{"id":29516,"date":"2023-06-13T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T11:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/?p=29516"},"modified":"2023-06-13T07:19:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T11:19:18","slug":"fame-anxiety-comfort-lead-to-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/fame-anxiety-comfort-lead-to-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fame, Anxiety & Comfort Lead To Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


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Writer: Scott Hoffman
Artist: Danijel \u017de\u017eelj
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Steve Wands
Designer: Rian Hughes
Editors: Greg Lockard & Will Dennis<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apprehension. Isolation. Subjugation. Loss. Loneliness. When you\u2019re experiencing all those things, what else can you turn to for comfort, except possibly nostalgia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Hoffman (aka Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters fame), Daniel \u017de\u017eelj, Lee Loughridge and Steve Wand come together to explore these ideas through Craig Mancini, musician and artist, in a new dystopian tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Full Disclaimer: I\u2019m a HUGE Scissor Sisters fan and a fan of Hoffman\u2019s work with other artists like Kylie Minogue. When I like an artist, I\u2019m always curious about whatever they decide to tackle and what it brings out of them creatively. [Also: If they ever get back together, see Scissor Sisters live – they are sublime performers!] Okay, now that is out of the way\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story opens by setting up our main character Craig Mancini, the eponymously-named legendary music performer, in Nostalgia #1, as someone seemingly \u201cliving\u201d in the past and whose \u201clife\u201d is merely existing in the present. Hoffman at once shows us the connection Craig felt to his art and his fans, and the beauty of the planet itself, at the height of his popularity, which is then completely rebuffed by his current existence: a man locked in a physical and emotional tower, both of his own making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s not to say that Craig doesn\u2019t have some good reasons to do so (and other good reasons hinted at.) The dystopian future Hoffman and \u017de\u017eelj develop here feels immediately familiar and eerily plausible. COVID, income inequality, information integrity, technological advancements, climate crises and other concepts all flashed through my head as I read the abundant in-story newsfeeds and we were given a tour of the city. (The irony of scarlet-colored skies being a color component of this storytelling and the Canadian wildfires turning New York City\u2019s skyline red this week.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cacophony of these issues and the state of the world seem to plague Craig\u2019s mind and it\u2019s no wonder he\u2019s locked himself away for protection in his now, cutting himself off both physically and emotionally from even those he once called friend. In his isolation, we\u2019re introduced to a couple of people who are about as close to Craig as he\u2019s going to let someone get. Lexi, Craig\u2019s one time roadie, whom he laments \u201cShame, I took the roadie off the road.\u201d A brief introduction, but Lexi is seemingly one of the only characters Craig lets physically close to him, yet there\u2019s definitely some emotional distance going on. The hints of their stilted, uncomfortable relationship flow through – considering the times and experiences a front man and roadie would experience together. Fran, from Craig\u2019s label, Dead Sky, makes an appearance via video (that Zoom life, am I right?), to not only tell Craig that Dead Sky is a conglomeration of all media now, but to also tell him \u201chis algorithms are up\u201d in an attempt to encourage him to release new music. Craig describes Fran as his only friend, so I\u2019m intrigued to see how Fran will factor into the rest of the series. Through each of these exchanges we learn that Craig seems content with a static life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Things change for Craig and the plot gets rolling with the arrival of a package with the design of a nautilus on it and a special note – piquing Craig\u2019s curiosity and some reminiscences of his childhood and when he was just starting out as a musician and performer. Cue the mystery of how the provider knew where Craig lived from the safety of his data-scrubbed isolation and some cephalopod symbolism (e.g. infinity, rising and falling between strata and worlds, nature\u2019s constructs versus technological ones, etc.) This act starts Craig\u2019s adventure out of his \u201ctower\u201d to descend into the world he\u2019s shut himself off from – and eventually intercept some surprises. All the while still protected by the character I found the most interesting, Elena. A sort of taser-firing, levitating Roomba donut-shaped drone, that seems particularly good at monitoring Craig. (An enigmatic droid will get me everytime.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The set up for this story is compelling, especially given Hoffman\u2019s experiences in the music industry and undoubtedly his connection with music, performance, fans and fame. Plenty of layers to explore \u201cconnection\u201d through this unique lens and how we are more connected than ever before via technology, but less connected as human beings and the planet we call home. This dissonance attracts me to the story as well as \u017de\u017eelj\u2019s art and Loughridge\u2019s colors. \u017de\u017eelj\u2019s pencils provide an epicness to the story. There\u2019s an immensity here in the backdrop to the city and background of the story. His portrayal of the characters and their expressions give me a haunting feeling as we delve into this world of inequity, control, ambivalence and lost spirit. Loughridge\u2019s reds, blues, greens, yellows and oranges are vibrant – not something typically seen in dystopian storytelling – and almost neon in their intensity that eventually diffuses out to black in the panels. As a clubgoer of the 2000s and 2010s, that intensity reminds me of nights out, fun and frivolity, and perceptions of light and space from the dance floor, a welcome juxtaposition to consider with the themes being explored here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our current culture and some people\u2019s obsession with a past that\u2019s somehow pristine, unimpeachable and better than today, it\u2019s a great time to read and delve into Nostalgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nostalgia #1<\/a> is available digitally on Tuesday, June 13 and kicks off a five week Comixology event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Lyon (he\/him\/his) has been an out and proud superhero and comics fan from the very first time he saw Lynda Carter spin into Wonder Woman in the 1970s. A mild mannered media consumer by day and a pop culture crimefighter by night, Scott has a particular interest in the intersections of LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC and women\u2019s identities in storytelling and the pop culture and speculative fiction media we create and consume. You can find him at @wonderscott <\/a>on Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer: Scott HoffmanArtist: Danijel \u017de\u017eeljColorist: Lee LoughridgeLetterer: Steve WandsDesigner: Rian HughesEditors: Greg Lockard & Will Dennis Apprehension. Isolation. Subjugation. Loss. Loneliness. When you\u2019re experiencing all those things, what else can you turn to for comfort, except possibly nostalgia? Scott Hoffman (aka Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters fame), Daniel \u017de\u017eelj, Lee Loughridge and Steve Wand come together […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":29485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[231],"class_list":["post-29516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-queer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gayleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}