Commissioned illustration I did for @literarion for their podfic. An
idyllic scene in South Downs cottage, couldn’t possibly turn down the
request that involved an old apple tree and lots of scenery. So
naturally this ended up being the best commission I’ve ever worked on so
far.
The Becoming Human theme has crossed my mind too, but I don't think that Neil and Terry planned to go there. I certaintly hope not.
But, speaking of powers, I can't wait to see whether or not we're going to get more exuberant, flashy action scenes/power displays with Crowley and Aziraphale in the centre? It's just fun to play around with the ideas of what they could and couldn't do and how powerful they actually are. (Although the charming thing about Good Omens is that it definitely doesn't have need for any of that. It's still highly entertaining. I'd watch six episodes of Crowley and Azirsphale sitting on a bench in St James Park, just talking. And I would be entertained and happy. So there's that.)
Hiya! I don’t that some big flashy actions is something that they will go for :). I don’t think that is the kind of scenes that makes Good Omens Good Omens. Yeah, just watching them to be homey and sometimes bicker would be great :). Though I hope that will put some money into making more historic scenes with Crowley and Aziraphale :).
i think one of the key things in the book and s1, is that while aziraphale and crowley have these powers, and they do a few Important Things, mostly the main action of the plot happens sort of around the corner from them. they are scrambling to try to keep up with events, not so much determining the outcome. so yes please, more scenes of them through the years just trying to do enough of their jobs to not get caught being friends. yes please getting caught up in whatever they think is important but turns out to be The Wrong Boy again or something. keep the focus on the relationship, the love.
please don’t make it into some kind of comic book superhero movie in good omens costumes. please don’t raise the stakes to some ridiculous pinnacle just to try to top s1. please no scenery chewing shooting and hitting, that would be yuk. if there is “action”, make it on their scale.
i think i can probably trust neil and john not to do that. i hope so.
So I wanted to do a style study of some of my favorite Good Omens artists. I love love love these guys a ton. (and others but I was less sure about mimicking their styles) I don’t know how much I nailed all of these but I gave it a shot because I really really admire these guys.
Do you ever think you'll stop drawing fanart? No offense it just seems like the kind of thing you're supposed to grow out of. I'm just curious what your plans/goals are since it isn't exactly an art form that people take seriously.
Ah, fanart. Also known as the art that girls make.
Sad, immature girls no one takes seriously. Girls who are taught that it’s shameful to be excited or passionate about anything, that it’s pathetic to gush about what attracts them, that it’s wrong to be a geek, that they should feel embarrassed about having a crush, that they’re not allowed to gaze or stare or wish or desire. Girls who need to grow out of it.
That’s the art you mean, right?
Because in my experience, when grown men make it, nobody calls it fanart. They just call it art. And everyone takes it very seriously.
It’s interesting though — the culture of shame surrounding adult women and fandom. Even within fandom it’s heavily internalized: unsurprisingly, mind, given that fandom is largely comprised by young girls and, unfortunately, our culture runs on ensuring young girls internalize *all* messages no matter how toxic. But here’s another way of thinking about it.
Sports is a fandom. It requires zealous attention to “seasons,” knowledge of details considered obscure to those not involved in that fandom, unbelievable amounts of merchandise, and even “fanfic” in the form of fantasy teams. But this is a masculine-coded fandom. And as such, it’s encouraged - built into our economy! Have you *seen* Dish network’s “ultimate fan” advertisements, which literally base selling of a product around the normalization of all consuming (male) obsession? Or the very existence of sports bars, built around the link between fans and community enjoyment and analysis. Sport fandom is so ingrained in our culture that major events are treated like holidays (my gym closes for the Super Bowl) — and can you imagine being laughed at for admitting you didn’t know the difference between Supernatural and The X Files the way you might if you admit you don’t know the rules of football vs baseball, or basketball?
“Fandom” is not childish but we live in a culture that commodified women’s time in such away that their hobbies have to be “frivolous,” because “mature” women’s interests are supposed to be marriage, family, and overall care taking: things that allow others to continue their own special interests, while leaving women without a space of their own.
So think about what you’re actually saying when you call someone “too old” for fandom. Because you’re suggesting they are “too old” for a consuming hobby, and I challenge you to answer — what do you think they should be doing instead?
This whole modern approach is also seriously undermining just how important fanfiction is - from a historical standpoint.
The concept of fanfiction formed and forged the earliest stages of literature in Europe. Because the majority of authors in France, Germany and Great Britain looked at that funky little Celtic dude Arthur and thought “hey, he’s neat. I wanna write about him”.
The entire concept of a book outside of religious purposes was born out of fanfiction in my country.
There is no “first canon” for Arthur where he came as the prince of Camelot, with his sidekicks Lancelot and Merlin and his endgame love interest Gwen.
Arthur was some random hunter when he started out.
Someone’s fanfiction made him a prince.
Someone else’s fanfiction gave him a round table.
Someone else’s fanfiction gave him Merlin at his side.
Someone else’s fanfiction gave him Morgana, gave him Gwen, gave him his swords.
And, to this day, we still write Arthurian fanfiction. Literally last year there was a movie adaptation that is, by all intends and purposes, fanfiction, because it wasn’t even close to a literal adaptation of the source material (The Kid Who Would Be King). Heck, BBC’s Merlin, itself an Arthurian fanfiction, remains one of the biggest fandoms that people today write for on AO3.
You were a joke in the middle ages if you tried to write your own stuff. Who’s interested in your stuff? You were only a respected author if you wrote fanfiction. The most famous medieval German authors are famous because they wrote fanfiction about some knightly OCs they created who served on Arthur’s court. That is the literary legacy of the middle ages. Arthurian fanfiction.
Yet somewhere along the way, this concept of “I find x story/element cool and want to elaborate on it more, shift the focus onto an aspect of this original source material” has gotten this “eh, it’s fanfiction” connotation and lost respect.
Even though this very concept is still being used - even outside of the actual medium of fanfiction - and it is still being used for the very same purpose it was used for in medieval times. Original movies often don’t get as much recognition as adaptations of existing source material that the audience is familiar with. People see a movie about a character they’re familiar with and seem more inclined to buy a ticket to see the 10th new interpretation of Batman or Superman or Snow White. How are these new interpretations of familiar source material that usually add to the lore, reinterpret characterizations and dynamics, any different from fanfiction?
But heaven forbid we call The Dark Knight Nolan’s Batman fanfiction. No, fanfiction is that silly thing that we can’t take seriously, but that new Joker movie, that however is high-end art.
SO IMPORTANT
This. Fanfiction is variations on an existing theme, simultaneously making use of and satisfying people’s existing love for a story that they’re happy to consume more of, and cultivating the synergy between an existing story/mythos and a new author who, in interacting with characters they’d never have created themselves, creates something that neither they nor any of the story’s previous tellers could have made all by themselves.
Fanfiction is the new whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and fanfiction is the story being made limitless, retelling by retelling, and it is wonderful.
Me: Whew, The False and The Fair was so exhausting time to take a break from long plotty fic!
Also Me: now is an excellent time to fixate on that idea you had ages ago for a fic where Crowley is a Russian anarchist in the 1860s and Aziraphale is an aristocratic book editor who accidentally publishes a revolutionary treatise…
It ends with one of them exiled to Siberia but I’m not saying which one.
Also, it’s not an AU! Like it is an AU obviously, but they are still an angel and a demon and it’s a little bubble off of canon—scenes from the 19th century we were never shown in the show—which then rejoins the flow of canon in 1941.
Please, I beg you to tell me how to encourage this.
Y'all we did it! From the get go the support for the Trans Rights Stick! Sticker project has been enormous. I can’t thank all the people in the #GoodOmens fandom who joined in on making this a reality enough.
#TransRightsAreHumanRights Time to donate!
In additional news, there’s still some leftover stock if people are interested. Any further revenue will, of course, be donated and split between ITF and GATE charities.
Will follow up soon on the Twitter post here once I have receipts of the donations! (I’m having to talk to ITF directly in order to be able to send the money, so hang tight!)
BUCKLE UP CHUCKLEFUCKS: LOOK AT THIS
This is amazing. Incredible. We donated an entire $8400 to international charities working towards trans communities!
We did this - us - just us fans, with art and our voices and our dedication to share. We did this, with our love for this fandom and the way we feel comfortable here. We did this, us — and it all started because one TERF pissed us off and we wanted to declare that this fandom is about LOVE.
I’m so PROUD of us. I’m so HAPPY to be here. And I’ve never seen an effort anywhere near this magnitude! Trans, genderqueer, agender, non-binary, jsjdkkf all our friends on that spectrum: KNOW that you are welcomed and loved and celebrated here!
Y’all gonna make me cry. Congratulations.
You know what? I know that shouting at @neil-gaiman is like yelling into a haystack made of other haystacks, but in case he happens to see this? I hope you’re proud, sir. I sure am.
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