~ GOODNIGHT, SWEET PRINCE ~

A digital literary zine about side characters, bit parts, cameos, and the rest of the supporting cast.

Synopsis

Narratives so often focus on their main characters, that the supporting ones can be afterthoughts, one-dimensional & cliche. These characters are sidekicks, second fiddles, and third-wheels, asked to provide muscle, sex appeal, comic relief, a surprising insight—whatever is needed to complement the more pressing concerns of the hero and their particular journey.

This structure is so common, I find myself drawn more to the side characters, especially when they steal the scene they're supposed to support. When a narrative frame is dictated by a protagonist's point-of-view, there can be something especially satisfying, poignant, devastating, or hilarious about how other characters influence, undermine, complicate, or are blithely unaware of the drama around them. I feel like this orientation more closely resembles the ways we cut in and out of each other’s frame, the hero in just one story, but a side character in so many more.

Goodnight, Sweet Prince is a digital literary zine dedicated to this peripherality. Publishing with an ongoingness and intermittence that feels fitting, this zine will slowly but surely collect essays on these characters, the actors that portray them, the films they appear in, and—last but never least—us, the audience that sees them despite themselves.

—Nick Greer, Director