LNH: 20th Anniversary Special, Part #1

[Andrew Perron]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:04:43 +0000 (UTC), Arthur Spitzer wrote:

> We have on one side of the spectrum a writer who participated 
> in the first LNH cascade way back in 1992.  And we have another who 
> wrote his first LNH story just last year.

And it's so, SO awesome that the latter exists and the former still cares.
You guys rock.

> DAVE VAN DOMELEN
<snip>
>       I wasn't part of the first batch of LNHers, but I was part of the 
> first group to take it seriously...and by that I mean the first group to 
> see it as something that might be worth putting more than a few minutes' 
> effort into, something that might last more than a few weeks.  Scav, 
> Jameel, wReam and the dozen or so others who took another group's 
> short-lived gag and turned it into something more enduring and more 
> involved than most of the professional superhero universes.

Seriously.  Certainly longer-lived than any professional '90s superhero
universe other than Image.

>       And who knows?  I've dipped my toe into the LNH20 revival, I might 
> find myself getting more deeply involved at some point.  I've revisited 
> the old Dvandom Force characters a few times since #100, albeit in odd 
> sideways fashion, I could certainly do it again.

I sure hope so.  Or new ones, that works too!

> SAXON BRENTON
<snip>
>       And why is this important?  Well, because of another little 
> factoid.  There's a phenomenon among bibliophiles of dreaming while 
> asleep of finding a rare book.  I do not say 'purported phenomenon', 
> because I have experienced it.  A small handful of times I've had dreams 
> like that.  Of finding some lost comic book.  Not colour comic books - 
> whether some classic story that I missed because I grew up in the 
> country and didn't have access to speciality comic stores, nor even some 
> mint copy of an old and tattered favourite like the _X-Men/Teen Titans_ 
> crossover.  I've dreamt of finding one of those cheaply printed black 
> and white reprints.

Awwwwwww. ^.^ Makes sense.  I've often dreamt of finding or getting rare
and personally valuable items.

>       I once read - I think it was in Harms and Gonce's _Necronomicon 
> Files_ - a piece of occult advice that when faced by hostile psychic 
> projection to simply destroy it with your willpower.  By imagining it 
> being obliterated by being blown to bits or bursting into flames or 
> otherwise dying in an emphatic manner.  Now, I have no idea why that 
> titbit of information came back to me, but I discovered that it works 
> for dealing with nightmares as well.  Quite a few times I've gained a 
> measure of lucid dreaming control while having a nightmare, and I can 
> assure you it's viscerally satisfying to just blow stuff up with energy 
> blasts, or unleashing a volcano, or in one case telekinetically grabbing 
> the Starship Enterprise out of orbit and using like a very large rock to 
> smash things.  It adds a new dimension to the phrase 'rocks drop, 
> everyone dies'.

Oooooooh. ~.~ I don't really do lucid dreams, but apparently I'm a good
enough storyteller in my head to embark upon some kick-awesome stuff from
time to time.  I remember the other week involved escaping from aliens and
destroying their secret power source...

> This was also the start of my habit 
> where - although I was perfectly capable of creating my own characters - 
> I'd take other people's discards and use them.

Theory: The people who've stuck with the LNH closest through the years all
really enjoy the possibilities of working in a shared universe.

>       Later would be throwaway characters like Pulls-Paper-Out-Of-Hats 
> Lad or You're-Not-Hitting-Me-Hard-Enough Lad.  Characters where if you 
> stopped and said to yourself, "Now hold on, what sort of powers do those 
> code names imply?", then after a bit of thought you'd realise, "I can do 
> something with these characters."

Oh yes.  Love that so much.

>       But it all started with _Limp-Asparagus Lad_.  I still think of 
> that as my flagship series, even though I haven't actually written or 
> posted anything for it in years.

I do too!

> Believe it or not, among the numerous dangling plot lines 
> that have accumulated over the last one-and-a-large-bit decades, there 
> is one overwhelmingly important story - involving Limp-Asparagus Lad, 
> Senses Lass, and Exclamation!Master! - that I've been building towards. 
>   (And, yes, I know that I really should get off my overweight backside 
> and finish that off...)

You should.  Homanyes.  I *want* to see that.

> This is 
> because even today, while I sometimes give in to the urge to write some 
> straight (super)human drama, I still write a lot of metafiction.  Not 
> that that's a big surprise, given the environment of 
> rec.arts.comics.creative.  Most participants have tried it at some time 
> or other.  Indeed, it'll make it interesting to see whether the declared 
> assumption that the majority of the characters is the new LNH-20 imprint 
> are *not* fourth-wall aware will hold under these circumstances.  Time 
> will tell, I guess.

I think it'll continue to mutate into different forms.  Me, I love
metafiction, and I definitely plan to go for more and more!

> Nevertheless, I would hope that, 
> like a lot of others who started their writing on alt.comics.lnh / 
> rec.arts.comics.creative, that I've gotten better at presenting a story 
> in an entertaining manner.

Definitely.

> Again I say, I've enjoyed 
> myself.  And moreover, I expect to continue enjoying myself for a long 
> while to come.

Yay!

> SEAN CHRISTIAN DAUGHERTY

!!! AWESOME!

> When asked, I like to tell people that I still lurk around on 
> rec.arts.comics.creative, despite the fact that my last post was, oh, 
> well over a decade ago. I also like to tell myself that one day I'll 
> come back to "The Continuing Adventures of Brain Boy," or one of the 
> other series I'd brainstormed but never actually gotten around to 
> writing, even though the last time I posted something in-universe was, I 
> believe, last century. Both of these claims are hazardously close to 
> outright lies, of course.

Haha, I know that feeling. x-x

> In my defense, I did take the step of checking in 
> on RACC myself. On the evening of April 26, just in time to see Arthur 
> Spitzer's last-minute reminder about these essays. It was the first I'd 
> heard about it, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let my 
> procrastination cause me to miss another opportunity to show everyone 
> that I'm not dead.

Whoa. Good job!

> I spent a good 
> deal of time, and several hundred dollars worth of printer paper and 
> toner, printing out various back issues from the archive.

One thing that I didn't mention in my article was the many 3.5" floppy
disks I filled up with text files.

> I enjoyed 
> writing the series, and while I wouldn't exactly say I'm proud of it 
> (the list of things I'd change if I had a chance to do it all over again 
> is as long as my arm), I'm immensely gratified it was as well-received 
> as it was.

I remember reading and enjoying it during my initial stint on RACC.  I
haven't read it since, but I had to skim some bits of it working on the
Timeline on the wiki (plug plug: http://www.lnhq.info/wiki/LNH_Timeline ),
and it certainly looked like good stuff.  Time to archive-dive... >>c

> I met a lot of really great writers during my brief stint as an LNH 
> writer. And maybe I'll actually fulfill my promise to come back one day. 
> Especially now that I've told everyone reading this about my promise, 
> and I wouldn't just be lying to myself anymore.

Oh man, oh man oh man oh MAN.  I *have* to get you in on Flame Wars Final.
Yesyesyes.

> SCOTT EILER
> 
> Oh, all right.
> 
> I'm late to *this* party, but I can certainly respect any storyline that 
> can keep going for twenty years.

The secret is that it continually regenerates.

> LALO MARTINS

<snip>

> Which is why I'm declaring my own war on them. With all the advanced 
> technology I was able to salvage, I'm going to prevent them from making 
> a mess out of this world, and hopefully wipe them out completely.
> 
> You can call me... Doctor Killfile.

...well hell.  That pretty much summed up everything at the core of the LNH
in the most sideways way possible. <3

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, ALL OF IT