LNH/LNH20/LNHX: The Tao of Reboots
Saxon Brenton
saxonbrenton at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 5 17:08:40 PST 2011
[Currently wading through the accumulated RACC posts that I've
more-or-less been ignoring for more than half a year]
On 15 Nov 2011 Martin Phipps replied to Adrian McClure:
>> LNHY
>> underwent the fate of all alternate universes in superhero comics; it
>> diminished and got eventually ignored.
A very good point. The implication that for a given number of writerly
participants there's only a given amount of attention/enthusiasm that
can be applied at any one time makes me wonder if this is possibly a
cosmic threat that could be used against the characters at some point
or another. Actually, thinking about it, I used much the same concept
way back when Lipid-Artery Lad asked if he could become a supporting
characterin _Limp-Aspargaus Lad_ series: to get some much needed
attention focused on the Oddball Looniverse.
>> (I also think the tonal clash
>> in the setting that resulted from "The Devil Came Down to Georgia,"
Quite probably. I'm still trying to grapple with the idea, so for now
I'll just issue a default "Yay! I'm guilty of tonal clash!" and leave
it at that.
> Well, to start with, it was only Arthur who was writing LNHY but then
> Saxon came along and wrote that and, yes, the tone was very different
> from classic LNH. I think Saxon's inspiration for "The Devil..." was
> Arthur making God a character in LNHY. God isn't even mentioned in
> mainstream LNH. If you think about it, the Authors are the gods of
> the Looniverse in the mainstream LNH. (I've always wondered if God in
> LNHY wasn't actually Arthur's writer character.)
>
> Anyway, the tone for LNHY was quite different from the LNH. The LNH
> didn't have horror stories but LNHY had vampires and demons and
> mages. It's ironic that Arthur tried to make LNHY really serious but
> then immediately people started writing stuff with very serious
> themes.
As I recall the Biblical *themes* allowed me to play with the concept
of 'Knight of St Christopher, dog-headed patron saint of morally
upright monsters' that I'd had kicking around on the backburner for a
while.
However, the dark *tone* was a result of me looking at the initial
character and team writeups that Arthur had posted, seeing things like
the Teen Fascists, and getting a visceral _Handmaiden's Tale_ reaction
that in respect may not have been entirely fair.
---
Saxon Brenton
'Why, yes, the Apathy Beat did kill me and eat my innards, and is
currently using my skin as a disguise to walk among you as it plots
your downfall. Why do you ask?'
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