Name: David Z.
Location: Texas
What I Do: Writer, comedian, gamer.
Bio: Around 2005-2008, I made Garry's Mod comics. Currently, I do Touhou Project related Walfas videos, music, and more. Due to the nature of the videos I work on, I tend to voice a lot of girls, but I love doing it because it's fun. I love answering questions and teaching people how to make things, so feel free to ask me anything at any time. I'm very open about how I make stuff and why I did what I did, so go ahead and ask.
Artistic Ideals: I believe in interaction with fans, immediate Word of God about trivia facts, and avoiding Artist Disillusionment. I believe that just one bad "fan" or a bad group of "fans" are not an appropriate excuse for Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things. Like the writers who hung out in Europe in the early 1900s, I believe in artists hanging out together, collaborating, and having as much fun as humanly possible. Above all these, I believe in passing on my knowledge about how to make these things: it's fun, insightful, and although I mostly do fanworks as a hobby, they teach you a lot about the creation process.
When I'm Not Making Videos: I write short stories and plays, I tutor writers (specifically fiction writers), I'm a stage actor and comedian, and I'm a freelance theater techie (specifically live scoring and sound effects). I also dabble in Let's Plays and can be found on Twitch under SpaztiqueDZ.
More Trivia Facts: I own roughly 110+ books. More than half are non-fiction and a third of the collection is on writing. My favorite book on writing is Story by Robert McKee. My favorite book on relationships is The Relationship Cure by John M. Gottman, Ph.D. My favorite book on self-help is Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. I study psychology to help both myself and to others, and plus I find the subject fascinating (and no, it doesn't give me mind control powers). Although I am interested in Japan (I can speak a little Japanese, I study the culture, and I've eaten at a teppan-yaki restaurant every birthday since I was five), I am not an anime geek. I can play just about any instrument, but I'm better at composing than playing.
You can view my Youtube channel here
. I stream video and comic production occasionally.
Series by Spaztique
- Five Dangerous Months At The Hinata Inn: Love Hina, remade in create.swf, with Arc Welding, an original soundtrack, deconstructive elements, and wild Alternative Character Interpretations. Currently stuck in Development Hell, but the full script can be read here.
- Ao Usagi Tribute Show (Great Job!): Mind Screw Touhou comics adapted to animation, arranged in a way reminiscent to Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job. Season 1 is finished. Season 2 is stuck in Development Hell.
- Diamond In The Rough: A Deconstruction Fic about Touhou self-insert fic tropes. Originally conceived as a full-length movie and streamed in 4-hour sittings, it was eventually cut into episodes and uploaded to Youtube as a series. You can read my commentary and production history in The Definitive Guide to Diamond In The Rough.
Tropes typical of my works
- An Aesop
- A Man Is Not A Virgin: Specifically subverting/averting/destroying it at every cost, given the sheer number of lives I've seen ruined by its existence.
- Being Good Sucks
- Both Sides Have a Point
- Cross-Dressing Voices
- Deconstruction
- Dramatic Irony: The way I see it, curiosity can only be satisfied once.
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Greek Chorus
- Lonely at the Top
- Mind Screw: But never without a Mind Screwdriver.
- Rousseau Was Right
- Self-Made Man
- Selfish Good Selfish Evil
- Shout-Out
- Wham Episode
- Wham Line
- Word of God: Ask me anything about my works, and I will answer it.
Favorite Tropes of Spaztique
- Affectionate Parody
- Ascended Fridge Horror
- Brick Joke
- Camp
- Chewing the Scenery
- Cloudcuckoolander
- Deconstruction
- Descended Creator
- Doing It for the Art
- Foregone Conclusion
- How We Got Here
- Large Ham
- Medium Awareness
- No Fourth Wall
- Postmodernism
- Refuge in Cool
- Throw It In!
- Wham Episode
- Wham Line
- Word of God: I.E. All authors who love to communicate with their fans.
Pet Peeve Tropes of Spaztique
- Artist Disillusionment
- Character Shilling: Unless Subverted, then it becomes awesome.
- Creator's Pet
- Failure Hero
- Fan Dumb: Especially when combined with Reclusive Artist or Artist Disillusionment
- Informed Attribute: Unless it's played for comedy or eventually pointed out for drama.
- Mary Sue
- Most Writers Are Writers: Mainly if the fictional writer is supposed to be "better" than the writer who writes him or her.
- Reclusive Artist
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: If not played for comedy.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things
- Writer on Board
I'm still adding tropes to the list as I think of them.
