ANNOUNCING: MARY SUE
My love letter to fandom spaces in comics form - coming this fall!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Mary Sue!
Mary Sue Inspiration
Champion Corner
On Sale Now
The Crochet Report
Mary Sue!
After many years and many shakeups, I can finally talk about my first ever creator owned comic!
MARY SUE - Despite what her mom thinks, Cassie has lots of friends—they just all happen to be online, where she can talk to them about her beloved favorite show, Riverview, and get their feedback on her fan fic WIP, starring Jessica, her very own hot Vampire OC.
But her fic writing persona is revealed to the entire school when her former best friend finds it and can’t resist reading some of it out loud to their classmates.
Cassie thinks things can’t get any more humiliating, until her very own Mary Sue pops right out of her fan fic to save the day—or make it much, much worse…
I like to think of it as Life-Size meets fanfiction.
The amount of TALENT on this book, from the amazing artist Lisa Sterle, to my wonderful editor Elizabeth Brei, to the ABSOLUTELY STACKED VARIANT COVER ARTISTS.
Mary Sue Inspiration
I don’t remember the exact moment I found fanfiction, but I’m pretty sure it had to do with watching Star Wars when I was nine. The trilogy finished, the credits roll, and I thought, “but… I want more!”
I come from a pretty sheltered background, it was a surprise that was even allowed to watch Star Wars, so I didn’t really know there were extended universe books (also, I was nine, the adult sci-fi section of Barnes & Nobles looked very boring). I went on the internet, to this new-fangled help site called Ask Jeeves!, and desperately looked for “more Star Wars stories”… and I stumbled onto the website that would consume my every waking hour (and some non-waking ones).
This wasn’t just the beginning of my love affair with story, it was access to a community. To fandom. Since that fateful day, I’ve found myself in multiple fandoms, reading multiple fics, engaged in multiple shipping wars, I’ve even written a Mary Sue or two. While fandom is often disparaged, usually because of sexism, I have always found solace, safety, and support in these communities.
Mary Sue is a love letter to fandom, but it’s also a love letter to the early ‘00s. Though it’s set today, the vibes are millennium core, pulling from some of my absolute favorite pieces of media.
Especially…
Excited to talk more as we get closer to drop date!
Champion Corner
Things I’m reading/watching/loving. Some of it will be big budget, some will be indie, but all are worth your time.
Have you listened to Wooden Overcoats? It’s a British audio sitcom about warring funeral homes. It’s absolutely brilliant, a fun listen, and they’re having their TEN YEAR anniversary show at the London Podcast Festival on Sept 7th. If you’re in London, you should come see it (I will 1000% be there, wouldn’t miss it.)
Watched Mission: Impossible - Final Reckoning and LOVED it. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about the submarine scene, and it’s such a good example of just… what if movies were fun? Anyway, with the “final” Mission: Impossible movie out, I decided to rank all the movies. I wrote about this on BlueSky, what I love about ranking franchises is that I end up learning so much about what -I- love about a story.
A little off the beaten path, but I started playing a Switch game I’ve been SO excited for - Loco Motive! It’s a point-and-click adventure game in the style of Agatha Christie-meets-Monkey Island. I love the aesthetics, though the answers are sometimes a little out-of-the-box, it’s such a fun world to live in.
On Sale Now
All-Star Superman Audiobook - Just in time for the Superman Movie, make sure to grab a copy wherever you get your audiobooks!
The Crochet Report
My spouse got me some spectacular yarn that contains the wool from ten different London farms, including the sheep in the farm close to us! It’s very precious to me, so I wanted to make something very special with it.
I’ve had my ups and downs with London, but the city farms and the Thames are the two pieces that are very special to me — so I crocheted a small bag for when I walk along the river!
It’s a pattern I came up with myself, with a bed of shells symbolizing the foreshore, and the sort of bubble pattern representing the waves. I also learned how to do an i-cord strap for this, which seems to be very sturdy, though I plan to reinforce it with some canvas.
I also have gotten obsessed with bag charms, but they’re all outrageously expensive, so I used the yarn to make my own bag charm — a piece of London for when I’m not in London. (I have to figure out how to actually put it on a bag, if I want it on a keyring.)
That’s all for this week. Bless the rains!
Best,
Meghan