The Full Lid
27th March 2020
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Welcome to The Full Lid! It's Friday! It's 5 p.m.! Odds are your commute is currently measured in feet, not miles, but NO MATTER! The Lid is here for you, crammed full of pop culture goodness.
New reader? Welcome aboard! Here's the plan: Once a week you get a concentrated download of pop culture enthusiasm, how my week's been and anything else that takes my fancy. Previous issues have included everything from The Doctor's connection to the Eternal Champion books through to the fictional Presidency of Dwayne Johnson.
The Full Lid: A Lot, but in a good way.
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Contents
Next Waves
20 Fists
The Brave New Words Short List
Signal Boost
Playing Out, Signing Off
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(Oh hey the section headings are back! Because we're worth it.)
Podcast audio drama has been undergoing a Renaissance for so long I keep expecting it to be an Assassins Creed game (deep cuts! It's what's for dinner!) The field is crammed full of just embarrassingly talented people doing extraordinary work, often on microscopic budgets. That inventiveness, telling deeply unique stories in tiny spaces, is especially embodied by four shows I listen to right now. Three are brand new, two are college projects and all of them deserve your attention.
First up, Seren. Created and written by Nerys Howell, Seren follows the titular lead character through her exile to a terraforming project she wants no part of. Alone on a transport vessel, with only the Pearl-class onboard AI for company, Seren has no choice but to rail against a prison sentence in all but name, and go back over the events that led her to this point.
Structurally, Seren is the mirror image of the equally impressive Vast Horizon. Both shows use the demands of space travel to force their protagonists to look inward, but Seren also looks back. Buckled under the weight of her fearsome self-awareness and perception, she can't help but analyze not only how she got here, but to emotionally process those events and their consequences.
This is the long dark night of the soul, stretched out against the longest night of all. It pulls no punches, and Howell as as gifted and emotionally honest a voice talent as she is a writer, especially as Seren's emotional trajectory cleverly maps onto her direction of travel. The dystopian, almost Gileadean world she is exiled from comes into ever-sharper relief as the series progresses and it soon becomes clear Seren is, in many ways, better off the further away she gets. Especially as the series begins to explore not only the programmed biases of Pearl but how they act as a (possibly) inadvertent sounding board for the very dissenting ideas and beliefs that got Seren in trouble in the first place.
This is a platonic ideal of small cast, small focus podcast. The world-building is top notch, the writing is great and the show uses the carefully designed canvas to explore issues of sexuality, identity, social pressures, AI rights and dystopia. Seren is most of the way through it's first season and available now.
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Warren Godby is an affable accountant, newly hired by a massive corporation. He's busy, curious, and acutely aware that his occupation doesn't make him popular. There's this project he's tryign to investigate and no one's helping. Until he meets Gordon Schill, a company archivist (no not that kind). Gordon knows exactly what Warren is looking for and is going to help him. Whether Godby wants it or not...
The genius of Red Valley is perfectly summed up in an early moment where Warren takes a call from his wife. Jonathan Williams and May Cunningham have a great, easy chemistry as Warren and Karen and the call bounces along until Warren coughs. May asks if he's taking his meds, he says yes, and off we go again.
Except we don't.
Because that glimpse of what's going on under the surface is what this show is all about. Warren isn't telling us everything. Duncan, played with flamboyant conspiratorial grumpiness by Alan Mandel is telling us entirely too much. And out in Red Valley, a piece of feral science is waiting to be found. Comedy (the show is often very funny), horror and science fiction collide and the end result is vastly impressive. Red Valley's first episode is out now and I've been lucky enough to be given the entire first season. A non-spoilery season review will be up once I've had a chance to finish it.
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There are lots of ways to hook me into a piece of fiction. Some don't take long. Some are elaborate and complex. A sure-fire one is to have a disgraced astronaut pick up a transmission that cannot possibly exist from an abandoned stratellite high above Venus, seven years after a catastrophic failure of crew, equipment and possibly humanity.
Oh HAVOC. You know me so well.
Editor's note: Alasdair was positively GIDDY relaying that show description.
CeCe Richardson's script does two impossible things in the first episode. It sets up a stunningly fun premise and then immediately lets it stand alone, building but not leaning upon it. In short order we discover why Doctor Avery Beck is on the HAVOC seven years after it was abandoned. Not long after that we find out why CapCom Ryan Hansen is there and knows as much as he does.
Even as these big issues fall away, Richardson's characters refreshingly refuse to follow established tropes, both pushing against their incredible situation and discovering the walls really do move. This is a story that is only going to get bigger in a way which is as logical as it is thrilling. I can't wait to see what they do when they come back from hiatus. Especially given how excellent the voice acting is too. Grant Schoening is great as the increasingly aware Ryan, surfacing from years of guilt and shame. Caroline Christie's Doctor Beck isn't just a voice on the end of an impossible line but the embodiment of what Ryan used to be. Christie plays Beck with clear eyed determination, a cheerfully honest emotional palette and a quick wit. She's the sort of astronaut Ryan used to be and will have to be again to save the day. It's a smart, complicated, fun relationship at the core of a smart, complicated, fun show and the first three episodes are out now.
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Sally and Peter run the local monster log: a series of videos about hunting local legends. The pair is driven by Sally's relentless, Lois Lane-ian energy and Peter's fundamental desire to not die. Neither of them have ever seen anything (Sally would perhaps argue that point) but they keep looking. After all, what could possibly be weird about a town where the convenience store changes location daily and the local sports team are called The Giant Squids.
Welcome to Lantern. Keep your eyes open.
The Buffy comparisons are as obvious as they are unnecessary. There's nothing so reassuring as Buffy's 'old vampires are powerful, magic is evil' rules in Lantern. Instead there's a very human, very funny story about teenagers making their peace with their weird, alien world. It's more Stranger Things than Buffy, more Being Human than True Blood and it's infinitely stronger for it.
Especially as these characters get precisely none of the plot armor you might expect. Injuries abound, consequences doubly so and the show does a great job of interrogating just what someone like Sally would be like to stand next to. In a universally strong voice cast, Allie Rothfield's work really stands out. Sally is a superhero without a cape, Nancy Drew caught in a storm of fortean mysteries. She's LOVING it too, but is painfully aware that the others often are not.
That combination of feral small town weird and self aware compassion is why I love The Haunted Hour. There's a real sense of Sally and the team slowly uncovering the vast labyrinth they're living in, discovering the truth right along with us. It's immensely fun, very funny, like HAVOC is a college project, and can be found here.
Four shows. Almost no budget, minimal resources and yet all four find entirely different routes to the same destination; phenomenally good audio drama. The field really has never been in better shape or better hands and I can't wait to see what's next.
Which reminds me, I need to go refresh my podcatcher...
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Alasdair's 'Disney+ Gave Me All The Nostalgia' favorites: Spider-Man
Don't mess with the classics.
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I love stories that trust you, that throw you backwards through the doors of the saloon into the middle of plot, drama, character and complexity. I think a lot as a writer and analyst about the John Rogers’ axiom ‘start as late as possible, finish as early as possible’. It’s a very good rule to steer by. It’s also the invisible fourth rule of 20 Fists.
Written by Frankee White, with bloody-knuckled Carla Speed McNeil-esque art from KT Baumann and letters by DC Hopkins, 20 Fists is the story of Chel and Billie.
Or rather it would be if this was a world where things were simple. Because as long as its just Chel and Billie, it IS simple. Billie is a refined, successful woman who wants nothing more than to explore her burgeoning romance and relationship with Billie. For her part, Billie is a ticking clock of violent innovation who is floored harder by kindness than she ever is by a punch. If it was just them, it would be fine.
But there are the rules. And then there are the gangs. And then there’s the fight.
The rules first:
- no deaths
- five to a crew
- no cops
Then the gangs. The Big Jackets are Billie’s crew, and you can tell where they get their name from. From loudmouth scrawny Kel to powerhouse Yuri, they’re an experienced group of brawlers with as many body shapes as they have scars on their knuckles. Ranged against them are the No-Names, Chel’s crew. Cory, still nursing a bad leg from their last bout, and Wayne, who is the only one convinced that cowboy hat looks cool. Brian and Rei, a happy couple who are independently realizing their fight may not be Chel’s. The No Names are the scrappiest of underdogs, brilliant, brutal and completely scattered.
That last one is about to cost them all. Badly.
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This is a single panel gag. A SINGLE PANEL. And it's glorious.
The entire book is this good.
White’s script claps you on the back like an old friend and guides you to your seat. In short order you figure out who’s who and see where the reality of the story meshes perfectly with the fantastical overlay.
This is a world where dueling, albeit in gang form, is permitted and used as a peacekeeping measure. That does nothing for complex situations like Chel and Billie, but a lot for the streets. It’s also clearly well established and Whitte uses deft touches to show you how this plays out in the world. A bystander is lambasted for getting a cheap shot in during one fight. When that erupts into an all-out brawl, the bartender gets the combatants’ attention by ringing an old boxing bell. Time and again, this world has the dents knocked out of it, and feels the more real for it.
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That’s helped immensely by Baumann’s art. The fights are brilliantly choreographed, scrappy and swashbuckling, funny and brutal by turns as you can see above.
But what makes the book is the eye for character and people. No member of either gang looks like another, body shapes are wildly different and so are ages and genders. This is a book about people, not an idealized version of them and that makes the book's central themes and characters land all the harder. Likewise Hopkins’ lettering manages to not only keep the action going but make sure each character has a distinctive tone of voice, no easy task for a cast like this.
20 Fists is the sort of romance John Carpenter would direct. 20 Fists is the sort of comic each one of The Warriors would have on their pull list. It’s sweet, violent, sad and relentlessly entertaining. It’s also crowdfunding now. If you can, go help out. Because this book is one hell of a fight and it deserves a final round.
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New reader? Find The Full Lid archive here.
Follow this link to Boldly Go to my ko-fi. And thanks.
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Brave New Words Shortlist
It's not often I get to write 'stop the digital presses' so I'm going to enjoy it.
STOP THE DIGITAL PRESSES!
(Thank you)
I had the honor of serving as a Brave New Words judge in prior years. It's a great award: very focused in voice but cheerfully open about where that can be found.
Enter this shortlist:
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That is a HECK of a list!
I'm familiar with most of it and there is a lot of ground covered there. Delighted to see an anthology make the cut, likewise a novella (I've reviewed before) and even the titles I'm unfamiliar with I hear nothing but good things about. Congratulations to the finalists and the judges.
Whoever takes home one of the two coolest trophies in indie publishing awards will be a deserving winner.
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Nostalgia Maelstrom: Spider-Man
UNLESS YOU'RE THE RAMONES! THEN YOU CAN MESS WITH THE CLASSICS AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! 1234!
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Signal Boost
- Let's start with The Doctor. Have tissues ready.
- Current showrunner Chris Chibnall has released this fun little short story about what a Time Lord considers when she's plummeting towards the Earth in a brand new body.
- And let's not forget the first time The Doctor was a Northern motormouth with a heart of gold.
- Do you want new Nine Inch Nails music for free? Because it turns out this is how you get new Nine Inch Nails music for free.
- Also, Peter Lukas big
- With the news that WorldCon is going virtual this year (check back next week for THAT piece!), Adri of Nerds of a Feather has a great thread on making your own virtual con ribbons!
- Our friends at Rusty Quill are very classy people. This statement shows why (Real world content included, just so you know).
- Duck. That is all.
- If The Witcher had a black cat (THIS IS SO GOOD)
- One of my oldest, most talented friends, Chris Brosnahan is doing some very cool stuff with some very cool people involving Shakespeare and audio recording.
- THREE new Clipping albums which seem to basically be a tour of Jonathan's sonic workshop and OH MY GOD YES PLEASE
- Nothing Here is a great newsletter. It runs straight at weighty stories, has some brilliant reporting and is run by ludicrously great people. Go sign up.
- My long term colleague in the paranormal and fellow lifetime member of the Carnacki Fan Club, Dorian Deathly is streaming ghost walks from my old hometown. Go watch this, and throw him a donation if you can.
- Z, who is an astonishingly good artist, is launching a Magnus Archives zine crammed full of gorgeous work. Go check it out.
- The Glasgow Writer's Circle have published an anthology, Flotation Device, in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders, The Trussell Trust (UK foodbanks) and Simon Community Scotland (alleviates homelessness in Scotland). Put together by EM Faulds, the project features work from Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson, my brilliant friend Ruth EJ Booth, Brian M. Milton, Elaine Gallagher, Heather Valentine, Ian Hunter and more. It's a mixture of new and reprint stories wrapped in this gorgeous cover and is available here.
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Big week this week, lots of smiles and hope to keep us going.
If I missed you, or if you have a project you'd like to see here, get in touch.
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Nostalgia Maelstrom: Darkwing Duck
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? And... ducks? Darkwing Duck!
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Signing Off / Playing Out
That week was sixteen years long, I swear. But we made it! We're here, well done everbody. We did great. May not feel like it but we did.
Go check out the Team KennerStuart Instagram, come say hi to us on the Twitters or take a look the new at EA Twitch stream! Which is a thing now!
This work is produced for free. If you like what you read please consider dropping something in the tip jar. Thank you :).
Oh and to play us out, a little light falling over Gotham. But wait... what's that in the night sky? Why, it's... it's
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a Full Lid. See you next week folks.
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