AAaA Byron 2
Hmmm, what to say about this one. I feel like a lot of what Byron goes into here about his weapons of choice, I’ve already discussed in the annos or treated as fairly obvious. I doubt I need to explain why Byron gives an abbreviated account of Bayen and Brayen’s demises, for instance, which we would shortly be expanding upon in the main text. As with many things about Byron, the short answer is berserk-related trauma… but because of what we’d soon be doing to him in the main canon, we show him as pretty put-together here, for contrast.
Another year’s arrived, and I have to say I’m still not feeling the drive to work on a fresh comics project. That is weird for me to say, considering I once planned to be doing nothing but comics scriptwriting into my eighties. I’ve got creative stuff keeping me busy… I’m reworking Shakespeare’s Trump in light of recent events, may have another fictive exercise out next month, and am puttering away hard on a big crossword project I hope to have out before summer. And I do still edit Gisele Lagace’s comic and her various side projects, contributing dialogue here and there. And then there’s some editing for Seven Seas manga translations. So I’m not completely “out.”
But scripting a new comics series of my own, the desire isn’t there. Even though I feel like I have the knowledge to do a better job than ever before, my passion has shifted to exploring other areas, other media. Maybe that’ll have changed by the time these annotations wrap up, and maybe not. But one thing I’ve learned the hard way is that you can’t force the muse too far, no matter what you think the audience would like to see from you.
Oh?… Shakespeare’s Biden perhaps?
[couldn’t resist. ;-) ]
That video, man … that video is the reason I stopped finding Fatboy Slim horribly annoying and started appreciating his music.
So, Mr. Campbell, if you’re not feeling motivated to start a new comic in this particular moment, does that mean you’re not interested in revisiting an old comic of yours? Perhaps one that might have several FANS left? *Big, awkward grin*
I appreciate the ask, it’s nice to hear! But there are a lot of reasons why I wouldn’t want to do Fans again. Maybe I’ll go into all those later, but most important (and most relevant to Guilded Age) is that I feel like the ending is as satisfying as we could make it. I’ve seen too many franchises ruined by endless sequels to think that sort of thing couldn’t happen to us.
Bummer. I was curious to see what those characters had to say about the current state of fandom. Anyway, thanks for answering my question
Well, I can tell you a little bit about what they’d say. Short answer: they would not be terribly happy about it.
I’ll resist the temptation to go off on too many tangents. Rikk, whose ideology always led the others’, believed in fandom as a unifying force for all those with imagination, all those who are going to respond to geeky things. While not blind to some bad apples within it, he considered it a great community, had a utopian vision for it, and was willing to fight a world that seemed poised to crush it.
Well, it didn’t. Fandom in 2021 is almost inarguably mainstream, with dozens of different flavors and subcultures within it. But the idea of it as a safe space against the unfeeling, uncaring mainstream is a lot harder to believe in, the more stories you read about cyberbullying in fan communities (like, could you misread the message of Steven Universe any harder?) and gamers issuing death threats to game critics.
It seems to me, and I think it would seem to Rikk, that some geeks are still clinging to the idea that their interests make them pariahs, and using that to justify all sorts of terrible behavior as a necessary backlash against the world that’s done them wrong.
Rikk loves fandom… but he also loves God and morality, and he’s not able to function unless he’s organized his life in a way that the things he loves work together with minimal conflict. So he would now be taking more stands against other self-described fans, trying to carve out a more moral culture within fandom. And some people who listened to his earlier rhetoric might feel betrayed by that.
I don’t think the other main characters of Fans would be among those who felt betrayed– well, Jesse might, and Baxter might’ve gotten radicalized if he didn’t have Di in his life. But some of them wouldn’t have the stomach to follow him into this new fight, and that’d be rough. Alisin (possibly going by Alison at this point) would not be up for it: she’d be focused on nurturing the homestead and the kids, and she’d see this as putting them in more danger than it’s worth. Will and Shanna would be too concerned about their security work to compromise it by weighing in on this. Kath would probably be caucusing with the Democrats at this point or taking a few years off from Washington, but she’s sure not tying her political destiny to Rikk’s. Tim, who always enjoyed saying outrageous things without any consequences for him or others, would probably get himself cancelled if he stepped into this sphere, but he might be smart enough to anticipate that and therefore not try. Rumy and Hilda would be Rikk’s most fervent followers, though, and Baxter, Di, Zaha, Rico, and oddly, Professor Fitz would be all about it. Fitz knows what it’s like not to feel like you belong in your own body.
I admit this sounds like an interesting hook when I lay it out like this. But I feel like on the page, it might get preachy very quickly. And even if it didn’t, I don’t think I’d enjoy wading into today’s fan politics, knowing full well that some readers would find me an SJW scold and others would be disappointed I hadn’t gone far enough.
I think Fans was always conscious of the fact that the root word of “fan” is “fanatic” and tried not to endorse extremism. We had a few laughs at Will for getting angry about Harry Potter/Pokémon crossover fic. We had villains who embodied fandom’s dark underbelly, like the uberintellectual narcissist Thack, the sadistic edgelord Keith, and the gradually self-radicalized Tim the Fanboy, who could forgive no flaws in the things he loved. I’d rather let those examples stand than risk sequelitis. Some other work, I’m sure, will peg the current era of fandom better than I could, if it hasn’t already.
I wasn’t expecting such an elaborated answer! Thank you very much. I’m tempted to keep asking questions, but I’ll quit while I’m ahead. Much obliged.
For what it’s worth, I think the translations in Seven Seas Mangas are tremendous.
Aw, thanks! (I’m… far from the only person working on them, but I still appreciate it!)