Making Goofy Title Graphics because I Can

Laughing through Sorrow: A Meditation on the Magical Girl Aesthetic

I have a theory that I have a hard time explaining, one I have held for years and have constantly struggled both to articulate in essays and to encapsulate in my fiction writing. A recent Amazon reviewer of my novel Jake and the Dynamo has, I think, captured it well:

There are times when the laugh lines come so fast you can’t catch your breath and other times when the insight is so deep you can feel it all the way inside you. The author is very familiar with his source material and understands the consequences of its tropes far more than the creators that develop it. Jake is very identifiable and you really feel for him. The central magical girls—Pretty Dynamo, Card Collector Kasumi, and Grease Pencil Marionette—are deep and well-drawn. You feel their triumphs and their pain. Things you took for granted are exposed from entirely new angles. But it is also rip-roaringly funny.

I am still grasping at the proper words, but what I think I want to say is that the grandest or saddest stories should begin with comedy. I take my influence largely from comics, so if I were to name the comics that best capture how I believe stories should be written, I would point first to Bone by Jeff Smith and Amelia Rules! by Jimmy Gownley. Continue reading “Laughing through Sorrow: A Meditation on the Magical Girl Aesthetic”

Rachael Lefler Asks, ‘Have We Seen the End of the Magical Girl Genre?’

In light of Magical Girl Site, which I will be discussing at greater length in the near future, I recommend a reading of this essay, “Have We Seen the End of the Magical Girl Genre?” written by Rachael Lefler and posted at Reel Rundown. She discusses the increasingly grim tone of magical girl anime in the aftermath of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

I think this is a thoughtful essay worth reading, but I disagree with her premise. She thinks the disappearance of lighter and happier themes in anime (which have not actually disappeared, incidentally) is due to politics: that is, the world has grown grimmer, and therefore our entertainment has grown grimmer, magical girl anime included.

I disagree with this for a few reasons. First. the world is not actually a more terrible place than in the past. That kind of myopia is common to every age, but it is false in every age. Bad stuff has always happened, and many more catastrophic things have happened in the past than have happened in our lifetimes. To support the view that this is myopic, I note that Lefler’s evidence that the world has gotten worse is very much centered on America, which is not the source of the anime she is discussing. (She does, however, note Japan’s concern over a declining birthrate—and this has become a discernible theme in anime lately.)

Second, the hypothesis she rejects almost out of hand, that grimdark magical girl anime is largely due to the influence of Madoka, would be in keeping with other patterns of influence both in this genre and elsewhere. The magical girl genre previously fell into the pattern of Sailor Moon because of its influence, so we should not be surprised that it has now fallen into the pattern of Madoka—though often with Madoka’s atmosphere and without the elements that actually make Madoka work. In a similar fashion, American comics fell into the pattern of Watchmen.

Third, lighthearted anime most certainly still exists. Moe and “healing” anime are definitely still things. In fact, we could probably make a stronger case that plotless, saccharine, slice-of-life CGDCT is eating the medium alive, than that grimdarkness is.

Fourth, this is not an unusual pattern for a genre. The move from clunky but sincere to more expertly crafted but sincere to snarky and insincere seems to be the typical process of growth, flourishing, and decay.

I don’t think it’s due to a change in the world at large, but an evolution in the genre itself, that we see all these deliberately miserable magical girl titles. The question on my mind is whether this genre is vigorous enough to survive the current trend. It survived Revolutionary Girl Utena, just as the mecha genre survived Neon Genesis Evangelion. It remains to be seen if magical girls are tough enough to survive Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Still working to perfect my Bloody Mary recipe

The Pulp Magazines Project

I failed to post yesterday partly because I had stumbled upon the Pulp Magazines Project, an attempt to create readable scans of public-domain pulp magazines. The site describes itself thusly:

The Pulp Magazines Project is an open-access archive and digital research initiative for the study and preservation of one of the twentieth century’s most influential print culture forms: the all-fiction pulpwood magazine. The Project also provides information and resources on publishing history, multiple search and discovery platforms, and an expanding library of high-quality, cover-to-cover digital facsimiles.

This online archives contains, unsurprisingly, a lot of titles that had disappeared from the public consciousness. What will probably most interest my readers is the site’s archiving of Weird Tales, probably one of the most famous of all pulps even though it was in perpetual financial trouble during its run, which published H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Robert Bloch. The site has only a handful of the total 279 issues. In fact, at present it only has 425 issues total of the various pulps it is archiving. But the scans are high-quality and readable. So last night, I was reading the January 1935 issue of Weird Tales instead of doing something more responsible or productive.

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I’m now at 81,190 of a projected 90,000 words (I suspect it will actually be closer to 100,000). I just got to write a scene I’ve really been looking forward to for a while.

Still can’t seem to get my protagonists to a rock concert, just as in the first book I couldn’t seem to get them to a restaurant.

This is passing through a writer’s group as a I go, so I think it’s time to go back over the last two and a half chapters before sending it off to them. I’ll likely flesh out what I’ve previously written and up the word count by a hundred or so, which usually happens when I edit my initial drafts, as I tend to write “skeletons” that I flesh out on a second pass.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
90.2%

And don’t forget, you can still pick up the first volume of Jake and the Dynamo on Amazon. It’s available in both Kindle and paperback formats.

Art by Damian DarkBane

Featured image: “Nanoha” by DamianDarkbane

And you have no idea what I went through to find wholesome Nanoha fan art. Seriously. I think this is a great image, but it’s also the one I’ve chosen to post because it’s just about the only one that’s safe for work.

I’m still making my way through StrikerS. I’m watching it slowly because, well, I’m kind of busy. I hope to have a review up this weekend.

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ Now in Paperback!

THE UNIVERSE IS OUT TO GET HIM … BUT THE UNIVERSE DIDN’T COUNT ON HER!

Have you wanted to hold Jake and the Dynamo: The Wattage of Justice the way I held your mom last night?

Well, now you can!

… Except that’s kind of weird.

But in any case, Jake and the Dynamo is now available in a physical copy!

GET IT HERE

Jake Blatowski can’t wait for high school: basketball, calculus, and a cafeteria that isn’t under investigation by the health department.

Well, he’s going to have to wait: a computer malfunction has assigned him to the fifth grade.

It’s bad enough that he bangs his knees on the desks or that Miss Percy is going over long division … again … but Jake’s sitting next to Dana Volt. She’s a perpetually surly troublemaker who doesn’t even have to exert herself to make his life a living hell.

But no, it gets better: Dana secretly belongs to a coalition of girls protecting humanity from the horde of deadly monsters that plagues the city. But Jake’s no hero; he just wants to get to varsity tryouts!

When the monsters choose a new target, Jake’s not at all surprised that the target is him. Sure, why not? That’s the kind of week he’s having.

Now the impulsive and moody Dana is the only one who can save Jake from certain death—but Jake is the only one who can save Dana from herself.

Jake and the Dynamo back cover

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Progress Update

I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 87% complete on the Writing phase. 11 Weeks remain until the deadline.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Writing
Due:5 years ago
87.4%

Micro-Update: Patreon

I’m in the process of revamping things over here. My Patreon account was previously all but dead, mostly because I had made the transition from writing a web novel to writing a for-real novel.

I’m not going beg my readers for handouts, but it seems kind of dumb for creators not to have Patreon and PayPal accounts these days, since they’re so easy to set up. Links to mine are both in the sidebar.

Since I’m no longer producing a web serial, I have changed my setup on Patreon from per-product to per-month donations. When I did that, I noticed that it automatically switched existing patrons to the new plan, which is kind of a jackass thing to do, so I sent a message off letting subscribers know about the change. I was just going to drop existing patrons—well, patron, in my case—and start over, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that.