media

Geek As Citizen: Boost The Signal – Advanced

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Fractal

Last column I discussed the basic ways we could Boost The Signal on good works – reviewing, telling people, gifting/donating, and talking to the creator(s) of the works. Those are basics most anyone can do.

But if you’ve designated yourself a kind of amateur Ambassador for the work or works in questions, there are ways to take it even farther if you’re so inclined.

These ideas require more commitment, and may not be for the casual fan. These are for the dedicated person who wants to take time and make serious effort – something we aren’t always able to do

Team Up: The creator(s) of the work (who, I mentioned you should contact) may be glad to have someone help them out with promotions. Help update a web page, work a table at a convention, whatever. If you believe (and have the time), lend a hand – you’ll probably make new friends too.

Do A Panel: Conventions need panels and events and you and your fellow fans can band together to talk to folks about whatever it is you’re trying to Boost The Signal for. Run a fan panel and let people know why you fan over what you do. By the way, make sure you have a good handout and list of resources.

Run An Event: Maybe what you like is more an event thing, like an RPG. So, run the game or demonstrate the technology at a convention.

Team Up With Others: Perhaps a local convention, a blog, or what have you is willing to do panels or roundups on obscure or notable work. Take advantage of this to team up with others and promote Ten Comics You Should Read, or Five Great Card Games No One Knows About.

(By the way, based on what I learned from the rest of Crossroads Alpha, lists like that get attention, sometimes for years.)

Review: Do you review and critique work? Do you post at websites on such things? Well, go write a (realistic) review of why you like something at the appropriate website. I can point you to a few if you like – and even if you don’t write critique, why not give it a shot and try?

Advise: Sure you talked to the creator or creators of what you’re trying to promote, but what else can you do to help? Maybe your art skills can help with a website redesign. Your knowledge of marketing may let you give tips. Team up and help out!

Network: Hook a creator up with people – always a favorite past time of myself. Help them out by introducing them to appropriate people. Bring them into your LinkedIn Network. Find some way to connect them with others.

Drop The Hint: If there’s a book, comic, game etc. that you like, suggest your local store carry it. It can’t hurt to suggest it after all – and you might be able to provide more advice on things to carry. If you’ve contacted the creator(s) of the work you’re boosting, you could even arrange appearances.

If you really want to take Ambassadorship all the way, get really active, dig in, and share the wonders you found – and help out. Sure, it may seem like you’re just one person, but you never know what difference you can make until you try.

Who knows, you might have a future in PR . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Breaking Gotham

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I like the idea of Gotham: really a young Jim Gordon who’s life intersects with future superheroes (Batman in the form of a bereaved Bruce Wayne) and super villains (everyone else).  The basic idea is intriguing, though the implementation would be challenging, and the initial script sounds pretty dismal.  Also I wonder how long it could be done legitimately without running out of ideas or going in circles.

Besides, we’ve done a lot with the heroes.  So let me suggest we take a tip from the success of Breaking Bad and do a show about the villains, how they came to be, and how they end up.

Yes villains.  Plural.

Imagine a series of interlinked tales as we explore the lives of several villains as they come to be, interact, plot, and scheme.  As they come into their own, they’re haunted by The Batman, who is almost never seen on screen, but is a shadowy presence haunting them.  In a way, Batman would almost be like the stalking killer in a horror movie, a shadowy presence tormenting them and pushing them – and only later do you remember these are thieves, madmen, and murderers.

Over time they start to team up, a sort of loose alliance, filled with with friendships and rivalries, romance and unrequited love, and of course disturbing psychological problems and backstabbing.  Schemes and criminal plans start, goals are pursued . . .

Then The Batman starts winning.  Slowly, and surely one of the villains after the other are taken to Arkham or otherwise lost.  Slowly their numbers dwindle, their nerves fray, betrayal, accusation, and brutal violence set in.

Finally there’s only one left.  The Joker, alone, sitting in a room, abandoned by his henchmen, Harley Quinn in prison, petting one of his hyenas.  Then there’s the sound of a man walking into the room, and his shadow is like that of a bat.  The Joker, tired, beaten, exhausted, looks up, smiles, and simply asks “What took you so long?”

Series ends.

– Steven Savage

Oh We Can’t Make THAT Movie

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There’s so many geeky properties coming out in film and TV and games that when someone says “oh, that won’t work as a movie” or something it sounds weird.  For the gods’s sake Peter Dinklage is THE fantasy hero and Marvel is giving us an uplifted Racoon with a machine gun who rides a sentient tree.  Make no assumptions (except that Peter Dinklage is an incredible talent).

So in honor of an “un-adaptable” geek movie let me add this intro as how I’d do this particular property . . .

 

Some of us stand guard over the gates of Hell.

For some people they seem something horrible and all their ideas of reality break and they have to do something. Others they get recruited because some of us know they can take it. People like me, well, it’s a family business.

I deal with things no one wants to talk about, things we can’t talk about, echoes in the dark and things out of horror novels. My dad did it for decades, paid the price, and got out. My grandfather, well, he’s why my dad and I do what we do, because he didn’t ask for it, but he did his duty when the time came.

It goes back to World War II. Bad times and horrible things, but so much more horrible than most people know. People talk about it a bit, but not much, but around the edges the stories leak out; dark technology, corpse-eating creatures on the battlefields, human sacrifice, and far more. My grandfather stumbled into it by accident, which is a family trait to be fair.

So he started to solve things. He got good at solving things even if it required shooting people or things that were once people between the eyes, which was admittedly his preferred method. He and some of his mates, they got sent after things that didn’t wear a helmet or carry a gun, or whose uniform was a human face. Most of his old gang is gone now, and those that are alive, it does’t seem very natural.

It was hard on him. Hard on them. It took its toll. Until he met The Angel.

He talks about The Angel now and then, but only to a few of us. Hope and someone to fight with. Something that made him believe. Someone who was there in the midst of it all, all the blood and the terror and the wrongness.

The Angel is what kept him sane. Kept him alive. The Angel helped him and others, so many others, slam shut the gates of Hell.

That was decades ago. Grampa is gone and the notes people knew about confiscated and people would like to forget. Dad didn’t forget. I didn’t.

Only now . . .

See The Angel had a daughter. She’s here now. Somethings going to go wrong, something bad is happening.

It’s time for me to take my turn guarding the gates of Hell.

I always knew this would happen since I saw those notes in my dad’s terrible latin, all on a very poor photo.

Angeli. The Angel. Miraculum Mulier. The Wonder Woman.

Time to find her. Time to do my duty.

Steven Ezekiel Trevor III, 2014

Unfilmable? Nah.  Some people need to have the courage to do it right.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.