Staggering Fandom, continued
I've never read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but the title's so good that I just had to steal it for my little project. The works I'm interested really aren't heartbreaking - they're heartening.
First up, the Something From (Almost) Nothing category.
This one'll probably end up an honorable mention once I get more reader suggestions. In November of 2005, Jerry Holkins, better known as his nome de plume Tycho Brahe, posted a single PBWiki page based on a three-panel webcomic parodying generic fantasy back-stories. The Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga wiki now consists of an expansive guide to the world and cultures of Battal, lengthy descriptions of each of the (non-existant) thirteen novels of Tycho Brahe's The Elemenstor Saga and the various (non-existant) ELotH games, an episode guide to the (non-existant) 129-episode long エラメン☆ (ElamenSTAR) anime series and its (non-existant) American adaptation, The Wizbits. It's pretty much mind-boggling. References to the series make infrequent appearances in Penny Arcade.
The crowning glory of this category, and one of the things that made me want to pursue this project in the first place, is the venerable gaming amateur press association, Alarums and Excursions. As near as I can tell, it's been published regularly since 1975, and released its 400th issue this January. I can't think of any gaming publications with those kinds of legs. Wikipedia tells me that the pages of A&E are the birthplace of Over the Edge. Before blogs, before messageboards, begore Usenet and BBSes, there were zines, and A&E was, and is, one heck of a zine.
Next time: fans conquer film. Stay tuned!
First up, the Something From (Almost) Nothing category.
This one'll probably end up an honorable mention once I get more reader suggestions. In November of 2005, Jerry Holkins, better known as his nome de plume Tycho Brahe, posted a single PBWiki page based on a three-panel webcomic parodying generic fantasy back-stories. The Epic Legends of the Hierarchs: The Elemenstor Saga wiki now consists of an expansive guide to the world and cultures of Battal, lengthy descriptions of each of the (non-existant) thirteen novels of Tycho Brahe's The Elemenstor Saga and the various (non-existant) ELotH games, an episode guide to the (non-existant) 129-episode long エラメン☆ (ElamenSTAR) anime series and its (non-existant) American adaptation, The Wizbits. It's pretty much mind-boggling. References to the series make infrequent appearances in Penny Arcade.
The crowning glory of this category, and one of the things that made me want to pursue this project in the first place, is the venerable gaming amateur press association, Alarums and Excursions. As near as I can tell, it's been published regularly since 1975, and released its 400th issue this January. I can't think of any gaming publications with those kinds of legs. Wikipedia tells me that the pages of A&E are the birthplace of Over the Edge. Before blogs, before messageboards, begore Usenet and BBSes, there were zines, and A&E was, and is, one heck of a zine.
Next time: fans conquer film. Stay tuned!