a thought on comics fic

[snick_backup]

You know what would be great? If authors specified what particular runs of comics they were drawing from when writing a particular fic. I'd be totally up for hunting down a dozen or two issues of something I hadn't tried yet if I had promise of good fic at the end. There's this X-men WIP on AO3 that looks really interesting, but I've only even heard of half of the characters involved.

I mean, I could ask. But it'd be nice if that was a standard thing. When you're dealing with characters with 40+ years of backstory, just listing the character name is only moderately helpful. It'd be like if someone wrote Doctor Who fic and didn't specify which doctor.

Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ( DW replies)

Comments

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Sometimes in the summary or author's notes, people will put something about the issue(s) that inspired the fic, but yeah, it's not really easy to sort by or anything. I think part of the problem is that a lot of comics fic, by virtue of the many many appearances of the characters involved, ends up being an amalgam of various runs, movies, and fanon. Or more popular "parent fandom" tags get used instead of the more specific tags.

[snickfic]

It's not even a sorting issue; there's not enough comics fic on AO3 to be a chore to just look at everything. I just want people to tell me what canon they're depending on!

It is awfully complicated by characters being in so many different things, though.

[amathela.livejournal.com]

I usually put the general timeline or whatever of my comics fics in the notes, but yeah, it's definitely something I wish more people did (where they're actually based on a specific run, obviously).

[snickfic]

*nod* Good on you! I approve. :D

[latenightcuppa.livejournal.com]

haha oh dear, I am probably guilty of this. but for what it's worth! I would totally not mind if someone asked, I love telling people about which comics to read.

[snickfic]

Well, yay! I will definitely ping you if I am ever curious about what canon your fic is drawing from. :)