my hugo strange renaissance + some thoughts on comic fandom and desecrating canon

[serpentinemalign]

i'm slowly adding to my hugo shrine... there's a few remaining pieces i'd like to put in place before it goes up (namely some bits and pieces of meta i want to create and shift around like chess pieces), but we're close and i'm excited to push the site update through!

i drew hugo in his manikin's lingerie, and i also set myself a fun little challenge: draw hugo every day until i forget to! it's been very therapeutic to draw a little something every day and not worry too hard about the results. it is also nice to celebrate the huge variety of hugos out there.

days 1-5:

earlier in the week my partner and i were discussing that mainstream comic fandoms can be intimidating and overwhelming because of the sheer amount of content. it sometimes feels like you will never know absolutely everything about a character, even your favourite. there are hugo comics and adaptations i still haven't experienced, at least not in full... i am resigned to that for now because i like to just gnaw on my favourite iterations. i think i've hit all the ones that make me the happiest and horniest. no need to rush through things.

i don't know much about comic production on the scale of companies like dc and marvel. my presumption is that official writers don't need to read the amount of canon that some fans think you need to read. because i have read the books for myself. can you imagine keeping to unrelenting deadlines while having to research for hours to confirm a minor detail, instead of just retconning?

why do we hold fan writers, doing it for fun, to higher standards?

i think sometimes getting into comics can feel a little like a college reading syllabus. there is a lot of gatekeeping and hubris but you don't actually need to read that much to get by. you don't need to read that much to have fun with the characters. you don't even need to read anything, there are so many adaptations out there. i feel so 'fake' as a batman fan, still. there is so much i have yet to read. i don't know if i'll ever shake that? i hope i will because i love these characters and would like to make more content than just individual blorbos :( i guess we'll get there in the end!