#< my thesis statement for that comic

[chipchopclipclop]

hitting my toxic yaoi quota + chibi doodles

[dracaelus]

This right here. This right here. THIS RIGHT HERE ----

OUT OF THE FORBIDDING DEPTHS OF A CITY NOTED FOR ITS HEARTLESSNESS, COMES THE "BIGGEST HEART OF ALL" --- BATMAN!

from Batman (1940) #216

[daisyachain]

Restorative or Transformative?: Homoerotic Subtext, The Closet, and Ciphers in Pop Culture. The nature of commercial art is that it’s sometimes bad and inconsistent. Notably it’s also misogynistic. One way in which audiences try to reconcile massive plot holes or gaps in character motivation is by reading secrets or hidden information into a plot.

Commonly, male characters are interpreted as closeted gay or bisexual to reconcile the absence of women from commercial narratives with the generally stunted and poorly-written male characters that form the focus on said texts. This reading has become especially common among a non-heterosexual milieu. Rather than transforming the original text into some radically different new form, this closeted interpretation seeks to make the original text stand on its own as a story rather than a Swiss cheese of dumb writing decisions.

This interpretation only works for a specific type of pop, usually genre fiction. Any story in which tortured male leads eschew women in favour of male-male bonds (because female characters are constantly killed off, written sparsely, or written out, because the production team keeps casting their male buddies, because actors demand to keep having scenes with their bros, whatever) can become a sounder structure if you put one of them in a closet.

The gay interpretation is the natural consequence of shoddy misogynistic writing from ventures like Supernatural, Naruto, all the biggest hits. It’s also the natural consequence of more benignly misogynistic writing like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or The Lord of the Rings, where women aren’t necessarily rejected but are simply absent from the worlds of the protagonists. When the emotional crux of the story falls on male-male interactions, this reads as romantic because society at large priorities (definitively heterosexual) romance as the pinnacle of human connection. Two forces are in conflict, the primacy of heterosexuality (read as: romance) and the primacy of men.

Anyway. All that is to say that the typical gay or bisexual reading of male characters in pop fiction comes from a very real place. But, in some places, that’s the default interpretation. Angst, insecurity, secrets, double lives, fatigue, disappointment, restrained passion, stunted personal growth, anyone living in the closet can tell you that it impacts and defines your whole life to know that you live in a way fundamentally incompatible with The Proper Way that life is structured around down to tax law and superstore prices (which assume a heterosexual nuclear family unit). Characters in fiction also tend to have personal problems because that makes them interesting and tasty.

If you’ve grown up on stories with the specific type of misogyny that can be papered over with a closeted interpretation of the male leads, carrying this interpretation over to any male character will make sense more often than not. Even a bit of angst or insecurity? Well of course that makes sense if a character is closeted.

Except that’s hurt a normal part of fiction, and sometimes the closeted interpretation takes away from the point of a character. If a male character is on another axis of marginalization, the closeted interpretation imposed by the slash reading community downplays or trivializes the effects of that marginalization in the plot by overwriting it with another type of marginalization. Alternately, sometimes a character’s heterosexuality is a part of the story. There are some sorts of critiques or investigations of misogyny or masculinity that don’t work if the character has an ‘opt out’ of the cisheteropatriarchal perspective. Not that gay/bisexual men aren’t except from misogyny, but misogyny masculinity and heterosexuality are so tightly linked that it sort of defeats the point if you interpret that character outside of heterosexuality.

All that is to say—the closet interpretation is a quick and easy spice to apply to the weaker parts of action-adventure genre fiction to make it taste better. It draws from a large enough sample of art that it’s pretty widely applicable. Because of that, it’s part of some people’s [my] default interpretation package just because the semi-dull macho show at least gets less dull if you imagine there’s a reason for there to be no girls besides simple hatred. That then forms its own problem where the interpretation that works with your average genre work gets then blanket-applied to all genre works and obscures the places where the closet interpretation doesn’t fix the work, and actually makes it less interesting.

[angstandhappiness]

DUDE

plight of the honeybee

[fancyfade]

Talia: Freedom

JLA #45, Superman: The Man of Steel #120, Detective Comics #750, Batman Chronicles #8, JLA #44, Batman Chronicles #8, Batman #400, Batman Chronicles #8 (yes, again), Detective comics #750

Anyway, just born out of my Talia and Farhad thoughts in Ram V's tec (link)... It's her thesis statement!

[kcrabb88]

Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi Are Not Normal About Each Other (A Thesis Statement)

Fandom: Quinlan and Obi-Wan have had sex, but it’s a reach to think they could be in love and/or care deeply about each other in some manner, it was just physical (this is not me saying I don't think they have sex I HELLA do and I've written a lot of smut to prove it, but I've seen wayyyy too many posts that basically say they can only be romantic as Padawans and NEVER as adults and/or were just fooling around as teens and didn't have deep feelings in some way whether they're FWB or romantic partners or whatever you like)

Me: *unrolls my scroll* I'm here to make a POINT as an addendum to this post I made recently.

Look at these little darlings! They just met and Quin's already trusting Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan WANTS Quin to trust him. In another panel from this same comic, Quin helps Obi-Wan with his anxiety and it's very sweet.

Quin's been struggling with the dark side while undercover, and everyone thinks he's really truly fallen and can't be brought back except for Aayla, Tholme, and, YOU GUESSED IT! Obi-Wan. He goes looking for Quinlan on his own and finds him and they chat. Plus, look at this flashback of these little nerds flirting. Quin literally falls into the river and almost dies trying to flirt with Obi-Wan.

What do I even say about this panel??? Look at them!! Look at Quin trusting Obi-Wan with the dark parts of himself and Obi-Wan believing in him? Look at that hand clasp? Like shut up I can't take it.

Obi-Wan refusing to leave Quinlan behind and Quinlan, stubborn Quinlan, listening to him.

Their banter here shows how well they know and play off each other and that joke in the last panel SENDS ME.

This is from the new comic that came out in September, and this is just ONE instance of several of Quinlan mentioning Obi-Wan, who only appears in this comic via a psychometric vision, but Quin keeps bringing him up anyways.

I mean this is. THIS is what made me WANT to know more about Quinlan in the first place! It's not in this gif, but the way Obi-Wan smiles in this scene? The way his eyes light UP? That's love, babey.

I could literally paste so much stuff from Dark Disciple, which to me has always been a QuinObi book in addition to Vostress. Quinlan has fallen (pretty much without understanding he has because he so badly wants to uncover Sidious) and missing his check-ins with Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan keeps going back to their bar over and over again and he's been waiting for like, two hours at this point when Ventress comes in.

"Not him." Okay, buddy. Okay. Obi-Wan has like three panic attacks and outright defies his fellow council members at various points through this book because he believes so hard in Quinlan. He is INSISTENT that Quinlan can be brought back to the light.

These two pages made me SOB.

"She saved Quinlan" in italics. Not just his life, but his spirit. Those italics speak for themselves. And "Vos knew he could never repay Kenobi for that, but he has the rest of his life to try." Do ya, Quin? The rest of your life, huh?

Anyhow, truly, this is just me scratching the surface as I was limited by only being able to use 10 photos in a post. I’m leaving out sooo many other examples. You don't have to ship them! But these guys care a lot about each other and saying that it's just, impossible for them to have romantic feelings on posts or fics where the creator is, indeed, shipping them is ... weird. So is trying to overlay other ships onto specifically QuinObi content.

This has been a PSA.

[p-receh]

Analysis time! :D

What better way to make another thesis for certain parts of the last episode?

This post, I'll be talking about how strong the Power Spheres could take over its owner's mind.

As I ever mentioned it before. Even though comic book already covered the story of season 2. Again, we still need to look at the TV ver. Because whatever happens, TV shows is still the roots of Boboiboy's franchise. Whether you like it or not.

We good? Now shall we begin?

Re edit for grammar correction

See, of all every Power Spheres that had been introduced, only Kokotaim gang were not yet been "confirmed" what was their Power Spheres look like. Sure, the only elemental bot that had been shown were Hang Kasa's Crystal Bot and Retak'ka's Light Bot, but that's it.

Monsta already established two rules about the Power Sphere:

Every Power Spheres have their mind and soul. They could talk, think and feel like a living being.

Whatever happens, their contact with their first owner emended to their traits and it impacted to their next owner as well.

My first suspicion obviously came from what Gopal had said before in one of anon ask box about the first debut of Taufan and Hali in OG series.

"In the past, Boboiboy Lightning turn into Thunderstorm because he felt extremely angry. Boboiboy Wind turn into Cyclone also because of felling an absolute joy."

Another interesting aspect is from Mechamato movie. Specifically when Amato in Mecha suit mode was being locked to a flashback scene triggered by Mecha Bot uncontrollable sense of fear.

(excuse me for putting the Indonesian sub ver. :/

*translation note in order:

"Mechabot, Shoot!"

"Mechabot! What's wrong?"

"C'mon Mechabot!

From this point, I think you can guess what I would want to go from here.

As the tweet mentioned. It is interesting to note the similarities between the two. Whenever the Power Spheres' soul take over the owner's body more deeper, their eyes will glow and the scars spreads to their skin.

And by that logic, the Power Spheres consume much more energy than before. Thus the heavy drained out both mentally and physically from their owners.

Amato knew this and to fix the same issue, he convinced Mecha Bot during their final battle against General Grakakus in the same movie.

"Mechabot, close your eyes! I will be the one to handle our moves! Trust me!"

It goes back to one of my ted talks about this topic and a highlight some particular line from Kuputeri.

One of my favorite Boboiboy account also solidified his statement again about Oboi's being controlled by Power Sphere or in this case, elemental forms.

In my opinion what Oboi went through was somehow worse than any other Power Sphere wielder out there.

Not only he wields seven strongest powers in the galaxy but also might be the most unconstrained one to control them. Then again he still not reach his age of consent, but he already hold big responsibility to become the hero and most wanted target in the galaxy.

Think about it, even their original owners were a bit struggled to learn their power. Hang Kasa travel planets to planet only for learning his power with other elemental masters, Kuputeri needs to harness for at least hundreds years until she could tame Beliung/Tempest's, A small crack Ki'rana's body armor could made her went berserk due to the immense power of the Lightning bot.

In common sense, every wielder still has their Power Spheres as their own companion while Oboi hasn't. What Boboiboy only has to contain that grandiose powers? a watch. A watch that went three times modification simply because of the powers that was too strong to keep and use all at once. Not to mention how frequent Oboi uses split and now with fusion techniques is also add to the list.

He barely managed to ease his mind when transform to Beliung, Ice and Blaze worsen Baraju's conflicts with their near 3rd tier transformation, and he was lucky to be saved by 30 minutes Oakuat Juice so he could keep Rimba under his watch.

Now that we come so far, the questions still remains missing:

With how bad the elementals took over Oboi, will it possible they are gonna be the next villain for him in the future?

Does Amato knows about Boboiboy's Elementals powers? Does he also know Ochobot past before sending it to him?

Did the rest of elementals Power Spheres already destroyed after the first Retak'ka's raid or not?

I guess maybe Mechamato series might be the answer of Ochobot and all elementals Power Spheres in the past. Again we still have no clue what happened to him during the season 2 events.

And also this line up post before Monsta split the title for Dwifusion to "Gentar" and "Baraju"—

—announced the third season of Galaxy series after BM3 Gur'latan(quite close too after the movie you know?) . My only hope is that it cover the elenmentals and also other origins of Yaya, Ying, Gopal, and Fang Power Sphere.

Where were they came from? Were their Power Spheres also get destroyed like all elementals did? Are their owners still alive or not?

🤔

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.

.

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OOT but I just love Monsta's new thumbnail art for full ep marathon of Windara. 😎👍

[quetzalpapalotl]

Folks, you're not gonna fucking believe what I got... someone gave me a gift, it's the best gift ever, it's this

Original Optimus Prime #24 page 24 inks by Kei Zama. The final page of the IDW1 continuity. The last page of my favorite comic issue, of my favorite comic series, of my favorite continuity that ends with my favorite character Arcee as the thesis statement of the whole thing. She has overcome the cycle of violence and looking towards the future. Look at her smiling, have you ever seeing something more beautiful??? I think I'm gonna past out. Sorry for bragging like this but oh my fucking god

Kei Zama has more pages on their shop, so you should all take a look. Their work on Optimus Prime is phenomenal.

[catnippackets]

Hello!! Do you have any tips on fully scripting ur comic before drawing it out? (Anything u kept in mind during the process or that stuck out to you!) Im thinking of doing it this way and i think u mentioned somewhere that u scripted the backmaker before starting to draw it?

I think I might! this might be more just general storytelling advice in general rather than specifically scripting, but I find it's a thousand times easier to do it this way, I do this for when I'm writing prose as well. to be perfectly honest I don't know how to plot stories any other way lol

so first of all: everything needs a thesis statement. or rather every scene needs to have a specific reason for existing.

When I wrote TBM I divided it into three acts, and then decided where I needed to be at the beginning and end of each one. So for example, act 1 had to begin with the girls at the creek making a discovery, and it had to end with one of their classmates dying and all of them being left with a feeling of dread and are unsure if they’re responsible for it or not.

Once that was decided, I had to figure out what other things needed to happen in order to carry us there. There’s nine sections in act 1, twelve in act 2, and fifteen in act 3, and each of them have their own little thesis statement as I like to call it. Sometimes they’re specific like “they go to the creek so they can find the body of the first victim and kick off the mystery”, but sometimes they’re simply “establish this dynamic between these characters”, or “set up that this character feels a certain way about this issue” or even “drop foreshadowing here for this other thing so it can pay off later”.

So for act one, the things that needed to happen were: establish that Alice has a reoccurring nightmare, set up all the girls' personalities and relationships with each other, establish that they hang out at the creek regularly, they go to a different part of the creek this time and find something kind of creepy, one of their classmates dies, all of them feel various degrees of fear and guilt over it, and life goes on and they all graduate highschool and aren't sure if they should move on or keep thinking about it.

Some of those things can be done in one single sequence, and others can be drawn out in between a few of them, but as long as those things happen, you’re golden. With certain sections, if the point is simply “these characters talk about this thing”, you aren’t even really locked in to a specific setting, you can put them wherever you want and have them doing whatever you want as long as it works.

And then there’s also the characters!! They each have their own beginning and end as well. I needed to make sure I knew exactly where each of them were, like, mindset-wise, at the beginning and end of each act, and then dedicate scenes within the story to track their progress on it. So characters and scenes and acts are basically all treated the same! Each start in one place and end in another, and I have to figure out how to merge all of them nicely.

I've locked in the full script at this point, it was locked in before I started drawing it really, but I'll occasionally reach a scene and have to rework dialogue a bit cuz ppl are talking too much or whatever and I hadn't realized in the writing stage that drawing it out that way would be tedious or tricky. but it's usually pretty minor, the general ideas are all still there

I hope that's somewhat helpful to you, I never know how to explain what my process is lol but that's basically what I do!

[nitpickrider]

So, people say that Golden Age Lois plain and simply despised Clark as a weakling and a coward (with their more Vitriolic Best Buds thing being a modern inventions). Is this entirely true, or was there ever more to it?

Oh my friend that is not true at ALL. In fact from what I've read the idea that Lois despises Clark in any fashion outside of being a friendly professional rival doesn't hold up to the actual scrutiny. (Take this with the grain of salt that I'm only reading Action Comics at the moment, any stories or evidence that exist in the concurrent Superman comic are unknown to me). The moment that sticks out to me is this one so I'll use it for my main thesis statement.

I mean that's right there in black and white, isn't it? Even if her goal is to marry Superman, the only person she'd want to give her away at the wedding is Clark who she outright loudly declares to the entire office to be her second favorite man in the world (The story is a dream but that only strengthens the claim. This is what Lois is saying IN HER OWN MIND) I have TONS more evidence if you want to peak below the cut, be warned its mostly just gushing. I love Clark and Lois' relationship regardless of context and I have TONS of notes.

What people often miss is that in this era the two are actually dating on and off again? I've always read it as Lois and Clark just being each others' main social calls when there's something new to do or see.

She takes steps to activley improve his safety when he's put on dangerous assignment (and she would know, wouldn't she?)

When Clark is under threat of harm or god forbid seems to be actually hurt, it hits Lois like a train. The idea that something could have happened to her puts her into a very uncharacteristic spiral. She gets stunlocked and tends toward feinting which is otherwise very unlike her.

Beyond that, simply, the poor girl worries about him as much as he worries about her.

She relies on Clark to lean on and explicitly would need him around should anything happen to Superman, Clark is her main emotional support system and she knows it well enough to consciously lean on him when in distress

A simple moment of the two sharing a little bit of small talk, they work in very close quarters seemingly by choice. Clark is part of Lois' routine.

They even conduct their chores socially, which I'm given to believe was a much more common activity among friends back in the day. Lois takes a personal interest in Clark's life, how he's feeling, how he looks.

In this moment, granted she's trying to get something out of him but its not like she's holding her nose to give him a kiss on the cheek. And the second she seems disillusioned with Superman, Clark is the first person she can think of to pin her affections on.

When she's had a weird day at work, who does she talk to? Clark.

Even on her way out the door she tries to cheer him up just casually noticing he seemed more dour than usual, not only is that her taking an interest in him emotionally but it shows she knows and cares about him enough to note a change in behavior.

And THIS one is my favorite

She noticed his shirt was dirty, heard him say he had forgotten to get them washed. So she showed up at his apartment where she is evidently a regular enough sight that the doorman knows her by name, to pick up his laundry and have it done for him. No one asks her to do this, she just does it. I've always been fond of saying that the core anchor of any Superman story is the relationship between Clark and Lois. And I DON'T just mean their romantic entanglement. Like Holmes and Watson or Calvin and Hobbs. If you can't write a convincing back and forth between the two, if you can't make the audience believe that these two people are friends who love and care for one another. Then straight up you're going to write Bad Superman comics, period.

[coldalbion]

Capsule review of THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC

Welp, THE MOON & SERPENT'S BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC is DEFINITELY Messr's Moore (ALAN) and Moore's (STEVE) Thesis Statement. Idiosyncratic, personal and grand in gesture, even if some specifics are based off some 'mistakes' held as occult realities despite scholarship. The essays alone are worth it, even if you don't agree with all of them, and are sat there going "Lads, that DOES NOT ACCORD with my experience." Really bloody pretty, which is to be expected. Very much worth it if, say you want to look under the hood/bonnet of a pair of artistic wizards and trace how its influenced their output.

I DO disagree violently with bits of it, as I expected to.

Better than some Llewellyn stuff, and not without major flaws. But what is? Probably a nice primer to give to folks curious about this magic business who are daunted by the idea. Really bloody pretty. 3/5. (Also, the first comic is EXTREMELY #deerkult/cripkult)

[chaifootsteps]

I think we should treat Viv as she is: not a professional. It's not enough to say she acts like one. She is on, as in she isn't anything but a professional. She's not even an indie darling, she's a corporate shell out, a shill. Her shit is owned by Jeff Bazo or what's his name is. And he probably isn't aware of this nor cares. Also Amazon may have some gems, but overall I don't really use Amazon for it's streaming platform and now days don't bother ordering from it. It's subpar. Mid. I can name only two shows that currently exist and have and hold my interest.

The fact Netflix didn't pick her up when it's like the indie darling streaming service and is like known for giving movies and even shows to other previously just indie projects, regardless of being a comic made by an indie artist or a series, like Bee and Puppy Cat and Nemona. Or the loads of the anime made by one of artist and writers of manga. Hell Regular show while on capture Netflix had a NSFW/adult content based pilot made as a thesis film I think and had potential to be an adult show, one that had cut back on its jokes because of higher ups.

The only defense I can give to vivzie is that she isn't a professional, and helluva is just a for fun project, and while I'm afraid of many fans trying to twist this as an excuse why it shouldnt be critized, it's definitely a statement that will take a blow on Viv's ego: she doesnt want to think lowly of her work, and doesnt see iy as a just for fun project she wants people tl take it seriously, but that's all it is: a for fun project shes taking way too seriously and placing on a higher shelf then it needs to be and than it will ever actually be.

Hell some other noteworthy indie shows such as bravest warriors which has lots of adult humor with really good animation lastest for SEASONS and has a huger but less loud and annoying, obnoxious fanbase.

Hard disagree on Vivzie not being a professional and Helluva being a just for fun project. She doesn't behave in a professional way, but this is her job now, her bread and butter, the reason she's able to afford these lavish trips to NYC and Japan. She employs other people to make this happen, and she treats them abysmally.

It's a professional show that both she and her fans consider a revolutionary queer masterpiece, written like a fanfic because that's all she's capable of. That's not something you can do, not forever, and I think she's stating to feel that now.

[relaxxattack]

agree heavy with ur davepeta post lol. i have a fondness for them because when i read homestuck, i was 13 and still thought i was cis, so davepeta was probably the first.. "good" representation of a nonbinary character i'd ever seen. not a robot, (kind of) not an alien, not a villain, etc. i loved nepeta a lot because i was huge on cats as a kid. you get the picture. i still identify as "just a cat" nonbinary to this day, i love it.

but now as an adult i keep seeing the cracks, i guess. it was good for my age, and stuck with me for a long time. something can be profound without being... *good*. if you want to read nepeta as a trans man or davesprite as a trans woman, it feels weird to invalidate those identities with a "girlboy genderfuck 1/2 binary male and female" fusion. hussie isn't cis, so i see less problems with this than i would a cis author. but it's still not fun as a trans narrative to me, so i understand where you're coming from for sure

a lot of stuff in homestuck feels like a joke, tbh. i think its cool on that people can find meaning in all of it, have emotional attachments to every crumb, write lore and fanon for stuff hussie might not have thought twice about. just the nature of homestuck. but part of me does feel disappointed in the later acts of the comic that feel like they're mocking the audience for caring about nepeta or the lalondes or lil hal. different for everyone's interpretation i guess!

yes, this is exactly how i feel as well! if nepeta were a trans boy and davesprite a trans girl it would still be strange to have the culmination of their arcs be… forever getting misgendered because they are sharing a body with someone of the opposite gender.

davepeta feels like, much like all the other sprite^2s, a big joke at the expense of the audience. and even if it were not a joke, being half one cis identity and one half another cis identity is a clumsy look at nonbinary identity. of course i’m not bashing hussie for this in any way, because even if this was a planned plotline and not a spur of the moment joke, it clearly wasn’t meant to be hussies’ one big thesis on gender. nitpicking the work of queer artists for not being “good enough representation” is extremely tired. but, i think it’s also okay to recognize when something was probably not… even intended to really make a good statement on that in the first place.

theres absolutely nothing wrong with people examining davepeta and arquius and jasprose and having fresh new takes on things, saying “what if this was better” because we all do that. my confusion only lies with the like… uncritical praising of these things as the world’s best and most deep trans rep, i suppose

[ravensvirginity]

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but...

Trigon is a BID BAD in DC. He's raped Arella/Angela to create Raven. He's always trying to influence his daughter to embrace her true nature even when she constantly reminds him – it's not what she wants.

However. Considering Raven's perspective and childhood...

The neglect of emotions, the unwillingness to let Raven thrive...

Azarath was more abusive/neglectful than Trigon will ever be.

In a oddly fascinating, twisted way...

I very heavily disagree, unfortunately 😔 I do 100% agree that the way Azarath raised Raven was definitely bad and abusive towards her, but I think that's still better than the way Trigon treats her.

I do think Trigon loves Raven (that's like the entire thesis statement of my blog), but that doesn't translate into an even remotely healthy relationship. Some of his greatest parenting hits include:

- Torturing Raven the first time they ever met, after provoking her into attacking him by torturing Arella. Whatever he's doing with his powers is clearly causing her agony, and he doesn't stop until she admits that she's his daughter. (Tales of the NTT #2)

- Lying to her and forcing her to come with him to his dimension, only to reveal that he's going to destroy Earth despite what he'd told her only about half an hour before. He then renders her unconscious when she tries to leave. (NTT vol 1 #6)

- Later that same issue, he begins indiscriminately murdering innocent people to draw Raven out after she escapes the cell he put her in. After she returns to him to get him to stop slaughtering people, he attempts to attack her and is only stopped by Arella's magic.

- His biggest thing with her is using their connection to psychologically torture her for years, and physically torture her by making her powers malfunction. He does this until she's so worn down that she feels she has to give into him to make it stop. (This happens a lot over an ongoing arc spanning years worth of comics, but here's an example from NTT vol 1 #25)

We never really fully get a sense of what Trigon is like to demon Raven, as they're both defeated pretty quickly in the Terror of Trigon. My personal opinion is he'd probably treat her better than he normally does when he's trying to wear her down so she'll join him, but I think he'd hurt her if she ever displeased him in any way. He's a very cruel demon, it isn't really a stretch to imagine.

I am open to hearing other takes about this, though! I would love to hear what other people think. I love talking about them so much.

[alfietalksaboutcomics]

Some Thoughts On First Pages

I have this theory that you can identify a great comic from its first page, or first two pages really since frankly that’s how most of us end up reading these things, in physical. The first page is an opportunity to not only draw the reader into the narrative of a comic but to make a thesis statement about the broader comic. First impressions have a lasting impact in the mind, the best comics creators know this and use the prime real estate of the first page (or two) to hook the audience right off the bat. I’d like to go over a few examples to illustrate what I mean, starting with New X-Men by Grant Morrison. 

New X-Men #1 By Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

I’m vaguely aware that Patrick (H) Willems talked about this page and how excellent it is in his video One X-Cellent Scene - It's Time For X-Men to Evolve, I haven’t seen the video but I would feel remiss not to mention it since Willems no doubt discussed this brilliant page with more insight then I will provide. That being said I will still try and give my thoughts on what makes this page so instantly iconic and what it says more broadly about Morrison’s New X-Men. 

New X-Men was my second X-Men comic, after reading Joss Weadon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, and let me tell you that the second I saw this first page I knew I was in for something special. First off Quitely’s art is just spectacular, the composition is one thing but my god is it just a beautiful page overall. There’s just something about this page, something indescribable for me, something that just makes me want to frame it and hang it up on my wall. In one page Morrison and Quitely give glimpses into the characters of Wolverine and Cyclops (alongside the new character of Ugly John). Morrison and Quitely also show off their bold new vision for the X-Men in this page. The sentinel being a symbol of the teams past, while Wolverine and Cyclops’s new costumes are a symbol of this all new all different take on the X-Men. It's forward looking while also being firmly rooted in the franchise's history. 

Immortal Hulk #1 by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett

Immortal Hulk #1’s first two pages are simple but say magnitudes, the real thing it conveys is theme. The narration spells it out plainly “There are two people in every mirror. There’s the one you can see. And then there’s the other one. The one you don’t want to." This is the entirety of Immortal Hulk summed up in just two pages. The idea of duality, man and monster, Keter and Thaumiel, Banner and Hulk. Throughout the series this concept of the opposite reflection is brought up again and again, it’s the very essence of Immortal Hulk. This first page is also an excellent example of set up and pay off, the very first page of this comic has a man looking into his own reflection, likewise to reinforce the theme the comic ends with Banner looking into a mirror and looking back at him is the Hulk. 

House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz

Let’s end with another X-Men comic, the franchise redefining House of X #1 by Johnthan Hickman and Pepe Larraz. House Of X #1 opens on a panel of these cocoon-like eggs, then a wide shot of the eggs as far as the eye can see, all the while a silhouette of a man stands in the foreground. Then we cut to a hand emerging from an egg and then to people crawling out of them towards the man. On the next page we get a glimpse of one of the people, a man with red energy coming out of his eyes having his chin lifted up by the  mysterious man. The next panel is a shot of the people reaching up to the man, a boldly redesigned professor X, finally the last panel cuts to a close up of his face where he proudly proclaims the iconic line “To me, my X-Men.” 

The first time I saw this page I had that same feeling I had with New X-Men #1, I knew I was in for something special. House of X and Powers of X radically redefined the X-Men and it all started here with these first two pages. Larraz’s art is spectacular and breathes life into this bold new world for the X-franchise, it’s simple yet profound. It invites so many questions, what are these eggs? Where are we? What is different with Professor X? And many, many more all within the confines of two pages. The icing on the cake is the invoking of that iconic line “To me, my X-Men.”. This page has become iconic and has been mimicked throughout the Krakoa era many times. It’s truly something special.

I could list many, many more examples of great first pages but I hope by now you get the general idea. First pages offer a unique opportunity for comic book creators to introduce us to their worlds, characters, and themes all within those first two pages. I should clarify that this isn’t a requirement for a great comic, plenty of amazing comics have forgettable first pages but by god is it effective when the stars align and creators craft a memorable first page (or two).

[linaket]

I keep seeing hopeful things about the revival of web serial writing after Dracula Daily took off and I really, really, really want to be on board with these. I mean, I wrote a thesis about this exact subject in 2013. I love serial writing. I REALLY DO. I actively chose to write my main story as a serial and not in a more "traditional" manner.

But you see, the problem is this: The sharks are already in the water, and the web serial industry has become toxic. If it ever wasn't.

I don't mean people using Substack or individuals at all. What I mean is that it's an entire industry already that, in the past several years, has kind of gone from bad to worst.

There is a general idea that web serial writing isn't as good as traditional publishing. Yeah, there's so much of it out there. There are a lot of people getting their start writing this way. But that doesn't mean that's the only people out here, even if there are a LOT of them.

However, it does mean there are a lot of hopeful writers just ripe to be taken advantage of.

The problem in the last few years has actually come from media conglomerates snapping up platforms left and right. Many of these are coming out of overseas markets, because web serials are HUGE there and have already proven to be profitable. Naver, which owns WEBTOON, also now owns Wattpad [link] Kakao acquired three platforms in the last year: Tapas, Wuxiaworld, and Radish. [link]

Webnovel is under Tencent. Here's a fun article about that.

and from that article:

Cultivating native writers

The huge success of a handful of Chinese stories has been great for the platforms, but also unpredictable and hard to replicate. Within China, the industry isn't just built on that. It's also about the thousands of B-list or amateur authors constantly pumping out new works to keep readers on the platforms.

To recreate that overseas, Chinese platforms have begun to cultivate non-Chinese writers. And the platforms have plenty of experience from the two decades of competing within China.

Emphasis mine.

These companies are predatory at best. Webnovel has a notoriously hellish contract. Authors are paid pennies and expected to "pump out" content, and those writers have to produce 500-1k words at least 5 times a week or be in breach of contract.

The kicker? Most don't retain the IP for their work, let alone moral rights.

While we often cite "to become a better writer, you must write," there is a point where the stress of the constant churn doesn't allow a writer to grow.

I've had friends get cut out of revenue shares for their work because, technically, it is considered contract work. You were paid what you were paid, and whatever profits come from that go to the company. Often this is done on a second season, or slipped into an amended contract.

Check the fine print on any of the contests. Most include something about entries only being able to be posted on that platform (see even The Wattys) which, understandable, but exclusivity is a low gate. It doesn't seem like a big deal until you're trapped behind it and at the mercy of whatever platform is holding your work.

And these larger companies often release massive waves of censorship.

Recently on Tapas, novels (and comics!) were shadowbanned from the app if they had the word "kiss" in the title. This was just weeks ago. If you search "kiss" on the Tapas app, the main way that the audience accesses the site, literally nothing comes up. Have a tweet about it:

[link]

It's the newest wave of censors that have been placed on the platform... and the platform has issued no statement on this. What other words are banned? Who knows? Well, omega is another one. But no one was told that. It's been a lot of trial and error among members of the community to find out if anyone can even find their stories anymore.

In the last few years, many of the more experienced authors I've met and highly respected on platforms just... left.

Does this mean that serial writing is dead in the water? Of course not.

I really, really hope not.

But if anyone out there is interested in taking that route, there's some pretty basic advice that everyone has heard:

read the TOC of a platform thoroughly before posting.

do not rely on a platform alone to share your work. you never know when something might happen, and suddenly your work will be unavailable. (this is one of the reasons that I run from exclusivity.)

plan to build your own audience, in your own way. Most platforms already have a niche, and that is what they are going to push more than anything.

understand that marketing is on you, just like any other kind of self-publishing route.

if your interested in becoming a "premium" author for the sites, read your contracts COMPLETELY. Even and especially renewals.

be wary if anything seems to good to be true when it comes to these large platforms. it probably is.

My experience, like everyone's, is obviously limited. I understand that. Personally? I loved platforms, and building communities on them with other writers, but I am finding it difficult to trust my work on them anymore.

I'm trying to figure out my own way now. I'm not sure what that's going to look like, but I'm trying to think of something. Because I haven't given up. I can't. I committed to writing my story as a series, and I'll finish it as such, because it is what is right for that story.

Let me know if you've got any ideas.