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#0, Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-13-13 at 08:24 AM
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_______ Loves Corwin
from Galacticpedia, the Galactic Encyclopedia

______ Loves Corwin is a comedy-romance dōjinshi comic book series written and illustrated by an unknown artist using the pseudonym Nebe. It first surfaced in 2409 on the Earth-Asian colonies in the Enigma sector and has since spread via the Internet and online fan groups to most of the human-settled galaxy[citation needed]. Issues appear sporadically, without any apparent schedule or pattern of distribution.

Plot

______ Loves Corwin follows the adventures (romantic and otherwise) of Corwin Ravenhair, a fictionalized version of the International Police technical operative of the same name. Each installment features Corwin having an adventure with a different woman. Sometimes these are romantic in nature and culminate in an implied love scene, sometimes not, though they almost always have at least a subtext involving some romantic tension.

Issues

Main article: List of ______ Loves Corwin stories

There have been seven issues of ______ Loves Corwin so far, each comprising a single self-contained story, although there are clear indications in each that they all share a single fictional continuity.

  • Utena Loves Corwin (March 2409) - The first story to appear chronicles an adventure with Captain Utena Tenjou of the International Police Space Force starship Valiant, in which Corwin and Captain Tenjou must fight their way across an unspecified city occupied by a hostile ninja army to complete a humanitarian mission. Interestingly enough, though the central romance in this original story was thought fanciful at the time,[by whom?] [ooh, get you - "whom"!] within a year of this story's appearance, the real Corwin Ravenhair and Utena Tenjou would be married.
  • Clarissa Loves Corwin (August 2409) - Corwin confronts his childhood nemesis, Clarissa Broadbank (portrayed in this comic as a vain and mean-spirited bully, but not an out-and-out villain), over her attempt to ruin their shared high school graduation. Ultimately her meanness is revealed as a cover for her insecurities over a long-unrequited crush she has on him, and the day is saved by kindness and understanding. Features a guest appearance by the Utonium sisters, who (it probably goes without saying) also love Corwin.
  • Kaname Loves Corwin (January 2410) - A flashback story in which Corwin and his pal Kaname Sterling, both aged around 6, spend a curiously unsupervised day at an amusement park in an unspecified city that is probably New Avalon. There's no romance in this one (obviously - it's not that kind of romance comic), but Corwin and Kaname have a grand time, eventually saving the park from mysterious ninja saboteurs (who appear to be the same ninja from Utena Loves Corwin) and being banned for life from the park in the process - having been unable to prove that they were acting against ninja because, well, ninja.
  • Toph Loves Corwin (September 2410) - Corwin and a friend of his from the Einherjar, a geokinetic martial artist named Toph Beifong, steal a giant diamond from the treasure hoard of the King of Jotunheim, apparently just for the hell of it. Toph Loves Corwin is unique in the series in that it contains an entire love scene from beginning to end... which takes place in a completely dark room, such that every panel on the four pages comprising it is black except for cleverly deniable[citation needed] double-entendre-loaded dialogue. Some think it isn't a love scene at all, and they really are just sitting around in the dark reciting poetry.
  • Lenneth Loves Corwin (April 2411) - One of Rahne Sinclair's Valkyrie Adventures Valkyrie, Lenneth Winternight, joins Corwin on a journey to the far reaches of northern Alfheim in search of a rare mineral which can refuel the Furnace of Beorc - the source of the steam that powers Asgard's World-Engine. Thanks to the vengeful machinations of the King of Jotunheim, this turns out not to be as easy as they thought it would be - and they didn't think it would be easy. Corwin is shown to carry a photograph of Utena (the picture he carries is actually a frame from Utena Loves Corwin) in his wallet, but no mention is made of this by the characters.
  • Korra Loves Corwin (August 2411) - Korra (an Expert of Justice with elemental powers) invites Corwin to join her on a mission to Bear City on Ice Planet Halloran V, where they help the city's polar bear chief of police, Magnus Hendriksson, get to the bottom of a series of paranormal murders. Although she appears to be about the same age as Corwin, hints are dropped throughout the story that Korra is considerably older, has known him his entire life, and has only recently ceased to perceive him as a little boy.

  • X-23 Loves Corwin (January 2412) - Chief Gryphon teams Corwin up with one of the IPO's special operatives, martial artist and daredevil Laura Kinney (codename X-23), to raid a HYDRA stronghold rumored to be the headquarters of an effort to develop a new and more lethal variant of the GREEN FLU bioweapon. This issue features a reprise of the "suggestive but deniable dialogue in a dark place" gag from Toph Loves Corwin, though it is interrupted when the ventilation duct collapses and delivers Corwin and Laura into a fight scene.

Characters

Main article: List of ______ Loves Corwin characters

Corwin Ravenhair - The hero of the series, Corwin is a fictionalized version of the International Police technical operative of the same name, one of Chief Gryphon's sons. He appears to be the same fictional version who also appears in Rahne Sinclair's Valkyrie Adventures novels.[citation needed] Kindhearted and brave but slightly clueless about women, Corwin is generally unaware for most of any given story that the deuteragonist named in the title is in love with him. His formidable technological abilities and fighting skills are commonly emphasized in the stories, as are his kindness and generosity.

Nall - Corwin's companion, a winged, flying cat who claims to be a dragon and has apparent magical powers. Nall is always ready to offer a sarcastic analysis of any character or situation, and to tease Corwin about being slow on the uptake when it comes to the ladies. He always seems to get conveniently distracted or in some other way separated from Corwin at the start of any given adventure, only to find his way back at the end and then discreetly excuse himself once again.

Chief Gryphon - The only other regularly recurring character in the series, Gryphon is usually only seen at the very beginning of the story, often assigning Corwin some mission or another in his capacity as an IPO operative. A running joke in his appearances is that he's almost always seen playing an arcade game in his office, but it's never the same one, sometimes even changing between panels.

Style and Presentation

The presentation of _____ Loves Corwin stories is always comedic and lighthearted, with a high standard of verbal and visual humor. Even the villains, of which there is always at least one, tend to be treated sympathetically, generally being less evil than simply selfish and/or lacking in self-control. (Indeed, the villain of the piece in one installment, Clarissa Loves Corwin, is also the titular deuteragonist.)

Both the storytelling sensibilities and the art style employed in the ______ Loves Corwin comics are similar to those of the Avalon 17 animated television series Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold. Many people assume there is a direct inspirational connection between the two, with some[who?] going so far as to propose that the anonymous creator of the series is someone associated with the Lensmen production staff.

______ Loves Corwin is published in black-and-white, with dialogue and sound effects rendered in a slightly archaic form of Mandarin Chinese. There exists a cottage industry within the fandom of digitally coloring the comics and translating them into numerous other languages.

Title

The series does not have an "official" overall title that is ever referenced on its covers or in its pages; each is only referred to by its own individual story title. The original collective title adopted by the online fandom was X Loves Corwin, but this changed by informal consensus after the January 2412 appearance of X-23 Loves Corwin, to avoid confusion. The standard employed in places such as the Usenet group alt.fan.blanklovescorwin is to spell the blank with six underscores (which aren't allowed in the names of newsgroups) instead of actually using the word "blank"; for consistency's sake, this is the presentation style used here.

Author's identity

The identity of "Nebe", the pseudonymous author of ______ Loves Corwin, is not known, but - unsurprisingly - much speculation has taken place within the fandom. Textual and artistic analysis has led to the common consensus that Nebe is only one person, not a collective or rotating creator.[original research?] Because of the appearance of several characters from Rahne Sinclair's Valkyrie Adventures novels (not least Corwin himself), some[who?] believe that Nebe is Sinclair herself, though she denies it. Others[who?] maintain that Nebe is one of the real Corwin Ravenhair's shipmates aboard IPS Valiant, probably Wakaba Shinohara (who has served as an occasional guest artist on Top Thrills Comics).

Still others[and once again who?] [are you detecting a pattern yet?] dismiss both of these theories, pointing to the distinctive art style (unlike that employed by either Sinclair or Shinohara in their work for Bacon Comics) and the curious fact that every issue seems to originate with its dialogue in Chinese. These theorists point to the animation studios of New Cathay, where much of the footage for Lensmen: The Brave and the Bold is made, and insist that the only logical conclusion is that one of the artists who has worked on the show is also Nebe in his or her spare time.

External Links

- The Even Less Official Than You Think ______ Loves Corwin Archive
- Sumire Loves ______ Loves Corwin: A Fan Site
- alt.fan.blanklovescorwin FAQ


Categories: dōjinshi series | comic series with anonymous creators | fictional properties about IPO personnel


#1, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by mdg1 on Sep-13-13 at 08:31 AM
In response to message #0
You are an evil, evil man...

(As a data point, Nebe is Czech for "cloud")


#2, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by zojojojo on Sep-13-13 at 04:22 PM
In response to message #1
>You are an evil, evil man...
>
>(As a data point, Nebe is Czech for "cloud")

i'd heard that everything was being moved to the cloud these days, but this is ridiculous!

-Z


---
Remember kids: guns make you stupid, duct tape makes you smart.


#4, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by DaPatman89 on Sep-13-13 at 09:45 PM
In response to message #1
>You are an evil, evil man...

I have thought this many times. This probably takes the biscuit, though.


#3, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by The Traitor on Sep-13-13 at 08:23 PM
In response to message #0
SEE? SEE? IT'S INFECTED MIDGARD NOW! I TOLD YOU THE CORWIN BOWL WAS AN INFOHAZARD, BUT NOOOOO, I CAN'T BE RIGHT, CAN I? WELL, GUESS WHO'S LAUGHING NOW? THAT'S RIGHT, W. F. PLINK AND SONS OF SAVILE ROW, PURVEYORS OF THE VERY FINEST TINFOIL HEADGEAR TO THE PARANOID MAN-ABOUT-TOWN. PRICES ON REQUEST. NO HUMAN-SUIT-WEARING LIZARDS.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends


#5, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Mercutio on Sep-14-13 at 06:53 PM
In response to message #0
So, as the instigator here, I gotta wonder if I get credit, or merely blame.

I also firmly believe two things: one, that, as is the nature of doujinshi, immediately after ______ Loves Corwin proved to be even of modest interest, there was inevitably an even-more-unofficial boys love spinoff, beginning with "Chip Loves Corwin" and spiraling massively out of control from there.

Two, also inevitably, there was at some point a special edition Rule 63 one-shot issue, most likely "Clarence Loves Cora."

-Merc
Keep Rat

"Carlos suggested that there could be some very sinister forces at work here."


#6, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by JeanneHedge on Sep-14-13 at 07:50 PM
In response to message #5
I'm a little surprised Vigdis Loves Corwin hasn't been published yet, but maybe that's a little too close to home?


Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"


#7, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-14-13 at 07:57 PM
In response to message #6
>I'm a little surprised Vigdis Loves Corwin hasn't been
>published yet, but maybe that's a little too close to home?

Vee swears she isn't Nebe. And to be fair, that's a credible denial. If she was, ______ Loves Corwin would be blatantly pornographic.

--G.
like the fan-made "NVG edition" of Toph Loves Corwin
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#8, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by The Traitor on Sep-14-13 at 08:46 PM
In response to message #7
I... REALLY don't want to find out what NVG stands for.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

Rooting for Not Very Graphic. Rooting for Not Very Graphic. Rooting for Not Very Graphic...


#9, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Mercutio on Sep-14-13 at 08:54 PM
In response to message #8
Night Vision Goggles.

-Merc
Keep Rat


#10, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-14-13 at 08:54 PM
In response to message #8
>I... REALLY don't want to find out what NVG stands for.

It's not anywhere near as bad as you're apparently thinking.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#12, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by The Traitor on Sep-14-13 at 10:26 PM
In response to message #10
Well, it means Night Vision Goggles, according to this, so it was -exactly- as bad as I was thinking. Like most characters I have experienced while they are children, the prospect of shipping Toph Beifong is just kinda... ew. IMO, YMMV, etc.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

"You're a metalbender, eh? Why'd you call it that? It sounds like a gay robot."


#13, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-14-13 at 10:30 PM
In response to message #12
>Well, it means Night Vision Goggles, according to this, so it was
>-exactly- as bad as I was thinking. Like most characters I have
>experienced while they are children, the prospect of shipping Toph
>Beifong is just kinda... ew. IMO, YMMV, etc.

"Is this technically necrophilia? I mean, I am dead."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#14, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by twipper on Sep-16-13 at 09:41 AM
In response to message #13

>"Is this technically necrophilia? I mean, I am dead."


*headdesk*

I'm going to be giggling all the way through the damn mid-year review in 20 now, thank you very much. :)

Brian


#15, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-16-13 at 09:58 AM
In response to message #14
lv2srv :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#16, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Sep-16-13 at 03:28 PM
In response to message #12
>Like most characters I have
>experienced while they are children, the prospect of shipping Toph
>Beifong is just kinda... ew.

A) I know what you meant, but that use of shipping still and always gives me the image of something akin to the running joke on Top Gear where they're in some remote location and they have to go pick up the Stig from some local freight depot or the baggage terminal at the airport, wrapped in plastic and lashed to a hand truck.

B) Less flippantly than my previous response, and for what it's worth, Toph isn't depicted as her canonical Avatar: The Last Airbender age in Toph Loves Corwin (or, for that matter, in Try, Try Again). Since her arrival in Valhalla, for reasons she chooses not to examine closely, she appears to be around 16.

C) But my previous response does still hold, given that the UF version was born in 2206 and died sometime before 2289. :)

--G.
"This is a real switch for me. When I was alive, I preferred older guys who looked younger than me. It's all completely backwards now."
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#17, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by The Traitor on Sep-19-13 at 09:30 AM
In response to message #16
>>Like most characters I have
>>experienced while they are children, the prospect of shipping Toph
>>Beifong is just kinda... ew.
>
>A) I know what you meant, but that use of shipping still and always
>gives me the image of something akin to the running joke on Top
>Gear
where they're in some remote location and they have to go
>pick up the Stig from some local freight depot or the baggage terminal
>at the airport, wrapped in plastic and lashed to a hand truck.

...

Now you've got me imagining Toph Beifong being smuggled into Jotunheim on a forklift truck, possibly with some of the other Einherjar looking with intense confusion at Corwin and wondering why he decided to bring a sculpture of a giant koi carp on a secret and important mission.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends


#11, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Egak on Sep-14-13 at 08:54 PM
In response to message #8
LAST EDITED ON Sep-14-13 AT 08:55 PM (EDT)
 
Try "Night Vision Goggles".

EDIT: Ninja'd


#18, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Verbena on Jan-23-14 at 09:44 PM
In response to message #7
LAST EDITED ON Jan-23-14 AT 09:49 PM (EST)
 
(Edit to add 'Nebe' translation comment.)

>Vee swears she isn't Nebe. And to be fair, that's a credible denial.
>If she was, ______ Loves Corwin would be blatantly
>pornographic.

It took me some time to think on this, but really, there's not many people it could be:
-Probably female and enamored of Corwin herself.
-Has to have knowledge of Asgard, which really is a somewhat larger group of people than is immediately apparent.
-Has to know Mandarin Chinese. Or more to the point, Tongyu. The list of people who know of both Asgard and know enough of Diqiu to know the language is vanishingly small.
-Probably not anyone who's shown up in any of the stories, to stay anonymous.
-Has to have a whimsical, creative bent to come up with the stories, but not be so jealous as to do an obvious self-insert, though the other women in the stories are possibly surrogates of the author.
-As someone else on this thread pointed out, Nebe means Cloud in Czech. Coupled with the Tongyu thing, that points to an airbender.
-There's a female airbender with a crush on Corwin who has an amazing gift for languages and has talked with him at length, learning whatever he may have said of Asgard.

I'm placing my bets on Nyima.


--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#19, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by JeanneHedge on Jan-23-14 at 10:10 PM
In response to message #18
Until Benders were dragged into the discussion, I was thinking Dorothy as the author.

Maybe Dorothy as a subject?

Jeanne


Jeanne Hedge
http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"


#20, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Verbena on Jan-23-14 at 11:34 PM
In response to message #19
>Until Benders were dragged into the discussion, I was thinking Dorothy
>as the author.
>
>Maybe Dorothy as a subject?

Hm. Dorothy seems too professional, too mature, to do this. There's a streak of immaturity about this series. That's one of several reasons, for instance, I ruled out Korra. Or Skuld.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#22, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Gryphon on Jan-23-14 at 11:48 PM
In response to message #20
>There's a
>streak of immaturity about this series. That's one of several reasons,
>for instance, I ruled out Korra. Or Skuld.

... bahaha, I'm sorry, what? You ruled out those two on the grounds that they're too mature to have done something?

You're right, it's not either of them, but I mean, Skuld still demonstrates her disapproval of her subordinates' work at IPO R&D with a gun that shoots suction-cup darts, and Korra owns a complete run of every single "Li'l Avatars and Friends" doll ever made, including the ultra-rare botched Zuko whose scar is on the wrong side (which is so hard to find as to be considered an urban legend by many collectors). These are not women who are noted for their buttoned-downness, is all I'm saying. :)

--G.
It isn't Toph either, for obvious reasons, though some suspect she ghosted her dialogue. As it were.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


#24, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Verbena on Jan-24-14 at 07:38 AM
In response to message #22
>... bahaha, I'm sorry, what? You ruled out those two on the
>grounds that they're too mature to have done something?
>
>You're right, it's not either of them, but I mean, Skuld still
>demonstrates her disapproval of her subordinates' work at IPO R&D with
>a gun that shoots suction-cup darts, and Korra owns a complete run of
>every single "Li'l Avatars and Friends" doll ever made,
>including the ultra-rare botched Zuko whose scar is on the
>wrong side (which is so hard to find as to be considered an urban
>legend by many collectors). These are not women who are noted
>for their buttoned-downness, is all I'm saying. :)

Yes, but would either have bared their hearts on their sleeve in such a manner, one that's a bit cavalier towards, say, Utena's feelings in the very first one? I'm not saying it couldn't have been a lot more tasteless, but...meh. I just don't see them doing it, ignoring for the moment the fact that you've said it wasn't them.

Looking back, I'm not sure Nyima would have known enough about Utena early enough to have done the first one.

Then again, I also made another bad assumption: That it's only one person. If there's someone from Asgard (Maybe Urd? After all, this doesn't actually -affect- Corwin's love life even if it's the subject...) and someone from Diqiu in cahoots. If that's the case there's no real way to narrow it down.


>It isn't Toph either, for obvious reasons, though some suspect
>she ghosted her dialogue. As it were.

Hah! If it'd been Toph's work alone, even if she COULD draw anything, there would be conquerings and badassery and there wouldn't be any other (successful) women. There might even be the phrase 'most powerful couple in the world MUAHAHAHA' somewhere in it.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu


#21, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by BZArcher on Jan-23-14 at 11:46 PM
In response to message #18
Nyima would probably be too young to have started it.

I've got two ideas.

1) Jinora

2) Sokka.

Honestly, I'm leaning towards #2.


#23, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Nathan on Jan-24-14 at 00:18 AM
In response to message #21
>2) Sokka.
>
>Honestly, I'm leaning towards #2.

...Diqiu's answer to Sam Clemens and Miyamoto Musashi would make sense...

-----

"V, did you do something foolish?"

"Yes, and it was glorious."


#25, RE: Galactipedia: ______ Loves Corwin
Posted by Zemyla on Sep-25-20 at 01:32 AM
In response to message #18
No, the timeline doesn't fit.

What I think of when I think about "loves Corwin, knows about Asgard and Diqiu, whimsical, creative, and not jealous", my mind immediately jumps to Anthy. I don't know if she knows Chinese or is an artist, but both of those could be outsourced.

Aside from all the other things, she actively wants Utena... and Korra... to become canon. Also, anyone else would have written Anthy Loves Corwin at some point because that love is also blatantly obvious; however, she doesn't need to, because she and Corwin already know it. The rest of the stories may be camouflage, or they may be just because Anthy is in fact a little bit evil.