Melody Werner

Melody Werner (as she can often be found, thinking inside the box), taken by Travis Melvin

### Nicknames

TheRealMW, TheRealestMW, AlsoTheRealMW, etc.

### MW imprints

We Are Legion., Jettison Zone, The Vine, King's Court, The Jade, etc.

Melody Werner is the founder and (as you might've guessed) namesake of MW. She is one of the Scions of **We Are Legion** and a lead creative for it. She's currently working on *SHADOWKAT*, *THE EMISSARIES OF JUSTICE**,* *DRAKON SOL*, *RIOT*, *GOLEM LEVIATHAN*, *THUNDERKEEPER*, and *MORDEGO* *AND SINETE*. When she's not working on MW projects, she is usually engaging in progressive politics as a "socialist cuck", running the Noteworthy Video Games project, or writing hobbyist reviews for Popcorn & Fizz Reviews.

#### *B I O G R A P H Y*

Melody Werner, thine who enjoys writing about herself in the third person, was born on November 19, 1998 in Saint Mary's to two terrible parents. In 2000, her similarly atrocious little sister (hereafter referred to as Wackenzie Merner, because none of these people deserve to be taken seriously) was born, and soon afterwards her parents divorced, with she and her biological sister (and *only* a sister biologically) joining her mother (hereafter referred to as Wacey Trerner) and Wackenzie in a move down to the shithole state that is Florida. In early 2019, after becoming fed up with Wackenzie abusing her animals and their increasing confrontations, Wacey decided to send Melody up to Michigan as punishment to stay with her abusive father who was known for writing violent screeds about how he wanted to chop Wacey up into little cubes (because not wanting dogs to scream in pain after nightly beatings is the same as ***that*** to Wacey and Wackenzie). Despite never having seen Melody since she was a baby, Melody's father (hereafter referred to as Wohnathan Jerner) was tearless upon their meeting ("It all happened so quickly," or some-such). Nevertheless, Wohnathan solemnly swore to never abandon Melody. He promptly abandoned Mel in the middle of nowhere up in Illinois (a state Melody had never lived in and knew no one at besides his grandparents) a month later to become homeless. It took Melody's paternal step-grandmother (Carol Werner) and grandfather (let's call him Wim Terner) acting like adults and helping Mel return to Florida and her maternal grandmother (let's call her Bindy Cakrania) housing Mel for a couple weeks for her to find a place at the Neighborhood Center of West Volusia's youth program for homeless men between 18 and 25 (shhh, don't tell them), where he stayed for several years until being illegally kicked out after reminding them that her disabilities made it unsafe for them to make her take the top bunk. This is a truncated telling of the story, as Melody will naturally be paywalling the full one behind a graphic memoir--because after the shit she's been through, she deserves to at least extract some value out of it all while airing things out. (Wow, is she really hustling in her own autobiography? Yes, she is. Girl's gotta make scratch.)

As far as comics are concerned, Melody got into them towards the tail-end of her freshman year in high school, and they have since become her nerdy medium of choice. She was interested in setting up a studio like MW with other high school friends, but this never truly materialized until March 2016, when Melody was 17 and had made some lasting friendships with creatively motivated people like Daniel Shakespeare. MW-affiliated **Comic Versus** is an online community where Melody met lots of people (Dan included) who then joined MW as leading creators. She has been moderating for it since approximately 2015.

Noteworthy Video Games began in 2018 as an answer to the growing saturation of the video games scene. Inspired by the likes of TotalBiscuit and Jim Stephanie Sterling, Melody seeks to catalogue interesting video games that might have flown under people's radars. It is currently most popular on Steam with the Upcoming branch's Curator having over 7,000 followers.

Melody is a trans woman. If you see any errant "he's," "him's," or deadnaming, do not take them to heart.

#### *W O R L D V I E W*

Melody is an ardent leftist. While she was brought up politically by the likes of Bernie Sanders and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the face of fascism, widespread wealth inequality, neoliberal hegemony, rampant bigotry, and impending climate catastrophe, she's slid farther and farther left. He feels that the injustices we face cannot be solved by tweaks around the edges or electoral politics. If you have any quality guillotine memes or John Brown pics, she is a connoisseur of them.

Mel Werner is also a hedonist and deist. He believes in a world where people are more empathetic and attempt to minimize harm to each other. Her deism is generally pretty agnostic, and more used for convenience than out of any great faith. She does not believe in organized religion, though Pandora's box has already been opened on that one and she has no problem with religious people who are humanistic.

Melody, before coming out as trans, sought to break the cycle of men in her family being violent and abusive towards women and children, which is a repugnant lineage spanning multiple generations before her. While she has no intention of ever marrying (being aromantic, after all), if she was to date, she'd wish to treat whomever her hypothetical partner was (regardless of gender--being omnisexual, after all) with the utmost respect.

#### *P R E F E R E N C E S*

When writing, Mel prefers to blaze her own path. While she has a grab bag of creative influences (\*ahem\* keep scrolling), she has a distaste for outright cribbing from someone in particular's rulebook. She has a predisposition towards writing seemingly macho characters who have some fundamental flaws, vulnerability, and humanity to them. She also has a fondness for writing stories that are subtle--not in messaging, but in storytelling. She loves to be pretty out there with her messaging and types of characters. Rather, she enjoys allowing readers to put 2 and 2 together, not always spelling every single damned thing out. You're smart, dear reader, Melody believes in you.

#### *F A V O R I T E Q U O T E S*

> "I'm significantly more attractive and more interesting than you, and so is my girlfriend. Your girlfriend is very ugly. And so are you. These are facts. Debate me."
>
>
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- Some guy on Twitter.com

> "Put the money in my ass!"
>
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- **Neverthink**; *"Actual Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay on PS4"*

#### *I N S P I R A T I O N S*

**COMICS:** Maus; Chew; Criminal; Punk Rock Jesus; The Strange Talent of Luther Strode; Pride of Baghdad; Isola; Kennel Block Blues; Irredeemable; Deadly Class; Extremity; These Savage Shores; Snow Blind; God Country; Buzzkill; DIE; Saga; Judas; The Wicked + the Divine; Middlewest; The Fox; Superman: Earth One; Bedlam; Rumble; Kaijumax; Anti-Hero; Kill or Be Killed; Skyward; Battle Chasers; Brody's Ghost; The Sixth Gun; Black Market; Watchmen; The Astounding Wolf-Man; Anya's Ghost; Nimona; Lake of Fire; The Spider King; Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong; 'Namwolf; Backways; Secret Identities; Rogue & Gambit; Southern Bastards; The Immortal Hulk; The Spider; Spawn; Rocket; Voracious; Venom (2018); Wayward; On a Sunbeam; Invincible; Empire; World Reader; Destiny, NY; Little Bird; Ruinworld; Sombra; Batman: White Knight; Wasted Space; Diesel: Ignition; Deep Roots; Sex Criminals; Breathless; 4 Kids Walk into a Bank; Giant Days; Black Bolt; Scurry; Amulet; I Hate Fairyland; Thor: God of Thunder; Ghost Tree; Once & Future; Canto; Cry Havoc; Blacksad; Crowded; Shiloh; Riri Williams: Ironheart; Hourman; Blackwood; Revival; The Rat Catcher; Lonely Receiver; An Unkindness of Ravens; Stillwater; Giga; We Only Find Them When They're Dead; Seven Secrets; The Autumnal; Radiant Black; Moon Knight (various runs); Flavor; Mountainhead; Nice House on the Lake; Super Lesbian Animal RPG: Prologue

**COMIC WRITERS:** Noelle Stevenson; Peter David; Justin Jordan; Art Spiegelman; Rick Remender; Ed Brubaker; Zander Cannon; Robert Kirkman; Joe Michael Straczynski; Christopher Priest; Todd McFarlane; Jim Zub; Christopher Sebela; Jason Aaron; Kieron Gillen; Pat Shand; Josh Vann; Markisan Naso; Kelly Thompson; Ryan Parrott; Cullen Bunn; Vera Brosgol; Jason Faerber; Saladin Ahmed; Skottie Young; Al Ewing; Alan Moore; Kurt Busiek; Mark Waid; Donny Cates; Ram V; Matt Fraction; Brian K. Vaughan; John Layman; Daniel Warren Johnson; AC Stuart; Darcy Van Poelgeest; John Lees; Ollie Masters; Eric Powell; Ryan Ferrier; Eve Ewing; Jeff Loveness; Derek Laufman; Matt Rosenberg; John Barber; Dean Haspiel; Tom Peyer; Nick Spencer; John Arcudi; Stjepan Sejic; Sean Gordon Murphy; Mark Crilley; Joe "Mad" Madureira; Victor Santos; Frank J. Barbiere; Box Brown; Tyson Hesse; Nathan Fairbairn; Fabian Rangel; Amélie Fléchais; Faith Erin Hicks; Prudence Shen; David Liss; BoredMan; Mike Mignola; Evan Dorkin; Tim Seeley; Zac Thompson; Kyle Higman; James Tynion IV; Bobby Schroeder

**COMIC ARTISTS:** Dan Mora; Noelle Stevenson; Art Spiegelman; Ryan Ottley; Zander Cannon; Sean Phillips; Fiona Staples; Vera Brosgol; Stephanie Hans; Jorge Corona; Rob Guillory; Drew Moss; Peter Krause; Sumit Kumar; Karl Kerschl; Daniel Warren Johnson; Dave Gibbons; Ian Bertram; Ryan Lee; Rebekah Isaacs; Christian Ward; Tyler Jenkins; Eric Powell; Marcos Martín; Daniel Bayliss; Luciano Vecchio; Kevin Libranda; Juan Doe; Jakub Rebelka; Omar Francia; Geoff Shaw; Derek Laufman; Raul Treviño; Wes Craig; Bengal; Dean Haspiel; Shane Davis; Riley Rossmo; James Harren; Alex Ross; Tyler Boss; James Stokoe; Federico Bertolucci; Rags Morales; Brian Hurtt; Oleg Okunev; Nate Stockman; Brian Stelfreeze; Stjepan Sejic; Diego Barreto; Sean Gordon Murphy; Mark Crilley; Joe "Mad" Madureira; Victor Santos; Jason Howard; John Mueller; Clayton Crain; Box Brown; Tyson Hesse; Matt Smith; Simone D'Armini; Takeshi Miyazawa; Amélie Fléchais; Faith Erin Hicks; Logan Faerber; Eleonora Carlini; Hendry Prasetya; Pere Pérez; Niko Henrichon; Ilias Kyriazas; Ivan Rodriguez; Colton Horley; Francesco Francavilla; BoredMan; Mike Del Mundo; Matteo Scalera; Jeremy Haun; Mike Mignola; Adam Gorham; Jason Muhr; Ryan Stegman; Veronica Fish; Mike Norton; Corin Howell; Leila Leiz; Ramon Villalobos; Jenn St-Onge; Juan Ferreyra; Lee Bermejo; Yuki Saeki; Esad Ribić; Jen Hickman; Chris Shehan; Marcelo Costa; Declan Shalvey

**COMIC LETTERERS:** Aditya Bidikar; Hassan Elhaou-Otsmane; Nate Piekos; Marshall Dillon; Ariana Maher; Nic J. Shaw; Colin Bell; Rachel Deering; Rus Whooten; Clayton Cowles; Rob Schwager; John Layman; Nathan Fairbairn; Ed Dukeshire; Sean Phillips

**NOVELS:** The Dresden Files; Red Rising; Gideon the Ninth; Monster; The Kane Chronicles; Children of Blood and Bone; Senlin Ascends; Unbury Carol; War of the Worlds; The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies

**PROSE WRITERS:** Pierce Brown; Jim Butcher; Tamsyn Muir; Rick Riordan; Tomi Adeyemi; Josiah Bancroft; A. Lee Martinez; Richard Nell

**ALBUMS/EP'S:** Para||el Lives; This Means War; Stranger Fruit; Rage Against the Machine; Crux; Athena; Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides; New Levels, New Devils; Shovel Knight OST; Cuz I Love You; Meliora; Prequelle; The Downward Spiral; Firepower; Dedicated; Rammstein (2019); Skeleton Boomerang OST; Dirty Computer; Infest the Rats' Nest; Invaders; Levelhead OST; The Battle of Los Angeles; White Crows; The Sexy Brutale OST; Fever; A Boat on the Sea; Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace; Ctrl; Renegades; Toxicity; STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS; Sigils; <DESYNC> OST; Man-Eater; Wasteland, Baby!; Voidrun OST; Zephyr; Songs for the Deaf; RTJ3; RTJ4; [USA]; Spacetunes = Win; Exile (2020); Baby, Release Me; Audioslave; Who Are the Girls?; White Pony; Insomnia; Exile (2019); Untrue; Circa91; Ungodly Hour; In Memory...; Heat Wave; Diamond Eyes; Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2; DOOM (2016) OST; One Big Beautiful Sound; Peaceful as Hell; Future Nostalgia; American Sun; Nemesis (2018); TRANS DAY OF REVENGE; Skeleton (2020); Sequestered Sympathy; pretty dark; Hades OST; In Waiting; Beyond the Wall of Desolation; Adult Themes; Interdimensional Invocations; Cloaks of Oblivion; Transistor OST; Palimpsest; Nefarious Wave; Impermanence; Deus Eponymous; Wake of a Nation; HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING; I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES; GOD HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS LEAVE HIM OUT OF IT; Eternal Blue; age/sex/location; Underneath; Model Citizen; Edge of Saturn; Riot!; new low; Pain Remains; Dimensional Bleed; The God Machine; Preacher's Daughter; The Loneliest Time; Heir of the Rising Sun; God's Country; LOUD ARRIVER; Wither on the Vine; Call Down the Sun; Marchita; I Didn't Mean to Haunt You; DEATHWESTERN; Nightside; The Saberlight Chronicles

**MUSICIANS/MUSICAL GROUPS:** Rage Against The Machine; Meteor; Volkor X; Zeal & Ardor; Johnny Manchild and The Poor Bastards; cupcakKe; Megan Thee Stallion; SZA; Hollywood Burns; King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard; Darren Korb; Ashley Barrett; Run The Jewels; Foo Fighters; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Ghost; Rammstein; Janelle Monáe; The Highwomen; Nine Inch Nails; Wolf & Raven; don'tblinkoryou'lldie; Lizzo; SOPHIE; Creedence Clearwater Revival; New Radicals; Carly Rae Jepsen; Sudan Archives; Polyphia; Algiers; BROCKHAMPTON; NIKI; Queens of the Stone Age; bignic; Jake Kaufman; Cardi B; Ariana Grande; Vampire Weekend; Moron Police; Irving Force; Neo Relic; EL TIGR3; Kelela; +TEK; Junichi Masuda; Fat Bard; Tkay Maidza; rainbowdragoneyes; Paula Abdul; Dead Roses; Pentadrangle; Public Enemy; Kevin Abstract; Noname; Ibibio Sound Machine; Wolfmother; Judas Priest; Queen; Miracle of Sound; Fleet Foxes; Ms. Lauryn Hill; Mick Gordon; Matt Bonham & Tim Cotterell; Oh Sees; Pussy Riot; Prince; Rina Sawayama; Rosalía; SERAPHIC; Flynn Effect; Sturgill Simpson; themnotyou; Vulta; Killer Mike; El-P; Big Thief; Grant MacDonald; Rico Nasty; Nightwish; Not Blood Paint; Scandroid; Tyler Russo; Yazz Ahmed; Inexedra; Black Dresses; Five Iron Frenzy; PERTURBATOR; Deathro; L1nd0; Auxcide; Iron Maiden; Mastodon; BABYMETAL; Moon Tooth; Anamanaguchi; Daniel Deluxe; THE FEVER 333; System of a Down; Cypress Hill; Loathe; While She Sleeps; Dorian Electra; STRANGELIGHT; Mitch Murder; Joycie; Hozier; zYnthetic; Frank Klepacki; Chout; Soundgarden; Audioslave; Deftones; Poppy; Pusha T; GosT; mitom; Me and That Man; Metallica; Anti-Flag; Eruption; Dance With the Dead; 2DCAT; High on Fire; Quay Dash; Black Sites; Chromatics; Black Sabbath; Kero Kero Bonito; Testament; Sons of Apollo; Parquet Courts; YONAKA; Wellmess; Arcade High; Of Men and Wolves; Nova Twins; Pearl Jam; Backxwash; Chloe x Halle; Cheyenne Wright; Code Orange; Rival Sons; Lacuna Coil; Ruby Ibarra; Kim Petras; Hobo Johnson; Chuck Berry; Chumbawumba; Joan Jett & The Blackhearts; Rebecca Black; Reason Define; Battle Beast; Power Trip; Swain; Midnight Oil; Shannen James; Spoon; Kacey Musgraves; Tom Morello; Zack de la Rocha; Noora Louhimo; Dave Grohl; Chuck D; Paolina Massaro; Chuck Billy; Caitlin Rutkowski; Sav Ruff; Syd McVicker; Shelby McVicker; Rob Halford; Freddie Mercury; Chris Cornell; Kurt Cobain; Eddy Vedder; Kadeem France; Laura Jane Grace; Mark Sugar; Cal Chuchesta; Melissa Moore; David Wise; Faith No More; Jason Aalon Butler; Chris Shiflett; CHIKA; Hot Dad; Brandi Carlile; Holy Fawn; Dio; Killswitch Engage; Manuel Gagneaux; Trent Reznor; Sadie Switchblade; Franklin James Fisher; Serj Tankien; SAMURAI; Beyond the Black; Jennifer Haben; Gojira; Thundermother; Avatar; Devi McCallion; Ada Rook; Spanish Love Songs; High Command; Parasol Caravan; flowerbomb; Exulansis; Xoth; G.L.O.S.S.; Emma Ruth Rundle; Thou; Sonja; Creeper; Andrew Hushult; Yohan Jager; Skeleton; Protest The Hero; Spiritbox; Trust Fund Ozu; Last Quokka; Gama Bomb; Body Void; Ithaca; Lil Nas X; Somnuri; Jasiah; Bree Runway; SPELLLING; Khemmis; Lucifer; Wraith; Stortregn; Hum; Quadeca; Nevermore; Silver Talon; Silk Sonic; Lena Raine; TWRP; Cardi B; Project: Roenwolfe; Transgressive; nightlife; Paramore; Meet Me @ the Altar; Lorna Shore; Blind Guardian; Ethel Cain; Aeternam; SpiritWorld; Konvent; Darkest Era; Black Cross Hotel

**FILMS & SHOWS:** RoboCop (1987); John Wick; Logan; American Animals; Equilibrium; Black Mirror; Sorry to Bother You; Bad Times at the El Royale; Upgrade; Double King; District 9; Shazam!; Colossal; OURO; One Small Step; Love, Death, + Robots; Arcane; ParaNorman; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Bumblebee; Memento; Hell or High Water; Kubo and the Two Strings; What We Do in the Shadows; Wonder; Pacific Rim; Arrival; Dave Made a Maze; Overlord; Thor: Ragnarok; Coraline; Terminator 2: Judgment Day; Elysium; Little Monsters; Invader Zim; Shaun of the Dead; Gone Are the Days; A Monster Calls; 12 Angry Men; Prisoners; Nightcrawler; The Martian; The Truman Show; Searching; Gifted; The Big Sick; She-Ra and the Princesses of Power; Song of the Sea; The Nice Guys; 3:10 to Yuma (2007); 50/50; Tombstone; If Beale Street Could Talk; Mr. Hublot; The Platform; Knives Out; The Mitchells vs. the Machines; Dead End: Paranormal Park; Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

**DIRECTORS:** Guillermo Del Toro; James Mangold; Paul Verhoeven; Neill Blomkamp; Taika Watiti; Denis Villeneuve; Boots Riley; Travis Knight; Drew Goddard; Noelle Stevenson; Dan Gilroy; David Mackenzie; J. A. Bayona; Bill Watterson; Leigh Whannell; Andrew Chensworth; Bobby Pontillas; Peter Ramsey; Bob Persichetti; Rodney Rothman; Charlie Brooker; Tomm Moore; Shane Black; Aneesh Chaganty; Rian Johnson; Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

**VIDEO GAMES:** Hades; Dead Cells; Hollow Knight; Vampyr; The Witcher 3; Oxenfree; Destroy All Humans!; Darksiders; Mafia; Void Bastards; Warframe; Heartbound; The Stanley Parable; Bloodborne; Dark Souls; RUINER; Whispers of a Machine; Chroma Squad; Crimsonland; Jenny LeClue: Detectivu; Flinthook; Ashen; Riverbond; Ori and the Blind Forest; Thomas Was Alone; Red Faction: Guerrilla; Red Faction: Armageddon; Slay the Spire; Yoku's Island Express; GRIP: Combat Racing; Shovel Knight; Wizard of Legend; Snake Pass; Thimbleweed Park; Sly Cooper; Ratchet & Clank; Crash Bandicoot; Prey (2006); Jak & Daxter; Long Gone Days; Full Metal Furies; Guacamelee!; Heartbound; Hyper Light Drifter; Coromon; Minit; Musasabi; Singled Out; Arietta of Spirits; Hearthstone; Mindnight; Missed Messages; I Woke Up Next to You Again; Peridium; Fulfillment; Coffee Talk; Please the Gods; Andromeda Six; World of Goo; Axiom Verge; Anodyne 2: Return to Dust; FTL; LUFTRAUSERS; a new life.; Enter the Gungeon; RITE; Killer Dog; Democratic Socialism Simulator; Reigns; Total Party Kill; Heart Star; DIVINATION; Wildfire; Democracy 3; Moonrise Fall; Death and Taxes; Apple Slash; Tonight We Riot; Speed Dating for Ghosts; Omega Strike; Blitz Breaker; Return of the Zombie King; Monster Prom; Evil Genius; ScourgeBringer; Colt Canyon; Baba Is You; Grizzland; Atomicrops; Super Mutant Alien Assault; Sparklite; Bomb Chicken; Crawl; Reventure; KUNAI; Ultra Hat Dimension; Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived; Hell Is Other Demons; Mekabolt; Streets of Rogue; Akane; Explosive Jake; GRIS; Many Faces; Owlboy; Pankapu; Polyroll; Shootout on Cash Island; SpeedRunners; Super Crush K.O.; The Innsmouth Case; Wunderling; Blazing Beaks; Nexomon; Mostly Intense Monster Defense; Serious Scramblers; Devious Dungeon; Aegis Defenders; Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King; Backworlds; Blood Will Be Spilled; Crawl; Crossing Souls; Damsel; Darkest Dungeon; Darkest Dungeon II; Dex; THE ETERNAL CASTLE; We should talk.; Hazardous Space; Half Past Fate; Mana Spark; Huntdown; Mainframe Defenders; Night of the Blood Moon; Please the Gods; Project Warlock; Through the Darkest of Times; Way of the Passive Fist; Iron Snout; Evan's Remains; Dogurai; Column on the Sea; Blood; Cosmic Star Heroine; SteamWorld Heist; Iconoclasts; Vibrant Venture; Panzer Paladin; Primal Light; Tower 57; Neon Abyss; Monster Sanctuary; The Way; Squidlit; Slimesphere; Antihero; Pixboy; The Last Survey; Monster Crown; [post void]; Red Ronin; Spooky Chase; Creature in the Well; DUSK; ULTRAKILL; #AkiRobots; In Other Waters; Blasphemous; Pumpkin Jack; Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout; Ghostrunner; CARRION; Broforce; Forager; Splitgate: Arena Warfare; Star Renegades; Control; Going Under; Roboquest; Spiritfarer; Dojoran; DEATHLOOP; The Legendary Starfy; florence; Donut County; Legend of Keepers; Overboard!; Dungeon Deathball; Freshly Frosted; Control; Inspector Waffles; Chicken Police: Paint it Red!; Tomb Toad; Cult of the Lamb; Shakedown: Hawai’i; Beard Blade; Demons of Asteborg; Circus Electrique; Prodeus; Please Be Happy; Cathedral; Streets of Rage 4; Say No! More; Maneater; Psychonauts; Psychonauts 2; Core Keeper; Song of Farca; ROUNDS; Black Book; Death's Door; Turbo Overkill; Chicory: A Colorful Tale; The Slormancer; ALTF4; Antonball Deluxe; Before Your Eyes; Dream Daddy; Fight'N Rage; Katana ZERO; Lovingly Evil; Risk of Rain; bobo robot; Spelunky; Spelunky 2; There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension; The Spirit & the Mouse; Webbed; Revita; The Forgotten City; Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon; Crusader Kings III; Super Auto Pets; Alba: A Wildlife Adventure; Archvale; UNSIGHTED; ARKOS; Forgive Me, Father; Nuclear Blaze; TOEM; Tails of Iron; Armored Head; Boyfriend Dungeon; DUSK; Out of Line; Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan; Severed Steel; Road 96; Song of Farca; Wrestledunk Sports; Mini Motorways; Happy Game; Inscryption; Grow: Song of the Evertree; Boomerang X; Dread Templar; ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights; Grabanakki; Lacuna; Battle Chasers: Nightwar; Ruined King; Snake Pit; Frog Detective; Mothmen 1966; Carto; FixFox; Return to Monkey Island; Circadian Dice; Kraken Academy!!; Hooked on You; Neophyte; satryn deluxe; Voidigo; Fashion Police Squad; Rollerdrome; Dome Keeper; Wylde Flowers; Tiny Rogues; Boneraiser Minions; Kaiju Wars; Monaco; Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between; Super Lesbian Animal RPG; Bad End Theater; Valley; Organs, Please; Tales from the Borderlands; Chained Echoes; Mythic Ocean; Bulletstorm; FOOTSIES; The Forest Quartet; Lil Gator Game

**DEVELOPERS:** Motion Twin; Angela He; Powerhoof; ZA/UM; Tribute Games; Toge Productions; Subset Games; DONTNOD Entertainment; Team Cherry; Yacht Club Games; Blue Manchu; Galactic Cafe; Sumo Digital; Bithell Games; Flight School Studio; Heart Machine; No Moon; Blank Media Games; FromSoft; Moon Studios; 10tons; Behold Studios; TRAGsoft; BURA; Vlambeer; Humble Hearts; Third Spirit; Butterscotch Shenanigans; Night School Studio; Reikon Games; Toge Productions; D-Pad Studio; Molleindustria; Nerial; Adventure Islands; Mojiken Studio; Things on Strings; Pixel Pushers Union 512; Beautiful Glitch; Vertex Pop; beyondthosehills; Agelvik; Placeholder Gameworks; Doinksoft; Retrific; Bird Bath Games; Flying Oak Games; E-Studios; Red Blue Games; Nitrome; Vlambeer; PigeonDev; Somepx; Mografi; Robot Pumpkin Games; Matt Dabrowski; Digital Extremes; Serenity Forge; Red Hook Studios; Woblyware; Screwtape Studios; Fourattic; Patsui Games; Zeboyd Games; Buckshot Software; Studio Aurum; Semag Games; Image & Form Games; YCJY Games; Mediatonic; One More Level; FlatPonies; Nicolas Meyssonnier; David Szymanski; Arsi "Hakita" Patala; BenStar; Acid Nerve; Studio Fizbin; Mossmouth; Askiisoft; Draw Me a Pixel; Studio Drydock; semiwork; Rendlike

**YOUTUBE:** TotalBiscuit; Comic Tropes; I Freaking Love Comics!; Not Near Mint; theneedledrop; Jim Stephanie Sterling; Creationist Cat/Hey It's Vadim; Means TV; Philosophy Tube; Strip Panel Naked; Shaun; T B Skyen; T1J; The Michael Brooks Show; VaatiVidya; Renegade Cut; Crash Thompson; Mexie; nappyheadedjojoba; Noclip; Polyphonic; Rocked; Thought Slime; Scaredy Cats; Jack Saint; Tom Nicholas; Berd; Transparency; F.D. Signifier

**PERSONAL INSPIRATIONS:** Daniel Shakespeare; Eva Samuels; George Pell; Sheeroz Khan; Luke Horsman; Tom Hoskisson; Dany Riv; Matt Dyess; FreyaWrites; Vaibhav Gilankar; Samrat Das; Sam Sankhla; Terra Eon; Matt Rowe; Nicholas Poonamallee; Mike Arrani; Lucas Gattoni; Kyle Perry; Bethany Carless-Turland; Amanda Lago; Gaia Cardinali; Haley Rose-Lyon; Carol Werner; Chris Moses; Wisterium; Cammi Kol

#### *N O T S P I R A T I O N S*

Sometimes, as a creator, you hate another work by another artist so much that their failure motivates you to not stumble into that same pit (though let's not conflate distaste with a work someone has crafted, and hatred of the creator(s)). We call them "notspirations."

**COMICS:** Holy Terror; Monarca vs. Social Justice Warrior; Iron Sights; CyberFrog; Jawbreakers; Control; Injustice; Poe; Cloaks; Rai

**PROSE WRITERS:** J.K. Rowling; Orson Scott Card; William Luther Pierce; Ayn Rand

**ALBUMS/EP'S:** Shadow Work; Nostalgia Critic's The Wall; TattleTales

**MUSICIANS/MUSICAL GROUPS:** Trapt; Nostalgia Critic; Tekashi 6ix9ine; YK Osiris; Jason Derulo; Steel Panther; Motley Crue; Nav; R. Kelly; Megadeth; Dave Mustaine; Chris Taylor Brown; Imagine Dragons; Ed Sheeran; Whirr; Young Spinach Cumshot; Ava Max; Lewis Capaldi; Shawn Mendes; Aerosmith; Moron 5; Vivo; Charles Puth

**FILMS & SHOWS:** Crash Pad; Your Highness; Next Gen; Pacific Rim: Uprising; RoboCop (2014); Gnome Alone; Kidnapping Stella; Kingdom of Heaven; South Park; Neighbors; Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising; Bright; Alice in Wonderland (2010); Power Rangers (2017); Man of Steel; Godzilla (2014); The Fanatic; Watchmen

**YOUTUBE:** Sargon of Akkad; Destiny; The Nostalgia Critic; The Dave Rubin Show; Black Pigeon Speaks; Stefan Molyneux; Paul Joseph Watson; The Quartering; Rebel Media; Louder With Crowder; The Ben Shapiro Show; Vaush

**POLITICIANS:** Donald Trump; Joe Biden; Mitt Romney; Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; Bill Clinton; Nancy Pelosi; Chuck Schumer; Louie Gohmert; Marco Rubio; Rick Scott; Ron DeSantis; Mike Bloomberg; Elizabeth Warren; Pete Buttigieg; Kamala Harris; Amy Klobuchar; Margaret Thatcher; Cheri Bustos; Debbie Wasserman Schultz; Nigel Farage; George W. Bush; George H.W. Bush; John McCain; Amy McGrath; Ted Cruz; that turtlefuck we know as Mitch McConnell; John Delaney; Beto O'Rourke; Tom Perez; Tulsi Gabbard; Andrew Yang; Richard Ojeda; Jair Bolsonaro; Rodrigo Duterte; Boris Johnson; Justin Trudeau; Mike Pence; Theresa May; Susan Rice; John Hickenlooper; John Kasich