Media, Society, Monsters, and Magic
A modest proposal đź’– and a joke, of course!! Just a joke.
This was my submission to the 2025 edition of the anthology published by Philly Zine Fest, an event that gets cooler and livelier with each passing year. You can download a digital copy of the anthology from their website (here).
“Dreamcore Limited” was my submission to the Halloween flash fiction contest hosted by Bloodletter Magazine. This piece was selected as one of the three winners, and it was awarded a cover illustration by the horror artist Rialin Jose! You can read the stories and bask in the spookiness of their illustrations on Bloodletter’s account on Instagram (here).
The theme of this contest was “liminality,” and what better setting than a dead mall? Nostalgia is creepy, and the horror of dead malls is the uncanniness of feeling your history collapse into a marketing demographic that no longer fits.
I was inspired by Maria-Gemma Brown’s academic article “Ghost in the Mall: The Affective and Hauntological Potential of Dead Mall Ruins,” which is a fantastic piece of scholarship that’s interesting and accessible to a broad general audience. The article is open-access, and you can read it or download a PDF copy on the website of Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry (here).
My review of Hollow Press’s newest publication, Bramble, was posted on Comics Beat!
Hollow Press is an Italian micropress that publishes strategy guides for dark fantasy adventure games that don’t exist. Their most well-known book is Vermis (which I wrote about here), but I think Bramble is probably more accessible to a wider readership. It’s very weird and creative, and the art style is a lot of fun. Here’s an excerpt from my review…
Bramble is a worthy successor to Vermis, and the book proudly stands on its own as an accessible introduction to the emerging genre of original strategy guides. Its story is driven by the forward momentum of a traditional graphic novel and augmented by the intriguingly fragmented worldbuilding presented by digital RPGs. As a physical object, Bramble also suggests the nostalgic mystery of forgotten media, and the reader can easily imagine coming across this book hidden in the back of a closet or buried at the bottom of a box at a flea market.
You can read the full review on Comics Beat here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/graphic-novel-review-bramble/
Echoes of Wisdom is growing on me, and I especially love how Zelda fights by rapid-summoning monsters to overwhelm her enemies. I suppose Zelda is technically creating “echoes” instead of resurrecting her defeated foes, but she still reminds me of the Tears of the Kingdom trailer in which Ganondorf triggers the Blood Moon, summons a bunch of monsters, and tells them to “sweep over Hyrule.” Necromancy seems like a very fun gig if you can get it.
This comic was drawn by the horrifically talented Frankiesbugs, whose cute and creepy illustrations and comics can be found on Tumblr (here), on Instagram (here), on Cara (here), and on Redbubble (here).
I always seem to find myself in a Wind Waker mood during summer. One of the many things I love about The Wind Waker is how beautiful and green and breezy it is. It’s a joy to spend time in the world of the game, which is filled with all sorts of strange and interesting creatures.
To me, then, it’s always been amusing that the Deku Tree in the Forest Haven blames this state of affairs on Ganondorf. I believe the implication is supposed to be that Ganondorf is so innately evil that his very presence on the Great Sea causes monsters to appear, but that’s extremely silly. Ganondorf may be up to no good, but he’s just a crabby old man.
If Ganondorf is responsible for the appearance of plant monsters, I prefer to think that this is because one of his many old man hobbies is gardening. Evil gardening!!
This comic was drawn by the darkly brilliant Frankiesbugs, whose cute and creepy illustrations and comics can be found on Tumblr (here), on Instagram (here), on Cara (here), and on Redbubble (here). Frankiesbugs is also responsible for the comic art and environment design featured in an upcoming beat-em-up game called V’s Rage. Like Wind Waker, V’s Rage boasts plenty of cute creatures, beautiful sun-soaked landscapes, and ridiculous middle-aged men. You can check out the game and play a substantial free demo on Steam (here).
Out of curiosity, I started experimenting with ChatGPT this semester. There’s not much to say about it, save that it generates stale and flavorless writing that’s easy to recognize once you know what it looks like.
Unfortunately, now that I can recognize text generated by ChatGPT, it’s hard not to see it. It’s also hard not to get my feelings hurt when my students submit work written by ChatGPT. Why would they do me dirty like that?
So I’m not saying that I like ChatGPT. I actually kind of hate it.
Still, the potential for this sort of writing engine is incredible. What if it could work not just as an actually functional grammar checker, but also as a translator between different ways of self-expression? Wouldn’t it be interesting if the model could be developed to “translate” an outline or quickly written sketch of an idea into a piece of writing that was more easily understandable by a broader audience? Wouldn’t it be nice if people who felt embarrassed or otherwise unable to express themselves had a means of putting their thoughts on paper?
I understand how unrealistic it is to think that ChatGPT won’t be abused by bad-faith actors, and I also understand that there’s no point of people in marginalized positions having a voice if the venues where they could be heard are shut down due to AI-generated content spamming. At the same time, I think it’s probably healthy to keep an open mind and be as inclusive as possible when defining who (and what) counts as “human.”
In an eerie castle submerged under cursed waters, Ganondorf tells Tetra about the world that once was. Ganondorf’s story is at its end, but his words inspire Tetra to dream of the world to come.
I recently started playing The Wind Waker in order to do research for a short essay about Koroks. The Wind Waker is a fresh and lovely game, at least at the beginning, and I always forget the emotional impact of the end. The pathos of Ganondorf’s longing for the Hyrule of the past always gets me right in the heart.
I think it’s interesting that, after The Wind Waker, Tetra goes on to establish New Hyrule, the setting of Spirit Tracks. She thereby achieves Ganondorf’s goal of restoring an ancient kingdom blessed by gentle winds. This begs the question – how would Tetra know about Hyrule? Given how much time Tetra spent with Ganondorf under the Great Sea, I think it’s safe to assume that they must have talked to one another.
This story is my attempt to envision what these conversations might have been. I wrote this story a few years ago, but I’m returning to it now because it still resonates with me. The older I get, the more I sympathize with Ganondorf, and the more willing I become to let decaying empires fall to ruin in favor of embracing the winds of change.
You can read the story here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/35251798
The comic adaptation is by the magical Lightsintheskye, who is:
(on Twitter) + (on Tumblr) + (on Etsy)
This is a sequel to my “Demonic Women in Fiction” comic.
I think perhaps the most amusing aspect of that comic was how much hate it got on Twitter. I actually had to lock my account for a few days because randos kept popping up and commenting with long lists of every demonic man who has ever appeared in popular culture. Those dudes don’t know me, so they would have no way of knowing this, but I am in fact very familiar with demonic men. I’m even something of a connoisseur, one might say.  Â
Still, I haven’t read that many m/f romance novels, so I have only recently learned about Scotland.
I should add that I’m referencing a line from Lucky Penny, a comedy romance (graphic) novel about romance novels. Lucky Penny‘s story is a lot of fun, and the writing is fantastic.
It was a great class, but I have some thoughts about literary double standards.
This is how I imagine Sellen and Rennala celebrating the end of the semester at the Academy of Raya Lucaria.
The postapocalyptic world of Elden Ring isn’t a great place to live, and good people usually end up dead. The Academy of Raya Lucaria seems as though it was dangerous even before the world ended, as very few of the wizards who studied there had even the slightest hint of ethics regarding the otherworldly powers they were attempting to harness. As much as I would love to study magic myself, I’m fairly certain that I would die – or even worse, become undead – within the first semester of wizard school.
Also, multiple people have commented to me that Elden Ring contains the most accurate portrayal of academia they’ve seen in a video game. As a professor, I think it’s best that I keep my comments to myself, but damn if that isn’t the truth.
Digital Fantasy Diary 