I've posted various short thoughts on Chinese language (and Asian cultures) in Firefly on my Tumblr blog. Including my latest fan project - writing fic for Firefly in Mandarin.

I'm also posting my translations of various phrases useful for Firefly on the FireflyFans.Net forum.

I feel like on DW I have to put more effort into a post, unfortunately. So unless there's long-form stuff, it probably won't go on here for now.

• 'Watchmen' Prequel Announced By DC Comics: 'Before Watchmen'
• Alan Moore And 'Before Watchmen' Creators Comment On The Ethics of 'Watchmen' Prequel
• J. Michael Straczinsky's statement

What do I think this will mean for fandom? Not much. New readers will discover Watchmen; I doubt it’ll be overshadowed. I don’t know if any of the Before Watchmen miniseries will be slavishly mimicking the structure of Watchmen, or if there will be a melange of storytelling styles. I’m pretty sure there’ll be in-jokes aplenty. And if any of them turn out to be bitter deconstructions of the Watchmen characters we thought we knew, it’ll 1) channel LoEG's cynical-old-man writer, people, or 2) earn the vitriol of a million fans everywhere.

Watchmen will still exist. The world of Watchmen has been processed through a funhouse mirror in the never-mourned early script and the Saturday morning cartoon and (apocryphally) even through The Family Circus.

As for new fans being “ruined” (or ruining fandom, how dare they) by irrelevant spin-offs: I discovered comics through Death: Through Death's Door, a manga-style retelling of Sandman vol. 4 (Season of Mists), moved on to Promethea and The Books of Magic and Watchmen and V for Vendetta and haven’t regretted it, okay?

Personal thoughts:

• Ugh, Laurie’s weird airbrushed face on the Adam Hughes cover. Isn’t Dr. Manhattan supposed to be the one skirting the Uncanny Valley? (Also, she has a four-fingered, mutant hand. Wut)
• The blood splotch on the Comedian seems to be there just to say, “Hey, this is Watchmen”. That said, that mask makes him a terrifying mofo.
• Fractal Rorschach! That is, the Rorschach blot on the mask is in the shape of Rorschach, who has another Rorschach-shaped blot on its mask.
• I’m most excited for the Minutemen comic. The Silhouette, Mothman, and Dollar Bill had little “screentime” in Watchmen; I wonder if we'll get to see their personalities, and if they’ll match up with what we were told.

I <3 this so much.

• Z-Spaces: An Animorphs Psychochronography by poparena

An ongoing series of short essays on the “emotional, artistic and political landscape” (i.e., the 90s in America) the Animorphs series was written and set in. Each essay is centred around a single book and uses its plot and themes as a launchpad.

My girlfriend, who's a few years older, is probably more of a 90s child than me – you know, Star Trek, Teen Titans, Xena… My pop culture memories only go up to elementary school; I remember watching Mr. Dressup and Sesame Street; later, not being interested in either the Spice Girls or the Backstreet Boys; and around fourth grade, not being interested in The Matrix (until later when I was a teen, when I heard it was Philosophical).

Perhaps I’m being over-enthusiastic, but still!

Next week:

• sketches from my “Phosphorescent Vampires” nebulous story – I’ve been trying to do one per day, but that has flagged since midterms are coming next week. Also, I have to find a better image host than Twitter.
• a post expressing my undying love for Mark Does Stuff
• art recs for Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen + “Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case”)

Also, Neil Gaiman has a Tumblr. Just puttin’ it out there.

THIS JUST IN.

DarlingClandestine Perfume: Whitefall

Sir, we don't want to deal with Patience again.

a smidge of black tea, buttered oatmeal, hazelnut and maybe some almond milk, and the slightest hint of musk. Comfy sleepy times. […] topped with sweet toasted basmati rice and finished with a whiff of gunsmoke, horses, leather and a rustle of kicked-up grass. :) It's VERY intense, and no power in the ’Verse can stop it.

Now that I've finished watching Angel (having finished BtVS a couple of years ago), I’m enjoying the crossovers between two different shows in the same ’verse.

More on shipping in future posts; these are genfic, fairly funny and likely to appeal to most people.

techsupport@demon.com by Perri Smith – The Scoobies and the staff of Angel Investigations work together to stop another apocalypse. Between seasons 4-5/A1-A2

Dial N for Nancy-boy by deird1 – Spike and Angel have kept in touch. S4 through S7/A1-A4

Once More, With Lorne by hello_spikey – The Host makes a visit to Sunnydale while another nattily dressed singing demon is in town.

Battlefield of the Gods by bob_tales – Two hellgods walk into a cafe…

Past Perfect by HonorH – Dawn learns more about herself and people come back to life. Meanwhile, Buffy gets caught up with recent events, like the fact that Dawn’s new boyfriend is Angel’s son. After “Not Fade Away”

---

Sidenote: Dreamwidth has this nifty multiple-tags filter I’m trying out, so instead of creating hierarchies of tags like (hypothetically) recs: btvs, the equivalent is recs,btvs.