#I spent the most of amount time on the first two panels

[crystal-the-axolotl]

so...

I bingewatched Vinland Saga this friday...

[a-b-riddle]

Part Three

Warning: If you don't like Taylor Swift, you're not gonna like this chapter that much, homie. But So Long, London is so fitting for this drabble series. (I guess a series since it's longer than a drabble at this point)

Can’t stop thinking about reader just trying to move on

You had to remind yourself several times not to check in with the guys. It had almost become second nature doing something big like this. But going to another country…

Not that they would care. You told yourself. It was for the best that way.

The expo went better than you expected. You didn’t believe that there would be a line out the door of eager readers wanting to read your book, but you got a decent amount. More than a few told you they couldn’t wait to read it. Several asking for photos and asking questions on any future books, a spin-off or even continuing the series.

When one a particular large group of girls your age asked for a group photo, you could have cried. They were had found each other in an online book club. You had given them your book several months ago. All copies signed with a note thanking them for taking the time to read what you had poured your heart into.

You had spent a large chunk of your free time talking to them. Bonding more so as women than over your book.

"Have you listened to Taylor's new album?"

It had only been out for two days and you had been able to avoid it like the plague. You didn't need to even listen to 'So Long, London' to know it would fucking gut you. So you would enjoy your time in the states. Save the listening experience for when you were packing up their stuff.

They had posted and tagged you before continuing on with the rest of the expo. You had reposted the photo to your own social media. Or at least one attached to the pen name you had crafted. You only had twelve thousand instagram followers, but it was something.

The first day was much like the second. You had attended several Q & A sessions with a panel of more experienced authors and managed to go to a few meet and greets. Before you knew it, it was time to pack up shop.

The agent the publishing house had assigned to you had stuck with you for most of the day. You were able to pick her brain a bit about new ideas for possible future plot lines and her thoughts. Overall, the trip was great.

Not only were you able to make great connections and take a lot back home with you to reference, but for a few days you forgot what waited for you back home. Or rather what wasn't waiting for you.

By the time your plane landed back in London you could barely hold yourself up. You left the expo, went straight to the hotel to shower, pack and head to the airport.

Your flight was delayed. Your luggage was taking forever to get onto the belt. It was only seven, but fuck if you weren’t ready to just call it a day. Tomorrow you would have to start again. Opening up the shop. Coming back to an empty flat. Maybe start gathering up the items the boys had left behind.

Should you give them in separate boxes or just one giant one and let them sort it out themselves? It was easy to discern whose sweatshirt and t-shirts belonged to who, but when it got to things like socks and chargers...

Yeah.

They could sort it themselves.

You could drop it off at Kyle's when you knew he would be at the gym. He was good at avoiding you anyway.

It wasn't until you stood in your apartment did it hit you.

You were alone.

For the first time in over a year you couldn't call one of them over to soothe that ache of loneliness.

For the first time in over a year, you had to relearn how to handle just being alone.

You usually showered at night. Washing away the grime of the day before settling into bed. But today was a new chapter. You woke up wanting to start it on a good note. Plus you went straight to bed after getting home so you still had a bit of airport funk on you.

It had been a week. One official since you had sent that text nailing the coffin shut. You had touched base with your friends who didn't bat an eye at you dating four men at once. They liked them, even if Simon scared them. You didn't give them the details of the breakup or the cause. You were pretty private in your problems and if you wanted relationship advice, you would seek an unbiased unopinion.

You had a good group of friends, but the moment you told them that you were well and truly heartbroken, they would insist the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. Something you were nowhere near ready for.

So you needed to look like you had your shit together. You put on a dress that was feminine and, most importantly, comfy as fuck. An A-line floral frock paired with a light sweater and some white trainers. You knew a few of your friends would be stopping by for tea so you need to look like you were taking the separation well. Even if you were barely holding it together.

With makeup and perfume on, you started the early morning stroll to your shop.

You loved openings. Starting up the register and selecting the playlist for today. Picking out the essential oil to put in the diffuser even though you mostly stuck with a lavender and vanilla blend during the spring months.

For the morning you stuck with a Taylor Swift Instrumental playlist you had found initially for studying, but you liked the peaceful feeling it brought. Even when it covered the most gut wrenching songs.

You had started to collect the online orders that had accumulated over the last week. Sending out the e-mails alerting to your patrons that their orders were ready for pick up. Luckily you weren't set to receive a delivery until tomorrow.

It was eight and everything was set. Although not many people came to a bookstore at eight in the morning, it really didn't bother you opening up that early considering you were the only employee that was on the payroll. It gave you the possibility of making money, but mostly you spent the morning reading or writing.

You flipped the sign over from CLOSED to OPEN. Ready to start take on the day.

You had turned the kettle on in the back room when your friends had stopped by around lunch. You always said it was just tea, but you always had an array of snacks on standby for you all to munch on.

Meredith was complaining about what a dick the new client at the law firm was being. An absolute slime who had been married to his wife for almost twenty-five years before he decided to fuck his twenty-two year old assistant.

Tabitha didn't want to talk about work. To her, her career in tech was just a paycheck. She did what she needed to do and left when she was done.

You talked about the expo and how your book. Although neither of them really read, they had promised that they would read your book. You didn't hold your breath. They had reposted your posts as well as making ones of their owns in celebration of you. Words of praise about your dedication and hard work.

You realized that even though they couldn't give you the support you needed as readers, they supported you blindly. You could have written absolute garbage, but they would still support you.

You talked about how many people liked your book and wanted pictures and to sign their copies.

Then came the question you had been rehearsing since you had texted them a week ago. They both shared a look before Meredith finally asked.

"How are you holding up?" You gave a half-smile and a shrug. So perfectly rehearsed in your head you were ready to deliver your lies lines.

"I'm fine," you lied. "It was just fading so there isn't much of a difference, I guess." Not necessarily a lie. "We just wanted different things and were on different paths in life." Not a lie. "It's for the best." You weren't sure if that last one was a lie or not just yet.

They both shared a passing look before returning their gazes back to you. "You know you can come to us about this stuff." Tabitha's hand reached across the table, placing a hand on top of yours.

"It wasn't going to work out." You added. "Situations like that don't and I should have known better."

"A situation?" Meredith asked. "When have you ever called it a situation?"

"It always was one."

"I love you enough to call bullshit." She raised her eyebrow at you, crossing her arms over her chest. "You loved them and you need to stop pretending this is easy."

"You're a divorce lawyer, Mere," You reminded. "You see marriages fall apart every day."

"I do. I get to see from across the table how a woman is still willing to take her cheating arse of a husband back. So the fact that you went from on cloud nine with all of them to not even talking about the break up is concerning to say the least."

"Tabitha," you looked at your only ally left. "A little back up would be nice."

"I'm with her on this one." She confirmed. "You loved them. Not that I cared, but if you weren't talking about books or the shop, you were talking about them. What you did, where you went. How they fucked you."

"I think I'll miss that part the most." Mere sighed. "I lived vicariously through you."

"You know you could actually date people." Tabitha suggested.

"I'd rather live with chronic carpal tunnel than a man." You almost choked on your tea. If you were wearing pearls you would have used the comedic relief of clutching them to break the awkwardness of the current topic of conversation.

"That should be put on a t-shirt." You suggested

"I wouldn't mind it on a welcome mat to be honest." Tabitha added.

"But in all seriousness, cut this bullshit." Meredith gave you an sympathetic smile. "We're here. Good, bad and ugly."

You returned her smile. "I know."

You had closed up shop for the evening. Your lunch had gone longer than expected so now you were left doing the dishes and clean up during closing. You were setting the last cup on the drying rack when you heard the front door chime.

Shit.

You must have forgotten to lock the door when you turned the sign.

“I’m sorry!” You apologized, making your way out of the back break area and to the front of the store. “We’re-”

“Closed.” He said, locking the door behind him. “I saw the sign.”

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Tattooed heart

Pairing: Elizabeth Olsen x Fem!Reader

Summary: You have tattoos everywhere and your girlfriend suffers from severe anxiety. You learned to walk around with Sharpies to help her out.

Disclaimer: English is not my first language. TW for anxiety attacks.

MASTERLIST

The room was crowded to the point where you couldn’t even see the exit doors in the back.

That always made you a bit nervous, of course, but mostly because it usually meant your interview would go on forever until people were satisfied by it. Those types of venues were always endless, but it was even worse when there were so many people attending the panels. Don’t get it wrong, you love attending the coms and meeting the fans to debate the characters and movies, and just the entire MCU universe as a whole, but you were only human and, after spending so long being a part of this, you got a bit tired.

Although the interview was going on forever, you weren’t surprised by the amount of people reunited to see you guys talking. It was hard to have most of the Marvel actors in one single interview, after all, so you were already expecting people to crowd the room and want to ask everyone a million questions. The new Avengers movie was coming up, the trailer had dropped just the day prior, and people were excited to know more. You couldn’t blame them.

You had been listening to Evans give out an overly complex reply to a question someone made him for a while now when you noticed Elizabeth squirming in her chair beside you. She was sitting to your right at the large table where you all were and she had answered a few questions as well, although that was the first time you noticed that she wasn’t moving out of boredom or to adjust in her chair again. She was restless, you noticed by the way she looked down at her legs and by the way her fingers pulled at her dress as if she was trying to get rid of a crinkle that didn’t exist.

Over the years, you learned to read her.

When you first met, three years ago, you were immediately drawn to Elizabeth. At the time, she had red hair thanks to her Marvel character, she was wearing black clothes and she had a fake scar above her eyebrow since you met between takes of the new movie you were both going to be a part of. That wasn’t your first Marvel movie, neither was hers, but that was the first time you were going to share the screen. You had heard about her before, obviously, but nothing had prepared you for how it would feel to meet Elizabeth Olsen in person.

You felt attracted to her since the first day, but you weren’t brave enough to make a move, so you spent the next two months of shooting crushing on her in silence - at least to her because you sang like a canary to all of your castmates to the point where they had to make an intervention because no one could take more of your daydreaming about Elizabeth without doing anything about it. That worked, though, and you found yourself sweating like crazy just a week before the movie wrapped while you waited for Elizabeth to finish her scenes for the day.

You had been nervous for no reason, as your castmates predicted, because Elizabeth said ‘yes’ after you managed to spit out your question and you both went for your first date two days later. That night, Elizabeth admitted she wanted to ask you out since the first day too, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“I’m glad you’re more brave than I am,” she whispered shyly when you were holding hands on top of the table. “I’m too anxious to have managed to actually ask you out.”

But that had been it.

You have been inseparable ever since.

Well, besides when you were both working, of course. You hadn’t made any more movies together since your characters took different turns, but you and Elizabeth were able to move heaven and Earth to make your relationship work no matter what.

As the years went by, you learned to read Elizabeth as easily as an open book. You knew when she was stressed and needed to spend some time in her garden to relax. You knew when Elizabeth was cooking because she wanted to, when she was doing it because she had to eat and when she was stress-cooking. You knew when she liked the movie you were watching by the way she bit her lip and when she couldn’t care less about what was on the TV by the way she kept sighing. There were many little things about Elizabeth that you took notice of over the years, things that you carefully stocked in your memories because they were all details that made you love her more and more every day.

However, there was one thing you made a bigger effort to keep track of.

Her anxiety.

Elizabeth has been suffering from severe anxiety for many years now. She had talked about it in interviews and other things, but no one could understand the magnitude of her anxiety attacks unless they experienced it in person. You had been there to a fair share of them since you met, from the smaller ones where she would complain about feeling like a small weight in her chest to the bigger ones where you had to rush her to the hospital because you honestly thought she was about to have a heart attack. Since that day, you had vowed to always be attuned to the signals of her crisis so you could help Elizabeth get out of them before things got too hard for her to handle.

Elizabeth used to apologize every single time about it, about how she sometimes wouldn’t want to leave the house, how sometimes she would ask you to leave the restaurant that took you both so long to get a table at, how sometimes she needed to sit in complete silence to get herself together, but you always made sure to tell her it wasn’t her fault. Elizabeth had struggled with anxiety, panic attacks and social anxiety for many years now not because she wanted to, but because the media had chased her since she was young and she had grown in fear. That was something she struggled with and something you could help her with.

Or try your best, at the very least.

Since you knew about all of this, you easily realized Elizabeth’s anxiety was making an appearance, slipping through her very strong grip. You could see by the way her green eyes started moving around without focusing on anything, how her jaw clenched, how her breath became heavier and how her fingers kept picking at her dress. Evans was still talking and there was a microphone in front of you, not to mention how there were literally hundreds of eyes and cameras staring at you at that moment, so you couldn’t take her hands and ask her to breathe with you like you usually did.

You had to think fast, however, because Elizabeth’s anxiety escalates quickly and you wouldn’t want that to happen in a room filled with strangers since that was probably the reason why it was happening anyway. Elizabeth had gotten better at dealing with attending those events, giving interviews and talking with fans, but that didn’t mean she didn’t struggle every once in a while. It was still something that wasn’t easy for her, something that made her natural instincts ask her to run away as fast as she could.

Those long interviews made you tired, but they absolutely terrified Elizabeth. She hated the crowded room because she couldn’t spot the exit and her brain would play little tricks at her saying that, if something bad happened, there weren’t enough emergency doors to take everyone out safely. The cameras pointed at her made her overly conscious of every move she made, afraid of what people might capture to spread around. The screams and yells that the fans let go every once in a while made her ears hurt and her insides churn. It was awful.

Averting your eyes so people wouldn’t notice you had been watching her, you placed a gentle hand on her thigh under the table to offer her some comfort. That made Elizabeth jump in surprise, though, since she hadn’t been expecting it, so you quickly removed your hand and offered her a small smile in apology when she glanced at you. You felt bad about it, especially when you noticed the fear in her eyes, but you still tried to calm her down by offering her a smile.

Some of her tension washed away and her shoulders relaxed enough for you to feel safe to touch her again. When your hand touched her thigh this time around, Elizabeth was expecting it and she allowed the touch with a sigh. She threw you a thankful look before turning her head to the side to pay attention to what was being said in case anyone decided to pull her into the conversation, something you also tried to do.

Luckily - so damn luck, indeed - the interview ended just a few minutes after that. You played your part waving at the fans and offering them smiles, but you still held Elizabeth’s hand to pull her away from there as fast as you could without actually running. You were both sitting in the middle of the large table so it wasn’t an easy task. However, your eyes met Zendaya’s eyes for a moment and the girl wasted no time trying to discreetly move everyone out of the way so you could walk past with Elizabeth.

You took your girlfriend backstage and avoided everyone who tried to talk with you on the way until you found a quiet corner to sit down with her. You sat her down on top of a large technical equipment box and you jumped up to sit beside her, already shoving your hand inside your pocket to remove the three Sharpies you had taken with you that day. Green, blue and lilac were the colors you took from the case before leaving the hotel room that afternoon, and you didn’t think twice before handing them to her.

“Come on, I’m your canvas,” you told her lightly while reaching out your arm to her.

Your right arm was filled with tattoos from your shoulders to your wrist. That was something that made many casting directors frown to, but you loved it. That’s the way you find to express yourself and something you cherish. The tattoos were all blackwork, which means they didn’t have any colors added to them, and they were all different drawings that entwined between them thanks to the amazing work of your tattoo artist.

The first time Elizabeth ever drew on your skin was when you took her to the hospital that fateful day. You had seen your girlfriend looking so sad and scared lying down in a hospital bed after the doctor left saying it had been an anxiety attack that you just had to do something. You knew Elizabeth liked to use her hands to help herself calm down because she would run to her garden and spend hours there tending to the plants, putting her hands in the dirt and delicately touching every leaf. That’s why you took the pen that the doctor left behind without noticing and started to look for something she could write on, but there was nothing.

So, you just handed her the pen and told her to write something on your arm.

Elizabeth had looked at you like you were insane for even suggesting it and it took you a while to convince her to give it a try, however, it played out perfectly in the end. Elizabeth spent hours using the blue pen to color your tattoos and it did wonderful things to her anxiety. When the doctor returned, he was happy to say she was good to go and you were just glad that Elizabeth was back to her usual self asking you if you could stop somewhere to eat.

It wasn’t a perfect solution. It was temporary since it usually just calmed her down enough to keep going for a few more hours, but Elizabeth still needed to fully relax in silence, go to her garden or take a warm bath to avoid any real crisis. But that didn’t stop you from buying several Sharpies from different colors to have them around anytime she might need them. You made a habit out of walking around with them inside your pockets and Elizabeth stopped resisting using them to draw on you.

Sure, Elizabeth suggested she buy a notepad to carry with her, but you told her you didn’t mind being her personal canvas. You liked how she touched your skin gently with one hand while she used the other one to color your tattoos. You found it mesmerizing how she managed to make different details every time she drew on you. And you were just glad to be able to help her. Of course, you told Elizabeth it was okay if she preferred to have some paper to draw on, but luckily she didn’t argue against painting your arm instead.

It worked.

And that would have to do because you couldn’t take her to the hotel room you were sharing yet and it was clear that Elizabeth wasn’t feeling great.

“No,” your girlfriend said without taking the Sharpies from you. “We still have more interviews today.”

“Exactly,” you argued. “That’s fine. You know I don’t mind it.”

“People will make questions,” Elizabeth insisted, but it held no real resistance behind her words anymore. She was already taking the pens from you and you smiled happily at that.

“Let them,” was your reply.

A second later, Elizabeth took the green Sharpie to start painting one of the tattoos on the back of your arm.

When your castmates found you both, your skin was a mix of green, blue and lilac already, and Elizabeth's full attention was on the task in her hands. She didn’t look about to lose her mind anymore, her breathing was normal again, her hands weren’t shaking and her frown was purely because she was trying to keep the colors inside the line and not because she was in panic. Your friends gave you space because they didn’t want her to feel crowded again, but Holland lent you his jacket while you were all walking to the next interview to avoid questions and Elizabeth kissed your lips just before going on stage.

“You’re the best girlfriend in the world,” Elizabeth whispered against your skin.

You shrugged it off and leaned to kiss her forehead. “I love you,” you reminded her gently aware that you would climb every mountain and swim every ocean to make her happy.

[unclewarwick]

i am making this an art blog now, so i thought i should actually start posting my art here. i finished this drawing today and the rest of the art in this post is from newest to oldest. this post is most of my batman-related art since the last time i posted a big amount of batman art (which was december 2022).

i have a heavy preference for drawing batjokes but am trying to draw more and more of the rogues gallery. i have my own vague storyline ideas that include both batman and the joker being trans men, but in my story he is called bruceman/bat wayne.

2024-07-10 -- i do an annual redraw of this meme. this was the fifth version. the first time i drew it (in 2021) was the first time i had tried to properly draw either of them, despite having a deep batman interest for a long long time, and drawing for even longer.

2024-06-28 -- i spent 41 and a half hours on this one. my first big attempt at pixel art. it was from a bad chronic illness week so it was meant as a purposely ugly and simple drawing but it spiralled out of control.

2024-07-05 and 2024-05-11 -- my concept art for the scarecrow.

2024-04-22 and 2024-03-21 and 2024-02-11 -- the joker taunting bat wayne, an argument with alfred, a community meme redraw that i didn't like the end result of but was unwell while drawing so i give myself a break.

2024-02-08 and 2024-02-06 -- the riddler being desperate for attention on social media, my two-face concept art

2024-01-27 -- my take on the oft-parodied the amazing spider-man #601 cover art.

2024-01-18 -- joker thinks he's being sneaky but doesn't know he's with the same person twice.

2024-01-11 and 2024-01-10 -- catwoman being fun and sillie (from before i redesigned her weird mask and goggles that i originally tried to give her)

art from 1 and 8 december of 2023 that i posted on here

both from 2023-09-10 -- a couple of quick low effort drawings from when i was feeling funky

2023-08-06 and 2023-08-13 and 2023-08-18 -- mini comic where you can see the comic formatting skill developing in each part.. just a small story idea i had revolving around a double joke about bat wayne's Identity. and still figuring out how to draw the riddler.

2023-08-02 -- my first depiction of riddler & first drawing of har-lee (my name for harley quinn) out of costume.

2023-06-18 and 2023-06-15 -- my first drawings ever of har-lee; i did not stick with this costume design for her because i fixed it and made it actually look good and make sense at all a whole year later (character design is my weakness), and also just a simple meme.

2023-06-15 -- i don't have an animation program, so making this was a real struggle.

2023-04-28 and 2023-04-23 -- bruceman picking up tampons in the middle of a fight, bruceman and joker "fighting".

2023-04-04 and 2023-03-21 -- Earring Magic J, joker being the autistic, gay, trans dad of autistic, gay, trans pee-wee herman (including muffin the cat from batman: legends of the dark knight #50)

all from 2022-11-14 -- a comic Not about being trans, no, not at all...

2022-11-27 -- a fully rendered version of the last panel.

there's more that's not included here because of the 30 image limitation, but those are mostly further concept drawings of har-lee that i didn't like, and lower quality joke drawings. one bigger thing i've left out are stills from an animatic/animation project i started quite a while back (it's not even my only WIP of that kind) and haven't continued progress on for a while. i would prefer to share that all at once whenever it's finished.

[fandomtrashcan]

Part one of the fight.

Part two of the fight

Previous part

Beginning of Road to recovery

POV: You see The Rider screeching and opening his mouth. You are dead.

I think the last panel might have been the last sight of one or two (maybe more) unlucky criminals.

About fighting with chains and my headcanons for the Rider's fighting style: there is a reason why long chains, whips and such haven't been very popular as weapons in real life. They are not very practical and if someone manages to get up close you will be in trouble. Luckily, having magical chains that defy the laws of gravity fixes the first part of the problem, but still they are ranged weapons that work at their best at medium or long range. So, even if The Rider is very competent in hand to hand combat and has blades attached to the ends of the chain, the ability to burn anything that gets too close to a crisp becomes very handy when someone is really bothering you.

I wanted to make a joke about the amount of time I spent painting Robbie's back muscles but honestly most of my effort went to making sure the fighting poses made at least a little bit of sense and trying to figure out how hands work when holding weapons.

I had to split this monster of a fight in two because otherwise I'd go insane. I hope I'll be done with the combat soon because I can't, for the love of god, stop making things more complex than they should.

I had made a silly little doodle about Sparky going "Do you like playing with fire?" and laughing and Robbie thinking "for the love of god, stop using my body to say that, you don't sound cool, you just sound like an idiot", but I accidentally overwrote the file and I'm way too tired to draw it again.

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 19-22 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning.

First off, the two panels that took a silly amount of time just because I wanted to reflect Vivi’s impressions on the city.

Episodes 18, 19, 20 open up with Vivi being concerned with the most pressing matters:

Can’t fight if you ain’t pretty (or got just 1-2 outfits to be pretty in, that won’t do either)

I still really like the panel above, especially their pose. Episodes 19-22 show how they gradually get rid of physical boundaries. They didn’t even touch back when they first met (episode 15).

Vivi’s casual about physical affection with friends, just one of his core things.

Of course Vivi would trust and choose the company of a pixie, a supernatural being, over a (presumably) human who only reinforces Vivi’s worst opinions on humanity at that point in time, concealing himself and swimming in secrets. Get rekt nerd.

At least Vivi isn’t openly hostile, just.. Dismissive? I saw some other WoLs who outright hate Exarch for abducting the Scions and almost getting themselves, the WoL, killed at Ghimlyt Dark. Vivi, however, just wants to be left alone.

Tfw the love of your life is being stolen by your dear friend. Or vice versa? Or both at the same time? Anyway, Vivi and Feo Ul form a new cool kids' club and Exarch isn't invited.

Can't relax in your favorite secluded spot for a godsdamned moment without some pesky dragoon randomly popping out of nowhere.

While I hc Exarch being able to sense living presence around the Tower, imagine doing that 24/7 for every person. I like to think that he learned to filter it out, turn off/on at will. And while he's in a public place, with his glamour up, he doesn't need to upkeep the "radar", he's just chilling and is possibly lost in thoughts, and that's why Vivi startles him.

This scene bears more symbolic meaning than plot importance. And, uh, some foreshadowing? Forelighting? x'D While Vivi doesn’t fall (heh) for his savior, he’ll reflect upon this at a later time.

Vivi’s normally careful and stately. Yes he’s an elf but he do be carryin’ himself like a cat. There’s a lot of control and assertion behind his trademark nonchalant posture. So, NORMALLY, this wouldn’t happen. Maybe he got distracted by the shiny? And where’s Feo Ul?

Exarch, however, the man that chokes on air unprompted, in a moment like this acts before he could think. As some people correctly noted, the old man’s QUICK. The “screentime” stretches out as Vivi’s life almost begins flashing before his eyes, while for Exarch it's gotta be a mere second or two.

I’m extra proud of the colorwork here. As if blood’s gone from Vivi’s face, as if his entire body went cold, but life slowly returns to him, starting with that hand. You bet this’s brimming with subtext.

Exarch uses his left hand over the right, for better friction and probably because he doesn’t like the attention to his right hand.

I like that this panel’s caused confusion, it worked as intended :9 An all too vague dark joke that almost cost Vivi his life. In his head it went like “yeah anyone can fly once, when they’re about to go splat”, but he wasn’t only preoccupied with the jumps, but also didn’t KNOW yet that he HAS TO speak with a fae like almost with a child, or a lawyer. Simplest terms. No ambiguity. EVER. They’ll misinterpret you unwittingly, or on purpose.

And so they did. Or didn’t? Feo Ul’s spent a long time offscreen, but whether they chose not to help, or even gave Vivi a little push, will forever stay a mystery because why not.

Lesson learned.. On both sides.. Hopefully. Also, fret not, Exarch WILL say fuck one day, one day~

Vivi's lucky. Incredibly so. He's aware of it, doesn't see it as anything special, like you don't see anything special in being able to read this. Perhaps jumping up an unknown structure while being accompanied by an exceedingly curious and mischievous creature is risky even for his kind, but Vivi's so used to getting away with so many things that he doesn't stop to consider it for the tiniest moment.

The first genuine exchange of smiles.

Silver lining: now they have better chances at getting along and returning to that world-saving duty.

Update from January 2024: I came back here to tell you something that took me so long to realize about episode 20′s description:

And all he saw was the Light, and then he knew that Death wore white in this world.

I randomly popped off with this prose, which on itself is a cool thing, but now I realize the extra meanings it could take on. Thinking about 5.x and Elidibus has me feeling unwell in the best way. THAT VIVI ALSO WEARS WHITE HERE IS UH. A coincidence. But it also kinda works as the Warrior of Darkness becomes somewhat of a local Reaper in the First, and then, well, then we have that Light corruption arc :3c

Vivi's calm and tender enough for a pixie to trust him with their wings.

Feo Ul ate and drank several times their size, and all that hero talk.. Ugh. Time for a nap.

Drawing this made me yawn at least 3 times. You’re not immune either.

He’s activating his scanners :>

Vivi's definition of nice is "not nagging, begging or preaching, and using bare facts and logic to convince the hero to do the hero thing".

Literally the next page if you’re reading in order :’> Riiiiiiiiight. That hero thing.

We don’t question whether Vivi invited his loveliest branch, or if they invited themselves. The fact is, they’re there and Vivi’s totally cool with it.

Exarch must be watching. And probably foaming at mouth as Feo Ul keeps leading in the race for Vivi’s heart. They don’t only earn the hero’s trust, but get in his bed and, gasp, brush his hair.

Vivi's getting comfy in his role somewhere between a disney princess and Feo Ul’s pet.

A writing-related tangent incoming, but, since you’re here, I assume you’re already somewhat interested in this kinda stuff.

So, there’s the script, the plain text that waits to get illustrated. The screenplay, if you will. I don’t just sit down and draw enough random things to fill a few pages, I approach this as an actual cohesive serialized story.

I changed a good half of this episode when I began storyboarding it. In the initial script from some months ago, Vivi said "I slept so well". Something about this didn't sit right with me. It’s the most basic mistake of telling instead of showing. I asked myself, would he, a person who takes good sleep and dreams for granted, say that out loud? Nah. I removed that bit, and drew him stretching deliciously. He also asked Feo Ul if they guarded his dreams, they smiled vaguely but warmly just like in the finalized version, but then Vivi simply muttered "I could get used to this" and gave them headpats. I decided to elevate this scene by adding this tiny rollercoaster, which brought Feo Ul's greyness to the forefront, and thickly hinted that Vivi doesn't only sleep well, but has nice dreams that he probably starts cherishing after this.

To be fair, this isn’t super important for the main plot, I just wanted to highlight the difference between Vivi and Exarch, the latter being in a hate-hate relationship with sleep. Vivi’s affinity with dreams is a door I like to keep open for the possible future story (talking post-EW events).

Now you know this’s the face they make before going apeshit.

Imagine if this prank didn't exist and instead Vivi simply said "I slept so well, this's so important to me". I’m proud of the writing muscle I’m growing on the fly ;w;

Ardbert's chance to act and feel normal, thwarted in the next few seconds.

I'm so glad that people are picking up on this!! “Hey man” is Vivi’s way of providing whatever comfort he could. An illusion of normalcy. He’s emotionally intelligent when it matters.

..But he should’ve also considered that Feo Ul can and will ruin the vibe :’>

Another screenwriting thing: this episode lacks an establishing shot, i.e. the obligatory zoomed out view on everyone in the room, but I think this’s a rare case of “less is more”. Along with the light vs shadow, it reinforces the feeling of separation. Vivi and Feo Ul are shown together, interacting, doing cute stuff, while Ardbert’s alone. Sorry not sorry for the hurty :’>

This’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading and paying so much attention! People start to notice and analyze the things I’m weaving in, and it’s the best kinda interaction I as a creator could wish for.

[blueskittlesart]

hi :] this isnt really a reqest cuz it'll prob be a longer answer but im rlly curious abt ur comic process

i love all ur comics and somehow they always manage to gutpunch me- and ur composition and the way they read is always so beautiful and adds so much to the message youre trying to get across

yeah lol let's get into it! Ive spent maybe 5 or so years refining this process to the point it's at now so it's pretty much my standard procedure now. I'm going to use Now that you're gone as my primary example here since i still have most of the planning stages associated with it (my laptop does not have a whole lot of storage left so i usually delete my planning once the comic is finished lol) but i'll try to throw in some other examples too!

I almost always start with a written script. (the exception for this is longform oc comics which i find easier to write in the moment, but for my shorter character studies I almost always write first.) I use discord to write because it's convenient, but before i had a dedicated discord server for my stuff i was using txt files on my laptop which i do NOT recommend. anyway, this is what the written script for ntyg looked like:

note that some small elements changed in production, like the amount of time that had passed since link's death. the lines "I look at her and i am only afraid. i remember all the ways in which i hurt you. She's almost as old now as you were then. I cannot stand the thought of outliving her, too" were also added during the rough stage because i felt like there wasn't quite enough emphasis on aryll in the initial script, and since this was a major change that necessitated a whole extra page in the comic I went back and edited those lines into the script so I wouldn't forget them. (both these changes were made during the rough stage. i'll almost never make major script adjustments after the roughs are finished.)

more examples of my scripts; specifically the original script for totk: failure and two versions of oot: adulthood (one before some major refining and one after.) with comics like these, where i have a very clear idea in my head of the imagery i want to go along with the words, i'll sometimes include it interspersed in the script, either spolier-marked or denoted with brackets.

with ntyg and some of my other more. canon divergent? i guess? comics, there's sort of a mini phase in between scripting and roughs where I do some minor character studies to get designs nailed down in the early stages. with ntyg I already had a clear image in my mind for aryll, but the central character was link's dad, whose design wasn't quite so solid in my head. I really wanted to make sure that his design was well thought-out and consistent throughout everything, so i did a few mini sketches and studies to ensure I had his design memorized and could execute it consistently:

these are sans hair and accessories because nailing down consistent facial features was my main focus with them, and both these sketches ended up getting used as references for certain panels later on. This isn't a step I ALWAYS take with my comics, but if there's a central character that i'm not super used to drawing i find it helpful to get some practice in before jumping into the real thing!

after the scripting and design phases i move on to roughs, which I consider to be the most important stage in my process. roughs are very very quick approximations of what I want the final pages to look like. they usually don't take me more than a few minutes per page to create, and their sole purpose is to help me visualize the flow of the page and the placement of major elements like panels, characters, and dialog. this is what the 1st page rough for ntyg looked like compared to the final page:

as you can see, all i have laid out is the major text and visual elements, but it really helps me to visualize how the finished comic is going to flow. i do the roughs for every page before i start on the finals so that i have an idea of what the entire comic is going to look like before I really start finalizing it. it's important that these roughs are FAST--i almost never draw fully-fledged characters unless the pose or expression is particularly important to the scene, and that's because the goal is to allow everything to flow quickly and easily from panel to panel and page to page, and getting too caught up on one panel or element often breaks that flow. Nowadays, i have a pretty good idea of how much room my writing takes up so i don't write out the entire script in my roughs, but back when i was a little less experienced i took the time to write everything out in this stage to ensure that my dialog would fit into the space it was given without getting cramped or cutting off other important elements. doing that really helped me build awareness of how much dialog and panel placement matters and how i could use it, so this rough stage is non-negotiable for me even now!

after the roughs i go straight into finalization. I never enjoyed lineart back when i was learning to draw digitally so i basically built my art style to be understandable and visually appealing after one sketch phase, meaning there's legitimately no in-between stage between that rough and that final page, i just sort of. go for it. this is what works for me, but i think most normal people would probably find a second sketch phase helpful LMAO i'm just crazy and i need everything done as fast as possible. the finalization stage usually doesn't contain any major adjustments of script, composition, etc; i make it a general rule to keep most of the major adjustments confined to the earlier stages, for my own sanity. One thing that DOES occasionally change in this stage is my plans for color--ntyg in particular was originally planned to be completely black-and-white with no grays added, but when looking at my completed pages i found them sort of empty and unengaging without the gray, so i added it. usually if my color plans DO change it's something small like that--I'll almost never switch between full-color and grayscale on a whim because the way that i sketch for those two versions differs significantly so it isn't an easy switch to make.

anyways i hope this is what you were looking for! I'm very passionate about making comics and this process is a result of years of experimentation & finding what works for me, but i hope it's of some use to you as well!

[peaterookie]

Most of us know by this point that the Lupin III manga series doesn't particularly have the best reputation, but why is that?

Is it simply because of the content itself, or is there more behind it?

It is August 10th, the 56th anniversary of the og manga, and I will be exploring the causes of the manga's poor reputation in the Lupin community with as most detail as I can try to be.

Bluntly put, I will not hide the fact that the manga series as a whole contains extremely problematic elements. All three series, OG manga, New Adventures, and Shin Lupin III all contain instance of Lupin and other characters raping and sexually assaulting women.

It certainly gets better as the series goes on. At the last three major arcs of Shin Lupin III, Lupin becomes almost entirely sexless, with some instances of plain pervertedness. However, it is not an issue that cannot be glossed over and it is the by far biggest burden that this series has to carry over its 56 years of existence.

OG manga is the biggest culprit of this, barely two chapter goes by without an instance of Lupin pulling his sexual advances onto random women and succeeding. Those moments of the manga are extremely gross and uncomfortable- and it really makes our protagonist extremely unlikeable, which brings me to my next point:

The fact that the OG manga is the first of the three manga series contribute heavily to its poor reputation.

"Aiee!! No way that the biggest manga preacher in tumblr is slandering the manga! Isn't that out of character!?"

It quite is, luckily I can think. As someone who has spent about 5 months reviewing almost all of the chapters, I can say that I know quite a bit about what it does right and what it does wrong... and it sadly does many things wrong.

Of course, the main thing is the sexual violence, but it is also the series with the least interaction between each member of the Lupin gang, who are characters people already come to really like. Lacking that element takes away what many people regard to be the best part about the series.

The beginning chapters of the og manga are also poorly paced. A bunch of things are going on, and the panelling certainly makes it hard to follow as well.

And to even add to the original issue, the english translation provided by Tokyopop also fucked everything up too!! Many of the extreme dialogues that you come across, including ones that make jokes at Monkey Punch's expense, are done by Tokyopop. Tabbiewolf explains this much better than I can:

"Just remember: a LOT of the…more offensive stuff in the manga is from the TokyoPop translations. I’m not excusing ALL of it, mind you — it was the 1960s and this was an adventure/spy manga marketed at cisdudes, after all — but the script writer for the English version was extremely, uh, artistic, with his localization of the translation."

"it was the early 2000s, manga was trying to appeal specifically to people who didn’t read it: teenaged cisboys who watched South Park, basically ;) So a fair amount of the stuff was very much the new English script, NOT the creator ‘s original work! Some plots got changed entirely just because the Japanese slang from the time didn’t translate."

First impressions matter, and the OG manga makes a very bad impression for people attempting to get into the manga series. Many readers are most likely taken back by how different it is from what they are used to, and they are definitely not going to like the problematic elements.

Those who still try to give it second chances are going to be met with disappointment when they find out these glaring issues are only partially fixed further into the series. Believing that it won't get better, they end up dropping the manga altogether and generalizing the rest of the manga series as depraved nonsense.

And I can't simply blame Monkey Punch for all these issues!! It was the first of what's to come, and he was not aware at the time just how big Lupin III would become in Japan and eventually worldwide. The og manga is very experimental, and you can tell he was only trying to figure out what works. I also cannot blame the people that dislike the manga. People naturally dislike something that is problematic and different.

Heck, most manga fans feel indifferent about the og manga as well, with the majority of them liking Shin Lupin III much better.

I have the statistic right here!!! It's not a lot of people, but there's an obvious majority choice here.

(By the way, if you're enjoying reading this so far, you should totally join my Lupin III server ahem cough cough nudge nudge)

So not even the manga fans love the OG manga. In my opinion, I would definitely not recommend people to read that as their first Lupin manga either. It is the type of media that if you really love the source material in general, then it'd be ok to read.

It is quite a shame to say that the series that does a better job at getting people in the manga, is the third one of the bunch. Most people aren't going to know that however, and they end up reading something that is going to likely give a bad image of the manga.

Ok so I dont have a good segway to the second part of this post so have a panel.

Now I'm gonna talk about how the fandom itself screw up it's reputation!!

(Before you get further I have to say that I have nothing against anime fans, if I do sound like I don't like them it's just sort of poor wording on my end)

Many fans of Lupin III start with the anime, if not probably all of them at this point. This causes a huge skew in public opinion, where those who are pre-exposed to the anime are probably going to view the manga as something lesser than its animated counterpart.

This can be seen particularly in CloudConnection's video of his manga analysis, which is concerningly just a portion of this 18 minute video, but I'll look over that. The portions of the video where he analyzes the manga contain a large amount of negative opinions about it.

A lot of his points are very good, and a lot of them I agree with, like his issues with the rape and sexual assault and how its a good time capsule but definitely not something that people should start off with. But a rest of the points seem a bit unreasonable to make and rather biased, like how the characters feel inconsistent, the bad pacing, and really emphasizing how dark and grim the manga is (it is very goofy and nobody ever talks about that)

And I have to state- It's totally valid for someone to prefer one thing over the other, but my point is that when this opinion is overwhelmingly the majority, it is going to cause the general public's opinion to unfairly be against something, ignoring what it does good and pinning the focus on what it does bad.

That video example was very popular, and I know someone personally that got the wrong memo from it and hated the manga without reading it for a long time, so you can see how it can probably effect the rest of the people that viewed that video.

So what can we learn from this?

We now understand that two of major reasons responsible for the manga's bad reputation is one: the unfortunate circumstance of the OG manga being the first series, and the overwhelming public opinion being unfairly skewed against it.

To wrap this up, I ask you to please give the manga a chance!! Read Shin Lupin first, and be aware of its flaws while also appreciating what it has contributed for the franchise and anime as a whole. I hope you enjoyed this little essay I wrote, and happy birthday Lupin III!

[miss-tc-nova]

We Want To - Vanitas x Reader

Aww, it's been a while since I got to write about cranky Vani. I really do love him. I hope I stuck to the theme enough though. Sorry if I strayed too far. Excuse the lame title, lol

Premise: Vanitas isn't all that amused at the amusement park

Words: 713

~~~~~

               Inconvenienced, absolutely beyond fed up, Vanitas gets dragged through the crowd towards yet another gaudy, mechanical attraction.

               He’s not entirely sure how he ended up here, let alone in this situation. For the last few weeks, Vanitas has been trying to navigate this strange world. He never thought that his greatest bane would be the whimsical maniac in human guise. He’d barely spent two hours wandering the streets before being bowled over and descended upon by this clown. Somehow, the encounter culminated in daily accosting and today’s torment has been deemed the amusement park. The amount of amusement, however, has been miniscule. Most of the last hour has been trying to decipher his predicament and the fool that dragged him into it.

               An arm flails in the direction of a spinning machine. “This is one of my favorites! It spins really fast and you stick to the wall! But you can’t ride it too many times or you might get sick. I did that once! Like four years ago me and some of my friends—”

               Yet another wild, ridiculous tale from that unstoppable mouth. Still, Vanitas endures the blathering as the line winds down. Eventually, it’s their turn to board.

               His companion isn’t the only one that seems eager for the ride. All the other passengers chatter as they stand in front of panels lining the round room. He doesn’t understand. Everyone was like this on the last one too, but it just seemed like a bunch of jerky, flailing movement. And this one’s just supposed to spin fast. The purpose of this place is beyond him, let alone the reason for all these people to be so riled up about it.

               Hell, his new “friend” has been like this about nearly everything. Every moment is filled with random things. At first it was aggravating, but now, it’s all just weird.

               The ride starts and, true to the explanation, the room spins so fast the gravity pulls him against the wall. People laugh and cheer, some twisting and turning until they’re sideways or upside down. The thrill is lost on him, but Vanitas is fully aware of the mirth from the person beside him. Even as the ride ends, the happiness continues, finally prompting the voicing of his confusion.

               “Why are we doing this?”

               Full attention turns to him. “Huh? What do you mean why?”

               His arms gesture to the colorful world around. “What are we doing here? What’s the point?”

               “There is no point.” That smile drops his guard against his will. “We do it because we want to.”

               The answer is so blunt and simple that he almost misses it. But it makes its mark. Vanitas had done plenty of things because he “wanted to,” in a world far from here. He’s done his best so far to blend in and consider what he’ll do next, but he can’t deny being drawn in by the frivolity of a simple fool. Something about the harmless chaos attracts his attention. Running around without a care in the world as if nothing mattered is so different from the mission-oriented life he has beyond the borders of Quardratum.

               The words slip from his mouth.

               “Do I?”

               Maybe he didn’t “want” to do those things. Hurting others and being hurt in return—the war flashes in his mind and his whole body flinches.

               “Vanitas.”

               Then a hand rests against his arm. His gaze falls on the face of concern.

               “Do you?”

               He’s not sure. But in this moment, he is sure he doesn’t want to think about everything outside this normal, boring, silly, surprising world. He wants to live in this moment.

               With the clown that found him.

               For the first time since he arrived on this world, Vanitas cracks a smile.

               “Yeah, I do.”

               The shock on his friend’s face ignites embers in his ears, but Vanitas continues to smile. Then the enthusiasm comes exploding out. It’s so chaotic he can barely understand what’s being said, but he has to jam his one request in.  

               “Hold on. I wanna do that spinny one again. I could totally stand on the wall in there.”

               In a blink, Vanitas finds himself being dragged through the crowds again, but this time, he feels all the same excitement.

~~~~~

Nova’s Kingdom Hearts Masterlist

[xeansicemane]

I got inspired by this post to finally mock up the inside of WarlockXeans' ship. Warning, Long Post is Long

Little bit of OC history! Xeans uses a retrofitted FOTC Hawk as their personal ship, they picked it up in the wake of the Red War and spent a few weeks putting it back together in the hanger after everything had been secured and quieted down. Ever since they've been salvaging furnishings from wherever strikes their fancy.

(Image from Bungie's concept art)

Specs list it as 28.35 m x 20.12 m x 10.06 m (L x W x H) so I fudged my numbers a little to assume the pressure hull was 18 x 10 x 9.

I decided a fun way to do this would be to start with the floorplan of a working Redjack carrier, so I spun up Inkarnate and got to work, ending up with this

The fundamental concept is a pretty cramped robot carrier - everything in the center is Redjack rack, there are a handful of jump seats for engineers, a basic work bench, and some replacement rifles. Most of the time I imagine this was crewed by two people. Utilitarian, very much a battle bus.

After a few years of collecting and fitting it out for occasional guests (they're one of the heads of their clan they took it on themselves to have what amounts to an RV - a nice little place to relax in the field for smaller fireteams). They ended up with the current iteration of the Farfarer

Going to start from the entry and move up.

Immediately inside the airlock is the living space and stairs to the upper level. They repurposed the jump seats (with the addition of some extra padding) as chairs across from a screen they found in tact in an old CB facility. The original work bench was kept in place but put against the forward bulkhead, so they or a friend could work on something while staying in the social space. The entry closet is a general cargo space with a few coat racks (shoes are encouraged to go in the space under the stairs) so people don't just dump whatever they're carrying on the seats. The plastone dining table seats three and was found in a small executive suite in the EDZ. The Sentient Gun Terrarium is self explanatory, Xeans constantly felt like Omar needed some time out with some enrichment.

The rear of the lower deck is dominated by everything that needs water cycling. The rear avionics bay is still accessible by removable panels, but it was walled off for looks. The restroom is fully kitted out including a washing machine (which isn't strictly needed given the abilities a guardian has access to, but Xeans insists that washing hadronic weave helps the texture), but it is extremely cramped. The kitchen is small but fully equipped with a dishwasher tucked under the sink. They keep a lot of ramen ingredients on hand but enjoy trying to find out what's edible when they're out and about. The shelf across from the foot of the stairs is a lot of nicknacks they want to show off, there are a few CB executive mugs (they're solid platinum) and some extremely cool rocks they found.

The flight deck is largely untouched, save for the copilot's station being taken over by a pile of guns, jackets and a few other things that Xeans' ghost Lup made for themselves. They tend to stay rez'd during downtime, and they decided it'd be fun to have somewhere soft to burrow down into.

This is the first room anyone enters on the second deck - it's primarily for storage with a small table, it earned the nickname the copilot's station because any time someone flies with them, Lup refuses to let anyone take their nest apart.

This isn't Xeans' primary workspace - their actual lab is a shared space in the halls that the Raven Seal use - but small personal projects and a portable reference library is always useful. The hive magic circle that takes up most of the space is an attempt to weld hive magic and a miniaturized oracle engine. The project hasn't gone anywhere for years, but it clears their head to play with it every so often.

The bedroom takes up the bulk of the second deck - the furnishings are salvaged from a dozen different places, the sheets and mattress from a hotel in orbit around Io, the desk from an Ishtar collective dorm. The books they keep on the ship change, but tend to be long lends from the libraries, a lot of popular fiction with an increasing amount of Eliksni literature (their grip on the language is still rough but they're getting there) Just like the lower deck, the avionics bay is walled off but still accessible.

The overall goal here was a bit of character building, plus I love laying out fictional spaces.

[doctorstrangereview]

Doctor Strange #174

Cover Date: November 1968

On-Sale Date: August 1, 1968

This is the second story title to play on a literary theme. The first was Shakespeare in issue #171. This issue is Edgar Allan Poe. The most significant event in this issue is the introduction of Satannish. He's one of several 'Satan' beings in the Marvel Universe. He beats out the introduction of the more popular Mephisto in Silver Surfer #3 by one month. We also get the single appearance of Lord Nekron, Satannish's Earthly conduit. Colan really gets into the art this month. As the story crazier, his panel layouts get progressively wilder.

We begin with Clea looking at Doc. She's wonder why the man who risked his life to rescue her is now ignoring her. Silly girl. He's telepathically communing with his bearded daddy figure thousands of miles away in Tibet. "You brought her here and now you're stuck with her. She can't go home again."

Doc snaps out of his trance and immediately tells Clea "Glad you're safe, but you can't stay here. I wear silly clothes and have a questionable reputation but I'm a pillar of the community, somehow, and living in sin wouldn't be good for my reputation. We're gonna find you an apartment!" Victoria continues to brood about not being the apple of Doc's eye while watching Doc and Clea get all lovey-dovey.

Doc want's Wong to look up apartments and find some clothes with collars that can actually get through Earth's narrow doorways. Wong's response is one that makes me think he might fancy Doc more than Clea. Doc does actually compliment Wong. It may be a first! Doc is getting soft in his old age.

Doc and Clea go outside and walk to Clea's new pad. Along the way they have an encounter that has bothered me for decades.

Are the Doc and Clea of this era homophobes? I would think this unlikely, especially for Doc. He wears an outfit that would make the leads of a Faust opera look bland. He's travelled to hundreds of other dimensions making him more experienced with diversity than any other human in existence except maybe his mentor. And he lives in freaking Greenwich Village! He is constantly surrounded by LGBTQ+ people. Clea comes from a dimension with all sorts of different types of people. (Does homosexuality exist in the Dark Dimension?) The whole exchange just seems out of place.

So Clea doesn't blast the two offenders into atoms. She just moves the truck, but not the occupants, a little ways away. They call Clea a witch and prepare to attack her. Doc leads Clea down a nearby army who is wondering why they're not fighting the angry mob. Doc's response is truly New York.

He also non-consensually wiped the minds of the mob members. Haven't seen that in awhile. Man, superhero ethics are really complicated!

Doc and Clea reach the apartment. Like Mikey, Clea likes it! There's a message from the building's front desk. Wong has received a telegram for Doc and thinks it's urgent. I guess Ma Bell hasn't installed Clea's phone yet. That's okay, as Doc departs, Clea want's to try something... 😈

If you look at the amount of time Doc and Clea have actually spent in each other's presence to this point it ain't a whole lot. Clea moves fast! Heck, Doc hasn't spent much time with Vicky either, but she fell in love almost instantly. Doc must use some really great aftershave!

The as-yet-unrevealed contents of the telegram prompt Doc to travel to England. This is rather convenient. He can drop off Vicky along the way. They even get to take a ride in a cool old antique!

Doc instinctually traveled by mundane means to conserve his sorcerous powers. He doesn't know why yet, but it's a good call. Doc and Vicky arrive at Lord Nekron's sinister looking castle and we get our first look at our villain du jour. Surprise, surprise, he's wearing green! It's also a rather bizarre outfit in which to lounge around in. Maybe he just wants to impress Doc.

As green is Wong's predominant wardrobe choice, I'm surprised he didn't eventually turn into a villain. Lord Nekron greets them at the door and inquires about Doc's plus one. He calls her Miss Victoria Bentley so we know her family is merely rich and not members of the nobility.

Doc and Vicky dine with his lordship who explains he dabbles in the mystic arts and then proposes an ominous toast, to which Doc refuses to drink.

Vicky starts to get woozy. Doc is suddenly glad he found the toast offensive, because the wine was drugged. His lordship then does the supervillain monologue thing and tells Doc the whole shebang. We get our first view of Satannish. He looks like a torso with a face in the middle and arms growing out of the top.

It's not incredibly original. It's basically a Faust bargain. (I think I was subconsciously influenced by this when I chose Faust as my comparison opera above.) Nekron wants eternal fame and endless life. Ho hum. As a bonus this apparently comes with a significant amount of magical might. He's got a year to find another mortal mystic to take his place. If not, Satannish takes his soul. Nekron tells Doc he's waited for the entire year except for the final hour to face Doc. He claims he was waiting for his powers to reach their peak but it sounds like procrastination to me. If my soul were at stake I wouldn't be cutting things so close.

Doc now starts to feel woozy. The castle itself is causing this. As Doc enters his drugged like state, Colan really starts to go nuts with the page layouts.

Gene goes all Salvador Dali.

We get multiple full page panels and Gene even honors the title by including a pendulum!

Doc tries to do away with the pendulums, but only succeeds in turning them into liquid metal which promptly pours all over him. Ouch! The weight of the liquid breaks the platform he's standing on and he's able to free himself. This isn't a huge help as Nekron then traps Doc in a tangle of pink (red in the original printing) tentacles. The colorist in the original printing managed to get Doc's colors a bit wrong. Masterworks editions usually keep these errors, but in this case it's been corrected.

Doc uses the All-Purpose Amulet to free himself. Nekron prepares his next attack but is suddenly pulled away from the battle. It's not Doc's doing. Satannish appears and Nekon is like "WTF?! I still have lots of time left! You made a mistake!"

Satannish is like "Really! REALLY!! You're accusing The Supreme Satannish of error! Now I'm mad!"

After Satannish claims Nekron, he gives Doc a warning.

Doc and Vicky leave the castle. Doc explains that he cast one spell that made time go faster and that's why Nekron was confused. He should have worn a watch and he might have figured it out before things got messy. Doc drops off his rental and returns Vicky to her home so she can get on with that sexy party Doc pretty much kidnapped her from. Then he goes him in a magical bubble!

It's been a few years since I last read this issue and forgot just how much fun it is. It's a prelude to the next arc but part of it so it's a nice stand alone story that we don't see very often. Nekron is a true one-hit wonder. He never appears again, even in a flashback. Unless he migrated over to the DC universe to mess with the Green Lanterns and Guardians of the Universe. It might have been fun to see this second rate Baron Mordo return.

Sadly, Satannish never got to the level of popularity or influence of Mephisto who is just a month away from popping up to menace the Silver Surfer. To be fair Satannish barely appears in this while Mephisto is all over his premiere being all eloquent and poetic. Mephisto's appearance is more traditionally devilish. Satannish resembles The Tabanga in From Hell It Came. Still, Satannish will remain an moderately influential part of Marvel and we eventually learn he's a creation of Dormammu from a few billion years ago. Now that's some advanced planning!

The story itself has lots of fun moments and action. We get some melodrama with Victoria unable to think about anything else but her lust for Doc. We get romance between Doc and Clea. We get a very nice battle. The story never drags and there isn't much that is extraneous or unnecessary. Roy and Gene are quite a team!

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

The Vacation Indecision Project continues!

Got a late start today, because one of our dogs decided the way I wasn't going to work on a Monday was suspicious and reason to act anxious, and absolutely nothing I did would convince him I wouldn't be abandoning him forever. It's been literal months since he had an anxiety day that bad. To make matters worse, I eventually did have to leave the house for mockup fabric groceries and medication.

But I finally did get behind the craft table, metamizole tablets gratefully replenished, and started sewing together things I pinned yesterday.

For, y'know. 45 minutes. Then there were another 35 minutes spent at the overlocker, finishing all the edges of this fabric that is absolutely stable until it decides to dissolve when you look at it wrong. I've made a paneled circle skirt in this stuff before. Fool me once, and all that. Also, I've never sewn this before, there's some techniques I don't do a lot, so I'm just finishing all the edges while everything is flat and relatively simple shapes, so I don't have to do geometry while panicking later. It's worth the extra thread it uses.

But, as we all know, most of the time in a sewing project is not spent sewing if you're doing it by machine. Most of my sewing skills come down to skimming the instructions for how much stuff can be done before I have to start ironing. Trendy YouTubers call this "batch working" instead of "putting of the inevitable".

And after all that, the pile to be pinned is... Smaller that yesterday. Some bits are as done as they'll be before being joined, others are waiting on bits and bobs to be fenagled before they can be used at all.

The only thing that needs much more work is the waist tie and the ruffle. I decided to work on the one that isn't 4 m long first. If you iron something well enough, you can sometimes get away with not pinning it. And many thanks to Quiltbr for teaching me that you want to use diagonal seams when piecing long, skinny bits that are going to be folded and run under a sewing machine.

Put in the pockets, leaving the iron on for the little bits of pressing needed for this. Then I noticed I could already put in the wrist plackets if I wanted to. Have I ever put in a placket? No, I just make potato dresses and shove in an elastic over the butt seam so they hang nicer. But how hard could it be?

Half an hour later, covered in an admirable amount of nervous sweat, I had managed to put these two miniscule little [undeserved expletive deleted] without needing to rip anything out, or introducing puckers, or having them be hugely uneven. I only nearly burned my fingers. Three times.

To come down from that adventure, I figured I could finish the raw edges of that frill. All 4+ meters of it. Twice, because there's two sides. And join it in the middle. And, seeing that the night light is on again, use my last two frazzled brain cells to mark the center points of it. And the quarter points. Actually, make that 8ths.

... I'm gonna have to do so much gathering tomorrow, and I'm already trying to negotiate it to pleats instead.

Oh well. We went from 33 pattern pieces at 7 pm to 17 right now, which feels admirable enough.

[itwasthisorthemilitary]

So Saturday I woke up and before Sophie and Sam came over I went to my new house and put my new sheets on my new bed, and hung my bug net. Because I knew that the last thing I'd want to do after moving everything was then have to make my bed and struggle to hang the bug net in the dark. And there's no question of me sleeping WITHOUT my bug net.

Then I went and collected oranges to offer my friends as payment for helping me out because cooking for them was kinda out of the question because I have one plate and no food.

Then Toño and I changed the oil in the generator that he's leaving at my house.

So then Sophie and her guide showed up, and a little later Sam came to and we got all my shit to the new house. They all hung out while I got myself organized. Sam went up on the roof to install my solar panel.

It was my first time seeing Sophie since Ave Maria so that was really nice, and Sam is my bestie. For the most part we talked books all day because the three of us have just been swapping back and forth books.

After Sophie and her guide left I walked with Sam to the next two over, he has like a 2 1/2 walk from my town back to his so I walked for like 30 minutes with him to show him this really cool abandoned government building near the river. We spent a good amount of time trying to find a way inside and then headed our separate ways. For my first dinner I made boiled plantains (Sophie brought me plantains as a housewarming gift) with some spicy seasoning. Followed by a bottle of warm champagne that Sam brought me as a house warming gift. Had to toast to the new house.

The plantains tasted wonderfully and the champagne went straight to my head because the only things I ate had been oranges and a boiled plantain.

The two of them really hyped me up about my new place. It's 2 rooms: a bedroom and a kitchen area. And I am really lucky because Toño is leaving me with a bedframe, table, two chairs, washing machine, generator (for the washing machine), and helped me hook up my gas tank for the stove.

Sophie is having issues finding a rental option because there's a lot of drama in her town and her family keeps telling her she can't rent every option because the owners are bad people.

Sam doesn't have a rental option...and has been told he might have to build his own?

I'm feeling much more settled, and now that I have space to myself I will seek out social interaction more because it's not being forced upon me. Sunday night at like 8 pm (a little tipsy and pitch black) I walked back up to Elena's house to say thank you for her hospitality. When I tell you that I REALLY didn't want to, I mean it. But she goes to school in the city all day every Saturday so I didn't see her at all when I was moving things and even though she knew I was moving, I couldn't leave without saying anything. So I trudged up the hill and thanked her for her generosity. Then I went and slept in my brand new bed with brand new sheets and was terrified the entire time. The thing about a wooden shack is it's a lot easier for bugs to get in than a cement house, and as we've seen, the cement doesn't deter much anyways. I woke up at every noise and slept terribly. But it's a new space and I'm just not used to it.

The biggest issue is there is absolutely NO Signal at my new house. Obviously it's not the end of the world, it's just the one perk of living at Elena's that was so good was I could scroll Instagram from my bed. But Elena also lived on top of a pointy hill and my new house is in the shadow of that hill. Maybe I maintain a relationship with her just enough for some hammock/Instagram time.

Then Sunday morning I went to Penonome. I am technically supposed to be heading to chorrera to buy more shit that I need for my house (clothes hangers, duct tape, more dishware) but instead I'm heading to the capitol provincial city of the neighboring province, Cocle. Because conveniently, Penonome is halfway between Carlo and I. We've had this little date planned to see the new Planet of the Apes movie and get a hotel room for some time before I knew I was moving. But I'll never say no to AC/Electricity for a night (or seeing Carlo I suppose)

[sugirandom]

Anime Ocean City

So, yes my best bro and I went to Anime Ocean city for the first time last weekend. A convention that I had no idea is only 2 years old now.

The convention was only 2 days in comparison to the three day conventions we typically attend and since the badges were so affordable we did actually buy the VIP tickets (a luxury reserved for the rich at most cons I've been to). That allowed us to skip the normal line which was already wrapped around the hallway. We only had two people in front of us.

Anyway, overall it was a small convention. They only took up the 2nd floor of the convention center while the first floor had what I now know was some kind of wild-foul carving competition (carving and painting things like decoy ducks). There were only about 4 panels and they were all held in the auditorium. We went to the guest Q and As, the first one was with Catherine Sutherland and Steve Cardenas who were the third pink power ranger and second red ranger. It was interesting to hear about how they ended up auditioning and getting their parts, some stories about how things were on the set, etc. but for me personally I stopped watching Power Rangers halfway through season 2 so I only kinda knew Rocky (Red Ranger) and barely knew Cat so I didn't have many questions but Conner had seen season 3 as his last one so I think he was excited to see both of them.

The second Q+ A was with Wayne Grayson (known for characters like Michalangelo (TMNT...don't know which iteration) and Joey from Yuugioh among others) and Erica Shroeder (Luffy, the 2nd voice of Mai Valentine, Nurse Joy, various Pokemon etc.) It was interesting to hear their stories too overall.

I was kinda disappointed in the Dealer's room because they basically mixed the vendors and artist alley together and there was no clear distinction between the two. There also weren't any vendors selling DVDs or Blurays and no one selling English-language games with only a small amount of Japanese games. I don't mind having the option to get Japanese games of course but for our channel I'm always on the lookout for deals on games we could play on our channel (that and it infuriates me how hypocritical it is to overprice US Pokemon games but keep the Japanese ones affordable!)

There were plenty of places to buy manga but the recent rise in prices for manga has sadly turned me off of buying and tbh even reading manga. I love manga a lot but I feel like it might have to wait till I'm more fluent in Japanese and can comprehend Japanese volumes. Anyway, the local artists there were talented. It was good to see some love for athletic and curvy women from one of the artists there. There were plenty of Pokemon artists, I bought some Eeevlution pins to make up for the fact that all Pokemon plushies were overpriced and I just can't justify buying them because how dare you make me choose one!

Sunday was the day we shopped because there were no panels that day and the hours were short for both days so we honestly spent a lot of time out of the convention just enjoying ourselves nearby. We played some mini-golf at a place near our hotel and of course ate some delicious seafood on the shore.

That's about it, it was a modest convention but it was good overall. I do hope as they get more experience they'll get more events and improve some quality of life things like actually printing a schedule or having a printed out map, these are things that I guess I took for granted until going to a con that didn't have them. I'm happy OC has this now though since as far as I can tell they didn't have a dedicated Anime Convention in the area so I'm glad for that.

[ninacytosis]

For the time lost

Summary: Zuko wants to erase every reminder of his past mistakes, and Katara will take him on a journey to, quite literally, heal both of their scarrings.

Contains: Angst, Fluff, Katara has burns scars from Aang's first attempts to firebend, Katara tries to get over her resentment towards the FN, Zuko doesn't hate Azula.

Dear reader: I hope you enjoy it! <3 Let me know if you want me to continue posting

Find chapter one here and chapter three here.

┊┊┊┊☆┊*🌙*┊☆┊┊┊┊

Chapter Two

Katara thought about her students while folding clothes. A decent amount of people decided to move to the Southern Water Tribe after the war ended, and she knew a lot of families took this as a chance to start over. For now, she was in charge of nurturing the minds of the young benders that arrived. Even though she loved this new job, it was time for her to take a break.

“Hey, what’s with the sunglasses?” her dad asked, taking them off the nightstand and putting them on. “I know it’s summer but we’re still in the South Pole, kid”

Katara smiled. “I’m just packing them for tomorrow”.

His dad offered to help her, but she was almost done when he arrived, so she thought of two plans for her trip instead. Plan A, she would eat at the first rotisserie that appeared on her way to Zuko’s fancy royal mansion/palace/casa. Then, she would go to his house and even though she insisted on staying in a hotel nearby, she would eventually agree to stay. She would get a Fire Nation royalty-style spa day, Zuko’s treat (it’s important to clarify that, at least half of this plan was stolen on Toph’s visits to the Fire Nation. Though it is quite obvious). After all of that, she would ask him (preferably during a beach day) why he is visiting the North Tribe so much. And right before leaving, she would spend a day at Iroh’s shop.

However, it seemed like she had to go with plan B. Sure, it wasn’t a bad plan B, but it definitely involved fewer massages and face masks than the original, and Katara was just a girl who wanted a little self-care. Can anyone blame her?

“I like what you’ve done to the place” Katara stared at the wooden panels on the wall. She was too shy to confess her feelings about fire hazards, she didn’t even know if it was offensive for him.

“I tried to make it a bit retro, you know?” Iroh explained. “Everything is changing so fast, I’m afraid the world forgets its roots. But I guess that’s not a big preoccupation for younger folks”.

The words of Iroh resonated in her head on most occasions, especially since she was aware that he was Azulon’s firstborn. Even if he had spent more than a decade fixing his past actions, it was still weird for her to share the same table as a guy he had resented from the moment she gained consciousness. It’s hard to get used to this new era, and it’s probably the reason she barely went to the Fire Nation, even if it meant fewer hangouts with Zuko. In the last months, Aang helped her a lot to channel her antipathy into different, less draining emotions. Today’s emotion is: curiosity.

“I think I know why you are here, Katara” he offered her a cup.

“Well, we both needed a vacation”, she said. ”Zuko’s told me how busy these last weeks have been for him… plus I missed swimming without the risk of dying of hypothermia”.

“Then you’re certainly going to love the beaches down on Chaisee’s island” Iroh gave her a warm laugh. “Oh, the times I had there when I was your age!”

Katara took a sip on the cup and smiled.

“But be careful, Zuko’s skin might be sensitive after last week”, Katara cautiously nodded, “as a water bender yourself, you know how the healing procedures work”.

Healing procedures? Katara nodded again. Could Iroh tell she was nervous?

“Yeah…. I totally forgot. It’s such a sensitive procedure!” she said, having no idea about this healing thing. “And I wouldn’t want to hurt a Fire Lord, they have a history of heated arguments don’t they?” Apparently, it was impossible for Katara to shut her mouth. “Anyways, promise I won’t interfere in the treatment. Don’t know how I forgot, Zuko told me all about it on my way here… I mean, on a letter of course. He wasn’t on the ship. I guess you know that” shut up shut up shut up.

Iroh widened his eyes and made a frown that immediately told Katara that her attempts to sound unbothered and casual failed, as usual.

“Did I say something I shouldn’t?” Iroh covered his mouth his hand.

Katara tried to comfort him. “Well, he technically told me about his trips to the North Tribe, so it was a matter of time until I figured out what was going on”, honestly, she never even considered the idea of him wanting to get rid of his scar. He hadn't mentioned since he was sixteen. “I have a few questions now, though”

“Maybe you should ask him directly, I’m sure you’re going to notice the change once he arrives. A healing process is slow, and you know Zuko: he wants everything fast”, Iroh sighed, “but in his last letter he told me that this healing session was quite intense”.

He poured the water into two cups.

“The thing is,” he cleared his voice, “Zuko doesn’t understand that there are some parts of a wound that can only be healed by him.”

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

PANEL DISCUSSION

From time to time Your Humble Narrator likes to sort through the stacks of old comic books of which he has far too many. A recent such rummage led me to reflect, on the last day of Black History Month, that I learned a fair amount of what little I know about black history not at school but from comics.

Although Adalifu Nama's Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes (2011) is a lively and accessible study, its focus is deliberately narrow. As far as I can find, a comprehensive history of the black presence in comic books, both as characters and as artists, writers and publishers, is yet to be written. Reading up to review Marvel's Black Panther a few years ago, I came across a reprint of All-Negro Comics from 1947...

...which contained probably the earliest black superhero, Lion Man; even though the title was run out of business after only one issue, it left me wondering if it could have influenced the creation of T'Challa years later over at Marvel.

But in my collection, amongst the superhero, scary and funny titles, I found a number of civic-minded, non-fiction comics devoted to black history, most notably...

...the 169th issue of Classics Illustrated, Negro Americans: The Early Years, from 1969. Classics Illustrated were highly abridged and expurgated adaptations of literary classics intended to interest kids in reading, and I was their success story: the dorky kid who actually became a bookworm at least partly because of the hours I spent poring over these mostly lame version of Wells and Verne and Hugo and Melville, and even Homer and Shakespeare.

Negro Americans was different than the other Classics Illustrated titles, however, in that it wasn't based on a classic book; no author is credited. On the table of contents page it says "...we try to give accurate accounts of some of those black men and women who gave their talents and lives to their country during its formative years. Space allows us to show only a few of these black heroes...The efforts and triumphs of these black men and women live as their legacy to American heritage."

I bought this comic off the stands sometime in the early '70s, and learned from it--not from school--that Crispus Attucks was arguably the first man to die in the American revolution when he fell in the Boston Massacre...

...or about the advances in heart surgery by Daniel Hale Williams...

...among many other extraordinary accounts.

I also have the Classics Illustrated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, from 1944...

...with better-than-average art for the series.

A while back I acquired (for a dollar an issue!) a full run of the Golden Legacy comics, a series of 16 books on black history published from 1966 to 1976. Most of them concern African-American history--Crispus Attucks, Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Banneker, Martin Luther King, Jr., arctic explorer Matthew Henson, Amistad mutineer Joseph Cinqué, and two volumes on Frederick Douglass, among others. But there are also issues on ancient African civilizations, on Toussaint L'Ouverture and the founding of Haiti, and on the ancestry of Dumas and Pushkin. Again, they didn't teach most of this stuff at my school.

The art was pretty cool, too.

My stacks yielded a couple of '70s-era comics featuring Quincy, the everykid from Ted Shearer's newspaper strip...

They were published by King Comics, the periodical arm of King Features Syndicate. Along with Quincy's adventures with his white pal Nickels and others, the books featured educational content, teaching readers proper grammar, etc...

Moving away from educational comics, I found several issues of Midnight Tales, a creepy Charlton Comic that ran from 1972 to 1976. It's noteworthy not because of any specifically black content, but because the artist, the marvelous Wayne Howard (1949-2007) was probably the first African-American comic book artist to get a "Created by" credit on his title. Indeed, he was one of the first artists of any race to do so; comic books were usually uncredited in earlier decades.

In Midnight Tales Howard, in collaboration with writer Nicola Cuti, dreamed up Dr. Cyrus Coffin, aka "The Midnight Philosopher," who collected strange yarns with his beautiful raven-haired neice Arachne. I still think it would make a wonderful TV series on, say, the CW Network.

I love the macabre wit in Howard's artwork...

Or my favorite of his covers, from the first issue...

How much had Dr. Frankenstein been drinking when he made that mistake?

Finally, I came across a striking 1984 issue of All-Star Squadron,  DC's superhero team-up title set in the 1940s. This particular story...

...is set against the real-life backdrop of the white rioting against the residents of the Sojourner Truth housing project in Detroit in 1942. More strikingly, it features black superhero Will Everett, aka Amazing Man, facing off against a hooded supervillain wonderfully called "Real American," who has the hypnotic power not only to turn the white citizens into mindless, violent racist rioters, but to have the same effect on some of Amazing Man's superhero allies.

Hard to imagine that some Republicans in congress wouldn't love to get their hands on that technology...