brightknightie | Entries tagged with comics

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I went to Dickens Fair again this year and had a lovely time. As a fan of nineteenth-century literature and history, I find it immensely fun! It's certainly also delightful for a much broader circle than just those interests, though, and I'd like you all to know that it is a thing! The shortest description is: Dickens Fair is like a Renaissance Faire, except it's Victorian London at Christmastime. Imagine walking into the pages of A Christmas Carol, and, among the crowd, potentially running into not only the characters of that novel, but all Dickens novels and many other novels of that vintage, plus real historical folks, from Dickens himself to the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to Charlotte Bronte and Oscar Wilde. And, of course, Father Christmas.

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander exchange, released 20 new stories, and is currently in its "author guessing game phase," with reveals planned for January 5.
- snowflake_challenge, the annual challenge to highlight what we love about fandom and our fellow fans, with prompts but no deadlines, is up and running for '26.
- purimgifts, the annual exchange featuring characters "who are at least one of: women, Jewish, or persecuted (preferably by evil viziers)," has nominations and sign-ups 1/02-08; due 2/23.
- candyheartsex, an exchange focused on relationships (both platonic and not), has sign-ups through January 7.
- beagoldfish, a low-stakes "make-a-thon," runs through February 28.
- crackthewip, a fest encouraging finishing works-in-progress (WIPs), has both sign-ups and posting through June 30.
- inkingitout, an annual challenge to write 75K+ words, has sign-ups through January 3.
- rewrite_a_fic, a challenge to rewrite one of your own stories, runs through November 30.
- goals_on_dw is hosting a '26 "Fannish 50" blogging challenge.
- comment_bingo, a challenge to comment on others' works, runs its current round until March 31.
- allbingo's January theme is "Public Domain Day."
- trope_of_the_month's January theme is an amnesty (wild card for any previous month).
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); January theme: "crack [that is, bonkers story concepts] treated seriously"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've realized that as much as I enjoy Jed MacKay's comic-book writing -- I picked up his Nova: Centurian series sight-unseen and will give it a fair shot, though I've never been interested in Nova -- the eighteen-issues-a-year release schedule for his X-Men run is wearing me out, and I don't even read any of the other gazillion X-titles. Money-grubbing, much, Marvel? Or just bitterly regretting what you did to the line to poison 20th-Century Fox's movie well? I may drop the series when this current storyline ends in a few months if they don't cut it out. (I hope they don't wear MacKay out!)

Thundarr the Barbarian (cartoon, 1980-81) will get a comic run, for the first time ever, starting in January 2026. This news broke at least as far back as June, but I saw it (at least to remember) only yesterday. Here's the CBR article. The publisher is Dynamite Entertainment, with writer Jason Aaron and artist Kewber Baal.

promo image

This cartoon re-ran for many, many years on Saturday mornings; I met it around '84, probably, and I loved it. I own a print-on-demand copy of the DVDs (its only kind of DVDs). I hope that this comic run will be all it should be; I'll probably dip my toe in with high hopes.

Yet I also feel caution. Two years or so ago when my beloved Dungeons & Dragons (cartoon, 1983-85) got its first comic run (from IDW, not Dynamite), the initial arc of stories was fun, though I had quibbles, especially with the too-obviously copy/paste-panels art, but the second arc made the sad mistake of trying to move on from what made the original series great. It casually, off-screen, gave the kids swords, breaking the prime no-offensive-weapons directive of the network censors that had forced the original series to tell stories in other ways and had shaped the characters and the audience. It also brought in a parade of name-brand guest stars from modern Forgotten Realms properties without making them really serve the D&DC story, which the original series had done with its much more occasional red-box NPCs.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I'm continuing to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and (of course) loving it. I'm mid-game-ish now, facing vicious white Bokoblins but only my third red-maned Lynel, having maxed my stamina wheel but only half of my hearts, triggered all the Divine Beasts quests but freed only one, and am single-handedly juicing Hyrule's economy through the purchase of bomb arrows. ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander exchange, has sign-ups through 10/11; due 12/15.
- yuletide_admin, the massive annual small fandoms exchange, has sign-ups through 10/24; due 12/17.
- smallfandombang, the small fandoms big-bang, has author sign-ups through 10/31 and author sign-ups through 11/01.
- ladiesbingo, a bingo challenge for relationships between women characters, runs from September through March.
- austenexchange is hosting a prompt-fest through 12/16 to celebrate Jane Austen's 250th birthday.
- janeuary-month is a daily-themes Jane Austen fanworks event throughout January '26.
- latetreatbonanza is designed to help motivate folks to finish late gifts, with a collection, deadline, and reveal. Works due 12/24.
- communal_creators, a community for mutual encouragement among creators, runs its current round through 10/15.
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, tardis_festivities and rarepairexchange are seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); October theme: "uncommon settings"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: I've removed Doctor Strange from my comic shop pull-list and replaced it with the upcoming Nova series. Doctor Strange's current author focuses on Stephen as a detective, which is classic and welcome, but has relocated him away from his stomping grounds and supporting cast, which isn't. I am only tangentially aware of Nova, but Jed MacKay will write this series, and his writing single-handedly brought me back to reading monthly comics, so... Fingers crossed!

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I feel that both Superman (2025) and Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) are good movies and strongly recommend them to general audiences looking for a pleasant time at the cinema this summer. I have literary and fannish critiques of the execution of each (of course I do), yet I feel bad about critiquing at all. I so want them both to succeed! And I so wanted them both to be not just good, or very good, but indeed knock-my-socks-off great, and I don't love how the release proximity invites ranking... but that would have been present, anyway, as each has just about the same "job" not just as an IP entry but in its writers' and director's choices. ( Very light spoilers )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- fan_writers is a community for discussion, reflection, and tools for writers, with emphasis on writing fanfic but not excluding writing original fic (or non-fic).
- dreams_mayhem is a competitive creative challenge with weekly games for points.
- seasons_of_fandom is the landcomm formerly known as lands_of_magic, relaunched to reflect that they are panfandom, not fantasy-exclusive.
- ficinabox is a somewhat complex exchange, with a 10K+ words minimum that may or may not be spread, via swaps, across multiple works and/or multiple fandoms and recipients. Nominations through August 12; sign-ups through August 31; due October 19.
- fffc is a low-pressure challenge community for creating something small-ish each week (like a drabble or haiku or equivalent in another medium). Prompts post on Fridays.
- fic_promptly is a comment-fic community.
- trope_of_the_month's August theme is "omegaverse."
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, caseficexchange is seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); August theme: "marriage of convenience"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Did you know that Marvel Comics released a "prequel" comic (single issue) to the Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) movie? The first print run sold out; I'm waiting for a copy from the second. It's not just any old prelude to the events of the movie, but covers the same ground as some of the cut footage. Specifically, it sets up ( mild spoiler )

My copy of OSP Red's Aurora (Volume 1) webcomic compilation is out for delivery. Your copy may be on the shelves at your local bookstore or library by the end of the day, or at least by sometime next week. Or you could just read it instantly and for free online, of course: https://comicaurora.com/books/

She's been publishing 3 pages per week, Monday - Wednesday - Friday, give or take occasional healthy vacation breaks, for ~6 years now.

If you like a motley five-man-band questing party with superhero-team dynamics, power-of-friendship energy, and a self-sacrificing leader in an endangered, pseudo-medieval, fantasy-races, elemental-magic world influenced by everything yet like nothing else ... come play. :-)

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: TVA: Time Variance Authority #1-4
I had no intention of picking up this comic. Then I learned that the Sylvie character from the Loki TV show would be in issue #2, and I thought, well, I'll try that one issue... and here I am now with all 4 issues to date, having enjoyed Katharyn Blair's writing enough that I'm recommending it. ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- fkficfest elected 5 prompts for this year's stories, which come due May 24.
- all_worlds_of_mccaffrey is a new community celebrating Anne McCaffrey in the lead-up to her 100th birthday in 2026.
- saturdaymorningex is an exchange for cartoon/animated fandoms, with nominations through April 18, signups through May 9, and works due June 20.
- caseficexchange is an exchange for investigations of all kinds, with nominations through April 13 and works due July 11.
- spring_renewal is a spring-themed prompt fest, with prompting through April 6 and fills through April 30.
- idproquo is an exchange for self-indulgent (well, recipient-indulgent!) works, with signups through April 7 and works due June 1.
- bitesizedfandomsex is an exchange for canons consumable in ≤8 hours, with signups through April 8 and works due May 25.
- whumpex is an exchange for "whump"-themed works, with nominations through April 12, sign-ups through April 27, and works due May 27.
- unconventionalcourtship is a challenge for stories based on a Harlequin (Mills & Boon) novel summary.
- sweetandshort is a challenge community for weekly small creations with 4 prompts/month.
- fic_promptly is an ongoing promptfest community.
- trope_of_the_month's April theme is "crossovers."
- allbingo's April theme is "aesthetics."
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, the_mane_event is seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); April theme: "outsider POV"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: TLOZ on Nintendo Switch 2
Price and release issues aside -- neither of which are Nintendo's fault -- I am still hoping to be able to buy the Switch 2 I saved for. Even if I can't, someone will, and there will be transcripts, YouTube videos, and wiki updates sharing the new stories, which is the important thing! ( Read more... )

Yay! Pre-orders are open for the first hard-copy edition of the first eleven chapters/issues of the webcomic Aurora by OSP Red! I have pre-ordered.

We can pre-order from Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, all the usual suspects. Get the pre-order details directly from Red's page. In addition to the first 11 chapters/issues (including covers), the hard-copy will have:

Introductory author’s note
Author commentary at the end of each chapter
Development sketches and extra art pieces
A certain character's diary entries (never before seen)
and more

Aurora is a fantasy webcomic very big on found family, the power of friendship, and identity. It also has its share of self-sacrifice and hurt/comfort. It's one of those fantasy universes where most everyone is humanoid but not everyone is human, gods/demigods muck around in human affairs for fun and power, and there's a pile of worldbuilding slowly revealed. The art style has many influences -- I believe that I can see Elfquest and Girl Genius and a lot of cartoons -- but is awkward to sum up. Lots of floofy hair, few detailed backgrounds? The artist made a font of her own handwriting. To start from the beginning, check out the archive.

Or jump right to the current page. Red reliably publishes 3 pages per week, give or take a couple of vacations per year. We're presently in Arc II Chapter 4 (aka issue 27).

snowflake_challenge '25:- Share [a] favorite piece of original canon

One favorite is a single page of Marvel Team-up Annual #5 (1982) by Mark Gruenwald (script & "breakdowns"). It's available inside the Thing: The Serpent Crown Affair anthology, as well as digital and the original paper. None of the surrounding story is important to what this page accomplishes for the characters or how it clicked with my imagination (not in c.'82 when it somehow came into the household, possibly for a long car trip, but in c.'84 when I imprinted on it).

Memory only:
A bald man and a curly-haired woman in ordinary clothes, together in a dark, crowded movie theater, enjoy Raiders of the Lost Ark. Suddenly, ghostly snakes writhe out of the screen! The woman gasps, recoils, stands, and heads down the row of seats. Only she sees the snakes. Concerned, the man follows her to the lobby, where the lights reveal that his skin is red -- literally, artificially, synthezoid red -- and he asks her if she's all right. As she tells him about the snakes and her suspicions, she gestures and transforms her ordinary clothes into a scarlet and magenta super-hero costume with a swirling cape and peaked headband. "I will come with you," he volunteers. "No," she puts her hand on his arm. "This is a job for the Scarlet Witch. You enjoy the movie. If I'm not back by dawn, gather the Avengers and come running!"

Double-checking:
It's one page + one facing panel. The costume transformation is unseen, elided with a "Soon, outside..." transition. And the final lines are actually: "The Scarlet Witch must find out why!" / "You do not want me to come with you?" / "No, my love -- your strength must be kept in reserve. If you do not hear from me within twenty-four hours, notify the Avengers and come running!"

That launched the Scarlet Witch as my favorite superhero. And it made Wanda and Vision not only one of my very few OTPs -- fight me, Marvel -- but an enduring image of a complementary, companionate relationship between healthy adults, as later dwelt on in Steve Englehart's The Vision and the Scarlet Witch Volume 2 limited series (1985-86), which is the basis of Wandavision, despite all the misuses and mischaracterizations since. (Mr. Byrne, you were wrong; Vision is not a toaster; Wanda is not mentally ill for loving him; how could you not see the metaphors? Or did you see and acted to veto?) (DC physically fridges its heroines. Marvel psychologically fridges them.)

Yes, I have wondered whether Jac Schaeffer (head writer of Wandavision; producer of Agatha All Along; sadly no longer attached to the upcoming Visionquest) also imprinted on that page or an equivalent in her own way, in her own time.

The trailer for Daredevil: Born Again dropped yesterday. Watch it on YouTube. The show will premiere in March. This, of course, is the Disney+ re-launch of the Netflix Daredevil TV show; it got retooled in development to more closely resemble the Netflix incarnation than what the previous Disney+ boss demanded during the pandemic (which retooling contributed to the very unfortunate post-production gutting of Echo, but was otherwise much desired).

The coming of the trailer reminded me to go back to finishing up my watch of the Netflix run, which I'd dropped away from. I've never had Netflix, so I didn't get around to those shows until they appeared on Disney+, which of course I got for WandaVision ("shut up and take my money").* The Netflix shows (except poor Danny's) were always highly praised and discussed, so I was surprised neither at the excellent quality nor at the extreme violence. And I knew enough from fannish osmosis to hide my eyes a lot. Especially certain scenes. Even so, I often cringe at the violence coming to me through my ears alone.

I personally have a love/hate relationship with the Netflix Daredevil. In so many ways, it is the perfect show for me. So well written, acted, filmed. So full of symbols, metaphors, themes. So powerfully aware of friendship, faith, grief, responsibility, choice, community, striving, mortality... Yet it is far, far too violent for me. I cannot look. I know the world can be a violent and terrible place; that tragically belongs in my news, not in my entertainment. (Highlander's action is almost ballet-like by comparison, gesturing through fantasy metaphor toward real violence and its consequences. Similarly, Forever Knight, and yet there are things in FK that I don't like to watch, also; the vampire metaphor is violent and icky, and is supposed to be.) And, yes, I am aware of the irony that my reaction is precisely the reaction the creators wished to evoke. Matt is the perfect "man for others" in service and is also inhumanly destructive in self-centeredness. Matt honors life and deals [nearly]death. Matt is angel and devil. I know. I know!

In comics, of course, every reader is her own director (for more on this, see Scott McCloud's non-fiction). Unlike any other narrative art form, the comics audience almost fully dictates the pace; it's in the reader's hands, not the creator's. So when I read a comic, a battle panel may flash by in a split-second, while a scene-setting or conversation panel may linger long, and that is my own seamless experience of the story. Yet even given that, Doctor Strange is usually as far as I go toward that side of comics.** I rarely wander into the orbit of characters like Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Blade, Moon Knight, and certainly not The Punisher! etc. (give or take when a particularly awesome writer gets hold of them) (*cough* Jed MacKay *cough*). I hunkered down with Captain America and The New Mutants and Elfquest through the era of anti-heroes and came away mostly unscarred.

Still. I'll keep watching. And I'll keep covering my eyes.

* I don't need Netflix to know these characters. I read my first Daredevil in first grade (same as my first Green Lantern). Natasha was in it, btw; she was Matt's sidekick at the time of that issue's printing, not yet an Avenger. I watched the Affleck and Garner movies in theaters, for goodness sake.

** I started reading Monstress without knowing how violent it was. I may yet continue. We'll see. Beautiful and intriguing, but so very violent.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share:

Spotlight: Four episodes in, I'm enjoying Agatha All Along very much, and confidently placing my trust in Jac Schaeffer -- the creator and head writer of WandaVision & creator and showrunner of Agatha All Along -- to serve the story, the characters, and the audience well. I've been a comics fan since c.1984, so my MCU opinions are non-standard, but this show seems to me to hit all the stops. Fingers crossed. And if you want to start this one cold, with no MCU background, you actually can! (Though it would be ideal to come in with WandaVision under your belt.)

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander story exchange, is switching from hand-matching to AO3-automated matching, and will use a pre-populated character tagset instead of a nominating period. Learn more and contribute.
- yuletide exchange preparations are in full swing. (My dear Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (1983) did get nominated this year, after missing last year. Yay!)
- latetreatbonanza is an event to help motivate finishing miscellaneous unfinished gifts. Due December 24; reveals December 25.
- spook_me stories are due on October 20.
- trickortreatex gift reveals come on October 31.
- uk_fandom_weekend is a small event in Manchester the weekend of October 25-27.
- trope_of_the_month's October theme is "supernatural beings."
- whatif_au's October-November challenge is "supernatural."
- allbingo's October theme is "Fall Fest."
- pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in fannish exchanges. For example, multifandomtropefest and fandomgiftbasket are currently seeking pinch hitters.
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); October theme: "happy endings"
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)

All the "in production" TV shows that I presently watch and wait for:

Agatha All Along (Disney+, new episodes weekly through October '24)
Strange New Worlds (Paramount+, Season 3 expected in 2025)
My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon Network, renewed for Season 3)
Call the Midwife (PBS + BBC, Season 14 expected to reach PBS with the Christmas special in December '24 and the rest of the season in March '25)
Vienna Blood (PBS + BBC; Season 4 expected in early '25)
All Creatures Great and Small (PBS + BBC, Season 5 reaches PBS in January '25)

Note: "Recently:FK" is now "Recently:Enthusiasms."

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Entries tagged with comics

Fannish options & enthusiasms | January 2026

Thundarr the Barbarian is finally getting a comic book

Fannish options & enthusiasms | October 2025

Fannish options & enthusiasms | August 2025

OSP Red's hard-copy published Aurora Vol. 1 is out today

Fannish options & enthusiasms | April 2025

Aurora webcomic hardcopy Volume 1 now available for pre-order

Snowflake Challenge 2025 #6

Daredevil: Born Again trailer is available

Fannish options & enthusiasms: October 2024

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