No 12. I THINK I’VE BROKEN SOMETHING
| Broken Bones |
Art by Tumblr user whump-side
by Ari, your editor, who has a poor grasp on time and forgot that Issue #3 coincided with Whumptober until the last day in September, then set out to correct that oversight herself.
As this issue goes live we’re wrapping up the whumpiest part of the year: Whumptober.
Whumptober has been a staple of the whump community, particularly on Tumblr, since it began as a prompts list in 2017. Whumptober (also known early on as whump!tober) was one of many challenges to take inspiration from Jake Parker’s Inktober ink drawing challenge, which he began in 2009. Unlike Inktober, Whumptober doesn’t specify a medium, only variations on a theme.
When that first list made the rounds I decided to take a crack at the event myself, writing a one-shot that covered the first two prompts then immediately throwing in the towel and never trying again. The writers and artists of the whump community have proved themselves hardier stock than I, however, because October has been a festival of whump every year since it began. In 2018, Whumptober solidified as a community event. Tumblr user la-vie-en-whump posted a collection of prompts for the month, while im-here-to-help-you-all-write posted separate whumpy prompts for each day in October.
In 2019, Whumptober exploded in popularity. This was the year when the Tumblr whump community experienced a huge surge in growth, but it was also when Jake Parker, Inktober’s creator, battered smaller creators with cease and desists over the “Inktober” title. The whump community was filled with new whumpers brimming with energy, and the artist community at large was seeking new prompts unaffiliated with Parker. Whumptober was well-suited to meet those needs. la-vie-en-whump again hosted an event, which according to Fanlore saw 400+ participants. Shortly after Whumptober 2019 wrapped up, YouTube channel Shipper’s Guide to the Galaxy released a video on Whumptober, which helped to draw positive attention to Whumptober from fans outside of the Tumblr whump community.
By October 2020, Whumptober was a full-on whump bonanza hosted at whumptober2020.tumblr.com. (Back in Inktober land strikes against Jake Parker continued to build, this time from accusations of plagiarism.) La-vie-en-whump was joined by whumpershaven, the-wandering-whumper, and fyeahvulnerablemen in moderating a dedicated Whumptober blog with prompts, alternative prompts, and a Q&A section. Whumptober creators spanned fandom and creative borders, posting original art, fan art, fan fiction, and edits.
Art by theoriquewitherseld
A separate event was hosted by whumptober-2020, with a different set of prompts and a ban on “NSFW, glorification of unhealthy relationships, and incest.” In a FAQ post, whumptober2020 clarified, “we are not affiliated with the whumptober-2020 blog that has popped up. While we totally support side competitions, using the same name as our event is not appreciated and we will not be reblogging content produced for this parallel event.” Unaffiliated with either “Whumptober” blog, other whump community members posted specialized prompts lists, including user dontfeeltoohot’s prompts list for creators more interested in sickfic than pure whump and illbcy’s goretober prompts. For the first time, Whumptober 2020 was also followed by a comfort-focused challenge for November, Comfortember. Officially unaffiliated with any October whump challenge and hosted by Tumblr user baloobird, Comfortember prompts include things like “rescue”, “protective”, and “hugs”.
This year’s Whumptober was the first to feature a centralized collection on Archive of Our Own. While it’s hard to quantify participation, this seems to be the most popular year yet. On October 1st, 2020, the official Whumptober prompts and rules post had over 9,000 notes on Tumblr. The official Whumptober 2020 collection on Archive of our Own already had 137 works in over 100 different fandoms. By October 30th, when this issue was released, the collection included over 3,600 works in nearly 600 fandoms — more than enough to keep us busy through a dark winter, tiding us over until Whumptober 2021.
wince magazine 