Of Clones and Stick Figures

If you haven't watched Orphan Black,

Um...Why not? It's amazing. Go! I'll wait.

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...

...

You back? Never left? That's cool. Whatever...

Anyways a few days after I finished Orphan Black I wondered if there was any way I could get involved with the fandom. I mean with Warehouse ending I just wanted to make sure I was a part of something else. My problem was, and always had been, I really don't have much to offer. I mean I can draw, but not people. I'm capable of writing but I really don't have the time during the school year. I was about to give up when an idea came to me.

In an attempt to reach out to the Warehouse fandom, I had created a blog called poorlydrawnwereherse. It was essentially comics made up of really poorly drawn stick figures. each comic had it's own little joke that would poke fun at the characters or the show. The fandom had really liked it but Warehouse fans are few in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention most fans are shippers and I have no ships in Warehouse 13. I didn't particularly prioritize the blog and it kind of fell to the wayside.

I figured Orphan Black's larger fanbase would probably like a similar blog. I knew I could get a large following but it would take some time and a lot of comics before that would happen. My eventual goal was to be featured on the official Orphan Black tumblr. With this in mind, I gave each character a stick figure equivalent, wrote a few comics and launched poorlydrawnorphanblack.

There were a few miscalculations however.

1. Orphan Black is a larger fanbase, that is true, but I didn't quite realize HOW large. The show averaged about 400,000 viewers an episode for the first four episodes and the numbers only went up from there. (The Renew Warehouse 13 online survey averaged about 4,500 viewers)

2. Despite it's massive size, The Clone Club is rather tightly knit. Meaning, stuff travels way faster than in the Warehouse 13 fandom.

Within the first 24 hours my little blog had 5 posts and 74 followers. As my tiny queue drained more followers trickled in to tell me their thoughts.

I figured it was a success and drew a few more comics. And then on the third day of the blog's existence I got a message. Essentially is told me to go check out the Orphan Black tumblr. Here is what I found.

 

I was beyond shocked.

I had made 17 posts at this point, this reblog was WAAAAAAAY ahead of my schedule.

Not to mention this was not JUST a reblog. It was a shout-out!

Suddenly I didn't have a hundred people to keep happy. The number skyrocketed. Not to mention the positive responses

 

started coming in

 

LIKE CRAZY!

As days went by I got more requests in 24 hours than i'd seen in my entire YEAR running poorlydrawnwereherse! Here is the stats for the last month.

Tumblr couldn't handle all the new followers they should all be new.

Yeah. That graph is showing NOTES.

The followers are still coming in each day.* And the requests follow.

I had never anticipated such an amazing reaction to my idea. It's mind boggling.

I've officially deemed this my job, after school of course**, and I don't get free-time until I've worked on it. And I plan to work on it every single day. I may lose a little sleep, but for a fandom and a show this amazing?

It's worth it.


*In the hour or so it took to write this post I gained two followers
**Today was actually the first day of school. You might get a post about the first two days tomorrow.

Log

I made a Vacation Log.

Log
Friday

3:43pm: Bought an angry birds puzzle eraser. It had a lot of pieces.

4:10pm: Saw a groundhog. It was eating plant life. No one else found this cool.

4:25pm: Radio Disney possessed the XM radio. Changed the channel and then changed it back, baseball game is back on now. Weird.

4:28pm: Saw a dog that looked like Trailer. It wasn't Trailer.

4:55pm: The carpet at the airport is water and rocks. I've given up trying to figure out why.

5:03pm: Finally moving towards the condo. I hit my head getting back into the car.

5:21pm: Saw a truck for transporting livestock. It had cattle in it. Reminded me of Animal Farm, which reminded me it was in the car on the way to the condo two years ago I read that.

5:26pm: The GPS told us to drive 44 miles on I-44. I giggled.

5:36pm: Semi cut us off. He then continued to slam on his breaks five times before driving normally. No "How's my driving?" Number to call.

5:45pm: Another semi cut us off. Writing my will in case I die.

5:48pm: Saw a unicorn. Or a white horse. It was far away.

5:55pm: Shifted so I am sprawled across the whole back seat. Not as comfy as I was expecting.

6:15pm: Reached the point where I am really bored, but too lazy to find something to do. A nap sounds nice.

6:44pm: Fell asleep. Need to pee

6:58pm: Sports bar is loud and smokey. I'm confused.

7:25pm: Clock in here is fifteen minutes fast. I noticed this earlier, just now awake enough to log it.

7:30pm: Overheard "Who's your friend over there? Is he sad. He looks sad."

7:43pm: Claw machine is calling my name. I wish I had some quarters.

7:56pm: The siblings arrive!

8:50pm: Nothing interesting has happened this hour. Interesting...

8:55pm: Strategies for Amazing Race shopping are being made.

9:04pm: Karaoke started at the bar. Promptly we got up and left.

9:10pm: The water looks really cool at night. I mean in terms of temp but I guess it's sort of awesome too.

9:14pm: Two Door Cinema Club likes lasagna.

9:16pm: License plate says SCARAB. Heh...

9:25pm: We won the shopping amazing race. People are amused by our game.

9:32pm: There is a Star Wars magazine. Why?

9:48pm: Here. Finally.

Saturday

11:34am: Lazy morning is up. On our way to Laser Tag

11:51am: At the place. It smells like wood.

12:44pm: Finished up. Dr. Pepper reins supreme.

12:45pm: I hit my head getting into the car again. Now to a place where I can do nothing. Woo.

12:59pm: It's almost 1.

1:00pm: It's 1.

1:08pm: Stayed and waited to find out number one on the alt 18. It was Muse. Figures.

1:13pm: Lady with crazy red fake eyelashes. I'm the only one that has noticed.

2:15pm: We sat outside. My soul is numb.

5:09pm: Ate lunch. Went to the arcade. Broke two machines. Won a giant banana.

12:08am: Bed

Sunday

12:58pm: I saw some deer. I've also realized I am terrible at keeping logs.

1:34pm: WATCH OUT! We got a snazz master over here! (It's me. I'm the snazzy one.)

1:40pm: Waitress told me my hat is cool. I know.

2:45pm: "We could put on a play. There's a stage..." Yeah Matt. We could.

3:20pm: Clubbed my ear with the car door by mistake. Beginning to think I have a problem getting into cars.

5:19pm: WE FINISHED THE PUZZLE AND I PUT IN THE LAST PIECE SO HA

6:08pm: Karen saw the deer I spotted earlier. I said nothing.

7:11pm: I need to pee.

7:42pm: No serious. I really need to pee.

8:00pm: HOME!

THAT WAS MY WEEKEND

Social Skills? Who needs 'em!

It has occurred to me that pretty much all of my online friends began with a single comment I would of never made IRL.

Sometimes the start was awkward. Like with my dearly interwed Dunhamnator.

I left this review on her story

I hate you.

Okay well that's not fair. I don't hate you. I'm pretty sure you knew what I meant though.

Amazing.

Huh...six months ago if you would of told me I would be calling Jori pairings amazing I would have laughed you out of town.

But hey, here we are. Me telling you that you just killed me inside and you...well...reading it.

So...you apologized. Wow...our first fight.

Did I just type that? Looking back it looks weird...really weird. I feel creepy now.

I'm sorry...for being creepy.

I should stop typing now.

 

Surprisingly she replied with quite simply

 

Let me love you

 

We've been in touch ever since.

 

Or maybe that's just a crazy random happenstance you say?

 

Alright. Tumblr. flockofsiegels.

 

I happen across the blog and I read "I like puns related to my name"

Well I like puns.

 

I left a series of messages with as many puns as I could think of for Brooke, ending with Brooke-back Mountain.

 

She replied to the last one saying it is the best one she's heard yet, now it's the title of her blog.

 

We follow each other and have regular conversations.

 

Still not believing me?

 

playingtragic: Obsessed fan message. Now we keep in touch and I help her with writer's block

 

 anteredono: joined forces to take over the world. Now we chat*

 

 pmaziggy: same as anteredono

 

 Sax freaking Carr: Fell asleep, woke up to his podcast, got scared and made a flipping facebook post about it! Now I'm the superfan and we'd do anything to help the other out.

 

You have to face it, the Internets aren't normal.

The people who live on it's tangled web aren't normal.

 

A creepy comment isn't always creepy online. It's charming.

Someone who is odd and talks to themselves in a review isn't a reason to call the nut police, it's a reason why you like their reviews.

 

This is why older generations fear for the new ones. They blame our horrid actions on social media.

 

I can't blame them.

It certainly helped.

But I don't think all of us are that bad.

 

Those mentioned above, and many others like Mystery and Blake T**, I find your quirks to be just that.
Quirky.
I like that someone can laugh at my weak joke. That despite my creepy review she saw I meant no harm.

 

Maybe my first guess was wrong, perhaps the Internet hasn't warped these people's minds into something worse, but something better. Maybe there is a point in spending your days surfing through the world wide web.

 

Maybe we're all better off.

 

 

 

*Chats about pirates perhaps...*hint hint read this http://specificness.blogspot.com/search/label/pirates*

**Blake has been following since like my first week on twitter and I have no clue why. I guess I'm funny and charming...