REVIEW: Russell's Reviews Volume One # 2

tem2 gfishbone at gmail.com
Sun Jan 13 12:49:39 PST 2008


On Jan 12, 2:08 pm, Tom Russell <milos_par... at yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for the review, Tom!  It takes a brave reader to plunge into
the middle of a story--I hope I can keep you along for future issues.

> SPORKMAN # 8 [JAN 6, 2008], Fishbone
>
>    I would like to comment, though, on the author's
> notes that follow the story proper.  In it, Greg
> describes his unease at using real persons as
> fictional characters, especially since those fictional
> characters are to be the victims of a horde of
> presumably ravenous lemurs.  He goes on to explain
> that the Superguy mailing list receives the rough
> draft of his story, that RACC is privy to a slightly
> more tidied up version, and that he is working on a
> "more comprehensive version for [his] own purposes",
> where he will change the names and details of the
> celebrities in question in order to make it clearer
> that they are parodies.
>    While I understand his queasiness, I think the
> parody is clear enough, and that changing names and
> details would make them less parodies and more
> analogues.  Consider, for example, the famous Dan
> Ackroyd as Julia Child sketch, or the many parodic
> characterizations created by Will Sasso.  I don't
> think they'd be nearly as funny if they were saddled
> with a sound-alike name, like Juliette Toddler.

Just to clarify...

The author's note speaks only to my own personal comfort level in
writing and the needs of this particular story, which I'm still trying
to get a handle on.  In my scramble to put out a Sporkman episode each
week, I haven't been able to do as much advance planning as I'd like--
even with a four-episode "tape delay" between Superguy to RACC.

My feeling right now is that an all fictional cast would have been at
least as good for the story and would have made me a much happier
author.  In addition to eliminating that nagging feeling that I'm
doing something not so nice to real people with real feelings and real
problems, I'd have given myself more space to be creative and
original.  Since there's nothing I can do about that now, my
obligation is to bite the bullet and make this the best celebrity
parody I can.

The do-over version will have characters whose personality traits,
backgrounds, and names will be more substantially changed than just a
single letter.

> SPORKMAN # 9 [JAN 9, 2008], Fishbone
>
>    More of the funny, plus Cthulu.

Shortest.  Review.  Ever!  :D

--Greg



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