Starlee and the Moonbeams—This Sunday in “Sally Forth”!

Sally Forth Comic Con: Fandom Is about Connection, Not Ownership

When the trailer for Cartoon Network’s upcoming ThunderCats reboot ThunderCats Roar was introduced, some angrily decried “That’s not MY ThunderCats! That’s not the serious, thought-provoking show of my youth that had cats dressed as sharks!”

Okay, they may not have said the part about the sharks. But it does go to show that no, Thundercats is not some sacred text that can never be altered. And no, the show does not belong solely to one. And if an individual wants their classic Thundercats, guess what, it’s already been made and they can watch it again. Being a fan is about connecting deeply with a work, not assuming title and ownership. And no generation has a white-knuckled grip on any self-proclaimed “best” period for TV, movies, music, books, etc. You have your thing, someone has their own thing. But it’s this sort of unearned entitlement and uninformed perspective that ultimately leads to a group of people feeling they have don’t just have the right but the mandate to remake The Last Jedi because they believe all others should only answer to their needs, that any creator should only create with a certain group’s allowance.

I loved The Last Jedi. I think it may be one of the very strongest in the Star Wars franchise. Yes, there are issues with it. And yes, I know people who didn’t care for it and who are not raving, insecure incel members. (And who are understandably quite upset that they get lumped in with such). No one says you have to like everything and everyone is free to say, “Well, that looks like it’s gonna suck.” But the ones who scream the loudest that they have been wronged are driven not by a love for art but a need for everything to flatter and fellate themselves, since no one one else is going to give them either. And they see everything that does not conform to that desperate need as trying to make a statement that they must counter.

When I introduced Duncan in Sally Forth and Jim Keefe drew students wearing hijabs in Hilary’s school, some readers angrily wrote, “So I guess you’re trying to make some sort of statement, huh?” No. We’re showing the actual world, and that world has never belonged to one type, one race, one gender. Those who think otherwise are the most easily frightened and ill-equipped individuals you will ever meet, and they are also some of the most dangerous. Not because they possess any true strength or command or valid agency but because they have a feral nature detached from reason that makes them go into frenzied, full-frothing attack. After all, when you have nothing to offer the world, your family or even yourself, you need everything else to burn so everyone else can also taste the ashes of failure.

That said, the recent Jem and the Holograms movie was an outright fiasco, because it was made on completely different terms. That film was proclaimed fan-service from the get-go, then it was made with the intention of telling the fans what they really should would want from the story. Frankly, the world would be much better off with a Misfits origin story instead.

Sally Forth Comic Con: Starlee Vs. Carina

Every hero has their nemesis. Jem and the Holograms had The Misfits. G.I. Joe had Cobra Command. And as Lisa wisely pointed out…

And so it is with Starlee and the Moonbeams and their evil counterparts, Carina and the Darkstars, the two intergalactic warrior bands engaged in a never-ending clash across the stars and in front of Lonely Sun God Ra-Ra as they each vie for the coveted Kavli Music Video Genius Grant.

Today’s strip is also the first appearance of Duncan’s mom, Marilynn, an aforementioned huge Starlee and the Moonbeams fan who favors Carina’s Darkstars since they, like the Misfits, always had the better songs. Naturally Sally and Marilynn are just staying in character and will soon be fast friends because, well, the Forths really need some friends. Let’s give everyone this one.

By the way, once again someone has written to inform me that Starlee and the Moonbeams was not a real cartoon series in the 1980s. And once again I am shocked—Shocked!—that something I made up didn’t suddenly, retroactively exist. I guess that’s yet another power I don’t possess. I can catch a stack of quarters from off my elbow, though. I…I can do that…sniff…

Sally Forth Comic Con: Overwatch

Being in that Venn diagram overlap of “Introvert” and “Shy”—two characteristics that are actually far more dissimilar than many believe and so may indicate that I am actually neither but simply socially hapless—I’ve never really gone all in on co-op or multiplayer online games. Of course, the real reason may be that I grew up in an era in which video games were mostly solitary pursuits like Atari’s Adventure, otherwise known as Speared Olive Knight Fights What Appears to Be a Giant Duck.

Or it may actually tie back to shyness. Perhaps that aspect of shyness that borders on narcissism because you truly believe everyone is watching and judging you, since I fear that I will singlehandedly be responsible for destroying an entire mission or dismantling a virtual sandbox. In short, my reaction to seeing the sky crack over Fortnite would have been a gasped, “Oh shit! I’m sorry!” Because when you’re the type of person who fears they and they alone are the cause for an interdimensional breach, then you’re dealing with some high-octane solipsism there. On the other hand, at least I know I would not have felt responsible for the disappearance of the Fortnite in-game Durr Burger sign which—in what I think is some truly remarkable PR—turned up IRL in a California desert. Then things got even gloriously stranger.

At this point you might be asking, “Um, this post’s title references Overwatch. So why are you still talking about Fortnite instead?” Simple—because my thought process is a circuitous mess. But yes, Duncan’s older brother—who has been mentioned several times in the comic in terms that best be categorized as “somewhat of an asshole”—makes his first actual appearance in the comic today cosplaying as Overwatch character Lúcio, complete with Sonic Amplifier.

Team-based and eSports video games may forever be out of the wheelhouse of someone like me who regularly articulated his arm so as to pat his own back for realizing he could make the tank in Combat go through walls thanks to a glitch that everyone exploited. But I am fascinated by the idea of professional team tournament play. Or, more to the point, that people hire coaches to improve their game. Or, even more to the point, that Overwatch League team Shanghai Dragons had a record-setting season of 0-40. Zero and forty.

Suddenly the fact I could last upwards of three minutes in Defender makes me look like a contender.

Sally Forth Comic Con: Share the Love

I got my love of comic strips and animation from my dad, who spent every Saturday morning watching cartoons with us when we were little, even if it meant stuff like Inch High, Private Eye. I got my love of movies and film history from my mom, who watched every Oscar telecast with me when I was young, meaning I’d go to school the next day very sleepy and very annoyed Star Wars didn’t win Best Picture. Share the love.

And now today’s cosplay breakdown!
First Panel: Cosplayers going as Gamora and Black Widow. Duncan dressed as Soul Evans, Hilary dressed as Maka (both from Soul Eater). Sally as Starlee from Starlee and the Moonbeams. Cosplayer going as Squirrel Girl!

Second Panel: Cosplayers going as Nebula, and Alana and Marko from Image Comics series—and perhaps best graphic novel ever—Saga. Squirrel Girl again!

Fifth Panel: Cosplayers going as Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, Spider-Gwen, and Domino from Deadpool 2 (a “family movie” appearing in a family strip). The artwork in the top right is from the comic strip Mama’s Boyz by Jerry Craft. Read Jim Keefe’s shoutout to the cartoonist here.

Sixth Panel: Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination…(But look out for Velma!)

And here’s what Jim Keefe’s line work looks like before the lettering and coloring…

Sally Forth Comic Con: All You Need Is a Can-Do Attitude!

Sure, when it comes to cosplay some people go all out while others wake up the day of the Con, mutter “Oh shit,” and hastily assemble a Wampa from those Beanie Babies they’ve finally comes to terms are never going to be a financial windfall. But really, all it takes is a little ingenuity, a lot of post-house bash trash your worthless friends didn’t stick around to help you clean up, and you’ve got yourself a Mandalorian bounty hunter with a party attitude and a need to stop just buying domestic.

Sally Forth Comic Con: Devourer of Worlds, Devourer of Rats

Today’s background cosplayers include Wonder Woman, Rogue, and Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats along with Nona donning Galactus (“Devourer of Worlds” headgear), Ted with his Battle of the Planets t-shirt, Hilary and Duncan as Maka and Soul Evans from Soul Eater and, of course, Sally as Starlee from Starlee and the Moonbeams.

But today also features some offscreen costuming, inspired by the below cosplay I saw at San Diego Comic Con 2016, in which the individual noted that yes, it was a very specific age demographic that got she was going as the “Diana eats the rodent” scene from the original V: The Miniseries (1983)

Of course, the problem with revisiting the past is that it never matches your memory. Or in this case, it reminds you of the limits of early 80s TV special effects when it comes to unhinging a jaw.

Sally Forth Comic Con: Let’s Split Up, Gang

When writing today’s strip I crowdsourced on Facebook for films in which the main group of characters is separated into smaller teams for their own subplots/adventures. I specifically opted out The Empire Strikes Back because I didn’t want yet another Star Wars reference while I avoided Captain America: Civil War Avengers 2.5 because that was about a contentious divide within a team. My friend Tom Racine (also known as Ted Forth’s neighbor because the wall between reality and comic strip is now completely porous to me) won with Star Trek IV: Space Whales—really, this is what is should be called—but I got several other suggestions, including the following. Can you add to the list?

Lord of the Rings
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The Princess Bride
The Goonies
Toy Story 2
Jurassic Park
Ocean’s 11
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Last Jedi
Return of the Jedi
The Bridge on the River Kwai
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Starship Troopers
The Muppets Take Manhattan

Happy Fourth/Forth of July!

Happy 4th of July! Celebrate the Fourth with the Forths and the time Ted inadvertently blew up his neighborhood.

Sally Forth Comic Con: Big Donut

Remember, when waiting for a friend or hoping everyone remembers where they all agreed to meet up in the first place there’s no better place to gather than at Big Donut, with kiosks in Cons and headquarters in Beach City.