Singing the Body Electric

Fandom 50 #30

Untitled Fix-It Comic by yeehawpim
Fandom: Panfandom, Doctor Who, Avengers, Sherlock
Medium: Comic
Length: 6 pages
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: drama, happy ending, au: canon divergence, writing

Description:

A black-and-white cartoon comic follows its creator from their teenage years reading fic in a classroom, through glimpses of canon moments from Doctor Who, The Avengers, and Sherlock, to the experiences of other fans and back to the now-older creator as they muse on their changing opinion of fix-it fic.

( Transcript of Comic Text )

Yeah, this got me. I'm a sucker for a good fix-it fic, and it's a storytelling impulse that I feel warmly about in general. I've especially been thinking about this topic lately—and some of the related canon moments—thanks to a bit that hit home in JessieGender1's recent Star Trek Strange New Worlds Is a Centrist Space Fantasy video essay that talked about the storytelling worldviews in which change requires a body count and about the narrative incorporation of ungrievable lives. (Two recs for the price of one in this post!)

This comic is sweet and touching, with great pacing and choice of visuals. I especially love the spot where we see darkness giving way to light and the shots of people writing. It gave me some fuzzy feelings about fandom and encouraged me to open back up a fix-it draft of my own.

Fandom 50 #22

Day by Day by surprisepink
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Ship: Stede Bonnet/Izzy Hands
Medium: Fic
Length: 1361 words
Rating: Teen
My Bookmark Tags: slice of life, romance, humour, happy ending, established relationship, izzy lives, future, flirtation, compatibility, service
Summary: A typical raid for Captain Bonnet and his new first mate.

Excerpt:

“I’m getting the hang of this, if I do say so myself,” says Stede, cheerily.

“And you do.”

“What’s that, Izzy?’

“Say so yourself.” The man looks entirely unimpressed, but it does take a lot to impress Izzy. Stede has accepted it by this point, and knows not to take it personally. Knows, too, that if Izzy actually wasn’t at least a little happy with him, he could leave the ship just about anywhere and find another pirate crew to join. And yet, port after port, he doesn’t.

And all Stede had ever wanted was for people to stay.

This is everything I love about the idea of Stede and Izzy together on the Revenge, with Stede captaining and Izzy serving as his first mate. The way they rile each other up is perfect, tempered to just the right heat by a better understanding of each other. Izzy's ways of trying to serve Stede while keeping his ego in check are moving, and so is Stede's growing sense of what he's doing and what it means.

The story's funny, with a comedic moment early on that made me laugh out loud, and the sexual chemistry between Stede and Izzy absolutely crackles. This one really made my day.

Fandom 50 #20

Untitled Ouizzy Neighbor AU by derekstilinski
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationship: Frenchie/Izzy Hands
Medium: Gifset
Length: 3 gifs
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: romance, happy ending, getting together, constructed reality, au: modern, domesticity, nature

Description:

In the first gif, Izzy wanders out into a field and happens upon Frenchie, who's sitting alone and obviously having a bad time alone with his thoughts. In the second, the two men are each in their houses, looking out the window at each other's places. In the third, they've finally come together, Frenchie handing a wary Izzy a cup of tea.

I am such a sucker for constructed reality graphics and vids, and all the ways a little tactical harnessing of the Kuleshov effect can bring us the crossovers, AUs, and visual adaptations we crave. I've got a few from this same creator to rec, but I'm starting with this Neighbor AU that imagines a modern day Frenchie and Izzy living next door to each other in the country and catching each other's eye.

First off, I just love how it's put together, from the progression of running into each other by chance, then scoping out each other from their houses, to finally coming together for tea. But I also love how the choice of sources colours the story being told here. I'm pretty sure the Con O'Neill clips are from Vengeance Is Mine and the Joel Fry ones are from In the Earth. These are both harrowing movies where the actual characters are going through some awful things. I appreciate how those scenes get recontextualized here into something cozier that nonetheless paints a picture of both characters having gone through some rough times.

You can easily imagine that this modern Frenchie has just as many terrible things locked up in that little box in his head as his 18th century counterpart had, and that this Izzy has just been through an emotionally and/or physically traumatic breakup with Ed, and now here they are, a little bruised and cautious but finding some potential comfort and love in their own backyard.

Fandom 50 #18

Untitled Chibi Jim by StarBramble
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Character: Jim Jimenez
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: action/adventure, happy ending, portrait, clothing, blades

Description:

A chibi-style drawing of a smiling Jim Jimenez in a fencing pose with their dagger, dressed in their season 2 outfit.

This is just super cute. I love Jim's adorkable moments on the show, and I always love a good juxtaposition of cuteness and deadliness. Jim's ready to star in their own stabby Little Golden Book here, complete with a loving representation of my favourite ensemble of theirs: the undercut, the mustard-colour shirt hanging artfully open at the collar, the suspenders, the earring. I just want to take them home with me.

Fandom 50 #16

Untitled Narwhal!Merman Izzy by MegaDucko
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Character/Relationship: Izzy Hands (Izzy Hands/Edward Teach in framing text)
Medium: Art
Length: 1 piece
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: slice of life, romance, ambiguous ending, established relationship, au: merpeople, long-distance relationship, gifts, nature
Artist's Summary: For 27 years now Ed has been bringing Izzy, his sea unicorn, small gifts every time he returns from a particularly lucky raid and those are Izzy's happiest moments...

Description:

Merman Izzy, his lower half the mottled grey tail of a narwhal and his brow sporting a long horn, lounges kelp-draped on a rocky shore. He's adorned with a bracelet and an earring, and protected in a small grotto beside him is a collection of other trinkets.

Izzy's status as the ship's unicorn has a special place in my heart, and bringing this together with a merperson AU to give us Izzy as a narwhal-style merman is just brilliant. And as always, MegaDucko has realized a brilliant concept beautifully.

The setting is perfect for Izzy, with his sturdy build and scars: not white sand and crystal-blue waters but a more rugged and cooler coastline, beautiful in its own way but not conventionally idyllic. The overall design of his body feels so natural despite its fantastical construction, with the way his musculature and colouring blends together between top half and bottom, and with the way he's got his tail curled around, dripping water on himself. Curled over his gifts from his sailor-love, it's easy to see that piece of land he's cuddling up to as a proxy for Ed. His expression perfectly strikes the balance between contentment and yearning, and I'm firmly opting for the happier ending discussed in the artist's thread.

Fandom 50 #14

"Tender as Hell..." a Roach-centric Icon Set by magnavox_23
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Character: Roach
Medium: Graphics
Length: 28 icons
Rating: SFW

So, magnavox_23 kindly offered to make me something recently, and I was like, "Oh, maybe the next time you make some Our Flag Means Death icons, you could make a Roach one, because I don't have any Roach icons." What I got wasn't a Roach icon. It was 28 Roach icons, each one of them absolutely gorgeous—funny ones, serious ones, sweet ones, Roaches for all moods and seasons, making the absolute aesthetic most of Samba Schutte's beautiful face.

If you're looking for an Our Flag Means Death icon or an icon in a wide variety of other fandoms, definitely check out magnavox_23's work!

Fandom 50 #12

Squish That Izzy by lordess-dickery-doof
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationships: Izzy Hands & the rest of the Feral Five (Fang, Archie, Frenchie, and Jim)
Medium: Vid
Length: 0:23
Rating: SFW
My Bookmark Tags: humour, happy ending, h/c (emotional), animals, cuddling, friendship, touch, trauma, denial/repression
Audio: How to pick up a cat like a pro - Vet advice on cat handling by HelpfulVancouverVet

Excerpt:

Squishing is your best friend when dealing with a cat.

Look, I'm a simple creature. Overlaying vet advice about how to safely pick up a cat on a scene where my fave is distraught and struggling against being hugged is always going to bring me an outsize amount of enjoyment. The editing on this is great, making the most of a short scene without overstaying the life of the bit, and I especially love the zoom in at the end. Squish. That. Cat.