it seem like she was blessing us with her content. Did you know she existed before this? She plagues fandom tags with her shitty fanart and fanfiction thinking we should bow to her and be fucking blessed with her presence. Maybe we should, she claims to have a fond relationship with Chris Cornell!

Oh.. Wait…

(one of the 2 interactions she had with him, both pertaining to fanart she drew. He would do this often, respond to fans and their fanarts. This is nothing special)

(Her dad calling her out on her delusions) 

Don’t let her fool you. Her and Chris Cornell didn’t know each other, they weren’t friends. Chris had no clue who she was beyond the fanart she made for him. She’s literally so deep in this fantasy she’s insane enough to think she could’ve prevented Chris’ suicide. 

(She also believed ben shepherd was in love with her. She sent him a letter and he didn’t respond. Apparently he owed something to her because she opened up to him via letter and, as you would expect a famous person who definitely has someone who goes through their mail for them, he didn’t respond. I don’t know how in the FUCK she ever got the idea that he was in love with her. I don’t know what in the FUCK is wrong with her. She eventually got pissed because she found out he had a kid with his girlfriend? And apparently he was supposed to tell her? She’s fucking delusional look into that if you want, I don’t have enough time or evidence for that one, it’s certainly a lot.) 

A new installment in her delusions is the infamous Jasta Show feat. Joey Belladonna. It’s a 2+ hour long podcast where they mostly talk about the pandemic and what not, current events going on. Allegedly, in this podcast, Joey says Hannah’s name. 

I sat through the entire podcast (Joey says holy cow about 5 fucking times) and timestamped at 106:58 they start talking about Chris Cornell. To which Joey says “oh, we talked about him yesterday because some girl was drawing some stuff- she liked him a lot. and I thought about him too.” Nonspecific. Plain. There’s no fireworks or warmth or whatever the fuck. He mentions that and moves on. I’ve timestamped it for you all, the podcast is free to listen to, you can all listen to it yourself. (The Jasta Show 517 Joey Belladonna) Unless her name is “some girl” there was no name drop. 

(no one gave a shit because it wasn’t that big of a fucking deal “some girl”) 

Don’t let her fool you with her delusions. She also makes it seem like her and Krista (Joey’s wife) are friends when really Krista likes most all posts that are #joeybelladonna on Instagram. They aren’t close, they aren’t buddies or whatever the fuck. 

(Here’s that one shit she keeps talking about raw fucking format or some shit idk it’s a fucking side project Joey started that’s probably not even Joey messaging her they have 140 something followers I don’t even feel like getting into this dumbassery. Fucking clown.)

If you aren’t convinced enough in her insanity. Hannah has literally used Cliff’s accident as a plotpoint in her shitty fanfiction. Yes,that's right. She’s used Cliff Burton’s real life tragic accident as a plotpoint in a fanfiction with Joey and Lars. Not only did she do that, but she shoehorned Joey into the fucking accident. Like they’re all fictional characters. It’s fucking vile and insensitive. 

(The fucking post she linked was the infamous pic of Lars, James and Kirk after the accident)

In conclusion, Hannah is batshit crazy. She’s insane. She wants us to believe she’s mixed because she’s obsessed unhealthily with Joey Belladonna and wanting to look and be like him. She wants us to believe she’s friends with all of these musicians, that they’re in love with her. That they were close. None of this is true. She’s just a lying, rude, self centered, fucking psychotic bitch and if you know her I’d suggest staying away. 

Not even her fucking friend wants to be involved.

[callunavulgari]

TOP 25 FICS OF 2019

1. these roads will take you into your own country by @notbecauseofvictories | American Gods | Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney | WIP | 33k

Here’s a joke for you: a Muslim, a zombie, and a leprechaun walk into a bar in Misery, Indiana. No one stares, because no one in the puckered, shitty asshole of Misery, Indiana gives a fuck. The Colts are playing.

Heather Says: So. It’s funny that another of @notbecauseofvictories‘s stories is at the top of my list again this year. Keep in mind this list is sorted by when the fic was read rather than favorites (because that would get real complicated real quick). Clearly there must be something about January. There’s just something about the writing that is easy to slip into, be it a Star Wars fic or a Labyrinth fic or even a fic about Johnny and the Devil. This was lovely and I can’t wait until it’s finished.

2. eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by @honkforhankcon | Detroit: Become Human | Hank/Connor | 91k

Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.

Heather Says: I don’t think that this is the first DBH fic that I sought out after beating the game, but it is the first that I loved enough to make it to this list. I didn’t think that I would go for a modern au for this fandom, certainly not a modern au wihere Hank is a truck driver and Connor is a sex worker (albeit briefly?) but here I am.

3. Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps) by ImogenGotDrunk | Detroit: Become Human | RK900/Gavin Reed | 41k

After the android uprising, Connor becomes a permanent fixture in the DPD. That’s fine. Gavin can accept that. The dipshit’s more human than he used to be, and a decent detective to boot. Gavin can deal with him being around. What Gavin cannot deal with is Connor’s replica; two inches taller, blue-eyed, and with a mouth that Gavin doesn’t know whether to punch or take between his teeth. The RK900 model has been assigned as his partner for the foreseeable future.

Heather Says: I also never thought that I’d like a fic with Gavin in it. But I got curious about all the Reed900, and well, this fic really won me over. The writing is fantastic, and it softens Gavin while still keeping him believable. Also, well, I like the enemies to lovers thing.

4. Almost Cool by @blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 30k

While filming the Yuma Territorial Prison episode, Shane gets bitten by what he thinks is a bat. Spoiler alert: it's not.

Heather Says: This is actually the first thing that I read for this fandom. In fact, this is the fic that got me into Buzzfeed Unsolved in the first place. I’d seen a lot of art and gifs and fics pass my way, but I was only ever slightly interested in what I saw until this fic came through my inbox and piqued my curiosity. 

5. Pride by @astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Brienne/Cersei | 22k

Jaime didn’t understand why Cersei suddenly insisted on trimming his hair and shaving his beard, but he also didn’t care to fight her on it, even though he’d just as soon have kept the beard: it was bitterly cold in the small tower room with its arrow-slits. 

Heather Says: Wowza. This fic was intense. I’ve always loved Jaime and Brienne. I’ve loved them since the second book, which was read at least a few years before I started loving them in the show. Adding Cersei to their dynamic would have probably been almost impossible to pull off if it was anyone else, but @astolat lives to surpass my expectations.

6. Skin and Scales by Ernmark | The Penumbra Podcast | Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla | 18k

The man glares, and this time, Damien is certain it isn’t a trick of the light: those eyes are violet as amethyst. He wears disdain like a second skin–- or, perhaps, like the scales that he is missing. “Lord Arum?”

Heather Says: I was one of those people who skipped through all of the Second Citadel episodes during my first listen through of Penumbra. The stories were good, but the pull of Juno was too great. A couple months after I finished, I went back and listened to everything I didn’t. And let me tell you. Lizard monster. Honorable knight. Bookish girlfriend. Poly. It hit every single button I had and then some. This fic really hit the spot when I ran out of story.

7. someone you like by caela | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | 5k

catwithabat u think ur so hipster but u just look like a lesbian 27m she_ra @catwithabat bc… i’m a lesbian. lmao 5m

Heather Says: Noooot usually a big fan of high school fics. Namely because I’m not in high school anymore and well, after you read so many in your teenage years they sort of lose their luster. This one was phenomenal enough to change my mind.

8. Sands of Time by @tirsynni | Legend of Zelda | Ganondorf/Link | WIP | 98k

Link awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there, to encounter his worst enemy...except it was the King of the Gerudo, not the King of Evil, he faced.

Heather Says: I have seen a lot of really good Link/Ganondorf art over the years, but never really stumbled across a fic that didn’t have judicious amount of non-con involved. But the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer happened, and everybody started drawing really pretty art, so I went looking. And lo and behold, @tirsynni saved the day with this gorgeous time travel/fix-it fic. 

9. killed with kindness by veterization | Persona 5 | Akechi/Akira | 52k

Goro can't quite figure out why so many people keep acting like they're his friend. (Or: the one where the Phantom Thieves decide to know thy enemy, befriend thy enemy, love thy enemy, crush on thy enemy).

Heather Says: I’ve read a couple of veterization’s fics over the years, and to date they have never disappointed me. They published this in June, and I think I clicked on it mostly because I was bored and hadn’t read any good P5 fic yet. This was basically just what the doctor ordered, and I was really happy to find something where Akechi’s story went ever so slightly different.

10. paper thin by @ebonybow | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 9k

Shane’s new neighbors are a morning-sex kind of couple.

Heather Says: So I went into this one knowing very little about how Sara fit into things. I didn’t know she was Shane’s girlfriend. I’d never even seen her, but I clicked because I like poly and I trust the author. I was 100% not disappointed. There’s also another fic with a very similar dynamic here, which is also aces.

11. damn.nation, now available on itunes by @kaikamahine | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 11k

When lowly tempt-pusher Amphora (formerly of Stairwell 7B North, before she Fell,) gets the notice that end times are nigh, she gleefully quits her job and cancels her Netflix subscription and takes her place among the legions of hell. This, it turns out, was a bad plan.

Heather Says: Elizabeth may have only written one fic this year, but she made it a damn good one. I’ve always loved her OCs especially, so I was pretty tickled that this is 10k+ of outsider pov. Also, demons! Demons are great! This demon is great! I want like 9 seasons and a movie about Amphora, just saying.

12. The Dragon and Her Wolves by hapakitsune | Game of Thrones | Jon/Sansa/Daenarys | 60k

When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark.

Heather Says: What do you mean season 8 didn’t exist and the show totally ended with a three way relationship between the two most powerful women in Westeros and Jon Snow? Never been a big fan of Jon/Sansa before this, but this is another of those writers that I would literally trust if they wrote a fic about a fork and a spoon.

13. never tell me the odds by @wildehacked | Wolf 359 | Eiffel/Hera | 9k

“I tried Star Wars," he says, adjusting the phone under his neck, "and it was way underwhelming.”

A shaky breath from her end. “Well, where did you start?”

Heather Says: I don’t remember which of @wildehacked‘s fandoms I started reading first. Most recently it’s been The Magnus Archives (more on this later). The point is, they’d written Wolf 359 fic and it had Hera and Eiffel and it was literally everything that I’ve been looking for since the series ended.

14. Find Me Somebody by raiining | Good Omens | Warlock/Adam Young | 11k

“You left me,” he said. “You both left me, for him. And I can’t even blame you, because I’d have left me for him too.”

Heather Says: There was an Art. The art was lovely. So I went looking, because that’s what I do when faced with beautiful art depicting a rare pairing. And I found the holy grail. Like, possibly my favorite Good Omens fic? Ever? 

15. flirting with fire by @brawlite | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | WIP | 7k

Steve's a cop, Billy's a firefighter. It's not a grudge, it's just a regular old small town rivalry.

Heather Says: Okay so brawlite has written a lot of great stuff this year (more on that later), but I read this in bed at the beach house this August while I was reeling from both a horrible sunburn and like seven hours of mild to moderate day-drinking while everyone else was still throwing back shots right outside my bedroom door. Jaws was playing on the tv and I wasn’t even paying attention to it, because THIS. Long story short, I’ve been thirsty for more ever since.

16. gold, when you find me by mmtion | The Flash | Iris/Barry | 53k

It's not that Iris hates The Flash, per say - more that she hates writing about The Streak in a weekly, pun-heavy comic based on The Flash.

Heather Says: I never would have thought that a canon pairing would make it to my Top 25 list, but here we are. I like Iris/Barry a lot better when they don’t grow up together and spend a lot of time playing the Superman game, apparently. Also, this was really well-written, and sexual tension has never been something I’ve felt from Barry and Iris, but I felt it in this fic. Just. Damn.

17. never gets old by @brawlite & @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger| Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 78k

Falling in love with a cam boy named KingSteve isn't the smartest thing Billy Hargrove has ever done, nor is it the most healthy -- but the good choice is rarely ever the fun choice, and Billy is all about living life fast and loose.

Heather Says: Told you I’d come back to it. brawlite and toastranger are a fantastic team. last year was cherry pie and under the covers, this year it’s camboys and cop/firefighter dynamics. Also, I have a really strange fascination with fics where a character has an instragram. It’s really, incredibly strange. Also also, every time I see this fic title I get that one Discovery Channel song stuck in my head. And no, it probably isn’t the one you’re thinking.

18. ways to save the world by @wildehacked | The Magnus Archives | Martin Blackwood/Jon Sims | 19k

“I left you,” Martin says softly.

Heather Says: And we’re back at wildehacked too! The Magnus Archives was a thing that happened to me. This is I think the first fic I read for it while listening, and it was so very close to what we got in canon. I think when it comes down to it though, I still prefer this fic, even if the ending of this season was pretty fantastic.

19. The Denial Twist by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 35k

“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.”

Heather Says: While the vampire one is my favorite both because it is excellent and because it was my first, this one was bizarre and sexy and also I read it like only a month or so ago! The dancing was my favorite part, but having dreams to work with made this story fantastically interesting and I loved every second of it.

20. silver in our lungs by taywen | Spinning Silver | Miryem/The Staryk Lord | 4k

The marks had been with Miryem for as long as she could remember. There were a number of them, all the same shade, following one after the other around her left wrist. They were pale as old scars, though they felt no different from the rest of her skin, and her mother claimed that Miryem had been born with them.

Heather Says: I really like soulmate aus. There’s so many different ways to twist them and the way they can sometimes change the dynamic entirely and other times not change them at all is just fascinating. I’ve been hoping there would be more Spinning Silver content on ao3 and running into this while I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for yuletide was a real treat.

21. you got me begging, begging, i'm on my knees by plalligator | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 5k

Costis has a particularly enlightening evening. (or, that struggle when you're a guard who's in love with your rulers and it turns out you would kind of like it if they bossed you around a little)

Heather Says: I accidentally re-read the King of Attolia and it made me consider ships I had perhaps not previously considered. This was really lovely and just steamy enough.

22. something more alive than silence by pageleaf | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 21k

It was a good thing that six months after the king had promised to halve the guard, he still hadn’t done it, because since then, there had been two attempts on the king’s life.

Heather Says: I want to only type the words AGONIZED NOISES to describe this fic because that’s basically my headspace when I get 21k of a shiny new ot3, but I mean. Really. This is super good and maybe my favorite yet? Why didn’t I start reading this fandom when I first read the books?

23. Timing it Right by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 14k

The dragon chooses, Mark knows that as well as any boy born in a weyr. He'd never considered what that would mean if the dragon picked someone you hated. He's starting to think that was a mistake.

Damien's gold rises at Whitney. Mark tries to make things right.

Heather Says: This should actually be somewhere back in March, but I apparently closed out of the tab at some point. I never really got into Pern much. I have the first three books, but got most of the way through the first one a long time ago and then never picked it back up. I didn’t think I would like this, mostly because of the fact that I hadn’t gotten into the books, but was surprised to find that I absolutely loved it.

24. Keep It In Your Sights Now by LuckyDiceKirby | Shades of Magic | Lila/Kell/Holland | 9k

Holland travels with Lila and Kell. Somewhere along the way, they reach an equilibrium.

Heather Says: I love the new things I’ve discovered during my yuletide trompings. I don’t think I ever actually considered this pairing when I first read the books, but I am just so enamored with the idea of the three of them together. Like, why did I not realize that potential back then? This was lovely, and I loved it, and I want so much more out of this pairing than what ao3 has to offer me.

25. Charioteer by petrichoral | The Queen’s Thief | Gen & Costis | 13k

Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.

Heather Says: Technically this shouldn’t be on here because I only read it today, but it was really wonderful and so canon typical. Gen and Costis were perfect in it, Irene was perfect in it. Everyone was perfect and nothing hurts.

[itsclydebitches]

Some people do have that mindset though. Not just Mage, but artist (even tiny indie online artist, not just the mega corps) do not want others using their OC's in things. I think they have every right to think that and every right to be upset if people did that. A lot of people put hours and hours and hours into creating characters and drawings, ect. Seeing someone unrelated to you use your hard work without your permission is understandably annoying.

Yeah sadly I’ve got plenty on my plate without adding more podcasts lol. 

A lot of people have that mindset. I don’t begrudge it—our emotions are our emotions after all—but I do question it. Specifically the ‘how much?’ and the ‘why?’ As said, the majority of authors I know aren’t actually 100% against fanworks. They might claim they are, but when push comes to shove they embrace the specific ones that they approve of. The same author who is gushing over the fanart they were linked to on twitter is turning around and denouncing all of fanfic, or vice versa, or some other, infinite combination of Thing I Personally Like and Thing I Don’t. It’s the hypocrisy of “These are my OCs, I worked hard on them, no one else gets to touch them… oh, except you. I like you.” It’s the hypocrisy of, “I was raised on fandom (whether I realize it or not) creating transformative works of my own, benefiting from the community, developing my skills… but no, you’re not allowed to do the same with my own works. I reaped those benefits, you can’t.” 

Alongside the ‘how much?’ is the ‘why?’ Meaning, why are you so against people engaging in this celebration of your work? (Ignoring for the moment that complicated issue of potentially making money off of it.) A lot of authors are against fandom because they still—even today—don’t fully understand it. Transformative works are still seen as ‘stealing’ original content, as opposed to enjoying it. Original content is still seen as actually ‘original,’ as opposed to based off of a thousand things pulled from previous stories, things the author is both consciously and unconsciously using. A lot of that knee-jerk reaction comes from the feeling of “I don’t want you doing something horrible with my characters” and that definition of “horrible” is linked to all sorts of mindsets I’m personally invested in undermining. 

Like the misogynistic idea that it’s all teen girls writing “bad” stories—that’s horrible. The equally misogynistic idea that fans are shrieking women not quite connected to reality. There’s a reason Star Trek and the Beatles were only seen as phenomenal pieces of art once they went mainstream, when women were no longer the largest group praising them. There’s a reason why fandoms like Star Wars and GoT that are assumed to be male dominated can have some of the most wild, inappropriate fans around, but few bat an eye. It’s those fan girls who are horrible. Like the homophobic idea that it’s all gay and that is automatically horrible. Like the idiotic idea that it’s nothing but cringy NSFW stuff and that’s dangerous for young minds—horrible. The prudish idea that fandom has too much sex even if it is vanilla stuff and no one should have access to that information (see: lack of health education)—horrible. And that arrogant idea that I, the author, created something entirely in a vacuum and now no one else gets to engage in the creative play that allowed me to create this story in the first place. 

Fandom is radical and fandom is still, even today, pushed back against. Because it’s the domain of women. Of queer people. Of those who want to share education and creativity without a few very narrow groups deciding what’s “appropriate.”  That’s why fandom still has that knee jerk reaction to it: if fandom gets a hold of my characters then it will be Bad. When a mainstream author says they don’t want fans touching their work, I hear less “I truly believe no one should ever interact with my OC” and more “I don’t understand fandom very well. Or if I do I don’t want those people touching my characters.” Whoever those people happen to be.

(To give this all a bit of perspective—and I plan to post about this fully at some point—I’m doing a bit of surveying on fandom and gender identities among tumblr, reddit, and AO3. Of the 350 surveys I’ve currently gotten through, only 7 fans identify as cis men. Everyone else is a cis woman, transgender, agender, nonbinary, genderqueer, or some other gender identity. It’s admittedly a small sample size, but still. Fandom is made up of the very people still fighting against every -ism imaginable. That plays a part in how authors react to the possibility that their characters might now be queer, or disabled, or black, or anything else if they allow fans to start playing with them.) 

We’ve made HUGE strides in terms of normalizing fandom in mainstream culture. We’re not totally there yet though. So are there authors who truly don’t want anyone touching their work simply because of some pure sense of ownership? Probably. But I think the vast majority are basing that idea off of complicated assumptions of what fandom is, what will happen to their characters, and who deserves to transform stories (i.e. so-called professional men deserve that privilege, so-called amateur women don’t). 

…okay. That got really long lol. I’ll simplify my answer to the Nazi RWBY portion considerably: basically yes. Every community does and should have a limit, an extreme they just won’t accept. Creative freedom can exist alongside specific community guidelines (like a discord server) having a few hard and equally specific rules: “Nuh-uh, sorry, but you’re not drawing Neo as a goddamn Nazi here. Take that elsewhere.” It’s not challenging whether they can draw that—especially since Context Is a Thing—but rather challenging that this version of Nazism is not welcome in this space. 

[woohooligancomics]

Artist Spotlight: Ben Paddon, a Man With Hope!

Welcome to the Laugh It Forward Kickstarter Artist Spotlight! Every day you'll meet new cool artists doing amazing things, so check him out!

Today I'd like to introduce you to Ben Paddon!

Ben Paddon is a British-born writer, comedian and geek humorist living in Los Angeles. He's the creator of the video game YouTube series PortsCenter, the co-host of The Life Toyetic with Ben and Molly (described as "a podcast about movies about toys"), and the co-writer of the phenomenally popular YouTube miniseries Boomer's Day Off. He also co-created and served as head writer for the scifi-comedy webcomic Jump Leads, which he plans to reboot as a series of audio plays later this year. His hobbies include reading, playing video games, and writing biographies of himself in the third person. His favorite color is not available for comment.

#asProjectLinks > img { margin-right: 5px; }

Sam: I used to make the mistake most artists make when asked about my work, and get into the details like characters, plot and story elements. Those are important in telling stories, but I learned they don't really draw people in. So I'm going to ask you to tell us a short story about the more important question:

why do you create your art?

Ben: (I guess the question here is "Why do you make stuff?")

There isn't really one answer to this because most of my work has been borne out of different wants or needs. PortsCenter exists because it's the sort of show I wish existed but didn't. Jump Leads was created because scifi-comedy went through a bit of a lull in the mid-noughties. The Life Toyetic exists because Molly and I have wanted to do a podcast together forever, and we hit upon a premise that we both liked the sound of.

Ultimately, I'd say that I make the things I make because making them brings me joy. I'd rather make content that brings me happiness than worry about anything else. If it makes me happy, it can't be that baah-haah-haah-haad, and invariably my enjoyment will shine through and others will gravitate towards it. Or at least, that's the hope!

Sam: It also sounds a bit like there's a theme that your reason for creating is to fill a vacuum. PortsCenter because you said you weren't seeing that kind of podcast, JumpLeads because there was a dearth of scifi comedy.

My second question is who or what has most inspired your work? If I compared you to someone, what names would you be most flattered to hear?

Ben: Oh, God. PortsCenter was very heavily inspired in its early days by Charlie Brooker, and that comparison came up a LOT in the comments. These days I think Mikey Neumann has been more influential on the show, and that's in no small part because it's on his YouTube channel now! You can really see it in stuff like the SimCity episode or my Fave Five of 2017 episode - I even used his "Did you know" graphic!

When it comes to comedy, I've definitely been influenced by writers like Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who created Red Dwarf together, and Graham Linehan who wrote Black Books, The IT Crowd and Father Ted among other stuff. But my stand-up sensibility owes much more to British Comedian Dave Gorman than anybody else. His stuff is breathtakingly funny - you know he's basically been doing six one-hour specials a year for British television for the last five years? Astounding body of work, that. When I do live shows - and I do hope to do some live PortsCenter stuff eventually, with a Powerpoint presentation and everything - I'm always secretly hoping someone will come up and say, "Y'know, you remind me of Dave Gorman." But I live in LA, so that'll probably never happen!

Sam: LOL Yeah, maybe... a lot of comedians cross the pond nowadays. John Oliver, Russell Brand. Trevor Noah is from South Africa, but he was working in England when he accepted the job at the Daily Show. He was also working there when he turned down the Daily Show a year earlier, so... :P

I'm a pretty huge fan of Red Dwarf myself. That must have played heavily into your work on Jump Leads.

Last question. What one thing do you want to change about the world?

Ben: There is a tremendous amount of cynicism, and it's only gotten worse over the last two years. I find the most cynical tend to be the very old or the very young, for reasons that could not be more widely disparate - an old cynic has often been beaten down by the world they live in, which strikes me as a less-than-ideal way to deal with a negative world, while a young cynic conflates being cynical with wisdom, which is a bit daft (and I can say that because I was absolutely that person in my late teens and early 20s!).

Cynicism, ultimately, is just another word for pessimism. Cynics are waiting to be disappointed. They're expecting it. Cynics expect the worst of people, and in today's political climate it's very easy to be a cynic. The news is geared towards cynicism, it's a coarse edge on which to sharpen the knife of cynical thought. But it's also defeatist - it's saying "This is how it is, this is how people are, how they'll always be, and that'll never change." I refuse to believe that.

So I'd get rid of cynicism because, much like hate, you can't do anything with cynicism. You can't channel it positively. You get to make a snide remark, maybe you get a good laugh out of it, but in the end you're left with... well, yourself, and the people that cynicism attracts. That's a very sad place to be. So, yes. Cynicism can go out the window. Replace it with hope. You can do bugger-all with cynicism, but hope keeps a person going. Jam tomorrow, and all that.

Sam: Beautifully said.

I've found that cynicism is a real cliche in comedy circles, and in fact some of my own heroes weren't immune. I loved George Carlin, but I've realized in recent years that he leaned far too heavily on believing in genetics and in a static world that doesn't change. He was asked in interview if he would ever consider entering politics and said "you can't change anything in Washington." But that's demonstrably not true, and not even when he was active. Unfortunately a lot of change in recent years has been negative -- increasing political division, taking from the middle-class to give to the rich, increasing gerrymandering, more political attack ads, more shootings, etc. but in the last few years we've had a lot of positive changes as well like same sex marriage, credit card reform, etc.

But that always seems to be a kind of stand-by for comedians, like you said, "jam tomorrow" (which I had to look up), that old line that "the more things change the more they stay the same".

I'm really encouraged to see that millennials are becoming incredibly active in their communities and in politics. Voting is popular now. If you'd told me that would be true when I was in my 20s, I'd have laughed. :P

Thanks for taking the time for this interview, Ben, it's been a pleasure.

To see more of Ben's awesome work, check out his website. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and most importantly, if you enjoy his work, share this interview!

p.s. If you are also an artist and are planning a Kickstarter, you might find my Six Tips to Kickstarter Success helpful, plus links to other helpful resources. Also thanks to Andrea Demonakos who's handling the bulk of our rewards fulfillment to help our Laugh It Forward project go smoothly!

[jurassicparkpodcast]

INTERVIEW: Jack Ewins | An In-Depth Look at Dino Defenders Extreme!

As anyone who follows The Jurassic Park Podcast team will know – whilst we all love the Jurassic films, we also all have a deep affinity for dinosaurs in general – and love writing about all things to do with them. I’ve been lucky enough to cover a wide breadth of dinosaur-related materials in the past – from museum collections to live arena spectacles and much, much more. But, one of the things to get me most excited, was when I learned that friend of the podcast Jack Ewins was working on an epic new adventure: Dino Defenders Extreme. We sat down with Jack to learn a little more about the piece:

Tom: Hey Jack! So, firstly, for anyone who doesn’t know you (I don’t know how!) – tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do:

Jack: My name is Jack Anthony Ewins, I help run a production company with my friend Tim called Chaos Theorem, some of you out there might know our work from the viral marketing for Jurassic World and JW: Fallen Kingdom.

Tom: Awesome – so obviously, dinosaurs are a big part of life for you then! Was it your affinity for Jurassic Park which led you down the path to work on your latest project?

Jack: Above anything else it was my love of story-telling that led me down the path towards Dino-Defenders. Jurassic Park has inspired the visual canvas for setting, and the basic set up for where the story begins (a group of specialists head to a secret base where dinosaurs have been cloned) but the challenge was how to make it different. Dinosaurs are a fascinating part of Earth’s history and I firmly believe in fiction there’s more we can do with them. I’m hopeful that Dino-Defenders can do that. Also, my wife challenged me to better my artwork of humans, this was back in 2015 not long after Jurassic World was out, she said “you can draw/paint dinosaurs really well but humans are your undoing”. At first I decided to try and tackle this via our web comic Jurassic World: Regenesis but that project was eventually shelved and I didn’t do anything else for a while. Not until the idea for DDEX came along. I’ve figured this project will put me to the test by having humans in many different situations and positions for me to better my art and by having the characters be stylised and cartoony would be a good starting point. So far, I’ve learnt a lot. Thanks wife : ).

Tom: So – Dino Defenders Extreme. What kind of stories can we expect from this project?

Jack: DDEX is one story split into chapters. Like Alien, Jurassic Park and Frankenstein its a story of playing god and exploiting the miracle of life, but it won’t do this by simply having dinosaurs escape to teach the nasty humans a lesson, I want to tell something different with these animals that we haven’t seen in other stories, and I believe that starts with the human characters. We’ve seen people promote dinosaurs for entertainment, we’ve seen them try to use them as weapons, but with Dino-Defenders I’m asking what if someone was using prehistoric lifeforms to search for other ways to play god, and how deep does that go.

Tom: In your announcement, you mention being inspired by modern films like Prometheus, but also by the works of film icons like Ray Harryhausen. How have these inspirations shaped the project so far?

Jack: Ray Harryhasen in particular has inspired the project purely from a motivational stand point. If you’ve ever watched an interview with the late icon its apparent that he never let go of his passion of bringing monsters and dinosaurs to life. It’s his drive and commitment that inspired me to commit to this project and really be passionate about it. As for Prometheus being an inspiration it boils down to two things, I love the ascetic of the character Weyland’s living quarters on the ship, and what we see at the beginning of Alien: Covenant, there’s a sleek, clean Romanesque feel to the way Ridley Scott and crew brought that character to life. I wanted to emulate that certain aspect for the character Rose Ankor who is the mastermind behind the operations in Dino-Defenders. Obviously, the look of this project is heavily inspired by cartoons from the 90’s, but also the Overwatch animated shorts. With those they tell short 7 minute stories that have been very inspirational in lessons of compact story-telling.

Tom: Obviously, you’re still hard at work developing the show – but do you have an estimate for how many episodes you expect the show to be?

Jack: It’ll be released in 6 chapters, each around 15 mins in length. Once they are all finished I’ll edit them together into a feature length video. The goal is to reach at least 1 hour 10 minutes’ worth.

Tom: What has been your biggest challenge you’ve encountered so far?

Jack: The biggest challenge so far has been finding time to work on it. I have the story planned out and the tools to bring it to life but finding the time has been the biggest obstacle. I began work on DDEX in July 2017, and had some time over that summer to get the project off the ground, then life got in the way, and after that we really got stuck in with Fallen Kingdom, I would love to work on it 24/7, which is why I have set up the Patreon to try and find support in order to do this. The show will come out regardless but with support it’ll be with us sooner rather than later. I’ll admit the second challenge is getting the word out there and letting like-minded people know that a project like this exists. So I truly appreciate you guys helping get the word out! Thank you.

Tom: Where can people learn more about the project?

Jack: People can learn more about the project over a the Patreon http://www.Patreon.com/Ewinzilla/Overview … or go to my Terrordome 3000 youtube channel you can catch me live streaming painting frames for the project whenever I can and people can talk directly to me about information on the project. We also look to have a laugh when streaming.

Tom: Can Jurassic Park fans expect fan-favourite dinosaurs to make appearances or should we expect Dino Defenders Extreme to bring all new dinosaurs to the centre stage?

Jack: Oh yes, there’ll be lesser known dinosaurs in this series. I’ve omitted A LOT of the most well known dinosaurs, some examples being Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Spinosaurus, Velociraptor, and Parasaurolophus because I feel there are some really interesting prehistoric creatures that I can use in unique ways that’ll be different to what has been seen previously. The ones I’ve publicly announced being in the show are Megalosaurus, Dimetrodon, Proceratosaurus, and Megaraptor. I’ll admit there is one particular prehistoric creature that has a scene I think people will love. But thats a secret for now.

Tom: Where do you hope Dino Defenders Extreme will go in the future? What’s the end goal?

Jack: The end goal of DDEX is to entertain those like minded folks out there who have longed for a more mature dinosaur story, and those that have been longing for an animated show of Jurassic Park. I’m also framing the shots in a cinematic way, like animated story boards to show how it could work on a larger screen. So who knows what could happen if people really embraced this. I’d love to take it to a animation studio and have it made into a fully animated film, *COUGH* Don Bluth. But I must take baby steps and put the work in to prove its worth.

Tom: Lastly, where can people excited get more involved?

Jack: At this current stage people can get involved via the Patreon: http://www.Patreon.com/Ewinzilla/Overview …. No one has to support it of course but for $1 per MONTH (76p for those in the UK) I think it’s a small price to pay to help with the creation of something that has been missing for the last 25+ years. If people can’t afford to help but still wish to I’d say spread the word!

There you have it – an in-depth look at Dino Defenders Extreme! I am personally incredibly excited to see where this goes. Jack and Tim have shown real talent for expanding story materials through Chaos Theorem in the past – so I am excited to see Jack put that to good use with DDEX. Stay tuned here on The Jurassic Park Podcast – as we hope to continue to cover the project as it grows and expands!

In the meantime, if you are excited, check out the first teaser trailer:

Written by: Tom Fishenden

[projectalbum]

R U Talkin’ I.R.S. R.E.M. RE: ME? 183. “Murmur - Deluxe Edition,” 184. “Reckoning,” 185. “Fables of the Reconstruction,” 186. “Lifes Rich Pageant,” 187. “Dead Letter Office," 188. “Document” by R.E.M.

If you’ve been following this blog with any regularity, you may have noticed how often references to R.E.M. weave their way into my appraisals of other artists. That’s because the band has become a bit of a Rosetta Stone for my musical taste: eclectic, ever-evolving, beautifully melodic, with evocative (or downright inscrutable) lyrics. I delved into their decades-long catalogue- piecemeal and out of chronology in the pre-Spotify days- at the exact point in my adolescence when I was forming what that taste would be. And now I must ask the question that has so ignited the public's curiosity: When did I first hear of the band R.E.M.?

My answer, at long last, is… "Hmm, not sure." As recounted in my entry on Barenaked Ladies (or “BNL,” as befitting such an essential band): during a high school trip through Europe, a bus ride from Ireland to Wales was scored by an all-over-the-map mixtape.* I was definitely already familiar with “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” when it popped up. And I remember, sitting there as misty green hills moved past the window, that it sparked a web of associations: I likely thought of “Losing My Religion,” probably “The One I Love.” After watching a Comedy Central documentary on Andy Kaufman, I became briefly obsessed, and my mom helpfully told me that there was a song written about him, titled “Man on the Moon.” She pulled Automatic for the People, the only R.E.M. release she owned, off the shelf and played that track for me. I think I liked it, but I didn’t go further than that.

So, sitting on that tour bus, I figured that when we reached the London leg of our whirlwind trip, I would use my personal pilgrimage to Virgin Megastore (remember those?) to pick up a greatest hits collection. And I did, getting the recently released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. I loved it so much, I barely noticed that half the songs I knew, including the one that had inspired the purchase, were nowhere to be found.

As I later learned, that compilation was put out by Warner Bros Records, and as such was solely focused on the songs the band recorded while under contract to that label. And it’s true, several of their biggest hits came out of those first few WB releases. But wither “The One I Love?” Well, before they signed that lucrative deal, R.E.M. made their bones putting out arty, jangly, pastorally pretty rock music under the banner of I.R.S. Records.  

It’s been awhile since I first heard their debut full-length Murmur (#183), but after the slicker, weirder, string-flavored tunes I was used to, hearing the upfront immediacy of the young-and-hungry band, playing as a tight group over a chasm of reverb, was a bit revelatory. Recorded at the now-defunct Reflection Sound Studios in Charlotte, NC (a liner note discovery that filled me with no small amount of regional pride), Don Dixon and Mitch Easter's production makes the jangle rock dreamy and beguiling while avoiding cheesy 80’s pitfalls. It’s all killer, no filler (I even love “We Walk,” all bouncy repetition and ever-climbing arpeggios)— right now, I’d say the earnest “Talk About The Passion” and the almost hiccupy hook of “Catapult” rank as my favorite moments, but that changes and shifts unpredictably.

The sonic muscle of Reckoning (#184) is cleaner, with opener “Harborcoat” immediately shaking loose the spooky cobwebs of Murmur. Again, the immediacy surprised me when I first heard it: I was hearing the version of the band that tore the roof off of tiny venues in sleepy college towns throughout the South. For a time, it was the comparative lack of the fussy arrangements and earnest, soaring melodies I’d come to expect from my R.E.M. that dismissed this album to a dusty gray corner in my mind. But the mark of a Favorite Band means that you can return to their work at different times in your life and find that while the music stayed the same, you’re hearing it with different ears. There’s not a weak link in 10 tracks, and songs that I’d once had trouble even recalling became new favorites: "So. Central Rain,” with its ringing Rickenbacker guitar line, melodic bass, and keening chorus (“I’m sorry”) is a fan favorite for a reason, and “Camera,” which recalls a departed friend of the band’s, builds to a shattering chorus. And of course, the one straight-up, tear-in-your-beer country rocker in their catalogue, “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville."

I remember driving to night classes in my first year of community college, listening to my newly-purchased disc of Fables of the Reconstruction (#185). Now this was immediately my speed, with the spooky, menacing, string quartet-inflected “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” and incantatory “Maps and Legends" leading the pack. The band had a lousy experience recording it, and they badmouth the way the songs were mixed, but to me the thick-as-kudzu production is a big part of this album’s hallucinatory power. I love the surreal, umber and burnished gold and chartreuse cover art as well: though the layout looks a little too cluttered on the CD, I bought the vinyl record from a second-hand store just to frame it, with the “Reconstruction of the Fables” ear-box side facing out from my wall.

Not every track does it for me. “Can’t Get There from Here” is fun but a little too affected in its whimsy, and “Auctioneer (Another Engine),” already a bit monotone, is the track most hampered by sludgy sound. But sandwiched in-between are “Green Grow the Rushes” and “Kohoutek,” glimpses of the environmentally-conscious, culturally-sensitive side of Michael Stripe and Co that led directly into their follow-up, Lifes Rich Pageant (#186). They expand the promise of those two tracks with “Fall On Me” and “Cuyahoga,” to devastatingly pretty effect.

Where Fables was a nighttime drive down an inky-dark American highway, Pageant is a wide-eyed survey of virgin prairie, a longing to return to unspoiled harmonic existence. “Let’s put our heads together / Let’s start a new country up,” the natives of “Cuyahoga” resolve over the ashy remains of the river bend. "What you want and what you need, there's the key / Your adventure for today, what do you do / Between the horns of the day?” Stipe exhorts his listeners in “I Believe,” and the Southern beach rock behind the words pushes you to make your move. “We are young despite the years / We are concern / We are hope despite the times,” he belts out over furious riffs and annihilated drums in “These Days," Mike Mills calling out affirmation in his backup vocal.

Right down to the absurdist sea shanty “Swan Swan H” and infectiously fun cover “Superman” that close it out, it’s hard to find a more consistent document of the band’s strengths. And now, damn, I want that to be a crackerjack segue to discussion of their next studio album, but months before that final I.R.S. release, there was Dead Letter Office (#187). A collection of occasionally rather sloppy outtakes and covers of varying reverence, the main draw here is the inclusion of their debut EP Chronic Town (on the CD, anyway. I notice that Spotify separates those songs from the DLO tracks). The angular menace of “Wolves, Lower” and the subtle, melodic magic of “Gardening At Night” (Stripe’s almost unintelligible lyrics are Exhibit A for his early-years shyness) are justifiable fan favorites to this day— not bad for the first batch of songs from such a prolific group. A must.

Buying Document (#188) finally gave me easy access to “It’s The End of the World...” and “The One I Love” (rather than, you know, waiting to hear one or the other on the radio). It also meant first experiencing one of my favorite opening salvos on record: “Finest Worksong.” It sounds HUGE, to borrow an oft-accurate phrase from notable actor/R.E.M. podcaster Adam Scott. Bill Berry’s thundercrack drums echo as if recorded in a cavernous factory where the overlords have been overthrown, while Peter Buck’s guitar chugs and drones, a dramatic change from the nimble arpeggios that made up previous records. It, and the songs that follow— “Welcome to the Occupation” ("Listen to the buyer still / Listen to the Congress / Where we propagate confusion”), “Exhuming McCarthy” ("Vested interest, united ties / Landed gentry, rationalize / Look who bought the myth / By Jingo, buy America”), “Disturbance at the Heron House”— make the album, at 31 years old, feel like a queasy reflection of our current milieu. No one feels fine right now.

Luckily, the music is still driving, fun, singable, varied in its grooves and moods. “Fireplace,” coming right after the twofer of the most famous singles, provided me such an unexpected thrill with a rare appearance by sinuous be-bop saxophone, such a different color for this band. Sax in 80’s songs is usually an utterly cheeseball affair, but this is a dark, weird tune, and is nowhere near that register of power balladry. “Lightnin’ Hopkins” is just as unique, with a metalhead rolling drum beat and Stipe acting like a throat-shredded street preacher over echoey chain-gang backup howls.

This band takes up a whole shelf in my house, so hold on tight for several more comprehensive and encyclopedic write-ups. 

*It’s been over a year since I wrote that entry, and I recently realized my memory is jumbled up. I now have a clear recollection that the songs from BNL’s Everything For Everyone were repeating in my head ON THAT VERY TRIP! So I was already a fan.