I Can't Remain Neutral in the Now - This is Great

February 20, 2024 4:33 PM

Drue Langlois' (previously) plucky post-apocalyptic scavenger Plague Roach has finally left the post-apocalyptic wasteland. But how? Through death? Even deeper escapism? Or something else entirely? Find out in the seemingly final installment of Staying Positive in the Apocalypse, Veil of Cloud - or watch the entire saga here.
posted by BiggerJ (9 comments total)

I'd not heard of this before, but the first episode was nice!
posted by JHarris at 9:10 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

I've watched a few more, and I really feel like I missed something. I always feel like there's countless little treasures like this, scattered around the internet, and despite making concerted efforts to find them, it's pretty random if I ever find them before they finish, the creator loses interest, or they vanish from the internet. This is exactly the kind of thing I come to Metafilter for. Thanks for linking to it, BiggerJ!
posted by JHarris at 12:17 AM on February 21 [2 favorites]

Yeah, this is cool and unique. Peaceful, even.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 7:25 AM on February 21

Nice! Drue and his brother(?) Myles made the rather amazing Apollo Gauntlet (I probably found about it on Metafilter) which uses a very similar low-fi rotoscoping animation technique, along with some fun songs and lots of wrestling references. Apollo Gauntlet was plucked from undeserved internet obscurity, first getting chopped up and rereleased by RugBurn media before being scrubbed from the internet almost entirely and becoming an adult swim show, which imho didn’t manage to capture the copious Canadian charm of the original, which had a similar laidback narrative approach as Plague Roach.

So be careful what you wish for in terms of these kinds of gems getting exposure, and download the videos if possible!

Superspace, a follow up project to Apollo Gauntlet with a similar style, still exists online for now.

I have a group of friends that still drops Apollo Guantlet quotes in regular conversation, and we accidentally stumbled on Plague Roach a few weeks ago! Love the chill vibe and return to the Langolis humor and sneaky introspection.
posted by soy bean at 7:32 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]

With the horde of robots that seek to destroy his optimism and convince him of the futility of everything he does, one could very easy draw a comparison between Plague Roach's apocalyptic world of the future and the internet of the present.
posted by JHarris at 7:56 AM on February 21

If you take only one thing from this hilarious yet deeply affecting show, let it be this.
posted by JHarris at 8:10 AM on February 21

Ah, I messed up the link. This.
posted by JHarris at 8:18 AM on February 21

BiggerJ is doing the lord's work, I am pretty sure I discovered Drue Langlois thanks to MeFi and possibly thanks to BiggerJ? either way, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who get Drue Langlois and.. well clearly anyone who doesn't is a soul-crushing robot in disguise
posted by elkevelvet at 11:47 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]

soy bean: most of the original Apollo Gauntlet episodes, after having been made mostly unavailable for many years, appear to be available again. Before that happened, someone was able to preserve them on the Internet Archive, including stuff not currently available on YouTube.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:33 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]