#a character design background or something much more technical than me

[gl1tchr]

Your art is amazing and so cute! Do you have any drawing/anatomy tips you’re willing to share?

Oh man I don't know if I'm in any position to give ANATOMY tips specifically hgfdkh I feel I still have a LOT to learn in that regard!! I have a degree in Graphic Design but tbh a lot of those classes were based in - well graphic design and didn't cover a ton of drawing/illustration stuff, so much of what I know is self-taught!

I'd say just in general, draw as much as possible. Even if it didn't turn out exactly the way you want. I'm gonna post some Cringe Art of mine to show some examples

I Did not like how these turned out in the end. BUT they were requests from my Strawpage and this was super early on in me posting on twitter n gaining a little following, so I just pushed on, finished them, and posted them. Not letting myself get Obsessed with one drawing and making sure it turned out "perfect" helped me to just KEEP drawing, which sharpened my skills and gave me WAY more muscle memory! I used to have to check other drawings of Arkham Ed to make sure I was drawing him right, but now I could pop out an Origins, City, or Knight Riddler with one hand behind my back because I've drawn him. So many times now ghksfh

and I think this general advice applies to technical skills like anatomy, lighting, etc. too! The more you just force yourself to draw that janky hand and keep it moving, you'll learn what you DON'T want things to look like, and eventually you'll kind of Teach Yourself the way it's supposed to look. At least for you in your art style!!

AND OFC THANK YOU SM FOR THE COMPLIMENT YOU ARE TOO SWEET

[crimsonender]

Mikaila Orchard sucks at Paneling

I debated making this a video or not. But, I decided against it. If you guys are interested in me making videos about this sort of thing, let me know and perhaps it's something I could cover in the future.

So Mikaila Turkleson aka Mikaila Orchard has always made... questionable art. To me it seems like a weird amalgamation of Equestria Girls and Sophie Labelle's art. Anatomy bad character design bad etc etc. I don't however see a lot of people talk about her paneling.

Recently, Mikaila and presumably her partner, Lily Orchard started a new art endeavour. I assume to turn over a new leaf and bury the now-infamous Pokemadhouse. You can find it over at bhaalspawnfunnies. It appears as if the blog will focus around the player character of Baldur's Gate 1, Gorion's Ward, and their half sister, Imoen. This is the first entry.

Source

Where to start? My first impression is that this is very poorly drawn, and low effort even by Mikaila's standards. The speech bubbles are low contrast against the background. The ground/floor blurry blob looks extremely bad. As a fellow artist I get the distinct impression that Mikaila did not want to draw this piece.

Moreover, there's a huge issue with the panelling and pacing. Comics are really cool in that you can kind of use panelling and negative space to "time" jokes, leading the eye where you want it to go and using framing and other art tricks to make a punchline land a little better.

This "comic" has none of that. There is no pacing, there is no comedic timing. It's all bland and presented as a block. I took it upon myself to re-panel this piece, and I've made two versions: One, with Mikaila's art style and visuals, but with the panelling slightly adjusted to be more punchy and effective, the other I completely redrew, using the same joke.

Excuse the sloppiness. I'm not going to expend too much energy polishing and gilding this turd.

That being said, this is already a huge improvement. Even if Mikaila isn't at the technical level of a professional artist, this is very attainable with only a few more minutes of effort. The timing is punchier, the speech bubbles draw your eyes down the page, and even without colour coding, it's clear which of the characters is talking. This isn't exactly a hot take but in my opinion you shouldn't need colour coding on a comic page to denote who is speaking. It should be very obvious! Moreover, speech bubbles should be included in the composition, not added as an after thought.

I'm guessing the original comic took her less than an hour to make. I think I'm being generous here, honestly if this took her more than twenty minutes I would be concerned. Being generous though I gave myself one hour to make a version completely redrawn.

This was again, very quickly put together and of course is in no way perfect, but its to demonstrate what a little bit of thought can do to improve a comic page. I decided to change the pose of Gorion because making family guy references should be a a cardinal sin for artists, as well as make the characters a little more recognizable. "Aryana" is, notably, Lily's OC and bears little resemblance to the canon character of Gorion's Ward, but considering Baldurs Gate does allow character customization and dialogue choices, I decided to make their gender a little more ambiguous so players of any gender could see their version of Gorion's Ward in the comic, but kept the elf with long dark hair appearance from Mikaila's original. I also looked over the pic after I was all done and ready to upload and noticed some small flaws I could easily fix, and went back and did those things. You should always go over your pieces when you're finished them with fresh eyes before you submit them as a final piece.

Again, this certainly isn't perfect and I'd probably put more effort into a piece with characters I care about and a joke I actually find funny, but I hope this demonstrates that pacing and expression really are everything in comics.

[artsofmetamoor]

Hey! I want you to know never doubt it, your art is FAN-TASTIC 👀 and it deserves all the praise it can get! 💖✨️❤️

How do you come up with your designs for the characters? Diego in particular; how did you come up with the design or the color scheme and the like! Seems a complicated process of thought!

Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words, it means a lot!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Oh gosh, there's a bit to unpack here, but I'll try not to drag it! Diego is an interesting choice, not many people ask me about him, you are very attentive stranger! It's kind of funny because when I first created him he had a simple antagonistic role, mainly because I didn’t have much experience with character design or storytelling at the time. Both him and my skills are still growing.

When designing a character, I start by exploring their personality, background, and role in the story. So now I aimed to capture Diego's inner qualities and flaws, as well as how his environment and relationships influence him. From his pose, to the way he carries himself, his expressions, the silhouette of his body e.t.c. all of that must hint to the viewer who is is as a person.

For instance Diego has mostly the role of an archer in the rebellion, so he should have well-developed upper arms and shoulders. However, given his stealthy and cunning nature, I imagined him to be toned and athletic rather than overly muscular despite being a warrior. Additionally, Diego has a subtle 'posh' vibe to him even when he's being erratic, which I try to show through small details like elegant movements or the gestures of his hands.

After deciding his body structure I move over to all the other details that add to his character. For example I also wanted his clothes to balance his personality with his role in a rebellion, so they are a bit more elegant for a rebel, reflecting his slightly vain nature, but I also tried to portray them as practical. Everything he wears has a purpose, whether it’s for mobility, stealth, or durability in battle. The elegance in his attire is subtle, maybe in the cut of his tunic or the way his boots are laced, but it’s there, showing that he’s someone who cares about how he presents himself. Now that I think about it Diego is pretty much like an elf ranger 😆

As far as his colors go, one of the first things I knew I wanted for Diego was red hair. Even though it’s a bit cliché, I felt it symbolized the fiery aggression he carries inside. As his character developed, the red hair came to represent not just aggression, but also his passion, determination, and his intense need to prove himself (feelings he often keeps hidden). The color also reflects how he loves fiercely, sometimes to the point of self-destruction. I focused on keeping his hair red and built the color scheme around it because having that one fixed detail made the rest of the design process easier for me.

After that I used complementary and softer colors such as greens and earthly browns to highlight his outfit, eyes e.t.c.

It can definitely seem daunting to create something from scratch, I always try to go back to basics so things don't turn into a rumble in my head. For example, when I'm choosing color schemes for either characters or environments I tend to just look back at color theory, and I know that might seem dull, but it’s incredibly important and useful for understanding how colors interact and complement each other (just like it is important to understand anatomy for drawing figures).

I won’t dive into the technical details since there are plenty of online tutorials, but one reference I highly recommend is James Gurney’s book Color and Light. It’s been a game-changer for me and it's a tool I frequently return to when I feel stuck in my coloring process:

Palette generators are also useful resources:

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

Even stuff like character creator and dress-up games can be surprisingly effective for inspiration and kick starting a base for character designs and color schemes if you are feeling stuck. Some of our most beloved original characters started from this, combined with the techniques I mentioned above. For example, Dilla was initially created by @katerinaaqu using one of these games (left). I then drew her and fleshed out her body structure and tailored her appearance to better fit her personality and physical descriptions, as we both envisioned her (right) :

With this I also must point out that the development of Diego and the entirety of Chronicles of Metamoor was a team effort. My friend @katerinaaqu, an awesome writer who collaborates with me on this project, played a big role in shaping these characters. Her detailed descriptions, stories, and insights were very important to bring them all to life ❤️

I think this is all for now. I apologize if this explanation was a bit general, but if you (or anyone else) have more questions about Diego’s design or any of our other characters, or even just any general question feel free to ask! Your support and interest in my art and our story mean a lot to me, thank you so much! ❤️🌹

[romance-of-three-memes]

It's been over 6 years since Dynasty Warriors 9 came out, and 6 years since we've had a new main series entry. We're not getting another main series entry at least as of yet, we're getting Dynasty Warriors Origins, which was revealed in Sony's 2024 State of Play show, which has been remarked to have been an utterly mediocre event (much like this entire generation of tRIpLe A video games). The first trailer is here:

So, what do I think of all this? My overall sentiment can be summed up as follows:

Fuck man, I dunno.

Dynasty Warriors means a lot to me. It means so, so much to me. It's shaped a lot of aspects of my life, my taste in video games, music, characters, and costume design, my academic interests and aspirations, etc. I learned Chinese in college and studied abroad in Beijing largely because Dynasty Warriors stoked that interest in me from a young age. So yeah, I *really* love this series. I *really* am not sure what my life would look like if it hadn't been part of it. And I *really* hate what's become of it.

I want to be excited. I want to be optimistic. But at the same time, I don't, because man, does getting your hopes up only to have them dashed hurt. Nothing last forever, and after the sorry affair that was Dynasty Warriors 9 (the strongest defense I've heard for it was 'it's wasn't as bad as people say' it wasn't AS bad. Yeesh), it's made me wonder if there's really much of anywhere left for the series to go that's interesting.

The formula itself, the 1 vs 1,000 gameplay, has long been ported to other IPs such as Zelda, Fire Emblem, and Berserk, and a lot of them have been great (holy shit I love the original Hyrule Warriors). This proves that the gameplay concept can continue to evolve and be engaging. But Dynasty Warriors as a narrative device for that concept has been pretty played out, and it's not like this is a new observation, anyone who's played more than one or two Warriors games would probably be able to tell you the same thing.

Given the differing gameplay with the whole nameless hero bit and the title it's probably more like (another) spin-off than a main sequel, and that may very well be because the devs don't have much of anywhere else to go with the main series, which may be for the best. I'd rather let something go quietly into the night than watch as it shambles on like a reanimated corpse, although I'd rather it ended on a better note than Dynasty Warriors 9. Something that particularly bothers me is the wording of some of the ad blurbs, like on Koei-Tecmo's official twitter account announcing the game: 'In addition, for the first time in a Dynasty Warriors title, the storyline will be told through the eyes of a “nameless hero.” Play through the historical tale of war as chaos erupts throughout the Three Kingdoms, showcasing the vast lands of China and its most ruthless generals like never before!’

That's *technically* true, but in a very legalese way. This isn't the first time the Warriors series has had an original character with no historical or cultural background being 'the main character' of the game. Dynasty Warriors 4 and most of the Empires games have the option for you to create a player character and play through the game with them, and Samurai Warriors Chronicles is the same deal, albeit that's even more like the premise of Dynasty Warriors Origins because you play as an OC going through the late Sengoku Era. And man, the evolution of the character creation over the years has been pretty amazing. It makes me wonder if this 'nameless hero' is going to be customizable other than changing their weapon (which was showcased in the trailer). I'm going to be really honest, unless that character ends up being extremely compelling and well-written, I'm going to be very put off if we can't customize them, or if there's only a small degree of customization. In Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 I can make a player character who’s a woman that’s taller than virtually every male character, isn’t stick thin, can wield any other character’s weapon or her own unique weapon, and I can put her in cool armor that isn’t pointlessly sexualized, and I can give her different voices who all give the character different personalities in their lines and delivery, and I give her the overconfident, ruthless voice actress. If you take that degree of customizability away from me after having given it to me on a handheld system from the previous generation, I will lose a ton of interest, Dynasty Warriors Origins.

Another thing that maybe isn't quite as major but still gets me is the announcement tweet on Koei-Tecmo's official twitter account that goes 'Fueled by exhilarating 1 vs. 1,000 action and the rush of massive armies, DYNASTY WARRIORS: ORIGINS delivers an unrivaled sense of realism to the battlefield'. Realism. In Dynasty Warriors. A game series where you play as characters with superhuman abilities and are at a peak physical condition that most people could never hope to achieve. Realism? You think I want realism? You think *anyone* plays this series for realism? One of the best parts of Dynasty Warriors is how flashy and campy it is, and how unabashed it is about that (or how it used to be, anyway). Dynasty Warriors has never, ever been about realism and feels more like chasing trends, since realism has been a buzzword in the video game community for years now (albeit it's quieted down within the past few years, thankfully).

Still, this is just a very basic first trailer. Could it be great? Yeah, I'd love for it to be. But do I think it will be? Most of what little evidence we've been given so far makes me lean towards 'no'. That doesn't mean I necessarily think it'll be terrible, but I also don't really think it will be great.

As much of a cynical, joyless bastard as I can be, I don't get anything out of saying all this. I usually love being right, but not about this. Man would I *love* to be wrong about this. I really, really would. Also, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade or try to convince them that they shouldn't be excited or should expect the worst case scenario, I'm just throwing my opinion out there. Maybe once we see more my expectations will take a turn for the better.

So I guess I'll end this with the sentiment I began with: Fuck man, I dunno.

[dungeonmalcontent]

So, I'd like to showcase a few things that I've put on DMsGuild because there's a whole lot more now.

I want to start off with Grimdark & Dangerous. Follower turnover is pretty high on Tumblr, and people go inactive pretty quick. So many people that see this will not be familiar with G&D. It was a huge project for me and I am very proud of it.

Grimdark & Dangerous is a 5e d&d homebrew book available for purchase on DMsGuild for $19.99. It comes as a PDF (for now) and is 159 pages of content geared towards gritty aesthetics. You can follow this link to see my full post on the book or the DMsGuild page here. It has a lot of content and is more than worth the price tag.

While G&D is my biggest item on DMsGuild, I have a nice handful of middle sized docs as well. These are mostly pay what you want (PWYW) titles and quite old. They are also more prone to errors and unintelligible text (where I just started writing and went into a stupor and created something I no longer fully understand).

+ Ancient Artifice Primer for Modern Practitioners (PWYW) - A magic item crafting system which can allow players to create magic items with some degree of value based balancing. It doesn't cover as much as it should in my opinion and is one of those unintelligible texts. However, I do still appreciate my very limited world-building of early runic magic and early graphic design work.

+ Better Backgrounds: 5e Character Building Alternative (PWYW) - A short book on how players can build characters without relying on race based ability score increases. I built on this premise in Grimdark & Dangerous and I'm still quite proud of how I did it in Better Backgrounds. This is a much rougher document than G&D and the writing has a handful of errors, but still decent.

+ The Inheritor: An Artifact and Exploration Class (PWYW) - A homebrew class option. I always say that if you want to play in a game and have a strong connection to the setting, run vestiges (Critical Role), or have a complex backstory this is the class for you. Inheritor characters come with a prebuilt artifact which functions as a growing magic item. You get to customize the item and there is a lot of variability to what your item can do (also includes a modular builder if you aren't very creative). Still pretty proud of this.

+ Mystic Revised (PWYW) - A full remake of the mystic UA class using my own opinions of what it should be. It's based, roughly, on the Nen system in Hunter x Hunter. It's a pretty fun class, but is not very mystic/psionic-y.

+ An Outcast's Notes on the Plane of Pensos - A Planar Adventure Setting for 5e (PWYW) - Don't pay money for this one unless you really genuinely love it. It's an outline and not worth much (IMO). Technically, it can't really even be sold on DMsGuild because it constitutes a homebrew setting (which they don't allow). I created it because I ran (and still do run) this setting and figured it could be a fun thing to share.

+ Plague Pestilence Parasite (PWYW) - A disease book that introduces new mechanics for how contagious diseases spread and how they can be integrated into 5e adventure settings. It also includes a handful of new diseases of varying danger (not all of which are actually threats to player characters). Still a decent book, though I now recognize it lacks some clear writing and has a handful of errors (I may come back and redo this book at some point).

+ Plague Pestilence Parasite: Avolakia Overrun (PWYW) - I don't think I'm really fit to write actual adventure modules, and this book is why. It is an adventure module written to use the rules in Plague Pestilence Parasite. It is still technically an open beta test. It's not unplayable, but I don't think it represents an adventure that players would latch on to (feel free to prove me wrong).

+ The Emissary: An Extraplanar Class (PWYW) - One of my first docs. It's a homebrew class heavily inspired by the Fate/Stay series (has nothing to do with any of the core themes/tropes/abilities of any Fate title) and is actually way more fun than it may sound. The premise: you get a little pocket dimension to store things in and it gives you a variety of powers (the ability to make a little nature preserve, become an auto-crafter, or be Gilgamesh in UBW and launch items at people).

Then there are smaller docs. These are moderately more expensive than most of my short docs (will list those later) but have a significant amount more content than my short docs. These are more recent docs and I generally have higher opinions of them because I was more skilled when I made them.

+ Grimdark Puzzles ($5) - An extension of the themes present in Grimdark & Dangerous. This document contains three (technically 5-6 depending on how you think about it) puzzles that present unique puzzles with dark aesthetics. I really like this doc.

+ From the Dwarven Vault ($1.50) - An item collection themed for dwarven cultures. This does rely a lot on dwarven stereotypes in fantasy, but I did get to bring in some fun things (like burial armor and the DUBA) that I think most people would really appreciate having in their games for lore and aesthetics. Also includes some content for rune carving.

+ From the Elven Vault ($1.50) - Like FTDV, this is a collection of items themed for elves. However, this one is a bit different. While Dwarves are smiths and warriors, elves are crafters. Not just of metal, but most mediums and particularly with mediums that take a great deal of time. If you like crafting in campaigns (if artificer is your favorite class), you want to take a look here because I added in crystal singing and there are three new sets of artisan's tools.

+ Lich Minions: A Lair Building Guide ($2.50) - I really liked making this doc and I am very happy with it. This is a guide for making lairs when your BBEG is a lich. It includes a variety of undead themed minions and how they fit into a lich's minion hierarchy. Each minion has some unique difference from their generic variety or are outright unique, they all have stat blocks. This is a really good resource if you want to do a short dungeon run campaign or a siege campaign. I plan on making more docs like this and I really enjoy this format.

Finally, I have my short docs (there's a lot of these). For simplicity I'll break these into two sub-categories: "Encounter With" and "Subclass".

The “encounter with” docs are short docs that include information on a unique or updated monster, a specific NPC, or a type of NPC. Each is given a stat block, has an outline of what kind of hazards are in the same area as this creature, and lists what kind of loot you might be able to gather from encountering this monster. These encounters include:

+ Archchancellor Ensiid

+ Dracolich Gollryn

+ The Athach

+ The Beholdra

+ The Boom Goblin

+ The Chaos Beast

+ The Destrachan

+ The Drow Paleweaver

+ The Introspective Terror

+ The Lifeblood Magus

+ The Musclemancer

+ The Non-Phaneron Beast (note the cover of this doc is intentional, as the beast does not have a visible form)

+ The Pale Widow

+ The Silkscale Coiler

+ The Soliptic Nightmare

+ The Sunken Effigy

+ The Venomous Plesiodrake

+ The Werewolf Lord

(I feel like I'm missing one...). All encounters have a $0.50 or $0.75 price tag depending on if the encounter features an original or converted stat block.

The subclasses are just that, subclass docs. I really love making subclasses and I try not to burn out on them because I have so many subclass WIPs I want to do. These subclasses include:

+ Druid: Circle of the Grove (Plant druid. Why doesn't this exist already?)

+ Druid: Circle of Witchcraft (Discworld witches, love this one)

+ Fighter: Blade Drifter (I just want to link a song from the Sonic Riders franchise here, but they're all so corny)

+ Ranger: Hell Skulker (nine hells/abyss ranger, also really like this one)

+ Warlock: The Greatwyrm (DRAGON PATRON! Why doesn't this exist already?)

These subclasses all have a $0.75 price tag. I will probably be making a lot more of these, they just take a bit longer than the encounter docs.

[blackbutlerfandomnerddomain]

SO I WANT TO SAY THIS BEFORE I FORGET!!

I noticed how each chapter of Twisted Wonderland's manga series based off each game and their chapter with each Yuu/MC/the reader and viewer is different in a way of what would help contrast the focus of the story.

Examples being Enma Yuuken is strong and obvious extremally masculine there fore "strong" in looks than Riddle who's "strong" in the sense of brains and magic as he literally bulldoze across any set back to be the top of his school to a degree of being Housewarden a mere weeks since joining as a new student vs. this one guy who has no magic and only seemingly became a student regardless of background or magic history and is able to make plenty of friends when he can't think of anyone outside of Trey and Cater and Chenya to call his friend, maybe even doubt if they even see him as his friend.

Then we have Yuuka Hirasaka who is confident, kind, loyal, and brave as shit, proving her point by risking her safety for a animal in the road. Leona, try as he might, wouldn't even give a chance to prove he can do that because everyone already doesn't expect much from him, or at least that's what he said. He's confident for a different reason, also if you remember how things run back in the Sunset Savannah you'd argue Leona feels extra bitter and more in need to try and prove worth more cause he grew up not only looked down on by his magic and potion in the royal line but also is honestly scared of the women around him. He's more confused with Yuuka especially since she doesn't show much fear to him

Next we have Mito Yuuta who I love the most so far due to what may come. Azul is confident and arrant as a show off little shield cause of his own self insecurities especially his image, specially his body and it's weight. He was relentlessly picked on by everyone besides his mother mainly due to his weight which from that level of trauma he's willing to work hard to become the smartest, the strongest, the most respected, and hottest out of spite not cause he generally feels that he wants to, to him he needed to. And it's obviously still stuck on him enough to not take pictures regardless how much money he would make and even making Yuu(soon Mito) to break into something dangerous and steal the only picture of his childhood he was unable to hide in the mind set of destroying it, regardless if he thought it would work or not. Meanwhile Mito Yuuta is a big guy who's okay and proud of his shape and eating habits and kind of like the ones before he him he actually has people who want to his friend vs. the unknown certainty that Jade and Floyd aren't technically his friends, they openly claim him as entertainment and if he got boring they'd leave him.

In other words there may be a chance other chapters would have a similar method with not just the design choice but personality design of future Yuus to contrast against the "flaws" of the chapter's "bad guys or villains"

I want Chapter 4 to be a girl, maybe make her beautiful in some way or have the personality of Jasmine from Aladdin that way the weird vibes of Chapter 4 being super hella romantic and even more ship baiting in any and all forms feel right, not to mention that scene of Jamil hypnotizing us in the kitchen DISNEY GIVE ME THAT AMAZING ART WORK OF JAMIL JUST LOOKING AT THIS GIRL AND MAKE ME AS CONFUSED IN MY SEXUALITY AND FEELINGS AS YOU DID WITH JASMINE AND ALADDIN WHEN I WAS 10 YEARS OLD!!!

I also think having Chapter 5's Yuu whatever gender (maybe male or masculine based cause there's a pattern it seems) but either make them somehow cuter than the ones before even if it's one trait or maybe give them something like a birthmark or scar of sorts that would somehow deem them "ugly" the their world but Vil would be lowkey obsessive of slowly as that was his character is, he's so obsessed proving he's beautiful and good and smart and strong to the point he obsessed over others and their flaws

Though with Chapter 6 I'm stuck on just cuz I want a sassy Meg type Yuu but also want a tall handsome muscular man who's like Hercules and everything Idia most likely would wish to be including with open mention of having great relationship with their family or maybe even them being an orphan

What are your guys' thoughts and opinions?

[kashuan]

I just wanted to say that your character work is so brilliant and inspiring to me right now. Your Darksouls work is such a delight!

I struggle to commit to loose sketching and tend to only produce fully rendered works with backgrounds, which stops me from being able to create the raw amount of character work you produce in a single post. It’s very inspirational, keep it up!

Thanks so much! 😊 I used to be the same myself, but I eventually figured out that personally, I get the most enjoyment from focusing more on ideas, whether they be character design or interactions between characters, than making one drawing in particular look really polished (altho make no mistake, I'm a huge perfectionist, lol. Most of my sketch dumps are like 20-30 hours worth of finagling with really tiny details I know no one will notice [but I do!!], not to mention the mountain of stuff I end up throwing away). For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of making art is the experience of studying a character throughout the course of many drawings until I really feel like I've gotten to know them, which looser drawings allow me to do, whereas whenever I was doing fully rendered works, I'd end up a lot more focused on the technical side of things than the ideas behind the piece. Which can be fun too, but isn't ultimately what I personally want to devote my time and growth to. I think there is also a kind of a pressure on artists for fully rendered works to be the 'end goal'/what you should aim to regularly produce, and more power to you if that's what you enjoy! But, IMO, a sketch can be just as much a 'finished piece' as something inked and colored, if that is the intent you go into it with. That is, at least, the state that I try to bring mine to before I post them. If you think you might enjoy working a little more loosely yourself, I highly encourage it; if nothing else, it's fun to experiment outside your comfort zone now and then :)

[themattress]

Sailor Moon (Takeuchi): The Top 20 Villains

Ranked using my core tenets for villains, and done countdown style for dramatic effect.

Honorable Mention: Danburite - He's technically not from Sailor Moon, instead being the main antagonist of the prequel Codename Sailor V. Danburite is the leader of the Dark Agency, a worldwide criminal organization that is secretly a subsidiary of the Dark Kingdom. He's a fairly complex character: hating Sailor Venus for never returning his love yet also still loving her, being upset that she favored Kunzite over him yet still working directly under Kunzite, and manipulating her in a Tuxedo Mask-esque guise just to lower her guard so he can kill her...yet ultimately choosing to die himself and use his last words to encourage her to move past him, something he could never do in regards to her. All in all, a damn solid villain.

20. Pharaoh 90 - The ruler of the Death Busters, Pharaoh 90 is a demonic extraterrestrial being bent on destruction. He's definitely the least engaging of Chaos' incarnations, but I have to give him points for a pretty great final battle and even some pathos in his last moments where he gracefully accepts his death and returns back to the Tau Nebula, saying that he wants to die in his home. That sticks with me even when little else about him does.

19. Queen Metalia - While a step above Pharaoh 90, Metalia still isn't all that interesting. She's a big blob of evil that wants to plunge the world into darkness and corrupt all its inhabitants because she's evil. Also, her design in the Crystal anime is underwhelming. Nevertheless, she gets by on how much destruction she wreaks, being the one to destroy the Moon Kingdom of the Silver Millennium and nearly causing Usagi and Mamoru's deaths.

18. Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne - The Sailor Moon manga has straight-up villains, tragic villains, and villains who aren't really villains and are just brainwashed. That's why Lethe and Mnemosyne stand out as true blue Anti-Villains: having joined Shadow Galactica of their own volition and even doing bad things, but having a backstory that justifies it, a deep love for one another, and conflicting feelings about their mission the more destructive it becomes. They would rank way higher if they had more screentime, but alas, they do not.

17. Safir - At the same placement as his Toei counterpart, Safir is the brooding young man in the background who develops the Black Moon Clan's droids and watches helplessly as his older brother Prince Demande descends into madness thanks to Wiseman and the Malefic Black Crystal. There is no redemption to be found here, however, as Safir blames Sailor Moon and her future self Neo-Queen Serenity for everything wrong in his life rather than take any responsibility for himself and his clan, which ultimately leads to him becoming forcibly mind controlled by Wiseman and then killed by his own brother. The lesson: misogyny kills!

16. Evil Endymion - Metalia and Beryl long resented that they were unable to corrupt Prince Endymion in the Silver Millennium despite doing so with everyone else on Earth. In the present day, they finally get what they wanted, and the result is a sinister, cold-hearted and unsettling presence. Seeing the heroic, chivalrous young man we've come to know and love become a manipulative, violent sociopath is arguably where the Dark Kingdom arc peaked.

15. Chaos - In terms of personality, there's nothing here. Chaos is the Ultimate Evil and that's all there is to it. But oh, how it coasts by on sheer concept! Turned evil because it is a lifeform that has perpetually failed to get out of the Galaxy Cauldron and become a star, Chaos seethes and longs for universal conquest. This desire is so great that even trapped in the Galaxy Cauldron as a being of pure dark energy, some of that energy is able to leak out, creating all the other major villains that Sailor Moon faces. It's an ingenious way to connect the story arcs, antagonists and series together, tying it all in a satisfying, truly epic bow.

14. Witches 5 - We had evil minions correlating to the Inner Senshi that challenged them and helped their character development before with the Shitennou and the Spectre Sisters, but I think Witches 5 is the peak version of this concept as a purely villainous force. They're all perfect dark foils to their respective heroic counterpart in terms of design, personality and powers, and face off against them not once but twice, the second time after having died!

13. Esmeraude - While the lone female leader of the Black Moon Clan is sadly the least consequential, she makes a stronger impression than Safir by actually fighting the Sailor Senshi on two separate occasions, and both times being a truly formidable adversary who almost kills them all. She also has a strong personality, being a haughty beauty who seeks to win Prince Demande's love and willing to do absolutely anything to achieve that desire.

12. Kaolinite - The Grand Magus of the Death Busters who commands Witches 5, Kaolinite brings a fun DnD aesthetic to the story while also being a fairly fleshed out character, especially in Crystal. Formerly Professor Tomoe's lab partner, Kaolinite now owes her life to the Daimon energy inside her and is obsessed with pleasing Pharaoh 90. Unfortunately, this puts her at odds with his actual number 2, Mistress 9, and seeing Kaolinite struggle even when the odds are against her makes her sympathetic despite being so unabashedly wicked.

11. Black Lady - When Wiseman corrupts Chibiusa, she becomes Black Lady, the self-styled Queen of Nemesis. Black Lady is a lot like Evil Endymion, but more nuanced as she doesn't do a complete personality flip due to the brainwashing. She still has the memories and feelings she held as Chibiusa, it's just that they've been twisted and perverted: her deep insecurities about living up to her mother and frustrations with Usagi manifesting as vindictive hatred of both, and her desire to keep hold of her father's affections turned into incestuous advances toward him. She may have breached the Top 10 had her resolution been stronger.

10. Queen Nehelenia - When part of Chaos leaked from the Galaxy Cauldron and into the dark side of the moon, it created a twisted mirror image of Queen Serenity: Queen Nehelenia. She's a fairy tale baddie based off the Queen from Snow White and the Wicked Fairy from Sleeping Beauty: a vain ruler who loves her beautiful image in the mirror and whose inner self is a hideous old hag, and a practitioner of dark magic who crashes a princess' birthday celebration and invokes a curse. Derivative? Absolutely. Effective at it? Also absolutely!

9. Crimson Rubeus - One of the most loathsome members of the Black Moon Clan, Rubeus operates by sending the Spectre Sisters out to fight and die for him so that he can swoop in and capture the Sailor Senshi they've rendered vulnerable and get all the credit from Prince Demande. He's a selfish creep and also a dirty coward, always feeling at the first sign of things going south for him. Despite that, he is perceptive enough to recognize that Wiseman may not have the clan's best interests at heart, and at least has the nobility to stand up to him over it even if that ends up getting him killed. If nothing else, Rubeus was loyal to the cause.

8. Queen Beryl - The main villain for much of the original Dark Kingdom arc, Beryl is interesting because in the Silver Millennium, she was more of a victim than anything. A jealous young woman who was misled and corrupted by Metalia. However, it’s a different story in the present day. The Silver Crystal granted her reincarnation and with it, a chance for redemption. A chance not to make the same mistake. But not only does she willfully re-release Metalia and then have the Shitennou re-brainwashed, but she takes things further by plotting to betray Metalia by keeping the Silver Crystal for herself and using its power to rule the universe with Endymion at her side. A case study in how corrosive envy and hate are.

7. Kunzite - While Jadeite, Nephrite and Zoisite of the Shitennou were thinly drawn beyond one basic characteristic (loyalty, passion and underhandedness respectively), Kunzite is a richer character. Despite being the leader of the Middle East branch of the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite is powerful enough to control a worldwide subsidiary in the Dark Agency, and reliable enough to be dispatched anywhere if necessary. He is arrogant and cold-hearted, allowing no personal connections in his life and focused solely on his mission. Yet then he becomes unbrainwashed and remembers being quite the opposite: devoted and dutiful, a protector not an offender, someone warm enough for even Sailor Venus to fall in love with. Tragically, when he tries to betray Queen Beryl he gets super-brainwashed and then killed in an epic struggle with the Sailor Senshi, but his cleansed spirit stays with Mamoru and plays a key role in helping to defeat Metalia for good. And through it all, he does it with such impeccable style.

6. Professor Tomoe - This villain is like unpeeling an onion, layer by layer. He seems like a good, caring father who is caught up in the Death Busters' shady business, with signs pointing him to being misled by Kaolinite. Then we learn he's actually Kaolinite's superior and not misled at all, but still trust he has his daughter's interests at heart since he's gone through such lengths for her. And in the end, we see that he is actually a complete psychopath who cares nothing for his daughter and only went so far for her so that he can make her into the thing he wants her to be: the first of a race of superbeings that he can rule over as a god. After he turns himself into a monster, Sailor Moon has to eliminate him, accepting that he is far beyond redemption. All in all, Professor Tomoe is effectively frightening and loathsome.

5. The Amazoness Quartet - I admit that I'm not that big a fan of Takeuchi's Dead Moon Circus, but even I can't deny that the Amazoness Quartet are spectacular villains. Remember how Chibiusa turned into Black Lady and then into Sailor Chibi Moon? The Amazoness Quartet is that without the Chibiusa part. What's more, they are preteens / early teens rather than adults, which means they rely far less on any sort of sex appeal and more on their raw cunning and deviousness. VesuVesu, CeleCele, PallaPalla, and JunJun...I love 'em all!

4. Sailor Galaxia - Usagi's final opponent is her perfect evil foil. Having grown up in a harsh, uncaring environment, Galaxia is as cynical as Usagi is hopeful, and instead of drawing strength from others, she sacrifices others to build up her strength. Chaos is easily able to manipulate her nihilistic psychopathy, but despite all of her attempts to break Usagi, she proves Galaxia wrong by never giving in and even saving her in the end. Before her (temporary) death, Galaxia realizes that someone like Sailor Moon was really what she wanted and needed in her life, and that even now an ideal like her seems so far out of reach.

3. Mistress 9 - If you want an example of pure evil done right, look no further than Mistress 9, the child and herald of Pharaoh 90. Like Pharaoh 90, Mistress 9 desires the destruction of Earth and its people, but she takes particular joy in causing it, relishing all the pain she inflicts on people...including people on her own side like Kaolinite. The way she uses Hotaru once Professor Tomoe sells her out to her control is especially despicable. When she finally turns into a hideous monster, it truly feels like the inside of her is finally showing on the outside.

2. Wiseman / Death Phantom - And if you want another example of pure evil done right, we have the best incarnation of Chaos in the series. Nemesis was an entire planet made up of leaked Chaos energy from the Galaxy Cauldron, awaiting only the proper catalyst to give it consciousness. That catalyst was Death Phantom, a psychopathic criminal sorcerer banished there by Neo-Queen Serenity. Melding his soul with the planet and magically puppeting his corpse under the identity of "Wiseman", Death Phantom will psychologically manipulate anyone to pursue his goal of taking over the universe and reshaping it into a void of nothing.

1. Prince Demande - Death Phantom's primary pawn? This guy. Prince Demande, leader of the Black Moon Clan. He starts out as a young man with a sensible conviction - an unnatural moon being ruling over humanity and forcing them into elongated lives in a utopian society is blasphemous, as she's basically playing God. Unfortunately, his methods go too far into extremism and terrorism, which attracts the attention of Death Phantom who, as Wiseman, lures him and his gang to Nemesis. There, exposure to the Malefic Black Crystal warps Demande....his motive shifts to envy of Neo-Queen Serenity, as now he decides that he deserves to play God and rule over Earth. And once he attacks Earth, the madman's motives shift again...now he wishes to rule with Neo-Queen Serenity at his side, as he has been overtaken with lustful feelings toward her and wants to force her into loving him. Despite being the worst of scum, Demande still has nuance: he cares for his comrades, especially his brother Safir. When forced to kill Safir, learning the truth about Wiseman and how he's been manipulated, and seeing the true power of the Silver Crystal he thought he could defeat, Demande's despair is palpable and pitiable. But then it brings him to trying to destroy the universe, taking everyone down with him just to prove he can be the master of his own fate, unbeholden to anyone or anything. So in the end, Demande epitomizes the tragic villain.

[underratedandoverit]

You Wanna Wish Away Your Sins (3/3)

After losing to Best Friends at Arcade Anarchy, Kip undergoes shoulder surgery. One person reaching out to him afterwards sends Kip spiraling, turning all the pain and suffering in him into… Flowers? Flowers growing in his lungs?

Kip Sabian/Chuck Taylor. Hanahaki disease. Angst. Hurt/comfort. Emotional hurt/comfort. One-sided attraction. Also tagged this from now on with manipulative Kip.

Marked Mature on AO3 for general content. Warnings for mentions of hospitals, surgery, medical stuff. Described feelings for choking and vomiting.

Other characters on-screen include Penelope Ford, Orange Cassidy. Rest of Best Friends are mentioned. Background ship of Penelope/Kris is heavily implied, but never specifically shown.

part 1 || part 2

On AO3

Finishing this took way longer than I intended. Oops. Mental illness and whatever be damned yada yada. But it's over now. And I am content. It's a whole fic and ended just as I wanted and had planned, surprisingly no surprises during writing lol. I hope it makes sense, there's a little bit there that doesn't get explained, but I have convinced myself that people can put the pieces together considering the mental state Kip is in and how the hanahaki disease works so. Yeah.

If you have read this far, thank you so much, I really appreciate you and your patience if you have waited for this to finish since I originally posted in early September. I see all the kudos and subs attached, they mean the world to me. Would love to hear your thoughts of this now that it's over, as there was a lot of time (obviously lol) and love put into this, so it would mean a lot ;; But I appreciate you all so much either way, thank you for sticking by and reading!! 💜💜

@midnightpretenders0 @stormbornpirate @ss-trashboat

----------------------

Kip tried to keep his eyes on the television, but he wasn’t registering anything he saw on the screen. Even if he was technically interested in watching the game that was being played, Kip would have much rather been looking at something else. Or someone else. That someone being the man sitting on the couch next to him, being much more into the activity of playing a video game that he was partaking in that Kip was.

While he was glad that Chuck was coming over far more often these days, at the same time it did grind Kip’s mind that they had fallen into this false routine of a casual friendship. Chuck would appear on his doorstep, bring a movie or a game with him for them to busy themselves with that day, maybe some snacks and energy drinks, and the rest of the day they would just hang out, consume the media of the day, and that would be it.

Same talking points every single day. Sitting in the silently designated spots on the couch just far enough from one another that even by accident their hands wouldn’t brush against each other unless they were passing the food and drinks around. Eye contact was brief, almost uncomfortably so if it managed to exist in the first place, and only when one got up from the couch and asked if the other needed something or something similarly surprising happened. Maybe a laugh could gather a quick glance, maybe a sneeze, a cough. And even then it was more often Chuck doing that to Kip, while Kip was trying to steal looks into his direction any chance he could, hoping Chuck would catch a hint.

It had been days, weeks even, maybe. How many, Kip had lost a count somewhere after the first few days, partially because of the pain he was going through, partially because he still found the whole situation so absurd. But the thing he knew for sure, was that it had been too many for comfort.

Every time Kip watched Chuck walk out the door of his house again at the end of the day, his breathing became a little bit tighter, the stabbing pain in his chest more prominent, the sleep during that following night a little shorter.

He was so tired of it all, and with every day that passed him by, it was pushing Kip closer to the realization that he finally had to do something about things. Before the pain was too paralyzing, before the thoughts became too much. Before he just couldn’t do anything about it anymore, before it was all too late.

“…Hey? Kip?”

The Brit blinked blankly a few times, finally registering the voice calling out to him after the words had been repeated a few times. His eyes slowly dragged away from the television screen, facing the brunet sitting on the couch next to him, Chuck looking at him with worry and concern. It was almost adorable to Kip how his brows furrowed and eyes darted around his facial features in clear worry. Almost.

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

Chuck sighed, Kip trying to offer him an apologetic smile as he watched Chuck running a hand through his hair, eyes turning away from the other man again as he shook his head a little. Kip had been too deep in his own head, with his own thoughts to notice Chuck had even tried to talk to him, the guilt almost immediately gnawing on him at the mere thought. He was supposed to try to pay attention to him, to try to make Chuck realize the situation, how close they were, to understand his feelings, to close the gap, to --

“I just wanted to know if you were hungry. We could order something in, maybe. If you’d like.”

For once Kip was thankful that Chuck wasn’t looking straight at him, his cheeks flushing red for a brief moment as he registered the words. Ordering food? Together? At his place, like this, out of the blue? For the first time?

It almost sounded like a date night proposal in Kip’s ears.

He quickly shook the thought from his head, turning away from Chuck to make sure he didn’t even by accident catch a glimpse of the blush decorating his face, desperately trying to not have the words caught in his throat, only partially succeeding.

“Ye-yeah that would be great.”

Chuck was so sincere about this question, just like he always was about everything, he was probably just hungry himself, and Kip was overthinking it all. Once again. But also, what if…

“Great. What would you like to eat?” Chuck’s words cut Kip’s thought process off again, his eyes slowly returning to the other man, watching Chuck pull his phone out of his pocket, eyes landing onto it, seemingly to avoid eye contact with Kip, who just shrugged a little. “I don’t know. Whatever sounds good.”

Chuck’s brows furrowed, suddenly looking back at Kip, making the Brit jump a little. This wasn’t the kind of reaction Kip had expected to his words, swallowing a little surprise lump in his throat as all of a sudden he was very unsure again where this was going. He hated nothing more than the unpredictable nature of their relationship, not being able to read Chuck at moments like this, mostly due to his own emotions and thoughts clouding his judgment and understanding of what the situation called for from him.

“…Okay, I’m going to be fully honest with you.”

The suddenly rather serious tone of Chuck’s voice made Kip’s eyes widen a little, he could feel his whole body tensing up at the sudden shift. Chuck offered him a small smile, most likely in hopes of trying to calm down Kip’s very obviously surprised demeanor, but seeing that smile just made Kip’s whole mind skip another beat instead.

“I’ve been worried about you recently. I actually talked with Penelope yesterday after I left, and she feels much the same way as I do.”

Chuck? Worried? About him? Chuck? Kip’s head was spinning, but he just nodded his head, not even acknowledging the fact that Chuck was also talking about Penelope being involved in this. All Kip cared about was that Chuck was thinking about him, outside of this room, outside of this couch, when he wasn’t around.

Chuck was thinking, and talking, about him.

“You’ve been… Seemingly getting worse each day I see you. You lack sleep, you lack food, you lack energy. I understand you are in a lot of pain with the shoulder and all, but you need to take care of yourself, Kip. Mine and Penelope’s help will only get you so far.”

Kip just looked at him quietly, trying to process the statement in his head, but all his thoughts retracted back to the overall realization that Chuck was worried about him. Thinking about him. That Chuck at least seemed to care more than he led on directly to him, at least before this very moment at hand.

“If there’s something wrong that you need help with, other than what we have been providing so far, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask, you know?”

Kip felt his head nodding itself, despite not approving of the movement in his mind. He was running on a practiced autopilot, still afraid that one casual movement might fuck all this up for him, not being the kind of response that Chuck wanted. This seemed to be enough for the brunet for now though as Chuck nodded back at him, eyes slowly returning to the phone in his hand. Right, he was ordering food. Right.

“So, again: what do you want to eat today? You can get anything you want, as long as it makes you eat. We just want to make sure you take care of yourself.”

At the same time it was endearing that Chuck was doing this for him, but Kip also knew he had to put a stop to this, all of it. While yes his current and constantly worsening condition was making him neglect his own basic needs, both which directly as a result affected his appetite and energy levels, Kip knew that trying to eat some proper food one day wasn’t the answer to his problems. Above all else, his condition was making it not only difficult to breathe, but the pain in his chest and particularly in his lungs made eating at this point a near impossible task.

As the silence from the Brit continued, Chuck glanced towards him, spotting Kip just looking back at him. Whether he was deep in thought or just staring, Chuck wasn’t quite sure.

“Kip?”

“I’m not hungry.”

At least it wasn’t a lie in a sense. Chuck raised a brow at him, slowly lowering the hand holding his phone onto his lap, eyes narrowing a little. Chuck’s eyes lingered on him just a little bit too long, forcing Kip to look away, back towards the television with the frozen game pause screen on it.

“You need to eat something.”

“Food can’t fix this.”

Kip could feel the confusion radiating from Chuck’s face, probably his entire being at this point, but he just couldn’t look back at him. It was so much easier for Kip to process his thoughts if he wasn’t looking at what he was sure was a very worried expression on the brunet sitting on the couch a few feet away from him.

He heard Chuck sigh. Not a very good sign.

“If you eat something, you get energy. You feel better. I shouldn’t need to explain all this to you. Kip, please --”

“This isn’t about food.”

Chuck fell silent as Kip cut him off, probably a bit more aggressively than necessary, but he was tired of this. All of this. Both his inability to do anything about the situation even though he desperately, so very desperately needed it, and the way they both seemed to just dance around the topic and the issues at hand. To Kip, Chuck offering to order him food was nothing but a detour that he couldn’t afford to wait to take to where he eventually needed to be. Kip had suffered long enough, mostly due to his own faults, yes, but Chuck jumping in to push his buttons like this, while a step in the right direction, wasn’t a fast enough track to where they needed to be.

Where Kip needed to be if he wanted to make it through all of this, it seemed like.

“…Are you mad at me?”

Kip’s eyes narrowed a little, but he still didn’t turn to look towards Chuck. All he heard was another quiet sigh.

“I don’t know how many times I can apologize for what happened. You know it was an accident. I’m sorry --”

“I don’t want you to apologize. I don’t care about that.”

If something, it was supposed to be Kip who apologized for everything, and he knew that painfully well.

“Then what is it?”

Kip swallowed thickly, being absolutely certain that Chuck could not only see it but also hear him do it. Kip’s eyes slowly dragged back to him, watching the confusion all over the brunet’s face. If the situation wasn’t so dire and heavy, Kip would have found the look on him endearing. Right now though, seeing Chuck not put the pieces together so easily, filled him with dread instead, along with the knowledge that Kip knew exactly what he needed to do next and the can of worms that he needed to open if he ever wanted to have a shot at things getting better again.

“I need…” Kip stopped, the confusion on Chuck’s face slowly melting into a more expecting look. Both of them were still clearly hesitant, Chuck not knowing what to expect out of him and Kip not being so sure how he was going to phrase this so it made even some sort of sense.

Just say it.

“I… I need you to kiss me.”

The silence that fell into the room felt like it was knocking all the remaining air out of Kip. The longer he looked at Chuck and the unreadable look lingering on his face after the words slipped out of Kip’s mouth, the worse he felt about everything. For once he was being honest about this entire situation and what he wanted out of it, and yet it felt like a worse mistake than anything he had lied to Chuck about so far.

He wanted this. He needed this. This was the trigger Kip had been so afraid to pull for so long now, but he knew that if he didn’t finally say those words, no matter the reaction, it would have terrible consequences for him. He was already suffering, the roots of his problem crawling deeper into his lungs every single day he put it off without even trying to make anything out of it. Kip was tired of it, he was suffering immensely because of it, he just needed to do something. Anything.

After what felt like forever of Chuck just staring at him, Kip was snapped out of his thoughts as Chuck took in a sharp breath, the only way Kip was able to describe his expression being polite confusion.

“You, uh… You what?”

Not sure if Chuck was just making sure or if he really hadn’t understood the statement, Kip bit his lower lip as he turned away from the other man. He inhaled slowly, preparing himself to say those words again. Kip did it once, he could do it again. It was a necessary step forward.

“I-I need. To kiss you. You to kiss me. So-something like that.”

As Chuck didn’t reply for a while, Kip stole a quick glance towards him, trying to gather an overview of the situation. Much to his surprise, Chuck looked like he was in deep thought for a second, as if he was pondering over the request. At least he wasn’t outright denying it from Kip, which in turn as he realized it, made his heart jump back into his throat.

The burning as Kip nervously waited for an answer was worse than the thorns poking inside of his lungs at the moment.

“Would that help? Make you feel better?”

Kip nodded almost instantly, the motion almost frantic, something he couldn’t control. Still clearly in his thoughts, Chuck nodded as well.

“I mean,” he muttered, a hand slowly reaching closer to Kip, the Brit’s focus turning on it with slightly widening eyes, “If… If it helps. I guess.”

Kip watched his hand stopping to hover close to him, slowly his own hand reaching for it. He could feel Chuck’s fingers gently wrapping around his hand, giving it a little tuck, an invitation to come closer. Kip followed suit, shifting over on the couch to slowly make his way to sit down right next to Chuck. For the first time since they had started doing this, for the first time since Chuck had started to spend the days over to keep him company. There had always been a cold, untouched gap between the two of them on the couch, but this was the first time it had been broken, filled, fixed.

And all it took was a small request that Kip should have been able to do in the first place, but it took him weeks and actual concern from Chuck to get to this point.

But there he was now, Chuck still gently holding his hand, running this thumb over his knuckles. A soft, still kind of unsure smile crossing his lips as he was looking Kip straight in the eyes. Chuck clearly wasn’t budging back on this, honestly much to Kip’s surprise, as his free hand slowly crept up to the Brit’s face, palm pressing against his cheek. Chuck’s hand was surprisingly cold against his flushed skin.

“…You sure?”

It was almost as if Chuck was asking that from himself more than Kip, but he pushed the thought aside, just nodding his head again. Without another word, Chuck leaned closer, finally closing the gap that had been antagonizing Kip these past few weeks without remorse, locking their lips together.

The kiss was awkward and hesitant at first, but slowly it felt more natural as they both seemed to relax into it. Soft and homey, but Kip could taste his own desperation in it despite all of it. He knew how badly he not only wanted, but needed this. While he could have joked that it was the matter of life and death, to him it was actually no joke, but merely the cruel reality he barely understood himself at all. Feeling Chuck’s lips finally against his, after the excruciatingly long amount of time of craving and needing nothing more than to taste him so desperately he was suffering from the withdrawals more and more every day, Kip’s mind went blank. He could feel Chuck close, hear his breathing, slowly allowing himself to enjoy it, running a thumb over Kip’s cheek.

Kip had been waiting for this moment for so long, craving for this so badly, that he needed more now that he finally had it, pushing the boundaries first as he found himself without a single coherent thought giving a small bite on Chuck’s lower lip, a silent, desperate request for a deeper kiss. A deeper meaning.

A request that was granted to him, but was also almost immediately and far too fast ripped away from him as Chuck suddenly jolted away, as if he had suddenly in the midst of all of this realized what he was doing and thought better of it.

Eyes opening as Kip felt the hand disappear from his face, he leaned slightly back, watching in emotions swimming in disappointment and confusion as Chuck’s eyes were suddenly on his phone again, the piece of tech buzzing on his lap, suddenly demanding his attention. Almost as if it was mocking Kip and how close he had finally gotten.

“So-sorry, I have to take this.”

Kip just nodded, feeling the body heat of the other man disappearing from around him as Chuck’s hand left his, grabbing a hold of the phone before he stood up, answering the sudden call. He could still salvage this, it wasn’t all lost. Chuck hadn’t denied him this, by the way he was acting it was obvious to Kip that this wasn’t just all in his head. Maybe the kiss had been brief, but there was compassion behind it, he was very gentle about it, there --

“What do you mean that was today?”

Kip’s eyes slowly traveled up to Chuck, watching the brunet run a hand over his face as he sighed. “Yeah I know, I know you need me there for that, just… I was kinda in the middle of something…”

The silence that followed that statement and the way Chuck couldn’t look back at Kip made a familiar lump climb its way back in his throat. Kip tried to cough it out quietly, not to attract attention to himself, just watching as Chuck stepped a little bit further away from him.

“I can be there in twenty minutes, I guess. …Alright, I’ll see you then.”

As he hung up the call, Chuck didn’t even need to say anything. He was sure Kip had heard most of it, and the apologetic eyes and the small smile he offered to him as he finally turned back towards the Brit really didn’t help the case.

“Sorry, I completely forgot we had a photoshoot to do today, I… I gotta go.”

Kip nodded his head, but remained silent as he stood up from the couch. At least this was a start, they were going somewhere. He had put at least part of his desires out there, for Chuck to reach out and react to, if nothing else. This was a beginning, hopefully for the better. Kip wasn’t sure how fast he was supposed to be feeling the effects of his love and affections being returned to him, but so far he was blaming the sick feeling in his throat on the sudden change of pace in the room rather than Chuck not returning his feelings like before.

Maybe he had read all of this wrong. Maybe the sickness had caught up with him just because he didn’t know this was mutual. That had to be it, right?

Kip walked him to the door, Chuck turning back to him again as he rested his hand on the door handle.

“Look, I’m really sorry I have to go, I just completely forgot about this. You know, with having to worry about you and all.”

Kip could feel a smile tucking the corner of his lips, allowing at least a part of it to show. As sad as he was having to watch Chuck walk away yet again without a resolution to this whole problem, at least there was hope. Chuck smiled back at him, leaning closer to press a quick little peck on Kip’s lips, catching the Brit off guard, leaving him looking back at him with wide eyes as Chuck opened the door, stepping outside.

“I’ll see you again tomorrow, alright?”

Kip could only nod before Chuck closed the door, leaving him standing there, heart racing and beating loudly between his ears. Kip leaned against the closed door, inhaling deeply before he sighed, the content smile on his lips only wiped away as he coughed softly, eyes shooting open to witness the handful of purple tinted rose petals he let out of his mouth.

No.

Chuck Taylor still didn’t love him.

----------------------------------------

“…Are you sure it’s him?”

Cassidy shrugged his shoulders a little. “I mean, who else could it be? Besides, he has photos of himself that he signs and hands out and a big board on the table with the name ‘Kip Sabian’ on it, so…”

Chuck sighed, running a hand over his face before rolling his eyes. “You could have led with that information, you know.”

Cassidy didn’t reply back to him, just observed the brunet on the couch through his sunglasses. “I thought you would have known. Aren’t you two friends or something?”

Chuck avoided looking directly back at him, trying to make it seem like the question didn’t sting. He hadn’t seen Kip since that day, he never opened the door when Chuck came over the following day or answered any of his calls or texts since. He had been living in complete darkness over what had actually happened with Kip, even Penelope refused to tell him anything apart from a general ‘he’s fine’ every time Chuck asked her something.

“I told you, that was months ago.”

Cassidy just nodded, stopping to observe Chuck as the other man just tried to focus back on lacing his boots. After a long, lingering silence the blond broke it as he spoke up again.

“Do you want to go see him?”

Chuck stopped, eyes slowly dragging up to Cassidy again. He seemed sincere in that question, and if Chuck was being honest, that had been the first thought in his mind since Cassidy had waltzed into the locker room with the news that Kip had been sighted inside the building. The premise seemed rather odd to him, but at the same time, he wouldn’t have put something like that past Kip. A silent man with a suit and a cardboard box on his head, doing a signing that hadn’t been advertised for anyone beforehand. Sounded like it was just down Kip’s alley, in some really weird way, to him.

“Is he still there?”

“Probably,” Cassidy shrugged again. “He seemed to be just setting up when we went into the cafeteria like twenty minutes ago. I doubt he has left yet.”

While he wasn’t quite sure how to take any of it, let alone how Kip was going to take it if he showed up, Chuck nodded a little, still a bit hesitant. Cassidy mirrored the movement, before nodding his head towards the locker room door, asking Chuck to follow him. Not that he didn’t know where the cafeteria was in the building, they had walked past it when they had entered earlier, but maybe his hesitance was on the surface enough that Cassidy thought taking the lead was going to make him regret this less. Make it easier for him.

Chuck followed Cassidy outside, tracking through the hallways for a moment before they arrived at their destination. It was extremely easy to spot the individual not belonging into the group of people in the big, bright, well-lit room, the man standing in the middle of it all by a large table messed up with multiple scattered photos around it, hands behind his suited back as he was observing the room through the eye holes poked on a box over his head.

Chuck swallowed thickly. It didn’t matter if he didn’t see his face, all that was enough for him to recognize him immediately, no matter how many months it had been since or how much things had changed between now and then.

He was so focused on reading the words on the front of the box that Chuck didn’t notice the eyes inside of it land on him. The distance made it a bit harder, sure, but the lights were bright enough and the dark circles surrounding the eyes made them pop for Cassidy to notice the stare at first, even if it wasn’t directed at him.

“Hey,” he muttered, carefully elbowing Chuck to the side to get his attention. “He sees you. I think you should at least go say hello.”

Blinking himself back to the situation, Chuck glanced at Cassidy on his side, the blond just shrugging at him a little. Maybe Chuck’s nervousness was obvious, maybe Cassidy quickly put two and two together from what Chuck had told him before about how their last meeting had ended, but he only sighed, once again leading the way towards the man in a suit and the box, Kip’s eyes never leaving Chuck as they approached. Chuck on the other hand tried to look at everything except him, until he was stopped to stand right in front of the other man he hadn’t seen in months until now.

Through the eye holes of the box Chuck could see his vacant stare just blankly staring back at him, saying it all without saying anything at the same time. Kip looked at him briefly, before providing a photo from the inside pocket of his suit jacket, pulling a marker seemingly out of nowhere along with it. He scribbled something quickly on the photo, handing it to Cassidy, and walked away without looking back or acknowledging either of them further.

Cassidy looked at the photo for a moment before handing it over to Chuck. It was an old promo picture of Kip, in his Superbad gear, with his face crossed over with a red marker and some messy text scribbled next to him.

‘Time changes us all. Embrace the change.’

[findingyourrootscomic]

Hi! I really like your comics in general, I’m not usually one to follow webcomics but yours are apart of the exception! I really like your artstyle and something I don’t really see brought up often. It’s amazing to go back to the first page of FYR and see exactly how much you improved in your art, anatomy and backgrounds. The first page is so different than the current page! And I think it’s amazing to see that growth within the comic! It’s also amazing how gradually you see the improvement, it shows that you’ve been consistently working on the comic and I respect that work ethic a lot.

Also, big fan of how you draw pokemon and how even pokemon of the same species have clear differences within them with color/patterns/size. Like RAUGHHH that’s my JAM when it comes to pokemon designs! It makes them feel like actual animals I could step outside and see!

I don’t really have any questions or stuff about the lore specifically, my question is more on the technical sense. I’m a big believer in the art itself is just as important as the characters and story itself. But how do you panel your comics? Do you have any tips? I have plans to start up my own comic but even though I’m an artist I’ve never really done a comic before ^^

Keep up the great work! I eagerly look forward to the next updates.

Thank you!!! Yeah, 6 years really makes all the difference huh. :'D I'm really happy w where my art has gotten, I think I've been improving faster now cause my bestie @zeropro started redlining my page sketches somewhat recently, for all my comics not just FYR. So thanks to her influence and help, I think the comics look really really good now!! I've been studying art p hard since I started comicking, I've come p far but I still have a lot to learn. Zero has taught me a lot. Thank you for helping Zero!!

I panel FYR just w a straightedge tool. When starting a page, I lay down the sketch and panel over it, I draw in the panels as pink and then turn them white after I finish the lineart and set up the colorblocking. CotL is different, on recent pages I actually changed how I panel the comic, I now use FireAlpaca's paneling tool to draw them. It's like super easy and way faster than what I was doing before lol. I believe Tinysweetbunny uses the same tool for Pipe Up. The panels are always one of the highest layers in the stack, the only thing that goes above them are generally speech bubbles and dialogue. Keeps it clean.

[breezecomic]

Saw ur post, and I want u to pitch to me what Laika's comet is (looks autistically)

YESSS I WILL DO THAT OR AT LEAST TRY TO!!!! Gonna split this into paragraphs under the cut :DDD

First of all, OHHH MYY GOD THIS WEBCOMIC MAKES ME INSANE DUDE!!! THIS MIGHT CONTAIN WAY MORE THAN WHAT YOU WANTED TO READ BUT OH WELL!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK OF ADMIRATION INFORMATION DUMP!!

1 - The Artist

Laika's Comet is made by Willow, an incredible, incredible artist! He uses @/catmask (main blog) and @/fourleafisland (art blog) for their handles: please go check out the art blog it's so so good!!!

Willow's art is so amazing, dude. Her colour choices, character designs, backgrounds, vehicles, everything is so damn beautiful. It inspires plenty of artists to create and keep creating, including me!

Here's a print it made! I chose to show you the dunmeshi themed one bc ik you're a dunmeshi freak (so am I):

(Even if you don't end up reading the comic, go look at their art, it'll make your day better!)

2 - The World

Laika's Comet is set on Furth - the furry version of Earth! Everyone is an anthropomorphic animal, with the main character being a dog!

Furth is beautiful, very utopian with environmentally friendly tech and lifestyles. The world is also technologically advanced, with successful space travel!

3 - Themes

Laika's Comet has only just started, really, with two chapters (?) currently completed. However, from sticking around this long, I can take a shot at the overall themes:

- Family (VERY big on that one)

- Friendship

- Grief and loss (this one is something I think is going to be big later)

- Queerness and the queer self (hinted at)

- Trangenderism is BIG for this

- Abuse and/or neglect (implied? Might be explored explicitly in the future)

And probably a lot more! Obviously, as I am not the author nor artist, and the series has only just begun, I can't say that some of these things are for certain!

Now for the cast!

(Just covering current characters, as many more have been made but haven't cameo-ed yet!)

The Main Character - Laika

Laika is the main character of Laika's Comet! (never saw that coming, huh) She's a fat, bisexual, trans dogwoman! She rides a motorcycle and wears parts of an old astronaut suit. She drives around being a good citizen, helping little old dogs and searching for star pieces: you'll have to read to find out what those are!

She has two dads, Yue and Rover, who she lives with! She also has a "sidekick" called Mars, a cute little cat.

The Scientist - Yue

Laika's dad, Yue, is an old (sorry Yue), gay, trans bunnyman. He's an astronomer who tracks the star pieces with lots of technological equipment! He and Laika live in an observatory, and seeing as he technically works from home, his ideal work uniform is pajamas and a lab coat.

The Sidekick - Mars

Mars is a sweet kid, a little black cat who uses they/them pronouns. With a unique tail, some powers, and a cute doll named Menya, Mars is going to be a big part of the comic! I already love them so much (as I should).

There's many more characters to come, too! Here, take this lineup:

And, most importantly for you, Archivist, is the fact that this comic is Space Themed!

You weren't sold yet?? Well, you should know that Laika's Comet is all about space; stars, comets, astronauts, space travel, meteors, etc!

So, want to read it?

Oh, and don't forget! It was almost the end of the world! Have fun!! \(•▽^)-☆

Click Here!

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2023 Megaman Summer Fanart Contest Results!

I have no time to whip up a new results post image, but oddly enough I have a dorky 16-year-old drawing I can crop, that somewhat technically covers both themes, in some respect. Go figure.

Thank you to everyone for your patience waiting for this post! Sorry, just have felt a little lacking in focus and energy to finish this until now. As usual, the top 3 who placed will be announced first, followed by the remaining entries in alphabetical order by alias. As an added surprise, I'm also throwing in a bonus runner up mystery winner position, since there were no raffle prizes or anything extra I threw in this summer. They will get the same cash prize as our third place winners. Winners will be contacted soon!

Without further ado, after the break, here are your winners and galleries full of art!

CATEGORY 1:  The Sand-ly Cup Playoffs (Talent)

For the talent category this year, participants were to draw a sand-themed Megaman character taking part in or ruining a beach sport event.

After each entrant’s name, there will be a link to the entry, too, just in case the inserted images don’t load for you. In the interest of not breaking your browser with the usual super-scrollingly-long post, entries consisting of more than 2 images will only have 1 embedded into this post, with links to each page separately.

[Full Cat. 1 gallery]

1.) Daidairo (@aurantia-ignis): [Entry] ($150 USD prize)

Beautifully drawn, with so much going on to draw my eye towards! You've got Desertman not only helping his own teammate out by giving him a boost to spike the Met volleyball, but also firmly gripping Blues from moving with his legs covered in sand. Love all the other cameos in the background, with everyone being so active and enjoying the summer day.

2.) Kaitlin.EXE: [Entry] ($75 USD prize)

In a summer full of surprises, it was a joy to see your art for the first time in a long while! If X DiVE had sadly not been phased out this summer, this would have been a set of skins/new summer characters I know a lot of people surely wanted, with a fun new boss alt design. Finding treasures buried at the beach definitely fit's Scaravich's profile, and his little striped swimsuit armor and diving attire gave me a good laugh, plus looks just perfect for him. The boys all have unique swimwear that fits them great, individually!

3.) @nightopianfoxgirl: [Entry] ($50 USD prize)

Wait...Higsby died? This news ticker sure did take a dark turn at the end! Unless Anubis can use his nanomachines to bring him back and all. Amusing twist turning Anubis' staff into a microphone as he roleplays as Ribbita here. Meanwhile, Iceman, Bubbleman and Aquaman are drowning in the larger size uniforms somewhere. A little humor and a little fanservice mixed in to an overall crisply-drawn & colored piece!

*Bonus mystery runner up random prize!*

Tori: [Entry] ($50 USD prize)

Those pair of Sasoreenu may have spikey drill tails, but Roll and Kalinka are strong enough to power through them! In fact, I think Roll is the one who is going to spike first, and it will be game-set-match for those scorpion bots! Great job, Tori!

Another surprise this year was this being an entry from the youngest participant I've ever had submit something, to go along with being the first ever time a parent and their child have both submitted an entry into the same contest! Good to know the current generation is being brought up as Megaman fans!

And the remaining wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

@dahlia-the-nurd: [Entry]

Solar frisbee versus sawblade frisbee, who's better at chuckin' those things the farthest? I'll go with the guy who sticks his finger up claiming to be #1. Until a time stopping duo decides to mess with them both a little bit, and neither fly very far... XD

Dr. Fresh: [Entry]

Doc Cossack and all his children enjoying some family fun on the sand. Love the variety having something different that they are all involved in. Bright Man's bulb having it's own 'sunglass' essentially is something clever and creative that I can't say I've seen anyone think of before!

@eulogysinger: [Entry]

Love the concept of the digital touchscreen photos sent for Megaman to browse through, and how you incorporated all the Secret Area Navis into enjoying a beach break. It's funny seeing Yamato's shogun helmet changed into a beachwear sun hat, but still fitting his design so well. Also loved his little foot soldiers getting in on the fun with Desertman; honestly all the scenes are cute and amusing!

@ingopotato: [Entry]

Looks like that sedimentary rock-themed Robot Master is about to be turned into... ...Sandstone.

*ahem* Sorry. Ground Man mucking things up and the look on Stoney's face amused me. Very crisp art, and good job at really making it look like the sand is blowing and kicking up behind both of the main sandsurfing RMs!

Mattasaurs: [Entry]

Mummira head is the perfect volleyball! Unfortunately, just as a decoy here, because bumping that one back over is not going to get you any points, Aile. That was certainly a very well-thought out creative choice in the composition, and I absolutely loved it. The proportions and angle really give a kind of neat fish-eye lens perspective in this piece, in some respects.

@pstart: [Entry]

Well, if the net is out of commission, maybe Volnutt can stake up a defeated Nakel on two poles and hit the Reaverbot eye over it! I can feel the heat with the main sunny yellow background, but also thought keeping the two background characters in a shaded grey was an interesting style choice that also makes them seem like they are in the shade.

__________________________________

CATEGORY 2:  Bae-liawatch (Humor)

For the humor category this year, participants were to draw their fave characters with at least one as a lifeguard, in iconic red swuimsuits/trunks, as an ode to the series Baywatch. Despite my category title, nobody took the bait and drew Alia as a lifeguard, however, rendering it moot.

[Full Cat. 2 gallery]

1.) @grammars-doodles : [Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3] [Page 4] [Page 5] ($150 USD prize)

For main pun alone, your comic made me laugh the most! Baysquawks just works perfectly for this. XD Cute, fun, with a bunch of nice visual gags. Zack may have lived, but at the cost of poor Quacky Lacky lifeguard #3...

2.) @sylviidaee: [Entry] ($75 USD prize)

The contrast in art style between these two versions is amazing! From the painterly shading, proportions, to what is happening in the scene, the "Expectation" (emphasis on PEC, while looking at Gutsy's chest!) panel is just wonderfully drawn! I don't think I will ever be able to unsee Gutsman as a grinning John Cena muscleman. XD

3.) VCampan: [Entry] ($50 USD prize)

Points for the most literal pure parody of the theme, enabling the rare buddy comedy teamup of Sigma and X. Overall, characters and look matches up really well to the 2017 Baywatch movie poster, with plenty of little Megaman-themed tweaks, although I'm laughing at Zero in the CJ swimsuit/position. He looks thrilled to be put in that there! XD

*Bonus mystery runner up random prize!*

dmr: [Entry] ($50 USD prize)

So, viewer, you are saying, "If Ace is the lifeguard, why isn't he in red trunks like it says in the rules?" Well, obviously Kelvin is the actual lifeguard, but he got too distracted flirting with that hot babe to bother to pay attention to any issues going on in the water. Isn't that another thing lifeguards are known for, anyhow? So Ace is just pitching in. Wonderfully drawn, with a lot of movement and interaction through their poses. Great job on the water and splashy effects!

And the remaining wonderful entries, in alphabetical order by alias:

 AbilityField: [Entry]

Good thing Blues always wears multiple pairs of shades on his head that he never truly has to worry about losing them. I don't know if the same can be said for swim trunks, though...

@aw-colorcat: [Entry]

Ice Man in the ocean would probably make the water cold, but I think the water's even colder when Miss Splashy is inhabiting it, after that frigid reply to Bubs. XD Goes to show how just a simple short retort can bring a good laugh. Cute, and loved Ice Man's meme-worthy expression!

miralie: [Entry]

Miralie requested her entry to be censored a bit (as seen in the link above), to shield everyone from a glimpse at Sigma packin' his *ahem* um...Gunner Sigma. As a compromise, (with permission to post) I decided to edit in Zero spinwaving his way in front of the potentially offending bits and pieces. Or...ya know, maybe Sigma can spin Zero with his Junk-O. You be the judge. Granted, I didn't think your eyes needed to be shielded like Colonel is doing to Iris here, but sometimes it's OK to be like an overprotective older brother. Forgive her, Zero! She just wants to peek a little at the beach commander between Colonel's fingers. Because Miralie did draw him with quite the impressive physique, is all.

_______________________________

Once again, congrats to all the winners, and I will be contacting you about your prizes shortly. And thank you all so much for continuing to participate year after year, both regulars and newcomers! ‘Til next time!

[jezmmart]

Chamomile Comic Trivia #31

#159 - Notice

It's Sam! I wish I had written down more about my decision to add her, although at this point I'm fairly sure I wasn't certain she was going to become a main character - in fact it was RIGHT around the week this posted that I began work on the first proper cover art for the series which of course did not include her.

Her design was based off this old one-off pin-up girl art from 2017, technically making her the first ever major Chamomile Comic character to exist, sort of.

She was named after Sam Lloyd, likely known for his portrayal of Ted the Lawyer from Scrubs. The news of his death had recently broken and I had just recently begun listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends, the Scrubs rewatch podcast, as my go-to background entertainment when colouring the comic specifically each week. It still is now, albeit intermittently since they don't always produce an episode each week and I no longer have a backlog to catch up on. Now granted, I don't love the podcast as much as I used to - can be a bit cringey at times as these two hollywood actors chat about utterly unrelatable anecdotes from their lives - but it's overall been enjoyable and it'll be weird to find something new to accompany my colouring if it does come to an end or stops being enjoyable once they permanently pivot into... whatever they plan to do after they run out of Scrubs episodes. It's been part of my colouring process for the comic for longer than it hasn't been now, haha. So... yeah it felt right to honour that connection to my comic with Sam's name, on top of the fact that Scrubs is just straight-up one of my favourite TV shows and Ted was always a character that gave me big laughs.

Of course... I realised after that I'd introduced yet another character to the comic ending in "-a"! ...But whatever, it's a common thing. Not so long ago I had 5 co-workers simultaneously whose names also ended in -a, lol.

The decision to have had her always be around simply came from not having any strong ideas to introduce her and preferring the idea that at least some of the cast already knew her. The gag's been done before, but I thought it'd be extra funny to introduce her with a scene in which she is specifically announcing her departure from being a regular face in Cammie's life, which typically would mean the same for the audience in most works with actually established characters.

Final little bonus note - in panel 1, Cammie once again is entering with a handful of steaming coffee.

#160 - Official

I didn't really mean for it to be so small it's barely legible at web size, but the little sign on the panic alarm button behind the till says "Real emergencies only Cammie!", in reference to #50.

#161 - Before

All that Scrubs talk regarding Sam is kinda fitting, because they did the "this character was always here!" gag there too. For their one, they edited her in on various memorable shots and pretended the main character didn't notice her being present, here I obviously extended the frame on the end of several punchline panels from previous comics.

Here's a gif that shows the original panels compared to the new ones, showing both the new and old art isolated as well so you can see exactly what I drew to extend the older panels which naturally weren't drawn originally knowing that I would one day be extending them!

The second of the three Sam flashbacks is just a nice little bridging one, but it did take me a while to decide for sure which way around I wanted the first and third flashback panel. For the first: while there's been a little bit of mild bad language in the comic once the seal was broken here, Sam's "bitch" is the first time such language has appeared so it amused me to place it in a scene that has already happened long ago just barely outside of the audience's perspective. For the third: the joke is of course that the reveal of Sam's additional dialogue is particularly adding nothing to the scene whatsoever - like, as if Cammie making a fool of herself would even be remark-worthy at this point. I felt both these two goofs had a good punch to them in their own way so yeah, I remember being conflicted over whether I had chosen the funniest possible flow of these three gags.

Of course, the final joke of this one, in case it wasn't obvious (I could see it being subtle for some), is that Mimi's whole running gag is she's a side character who also has existed in the comic for long before her first on-screen appearance, yet Cammie never remembers her.

#162 - New

The art and dialogue structure of the first two panels here is identical to #160. I think it being a time-saver on my workload for the week was definitely a factor - for whatever reason I needed it at the time - but I also remember going for something with that choice beyond just that... But I can't for the life of me remember what. I don't think the parallel between the two comics adds anything reading them back now.

Anyway here's Newt! I really thought at the time that he was going to be as significant an addition as Sam, and I did come up with the idea of introducing a regular male character at the time I chose to bring Sam in, with Sam's introduction - and exit - being an amusing way to introduce a surprise new character.

...Then I proceeded to never really get any super strong story ideas for him lol. More detail on that in a second. I haven't forgotten him though, frustrates me that he keeps getting sidelined!

#163 - Training

Standard behind-the-scenes retail frustration humour here. I can neither confirm nor deny how much is based on my current employment. A little detail of authenticity/flavour is that they're watching a DVD intended for widescreen on an old non-widescreen TV that's clearly been in their staff room for at least a decade. Such was the case for my painful training videos too! (It's all online now as of a few years into when I started, so some progress has been made I guess).

#164 - Huh

It's not made clear yet, but the new status quo that Sam is a receptionist at a primary school is established here - the coloured hanging letter signage on the wall that is too perspective'd to read says "WELCOME TO OUR SCHOOL".

I chose this as a job for her based simply on the fact that my Mum has often worked in school offices for most of my life. She wasn't a receptionist but it was the sort of job where I have some... vague enough memories of the "behind-the-scenes" enough to draw something along those lines when I needed to show Sam at work.

Getting back to Newt, obviously the goof here is that Cammie is just being a sore loser about her friend leaving and Newt is about the most cool-sounding interesting person you could imagine meeting. Unfortunately that involved specifically coming up with fun sounding stuff that are not super common to do or know people that do, so despite the super interesting combo of cave-diving, stand-up and polyamory these are all things I feel like I'd have to do thorough research on to represent in the actual comic accurately... which is something I'd like to do but, time is finite and I have so much pre-existing experience with being a silly nonsense person. Would you believe it, there's another character in the comic for whom that experience lends itself very well!!

Speaking of whom, the first appearance of the bell on the door in Repeat 1 Records was only a month after Cammie got the job. She works fast!

[Trivia Archive | Browse from most recent]

[olderthannetfic]

Completely putting aside the queer rep thing, I'm curious: Do people who are not book fans generally like the Good Omens TV show? In the book fandom we've been hoping for a live adaptation for decades but myself and a lot of other book fandom olds were very disappointed by the show. I was hopeful and optimistic about it until the trailer with the wall-slamming scene came out, which was the first clue that the characters were going to have a different dynamic in the show. (Book! Azi and Crowley would never. No, I mean it.) And then as soon as I got to the dove scene - which the show messed up completely - I had a really bad feeling that they weren't taking the book's themes very seriously.

(In the book, Aziraphale suffocates the dove through negligence and immediately forgets about it because he's too busy fretting about the Apocalypse and the hellhound not showing up; Crowley notices it and takes the time to resurrect the dove. The seeming role reversal there of the angel carelessly killing an innocent creature and the demon taking the time to care about the sanctity of life even while scared out of his mind that the Apocalypse is coming (which would mean all humans and doves everywhere were going to die) is a wonderful little early symbolism of the characters being more than their official Evil/Good labels, of their flaws and virtues, and of the overarching theme of the book. But in the show, Aziraphale kills the dove and is then the one to revive it, which makes the point of the scene ?????)

There's a lot of little things like that where I wonder if the creators missed the point of those scenes or just didn't care, and the end result is that the characters become a little flatter, a little less like the stereotype subversions they're supposed to be. (I've long been irritated with the show fandom because it felt like many of them just projected their longstanding bad boy/puttering intellectual favorite ship dynamic onto the two and didn't look too closely.) In addition, the angel and demon are very nearly B-list cast in the book. They're scene-stealers but in terms of plot they actually achieve very little, their arcs are about how they accept that they've grown as people, not about how they contribute to the Apocalypse. Because that's the point. The whole point of the book is that humans don't need angels and demons to be good or evil. Humans stop the Apocalypse and arguably start it. When the show puts human characters in the background and both elevates Azi and Crowley and spends additional screentime on new characters like Gabriel, the overall message is retained but makes for far weaker tea.

So like... it is very hard for me to like the show as an adaptation (some manage to enjoy both book and show as separate things, and I'm happy for them). At the same time it feels silly saying that it's a bad adaptation, because things like Eragon and Artemis Fowl and basically most book-to-screen things are out there. But I can't help but look at Neil Gaiman's background and the things he usually writes about and feel like TV GO has been made too much into his work, rather than his and Pterry's, and is ultimately weaker for it.

So for me it's really hard to judge its actual technical value as a standalone thing, but I'm curious what other people think of it. If the above elements of "huh, that scene seemed kinda random, why was it even here?" and general diluted sense of theme was something people picked up on.

--

I tried to read the book a few times in the 90s because it was ubiquitous. I loathed it and never finished.

I thought the show was well acted and had delightful chemistry between the leads. The cinematography and editing were nice. The costume design was excellent.

It isn't a particularly deep show or all that memorable to me, but it looks pretty, and Michael Sheen is hot.

Honestly, I'm not really the audience for the original themes. They've been done a million times by now (and even by the 90s), and they just remind me how much people think I should care about a Christian world view and how much I profoundly don't. It's like when people want me to care about Watchmen because something something deconstruction of 80s comics I didn't read.

The biggest change between the 90s and now is probably that this particular flavor of Cold War spies who are buddies when their bosses aren't watching has faded into obscurity instead of being absolutely everywhere.

Oh, and Queen is cool again.

[coyoteprince]

more of an open question but what are some fun worldbuilding things you can think of off the top of your head? I want to hear more owo

Sorry for this novel

Waite has a grey (the kind that looks white) mare named Seraphim, who will make a minor appearance in comic. She's based on a Suffolk punch and Narragansett pacer.

All horses within Widderwood story have a dorsal stripe, no matter if theyre earthly or fae or whatever breed.

Likewise, almost every fae within Widderwood have ear tufts

Degare got his hat in a trade for sex from a Darlington priest, though it is a farmer's planter hat. His shoe style is also called a winklepicker.

Every person's soul is represented by a flame and each person has their own lantern (or lamp, or candle holder...) in Sandman's garden. From a design point, his garden has two principals: the light must always be a flame (no electric light), and time doesn't matter so modern lanterns are okay to depict, but only in this space.

Widderwood is technically steampunk, but I don't think it's going to be super obvious in comic unless you look super closely? Time rules are also funky: I've delayed invention of something yet moved up other things. It technically takes place during the 1880's, but plenty Edwardian and even modern day things pop up. No cars, but gramophones will soon be released. Coal is starting to die off in use and steam and some electricity are quickly becoming king. Prosthetics & aides are heavily decorated and become a hot tool to customize and be proud of. Women wear pants (though high society finds this disturbing) and can own land. Queerness & gay marriage isn't outlawed but its pretty weird to traditionals and queer identity is refered to as "the third sex" as is historical for that period. Those sorts of things

Primary community of Darlington is Caucasian, Black, and Native American, but all manner of people pass through thanks to the nearby port city

What is equivalent to the americas in Widderwood is made up of "territories", which I've been leaving vague because I cannot manage to care about building political empires, I just want two dogs to kiss. Either way, Darlington is ruled by English-equivalent, but original England-equivalent got overthrowed and wiped off the map. Southern state-equivalent, Eastern Canada-equivalent and some of the plains are under similar but different self-governing rule. Much of the western territories are aboriginal-ruled and the entire continent is much smaller than our world. These territories are all mostly on good terms with each other because this is just background flavoring. I'm trying to figure out a naming system for these territories or if it even matters since this story is pretty contained.

My partner bought me a vintage prosthetic leg from a firehazard of a thrift store just so I can use it as reference for Simon's false leg. It literally floats about the house in different spots and we just call it "Simon's leg"

Speaking of Simon, partner also bought me a Victorian book all about prosthetics which surprisingly is very empathetic and includes sentiments from actual disabled people of the time. I used this book to help me figure out what exact style of prosthetic Simon has, as well as his injury. His amputation took place mid calf and despite some mobility issues and how he looks, he's decently strong and has good endurance.

Waite is an Aries with pisces moon & taurus rising, Degare Gemini with scorpio & leo, Simon is Capricorn but idk his moon and rising. I don't give much thought to astrology but I think using it to build character personalities is very fun.

Widderwood mermaids are a combination of selkies and mermaids. They have front & back flippers and inhabit the same role as selkies in that there's many stories of marrying humans and their spouse stealing their skins.

Nuckelaaves are essentially slenderman to fae and no one knows what exactly they are

Darlington is known for their abundance of daisy wheels as a symbol of protection, which comes directly from my colonial cemetery special interest. They often top the margins of colonial tablet graves and have been historically used as a protective symbol against magic worldwide. In my personal practice, I've reclaimed them and they act as my main "religious" symbol, much in the way a cross or pentacle works, and despite the fact they were once used against witches

Darlington & Sullivan Forest geography is set in fantasy Massachusettes with influence from the entire region of New England and forests in Northern Georgia. Locations & buildings in the story will be based on a variety of locations I've visited and documented in person including: Salem Witch House, Bulloch Hall, Root House of Marietta, Atlanta History Museum Gardens & internal exhibits, and Allen County Historical Society & House Museum (the most important museum in my life and the reason why I am the way that I am today). I'm still picking the cemeteries I want to base on, but will likely be a mix of a cemetery I accidentally ran into outside of Salem and a variety of local Georgia + Ohio cemeteries from my childhood. I am hoping to visit Colonial Williamsburg as well as Historic Westville as further reference for town scenes. Yes I am really that intense that I've traveled states wide just to gather research for my gay dog boy webcomic

I have much more I could give, but I need to be careful with what I share to avoid spoiling all my work.

[would-holden-caulfield-like-nge]

The Bully Artstyle

Am I the only one who really appreciates the official Bully artstyle?

Though, calling it one style is technically wrong, since the images are made out of one front image and the comic background, both of which are made by different artists.

If you are wondering, the guy who did the main illustrations is Anthony Macbain.

If you look around his website, you will not only see his Bully art, but also that he also did some work for the GTA series.

The person who did the background illustrations is Stephen Bliss, who... also did art for GTA, believe it or not. I guess Rockstar only has that many artists that focus on semi-realism.

Obviously, since GTA is like, the most famous thing ever, his website does not focus on Bully that much. But if you scroll all the way in the Rockstar Games portion of his website, you will find the art that was used for the backgrounds! And it seems like he designed the logo too!

Now that we know who did it, I'll try to to a bit of art analysis.

Similar to the GTA style, the style of Bully is somewhat realistic. Kind of stiff looking, to be honest. But the background illustrations kind of make up for that.

The lines are mostly the same unchanging width (except for some smaller lines for details). They do not taper much. The lines are also colored - their color is more dulled out than the colors they are containing.

The colors are also kind of dull in general (though this may only be because of my monitor.) Probably because the art is going for that realistic look. Of course, we could also look at it a bit more artistically and say that the colors are dull to fit the miserable atmosphere of Bullworth. You might also notice that there are no real whites - the shirts are either tinted yellow, or whatever color is around it. I think this is pretty neat. White fabric often tends to reflect the colors around it in real life.

The lineart is just a bit too chunky to convey true realism, so it is stylized in a cool kinda blocky way. The shadows are also quite blocky in general. They often tend to be interesting shapes by themselves. Look at those eyebags and the shadow under the mouth!

Besides the hard shadows, the art also uses some airbrush-like effects. Look at how it conveys the shininess of Pinky's belt and the softer shadow on her thigh. It is also used in Gary's hair to show the soft color transition.

The opposite of shadows, the hair highlights, are these cool zigzag shapes. I like it when artists make the hair highlight a bold shape like that. Speaking of the hair highlights, notice how they often have a similar color to the background. Like, look at this - these ones are actually a pretty bold purple, probably to mimic the way real hair can, just like fabric, reflect the color of its environment.

Now, let's look at the blush. A lot of the characters in these illustrations have this strong blush on their cheeks and nose. This is probably used to make them look a bit more alive. I wanted to say every character, but then I looked at the art again and found out that was just not true.

Look at these two, for example. Edna sort of has the blush, but it is single colored and blocky, making her look kinda sick, rather than more alive. The boy next to her also doesn't have the blush, probably because the brighter pink wouldn't work as well on darker skin.

Mr Burton here also does not have the blush, because... I don't know, to be honest. Random stylistic choice, I guess.

Overall, I cannot quite name why I like the style of the main illustrations so much. It's just not the kind of thing that would usually appeal to me. I guess it's something about the realism combined with the cartoon stylisation and the slight blockiness of it all.

I have much less to say about the background illustrations. Don't get me wrong, I love them. It's just that they are only black and white, so we really cannot dissect the stylistic choices here. But also...

God, I just love the style of these. Just look at them. The caricature-ish style done with some bold inks is so cool. These have so much character, shame we never got a real comic in this style. And since they are black and white, they are as contrasting as a picture can be. Which means they are perfect for the backgrounds. And since the style is so exaggerated, it looks good even when the pictures are pretty small.

I wonder, were these done digitally, or with real ink? Both are possible, I think.

And that's about it for this post. If you have any other observations about these styles, I would love to read it. I just really like these illustrations!