What Is Villainpunk?
(You can check out Villainpunk on Urbandictionary. Also, Jeff Mach asserts that Villainpunk is cheating, and we quite agree.)
Villainpunk is an imaginative genre celebrating Villains, Henchperson, Rogues, and Cads. Likewise, we rejoice in Minions Anti-Heroes, and the assorted things which make up their world—Secret Lairs, Evil Plots, World Dominion, and other lovely life goals. While spooky things are welcome, it’s not horror; that genre’s already taken. Instead, Villainpunk is about the misunderstood, the mad, the iron-willed, the passionate, the downright villainous.
We live in a time of incredibly creative punkery. “Cyberpunk” is a term created by author Bruce Bethke in the 1980s. If you read Bruce’s work, it’s a good description what would happen if you applied Punk’s irreverent, freewheeling nihilism to a computer-run future.
On the other hand, “Steampunk” was coined, perhaps in jest, by K.W. Jeter, who said that if scifi future writers were creating “Cyberpunk”, about electronic machines which didn’t yet exist, he and his friends were writing “Steampunk”, about a past which (as far as we know) didn’t exist, but which contains more than a few dangerous possibilities.)
And “Villainpunk” was created by a team of disillusioned Mad Scientists who were trying to steal the Moon and replace it with a life-sized replica. As far as YOU know, they failed. But if you’re part of the Secret Knowledge, you know that they succeeded, and even now, the Moon hangs in their strange Museum Of Things Which Are Way, Way Too Large To Fit Into Museums.
What Do Villainpunks Wear?
Anything they want to, of course. But many of us have an affinity for:
- Dark cloaks
- Twirlable mustaches
- Little capes (too many Villains have perished when their long cloaks got caught in machinery)
- Tiny masks (If they can’t REALLY see who you are, revenge is only half as much fun)
- Ominous canes
- Sorcerous pendants
- Poison rings
- And whatever else suits their fancy!
What Do Villainpunks Eat?
Steak, caviar, burgers, vegetarian Chinese food, and Adventurers.
What Is Villainpunk Like?
Villainpunk is the swirling black cape which lets everyone know that you are not to be trifled with. Or at least, they’d damn better be the kind of trifles with extra sherry.
OR perhaps Villainpunk is the antidote to a world of petty online squabbling. While fools try to “guess” who’s evil based on their social media history, we’re busy robbing the banks of countries which don’t even know they exist!
Maybe Villainpunk can be as simple as twirling your mustache in a suitably evil fashion, even if you just glued the mustache on an hour ago.
For some of us, Villainpunk is telling your enthralling life story to a captive audience which really, really believes that you’re going to give them clues which allow them to escape, which is why you only tell them lies.
Look at an old map. Villainpunk is the part of the map labeled “Here Be Dragons”.
Yes, Villainpunk is pure evil, served lightly grilled in a freshly-made Hollandaise sauce.
Or if you want to get technical:
Jeff Mach also believes that Villainpunk is an artistic genre which lets us take our most enthralling villains and our favorite tropes of villainy, and gives us a chance to use them to create new and interesting stories, art, music, film, and excuses for evil laughter.
It’s independent. Nobody owns it. Nobody runs it, although, in general, the first people to create interesting things for a given culture tend to have an opportunity to influence it, which is why this is a good time for you to start playing with it.
