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blueberry-lemon · 11 months

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An introductory guide to getting into Sonic the Hedgehog...

…if you're a grown-ass adult who is busy and doesn't want to play a bunch of video games but thinks the characters look sorta cool.

If you've ever been curious about Sonic as a series but haven't known where to start, I have some recommendations! I think Sonic is a cool and still somewhat unique thing because it takes cartoony characters (like a Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat) and lets them jump around in cool action sequences through the lens of a shonen anime. It's colorful and usually pretty light-hearted, and I think the character designs are pretty iconic.

There's two handy places you can start without prior context, to see if it's something you'd be into...

Getting Started: If You Wanna Read Something

The IDW Sonic Comics

There were years of different Sonic comics back in the '90s and early 2000's, but the franchise got a complete reboot and fresh start with IDW Publishing in 2018. If you're looking for the most straight-forward way to get into this world of characters, I think this is a great start. You don't need any prior knowledge whatsoever to crack open issue 1 and get started. All you need to know is "Sonic and his friends protect the world by fighting against an evil scientist named Dr. Eggman, who they just recently defeated after he briefly took over the world."

I love these comics and I feel that the writers and artists who work on it have a really good sense for this series. Reading issues 1 through 12 will get you the first major story arc. If you like it so far, I highly suggest reading up through issue 32, when another major story arc concludes. After that, the world's your oyster! Unlike the tangled web of Marvel or DC comics, IDW Sonic has a very simple and linear reading order. You pretty much just read the issues in order, and occasionally there are spinoff stories that are optional to read.

Getting Started: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic Mania Adventures

Maybe comics aren't your thing and you want something even quicker. These are a series of animated shorts that are lovely. Conveniently, they've been compiled together by Sega into one little video right here.

It's a great intro to some of the main characters, and combines cartoon slapstick with some amazing action sequences.

There's also a nice little epilogue short.

Sonic CD's intro cutscene

If I had to pick a single 1-and-a-half minute clip to embody what I like about this series, it would be this very simple intro movie that plays before Sonic CD. Check it out!

Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus Cutscenes

In 2022, Sega released a compilation of the classic Genesis games on modern consoles. In it, they added a few animated cutscenes. You can watch those cutscenes, plus the Sonic CD intro and the Sonic Mania Adventures episodes, all compiled into one handy Youtube video.

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Read Something

The Archie Sonic Comics

You might have heard that Sonic had a comic series published by Archie Comics from 1992 to 2016. This was a vast, overarching series that wrote an original story by weaving together ideas from the different Sonic cartoons and games. It went through several different writers, many different artists, and obviously spanned over multiple eras of pop culture.

It's pretty cool! The fact that it was so long-running, and the fact that Sega wasn't very strict with what the writers could do, led to a lot of buckwild lore, new characters, and plot developments. That said, it's also pretty bizarre, complicated, corny, and cringey at times. There is a stretch in the middle that is pretty infamous among fans.

You have a few options for jumping in.

Option A: You can start at the very beginning and read all of it. If you do this, it is going to be like a One Piece / Homestuck / etc. kind of undertaking, and you're going to be pushing through the good and the bad of huge genre and tone shifts. That's your call!

Option B: You can brush up on the main characters on a wiki and then start at Issue 160, when Ian Flynn (who now does a lot of work on IDW Sonic) became the lead writer. More specifically, you can jump in at the start of a new story arc by starting at Issue 175.

Option C: You can start at Issue 252, when there is a universe-altering event that essentially retcons all of the characters and plot threads from the previous writers and starts completely fresh. Easier to keep track of and you won't have to worry about all the previous plot and lore.

If you want something you can read in a single sitting, you should instead read Sonic: Mega Drive, a short-lived miniseries published by Archie that follows "Classic Sonic" characters (aka, the same vibe and art style of Sonic Origins, Sonic Mania Adventures, etc.) It's really great!

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA) aka "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" (1996)

This is, essentially, a 1-hour Sonic anime movie. You can watch it in Japanese or in English. I adore it. It makes up its own lore and continuity so you don't need to know anything before going in, besides generally knowing a one-sentence synopsis of who Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik are. It's action-packed, well-animated, and has great music. Enjoy! Sonic X If you're enjoying what you've seen so far, and you want something much, much longer...there's an official 78-episode anime adaptation of Sonic called Sonic X. It's an original story that loosely pulls together some ideas from a few of the games. It's mostly intended for a younger audience, but I hear if you watch it in the original uncut Japanese, it feels a little less "for kids."

Other Ways To Get Into Sonic

There's some great video essays on Youtube about the series!

Professional animator Dan Floyd did an in-depth video looking at the highs and lows of Sonic character animation in the games starting from Sonic 1 up through Sonic Forces.

Super Bunnyhop plays through the first level of a bunch of Sonic games to compare how the mechanics, physics, and level design feel throughout the games' history.

Liam Triforce has a great deep dive on the franchise's music.

You can play The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a murder-mystery-party themed visual novel put out by Sega. It's nice and short, so you can finish it in an afternoon.

If you haven't seen them already, you can check out the live-action/animated hybrid films Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 featuring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, they're pretty good. That Sonic Prime cartoon that's currently on Netflix is pretty good too.

This may sound strange, but honestly you might enjoy poring over the sprite sheets from the old games. In particular, I really like the sprite animations from the GBA games, like Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle.

Sega is pretty lax about allowing noncommercial fan games, so there's at least a hundred different Sonic fan games out there by hobbyist developers. Check out the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Fan Games HQ.

You can watch LPs or cutscene compilations of the games on Youtube! If you watch Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, you'll get a crash course on most of the characters.

And finally, of course...you can play the games if you want to! There's a number of them that are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation if you don't have access to older consoles.

There's a lot of different angles to come at Sonic as a franchise, and lots of different entry points. Have fun!

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sth #idw sonic #idw sonic the hedgehog #sonic mania adventures #blogofkylelab

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mahoushojounightmares · 2 months

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Teen Titans Masterpost And Reading Guide -

This is mostly a passion project of mine about my favourite team in DC Comics The Titans ! The general consensus I have seen on this website is that their history is confusing and people don’t know where to start so …. This guide includes ALL ( worthwhile ) pieces of Titans Media .

Ok so this is heavily inspired by @bitimdrake ‘s guide so check that one too !

Just to preface this is all my opinion and you can really start wherever you feel like it if you want to ! Sound Good 👍🏻 Good

TEEN TITANS

Ok so before you begin the og TT series you should read

- Brave and The Bold ( 1955) #54 and #60 if you want to read right from the start chronologically!

The Original Team of the TEEN TITANS was a series that ran through the 60s beginning in 1966 - 1973 and having a comeback in 1976 .

The OG series consisted mostly Robin Wonder Girl Kid Flash and Aqualad with many a cameo from other teens.

You can either read the OG Series but its completely optional it’s pretty outdated and silly but it’s a fun ride even then . In my opinion its best to leave for after you have been endeared to the characters .

If you really enjoy the Silver Age Teen Titans there’s also Showcase #59 before Roy joins and a story in the 80 page Flash Giant ! And after reading issue #20 you can also read #83 of Brave and The Bold.

After #31 theres TBANB #94 and after #34 theres World Finest Comics #205 ( read at your own discretion - totally optional)

Aswell as BANTB #102 and #149

And the utterly delightful Teen Titans lost annual & A story ( worlds oldest teenagers ) in the 80 page Flash giant.

All optional ( they get really weird)

Alternatively just read TEEN TITANS : YEAR ONE .

Some Issues I recommend from the OG Series

- #1 #2 #12 #53 ( last issue )

\ The series continues on from 1966-1976 \

NEW TEEN TITANS

NTT is arguably the seminal run and its best an absolute mustread . ( at it’s worst ….)

- DC PRESENTS #26 ( totally optional)

- THE NEW TEEN TITANS Vol.1

#1-40

- BEST OF DC #18 ( optional again.)

- Tales of The New Teen Titans ( miniseries #1-4 included in the NTT Omnis)

- read the 1st annual after issue #25

- By Issue 40 the series rebrands To TALES Of TEEN TITANS

This continues on from issues #41 to #58 it runs alongside NTT VOL.2 but is set 6 months before .

Read annual 3 as Part of Judas Contract !

- NEW TEEN TITANS VOL.2

#1-49

- TT Spotlight Miniseries !! ( SO GOOD SERIOUSLY)

- There’s also a drug awareness special at some point ( it’s its …. Certainly something)

NEW TITANS

By this point they remembered that “hey these guys aren’t teens anymore ” and thus renamed it to NEW TITANS . This series started off well enough and quickly devolved into arguably one of the worst runs EVER.

New Titans #81 is part of War Of The Gods and Annual 7 is part of Armageddon 2001 ( don’t bother ) annual 8 is part OF YET ANOTHER EVENT . Again don’t bother .

It’s pretty much highly recommend giving it up at #70 regardless .

-THE NEW TITANS

#50 - 100

ECTERA -

- running alongside NEW TITANS by 1992 was TEAM TITANS a series so awful I cannot recommend to you in clear conscience but if your a completetionist ( trust me I get it ) It’s there and Donna shows up alot !

- TITANS SELLOUT SPECIAL (1992)

NEW TITANS : MELTDOWN

The last decaying remains of NT walks on like a zombie on acid but by #100 all of the NTT crew is gone ( well most Mirage Donna as a Darkstar ect ) and leave to be replaced by an all new government sponsored Titans team lead by Roy .

- NEW TITANS

#0 / ZERO HOUR don’t worry about it/- 130

( IF YOU WANT CONTINUITY FOR KORI Showcase ‘94 #11 )

NT end’s with a whole 11 annuals

Ok so I am aware that they aren’t strictly Titans series BUT PLEASE TAKE a minute to read

The Arsenal Special!! Its a short single issue and BRILLIANT !! It informs a-lot of his character later on as well as of course the actual Arsenal Miniseries.

ALSO THE TEMPEST (1996) a absolute must read also informs basically everything about Garth and arguably his best story ever … just take a minute and read these if you want !! Before the Titans (1999)

TEEN TITANS (1996)

Ok so in the 90’s DC decided to start the TT from scratch ( huh see how long this’ll last )

This all new team was comprised of 4 half alien teens and a freshly deaged Atom. It didn’t last very long and while I am fond of it AGAIN you don’t HAVE TO read it

TEEN TITANS (1996)

#1-24

Also a few specials ! And 1 annual

Titans Beat #1

Impulse/Atom DoubleShot #1

Robin/Argent DoubleShot #1

Superboy/Risk DoubleShot #1

Supergirl/Prysm DoubleShot #1

New Year’s Evil : Dark Nemesis #1

JLA/TITANS : THE TECHNIS IMPERATIVE #1-3

Absolute MUST-READ . Literally one of my favourite comics of all time . Also essential because it kickstarts a certain run..

TITANS (1999)

One of If not the best run on Titans ( don’t @ me ) It slowly loses momentum after #26 but I still generally LOVED it . Stellar A++ Titans content !!

( you can also read the Beast Boy #1-4 miniseries prequel . But uh unless you really love Bette it’s not worth it )

TITANS (1999)

#1-50

Also TITANS Secret Files and Origins !!! ( ♥️♥️♥️ )

After #14 you can read Titans/Legion Of SuperHeroes : Universe Ablaze (2000) crossover as well as #1-4 - Silver Age Teen Titans (2000) #1

YOUNG JUSTICE

OK OK NOW IK THIS ISNT A TITANS OR TT RUN but this gen WILL eventually become TT 2003 ( 😒 ) and honestly ……

READ YJ 1998

It’s GREAT.

YJ/TITANS : GRADUATION DAY

Oh brother. Ok so I am pretty salty about this whole comic but it’s essential and has some good moments soo yeah read Graduation Day .

OUTSIDERS/TT SECRET FILES AND ORIGINS ♥️☝️ please read this after Graduation Day It’s heartbreaking and I love it !

TEEN TITANS 2003 - ( until OYL )

After the unfortunate events of graduation day the aforementioned YJ Gen ( - Anita and Greta 😞) and the OG NTT Crew ( Vic Kory Deaged Raven ) join to become …..

TEEN TITANS ( 2003)

( I have mixed opinions on this run some think it a masterpiece some think it awful I generally think it’s…. Fine ? Well “sigh” not fine but give it a go I guess ) I recommend #2-26

- #1-33

After #33 OYL hits

OUTSIDERS 2003 - ( until OYL )

Ok so this run isn’t really…. A titans run but it has fantastic Roy and Dick characterisation and KORY JOINS LATER AND SO TECHNICALLY-

#1-33

Read Annual 1 before #46

Don’t bother after #

POST - OYL TT 2003

Ok so I basically consider post OYL TT ‘03 to be a totally different team because… well it is . All of the NTT crew leave and are replaced by a handful of cameos and eventually like Rose Wilson and Kid Devil and because at this point half of the YJ gen is well…dead . It was pretty awful at this point though I find the character interactions endearing. This series remains like that until N52 .

They have crossovers with Red Robin aswell as Wonder Girl Vol.2

#33-100

OUTSIDERS/TT 2003 ECTERA

- DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES READ TERROR TITANS . Unless you really love Rose..( like me..)

- RETURN OF DONNA TROY ♥️♥️♥️ !!!! Excellent MUST READ !!!!

- TEEN TITANS : COLD CASE - seriously don’t read this if you don’t have too .

- TEEN TITANS : Spotlight on Wondergirl - awful . Seeing a pattern ?

THEN - TITANS EAST SPECIAL !!

DC SPECIAL CYBORG #1-6 ( optional)

TITANS (2008)

After all the bullshit THEY ARE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN YAY !!!! To bad there’s so much shit going on OUTSIDE of the Titans that ends up fucking over the characters. E.G Bruce dying so Dick has to go be Batman and …. Hell . Fucking Rise Of Arsenal. If you know what happens in that book well yk that Roy ends up relapsing and going down a much darker mindset .

Series swings between being really good and being a mischaracterising MESS.

TITANS ( 2008 )

#1-23

By Titans #12 the Deathtrap crossover starts it goes like this

TITANS #12

Vigilante #5

Teen Titans #70

TITANS #13

Vigilante #6

But Amanda why did you put it’s end at 23 when Ik for a fact that goes on for #38 issues ????

Oh boy .

Titans : Villains For Hire Special #1 before #24

TITANS ( 2008 ) : VILLAINS FOR HIRE

So at issue 23 DC had the genius idea of taking the Titans and …. Turning them into a mercenary and hitman group lead by Deathstroke himself ( why ? I wish I fucking knew.) Filled out with hitman and villains and …. Roy who was now really dark and #edgy . Whatever It was bad and a wannabe secret six .

#23-38

However they’re was almost light at the end of the tunnel …. Jericho ( Joey Wilson yes he IS ALIVE ) seemed to have plans to assemble a new TITANS team and reunite their family and Roy well it seemed he was on a path to redemption he was almost there close to moving to recovery and healing and he could do it with—

N52 . POST FLASHPOINT TITANS.

The N52 was bad isnt a particularly outrageous statement but IT WAS EXTREMELY fucking bad in relation to the Titans . Bluntly put None of it ever happened and the only titans ( TEEN TITANS ACTUALLY) that had ever existed were the TT2003 guys . Just them. Fab Five never existed. NTT never existed.And all of the other og TT guys were …… WALLY never existed. Donna was a one note villain Garth never existed Dick was …. There I guess.. ROY was a dumbed down alcoholic with no purpose other than to gawk at how cool and oh and ahh at Jason Todd . ( KORY …… truly just awful what happened to her )

You can read the TEEN TITANS N52 . I guess .

They have 2 series . Read at your own peril they’re better if you pretend that the characters aren’t supposed to be … like the characters that they are . ( scott lobbell shouldn’t of been allowed to touch a pen )

REBIRTH

- TITANS HUNT ! - WALLY IS BACK

-TITANS VOL.3 is exactly what I wanted in the first half and then falls on it’s ass and burns like a trash fire . recommend stopping at #20

TITANS VOL. 3

#1-40

Justice League : No Justice- happens around this time and it was trying to create a new status quo ( uh-huh DC AGAIN ..) soo

Teen Titans Special #1 before

TEEN TITANS VOL.3

( also as your reading this read #54-55 for context in TT #27 )

“Yeah sure put the 11 year old in charge ”

Do not read this comic . And if you do ? THAT IS NOT DAMIAN . The series starts with Damian leading alot of the OG NTT guys like Kory and Vic + Ace and then it later just becomes Damian + Emiko + Ace and a couple other guys like Crush .

Drowned Earth happens ( not important) but it happens at #28 . And they have a crossover with Deathstroke in

TEEN TITANS / DEATHSTROKE : Terminus Agenda ( it’s vol ) optional though

But

- TITANS : Burning Rage

Slots in at this point so !!

A more obscure pick but no half bad

- #1-7

- Titans Academy

Haven’t actually read this one . Art looks gorgeous though

AND …

It leads too

- TITANS United

And

- TITANS : BLOODPACT

I love both of these Bloodpact in particular and it gives me Dickkory back aswell !! Good story and stellar art !!

NIGHTWING #100 - 104 to explain what is going on in …

- TITANS BY TOM TAYLOR ( Ongoing )

Also BEAST WORLD I guess 🤷‍♀️

Mid at BEST . #1-4

- Tales Of The Titans

A miniseries but so far the best Titans content we have gotten IN A WHILE . ♥️ ( sorta )

#1-4

ECTERA -

- NTT GAMES !

Fantastic and stellar art an standalone (?) dubiously canon graphic novel by Marv Wolfman and George Perez !

- TITANS AND NTT CONVERGENCE

- worthwhile and exactly what’s on the tin ! Love these gave a happy ending to the Post Crisis universe !

- Teen Titans WORLDS FINEST

- wonderful art by Dan Mora . Story is fine

- DC PRESENTS THE UNCANNY X-MEN AND NTT CROSSOVER.

SOOOOO GOOODD

- TITANS : Paper Scissors Stone

Okok elseworlds Titans book but I remember liked it !

OTHER MEDIA -

- TEEN TITANS ( 2003 THE TV SHOW )

A solid adaptation of … most of the characters please don’t go into this show and come out expecting the same from the comics . Did a lot of good for Terra’s character and influences ALOT of public perception. Just … don’t be annoying about the comics after watching this .

- TEEN TITANS GO

YES IK IK BUT ITS AN ADAPTATION AS WELL DONT JUMP ME

- TITANS ( TV SHOW)

….I wouldn’t recommend this show too anyone EXCEPT Titans fans who want more content of the team it’s it’s an experience. ( FUCK YOU FOR DOING THAT TO DONNA )

SO YEAH . Feel free to question me if I have forgotten any I don’t have spectacular memory lol

Happy reading ! !

#dc #dc comics #new teen titans #teen titans #god i love titans #titansfam #titans #dick grayson #roy harper #donna troy #garth of shayaris #wally west

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jotun-design-party · 1 year

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on fandom orientalism, ft. a quick visual example:

the example on the right is something i drew solely using references of the top results i saw on pinterest upon searching "jotun loki." please don’t roast my inconsistent handwriting

south asian cultures are often jumbled together for white artists of all kinds (authors, artists, movie directors) to create a sense of mystery and make things look "more foreign."

note: this doesn't touch on the antiblack racism in canon jötun designs; this post is primarily about fandom-sourced fetishization. i heavily encourage people to reblog and add onto this post anything i may have missed or added nuance

cut: links on orientalism, in-media examples, how this manifests in fandom-made content

i'd like to start off by saying that this post is a white person telling other white people how to spot orientalism in relation to fiction. i am by no means an expert on any of this, but my goal here is to start creating a less ignorant space that doesn't push people out of fandom.

i'm just trying to stir up more conversations about this and get other white people to think more critically about how they engage with the content they consume. nerd shit should never come with a sacrifice and it's extremely upsetting to see people of color consistently forced out of fandom communities, especially when modern superhero comics began as a way for jewish people to have a voice.

if this post upsets you, i don't want to hear it. don't tell me, "it's not that deep," or, "keep politics out of comics." it is that deep, and superhero comics have always been political. if you have the urge to leave a comment or send an anon about how you don't think it's a big deal, feel free to block me instead, because i don't care and you'll just get blocked anyway 👍

with that out of the way,

there are countless ways to design a character in a way that makes it clear that they are an alien, or to make them sexy, and there is no excuse to perpetuate stereotype that put real-life people in danger to do so.

"Orientalist paintings and other forms of material culture... depict an 'exotic' and therefore racialized, feminized, and often sexualized culture from a distant land." [¹]

there are so many examples of this in loki fic and art. it's extremely common to see loki depicted as a feminine object of desire. they may have longer hair. clothing that serves more as an accessory than an outfit, that isn't suited to protect them from either the harsh cold of jötunheim or the sunburns one might get when surrounded by reflections of the sun off the snow. draped in jewelry, and in a compromising position.

i'm sure you can imagine how this can get especially out of hand in relation to thorki. i would speak more on thor's presence as both the white aesir prince or the strong barbaric jötun, but as i'm not comfortable consuming thorki content, i don't have enough context to speak on the stereotypes used outside of the art pieces i've seen while searching for jötun loki fanart.

i am, however, confident in saying that orientalism often serves as a device for fan creators to show a contrast between Asgard's white-viking-british-accent-magic-science-elegance. jötunheim, in the comics, is often portrayed as a less intelligent, cutthroat, barbaric, and bloodthirsty culture.

"There was always something unknown and uniquely different about Orients which reinforced the distinction between the European 'us' and Asian 'them.'" [²]

the green link in particular comes with a helpful tool for anyone who might be inexperienced in spotting racist themes in media. if you have trouble being confident that the media in question is orientalism, this link comes with a checklist scale to score how likely it is to be an offensive depiction.

an example that most of you will be familiar with is Disney's Aladdin (1992). the green link goes much more in-depth about the intricacies of Aladdin's orientalism, and i heavily HEAVILY encourage you to read it, as it will help fully grasp the way fetishization and demonization go hand in hand in orientalism.

here, i'd also like to use it as a comparison to show why this loki stuff is honestly... egregious.

by now, even the visuals here should seem very familiar.

the source goes on to use arranged marriage as an example of a common "trope" in orientalist fiction. as previously stated, i don't consume thorki fiction. however, i am EXTREMELY confident in making the guess that it tends to be a common theme when jötun loki is paired with an aesir thor.

i'd also heavily recommended this article and this wikipedia page, both on the negative and stereotypical portrayals of romani people; loki is a magic user, and i suspect that one of the reasons there is such heavy use of these appropriated, exaggerated, and fetishized themes and visuals is because of the demonization of romani people as tricksters, thieves, and witches.

#orientalism #racism #fandom culture #jotun loki #jötun loki #marvel #jötun loki contest #jotun design party

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dee-is-for-lots-of-things · 2 years

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An Unnecessarily Comprehensive Sandman Reading Order

Having now read EVERY comic that I could find based on, using characters from, or tying in with @neil-gaiman‘s Sandman series, I thought I should provide what is, as far as i can tell, the definitive list of everything Sandman, in roughly the order of publication, and also what I thought of them. Warning: there’s a lot of it (over 580 issues in two and a half months).

Sandman (1989) #1-28 [Neil Gaiman] (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Obviously we start at the beginning (I hear it’s a very good place to start) with the first 3 main arcs of Sandman plus some single issue stories. This is where the series really leans into the horror side of “dark fantasy,” and I for one love it. Idk, there’s not really much to say here. This is a Sandman blog, we all love this series here, or at least like it enough to talk about it. Go reread this stuff. It’s fuckin good.

The Books of Magic (1990) #1-4 [Neil Gaiman] (x)

The original Books of Magic series is essentially a guided tour of the DC universe’s magic side. Each issue focuses on a specific part of the universe, most of which are callbacks to comics that, I promise, you do not need to have read. The main three reasons to include this is: a) it’s fun, b) Tim as a character gets his own series which becomes part of the Sandman Universe relaunch, and c) it’s a nice place to learn a bunch of DC magic stuff which might show up later without having to drag yourself through the wiki and or read a thousand other comics. Then again this list is over 570 comics long, so maybe that second part’s not much of an issue here.

Sandman (1989) #29-31, Special #1, #32-50 [Neil Gaiman] (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

This begins with the Distant Mirrors collection (rather than placing them in the Fables & Reflections TP) and runs all the way to the end of Brief Lives and the Ramadan issue (essentially the end of Distant Mirrors, albeit two years later). Brief Lives and A Game of You are still my favourite Sandman collections, the best examples of what I call “human Sandman,” focused on dreamers and their lives and all that, and “Endless Sandman,” focused on the affairs of Dream and his funky family.

Death: The High Cost of Living #1-3 [Neil Gaiman]

The first Death spinoff! It’s based on the one-day-as-a-human thing she does, it’s a lot of fun, and other side characters from Sandman make an appearance! Look, we all know these are good. I don’t have as much to say about them as I do about the obscure comics from the early 2000s that it feels like only I read.

The Children’s Crusade: The Children’s Crusade #1, Black Orchid Annual #1, Animal Man Annual #1, Swamp Thing Annual #7, Doom Patrol Annual #2, Arcana (The Books of Magic) Annual #1, The Children’s Crusade #2 [Neil Gaiman, Nick Foreman, Jamie Delano, Nancy A. Collins, Rachel Pollack, John Ney Rieber, Alisa Kwitney] (x)

This is a crossover between all the big Vertigo titles, focused on the children of each series. Don’t worry about what’s actually going on in the individual series the annuals are from, but the overall plot (by Neil Gaiman) focuses on what the Dead Boy Detectives (Charles and Edwin from Sandman #25) have been up to since escaping Death. They get more very good spinoff content later on, and apparently they’re getting a tv show soon which should be fun.

Death Talks About Life [Neil Gaiman] (x)

This is the short AIDS educational comic. John Constantine has a banana. I like it, I think it deserves a place in this list. Apparently Neil Gaiman almost got arrested for it which is some king shit honestly.

The Spectre (1992) #19-22 [John Ostrander]

This is a very meh arc of a Spectre series that I have not read anything else of. But Lucien is in it briefly so I did read this bit. And in my opinion? Completionism was not worth this boring comic.

Sandman (1989) #51-75 [Neil Gaiman] (x) (x) (x)

The big finale! Worlds’ End and The Wake bookend the massive 12 issue The Kindly Ones arc, so I think keeping all of them together makes a certain amount of sense.

The Books of Magic (1994) #1-20 [John Ney Rieber] (x)

The start of the proper Books of Magic ongoing series (this series being one of my favourite things I’ve read for this) expands nicely on what we know about Tim from the Neil Gaiman miniseries. A lot of plotlines also get picked up from the Children’s Crusade event, and stuff from there is explained and expanded upon. Look, I love this series so much and I think that, while what the Sandman Universe reboot did with it was entertaining, this is still much better.

Sandman: Midnight Theatre [Neil Gaiman, Matt Wagner]

This explores the golden age Sandman, Westley Dodds, and also gives a look at Dream in captivity. The actual Sandman content isn’t a huge part of it, mostly focusing on character that are presumably a part of Vertigo’s Sandman Mystery Theatre series of which this is technically a spinoff. Still, it’s enjoyable, the art is nice, and we get a nice look at the Order of Ancient Mysteries that we don’t really see in Sandman.

Death: The Time of Your Life #1-3 [Neil Gaiman]

Death spinoff 2! This one focuses completely on Hazel and Foxglove after A Game of You and The High Cost of Living, and is less about Death herself (although this isn’t the Death spinoff with the least Death in it. We’ll get there).

The Books of Magic (1994) #21-32, Annual #1, #33-38 [John Ney Rieber] (x)

More of a transitionary period in the series, Molly gets sent off on her own subplot while Tim wanders aimlessly around America for a bit. The America stuff can get confusing and disjointed and doesn’t quite fit into a compelling coherent narrative, but Molly’s plotline more than makes up for it

The Dreaming (1996) #1-16 [Terry LaBan, Peter Hogan, Alisa Kwitney, Bryan Talbot, Jeff Nicholson] (x)

While the best bits of this series are yet to come, there are some good stories in this first, more loosely connected section. That being said, the first 3-issue arc in particular isn’t exactly a perfect example of what the strengths of this series will be, and really it’s just treading water waiting for a writer to come along with a good overall vision for the series. Don’t worry, that’ll come.

The Books of Faerie #1-3 [Bronwyn Carlton]

This seems like a fairly standard telling of an origin story, but it actually ends up providing insights into Tim’s actual true parentage which was left entirely up in the air in the issue of Books of Magic that this picks up from. Which is nice, because I was kinda confused.

The Dreaming (1996) #17-25 [Caitlin R Kiernan, Al Davison, Peter Hogan]

This is really where this series starts to show what it’s gonna be good at. The arc that begins in #17 is the first to be written by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and introduces characters, concepts, and themes which will become very important when they eventually take over writing the series, as well as just being really fucking good.

Vertigo: Winter’s Edge #1 [Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R Kiernan, John Ney Rieber]

These winter specials are always something of a mixed bag. For what’s relevant here, Neil Gaiman offers a Desire-based story which is confusing and vague and has little to do with Sandman aside from featuring an Endless, the Books of Magic segment is just a short and inconsequential adventure for Tim, and Caitlin R Kiernan clealy shines when they provide a Cain and Abel short which is both a fair bit of fun and establishes concepts and themes which will become very relevant for some of their later writing.

The Books of Magic (1994) Annual #2, #39-50 [John Ney Rieber]

It’s time for a big ol’ finale for the John Ney Rieber run on this series! A whole bunch of characters return! Excitement! Action! Magic! Chocolate! A surprise twist involving a character from very early on in Sandman! What more could you want, really?

Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold #1-3 [Alisa Kwitney]

This is essentially a series of historical stories that loosely connect to one character who is somewhat linked to Destiny. It’s good, even if the stuff about a huge plague in the 21st century is a weird read now, and the individual issues are also pretty long. Don’t go in expecting a spinoff starring Destiny or providing insights into how all his shit works. The story is rather built around him, like a lot of Sandman around Dream, or the next-but-one item on this list around Death, and if you take it with that in mind you’ll enjoy it more than if you expect something it’s not.

The Dreaming (1996) #26, Special #1, #27-34 [Caitlin R Kiernan, Len Wein, Peter Hogan]

The Many Mansions arc, beginning with #27, is the first section of The Dreaming that’s felt like it’s really shaken up the status quo, and has taken big risks with the characters in service of the story. One of the main strengths of the series, in my opinion, is the fact that it allows what were simple running jokes, exaggerated horror hosts, or side characters to Dream’s angst a time to shine, both in the sense that they get the spotlight, but also that they are allowed to change, grow, and don’t end up in the same role as the series continues.

The Girl Who Would Be Death #1-4 [Caitlin R Kiernan]

This is a spinoff of The Dreaming and ties in with characters that Caitlin R Kiernan has already established, as well as establishing a few more, rather than being a sequel to Gaiman’s previous Death series. As with much of their writing in this universe, it’s got a brilliant atmosphere and fascinating characters. Also, it’s now canon that Death was at least one lesbian’s gay awakening which I think is the most realistic thing that’s ever been shown in any Sandman comic.

Vertigo: Winter’s Edge #2 [Neil Gaiman, Peter Gross, Caitlin R Kiernan]

The Sandman segment in this one is much stronger in my opinion, pulling on threads that are hinted at and explaining things from Sandman to give a good look at Death as an actual character. The Books of Magic story is the same sort of thing as the previous years, just a nice inconsequential short story with Tim. Again, though, Kiernan’s The Dreaming story is the best of the ones that I bothered to read, setting up things for the future and also providing some down-time to acknowledge the way that the status quo has shifted.

Sandman Presents: Lucifer: The Morningstar Option #1-3 [Mike Carey]

The beginning of another major spinoff line! This one’s fun, and also the start of the Sandman Presents collection of miniseries that came out from 1999-2004. Its plot also sets up the events of Mike Carey’s subsequent Lucifer series, so read this is you want the start of that to make any sense at all.

The Books of Magic (1994) #51-56, Annual #3, #57-63 [Peter Gross, Peter Hogan] (x) (x)

Idrk what to say here, I’ve already talked at length about how much I love this series. The exploration of private school culture is interesting even if it doesn’t last, and the multiversal implications of the Other are also very fun. That being said, sometimes the Peter Gross run does feel like it’s repeating what happened earlier (awful things happen to Tim’s dad, Tim gives away his magic, an imposter Tim takes his place, idk).

Sandman Presents: Love Street #1-3 [Peter Hogan]

I have no idea if this miniseries contradicts any of John Constantine’s established backstory from Hellblazer but personally, I really enjoyed this one. It finds a way to involve itself in the Sandman universe that justifies its Sandman Presents title, even if the fact that it’s a Hellblazer book could have been more clear. It’s also good to see more of the dreaming during Dream’s absence, and show what the dreams themselves actually did then.

The Books of Faerie: Molly’s Story #1-4 [John Ney Rieber]

IF you can get past the fact that this series has the ugliest art out of any comic I’ve read, the story here is really neat and it’s always nice to see Molly back, and any exploration of Faerie is usually enjoyable. Just, give yourself a second to get used to the art. Molly really doesn’t look like herself.

The Dreaming (1996) #35-43 [Caitlin R Kiernan] (x)

The culmination of Echo’s story has a big ol’ pile of transgenderism, and despite what certain other sandman blogs will tell you, the ending of Fox and Hounds is not just a repeat of The Wake and really, I don’t know how one might come to that conclusion. For one thing, it’s not the end, nor is it as grand in scope, and for another, it scratches my brain in a particular way because, on a more meta level, the ending grapples with how the concept for The Dreaming differs from the concept of Sandman, and how that difference impacts the story and the characters.

The Books of Magic (1994) #64-67 [Peter Gross]

While I know that part of the whole point of this series is that Tim can’t really settle down anywhere for long, this little home he makes in these issues is by far my favourite and I wish it had lasted longer than the Peter Gross run on the series. Also, this is where I started my “hey Tim... you ain’t cis” crusade and I need everyone to know that this child is very very queer.

Vertigo: Winter’s Edge #3 [Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R Kiernan, Peter Gross]

Another weird Desire story that I’m not too fond of from Neil, and Kiernan’s Dreaming segment is nice enough, but my favourite is the absolute pure fluff of the Books of Magic part, which crosses over with Sandman again and also seems designed to make me ship Mary and Joh as hard as humanly possible and, believe me, I do.

The Books of Magic (1994) #68-75 [Peter Gross] (x) (x)

Another big finale, and this one actually represents more of an end of an era than #50 did. Gross ties it back in with the very beginning and resolves a bunch of loose plot threads, as well as giving cameos to a bunch of characters from the John Ney Rieber issues so that The Names of Magic can transition to a different sort of story. It’s just a shame that we have to ditch the entire recurring cast again. Ah well.

The Dreaming (1996) #44-49 [Caitlin R Kiernan]

This is just the Trinket arc which resolves, or at least brings back, most of the loose ends to do with faerie, with Cluracan and the Nemesis and Nuala returning, and also brings back everyone’s favourite transphobic witch.

Sandman Presents: Petrefax #1-4 [Mike Carey]

Look, word of warning, there are a lot of slurs used here by a writer who evidently does not know that’s a slur for romani people. Gritting my teeth and putting that aside, when this series actually gives Petrefax something to do that’s relevant to his skills it’s quite fun. But that only happens a couple of times in the whole series, a significant proportion of it is just fantasy worldbuilding I really don’t care about, and also did I mention they keep saying a slur? Because they do.

Lucifer (2000) #1-13 [Mike Carey]

I wasn’t immediately a fan of this series, but once it starts building out its recurring cast and gets into the characters a bit more, this is really fun. I was 100% sold by #4.

The Dreaming (1996) #50-60 [Caitlin R Kiernan, Bill Willingham] (x) (x)

Another series draws to a close, and while the last arc could have maybe done with another issue just to give it a little more time to flesh things out and provide a satisfying conclusion for every character, this series is so good, if you don’t mind it the fact that it all basically gets erased from contuniuty by the time of the Sandman Universe publishing line (I guess due to the New 52 or some other DC relaunch, or at least that’s the excuse that I expect they used) I would absolutely recommend it as a followup to Sandman, especially if you don’t want the shift to modern comic styles that the other option leaves you with.

The Names of Magic #1-5 [Dylan Horrocks]

Since Books of Magic #75 ended with Tim proclaiming that he finally knew who he was, was free from his destiny, and wasn’t going to be looking for someone to lead him, and now he was meeting his future on his own terms, having his first move be “ask for help” and then have him shoved in the direction of school by a bunch of more established adult characters seems kinda antithetical the the whole point of that last series. Still, this sets up the next series neatly and isn’t too annoying to get through.

Sandman Presents: Merv Pumpkinhead, Agent of DREAM [Bill Willingham] (x)

This book is one long extended James Bond joke. I do not care about James Bond. What’s going on? Why should I care? Why did the woman have sex with a pumpkin man? Help.

Lucifer (2000) #14-32 [Mike Carey]

Ahhh, now we get to the good shit. The Lucifer series reaches its first Big Event Where A Bunch Of Shit Goes Down in the Paradiso, Purgatorio, and Inferno arcs. I don’t know enough theology to tell you if most of this comes from Jewish or Christian teachings but it’s interesting and probably at least slightly heretical so I’m down.

The Little Endless Storybook [Jill Thompson]

This is cute. No other reason needs to be provided. Read it, it’s cute. (Also if you can find a copy I imagine it is a much better experience if you have a physical copy)

Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives #1-4 [Ed Brubaker]

If slightly frustrating with its actual detective side, this is a fun series that explores the boys and how their ghost powers actually work, and I look forward to what the next writer decides to do with them (and apparently they’re getting a show!! fuck yeah) (also uhhhh more like gayboy detectives amiright gamerz?)

Hunter: The Age of Magic #1-11 [Dylan Horrocks] (x)

It seems the little nosedive Tim’s story took in Names of Magic was only a short one, because right out of the gate Age of Magic is fantastic. The timeskip is slightly disconcerting, but it means we can skip all the “Tim learns magic” “Tim fucks another girl” “Tim discovers things” stages of his schooling and just have him finish and leave as quickly as possible, after using the setting to establish all that it needs to, and Tim can be free to do his own thing rather than being stuck in a “misadventures at the magic school“ style story.

Sandman Presents: The Corinthian #1-3 [Darko Macan]

This one’s mostly atmosphere, but it’s good atmosphere. It’s nice to see a little of the original Corinthian (rather than the rebooted version from The Dreaming) and how exactly he went bad, and what he was doing while Morpheus was imprisoned. Apparently elements of this (with the Corinthian’s experience in WW1) will be involved in the show, which is good because I can point at the screen and go “ooh! ooh! I know this one!” while my dad’s trying to watch, which is always fun.

Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad #1-4 [Bill Willingham]

I really wish I could like the Thessaly spinoffs. I love the character (despite her being claimed by TERFs apparently) and I wish we got more of her history, more of her being ruthless and cold and calculating, I’d especially love it if we explored how her normal life functions and how she does magic, but no, instead we get comedy hijinks with Fetch, the most annoying character to be introduced so far. Also the art is by Shawn McManus who is by far my least favourite Sandman artist and the only thing I actively dislike about A Game of You.

Lucifer: Nirvana [Mike Carey]

This is one of those fancy graphic novels with painted art and so on, but all that achieves is making it harder for me to focus on the story really. Tethys the Raven shows up which is neat. At least The Dreaming is still canon at this point.

Hunter: The Age of Magic #12-25 [Dylan Horrocks] (x) (x)

Big wrap-up of everything established from Names onwards, and a good end to the series, even if bringing back Molly again starts to get slightly tiresome (just let her live her life away from Tim. She’d be fine).

Sandman Presents: The Furies [Mike Carey]

Some of the Sandman Presents stories are spinoffs, or stories that happen to be set in the universe, but this really does feel like somewhere between a sequel and an epilogue to The Kindly Ones, giving Lyta more resolution than she got in the few pages she showed up in during The Wake. The “fancy graphic novel” problems I mentioned with Nirvana do make it a bit annoying to read, but it’s a good and interesting look at a character who got slightly left behind by the story once she’d succeeded in killing Dream off.

Hellblazer: Lady Constantine #1-4 [Andy Diggle]

I’m sure there’s parallels and references that I don’t get because I’ve only read the first few dozen Hellblazer comics, but this was really fun! Johanna is such a fun character and I loved her dynamic with her kid even if I knew they were gonna snuff it the minute they showed up.

Lucifer (2000) #33-40 [Mike Carey]

The Naglfar arc is my favourite sort of comic arc: every recurring character thrown together on a mission and forced to get along. Also, shit goes down with god and while I’m not gonna pretend to know what the precedent is for all this in the Tanakh or in the christian Bible, I’m enjoying whatever is happening immensely.

Sandman Presents: Bast #1-3 [Caitlin R Kiernan]

This is Caitlin R Kiernan’s last offering to Sandman, and it’s also one of their best. The exploration of Bast as a character and how the death of gods actually works is really good, honestly just read it, I’m not sure what else to say except it’s a shame this is the last comic of theirs in this universe.

Death: At Death’s Door [Jill Thompson] (x)

This one’s just a fun look behind the scenes of Season of Mists with Death, Delirium, and Despair dealing with all the dead that have just turned up. The style is so fun, I love the vibes, and also anything that gives Delirium a lot to do is an instant favourite.

Sandman: Endless Nights [Neil Gaiman]

The first of Neil’s followups, and while some of the more abstract or disconnected stories like Desire and Despair’s feel like they’re just there to fill space and give a chapter to every Endless, the (small) through-line of Delirium’s grief is really nicely done, and, again, this captures the consequences of and provides a followup to the ending of Sandman in more depth than The Wake did

Lucifer (2000) #41-49 [Mike Carey]

This part of the series splits its time, mostly focusing on Elaine and Mona’s fates, along with the rest of the supporting cast, while Lucifer does important overall plot things with the angels. I’m not complaining, though, this series has such a good cast of characters and I’d happily read a spinoff with any of them.

Sandman Presents: Thessaly: Witch For Hire #1-4 [Bill Willingham]

Reaching the end of the Sandman Presents series and this is how the original line of spinoffs ends. Not with a bang, but with an aimless and annoying whimper that really isn’t doing any of the things I want this character to be (except murderous. I do enjoy when she kills people). But I think Bill Willingham is somewhat allergic to writing a story with a dark tone that isn’t filled with constant jokes. Like, yes, having comic relief is important in every story lest it become grimdark edgy nonsense, but I would rather see Thessaly at her most fucked up and evil without a ghost trapped in a mirror doing a Funny Bit every other page. Maybe that’s just me, though.

Lucifer (2000) #50-61 [Mike Carey]

Reaching the endgame of the series, and almost every element that was set up gets involved in the last few dozen issues. Not sure what to say, this shit’s just really fucking good. Go read it!

Dead Boy Detectives (2005) [Jill Thompson]

If your detective story ends with the detectives putting together the clues to solve the mystery and publicly confronting the villain and then the villain explains that actually it was all innocent misunderstandings and they’re not guilty at all, I think maybe you shouldn’t be writing detective stories. Also all the crossdressing jokes got old very fast. This is by far the worst of all of these, and there’s some bad shit on this list at points.

Lucifer (2000) #62-75 [Mike Carey] (x)

The gert massive finale of this fantastic series really doesn’t disappoint. Characters get their arcs resolved in a mostly satisfactory manner, it does what DC did a few decades earlier in Crisis On Infinite Earths with resolving a multiverse in a much neater and less confusing way, and we learn that the god of the DC/Vertigo universe looks like the stereotype of a tory civil servant from the 1970s.

Madame Xanadu (2008) #6 [Matt Wagner]

The way Death is used in this is really interesting. For one thing, according to Death the whole “i give you a __” ritual is just set dressing for the intent which summons the Endless, so either Burgess did something really wrong or Death can tell when it’s a trap and tell when someone just wants a chat (and Dream is too stupid to tell and was also understandably destracted in 1916).

The Brave and the Bold (2007) #1-12 [Mark Waid]

The "Lords of Luck” arc, if kinda confusing, is interesting and brings in the Destiny elements in a cool way, even if the way they write Supergirl is sometimes uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gross. The “Book of Destiny” arc, by contrast, is just a series of tangentially linked stories and some of the most generic superhero comic stuff I’ve ever read, and the Book itself is only an afterthought in #12. Also, they gave Destiny the fancy Desire font instead of the harsh bold italics. Come on guys.

Action Comics (1938) #894 [Paul Cornell]

Another standalone Death issue within a broader series I have no interest in reading. She’s fun here too, and I always enjoy someone making Lex Luthor have a little bit of an existential crisis. This also seems to be the first significant appearance of Death outside Vertigo since the imprint began, as TBATB is for Destiny and Metal is for Dream.

Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1-4 [Neil Gaiman]

The story that Neil Gaiman accidentally trolled a bunch of academics in a tiny afterward to this story is very funny to me. I read the comic version rather than prose, I’m sure the prose is also very good because (shocking) Neil Gaiman happens to be a good writer.

House of Mystery Halloween Annual #1 [Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham]

Not much here innit just a fun merv story. If I wasn’t going for 100% I would not have even brought this up.

Dead Boy Detectives (2014) #1-12 [Toby Litt, Mark Buckingham] (x)

This is THE Dead Boy Detectives series, it’s the best by far because, amazingly, if you let your detective characters do detective work, the story is more engaging! Also, the series introduces a fantastic supporting cast, and actually delves into Charles and Edwin’s characters and all their masses of trauma from, y’know, being murdered. Also got me excited about the tv show they’re apparently making. Please let it be like this series and not like the shitearse Jill Thompson one. Please.

Sandman: Overture #1-6 [Neil Gaiman]

I have no idea why the reading list on the back of my copy lists this before Preludes and Nocturnes. Like yeah it’s a prequel technically, but if you hadn’t read Sandman before, reading it first would be a very bad idea since it hinges on lore from the series and also spoils the ending if you didn’t know what happened. If you have actually read Sandman though, yeah it’s fucking good idk what to say. It slaps.

Lucifer (2016) #1-19 [Holly Black, Richard Kadrey]

Honestly, I would have enjoyed this regardless of the writing because it has my favourite artist from my favourite Marvel series, Loki: Agent of Asgard (go read it. do it.), but the writing is also fantastic. It’s the perfect example of a followup that on the whole respects the original series, the themes established, and where the characters were left, before bringing things back into the fold in a realistic way to do something new with them, instead of just resetting continuity so that you don’t have to deal with somebody else’s recurring cast, *ahem*, the entire Sandman Universe reboot you do good things but you could leave some of this in canon, *ahem*. (Speaking of The Dreaming, the inclusion of Matthew makes this the first concrete confirmation that the 1996 series isn’t canon any more, which did make me a bit sad). Well worth a read if you’re a fan of the original!

Dark Nights: Metal #1-6 [Scott Snyder] (x)

It’s your usual boring comic book crossover event. Dream shows up and it sort of sets up the Sandman Universe series, but mostly this is about the usual multiverse bollocks that DC always does. "Batmanium” did make me laugh, though.

Sandman Universe #1 [Neil Gaiman, Simon Spurrier, Kate Howard, Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters] (x)

Plenty of setup here, but since I have no idea where any of it’s going I think I’ll just... Let my reviews of the series themselves do the work here instead.

The Dreaming (2018) #1-12 [Simon Spurrier] (x)

The issues with the start of this series are a lot more complicated than just “bad writer” or “incorrect characterisation”. In some cases the old characters are spot on, and the new characters are all fantastic, but something about the way Merv and Lucien develop in the first few issues feels a little forced. This series could have absolutely benefited from what the original Dreaming had - short story arcs focusing on specific parts of or people in the Dreaming that slowly, slowly come together to form a larger whole - and just slowed down the breakdown of Lucien and whatever they were going for with Merv enough that we get a good sense of where it comes from. Instead (probably more due to editorial rushing and a need to get the Big Threat of the first arc in the picture by the end of #2 to appease convention in modern comic storytelling, than the intentions of the writer), the political commentary and character progressions end up a bit hurried and I’m left with a feeling of “Yes logically I get how we got here, but like... how did we get here?”.

All of that being said, once it manages to get into the swing of things, this series is honestly a worthy successor to the original, even if I’m still annoyed about it replacing the original continuity entirely. The way that other Sandman characters are slowly brought in is really nicely done, and the development of the central mystery is intriguing and develops at a perfect rate to give answers, but also keep my interest going.

House of Whispers #1-12 [Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters]

Now this feels like Sandman. I love the characters, both human and godly, and the Ananse storyline makes me fall victim to my greatest weakness once again: stories that are about stories, that acknowledge that they’re stories, that twist the narrative of the tale it’s spinning and in doing so acknowledge the consequences of the characters existing in a world defined by narrative conflict. That’s my shit! Also I think it’s really cool that a comic published by one of the big two comic companies has a nonbinary character that uses neopronouns who also defines zirself as queer. Ze are iconic.

Lucifer (2018) #1-13 [Dan Watters]

The style and tone of this is very different to the other two Lucifer comics, and it exists outside of the continuity established by them (hence Lucifer having no scar, Remiel and Duma still ruling hell, Mazikeen’s dialogue takes a while to get used to, etc). Instead of being about the end of the universe and Lucifer’s attempts to get out from Yahweh’s rule while also saving the world surrounded by a huge supporting cast of characters we sympathise with instead of him, this series makes Lucifer pathetic in the best way. It’s much more introspective, and focuses on Lucifer, his ex-lover Sycorax, and their son Caliban, and how their relationships evolve. Also, the art is by far the best out of any of these Sandman Unvierse comics.

Books of Magic (2018) #1-13 [Kat Howard]

Again, a very different take on the same character. I’m not sure I like this one as much as Lucifer though. The focus is on the Cold Flame and Rose from the original Neil Gaiman series, although some elements from the Rieber/Gross series make it through, in particular some interesting things are being done with Tim’s dad. This is fun enough, and I’m interested to see where it goes, but I still much prefer the style of the original.

The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer [Simon Spurrier]

This one-shot spins out of the 1990 Books of Magic miniseries, and explores what the fuck was actually going on in that potential future they showed. I’m sure it also ties into various bits of Hellblazer but, as already mentioned, I haven’t read more than a couple dozen issues of that series yet and it still made sense.

The Dreaming (2018) #13-20 [Simon Spurrier] (x)

The finale to this series is so good! Like I said earlier, the way that the mystery is slowly revealed works so well, and bringing all the threads together slowly is so satisfying when a writer can do it well. Also, the things it does with Lucien as the narrator in a meta sense is very fun.

House of Whispers #13-22 [Nalo Hopkinson, Dan Watters]

The way that this series builds its characters and worlds is so good, the balance between the human and godly characters especially. I’m also a big fan of how weird-looking the Corinthian is, I think some artists forget to draw him like a nightmare who’s slightly out of sync with reality in a “he looks creepy as fuck sometimes” kinda way.

Lucifer (2018) #14-24 [Dan Watters]

Word of warning: you will need to find the 3rd TPB collection if you want to read the actual conclusion of the Wild Hunt arc, because #19 was never published and the next collection was #20-24. I think it had something to do with covid, idk. Putting that aside, the art here is great and I love the way Lucifer works in this series. Probably the best of the initial four Sandman Universe lines.

Books of Magic (2018) #14-23 [Kat Howard, David Barnett]

The second half is much better than the first (as it seems is the case with a lot of these) , and the finale arc pulls in a few other Sandman related characters which are all fun (even if they don’t always make sense entirely). It’s still nowhere near as good as the original Rieber/Gross series, but it’s fun in its own way.

John Constantine: Hellblazer (2020) #1-12 [Simon Spurrier] (x)

I have not read enough Hellblazer to compare it to what came before, but this is an absolutely fantastic series. The tone is brilliantly managed, the supporting cast is endearing, John’s arc is engaging, and the series knows when to be funny, when to be brutal, when to be horrific, when to be tragic, when to be political, and when to force me to look at a drawing of Boris Fucking Johnson.

The Dreaming: Waking Hours #1-12 [G. Willow Wilson] (x)

This is the most Sandman-feeling SU series, and I mean that in a good way. We get a good amount of seeing Daniel in action, the cast of new characters are all fun, and it feels like a good followup to The Dreaming without stepping on its toes - it uses the new characters as a natural part of the universe, and utilises the plotlines left hanging in a good way. My only real problem with it is a problem I have with a lot of comic series that only run for a dozen issues - the wrapup is a bit rushed to fit it all into one issue, we don’t really get time for the characters to settle into their endings before it’s over.

Locke & Key/Sandman #1-2 [Joe Hill]

The first three-quarters of this are very fun, but it does get a bit boring once they go to hell. Lucifer feels out of character, and I do not have any idea what the normal Locke & Key series is about, so there’s no way for me to be invested in these characters. The stuff that actually takes place in the Dreaming itself is fun, though, and I like the look into Fawney Rig during Sandman #1. Also, it’s always very funny to see a series have to write itself around continuity and go “hey hang on, why don’t the various dreams go rescue Dream?” While we don’t get a satisfactory answer to that, it’s not really what they were focusing on anyway so I have no reason to get angry about it like some people might.

Nightmare Country #1-? [James Tynion IV]

This series is only four issues in at the moment so I can’t say anything conclusive, but it’s got some great creepy shit in it (some of it reminds me of Caitlin R Kiernan’s work with the Corinthian in the original Dreaming) and I was convinced enough by it to pre-order the next two issues, which I look forward to reading!

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I’m probably meant to put a conclusion paragraph here but my English teacher would probably agree when I say I’m kinda crap at them. The best long series to spring from Sandman are Lucifer and Books of Magic, Caitlin R Kiernan was the best writer on The Dreaming, and Waking Hours is probably the best of the Sandman Universe books but you’re absolutely in safe hands with any of them. The Sandman Presents comics are good for the most part, but the quality varies wildly. Every time there’s a non-Vertigo series which involves Sandman characters it’s probably not worth it. Don’t bother with the Dead Boy Detectives graphic novel, read the Litt/Buckingham series instead. And most importantly, don’t tell me that I forgot that one 2008 (?) House of Mystery series. I did indeed forget it, but to be fair I didn’t know it existed until I saw a copy in the library the other day and I cannot be bothered reading it now.

#sandman #the sandman #sandman netflix #comicc #books of magic #dead boy detectives #the dreaming #nightmare country #sandman universe #hellblazer #house of whispers #lucifer #lily liveblogs #dream of the endless #death of the endless #the dreaming waking hours #vertigo #dc #lily dot tee ex tee

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dc-polls · 6 months

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"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament Entry #34

Shvaughn/Sean

[ID: Cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #1 that says Young Romance. Shvaughn Erin cries into a handkerchief and says, "*choke* He spends so much time saving the world... When will he find time for me?" In the foreground Element Lad looks off into the distance. A narration box reads, "All my life, happiness eluded my grasp... and nothing I ever cared about lasted! Was this the way it had to be with Jan, too? The Elements of Heartbreak!" /END ID]

What Happened?

Shvaughn Erin was a member of the Science Police, the 30th-century cops who assisted (or hindered) the Legion of Super-Heroes. During the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run in the 1980s, she became romantically involved with Legionnaire Jan "Element Lad" Arrah. This upset some members of the Legion fan community who had a theory that Jan was gay. The character wasn't traditionally masculine, wore pink, and had curly blond hair (look, this just how gay coding worked in the 70s and 80s).

When Giffen and married couple Tom and Mary Bierbaum (who got their start in the Legion fan community) took over the title with 1989's vol. 4 (aka, the "Five Years Later" run), one of the things that Giffen wanted to do was kill off Shvaughn to establish Element Lad as gay. They were already using Jan's archenemy, the criminal Roxxas who years ago had genocided the rest of the his species, the matter-transmuting Trommites, as the villain for the first arc. Shvaughn was eventually spared this fate, but the writers still had to square the circle of why a "gay" character would be involved with a woman. Their solution? What if "she" was a "he?"

I'm going to try to explain the rest of this story in as sensitive a way as possible. This is a story that was written in 1992 by, as far as I know, three cishet people and your millage will vary (and as a cis person myself, I can't really speak to how well this holds up). I will generally be using she/her pronouns when the character is presenting as Shvaughn and he/him when presenting as Sean.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 4 #31, the Earth is recovering from the devastation of losing the moon due to the machinations of the alien Dominators who have infiltrated and subverted the planetary government (note also, the Dominators have an extremely problematic "yellow peril" design so there's a lot going on here). In the midst of this, Jan and Shvaughn meet for the first time in a while. Jan finds out that Shvaughn is going through withdrawal from not being able to obtain the drug Profem. She explains that she had been born male under the name Sean on a very conservative planet. While growing up, Sean developed a crush on Element Lad, who as a teenager was intergalactically famous as a member of the Legion. Thinking that the only way a boy like Jan would find him attractive, Sean started taking Profem, changed her name to Shvaughn, enrolled in the Science Police academy, and eventually became the liaison to the Legion. Now, without access to the drug, Shvaughn is reverting back to her more masculine appearance.

Jan takes all of this in, before telling his former lover that "anything we ever shared physically...it was in spite of the Profem, not because of it!" Shvaughn later runs into the teenage clone of Element Lad from the Dominator's Batch SW6 (we can't get into that right now), and in future appearances shows up fully presenting as masculine and going by Sean. The adult Element Lad goes into a coma and Sean is at his bedside.

Then the Legion gets rebooted in Zero Hour, all of the Legionnaires are teens again with new continuity, and Shvaughn (when she shows up at all) is back to presenting as female with no indication that she was ever Sean. Element Lad (unless I missed anything) is only given female love interests or sexual partners by later writers, or implied to be asexual with a spiritual bend.

While Shvaughn is far from the first female love interest who gets her storyline derailed to support a gay headcanon, it is surprising that it 1. happened in canon and 2. the solution was not to kill her off, but to reveal she is trans (ish?) so the character can detransition back to a man so that his love interest can be gay. What's really weird is that Giffen and the Bierbaums also made canon a romance between Light/Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet, but never felt a need to invalidate their previous relationships with male partners, which maybe points towards the culture of the time's perceptions of male vs. female bisexuality.

Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

#dc-polls-trh #dc comics #shvaughn erin #jan arrah #element lad #legion of super heroes #losh

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archivist-dragonfly · 7 months

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Book 476

Dracula: A Symphony in Moonlight & Nightmares

Jon J. Muth (adapted from Dracula by Bram Stoker)

NBM Publishing 1992

The first time I remember encountering the work of Jon J. Muth (b 1960) was his two excellent children’s books, The Three Questions (2002) and Stone Soup (2003). Later I realized I had actually had seen his work before, I just didn’t recognize it as the same person. At the time, I didn’t know that Muth had started in comics, but his comic work is quite different from his children’s art. Muth had done the art for “Exiles,” the story included in the last collection of Sandman stories, The Wake. Everything finally became clear when I read the story “Big Sky” in Warren Ellis’ excellent Global Frequency. Originally published by Marvel in 1986, Muth’s Dracula is beautifully wrought and lovingly characterizes Lucy Seward and Mina Harker in particular. At times reminiscent of Barry Moser and Alan Lee, Muth’s gorgeous watercolors, paired with a minimalist and heavily modified adaptation of Stoker’s classic novel—part journal entries, part dialogue—comes across like the screenplay of a fever dream.

#bookshelf #library #personal collection #personal library #books #bibliophile #book lover #illustrated book #booklr #dracula #Jon j muth #nbm publications #literature #comics

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firekitten830 · 1 year

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Some thoughts about Miguel, the comics, and what it could mean for Beyond the Spiderverse

This post has spoilers in it! It also contains mentions of suicide. And it's also VERY long. Consider yourself warned.

Comic vs Movie Comparison

Going to be starting this off with comparing movie Miguel and comic Miguel. And to clarify before we get into it, I don’t think deviation from the comics is a bad thing, and I love both versions. Also worth mentioning that at the time of writing this I've only read the original series from 1992, Dark Genesis, and a couple of the temporal crossover stories (which I'm considering non-canon for the sake of this discussion). I might make another post like this once I've finished all of them.

Starting off with story deviation there's... not a lot for me to really say here, since we don’t know much about movie Miguel’s backstory aside from the part where he accidentally caused a universe to collapse, so there’s not a lot to point out in terms of story deviation yet. However his personality and behavior is a little bit different. He’s more serious in the movie. Now Miguel has always been more serious than most other versions of Spiderman, but in the comics he’s still humorous. His humor just tends to be more sarcastic and cynical (think a bit like Deadpool) rather than the quips and wisecracks you usually get with Spiderman. He’s pessimistic and actually pretty mean, especially when not in his Spiderman alter ego. I'll admit I do miss his sarcasm in retrospect, but at the same time it wouldn't really suit the role the movie has set him up to play. Plus his characterization in the movie is still super good, and I like it a lot.

Miguel in the comics does tend to be a lot less bouncy and acrobatic than most other spidermen, and that definitely shows in the movie too. But the movie did something I personally love, and pushed that aspect further, and made him almost animalistic rather than just a Spiderman that fights a bit more close quarters. He’s intimidating, he’s brutal, every move has weight and power that you can feel through the animation. They kept the inertia of his movements in mind, something they do for all of the characters but is especially noticeable and fun with characters like Miguel who have a lot of force behind their movements (This is also why I love how The Prowler is animated so much). One of my highest praises for these movies is that every character has their own unique style, and Miguel’s fits him very well and stays true to the comics.

And the last point I'm going to talk about before jumping in to speculation is the powers. There's not a lot for me to say here either in regards to comparison, since we've not really gotten a chance to see how movie Miguel's powers work, but I still do want to address it because if it's the same as in the comics, then he's actually pretty unique! Makes sense, considering he didn't get them from the standard radioactive spider-bite (more on that later). I am sorry to say but he is (probably) not a vampire (I say probably because it's entirely possible he is in the movie. But assuming it's the same as the comics, he isn't actually a vampire, just looks like one, since judging by the fact that Blade is... around... vampires are real in his world). Do keep drawing him as a vampire tho its hot.

Anyway. He does have those fangs in the comics! He also has venom! As in the paralytic toxin spiders use to catch prey, not the character. Another thing that sets him apart is that he... doesn't seem to have a spider-sense? At all? He has super enhanced normal senses, but not that sort of extra sense that pretty much every other spiderman seems to have. I don't know if this is true in the movie but it would be sort of neat. He also isn't sticky! Instead he has those talons to hook onto surfaces, those are a part of him, not the suit. Unless they changed it in the movie which is the one and only change i think would be super lame. But since they gave him the fangs I doubt it. There is one noteworthy difference between his powers in the comic and the movie, and it's that in the movie his webs seem to be technology based, maybe some form of energy or hard light technology, while in the comics he has spinnerets in his arms. It could also be a mix of both, or that could just be how his natural webs look. Either way I'm curious why that change was made, even if it was as simple as just to fit the futuristic aesthetic.

Miguel's Backstory

Onto the next section! I'm going to do my best to give a brief recap of Miguel's backstory, for anyone who doesn't know it. For the sake of simplicity I'm going to assume that his backstory in the movie is more or less the same as in the original comics, up to the part where he goes to another universe.

In the year 2099, most major cities are controlled by the interests of oppressive mega-corporations. Nueva York, controlled by Alchemax and their corporate police, is literally divided between the Uptown and the Downtown, the uptown being the shining, sparkling futuristic city where all of the rich and important people live, while the downtown is the crumbling remains of New York that have been built over, where all of those deemed worthless by Alchemax are confined to.

Miguel O'Hara is the head of the genetics project in Alchemax's R&D branch, leading their efforts regarding gene splicing and genetic manipulation. Miguel is a snarky, standoffish man, who’s just generally a jerk to pretty much everyone. He has a soft spot for Dana, his fiance, Lyla, his apartment's AI companion, and Gabriel, his younger brother, and... that's about it. Despite his rather high position in the company, Miguel has a strong distaste for Alchemax and its unethical scientific practices, and is determined to delay human genetics testing until he's sure it's 100% safe. After his reservations are ignored by the higher ups, and hasty human testing leads to the death of a man under Miguel's unwilling hand, he decides to quit working for the company. However, he's a valuable asset. Tyler Stone, the head of Alchemax, laces a drink for Miguel with Rapture, a hallucinogenic drug that alters genetic structure to cause almost guaranteed addiction and withdrawal so severe it can be deadly. Coincidentally, Rapture is only legally produced and distributed by Alchemax.

Rather than let himself be manipulated, Miguel decided to use his own genetic modification equipment to attempt to reverse the alterations made by Rapture. During the procedure, Miguel's supervisor, resentful of Miguel's fast rise through the ranks and his constant disrespect for his superiors, sabotaged the process in an attempt to kill him. Instead he ended up activating the gene splicing program, and spliced Miguel and a spider together. Why was a spider present at all, you may ask? The final result of this genetic manipulation project was super-soldiers, and Miguel had decided to take inspiration from a certain hero back in the Heroic Age. Spider based enhancements seemed to work pretty well back then, why not give it another go?

After emerging from the process very much not dead, but no longer human, Miguel has to navigate new powers, and the new dangers that come with the mantle he's accidentally taken. It's around this point when Miguel starts to have thoughts of taking his own life, and pretty consistently continues to throughout the story.

I'm not giving a full recap, this story is already long and I don't remember specifics for most things. Miguel faces a myriad of villains, future versions of classic spiderman villains and new foes as well. He also takes over Alchemax after usurping Tyler Stone, which I'll touch on again later. But throughout all of it a consistent theme for him is loss. Over the course of the original comics, he loses almost everyone he has any kind of connection with, in one way or another.

He has a falling out with his fiance, Dana, and before he can try to reconnect, she gets caught in the crossfire during a fight with Venom and dies in his arms. He finally starts to repair his broken relationship with his mother, only for her to be shot during a raid on Alchemax after she started working as a secretary. Gabriel eventually becomes so overcome with resentment for Miguel that he takes up the mantle of Green Goblin, and attempts to ruin his life and also kill him. Xina, an old flame he was rekindling his relationship with, left him again without so much as a goodbye. The only one he has left to turn to for any sort of familiarity or comfort is Lyla, and even she tried to kill him once. He cuts himself off from everyone who tries to make a connection with him again, because he's convinced that being close to him leads to people hating him, dying, or both. Assuming Miguel's backstory is the same up to this point, he's already at the lowest he's ever been. And probably stays there until he and Lyla develop the technology to travel between universes. Here's where the speculation kicks in.

Miguel finds another universe like his own. Another universe with another Miguel O'hara, except this one never became Spider-man. And this one never lost all of the same people that the other did. He and Dana got married, they have a daughter. They're happy. Not only does he have proof that it isn't just being close to him that gets people hurt, he has an opportunity. Because this other Miguel is dead, and this other Miguel isn't Spider-man. He could take his place and be free of his own unhappiness, his own burdens, and save the inhabitants of this parallel world the pain of losing him. And for a brief time he's happy, he doesn't have to be Spider-man, he has a family and a life that isn't full of danger and loss. And then he loses it all again, and is left once again with nothing but the feeling that it is his fault.

Further speculation, I think that's probably why he's so caught up with "canon"; it means that the losses he faced were inevitable. It makes him feel just a little bit better, a little less guilty. Yes, he's trying to protect other universes from possibly meeting the same fate as the one he caused to collapse, but he's also trying to make himself feel better in the process, even if he doesn't realize it.

Theories

This bit is going to be mostly unstructured, since I don't have any huge theories, just certain smaller points or plot elements I think are going to happen.

Miguel’s ties to Alchemax are going to come up, and they’re going to be important.

Alchemax is a company that originated in the 2099 comics. There has to be a reason they chose it for the company in Into the Spiderverse, because there’s dozens of other evil companies they could’ve chosen. But they chose Alchemax, the company Miguel has ties to, and then they set him up as an antagonist. It's going to be brought up, and it's going to be important.

Miguel and Miles will relate to each other

I say this because they're both very much outliers. They aren't their world's original Spider-man, they both have different powers and backstories than the other Spider-men. I feel like this is going to be called out, both as a way to call out Miguel's hypocrisy, and as a way for Miles to relate to him and find common ground.

Miguel was injecting himself with a gene stabilizer, or with something Rapture related

I know I'm not the first person to suggest the first part of this point. It makes sense--we know that the mutations from the spider DNA didn't all happen immediately. I also can't imagine that having your genome that dramatically altered is very good for you. I haven't seen anyone suggest the second part, but I think that's probably because it's not seeming very likely at this point. I don't want to rule out the possibility, though.

Peter B is going to be important to resolving the storyline with Miguel/Have a heart to heart with him

During the movie I got the sense that Peter B is trying to befriend Miguel, or at least to get him to open up a bit more. I think this is because he sees himself in Miguel. Yes, they're very different, but they're similar in ways that matter. Peter B looks at Miguel and he sees someone who's given up; on his principles, on his role, on his own life. Peter B has never been openly suicidal like Miguel, but before he met Miles he was still very much in the same spot. He had still given up on his ideals, on being Spider-man, and he made the choice to stay and destroy the collider not for a noble reason, but because he didn't care if he died. I think that Peter has recognized that same mentality in Miguel, and is trying to reach out to pull him back from that edge, like Miles did for him. I think the two of them have a lot of potential for some heartfelt interaction, and I hope I'm picking up on something that's actually there and intentional.

So that's pretty much it! This post is a lot more ramble-y and unstructured than I wanted it to be, but it was really just a way for me to get my thoughts out.

#combat talks #across the spiderverse #across the spiderverse spoilers #spiderman across the spiderverse #atsv #miguel o'hara #spiderman 2099 #peter b parker #suicide mention #spiderman

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din-skywalker · 1 year

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thanks to you I decided to go down the Spiderman 2099 rabbit hole 😭😭😭 i might pick up a few comics? any you recommend for someone who's just starting out with his character?

YES ABSOLUTELY!!!

best place to start is with the original comics! the 1992 series, volumes 1-3 to be specific! there's a little over 40 in total, and you should also read ultimate 2099 10 issue series since it ties in with the spider man 2099 series ^^

after that, i'd recommend the 2015 spider man 2099 series! it's not as good as the og series, but the artwork is pretty and miguel is still silly

i'm planning on making a list of all of the media (comics, books, shows, and games) miguel appears in but tumblr crashed in the middle of the post so i'm a bit peeved into not doing so atm lol

i'll probably end up making the list tomrorow! keep an eye for it- but those two series is definitely where you wanna start!

#i'm happy you're going to read the comics! they're a treat!#miggy is so silly #wow i talk #ask #miguel o'hara #spider man 2099 #spider man across the spider verse #across the spiderverse #marvel

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torra-and-the-toons · 1 year

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Welcome to my Cartoon Blog!

Torra | she/her | 1992 | Autistic | Fan Artist & Author

Hello! If you’re reading this it means you’ve found my blog! Just a few things before we get started that you should know about me and what I do here.

I post about whatever cartoon is tickling my brain at the moment, and I flit between hyperfixations like I’m playing duck-duck-goose. Ed Edd n Eddy is the only fandom I have major projects in, but I partake in a lot of other fandoms too. So just know, if you follow me for one fandom, it’s bound to change.

I ramble a lot. I tend to voice my thoughts out loud randomly into the void that is tumblr just because I like to talk to whoever may be listening. If that’s not your thing, you may want to block the #torra rambles tag! Don’t worry, it won’t hurt my feelings. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and I want to do my best to make this blog enjoyable for all kinds of people.

My askbox is open, but I no longer take requests or answer head-canon related questions, but I’m happy to say hi. No Anons anymore, sorry.

If you’re just here for my art, I suggest looking for #torrasart. For any art I posted before February of 2024, I used #my art, #my doodles just FYI, but mass post editor was too confusing to change it, so I left it as is.

I try to be generally sfw, but I might still post/reblog suggestive text posts occasionally, tagged #suggestive, so minors beware...

I don’t want to have to block anybody but I will if I have to...

Please keep in mind that I have a full-time job that takes up a majority of my time and energy, but in spite of that I’m working as hard as I can to bring these projects to life. I also have pretty bad ADHD, which effects my ability to stay focused, but I’m trying. All I ask is for your patience and understanding. 💖

Ed Edd n Eddy Stuff

At the moment I have a few serious projects that I’m working on: My fan-comic, “In the Ed,” my fanfiction, “In the Sky of a Million Stars” and my most recent venture is just my unnamed Torra AU where I unleash my weird furry self-insert/OC into the cul-de-sac like a lunatic because I can’t make normal human OC’s.

IN THE ED

Horror AU, Supernatural Themes, Trigger Warning for blood and possible gore, Content Warning for language and violence.

"Nobody knew it existed. In fact this was the first time anyone had set eyes upon this hilltop manor for quite some time..." Four years after the events of the Big Picture Show, the Eds and friends find themselves in a brand new, death-defying adventure that's sure to shift the genres.

tags: #in the ed comic, #wip shot, #in the ed refs

This fan-comic is also on Ao3 for slightly easier readability!

Introduction Page!

CHAPTER 1: Peach Creek Manor

[1-5] [6-10] [11-15] [16-20] [21-25 (coming soon)]

IN THE SKY OF A MILLION STARS

Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Trigger Warning for Suicide Attempts, Content Warning for language and blood

Eddy has always been a man of many fears, but above all else, his greatest fear has always been the inevitability of growing up. Now, with adulthood staring him in the face, he just can’t take it. Why couldn’t things have stayed the way they were? AU where the BPS never happened, and Eddy struggles with the changes happening around and within him. Loosely based on the song "One More Light," by Linkin Park.

tags: #a million stars fic, #a million stars art

Follow it on Ao3 to get the latest updates!

Torra AU [not official name, and no banner image yet]

Comedy, OC, Content warning for language but overall trigger-safe, I think. Unless you have a fear of tigers

tags: #torra oc, #torra au, #torra and the eds

The Isaac Saga [no banner yet]

Comedy with some hurt/comfort themes.

A collection of comics and drawings about the cat I made for Double Dee named Isaac.

tags: #isaac the cat, #small things with great ed

Small Things with Great Ed Part 1

[pages 1-5] [6-10] [11-15]

#pinned post #long post #I've wanted to revamp my pinned post for a while now

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lovingly-lightbulbs · 11 months

Note

hey if i wanted to get into batman comics where would i start. i am asking this purely on the basis that u reblog a ton of comic stuff so u don’t have to answer if u dont want to haha

@amongusbabiescustodybattle

I'm so sorry I don't know how long this has been in my asks. Disclaimer: I haven't read comics in a while and these are purely my own opinions.

If this list is too overwhelming, start at either Detective Comics #568 (if you want 80s batfam vibes) or Detective Comics #934 (if you want modern batfam vibes).

I'd say a good starting place if you want a place to jump in featuring the entire modern cast of characters is Batman (2016) and Detective Comics (2016). A few Batfam characters have solos from this time too (These are at the start of Rebirth, which is one of the more recent reboots, this is where I started).

For individual characters, here are some recs. Most of these will not be from within the past 10 years.

Batgirl (2000): Cassandra Cain's solo, fleshed out her character a bunch. There's a few problems that are relics of the time but it's generally pretty well regarded

Batman and the Outsiders (Rebirth) is good for both Cass and Duke Thomas

Two good Duke comics are We Are Robin (2015 I think?) and Batman and the Signal (2018)

Batgirl (2009): this is Stephanie Brown's solo that only has (I think) 12 issues because of the New 52 reboot

SIDE NOTE DO NOT READ THE NEW 52 COMICS THEYRE SHIT AT LEAST MOST OF THEM

The 90s runs of Nightwing and Robin, starring Dick Grayson and Tim Drake respectively

Birds of Prey (1999): This is where you'll find a lot of Barbara Gordon as Oracle content

Batman and Robin (2009): Dick Grayson as Batman after Bruce's presumed death. Damian Wayne as Robin.

Red Robin (2009): Tim goes off the rails

Batman: Under the Red Hood (2005). Jason is back and murderous.

I'm also a big fan of Batman (2016) Annual #3 because of the Alfred content

Those are all I can think of at the moment. I'm sure some other comic people can think of a lot more (@junkoandthediamonds you are The Comic Person maybe you could give them some recs? No pressure)

Some individual issues I would recommend are:

Jason's robin run from the 80s: Batman #408-425 and Detective Comics #568-582 (thank you @dailyjasontodd because your post came up on google for this)

Tim's entrance: As a normal dude, Batman #436. As Robin, Batman #457. These issues are from 1989 and 1990 respectively.

Steph's debut: Detective Comics #647 in 1992

Steph's Robin run, Robin #126-128 in 2003 or 2004ish?

War Games. This is a 2004 event spanning multiple comic runs and crossovers. Stephanie's (fake) death. I'm not sure how good it actually is.

No Man's Land. This 1999 event was the debut of Cass.

That issue where Jason comes back and beats the shit out of Tim. It's in Teen Titans vol 3 issue 29

Damian's debut: Batman #665 (2006)

This is all I can think of atm. I hope it helped! If anyone else has some recs please rb with em!!

#kaleidoscopic-something #batman #batfam #detective comics #dc #dc comics #im not gonna clog up the character tags so hopefully these are enough

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mahounomanga · 2 months

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Majokko Carnival

So far on this blog I've covered several titles already that didn't last very long, and there are many more in that vein I plan to cover later. The magical girl genre is quite flexible, so longevity isn't inherently an indicator of quality. You could even, say, compile a bunch of shorter magical girl works into one publication. And on that note, today I want to look at one of the only anthologies of magical girl manga I've been able to find.

Majokko Carnival is a manga anthology published by Rapport Comics on April 20, 1991. It contains 16 standalone chapters by as many different artists, all centering witchy or otherwise magical girl protagonists.

Rapport has a really interesting history unto itself, but that's largely outside the scope of this blog. To give you the short version, they started out as an event planning company before pivoting to anime merchandise, originally distributed through mail order before eventually establishing their own storefront. They went defunct in 2003 and now seem to be best remembered for their manga anthologies, such as this one, as well as their manga magazine Fanroad, which was first published in 1980.

I haven't gotten to read this anthology for myself, nor have I been able to find much information about the stories contained within it, but I have found a listing of all 16 chapters and authors, so I'd like to go through what little I know of them one at a time. Note that I had to rely heavily on machine translation in order to make sense of this list, so apologies if some of these names are presented incorrectly.

Majokko Pomuru by Tsukasa-sei Takasaki

The manga whose protagonist is featured on the front cover. I wasn't able to find any synopsis of the plot but it was included on a list of magical gender bender manga in which male protagonists become magical girls, so make of that what you will. Tsukasa-sei Takasaki (who I've also seen referred to as Shiro Takasaki) is a doujinshi artist who seems to have mostly been active in the 90s and published at least one other work through Rapport.

Catty Black by Omoi Ataru

This is actually the first chapter, but for whatever reason the list linked above flipped the order of the first two. I haven't been able to find a plot synopsis for this one either, but the pictures I've found from it seem to present a slice-of-life comedy about a catgirl witch. The artist, Omoi Ataru, mostly worked in smaller scale manga, including some doujinshi, and she has more recently pivoted to doll customization.

Trouble Maker by Hirano Ramu

I haven't been able to track down plot details or even images for this one (or the next few) and the author is pretty elusive too. The only other work of theirs was published sometime between 1989 and 1992, all of it somehow more obscure than Majokko Carnival.

Hirune by ○Mikan

Hirune is the Japanese word for nap. This is the first installment of a series called Sora no Majo (or Witch of the Sky) which would continue publication in Fanroad until 1994. The artist has gone by a number of names over the years and is still active on Pixiv, having pivoted to hentai. ...'Kay.

Majo Monogatari by Tawashi

The title translates to Witch Story. Tawashi (who I've also seen referred to as Tsukako) is a part time manga artist who also works as a nurse, and has even written a manga called Nurse Story, published by Rapport in 1993. She's written about witches a couple other times, but sadly I haven't been able to find any information about any of them, including this one.

Manatsu no Yozora ni Zebra ga Tobu! by Hibino Mariya

The title approximately translates to The Zebra Flies in the Midsummer Night Sky. I would love to know what that means in the context of the story but, predictably, searching turned up few useful results. I've also had difficulty transcribing the artist's name, 日比野魔俐婀. I've seen it translated a bunch of different ways, so if anybody is able to contribute a more accurate reading of it, it would be much appreciated. They contributed illustrations to two other manga I was able to find: Halloween, written by Marialle, and Babylon, written by Tact.

Kenage na Amulet by Hokoi Satoshi

Title translates approximately to Healthy Amulet or Amulet of Good Health (I think). While I haven't found any details about this manga, I was able to find a review for another Satoshi Hokoi manga that may shed some insight as to the author's style. Portrait, a 1992 manga also published by Rapport, has a very dark tone and heavy story elements despite its' cute art style. This artist has since pivoted to erotica published under the pseudonym Gyro Amarume.

A Kuvira! Dark Princess by Fujisawa Naoto

Another one without any pictures or plot details. Apparently this one was reprinted on May 1, 1994 in another Rapport anthology called Pretty Daisakusen (Pretty Operation), but there's even less information out there about that one than there is on Majokko Carnival. Naoto Fujisawa would publish two other manga through Rapport in the 90s, both of them shoujo: Death Rocker in 1993 and Gargoyle in 1996. The former ran for two volumes until 1998 and even got reprinted in June of 2004 as a single-volume omnibus by Daito Comics.

Chotto Matte ne by Tokumi Yuiko

The title is a slightly more casual and familiar variation on the phrase "wait a moment". Yuiko Tokumi is a renowned illustrator who has contributed to various visual novels, card games, and even done character design for at least one anime figure, as well as plenty of doujinshi (including a Sailor Moon doujin in 1996). She is best known for creating Binzume Yousei (Bottle Fairies) and Slow Start which were released as anime in 2003 and 2018 respectively. (You would think her notoriety would mean there's more information available about Chotto Matte ne, but alas.)

Mahou Soudou by Nantoka Fumihiko

Title translates to Magic Commotion. Fumihiko Nantoka also contributed a manga titled Suna no Majo (Witch of Sand) to Pretty Daisakusen, but I haven't been able to track down any information about that one either. For that matter, all of their manga is pretty obscure. Much of it was published by Rapport and everything I could find publication dates for is from the 90s.

Beginner's Ray by Tashiro Takuya

Takuya Tashiro has mostly worked on action manga, particularly ones with sexy female protagonists, and he was active into the 2010s. His series Najica Dengeki Sakusen was published in English as Najica Blitz Tactics and Atori Shou is his longest running manga at seven volumes.

Wiz Master by E=MC2

Of everything on this list this is THE single hardest combination of words to find anything relevant with. All I have to go on is a where-are-they-now type roundup of smaller manga artists in a blog post from 2014. That post indicated E=MC2 isn't as active as some of the others and mostly does manga about catgirls.

Kurayama Otome by Yokoyama Hiroko

Title means Kurayama maiden, with Kurayama being a Japanese surname that apparently has a variety of meanings. I wasn't able to find much about Hiroko Yokoyama's older work, but she is still active on Pixiv (though fair warning: a small number of her art there is NSFW). She even has some of her newer comics available in English, which is way cool from an accessibility standpoint!

A Looking Glass by Takekura Riku

Riku Takekura is another obscure artist who mostly seems to have been active in the 90s and heavily associated with Rapport. They won a "special award" when they placed 3rd in the FR Contest in 1990 (though I couldn't find what for). A manga of theirs titled Aoi. Hyouma Ran (Blue. Possession) was published in the horror themed August 1991 special edition issue of Fanroad, titled Nightzone. The most recent work of theirs I can find, a manga titled Leaf, was published by Rapport in April of 1996.

Rinji Majo Baita Yukiko! by Yumenohashi Kouichi

This title approximates to Extraordinary Witch Bitch Yukiko!... I think. Kouichi Yumenohashi (who also goes by Koichiro Takahashi) is still active in the industry and seems to specialize in sports manga.

Sore Ike Sen Hitoshi-chan by Hirano Masahiro

My understanding is sore ike means something like "go ahead!" and I'm guessing Sen Hitoshi-chan is the main character's name. This is one that the machine translations really struggled with (the original text is それいけ千仁矢ちゃん for the manga's title and 平乃眞砂廣 for the artist's name if anybody wants to take a crack at it) and, once again, I haven't found any information about the manga itself. Even the mangaka is very obscure, his only other original work being a manga titled Africa that I couldn't find any info on either. Apparently he also contributed to a Fire Emblem anthology, so that's neat.

So... what have we learned?

One of the things that really interested me about Majokko Carnival is that it came out at the tail end of the pre- Sailor Moon era. I know we can be pretty reductive when talking about Sailor Moon's influence on the magical girl genre, but it is notable how much more popular the magical fighter archetype is after her debut than before it. Plenty of older magical girls were either witches or just girls who happened to use magic, and that's something this anthology perfectly encapsulates, based on what little I could find about it.

Beyond that though, I was surprised by how in-house this was. Many of these artists had their other work published by Rapport, either in Fanroad or other anthologies. While some of them went on to find broader success after their time with the company, I get the sense not all of them wanted to. There's actually something weirdly heartening about how Rapport was able to be this sort of platform for smaller artists who may not have had other, better resources at their disposal. The rise of the internet has made it easier to get one's creative works out there (though that certainly comes with its own pitfalls), but I still think it's worth taking a look back at the kinds of stories people were trying to tell before that framework had been established. I would love it if there were more magical girl anthologies like this one. I would love it if more information about this one became available. But if nothing else, I'm glad Majokko Carnival exists.

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aenhanse · 1 year

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something i find interesting, having watched atsv and read dark tomorrow pretty much back to back, is how the two stories approach the concept of a miguel that is past a certain breaking point.

in dark tomorrow he basically gets his spider-man no more moment after losing his brother and fiancee. the events leave him resenting the superhero side of his life, questioning if it was ever worth it if it cost him the people he loves and throwing that side away completely for years. though he can't really help wanting to help others once he started doing so as s-man so instead he loses himself in trying to get alchemax to become a force for good, a way to help everyone in need. and it's all just miguel trying to ignore the guilt and trauma that festered for like five years as he continues to just exist as a shell of a spider-man he was

and then atsv has kinda an opposite of this in a way that after losing his 'daughter' he throws away the miguel side of himself spending every hour of every day as a shell of the spider-man he shouldn't be. we obviously don't have details of his backstory in the movie so i'm just reaching here to comics for help, but if its anything like what happens in the 1992 run, and i'd love nothing more for it to be so, i find it fascinating how he shifts into a version of himself that resembles what he fought against way more than what he's learned and was pushed to become the more time he was spider-man. it's almost like he reverted in a way and was pushed just enough to the side to become that ever watching presence that enforces its rules over what it deems an anomaly. he tries to convince himself it's for the greater good, refuses the thought that he might be in the wrong, because at his core miguel still wants to help people but i don't think he realizes yet just how much he's lost himself there.

both stories have him lose his way but in a completely different matter while still making sense for him to end up either way. and it's what i love seeing when writers push characters over that ledge, a familiarity with just enough there to let you know there's something off, something that tells you they wouldn't act that way in other circumstances but because they were put there it becomes a believable exploration of a character reaching their breaking point (asm back in black my most beloved example of this done well). and then there is a question of how to bring them back from that brink

both versions of miguel still have lyla, a semblance of that life before everything went to shit persisting. but she's not enough and what is needed there is a fresh perspective and the mig from the book gets that in form of anya, reminding him what being a hero means and giving him that little bit of hope that there is something more than even more tragedy waiting around the corner. and i can only guess that atsv miguel might get that harsh reminder from miles, then i'll have two nickels

#am i making any sense? it's like 1 am #anyways. i need to put miggy from atsv under a microscope #atsv spoilers #miguel o'hara #spiderman 2099 #olga talks

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sunnydalestudies · 1 year

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Wrestling with Whedon

Welcome, Scooby Gang!

When we discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s impossible to ignore its creator, Joss Whedon. Once considered a nerd god, his fall from grace has stunned fans, leaving them just as heartbroken as those of the Harry Potter franchise. But let’s start from the beginning: who is Joss Whedon? Many consider Whedon the auteur of BtVS, a term used to denote “a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author” (OED); think here of Alfred Hitchcock. Although all of Whedon’s projects, including BtVS, were brought to life by an army of creatives, Whedon is still credited as the creator and sometimes writer and director, rendering his name and contributions inseparable from these projects.

Joss Whedon might be one of the worst nepotism babies of television writing, with his grandfather being a writer on shows such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Golden Girls being among his father’s projects. Growing up in New York City, Whedon lived a life of luxury, attending Winchester College, a British boarding school, and graduating from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Although this all sounds like a peaceful and privileged life, Whedon has also come out to say that his parents “ran the home as though they were in the thick of” “a writers’-room battle” and that if he or his brothers “weren’t funny or entertaining or agreeing with them, they would cut [them] down or turn to stone” (Vulture). Because of his childhood experiences, Whedon says that “he suffers from complex post-traumatic-stress disorder” (Vulture); yet, despite not wanting to discredit his trauma, I don’t believe that this excuses him for how he went on to treat others in his life.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Whedon’s career steadily grew and his cult following of fans with it. With projects such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992, 1997-2003), Angel (1999-2004), Toy Story (1995), Alien Resurrection (1997), Firefly (2002), Serenity (2005), Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (2008), and Dollhouse (2009-10), Joss Whedon became a god and a king among nerds and the comic-book artist Scott R. Kurtz even designed a highly successful shirt in 2005 that read “Joss Whedon is my Master Now.” Even within the workplace, “a sort of cult of personality formed around Whedon” where “the standard reaction to Joss was worship” (Vulture). During this time, many of Whedon’s projects did not succeed to the extent that many believed they should have, beginning with the “painful” interpretation of his vision for the original BtVS movie, as Kai Cole, his ex-wife, put it (The Wrap), and continuing through to the mishandling and cancellation of Firefly. As a Vice article puts it:

“The culture of liking Joss Whedon was at this point already about defending him from various enemies—networks who canceled his shows, actors who he claimed said his lines incorrectly, or improvised too much. [...] His success was a symbol of success for liberal nerds everywhere, a sign that comic books and genre fiction could be taken seriously by the world at large. If you were wrapped up in that fandom, any criticism of Whedon became an attack on everything that nerds love, and it’s a dynamic that doesn’t exist only in the past tense.” (Vice)

This passionate and often obsessive fanbase aided Whedon’s breakthrough into mainstream culture in the early 2010s, when, within a single year, Whedon released three very different yet successful projects: The Cabin in the Woods (2012), a horror movie satire, Much Ado About Nothing (2012) a black and white DIY production of a Shakespeare classic, and The Avengers (2012), the renowned Marvel superheroes film. This year marked the height of Whedon’s career, with his following projects slowly marking his downfall.

In 2015, with the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon encountered his first backlash and the first indications of flaws in his feminism. Viewers labelled the film as sexist because of a scene where Black Widow claims to be monstrous since she cannot bear children. Two years later, in 2017, Whedon’s scrapped 2006 Wonder Woman script leaked, and those who read it once again saw his portrayal of female superheroes as sexist, this time regarding his script as a nerd’s wet dream. Later that same year, Kai Cole, Whedon’s ex-wife, released a public statement about her relationship with Whedon and revealed his numerous affairs and over a decade of lying. In this article, Cole explains that they met in 1991 and were married for over twenty years before separating. In this time, spanning the most successful years of Whedon’s career, Kai Cole says: “I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot” (The Wrap). Cole believes that “he used his relationship with [her] as a shield [...] so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist” (The Wrap). Whedon even did the opposite and used his feminist reputation as a defence in his marriage when Cole was at times “uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women” (The Wrap). She elaborates that “he always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him” (The Wrap). Sadly, Whedon’s later projects—and even earlier projects, although viewers did not notice it—revealed that he did not solely admire and respect strong female characters but sexualized them for his own satisfaction.

Whedon’s reputation as a feminist was so strong that he had even previously received awards for his feminist efforts, notably when “Equality Now gave him an award in 2006—presented by Meryl Streep—for his efforts as a male feminist” (Vice). Cole wanted to correct this vision of Whedon, who, as she says, “never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away [her] right to make choices for [her] life and [her] body based on the truth” (The Wrap). In the end, Cole only desired to warn against the previously normalized worship of her ex-husband and explained, “I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honouring a man who does not practice what he preaches” (The Wrap). Cole’s statement was the fandom’s wake-up call, but many continued worshiping Whedon, simply acknowledging that he was human and made mistakes. At this point, all we knew was that he cheated on his wife—it was sad, but it was not anything out of the ordinary for celebrities and the average person alike.

Over the years, more women have come forward to share their experiences with romantic or sexual relationships with Joss Whedon. In Cole’s article, she says that Whedon had his first affair on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and years later, after coming clean about this, he told her, “I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it” (The Wrap). Whedon has used this feeling of helplessness as an excuse for his mistreatment of the women of BtVS numerous times, explaining elsewhere that “he had felt he ‘had’ to sleep with them, that he was ‘powerless’ to resist” (Vulture). If this reminds you of rapists blaming their actions on their victims’ clothing, professions, or behaviours, saying they couldn’t control themselves, you’re not the only one. Even as a younger man at university, “he admired strong women like his mother, yet he’d discovered he was capable of hurting them, ‘usually by sleeping with them and ghosting or whatever’” (Vulture). In the accounts from women who dated Whedon after his marriage ended, “he was not the hero they had read about in the press, the one who wanted to see women in control; he was more like the cold-blooded men he depicted in his work” (Vulture), and the Whedon at Wesleyan sounds a lot like Parker Abrams from early season four, or even Angel right after he lost his soul. Since his marriage ended, Whedon has sought treatment for a love and sex addiction, a path also taken by celebrities such as “James Franco, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein” (Vulture). If Vulture’s article was more recent, I am sure Kanye West would also be on that list. Additionally, celebrities such as Russell Brand, David Duchovny, Tiger Woods, and Rob Lowe have also sought treatment for the same addiction, with many of these celebrities only doing so in response to a cheating scandal. Whether Whedon has healed and grown in this regard is unbeknownst to us, but many before him paved this path to redemption in the media’s eyes.

The same year as Cole’s statement, Justice League (2017) came to theatres, which Whedon later labelled as “one of the biggest regrets of his life” and would contribute considerably to his downfall (Vulture). The original director of the film was Zach Snyder, who had his own group of devoted and worshiping fans, but he had to drop the project to be with his family after his daughter committed suicide, so Whedon took over the post-production duties. Whedon did more than oversee the final touches, though, and instead made drastic changes to the film. After viewers were disappointed by Whedon’s version, they demanded to see Snyder’s, which the studio released in 2021; yet, before its release in 2020, the cast began speaking out about their experiences with Whedon. What precipitated the avalanche of testimonies regarding Whedon’s workplace behaviour was a July 2020 tweet by Ray Fisher saying that “Joss Whedon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” Following Fisher’s statement, allegations of racist treatment of the actor and character surfaced, and other actors came forward with their experiences. Suddenly, the fans who worshiped Snyder were attacking Whedon online, and those who previously worshipped Whedon weren’t sure what to do. Allegations of Whedon abusing his power continued to emerge over the next few months, but what put the nail in the coffin holding Whedon’s reputation happened in 2021 when Charisma Carpenter went to Twitter to rehash her experiences with Whedon on the set of Angel. This was not the first time she had discussed his “casually cruel” behaviour or her wrongful dismissal; in fact, “the actress has been talking about it with fans and reporters for more than a decade” (Vulture), but it was nonetheless the final straw. By the time the first half-season of The Nevers (2021) premiered on HBO, promising Whedon’s return to television, Joss Whedon had already stepped down as the showrunner, and the marketing did not acknowledge his involvement. In the year and a half since its airing, HBO has cancelled the show and removed the already aired episodes from their library—HBO, at the very least, is treating Whedon to the full cancellation treatment, and we will see who follows suit.

But what does this all mean to the fandom and scholars? In truth, no one is sure, but they have been asking just that for the past two years. Since so many people around the world love BtVS so much and yet are so deeply disappointed in what has come to light about Whedon, many people have decided to divorce the art from the artist, completely ignoring Whedon’s role in its production, or they have erased BtVS from their lives. These are both flawed responses. The first response, where people have separated the art from the artist, neglects the richness of potential scholarship or understanding that becomes available by analyzing BtVS alongside what we now know about Whedon. As one article explains, “the belief that [Buffy’s] story was something other than a projection of his psyche is ultimately just another fantasy. Whedon did understand pain — his own. Some of that pain, as he once put it to me, ‘spilled over’ into the people around him. And some of it was channeled into his art” (Vulture). There is new and rich nuance to BtVS that fans and scholars alike should not ignore. The second response ignores the contributions of everyone else who worked on the show; it feels inappropriate to disregard the effort of these writers, producers, directors, makeup artists, costume designers, set designers, actors, and the list goes on, especially if they continued to contribute to a project they saw the merits in despite the work environment being less than ideal or even toxic and abusive. If they endured Whedon’s cruelty during BtVS’ production, then we should acknowledge and be thankful for their work rather than dismiss it because of their boss’ wrongdoings.

After all, BtVS now belongs to the fans and scholars who have made it what it is, and although people throw this sentiment around, it is grounded in literary theory, that being Roland Barthes’ ‘Death of the Author’ essay from 1967. In this essay, Barthes puts forth that we, as fans and scholars, should not study a work in tandem with its author and that an author does not exist in the way we think of it. It’s a complicated essay, so let’s pick out some pieces that help us understand BtVS and Whedon. Barthes makes two foundational statements about authorship: “writing is the destruction of every voice, every origin. […] this gap appears, the voice loses its origin, the author enters into his own death, writing begins,” and “the text is a fabric of quotations, resulting from a thousand sources of culture. […] the writer can only imitate an ever anterior, never original gesture.” According to Barthes, the author does not create anything new but instead translates, borrows, and recontextualizes what already exists; further, he is not doing so with his own voice, but he is merely the medium through which these previous sources move—the author dies as the work is born. Relating this to BtVS, we must remind ourselves of what the writers claimed to be their inspirations, but also what we see within the series since the show as a whole may appear new despite everything within it has previously existed and carries meaning with it. All those pop culture references that the show makes seem inconsequential but may be much more significant than we previously understood since the significance behind these references impacts the meaning of BtVS.

BtVS’ authorship is further complicated when we consider Barthes’ assertions that “to assign an Author to a text is to impose a brake on it, to furnish it with a final signified, to close writing. […] once the Author is found, the text is ‘explained.’” Although I just explained how I believe that we should acknowledge Whedon’s influence on BtVS, I want to emphasize that we will never truly understand the collective authorship of BtVS since so many talented writers were in the writing room, many individuals worked on the project, and even the viewers were able to impact the show’s development. Finally, Barthes makes the point that art belongs to the fans, saying that “the unity of a text is not in its origin but in its destination,” and I understand this to mean that the meaning of art is not decided by the author or writer but by the reader or watcher, and gives them what they need from it. Each BtVS viewer came to the show from a different place, and yet so many people found something special in it which spoke to them, and the writers may claim to have meant these things or not, but the meaning, or “unity of a text,” is not dictated by the writers, but by the fans, the “destination.”

Joss Whedon may have written the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer script thirty years ago, and the show may have concluded twenty years ago, but BtVS never truly belonged to Whedon. BtVS has always belonged to the viewers, fans, and scholars, so although Whedon’s actions have added complications to the series and how people now enjoy it, they should not stop anyone’s enjoyment of it.

That’s that for this Sunnydale study session!

Liz

TL;DR: Whedon sucks and I recommend you read these articles:

https://www.vulture.com/article/joss-whedon-allegations.html

https://www.thewrap.com/joss-whedon-feminist-hypocrite-infidelity-affairs-ex-wife-kai-cole-says/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7d34y/when-joss-whedon-was-our-master

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #btvs #buffy #buffystudies #joss whedon #whedonverse

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knickynoo · 10 months

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Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s02ep03 “A Friend In Deed” Review and Commentary

Previous episodes linked here.

In this episode: Lots of funny moments, another woman from the past falls in love with Marty, and I go on ramblings about Tiffany Tannen and my dislike of Cartoon Marty.

Season 2 of the animated series is really making use of green screens, huh? In episode one, Doc was stranded on an island, then he was in outer space in episode two, and now he's at the "Hill Valley Beach and Synchronized Swimming Center." He's wearing a funky outfit and using a metal detector to search for money in the sand.

Is this the first time we're seeing Doc in shorts?? I can't recall, but it might be.

He tells us that he's found 85¢ so far and that it's only cost him $200 in equipment to do so. Oh, Doc. You are one of a kind.

He leads us into a story of another situation that involved buried valuables. And instead of the story beginning like it typically does with, "It all started when my sons..." or "It all started when Marty...", this story begins with Biff. And that lets us know right off the bat that it's all downhill from here, lol.

Cue the cartoon!

We begin at the Tannen residence (always a treat to hear Tom Wilson's voice), where Biff has decided that what his family needs is a swimming pool. Yes, his family. And who do we meet? His son!

I've always been intrigued by what adult Biff's family situation was like. I know that an early draft of the film had George buying the peanut brittle from Biff's young daughter and that the BTTF card game and the Citizen Brown comics mention Biff's teenage daughter Tiffany Tannen. (She was also supposed to have a role in the video game, but her character was cut and "combined" with the alternate version of Jennifer.) This is the concept art for her.

There's also speculation that Tiff might be included in the "Continuum Conundrum" series from the IDW comics. In the story, which takes place in the months following Marty's return home after part III, there's mention of Jennifer's friend group, which includes someone named "Tiffany." Some fans headcanon that this is a referring to Tiff Tannen. I don't really have an opinion on the theory one way or another, but it would be SUPER interesting if one of Jennifer Parker's best friends in the Lone Pine Timeline is Biff's daughter.

I would LOVE to see fanfics that include her or even focus on her. There's so much potential! You could have her resemble what she was supposed to be in the game—all rough around the edges and 100% a Tannen—or completely rework her to be a genuinely nice person. Maybe she actively rejects the Tannen reputation. Maybe she's a sweet person, but people are wary of her and judge her based on her appearance or her name. Maybe she is friends with Jen and thinks Marty is a neat guy. So much someone can do.

I digress.

In typical Biff fashion, he's going to make his young son dig the hole for a pool while he sits around in a lounge chair. Father of the year. Also, we haven't seen a whole lot of Biff so far in this series, so I haven't had anything to say about him, but it's clear he's not the meek version of Biff we have at the end of the first film. Cartoon Biff acts very much like he was never taken down a notch or had anything happen to humble him. So...I wonder what the story is there.

(Side note to also mention that we haven't seen—or even heard of—George and Lorraine. Marty's just always at Doc's house, with no information on parents or siblings. I wouldn't be surprised if a young kid watching this in 1992 without having seen the movies simply thought that Marty was part of Doc's family.)

While digging, Little Biff (referred to as Junior) unearths a piece of paper. We don't know what it is, but Biff gets a smile on his face as he reads it, so it can't be good. We cut immediately to the Parker family ranch!

Jen's family owns a ranch! I love it!

Marty is there having lunch with Jen and her grandparents, but it is NOT going well. Because Cartoon Marty is nearly unrecognizable from his Movie Counterpart, he's being an immature, disrespectful doofus around Jen's relatives. He places a whoopee cushion on Jennifer's grandmother's seat, then puts a fake ice cube with a spider "frozen" in it into her drink. And he just sits there hysterically laughing even though nobody else thinks it's funny. Jennifer's grandfather in particular becomes angered by Marty's incessant pranking.

Grandpa Parker, considering pummeling Marty.

And I know I've mentioned many times about how much I dislike the choices made with Marty's character, but. Seriously, what happened here? WHO made these choices and why didn't Bob Gale stop them? This might as well have been a completely different character, that's how unlike Marty he is. He's self-centered a lot of the time. He's dishonest (there was a whole episode where he just piles on lie after lie). He's cocky and inconsiderate and ridiculously immature. He is NOT my Marty McFly.

See the boy on the left? Love the boy on the left. Fantastic little dude. Five out of five stars. See the boy on the right? Don't like him all that much. Many things wrong. Sad.

It bums me out that they took such a great, loveable guy and ripped all his great traits to shreds, leaving us with whatever it is Cartoon Marty's got going on. I don't even know. Guy's got issues.

Time to reel my focus back in. Just as Grandpa Parker seems poised to give Marty a serious talking to, Biff shows up wit the police. Marty asks Jennifer why her grandparents would invite Biff because, "He's a jerk with a bad sense of humor."

"Look who's talking," Jen's grandfather replies.

Go. Grandpa. Parker.

When Grandpa Parker orders Biff off his land, Biff informs him that it's HIS land. The piece of paper he found in his yard was a deed to the Parker property dated 1875 and signed by one of Jen's relatives, as well as Biff's great-great-granduncle.

Biff tells the Parkers that he's going to turn the ranch into a toxic waste dump and miniature golf course, which is both horrible and very funny. Quite in-character for Biff Tannen. As he prepares to order the house to be demolished, Jennifer calls to Marty for help, but he's taken off on his hoverboard. Assuming that he's doing it to run away from the trouble, Jennifer proclaims, "There's nothing worse than a chicken." The actual, literal chicken standing beside her gets very insulted and walks away, lol.

We then go to the Brown home, where Verne is impatiently waiting to eat. Jules is making him pancakes on a ridiculous specialized griddle he invented because Jules is extra like that.

Marty bursts into the kitchen, yelling that he needs to borrow the DeLorean to help Jen's family. Jules informs him that the car isn't there—Doc and Clara have taken it to go see Hamlet, performed by the original cast—but that he can use the train. Marty and the boys take off for 1875.

Once there, Marty immediately sets his sights on warning Jennifer's relatives about the ranch. However, he's interrupted before he can do so, on account of another woman spies Marty and immediately has a crush on him (naturally). I should have been keeping count of how many episodes include someone laying eyes on Marty and falling in love with him.

But wait. Wait. You NEED to know how the scene starts off. The woman walks straight up to Marty and goes, "Howdy, handsome!" followed immediately by this:

Verne: "Handsome? Get real."

Jules: "Get glasses!"

Had to stop it right there because I was laughing. Jules and Verne think Marty is ugly CONFIRMED.

Anyway, the woman ends up being Hepzibah Tannen, sister of Thaddeus Tannen (whose name was on the deed). And Hepzibah is head-over-heels for Marty. At one point, Marty ends up at her house, and Thaddeus is not thrilled to meet him. Before he can toss him out, Hepzibah picks Marty up, holds him close, and shouts at her brother, "Give me that! It's mine!"

Ridiculous.

Since his sister is so in love, Thaddeus agrees to let Marty join his gang. Thaddeus teaches Marty how to box and how to steal things from people (Marty immediately returns the items when Thaddeus isn't looking. +1 point for Cartoon Marty). Marty also continues his practical jokes by giving Thaddeus gum that turns your mouth black. Thaddeus isn't happy. This is necessary info to understand part of the next scene.

Back on the Parker ranch, where Jules and Verne have become farmhands, they come across these posters.

Several things to note here. 1. "DEAD OR UNALIVE" 2. Marty's gum gave Thaddeus a nickname. 3. Marty is only "sort of wanted" 4. Thaddeus evidently decked Marty for playing a prank on him.

Later on at the Tannen home, Thaddus suggests Marty and Hepzibah get married. This is followed by some very funny dialogue.

I'm definitely finding the humor to be better in the second season. I've laughed out loud several times since I started it.

The next day, Thaddeus and one of his other gang members go off to get Marty and Hepzibah a wedding present. Marty manages to sneak away from his "engagement picnic" to intercept Thaddeus, who is in the process of stealing the ranch from Mr. Parker. He has Mrs. Parker tied to the railroad tracks, and the only way he'll let her loose is if the deed to the ranch is signed over. This is his wedding present to his sister and Marty.

Which. Doesn't really make sense? I mean, it makes sense here, but then what motivated him to steal it originally, before Marty time traveled? Maybe Hepzibah had fallen for a different guy? Or Thaddeus simply wanted the ranch just because? Idk.

When Thaddeus goes to sign the deed, Marty lends him a pen (which is another prank, hehe. The pen has ink that eventually fades away.) Thaddeus then refuses to untie Mrs. Parker, so Marty refuses to go back home with him. Thaddeus leaves, Marty, Jules, and Verne save Mrs. Parker, and all is well. Marty assures the Parkers that their ranch is safe, and he hops on the time-train with the boys.

Marty returns to the present-day ranch, stops the bulldozer, and shows everyone the deed, which now has no signatures. Biff gets a citation for disturbing the peace, and Marty is back in Jennifer's good graces. The end!

Back at the beach, Real Doc digs up an antique fountain pen, accidentally squirts himself in the eye with the ink, and then leads us into the experiment portion of the show, where we're taught how to make invisible ink. We then return to Doc, who finds something else with his metal detector: the keys to the DeLorean that he'd lost the week prior. Yep. Doc had been searching the sand all that time for his car keys. Goofy guy.

Fun episode. I always enjoy when they're Marty, Jules, and Verne-centered, and this was a funny one as well. It was neat having an episode with so much Tom Wilson! (he voiced Biff and Thaddeus)

Wow, this post was a long one. I did go on a few side-tangents, haha. To those who read this whole thing: thanks for sticking with me. I'm so glad there are people who enjoy reading these silly episode commentary posts!

Join me next time to see Marty accidentally join the army in 1944.

#back to the future #bttf #bttf: the animated series

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