Somebody Out There Is Awesome!

[rebcake]

I haven't been posting much, on the theory that if I don't have anything nice to say I'd probably better not, you know? I've been commenting tons, because I have loads of nice things to say about what my friends are doing! Y'all rock! Plus: hooray, hooray, Seasonal_Spuffy begins today!

But! Then! Whoa! Some incredibly kind and generous person just gave me the gift of a year of a Dreamwidth paid account! Totally anonymous and everything! I suspect it's someone who is sick of me bellyaching in all my DW comments that I don't have enough icons...I am a wheel, hear me squeak. Still! Thanks for being so awesome, kind giftor! I am a happy, icon-loading camper! And look: posting to DW directly. If the LJ crosspost goes smoothly, I'll be in for the long haul.

Also, I scored tickets to the Tom Lenk Live in San Francisco show for next month, so I've got to share my excitement about that! The Golden Guys play in LA was canceled last month, so no Enver or Sasha Roiz or Jane E. for me, alas, but I suspect Tom will be a ton o' fun all on his own.

Ain't life grand?

P.S. I've been writing oodles of Spike & Buffy stories, but I can't quite seem to close the deal on any of them. Comics fallout? Yea or Nay?

Comments

[slaymesoftly]

And now I'm curious about what you might have said that isn't nice. LOL

There's been a discussion going on at the Bloodshedverse Forum about whether or not the comics (and the generally negative reactions to them) has been having an effect on writers (specifically Spuffy writers). Some feel very strongly that general disgust with the comics has smooshed the love for anything Buffy-based for many writers. My thinking is, just as the less happy-making episodes of the show sparked a lot of "let me fix this" fic, the comics should be sparking lots of AU futures where they don't exist, or where they're done better. Do you think you're having comics fallout? Are you reading? or just following discussions? Are they making you love the characters less?

[rebcake]

I'm definitely reading them. Mostly. I've only picked up a few of the IDW titles, being not such a fan of Angel-the-character or Urru's artwork, but I've only managed to boycott an issue or two of Season 8. I have my own interpretation going, which isn't especially positive since issue #25 or so. The theme of women giving away their self-determination, starting with Dawn, is upsetting to me. I'm unhappy with the direction in which they are taking Buffy herself, though I'm withholding judgment until the end. I think that I'm waiting to do any S8 riffing myself until it's over, since who the hell knows what'll happen. Why guarantee that you'll be Joss'd, you know?

The internecine battles in fandom are very quelling, on top of that. Everybody is seeing something different, and there's stuff we still don't know, but there are people willing to go to the mat over their (unfinished) theory of where it'll end up. I've even had people I agree with slap me severely because I like some minor element of the story that they don't. What's the point? Where's the joy? I admit, I'm in it for the joy, so yeah, until I've got something to be joyful about, I'm keeping mum. Except, you know, when I don't.

[slaymesoftly]

LOL - well, I keep saying I'm waiting till it's over, but then I end up commenting anyway. Really had very little urge to write anything in it yet. Except for the crack-ficlet that followed the space frakking, and one little schmoop prompt that I set in Spike's bug infested space ship. It was kind of fun, in that my fic mentioned showers, a certain amount of yelling at each other, and some implied (real)make up sex. It was interesting to see Buffy coming out of Spike's shower and imagining being yelled at and made love to.

I've actually enjoyed the Angel comics most of the time, including some stand-alones. I think the art has been better most of the time. I like Angel when he's away from Buffy. And there's been Spike right along, so...

I haven't missed an issue of Season Eight or anything IDW has produced with either Angel or Spike, but I can't say it's been because I've been enjoying them. I liked the Dracula arc (closet Drac-lover), and Faith's arc, but most of it has made me go "meh" or "yuck!"

[rebcake]

Heh. Yeah, the Dracula stuff was just about my favorite thing so far. I liked The Chain and the webcomic Always Darkest (I think that's the right title). The really silly stuff, like Mecha!Dawn, Vampycat, and pomeranian-toting reality star Harmony tickle me plenty. Absurdity is my cuppa, mostly, but when the core characters (well, Buffy, anyway) can't seem to behave sensibly for long, long stretches of presumably unbespelled time, I don't know what to say besides, "WTF".

I'm not crazy about the artwork from either publisher, for very different reasons. Jeanty's non-painterly style is more my usual preference, as I'm an old-school comics fan, but the failures are vast and have been a disservice to the story. When I am confusing Buffy with Andrew, we have a problem, Houston. I'm no comics newbie, either, so when people (you, maybe?) say they wish they were able to more fluently read comics, I feel I must mention that the problem lies not with the reader in this case. The execution is just really (needlessly) bad or else deliberately left unclear. I guess we'll find out in January which it is. *iz grumpy*