2021 Crowley Big Bang Art Masterpost
This is my art piece for the 2021 Crowley Resurrection Reverse Bang, and I was so pleased to partner with @lesbiantoziers who wrote the perfect story based on the art. Every Crowley fan should read “The Affable Demon’s Guide to Hunting & Fan Conventions” on AO3.
Something unforgivably missing from the later seasons of spn was more Monster of the Week cases where Crowley works with the boys, whether for his own personal gain, out of boredom, or a general desire to do good without being called out on it. This piece of art was inspired by the vague idea of Crowley attending an in-canon Supernatural convention alongside the boys to work a case. An inability to draw people has always resulted in collage still life art, and I wanted to include as many details in the image as possible, to visually construct a story.
I drew from the in-universe spn convention the Winchesters attended in 5.09 “The Real Ghostbuster” for the date of the convention and the “Supernatural” title. If the convention is still going on, this would make it the 12th annual convention. The QR code on the tickets actually works, and it takes you to the Crowley Big Bang Tumblr blog.
The pentagram is taken directly from the logo behind Chuck on stage from that episode.
Though the Winchesters normally gain access to a location as federal agents, having them attend the convention as fans of themselves was hilarious to me. Hence the need for badges, modeled off similar items from conventions and conferences I’ve attended for work. And because they’d likely need special access to certain parts of the convention, they purchased the VIP “Shotgun In The Impala” level pass. Or maybe they just swiped them, who knows with those two.
The photo in the bottom left is of Crowley and Dean singing, and the banner above, half hidden, says Karaoke Competition. I know that real-world conventions have karaoke night, and I thought it might be fun to have Crowley Dean - willingly? be forced into? - participating in one. After all, demon!Dean loved karaoke.
In trying to figure out a way to visually que to the viewer that this was a Monster of the Week case, I decided to include a text message on Crowley’s phone. And because it’s set in a canon-divergent reality after Crowley closed the Gates of Hell and occasionally joins the Winchesters in working cases, I could include Juliet and Eileen as well. The idea of Eileen dog-sitting for Juliet and having a bit of a girl’s night while the boys were away hopefully adds a layer of almost-domesticity depth to a Monster of the week setting.
Because this was a Crowley-centric fic, the in-canon Supernatural book in the top right corner is among Chuck’s “Abandon All Hope”, the first “book” from the series which featured Crowley. The holy water shot glass is something I’ve seen sold on various fan sites, and given Dean and & Crowley’s enjoyment of nights at the bar, I thought it might be something either Dean or Crowley might purchase as a souvenir of the convention case.
(Also, hilarious to think that Dean might have purchased it to keep around the bunker, and occasionally fill with vodka and offer to Crowley in a demonic game of Russian Roulette. Is it holy water or isn’t it?)
Some of the buttons are real convention tchotchkes. The moose button, the “I Love Pie” and “You’re Good, But I’m Crowley” are all buttons that are available at fan conventions and online. The Castiel and Crowley Pop figurines are modeled off of the real Pop figurines that were gifted to me and now stand on my folklore and media studies bookshelf. (Crowley is often knocked off my cats.)
The “Sold My Soul To Save Crowley’s” button isn’t a real one; I made it myself based off the “Sold My Soul To Save…” buttons popular for Sam and Dean. There was never enough Crowley-positive fan merch. While there are buttons and magnets and keychains that read “I Kissed Crowley”, there are none that put him in the line-up with Sam, Dean and Cas as deserving to be saved by the fandom, even though he very much deserved to be. Hence I made my own, offering to figuratively sell my soul to save his own.
Lastly, there is the “Proud To Be An Aca Fan”, because that’s what I am. An aca fan is an academic who’s a fan of the show, or someone who employs academic theories and principles in their enjoyment of the show. (Think the Pop Cultural & Philosophy book series, or Wisecrack on YouTube.) Aca fans are usually marginalized in fandom spaces – we “do fandom wrong” and make others feel guilt for how they engage with fandom, apparently. I am proud to be one, nonetheless, and wanted to include a reference to that in this piece of fan art.
The fic that @lesbiantoziers crafted from all of this was as detailed as the art, well-written, wonderfully in-character with some great dialogue, and absolutely hilarious. Thank you so much to the @crowleybigbang for this reverse round!