I love good guys

For the first time in at least seven years, and the second time ever, I've replaced my default userpic icon, both here on DW and on the AO3! As you may know, updating userpic icons is one of my fannish resolutions for this year.

This new icon is an excerpt from a French 1936 trading-card illustration painting (artist unknown) that advertised a company making meat stock and bullion cubes (I kid you not). It depicts the "Matter of France" literary scene in which Bradamante (a woman knight in the service of Charlemagne) defeats an enemy who had caused her to fall behind the rest of the French forces. In the full painting, we see that Bradamante and her horse are on a bridge over a natural moat in front of a castle seemingly built into a cliffside, and her defeated enemy and his horse are falling from the bridge into the moat. I applied a slight color filter to hopefully subtly boost an impression of dawn, not dusk, but didn't otherwise interfere with the artist's lovely work.

I plan to similarly replace the banner on my DW with an adapted excerpt from this same public-domain painting. This will likely take some time.

(Bradamante's primary literary appearances are Orlando Innamorato (1483) by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando Furioso (1516) by Ludovico Ariosto. I haven't yet read either. They're on the list! There's always Wikipedia. The trope by which we get women knights in these Renaissance depictions of imagined early-medieval adventures is that the enemy was actively invading France: all hands on deck. Also, Furioso is apparently a genre parody.)


---
Entirely separately, fkficfest '24 is underway! The first story has been revealed. We'll have one or two new stories every day for two weeks. I hope that many people will have time to read and will find works they enjoy! If you do read, please be generous with comments, kudos, and recommendations, whether on the AO3, DW, or elsewhere.

Ages ago, I decided that the conceit of the "Bright Knight" logo on my FK userpic icons was a bit silly.  It took time to re-make and re-load them all!  But I now have a completely refreshed set.  I'm very pleased with the way many came out (e.g. Faith, Vachon's Crew, Janette), although others fall short and frustrate me (e.g. Guest Star, Kids).

I still intend my loaded userpic icons for myself alone; please forgive my arrogance in supposing this needs to be said, but they're not up for grabs.  Instead, of course, I've made dozens of other userpic icons that are meant for anyone!  If you're in the market, check out these assortments: Schanke, Bechdel Test-passing, Janette and Nick, Fleur, Seasons and Factions, Natalie.  (Or, if you're on my f-list/r-page, feel free to request a custom icon; I enjoy making them, and I learn the craft in the doing.)

Recently on my LJ Friends List and DW Reading Page:

DVDs and Airings

• On 03/06, pj1228 announced that the Region 2 DVDs are out at last!  First season, anyway.  European fans, I'm so happy for you!  She shared photos of the packaging, and let us know the all-important fact that the missing clips are in there, but are in German only, although the DVDs have English and German audio tracks.  I'll gladly take them in any language!  But this makes me suspect that the uncut masters no longer exist in English, unfortunately.
• On 03/16 and also on 03/01, someone posted behind a lock about Chiller's continuing FK marathons.  Go Chiller!

Cast and Crew

• On 03/12, abby82 let us know that The Border has been canceled.  This is the drama series on which both Catherine Disher and Nigel Bennett had recurring roles, Gary Farmer once guest-starred, and some FK crew alumni were regular contributors, too.  Hopefully, there will be great new shows for everyone next season.


• On 02/23, hearts_blood described purchasing GWD's two audiobooks.

Essays/Meta

• On 03/13, gnosticdiva reviewed "For I Have Sinned."


• On 02/20, hearts_blood discoursed on historical and contemporary uses of the vampire metaphor, including FK.

Graphic Art

• On 03/12, senmut shared some userpic icons of Erica.
• On 02/14, abby82 shared the Janette collages that she created for halfamoon.

FKFicFest

• We're currently at 16 committed players on fkficfest, with sign-ups open through Thursday, March 18, 11:59 PM Pacific Time.


• Several people have announced publicly that they've signed up for FKFicFest, including Celli, Wiliqueen and Leela-cat.  (Others have mentioned it behind locks.)


• We've also had generous mentions from Havocthecat and Amilyn on their own journals, Abby82 on FK-Fanfiction and on FK-Freaks, and I received the mods' kind permission to plug us in Oldschoolfic and Femme-Fic.

Fanfiction and Other Ficathons

• On 03/13, gnosticdiva posted her stories from oxoniensis's Porn Battle 9 to her own journal: Making Up" (Nick/Natalie, NC-17), "Ménage à Trois (Nick/Natalie/Janette, NC-17), and "Partners" (Nick/Tracy, NC-17).


• On 03/08, celli announced that the 2010 TaxFic Challenge is open!  FK is eligible, and has been written for this event in the past.

Recently, in FK on my LJ Friends List:

Memes. 

• On 04/30, havocthecat listed Natalie, Janette, Tracy, Erica, Fleur, Cohen, Myra, and Naomi Ross (from "Near Death"), and ithildyn listed Janette, in the "She's Awesome" (female characters) meme.
  
• On 04/24, ithildyn answered the "Writer's Block: Celebrating Friendships" question with "the Forever Knight 1996 group."
  
• On 04/03, amilyn described both Grace and Natalie in the "Name a Character" meme.

Graphics. 

• On 04/26, abby82 shared an extensive tribute to the beloved popcorn-throwing scene at the end of "False Witness," including multiple collages and transcribed dialogue.
  
• On 04/16, abby82 posted 24 FK userpic icons, in assorted subjects from all seasons.  Many of them are downright funny and clever, so you may want to take a peek even if you're full-up on icons.

Cast and Crew. 

• On 04/20, abby82 reported the news that the Red Barn Theater was destroyed in a fire.  In '94, Geraint Wyn Davies and Catherine Disher performed there.
  
• On 04/18, pj1228 reviewed Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story, co-starring Nigel Bennett as a newspaper publisher.  She's got screenshots...
  
• On 04/13, abby82 shared a detailed, screenshot-rich recap of the movie The Vindicator
  (1986), co-starring Catherine Disher.  Need a photo of "young Natalie" to Photoshop into FKness?  Try these!

This is so late for any of the holidays she mentioned that she's probably forgotten, but nevertheless this post is for falcon_horus, who specifically requested some new Fleur toys to play with.

Wallpaper.  Here is the ficathon wallpaper I made and used while writing "Starwort" to that quotation-prompt in the femme_fic event about a year ago.  Here is an alternate wallpaper I made for another story idea (an AU) for that same prompt, but which I haven't written yet because I couldn't complete the historical research in time.  And here is a plain old Faithful wallpaper collage.

Icons.  Here are twelve new Fleur user-pic icons, available if you would like them:

1.	2.	3.

( More Icons )