#and the fact that these tie-in novels and the classic comics of course (and the show writers) all had so many different authors!

[oveliagirlhaditright]

...

...

As I've mentioned a number of times, I LOVE how the Buffy and Angel tie-in books acknowledge each other. Like, these two bottom scenes are two of the "Wicked Willow" books referencing "Tempted Champions."

[quantum27]

To whom it may concern - the mutuals, the fandom-in-laws and the average movie goer. I would like to explain the plight of the Tron fandom.

The sequel announcements Disney pulled this year (2024) are insults to anyone who enjoys movies. There's nothing wrong with sequels, don't get me wrong, but to have a catalogue that has only 1 original movie announced is truly saddening, especially to those who love animation.

Then there's also the fans of Tron.

Tron (1982) was the first major motion picture to use CGI extensively for it's settings, vehicles, and many more things. Many of it's animators would go on to work at Pixar and pioneer CGI there. It was so early that it was rejected at the Oscars for special effects because it was considered "cheating" essentially. This isn't a post about the history though I recommend learning about it if you're interested in the medium of animation.

Tron was an average boxoffice movie. It made back it's money and that was it. However it became a cult classic. It's a strange movie- a bit hard to get into- I only fully understood the plot the second watch, even though it's not that complex.

It would spawn a video game sequel, Tron 2.0 (2003). Years later, in 2010, another sequel would come out, setting the current canon timeline (think of a Star Wars legacy canon and disney canon or Star Trek alpha or beta timelines- that's how the fans treat it) Tron: Legacy.

There were also other supplements, the ever mourned, cancelled after one season cartoon midquel Tron: Uprising- tie in video games and comics and a complete ARG before the release of Legacy. Then there was the planned third movie. It languished in development hell, canceled and uncanceled. (There's more complexity there, involving even, Tommorowland (2015) and of course money.)

Now what we're getting is Tron: Ares. A movie that doesn't even feature the actor for the character Tron, Bruce Boxleitner. There's also the fact that Cindy Morgan who starred in the original movie and original video game sequel was always ready to come back has now passed away. Jeff Bridges is set to return in some capacity, the most well recognized actor from the franchise to the point people assume he is the actor who portrayed Tron.

The first short trailer shown for Tron: Ares shows fundamental flaws in misunderstanding the concepts in the prior works, watering it down to an aesthetic. Most fans I've spoken with have little hope for a good movie at this time. It even stars the controversial actor Jared L*to as it's main character! All of these are red flags.

So, to those who read, please know, after waiting for a decade, Disney has decided to shill out a product with less love than any prior element in the franchise. And I mean even less love than the tie-in movie games for Legacy, of which are of varying quality. This is likely due to the opening of the US version of the Tron rollercoaster. The rollercoaster has more love and attention in it than the trailer shown. And with complete love to it and what I've seen of it- the movie should be a higher quality than a rollercoaster in terms of story and lore.

Our only current hope is for more visual novels after Tron: Identity was released in 2023. And I suppose the NIN fans will get a soundtrack.

Disney does not care about it's audiences. But it especially does not care about Tron fans.

[attackfish]

5hc prompt: dam projects in the Earth Kindom disrupt the Foggy Swamp's ecosystem, driving out the people living there

What I love about this prompt is that it's such a classic "this is the Avatar's job" scenario. The Avatar's job is to act as a bridge between the human and spirit worlds and communities, and also to balance competing human interests. The role fascinates me because the Avatar acts as a sort of extremely powerful global refferee, a situation that only works because the Avatar is a reincarnation of an always well meaning person, saving the role from the problems of other inhereted forms of power: [Link].

The Foggy Swamp, as seen in both Avatar and Korra, is not only full of people living a traditional life on the economic fringes of a more settled society, it's also full of spirits. And we all know what happens when the spaces that spirits are attached to are threatened by human action.

This makes things complicated, because let's be real, without powerful spirits causing havoc, it can be all too easy to ignore a small group of isolated, disconnected people being forced out of their homes. It happens all the time in our world. However, the spirits here act as a leveler.

This might not be something that is initially appreciated by the people of the Foggy Swamp, because I'm not sure the spirits would necessarily distinguish very well between the humans that have been living in the swamp for ages, and are just as distressed by their home disappearing as the spirits are, and the humans actually causing the problem. In fact, this sudden onslaught of attacks by spirits might be what actually drives the Foggy Swamp people to contact the Avatar. They send a single messenger who must brave the outside world, to find the Avatar and bring her's people suffering to his attention.

So of course Aang goes to the swamp. He has to discover the source of the spirits' displeasure, trace the water loss upstream, and find the dam. Distroy the dam, problem solved, right? But why was the dam built, and why now? Let's say that after the war there was a baby boom in the Earth Kingdom, that led to a rising population, so more marginal farmland needs to be put into production to feed these people in the earth Kingdom, leading to people moving into the arid plains around the foothills of Omashu, and they need water to irrigate so that they can grow crops, or they will starve. The dam stores water for that irrigation.

Aang ends up negotiating the amount of water the farmers can take, verses what the Foggy Swamp needs, and the farmers, moving into the plains from wetter regions in the Northern Earth Kingdom, need to learn how to farm less water intensive crops. This is a happy and meaningful solution to the kinds of problems we are facing more and more of in the real world as climate change accelerates, and I think this would make an excellent premise for a tie-in novel, or Avatar comic.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Yeah this needs to be talked about more, the amount of articles, podcasts, youtube/tiktok videos or just online comments that I saw after season 1 came out that just assume the Bton books were diverse because the show is? And the fact the new marketing push around the books is not disabusing people about that notion, mainly through the new covers (both regular and the show tie-in ones).

It's a really complicated, thorny issue in some ways and very simple in others. If I look at Just Romance Novels (which is obviously a niche, just zeroing in a genre for the sake of discussion) the genre is still dominated by product from white authors, largely with characters written as white. While it's diversifying (far more slowly than it should be) a lot of the older "proven success" books are written by white people, about white people. I don't think it's wrong to cast diversely if you're adapting those books--and on a practical, "people putting food on the table" level, I want actors of color to have as many solid, well-paying opportunities as possible.

At the same time, there are still so many authors of color neglected. Not all of whom wrote people of color on the page, of course, especially in historical romance--Sherry Thomas and Stacy Reid are two historical romance novelists who write about white characters, and it's no surprise that the potential adaptation of Stacy's works would be cast more diversely. There's a level of tracking how expectations have changed when you look at how Sinful Wallflowers was presented as a book series, and how it could be presented as a show.

And like, I'll allow that we're in the midst of a sort of "boom" (who knows how long it'll last) of period pieces cast more diversely than they would've been even 15 years ago. The approaches are often different and individualized. The Great has people of color playing characters who'd be literal white Russians "in real life", and it's literally never commented on, which I think many would prefer for a show like Bton. BUT, most of the lead characters are white, with Orlo (who I think did not get the strongest writing from jump, though Sascha wanting to leave after s1 didn't help) and Arkady (who I think is hilarious and finally got more screentime in s3, but he could've gotten more from the beginning... so much Velementov screentime should be Arkady screentime) being two of the only truly prominent people of color onscreen.

Then you have something like Sanditon, where Georgiana gets better writing than many people on Bton, but the show obviously never knew how to really confront her background, made the racist old lady the peak comic relief, and never prioritized Georgiana the way her white counterpart Charlotte was prioritized. Georgiana got an afterthought of an ending after being humiliated by the narrative several times.

One of the shows that handled this best was Tom Jones--Sophia is treated as this gem of a girl whose grandfather and aunt love her, but clearly aren't fully sure about how to solidify her safety as a Black woman of means in England. There's a very tender scene where she discusses her father enslaving her and her mother with Tom, and the show doesn't shy away from Sophia's mixed feelings on the entire thing. There's a heavy implication re: her being made to perform whiteness with face powder, etc, but nonetheless this is not dominating Sophia's storyline. She gets to be the swooning girl who falls head over heels and is desired by a good man and upheld as his ideal in every way. She confronts conflict, but she does not SUFFER, and she is not MINIMIZED in favor of white women in the story--Sophia is really pretty explicitly like, The Woman of that piece. Presented as the most beautiful, as not flawless but good and deserving of love, as a true classical heroine whose personal narrative is actively expanded to match Tom's. The only thing I find prominently weird (after one viewing) is that she and Tom never had like, a sweet wedding night scene, as we saw Tom have sex with three different white women onscreen, of of which was like.... the core villain. I would've liked to have seen Sophia get the full physical adoration there, onscreen, and it did stand out a bit that she didn't.

So those are adaptations with growing pains, not getting everything right, but some being better than others (and Bton being the bottom of the barrel, there).

Then there are things that are unequivocally wrong, and not a part of growing pains as adaptations navigate between what sells and what diversifies and what works, and one of those unequivocally wrong things is selling the Bton books as diverse reads. Those books are some of the most conventional Regency romances out there; you don't even get a lot of economic or class diversity, let alone any racial diversity. Almost everyone in that series is upper class. Even Sophie is the daughter of a nobleman. And I'm not saying it's wrong to write about those people, but for the books to now be sold as something they're not, when the author didn't even think people of color could get HEAs in her Historically Accurate World... is the worst kind of capitalism.

That's part of the extra ugliness (on top of all the obvious ugliness) here. Julia Quinn was against what she's now profiting from. It's not just picking a white author's works to be emblematic of diversity they don't represent; it's THAT author's works. And I think that making Queen Charlotte from all this, putting Julia's name on the cover (I am.... 90% sure that book was ghostwritten, with input from Julia and Shonda, but go off) just adds to all of it.

[aaronmaurer]

TV I Liked in 2020

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

Was there ever a year more unpredictably tailor-made for peak TV than 2020? Lockdowns/quarantines/stay-at-home orders meant a lot more time at home and the occasion to check out new and old favorites. (I recognize that if you’re lucky enough to have kids or roommates or a S.O., your amount of actual downtime may have been wildly different). While the pandemic resulted in production delays and truncated seasons for many shows, the continued streaming-era trends of limited series and 8-13 episode seasons mean that a lot of great and satisfying storytelling still made its way to the screen. As always, I in no way lay any claims to “best-ness” or completeness – this is just a list of the shows that brought me the most joy and escapism in a tough year and therefore might be worth putting on your radar.

10 Favorites

10. The Right Stuff: Season 1 (Disney+)

As a space program enthusiast, even I had to wonder, does the world really need another retelling of NASA’s early days? Especially since Tom Wolfe’s book has already been adapted as the riveting and iconoclastic Philip Kaufman film of the same name? While some may disagree, I find that this Disney+ series does justify its existence by focusing more on the relationships of the astronauts and their personal lives than the technical science (which may be partially attributable to budget limitations?). The series is kind of like Mad Men but with NASA instead of advertising (and real people, of course), so if that sounds intriguing, I encourage you to give it a whirl.

9. Fargo: Season 4 (FX)

As a big fan of Noah Hawley’s Coen Brothers pastiche/crime anthology series, I was somewhat let down by this latest season. Drawing its influence primarily from the likes of gangster drama Miller’s Crossing – one of the Coens’ least comedic/idiosyncratic efforts – this season is more straightforward than its predecessors and includes a lot of characters and plot-threads that never quite cohere. That said, it is still amongst the year’s most ambitious television with another stacked cast, and the (more-or-less) standalone episode “East/West” is enough to make the season worthwhile.

8. The Last Dance (ESPN)

Ostensibly a 10-episode documentary about the 1990s Chicago Bulls’ sixth and final NBA Championship run, The Last Dance actually broadens that scope to survey the entire history of Michael Jordan and coach Phil Jackson’s careers with the team. Cleverly structured with twin narratives that chart that final season as well as an earlier timeframe, each episode also shifts the spotlight to a different person, which provides focus and variety throughout the series. And frankly, it’s also just an incredible ride to relive the Jordan era and bask in his immeasurable talent and charisma – while also getting a snapshot of his outsized ego and vices (though he had sign-off on everything, so it’s not exactly a warts-and-all telling).

7. The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)

This miniseries adaptation of the Walter Tevis coming-of-age novel about a chess prodigy and her various addictions is compulsively watchable and avoids the bloat of many other streaming series (both in running time and number of episodes). The 1960s production design is stunning and the performances, including Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role, are convincing and compelling.

6. The Great: Season 1 (hulu)

Much like his screenplay for The Favourite, Tony McNamara’s series about Catherine the Great rewrites history with a thoroughly modern and irreverent sensibility (see also: Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette). Elle Fanning brings a winning charm and strength to the title role and Nicholas Hoult is riotously entertaining as her absurdly clueless and ribald husband, Emperor Peter III. Its 10-episodes occasionally tilt into repetitiveness, but when the ride is this fun, why complain? Huzzah!

  5. Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC)

A limited (but possibly anthology-to-be?) series from creator/writer/director/actor Jason Segal, Dispatches From Elsewhere is a beautiful and creative affirmation of life and celebration of humanity. The first 9 episodes form a fulfilling and complete arc, while the tenth branches into fourth wall-breaking meta territory, which may be a bridge too far for some (but is certainly ambitious if nothing else). Either way, it’s a movingly realized portrait of honesty, vulnerability and empathy, and I highly recommend visiting whenever it inevitably makes its way to Netflix, or elsewhere…

4. What We Do in the Shadows: Season 2 (FX)

The second season of WWDITS is more self-assured and expansive than the first, extending a premise I loved from its antecedent film – but was skeptical could be sustained – to new and reinvigorated (after)life. Each episode packs plenty of laughs, but for my money, there is no better encapsulation of the series’ potential and Matt Berry’s comic genius than “On The Run,” which guest-stars Mark Hamill and features Laszlo’s alter ego Jackie Daytona, regular human bartender.

3. Ted Lasso: Season 1 (AppleTV+)

Much more than your average fish-out-of-water comedy, Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso is a brilliant tribute to humaneness, decency, emotional intelligence and good coaching – not just on the field. The fact that its backdrop is English Premier League Soccer is just gravy (even if that’s not necessarily represented 100% proficiently). A true surprise and gem of the year.

2. Mrs. America (hulu)

This FX miniseries explores the women’s liberation movement and fight for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and its opposition by conservative women including Phyllis Schlafly. One of the most ingenious aspects of the series is centering each episode on a different character, which rotates the point of view and helps things from getting same-y. With a slate of directors including Ryan Bowden and Anna Fleck (Half-Nelson, Sugar, Captain Marvel) and an A-List cast including Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Sarah Paulson, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ulman and Elizabeth Banks, its quality is right up there with anything on the big screen. And its message remains (sadly) relevant as ever in our current era.

1. The Good Place: Season 4 (NBC)

It was tempting to omit The Good Place this year or shunt it to a side category since only the final 4 episodes aired in 2020, but that would have been disingenuous. This show is one of my all-time favorites and it ended perfectly. The series finale is a representative mix of absurdist humor and tear-jerking emotion, built on themes of morality, self-improvement, community and humanity. (And this last run of eps also includes a pretty fantastic Timothy Olyphant/Justified quasi-crossover.) Now that the entire series is available to stream on Netflix (or purchase in a nice Blu-ray set), it’s a perfect time to revisit the Good Place, or check it out for the first time if you’ve never had the pleasure.

5 of the Best Things I Caught Up With

Anne With An E (Netflix/CBC)

Another example of classic literature I had no prior knowledge of (see also Little Women and Emma), this Netflix/CBC adaptation of Anne of Green Gables was strongly recommended by several friends so I finally gave it a shot. While this is apparently slightly more grown-up than the source material, it’s not overly grimdark or self-serious but rather humane and heartfelt, expanding the story’s scope to include Black and First Nations peoples in early 1800s Canada, among other identities and themes. It has sadly been canceled, but the three seasons that exist are heart-warming and life-affirming storytelling. Fingers crossed that someday we’ll be gifted with a follow-up movie or two to tie up some of the dangling threads.

Better Call Saul (AMC)

I liked Breaking Bad, but I didn’t have much interest in an extended “Breaking Bad Universe,” as much as I appreciate star Bob Odenkirk’s multitalents. Multiple recommendations and lockdown finally provided me the opportunity to catch up on this prequel series and I’m glad I did. Just as expertly plotted and acted as its predecessor, the series follows Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman on his own journey to disrepute but really makes it hard not to root for his redemption (even as you know that’s not where this story ends).

Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim)

It’s hard to really describe the deadpan and oddly soothing humor of comedian Joe Pera whose persona, in the series at least, combines something like the earnestness of Mr. Rogers with the calm enthusiasm of Bob Ross. Sharing his knowledge on the likes of how to get the best bite out of your breakfast combo, growing a bean arch and this amazing song “Baba O’Reilly” by the Who – have you heard it?!? – Pera provides arch comfort that remains solidly on the side of sincerity. The surprise special he released during lockdown, “Relaxing Old Footage with Joe Pera,” was a true gift in the middle of a strange and isolated year.

The Mandalorian (Disney+)

One of the few recent Star Wars properties that lives up to its potential, the adventures of Mando and Grogu is a real thrill-ride of a series with outstanding production values (you definitely want to check out the behind-the-scenes documentary series if you haven’t). I personally prefer the first season, appreciating its Western-influenced vibes and somewhat-more-siloed story. The back half of the second season veers a little too much into fan service and video game-y plotting IMHO but still has several excellent episodes on offer, especially the Timothy Olyphant-infused energy of premiere “The Marshall” and stunning cinematography of “The Jedi.” And, you know, Grogu.

The Tick (Amazon Prime)

I’ve been a fan of the Tick since the character’s Fox cartoon and indie comic book days and also loved the short-lived Patrick Warburton series from 2001. I was skeptical about this Amazon Prime reboot, especially upon seeing the pilot episode’s off-putting costumes. Finally gaining access to Prime this year, I decided to catch up and it gets quite good!, especially in Season 2. First, the costumes are upgraded; second, Peter Serafinowicz’s initially shaky characterization improves; and third, it begins to come into its own identity. The only real issue is yet another premature cancellation for the property, meaning Season 2’s tease of interdimensional alien Thrakkorzog will never be fulfilled. 😢

Bonus! 5 More Honorable Mentions:

City So Real (National Geographic)

The Good Lord Bird (Showtime)

How To with John Wilson: Season 1 (HBO)

Kidding: Season 2 (Showtime)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Vs The Reverend (Netflix)

[hellyeahheroes]

Sunday Spotlight, Black History Month Character of the Day: Miles Morales

Arguably the most successful character created in the last decade, Miles has made his first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4. He comes from Earth 1610 - so-called Ultimate Universe, which reimagined classic Marvel heroes as how they would look if the debuted in Turn of the Millenium. Ultimate Universe was known for taking ore risks to the point of not being afraid to kill their version of Peter Parker. And then promptly reveal the existence of Miles - a teenager who gained near-identical powers but didn’t feel the world needed him to be a superhero, already having one Spider-Man. When Peter died in action, Miles felt guilty, thinking if he was there, he could be able to stop that tragedy and that motivated him to become a new Spider-Man.

In 2015 Ultimate Universe was phased out in event Secret Wars, where all alternate worlds collapsed into one, ruled by Doctor Doom. When things were undone a reality warper Molecule Man, who took a liking to Miles, moved him and a number of his family and friends to the main Marvel Universe.

Miles is in a lot of books. Here is a quick guide:

Ultimate Universe:

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man - Miles first main solo series

Cataclysm: the Ultimates Last Stand and Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man - Ultimate Universe faces off against dimension-hopping Galactus from 616. Miles is featured in the main series but has more focus in his own miniseries.

All-New Ultimates - Following the Cataclysm Miles forms a new Ultimates team with various other teens of Ultimate Universe.

Spider-Men - a miniseries in which Miles meets Peter Parker of main Marvel Universe.

Spider-Verse - let the name not fool you, has jack shit to do with the story of the movie (it came out first and focuses on Peter, Otto Octavius and a bunch of interdimensional vampires) and Miles has a minuscule role. However, a story in Spider-Verse Team-Up #2 where Miles and Peter from Ultimate Spider-Man Animated Series go recruit Spider-man from 1963 cartoon is pretty funny.

All-New X-Men #31-36 - Miles teams-up with....time-travelling teenage versions of original X-Men from 616 when they jump to Ultimate Universe.

Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man - Miles second series, leads directly into Secret Wars

Main Marvel Universe:

Secret Wars and Ultimate End #4-5 - Miles has a very minor role, read them if you have to know how he ended in the main Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man - Miles’ first series in the new world. 

All-New, All-Different Avengers #1-12 - Miles joins the Avengers. Notable for being where he first meets Kama Khan and Sam Alexander, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel and Nova, who will become among his closest friends in the superhero community.

Civil War II - Fuck this event. There is a big plot about a vision of Miles’ killing Captain America in the future but the story is shit. Read it only if you need to understand what the fuck is happening in issues of Miles’ main book that make a tie-in to it

Champions - Following Civil War II Miles, Kamala and Sam quit the Avengers and decide to start their own superhero team.

Spider-Men II - Miles and Peter team-up to discover who is Miles Morales of 616 Universe. Plot points from here come back in later series and it introduces Miles’s new love interest, Barbara Rodriguez.

Secret Empire - Fuck this event even harder, the subplot about Miles killing Captain America comes back and as much as fun it is to see Miles beat up HydraCap, they still fucked it up.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man - Miles’ first series under new writer Saladin Ahmed.

Spider-Geddon - Follow-up to original Spider-Verse, Miles actually gets stuff to do in this one.

Champions 2019 #1-6 and #9-10 - continuing from the first Champions series.

War of the Realms: Journey Into Mystery  - Read it between issues #6 and #9 of Champions, it has Miles as a part of a ragtag bunch of misfits tasked with protecting Odin’s baby daughter from Ares, Greek God of War. Notable for being written by McElroys from the Adventure Zone podcast.

Absolute Carnage - pair the course FUCK THIS EVENT! You can read Miles’ own miniseries but even then avoid the main miniseries, it doesn’t help you understand the context of events in Miles’ mini. In fact, it makes things make LESS sense. 

Marvel Rising - Miles teams-up with other heroes against Morgan LeFay

Spider-Verse 2019 - following from plot-lines of Spider-Geddon it has Miles fall into multiverse again when a new crisis threatens various Spiders.

Miles Morales: the End -  One-shot showing Miles possible “final tale” set in the far future.

Marvel Action: Spider-Man - a series aimed at younger audiences, starring Peter, Miles and Gwen in main roles.

Champions 2020 - Miles will be part of the upcoming Champions relaunch as a part of the Outlawed event in which government bans all superheroes below age of 21.

Guest Appearances

Ms. Marvel #7, #31 - Miles has guest appearances in Kamala’s book, they’re pretty neat.

Nova #3-4 - Set during All-new All-Different Avengers days, Miles and Kamala go on a patrol with Sam.

Totally Awesome Hulk #1-4 - Miles meets Amadeus Cho. Read it before Champions to know where Miles knows Amadeus when he recommends him for the team.

Gwenpool #5-6, #18-20 - #5-6 has main character trying to befriend Miles, #18-20 features adult Miles from the future.

Amazing Spider-Man #12-15 - a meh story that is notable for the fact that Peter Parker and Tony Stark LITERALLY GOT INTO A FISTFIGHT over who is Miles’ mentor.

Shuri #6-7 - Miles and Kamala team-up with Shuri, princess of Wakanda.

Ironheart #6 - Riri investigates Miles’ disappearance.

Other media: 

Miles appears in dozens of games and several cartoons, but two things that are truly about him are:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man prose novel by Jason Reynolds

And of course Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated movie that is so freaking good it won 41 different awards, including a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

- Admin

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews, February 2021

Here's some things I've been reading.

The Curse of Brimstone 

DC's New Age of Heroes books, emerging from the beginning of Scott Snyder's creative-flameout-as-crossover-event Metal, mostly constituted riffs on Marvel heroes like the Fantastic Four (in The Terrifics) or the Hulk (in Damage). The Curse of Brimstone is a riff on Ghost Rider. It's... uneven. The first volume is generally pretty good, and when Phillip Tan is drawing it, as he does the first three and a half issues, it's gorgeous and unique, when he departs though, the quality takes a nose dive. None of the replacement artists, including the great Denis Cowan, can quite fill his shoes, and the story gets old fast. Guy makes a deal with the devil (or rather, a devil-like inhabitant of the "Dark Multiverse" as a not horribly handled tie-in to the conceits of Metal), realizes it's a raw deal, and rebels. The characters are flat, lots of time is spent with the main character's sister haranguing him to not use his powers (it is, in my humble opinion, something of a cardinal sin to have a character whose primary role is telling other characters to stop doing interesting things), too many potboiler "I know you're still in there!/I can feel this power consuming me!" exchanges, a couple of underwhelming guest spots (including a genuinely pointless appearance by the old, white, boring Doctor Fate) too many flashbacks, and not enough of the action. There's potential in the classic demonic hero rebelling plotline and its link to the liminal spaces of the DC universe, forgotten towns and economic depression, but the wheels come off this series pretty much as soon as Tan leaves. The really disappointing this is that the series is clearly built as an artistic showcase, so after Tan's shockingly early departure, the main appeal of the series is gone and there's nothing left but the playing out of an obviously threadbare story.

Star Wars - Boba Fett: Death, Lies, and Treachery

I don't care much about Star Wars these days, and I think that most of the old Expanded Universe was, as evidenced by Crimson Empire, pretty bad. Death, Lies, and Treachery, is that rare Star Wars EU comic which is actually good. John Wagner writes and he's in full-on 2000 AD mode, writing Boba Fett as a slightly more unpleasant Johnny Alpha (who is like a mercenary Judge Dredd, for those unfamiliar) right on down to the appearance of a funny alien sidekick for one of the characters. The main attraction is Cam Kennedy's art though, along with his inimitable colors: this might be the best looking Star Wars comic ever. The designs are all weird and chunky, with an almost kitbashed feeling that captures the lived in aesthetic of classic Star Wars, and the colors are one of a kind. Natural, neutral white light does not exist in this comic, everything is always bathed at all times in lurid greens or yellows, occasionally reds, and it looks incredible. In terms of "Expanded Universe" material for Star Wars, this hits the sweet spot of looking and feeling of a piece, but exploring the edges of the concept with a unique voice. It's great. I read this digitally, but I'd consider it a must-buy in print if I ever get the chance at a deal.

Zaroff

Zaroff is a French comic (novel? novella?). It's like 90 pages and it delivers exactly on its premise of "Die Hard starring the bad guy from The Most Dangerous Game." It's pretty good. Count Zaroff, he of the habitual hunting of humans, turns out to have killed a mafia don at some point, and after miraculously escaping his own seeming death at the end of the original story, finds himself hunted by the irate associates of this gangster, who have brought along Zaroff's sister and her kids to spice things up. Zaroff not only finds himself the hunt, but he also has to protect his estranged family as they struggle to survive. Nothing about this book or its twists and turns is likely to surprise you, but I don't think being surprised is always necessary for quality. Zaroff delivers on pulpy, early-20th century jungle action, is gorgeously rendered, and the fact that Zaroff himself is an unrepentant villain adds just enough of an unexpected element to the proceedings and character dynamics that it doesn't feel rote. There's a couple of points, ones typical of Eurocomics, which spark a slight sour note, such as some "period appropriate" racism and flashes of the male gaze, but for the most part these are relatively contained. It's good.

Batman: Gothic

Long before Grant Morrison did their Bat-epic, they wrote Batman: Gothic, an entirely different, but then again maybe not so different, kind of thing. It starts off with what must be called a riff on Fritz Lang's film, M, only where that story ends with a crew of gangsters deciding they cannot pass moral judgment on a deranged child-murderer, in Morrison's story they go ahead and kill him, only for the killer to return years later to rather horribly murder all of them as a warmup for a grandiose scheme involving unleashing a weaponized form of the bubonic plague on Gotham City as an offering to Satan. Along the way it turns out that said villain, one Mr. Whisper, is a former schoolmaster of Bruce Wayne's, who terrified the young Batman in the days before his parent's deaths. It's an earlier Morrison story and it shows. Certain elements presage their later Batman work; Mr. Whisper as a satanic enemy recalls the later Doctor Hurt, and the cathedral Mr. Whisper built to harvest souls recalls what writers like Morrison, Milligan, and Snyder would do concerning Gotham as a whole years later.The art, by Klaus Janson, is spectacular. If you're familiar at all with his work collaborating with Frank Miller you'll see him continuing in a similar vein and it's all quite good, even when he stretches beyond the street milieu which most readers might know him from. There's one particular sequence where Janson renders a needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg machine in motion that manages to work despite being static images. The writing by Morrison though, is not their finest. The M riff doesn't last as long as it could, and Mr. Whisper's turn in the latter half of the story from delicious creepy wraith to a cackling mass murderer who puts Batman in an easily escaped death trap feels like something of a letdown from the promise of the first half of the book. Gothic is good, but not, in my opinion, great. It's certainly worth checking out for Morrison fans however, and I imagine that someone well-versed in his latter Batman stuff might be able to find some real resonance between the two.

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters

For a long, long time, Longbow Hunters was THE Green Arrow story. It is to Green Arrow as TDKR is to Batman, deliberately so. Mike Grell wrote and drew the reinvention of the character from his role as the Justice League's resident limousine liberal to a gritty urban vigilante operating in Seattle over the course of these three issues, which he'd follow up with a subsequent ongoing. Going back to it, it certainly merits its reputation, but its far from timeless. Grell's art is unimpeachable absolutely incredible, with great splashes and spreads, subtle colors, and really great figure work. The narrative is almost so 80's it hurts though, revolving around West Coast serial killers, cocaine, the CIA and the Iran-Contra scandal, and the Yakuza, and it's hard to look back at some of this stuff without smirking. The story begins with a teenager strung out on tainted coke sprinting through a window in a scene that's right out of Reefer Madness. In the cold light of a day 30+ years later, parts of it look more than a little silly. The 80's-ness of it all doesn't stop with that stuff though, even the superhero elements smack of it. Green Arrow realizes that he's lost a step and has be to be shown a way forward by an Asian woman skilled in the martial arts (recalling Vic Sage's reinvention in the pages of The Question), and Black Canary gets captured and torture off-panel for the sake of showing that this is real crime now, not the superhero silliness they've dealt with before. The treatment of Black Canary here is pretty markedly heinous, it's a classic fridging and Grell's claims that he didn't intentionally imply sexual assault in his depiction of her torture is probably true, but still feels more than a little weak considering how he chose to render it.The final analysis is that this book is good, but it exists strictly in the frame of the 1980's. If you're a fan of Green Arrow, there are worse books to pick up, or if you're interested in that era of DC Comics it's more than worth it, but as a matter of general interest I wouldn't recommend it very highly.

SHIELD by Steranko

Jim Steranko is sort of the prodigy of the early Marvel years, a young guy who came up through the system, blossomed into an incredible talent, and then left the company, and by and large the industry, behind. He would go on to dabble in publishing, work in other mediums, and generally kick around as the prodigal son of Marvel Comics. This collection, of both his Nick Fury shorts in the pages of Strange Tales and the four issues he drew of the original Nick Fury solo series, charts Steranko's growth as an artist. The book starts off with Steranko working from Jack Kirby's layouts with Stan Lee's dialogue and writing, and Steranko might be the one guy in history for whom working off of Kirby's blueprints is clearly holding him back. The first third or so of this collection really isn't much to write home about, as Steranko is obviously constrained by someone else's style, and at the end of the day those early stories still read as somewhat uninspired pulp compared to the highlights of early Marvel. There are flashes though, of techniques and ideas, which foreshadow what Steranko is capable of, and when he finally takes over as solo writer/artist it's like he's been unleashed. He immediately has Nick Fury tear off his shirt and start throwing guys around over psychedelic effects. He writes out most of Kirby and Lee's frankly uninspired boys' club supporting cast, he makes Fury visibly older, wearier, but also so much cooler. It's the birth of Nick Fury as a distinctly comic book super spy.By the time he finishes wrapping up the previous writers' plotline with Hydra and Baron von Strucker, Steranko is firing on all cylinders. By the time it gets to Steranko's Fury solo series, he's somehow surpassed himself, turning in effects, panel structures, and weird stories which make the earlier installment about a suit-wearing Man from UNCLE knockoff and its strict six-panel layouts look absolutely fossilized.I can't recommend this collection highly enough for any fan of the artform, even if the stories themselves might not be everyone's cup of tear. It's truly incredible to watch Steranko emerge as an artist over the course of this single collection. The book itself has a few problems, it's not the most elegantly designed in its supporting materials and index, but the content of it more than outweighs that. It's great stuff.

[faunaflanaganarchive]

After Hours: Sauna

Who: Fauna Flanagan & Sawyer Hudson @sawyerhudson Where: Empty Classroom When: 19th August 2020 What: On day four of their week of scenes together Fauna finally gets to meet up with the infamous Mr Hudson and the two of them follow Erics suggestion for the final project. Content/Trigger Warnings: smut, choking

If there was one thing that Fauna had been hoping for, it was that Mr Hudson was going to make his debut this week and it was even better that she was getting to use this exciting moment as her importunity for extra credit. When she opened the door that morning and found the uniform she’d literally had to text Alexis to tell her she was going to die happy. She’d paired the uniform skirt with a white lace bra, knee socks, heels and matching cardigan and then headed up to the classroom he’d suggested. She knocked on the door and then slipped into the room. “Good afternoon Mr Hudson, I got your note, I understand you wanted to see me?” It had never been something Sawyer considered; a teacher/student roleplay, but seeing how excited Fauna was at the prospect really enticed him. After dropping off the note and the uniform, he went and got some props ready, heading to the empty classroom to set the scene. Wearing a button down shirt and tie, and a pair of reading glasses he knew Fauna went crazy for, he felt the part of Mr. Hudson already. He wrote his name on the chalkboard, and sat at the desk, an empty file in hand as he pretended to check through something, looking up when she entered the room. He took a moment to appreciate her in the uniform before beckoning her over. “Yes, Miss Flanagan, thank you for coming. I just wanted to discuss your grades on your last assignment. Take a seat.” He beckoned towards one of the desks in front of the teacher’s one. Fauna took her time eyeing up her boyfriend when she entered the room, he looked good, really good. He was wearing the reading glasses that he knew made her want to jump him, which was a cheeky touch. “I hope all of my work has been satisfactory Mr Hudson.” She said licking her lips. “I’ve worked ever so hard this term.” She promised, taking a seat in front of him and then unbuttoning the little top button on her cardigan so that he could see the top of the bra underneath. Although he noticed her unbutton the top of her shirt, he pretended to not acknowledge it, instead just got up and sat on the edge of the teacher's desk. "It's very satisfactory, Miss Flanagan. In fact, I was very impressed with your essay on Pride and Prejudice. I was just wondering if you had chosen a university yet?" He smiled. What he liked about this scene with Fauna, something they discussed a while ago, was that it wasn't the typical "naughty student gets punished" type of scene. He didn't want to punish her if she wasn't misbehaving, and preferred to reward her instead. Which exactly which this was about. Faunas eyes couldn’t help but brighten when he said he was impressed with her, she knew she hadn’t really written an essay but there was something about the idea of him appreciating her brain that just really appealed to her. “Thank you ever so much Mr Hudson I was really passionate about Darcy and Elizabeth’s love story so I wanted to do them justice in my essay. I’ve been considering a lot of options.. though UCLA has a program I’m very interested in.” The brunette responded, folding her hands in her lap. “Do you have any advice for me about colleges?” “And that you did,” Sawyer assured, heart swelling at how happy the compliment made her. “You know it’s one of my favourite books, but I knew it was yours as well.” He glanced around as if pretending to watch out for someone. “If this can be our little secret, Miss Flanagan, I actually only assigned the book because I knew how much you loved it. I guess I just wanted to impress my favourite student.” He nodded in faux seriousness at the talk of college. “UCLA is an excellent choice but I do believe you could and should aim higher. I know someone who works in the English department of Yale and they’ve told me a student like yourself is exactly what they’re looking for.” Fauna shifted a little when he looked around as if checking they were alone. “I’m your favourite student Sir?” She responded eyes wide with school girl wonder. “I’m so happy to hear that because you’ve always been my favourite teacher... there’s something so.. passionate about the way you engage with the books. When you read us Darcy it was like he came to life.” She told him biting her lip a little. “Yale? You really think I could get into Yale Mr Hudson?” She responded, blinking in disbelief. “But I’m just a submissive, surely they’d be looking for someone more qualified?” She asked as if she was truly stunned by the idea that he would think she was smart enough for something like that. The big innocent eyes almost did it for Sawyer, and he resisted the urge to drop all character and just have her right there and then on the desk. But alas, he just smiled, leaning back from where he was perched on the edge of the desk. “Of course you’re my favourite student,” He assured her, “you’re the only who ever gets the material. In fact, it’s you who inspires me to try as hard as I can.” He dripped his head slightly, a classic Sawyer Hudson blush on his cheeks when she complimented his Darcy. “Well, if you like, I could read a few passages to you now, I have a my copy with me.” He reached for the book and showed it to her. The talk of college felt strange to Sawyer, who burned out before he had a chance to give it a try but thought back to his own acceptance letter from Yale, knowing he couldn’t go for a myriad of reasons, but was at least getting to live through this fantasy now in a roundabout way. “I think Yale would be very lucky to have you despite your mark, Miss Flanagan. You’re brilliant in every way - intelligent, passionate, beautiful...” He trailed off with a laugh. “And I’d be more than happy to help you with your personal essay but the applications are due in very soon, so we may have to spend all night here alone, working closely together. Is that alright? Is it something you want?” Fauna nibbled on her bottom lip when he assured her that she was his favourite student, reaching up to play with a strand of her hair. She’d skipped the cliche pigtails and settled for loose waves around her shoulders. “It’s an honour to think that I could inspire you Mr Hudson.. you’re such an amazing teacher.. truly I felt lucky to even get to be in your class.” She insisted with the same school girl wonder, returning the blush that was on his cheeks when he suggested that he could read Darcy to her. “Oh please Sir... I really can’t think of anything I’d like more.” Fauna told him honestly, her flush deepening when he complimented her, ducking behind the curtain of hair momentarily. “Goodness thank you.. I don’t think anyone has ever spoken so highly of me Sir..” There was more truth to that than was usual for a scene, but it somehow added to the magic. “Mr Hudson if you’re willing to put in the time to me, then I will be here for every second of it. There is nothing to me more valuable than any time, or effort that you put into me.” His attention focused on her hair and an image of him pulling it back as he fucked her from behind flashed in his mind briefly. He instead shook it from his brain for now: all good things come to those who wait. “From the first day of class I knew you’d be such a special student for me, Fauna.” He promised her, flicking through the dog eared pages of his worn book to find the perfect passage. “I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding,” He glanced up, eyes meeting hers, as he continued the passage, using the book only as a prop, knowing most of it off by heart by now. “My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding— certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself.” He stood up from his desk, moving to rest against Fauna’s, his copy of the novel abandoned on the table. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.” He finished the passage with a small bow, grinning. “Now, I am more than willing if you are to keep me company getting your application ready. First I need to know what you’re good at. Any specific skills?” He asked, though he was looking more at where the top of her bra was peeking through her unbuttoned shirt, lust clouding his brain. He said the first day of class, but Faunas mind was very briefly on the day that she'd first seen him waiting for her in his letterman jacket. Remembered the butterflies that had formed in her stomach, those same butterflies were there now. "I'd heard about you before I took your class Sir, then I saw you and I just.. I've never felt so connected to a teacher." She told him, unable to stop herself from looking at him with the kind of lovesick gaze that she usually saved for when he was lost in one of his novels or singing in the shower. Her heart felt as if it skipped a little as he began to quote Darcy to her. Her cheeks so red now that she figured it must almost be comical, she let out something akin to almost a moan when he put down the book and quoted by heart. God if he didn't fuck her soon she was going to have to pull him over the desk. "That was.. really something Mr Hudson." She responded, almost completely lost for words for once. Letting out a little breath she steadied herself. "Well Sir I've been told that I have excellent.. Oral skills, and that I'm very good under pressure." He had to look away from her as he quoted Darcy, knowing if she saw the stargazed look he’d abandon the literature and the scene all together. “Hmm, excellent oral skills is always needed.” He agreed with a cheeky grin, his hand resting on his leg right near his bulge, knowing it’d be in her line of sight from where she was sat. “I’ve been told to have excellent oral skills too, I could always give you some tips if you like?” Sawyer flashed his teeth at her. “What kind of pressure are we talking about here, Miss Flanagan?” He leaned forward as if he was really interested in his reply, faces inches apart. She followed his hand right to his cock, already imaging him fucking her right against the desk. Her eyes lit up further when he talked about his own oral skills, she was spoiled when it came to that kind of attention normally and she knew it. “I would love some tips Mr Hudson, especially from someone with such a silver tongue.” She responded innocently, fluttering her lashes again. “Well Sir I’ve been told that no matter how hard or how fast I’m pushed... I excel.” She responded, flicking her eyes from his lips back up again. Waiting for him to kiss her. He smirked when he realised she got the innuendo, biting his lip at her lash fluttering. “Hmm I bet you do excel indeed, no doubt about it.” He agreed automatically, too focused on how close together they were. Giving them a moment to just keep what was about to happen in the air, to tease her mainly but there was something erotic about the buildup, he leaned in closely, pressing a gentle kiss against her lips. “I’m sorry if I’m overstepping, Miss Flanagan, I know you’re my student but I simply couldn’t resist.” He murmured. It was like she could taste the tension between them, and she didn’t dare move a muscle until he pressed his lips against hers. In that moment she could almost believe that it was the first time they’d ever kissed. That she was sharing some kind of delicious stolen moment with him. “You’re not Mr Hudson... not at all..” She promised breathlessly. “I.. ive been thinking about kissing you since the first day that I saw you in the hallway.. I hope that’s not too inappropriate to say.” It felt like the right kind of wrong to be kissing Fauna just then, and Sawyer had to really remind himself that he wasn't actually a teacher, nor was she a student. They were boyfriend and girlfriend and it was a scene. He chuckled, his breath hot against her. "That's not inappropriate at all, in fact the things I've been wanting to do to you would be more inappropriate. I noticed the way you sometimes stretch your legs out in class when you're restless, and all I want to do is duck under that criminally short skirt of yours and just try a taste of you." He admitted, his hand resting on her thigh, rubbing it sensually. "Maybe it's time for those oral tips I suggested?" He quirked an eyebrow, the hand disappearing up the short material of the skirt, fingers dancing across the skin in teasing circles. She reached out and carefully ran her hand over his arm as if it were the first time she was ever touching him. “Goodness Mr Hudson. It’s like you could read my mind, because everytime you read to us I couldn’t stop looking at your lips... imaging kissing them and..” She looked down, at his hand with a little excited breath. “I would.. I would really like that Mr Hudson.” Fauna told him, thighs parting a little as his hand crept up them. “I promise to be a very attentive student.” He had already dropped the floor by the time she trailed off her sentence, watching with eager eyes as she parted her legs. “Attentive students are usually the best,” He assured her, positioning himself so he was crouched in between her legs. Fingers teasing her between her panties, he peppered kisses against her bare skin. “God, I haven’t tasted you properly yet and I already know you taste divine.” He groaned, feeling the wet patch on her underwear grow, before tugging them down in one swift movement. He looked up at her for permission, wanting her consent before he dived in. He may have been the Dominant, but this was Fauna’s fantasy, she was the one in charge here. She swallowed as he dropped to the floor, watching him closely. “I want to be the best.” She affirmed, trembling a little as he teased her through her panties. Voice faltering with his kisses. “Fuck..” She whimpered, and then looked embarrassed as if she’d never sworn in front of him before. “I’m terribly sorry Mr Hudson.” She told him,  then nodded as he looked up for her approval. “Please.” She said shyly parting her thighs a little wider for him. He affectionately rolled his eyes at her apology to the swearing, “I think this once, Miss Flanagan, I’ll allow it.” He murmured, grinning when she gave him permission. He ducked his head under her skirt , his tongue expertly licking through her folds, knowing exactly how to tease her now. He lapped up to her clit, giving the sensitive nub a few teasing flicks, his hands digging into her thighs, knowing there would be marks left for days. “Thank you Mr Hudson.” She told him gratefully ducking her head bashfully. The bashfulness didn’t last long though, not when his mouth was on her. Sawyer was the first guy to take his time with her like this, and she couldn’t help but let out a series of low whines as his tongue pushed against her folds. “Oh god Sir... that feels so good.” She squealed, cunt clenching a little as he dug his fingers in. Always enjoying a little pain with her pleasure. “Please...” Was the only coherent word she could choke out. There was something wonderful about rendering someone speechless by just the talent of your tongue, which was a profound thought to have, Sawyer decided, when you're in the middle of eating out your girlfriend during a teacher/student scene in an empty classroom. Nonetheless, her whines and broken-off sentences were the encouragement he needed to keep going, tongue swiling her clit, before travelling back through her folds, as he fingers scratched across the skin of her thighs. She was close, he could sense it, and he wanted to push her over the edge, to hear her cry out in bliss for him, because of him. She let herself simply be swallowed by the pleasure that he was giving her, between his tongue pressing against her clit and her folds and his fingers pushing against her hips she was almost drunk on pleasure. The little brunette felt the coil in her stomach, start to tighten to a degree that she could no longer hold it off and then with a moan of. “Oh Mr Hudson.” She fell over the edge, little hands digging into his shoulders as she did so. He'd never get bored of the way Fauna looked and sounded as she came, the smug part of himself knowing it was all because of him. He kept working over her with his mouth, lapping up the juices until her breathing stilled, hissing as her hands dug into his shoulder blades. "You taste exacly how I imagined," He hummed, moving back up from between her legs and shooting her a cheeky smirk. Shifting slightly to get more comfortable, he could feel his erection straining against the fabric of his pants. "I hope those oral skills can be useful to you, Miss Flanagan. Is there anything else you need?" He asked, suggestively raising a brow, his hands once again tracing the skin of her thighs, soothing the areas where he nipped at. "If not I have an idea in mind, regarding my teacher's desk..." Fauna took a minute to be able to say anything after coming down from her high, but then she remembered her role and sat up properly playing into the flush covering her cheeks. “Thank you.. so much for that oral lesson Sir, it was illuminating.” She responded, and then with shy hands she reached up and fully unbuttoned her cardigan so that she was just in the skirt and bra. “I think it’s very important that I have an all around learning experience... maybe you could fu-fill my education against your desk?” She suggested, pressing herself up against him as his hands rubbed against her thighs. “If you wanted to leave your mark on me.. I wouldn’t be opposed.” The brunette tried to tempt him, allowing her school girl persona to gain a little confidence. God, it was lucky that they both wanted the same thing, and it was close to happening, because Sawyer didn't know how long he could last with the way she flirted with him like this. "Well, the desks in the hallowed halls of Yale are much bigger than this so it'll be nice to give you a taste of what to expect." He promised, eyes glinting at the idea of marking her, watching her remove her little cardigan for him. He stood properly, scooping her up in one manouevre, her panties still around her ankles, thankful for his long legs that the journey from her desk to his was even shorter. He sat her on it, hurriedly shimmying his cock out of his pants and underwear, giving himself a stroke as he leaned in, kissing her messily, mouth moving down her jawline and neck, stopping just above the collarbone to nip and suck at the skin. The brunette nodded, keeping up her facade of girlish excitement which honestly wasn’t much of a facade. If she could have Sawyer fuck her in the hallowed halls of Yale she’d do it tomorrow. “Thank you Mr Hudson, your dedication to my education has been so admirable. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She praised, letting out a little excited squeak as he lifted her up. The little brunette pushed her hair out of her face a little and then wrapped her arms tight around his neck. “I know I shouldn’t Sir... but I want to be covered in your marks. I want to look at them and think of you, as Elizabeth Bennett once said ‘remembrance gives you pleasure.’” She quoted into his ear as he nipped at her skin, elated to just be this intimate with him at the moment. If it were another situation, quoting the book in his ear to turn him on would have had the added benefit of making him laugh, but he was so hyper-focused in the moment, her breath hot in his ear, her voice causing goosebumps, that he merely groaned. In one motion he managed to get the condom out of his pocket, rip it open and roll it down his length, hiking the short skirt up even further before pushing inside her with a groan. "You feel fucking amazing," He complimented, his mouth making contact with as much available skin as possible as he thrust into her, "The amount of times I've thought about fucking you just like this, every time you hand in an assignment, or even just walk by the classroom in that sinful little skirt...fuck." His groan was enough to make her moan too, one hand tracing over his back as he worked on her neck. She shifted a little as he fiddled with the condom, almost unwilling to wait before he slid inside her and she let her head fall back with the pleasure. “God you’re so big.” She complimented, rocking her hips back against him as he fucked her. “I’ve fantasised about it every day Sir, when I would see you reading in your office.. or when you’d hand back my work. I’d get so hot and bothered that I had to use my fingers when I got home.” She confessed, fingers tugging at his hair. The idea of Fauna thinking of him as she played with herself only encouraged him on, thrusting hard into her. The hand that wasn't holding her up against the desk snaked round to undo the bra, throwing it off with practiced ease, fingers taking time to fondle and twist the nipples that hardened in his hands. "Am I doing this in your fantasies? When you pretend your little slim fingers are my big cock?" He gasped out, shifting positions so he could hit her g-spot with each thrust. Him managing to get her bra off with so little trouble was something that probably shouldn’t have turned her on as much as it did. Letting out little mewls of pleasure as pulled at her nipples. “Yes Mr Hudson, in my fantasies you have me as many times as you like, wherever you like. Sometimes we have to be very quiet so you also have your hand around my throat.” He took the very obvious cue, hands going round her throat as he kept thrusting into her, giving a gentle squeeze to double check she was okay. "God, I imagine in that filthy little mind of yours we've fucked everything -- desk, my chair, even the teacher's lounge?" He prompted. "I bet in your fantasies I have to keep you on your knees under my desk, choking on my cock to keep you quiet, in case someone walks in when I'm doing paperwork?" The idea of that particular fantasy really did it for Sawyer and he kept it in mind for the next time Mr. Hudson came out to teach. "But I think this is my favourite, seeing you spread out and exposed for me on my desk, where anyone could walk in and see us." He panted out, taking a second between his thrusts to drink her all in. She was beautiful; hair a mess, skin flushed, her small breasts bouncing with each snap of the hips, his big hands around her slim throat only adding to the arousing vision. He went in harder, pulling their bodies closer together. "I'm so close," He groaned. Fauna moaned her consent, feeling herself clench around his cock as his hands went around her throat. She loved feeling just a little bit helpless as he fucked into her. “Everywhere.” She whimpered, it wasn’t even a lie, since she’d thought of him as Mr Hudson she’d not stopped thinking about all the ways she could be taken by her new favourite teacher. His own edition to her fantasy is so hot, and she lets out another slightly choked moan. “Thought about you making me give a presentation with a vibe in, trying not to let anyone know what you were doing to me while I try to present.” She added, looking at him now gazing down at her from behind his reading glasses was a sight she wouldn’t soon forget. Sawyer always looked at her like she was the sexiest person person in the world, and the confidence it gave her was sexy in its own right. “I don’t care who sees us.” She choked out. “Everyone should know that I’m a teachers pet.” The brunette couldn’t help crack a small smile at her own joke, though it was quickly followed by another moan. “Me too Sir.. I’m going to cum.” "Fuck, that's good, I'd purposefully set your assignment as something you find arousing, like Byronic heroes for instance." He approved of her fantasy, and already knew exactly how to tease her and wind her up in the future. Her disregard for anyone who walked in on them was the sexiest thing Sawyer witnessed, but he couldn't help the hand around her throat tighten a little. "I think we should try and keep you quiet, as amazing as you probably sound when you cum, crying out my name." He panted, his thrusts turning slopping, the coil low in his belly indiciating he was near the edge. "Fuck, come with me. Now." He ordered as his orgasm ripped through him, hips spasming, biting down on her neck as he did so, right over the mark he gave her from yesterday's scene. "Oh god, fuck." He panted out against her collar bone, planting a gentle soothing kiss to her skin. "I'd do my best to keep it together for you Sir, but.." Fauna had to trail off because of the way that he was fucking her, finally speechless for once.  This fantasy had been even more exciting than she thought it would be already. And she let out a little choked breath as he tightened his hand around her throat, he looked so powerful with his hand around her throat. She nodded a little as he told her he wanted her to keep quiet, something about that request only making her cunt clench tighter around him. She was so grateful when he ordered her to cum, and as she let the coil go and he bit down on her neck she was overwhelmed by the most powerful orgasm she'd experienced in a while. Falling into his arms completely spent. He hissed from the oversensitve feeling of her cunt clenching around his cock as she came, but helped ride out her orgasm, thrusts messy and lacking rhythm, until they slowed. His arms tightened around her as she all but collapsed in his arms, chuckling at the state the two of them must have been in. He planted a kiss to her forehead. "I hope my office hours were helpful, Miss Flanagan." Sawyer said, with a cheeky smile. "I have a perfect suggestion for us. Why don't we head back to my suite for a shower and some food and then I can walk you back to your dorm?" She couldn't speak for a moment, just huddled against his chest as she calmed her breathing and recovered. "Thank you Mr Hudson.. I certainly feel like you drove home the knowledge that you've been teaching me all year." She joked, leaning to pres her face into his neck. "I'd like that a lot Sir.. I'm not sure I could walk right now even if you wanted me to." She added with a smile.

[enygma0710]

Day 7: Jonerys Appreciation 2018

Alright, here is my one-shot for Jonerys Appreciation 2018. 

The prompt Day 7: Free Choice/ Role Reversal / Favorite Moment

I chose Free Choice, this is a one shot that is actually DONE! not a snippet but actually COMPLETED!

Title: When you least expect it

By: Enygma0710

Modern AU, Hybridize Westeros, Jonerys, Fluff, 

Summary: Jon relented to Sam’s badgering and agreed to attend the fifteenth annual Blackwater Comic Con. He expected to have the normal con experience except this one is could be more than he bargained for. 

Note: I attend at least one Comic Con annually, this is loosely based on experiences I’ve had over the years and people I’ve met over the years. Hope you like it. This will be on AO3 as well, under the same author name. Enjoy!

The convention floor at the fifteen annual Blackwater Comic Con was humid to say the least, but that was the last thing on Jon’s mind as he flipped through the comic book bin in front of him.

“Jon?” Sam held up a comic book.

Jon squinted, shaking his head. “No, I already have that one.”

Sam shrugged, placing the comic on his growing stack. Jon returned to the box in front of him.

“I’m off to catch the Lego panel. Are you coming?”

“No, I’ll catch up with you at the Steranko panel.” Jon replied.

Sam paid for his comics, waving at Jon as he walked away. Jon glanced up and caught the annoyed sneer of the booth attendant.

“You ready to check out too?” He drawled.

“Nope, still looking.”

The attendant huffed, rolling his beady eyes as he walked away towards his shorter partner; muttering under his breath.  Jon chose to ignore the man’s antics, switching to the next box. got it, got it, don’t need it, want it but don’t need it, got it

“Excuse me? Do you have JLA #45?”

“Well that depends?” Jon overheard the annoying man respond. “Is it a gift for your boyfriend?”

The woman scoffed. “Hardly, I need it to complete my collection.”

“Really now?” the man whistled. “And what’s a pretty thing like you know about JLA #45? Or for that matter comics in general?”

Jon could hear the irritation in the woman’s voice when she answered. “It’s the Tower of Babel series,” she huffed. “Look, do you have it or not?”

“Slynt!”

Jon glanced up in time to see the short burly man making his way towards the thin man standing opposite a woman with striking silvery blond hair. “This one here is asking for JLA #45. Do we have it?”

The shorter man, leered at her before turning to his partner. “We have it and you can have it love, but-” He paused, his eyes lingering on her. The woman stood with her arms tightly wound against her chest, glaring defiantly at the duo. “You can have it, when you come back here dressed as batgirl, right Flint?” Slynt drawled. Flint started clapping his hands, chuckling. “Yes, batgirl or no deal. What say you then?”  

Jon could see the blush of indignation, color her porcelain cheeks. She narrowed her eyes at the two and opened her mouth to retort. He left the stack of comics behind him, moving quickly.

“I know a place where that has it.”

She closed her mouth and huffed, turning to glare at Jon.

“I know another dealer with a bigger selection.” He stared down at the two men across from him. Silently wishing they wouldn’t try him.  

Her steely violet gaze faltered for a moment before she visibly relaxed, her shoulders rolling back. “Fine.”

Jon gripped her by the elbow to lead her away from the table. Leaving the harassing assholes behind them. They were barely a few feet away when she snatched her arm out of Jon’s grasp, stopping their retreat.

“I didn’t need your help back there, I could’ve handled it myself.” She snapped.  

Jon glanced back at the deserted table. “I bet you could’ve, but you didn’t see the security guard standing in the corner,” he nodded towards the imposing man in the grey uniform.  “Waiting to see if he needed to intervene and escort you out.”

She spun around towards the direction of the guard, who grimaced, acknowledging her with a tip of his head.  She silently cursed under her breath, turning back to Jon.  “Well, I guess I owe you an apology and a thank you then.”

“No worries,” he waved her off. “I’ve run into them at other conventions up North, they are known for being assholes.”

“Then why have a booth then?”

Jon shrugged. “Don’t know. Are you still interested in that JLA #45?”

“Yes, of course.” Her smile was bright and contagious. Jon couldn’t stop the crooked grin that tugged at his lips. Jon led the way as they meandered through the maze of booths on the convention floor until they reached a booth with flamboyant signage, lined with three times as many comic book and graphic novel bins.

“Free Folk Comics?”

“Yeah, they have the best selection up North, besides The Wall of course.”

Her violet eyes widened. “The Wall comics?” She dropped her bag to stand in front of the nearest bin. “I always wanted to go there, biggest comic book store in the North, right?”

“It is and it’s our biggest competitor. What can I do for you?” Tormund stood in front of them grinning.

“I’m looking for JLA #45.”

“Ahh, part three of the ‘Tower of Babel’ series.” Tormund maneuvered towards their right abruptly stopping and tucking into a bin. He flipped through the individually wrapped books before he made a grand gesture of pulling it out. “Here you go, I also have the others individual comics that proceeded the series, Paradise Lost and The Queen of Fables; very fine-near mint condition.”

Jon smirked as he watched the woman jump up and down in excitement, her silvery braid bouncing against her back. “Yes, I’ll take them. You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for those. Do you have ‘Gotham by Gaslight’?”

Tormund shot Jon a curious look before he turned back to the woman. “I do, I’ll just start a pile for you back here. Just let me know when you’re ready to close out.” He reached across the table, slapping Jon on his back. “Jon here will let me know when you’re ready. I’ll give you the friends of the north discount.” He winked at Jon before leaving to help another customer.

She turned, facing him. “You know him?”

“We use to work together. I’m Jon by the way, Jon Snow.”

“Daenerys, Daenerys Targaryen” She extended her hand. Jon shook it.

Jon grey gaze discreetly inspected the woman standing next to him.  There was a clear theme to her present attire.  From the Jim Lee cover on her shirt, the seven distinct emblems scattered on her back pack to the art on her custom made converse. “Fan of the league?”

A melodious giggle escaped, causing her to blush. “I know, it’s a bit too obvious.”

“No, No,” Jon shook his head, leaning against the table. “I like it. So, who is your favorite League member?”

“Well if you’re asking for which version of the league. Classic, international, unlimited, new 52,” She listed, leaning against the table, resting her chin in her hand. “That’s damn near impossible to answer, but my favorite regardless of the roster will always be Batman.”

“Really?” Jon started going through the close’s graphic novel bin. “Okay, who is your favorite Batman?”

He watched as she bit her lip, mulling the question over. “Well, I love what Burton started, hated how Schumacher ruined it, but it’s a tie between Keaton and Bale.” She pulled out ‘Batman: Hush’ from the bin, setting it to the side. “However, the voice of Batman will always be Conroy.”

“Can’t argue with that.  I grew up on the animated series, I still watch it whenever I get a chance.” Jon stopped his perusing. “What’s your favorite episode?” he asked.

“The Demon’s Quest, first appearance of Ra’s al Ghul,” she immediately answered, flipping through another comic book bin. “What about you?”

“Hard to pick just one.” He mulled it over.  Jon loved the entire series. He didn’t think he had a specific favorite episode until an image popped into his head. “Joker’s favor.”

“Ah, the introduction of Harley Quinn eh?” she laughed. “Typical.”

“No, No,” he shook his head. “I always liked the Joker, he’s my favorite villain.”  

“Mine too, next to Ra’s al Ghul of course.” She gave him a bright smile as they continued their conversation. After spending an inordinate amount of money at ‘Free Folk Comics’. They spent the next few hours wandering the convention floor, looking at t-shirts, cosplay, weaponry, books, artwork and even seeing a few celebrities on the floor. “Seven Hells Jon that’s Neal Adams.”

During that time, Jon learned that Daenerys grew up in Dragonstone and went to college in Meereen. She was only back in King’s Landing temporarily for several job interviews. Besides her love for all things Batman and Batman related, she was also an avid gamer. She credited an old college boyfriend into getting her back into videogames. As she told it. ‘It was either sit there and watch him play Gears of War all day and be bored out of my mind or get on the sticks. So, I got on the sticks and started playing God of War, and the rest is history.’ They both commiserated on the fact that adulting left them with little to no time to game, read comics or indulge in all thing’s geek related. However, they both did agreed that having their own funds made splurging on certain high-end items nice and the one highlight of being an adult.  

“Have you ever cosplayed?” He asked as they stopped in front of a huge statue of an Orc from the Lord of the Rings.

“I did once, years ago. I went as Harley Quinn.” She punched Jon lightly in the shoulder when he started laughing. “I know, I gave you shite about it earlier and it’s kind of cliché, but I went as nurse Harley from the first Arkham video game.”

The image of her dressed in a red and purple bustier with white puffed sleeves and a short white skirt in thigh high matching purple and red boots, topped off with a traditional nurses’ cap, caused Jon to stare at her longer than what is considered appropriate. “Really?” He coughed, trying to stop the train of improper thoughts. “Did you go all out and have the mallet too?”

She nodded.

“I’d love to see a picture of that. I bet the quality of it was ridiculous.” Her bright smile faltered. Shite is it something I said? “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t have many photos of that one and the ones I do have, I don’t show them,” she grimaced. “Most of the fans were really cool about it and love it but I got harassed a lot with that cosplay. It’s bad enough I have to prove I know my shit but after that con, I decided not to cosplay anymore.”

“Damn, I’m sorry you had to experience that. I wish- “

She cut him off, changing the subject. “What about you? Did you go as the Dark Knight?”

“Ha-Ha,” Jon dryly replied. “No, I’ve always wanted to, but never felt creative enough or had the time to do it justice.”

She stopped, her eyes roaming over him. “I can see you as Bruce Wayne. All dark and broody sitting in the Batcave. It suits you.”

“Dark and broody? Where did you get that?”

“Oh, come on, Jon” she gestured at his appearance. “Between the skinny jeans and your Jim Lee ‘Dark Knight’ t-shirt, plus your man bun; you are the epitome of a brooding geek hipster.” She laughed. “All you need is a sketch book, maybe a guitar and statement glasses.”

Jon chuckled, he held up his hand making a grand gesture of opening his backpack. He pulled out his glasses case, removing his glasses and putting them on. “I can’t play the guitar but I do have my glasses,” he smirked.  

Daenerys doubled over in laughter. “See I was right!” she cackled, leaning against a pillar for support. “Hang on,” she pushed off the pillar, moving back towards him. She studied him with a narrowed gaze.  “Are those- is that ‘The Killing Joke’ printed on your glasses?”

“They are, and if you stop teasing me. The guys that made them are here and they have a Batman line.”

Daenerys stopped inspecting his glasses and  grinned.  

“Jon!” Sam darted through the crowd, striding up to the two. “There you are, I’ve been calling you. You missed the panel with Jim Steranko.”

“Shite,” he pulled out his phone and saw the multiple missed calls and texts from Sam. “How was it?”

“Fantastic, I had him sign some Nick Fury artwork.” He raised the poster tube in his hands. He glanced over at Daenerys and smiled.

“Sorry, Sam this is Daenerys. Daenerys this is my friend Samwell Tarly.”

“Sam’s just find,” he answered, reaching forward to shake her hand. “Is this your first Con? Are you here all weekend?”

“It’s not and I am, all three days. I’m here with my friend Missy and her boyfriend Grey.” she pulled out her phone in its black and yellow case from her back pocket. “Speaking of, looks like they were trying to reach me as well.”

“Are you heading out?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, there’s only thirty minutes left before the floor closes. Then it’s another early start tomorrow.” She glanced at Jon.  “There’s a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Panel that Grey is insistent we go to tomorrow.”

The movement of the crowd inadvertently corralled them  towards the escalators and the exit. “I wanted to go to that, but my girlfriend Gilly arrives tomorrow morning, but we plan on coming later,” Sam gaze darted between the two. “But I’m sure Jon won’t mind coming early with you, right Jon?”

Jon shook his head at his friend’s mischievous grin. “No, I wouldn’t. That’s if you don’t mind?”

“No, I wouldn’t, plus you still have to take me to the booth with the glasses.” She gave him a dazzling smile. He heard someone yelled “Dany!” over the din of the crowd. She flicked her head back and forth several times, finally stopping to wave at a couple standing in the corner.  

“Missy and Grey,” she looked back over to Jon. “Can I see your phone?”

Jon handed his phone over. Daenerys quickly punched in her contact information. She called herself from his phone.

“Alright, no escaping me now.” She laughed as she handed the phone back to him. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow Jon.” She stepped away, turning back.

“Nice to meet you Sam,” She waved over her shoulder at them before disappearing into the crowd. Jon looked down at his phone. ‘Daenerys aka Mother of Dragons’ with a grinning Joker icon. Jon looked up from his phone. “This could be an interesting Con after all.”

The convention floor felt claustrophobic after Friday’s thinner crowds. It seemed as if all the geeks, nerds and gamers in a two-hundred-mile radius choose Saturday to descend into the Blackwater Comic Con. Jon had met up with Daenerys and her two friends at the entrance of the convention that morning. He learned that Missy and Grey were two of Daenerys close friends from college in Meereen. This was both their first time traveling further than Dragonstone and first Westeros convention. Grey was reserve but had dry sarcastic sense of humor.  He too was an avid gamer but preferred first person over the action adventure games Jon preferred. They bonded over memories of playing on old consoles and how kids these days wouldn’t understand the fear of a parent switching off a paused game or how certain games were just ridiculously hard for no reason.

“Mega Man 2, took me half a holiday to figure out.” Grey lamented.

“Same, my cousin Robb refused to tell me the order to defeat the robots in once he figured it out.”

“Why did you need to know the order to defeat them?” Daenerys chimed in.

“To unlock the different suits,” Grey gave Daenerys a quizzical glance. “It made the boss battles ten times easier.”

“Hmm, never knew that.” She shrugged. “I just beat the game.”

“Wait you mean to tell me, you beat Mega Man 2 just using his regular old blue suit? Even with Quick Man?” Grey asked.

“Yeah, I had most of the boards pretty much memorized. My brother Rhae would play with me all the time.”

Grey looked over at Jon “And you never used the other suits? Or even looked in the Nintendo Magazine?”

Dany shook her head. “No, I just played. Rhae nor Vis never said anything about it.”

Grey stared at his friend for a moment, shaking his head. “I swear D, just when I think I know you, you still surprise me.”

Later, while watching Grey and Dany battle each other on a ‘Mortal Kombat’ arcade machine. Jon took the opportunity to talk to Missy. While not a comic book or gamer fan like Grey and Daenerys, she loved all things fantasy related and surprisingly sci-fi television. “I love the classic Doctor Who” she gushed. “I grew up watching that, Star Wars and Star Trek in Naath.”

“Is it bad that I’ve never seen a single episode of Star Trek?”

Missy’s caramel complexion slightly paled. “I can’t believe this, and you call yourself a geek?” She shook her head, causing her curly mane to bounce. “If you had a geek card I would take it.” She teased.

“My cousin Bran watches it, but I never got into it.” Jon shrugged.

Missy gave an indignant huff, her arms creating a vice against her chest. “That’s a strike against you Jon.”

“I promise to work on it.” He looked back over to see Grey and Dany fussing at each other. “If you had to choose between the two, which one?” Jon asked.

“Oh no,” she laughed. “You see, I could give you my long winded meta about the differences between the two and why one is better than the other, describing the different aspects with character, series and season analysis. However, since you haven’t watched a single episode of Star Trek,” she stressed with a dramatic pause. “Watch a season or two and I’ll think about giving you my answer, “ Missy grinned.

Jon laughed at the sharp response, now understanding another commonality between Daenerys and her friends.

They spent the rest of the morning wandering the convention floor and artist alley, where Jon picked up a reprint of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earth’, cover #7 signed by George Perez. The crowd grew denser as the day went on. They were jostled around so much that Jon hadn’t realized that he and Daenerys had started holding hands. At first, he thought it was just to not get separated, but she would occasionally rub her thumb over his knuckles and he would find himself still holding her hand in an uncrowded area.

“Where’s your friend Sam?” She asked as she sat down next to him, leaning against the wall.

Jon pulled out his phone. “He just texted that he’s in line with Gilly for a photo-op.”

“With who?” Missy asked, resting her head against Grey’s shoulder.

“He doesn’t say, but he picked up the wrist bands for the panel so he will meet us in there. He asked that we save them a seat if we can.”

“Oh, I cannot wait!” Daenerys shook with excitement. “I can’t believe they got the entire main cast of ‘Justice League Unlimited’ and they are going to do a table read!” she excitedly shook Jon’s shoulders. He smiled at how excited she was, her passion was contagious and he couldn’t shake the smile that had been permanently fixed on his features since that morning.

The panel was fantastic, the cast talked about the series and answered the audience’s questions. Jon thought he was going to have to restraint Dany to her seat when Kevin Conroy first entered the stage. “It’s Batman!” she whispered in an elated tone.

Jon draped his left arm around her shoulder intending to give an innocent one arm hug but before he could stop himself, instead of the expected hug he pulled her in and lightly kissed her on the forehead. He froze as he pulled back, looking for her reaction. If he were honest with himself; the more time they spent together, it was becoming harder to resist the urge to kiss her. Besides the fact that they both liked the same fandoms, she had a wicked sense of humor, an otherworldly beauty and brilliance about her that made the magnetic pull between them undeniable. Shite, I don’t even know if she has a boyfriend.  Jon felt himself becoming disoriented in her violet gaze; she stared back at him, biting her lower lip with her brow slightly furrowed. The cheering of the audience broke the trance. Jon looked away, back towards the stage. He dared a brief glance back over at Daenerys, her focus was back on the speaker.  He noticed a small smile that quirked her lips. Good, that’s a good sign. He exhaled the breath that he didn’t realize he was holding as she scooted her chair closer, resting her one hand against his thigh. Jon tighten his arm around her shoulder, remaining that way till the end of the panel.

“You’ve got a Con girlfriend.”

“What?” Sam was standing behind him with Gilly. Both grinning at him.

“Con girlfriend, Gilly saw you two during the Justice League panel.”

Jon smirked, shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The group had separate with plans to meet up later. Daenerys and Missy were off attending a Star Trek panel and a photo-op with the new Aquaman, that himself and Grey had politely decline.

Grey snorted next to him as he pulled a multi-color scarf off the hook. “You’re in denial, Snow.”

“See, even Grey sees it,” Sam pointed out.

“Missy agrees too, she’s probably interrogating Dany as we speak.” He handed the scarf over and paid for it. The group walked over to another booth selling collectible action figures.

“Whatever,” Jon huffed as he picked up a NECA Broken Tusk Predator Figure. “Look, we just met and we’re enjoying each other’s company. Hell, I don’t even know if she has a boyfriend back in Braavos.”

“She doesn’t,” Grey answered, snatching the figure from Jon, inspecting it. “But you didn’t hear that from me, besides ask her. She’ll tell you if you ask her.”

“Jon,” Sam stressed. “Look, I know you’ve been on some self-imposed, anti-relationship mode for the past several years.”

Jon scoffed. “It hasn’t been years.”  

“There hasn’t been anyone since Ygritte,” Sam countered.  Jon rounded on Sam ready to argue as his friend held up his hands in defense. “I know, I know it’s been over for years, but don’t you think you should’ve moved on by now? she sure the hell has.”

“Who’s Ygritte?”

“Jon’s ex, they dated on and off during college. Nice girl, bit abrasive and rude at times. They broke up three years ago. It didn’t end on good terms.” Gilly answered as she moved deeper into the booth, looking at phone cases. “Icing on the cake; a year ago she calls him to talk things over, alluding to a reconciliation, except she shows up several months pregnant and married.”

“No shite!” Grey looked up from the shirt he was admiring.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Arya would’ve done something, if she hadn’t been pregnant.”

“Who’s Arya?”

“My cousin,” Jon muttered. “And why does any of this matter? I’m happy for her. She got what she wanted, a nice secure stable lifestyle.” He responded, aggressively grabbed a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bobble head.

“What’s not secure about you? You go to too many conventions or something?” Grey asked.

“He works for the Nights Watch, causes him to be on travel assignments half the year.”

Grey whistled, turning around to face them. “The Nights Watch? The Elite Northern Intelligence Agency, that has agents imbedded everywhere, even in Essos?” His brown eyes studied him briefly. “Remind me to not get on your bad side.”

They all laughed except Jon. He bristled that there was some partial  truth in Sam’s statement. It wasn’t his intention to not date for three years, it just happened. He had gone on a few dates but they just never panned out and while he honestly was happy for Ygritte and wished he the best. It didn’t make the heartbreak of losing your first love hurt any less.

“Jon,” Gilly stepped up next to him. “Your cousins would kill me if I didn’t say anything, but Daenerys is sweet, she’s a joy to be around and would even give Arya a run for her money, plus she clearly interested in you. Do not bury that gorgeous head of yours in the sand with this one. Go after her.”

“You think so?”

“I swear,” she laughed. “Sansa is right, your middle should be oblivious.”

“You talk about me with Sansa? Do you consult all my cousins about my abysmal love life?”

Gilly ignored him, walking away towards a display of anime purses.

“Not all of them,” Sam answered next to him. “Just Robb, Arya, Sansa, occasionally Theon when he doesn’t annoy Sansa. Bran pipes in occasionally, and Rickon’s too young.” Sam shrugged. Jon gave an exasperated sigh, turning away from Sam.

“Look at it this way Jon,” Sam stopped his friend from walking away. “You didn’t even want to come down here after Robb had to cancel, I had to talk you into it.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t?” Sam pulled back his shoulders, dropping his voice to match Jon’s gruff northern timbre. “Aye, what’s the point in going now that Robb canceled? I’ll just end up wasting money. You and Gilly go ahead and enjoy yourselves. I’ll just spend the weekend with Ghost and check out Netflix.” He said, imitating Jon.

“Oh, that was good, babe. Your ‘Jon’ is getting better,” Gilly giggled.

Jon sighed. “Fine your right, you’re all right. I’ll talk to her.”

Sam smiled, patting his shoulder. “Good, stuff like this happens when you least expect it, you never know what could become of it? Be optimistic for once.”  

Jon nodded, be optimistic he told him. What’s the worst that could happen right? It could go either way but he did acknowledge that Daenerys had made one hell of an impression in the short amount of time they knew each other. Even if it all went to hell, he knew he had at least gained a friend out of it all. Jon turned back around towards the tower of figures in front of him. One in particular caught his eye. He pulled it down and headed towards the register. Grey nudged Sam while Jon paid for his purchase. He returned to the group, all smiling at him.

“Oh, shut it.” He muttered, shoving the gift in his backpack.

Sam, Gilly, Grey and Jon made their way towards  Missy and Daenerys to meet up.

Sunday was the final day of the convention. The last day of the convention was usually Jon’s favorite day.  This was due to the fact that most of the booths were trying to unload as much merchandise as possible so there were plenty of deals to be made on Sundays. Even Robb commented on his thrifty plan at previous Cons. However, this year, while he still enjoyed making deals on comics and expanding his growing collection. There was a bitter taste in his mouth this year. A few weeks ago, when he relented to Sam’s pestering to come to the Blackwater Comic Con. Jon saw going as not only a way to get Sam off his back but take the leave Mormont and Seaworth had been hounding he take for years.

The last time he was at the Blackwater Comic Con; he came down with his cousins and Ygritte. The memories of the that Con trip haunted him on the first day. He remembered how excited Ygritte had been on the first day, sharing in her enthusiasm of her first convention and experiencing all the different fandoms. It was the middle of the third day that the initial novelty of Comic Con slowly eroded into irritation when realization hit that the con was an all-day, twenty-four seven marathon event. For someone who was not heavily involved in any specific fandoms or as many as Jon, his cousins and friends were, the con turned into a tortuous event for Ygritte.

Jon didn’t know what to expect when he stepped in between Daenerys and the two assholes at First Flints Comics booth. He thought at the least a polite thank you, or the possibility of making a Con associate, exchanging harmless banter about upcoming games releases, and theories about future seasons of popular shows. It never crossed Jon’s thoughts that that a minor interaction on Friday was slowly turning into something potentially special.  Sunday morning at the Con was not as busy as Saturday. The group decided that in order to take full advantage of the last day, they would split up and depending on schedules try to meet up for lunch later. Missy had dragged Grey off to a panel focus on different languages in fantasy world. “If I come back speaking elvish or Klingon, I blame you all.” He joked as Missy dragged him off.

Gilly and Sam were looking for baby items at different booths. She told Sam yesterday evening the true reason why she missed Friday due to her doctor’s appointment, confirming the pregnancy. She was eleven weeks along but decide to wait before officially announcing it. Sam had been left dumbstruck but grinning. He excitedly gushed about how he could introduce all things geekery to their child. He would do the opposite of what his own father denied him growing up. The picture of Sam holding up a Thanos onesie made him grin. He was happy for his friends, couldn’t wait to see them as parents.

Poor kid has no choice huh? He texted back to Gilly. His phone buzzed. Not in this family ;)

Jon chuckled, putting his phone back into his pocket. He looked over at Daenerys. She was kneeling in front of a bin that held graphic novels. She was wearing a t-shirt that had The Joker and Harley Quinn, escaping into a Tardis. “It covers two fandoms in one.” She told him. Her silver hair was held back in an intricately braid. She informed him that the humidity on the floor had her looking like a poodle yesterday and this was more manageable. They were currently leisurely strolling in artist alley. In a moment alone, looking at independent artist’s work. Jon broached the subject of relationships.

“Are you asking if I have a boyfriend?”

“Um, Yeah,” he answered, flipping to the next page in the portfolio. Jon focused on the art in front of him yet he could feel her burning gaze studying him. She laughed loudly.

“Jon Snow, do you take me as one of those Con girlfriends?”

“Huh?”

“You know, the ones you meet, hook up with and never see again.” She moved closer. “What happens at the Con stays at the Con.”

“What? No,” he started in disbelief.

“Good,” she smiled. “I’m not the type, I’m a monogamous, serious dater only. By the way when will I get to meet your cousins and the rest of your family?”

Jon choked on the water he was sipping, he glances over to see her smiling, no laughing at his discomfort. “I’m sorry but you were prime for baiting” she giggled, dramatically turning away, walking to the next artist. Jon shook his head and followed.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

She stopped in the aisle, turning towards him with her hand on her hip. “Why didn’t you ask me yesterday? And yes, I’m single. I had a boyfriend but we started having problems six months ago, but the final nail in the coffin was four months ago.”

“I didn’t get a chance.” He chuckled as she playfully rolled her eyes in response. “Sorry to hear about your ex. Well not really.”

Daenerys giggled. “Not your fault he was an ass,” she shrugged, grabbing his hand. “Besides, if he wasn’t an ass. I wouldn’t have met you.”

“You wouldn’t have pursued me?”

“For the record we pursued each other, agreed?” she laughed. “And no, I wouldn’t have.” She stopped in front of a t-shirt stand. “He was supposed to come, we bought tickets when we were together. We starting having issues but the plan was to still go, but I caught him cheating. So, I upgrade Grey’s single day pass to his three day pass and here I am.”

Jon leaned forward, he pressed his lips lightly against hers, she responded with returning pressure. The kiss was chaste but it was enough to hold him for the moment.  “Well I’m glad, his lost, is my gain.” She blushed, her hands resting against his chest. “After that kiss, I’m assuming you are too.” Her eyebrow arched.

“Yeah,” he tightens his grip on her hips. “Single for years now, but that’s a story for another day.”

“That bad?”

Jon nodded, looking away briefly before returning his gaze to stare back at the woman in his arms. She leaned upward on her toes, her small hand playing with the curls at the nape of his neck, pulling him down. She kisses him, her soft lips teasing him. He leaned down further to deepen the kiss, his tongue tracing her bottom lip.  She opened her mouth allowing Jon entry. He felt a heat settle in his stomach as the kiss started to grow in passion, a low hum reverberates across his chest. Dany abruptly pulled away, nipping at his bottom lip with a mischievous grin. They both noticed the lady at the stand beaming at them with clutched hands.

“Sorry,” Jon apologized.

Dany buried her face in his chest. “No Jon,” she pulled pack, giving him a quick peck. “Never apologize for that.”

They awkwardly made their purchases at the booth, turning to head to another booth. Dany firmly locked into Jon’s side. “Where to now?” he asked.

“You still have to take me the glasses booth?” She grinned.

Jon happily obliged and led the way.  

“The Blackwater Comic Con is now coming to an end, thank you and see you next year!” the intercoms announced over their heads. The escalators emptied the steady flow of conventioneers into the massive glass enclosed entrance. There were scattered groups taking photos and talking animatedly about their con experiences. Jon observed several characters in full Metal Gear solid cosplay and Stormtroopers taking photos with fans. A couple stood next to a sleeping toddler in a stroller, both looking exhausted but happy. Jon nudged Sam, nodding towards the couple. He beamed as he tightens his grip on Gilly’s shoulders. They seize the opportunity to take a couple of group photos together. The girls were off taking photos together with an impressive Optimus Prime and Bumblebee cosplayers.

“So, what’s the status?” Sam asked.

“You’ve been waiting all day to ask that haven’t you?” Jon chuckled at Sam irritated response. “Calm down, we decided we’re going to stay in touch and see what happens.”

Sam relaxed. “Fantastic, I know Gilly will be happy to hear this.”

“She’s a keeper Jon.” Gilly walked back over to join Sam. “We’re going to head back to the hotel and pack up before we get on the road. Are you still following us or driving up later?”

Jon watched as Dany took a cheeky photo with a Darth Vader. “I have to check on a few things, but’ I’ll let you know before you guys leave tonight.”

Sam and Gilly said their good byes to Missy and Grey with promises to stay in touch.  Missy surprised Jon by giving him a hug. She pulled slightly back and whispered to him. “Treat her right or I will cut you Jon Snow.” She smiled.

Grey moved to stand next to Missy. “I don’t know what she said but knowing Missy, it was probably a threat.” he chuckled. “It was nice meeting you Jon, I’ll try to find you online so we can run a few jobs together on GTA,” Jon shook his hand. “We’ll see you at the hotel, Dany?”

Dany stood in front of him. “I’ll call you when I’m in the lobby.” Grey and Missy waved goodbye over their shoulders as they left the two. Dany had her backpack and one large bag beside her, filled with all her fandom purchases. Jon took a step forward, sharing her personal space. “Do you need help with carrying anything?”

“No, I can manage.” she fidgeted with her hands. “So…”

“So.”

Daenerys let out a nervous giggle, she reached up wrapping her arms around his neck, securing him in a hug. Jon responded with wrapping his arms around her pulling her in tight. He felt her nuzzle against the short hairs of his beard. “Is it odd that I almost feel like crying right now?”

Jon shook his head, kissing her temple. “No,” he pulled away, his hands moving up to cradle her face. “I’m going to miss you, but this isn’t the end.”

“You’re right it isn’t, it’s just, well… we’ve been attached at the hip since Friday and-”

“And it’s going to feel odd.” He finished her thought.  “We have each other’s numbers, we’ll call each other.”

She nodded, looking away. “Promise me you won’t forget about me?”

Jon laughed. “How could I forget about meeting this amazing woman who knows just as much if not more about Batman than I do? You’re unforgettable Dany.”

She rested her forehead against his lips. He kissed her there, and left a trail of kisses down her face till he reached his destination. He pulled her in closer this time, lifting her off her feet. The passion that flowed between the two was more than tangible, it was electric. Jon felt his nerves singing with fire as he nudges her head back slightly to deepen the kiss. Dany’s soft sighs turned into a soft whimper. The growing need for the woman in his arms was setting off alarms that he chose to ignore.

One arm banded against her back, holding her steadily in place; the other played with the end of her braid, gliding the soft strands through his fingers. He moved his hand away from her hair to caress the back of her head, using the pad of his thumb to massage circles along the base of her neck, mimicking the actions of their intensifying kiss. He groaned as Dany’s ran her fingernails across his shoulder and down his back, dipping her hands into the back pocket of his jeans, giving him a firm squeeze.   Only when the need to breath became inevitable did they both pull back, chest rattling and heaving for breaths. He leaned his forehead against hers. “There’s no fucking way I’m forgetting that, Dany.”

“No, Never.” Dany answered. She pulled away, grabbing her bags. Jon grabbed his bags, holding her free hand with his. “I’ll walk you to your hotel.”

“Thanks, but I’m not staying in the hotel, Missy and Grey are until they fly back to Meereen tomorrow.”

Jon paused. “Really? Where are you staying at then?”

“Right now, I’m staying in an extended rental loft, while I get a few more job interviews scheduled, why?”

“Do you have any plans for next week?”

“I have a job interview on Monday, but that’s it,” her eyes narrowed at him. “Why? What are you suggesting Jon?”

“Have you ever driven up the Historic Kings Road? This time of year, is beautiful with the fall foliage.”

She stopped walking, turning towards him, resting her hand against his chest. “You know, I honestly haven’t.”

“Well, I know the perfect tour guide.” He pulled her in closer, grinning. The two left making plans for an impromptu road trip, leaving the Blackwater Comic Con behind them.

Two years later

Missy looked down at her phone, laughing.

“What so funny?” Grey leaned over the couch, looking over his fiancée shoulder.

“Those two are a hot mess.” Missy showed them a picture of a triumphant Dany with a defeated but amused Jon.

“I still can’t believe he lost.”

“Well you remember their bet, whoever won the most matches in ‘Injustice’ gets to pick their cosplay outfit for this year’s Con.”

Grey laughed, plopping himself down next to Missy. “I warned Jon, Dany has gotten ridiculous good using Batman. She’s even beaten me a few times.”

Missy gave a nonchalant shrug, “You tried, love.” She swiped through the photos. “Look.”

Dany was dressed in a black body armor suit with a matching cape and cowl. She stood with her hands pressed into her hips, with a deep scowl set on her mouth. “Hang on, did she gender swap the characters?”

Missy giggled behind her hands. “Yes, and check out Jon.”

Grey groaned, dropping the phone on the table. The photo was of Jon in an ill-fitting red and bronze bustier, his dark hair was loose and topped off with a bronze head band, with matching arm cuffs and boots. “That my dear is love.” Grey laughed.

“At least his legs look great,” Missy cackled. “Hairy, but great.”

Grey joined in laughing at their friends’ expense. “He’s the best looking Wonder Wo-Bear I’ve ever seen. Are they actually going to the Con dressed like that?”

“No, even with Robb and Arya pressuring her, Dany still chose not torture Jon.” She pulled up another photo Dany had sent with Jon, testing a purple suit. Showing it to Grey.

“That’s going to look nice once Dany puts her final touches on it.  Besides, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from laughing in his face if I saw him in that.” Grey got up from the couch, heading towards the kitchen. “But seriously ‘kudos’ to Jon, a lesser man wouldn’t have done that for their girlfriend.”

“Future Fiancée,” Missy murmured.

“What?”

“Okay, but you cannot say anything and well not officially. Jon has the ring. He’s going to propose at the Con.”

“Seven hells, I just talked to Sam and Jon and neither mentioned a thing.”

“Apparently, I’m the only one to know besides Rhae and Vis. Jon called them months ago. You know how Dany always figures things out. If he ever wanted to truly surprise her, it should be this. ”

Grey grinned, he leaned over kissing Missy. “And to think you were nervous the first night she came back talking about some northern hipster guy with great hair, she spent the day with.”

“I admit it, I was, but Jon Snow was good for Dany. They are good for each other. Hell, he got her to move to Winterfell.”

Grey nodded as he took a sip of his beer. “Just think, two years ago she almost skipped Con because of Daario.”

“Yes,” Missy sighed. “They say things always happen for a reason.”

“And it happens when you least expect it,” Grey chimed in. “Are you all packed? Do you have the costume for little Sam ready?”

Missy held up her handmade rendition of an Ewok. “All ready.”

Grey and Missy, packed their truck and headed towards the airport. The Blackwater Comic Con had become a yearly event among the friends to congregate and catch up. Between the baby showers, weddings, house warmings, births and other life altering events that generally pulled them in separate directions. It was the one place and the one time of the year where they knew that regardless of what was going on in their day to day lives and the miles that separated them that they would always have the Con to come home to.

[blancasplayground]

Best and Worst of AoS Season 5

Here is my season five postmortem, in the form of a roundup of what I loved and didn't love. It got really long, so I won't spend too much time on the intro. Let's just dive in. Obviously, major spoilers for the entirety of the season follow.

Best: The Future

For the first half of season five it felt like the team was stuck in a dystopian YA novel. In a good way. It was a bold move to completely change the look and feel of the show, but it worked from both a narrative and production standpoint. Not only did it make the best use of the reduced budget, since they could film primarily indoors on smaller-scale sets, but they didn't have to deal with the goings on in the MCU back home (that would come later -- and it's not on the "best" list). Creating a future from scratch requires tremendous imagination and planning, and they delivered a rich backdrop. I was sorry to leave behind the characters we met there, like Tess and Flint. Of course, they had to return to the present eventually, but they did a really good job of world-building for those episodes.

Worst: Contradicting Time Theories

The showrunners have said in interviews that there were a lot of heated discussions in the writer's room about time travel logic, and it shows. Back in the season-three episode "Spacetime" they gave us one answer (which happened to be one I really liked) -- time is an illusion. As Fitz explained, the past, present and future happen simultaneously. We just experience it in a linear way because we're limited to the third dimension. So it cannot be changed. But when they blew up the Earth for the season’s main storyline, they also blew up that theory, because they HAD to change the future now. They weren't going to allow the world to be cracked apart. It's not that kind of show. Plus, they’re still tied to the MCU, so they couldn't let that future play out. And yet, when they returned to the past they had characters still behaving as if it were fixed (the whole "invincible three" idea, which so many people disliked), but trying to change it anyway. Either the future is pre-determined or it isn't. Trying to have it both ways makes for sloppy and confusing stories. It also gives viewers a headache.

Best: Fitz's Journey

Fitz's absence was notable in the first few episodes, but to make up for it we got "Rewind," one of the best episodes of the season. We saw Fitz struggling with his dark side, only to have to embrace it in the future to save Jemma and Daisy in the most badass way (a total "baller move" as Daisy put it). The blend of pre- and post-Framework Fitz was exactly what they needed at the time. Unfortunately, it may have opened the door for The Doctor to take control in "The Devil Complex." He got a chance to marry the love of his life, but that happiness was short lived. His psychological break (which was an incredible reveal and riveting to watch from an acting standpoint) and what he did to Daisy split the team and the audience, sparking a lot of debate about the nature of good and evil both on screen and off. Which, I think, was exactly the point. Was he redeemable? Could he have learned to control his dark side? Could the team ever learn to accept this new version of Fitz and his morally questionable, yet undeniably effective, methods? We'll never know. Which brings me to . . .

Worst: Fitz's Death

(Jemma gif because I can’t watch that death scene anymore.) 

(But this is almost as bad.)

We've been over this, and the wounds are still fresh, so I won't rehash what so many others have said more eloquently. I will point out that the issue is not with the death itself. They had to do it in order to bring back Cryo Fitz (or perhaps because they knew they could), who hasn't experienced the majority of season five. It's an intriguing idea, and should open up a lot of pathways for his story next season. Also, it gave Iain another chance to show off his crazy talent (like he needed more this season, but whatever, we're grateful). It's just the way they did it, and the fact that anyone thought this would be an acceptable sendoff for a fan-favorite character if it really was the last episode. The fake-out (which wasn't even a proper fake out because they REALLY DID have to bury Fitz) undercut what should have been a bigger moment -- Phil's departure and impending death as well. They botched it, plain and simple, and there's no taking that back.

Best: Philinda Endgame

They took their time getting there, but May and Coulson finally expressed their feelings for each other (at least, the human versions), each in their own signature way. May finally telling Phil she loved him just to shut him up was classic May. And that kiss behind the shield ought to go down as one of most iconic TV kisses in history. I sincerely hope they get lots of parasailing in, and, despite it being a lovely sendoff, that we'll see one or both of them back next season. Incidentally, I believe the fact that Robin drew the two of them on the beach in Tahiti before they changed the future means that they wound up together in the previous version of the loop too. Of course, Phil had to be gone to allow May to become Robin's mom, and now I'm giving myself a headache again. See what you've done, season five!

Worst: Team Infighting

This show is never better than when the characters work together as a team, whether it's on an action-packed mission or simply solving a problem on the ground. Which makes the decision to split everyone up along multiple fault lines later in the season a confusing and super frustrating move that wasn't at all fun to watch. Families fight, sure, but the divisions this year were deep, involving the loss of trust and respect, and the questioning of each other's core moral principles. These are not minor squabbles. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish by stepping up the tension and having them take sides against each other in the face of their greatest challenge yet, but I don't think it worked out the way they wanted it to. I would love to see everyone come back together and be a family again, as long as it's done realistically without sacrificing characterization.

Best: Graviton

With this season possibly being the last, the writers took the opportunity to pick up a thread they'd left dangling in episode three. Ever since the introduction of gravitonium way back when, fans have been wondering if the show would follow through and deliver the major comic-book villain Graviton. Considering this season could have been the show's swan song, it was a good time to deliver on that promise. And they did, in a way that was surprising yet somehow fitting. Glenn Talbot has been a thorn in Coulson's side since he showed at the end of season one, so to have him become the final Big Bad is a satisfying, if tragic, fate for the character. Especially since, in his twisted mind, he believed he was doing the right thing, right up until the end.

Worst: Ruby Red Herring

Sorry Dove Cameron fans, but the show let your girl down. Despite the potential in her first few episodes, Ruby never lived up to the compelling, cutthroat (or cut-arm, haha) villain they set her up to be (her hooded alter ego never even got a cool villain nickname). As it turned out, she was only there as a distraction, to confuse the characters and the audience about the real identity of the Destroyer of Worlds. And just as she was getting interesting -- the way she watched and mimicked Fitzsimmons alone told us more about her cold upbringing and the lack of human connection in a few moments than we got in all her episodes before that -- they killed her off to give the team something else to fight about.

Best: Nostalgic Callbacks and Fan Service

We got so many callbacks to previous seasons throughout season five. Maybe it's because the writers knew there was a chance this would be the last year, so they packed in as many references to the history of the show as they could. There was also the milestone 100th episode, which naturally lent itself to looking back. In addition to paying off older plot points (see above re: Graviton) they directly acknowledged their loyal viewers with that "small but active fan base" line. It was exciting seeing Mike again. And good to have Davis back too, with his mysterious survival story (that I hope they never reveal). Not to mention Hunter (which I will, down below). These were all gifts to long-time fans and we ate them up.

Worst: Infinity War Tie-In

If you're going to go there (and yeah, they had to, given the show's history), then fully commit to it, rather than using the cop out of ending the season just before the movie's biggest moment. Anyone who's seen it knows that the ending could potentially have a major impact on the show. So embrace that (imagine Phil handing Mack the keys to Lola, only to watch them fall to the ground). Or they could have used the multiverse to disconnect from the MCU once and for all. There were already so many questions going into the finale, whether they would or wouldn't go through with the snap was one debate I could have lived without. And it's still up in the air as to whether it will be a factor next season. Given that the airdate is after the next movie comes out, I'm inclined to think not, but I kind of wish we didn't even have to worry about it.

Bonus Bests:

The Return of Lance Hunter

Every single moment he was in was pure gold. I really hope we haven't seen the last of him.

Fitzsimmons Wedding

I mean, obviously. So beautiful and emotional. A shining moment of light to balance the darkness of the rest of the season..

Deke

I love Deke. End of story. He is still around and he will be back. See my explanation post here. I have no official confirmation of this, I'm just thinking positively.

One final note: These gifs were pulled from all over. I’m still rather new to Tumblr, so if you see something that’s yours and would like credit, let me know (and also if you could let me know how to do it that would be great).

[bakechochin]

Book Reviews - Early Riser

Early Riser - Jasper Fforde - A lot of the Fforde books that I’ve read have been part of the continuous Thursday Next series, but this book is instead a stand-alone novel with all new shit to talk about -> Indeed, when reading this I thought that it had more in line to Shades of Grey, in that it is less of a straight-up comedy and dabbles in other great elements, which I am fully on board with - Despite the fact that there’s less overt humour in this book than in the Thursday Next series, this is still recognisably a Fforde book -> The setting’s main premise, of a world in which 99.9% of the world goes into hibernation during the terrifying winter months, allows the book to springboard magnificently into all manner of interesting ideas that conform to the classic Fforde combination of incredibly interesting/well thought out and bloody absurd to the point of ridiculousness -> Fforde’s characters always manage to be memorable, if always built from the same moulds of either mild-mannered everymen and comic caricatures; the heightened comedic voices and the great character names are all present, there are some fucking incredible twists here and there, and interestingly, despite Fforde not often going into detail with physical appearance descriptions, he allows for just enough description to create some truly visually striking characters -> I’d never fully noticed this before, or perhaps just haven’t been able to put it into words, but Fforde’s books have a delightful inherent Englishness about them - the mild-mannered characters help with this, but the coziness of the setting and the wit of the dialogue and the endearing qualities of even the villains (who, despite their proclivities for murder, still have a penchant for teacakes) all comes together to make the overall effect really work - Just like Shades of Grey, this book handles its mystery elements excellently; Fforde has bloody mastered slowly revealing the world’s secrets, as we follow the protagonist methodically gathering more and more information as he has new encounters and new opportunities, and by fuck is it compelling - A petty gripe that I’ve had with Fforde in the past is that, when dealing with mystery plots in such a varied and imaginative world with all of these concepts being thrown about, I often found it tricky to ascertain which elements of the story were going to actually be important to the overarching mystery plot and which of them were just going to be mundane things in the world - this book, however, manages to tie of all its seemingly unrelated concepts together to become important to the main story events, and even the few miscellaneous concepts that are only there for a cheeky bit of unessential world building are bloody cool enough that I can’t complain too much - I have so much fucking kudos for Fforde for not underestimating the power of olfactory descriptions when it comes to differentiating characters, and the fact that he managed to incorporate a means of seamlessly integrating such descriptions into character descriptions is so fucking amazing to me - no I’m not over-reacting to what is really a rather mundane aspect of the story’s writing, shut up - I am a great fan of the ending of this book - it rather rapidly resolved all of its issues but not without a dramatic final chase sequence and some pretty bloody clever means of resolving said issues that made you think way back to the beginning of the book to see how even the very first things set in place tied in to the ending -> The very end of the novel was bittersweet but satisfying, open-ended but not so open-ended that it warrants a sequel, which is what I wanted from Shades of Grey and honestly can say that I fully support, because this book is a bloody stand-out story on its own - The society of this book is far more serious than that of the Thursday Next series and rather more complex than that of Shades of Grey, and it can on occasion seem a tad full-on when it’s juggling all of its various societal institutions that sometimes haven’t really been properly introduced or explained, especially when an understanding of such institutions is necessary to getting to grips with some of the plot’s progression - This book doesn’t really have the same strict adherence to obligations and paying for information as Shades of Grey did, despite emphasising the importance of such nonsense; there’s never really a worry that Worthing will suffer the consequences for making ballsy deals in exchange for secret intel because usually said deals are either abruptly ended with the death of one of the parties or simply forgotten about - There’s an odd preponderance of exposition being given in the form of sensational anecdotes (some of which are way better than others), and I can’t tell if this was intended to be a running joke or just kind of shoddy writing - in any case the fact that I have to ask this question means that if it was attempting the former, it didn’t really achieve it very well - Oh yeah, this book fucking loves its somewhat naff in-world idioms (not that I wish to shit on all of them, of course - just a good chunk of them) - 8.5/10

I have a load of other book reviews on my blog, check that shit out.

[aion-rsa]

How Nancy Drew’s Narrative Agility Sets the Show Apart

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Nancy Drew has always been a show that is constantly recalibrating its storytelling, whether that means tinkering with its supporting characters during its first season until the ensemble dynamics feel just right or remapping the arc of its second in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that drastically altered its episode count.

Season 2 manages to not only seamlessly incorporate the threads of the previous season’s unfinished narratives but tie them firmly into the larger drama of Nancy’s quest to solve the mystery of her own identity. Yes, it did so by way of a dementor-esque monster that secretly hitches a ride onto Nancy’s body for the entire rest of the season in order to feed off her various emotional traumas, but that’s generally just the way this show rolls.

This is hardly the first time Nancy Drew has course-corrected or changed things up mid-stream in the name of telling a better story, displaying the sort of narrative agility that many (perhaps most?) other shows would do well to emulate. As much as no one ever wants to admit it – sometimes the best laid plans of showrunners and writers’ rooms don’t pan out. A supposed marquee couple turns out to have zero chemistry on screen. A character’s overly complicated backstory doesn’t make him intriguing, but instead harder to relate to. Sometimes, things just don’t quite work the way you think they will, and a great series should be able to both recognize and adapt to that fact.  

But far too often, television shows—particularly young adult dramas that tend to rely on dueling fanbases to drive ratings and internet buzz—stick with predetermined romantic pairings and/or love triangles for entirely too long, rather than embracing different or unexpected relationships that might make for better stories. (How long did we really need to watch Elena waffle between the Salvatore brothers on The Vampire Diaries?)

During its first two seasons, Nancy Drew attempted to pair its familiar heroine with more legacy-style characters, men who came complete with recognizable names that would mean something to viewers. As he is in the original novels, Ned “Nick” Nickerson was Nancy’s first season boyfriend, a supposed no-strings fling that many viewers likely assumed eventually would be endgame, even after their relationship ended. (This is The CW, after all, and frequent breakups and makeups are a regular occurrence.) Except… they aren’t.

Instead, Nancy Drew chose to fully commit to the unexpected attraction that sparked between Nick and caustic Claw manager George Fan, while Gil Bobbsey—yes, one half of the famous Bobbsey Twins—was introduced as a new love interest for Nancy in Season 2. In theory, this is a great idea: She’s Nancy Drew! He’s Gil Bobbsey! This should be amazing, right? But, in actuality… it wasn’t.

Despite the great-on-paper stats of both these potential pairings, neither of these relationships actually worked for this version of Nancy, the one that we are watching onscreen week in and week out. Nick is a kind, well-meaning guy, but he wanted—and deserved—a relationship with someone who would fully let him into their life and heart. Nancy wasn’t that person when this show started, as much as we might have wanted her to be. (Heck, Nancy barely qualifies as that person now.) 

And Gil turned out to be the bad boy she once told herself she deserved—a thief who treats everyone in his life like garbage and constantly undercuts both the girl he purports to care about and his own sister. Whether that was a good or fair depiction of such a beloved literary character is a rant for another day (and the answer is: probably not), but one thing was clear almost immediately: This new love story wasn’t working either.

Many shows would have just gone with it anyway, insisting that Gil and Nancy were meant to be, even when they obviously weren’t. Instead, Nancy Drew decided to go in a completely different and utterly delightful direction by fully leaning in to the obvious chemistry between co-stars Kennedy McMann and Alex Saxon. The prospect of a love story between Nancy and Ace may seem like it came out of nowhere on paper, but in the world of this show, it makes perfect sense.

Though the “Nace” relationship sort of feels like it burst into being by accident, developing in the background of other stories, the show has smartly decided to take the pair’s unexpected connection and run with it, featuring plenty of moments throughout the show’s second season that highlight the intense chemistry the two share. (And how closely they love to stand next to one another. Who needs personal space?) This all culminated with Nancy—trapped in a dreamscape battling the wraith that fed off her years of repressed trauma because that’s also the way this show rolls—realizing that she might feel something more than friendship for Ace, just as he heads off on a romantic getaway with Gil’s sister, Amanda.

And so, a classic CW slow burn romance is born. But though it certainly seems as though Nancy and Ace have definite one true pairing vibes now, that definitely wasn’t always the case.

When the show first began, hacker Ace was a police informant, a dead-eyed burnout with little depth and few narrative prospects beyond providing occasional comic relief. He and Nancy barely knew one another and almost never shared scenes. He didn’t even have a last name—that’s how secondary this character initially seemed to be. (Of course, now, the popular theory is that we don’t know Ace’s last name because it’s one we’ll all recognize—say, Hardy?—but that’s a fairly recent development.)

That Ace eventually evolved into Nancy’s most trusted confidante and truest believer—he once drank a vial of poison to prove her assertion that the liquid inside was harmless!—wasn’t always a given. The revelation of his complicated family life ultimately brought him and Nancy closer together, as did his innate understanding that, for a girl that everyone always looked to for answers, sometimes having the space to be silent is a true gift. Their friendship is one of surprising depth, and they’ve each hurt, forgiven, and hurled themselves directly into danger for one another multiple times over the course of the series. But it’s their willingness to be vulnerable with one another that makes this pair so appealing,

Our girl detective deserves a partner who not only sees her for exactly who she is, but also accepts that person wholeheartedly, for both good and ill. Ace has always been that person for her, even when he’s angry or hurt by something she’s done. Also, he’s basically BFFs with her father and broke the man out of prison. If that doesn’t say future son-in-law material, what does?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Sure, there’s likely going to be some awkwardness when Nancy Drew returns for Season 3—Ace does have a girlfriend at the moment, and Nancy has to deal with the fallout of publicly revealing herself as the Hudson heir as well as process her realization that she’s caught feelings for one of her best friends. But now, perhaps for the first time, it certainly seems like these two are on a very deliberate track: Toward each other.

The post How Nancy Drew’s Narrative Agility Sets the Show Apart appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3d94n8e

[adjameson]

Like a lot of people my age, I just missed out on seeing the original Star Wars movies in the theater. Instead, I grew up with them on VHS. And right around when I was really getting into them, in 1986, Star Wars went away.

Which perplexed me at the time. Why did Star Wars disappear in the mid 1980s? And why did it come back, and come back differently, starting in 1991? These questions haunted me so much, I eventually wrote a book about the subject: I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture. Because it’s an interesting story, I’ll explain what happened in this series of blog posts.

Let’s start by going back to the beginning. The first Star Wars film came out in 1977, and was followed by two sequels: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). Because they were big hits, they spawned a lot of peripheral products. For instance, there was the Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired on 17 November 1978.

There were also Star Wars comic books, published by Marvel, and featuring characters like Jaxxon, a giant green rabbit.

In ’84 and ’85, respectively, there were two television movies starring the Ewoks: Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure …

… and Ewoks: Battle for Endor.

In addition to Ewoks, the latter film featured Teek, an annoying alien who pestered Wilford Brimley.

And there were cartoon shows, like Droids and Ewoks, which first aired on 7 September 1985.

Droids didn’t last all that long, ending in June 1986. Ewoks made it to the end of the year, wrapping up on 13 December.

As you can see, there were a lot of Star Wars tie-in products released between ’77 and ’86. But after 1986, there was … nothing. The movies, the TV shows, the comics—as well as the action figures—they all came to an end. (In fact, the toy line, beloved by children at the time, ceased production in ’85.) When the Ewoks cartoon went off the air in December 1986, that was it. The following four and half years were Star Wars free.

At the time, I couldn’t understand it. Wasn’t Star Wars the biggest thing ever? Weren’t there going to be more movies, more toys, more comics, more TV series? How could something like that go away, disappear, less than ten years after it started? Weren’t they even going to mark the ten-year anniversary of the release of the first movie?

No. The four-plus years that followed were the Dark Times …

Of course, as we all know today, that wasn’t the end of the story. Star Wars returned in May 1991, with the publication of Timothy Zahn’s novel Heir to the Empire.

  It was followed by two more novels, and then dozens more, going on to become what was known (at the time) as the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Meanwhile, in December of that year, Dark Horse Comics picked up where Marvel had left off, publishing the miniseries Dark Empire.

Just like with Zahn’s novels, this opened the floodgates, and led to a great many more Star Wars comics.

There were also Star Wars video games: Star Wars for the Nintendo in ’91 (finally!), then Super Star Wars in ’92 for the SNES. Both of those games got sequels, and the following year saw the release of X-Wing, which led to a whole line of Star Wars-themed flight simulators for PCs.

And that’s not all! There was also a series of technical guidebooks, the Essential Guides, which started in 1995, giving fans a wealth of information about the franchise’s weapons, vehicles, planets, aliens, and more.

All of those product lines were successful, and are, more or less, still in production today (though some of them changed publishers, and some of them changed form—the Essential Guides, for instance, were supplanted by the Wookieepedia). Unlike the Ewok movies and Droids cartoon, they didn’t fade away.

What’s more, looking back now, it’s easy to see that the 1990s products were categorically different from the stuff released between 1978–1986. All of that old merchandising was aimed at kids. And a lot of it was goofy, looking to us today out of character for Star Wars. Most of it’s been forgotten, and if it’s remembered today, it’s mostly considered campy, or cringe-inducing.

So what happened? Why did Star Wars disappear, and why did it come back? And why did it change when it came back?

The obvious answer is that the kiddie Star Wars fans (like me) were growing up. But I couldn’t help but think there was more to the story. Because adults had been into Star Wars, too, back in the 1970s—everyone had liked it. (That’s what made it such a hit!)

It’s important to understand that, back when Star Wars first came out, it appealed to three different groups—three different demographics. First, it appealed to general audiences, people like my parents, who went to see it in the theater (how lucky). They had a great time, but they didn’t become big Star Wars fans. For instance, they didn’t go see the next two movies in the theater, and they sure as hell didn’t watch things like the Star Wars Holiday Special, or the Ewoks cartoon.

Star Wars also appealed to children. Lucas clearly realized this, because he made a lot of products for those fans—nearly all of the Star Wars merchandise released between 1977–86 was designed for them. But here’s the thing. Kids grow up quickly, and they age out of kiddie products just as quickly. In the mid-1980s, I wasn’t into things like the Ewoks movies or the cartoons. Baby stuff like that embarrassed me, Star Wars connoisseur that I was. (I wanted to see Darth Vader duel Obi-Wan on a planet made of lava. How awesome would that be!)

In addition to general audiences and kids, there was one more group that liked Star Wars—a third demographic. Namely, geeks!

In my book on geek culture, I argue that geeks aren’t just fans of all things science fiction and fantasy. Geeks tend to be techie people, people who like the STEM disciplines. As such, they like seeing those disciplines—science, technology, engineering, math—applied to fantasy. They don’t want fantasy that’s childish, or hokey, or campy, or goofy. Rather, they want realist fantasy.

This is another important point to understand. People routinely think of realism and fantasy as opposites, but they’re not. Realism is a mode, or a way of making art, while fantasy is a genre. Any given artwork in any given genre can be made to be more or less realist. It all depends on what kind of choices the artist makes. (If you’re interested the relationship between realism and fantasy, so am I, and I write extensively about it in my book.)

George Lucas was himself a geek, someone who first got into cars as a kid, then got into cameras and filmmaking equipment (which is what led him to develop Industrial Light and Magic, as well as things like the THX audio company). At the same time, Lucas loved fantasy. In particular, he loved the Flash Gordon serials, which he watched on television in the ’50s.

By the mid-1970s, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder what Flash Gordon might look like if it were remade, and done in a more realist style. His inspiration was the realist movies being made around him—the so-called “New Hollywood,” of which Lucas was a part—in which a number of filmmakers were busily applying realist techniques to staple Hollywood genres, such as crime films …

… and “creature feature” monster movies.

Today, people often think of Star Wars and Jaws as the films that brought an end to the New Hollywood, killing off realist, adult films like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather. But the reality is more complicated, and that argument misses the fact that Jaws and Star Wars were themselves classic products of the New Hollywood. Just like movies by Arthur Penn, William Friedkin, and Francis Ford Coppola, Jaws and Star Wars derived their power, and became smash hits, in large part by applying realism to popular genres, and thereby revitalizing them.

The realism of Star Wars appealed mightily to geeks. At the time, geeks were mostly underground, but they were out there, and they were starting to find one another through things like Star Wars conventions and fan zines. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, they embraced Star Wars. But they thought about it differently, and approached it differently, than kids did, and general audiences did. Indeed, they immediately began embroidering Star Wars, and expanding it, the same way they’d done with Star Trek, speculating about how lightsabers worked, and what the Kessel Run was, and what the Wookiee home planet was like—which are the kinds of things that geeks do.

… To be continued in Part 2!

The Death and Rebirth of Star Wars: Part 1 Like a lot of people my age, I just missed out on seeing the original Star Wars movies…

[rhysoca]

Exercise: Book cover design

What are you being asked to do?

I am being asked to create paperback book cover (specifically, front cover and spine) designs for three of HG Wells’ social novels that will work together as a set, and I am being asked to do so in a manner that establishes the books as timeless fiction, which, I interpret to mean, will place them or confirm their place in the pantheon of literary classics. However, there is a tension at the heart of the brief because it also asks for the covers to be ‘contemporary’ and ‘stunning’, two words that are often used loosely, but which might not immediately be associated with the concept of timelessness. The mention of the fact that Wells is known mainly as a science fiction writer suggests that part of the task will be to re-establish Wells’ reputation as a social commentator, who was not bound by the confines of genre fiction.

Essential elements for inclusion are:

the title

the author’s name

the publisher’s name

and the publisher’s trademark

How will the client judge a successful outcome?

The two main requirements, other than technical requirements such as the title, seem to be that the design will help tie the books together into a set and imbue the novels with a timeless quality.

Oxford definition of timeless

ADJECTIVE

Not affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion.

So I think, the designs, allowing for the fact that each one will need to reflect the content of each novel, will also be deemed successful if they contain elements that are common to all three. This might be the use of a particular grid, typeface or design approach, such as the use of typography, pattern, photography or illustrative style. The requirement for the books to have a timeless quality probably precludes the use of some styles, typefaces and stylistic approaches. If the designs were for some of HG Wells’ science fiction novels, a more futuristic approach might be warranted. However, this obviously wouldn’t be suitable for the task at hand. Of course ‘timeless’ doesn’t mean old fashioned so I would think an investigation into design elements that can work together to create a balanced outcome, perhaps using combinations of contrasting elements such as serif and sans serif typefaces. It’s worth bearing in mind that the word timeless doesn’t mean, ‘not displaying the characteristics of a certain time’, so it may be that some visual elements relating to the period in which the works were written, that, nonetheless have a classic appeal, might also be appropriate.

What are the keywords?

HG Wells, social, novel, set, establish, contemporary, timeless, stunning, paperback, front cover, spine, mid-life crisis, class, feminism, materialism, consumerism, love

Any other questions you would like to ask the client?

Could you explain further what you mean by ‘contemporary’, ‘stunning’ and ‘timeless?’

What format will the paperback have: A format, B format? 

Will the books be sold a e-books for digital download?

Is there a target audience?

Will the books be advertised and, if so, where?

Are there any particular images that should be used?

Is there a house style that might dictate elements of the design: for example the typeface and logo?

What technical information needs to be included: barcodes, publisher information, price etc?

Research

Primary

I haven’t read any of HG Wells’ fiction and I don’t know much about him - other than that he is known for his prophetic works of science fiction - so the immediate piece of primary research that springs to mind would be to either read Wells’ social novels in order to make a decision about which books might go together well and work well as part of a set of three.

Secondary

I could also conduct some secondary research - using appropriate online sources or reference books - to find out about the novels. This would also develop my knowledge and understanding of Wells’ subject matter, style and themes - information that would allow me to start thinking about appropriate visual approaches. Additional secondary research into Wells himself would also be useful in developing feel for his work and beginning to think about potential design approaches.

In terms of online secondary research, I have found:

a very good entry on the Encyclopaedia Britannica website (https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-G-Wells), which provides a critical biography, and states that the most notable of Wells’ social novels are, Love and Mr. Lewisham (1900), Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul (1905), The History of Mr. Polly (1910) and Tono-Bungay (1909). This is useful because the article gives dates that range from 1900 to 1910; in other words, precisely the Edwardian era. Further research has shown that there is another novel in this series, entitled Anne Veronica (1909).

an entry on The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36831)

an article by a contemporary author, David Lodge, listing his top 10 HG Wells books, including short descriptions of some of the social novels. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/04/david-lodge-hg-wells-top-10 

a British Library article on Wells’ politics, which provides background to some of the ideas that informed his novels: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/h-g-wells-politics

I also have various books about books and on graphic design relating to books, the latter containing images of book cover designs from different eras. Examples include:

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - a book that contains a chronological list of novels - mostly in English - from the end of the C19th onwards. This has a brief summary of Tono-Bungay, and, perhaps more usefully, is a useful tool for comparing contemporary novels to develop a better understanding of some of the social themes investigated in Wells’ novels

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, which contains a short biography of Wells and summaries of Love and Mr Lewisham and Tono Bungay

The Readers Guide to the Twentieth Century Novel, which contains summaries of a number of Wells novels but also refers to Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul and The History of Mr Polly as forming a trilogy of comic novels with the earlier social novel, The Wheels of Chance (1896). This seems to me to establish a good reason for grouping the three novels together in a set, so I’ve carried out some secondary research using Wikipedia to find plot summaries of the novels and start building a list of keywords for each (see below - keywords marked in red). 

I have created some minds maps, one for HG Wells and one using the title of each book and the keywords listed highlighted in red, to try to find some common themes.

I’ve done this because, if the three books are to work together as a set, the design of the cover, and the imagery used for each book, needs to relate quite strongly to that of the other two so that they are recognisably a set of three.

Words that keep appearing include social, class, moral, romantic, conventions, drapery

The last of these is an interesting detail, because Wells himself was an apprentice in a drapers. So the novels can be read as being, to a certain extent, autobiographical. Because of this it occurs to me that images of Wells himself might be used profitably.

During my research I also started to notice some articles about the significance of the bicycle in Wells’ work, and that it can be understood as a summarising symbol for some of the main themes that appear in both his science fiction and his social novels: The War of the Wheels: H.G. Wells and The Bicycle: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=engl_books http://roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/hgwells/ https://thevictoriancyclist.wordpress.com/tag/h-g-wells/ https://durangoherald.com/articles/163792

The themes that Wells covers in his social fiction are complex and broad ranging, so a symbol - such as the bicycle - that can, in some way, represent these themes, while conveying a sense of lightheartedness and playfulness that ties in with the comedic nature of the works, could work well as a cover device. Again, its repeated use could be a useful factor in tying the books together as a set.

I’ve also thought about the idea of timelessness and whether a design which doesn’t directly allude to the contents of each novel or try to illustrate scenes from the different stories, but instead refers in an oblique way to the era in which they were written, through the use of pattern, might work. This might also tie in with the autobiographical elements and theme of drapery, since patterns from Edwardian materials might be used.

In terms of colour, looking at the keywords and Wells’ themes, it occurs that red links his concern with class and society (through its association with socialism) and the themes of love and relationships that reoccur in the different works.

I have done some visual research using online sources such as Google images and Pinterest and gathered the images that I’ve found in a Pinterest board called HG Wells Research. This board contains photographs of Wells, contemporary book covers, Edwardian patterns and images of old bicycles that might form the basis of visual approaches to answering the brief.

I’ve also taken a look at Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type to get some ideas for the kinds of typeface that might be used.

I think a combination of a serif and sans serif typeface roughly from the time of the fin de siècle might work well, by obliquely alluding to a specific point in history, while offering a feeling of balance and timelessness.

Century Expanded (serif) was designed in 1900 and Franklin Gothic (sans serif) in 1904, so this kind of combination might work well.

Rough sketches of initial ideas:

Idea #1 A set of three covers using Edwardian patterns as a background. The title and author’s name are set in a central cartouche. The three covers have an identical grid. The lettering would be created using a combination of Serif and Sans Serif typefaces, to emphasise the timeless qualities of Wells’ novels.

Idea #2 This idea is based on a particular type of very austere Edwardian book cover design, which is based on a combination of lines and text. This kind of design didn’t uses and images, relying entirely on the words to do the work of telling readers about what was inside the book. With the idea of timelessness in mind, I though it might be a good idea to base a design on this but update it with some additional elements. Through my research, I’ve found that the image of the bicycle, which appears in all three novels, is richly symbolic of Wells’ thematic concerns. It occurred to me that pictures of bicycles (perhaps catalogue images from Wells’ time) could be used as a connecting motif, which conveys something of the theme and feel of each work, while linking the three together to create a kind of trilogy. The covers could be presented in two colours - black and red - the latter containing allusions to class, society, socialism and love that crop up in the three works.

Idea #3 This idea is founded on idea of using the image of Wells himself - a different photograph for each volume - along with a simple and austere grid (having something in common with mid-century Penguin book cover design. This would, in a sense, remove the novels from the era in which they were written, since the cover style is influenced by design from a later era. The covers would be white or off-white, with the photographs of Wells being treated in red - as an allusion to the themes of class struggle, socialism and love which appear in his fiction. The title and author’s name would sits either side of a 2/3 dividing line and be rendered in sans serif lettering - HG Wells appearing in a bolder block font, with something more refined used for the title of each novel.

[scary-pixie]

Ice Cream Man vol.1 – A Graphic Novel Review

This review was originally published in GEM Magazine vol.3 (now defunct). Please enjoy!

Ice Cream Man is written by W. Maxwell Prince with art by Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran.

Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Anthology

Publisher: Image Comics

Release Date: June 2018

My Rating: 8.5 OUT OF 10

Have you ever felt uneasy and fearful around the local ice cream man? Do you occasionally worry that his products may contain some sort of poison or mind-altering substance? I do not, though thanks entirely to this graphic novel, I believe I shall be just a little bit cautious in the future. Ice Cream Man vol.1 is an anthology of horror, fantasy and slice-of-life stories, with each chapter named after a delicious ice cream flavor. The art by Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran is very reminiscent of Frank Quitely’s style, featuring clean and pleasant lineart. There are a few chapters featuring gross bodily fluids, though nothing too detailed or that I would give an “R” rating to. I would now like to present you with a short chapter-by-chapter overview, spoiler free (of course), as each story featured quite a bit of variety in their themes, mood and artwork. Chapter 1: Raspberry Surprise The first chapter consists of two intertwining short horror stories, featuring many callbacks to classic horror tales. The story was set in a creepy, suburban neighborhood, which reminded me quite a bit of Stanger Things overall. The backgrounds were illustrated in moody purple and blue colors, an eerie contrast to the normally bright and friendly appearance of the Ice Cream Man and his truck. I am very curious what the Ice Cream Man’s motives are after reading this first tale…is he just trying to stir up (or, more appropriately, “scoop out”) some random chaos? Or does he have some sort of deeper plan in mind…? Chapter 2: Rainbow Sprinkles Chapter 2 featured a more realistic and serious drug-related story…though with some twists. I really enjoyed the coloring style in the flashback scenes, consisting of greyscale backgrounds with brightly colored characters that slowly lose their hue and blend in with the background as they get further and further into their destructive lifestyle. I found Chapter 2 to be the most graphic and stomach-churning as well, largely because the themes were more realistic than in the other stories. It serves as your regularly-scheduled reminder not to get involved with hard drugs. Chapter 3: Good Ol’ Fashioned Vanilla I loved this one! Though it wasn’t actually a horror story. Mostly a tragic little slice-of-life tale (which I believe many of us can relate to), with an exciting psychedelic interlude. The main character reminded me of John Goodman or Hank Hill. In fact…there was also a character named “Dale” in this story, so I would not be surprised if the creators were purposely making references to King of the Hill. I loved the psychedelic part of the story, especially the colors and the references to classic musicians and songs. On a related note, I did not realize that the creators of Ice Cream Man also created The Electric Sublime for IDW until recently...I’m really impressed when their artwork goes down the colorful, psychedelic route. Chapter 4: Every Good Boy Does Fine I thought this title was really odd at first, though apparently it is a reference to the piano keys “EGBDF” (which makes sense, as music again plays an important role in this chapter). In addition, another way young musicians have remembered those keys has been with “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”…which reminds me of…ice cream. How appropriate! This story was one of creepiest in my opinion. Characters that seem like normal, upstanding chaps end up surprising us, and the hellish visions during the interlude may or may not end up giving you nightmares. Even the main protagonist in this tale has a very skeletal look…I definitely believe that was intentional! The most important takeaway from Chapter 4 was definitely the introduction of a new character at the end with ties to the Ice Cream Man himself. His addition teases at a larger, ongoing story forming throughout this series…and it makes me want to read the next volume! In conclusion, I enjoyed Ice Cream Man vol.1 overall, and am definitely on board for more. I always liked “anthology” comic series, including those where an overarching storyline takes a back seat to short, varied tales…as in this book! It’s nice not to have to remember all the tiny details of an ongoing plot from volume to volume, especially if we don’t have the ability to read them all in a short time span. Anthologies are also a great opportunity for presenting a variety of themes and art styles. And now, I shall be off to sit on my porch and eagerly await the next appearance of the Ice Cream Man!

[newyorktheater]

In the history of Broadway, twenty-six plays have had runs of more than 1,000 consecutive performances, none before 1918, and none after 1986. Jordan Schildcrout looks at 15 of them in “In the Long Run” (Routledge, 224 pages), a satisfying read that tells us the plots, the behind-the-scenes stories, and the larger cultural meaning of these once wildly popular comedies. (Almost all of them were comedies.)

Some of these plays are still frequently produced, and/or were made into classic films (whose fidelity to the original script varies widely.) But a sizable percentage of these plays remain familiar now only to theater aficionados, and even then mostly just for their titles: Abie’s Irish Rose, Tobacco Road, The Voice of the Turtle. Their chapters are the most engaging chapters in the book.

While a half dozen of the longest-running plays won The Tony Award for Best Play, and two won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a surprising number were critically panned. “People laugh at this every night,” critic Robert Benchley said about “Abie’s Irish Rose,”  “which explains why a democracy can never be a success.” Dorothy Parker was kinder to “Lightnin’,” the first play to reach 1,000 performances. The play “kept my mind off the war and my bills,” she wrote in 1918.

Whether or not these plays pleased the critics, they drew in the public at large. To run for 1,000 performance, a play has to attract an audience made up of more than just regular theatergoers. This helps drive home one of the author’s main insights: These plays tapped into their cultural moment. By analyzing the appeal of the most popular plays in each decade, Schildcrout, a professor of theater at the State University of New York at Purchase, tells us something about the public’s mood in each era.

“Abie’s Irish Rose,” for example, was a sentimental comedy in the 1920s about a Jewish boy who marries an Irish-Catholic girl, much to the consternation of their comically bigoted fathers. Schildcrout writes: “The white nationalist and anti-immigrant forces that intensified in this decade often employed stereotypes to demean those they believed did not belong in America; nevertheless, some audiences clearly enjoyed the affirmation that came from seeing their cultures represented, even in stereotypical ways, on the Broadway stage.” In this way, the play reflects the author’s big tent theory of popular playwriting – that they are so open to interpretation that theatergoers of opposite world views can both see them as simpatico: “Does the play rely on cartoonish and possibly offensive stereotypes, or does it contain a sincere plea for ethnic and religious tolerance? The answer, of course, is “yes.” It does both. This ideological ambiguity initially may have allowed the play to appeal to a wide audience…”

“Life With Father,” which did please the critics and the public alike — and remains the longest-running straight play in Broadway history — was a comedy set in the 19th century about demanding if loving Father who insists on the supremacy of his authority in his family, but whose wife and children always wind up getting their way. Schildcrout writes: “The individual’s relationship to authority was a vital subject when Life with Father was first produced. In September 1939, two months before the play opened, Hitler invaded Poland, and the United Kingdom, France, and other allied nations soon declared war on Germany. More than a few critics couldn’t help but see the play in relation to the rise of fascism.”

His analysis is less persuasive when discussing the popularity of two plays from the 1960’s, Jean Kerr’s “Mary, Mary,” and Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park.” He labels both “conservative and trivial,” which he argues was a factor in their appeal, offering audiences an escape from the turbulent decade. But both plays were launched in the decidedly less turbulent first half of the decade.

  P = Pulitzer Prize for Drama, T = Tony nominated, T* = Tony winner

His attempts to tie these plays’ popularity to their historical moment may not always feel spot-on — if it were easy to figure out why a show was a hit, wouldn’t there be more of them? But each chapter illuminates these plays in a myriad of other ways.

Some of these are just delectable tidbits. Marian Seldes appeared in the entire 1,793-performance run of “Deathtrap,” yet in that time also continued teaching at Juilliard, finished a memoir, and wrote a novel. How did she do all that? Her character is killed off in Act !, and she had time to kill (so to speak) until the curtain call. (This also gave her plenty of opportunities to second-act the other shows on Broadway.)

Some chapters demonstrate the breadth of theatrical knowledge and analytic power of the author, who also has worked as a dramaturg. In discussing Albert Innaurato’s “Gemini,”  a play about an Italian-American working class senior at Harvard who is attracted to both his upper-class Radcliffe girlfriend and her brother, Schildcrout writes at one point: “Gemini rewrites the 19th-century melodrama of the ‘tragic mulatto,’ a character presumed to be doomed because, being part white and part black in a racist society, such a person could never ‘belong’ or reconcile their mixed heritage. But Gemini is satisfied to carry on with its unresolved dualities of ethnicity, class, and sexuality…. Francis learns that he can be, as it were, ambidextrous. He can have both his Italian-American working-class heritage and an Ivy League education, and he can hold his love for Judith in one hand and his desire for Randy in the other. “

The author offers an especially rich paragraph in his discussion of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” a second play by Neil Simon, the only playwright to have had three Broadway plays that lasted more than 1,000 performances (and 26 plays on Broadway in total!)  Some critics scoffed at Simon’s oft-expressed admiration for such great playwright as Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill (James Wolcott: “Neil Simon’s long day’s journey into night begins and ends at brunch.”) The author responds: “Brighton Beach Memoirs is more productively compared with other popular Broadway plays…”– and then does so with half a dozen examples of the longest-running plays (like Life With Father,  Brighton Beach Memoirs is “loosely autobiographical coming-of-age story rendered in the comforting glow of nostalgia” etc”) — a riff that feels like a reward for our having just read about all these plays in the book. It  is also fitting: “Brighton Beach Memoirs closed on May 11, 1986, and it is, as of this writing, the last Broadway play to run over 1,000 performances.”

In the last two decades, the top 10 list of longest-running Broadway shows is entirely comprised of musicals (which, you might have noticed,  are not included in “In The Long Run.”) Almost 100 musicals have had runs of at least 1,000 performances on Broadway.

“So what happened to the long-running hit play?” The author devotes the last chapter to that question — ten pages of reasons, which include higher costs and ticket prices, an increase in tourists who don’t speak English, the rise of Off-Broadway and regional theaters, the fact that the shows by the four non-profit Broadway houses generally have fixed runs, a falling-off of arts education, etc. — and to the hope that such a play might someday return: prime candidate “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” Jordan Schildcrout obviously wrote that chapter at a time when Broadway was still open for business. For those of us reading his book during this peculiar time of extended intermission, “In The Long Run” offers us a chance to feel as one with the Broadway theatergoers of the last century, and enjoy what they enjoyed.

In The Long Run Book Review. 15 Longest Running Broadway Plays In the history of Broadway, twenty-six plays have had runs of more than 1,000 consecutive performances, none before 1918, and none after 1986.