#let Jon go to a comic convention and meet some friends or something

[ddagent]

Jaime is a fan of actress!Brienne and her show Oathkeeper, even going so far as to cosplay at events she attends. He is not, however, a fan of her love interest, played by Hyle Hunt. YES PLEASE

“Seven Hells, mate, you look exactly like Goldenhand!” 

Jaime grinned at the man ahead of him in the queue. He looked down at his breastplate; the burnished steel and actual gold lion heads. “What, this old thing?”

“Um, yes! You look more like Goldenhand than the guy they got to play him on Oathkeeper!” 

As his fellow con attendee nudged his friends and pointed at Jaime’s breastplate and broadsword, his brother sighed. Jaime frowned. “What?”

“You know full well that you look exactly like Goldenhand the Just. Not only because Goldenhand was a Lannister, but because you spent more than people spend on a house on your cosplay.” 

Jaime shrugged as best he could in his armour. “You’re always saying I should live a little.”

“Yes, but buy a yacht; a round of drinks in a bar. Not a historically accurate suit of armour and an actual Valyrian steel blade.” 

“It’s foam. Wouldn’t get through the metal detectors otherwise.” 

Tyrion hung his head, but quickly lifted it as the doors to King’s Landing Comic-Con opened. Jaime did not share his brother’s love of wine or women, and Tyrion did not share his love of fencing or boxing, but the television show Oathkeeper was something that they could enjoy together. They had viewing parties every week, and were now attending their first convention in the hope of meeting the cast and crew. Tyrion, and no doubt most of the men in the queue, were hoping to meet Margaery Tyrell, famous for playing Queen Rose on the show. 

Jaime, however, had his eye on someone else. 

As the queue progressed inside, Jaime rested his hand on the scabbard he hoped to get signed by Brienne Tarth, the actress playing Lady Alysanne, who would later become the Blue Knight. As a child, Jaime had been fascinated by stories of Ser Blue and Goldenhand; as an adult, he had devoured a series of historical fiction novels set in the period. The show was...okay. Far too much nudity; several factual inaccuracies that Jaime did not care for at all. But Brienne Tarth was perfect. 

And today, he would get to meet her. 

The line pitched forward, and the Lannister brothers entered the exhibition centre. The cast and crew of Oathkeeper were sat at a string of tables on the east side; queues already forming for autographs and selfies. Tyrion pointed at the furthest table. “There she is. Margaery Tyrell.”

“And Jon Snow beside her. He looks confused.”

“Probably can’t remember what show he’s on.” They shared a laugh. The Wolf King and the White Walkers were the most boring storyline on Oathkeeper in Jaime’s opinion. “And there’s your least favourite person.” 

“I’d give up my entire inheritance to see Cersei at a convention, but I don’t think that’s her.” Tyrion rolled his eyes and pointed at the table closest to them; sitting behind it was the actor who played Goldenhand. Hyle Hunt. “Oh, that least favourite person. Smith save us all, he’s terrible. I don’t know why they haven’t fired him. He can’t act. And he has no chemistry with Brienne. None.”

“You know, I think I might have heard this before. Was it the critical reviews of last season? The online fan boards?” Tyrion tapped his thumb and forefinger on his chin. “No, I think it was you during every episode.”

Jaime glared at his brother. “Don’t you have Margaery Tyrell to meet?” 

His brother grinned. “That I do. Meet back here when we’re done? We can have a look at the stalls before the photo ops.” Jaime nodded. “Fare thee well, Goldenhand. Go get your maiden.”

He flipped his brother the finger; Tyrion cackling as joined the throng of people desperate to meet the beauty playing Queen Rose. Jaime had no interest in Margaery Tyrell. Or, in fact, any of the other actors from Oathkeeper signing at the convention that day. He only had eyes for Brienne Tarth. Fuck. Jaime wiped his damp hand on his historically accurate breeches and tried to recall his plan of what to say. He’d been practising it in the mirror for months ever since Tyrion had sent him a link to the con. At least he’d have some time to wait in the queue to collect himself. 

But, as Jaime approached Brienne Tarth’s table, he saw that no one was waiting. Margaery Tyrell had a ticketing system attached to her signing. Even Hyle fucking Hunt had a queue of ten people. But no one wanted to talk to the woman playing the first female knight. Fuck that. 

Jaime approached the desk. Up close, he could see the freckles adorning her cheeks in a way that an HD television could never represent; the white scar above her lip that they covered with make-up. And when she lifted her head, bemusement crossing her features at his presence, he realised that Brienne’s eyes really were that blue. Fuck. 

“Hello,” she greeted, and Jaime lost all power of thought and speech. “Would you like an autograph?” 

He wet his top lip, struggling for the words. All he could think was blue. “Yes,” he managed to get out. “Yes, I would.” 

Jaime handed her assistant a twenty dragon note. He’d intended to get the scabbard signed, but instead, he looked at the array of stills in front of Brienne. All were group shots; some of the cast, two of her and Hyle. None of Lady Alysanne. He frowned. “Do you have any stills of just you?”

This time it was Brienne’s turn to lose the power of speech. She glanced at the photographs in front of her, muttering to herself, “No one really—” before cutting off her sentence and turning to her assistant. “Podrick, do we have those stills from last season?”

“I think so; let me check.”

Podrick, good lad that he was, produced a slim stack of production shots of Lady Alysanne: one at Queen Rose’s wedding, and one in her blue armour; a gift from Goldenhand. Jaime chose the armoured picture. Brienne beamed, and warmth spread through him at the sight of her smile. “That’s my favourite, too. What’s your name?”

“Jaime.”

Brienne laughed, immediately clamping her hand over her mouth as she did so. Her blue eyes widened; her hand resting upon his wrist in a gentle touch. “I am so sorry; I didn’t mean to–it’s just, you’re dressed as Goldenhand, and canonically, Goldenhand’s name was—”

“Jaime Lannister, I know.” He grinned, staring down more than once at Brienne’s hand on his wrist. “I’m named after him. And you’re named after the Blue Knight.” 

At that, Brienne retreated, leaning backwards in her seat. “I’ve never said that in any interviews.” 

“You didn’t need to. I know my history. Better than the Oathkeeper producers that’s for sure.”

Brienne snorted, betraying her own opinion, but quickly composed herself as she scribbled on the still of Lady Alysanne. She handed Jaime his autograph. “I really like your cosplay, Jaime.”

“And I really like you—” Fuck, Jaime, don’t be weird. “—your portrayal of Lady Alysanne. She’s my favourite character.” 

Behind him, someone cleared their throat. A couple of people had joined Brienne’s queue, now; group stills requiring Brienne’s signature clutched in their hands. Jaime nodded at Brienne and left her to continue signing. When he was out of the pit, he looked at the autograph Brienne had given and grinned.  

To Ser Jaime, 

You are truly a knight of the Seven Kingdoms; thank you for your bravery in approaching my table when few else would. Enjoy Season 3.

Lady Brienne of Tarth

Jaime couldn’t stop smiling, even when Tyrion returned clutching his own autograph. 

[liveoutimagination]

Sweet Escape I - Bob Morley Imagine

requested: no word count: ~2290 warnings: swearing pairing: none yet, later female!reader x bob morley summary: y/n works at nycc as a volunteer and while she’s not new to it, she’s still extremely nervous because this year, she actually gets a chance to meet and talk to her favorite actor - bob morley. A/N: so this is my first imagine since about two years so my english and writing might be a little rusty. anyway - this is definitely a slow one. gotta set some base for the next parts. also don’t mind the mistakes/failed grammar/misspellings/whatever. it’s way to late already and i wanted to throw this out right now.

feedback is most welcome! also, feel free to hmu if you want to be added to the tag-list for the next part

It was my 5th year working as a volunteer at new york comic con, yet I had never been this nervous. Over the past years, I had been working at different conventions and therefore got in contact with several celebrities, why one might think I eventually got used to being eye to eye with people like Jensen Ackles, Grant Gustin or Robert Downey Jr. - yet that was nothing but wishful thinking, considering this very moment.

During my second year, I got my first chance to work at both – the panels and the backstage/vip area. And I loved it! It was that moment I realized this was the kind of thing I wanted to do for a living. Unfortunately being a volunteer didn't pay off very well. Well, it didn't pay off anything at all – besides free access to the current con of course. But I was certain it was the best opportunity to gain experience before trying my luck in other areas.

So, again, one should think I got used to all of this over the years, but this time was different. As the schedules were sent out, my heart skipped a beat and as if he knew it, my comic con-best friend called only seconds after we received the mail.

“(Y/N), you okay?”,  Dan asked as soon as I picked up.

“This has to be a joke...”, I mumbled both – in shock and excitement.

We met during my first year, while he had been there the third time. After sharing our first shift we were basically inseparable. Dan and I clicked instantly – sharing the same interests and liking the same shows. During the following years, we always met a few days in advance, spending some time together before we would be stressed out as hell and sleep-deprived from the upcoming days working and running around. That's why I wasn't even surprised he called this quickly once we got the news.

“Nah, don't think it is.”, he chuckled, while I got up, unable to steady neither my pace nor my heartbeat.

“Dan, I'm dying. I'm literally dying right now. This can't be real!”, I exclaimed still running around like some hyperactive 5-year-old.

“Looks quite real to me. Calm down, (Y/N). Isn't that what you've wanted ever since the pilot aired?”, his voice was way too steady at this moment and it almost drove me crazy.

This was the only difference between the two of us. While I was head over heels over the actors of my favorite character, Dan just enjoyed some good storytelling. And that's exactly why I freaked out the moment I read I would be in charge of the vip and panel area during the whole con, which also included the one the cast of The 100 would be there. Not only was it a huge responsibility, no, but I would also meet the actors I had adored for years now.

“No... I mean, yes! Of course! But I can't do this. I'm going to fuck everything up!”

“Language!”

“Shut up, Captain E-Rated! This is some serious shit! How am I gonna keep my cool and be professional when I see Marie. And Richard. And Lindsey!”

Yes, I was definitely freaking out – more than I should.

“What, you're not going to mention your all-time sweetheart?”, Dan teased me, making me blush right away and I was glad he couldn’t see my face right now. I knew he was right and so did he. Yes, the thought of seeing Bob Morley in person was the actual reason for keeping me on my toes. Not that I'd admit it, though.

“Fuck off, asshat! You're so not helpful, it's like I'm talking to Isaac.”, I responded as I fell on my bed.

“Just tell me what to do...”, I muttered, face pressed into one of the pillows.

Laughter from the other side of the phone.

“How about you take a few deep breaths and then you're going to be as charming and quick-witted as always?”

“I hate you...”

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Within a matter of seconds, I threw my pillow downwards next to my bed.

“Die...”, I grumbled, slowly coming to my senses.

It was still dark outside when the alarm went off and I didn't know who to blame for the most annoying start of the day ever – myself for wanting to get up hours before we had to leave or Dan's alarm, which was the most nerve-wracking thing I ever heard.

“Good morning, too...”, a male voice muttered not sounding any less tired.

For the past days, Dan stayed over at my place and actually managed to get my constant and quite spontaneous fan-girl-outbursts under control. While the first day at comic con went by smoothly, reality hit me again once we got back home last night. Even though it was late already, we stayed up way longer than we should have and only got a few hours of sleep. Mainly my fault but what should a girl do? Yet, no matter how grateful I was only a few hours ago as I finally calmed down again, now we had to take the bitter pill. Pulling my blanket over my head, I turned around, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.

“How 'bout we call in sick today?”, I asked – half joking, half serious.

“Nah, we're gonna make it somehow... and you don't wanna miss the party, do ya?”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. If I'd skip work today, but would show up at the party, I had been working at nycc for the longest time. It was probably the most exciting part of the con. Everyone – volunteers, organization, exhibitors and actors – they all came together for a few drinks, amazing food and some nice music. And there was not a chance I would miss out on that.

The next moment my blanket disappeared and I heard Dan walking towards the door.

“Don't. You. Dare. To ...”

Before I could even finish my sentence, the room turned bright – too bright. Shielding my eyes, I somehow managed to sit up.

“Bastard.”

“Jon or Ramsay?”

“Joffrey.”

“Ouch, that hurts.”

“You're welcome.”

“So, how about I make us some coffee and you take a shower? You reek.”, he suggested, well-aware that coffee was the only thing powerful enough to actually get me on my feet, literally speaking.

“I said Joff, not Ramsay.”, I responded, my words followed by a yawn. “But fine. Zombie awakener style?”

“Always. Now move your lazy ass before I have to kick it.”

Waving in his direction I signalized him to go ahead. I always wondered how Dan could be so energetic, even in the morning after a day like yesterday. Maybe he was a morning person but me? Not so much. After staying put a few more seconds, eventually, I got up, dragging myself toward carefully picked outfit placed on a chair. Even though we all had to wear the same shirts, it didn't mean I couldn't up my game at least a little. Even if it would be a first. Usually, I just wore some comfy sweats and sneakers, but today my favorite pair of jeans, a cute long-sleeve, which I would wear underneath the staff-shirt, and my not so cheap Converse would do. Still comfortable but not as Netflix and chill as my usual attire. I even managed to decide on what to wear tonight yesterday, so the most irritating part was already done.

After taking a quick shower I prepared my skin for another not so common part – putting on makeup. But before I would even think about painting on my face like an empty canvas, I had to get my own personal drug.

The rest of the morning passed rather uneventful – We both got dressed, I decided to keep my make up simple for the day and while Dan prepared everything for later when we got back home, I refilled our to-go cups.

Until midday, it felt like any other day. I ran some errands, briefly switched positions with some newcomers and the guys and girls working alongside with me finally got used to the hectic work. Thanks to everything on my schedule I didn't get any chance to ponder over what was to come in the second half of the day.

But once I met Dan for lunch, it struck me like lightning all over again.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”, I exclaimed, checking my appearance in my smartphone's front camera.

It was obvious I hadn't just been sitting around doing nothing during the last hours.

Fortunately Dan already got used to these outbursts during the past few days, which was probably why he only let out an almost bored yawn.

“You're gonna make it someh    ”

Stopping mid-sentence, he suddenly unbent, his eyes averted from and looking past me.

“The fuck is it now?”, I asked. Not even annoyed, but nervous as hell.

“(Y/N)... promise me you won't freak out if you turn around.”

“Why would I   Oh! My! God!”

Turning the direction he was looking, my eyes set on Bobby – and not only him. No, the whole cast of The 100 sat only a few tables away from us, having lunch themselves.

Even after some seconds passed, I was still staring. Trying to clear my throat, I blinked a few times.

“I... I probably should stop staring like some crazy fan...”, I mumbled.

“Seems like a good    Nope, too late.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about, as Richard rose his glance, looking our direction. He must have said something to his co-stars because slowly they all turned towards us.

“Fuck...”, I said under my breath, pretty sure I ruined everything.

That’s until suddenly something came up my mind. Something that would either be my downfall or lifeline. A bright smile appeared on my lips as I turned back to Dan before getting up.

“(Y/N), what are you doing?”, he questioned, a skeptical expression on his face.

“Saving my ass or digging my grave.”

Taking a deep breath, I headed straight for their table, making sure my badge was in sight.

Professional. Be Professional. Come on, (Y/N), you can do it!

My smile turned bright and cheerful, the moment I arrived next to them.

“Hey! Sorry about the staring just now. I was trying to figure out whether now would be a good time to hit you up for a sec.”

My voice was firm, almost getting my hopes up, I could survive this without showing my inner fan-girl screaming loudly. That's until – out of all people – Bobby replied.

“Seems like you've made up your mind a little too quick.”, he said, leading me to make a face for a moment.

“Oh...”, was the only sound leaving my throat, as I stood there dumbfounded.

“I'm kidding. What's up?”

His expression softened and he gave me his breathtaking smile, which never failed to make my knees go weak.

Dammit! Get yourself together!

Coughing slightly, I briefly shook my head – lips pressed together in half a smile, half annoyance.

“Yeah, right... So, I... I just wanted to introduce myself quickly before you guys go backstage. I'm (Y/N) and I'll be your girl Friday in a few. Figured it wouldn't hurt if you knew my face beforehand.”, I finished, giving them a warm smile.

For a brief moment, everybody nodded, returning my smile, before Eliza playfully punched Bob.

“Guess you better hadn't said that before.”, she addressed him, grinning.

“Yeah, you really shouldn't hoax the one bringing you drinks and food.”, Marie joined in, laughing.

“Was nice knowing you, man.”, Richard added, not any less amused.

Their behavior was infectious, why I couldn't help but join in and therefore spoke before even giving a thought to it.

“Good thing I like my victims to see my face at least one time before they bite the dust.”

“My, my looks like we've got a feisty one.”, Lindsey laughed before the others joined her.

“You feeling alright buddy?”

Eliza placed her hand on Bobby's shoulder, who obviously had given up, shaking his head in silent laughter as it seemed.

“Absolutely. It's great to see you're all totally fine with me being poisoned.”, he said, both – playfully and devastated – at once.

Still chuckling a little, I clapped my hand.

“Alright. I guess I'll let you enjoy your last moments alive and I'll see you guys later.”

As much as I enjoyed the little chat, I knew I had to finish lunch before getting back to work in a few. Not to mention that I didn't want to take up their time any longer. Even though they didn't seem to mind my presence. Within seconds most of them said their goodbyes – though it wouldn't be for long – and I turned around, ready to walk away.

“See you, (Y/N)! And try not to kill me before the panel.” Bob spoke, making my heart skip a beat as I heard my name from his lips.

“Yeah, we'll see about that.”, I responded teasingly, one last glance over my shoulder, giving him a lopsided grin.

Heading back to Dan, I gave him a thumbs up, smiling stupidly happy and – what's more important – incredibly proud of how well everything went. It felt like this was exactly what I needed so I wouldn't freak out later again with no one to calm my nerves around.

[downthetubes]

Comics artist John Tucker reflect on his first Thought Bubble Festival experience, the culmination of his busy year as a creator…

Well, here we are then. Our first Thought Bubble is in the bag. The show I’ve wanted to do for the best part of a decade, over in the blink of an eye. I am now back in my house, near Swansea, with a cup of tea and the biggest convention of my “career” thus far in the rear view mirror. Let’s try our best to make sense of the show, the year that preceded it, and what it all means. Easy.

Thought Bubble 2018

What can I say about Thought Bubble that somebody else won’t have already said? It’s the big leagues of indie comics; small press tastemaker and impresario Sarah Harris (of Swindon’s Incredible Comics) once said that Thought Bubble is where you go to “arrive”; to announce your presence on the scene. A lot of people were making that announcement this year, including us (me and my wife, who is my salesperson and spokesperson while I’m busy drawing or scowling).

Thought Bubble looks, superficially, like other conventions, but it is not like other conventions. On its face, the process of getting to Thought Bubble was identical to the Cardiff Independent Comic Expo and True Believers processes – we applied early, sent in some JPGs and text, then we turned up with comics and a roulette wheel. There was a folding table and some chairs, and nearby people were putting up those wire print holders that you clip together. Same old. But, as we soon learned, Thought Bubble is unlike anything else we’d encountered previously.

I knew Thought Bubble was big, but I had no real concept of its breadth and scale until I saw it all laid out, taking over a large portion of the city centre. The marquee we were in, alone, would have been the largest comic convention I’ve ever exhibited at, before you consider it was one of four venues. Thought Bubble is almost too much, but of course if you’re into comics there’s probably no such thing as too much. I had grand plans to see so many people, almost all of which were lost to the blur of the event (except for Tony Esmond, Todd Oliver, and Sarah Millman, and even then I didn’t even get to see at her at her actual table; I bumped into her purely by chance in the street).

If you want to experience Thought Bubble, don’t get a table. You can either be at it or in it, and never the twain shall meet.

Image: Thought Bubble Festival

The mid-con party was a godsend in that regard, and it was a real pleasure to talk shop with other exhibitors while watching a flamboyant German attempting pistol squats to Boney M’s “Rasputin” in full cosplay.

In fact, of all the things that happened in Leeds this weekend, I think I enjoyed the mid-con get-together more than anything. It’s so rare you get to really talk to other people doing this sort of thing – comics is, by nature, an isolationist pursuit, and even if you’re tabling next to good people (as we, fortunately, have done every time so far – this time with Paul Moore, a true gent and a talented man) you never really get to talk.

I also managed to get some good conversations in with Jon Laight, fellow weird comic producer Todd Oliver, and Andy Barron (whose work is so unique it looks like it was produced off-planet, a distant civilisation’s take on sequential art). And I saw the pistol squats. Great party, cheers lads.

In regard to the actual show itself, I’m probably one of the worst people to write about Thought Bubble, because I saw very little of the actual show. We had so much fun – we met lots of great people, saw friends from shows past, Lauren met somebody off the Bake Off (I don’t watch it but she seemed very nice) – but it was just so hectic we couldn’t get a sense of what the punters experienced.

Image: Thought Bubble Festival

Image: Thought Bubble Festival

All I can really tell you is how we did as exhibitors, as rookie exhibitors with a half-table in a marquee large enough to accommodate several hundred of the most talented indie comic artists in the country.

How Did We Do?

I went to Thought Bubble feeling relatively conflicted in regards to expectations. What would low sales mean? What would high sales mean? Would we sell anything at all? Would we be kicked ceremoniously in the arse with a big pointed boot if we didn’t meet quota? No way to know. Had to just go there and see what happened. I had advantages here that I hadn’t had at our first show at True Believers – we’d had some experience, and some success, and we had the roller banner, at once repulsing and attracting, a cursed beacon luring punters towards it against their will.

It’s impossible to deduce your standing in comics from any one show, but if there’s one thing I learned from Thought Bubble, it is that any lessons you have learned from other shows do not apply there. Thought Bubble is a different animal; the punters look the same as the punters elsewhere, but they are not the same. They will do what other punters do – look at the roller banner with either amusement or disgust, pick up a comic to a gruesome page before sidling away, the usual – but these are not the people we encountered in Cardiff, Cheltenham, or Swindon.

At smaller shows, we sold a lot of bumper packs (complete sets of my entire back catalogue, with a sketch, for a tenner). We offered a very similar package at Thought Bubble, and we priced competitively as we always do (or at least I feel we do). But the vast majority of money that came over the table was either for a Death Roulette on its own (£5, and fine by me – it’s the highest margin item on the table, considering I’m going to be at the table anyway and I genuinely love doing them) or a single issue, typically Adrift or one of the other shorter minis (Hell – my £1 mini-comic – was the breakout star).

We put this down to the sheer crushing weight of the competition; whereas a £10 pack of comics may seem like a good deal at a smaller show, at a show the size of Thought Bubble the smart play is to get a little taste off everybody. We’ll be making sure we’ve got more little things for sale next time, and I would definitely recommend anybody thinking about Thought Bubble to make sure you have plenty of “easy pickups” – badges, short comics for cheap etc. It also helps if you have something unique, which we will come to shortly.

We didn’t quite break even – nor, frankly, did I expect to; how could we? We’d driven from Swansea and spent two nights in a hotel, and then there was the cost of the table on top.

But we came closer to breaking even than I would have imagined; very close indeed. Especially considering:

– I’m still a no-name, in the grand scheme of things (though some people did seek me out to pick up Adrift based on good reviews they’d read, and I signed my first few honest-to-goodness autographs for people who don’t realise my comics are actually worth lessif they’re signed).

– What an honour it is for anybody to spend anything at your table at an event like that. Considering the exhibitor list was essentially a who’s who of UK indie talent, I know how lucky we were to have made one red penny. I wouldn’t have bought anything from me if I’d been a visitor at that show, for fuck’s sake.

If you bought from us this weekend, even if it was just a badge, or you just took a business card or talked to us for a minute, I’m very grateful. I’m especially grateful if you joined the 2018 class of Death Roulette.

Death Roulette

For those who aren’t aware, Death Roulette is my signature convention sketch game; we bring a small toy roulette wheel, and each of the 37 numbers corresponds to an improbable mode of death that I keep hidden under the table. You pay £5, spin the wheel, I take a good look at you, and you come back in 10 minutes to find out how you died.

We welcomed an all-time record number of people to the Death Roulette hall of fame at Thought Bubble; nearly 30 people elected to be mangled, crushed, decapitated, stabbed, shot, frozen, impaled, or otherwise maimed. I love doing Death Roulette portraits, and thankfully everybody so far has seemed happy with the grim vision of their own demise they’ve received. Here’s some of my favourites from Thought Bubble.

Death Roulette has been a godsend at conventions; it’s gotten conversations started and it’s driven comic sales (either from people “upgrading” to a bumper pack that includes the portrait and all the comics, or people getting a sense of what’s inside the comics from their portrait).

Out of respect to those brave enough to take a blind punt on their own demise this year, I’ve decided to draw a line under the 2018 class of Death Roulette, in that any deaths that were drawn this year will never be repeated. If you took part in Leeds, or Cardiff, Cheltenham, or Swindon, thank you so much. You are more handsome than god and braver than the troops.

In Conclusion…

Thought Bubble has been a long time coming for me; I may have had the highest ratio of “years planning on exhibiting” to “years exhibiting” of any attendee this year. When I moved to Manchester for university (in – ugh – 2008), myself and my good friend Paul Capewell arrived a little older than our contemporaries and unenthused about the idea of chugging beer through a funnel or playing soggy biscuit on a flag frisbee team.

We were hugely fortunate, then, to have found a poorly-advertised “society” – the ragtag group of misfits responsible for running PULP Magazine, the student union publication. We signed up in the afternoon one day, and joined the editorial board that evening. I would spend my every waking hour that year writing print and video content for the magazine and the website, and Paul became its defacto web lead, building its website and churning out videos that looked far better than they had any right to considering the equipment on which they were made.

PULP Magazine had no money, no time, and no oversight beyond its perennially overworked editor. Paul and I were not the best-qualified people on campus for the jobs we did at PULP, but we were available, and willing, and if we didn’t do things, nobody else would. The editorial team of PULP 2008/09 spun straw into gold in a way I’ve not really experienced since (and would do anything to experience again).

I think everyone who worked on PULP that year got something out of it, but the main thing I got out of it is that you don’t have to ask permission to make things, and you can’t afford to wait. PULP changed hands the following year and folded shortly after due to perennial mismanagement on the part of the student union (leaving Manchester Met – a university that so prides itself on its art and design faculty – as the largest university in the world without an official print outlet for its students’ work), and shortly after it died, I began producing photocopier comics under an assumed name. I think I just needed something to fill the void that PULP had left behind. They weren’t the best work I’ve ever done, but that doesn’t matter.

Manchester had a vibrant, healthy culture of weirdo small-press bullshit where the only thing that mattered was the willingness to make something; be it zines full of emetic-grade poetry, or – in my case – self-produced compendiums of the worst comics ever made. I had experienced a late-stage conversion to comics after becoming intoxicated by the beguiling work being put out by Kate Beaton and KC Green, whose work seemed to single-handedly wash away the ungodly stench brought on by the mid-2000s webcomic “boom” (many people think the 90s was comics’ nadir, but all the foil covers in the world cannot touch the sheer volume of excruciatingly poor content produced by the supposed champions of webcomics in the early-to-mid 2000s). And PULP had taught me that nobody’s going to tap you on the shoulder to let you know it’s time – you just have to crack on with what you’ve got and hope you eventually land somewhere you want to be, knowing that even if you don’t you’ll probably feel better for having done something.

I had heard, through regional channels, of Thought Bubble, which was growing each year. I swore I would, one day, when I was ready, fill out an application, set up a table, and do it. Just do it, f*** it, see what happened. That was 2010.

A lot happened between those first photocopier comics and my Thought Bubble debut – I graduated, got a job, got married. Got a kitten, called it Potato. Life happened. I stalled on comics, but the idea of comics never really went away; I dabbled with it the whole time, aimlessly, never sure what exactly I ought to do with it. Just over a year ago, I decided to actually make a proper go at it for the first time; really put all my effort into it, and see what happens. I didn’t know what success looked like, but I thought I’d know it when I saw it.

Looking back over the past year, I think I have had a successful rookie year in comics. I’ve had profitable showings at good comic conventions, my work has had good reviews from established critics, and I finally held my own at the convention that has been my white whale, taunting me from afar, for eight years. It’s hard for anything to live up to eight years of hype, especially when that hype is entirely self-generated.

But I think the past year, and Thought Bubble with it, was a bigger success than I could have reasonably hoped for. And I believe now, perhaps more than ever before, in the ethos I learned at PULP Magazine – if you don’t make whatever it is you have the urge to make, nobody else will, and there’s never a good time. You just have to get on with it. It took me a while, but I’m just glad I finally got on with it.

Thanks for making my first year in comics a success, and hopefully I’ll see you at next year’s Thought Bubble.

John Tucker

John Tucker is an independent illustrator and writer from Cardiff, South Wales. After spending a year on the writing staff of PULP Magazine in Manchester, he began self-publishing short-run comics.

His recent works include Adrift (reviewed here by Tony Esmond), the horror-comedies The Taxi and Night Watch, the short comics Hell and Gang Culture set in 1950s Swansea, and the critically acclaimed one-shot Bald. His first graphic novel, The Floating Hand, is set for release in late 2018

• Find John Tucker online at www.johntucker.co.uk | Follow John Tucker on Twitter @johntuckerart | Facebook | Instagram

• The Thought Bubble Festival returns in 2019: www.thoughtbubblefestival.com

Thought Bubble is a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to promote literacy and artistic skills through the medium of comic art. We see sequential storytelling as an important cultural art-form, and believe it is the most diverse artistic medium in the world.

From the Trenches: Thought Bubble 2018 and My Rookie Year Comics artist John Tucker reflect on his first Thought Bubble Festival experience, the culmination of his busy year as a creator...

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Conan Companion, Star Trek, Necromancers, Stanley Mullen

New Release (Amazon): By Crom! At long last the definitive history of Conan the Barbarian paperbacks that fans have clamoured for. 107 pages with detailed chapters devoted to each of the mighty Cimmerian’s publishers. Heavily illustrated with many rare images. Plus complete cover galleries of every US and UK Conan title ever issued. In full colour. An indispensable aid to Conan collectors and completists everywhere. Featuring a specially written foreword by Conan comics legend Roy Thomas!

    Star Trek (Huffington Post): The LA Times recently ran a story about the Child Exploitation Section of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit, which contained a mind-boggling statistic: of the more than 100 offenders the unit has arrested over the last four years, “all but one” has been “a hard-core Trekkie.” Blogger Ernest Miller thought this claim was improbable. “I could go to a science fiction convention,” he explained “and be less likely to find that 99+ percent of the attendees were hard-core Trekkies.” While there may be quibbling about the exact numbers, the Toronto detectives claim that the connection is undeniable.

    Review (Brain Leakage): That said, if you are looking for a great post-apocalyptic read, I want to draw your attention to the work of Jon Mollison. I read his A Moon Full of Stars recently, with the intent of dedicating a full-length ‘Pocky-clypse Now review to it soon. I do still plan on doing that. But I’m probably going to wait until after our daily news cycle looks a little less like the opening credits to the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake.

Awards (Kairos): … And enjoy a hearty laugh at the incestuous wasteland the once-prestigious Hugo Awards have become.

Predictions that the Hugo field would degenerate into a circle jerk of olpdub purse puppies beloved by editors in New York–and pretty much no one else–have been realized ahead of schedule.

Here’s a partial list of this year’s finalists.

D&D (DMR Books): The Complete Book of Necromancers by Steve Kurtz was released in the spring of 1995, and came and went fairly quickly. Luckily a friend of mine snagged one shortly after it came out. Ostensibly the book was intended for the eyes of Dungeon Masters only, but of course we were hungry to add the new spells and powers to our player characters’ repertoires. Clark Ashton Smith is mentioned by name in the majority of the chapters of Necromancers. While Smith’s absence from Appendix N is conspicuous, Kurtz more than made up for the oversight.

Fiction (Digital Bibliophilia): Any book that opens Page One with a man being skewered by the broken mast of a sailing ship in the middle of a storm has to be good right? Well, I’m happy to say Oath of Blood by Arthur Frazier lives up to its gory opening scene and delivers a fantastic little novel about the clash of the Saxons, Normans and Vikings during the 11th century (1066 to be precise). Arthur Frazier was one of many pen names used by the prolific Kenneth Bulmer.

Gaming (Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog): Charisma. It’s not just a dump stat, they say. But look, if you don’t have a lot of it, you’re going to be stuck in a career as an assassin. Which is kind of funny, actually. Of course if you were going to actually use that stat in an AD&D game, you’re going to have to flip to the middle of the combat section to find the reaction table. Why is it there right in the middle of sections detailing initiative and missile discharge? Evidently this something pretty important to consider when the players have initiative in a random encounter, right?

Fiction (Dark Worlds Quarterly): Another writer who has left a huge legacy with little recognition is Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (1911-1986). Fox began his career writing for Batman as early as 1939. (It was Fox who gave Bruce Wayne his “utility belt”.) During his decades long career with DC, he would work on such characters as The Flash, Hawkman and The Justice Society of America. He was there when Julius Schwartz revamped DC comics to meet the new “Comics Code”. He was there when DC invented its Multiverse.  Outside of DC, he would pen the first Sword & Sorcery comic called “Crom the Barbarian”.

Fiction (DMR Books): The book being advertised was Kinsmen of the Dragon by Stanley Mullen. I was completely unfamiliar with both the title and the author. A bit of research revealed that this book had never been reprinted since its publication in 1951, which explains why it’s so little-known today. In spite of (or perhaps because of) its obscurity, good condition copies are pricey, usually going for over $50, and signed copies are much more.

Fiction/Gaming Tie-in (Karavansara): Two nights in Arkham: Lovecraft purists often frown at Lovecraft-inspired fiction. The main charge raised by these people is, other writers are either too much like Lovecraft or not at all like him, often at the same time. The second most common accusation is that certain stories are too action-centered and adventure-oriented, filled with guns blazing and chanting cultists. They usually blame Lovecraft’s popularity with the gaming crowd as the main reason for these degenerate pastiches, in which Indiana Jones or Doc Savage seem to exert an influence stronger than Nyarlathotep’s.

Fiction (Mostly Old Books): he Fargo series tell the tales of early 20th Century adventurer and solider of fortune Neal Fargo. They aren’t Westerns as the covers suggest. In this installment Fargo is hired by a rich old blowhard to rescue some Mayan treasures and the excavation team, which includes his son, from the jungles of Central America.

Cinema (The Silver Key): 1917 had been in my “to watch” queue for a long time (aka, floating around in the back of my mind), and last night I watched it with my older daughter, a self-described “film buff” who wanted to see what the hype was all about. Two word review: Excellent film. It’s an intensely personal/soldier’s journey type of story, and also manages to convey the larger tragedy of the Great War.

Fiction (Sacnoth’s Scriptorium): The Inklings and the Mythos (Dale Nelson). So, I’ve now recovered the missing issue of MALLORN* containing Dale Nelson’s wide-ranging inquiry into possible connections between the Inklings and Lovecraft’s circle, “The Lovecraft Circle and the Inklings: The ‘Mythopoeic Gift’ of H. P. Lovecraft” (MALLORN 59, Winter 2018, pages 18-32). It’s a substantial piece, and in it Nelson raises such topics as the following: Did the two groups read or were they influenced by each other?

Fiction (Scott Oden): In the past few weeks, my sophomore novel, MEMNON (Medallion Press, 2006; Crossroad Press, 2018), has received a raft of four-and-five star ratings on Goodreads and a pair of excellent reviews — which, for a fourteen-year old novel is no mean feat.  Author Matt Larkin, in his review at Amazon, writes: “Evocative prose paints a living picture of the Classical world while the sudden, brutal violence serves to remind us never to look at history through rose-colored glasses.” While Scott Marlowe of Out of this World Reviews praises many things, including the battles: “I can only describe [them] as spectacular and right up there with some of the best battles I’ve had the pleasure to read in historical fiction (think Bernard Cornwell, surely one of the best of them all). Memnon gives Alexander such grief I imagine Alexander remembered their contests right up until his dying days.”

Fiction (Tentaculii): Lovecraft’s famous survey of supernatural literature was published in The Recluse in August 1927. Later in the same year Eino Railo published the history of the literary gothic in The Haunted Castle: A Study of the Elements of English Romanticism. A December 1927 review in the New York Evening Post suggests Railo’s book was published in time for the Christmas market and the January book-token crowd, and thus it appeared several months after Lovecraft’s circle had finished digesting his Supernatural Literature. Lovecraft refers to The Haunted Castle, a translation from the Finnish, in admiring terms in a later letter to Barlow and terms it a study of “the weird”.

History (Men of the West): Suddenly the war became fun. It became exciting, carnivalesque, tremendous. It became victorious and even safe. We awoke on the morning of Sunday, the 30th of July, with the feeling that the war was won — in spirit, if not in fact. Patton and the Third Army were away. At the 8th Corps, which held the western sector of the Normandy front, the G2 colonel said: “We’ve lost contact with the enemy.”

Fiction (Tentaculii): The second half of a forthcoming book, No Ghosts Need Apply: Gothic influences in criminal science, the detective and Doyle’s Holmesian Canon (October 2020), attempts to make the case that there are gothic traces in what are often assumed to be the ‘rationalist’ Sherlock Holmes stories. Sifting the extensive blurb for the book, one can eventually determine that the author suggests the following specific points… * intrigue and secret societies. . .

Fiction (M Porcius Blog): Let’s check out four stories by Mickey Spillane’s all-time favorite author, Fredric Brown, that first appeared in beautiful pulp magazines in 1942 and 1943, magazines that you can read at the universally beloved internet archive for free. “Etaoin Shrdlu” made its debut in Unknown Worlds in 1942.  The cover of Unknown may be boring, but the interior illustrations are quite fine, those by Frank Kramer for L. Sprague de Camp’s “The Undesired Princess” in particular.

Sensor Sweep: Conan Companion, Star Trek, Necromancers, Stanley Mullen published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Favorites 2018 Part Three: EVERYTHING ELSE!

 This is it--the final installment of CRUNCHYROLL FAVORITES 2018! In our first feature, we talked about our favorite anime and manga of the past year, and yesterday we shared our favorite video games. Today, we wrap up with one of my favorite parts of CR Favorites: "EVERYTHING ELSE!"

  Instead of posting individual articles for everybody's favorite movies, books, music, TV shows, sports moments, life moments, and so on and so forth, we just pile them all here into the "Everything Else" installment and share what's important to us that isn't related to anime, manga, or video games.

  Just like before, the rules are simple: only stuff that came out in 2018, or continuing works that had a major milestone last year. You're gonna get to see a lot of different lists from different people--let's get started!

  Nate Ming

The Night Comes for Us- Timo Tjahjanto brings most of the gang from The Raid and its sequel back for this absolute onslaught of perfectly-choreographed action that refuses to let up--or look away. This one's for the hardest of hardcore action fans, and absolutely not for the squeamish.

Mandy- Nicolas Cage teams up with the stylish and totally gonzo Panos Cosmatos for a trippy, violent ride that starts as a horror story and ends up as a wild action/revenge flick. A friend of mine pointed out that Mandy is the closest we'll probably ever get to a live-action Berserk, and y'know what? He's right.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse- It's rare when, while watching a movie, I don't want it to end. It's almost as rare when it wraps up and I immediately want to watch it again. Into the Spider-Verse has it all: pure emotion, an outstanding soundtrack, action that's like greased lightning, and characters I want to spend even more time with. More like this, please.

Fighting in the Age of Loneliness- Jon Bois--already known for his insightful, fun breakdowns of sports minutiae--teams up with Felix Biederman for a deep dive into the stories that make the history of mixed martial arts. Even people who aren't MMA-heads will dig this--check it out and learn why people fighting in a cage for money is so compelling.

Amanda Nunes vs Cris Cyborg- And speaking of that, in just 51 seconds Amanda "Lioness" Nunes took down the undefeated Cris Cyborg, trading shots until Cyborg caught a huge overhand right and dropped. What a showdown--women's MMA has always been great, but now is the time of legends.

Honorable Mentions: Braven, Creed II, Hereditary

Nicole Mejias

A more stable life- 2017 and 2018 have been very trying years of my life, and I’m glad I made it through in one piece. Depression is something I’m still battling with, but it’s something I’m thankfully more in control of these days. I’m very grateful for my close friends who helped me when I felt I was lost; without them I wouldn’t be here. Thank you! Let’s conquer our goals in 2019!

CEO x NJPW show- I talked about this show briefly in my CEO 2018 report, but my goodness, it was quite the mind blowing show! I never expected NJPW to make it out to Florida of all places, and I certainly didn’t expect the world of fighting games and wrestling to come together in beautiful harmony! It’s a show I’ll remember for a very long time.

Crunchyroll Expo 2018 experience- It was my first time going to this event, and I was very impressed by pretty much everything the convention had to offer! Add in the bonus of meeting up with colleagues face-to-face for the first time and network with amazing folks, and it was an event that I was very happy to be a part of. I’ll be back again this year!

Working for Crunchyroll- The biggest highlight of 2018 was when I got the chance to work here, which was something I didn’t think would happen. Started as a video script writer, then moved on to becoming a features writer and editor! This job has helped me out in so many countless ways, and I’m really blessed to be here and that I’m working with such an awesome group of people!

Daniel Dockery

Beginning My Crunchyroll Writer Journey- Writing about anime for a lot of websites usually requires some handholding (“Hey kids. Have you heard of anime? Before I begin my actual article, here’s a half page about what anime actually is.”) Luckily, Crunchyroll came along and has let me geek out about One Piece for six months. God bless them.

Creed II- After his awesome performances in Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Day of Reckoning, it was only a matter of time before Dolph Lundgren became the heart of a major blockbuster.

Deadwood Movie Hype- It’s finally happening. The Deadwood movie that’s been talked about since 2006 is going to be in front of me in 2019. I don’t want to say that the power of my dreams made this happen, but I will. You can thank me all now.

Shrimp Tacos- Have y’all had these? They’re great!

Peter Fobian

Shonen Jump- I promise I’m not getting paid to tell you that Shonen Jump made history in 2018. They made the most popular comics magazine in the world FREE. They’re selling access to one of the largest collections of comics in the world at a pittance. This is the best deal in the history of comics, hands down. I’m only one month in and have already burned through over 20 volumes of manga. I’m actually going to catch up to One Piece. This is unreal.

Annihilation- I almost missed this movie since they did very little way in the promotion, and man am I glad I saw it in theaters. An awesome sci-fi horror film with a great premise, great cast, some fantastic effects, and a legendary ending. Even if you were underwhelmed by the majority of the film, those last 15 minutes aren’t going to leave your head anytime soon.

Wanikani- Various life circumstances have made it hard for me to continue in-class Japanese studies so I started up Wanikani in January at the recommendation of a friend. It’s the easiest to keep up with language studying app I’ve managed to main pretty consistent all year, finishing off 2018 with a 2000 written word vocabulary is pretty good, I think. I really want to hit max level...

Ricky Soberano

All of the wine I’ve drank- Cheers to speaking about the difference between organic, kosher, vegan, and orange wines. Biggest cheers to figuring out my preferred wine region (Piedmont) and enjoying every Barbera and Barolo I had the privilege of consuming.

The streetwear collabs that mattered- Thank you, universe, for finally getting it. The same people that love manga and anime can also love fashion and finally have a means to show it off to the world. This is why the Primitive x DBZ drop popped off. This is what made the Uniqlo x Shonen Jump collection so important. I can’t wait to see even more in 2019.

Crazy Rich Asians breaking the world- Everything was riding on this film to do well. The future of Hollywood’s treatment towards Asian casts, writing, and films hung in the balance and it slayed the box office. The phenomenon surrounding it was as electric as the film itself.

Japanese Breakfast’s article on H-Mart- My uncle had passed away a few weeks before one of my favorite singers published her first article for The New Yorker. It’s a beautiful testament to coming to terms with identity as an Asian-American, mourning, and food.  

Everything that Childish Gambino has blessed us with this year- This special supernova doesn’t need to go so hard on every project that he works on but he does anyways simply because he can and if you can’t appreciate that then you can enter that black hole over there.

Emily Bushman

Victoria Schwab- One of my favorite authors because she writes fantastic stories, and her new YA book, City of Ghosts, is no exception. It’s like a cross between Stranger Things and the best parts of Scotland, with just a DAB of Harry Potter, and I love everything about it. Her other new novel, Vengeful (sequel to Vicious), also soared high for me with three superior villains who plotted death and destruction, all the way to a satisfying conclusion.

Supernatural- I’m late to the game... but why does it feel good to do something as bad as binge-watching 13 straight seasons over a three month period? To be fair, my friend and I are only on season 9, but we’re getting there. Slowly. Steadily. The checkout lady at our local grocery store approves. And if I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that everyone should have a moose in their life. Get your moose, people. Get your moose.

Haunting of Hill House- The original book by Shirley Jackson (of “The Lottery”) was a favorite of mine, but the Netflix adaptation took it to a whole new level. Love the book, love the show, and love the questions about what it means to be a family, what can happen when a family turns against itself, what it means to be a ghost, either alive or dead, and, most importantly, how the trappings of a perfect life can turn into the ties that bind us down.

Sticky Toffee Pudding- This is a British thing, but I live and die for it and was recently reminded of how much I love it when my best friend begged me to make it for her, gluten free. It’s the perfect gooey sweet sheet cake, with to-die-for caramel toffee sauce. Please try this. This is my favorite recipe, from my favorite queen of internet food blogging, Deb Perelman. You can make it with Cup for Cup, a gluten free flour substitute, and it tastes essentially the same. >> http://bit.ly/2fE1OvW

Strange the Dreamer- Written by Laini Taylor, it’s a YA novel about a boy named Strange, the Dreamer. It’s a weird mix of pseudo-Egyptian Gods, alchemic research, and impossible puzzles that is both fascinating and, well, dream-like. It is unusual, the outlier in a field of run-of-the-mill stories, but it entranced me, and I eagerly await the sequel.

Nick Creamer

The Haunting of Hill House- Ostensibly based on the classic Shirley Jackson novel, Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House abandons the book’s narrative entirely, and instead tells a story about family, forgiveness, and the meaning of home, all filtered through the profoundly haunted titular house. Though the film’s dialogue can get a little clumsy, its evocative cinematography, psychologically scrambled cast, and sharp understanding of horror make it satisfying both for its thrills and its sympathetic emotional core. In a year I’ve spent binging whatever horror anthologies I can find, Hill House has risen to the top.

Offerings- As the follow-up to the staggering concept album White Lighter, Typhoon’s Offerings had some serious shoes to fill. The resulting album absolutely blew me away, with its comparatively stripped-down sound offering a harrowing journey through the steady disintegration of a fraying mind. Lines like “the part of you that I love is still in there, even if it doesn’t know my name” cut to the heart of watching a loved one fade away, and offered understanding in a very tough year. Offerings is a difficult listen, but it’s worth it.

Cooking- After a former housemate gifted me and my roommates a slow cooker last winter, we embarked on a lengthy journey to actually learn how to feed ourselves. After a long and arduous year of training, I am proud to say I can probably avoid incinerating a chicken at this point, and perhaps even prepare a soup. Getting there!

Kara Dennison

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch- I will never stop talking about this, and you can’t stop me. It’s my happy union of Charlie Brooker’s hardcore video game geekdom, my love of choice-based gaming, and my inexplicable desire to disturb myself at every given opportunity. It’s been at least a year since I lifted my hands off a keyboard and walked away because I was so affected. That’s how hard it got me.

Gabutto Burger- A recent trip to visit a friend in Illinois ended up with us at this anime fan-friendly burger place, run by a Japanese family and branded to the gills with mascot characters. It’s as close as I’m going to get (for now) to going to a collab café, plus the food was amazing.

The Night Before Critmas- I wish I had time for the full Critical Role experience, but their one-shots are just right for my schedule. This Christmas-skinned D&D campaign told the flipside of The Nightmare Before Christmas, with dangerously-skilled elves setting out to retrieve Santa from a legally-distinct talking bag of bugs. Their Crash Pandas campaign was no slouch, either.

Crunchyroll Social Media- This year I got to stick a toe in our social media department, running accounts for shows like Magical Girl Ore and How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord. I’ve loved getting to see what the fans enjoy and find more for them between episodes!

  ----

And that's a wrap for Crunchyroll Favorites 2018! Thanks for joining us for this three-parter, and we'll see you next year! If you're in the mood for more CR Favorites, here are the links to past years' features:

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2016 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One | Part Two

What were your favorite "everything else" parts of 2018? Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST-OF list, so there are no wrong answers--sound off in the comments and share your favorites!

-----

Nate Ming is the Features Editor for Crunchyroll News and creator of the long-running Fanart Friday column. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateMing. His comic, Shaw City Strikers, launches January 15, 2019.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[njawaidofficial]

'Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later' Review

http://styleveryday.com/2017/08/04/wet-hot-american-summer-ten-years-later-review/

'Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later' Review

‘Wet Hot American Summer’ returns for its second season on Netflix and while there are plenty of laughs, there are more misses than ever before.

It’s one of those odd modern programming miracles that Wet Hot American Summer, a movie that made under $300,000 at the domestic box office in 2001, built enough of a cult following to spawn the Netflix prequel series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. And then it’s in some ways equally remarkable that just two years later, without the rocket fuel of a decade’s nostalgia, creators David Wain and Michael Showalter were able to get much of the gang back together for another eight-episode Netflix season.

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later isn’t an example of going to the well once too often, but it definitely exhibits a fatigue that the first two installments didn’t have. The movie and first Netflix season were hit-or-miss, because what spoof this side of Airplane! isn’t hit-or-miss, but the ratio of hits was so high that laughter covered over any weak patches. With Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, there are definitely barren stretches and the overall thinness of the narrative is, especially toward the end of the eight episodes, a part of the story itself. Being the worst of the Wet Hot American Summer entries is no disgrace and there’s enough lunacy, inspiration and cleverness here that Ten Years Later at least makes for a fast binge.

The season begins on August 18, 1981, as the junior counselors of Camp Firewood make a vow.

“Let’s all promise that in 10 years from today, we’ll meet again and we’ll see what kind of people we blossomed into,” Bradley Cooper’s Ben says.

The joke, it turns out, is that by the time August 17, 1991, has rolled around and the counselors are getting ready to reunite, the kind of person Bradley Cooper has blossomed into is a movie star too busy to return for another season.

Basically everybody else is back, including Coop (Michael Showalter), Katie (Marguerite Moreau), J.J. (Zak Orth), Susie (Amy Poehler), Victor (Ken Marino), Neil (Joe Lo Truglio), Beth (Janeane Garofalo), Abby (Marisa Ryan), Andy (Paul Rudd), Donna (Lake Bell), Yaron (David Wain) and many more.

Like Friends From College only actually funny, Ten Years Later is about the triumphs and regrets that come with the passage of time and the unbreakable bonds you have with the people you were close to in your youth. Some have found love, some have found professional success and the only important thing is that Victor hasn’t gotten laid and still doesn’t quite understand how sex works.

It’s also about a complicated web of geopolitical intrigue that involves Ronald Reagan (Showalter), George Bush (Black) and many more opportunities for innovative action scenes involving Can of Vegetables (the voice of H. Jon Benjamin).

The first two Wet Hot American Summer installments have blended together in my mind such that I don’t remember exactly which characters are Netflix-only, and when it comes to this installment’s newbies, the only requirement is that they have a comic energy that seems to fit with the ensemble. In that respect, Mark Feurstein and Sarah Burns are both fine, but I doubt they’re going to become anybody’s new favorite characters. Alyssa Milano is probably the standout of the new characters, playing an overly enthusiastic nanny in a storyline that apes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Jai Courtney, putting on an exaggerated British accent, is also amusing, especially if you’ve been disappointed by Jai Courtney in action hero mode.

The new characters mostly function like hot glue in an arts-and-crafts project, holding together pieces that are much more frayed than last time. Almost every member of the cast has other things that they’re doing and while this isn’t quite as extreme as the Arrested Development season in which none of the Bluths spent any time together, it’s close. Because this is Wet Hot American Summer and playing with genre conventions is what Wain and Showalter love to do, they have moments of fun with the cast. One character, played by an actor who’s a regular on another TV show, gets to his Camp Firewood cabin, remembers all the great naps he had in his bunk and promptly wraps himself in a blanket and is only a swaddled PA-shaped lump for a couple of episodes. Or another character, mid-conversation, gets abruptly called away, tells her partner they’ll talk at lunch and he replies, “Yes. Episode four.”

But it isn’t always that clever. Elizabeth Banks’ Lindsay has become a news reporter, so she’s off in a storyline on her own for most of the season. She returns for the story’s climax, which a couple of key characters miss because they’re still at the end-of-summer dance. Can of Vegetables goes off on his own mission and rounds up two or three of my favorite characters and whenever he’s absent, my notes start saying, “But where is Can of Vegetables?!?” which isn’t something that happens with most shows.

I wouldn’t say it’s a breakout season for any particular character. If you laughed at somebody before, you’ll still laugh. Give me a couple of seconds of David Wain and Lake Bell speaking Hebrew and I’m set for a while. No amount of Christopher Meloni’s Gene will ever be enough, but I’ll take what I can get. Poehler having a drama geek showdown with John Early’s Logan makes for at least one great scene. Paul Rudd impersonating Matt Dillon in Singles is a reference I can get behind.

After two seasons of riffing on summer camp comedy tropes, ’80s kitsch and the silliness of actors in their 30s and then 40s playing teens, the time jump is fertile for the writing team and especially for Wain, who directed all eight episodes. It’s a world of horrible fashion choices, embarrassing hair, background parody songs in a variety of styles and tossed off references, like when a character calls themselves a slacker and a friend agrees “Like that movie that just came out five weeks ago.” Even when reunion movies like The Big Chill or St. Elmo’s Fire offer some opportunities for new chuckles, you can tell Wain is still more amused by camp silliness, but that’s mostly going on with a new cast of kids who play sports and practice drama only sometimes perplexed by the old guys looking to recapture past glories in the cabin next door.

In a season that’s about The Spirit of Camp Firewood — the former campers who have lost it, the current campers who might lose it if Beth is forced to sell — what’s missing more than anything is the group spirit that comes from the interplay of this ensemble of ridiculously talented improvisers. But maybe it’s all setting up a Wet Hot American Summer Reunion: Reunion in however many years it takes for these actors to be available as a collective again. Whatever flaws Ten Years Later has, I’m not soured on this world.

Network: Netflix

Cast: Michael Showalter, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, Amy Poehler, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Janeane Garofalo, Marisa Ryan, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, David Wain.

Creators: David Wain and Michael Showalter

Premieres Friday, August 4 on Netflix.

#American #Hot #Review #Summer #Ten #Wet #Years