Kingsman Revese Bang

Today marks the end of a journey that began with a wistful post during the 2019 Snowflake Challenge - specifically Day 12 - Create Your Own Challenge, where I wrote that I’d love to run a Kingsman Reverse Bang challenge, and asked if anyone would be interested in helping me out.

My dear friend and frequent brain twin, anarchycox/anarchycox, answered the call. We immediately plunged into the planning, setting up a very aggressive challenge schedule, going over and modifying the rules and FAQ I’d developed for a similar challenge in other fandoms, figuring out our roles in managing the event, because these things don’t run themselves and there are so many moving pieces in a Reverse Bang, which is essentially two challenges in one - the arting and then the writing.

We were VERY pleasantly surprised at the number of people who’d signed up as artists and as writers. The amount of artwork and the variety of it, with rare pairs and fandom bicycles and interpret-how-you-will choices was stunning.

And our writers rose to the challenge, hopping on board the now-unusual requirement to work through Dreamwidth, and making their selections with a cut-throat rapidity that still makes my jaw drop. And best of all, every single piece of artwork got a story, something that is quite rare in a small and quiet fandom like Kingsman.

I’m a veteran when it comes to running these kinds of challenges, and I have to say that this was the best experience I’ve had as a moderator - most of which is due to AnarchyCox. I cannot stress how dedicated my co-mod was to this challenge; Anarchy was shoulder-to- shoulder with me all the way, a true partner in every decision.

And of course, I am immensely proud of our artists and writers, who added thirty incredible works to the Kingsman fandom. Actually, make that sixty, since art and story are separate fanworks, one inspiring the other.

There are two writers who I need to crown with extra special laurels - anarchycox/anarchycox and elletromil/elletromil, who had stepped in when two writers defaulted at the very last moment. They awe me, plain and simple.

This post is both a victory lap and a bit of self-examination. As smoothly as this challenge went, it was not without its problems.

1 - We were much too aggressive with the original schedule and extending it twice isn’t a good thing. We really hadn’t figured on so much artwork and so many writers taking on multiple stories - seven writers did two or more stories. And speaking as a writer who should have known better, there were quite a few writers who blew past the minimum word-count requirement without thinking and got themselves into a bind writing epics.

2 - Giving the writer the option to include their artist as a co-creator was, in retrospect, a not-so-great idea, since it impacts AO3 stats for any artist who happens to be a writer. If there are writers who did make their artist a co-creator, you may want to check with your artist and ask if they want to remain as a co-creator, or if they want the story to become a gift.

3 - Posting. We really don’t know if having an open posting window was the best approach. Kudos and comments were way down and we have to wonder if that’s because of the way posting was set up, or if that’s the nature of fandom and challenge works.

4 - One of the things we were kind of proud of was the Achievement Unlocked Round. A few authors did claim stories, but the rule was that nothing could be posted until the primary stories were finished posting. We hadn’t anticipated that it would take this long to finish (my dear Anarchy had just been burnt out with the three stories she’d written when she’d picked up the pinch hit and needed time to recover her mojo). If there are any writers who’d like to pick up artwork and write something else, or have started their Achievement Unlocked story and were patiently waiting for permission to post, please go ahead and do so. We’re keeping the AO3 collection open until the end of the year.

We will be setting up a poll in the next day or two to get your feedback on the challenge, but if you’d like to comment here, your input would be very welcome.

Once again, so many thanks to the awesome artists and authors who participated in the first round of the Kingsman Reverse Bang. Anarchy and I have ideas for something a little different for next year, and we hope to see you there.

PS: In case you haven't read all of the stories or want to revisit some of your favorites, you can find the whole collection here, on AO3.