When Stephenie Meyer created Twilight, I doubt she knew that she was creating an unstoppable cultural juggernaut. Its effects range from the minute to the macroscopic. Small scale: a mother of two twittered us when she arrived in Forks, practically squealing with delight when she spotted a sign declaring that the city had “8.5 vampires.” Large scale: Borders bookstore is eliminating its CD and DVD section to create “Borders Ink,” a section largely designed to introduce teenage Twilight readers to similar novels and manga.
The series has attracted its share of criticism as well as controversy. While not referring to Twilight explicitly, Neil Gaiman stated that vampires needed to go back to their frightening ways in a recent article on EW.com. A while ago, The Beat practically blamed fanboys for being sexist by using a double-standard when they deal with Twilight fans. Frankly this surprised me, because in my experience the chief critics were female fans — such as Tasha Robinson and Genevieve Koski of the AV Club — who were more than a little insulted that the generally mature vampire genre was being hi-jacked by a Trapper Keeper friendly version that sparkled in sunlight.
Still, I think Twilight mockery is as viable a franchise as Twilight itself. While I have never read any of the books, I have been rather amused and entertained by the podcasts, articles, and blogs dedicated to why people hate Twilight. And Twilight hate is what introduced me to the subject of today’s Webcomic Overlook, Head Trip, written and illustrated by Amanda “Shinga” Bussell.
