mancalledtrue | Brian Corvello: Introduction (Reply)

Brian Corvello and I were friends... once.

I should explain who the man is first. Brian Corvello ("Cyber Commander" on Fanfiction.net) is a New York resident who writes fanfiction. He specializes in Yu-Gi-Oh, but has also written a Powerpuff Girls/Codename: Kids Next Door crossover and a story based on The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. He's in his late thirties, but I'm seriously not sure if he watches non-children's programming.

Back when I was in high school, my friend Eric told me about a fanfiction author he'd discovered on a forum called Pokemasters. I visited it and found my way to the works of an author calling himself "Venusaur" (later "Dark Sage"); this was Brian Corvello. Most of them were Yu-Gi-Oh stories; as a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh, I took to them immediately.

I later got in touch with the author via AIM, and the two of us struck up a fast friendship. We even collaborated to an extent on various stories.

Time passed, and that faded. I had begun to find uncomfortable flaws in the man's work, but when I pointed them out to him, he ignored me. My reviews of his stories on Pokemasters grew increasingly more bitter, even as his fans kept praising him.

Finally, after a blast at him for a particularly bad chapter, I left the forum entirely. I didn't return for a very long time.

These days, Brian Corvello only posts stories on Fanfiction.net (though he's still on Pokemasters). Given how the Pit of Voles praises everything that passes into its hands (the only reason I post stories there - false or not, the ego boost is nice), one has to wonder.

Brian Corvello is not a truly bad author. He has a good sense of grammar and spelling, and can have wonderful ideas. Unfortunately, he has some inescapable problems. Self-repetition is the most noticeable, as is lackluster characterization.

Then there's the concepts. Brian Corvello is a very disturbing man if you read his stories too closely. I'll explain that when we come to it.

But the worst of Corvello's flaws is theft. The man constantly steals quotes from cartoons and movies, to the point it sometimes feels like he should be paying royalties. And then he stole from my fanfics.

This journal exists in large part because I wanted to get my opinions on the man out. I'll cover as many of his stories as I can, giving him the criticism I should have given him a long time ago. (I won't cover his Pokemon stories, however. They're too deeply rooted in Pokemasters to give them a fair shake. Not having seen Life and Times of Juniper Lee, I can't cover that story, either.)

Sorry, Brian. But I can't keep my mouth shut anymore.