Table of Contents About the Publication Credits Letter From the Editor Acknowledgements Interview: Ruben Sanchez Interview: Emi Reitz Interview: Aaron Covrett Interview: Dillon Mitchler Glossary About the Creator
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Subculture
About The first issue of Subculture is about science fiction and the people who like it. More specifically, its about how it affects their lives and vice versa. How their upbringing, job, sexual orientation, etc. is effected by science fiction. Science fiction in this case serves as the theme that connects all of these people together, no matter how different they may seem.
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Credits Thank you to Suzanne for guiding me through this process and making it less daunting. Thank you to Emi for being so open, to Ruben for being so honest and to Aaron for being so patient.
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Subculture
Letter from the Editor Readers, At first, I thought Subculture was going to be about strictly science fiction. My original idea was to interview friends and family about their favorite science fiction movies and then sit down and watch the movies with them. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t have time for that. So I narrowed my idea down to just science fiction and the people that like it. I sent out requests to my friends, the general Facebook audience, and even had people contact me about their friends that might be interested. I was overwhelmed at the responses, but mostly because I was realizing that it was becoming much more than science fiction. It was quickly becoming something that without my supervision could get hectic. So...I narrowed it down again, and I chose four people to interview. Four people that in their own ways have a lot to say about their experience with movies and science fiction. But so much more than that, too. This publication became a manifesto. For the weirdos, the nerds, the people that stay up until 4am writing fanfication or working on personal projects. The people that never fit in in high school, and found that not fitting in is actually okay. For the people that were popular, but always wished they could show their true self to those closest to them. Creating this publication was cathartic and it quickly became part of me. I’ve been in design school for three years and have learned from the beginning to separate myself always from my design. However, the second I began this publication, I realized that wouldn’t be possible. This publication is inherently me as much as it is inherently you. There’s no talking, writing, designing myself out of that truth. Growing up as a kid that liked metal, Star Wars, weird clothes, staying home on the weekends watching reruns on SyFy of the same terrible movies I’ve already seen- that was never cool.
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Thats why I chose the name Subculture, because a subculture still exists. A stigma around science fiction and the other weird things people like still exists. If you read or write Star Wars fanfiction, competively play Dungeons and Dragons, see John Carpenter live in concert, stay up until 4am every night for three months working on a 2001: A Space Odyssey themed project, people say: “What?” “Who?” Or they ask: “Why?” Or they say: “That’s weird” or “You’re wasting your time.” Subculture seeks to unite all of the geeks through the main thread they’re connected by. This issue is about science fiction. Will there be more issues? What will they be about? Quentin Tarantino movies? Board games? Tattoos? Who knows. Althought the context may change, the message will stay the same: There will always be the weird kids and this is their story.
Cori Kromrei
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To Dillon: For encouraging me to be myself at all times without worrying what other people think. For constantly supporting me especially when life is tough. And specifically being my best friend, number one fan, and the best life partner I could ask for.
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THE ARTIST 8
Ruben Sanchez
Ruben is a Mexican tattoo artist at Lightning Revival in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have two tattoos from Ruben, and consider him to be a good friend. Whenever I go to the shop we always end up talking about movies. I was really lucky to be able to sit down with Ruben and talk to him about being a tattoo artist and how his work is inspired by graphic design, his Mexican roots, and science fiction.
Explain to me what a normal day in your life is like. My life is pretty monotonous right now, I always do the same thing.Which is I wake up, not really I wake up, my kid wakes me up in the morning. My wife works in the morning so by the time I wake up she’s already gone most of the days. Grab my kid and give him food in the morning and play with him most of the morning. Either play with him or watch a little bit of tv, not much, he’s too young to care to much about it so he watches 20 minutes of Sesame Street. So we play most of the morning, work a little bit on designs. I normally work on my designs at night, so I come back from work, work on a design, or if its too late or I’m too tired go to sleep and finish the design in the morning. So I do that sometimes in the morning other times we just hang out with my kid, Miles. Then my wife comes back from work, we hang out for a minute, then I head to the shop and spend most of my day at the shop working until like nine or ten. Come back, have dinner with my wife, by the time I come back Miles is already sleeping so we have dinner, watch maybe a tv show or a movie. She goes to sleep and I draw for the rest of the night until like 2 in the morning. I’m a night owl, so I stay up late drawing, then I go to sleep and repeat pretty much every day from Monday-Saturday. And then Sunday is family day, so we go out, go to the park, or go to a trail, go to dinner, something to change a little bit.
Thats pretty nice though, it sounds like a pretty okay work life balance. It is. Right now it sounds like a really boring life. Like if my 21- year old self listened to this, he would be like “oh dude you’re so boring you don’t do anything fun,” but I think in the stage of my life right now its just perfect because I’m really dedicated to what I want to do, and thats cool. Theres no other thing that I want to focus right now on other than drawing and tattooing and that helps a lot. And like you said, the balance with my family is really cool.
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“There’s no other thing that I want to focus right now on other than drawing and tattooing.”
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What made you want to be a tattoo artist? I was always attracted to the idea of putting something on your skin and staying there forever. I didn’t enter tattooing until really late compared to other artists who start really young, I started tattooing when I was 27-28, but it was just in the moment of where I was in my life I was just not happy with what i was doing. I love graphic design, thats what I studied, and I love to conceptualize ideas. So I love that but I was working for marketing and advertising agencies and it was just not something where I could express what I felt inside. It was very moneyoriented, “Okay you need to do graphic design to sell this product, to sell this campaign, sell this idea”, and all these were just fake ideas created in just a meeting in the morning. So it just wasn’t artistically enough for me so I decided to just give up that and start tattooing. I had a friend that when I met him he was tattooing on his own in his house. And he started tattooing me and he got a job at a shop and somehow he’s the one that introduced me to the world of tattooing, and hanging out with him in his house when he was tattooing me and talking about it and talking about the tattooers in the city, I saw that and was like “Yeah, this is what I want to do for a minute, I may not make any money and its gonna be hard,” but the good thing about it was that at the moment I was not married I didn’t have a kid, so transitioning from making good money for being in Mexico in advertising, to zero money tattooing was hard. With the help of this guy I started tattooing my punk rock friends at home with really shitty tattoos that every time I see them I’m like, “oh dude we gotta fix that” and they’re like “No its staying like this I like it like this!” [laughs] With the help of friends I started kind of doing this as a hobby while I was still working at the advertising agency. And then we decided we were gonna get married and build a family so we decided to travel so I completely quit the advertising part of graphic design, we traveled, and when we came back I was like “No, I just wanna do tattooing and focus on that.” One thing led to another and I’m here.
Ruben Sanchez
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What made you want to come to the united states and actually be a tattoo artist here? The coming to the United States was more of a family position because we got married and while we were traveling my wife got pregnant and we wanted to have a kid in the States. For us its easier to have him here and then get him dual citizenship with Mexico instead of the kid being born in Mexico and trying to get the dual citizenship with the States is just more paperwork and more money. With Mexico its like you go one day and do the paperwork and its done. My wife had been living away from the States and away from her family a lot of years, so it was time to be close to her family as well, so it was going to be more supportive when it comes to the kid and also starting a new life. She was tired of her job as well, I was tired of advertising, so we decided to change our life and we needed that support of her family. By the time I left mexico I was already tattooing full time and when we were traveling I tattooed a little bit more. I would say that getting here to the States is what made me grow up a lot as a tattoo artist, because its the first time that I actually stayed busy enough to do it so that I could progress in my art. Do you think that being Mexican and growing up in Mexico, is your work very inspired by that? Oh yeah, 100%. Even though its really hard to do something Mexican in the states if you don’t do it on Mexican people. Definitely the inspiration is always there. Its my visual roots. I grew up watching old gods representations from the Aztecs and the Mayans, and its very intricate in my mind seeing these patterns that I now like to represent geometrically, which is a more universal visual
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interpretation of the same concept, but its still there. I still go to all those Mexican roots, graphic roots, that are really strong. For example, I love linework when it comes to the art that I do, a lot of lines, a lot of etching, woodcut-type, and one of my favorite artists from Mexico, Guadalupe Posada, thats all that he does. And I grew up watching this interpretation of the Day of the Dead, the sugar skulls and stuff, and this is what this guy did. Its always there and I’ll always go back to it and even though its not as intensely represented in the tattoos that I do nowadays, its more of an international representation of ideas, you can see the art and it could be a guy from Europe, or here, or South America- it doesn’t have that Mexican type of image, but its still in the back of my head.
Ruben Sanchez
Do you think that your background in graphic design inspires a lot of your work, too? Every tattoo that I do is graphic design. Its solving a problem and an interpretation of an idea with graphic means. The only difference is that its going on the scheme of someone but you’re still trying to interpret a concept or an idea or a tale or a story with graphic means and place it on the skin. The difference is just the final purpose of the graphics. When I was in the advertising agencies I was solving the ideas that needed to sell some thing, now I’m solving ideas to represent a feeling for a person. I approach every tattoo that I do with a roots of the graphic design that i grew up with for sure. A lot of your work does seems inspired by science fiction, do you think you get a lot of your inspiration from movies and science fiction in general? I think movies just like music inspires everything that you do, at least in my life it does. Theres definitely a part of the movie world that inspires the work that I do, but I would say that more than a direct inspiration its more like a background inspiration. Its not very literal; not every tattoo that I do is inspired by science fiction, but you can perceive a little bit of science fiction in every tattoo that I do. Movies in general have had such an impact on my life that I wouldn’t be doing what I do right now if it wasn’t for the movies that I like to watch, just like the music that I like to listen to. Theres definitely inspiration from science fiction in the tattoos or the designs that I like to do even if its not as literal. I have never done a Xenomorph tattoo for example [laughs] but I love to inspire myself with Alien, to do concepts or ideas.
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What are some of your favorite movies? Thats a really tricky question. Theres never just one movie that is your number one, it all depends on the moment or how you’re feeling. I would say that the movie that changed my perspective and changed the way I see cinema is Pulp Fiction. I saw it when I was young. I remember I was studying English and one of the teachers was Canadian and we got along really well and I was probably 13 or 14, we were talking about movies and this guy recommended Pulp Fiction to me. Before that I was consuming movies in more of an entertaining way, kind of superficial, I would just see a movie to entertain myself. And then I saw Pulp Fiction and I was like, “Oh my god, what is this? Like, I get it but at the same time I don’t get it, and why is it changing times so much?” It was just so different to me that I started seeing movies as a more complete thing with multiple layers. It took me a minute of course to fully appreciate it, because after that I was so hooked that I started looking for more independent movies like Pulp Fiction, and I started trying to cultivate myself and look for the classics and groundbreaking movies, and it took me a minute to consume all of this body of art that has built up through the years. I still have long lists of movies that I still need to watch. That was the turning point when it comes to movies. Renting it, watching it alone, and being at home, because I knew it was going to be intense and of course my parents weren’t going to be okay with that so I watched it alone and it definitely changed me. So its definitely not my favorite movie, but its the one that changed my perspective of how I see movies.
Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction.
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Do you have a specific movie that you can just go back to and watch a thousand times and its good every time? Multiple of them, a lot of them science fiction. Of course I’m a big Star Wars fan so any Star Wars movie I could watch without a problem, I don’t know about the prequels [laughs] but the originals of course. Action and science fiction is such an easygoing type of genre that it could be on tv and I could watch it. Like Terminator, I could watch it beginning to end without a problem because its action packed. Terminator, lately on HBO they’ve been playing Mad Max all the time. I’ve seen it so many times but its on and yeah, I’m gonna watch it because its entertaining and visually beautiful. Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve ever done? Thats a tough one. I guess the memorable ones are the ones that I have creative freedom, I just get a reference of an idea and I can interpret it the way that I want it, those are the ones that stick in my head. Its really hard and I don’t think I can just point out one piece specifically but theres definitely a number of them that I’m really happy with because I’ve just got creative freedom. Like yours for example is one of my favorites because not only is it Star Wars but I could do whatever I wanted to do, so that was really neat. I did a no-face piece of a girl with a ufo which was really fun because she just gave me creative freedom. I’m working on a Star Wars sleeve where the dude was just like “Do your thing”, and thats just fantastic. For example, when I’m building a portfolio those are the ones I pick because they just click faster like, “Oh i really wanna put this, this, and this piece”. Do you have a favorite movie-related tattoo that you’ve ever done? Definitely Star Wars pieces, every Star Wars piece that I do. I think that I’ve only done star wars pieces [laughs], because I’m trying to think of another movie piece that I’ve done. I get a lot of death moths from Silence of the Lambs, but thats I think more of a general approach to it since the death moth is so iconic, it doesn’t really have to relate to Silence of the Lambs.
Some examples of Ruben’s work.
Ruben Sanchez
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Do you have a favorite piece on your own body thats your favorite? Thats hard, I like all of my tattoos, they all represent something for me, as little as trivial things, like my avocado which is i come from the town of avocados, or this is probably one of my favorite ones because it represents where I come from, it was done in argentina from the owner of the shop where I was working. It was just so cool to get tattooed by a person that understands where you’re coming from and this person is not where you’re from. He was very Latin-America oriented, very proud of the culture that spreads from Mexico to Argentina, connected by the language, which is Spanish. He was really cool in that aspect. All of my tattoos represent something special for me so its hard to pick just one.
Ruben Sanchez
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Ruben Sanchez
Do you prefer when people tell you to do whatever you want or when its more structured? I think I enjoy both of them because of my graphic design background. I was taught to represent concepts via a graphic means, through a working process. When people come to the shop with this, this approach is really easy for me, I enjoy it a lot when people really know when they want, its really cool. “I want flowers with this and this, and I want it to look like this tattoo” and its awesome for me because I can come up with your concept really quick because everything is laid out on the table. But I also enjoy a lot when people just come and tell me to do whatever. Although I’ve had a couple of clients that it takes me forever to contact them back because they’re like “just do your thing” and I’m like, that sounds so cool but at the same time I don’t even know what I want to do. It has to be a mix of a little bit of both. Lead the way, but once I understand where you want to go to, let me do what I can do. At this point my boyfriend, who has been sitting in on the conversation, takes the opportunity to ask Ruben a few questions. D: It takes me out of a movie completely when a movie has bad writing or plot development, does it bug you when a movie just kind of looks like shit? Oh yeah, definitely. I’m a very visual person evidently, so if a movie looks bad, not just the quality- it could be the framing, the movement of the camera. It could be well written but if it doesn’t look right it takes off something. Thats why I was talking bout Pulp Fiction because its so well done, the camera and framing is right, the way its written is perfect. I remember watching the movie and hearing the dialogue and I was like, “Thats how people sound!” at least to me thats how they sounded, being a Mexican kid and hearing my Canadian teacher talk, and then going to a movie and hearing people talk like that. I was used to having Will Smith talk Independence Day and always sounding so right and always having the right things to say, and then having John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson talking how people talk. It was like, “Yeah, this is it.” And you go to the other side of the spectrum and I could definitely enjoy a movie that maybe has not much of a potential in a script, but if its beautifully shot I could enjoy it without a problem. D: what would you like to see in science fiction that you haven’t seen or want to see more of? That is a good question. Its hard because its been really well covered and when you get older your imagination diminishes, its not as big. If you would’ve asked me this if I was ten I probably would’ve had an answer like that. I really love aliens and extraterrestrial life. I would like to see the X-Files into a movie right now, something gritty, realistic that its not exponential right away, doesn’t really show you what it is, because thats what ufos are for me. Its something that I kind of know what it is and i might see it for a second but thats it. I think movies about extraterrestrial life are really exponential right now, you definitely see the aliens and spaceships and whats coming and whats happening and I would like something like the X-Files where theres some mystery. arrival kind of did that. something more along those lines, thats a cool part of science fiction that hasn’t been exploited. blade runner is coming so we’ll see about that, i love black noir movies mixed with science fiction and we need more of that so we’ll see. D: Have you been influenced by a particular movie shot? I would say one of the most intricate shots that I have in memory is definitely the transition of 2001: A Space Odyssey of the bone in the air. When I saw that, it took me, its still taking me, time to understand completely 2001, but the first time I saw it I didn’t understand anything. But that shot was so intricate because its such a big change, its a jump, its been 20 minutes of a movie that you think is gonna talk about evolution, and then “Boom!” all of the sudden you’re in space. I wanna say I represent that when I do a geometric tattoo mixed with an organic thing, because to me that represents both things. The organic part of it, the essence of the human being, and then the geometry, the science part, mathematics, both of them together just like that shot.
Another of Ruben’s pieces.
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Do you prefer movies that are a little bit more conceptual and avant-garde and weird, or tend to kind of watch whatever? Its funny because at the beginning when I started consuming movies for what they are and really with a purpose of trying to understand, i was leaning more towards the artsy part of movies because I wanted to understand. I was like “I don’t understand, but I would love to understand.” I was really into David Lynch and Buñel, he did Un Chien Andalou, a very surreal movie, very weird scenes, weirdly framed, weird dialogue, and that kind of attracted me. But the more I grow, its not my thing to watch anymore. I watch David Lynch now and its heavy to me, its too much and I just kind of want to be entertained. So I go more towards not commercial part of it, but not as intense, even though I still enjoy intense movies. I just watched Nocturnal Animals last night and its just so good, very well written and it can be weird but that weirdness has got a purpose. Movies in the past 5 years are leaning towards the conceptual area. Interstellar had it where it was very much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nocturnal Animals is a lot like that. As a visual person, do you see the trend of commercial movies going back to being more artsy? Yeah, I see it but I like it. Its really cool that the general people that don’t consume movies as we do are exposedto this type of art and visual expression. Its fantastic. Mad Max: Fury Road for example, its such a beautiful movie and everybody likes it which is really cool. The more the people in general have a better frame of reference of visual ideas is better because it makes our work easier. If people start seeing more beautiful things in the movies and more creative movies everywhere, then they will start asking for more creative tattoos in my example, more innovative graphic design. Its fantastic that movies are becoming more beautiful and thats cool with me. You mentioned being really inspired by Pulp Fiction, before then what movies did you watch as a kid? I watched a lot of action movies, I still love action. I was a kid and had all the fucking energy in the world [laughs], so seeing all of these people like in action, kungfu, anything to do with martial arts, Bruce Lee type of movies, Terminator. When my dad showed me Terminator I was blown away. Jurassic Park, anything blockbuster type I was definitely consuming. Nonetheless after Pulp Fiction I really stared to try to analyze which is kind of cool, but at the same time it took the easygoing experience of watching a movie because now I feel like I over-analyze stuff or I spot mistakes really quickly and that ruins it.
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“If people start seeing more beautiful things in the movies and more creative movies everywhere, then they will start asking for more creative tattoos.”
Ruben Sanchez
You mentioned being really inspired by Pulp Fiction, before then what movies did you watch as a kid? I watched a lot of action movies, I still love action. I was a kid and had all the fucking energy in the world [laughs], so seeing all of these people like in action, kungfu, anything to do with martial arts, Bruce Lee type of movies, Terminator. When my dad showed me Terminator I was blown away. Jurassic Park, anything blockbuster type I was definitely consuming. Nonetheless after Pulp Fiction I really stared to try to analyze which is kind of cool, but at the same time it took the easygoing experience of watching a movie because now I feel like I over-analyze stuff or I spot mistakes really quickly and that ruins it. As a kid did you grow up watching science fiction movies? Definitely. I remember recording Star Wars from the TV and that VHS was just so worn-out, playing it all the time over and over. I grew up with Star Wars, E.T. I remember watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind when I was young and its probably my favorite ufo or alien movie just because it represented exactly what I was experiencing: the ufo movement when I was a kid. Now you have Guardians of the Galaxy and Independence Day and all of these movies that talk about aliens and its just so normal. When I was a kid, it was just the rise of VHS and home recording so all of the videos of the ufos seemed so scary and gritty and they were probably fake. But I think that movie represents exactly that, those lights in the sky that come every now and then and theres not much happening. Terminator, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, all of the classics, Spielberg and Cameron. Science fiction can be so well accepted by kids because its fiction of course, it involves imagination, your mind expanding and creating all of these crazy worlds like you create as a kid, so thats why its so easy for kids to relate to sci-fi.
D: how much do you think science fiction paved the way for what you do? How much do you think you have to thank science fiction for making people want to be so imaginative about what they do and have that stuff on them? Everything. Society in general we have evolved so much thanks to science fiction. Technologically, artistically, politically, it has paved the way humankind goes through existence, tumbling around like, “What are we trying to do?” I feel like I consume history to know where I’m coming from, and i consume science fiction to know where I’m going to or where we are going to. I remember when I was a kid and watching Star Trek on TV and they have the phones they can talk through the watch and thinking “Thats never gonna happen, thats future future” and now twenty years later and they can do that through their watches, its crazy. Its kind of poetic to think that we somehow create our future via our imagination, and we can also prevent our future via our imagination. Science fiction isn’t always the cool imaginative spaceship stuff, it can be like dystopian science fiction as well, and seeing where our humankind can go. Like Terminator is a dystopia and in the end the revolution of machines. Children of Men for example where we can go into a state where everything is totalitarian and theres no expression of art. So in my life its helped me to see where I don’t want to go, where I wouldn’t like at least my family, what I can control, to go, and society as well.
Do you think growing up in Mexico influenced the movies you watched? Definitely. The world is more globalized now and the internet revolutionized everything, you can have access to anything, but when I was growing up and before the internet it was more about what you could consume in the movies and what was brought to you and those were normally blockbusters. Watching movies sometimes even dubbed influenced the way I watch movies and cinema.
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EMI REITZ
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Emi Reitz
Emi is an average college student, except they’re not. At nineteen, they attend school near Seattle where they study linguistics. Emi is nonbinary -meaning they don’t identify as either male nor female- and they’re also a pretty huge Star Wars fan. I talked to Emi about Star Wars, LGBT and POC representation, and movies in general.
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Emi’s Funko Pop! figures of Poe Dameron and Finn from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
What was your first experience with science fiction? I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi and fantasy, but I think my first real sci-fi movie was Naussicaä of the Valley of the Wind when I was about 5 or 6 years old. (My parents raised me on Studio Ghibli.) I started having DREAMS about it for a few weeks afterwards because I couldn’t stop thinking about the post-apocalyptic setting. What if our world looked like that someday? Are humans destroying the planet? It was pretty heavy stuff for a six-year-old. What is your favorite science fiction movie? Why? Obviously Star Wars is up there, but my all-time favorite sci-fi movie would have to be Arrival. I’m a linguistics student and it’s so cool to see a field of science that’s not often shown on the big screen. (And portrayed with such care & respect!) Besides that, it’s a beautiful film - contemplative, nonlinear, and unafraid to address big topics without defaulting to a standard narrative of war or violence. It’s an optimistic, hopeful vision of humanity. Outside of scifi, what is your favorite movie? Inside Llewyn Davis! It’s not as well-known as other Coen brothers films, but it stands out to me because it’s one of the most accurate portrayals of depression I’ve ever seen onscreen. It may not necessarily be an EXCITING movie (there’s no real plot), but I personally identify with it because it feels so real. Also, Oscar Isaac sings folk music and holds a cat.
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You’ve told me that you’re much more of a consumer than a creator in fandom- Give me a description of what a normal day in your life is like. I’m mostly active in the Star Wars fandom on Twitter, which means my average day is 80% memes. Apart from that, I’m a connoisseur of fanfiction, I make mixtapes, and I love reading theories and analysis on Tumblr. For me, the most important part of the Star Wars fan experience is the social aspect, and I’m glad I have so many friends who are willing to discuss even the most meaningless details of the SW universe. Did you know there’s a character in a Star Wars novel named “Darth Millennial”? These are the things we talk about. When did you become such a big Star Wars fan? I’ve always been passively into Star Wars (as much as the average person is), but I really started getting into Star Wars in the months before The Force Awakens when everyone in the world decided to watch all 6 original films. My dad has always been a HUGE fan - the original film came out during his senior year of high school. I remember watching the prequels over his shoulder and thinking that I wouldn’t be allowed to watch them. I guess I thought they were R-rated? Star Wars was the most hardcore cinema I could imagine at age 5. What is it about Star Wars and the fandom that appeals to you so much? I love all kinds of sci-fi, but I think Star Wars speaks to me the most because it’s fundamentally a story about family. I mean, technically it’s about a war inouter space, but the most important plot elements are about human relationships. Star Wars showed me the importance of found family, and how sometimes the people you choose to love are more important than the family you were born into.
Emi Reitz
“#GayTheFourth is a celebration of LGBT fans, a conversation about existing representation, and a discussion about how Star Wars could do better in the future.” 25
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Emi Reitz
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“Good representation means people from all different intersections of identity.� 28
Emi Reitz
Emi’s backpack decorated with a Bernie Sanders button, Star Wars patch, and a pin of Poe Dameron’s jacket.
You’re super outspoken about POC representation in Star Wars. Rogue One was the most diverse cast we had, and we also have great EU characters like Rae Sloane, Sana Starros, and Doctor Aphra. Where do you see the franchise going in the next 5 years, representation wise? I am so, so excited about the representation we already have in Star Wars, but we can always hold ourselves to a higher standard. For me, a huge milestone was casting Kelly Marie Tran in a major role in The Last Jedi. Of course, as an Asian I’m thrilled that I get a character I can cosplay, but it was surprising to realize that she was the first leading woman of color in one of the main films. I would love to see more women of color in the future! Good representation means people from all different intersections of identity- not just white women or men of color. Tell me about #GaytheFourth this year- Give me a brief description of what it as exactly. How did it come to be? What was the turn out like? #GayTheFourth started out as an idea between me & a few of my friends on Twitter. There have been a few successful LGBT media-focused hashtags in the past, like #GiveElsaAGirlfriend and #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend, but we wanted to discuss Star Wars in a slightly broader context. #GayTheFourth is a celebration of LGBT fans, a conversation about existing representation, and a discussion about how Star Wars could do better in the future. The goal was to bring the vibrant LGBT Star Wars community into the mainstream dialogue, and I feel like it did pretty well. The hashtag was trending in the top 10 for a few hours, which was really exciting! I especially loved reading people’s personal stories about how being LGBT affected their Star Wars fandom experience.
So lets talk a little bit about LGBT representation in Star Wars. Obviously the biggest ship in the fandom is Finn/Poe. Can you explain just why its so important for creators, especially in Star Wars, to properly represent LGBT folk? I’m a big proponent of LGBT representation in any kind of media, but I feel like it’s especially important in Star Wars because of what I mentioned earlier: this series is built on the power of human relationships. There’s so many different types of love in the Star Wars universe -familial, romantic, and platonic. Reflecting the true diversity of human relationships is honest, realistic, and it just makes for more interesting storytelling. Plus, Star Wars is pretty much the biggest franchise in the world! Huge franchises i nfluence our collective cultural narratives, and it would be cool to use that influence in a positive way. Do you mind speaking about your experiences as a non binary person consuming media, not just science fiction? How does it differ from cisgender folk? Being nonbinary is a weird thing because we’re essentially invisible in mainstream media - the closest we get to representation is usually genderless aliens or robots. Every nonbinary character in a ficitonal narrative feels so, so important because it’s a reminder that we really do exist. In a broader sense, I find myself identifying with characters and stories meant for “both genders” - although I think gender should never stop anyone from enjoying a certain piece of media.
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Emi’s desk, featuring Star Wars books and action figures of Leia, Han, and Luke.
Do you think being non-binary makes it easier or harder for you to appreciate and consume science fiction works? I love sci-fi because it’s all about infinite possibility - why would you constrain your alien characters in just 2 genders? Why would anyone be straight in outer space? It’s so cool to see creators play around with social constructs, and it’s also a little frustrating when they don’t bother to do so. There is a WORLD of possibilities you’re missing out on.
You went to Star Wars Celebration in April- was it your first? What is your favorite memory from it? Yes, it was my first Star Wars Celebration! It was also my first huge convention - the only real conventions I’d been to in the past were local anime cons. It was amazing to finally meet my online friends in person, and more than a little overwhelming to be in the same room as all my favorite actors and directors. I’ll never forget Rian Johnson visiting us in the overnight panel at 2am and talking to fans for hours. He genuinely just loves Star Wars as much as the rest of us and it makes me so happy to know how much love is being poured into these movies. (The most memorable part of SWCO was definitely Warwick Davis almost running us over with a Segway, though. It was great. Do you feel that representation in the media is going in the right direction? Why or why not? I do believe that representation is getting better, but the only reason is because there’s people willing to fight for it. Progress doesn’t just naturally happen on its own. Every step forward was only made because someone out there made it happen. How can people get active in advocating for better representation? Be an active consumer! Social media is a really great place to have conversations about representation, and it’s important to be vocal about what matters to you. Vote with your money - if you want to support diverse media, make sure you actually buy it. (I’m guilty of this sometimes, and I know it’s easy to pirate content, but it really does make a difference.) Above all, promote creators from marginalized backgrounds, because they’re able to tell their own stories in a way nobody else can.
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Emi Reitz
“Star Wars showed me the importance of found family, and how sometimes the people you choose to love are more important than the family you were born into.�
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Aaron Covrett
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Aaron Covrett is a friend of mine and someone whose opinion I’ve come to highly respect when it comes to film. and the one person I know who is the most knowledgeable about movies.He recently graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design with a degree in graphic design and currently works in New York. I talked to him about his projects, motion graphics, and the technical side of film. I don’t know anything about motion graphics or visual effects- explain to me how the process works, and what makes good vs. bad visual effects. VFX is about telling lies; convincing us that Matt Damon walked on Mars and that a talking racoon once saved the galaxy. For those unfamiliar, the technical process can seem cumbersome and incredibly challenging. And most times it is. But the payoff of creating worlds is fullfilling and extradorinary. As is often the case, the better the work, the harder it should be to detect. Heavily-grounded shows like House of Cards may seem impossible to require much VFX, but you’d be surprised. Beauty lies in subtlety.
Explain to me how you made that transition from digital media to graphic design, and now to 3D motion graphics. What inspired you to change your course of study? My evolution as an artist stems from curiosity. For as long as I can remember, I’ve searched for that next big “thing” to grab my attention. In high school it was figure drawing, until I discovered a tablet and learned photoshop. Then an internship at a publishing company pulled me towards Graphic Design. Several more internships and few years later, I’ve sort of balanced out and come full circle. Never be afraid to try something new.
When did you start doing motion graphics? What about it do you enjoy? I started pursuing motion graphics about two years ago, outside of class and work. It’s the combination of technical and creative challenges that continues to captivate me.
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Are there any specific movies that inspire you? Typically I watch movies for two reasons: to be impressed with technical achievements (ex: Marvel), or to be moved emotionally. Films that are able to achieve both tend to be the most satisfying. Interstellar is an obvious choice; The Revenant is more subtle. In your opinion, what movies released in the past ten years have the best use of visual effects? What makes them so effective? Ex Machina is a wonderful example, because so much of the VFX work goes unnoticed. Any scene with Ava, the female android, gives me a headache contemplating the labor required. Much of the film’s environments deal with reflective materials like glass, which can be a nightmare when attempting to achieve realistic effects. Tell me about your 2001: A Space Odyssey piece that you worked on a couple months ago. what was the process like? were you satisfied with the outcome? The 2001: A Space Odyssey project was born of the same curiosity. After trying a few VR experiences on the HTC Vive, a couple friends and I set out to create our own experiments. For me, this meant learning an entirely new interactive-based workflow. New process, new tools, new fun. We discussed interesting environments for a VR experience and eventually agreed upon the circular, artificial-gravity inducing Centrifuge environment from the film. After a month of R&D, I moved on to creating the scene assets. Aside from the ongoing technical challenges, the largest obstacle was having to give up control over the user’s experience. For the first time, my work wasn’t limited to a play/ pause button. This environment became an interactive space, one the user could navigate through and make decisions for themselves. That game prop that took 10 hours to make? They might not even see it. There’s no director’s cut in VR, so having to loosen the reigns became a bit of a challenge.
Shots from Aaron’s 2001: A Space Odyssey VR project.
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“It’s not just about having a great idea; you need to be able to execute your vision.”
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“Underpass” by Aaron Covrett
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When did you start viewing movies from a technical perspective? Within the past year. How is viewing something from a technical point of view different than just watching it normally? The further I delved into motion graphics, it felt as though I were “peeling off” the deceptive layers of movie magic. The added depth and appreciation has enhanced my overall movie viewing experience, but it comes at a price. Everything is viewed through this new lens, which can be difficult to shut off. Is it difficult for you to view things not from a technical point of view? Does it tend to ruin or enhance the experience for you? As I mentioned before, it can. On one hand, it allows for a deeper and richer experience. I can more fully appreciate the amount of work that went into a 3second shot. However, at times I don’t want to contemplate particle simulations. I just want to watch shit blow up. Outside of movies and entertainment, where do you find your inspiration? Community. Via social media, Behance, co-workers, friends and family. I’m a strong believer that you’re only as good as those you surround yourself with. What is your creative process like? is it different from the traditional graphic design process, or is it similar? Not really. I think the creative process is universal. It’s a series of questions intended to correct course and guide you. Most of all, it’s fluid; whether you have 5 days or 5 minutes. It works. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten? Isn’t that the question! Honestly, I have no idea.. and that excites me. What is your dream job? My dream job will always be whatever’s next. As long as I’m progressing and moving forward, I’m happy.
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Who in the industry do you look up to? So many! Ash Thorp, Vincent Schwenk, Filip Hodas, Iain Chudleigh, and Josef Bsharah to name a few. How can the layman start to view movies from your eyes- from a more technical point of view? Watch the behind-the-scenes documentary after the movie. If it interests you, keep going. With a bit of research, you can learn which studios are behind the work. You’d be surprised at how small the industry can be.
From Aaron’s project he worked on for the National Parks Service and Google
Aaron Covrett
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L CH What is your creative process like? I think too much about stuff and a lot of my process is making myself shut the fuck up and start writing, because I think too much. I think a lot about my stuff and if I’m writing the right thing or the right word or sentence. I have to write in a notebook before I write on a computer because computers, although I can write for hours on end, its not as creatively stimulating. I do try to have an idea completed before I start but that doesn’t always happen. I have to at least know the climax and know what I’m building up to. Sometimes I have to write it out and make an outline, I do that if I don’t know where I’m going but I want to get started. I’ll make an outline or a list of the things I need to write in the story and then I fill in the blanks later or as I go. But I have to write in a notebook. It makes it difficult for me because I’m not good at writing for a long time because my writing is very furious. I write with my heart and I try to use energy when I write because thats how I really spill a lot of my guts onto the page. It makes it hard for me to write a lot, I can only really write a few pages at a time because my wrist is just shot and its hard for me to stay focused. Once I get through that writing stage where it at least builds up to the climax then I start transcribing it to the computer and when I do that its my first editing process. As I do that I sort of fill in the blanks here and there and when thats done I go back and I fill in the blanks gradually where I think it needs fixing. A lot of it is getting it on paper and getting it from paper to computer. Thats my first edit, I don’t edit until I’m done writing it because I find it very stifling that way. Then I revise it for a very long time, typically. Its hard for me to be complete with something because every time I read something I find something I don’t like or I find something I think could be better or find a better way to do something.
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R Where do you find a lot of your inspiration? Anything that I do I take influence from. In terms of media, probably movies the most. sometimes I’ll look at a movie and think “I would do this instead” and then I’m like “Well, why don’t I do that?” Sometimes it gives me ideas and sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes I read something and think “Well what if I did that, except this.” Other than that, I have a very active imagination, I spend a lot of time in my head, with my head in the clouds. If I’m kind of in the right frame of mind I can come up with something thats kind of gnarly, where sometimes I try to think of something I’ve never thought of before. A lot of the times its just inspired by what I’m doing at the time.
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“I write with my heart and I try to use energy when I write because thats how I really spill a lot of my guts onto the page.� 44
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Dillon’s desk
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What is your favorite movie and why? It probably still has to be Mad Max: Fury Road. That movie was such an eye-opener for me. I don’t want to say the entire year of 2015, but Mad Max was kind of the trigger to getting into a lot of the other movies that came out in 2015 and getting me to really understand the cinema experience. You and I saw it in theaters and it was just the first movie that really just grabbed me and fucking rocked me. Just a mix of the characters and the universe and obviously the visual effects and the way it took on action in a way I was really unfamiliar with and made it really fun. It made it really playful by still being really serious and not kidding around with itself too much. I liked that a lot, making something fun without making it really gimmicky or corny. Because if you look at Guardians of the Galaxy too thats another one but it steps over into corny territory sometimes because theres too many jokes sometimes. Mad Max tread that line so well to where it was so visually astounding and so fun and action packed and original and unique that I had never experienced anything like that before and i still really haven’t. Its kind of starting to become a thing, but I’ve never seen a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road and that alone makes it my favorite movie.
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Give me an example of a good movie with bad writing. Watchmen at times does have bad writing. Boondock Saints is a good movie with bad writing. That movie is one of the many post-pulp fiction tarantino rip-offs. I don’t like that movie as much as I used to because of that. I watched that movie a lot when i was 16, 17 and I revisited it when i was 21 and I was more into reading and writing and i found it embarrassing to be honest. Only God Forgives, kind of. Thats another movie with pretty sparse writing. Only God Forgives and Neon Demon sort of fell under the same trap of being great movies without great writing. [At this point Dillon leaves the room to go look at our movie collection.] I found another good example. Ironically the other Zack Snyder movie 300 is definitely one. Thats a movie where I do still definitely enjoy it, but man is it structured and written really badly. Not in terms of plots structure, but the way the characters interact and under which purpose they’re talking. A lot of that movie is action so when they’re talking its a lot of interpersonal stuff between battles or talking to their wives and its just really corny and not good. But its such a good movie and it was one of the first movies that really popularized that very colorful, graphic, slow-mo style-that zack snyder-esque slow-mo style in the midst of battle scenes, detail-oriented, it looks really good, but the writing is just atrocious.
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How would you say that Mad Max succeeds in writing in the way other movies don’t? I don’t necessarily love the writing, it isn’t the forefront reason why I love it, its very barren in its lines which I do really enjoy. It is playful but its also really serious. It has some of my favorite lines, it has a line where one guy says something like “What is this rig girl doing on our turf? Foolish, but welcome” and no one says that but its so funny and so cool. Theres that other scene where the two half-life boys are fighting over the steering wheel and he’s like “I’m gonna hook them up to my car” and he’s like “yeah! organic!” [laughs] Its just so funny, you’re like “What the fuck?” but its just so good. Theres this line in the end after they blind the guy and they’re just going through the desert and he’s just shooting the gun and he says “I am the scale of justice, conductor of the choir of death” and that whole soliloquy is so great, that whole sequence just takes my breath away. There are very few moments in movies where I’m breathless by it, but they tend to be in movies that I consider my favorite. A good example is the scene in Birdman where he goes in the liquor store and theres all the lights around and he comes out and that guy is yelling the quote from Macbeth. Thats another one that just takes my breath away every time. Mad Max has a lot of those lines that stick out to me in a really funny way without me seeing it as a joke. I wasn’t super into cinema before I saw Mad Max and the writing kind of put me off, I wasn’t really familiar with the quiet protagonist, though to be fair he was quiet because he had a mask on, but it made me understand that beauty in a movie isn’t dialogue-driven, its plot-driven, and it set me up to really enjoy things later because I enjoy plot development more than dialogue. Tarantino is a good example, if there was so much dialogue in any other movie I would hate it, and Mad Max and movies like that do it really well where they speak through actions and not words. If mad max had a normal amount of dialogue then that movie would suffer, so it planned accordingly and made it count. Nothing sticks out to me as a line thats like “They didn’t need that.”
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Dillon Mitchler Dillon and our cat, Jeff
You talked about your favorite lines from Mad Max and Birdman. are there any other movies that have certain lines that have really resonated with you? That line from Interstellar: “We used to look up at the sky and think about our place in the stars, now we just look at the ground and think about our place in the dirt.” Thats a really good one. Watchmen has a really good one. Watchmen was one of those rare movies from when I wasn’t really into movies, because I was randomly dragged to this movie by one of my best friends, Scott. We were in P.E one day and we always used to see movies but they were never good movies they were always just shitty movies that were just funny and we didn’t care whether they were good or not. He was like “You should see this movie tonight its called Watchmen” and I was like “What is it?” and he was like “Its like a superhero movie kind of” and I was like, alright well I’m down anyways.Theres this scene where Rorschach is talking about his origin story with a psychologist and he talks about how he used to be a just superhero and play by the rules and his thing was that he used to leave the criminals alive for the cops to deal with. He went to this house and there was this little girl who was kidnapped and he followed a lead and found some of her clothes in the incinerator and some of her bones being eaten by dogs and he was like “Womethings not right here.” So the guy comes back and he chains him and beats him up and the guy confesses and he’s like “Alright man, lock me up I’m insane man, I need to go in a mental hospital.” And Rorschach the whole time is battling with this and instead of taking him in he decides to kill him and he has this fucking line, he says: “Men get arrested, dogs get put down” and he just whacks this guy with his hatchet. And its just so good, its just phenomenal. I guess thats technically a comic book line but i saw it first in the movie. That was one of the first lines that kicked me in the chest and I was obsessed with for along time. I remember making that a Facebook status at one point just because I was just thinking about how cool it was. Theres one from Ex Machina, its Oscar Isaac talking to Domnhall Gleeson: “One day the A.Is are going to look back at us the same way we look at fossil skeletons on the plains of Africa. An upright ape living in dust with crude language and tools all set for extinction.”
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Part of Dillon’s book collection
What makes a movie well-written? To me, it has to be a couple things. It has to be believable, it has to be natural, and it has to be worth listening to. I’m by no means a professional writer, but when theres dialogue it has to be effective. Every piece of dialogue has to serve a purpose. Even casual asides. If you are saying it in a movie, you’re saying it to be heard, and if you’re saying it to be heard it has to be worth hearing. It has to serve its individual purpose and has to do it well. A lot of writing suffers from the interpersonal stuff, like having normal people just talk to each other. They don’t know how to make people talk to each other in a way that they would talk to their friends. It always tries to be something else and thats something that has to be done really well. People have to communicate with each other in a normal way. If you’re just having people chill but they don’t talk to each other like people, its just gonna take them right out of it and its gonna be so obvious. A good example of that was Paterson, where theres one scene where they’re sitting on the couch and shes talking about this guitar, and its just so blatantly obvious that its not normal people talking to each other. i felt like i was watching a play, it was just really obvious that they were just two completely different actors talking to each other on set. I think we talked about that when we saw Paterson because I referenced it with Birdman and La La Land. The way all of those characters talk to each other is like they’re reading it for a play. I agree with you about La La Land and I guess about Birdman. Birdman does and doesn’t for me. Birdman is a spectacle in how to do writing really well. And its funny because its a play within a movie so they do talk to each other like that, but that long shot, really long pieces of dialogue, it was some of the best I’ve ever seen. In terms of movies that have great natural writing, that was one of them. But at the same time there is sort of that sense that they are just sort of talking to each other on set. So I guess there is a line to tread. I noticed it because it was just phenomenal. I respected it not in the way where I was like “Wow these are great actors” I thought, “These actors are really good.” I knew I was watching actors play something, but I respected it because it was so good. But compared to Paterson where it was obvious that it was two actors acting, because the writing wasn’t believable and they just didn’t seem like people just talking to each other. Paterson was a good movie, but I remember watching that and being immediately taken out of that scene.
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I’m not a writer, but I feel like a lot of Coen Brothers movies are like that too, written very conversationally. Coen Brothers do it really well, yeah. they’re phenomenal at that. They’re really good at making it kind of quirky too, theres a lot of dry humor and dark humor where I watch it with this specific person and they don’t laugh at the same parts that I do. I think thats the beauty of it, its written so well that it can effect different people different ways but it still sounds like you’re just walking past someone and hearing their conversation. I absolutely agree. Those two do it really well in terms of writing natural stuff that people would actually talk like. But its kind of funny because sometimes they have a character thats just so out of left field that you don’t believe it. Like True Grit, where that whole movie was so believable and then theres that one guy making animal noises only and I’m like “Thats so weird” but thats just the Coen Brothers, thats what they like to do. Its such a polarity because all of this stuff is so believable and then they have these characters that are so eccentric and so unique. The fact that its unbelievable complements its believability and makes it more fun to watch. Yeah, you meet a character and immediately you feel like you know this person, like you know their backstory. Exactly, whether its serious or not. Like in Inside Llewyn Davis where the characters are all unique and distinctive, like you know who the characters are and how to identify them. They always have a distinct backstory and style and eccentricities. Even if there isn’t a character who is particularly funny or quirky. In Inside Llewyn Davis its the army guy where he’s really funny and theres that dry humor, but he sticks out because he’s just so absurdly normal. But thats a Coen brothers thing. Its almost like an Always Sunny in Philadelphia thing where the normal people are the weird people.
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What would you say is your favorite genre? From a writing perspective, probably thrillers. Horror has the worst writing of any genre, even worse than comedy. I love horror movies but the writing is just atrocious. Whenever I come across a horror movie that has good writing its like phenomenal to me because it just never happens. And thats what makes movies like The Void and The Thing really good. I mean, The Thing kind of has the 80’s writing thing.
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I think John Carpenter’s writing is just all like that. His writing is very distinctive. It almost makes me respect it because at least it has continuity. You can tell its a Carpenter thing and thats cool. I think of all of his movies, The Thing has its best because thats a movie thats very dialogue heavy. I would love it to be more plot driven and have it be nothing more than “Bang, bang, bang, bang” but its not and when it does have writing its phenomenal and it fills in the gaps. Movies like that, where its a horror movie thats enjoyable to watch and isn’t the same bullshit, is great but that doesn’t happen very often. Action movies are also really bad but its getting better, but its a little less few and far between as horror, but not as much as any other genre. Comedy has to be very dialogue heavy and I think when a comedy movie is just naturally funny in its own style is some of the best and most fun stuff to watch, but a lot of it is just really bad and the writing just exists to get the joke off and the joke doesn’t really complement the movie. A lot of comedy movies are really good when they have good writing. Mean Girls and Zoolander are two really good examples of really funny, really original movies with good writing, natural writing. All of the comedy really coincides directly with the plot and characters and never seems out of place. Those two movies are just so fun to watch because they have good writing, good structure, good plot development that its just natural to watch and everything makes sense.
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Which leads me to thrillers and suspense. When you look at a movie like Se7en or Ex Machina or any Coen Brothers movie, thats just the pinnacle for me. I would put drama in there too, I’m not a huge drama movie fan but when they’re not Lifetime movie stuff they’re really good. In the vein of American History X, where thats not a drama, just a sad thriller. But I guess thats what I mean: a sad thriller. Those have the best writing. Moonlight is a good example, good writing, it was really good. Anything from Primal Fear to Se7en to Ex Machina and any Tarantino movie. Movies like that are the pinnacle for me because they have to carry the most writing. I guess we should include sci-fi because it has to have good writing to exist. Sci-fi suffers because it always deals with unnatural things that writers have to make natural and thats where they suffer. You have these insane things happening all the time and most of it has to be explained and its so hard to explain without it being long-winded.
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Are you inspired by thriller and sci-fi in your own personal writing? Absolutely. Because I love to write really graphic, image-filled horror pieces. Writing sci-fi is tough, its tough to write without making it Lovecraftian because thats my biggest writing influence. Thrillers help me make it natural and teaches me how people exist with each other when theres a lot of action going on, and a lot of it is how to make peoples reactions and motives genuine. In thrillers, p eople usually have ulterior motives or specific things they need to do, and it helps me a lot when I’m seeing how people talk to each other in different tones in the same scene under the same guise. Another Primal Fear example is Richard Gere is talking as a lawyer and Edward Norton is talking as this guy, and the way that he is so normal and then theres that switch and it was like “Oh, fuck!” because thats just so good. Ee comes out and he’s go guilty but he’s not. It captures so perfectly just how a person in his situation would act. Thrillers really influence me because they’re really good identifiers in making sure people are acting naturally, because people are always in insane situations in thrillers and its sometimes action packed and depressing and surprising and tragic, theres a lot of emotions and how people react to them and still be natural just inspires me a lot. Cormac mccarthy taught me to write thrillers. Between No Country For Old Men and The Road and Blood Meridian was the one, that book kicked my fucking teeth in because theres so much imagery and so much desolation and world-building. That book taught me a lot about how to set a scene and give it a mood.
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And science fiction just gives me a lot of ideas. Reading Lovecraft’s stuff is definitively made me enjoy writing. I don’t think I would be writing the things I really enjoy without Lovecraft. His stuff is really outlandish and out of this world. The one thing that I love that it taught me was that I never have to explain where something comes from, I only have to make it exist somehow. His Cthulu story, theres this scene thats a huge influence on me because thats the first thing I read by him and it just took my breath away. This guy follows the voices of Cthulu and the old gods speaking to him from beyond and they set sail and find this island and its very chaotic and theres this line about how all the rocks don’t make sense and how the rocks are really geometrically obtuse and makes him really uncomfortable. A lot of his stories are similar where its these normal people end up at these things that are so otherworldly and cosmic and indescribable. I don’t particularly care for the notion that true horror is the things that you imagine, but this is one of the only examples because he makes you believe it. The way he writes it, he does such a good job of being “I cannot fucking describe this” and being so honest and brutal about it. Its never a copout, its in a way that you understand how scary it is because of how otherworldly it is, and not because of how vague it is.
It taught me a lot about how I can do whatever I want in a story because true horror doesn’t always come from this earth. If it doesn’t come from this Earth, why should it abide by earths rules? That resonates with me in most of my writing. Why does it have to make sense to our rules? If its true horror then its things that don’t always happen to the average person, and if they don’t happen to the average person, and if they’re things that come from a different planet or a dimension within the earth, why should it abide by earths rules instead of the dimension that it came from? Why are you trying to write paranormal, otherworldly, extraterrestrial, inter dimensional things without using extraterrestrial, inter dimensional rules? You’re writing this thing with two hands tied behind your back. Horror and sci-fi have taught me so much about writing these images, creating these monsters, these universes that are so scary and brutal. It taught me a lot about rules and how there really aren’t any.
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Who would you say is your favorite author? Its tough to pick between Lovecraft and Cormac Mccarthy. I already went on a big spiel about how Lovecraft was so influential to me, but I have never been so eternally stomped to death by an author as I am Cormac Mccarthy and thats really important to me. I love art that takes my breath away in the way that its just so amazing and beautiful and somber at times and so helpless but just so vivid and beautiful. I can’t think of another writer I’ve experienced that with. There are not many things that I’ve experienced that I would call beautiful but Cormac Mccarthy is one of them. I don’t know if I’d put him first but those two are very neck and neck for me. Haruki murakami is definitely a close third. Norwegian Wood is one of the best books I’ve ever read, I was a little underwhelmed by Kafka on the Shore, and I did not really like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. 1Q84 is sitting there and I gotta read it because I know its good, but its so hard for me to get into an 1100 page book when I’m trying to get through other stuff. I do love Haruki Murakami but I want to love him more.
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The poster Dillon bought when we saw John Carpenter perform live
Theres been an intersection between science fiction and horror thats been happening recently where the two are meshing together. what are your favorite movies and books that think do that really well? I mentioned Ex Machina before but thats one, I feel like you could classify it as a horror movie. It doesn’t have the traditional jump scares or the style, but that movie makes you nervous and anxious. Thats a straight up sci-fi movie.
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Recently we saw The Void which was probably the best horror movie that I’ve seen in a very long time, just because it was so much like The Thing. It was brisk, it didn’t waste time which is a big thing for me, I hate when movies waste time. It was very plot driven, the writing was good, it was very memorable which I feel like is very hard to do in a movie n owadays because everything has been done. I thought the imagery was very memorable, I loved the ubiquity of the triangles, and triangles are by no means anything new, but the way that they did that- I haven’t seen it done like that. It was genuinely terrifying. That movie has actually gotten better with time. Its really not unique because its basically a carbon copy of The Thing, but in its own way. It still had its own identity and did its own thing. the only thing it borrowed was the way they did their practical effects and thats it. I do not have a problem with that, I wish more movies borrowed the practical effects from The Void. They didn’t straight up copy it, it was like they paid an homage to John Carpenter. Absolutely, it wasnt a bite at all. It did it so well. It didn’t copy as much as it paid homage to. I will say Stranger Things, too. I’ve somewhat come back to earth about Stranger Things and how it maybe isn’t the best show on earth, but the way that it did sci-fi and horror was really good. Its very rare for me to watch a tv show and really wanna keep going and keep coming back to it and want to watch the next episode despite how late it is and how many episodes we’ve already watched. That alone makes it worth it for me to mention because i cared a lot about the people on the show and thought it was genuinely very scary. That was another monster that was very unique even though a lot of the movie was paying homage to the things that came before it.
Books? Books are harder because its hard for me to read current books, because its herd to figure out whats good and what isn’t. Books are a little more expensive, they’re a little harder to jump in and out of. So I have to be selective, especially because I’m not a particularly fast reader. I love to read but I’m not quick at it. Its hard for me to be like “Oh, this one” because I spend a lot of time reading older stuff because the more its aged, the more people talk about it, the more I see it. I want to get through all of my books so I can start dipping into current stuff a lot more. I guess in terms of current stuff, the only example is Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. That was a great book and the climax of that book was very similar to the stuff I like to write and that was a really big influence for me because I read that when I was starting to write a lot of my own stuff. The ending sequence of that book was like a breath of fresh air to me because I was really struggling with making things that were unique and I was like “I don’t know if thats really possible for me” but I read that i was like “Okay, its possible I just gotta keep going.”
Two of Dillon’s H.P Lovecraft books
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Dillon Mitchler
Dillon reading the first volume of Southern Cross
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Dillon Mitchler
What is your favorite graphic novel? In terms of story, Saga. In terms of the artwork, Southern Cross. Saga just has everything, but I have yet to be in awe as much as I was when I was reading the first volume of Southern Cross.
Part of our comic book collection including Saga and Southern Cross
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Dillon with his desert island picks
What is your favorite media to consume? I love reading books because its such an untapped art form in its own way. A lot of people do read books, but its harder to come by. You can be a book reader and still have no books in common with anyone else and I think thats really something unique to books. If you watch a lot of TV, theres only so many channels. Movies are more hard to come by, but when it comes down to it all, a lot of the really good ones that you’ll hear about a lot of people have seen. Books are a little different because not everyone reads book. Even people who read a lot of books, it takes time to get through them. I can sit down and watch three movies a day no problem, but I can only read like a book a month. With the exception of Lovecraft and Maccarthy, I don’t really have much in common with people, which makes me really like reading, but it also makes me not like it because its hard to talk bout. Its tough to be really into a medium that you can’t talk to people about. Even if they read, its hard to talk about the things you have in common.
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Thats why I like movies because easy to ingest and the easiest to talk about because the universe is so closed all of the time. Whereas TV shows, theres always more thats gonna happen and anything can change at any time. But with movies you have a universe within a finite space, so once you’ve ingested it you can keep it with you forever.
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I know you don’t like TV shows. It just takes forever to get through. I don’t wanna watch a movie that takes me three weeks to watch.
What about graphic novels? How would you say that the writing in graphic novels is different from a book? I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned graphic novels yet. I was just thinking about this the other day. I respect the writing in graphic novels because they have to say a lot in the smallest amount of space. Every scene has to count. It can’t be text heavy because if it is, no one reads it. I don’t read text heavy sections of graphic novels, and its only four sentences at most. Thats just not how graphic novels are read for me. It has to say a lot while being very condensed. I don’t like graphic novels for it, but I do enjoy the pace at which I read graphic novels, although it makes it hard to read graphic novels and then read a book. Because you speed through graphic novels. Those are page-turners for me, if I want to read a book thats just basically a movie. They’re the movie version of books- they’re so stimulating and the art is so phenomenal and engaging and colorful while still being a good story. You’re on a desert island and you can only bring one book and one movie. What are they? Mad Max: Fury Road and Blood Meridian. That book really just hit that spot in a way that no other book has. It was difficult to read but there are not many books that I’m reading and I’m just like “Oh my god.” It might not be easy to read over and over again, but I feel like I could read it over and over and still be in awe and still really be flustered with how its written and how pretty and somber it is.
Dillon Mitchler
“You can be a book reader and still have no books in common with anyone else and I think thats really something unique to books.”
Dillon’s bookshelf
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Glossary
MOVIES 2001: A Space Odyssey 300 Alien American History X Arrival Birdman Blade Runner Boondock Saints Close Encounters of the Third Kind E.T: The Extraterrestrial Guardians of the Galaxy Ex Machina Independence Day Inside Llewyn Davis Interstellar Jurassic Park La La Land Mad Max: Fury Road Mean Girls Moonlight Naussica of the Valley of the Wind Only God Forgives Neon Demon Paterson Primal Fear Pulp Fiction Rogue One: A Star Wars Story The Revenant Se7en Silence of the Lambs Star Trek Star Wars (All) Star Wars: The Force Awakens Star Wars (Prequel Trilogy) Star Wars: The Last Jedi Terminator The Thing True Grit Un Chien Andalou The Void Watchmen Zoolander
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BOOKS & COMICS Annihalation by Jeff Vandermeer Blood Meridian by Cormac MacCarthy The Call of Cthulu by H.P Lovecraft 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami No Country for Old Men by Cormac MacCarthy Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood The Road by Cormac MacCarthy Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples Southern Cross by Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger, and Lee Loughridge The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
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TV SHOWS House of Cards Stranger Things Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia
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About the Creator Cori Kromrei is a current senior at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MI. She graduates May 2018. Outside of school, she enjoys Star Wars, books, Twin Peaks, and spending time with her boyfriend, Dillon. Her favorite movie is The Thing and her favorite book is Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami.
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A short story by Dillon Mitchler
You can’t believe your eyes as the exoplanet comes into view, monolithic and daunting on screen, transferred from light years away via the lens of NASA’s Aeon 1212 satellite. There is an electric silence in the control room, both hesitant and exuberant, shock and awe lining faces staring into individual computer screen and massive monitors alike. The most promising exoplanet yet from preliminary sightings, the image on screen a massive ball of blue, intersected with strips of green and traces of landmass on the fringe of its horizons that extend invisibly into the shadowy, frigid-dark unseen. This isn’t the first exoplanet discovered, and presumably wont be the last, but there is a sensation around this one that rivals any other. There have been Earth 2’s and 3’s and 4’s, but most are galaxies away, where this one sits a brisk 36 light years from Earth, inexplicably missed for decades. Not to mention, no home star in sight, which would suggest inhabitability, but the land and water patterns suggest otherwise. You and your cohorts alike are desperate for more images, but will have to wait. Upon the discovery of the exoplanet, Aeon is set on a 24-hour timer, only to snap pictures in that time frame or if the image becomes predominately unseen land. You stand up, traversing the landscape of chittering coworkers to exit the room, heading for the break room. You purchase a bottle of water from the vending machine, listening to the news break on the tv on the wall behind you. Watching the TV, you see the same illustrious image as before, big and blue like a marbled bouncy ball, projected singularly on screen over the infinite backdrop of the black of space. Anchors dialogue overlays the image, riddled with excitement. 1
Flipping through your phone, you see notifications upon notifications from friends and acquaintances alike, sharing the image and sending congratulatory messages, all excited about the new planet. Everybody keeps praising the discovery and referencing “what it means” but no one can be sure what it means yet. As of now its just a discovery, with metric tons of information still to be divulged. Neither you, nor anyone else saw more images the rest of the day, but early the next morning, a new image was transmitted from Aeon to the eyes of everyone in the room. Depixelating on screen was the massive landmass seen yesterday on the fringes of the planet, now encompassing the entire facade of the exoplanet in green and brown like the ancient super-continent Pangaea. Still somewhat blurry behind the pixels, the image clears one-by-one from the edges inwards. Traversing the planet was the ebb-and-flow of mountains and hills, carelessly flowing like waves along the supposed Earth. There were no lakes or streams in sight, only the massive hunk of land sitting like a cinderblock in the center of view.
Around the edges of the circle were splotches of grey, coating the circle for miles around. At first view, they look like the ceilings of houses or shelters from very far above, but even our own houses aren’t identifiable from this far above, you think to yourself, how large are these houses? There are no roads or passes that you can see from above, no structures any larger or smaller than others, so could this feasibly be an old city? The pixels reach the edge of the circle, a dome-like structure more massive than any other on the planet. The first pixel clears, pieces falling into place until the puzzle is solved, forming a massive grey dome with a smaller black hole in the center, directly facing your satellite. At once plain and assuming and massive and looming, the structure sits motionless and stoic, unwavering to the limits of your imagination. A circle within a circle like a massive eye gazing at the stars, pupil to the heavens and beyond. Awe and fear and wonder and joy share the confines of your stomach, all making their presence known, but one feeling more powerful than the other three.
A few pointy, pyramid-like structures pops into view covered in green, which could means nothing, or could signify a past race of inhabitants whose civilization lies dormant and extinct covered in grass and dirt like our own crumbled history. They are too few and far between to take seriously, but with every pixel arises a new opportunity to learn about the planet.
News outlets erupted throughout the day, clogging up news cycles and social media timelines, playing over syndicated television shows and inspiring waves of virtual outlets to pump out content like never before. Despite the lack of knowledge abut Pangaea, it remains Earth’s first real possibility of discovering alien life, a colony outside our own built from the ground up and possibly driven back underground. There are a million questions and very few answers.
You hear whispering and murmuring and see pointing from others. Following the line from finger to screen, you see in the blurry haze of the center a massive circle, perturbed by the contorted pixels. With each stretch of land looking more and more alike, most of the attention has shifted to the circle and what it could be, and soon after it comes into view.
The greatest discovery NASA has ever made sits in your stomach like a rock. You have spent hours studying the archaic stone landscape of the grey surface of potential houses and the concrete-like material of the massive obelisk, but you have not been able to divulge a thing. The view is still too far to study the microscopic reality of any human-sized detail 2
on Pangaea. Earlier in the break room, you overheard a discussion about potentially moving Earth’s inhabitants to Pangaea, the newest entry in “planets that are to be our safe haven from apocalypse”. From where Earth sits now however, you still don’t know the potential toxicity of Pangaea. Whether moving there is plausible or attainable, healthy or ultimately beneficial. You don’t know if Pangaea has current inhabitants, and if not, why not? Despite Pangaea’s initial promise, there are countless layers of variables about Pangaea still hidden in the dark. There is still no moon, there is still no home-star, and god knows what that central dome signifies. You have noticed lately that there is little excitement to be had with Pangaea, the exoplanet is shrouded with mystery and unfeasible science. There is a lingering feeling of nausea when you think about the reality of Pangaea, a nausea you cant trace to anything concrete, a nausea similar to considering our own peril to the inevitable explosion of the sun, an existential nausea that something is severely off but you are powerless to fix it. Lost in your own mind, you are broken out of a daze by a commotion of voices all around you. Aeon is transmitting an image back to Earth twenty hours ahead of schedule, meaning this image is not a result of mapping a geometric scale of terrain, but rather something new has arisen, something large enough worth documenting and sending back to Earth. The knot tightens in your stomach, confirming a newly born fear that already seems absolute. The image pops up on screen, preparing for depixelation and not looking all that different from outside the haze of pixels. The image clears quickly on the edges as a result of having already documented that terrain, moving inwards faster than usual over the craggly, mountainous land and faux-houses, stopping at
the edge of the dome. With the first pixel, the room falls silent, no murmuring or side discussions, only silence, universal recognition, and the understanding of the severity of the moment. Pointed directly at Aeon is the monumental eye, larger than before, enveloping most of the dome rather than a small portion before and glowing a deep crimson red, a malicious red that entrances the room, stealing the breath out every pair of lungs like a thief in the night. Phones ring off the hook in a matter of seconds, higher-ups demanding answers, demanding explanations, triggering an amalgamation of panicked arguments and conversations, desperate phone calls to loved ones as a reflex to the horror on screen. You sit in a purgatorial mix of shock and vindication, but the worst kind of vindication because you never mentioned your fears to anyone and you were desperate to be wrong. Something felt so off about that planet since the beginning but like all the others you misinterpreted the anxious feeling in your stomach for excitement and not dread, a vital mistake following a discovery no one considered the reality of discovering. Looking at the red eye and trailing off to its rocky sides and mountainous landscape, it seems so malicious, yet so real, like all of the worlds’ worst nightmares and best horror movies came true and were always there, just in another world, hidden away from your point of view. This was the discovery NASA always hoped it would make, and now that its staring them in the face they are unprepared to handle. You look around the commotion and understand it, but for a second, you don’t understand it. All NASA stands to lose is a satellite, nothing more and nothing less. Overwhelmed by the never-ending panic of voices, you leave the room for water. Entering the break room, the television on screen is discussing upcoming pothole maintenance. No breaking news yet, 3
possibly none all day. There has never been a precedence for this kind of event, there is no way the news media are receiving a file of the image. You sit down and drink from the bottle until only a third remains, sealing the bottle and saving the remainder. Sitting for a second and catching your breath, you decide to head back in. There’s no point in avoiding the commotion, you may as well try and maintain order. You walk back through the doors and enter the control room, which is heavy with deathly silence. You hardly notice at first until you notice the black terror on everybody’s faces. Limp mouths hang open, faint voices hum through cell phones, demanding answers to disembodied questions, sending a barrage of hello’s into ears that aren’t listening. Following the line of sight to the primary monitor, you see new images are coming through at an alarming rate, stacking on top of each other before the former can download. Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping endlessly. There is no sense in depixelating an image when a new one will arrive a second later, arriving at your monitor, you scale back the stream of downloads to see 139 unopened downloads, now 140, 141. You find yourself hovering in shock like everyone else, eyes glued to the screen in anticipation for the final download, or rather in fear of the final download eventually coming. The knot tightens, constricting your guts, you feel as though the bottle of water you ingested is sitting at the bottom of your esophagus, incapable of entering your stomach to digest. Feeling nauseous, you put your head down on your desk to catch your bearings, listening to the endless stream of downloads ping in succession like a metronome awaiting a beat. You turn your head to observe a skewed version of the room, studying shocked faces staring at each other in hopes the other will have some sort of explanation or consolation, pretending they don’t understand the reality of what’s occurring, that something major is happening to
our satellite, something is constantly moving around our satellite, and we won’t know what it is until the downloads stop. 582 downloads and counting, people have become bored, the initial adrenaline rush of the downloads has worn off, failing to maintain the interests of you and your cohorts.At 636, someone asks, “What’s the plan for opening the downloads? Earliest to latest or latest first?” Your team leader Monika responds, “Earliest first, if there’s consistent action then we should see it unfold rather than jump in later.” Everybody agrees to this, nodding their heads in unison. At 694, with the subtlety of a fire alarm, the pinging ceases. Heads snap upward in response, eyes sifting uncomfortably, meeting the gaze of multiple others around the room, all sharing the same dreaded look. Monika takes one final look around the room before scanning down to the first download, opening all the files at once to scan through them like a picture book created in the corners of a notebook. All 694 images begin to de-pixelate, a status bar maintains the ETA at ten minutes. Soon nine, eight, six, four, two, one, zero. The completed images sit in a cacophony of thumbnails, barely visible in their compacted form. Monika selects the first image, which pops up as a familiar image of the red eye glaring at the satellite. Flipping to the left, the image is relatively the same, and the same after that, and the same again. For a second, you think there may have been a glitch, but as Monika begins to scan quicker, you realize these images are separated only by a second, maybe less, and progress would be imperceivable one second at a time. As images flash through in the blink of an eye, the red eye glows larger and brighter, first growing atop the planet, soon growing larger than the planet itself, encompassing the planet in an aura of crimson.
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The satellite noticeably shifts in place and you realize the red glow isn’t getting larger, it’s getting closer and has appeared to reach the satellite as crimson red has blanketed the camera lens and the satellite seems to list lazily within its grasp. A voice asks from behind you, “Is our satellite being captured?” and Monika responds “It certainly seems that way.” If there is a better explanation for what you are seeing, no one has it. Monika turns around to continue scanning, the satellite’s axis continues to skew, signifying its weightlessness in the tractor beam. Helplessly snapping pictures, the satellite hovers closer and closer to Pangaea, the crimson-tinted land coming closer into view, revealing nothing new but the same mountain and jagged edges that you saw from space. Only there is a split no one saw before, a dark black line that cuts across the entire surface, except for the glowering red eye, where it appears to adjust accordingly to the curve of the massive grey oval containing the eye. Images flipping endlessly, you notice the split growing larger and larger as the satellite crawls closer. What once looked like a minor split now must be a mile wide, yawning in what has to be anticipation of the satellite.
The satellite is likely not the first, nor the last to fall victim to this entity, whether fellow satellites or entire waves of alien life were lost to the uncanny depths, this monster will continue to feast, for which purpose you hope to never know. Soon there is nothing on screen but the black void of the mouth, the crimson tint has disappeared, signifying the tractor beam has served its purpose. Severe images black are that remains on screen, documenting this void only once more before transmissions cease, and no images remain.
No sign of life can be seen within the massive crevasse of Pangaea’s mouth. No mark of existence, on laboratories of hidden caves, no organic life forms hiding below the shield of Pangaea, only a bottomless darkness. Within the red glow of light, what was once possibly a semblance of civilization has become only the unmistakable mark of an unfathomable beast. Whether robotic and controlled from a distant land or a predatory mass floating through infinite space, living autonomously like a spider catching space prey in its web, there is nothing left to do but watch the satellite disappear into endless darkness.
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