Graphic designer Matt Varnish behind the scenes of the “Art Is The Weapon” video shoot (2010). He played a “clown monk” character that was cut from the videos. Varnish also assisted with design and packaging during the era, having previously worked with the band on The Black Parade.
From the behind the scenes video that was published with the special edition iTunes digital release of Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010).
My own theory on who’s running the Dangerverse Twitter accounts. I made a post like this a few months ago, but nobody gave a shit and the post is now horribly out of date (not to mention I still wasn’t so sure about it back then), so I decided to just make a better one and tag it with all the tags hoping that people read it this time.
Note that this is just a theory, it hasn’t been confirmed by anyone yet, and I highly encourage anyone who reads this and doesn’t agree with me to message me about it so we can discuss theories together, which is one of my favourite things to do.
Also note: this is going to be a long post because I’m determined to get everything I know in one place instead of having to search for a thousand different posts and screenshots. And speaking of screenshots, this post is going to have lots of those too. Sorry about that.
Okay, here’s my theory: Shaun Simoncontrols the Twitter accounts. All of them.
Except for Party Poison (who I’m fairly sure is Gerard) and I hate to admit it, but I’m not too sure about Dr. Death Defying either because I haven’t been able to find anything that links them. But I am reasonably sure about the others, so let’s get started.
But first of all, the basics. Who is Shaun Simon?
This dude right here. (I chose a ridiculous picture on purpose. Sorry Shaun!) You might recognise him from those
a fashion blog took of him and Gerard while they were innocently taking a walk (and, I suspect, coming up with new insanely amazing ideas). He was in Pencey Prep with Frank, and later on did merch for MCR on tour. He’s also a writer.
Why is he important? I said he’s a writer. One thing he has written is a short story, Snowman, which you should go read right now; one thing he’s writing is a comic book called Danger Days: the True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, with Gerard Way that they should really start working on because I need it to be out right now.
Why have I never heard of him before? For some reason I don’t understand, most people seem to be completely oblivious of his existence and his role in the creation of the Dangerverse. If you follow me, you’re probably aware that I’m a huge fan of the guy (in the same way that I’m a huge fan of Steven Moffat: I love the way his brain works and even though I often get frustrated and confused because of him, I still admire him and I’m very jealous of his talent) and I think he deserves way more attention than he gets.
Now that you know who I’m talking about, let’s see why I think he’s the criminal mastermind behind the whole Twitter nonsense. Apart from the obvious reasons, which are that a. it’s easier to have just one person manage the accounts and b. it’s easier to have one person who is actually involved in the project manage the accounts, it all started with this:
Those tweets were made on the day the video for Na Na Na came out (also my birthday), and that was the first time I actually noticed Shaun Simon. I only barely knew who he was (oh how things have changed since then), but I decided to pay more attention to him and started lurking on his Twitter (that’s how I first found out about the next level, which will be important later). I noticed that in July of 2010, he tweeted this:
Which seems to be just a random quote by some guy named Terry Phillips (who I’m not even sure is a real person), and in fact he did tweet a lot of them, but nothing is ever that simple and this particular quote is especially significant because Mandog Mandart is mentioned in two of the posts on Steak Grenade, the blog Agent Cherri Cola’s Twitter bio links to. And Shaun himself has “advertised” that blog a few times:
[ETA 25/03/2013: Shaun has officially confirmed that he owns the steakgrenade blog in this tweet]
Only the blog was created in March of 2011, and the tweet was made in 2010… At this point I would like to add that I have no idea what anything on that blog is supposed to mean, or how it relates to the Dangerverse. But anyway, let’s get back to Agent Cherri Cola:
That’s another huge clue (and isn’t it funny how he said “Don’t think you have a clue” right afterwards?). That John guy, who Agent Cherri Cola retweeted, is more commonly known as Hambone. He was in Pencey Prep as well and of course, Shaun follows him on Twitter too.
Moving on:
This one may not mean anything, but they both said ‘Pop!’ and in my mind, it makes sense for News A Go Go to say it (the way I see it, it’s like a way to end a transmission, since it’s supposed to be a radio station), but I don’t know why Shaun would say it out of the blue like that. It would be another very weird coincidence if two completely unrelated people had said the same thing on two different days, no? It was easier for me to just think it was the same person, and as time went by I started thinking he wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore.
Like that time Tommy Chow Mein sent me a picture of pandas breathing/throwing up rainbows and a few days later Shaun used it as his profile picture:
Or like that time he @mentioned one of the Dangerverse accounts:
Fourth wall? What fourth wall?!
(And by the way, that old man in the picture? Looks familiar to me. Remember this?
I could be wrong about that, though. I just wanted to mention it in case someone knows what the hell it means. I remember people discussing calendars in relation to that picture, but if I knew anything else about it, I’ve forgotten it now.)
It’s just… You can’t tell me these are all coincidences. I’d believe it if it had happened just once, but all these times? No. Plus, you know how I said Tommy Chow Mein sent me that picture of the pandas? Want to know my secret on how I got him to acknowledge my existence?
That’s right, I just had to casually mention something I’d found on Shaun’s page (and yes, I realise it’s creepy, but all’s fair in love and war mindfucks) and just like that, he replied to me. Did he just reply because he noticed how desperate I was? Is this just another coincidence? I like to think it isn’t, but you’re welcome to disagree with me and let me know in my ask box and we can discuss it together!
And more coincidences: most of the Dangerverse account have been tweeting via iPhone or iPad, except for Dr. D’s videos, which are always tweeted via web (I haven’t checked every single tweet, but I went back to January and this seems to be the general rule). Now I’m not stupid, I know everyone in the world except for me owns an iPhone or iPad or both, and that this doesn’t really prove anything, but still…
And that picture of all the accounts in one place (which was originally posted by Tommy Chow Mein) is a screenshot from an iPhone… posted via iPhone as well.
I think for now, this is all I have (and thank God, because it took me two whole days to finish this goddamn post). I really hope that people do read it this time, but if you don’t, it’s your loss, and I’m only going to laugh at you in a few months when it turns out I was right all along (unless it turns out I wasn’t, in which case I’m going to hide forever and stop making theories).
If you agree with me, disagree with me, are confused and want me to explain something, or just want to discuss theories with me, feel free to drop me an ask – anon is always on –, because (as should be obvious by now) if there’s anything I love, it’s discussing theories with people.
And if you’re Shaun Simon and happen to stumble across this, I would be so unbelievably grateful if you wanted to let me know if I’m right or wrong. (A girl can dream, right?)
[ETA 20/05/2012: just for the sake of keeping everything in one place, here’s a list of pictures from the various twitter accounts (including Shaun’s) that look like they were edited in the same way.]
[ETA 12/01/2014 (YEARS after this was posted, wtf?): so this happened a week ago and I didn’t even notice. Victory is mine. Let’s all rejoice. (I may have cried a bit. Can you blame me?!) Much like the shaunsighon blog, I’ll keep this post up for future reference and/or bragging rights. RIGHT ALL ALONG!!]
why does kristen stewart in charlies angels look exactly like kobra kid
And thus, my thoughts are turned to a Danger Days film where Kristen Stewart plays Kobra Kid, and Robert Pattinson plays Party Poison - the irony of it all…
Masks and ray guns made by art director Jess Linares for the “Planetary (GO!)” video shoot (2/24/2011). The props were distributed to fans in the crowd.
so, this guy, Edmond Bilbasso, posted a story with trans am and some girls started to ask him where and when he took the pic. He answered one of them and sent a short video in the car and then a selfie with gee. then he started saying something like “get ready” and “it’s sooner than you think it is”. then he deleted the story with a car and now made his insta account private and blocked everyone who followed him yesterday.
THIS IS WHAT I SAW ON TWITTER (the girl who posted is russian tho)
What set Danger Days aside from other post-apocalyptic stories was
the vivid character designs, brightly colored props, and tiny details
that made the universe crackle with creative energy. But where are the
props from the music videos now? While many of them have disappeared from the public eye, others have turned up in some unexpected places.
I’m seeing a lot of rumors about the Trans Am floating around, so to
clarify–the last time the Trans Am was spotted (by MCR fans, anyway)
was in 2015, when Danny Kurily tweeted Mikey Way
about it. Mikey’s shocked response suggests that even he had no idea
where it was being stored. Before that, the car seemed to be housed at a
recording studio (if I may promote myself, I made a more in-depth post
about that here.)
The car in Kurily’s picture looks much more run down than the car in
the new video, so I’m guessing that video is unused footage from the “Na
Na Na” video shoot, not something that was filmed recently.
So,
to summarize: the Trans Am disappeared sometime around 2015, MCR
themselves might not even know where it’s located, and the new clip is
almost definitely old, unused footage. (Also, I’m pretty sure the driver
in the video is just a stunt person/crew member, not a member of the
band as many people are speculating.)
Edit: A few people have pointed out that this 2015 interview confirms that Gerard donated it to the Hard Rock Cafe (although the timeline is still kind of weird–Gerard and the interviewer keep talking about how much they want to display it, but it’s never been seen or heard about since?) So either Gerard backed out of the donation, or the Hard Rock Cafe has it and it’s just been housed somewhere privately for the past five years. Hopefully the second one, I’d hate to think that it’s just rusting away in LA somewhere.
Greetings to all you Killjoys, Candidates, Drifters and Droids!
The year of the Killjoy has officially started, so I would like to cordially invitte you all to join Radio 109, a Discord server aimed at keeping Danger Days alive, and keeping everyone together!
The server has been going strong for over a year and a half, as a great place to share your work, discuss ideas, roleplay, or even just hang out in the off-topic chat! You can also change your display name to a Killjoy alias!
Anonymous asked: Hi I was just wondering how much canonical material there is regarding the killjoys' personalities and pasts etc??? I haven't read the comics at all and I haven't decided whether I'm gonna buy them yet or not so just like?? I'm trying to decide whether reading them is worth it tbh
:
MILD COMIC SPOILERS AHEAD
unfortunately, in the comic series we’re given basically no information about the original Killjoys (the Fab Four) and their personalities aside from a couple of very short lines near the beginning of the first one that don’t tell us anything other than that Poison was the leader (which is quite heavily implied in the videos and extra bits anyway) and that Kobra “had some sass.” the comics are focused mainly around the Girl (except she’s older now) and a new zone gang called the Ultra Vs. there are a couple other interesting subplots too (including lesbian androids to whom i would sell my soul) and i’d say the series is worth reading if you’d like some background on the city and the zones, but the Fab Four are only there in a couple of really brief flashbacks and we don’t learn about who they were as individuals.
if you’re not sure whether or not you want to buy them, there are places you can read them online which is what i did lol though i’m not sure how reliable the sites are - i believe someone also uploaded the pages to google drive and posted a link here, if anyone could find the post that’d be great!
COMIC SPOILERS OVER
as for other canon material regarding the Killjoys:
- Party Poison has a twitter , so do a few other canon characters e.g. Dr D (but none of the rest of the Fab Four have one)
- there are 3(?) transmissions which include the Fab Four to my knowledge. this one is pretty well known, here’s another Party Poison one, and then there’s Jet Star being beaten up by dracs
- and this video doesn’t give us much more info than the Na Na Na video does, however there’s a little extra clip right at the end which subtly establishes Poison’s role as the leader
i’ve probably forgotten some things, so feel free to add anything else!
Killjoy comics extra material - I wanted to collect together the bonus pages that aren’t in the trade, I’m sure someone else has done it, but I really like this little glimpses into the paper of the world
