Good parody is harder to do than you’d think. It takes deep affection mixed with deep knowledge of what’s being parodied, and then it has to be beaten into a light spoof. Month after month, the producers of The Devastator pull it off, covering a wide variety of targets with, well, devastating accuracy.
Last year they hit a bullseye with TARDIS Beat, combining Doctor Who fandom with teen heartthrob magazines. But their subject matter is all over the place, even though they have laser focus. If you stop by Booth E-04 in Aisle 700 on the Exhibit Hall of San Diego Comic-Con, you can see for yourself.
Publishers Amanda Meadows and Geoffrey Golden offered their recommendations, and I’ll have to head back and pick these up. A Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek: The Next Generations begins as the journaling of an 11-year-old boy, getting more sophisticated and perhaps immature as its narrator gets older. As for All The Feelings, well, any former high school Drama student should be able to look at the cover and get exactly what it is, and why you must have it.
There’s much more, and you don’t want to miss it. Remember, that’s Booth E-04 in Aisle 700. And one last reminder: The Devastator is not for the irony impaired.
