#I hope they release an art book someday

[waddles-ex-machina]

sooo a couple years ago I was lucky enough to attend an online webinar by the folks at mercury filmworks, and was extra happy to find they were using Hilda as their main example! I took a bunch of screenshots so I could make more detailed notes later, and turns out I still have them now. I figured it couldn’t hurt to share them here incase anyone’s interested, since it’s been some time and the webinar was originally open to anyone anyway

I don’t remember all the info given alongside but it’s mainly a breakdown of the pipeline of an episode, from first concepts to editing, with examples of design passes, layouts, how background files are separated out etc (also some rly useful notes about posing!!) super interesting stuff that really makes you appreciate the artistry behind the show

[eunnieboo]

IYHM ask replies!!

also, a current snapshot of my mind:

💛 burrito-puppy asked:

Love to see the progress and art you made along the years! Can’t wait for the release 💕💕💕

thank you so much! 💞💞💞 i can't believe it's less than a week away... i can count the number of days left on one hand! AHHHH

💛 Anonymous asked:

Listen. The way that I too am freaking out! Gah. So excited. Can't wait.

THANK YOU!! every day i wake up and i lose my mind LMAO... the only time i'm calm is when i'm distracted, so i can forget it's actually happening haha!

💛 mickiee-art asked:

Where have you been my entire life?? I love your work so much! So excited for your graphic novel release! 💕🫶🏼

thank you so much omg!! i'm so glad! 🥺💖

💛 tabsters asked:

YOO DUDE ONE OF THE PROTAGONISTS OF YOUR SAPPHIC GRAPHIC NOVEL IS VIETNAMESE??? I'M VIETNAMESE AND BISEXUAL AND YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THIS MAKES ME HSAKSHKAHSKAHSKAHSAKJ

AHHHHH i'm so thrilled to hear that!!! i live for these messages HFDSKDJHSK HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY

💛 Anonymous asked:

I just found your art today and after scrolling through your stuff I went and pre-ordered your book. I'm so excited!!

oh you are too kind!! ;_; thank you so much <3

💛 nimona-antifa asked:

WAITTT THE BLACK HAIRED CHARACTER IN IF YOU'LL HAVE ME IS A BUTCH LESBIAN? I THOUGHT IT WAS A DUDE OMG THEY'RE BOTH SO PRETTYYYYY FBFBDGD I'M GAY 💗💗💗 I seriously love your art its always so wholesome

HAHA OMG I LOVE THIS 😂 thank you!!! BUTCH LESBIANS FOREVER AND ALWAYS 💕💕

💛 albedosleftb0otych33k asked:

I don't know how but I only just found out about your graphic novel and OML! I WILL BUY IT THE SECOND IT COMES OUT! Anyways, I love your art and just wanted to tell you ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

omg thank you so much!! you are the sweetest! ( *´ω`*)♡

💛 jeweljupiter asked:

I just wanted to say seeing your art of Momo and PG makes me feel seen and heard I love the poc representation I’m a plus size dark skin nerdy black girl and seeing more women who look like me finding love gives me hope and makes me happy

when i tell you this means everything to me... it means everything to me. thank you forever T_T ❤️

-

i've been so focused on IYHM for the past couple months... now that the pub date is so close, i'm full of giddy anticipation and terrible dread. so thank you everyone for the love and well wishes! it's really getting me through it.

also, i wasn't sure how to announce this so i wanted to mention it while i'm here: Waterstones now has a special sprayed edge edition of IYHM! i got my copy a little while back and it's really gorgeous. if you like paperbacks i think the color is a lovely touch!

and as another reminder, i'll be having an in-person launch event next tuesday with Brick & Mortar Books in Redmond, WA! truthfully i'm torn between my desire to interact with people and my embarrassment at being seen in public, so please feel free to spare yourselves lmao 😭 i wasn't sure i'd do an event at all but i decided to try at least once before deciding if it's for me. so we'll see how it goes!

whew. the 17th is coming up so fast but i still have so many little tasks to do. the last time i talked about my busy schedule on here, someone sent me a message that said "you deserve a spa day," and i think about it all the time. maybe someday, anon. maybe someday...

[kingdomoftyto]

I've started and deleted three drafts now trying to get my thoughts into a coherent recommendation, but there's just so much.

Let's start with the basics: You should read the graphic novel if you're a fan of the original show. You just should. It's new content of your old faves, and I'm telling you now that the art and writing are great and that you should give it a shot based on that alone.

But as for exactly why I'm losing my mind over it this much...?

It... feels like watching the show. But a version of the show unafraid to explore its own worldbuilding. A version of the show where continuity and character growth matter. A version of the show without jokes written by people far too old to understand mid-2000s teens.

And it is actually, honest-to-goodness funny. I went in fully braced for a badly shoehorned "fruit loop" one-liner, and instead I got incredible deadpan asides like this:

The art, too, manages to perfectly ride the line of looking enough like the original style to be convincing, but improving on the expressiveness of the characters' faces and actions to elevate it to something arguably better than the show:

(Like, I'm being so serious when I say the fight scenes are among the best I have ever seen in comic form. I'm the kind of person who tends to go for anime over manga because the fights are harder for me to follow in little sequential snapshots, but I can tell exactly what's happening in these battles AND they still look super cinematic and cool.)

And the story. Man, the STORY.

I won't spoil any of the plot here, but it's... really good. A little winding and goofy toward the beginning, but once things get serious, it really grabs you and refuses to let go til it's done. (Much like the best episodes of the show! Funny how that works.) It has a satisfying conclusion, but it also leaves a massive door open to continue telling more stories in the setting.

And I want more stories in this universe. The threads being dangled here might be even more enticing than those left by the original show. There is potential here for an INCREDIBLE series of comics.

We just have to prove how badly we want it.

If you can't buy the book yourself right now (it's relatively cheap for a graphic novel--I think it was about $15 even with tax from my Barnes & Noble), then please at least let other fans know it exists (I wouldn't have had any idea if not for tumblr) and keep the hype going on social media. I'm stoked to see that DP is trending on tumblr, at least, and I hope the same is true elsewhere. It's a small thing, but it's something corporate decision-makers take note of.

Fingers crossed we get to see more someday. This is one series that deserves to come back from the dead.

But, whether or not we get that continuation: welcome back, Phandom. Congrats and happy release day. 💚

[kryptonbabe]

Superman: Earth One (2010) by J. Michael Straczynski & Shane Davis: A Review

Clark Kent is a reserved young adult, he's leaving his familiar Smallville for Metropolis, looking to find himself, build a life. With an anguished demeanor and sad eyes he navigates the big city unscathed, but never satisfied. There's a veneer of trauma to the story, Clark talks more with his dead father, Jonathan, than to anyone alive in the book. While his parents are pumped to have a superhero son, Clark just wants to give his mother a good life, after his father's passing, and to belong somewhere, anywhere.

This had so much potential bringing this different perspective to the Superman mythos, exploring all these heavier feelings we are more used to seeing in the origins of characters like Batman or Hulk. The thing is that while Batman and Hulk earn their angst, Clark's behavior feels unjustified. It's never clear how his otherness can be an obstacle, his abilities are always described as achievements, he's easily accepted everywhere he goes. He could be depressed and that would be interesting (what to expect when the most powerful being on the planet is not evil, but isn't hopeful at all?), but that is never really mentioned.

Clark's feelings are exposed in dialogues and monologues, but his wallowing seems out of place, his father's death is not traumatic, he had a healthy relationship with his parents, he's a genius, he's super strong, he can make a lot of money really fast, but hmm, I guess everybody always asks where is Superman, but no one ever asks HOW is Superman. He's just sad, and we must embrace this.

There's also a kind of mall goth / 2010s emo to this art style and dialogue, the moodiness, the angst, the aversion to primary colors, the Welcome to the Black Parade palette of the underdeveloped villain. As an emo kid myself, I'd probably have a much better time reading this in 2012, when all was new and darkness was inherently exciting. But now, as an elderly decaying millennial emo, I just feel like I need more than aesthetics to make me interested in a story, invested in a character.

The freezing cold take of "Clark Kent is the costume of Superman" was already old in 2010, this view was popularized by the Kill Bill vol. 2 movie, released in 2004, and it's an oversimplified perception of the character, one that considers certain aspects of his history while ignoring several others, lacking the nuance a character as old as Superman deserves. It's jarring to hear this coming from Clark's mother, at this point in the story he is not Superman yet, he doesn't even know if he will someday choose to wear the cape. When Martha says "the mask is what you'll have to wear the rest of the time" she's disregarding Clark's humanity, the life he lived so far, the bonds he might develop when he's not in Smallville anymore. All of this belittled in front of the bigger goal: to turn Clark into a Superman.

In the flashbacks the couple seem slightly manipulative, Jonathan and Martha's only subject with Clark is about him becoming Superman, which might explain why the boy feels so on edge, as if deep down he's trying to run away from this fate of becoming an all achieving force of nature their parents want him to become. It's his parents who give him the Superman name, the costume and the idea to become a superhero. Clark has so little agency in this story, acting resigned, his intentions vague, it's frustrating.

On a positive note, I really liked the fact that Superman destroys a giant spaceship on board his baby ship, (even though, how exactly he stops a world invasion happening in multiple locations with multiple vessels by destroying only one single ship is never explained), overall the baby ship was a nice touch, the science fiction logic of it was very interesting too.

Superman Earth One felt like a very hopeless post-9/11 Superman story, surface level deep, moody and often bleak, without any of the positive emotional impact of the character. The art is nice though and emo Clark is cute. But I need to cheer up now. Thanks for reading this!

[centrally-unplanned]

FLCLick Noise - Archival Scan

We should be a go!

[Internet Archive Link]

FLCLick Noise is a book published in 2010 that is a deep dive into the production of and creative influences that went into the 2000 anime FLCL by Studio GAINAX. Framed as a conversation between FLCL director and series lead Kazuya Tsurumaki, and FLCL character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the two creatives watch the show together and record their thoughts episode-by-episode, alongside a prologue and a “bonus track”. It is in Japanese, with primarily text and screenshots from the show for use as conversational reference, though there is some art as well (almost all of which is available elsewhere).

FLCL is pretty infamous as a show for its free-wheeling compositional style and loose production process; everyone involved was able to throw in visual ideas, dialogue, plot concepts, and so on. Additionally, FLCL slots pretty clearly into GAINAX’s “Otaku commentary” oeuvre - it is very much anime, *extremely* anime, it would be ludicrous to suggest otherwise; but in addition to being anime it was also a vehicle for the creative team to put in ideas and influences that they believed the anime industry was not utilizing at the time, such as its rock-album concept soundtrack or its josei/seinen manga inspired-character designs.

It is this backdrop that makes a book like FLCLick Noise simultaneously more valuable for understanding FLCL than most other shows, and even possible to exist in the first place. Much of it is fun asides, many of the creative decisions are personal whims, but there is so much to those whims that it is worth reading a book about them. If you want to answer the question “why does FLCL exist the way that it does”, this book will answer that question in more detail than any other source will.

Alas this is a complex and large book - I will aim to translate it someday, but I cannot guarantee neither the timeline nor the quality of that translation as I am by no means a professional in that regard. If you want to get a sample of what the book contains, anime-youtuber-extraordinaire Hazel quasi-coincidentally just released a video essay on FLCL that has an entire section on this book and its contents (I learned of this book from her tweeting about it during research for the video, so the timeline is not pure kismet). If you want the highlights and so much more, it is an amazing video. Meanwhile, I do hope to post a “raw text” version of the different sections somewhat soon, to assist those who do want to read it themselves and would find that would help with the translation.

As always, I hope this is a valuable addition to the ‘akashic record’ of 90’s-era anime history, and gives something special to the FLCL-heads out there like me.

(I'll tag @flclarchives for the two-for-one this week, if they don't mind! And I apologize for the scan quality here - I wanted to do it non-destructively, as this is not a large print run book, which meant my typical flatbed was a no go and the new overhead setup I used was a comedy of errors. Fortunately this is a book about reading text, and despite the errors it's all perfectly readable.)

[your-name-is-jim]

What a Kirk/Spock shipper sees in a Kirk/Female-Love-Interest story [PART 1/2]

[Part 2]

This is a pretty long post in two parts, so I hope you'll find it interesting. Don't worry, I shared a lot of pictures too! :)

First of all, what is it about?

An analysis about a 32-pages comic published in 2020 by IDW Publishing. More specifically, I'm talking about the Valentine's Day special from the comics series Star Trek: Year Five that I recommended here. The title of this story is Captains of Sea and War, and this is the official summary:

"James T. Kirk has had many loves during his mission among the stars, but this time he may have met his match in fellow Starfleet Captain Laura Rhone."

As I said in my review of Star Trek: Year Five, this Valentine's Day special is not linked to anything else in the main comics series. That means it can be read alone or, on the contrary, it can be skipped if you're only interested in the series (where Kirk doesn't have love interests, by the way).

Do I recommend this comic issue?

It depends on your preference! Just like the rest of Star Trek: Year Five series, the art is great and so is the characterization, at least most of the times. Jim is written as a romantic book lover and definitely not as a womanizer. However, if you only ship Kirk/Spock or you're not into Kirk romance with women in general, I believe you should avoid wasting your time and money. Just read my analysis if you're curious! :)

Why am I talking about this? And why as a Kirk/Spock shipper?

Good question. The short answer is that I read this comic and I have a lot of thoughts about it.

The long answer is that I love TOS Kirk and I'm interested in him as a character, romantic scenarios included. Since Kirk/Spock is my OTP, I can't suddenly take my slash goggles off, so I already knew before reading this comic that I'm not exactly the target audience and nothing is ever going to convince me that Spock isn't The One for Kirk. However, it was an interesting reading in multiple ways, so I'd like to say why!

I want to be 100% clear about my Kirk/Spock preference because even if I will try to talk objectively about the comic to a certain degree, this analysis is biased; if you don't like Kirk/Spock, this is NOT the post for you. That said, you may not see the point in a K/S shipper writing an analysis about a romance between Kirk and a female character, but… well, unless someday they'll release official Kirk/Spock comics, this is all we have.

There are two reasons why I read this story despite being pretty much a monoshipper when it comes to Kirk:

I had already read the main comics series and I liked it a lot, so I wanted to give this special a try.

I thought it was probably going to be okay, because in my headcanon Kirk and Spock don't actually get together until The Motion Picture. Kirk has a lot of love interests before that movie, so adding another one doesn't really bother me. It turned out (as I'll mention later) that I wasn't completely right about the era, but I take Star Trek comics as "extras", so I just ignore what I don't like.

Note: this analysis contains SPOILERS from the entire Valentine's Day special.

However, it does not contain spoilers from the main Star Trek: Year Five comics series. So, if you're planning to read that one, you're safe here! Just avoid this post if you don't want spoilers about the Valentine's Day issue.

Okay, are you ready? Let's go!

So, Jim is on shore leave with Bones. As you can see, the moment a pretty woman gets close to them, Bones leaves, because he's a great friend :)

We already know from the summary that the woman who talks to Jim is Captain Laura Rhone. Now, I'm already going to stop here to take a moment to at least appreciate the creators' effort: as someone interested in fictional writing, I must admit that creating a Valentine's Day special in 2020 about James T. Kirk finding love is an extremely hard task, to put it mildly. Seriously, if it can't be Spock (or the Enterprise :P), how the hell do you even do it? Are you going to give Jim another woman-of-the-week who's going to die? Another blond white woman? Another woman who forces him to choose between her and his ship? Or, on the contrary, a woman who'll choose for him and break up because she knows he wants the Enterprise?

NO.

Star Trek TOS was made in the 1960s, but we're in the 2020s now. Fans are tired to see always the same tropes with female love interests, and some of those tropes are just very outdated. So what does this comic do? Well, first of all, fixing what didn't work in Turnabout Intruder. Oh, let me get this straight: overall, I like Turnabout Intruder. I love the canon bodyswap, and I lost count of how many times I quoted "You are closer to the Captain than anyone in the universe" in my Kirk/Spock fan-fictions. However, there's no way that in the 2020s we're going to believe that a positive future means this:

In the Valentine's Day comic, Janice Lester still exists (she's mentioned once in a dialogue), but since Laura Rhone is a very good Starfleet captain around the same time, I believe we're now supposed to think that Janice was one crazy person who was never going to become a captain because of her personality and behavior, not because she's a woman. This is actually how I've always liked to mentally re-write this part of Turnabout Intruder in my head, because that's how I want to imagine it.

Anyway, back to the comic. Captain Laura Rhone is on shore leave too; she recognizes Captain James T. Kirk and she decides to introduce herself to him. She's very straightforward about her interest in him, so we immediately see that part of her personality.

Of course, the two captains can't enjoy their shore leave until the end. I'm posting this part to appreciate Bones in his beach clothes and Laura's very loyal Andorian officer who slips ("Laura! I mean, Ma'am!") when she sees her Captain in danger and oh whoops now I ship them. She doesn't remind me of anyone, I don't know what you're talking about.

Anyway, wrong ship. I'm obviously not following what the story is trying to tell me, because this is what happens next:

Just a moment to appreciate sleeping Jim. Cute.

So, after that night together, Jim and Laura don't see each other for 6 months. They meet again when the Drake, Laura's starship, has a battle against a group of space pirates and the Enterprise intervenes without consulting Laura first. Laura and Jim have a slight fight about that, but Jim apologizes, and it ends with them in bed again.

After that, because Jim is a romantic man, not a womanizer, and thank goodness the creators of this comic know, Jim asks Laura on a date. As they're walking together on a planet, Laura points out that they're doing things in the wrong order. Jim's reply is rather interesting: he asks her if they need to know what they're doing, and if there has to be a shape or a meaning to it. It's the first sign that even if they're both obviously attracted to each other, Jim is unsure about the kind of relationship he wants with her. When I think about his previous experiences, I believe it makes sense. He may be a romantic at heart, but he suffered so much for love that I can see why he's trying to be careful. There's also another reason, more related to the time this story takes place, which is a few months before the end of Jim's five-year mission. We see it here:

Ah, yes, a typical first date conversation: what Spock talks about. Well done, Jim. Saying "a friend of mine" doesn't make it less obvious; I did my Star Trek homework and I know you're quoting the basis of Vulcan philosophy to her :D

(Of course, now I won't stop imagining Jim casually mentioning Spock during every single date he has with someone… That would explain why his love stories never last…)

On a serious note, as I was working on this analysis I realized something extremely interesting about the context of Jim's lines. Jim is mentioning IDIC when he's questioning his future as a starship captain. He remembers that Spock talks about Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, but Jim can only do one job. However, what will Spock tell him someday, right next to an IDIC flag?

Now, I don't know if the people who worked on the Valentine's Day comic really thought about this, but I think it's still, well, fascinating that Jim is using Spock's words to think about his own future, but he's following the wrong direction. I believe it's also worth pointing out that Spock will tell Jim that commanding a starship is his "first, best destiny" years after finding his own place in the universe. On the contrary, during the time this comic takes place, Spock is busy with his own inner distress.

Anyway, that's enough Spock for now. Back to Jim's first date with Laura…

So, I started this analysis with a question: how the hell do you write a love story with TOS Kirk in 2020? This is the way this comic tries to answer: you create a female character just like him.

Okay, they look cute together. Laura loves being a starship captain! She loves reading! And dancing! And climbing!

Wait, wait, wait. I appreciate the inclusion of Jim Kirk's canon hobbies. I really do! But aren't we forgetting one?

This is interesting. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but this makes me think that they didn't want Laura to have something in common with Spock. Spock is the character who plays chess the most in TOS, so I can see why the creators of the comic didn't want the readers to think about Spock instead of thinking about Jim's girlfriend. That would be too bad, huh? :)

There's also horseback riding missing, but that doesn't appear until the movies, so even if I personally believe that a farm boy like Jim learned how to ride horses when he was young, I can see why they skipped it in this comic. It's also mostly associated to another love interest (Antonia from Generations), but if this is the reason they didn't want to show Jim and Laura riding a horse, I'm just going to think even more that the lack of chess is suspicious, and they're counting Spock as one of the "girlfriends".

On the other hand, since horseback riding is associated to starship captains in TOS and TNG (I don't know about the other Star Trek TV series because I haven't watched them yet), I think it would have been a good idea to have one panel with Jim and Laura riding.

That said, if I had to make a guess about the real reason the comic doesn't show horses… I'm a doctor writer, not an artist, but I believe that drawing horses can be a pain in the ass, so in this comic they just didn't bother haha

Anyway, back to the plot! As I said, Jim and Laura's personalities are very alike. Of course, that doesn't mean they're perfect for each other, but I admit that this premise made me curious when I read this comic. Let's find out if it works out!

I'm posting this picture because of the book Laura is holding: first of all, this is where the title of this story, Captains of Sea and War, comes from. But it's also important to remember the book. You'll see why in Part 2. :)

So, two months later, Jim and Laura trust each other as captains without even talking:

We see Laura's other friend, probably her first officer, trying to warn her, just as Spock does on the Enterprise. I'm taking a little moment to appreciate "Noted, adored, and ignored, Commander", because it's really sweet. Imagine Jim telling this to Spock :D

So, the captains are right, and everything is good, because…

Okay, okay, wait a minute.

Apparently, one of the good things of this relationship is that Jim and Laura make a good team together. They don't even need to communicate to understand each other during a mission. Now… I don't even need to put my K/S goggles on to say that Jim and Spock are canonically one of the best teams in Starfleet, if not The best team. You don't need to ship them to know how many times they understand each other without words in the series, how many times they make plans and just know what the other will do, how many times Spock hears/sees someone that should be Jim and just knows something is wrong, and so on. Of course, as a Kirk/Spock shipper, reading in a Valentine's Day special that making a good team is good for Jim's love life makes me happy!

"Yep. All that sex didn't go to waste."

Jim. Jim. Are you saying that you and Laura are a good team in Starfleet because you had a lot of sex? I'm not even going to say what this makes me think as a K/S shipper… Did I say that Kirk and Spock are the best team? :D

Okay, okay, maybe it's not the same. Because Spock is a man, and Jim isn't attracted to men… right?

Ahem. I lost my mind when I read this for the first time, and I'm going to lose it again.

"There don't seem to have been many ladies in your life. Gentlemen, either." "Well, I've been busy."

Now, let's be honest here: Laura's lines didn't have to be phrased that way. We know Jim likes women, so even nowadays nobody would bat an eye at "there don't seem to have been many ladies in your life"; and if you're the writer of a very heterosexual comic who wants to avoid K/S shippers like me thinking "hehehe, because Jim has a man in his life", you can still write something neutral like "there don't seem to have been many lovers/romantic partners in your life". Or just a generic "it looks like you haven't been on many dates lately".

Laura mentioning "gentlemen" explicitly can make some readers think that men are an actual option for Jim. (Me, I'm "some readers".) Sure, it's not a confirmation, but Jim doesn't deny it. He just says he's been busy. There is room for interpretation in multiple directions, but even if I put my personal preference aside, I think it's important to remember something: in context, in this part of the story, Laura knows Jim. We've seen in a previous panel that they've done a lot of things together. Laura is not a stranger who may say "you don't have a girlfriend… or a boyfriend" because they don't know Jim. Personally, I think it's very likely that Laura asks about ladies and then adds gentlemen because she knows Jim is bisexual with a preference on women. It fits my headcanon for him. (Of course, he can be into anyone, not just men and women, and he has a preference for women because hasn't tried dating Spock yet :D)

Anyway, the other thing that panel points out is that neither captain would give up on their own starship. Well, that's fair.

Okay, okay, I'll be serious: Jim sacrifices the Enterprise in The Search for Spock during an emergency. Of course, it's definitely not a coincidence in the narrative that said emergency happens because Jim is looking for Spock's body. However, we all know how much Jim loves the Enterprise and how bad he feels without a starship, so it's only fair that in normal circumstances, he shouldn't be forced to give up on his "silver lady".

Laura understands that they're the same, so...

This is another thing I appreciated! Who cares about gender norms, a woman can propose to James T. Kirk! :D

Now, just as I said about the "gentlemen" line, it's important to think about the context of this proposal. When the two of them are drinking together, Laura says "I've been asking around about you". That means Jim and Laura's relationship is still casual, to the point that she could have expected him to have flings with other people too. Honestly, this is just my opinion, but I'm not even sure I'd call it exactly an open relationship, because that would still imply a relationship in the first place. I'm mostly referring to the fact that Laura has been asking around about Jim's love life instead of just, you know, asking him? I believe that if they trusted each other and were in an open romantic relationship, either they wouldn't care about each other's partners or they would just talk about it. Since Laura wants to marry Jim and have an exclusive relationship with him, it makes sense for her to bring up Jim's love life. However, I can't really help side-eyeing that "I've been asking around".

Am I reading too much into this? It's possible, but this is another clue about their dynamic that I'll mention later in the story.

Sooo, Laura asks Jim to marry him. What does Jim answer?

Unfortunately, I reached Tumblr limitations of the number of pictures I can share, so… you'll find out in Part 2!

If you're reading my analysis for the Kirk/Spock shipper's point of view, I especially recommend the second half, because that's where things get more interesting! :D

I hope you enjoyed the first part of this analysis! Thank you for reading until the end! See you soon!

Part 2!

[zkwoodrow]

I should probably make an introduction oops..

Hello!! My name is Khrisz but by pen name I go by z.k woodrow (or just z.k)!

I am a 16 year old genderqueer person with a passion for storytelling and art. I aspire to become a YA horror author someday in the future!! I've been drawing digitally for around 5-6 years.

SO! What is there to expect from me?

• I am currently working on my first YA horror book: THE NEW NORMAL which has started its official first draft on March 31st of this year (2023) and WILL include illustrations drawn by me! :) I don't go by a schedule, so the date for this books release is a mystery of the future! But fear not, for I will be giving out updates from time to time ^_^!

• On the side of art, I occasionally draw characters from my book(s) and I'm mostly original content centered. Though I also SOMETIMES draw fandom artworks (Current hyperfixiation is The Spirit Bares Its Teeth and Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White)

• My works heavily rely on symbolism! I like to work with animal symbolism the most. Though surely other topics will appear later on!

• And finally, A summary of all the projects I work on/will work on in the future:

- THE NEW NORMAL: Story about an autistic and intersex teenager who believes in monsters and looks up to "the humans" despite not being one. Her brother gets mysteriously kidnapped so she sets out into the world to bring him back. But her beliefs get challenged as the line between human and monster blurs... (YA HORROR NOVEL WITH ANIMAL SYMBOLISM ABOUT HUMANS THAT ARE TRULY MONSTERS AT HEART)

- KING OF CROWS(UNDECIDED TITLE): Story about a semi/non-verbal boy born into a strict (and somewhat abusive) catholic household who lives in a christian neighborhood with a few trouble making friends. Then the "angels" come and the world erupts into armaggedon...teens develop powers and everything they've ever been becomes a thing of the past as they try and not become 'saints'. (CONCEPT YA HORROR NOVEL ABOUT RELIGIOUS TRAUMA)

- TO ESCAPE BY A "HARE": Story about a boy with unusual rabbit-like ears who lives with his overly protective mother in an isolated house in the woods. His mother says the outside world is dangerous and he must stay at home. A few "bad apples" show up on his yard and tell him he's in danger living in his house. Then he starts seeing ghosts that beg to be freed and are thirsty for revenge. (CONCEPT YA HORROR NOVEL ABOUT THE ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A MOTHER AND SON)

- BIRDCAGE (UNDECIDED TITLE): Story about a 16 year olds car crashing down in the forest so they are forced to stay the night in a strangers house who has dreams of becoming a well known artist. Soon they realize they can't leave, and find themself stuck in a cycle of torture with the painter who is mentally un-well. After 2 years of torture, a mysterious car pulls up in the driveway. It's the MC's car. (CONCEPT YA PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR NOVEL WITH A TIME PARADOX PLOT)

That's all there is for now! I hope you stick around!

-z.k

[sliceoflove]

Ok why are all the art in Digimon TCG are so good

I hope someday they’ll release some sort of art book. These are too good

[deusexmachinawitch]

★. Welcome to my Universe

Satella ✦ 25+ ✦ Cancer ☼ ✦ Europe ✦ She/They ✦ Bisexual ✦ INTJ ✦ Asian European ✦ Neurodivergent ✦ Spoonie

Likes: Anime & Anime ✦ Videogames ✦ Self-care ✦ Anything purple or pink ✦ Animals ✦ Books ✦ Chocolate ✦ Spirituality content ✦ Esoterism ✦ Digital Art ✦ Aromatherapy ✦ Gardening ✦ Anything that smells like lavender, vanilla or both combined

Dislikes: Coffee ✦ Tobacco ✦ Cockroaches ✦ Mess/Germs ✦ Rude people who claim they sarcastic ✦ Closed minded people ✦ Limiting beliefs or people who push their limiting beliefs on others ✦ Victim mentality ✦ Abusers ✦ Pranksters (Not everyone has your "humor") ✦ Entitlement ✦ People who undermine others

This is my personal blog to share my journey with manifestation, law of assumption and witchcraft.

I mostly reblog to not lose good resources but I'll be sharing my LoAss path with you all.

I really hope I can give back to this wonderful community someday.

Asks ☆ Open

DMs ☆ Open

• Please tag your trigger warnings.

• Do NOT trauma dump.

• I don't mind giving advice about LoAss but I'm not a therapist.

• Do not harass.

• Everyone's LoA journey and techniques are different, please respect everyone's views as long they are not hateful or harmful.

Main Techniques:

Scripting, Revision, Affirmations, SATS, Lullaby Method, Alter Ego effect, Subliminals, Breathwork with Visualization, Mental Diet.

Currently trying to manifest:

• SP (Reconciliation, Living Together, Commitment to Marriage)

• Successful career (Artist, Youtuber, Streamer, Expanding my current career to be highly respected and getting my way with things)

• Rich Mother and her getting remarried to the man of her dreams

• Home of my dreams

• Healthy pets

• Desired appearance (Weight loss, thin legs, v-shaped face, glass skin, firm bust and non-noticeable eye bags)

• Being spoiled (skin and beauty products, new clothes, any electronic device I want, merchandise, etc)

• Privileged Life (Princess treatment, Nepobaby, etc...)

• Better Health.

• Desired skills (Speak the languages I want like a native, ballet dancing, telepathy, etc).

• Magical Notebook that Manifests everything that is written in it

My Rules/Affirmations:

WIP

Friends/Blogs I enjoy:

@starbursts777 ✦ @midnightbish ✦ @blushydior ✦ @fleurlx ✦ @lotusmi ✦ @nonbinarydeity ✦ @qinraijin ✦ @charmedreincarnation ✦ @miracledarling ✦ @pearlygrace ✦ @iamthat-iam ✦ @magic-irl ✦ @angeltearsxoxo

My Law of Assumption Posts:

☆ You are a Deus Ex Machina

☆ The Monarch Butterfly

☆ 【何となく, なんくるないさ • nantonaku, nankurunaisa】 - Somehow, You Will Become It

☆ Manifestation and Mental Health

My success stories:

☆ How I revised my abusive mother into becoming a caring mother

☆ Angry roommate calming down and behaving nicely + Manifesting all of my close friends in one place even though they didn't know each other

☆ Desired appearance + Free Trip + Sudden Gifts + Making my SP jealous because I got everyone's attention on me instead of him/me having an extreme glow up during my time off while he looked rough + Invitation to an exclusive gaming party

☆ Manifesting McDonalds chicken nuggets as a manifesting exercise and ending up with 25 McDonalds chicken nuggets out of the blue lol

☆ Ridiculous cheap/free beauty products + perfect notebook for Law of Assumption + Mom buying me a pink tarot deck

☆ Roommates cleaning the whole house because I affirmed I was going to have a chill day while waiting for a game release + Having a full active Splatoon 3 team

☆ Insane luck in an anime gacha game, getting all playable characters' SR cards in just 3 days from the game opening service

☆ My Mom buying me a fancy pink tarot deck and 3 oracle decks our of the blue + My Mom suddenly buying me two other oracle decks randomly while the package with the other card decks are still on the way

☆ A Trip to Paris (Note: Trip currently postponed due to the Paris riots)

☆ Reconciling with my younger brother after 3 years of NC because he disrespected me (he apologized)

☆ A mole on one of my breasts

Results from Challenges:

☆ 3DOLC + ROE + 12 hr Movement Challenge (Birthday Edition 2023) 

Witchcraft skills:

Cartomancy, Spell Work, Kitchen Magic, Crystals, Dream Interpretation, Pendulum.

Tarot Decks:

Dark Forest Pink Vintage Tarot (Soon)

Currently NOT doing readings or other type of spell work.

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia Chapter 429 Spoiler Talk: The Penultimate Chapter

So here it is. The second to last chapter of My Hero Academia. Unless Horikoshi gives us a sequel series like Naruto: Shippuden, this and the next chapter is the last we'll get manga content about MHA. Well, at least until Horikoshi gives us another Ultra Analysis book or an art book with extra information. It's still hard to believe honestly. I don't know if I'll be able to accept that our beloved series is ending until it actually does. Let's see what Horikoshi-sensei gives us until then. Also, my health isn't 100% today, so I apologize if my writing sounds messy:

First off is our last Weekly Shonen Jump and Chapter color pages! They are absolutely beautiful celebrating both the 10th anniversary and My Hero Academia as a whole. Everyone is smiling and it's a wonderful sight to see. I won't show them here because I think they deserve to be seen with your own two eyes. Let's just say that I love them and I can't wait to get the HQ versions of them when the official release comes out. Just know that you can tell Horikoshi put a lot of love into these pages.

From here on out, I think I'm just going to talk about what I thought of the chapter because I'm not 100% down to type everything out tonight. Sorry about this:

I think the chapter was another solid one, though it somehow still doesn't feel like the series is ending yet for me.

I'm glad we got to see Ochako and Deku talk about not being able to save their respective villains because we all know how badly this was haunting them. Neither of them would have been able to move on and genuinely smile again until they got that all out to someone who understood. Thankfully, they have each other 💚💖. I'm also really glad Deku told Ochako she was his hero and let her take her hand. This is the closest we'll probably get to an actual romantic confession from either of them unless Horikoshi does something for them in the last chapter. The thing is, it works because this wasn't the time for a love confession. This was a time for two broken people to talk their trauma out and get reassurance from someone close to them.

Really sad to hear that Himiko Toga did die. Granted it was from Ochako's dialogue and we didn't see any panel with her body drawn, but we can really only take her word for it now. Horikoshi could absolutely pull a fast one on us and show a glimpse of her alive in the final chapter. However, I think it's safe to say that she is dead and that honestly sucks.

I love the slice-of-life panels we get of the rest of the kids and seeing Aizawa smile is beautiful! He's so proud of his kids 🥹.

Monoma getting a statue at the school and bragging about it is fucking hilarious 🤣! He honestly deserves it though because the whole world would've been dead if not for him. Deku better get a statue too or else I'm going to throw hands.

Eri excitedly singing at Aoyama's farewell party is the most wholesome thing I've seen in a very long time and I truly hope she achieves her dream someday 🤍! Make her the best idol in the world, Horikoshi!

Finally, there's that mysterious man we saw a few chapters ago. We still don't know his name, but we're told he was abused and abandoned by his family because he has a mutant Quirk similar to how Eri's Quirk in the sense that neither of their Quirks were inherited by their family's DNA. He looked like he was going to walk down a similar path as Tenko, but the old lady who first ignored Tenko many years back found this new man and finally offered him a hand thanks to Izuku's inspiration. This is sort of a redemption for the old lady. I know that she was a catalyst for why Tenko became who he became, but I think this is a start for her to start over at least. Thankfully, I think this man is going to be ok.

I remember reading the interviews Horikoshi did over the past week and one of the things he said he wanted to express was that even someone having your back is heroism. Someone who can do something so simple as reaching their hand out when someone is in need is a hero to that person. You can tell that that is what Horikoshi is telling us here. He also said that making us cry was an important part of the story too because it's how he wants us to connect with it, so I expect to shed tears next week.

So, yeah. That's the second to last chapter of the main My Hero Academia manga. It still doesn't feel real to me. The final page of the chapter left things open-ended, so I would not be surprised if we got a time skip of some sort in the final chapter. I honestly thought that Horikoshi was setting up one more villain for the kids to fight with that mysterious man, but it was wrapped up in a very simple yet poignant way. I will agree that it feels rushed and that there's something missing, but I can't pinpoint what. Horikoshi's been writing and drawing this manga for 10+ years at this point, so I can't entirely blame him for wanting to finish things up. However, I'm a little more nervous about him sticking the landing for the ending. While I think he can still do it, I've seen too many mangaka end their story on a bad note for one reason or another. Our best bet is that he revises or adds some things to make the chapter better in the volume version. I'm going to do my best to keep my optimism alive for the next few weeks.

I honestly can't begin to accurately predict how the manga will end. I could see it ending with the kids continuing their lives at UA, at graduation, or as pro-hero adults maybe with families of their own. Honestly, anything goes. Part of me wants to be here when the chapter might get leaked next Wednesday, but another part of me wants to wait until next Sunday for the official VIz release so I can read and cry together with everyone else. I think I am going to try to do the latter and then write some kind tribute to honor the series, but I may or may not be out of town next week, so I'll have to see about that.

One more chapter left.

[canmom]

If I may gush: what you've written so far of VECTOR is spectacular. The writing has (in the best way) the brutality & intensity of a flesh wound. The worldbuilding feels like someone stuck the gay eldritch futurism of 'This is How you Lose the Time War,' the superpowered wish fulfillment of the Nemisis series, & the bleak horror-erotica of Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt in some sort of biopunk flesh-blender, and yet it somehow works? I understand ADHD's a bitch, but I hope there's more someday

waa, thank you so much! I really truly appreciate that... despite not having read any of the things you compare it to ^^' (I assume you don't mean the 2000AD comic Nemesis The Warlock?) - that said, Time War is on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading it v much tho...

I was actually rereading parts of VECTOR recently. It would be good to pick it back up again. I will not be able to be in the exact headspace I was when I wrote the first 'book', so it will probably feel a little different from the first, but that's OK! I'm still me.

To talk a little about how the sausage isn't made, I had been planning on doing a re-edit pass of the whole story, maybe getting some input from friends knowledgeable about writing. That kind of never quite worked out and it's been several years since then. At this point I'm probably going to leave it largely as-is and focus on writing new chapters. It's a web serial, after all, people know what's up.

The other problem I had was thinking up new names for the segments ^^' Where do you go once you reach the head of the bug? I came up with what felt like a really good answer the other day, but I struggle to remember what it was now - some other trio of cool words from biology. Maybe it was cell division, 'segment MITOSIS' or something like that. (So much VECTOR is driven by the love of cool science words...)

I plan on releasing some of my other short stories in the meantime. Pocket Healer is the most VECTOR-like - still needs a final chapter. In fact, let me make a list. Consider this a teaser...

A Summoning - short story, finished, submitted to Strange Horizons, maybe they'll get back to me sometime this year...

The General's Worm - short ero story, finished, just needs cover art

Pocket Healer - short story, nearly finished, but needs a good ending and cover art for itch.io release

Thirty Years - linear twine, essentially finished, needs final polish for itch.io release, a better title

Sword Story (working title) - web-based visual novel, collab with @velocityvsreality who made some wonderful UI art and character portraits. we got off to a good start and it's honestly one of my fave stories I've written, but a lot more needs to be done if we resurrect this project!

Flower of Heaven - actually a spinoff of VECTOR! interactive fiction, the presentation needs a lot of work

Worm Queen - short mythologically styled story, about half finished.

[walkawaytall]

Look, I’m going to make an observation that is absolutely raining on the parade that is that Han and Leia children’s book that’s being released in December below the cut, so if you want to avoid me being a hater about something, just…don’t look, I guess? It’s not that deep; there are no egregious crimes being committed by anyone, so you really don’t need to look if you don’t want to.

Okay, so I’ll compliment sandwich this thing: the art looks really cute and I’m tempted to buy the book based solely on the cover and the knowledge that there’s apparently more cute artwork in the book.

However.

This is what I mean when I say the people involved with Star Wars can’t decide what they want Star Wars to be. Because it is unhinged behavior to have a children’s book in which an engaged couple explains what love is to a bunch of baby audience surrogate Ewoks, only to have that couple traumatically separate from one another in a movie that the children will eventually watch. Like, the only people buying this book for actual children will be parents who are raising their kids on Star Wars, and even if the parents are Original Trilogy purists, that Disney+ “Play Next” button will someday get bumped and they’ll be watching old versions of the couple who defined love in a children’s book painfully dance around the topic of their Space Divorce.

Who is this for?

(“Who is this for?” is honestly a very valid question that could be asked of like 70% of the franchise at this point because the tonal whiplash one experiences trying to navigate the various series and movies and books is bonkers and it’s all because some of the creators seem to just want maximum dramatic impact at all times regardless of the implications involving character dynamics and the original overarching message of “hope and friendship and selfless love conquer all” that the Lucas-era stuff generally had, while others seem to want to focus more on said character dynamics and that overarching message of hope and they’re all supposed to mesh somehow.)

Uhhh…I did promise a compliment sandwich so I need to end this on something positive…the idea sounds absolutely adorable in a vacuum! Or if one ignores all Disney-era movies (but not Disney-era books, because this children’s book is basically an expanded excerpt from a book that was just an advertisement for the now-closed Galactic Starcruiser Hotel). It’s just weird as all heck in the larger context of the existing canon and franchise.

[oflightningandstars]

AO3 Tag Game!

I was tagged by @mvshortcut and @nobodysdaydreams, thank you both!

How many works do you have on AO3? 15! One of them is fanart, the rest are fics

What’s your total AO3 word count? 27,079

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

3 (the obligatory 4 if you count MBS show and books separately). Nimona, Undertale, and Mysterious Benedict Society! (I've partially written or at least thought about fic in some other fandoms but haven't published anything).

Top five fics by kudos:

(Stuffed) Sharks Have No Bones

Strands of Dead Cells with Sentimental Value (tie)

This head is a hospital, someone please tend to it. (tie) (linked later in the post)

Mysterious Benedict Sleepover (fanart)

Kate comes out to their dad and it is wonderful

and because there was a tie and also one of the entries was fanart, Though heavy hang my eyes with sleep, my singing soul, it cries to thee

(Stuffed) Sharks is fun to me because it is my oldest fic, so it kind of makes sense for it to have the most kudos, but I wrote it several years before the Nimona movie was released and there was a noticeable uptick in people reading it, which was absolutely wild to see since typically I write for MBS which is a small fandom.

Do you respond to comments?

I try!

What’s the fic with the angstiest ending you’ve ever written?

Hmm. I definitely try to aim for hopeful endings, so even though things aren't fixed by the end of either This head is a hospital, someone please tend to it. or you're going too fast, you'll burn up soon, things are definitely looking up for Kate. I like to write Kate angst if you couldn't tell.

Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, but I'm not opposed to it! - that being said, I have some crossover-y art ideas that someday I will actually draw.

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

No thank goodness. I would almost certainly cry.

Do you write smut?

In theory I'm open to it, in practice I don't really.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, and I very much hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, it would be very cool. I have thought about trying to translate one of my own before but have never actually tried it.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I must say, I do enjoy a good ship, but I'm not sure I have an all-time favorite? Different ones are special to me for different reasons. But I might have to answer Korrasami because their relationship and the ending of the show were so so important to me as a queer kid who was just starting to figure that out.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

Ough. I don't want to put any of my Space Opera AU stuff in this category because that would make me sad. So I will just say I have a number of partially-written fics that I forget about and who knows if I will actually finish them.

What are your writing strengths?

I am contractually obligated to answer this question, I am contractually obligated to answer this question, I am contractually obligated...

Jokes aside, I think I have interesting ideas, and there are certain flavors/styles of description I enjoy writing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing the fic. Getting into the writing zone, especially lately.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I think it's interesting! I would probably be too anxious to do it, no matter how well I knew the other language (though to be fair I google words and phrases in English to double check that they are things people say)

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

My friends and I plotted and partially wrote Doctor Who fanfic in the format of a season of the show/episode scripts, so I think Doctor Who. The first fandom I published a fic for was Nimona.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

oooh this is hard, I like so many of them for so many different reasons.

Every time I type out an answer, I go "wait, actually maybe a different one?"

Maybe 'you're going too fast, you'll burn up soon' because it took me so long to write but I'm so proud of it

Tagging: anyone who wants to!

[pistachiozombie]

Hi hiiii Just wanted to hop on to say your art is absolutely gorgeous, and your animations give me motivation to start learning animations (ive been putting it off for so longgg). Like thye are literally so cute and smooth and <333 Your oc's are so so so CUTEE and i checked out your comic!! I lOVE how you draw Bilbo (i may be a bit biased, he is my favourite-est boi ever) and honestly, everyone. I forgot the elf dude's name (im so sorry i have trash memory, i forget my own oc's names AH) but his design is awesome!! LOVE how you do lineart and shading btw, it is so nice to look at! I mean, all of your art is really nice to look at, i just wanna gobble it up.

Do you think you'd be down to draw some more Bagginshield someday? If not, I will still gobble up your art, Leanna and Bofur are so adorablee. I used to not be into oc's as much but your art got me into Oc's a lot ngl!

Sooo hmmm that's all :D Love your art, hope you have a good day :D

Oh my goodness hello! Thank you so much for such a thoughtful and kind message! Waking up to this definitely helped me get started with my day a little faster. ♥ I wish you luck on your animation endeavors! It's intimidating and redundant at first, but once you get your own flow going, it comes to you naturally. I highly recommend "Animators Survival Kit". Have you seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit? A classic, but same animator shows you how it's done in that book. Very good resource for 2D animators. Growing up with Disney and Don Bluth, I ended up fawning over strictly 2D animation and not tweened, puppeted or rigged. Equal work goes into all forms of art, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to enjoy that style as much as I want to. It just isn't for me. But that doesn't mean it won't click with you! Try all sorts of different ways of animation and see what you like most. Try not to get frustrated when it doesn't come out looking like [*insert any Spirited Away scene*] at first. As for the comic, thank you! I can't wait to post more pages and show you Sven's history of pain and suffering :D Partially kidding, but there is a lot to come so I hope you are looking forward to that as well! Maybe one day it will get popular enough to release plushies omg

I'm always down to draw Bagginshield, but don't get requests often to do so, and a lot of you out there have already done some wonderful art of them that I would have a hard time thinking of a pose that hasn't already been done lol! It also explains why I am in sort of a uninspired Bofur x Leanna hibernation ;-;

Cheers to you♥

[mcalhenwrites]

A break from social media and how I use it has really been good for me. I need to be careful not to be sucked back in again. I should aim to mostly just post updates, but I do want to talk about my characters/writing as well. I will continue promoting my book, and ofc my Patreon and KoFi which are both "MCalhen" ;) I've been thinking about taking most (not all) of my fics and original works out of the private collection on AO3. I have a dilemma with one fandom (it's a nightmare circus of drama and several authors were chased out or hurt well before me), but I hope to eventually have the nerve to overcome that and say, "Too bad, you have to put up with the existence of my writing alongside yours. Get over it." Another thing is that Rascal isn't coming out of the collection. I plan to delete it. It's getting edited, I'm adding a couple of scenes I think would benefit the storytelling, and I'm publishing it. :) I'm on the fence about whether or not to release the original Seasons with comments closed, bc while it might be fun to compare it to the new one... so many things have been improved. Maybe it's also important to realize that if someone is that fixated on saying an earlier draft is permanent, that's a them issue and has nothing to do with me. A lot of my current WIPs are divided between if I'm going to publish them or post them on AO3. I have a few that I'm uncertain about either way. I want to share some work for free, and I have some stuff that's dark enough, self-publishing isn't much of an option right now. Note that when I promote my patreon and kofi, it's for original writing and art. No fanfic or fanart. The only link it has to AO3 is that I draw sketches of things from original stories posted to AO3. I will never post commercial links to the site, as that is against TOS. Seasons will always be free. Which leads to another thought: I wonder if I could get away with crossposting it to any sites? (I considered fictionpress.) I'm feeling better and want to keep sharing my work. I want to keep monetizing some of it. I want to be an author. I also really want to share things for free. Seasons is one of those stories that resonates a lot with people, and I know how badly I've always needed a story like that told. It's why I write, is to tell stories I need. But that one is... uniquely special and personal. I always want it to be accessible without any paywall. But I still need to make a living. So some books will be sold. Some will not. Just slap me if I ever get to be one of those big names who thinks I can do whatever I want, like those people on AO3 who say that they won't update their fics unless you pay them on patreon. (That's something you report to AO3 as a violation btw) I don't know where a good place to ramble about my stories is - probably here, since people can send me asks about characters and stories - but I'd like to do that, bc I enjoy doing it. :'D Anyway, I have my goals mostly figured out. Maybe someday I can post more of my work without hiding it away (yes, what you see is a fraction of what I write). Maybe I can also publish and make enough money to afford things I need, including a house with a yard and garden.

[centrally-unplanned]

Lets talk about the Jimbocho book haul! This was a vacation, not a research trip or anything, so I didn't have set goals - instead I just explored and found things that looked interesting or were attached to my interests and seemed “cool” to own. And that strategy worked surprisingly well:

I will as always highlight just a few of them - if you want me to deep dive one of them, shoot me a message. First up we have the "Erotic Newspaper '97 Highlights", a completely-out-of-nowhere find.

Which right out the gate, really pushing my limits here on the "getting banned" front; I don't even know the rules anymore. Made by the circle 児童販売鬼/Juvenile Sales Demon (!), it is this style of “doujin omnibus” that was decently common in the earlier areas and is sometimes still made today; blending essays, personal rants, art, and full comics, often even on to the same page. And of course, this is about ero-doujin, so that blend gets pretty intense sometimes!

But as an “anime fandom “ researcher documents like these are absolute gold mines. The opening page discusses the late 90’s “bubble” in ero-doujin publications, possible legislative action against hentai being discussed that everyone is worried about, and even has that classic otaku identity tic of politicizing their own identity, mentioning a “Rights for Eromanga!” slogan going around (which it cautions against). It seems like a great biased-but-expansive view of the state-of-play in eromanga circles at the time, which few other documents can give you. Primary sources, baby.

Additionally, amoung its topics it has some sections about Evangelion:

And even a section on Utena:

Yeah that entire bottom corner's just... it just has got to go. I am unsure if this is something I will ever scan - its really niche, and being a porn archivist is not really my goal. But I hope to do a full read and post a summary someday.

Next up in a similar vein, I have a copy of Fanroad Magazine from 1996!

Fanroad Magazine was similar to the Comic Box magazine I have discussed before, in that it collected art & essays from fans about the shows of the day and gave them a place for their voice to be heard. Before the internet this was the only real way to do that en masse; by the 2000’s these magazines would almost all die out as social media replaced them. Fanroad was one of the most popular, having highly structured sections, detailed questionnaires for submitters, in-jokes, the works. And of course this edition was a bit of a targeted buy, as the cover surely gives away - Fanroad released a few issues focused on Evangelion, and this is one of them:

I might scan this one, but first I will give it a read and see how interesting the takes are - it had so much cute fan art though, valuable for that alone.

Next up is a very quick and personal one: Comic Cue Vol 4. Which…what even is this, I imagine you are thinking:

Comic Cue was an off-beat one-shot manga anthology magazine that ran through the 90’s into the 2000's, often focusing, not on hentai, but that middle-ground “erotically charged” narrative stories or comedy shots. Its covers were often just insane - no clue why this cover is in English, none of the magazine is. This one is of interest to me, however, because amoung Volume 4’s submissions is:

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Dirty Work one-shot. Yep, thats right, from the random-deep dive essay I put together analyzing a single line of dialogue Sadamoto wrote for Mamimi in FLCL. Now I own the fucker. That's cool! I like that. I am really proud of that essay due to how much I learned from it, writing about a topic whose specificity seemed like it would be impossible to get that much out of; so owning the actual manga is it centered on feels special.

Speaking of niche Ash-writing references!

We have “Girl’s Life on the Flat Battlefield”, the Kyoko Okazaki Artbook made for an exhibit done on her back in 2015, the cover of which I featured in my essay about the proper translation of “battlefield” from River’s Edge. This is an amazing book in its own right though - its content is so diverse. It has essays from her and from other writers about her work that I hope to read. It has beautiful art compositions and solo pieces:

It has recreations of the actual drafts of her manga as she made them - showcasing things like how she would type up the dialogue and cut-and-paste the printed text into the bubbles, the normal way that was done in the pre-digital composition era:

It has this one section by a contributing artist of photographs of “otaku edgy women” and stuff, amazing documentary work:

I see you, Gunbuster figurine on the table! This is probably the best book-as-a-book I found; I highly recommend it to any Kyoko Okazaki fan for the depth of coverage it has on both her work and the context of her work.

You can see some others of course - I found a few copies of magazines like Newtype and Animage from when they covered FLCL! I would like the Catch Them All - these are all generally scanned & archived already of course, so its just for fun. You can see another book on Okazaki, a really cool academic book on the history of magazines and fanzines in Japanese subculture, and the Gothic & Lolita Bibles that Partner is quite excited about. I am very happy with what I found; there is a beauty in the serendipity of these things. Of course I could have searched Yahoo Auctions for a copy of the Okazaki book, I knew exactly what it was. But stumbling on it in a floor-level cubby while my hands were already stacked with magazines and nearly dropping them in surprise is the magic of the physical bookstore in its fullness. It has its own value that the book itself can’t possess.