#spin-off

[tododekucrumbs]

Preview from the November 2023 issue of Saikyo Jump of the top 10 fantasy au art by Yoco Akiyama coming in the December 2023 edition of Saikyo Jump! On sale 11/4!

Their brooches, their capes, their smiles!

[eefos]

PEOPLE I AM SO EXCITED. 87North Productions is an American film production company focused on the production of action films (like John Wick, Bullet Train etc.) and founded by David Leitch (dir. Bullet Train) and Kelly McCormick. (Executed producer Bullet Train)

I’ve posted this video yesterday, a guy who talks about why we need a spin-off for lemon and tangerine. Leitch and his company have seen my post too, and 87North just reposted this. And literally asking if we want it!!! DOES THIS MEAN WE ARE ALREADY GETTING A SPIN-OFF?! 😭😉 I am over the moon rn 

PLEASE REBLOG AND GO TO THEIR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT AND SAY TO THEN WHY WE NEED A SPIN-OFF!!

[heyokaooohshiny]

Here I am again with *thoughts*. Even though I can't watch the disaster of the teen wolf movie, I live on the crumbs of these two adorable marshmallow wolves and what it means to Sterek canon.

We all agree that Stiles is the other parent in this equation. For all of the reasons.

I digress.

So yes, Derek burned and went to nogitsune helly-hell. In my mind, and possibly confirmed by Derek's sparkly wolf poof(no kfc Peter here), I can't help but feel Derek's less dead and more in another place. It may be the bitterness talking, but Derek is a 'True Alpha' TM for five seconds,AND he's going to helly-hell to save everyone! He's already a better True Alpha than Scott McCall was over 7-ish seasons. In my brain, there is already a worthy spin-off where we have Spark Stiles and determined bb wolf Eli figuring out how to defeat the Nogi for good and get their real Alpha back.

Also, this...

[firesteel-eden]

It’s giddy with excitement that I present to you this project which wouldn’t have ever seen the light of the day without amazing @fromtheboundlesssea.

The first of the Firesteel spin-offs which shall start being posted after we are finished with main story II.

A long-fic which focuses on lady Celia of House Whent and her suitors.

Celia knew. She had always known. For every lady in a song who crowned her love, thousands others would see their dream break in a million pieces. She refused to stand and watch as her hopes got destroyed. I am Celia of House Whent, I am the lady behind the shadow, I am the light who casts the shadow.

Hope you will enjoy this one and will be as excited as I am about it!

[fyeahfailedcartoonpilots]

Yuki's Sun

Based on the manga by Tetsuya Chiba

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Tokyo Movie Shinsha, 1972

[matt0044]

Morningmark's Viney and Skara spin-off is really cool.

Especially when he has the story beats fit seamlessly into the corresponding Owl House episodes. I feel like this sort of thing remedies certain shows similar to The Owl House have in terms of hang-ups: an expansive cast that's largely set decoration but one that'd be too overwhelming for the writers to juggle.

Even with all the seasons with Disney staying in their lane (the best timeline), Lux, the Hex Squad and Eda are a good anchor for the show to stay focused so we don't have to keep track of everybody's business. Buuuuuuuut there's still that allure of what else is going on in the Boiling Isles.

What other stories are going on while the main protagonists are being, well, the main protagonists? This is sort of why I feel like some show appear "rushed" or "stuffed with too many characters" even when most are secondary characters who share the spotlight for when an episode calls for it.

But I like this sort of storytelling where we ask what was going on elsewhere at that moment leading up to here. It's kind of way, for all our bemoaning, why Star Wars is this successful with series like Resistance and The Clone Wars' final season display what was going on while the main characters were doing their thing.

Frankly, it's the sort of spin-off stories that should be afforded to more popular series.

[hopefulpeacestudent]

The Emperor and the Empress

[mask131]

A guide for reading The Sandman: Part 3

“I said in my previous post (part 2 of this guide) that I covered everything related to Sandman that Neil Gaiman had an active part in, as a writer/scripter/creator. This is not... exact. There is one thing I have not talked about, the “Books of Magic” mini-series which was made by Neil Gaiman and features several of the Endless such as Death, Destiny and Dream. And if I have skipped it, it is because in this post I will cover everything you can consider a “spin-off” of the main Sandman bulk. And if you thought you had read everything related to The Sandman by just check-listing my previous posts, if you thought that with my two previous guides you would be over, oh you’re in for quite a surprise!

So... let’s begin. Given there is a LOT of spin-offs and a lot of the “Sandman extended universe” and a lot of Sandman works not done by Neil Gaiman, I’ll just cram a a few here, and another part in a fourth post later.

 A) THE BIG SERIES

Let’s begin with the “big” series, as I call them - either big in size, in notoriety or in autonomy.

# The Dreaming. A 60-issues comic book of the 90s. NOT TO BE MISTAKEN WITH THE NEW “DREAMING” COMICS EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT. The Dreaming was designed to be a pure Sandman spin-off, as in an anthology of various tales covering different characters and elements presented in The Sandman: you have stories about Cain and Abel, stories about Mad Hettie, stories about the Corinthian. You find back Matthew, and Eve, and Nuala, and other inhabitants of The Dreaming, and some of the Endless (such as occasional appearances of Destiny or Dream) - but it also ends up introducing a lot of new characters in The Sandman landscape. 

Now, The Dreaming started out as an anthology series, as I said: there were several stories following each other, unrelated, just all taking place in The Sandman universe, but each done by a different writer and a different artist. Neil Gaiman was here of course, but not as a creator: he authorized the series, and he acted as a “creative consultant”. He suggested ideas to develop a character or a storyline to the new writers of the series, and he had the right to refuse or forbid any kind of script or idea that he didn’t like (something he actually never did, according to testimonies). The series was overseen by DC editor Alisa Kwitney, in collaboration with Neil Gaiman, and when the series hit issue 21, the two agreed a change needed to be done.

The series couldn’t stand strongly on its legs just being a series of Dreaming-related stories, especially since the models and structures of said stories started to become repetivie. It was about to turn into “The dream of the week”, and the new characters introduced were quickly dropped after their individual stories. So, starting with issue 22, “The Dreaming” became one long story about events happening in The Dreaming after the end of The Sandman (aka under Daniel’s “era”), with arcs and an internal chronology and plot twists - a big story that actually changed the way we knew The Dreaming. Originally co-written by Caitlin Kiernan and Peter Hogan, it quickly became Kiernan’s own product as Hogan left. Something quite of note: Dave McKean, the artist who did the covers of The Sandman, returned to make those of The Dreaming (and there is even a book that collects all of The Dreaming covers of his somewhere).

The series went up to sixty issues before being cancelled. Kiernan was heavily criticized for how her story changed the world of The Sandman and how she handled the character (which is a plague most of the spin-offs writers had to face, because readers always compare you to Neil Gaiman) ; and other spin-offs of The Sandman were much more popular. (But don’t worry, despite all the stress caused by it, Kiernan said she still has very fond memories of working on this comic).

One last note: The Dreaming is not actually “canon”. Well... technically it probably happened somewhere in one of the various parts of the Multiverse, but when Neil Gaiman returned to The Sandman (starting with Endless Nights and going on with all I covered in previous guides), he ignored the changes brought in The Dreaming, and similarly, more modern spin-offs (aka The Sandman Universe) also ignored the events of The Dreaming. So while they are a fun read and an “alternate universe”, the series actually doesn’t have any impact on the main series or on the Sandman works of Neil Gaiman. But its very existence was important to bring forward even more spin-offs to the extended Sandman universe (such as Sandman Presents or the Sandman Universe).

  # Lucifer. This was the second notorious spin-off of The Sandman - and one of the series that was popular enough to get “The Dreaming” cancelled. You might know this comic as the “inspiration” and “basis” for the popular TV show Lucifer, but trust me, the two are actually VERY different. VERY VERY different. This 2000s series of 75 issues was created by Mike Carey (also known for “Crossing Midnight”, “The Unwritten” and his works on X-Men and Hellblazer) and, while taking place in The Sandman universe, it focuses entirely on Lucifer and what he is up to after the events of The Sandman. There is a deeper exploration of the working of angels, demons, Hell and God with a big G when it comes to The Sandman, with also a lot of new additions and creations by Carey. Unlike Kiernan’s work on “The Dreaming”, Carey’s creation was quite warmly received, hence why it managed to run for an equal number of issues as The Sandman’s original run. 

(Apparently the series had a revival in 2015, following the huge reboot of the DC Comics as the New 52? But it is maybe not canon? I honestly only know of the original 2000s series, so I’ll leave this for your exploration).

  # The Dead Boy Detectives.

Now this isn’t exactly one given series, but rather a pair of Sandman characters that became an iconic duo hoping from one series to another: After the end of The Sandman, they reappeared, written by Neil Gaiman himself, for a DC crossover event he participated to: “The Children’s Crusade”, a crossover story of the DC comics. After this, they reappeared in several other Sandman-related comics, be it the “Sandman Presents” ensemble, the “Books of Magic” series or the “Winter’s Edge” comics (in fact the Children’s Crusade series ended up crossing with the Books of Magic in the “Arcana Annuals” or “Arcana: The Books of Magic”). Anyway, after a last apparition in the well-loved “Vertigo Anthology” series, and the release of “Sandman: Overture”, they finally got their own series entirely dedicated to them: “Dead Boy Detectives”, twelve issues published in 2014. 

EDIT: Now that I am proof-reading this in 2014 I have to precise that, in the wake of the success of the tv series adaptation of “Sandman”, there is an upcoming television series for “Dead Boy Detectives” about to be released soon.

  # The Books of Magic.

The Books of Magic was originally a four-issues miniseries created by Neil Gaiman due to DC’s desire to explore and present more of its “magical” and “mystical” side. Published between 1900 and 1991, this mini-series was basically a huge exploration of the DC universe and the various forms of magic, witches and wizards existing in it through the eyes of Timothy Hunter, a young English boy who just learned that magic is real and that he is destined to become the greatest wizard of all times... Due to being both a geographical and historical exploration of the DC world, several elements of The Sandman appear in this mini-series: Death makes an appearance, Hunter visits The Dreaming, and Titania with her Faerie realm is also one of Hunter’s destinations. (This series is especially important because one character in it reappears in Sandman: Overture). 

It was just supposed to be a limited mini-series, but it got a huge success. A success big enough for it to get some sequel mini-series : such as “Mister E.”, a non Gaiman-related miniseries which continues the events of “Books of Magic”, or “The Children’s Crusade”, the crossover I talked about above. “The Children’s Crusade” got much more tangled with the world of the Books of Magic thanks to an Annual that focused much more on Timothy, the famous “Arcana” stories (Arcana: The Books of Magic annual, technically part of The Children’s Crusade series). 

And it got big and popular enough for “The Books of Magic” to being released and published as its own, ongoing series developping the events described previously. Starting in 1994, this second Books of Magic series was done by John Ney Rieber, who was the one tasked with creating the “Arcana” story - which is why the Arcana story is a sort of prequel/introduction to this series. Rieber worked on “The Books of Magic” series until 1997 - at which point he decided to quit. You see, he had grown quite a distate and dislike of Timothy as a character, and he didn’t want to work on this series anymore. It however kept going: it was decided that the series’ artist, Peter Gross, who was following Timothy’s adventures since the Arcana, would take on writing for the rest of the series - and he brought the series up to its last and final issue, issue 75. Yep, the exact same number of issues The Sandman and Lucifer had. (I insist on the difference between writers, because some people felt and discussed the change of narration between Rieber’s work and Gross’ work).

I said “The Dreaming” was popular - I said “Lucifer” was even more popular. Well “The Books of Magic” was EVEN more popular. It was so big it spawned its own spin-offs. “The Books of Faerie”, “The Names of Magic”, “Hunter: The Age of Magic”... Hell, the world of “The Books of Magic” deserves its own guide. But hey - you might wonder “What about Neil Gaiman? He created the original mini-series, he wrote parts of The Children’s Crusade, what was his part in this new series?”. Well... none. You will see his name printed in the Arcana Annual and in the first half of the Books of Magic (volume 2) comics, under “creative consultant”. But in truth, as he latter revealed, he had no actual role in the creation of these comics. He had suggestions and ideas for Arcana - but when he tried to give them it was “too late” and no modification could be done. The same lack of power appeared during the ongoing series: he couldn’t give any ideas, didn’t had any influence, and even if he made suggestions they never manifested in the comics. All of this ending up with him leaving the comic at the same time as Rieber - with issue 50. 

(There’s also a very funny thing with “Harry Potter”, but I’ll let you discover it on your own). 

# Sandman Mystery Theater

I already talked about this series in the part 2 of this guide, so I’ll try to be quick. Before Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, there were several “Sandmen” super-heroes, the first and oldest of them being Wesley Dodds, starting with the original “Adventure Comics” back in the 30s. He had his run and his series in the Golden Age of comics, and then was slowly forgotten and pushed away as a minor character - until he reappeard in Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”, as the “replacement” the world tried to create to fill the absence of the real Sandman, Dream of the Endless. 

After The Sandman ended, DC decided to ride on the newly gained popularity of Wesley Dodds, and resurrected him for a new comic: “Sandman Mystery Theater”, running for 70 issues in the 90s and exploring in a film noir-like setting the adventures of this 30s Batman-like vigilante. The comic even managed to have a crossover with “The Sandman” under the shape of a one-shot special comic: “Sandman Midnight Theater”. 

Okay, I won’t lie to you - I hadn’t planned for this post to be so long. I only covered half of what I wanted to talk about - but honestly, The Sandman “extended universe” is HUGE. Really. You’ll need years and years to read everything. So I’ll keep the rest of the spin-offs and extended universe for a part 4 and a part 5. 

(As you can also note, I myself do not know everything about all of those spin-off comics. I read quite a few - Lucifer, some parts of The Dreaming, I read the Books of Magic series, but I also have to rely a bit on information I learned through searching the Internet, like everybody else - so I strongly advise you to not take this post at face value. Go read the comics yourself, search out each title, each artist, each writer, read the issues and discover this world on your own. This is just a stitched-together map. The wonders await.)

[soapdispensersalesman]

Once Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is out, we gotta convince Capcom to do a GutsMan.EXE spin-off game!

[thecrofttomb]

In case you missed it, the free-to-play mobile game Tomb Raider Reloaded is coming out tomorrow, on Lara's birthday! Here are a few official screenshots to give you a little taste on what to expect. The game will be available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Netflix Games Service. For a limited time after launch, all players will receive an exclusive golden version of Lara’s iconic dual pistols.

[megahorous]

Princess Daisy watches a Capcom Direct with her favourite Maid !

[nyxs-sins]

How to Raise your Demon by Solomon

Step 1: Become a powerful sorcerer.

Step 2: Accidentally make yourself immortal with your own cooking.

Step 3: Put 72 demons under your control, including the Fifth Lord of Hell and the Demon Prince’s butler.

(Steps 2 and 3 are interchangeable.)

Step 4: Try to gain Lucifer’s pact.

Step 5: Fail.

Step 6: Repeatedly.

Step 7: Dang it, how did your apprentice get Lucifer’s pact before you?!

[vampiremeerkat]

If you were to make a spinoff for the Kankers, how would you do it? Would you create new characters, would you only use the already existing cast or would you just use the 3 Kankers?

Answered that question here.

[k-star-holic]

"Mask Girl" Lee Han-byeol "Make up naked Ahn Jae-hong... looks like he's made a big decision"

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A T C H I N G

[littlealeta]

The Remake/Sequel/Spin-off problem needs to be fixed

Many of us are tired of the remakes/sequels/spin-offs phase. Some of us might even be almost totally averse to them. But, I do want to get this off my chest in a proper blog, because I don’t think a lot of people have talked about how studios can scratch their franchise itch in a proper way. And also in a way that could’ve give them more respect than they get now.

Remake: Stuff That Actually Could've Been Better Or Expanded Upon

There are a lot of movies I’ve seen that have some clear potential underneath that never really got their chance to shine.

Examples being No Hard Feelings, The Boxtrolls, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. (They need to make another Thumbelina film anyway, it’s already been, what, at least 20 years at this point?) There’s also some anime that I think could use remakes, but Japan mostly keeps their paws off classics.

To explain why, I think these movies all have interesting premises and some kind of hook to them, but the execution turned out to be underwhelming. They're still fairly new, but maybe in another decade or so, they could be considered for a remake. But, really, I wouldn't mind hearing them being remade right now. As for expansion, something I’m thinking about is a TV show called Captain N: The Gamemaster.

I would like to see a remake or at least spin-off of that. It’s an 80s show about a guy who enters into a world of retro-gaming who can control stuff with a belt shaped like a NES controller. It’s been largely forgotten at this point, so bringing it back with newer games juxtaposed in with the retro games will also be a plus. The Great Mouse Detective also could’ve been made into a TV series.

Sequel: Stuff That Actually NEED A Sequel

I think a lot of people want sequels just to see their favorite characters again. But sometimes, that doesn’t always work, I mean look what we recently got.

All because of recent fan demand. The first movie, I believe, felt complete anyway.

There needs to be more sequels to anything that’s either ended on a cliffhanger, or could’ve used an expansion of the world and story.

Monsters vs. Aliens (another Dreamworks film and also highly underrated) ended off on a cliffhanger and could’ve used a sequel (the TV series unfortunately was underwhelming). Go back to the Madeline (Didn’t like the TV show for some reason, though but I did love the live-action one) or Eloise franchise (that had a ton of books that I don’t think got adapted). Bring those to the attention of the modern kids. Maybe go back to the Jumanji franchise WITH THE BOARD GAME and instead of being in a jungle, make it different like Zathura did where they’re like under the sea or in a desert or something.

For the spin-offs, I would kinda repeat the same things I’ve already said. Again, do spin-offs to expand the characters and/or the world. I can’t think of a movie or TV example that would work with this, so I’m just going to use a game example: Catherine.

A lot of the side characters in that one don’t get a lot of character development or depth and some of them had some interesting conflict and backstories that they were going through. I also would like to see the main character interacting with the other characters in more wholesome and complex ways outside of drinking, chatting and having conflict since we barely get any wholesomeness between them in the game. He can help out their problems and grow through each other. It would also show his bar posse as being more of friends than typical long-time acquaintances who just chill out in the bar every day.

I know studios won’t read this, but that’s what I wish would happen, even though a lot of it is most likely a pipe dream. But, you know me, it’s always fun to dream.