NEWS

The Supernatural Fandom, Summer Edition

Written by Alice Jester
Published August 15, 2008

This long summer drags on and I realized I’m long overdue in featuring some of the best distractions in the Supernatural fandom. Fans are especially active over the summer, and with over a month to go until the season four premiere, there’s plenty of distraction. I also need a break this week from doing episode reviews and character metas. I love doing them, but my brain is Swiss cheese. Anyway, as usual, there’s tons to report, so here we go.

Fan Fiction in Overdrive

I’ve always been old school when it comes to fan fiction. I started writing over two years ago for the House fandom, and my approach followed the standard formula. Pick a ship (Chase and Cameron), write a fic, post on fanfic.net, and wait for the reviews to pour in. Okay, for my first ones, they didn’t exactly pour. Two or three trickled, and let me know how much my work sucked.

My stories drastically improved, so my big head thought that made me qualified to try the Supernatural universe. After all, I can quote every line from every episode and have character continuity down to a science. So far, I’ve done two and they have been the two most impossible writing projects I’ve ever taken on. Writing for this fandom requires special skills.

Summer is a time for fan fiction to blossom, and when examining the vast number of stories out there, I found fans that are doing far more than posting stories that they’ve obsessively researched and plotted out to kill a few summer afternoons. Some are taking the concept to new heights.

One fan project that I’ve followed most of the summer, and easily one of the largest scale fan ventures I’ve ever witnessed, is the Bust Dean Out Of Hell Brigade. I’ve had a lot of fun reading all they’ve done, but catching up with this active group has been quite a chore. Started on the Supernatural TV forums in June, the idea is simple. After hearing that hunters burn bodies of the dead, a bunch of fans banded together and decided burning Dean’s gorgeous body would not do. With some heavy research and obsessive preparation, they became determined to come up with a way to bust the much beloved older Winchester brother out of Hell. Thanks to a well organized leader, who’s earned the title “General Vampy”, this group runs like a full scale military operation that puts the US effort in Iraq to shame.

The group is now 75 people strong and each member has a task and a purpose. With a list of useful supplies, armaments, uniforms, amulets, and medical supplies required for their mission, they eagerly share their finds, and the thread now sits at 753 pages. There’s a special thread to post and review research material, including fanfics, info on books, movies, spells, exorcisms, crystals and gemstones, paranormal creatures, or just about anything designed to help get their hero out of the pit. The library of information about the supernatural presented here is staggering, and I hope it stays available in the future for the good of others once they succeed in their mission. Researching for this fandom is too hard otherwise. All the content is worthwhile for review, and quite fascinating if paranormal is your thing.

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Alice Jester in a fit of insanity left her 17 year career in Information Technology for a shot of writing for a living. In her words, "life is short". Her interests are vast, her creativity endless, and her obsession with television, the entertainment industry, sharing corporate horror stories and raising two children should be enough to keep her busy for years.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
The Supernatural Fandom, Summer Edition
Published: August 15, 2008
Type: News
Section: Video
Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Video: Cult, Video: Drama, Video: Horror, Video: Television
Part of a feature: The Winchester Family Business: Supernatural
Writer: Alice Jester
Alice Jester's BC Writer page
Alice Jester's personal site
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Comments

#1 — August 15, 2008 @ 14:50PM — terri

I just bid on the Supernatural script for S3 Finale.
Wish me luck!

terri

#2 — August 15, 2008 @ 15:24PM — Drew E. [URL]

Sweet! Thanks, Alice for the Sam comments. New episodes will begin airing next Friday at 9 o'clock pm up through September 12th or 19th. Haven't decided if we'll air 1.08 the day after Supernatural premieres and then take another hiatus or take the hiatus first and push the airing of 1.08 back. Whichever we choose, I'll let you know.

Thanks again,
Drew

#3 — August 15, 2008 @ 18:53PM — Cindi

Thanks for the news on Citytv losing the rights to Supernatural. I was actually about to have a friend make me a banner to promote the show on City! I sure hope that SunTV is picking it up, since we don't get the CW here...

Great, fun article as always, Alice!

#4 — August 15, 2008 @ 20:28PM — cassi

Hi Alice, I really admire you for staying spoiler-free! I'm just too curious to stop reading sides. The discussions and speculations with other fans is great. Sometimes it turns nasty but most of the time it's really just sharing thoughts and ideas.

Fan-fiction is definitely a great way to survive the summer hiatus. Especially after the last awesome season finale, there have been a lot of great stories. I just can recommend the Virtual season on supernatural.tv, it's really as awesome as reading the transcriptions of the real SPN episodes.

Another way to see the boys in a new light are the fanvideos on youtube. Just imagine Sam and Dean with chipmunk voices or as Pinky and the Brain. It's different, it's new but it's still SPN. Or the great SPN drinking game, it's hilarious!

Do I have to mention that I'm really excited about your review about AHBL?! ;)

#5 — August 15, 2008 @ 20:47PM — cassi

I forgot! Reading great reviews : ) is also a way to spend the time during the long summer hiatus.

#6 — August 15, 2008 @ 22:26PM — Mary (Bardicvoice) [URL]

Great listing of available hiatus distractions, Alice. Thanks for all the attention, as usual! I'm doing things for 41 Days of Metallicar and having a blast. My fic-writing engine has really tuned up ... I even took on writing a brutally frank coda to episode 3.16, No Rest For the Wicked, to try to prepare myself for season four. September 18 can't come soon enough!

#7 — August 19, 2008 @ 03:16AM — vichi

Hi Alice, great to read your comments on that. I have just one question. You said that there is a petition for bringing Supernatural in Romania and I searched everywhere but I didn't find it. I really want to sign that petition to bring the boys to my country for the 2nd and 3rd season(we already had the first one) and hoping we'll have the DVD's released here. I feel so sad for not finding that petition. Hope you can help me!

#8 — August 19, 2008 @ 03:18AM — vichi

Yeap, now I feel stupid for asking you that...I just find the petition...so now I'll sign it. Thanks anyway:)

#9 — August 19, 2008 @ 13:23PM — Kate [URL]

Hey, thanks for the rundown of all the exciting things happening in fandom! It's really exciting this month, in the runup to DVDs and BluRay and Season 4...not to mention Eyecon in September (OMG, so stoked!).

I thought you might be interested in this too: My best friend and I are doing fangirl audio commentary tracks for all aired episodes of Supernatural. It basically works like a podcast that you synch up with your DVD. We're currently on our "Episode 11 of S. 2" hiatus, but we're halfway through S. 2 with plans to finish that before s. 4 starts. Here's a link: Tin Hats & Belfry Bats

#10 — August 19, 2008 @ 19:20PM — VampySix [URL]

Thanks, Alice, for the sweet words and awesome review of our fandom, Bust Dean Outta Hell Brigade. The Brigade was really excited about your comments. So was I for that matter. I didn't realize I ran the Brigade like a military invasion as well as I did. Most days I feel like I have little to no control over my Soldiers. LOL. Seriously, they are a great group of members over at the Brigade and they deserved your accolades for all their time and effort they put into and are still putting into saving Dean. Their creativity continually amazes me.

We're still accepting members, by the way, over at Bust Dean Outta Hell Brigade. Yes, that was a shameless plug for more members to bust Dean out of hell. We need all the firepower we can get. ;-) So, if anyone is interested, following Alice's link on the first page. We'll be excited to add you to our group and you'll be warmly welcomed.

Thanks again, Alice, for your blog on the fandom. I enjoy reading your blog and am glad we have blogs like yours to read up on our favorite topic, the Winchester Brothers.

#11 — August 25, 2008 @ 21:20PM — Emma [URL]

Hey Alice,
Another great review.
Here in Oz we are trying to get a Supernatural con of our own, wish us luck. Also, I hope the Australian networks fast-track new Supernatural episodes down here pronto or they may find a Supernatural riot on their hands.

You mentioned all the fanfiction flowing in this year's hiatus and wanted to alert people to my Tales From The Krip series. It follows the fictional adventures of Eric Kripke. Episodes 1-3 are available on my live journal page and I will continue to post new ones of a weekly basis.

I have also started a facebook and myspace group called Kripke's Army to support the show so remember to join

Love Emma
Sydney Australia

Member of Kripke's Army

#12 — August 30, 2008 @ 02:28AM — Heather [URL]

HOW did I miss those pictues? HOW!?!?! *runs to look* thank you!

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