Fandom Promos

[galerian_ash]

Have you already decided what fandom(s) to write for? If so, how about doing some pimping? :D

We've all chosen tiny obscure fandoms, needless to say. So by doing a little promoting you might be able to entice someone else to give it a try — or perhaps you'll even run into a fellow fan, who can't wait to read your coming fic.

Your promo can be long or short, and contain whatever you feel like. Want to post a couple of intriguing screencaps from a movie? Quote a few paragraphs from a book? Rec the best episode of an anime or TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character/pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!

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Comments

Dr. Christian (Radio)

[delphi]

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, we take you to the little town of River's End, which sprawls carelessly at the crossways where the highway traverses the Sage River Road..."

Dr. Christian was a CBS radio drama that aired from 1937 to 1954. It starred Jean Hersholt in the titular role as a kindly country doctor who helped his patients with not only their medical problems but their family issues, moral quandaries, and brushes with the law. Always a defender of the vulnerable, Dr. Christian's humanist philosophy and general pluck regularly brought him up against both big city swindlers and small town hypocrisy.

The show was considered a little hokey even in its time compared to some of the wittier comedies and grittier detective shows it aired alongside. However, one very interesting thing set it apart from most of its contemporaries: by a couple of years into its run, most of its scripts were contributed by listeners.

The result?

On top of being a gentle, earnest series with historical value, the show has a distinctly fannish sensibility that's heavy on the tropes that people tend to like when they've gotten to know a cast of characters. There's casefic and kidfic, amnesia and cave-ins, WWI flashbacks, and no end of speculation on why a talented surgeon would leave the big city for a humble country practice. Background characters get their day in the sun, down to the dogs, and there's even anthropomor-fic involving a love story between two characters' cars.

175 episodes from across the series' run are available on Archive.org for anyone interested in giving them a listen. Out of the early episodes, I particularly recommend #007 (in which Dr. Christian trolls a court to defend a young man accused of theft) and #026 (which includes the tried and true trope of a baby left on the doctor's doorstep).

The franchise includes a TV spin-off and a series of movies, but none of them quite captured the charm of the radio show for me. There was also a 1944 tie-in novel by Ruth Adams Knight and Jean Hersholt called Doctor Christian's Office. It's a bit of a hot mess as a novel, but I'll be in part writing fic for it because it compiles the plots of several 1943 episodes that seem to be otherwise lost to the sands of time.

The White Trees -- Chip Zdarsky and Kris Anka

[reeby10]

The White Trees is a two issue comics miniseries from 2019, published by Image Comics. Here's the publisher's summary:

In the fantastical world of Blacksand, peace was hard-won, and three unbending warriors carry the scars to prove it. Now, almost twenty years later, their children are missing and war is on the horizon. Can they put aside their memories of the war—and each other—for one last adventure?

The White Trees is I guess high fantasy, with several non-standard humanoid races. It takes place some years after a big war, which the three main characters fought in together. After mostly going their own ways and building new lives, they're brought back together to find their children, who have gone missing. There is a queer main relationship (with a fun relationship to the ex-wife of one of them) and a few sex scenes between them and some others. Mostly, though, I feel like this comic is about finding your place in the world and with the people around you, addressing the personal and generational trauma of war and violence, and figuring out what family really means.

The writing and the art on this comic are both fantastic; not surprising considering the creators are very well respected in their fields. I really enjoyed this comic, though I do wish it had gone longer! There's a lot of worldbuilding aspects that only get hinted at, which I think makes this a really great comic for people who are interested in that as a jumping off point. Plus canon queers who survive to the end!

TW: kidnapping, violence, blood, character death
(Feel free to hit me up if you're interested and would like more detail on anything!)

Re: The White Trees -- Chip Zdarsky and Kris Anka

[delphi]

I loved The White Trees (although I likewise wished it had been longer). I'm so excited there's some fic forthcoming for it!

[geri_chan]

Thundercluck is a hilarious children's book series about a chicken who is born with the powers of Thor after his mother is accidentally zapped with one of Thor's lightning bolts. He and his friend, the young Valkyrie Brunhilde, fight against an evil chef who wants to turn Thundercluck into chicken soup.

It's really charming and funny, and you can check out the animated book trailer at the link above, as well as the short film that the book is based on.