#all I wanted to do when finding these on internet was to illustrate a possibility in france's history

[empty-movement]

Chiho Saito’s 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection

IT’S HERE. IT’S DONE. IT’S FINISHED. NOW…IT’S YOURS. Happy Holidays, my friends.

Vanna here! I have posted some already about this project, and the responses I got, public and otherwise, have been absolutely incredible. Y’all have been reblogging and hyping this before it even finished…I haven’t felt so encouraged about an Utena project since the musicals! (Yes, streams soon, I promise.) You can read the other post to get more details, and catch my post here with more details about the process if you’re interested. The long and short of it?

This is the first artbook I ever scanned. I did it in 2001. In Photoshop, using multiple scans per page that took hours to process. But it was 2001. A half megabyte file that was 1250px wide was considered extremely hardcore and impressive. That’s just always been the business I’m in when it comes to Utena art, you know? 

It’s now the latest artbook I’ve scanned, and so much of the process, and effort involved, is unchanged. What has changed, is the result. Welcome to your new desktop background. Your new phone background. Your new poster print. 

What I’ve done here is attempt to create definitive digitized images of Chiho Saito’s work as offered by this book--I have removed the print moiré of the original scans, and used my literal decades of experience to try and tease out as much information from them as possible. Without being physically in front of the original artwork (which is a thing I’ve had the great fortune to get to do) this is The Most Chiho Saito you are ever going to get. I’ve tried my best to make sure there is a way to get it that works for everyone:

Do you just wanna scope 'em out? Look at some disaster gays? Grab your favorite one or two? This is the path for you! Check out the ‘compressed’ (not very) 10k ‘web friendly’ (not really) copy at the Bibliothèque, the media archiving wing of the Something Eternal forums at Empty Movement*. All the following links are also available from here. Do you want these copies? All of them? Don't just grab them individually, friend. This batch is 375MB and can be downloaded as a zip of the individual files here on our Google Drive.

Do you like digital archiving? Are you looking for a copy that preserves the archival quality of the effort but sits nice and comfy in a single file? This is for you. A minimally compressed 10k, 513MB version worked into a PDF is now up, shiny and chrome, on the Internet Archive. Do you like the idea of the minimal compression, but want the individual files in a zip? Yep I did that too, here's the drive link.

Are you looking to print these in a larger size? This is probably the only reason on Earth you’d ever want them, and yet a bunch of you are going to go straight for these. Here are the zero-compression JPG full size copies, most of them are 15k across, like simply a ridiculous size. Pick your fave and download it from our Google Drive! 

I am genuinely really proud of this work.** I was able to tease out so much new detail from these…her incredible layering techniques, the faintest brush of her highlights, and the full range of her delicate hand at whites and blacks… details commonly lost in digitization. I sincerely hope you find something here that you’re looking for, as an artist looking for inspiration, as a weeb looking for a desktop, as an archiver excited to see incredible 90s manga artwork saved forever in the digital realm. I feel like I have already said so much about them, and could keep going, but you know what? This work speaks for itself. Enjoy, use, explore, and definitely tell us what you think!

We love y’all. ~ Vanna & Yasha

* AHEM ASTERISK AHEM

You might be wondering what any of that is. Something Eternal? Biblewhatawhat??? EmptyMovement.com? You might even have done a double take at the word ‘forum.’ And you should!!!

I have a confession. This artbook was my ‘side project’ as I worked on this, *the main project.* For a couple years I’ve been banging around with a new domain, and originally I had other plans for it, but Elon Musk ruined my Twitter and Discord is well along on its way to enshittification, and well….we joke on the Discord a lot about ‘reject modernity, embrace forums’ and you know what? We’re right. So Yasha and I are putting our money where our mouths are once again, and doing something insane. We are launching, in 2023, a website forum. Obviously, this is not the official ‘launch’ per se, but I cannot announce the artbook without directing you to the forum, since it sits on the attached very cool gallery system. Oops! Told on myself. Another post more focused on the forum will be forthcoming, but if you are just that motivated to get in right away, you absolutely can! (This will help stagger new arrivals anyway, which is good for us!) If you would rather wait for the ‘official’ launch, by all means that’s coming, including a lengthy screed about how and why we’re doing this. In either case, remember: this is a couple weebs trying to make internet magic happen, we are not website developers by trade. Give us grace as we iron things out and grow into this cool new website thingie…hopefully along with some of you! :D

If you do join up, naturally, there is a thread about this project!

** If you like this kind of content, consider helping us pay for it! We do have a Patreon! If you’re wanting to use these in some public-facing distributive way, all we ask is for credit back to Empty Movement (ohtori.nu or emptymovement.com, either will work.) 

I would like to say ‘don’t just slap these files on RedBubble to get easy money’ but I know that saying this won’t effectively prevent it. Y’all that do that suck, but you’re not worth letting it rain on the rest of this parade. :)

[purplealmonds]

Continuing to fire on all cylinders to make this Sky 🤝Mononoke collab a reality! 🐲⚖️🌊

Process GIFs and artist commentary below the cut. ⬇️

Left: Process GIF Middle: Just the background, cos I really like how it looks! Right: Illustration without the collab logo

And here are my notes on my inspirations and references. There's a lot of 'em, so instead of embedding relevant images one by one I put them in a callout sheet! For accessibility, I also included transcript (with bonus ramblings) below each sheet.

Ofuda circle modeled in Google Sketchup 2017, then lightly transformed in Photoshop to flare out. I tried my best to hand-draw these, but it the results came out really clunky and stiff. I figured if Mononoke shamelessly utilizes 3D in their show, I can too!

Krill and sky kid composition roughly inspired by the Ayakashi DVD cover illustration. On the surface level, the krill's black-and-red color scheme mirrored that of the bake-neko. Not to mention, in the world of Sky, the krill would be the best fit of a mononoke-like entity. The red background is also a nod to the red skies seen during a shard eruption in Sky.

Sky kid gesture based on the Festival Spin Dancer's Tier 3 poses and the Medicine Seller's iconic pose in the Zakishiwarahi episode as inspiration. This was the idea which springboarded this illustration into existence. I wanted to do my take of the Medicine Seller's pose, but in a more dynamic manner: rotate the pose to a profile position and set the ofuda in a diagonal, flared out arrangement.

Cape inspired by tenbin design featured in the 2024 Mononoke movie. This one's an interesting one - I wanted the cape to be a stiff material that doesn't "flap" when in flight - similar to the Aurora wing capes. It ended up looking like a kite of sorts, which I'm not entirely opposed to! I haven't had the opportunity to showcase the back view of this cape design, but I envision it having some mechanical aspects to it - the "wing" which are flared out in this illustration fold in like moth wings, and a little bell is attached to the "tail" part and it jingles a little whenever the sky kid flaps!

Bandana is based on the Scaredy Cadet's hairstyle from the Season of Assembly. Mask design utilizes the 2023 Days of Style mask and the Nintendo Pack mask as bases. Pretty self-explanatory. I basically went onto the Sky wiki and found the cosmetics that most closely matched what I was looking for. Then if necessary, I went to the Office space to do photoshoots to get the appropriate camera angles for them all.

Seasonal pendant inspired by the classic Medicine Seller's necklace and the eye motif featured in the 2024 Mononoke movie. Possibly the only one-to-one homage to the classic Medicine Seller design here, but his garnet necklace was too good of a match to the seasonal pendant. A side tangent: does the new Medicine Seller possess a necklace, let alone a mirror? So far all the shots of him don't feature it. Fascinating.

Dark dragon krill anatomy references a custom figurine crafted by @/escaflowne_n07 on Twitter. Until I found this, I was honestly at a loss finding reference for this - be it on the internet or during in-game photoshoots. The lighting on the krill in-game focused on its menacing silhouette rather than its structure. And not to mention, getting a close-up shot almost always set off the dark creature's aggro. I have no idea how this guy found the references to put this model together - well done!

Mantas, elder constellations, and sun dog references murals in the Cave of Prophecy. Krill aside, the overall illustration was leaning a little too much towards Mononoke so I tried finding opportunities to insert more Sky into it. Added bonus is that now there's storytelling in the background: during a shard eruption, a giant krill rises from the frothing waves of dark water to hunt down a flock of mantas.

Clouds behind the sun dog reference the ones featuring heavily in the Umibozu episode. This illustration has a lot of ocean theming, so I figured this would be appropriate.

Rendering style of the background is lightly inspired by the 2007 Mononoke illustration. Mainly having a 2D inked style to contrast with the more polished render of the sky kid. Funnily enough, this was a tertiary inspiration, which lead to the discovery in the next point!

Dark water waves and sun dog composition heavily references Hokusai's "The Great Wave". The waves were modified to be bottle-green of the Golden Wasteland's dark waters. The sun dog is in the spot where Mt. Fuji is in the original composition. these were all hand-drawn by the way! I merely emulated the style of the source material. As a side note, I also borrowed the spotted sea spray rendering for the krill's red spotlight.

Background pattern taken from the ofuda design featured in the 2024 Mononoke movie poster. Mainly to add some gritty texture to the sky. I worked pretty hard to replicate this ofuda design as a high-res asset so I wanted to use it more!

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi, first of all I wanted to say that I really appreciate your blog. Your political ramblings are always fun to read and still have the seriousness they deserve and I particularly like that you reference your sources, images and so on.

I did want to ask about those sources: how do you find them? Just a general internet search about a theme? Or some journals you read regularly (keeping in mind that medias have to be read with the context in mind of course) maybe even other blogs?

thank you and in any case I wish you to have a lovely day!

Hello! Thank you so much, this is so kind! Political blogging is something that just sort of happens to me. I never mean to do it. I'm glad others enjoy it anyway

Sources: so, there's a mix. I think I might have mentioned this before, back in the midst of Clownfall, but my husband is a Doctor Who nerd who, many years ago before social media was really much of a thing, joined a Doctor Who mailing list. There, he met many other nerds, and became friends with them.

They were a bit older than him, so grew up and got jobs and that before he did. Some of them became legit Doctor Who writers, like Paul Magrs and Lance Parkinson; but others, crucially, became political journalists. These people are now among the top political journalists in the land, so Steff gets tremendous amounts of news from them; previously on Twitter, and now on Bluesky, he therefore gets to see a lot of the headlines and memes and the like as they happen.

But, yes, a lot of it is also Google searching and hunting down sources that are as reliable as I can get them. I have a fair bit of professional practice at that part. A big thing is that modern newspapers often link back to previous articles about events that built up to whatever scandal you're researching, which is very helpful for making sure you get the background before you jump in; I also like cross-referencing between two or three reliable publications to see what details are generally agreed, and then making sure to link to the specific sources for anything that's only popping up once.

In my case, I also write these to be a bit funny? So that they're readable by people who are otherwise turned off by the dry wall of text presented by traditional politics reporting. So, I also amass a collection of memes and things by (a) getting my husband to save any he likes on Bluesky, and (b) checking the outputs of political comedians to see if they've produced anything fun. I got a LOT of mileage out of Michael Spicer's the Room Next Door sketches when trying to illustrate what various UK politicians were like.

In the case of yesterday's Korean martial law post, that was a bit trickier than normal because primary sources were obviously Korean (in which I can only say hello, yes, no, thank you, sorry, wow, and amazing). So, I did more cross-referencing than usual. If I could find three agreeing on a fact, I chucked it in (insofar as that was possible) - the times where that wasn't an option, I tried to include photo or video. But also, that was a broader strokes post than I'd normally do. In terms of the speed of development and the twists and turns that developed, it was possibly equivalent to Liz Truss' fracking vote? Which, if you compare the two, way more detail went into Truss because I was much surer of the sources. And, of course, that one was about my own country's political meltdown; I knew more already.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. Have a great day!

[kradeelav]

Hello! I want to learn how to draw content on the more spicy side, but I'm unsure where to start. Do you have any tips/resources for it? I would love to make Corrin/Gunter art and some of my other favorite pairings. Thank you in advance!

on the practical/technical side:

having a solid understanding of anatomy helps, of course - the basic bone structure of course, but how skin, fat, muscle hangs as well. you don't actually need to watch live-action porn to get references (i never have believe it or not), but i do follow a few historical kink/bear magazine archivists online. personally i find that there's more of a variety of beautiful shapes and humans in those old photos, and you generally know it's consensual since they've personally submitted them.

you also can't go wrong with reading other erotic comics ... i say comics vs illustrations since you start to see the pacing of these scenes like any other human interaction and the tools the artists use. when does intimacy turn into foreplay? when does the artist/mangaka zoom in to capture the sensation of the moment? what clever tricks do the artists to capture the climax when the bodies are all pressed together and when finding a good camera angle is tricky? how do they show the heightened feeling with symbols and textures? how is kink power dynamics shown with characters in different positions? do you show faces and the expressions to show the pleasure or not? what comics feel cold and manufactured to you versus ones that capture real eros? why? etc.

on the mental side:

if you're anything like me, you might have a lot of shame to untangle when it comes to harder varieties of erotic art. (i hope not! not everyone does. but it's unfortunately common given the societies we live in.)

it's going to take a while, and it's going to feel really weird at times when you draw something that's uncomfortably intimate or taboo, but that's when you know it's working and you gotta keep pushing through.

you gotta keep drawing.

privately, i have a personal rule that i'll draw anything at least once; if i feel afterwards that it turned out to be a personal squick, i won't go there again, but that guideline has been marvelous to start breaking through the manufactured idea of disgust and also just to experiment with putting myself in other people's shoes about what they find hot. sometimes it's surprising! i've learned a lot.

lastly, on that note - draw what you find deeply intimate. forget about other people. selfshipping? the most niche kinks possible? the kink that feels like the internet can't stand? who gives a shit about them (no taste, the lot of them).

draw the human. the tenderness, the visceral, that overpowering desire for you that almost scares you with how intense it is and that sends your brain alight.

that's going to be timeless.

[endversewinchester]

The darkling abused and preyed on alina. People are allowed to hate the ship and those that romanticize his predatory behavior. They can do that while also seeing him as a man that was once a boy that was mistreated and hated just for existing

I am very curious. At which point of a post that says the shadow and bone universe is not meant to be cute and fluffy but about how different people process war did you get the impression that I said darklina is a healthy, cute ship? And that you have to ship it yourself?

There is no such thing in Shadow and Bone. The one that gets the closest to it would be Alina and Nikolai, but even then he lied to her multiple times and they bonded over the weight of the responsibility of protecting Ravka. Not soft, cutesy love, but the need to survive.

You ignoring the entire context of the post to come here and go "the darkling is so problematic" at me illustrates exactly what I said about you guys not being able to see the actual story being told, so thanks for that?

I also happen to disagree with you that he preyed on her. Maybe at first, when he first found out that she was the sun summoner and he saw all the possibilities that brought to him. But I truly believe he fell in love with her. Genuinely. Both in the tv show and the books. (Mind you, Ben Barnes was having page by page discussions with Leigh of how she wanted his acting to come across. The author herself wanted people to think he fell for her.)

Which again doesn't mean it was the soft, cutesy love we all love from romantasies. Again, there is no such thing in Shadow and Bone. This is a broken man, feeling things he never allowed himself to feel before due to the terrible life he led. And yes, it absolutely clashes with the mindset he was raised to have and splashes in terribly ugly ways sometimes, but it is utterly realistic to the story being told. People are allowed to resonate with that. To find it interesting, to want to dig deeper. Perhaps even to save him? Fanfiction is there as a tool, after all. All of it is perfectly valid, anon.

As for strangers on the internet hating me for shipping things that are not to their taste, you are going to have to get in line. I've been doing this since I was a child and you are nothing special.

[gynandromorph]

any advice you might have for other artists who also are or want to write, illustrate, and self-publish a graphic novel physically? been super inspired by your work for years and would love to hear if you have any insight on either step of the process in your experience

honestly i'm not sure if i can give any advice because i haven't self-published mine yet and i'm still learning a lot when it comes to drawing it... draw big (450 dpi kind of big) and make it black and white if you can because it'll save you a lot of time and money (if you draw a b/w one you are going to want to aim for like 600+ dpi). keep files with lines on a different layer at the very least if you are working digitally because you have to do something called "backing" them to make them look black. i would have gone with print ninja if not for the censorship laws in china but it should be accessible if your story isn't like. graphic or adult. generally you will want to use a print-on-demand service if possible (nofna uses kablam iirc). for writing one... try to be concise with the story. anything can be published as supplementary content on the side, so try to only keep in scenes and dialogue that the story really needs. you might benefit from a more specific style of scripting, where every panel on every page is described, or a loose scripting style, where almost nothing is described, just dialogue. i'm a planner and generally i have an idea of beats that a story needs to hit as i'm "sculpting" the script in the early phases, but a lot of people are discovery writers who find planning boring, limiting, etc. those kinds of preferences i think come down to experience from experimenting. make sure you know what kind of style you want to do for your comic as well... the messier and looser you go with the style, the easier it's going to be, because you are going to look back on it halfway through the project and like 20 months in and see mistakes, but they will meld into the "vibe" more. however, this is harder to do with black-and-white since it has to rely a lot more on lineart to convey the imagery. anyway. if i learn anything else i'll let you know lol. it's been a horrible time all around and honestly if the plot did not extremely DEPEND ON IT BEING PRINTED, i would have just made the story entirely digital. it wouldn't be worth the constant road blocks and limitations. also i think the more advice you look up about comics the worse it gets because you just acquire more and more useless compulsions insane comic artists regurgitate onto the internet like it's fact and it really really really slows you down in the end. there are so many stupid fucking opinions about how speech bubbles and panels should look i wish i could Unsee

[backfliips]

As an artist and an author who shares my stuff on the internet for people to see, there's a level of intimacy and vulnerability associated with the things I create and the way I choose to present them. When I was in high school I focused a lot on trying to please my audience and it made me become obsessed with numbers and validation, and ultimately made my art into more of a commodity than something I created for myself.

In recent years, I've been focusing more on just creating for myself, and sharing those self-indulgent things with the world. By doing that, I've created stories that feature trans characters without feeling like I have to check off boxes about what makes something "good" representation --- and in doing so, I think I've created far better representation than I ever did before.

I've had far more people, now, saying that the art I'm creating and the stories I'm writing resonate with them than I did before. I've had far more people say they feel seen by the rawness and the eroticism and the candid, earnest way I depict things, and I think that's because it's coming from a genuine place: my own self-indulgence!

I am someone who likes to explore nuance, and I'm not someone who has an interest in compromising my perspective just to make a plot flow better or to make an interaction go as initially planned. I want things to feel real, to be real! And because of that, I think my work has touched many more people in many more intimate and personal ways than it ever did before, back when I was actively trying to reach as many people as possible.

I think, at the end of the day, the most important part of writing a story or illustrating a scene or just putting pencil to metaphorical paper is to be doing something that you like, and to be doing something that you care about.

I'm self-indulgent! I write sappy, saccharine smut. I dive headfirst into the uncomfortable parts of being trans and find the bits that I personally find empowering, and I am earnest and honest and genuine in how I depict them. I draw lots and lots of trans gay sex --- and because I'm drawing something I find beautiful, many people have commented on the beauty they see in it.

I think representation is very important. I think it's important for people to feel seen and to feel heard and to be depicted in the things they love. And I think, on top of that, it's even more important for that representation to becoming from a place of actual care, from a place of actual love, and from a place of passion for the work the artist is creating.

I didn't set out to be a voice for all trans people by writing and drawing the things I create. I don't WANT to be a mouthpiece for an entire community with diverse and unique needs for each individual --- but I am immensely humbled by the response I've gotten from just being unapologetically myself within my artwork.

I don't know --- it's just really nice. Thanks.

[eredhes]

Hey!

I majored in anth at a p awesome school for it (had a so fun class where we hands on used paleo to neo lithic techniques- from making stone tools to processing hides) but there wasn't much available for prehistoric art (+ I was a major switch from microbiology so bio anth, epidemiology and forensics stuff, made more sense with my course history). Been out of school for almost 10 years now and unfortunately doing nothing even remotely related, but I'm wanting to learn more about prehistoric art of all sorts. With search engines being overrun with AI misinfo I'm not really sure where to start other than Wikipedia. Do you have any favorite resources you'd be up for recommending?

Thanks a ton! Happy holidays, and may the new year be kind.

Hello! I should preface this with saying I am just someone with a general interest and not remotely an expert haha! Getting to do hands on stuff sounds really fun!

A lot of my reading has been restricted to Upper Palaeolithic Europe, and cave art at that, so I can't really recommend anything outside of that.

I've been concerned also with avoiding misinformation - there was a painting I saw a while ago where it was obvious the level of research involved was typing "Lascaux" into pinterest and just using whatever results came up (the art used was from Cueva de los Caballos and Mesolithic) and it's been driving me nuts. I've been sticking to books for information, almost everything I've read has been through Internet Archive, and majority are over 30 years old so could be outdated, can contradict each other, and should be noted are can be very racist.

Putting the list of everything under a read more as it's quite long, I hope there's something useful in amongst all of this! Happy holidays, I hope you have a good new year!

Books and other resources I've found useful in no particular order:

The Cave of Lascaux: The Final Photographs by Mario Ruspoli (1987) [Is on Internet Archive but currently unavailable, the German version is still up.] When Lascaux was closed to the public Mario Ruspoli was hired by the French govenment to document the entire cave on film and wrote this book afterwards. Even though it's focus is Lascaux I found it a good introduction to the topic of cave art. I have tried to find the footage online with little success so if anyone knows... do tell. This book brings you through the cave and gives a good idea of the layout and where paintings/engravings are in relation to each other. I would love if there was something like this for other caves but I'm not aware of anything 🤔

Lascaux Virtual Tour [Link here] The video isn't toally clear but it gives a good sense of the layout, and you can click the little 'i' icon to see clearer photos and get more details.

Images of the Ice Age by Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut (1988) [Internet Archive Link] This book is also a good starting point! There's also Journey Through the Ice Age which is the same book.

Cambridge Illustrated History of Cave Art by Paul Bahn (1998) [Internet Archive Link] I haven't gotten around to reading this yet but it appears to be a broader scope and not restricted to Europe.

Palaeolithic Cave Art by Peter J. Ucko and Andrée Rosenfeld (1967) The main appeal of this bok is that it goes through the different possible reasons for cave art. I had to buy a physical copy as I couldn't find it online.

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes (2020) [Aeon article link "Sheanderthal: Not all Neanderthals were ‘cavemen’: half were women. What can archaeologists tell us about how they lived?] Not solely focused on art but she does talk about what the neanderthals made including a large circular structure in Bruniquel Cave - there is footage of the cave in the recent netflix documentary Secrets of the Neanderthals (not great, at one point the narrator says neanderthals lived in the neolithic lmfao but the interviews with experts are interesting).

Don's Maps [Link here] Really great website. Some books will mention a painting/engraving/sculpture but no image, so my first place to check is Don's Maps as everything he includes is either from a book which will be referenced or from his own visits to caves.

The Neanderthal Museum Digital Archive [Link here] Despite the name is not exclusively Neanderthal, lots of photos of cave art in the Wendel Collection (including a photo of the one known instance of a saiga antelope in cave art that I hadn't been able to find a photo of before!).

There's also the Archaeology Podcast Network and sites like Academia.edu but I don't have any specific recommendations at present.

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

The Many Illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities 2: Rowland Wheelwright

That's right, we're jumping centuries and mediums!

...specifically, from Phiz's engravings for the original 1859 monthly installments to Wheelwright's paintings for this 1925 edition! (warning: in the following, there is some violent imagery, and one image in the third grouping has blood)

As I'd mentioned in the announcement post, these illustrators will be highlighted completely out of chronological order to make it more organic when I continue to find more and more artists' work to add to the queue - so I wanted to start off with a particularly dramatic leap in time (and style!) to give a sense of the sheer variety of art we're going to be looking at here!

This also happens to be one of the sets that I scanned myself - most of these beautiful illustrations haven't anywhere on the internet (by my own intensive research at least!) until now. It's my joy to finally get to share them!

Overall, I want to give my own opinions and takes on the work of each illustrator as little as possible so that everyone can experience it in their own way, but the true beauty in his attention to detail in color, characterization, costuming, composition, and shadow calls for some comment.

This is the work of someone who loved and appreciated both the story itself and the act of illustrating it - I'm grateful to him for bringing these images into existence.

& the standard endnote for all posts in this series:

This post is intended to act as the start of a forum on the given illustrator, so if anyone has anything to add - requests to see certain drawings in higher definition (since Tumblr compresses images), corrections to factual errors, sources for better-quality versions of the illustrations, further reading, fun facts, any questions, or just general commentary - simply do so on this post, be it in a comment/tags or the replies!💫

[kylodendron]

We all have our fun out here on the interwebs and even with the perceived safety and anonymity sitting behind a screen provides us, when that shit bleeds over into real life, it’s rude and disrespectful at best, and can become downright dangerous at its worst.

None of this is news, fandom is always gonna fandom. Unfortunately I had to experience it first hand this weekend while seeing Hold On To Me Darling. And it wasn’t pretty.

I’m not gonna put anyone on blast by name, but I’ll just say this as a general PSA based on the behavior I experienced:

Don’t push people to move out of your way.

You chose to sit at the front of the theater in the middle of the row, and when I turned around to say something like “please stop pushing me, I can’t move even if I wanted to because there are people in front of me” as we were leaving, you were already catapulting yourself over the first row seats and pushing your way up the aisle.

Don’t record the play.

I know lots of people aren’t able to make the trip and see the show. It’s a privilege to be able to do that, especially in this economy. I am incredibly grateful that I had this opportunity to experience something I never dreamed would be possible. But recording a show, even if it’s just audio, is not only rude and disrespectful to the actors and the audience but it’s also a crime:

“New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law § 31.01: Prohibits photographing or recording a performance without the written permission of the theater management. Offenders may be ejected and face damages and other legal remedies.

New York Penal Law § 275.33: Prohibits using a recording device in a live theater or movie theater without the permission of the theater operator. This is considered a crime and can be charged as a violation or a felony.

New York Penal Law § 275.20: Prohibits making or selling an unauthorized recording of a performance.

Penalties for illegally recording a performance can include jail time and large monetary fines.”

If anyone really needs to hear Adam put on a southern accent, they can watch Logan Lucky. But hooray for you and your internet points I guess. Congrats on the validation of internet strangers blessing you and calling you legend or queen or whatever.

You’re not as anonymous as you may think you are.

This is a very general point and good practice for anyone, but be careful and think twice about what you share online, especially on Twitter or facespace or whatever. I don’t know you. But it wasn’t hard to figure out who you are when you posted pictures from the stage door and I am in them, or from the illegal recording you posted because I can hear my own laugh.

This is a good reminder that the internet is not an invisibility cloak that lets you do whatever you want because No OnE wIlL eVeR kNoW wHo I aM. There are a lot of people out there who would not think twice about doxxing - and that is a dangerous thing for everyone.

Aside from this post, I’m not gonna say or do anything else. I mind my own business and prefer to cherish the otherwise wonderful experience I had both in watching this performance and at the stage door. I had thought to maybe share that experience but now I’m thinking twice.

And so I’ve deleted everything. My stupid little videos I made during lockdown because I couldn’t possibly have made more banana bread or that terrible whipped coffee, my illustrations, my minifigs, my remixes, photos, whatever. There’s a reason I don’t really engage in fandom - I don’t want to be associated with this type of behaviour. I’ve tried to find a little place to share my silly little things for whoever may happen to stumble across it and maybe it’ll bring them a little bit of joy. I don’t care about popularity or likes.

There’s more that I could share but I’m really not trying to get into any fandom drama bullshit. If you’re offended by this post perhaps you need to take some time and reflect on your actions and how they affect those around you.

Adam is very kind and gracious to even come to the stage door and engage with fans. He doesn’t have to do that and no one is entitled to anything from him or anyone else, except respect for others - no matter how much you paid to be there.

As a general rule, do the things that make you happy and bring you joy! Be a fangirl, support your faves. But please be respectful of others and try not to do any illegal shit while you’re at it.

[hollowphobia-casual]

Your Our of Touch, Why is no one talking about Lucky Star?

Warning, this is a long discussion about a 19 year old Manga, it’s current possible relevance in 2023. As well as the thoughts on how shippers from back in the year 2000 could possibly influence an upcoming manga.

I assume many of you by now are familiar with the Out of touch Thursday meme, for the few of you who are confused by what I mean exactly, it is this.

The song, is Out of Touch by Hall & Oates, released October 4th 1984, the animation however is from the opening of anime called Lucky Star. The song playing in that opening being “Motteke Sailor Fuku“ with what I can seem to find being tied to multiple artists, most likely the song was created specifically for the anime.

And it’s Lucky Star I wanted to talk about more than anything, because I’ve had thoughts running through my head that I simply, could not get out and needed to talk about them somewhere, so you all shall be my victims. But some context for the generations of people who people who were born long after this anime reached it’s peak. Luck Star was a Slice of Life, Comedy manga written and illustrated by Kagami Yoshimizu. The manga focused on four High School girls, Konata Izumi (Blue Hair) a short pervy Otaku girl who likes teasing people, especially her friend Kagami. Said Kagami Hiiragi, (Purple hair twin tails)  a I’m not a tsundere intellectual girl, who is prone to anger and violence. Tsukasa Hiiragi, (purple hair with bow) Kagami’s younger twin sister, who is naive, sweet and just an overall ball of sunshine and finally the well endowed Miyuki Takara (Pink hair), who is the incredibly smart girl who makes poor and dumb decisions. With a larger cast built up of friends, relatives and other characters, who all do day to day life in comedic ways or funny observations. In 2007 the manga would be adapted to an anime that would last for 24 episodes and two OVAs. And it along with the Anime adaptation of Azumanga Diaoh would basically become the meme farm for many anime and Manga enjoyers on the internet

But more important than the memes were the ships, or in this case THE ship. Like the case with most all girl anime shows there were lesbian ships, but none to the extent of Konata and Kagami. Like if you were in the lesbian anime scene when you were young, this ship was everywhere.

Official Anime promotional Art, Merchandise, Fan-fiction, Doujinshi, offical art by the Mangaka and much more, heck this ship was so well known about by the creators that this happened in one of the OVAs.

But now I imagine most everyone is probably wondering, what is the point? Why bring up an old manga and anime just to talk about a super old ship from the early 2000′s with characters that despite being 18 years of age are drawn like they are still 15 or so. Well, Luck Star the anime ended before the Manga did. Finishing roughly around Volume 4-5 with certain details omitted either for time or cost cutting methods, ended the series with a meta fourth wall breaking episode. While the manga continued with 3-4 more volumes, ending at Volume eight. And the series creator would go on a hiatus. An Eight year Hiatus, because, Lucky Star, is back, Volumes 9 and 10 have very recently released...(In Japan), but more interestingly than that, was what was announced in 2022, in the third volume of Mitaina! magazine. There is going to be a Lucky Star Spin off series, Called Konata 31. From the details that have been released Konata 31 is going to be a series that takes place 15 years after the events of the main Lucky Star series, following a now 31 year old Konata. We have no information on who any of the supporting cast is for this series, we don’t know if any of the original cast outside of Konata will even return or if they all fell out of some time after High School. And, sadly, anything I say from this point on is going to be nothing more than mere speculation, but it’s curious to focus on the age of 31. Why? Well, that’s the age of the people who started reading Lucky Star are probably now, when I started Lucky Star, I was the same age as the girls, I was roughly in my teens and early adult hood and now I’m beginning my 30′s. yes not all the fans will be the same age, but most of them will be. Most of these fan will either be experiencing their 30′s or have experienced their 30′s and can look back. And what are people living with in their 30′s, what do people tend to focus on, where can these possible new stories take us? Job security, Home Security, making an identity for ourselves, physically and mentally and, for many of us (Sorry Ace/Aero crowd) Romance. A large part of Lucky Star fans growing up were Konata and Kagami shippers, they supported the idea of a gay relationship between these character, before openly gay relationships between characters were as common as they are now. We didn’t have shows like Witch from Mercury, Yuru Yuri, Steven Universe, owl House, RWBY and many more where characters could have open gay relationship. It was all theorizing, subtext and taking whatever people could give us, even if it was mostly there to make us buy merchandise. Now am I saying that with 100% certainty, that Konata 31 is going to have a story where Kagami and Konata finally tie the knot and all 13-18 year old hearts become validated. No, it’s quite possible, like many slice of life comedies they doesn’t even focus on the romantic side of the characters and instead focus more on their day to day lives instead. But, there is all that history. I don’t know what I’m saying really, I made this post mostly to get thoughts out of my head and here I am getting thoughts out of my head. But what I will say is I will defiantly be picking up the first volume of Konata 31 when it becomes available.

[godtier]

"op sec (operational security) is something i'm extremely passionate about. if anyone wants a full-ass post about that, i'm more than happy to throw one together."

yeah please

(only took me 3 minutes to read u actually bc i'm a quick reader and yet i took my time)

dank, this is what i like to hear! (also it's good that you were able to handle the tl;dr bc this post will probs be a lil tl;dr too lol)

i'll try to go over this point by point.

#1: don't use the same usernames on every single platform.

this is one of great contention nowadays because people like to have "brand recognition" of sorts. they like to be discoverable. they like their friends (and in some cases, fans) be able to find their posts across multiple platforms. this is all well and good if you are cultivating a specific type of experience. for example, if you're a content creator, it makes total sense.

most people online are not content creators, though. if you have no desire to be a content creator, try segmenting your experiences. that is to say, have ONE account with a username for your personal/IRL posts, and ONE account for your fandom shitposts. make them completely different. don't use the same user icon or whatever. don't use any PII (personal identifying information) on your fandom shitpost account.

even IF you would like to be a content creator, i would still suggest segmenting your experiences. if you manage to strike it big in a content creation space, think of this: eventually, you'll get crazy stalker fans. you may get people in your DMs asking invasive shit. prevent this from happening: have a contingency plan in place. this means, again, having SEPARATE usernames for your different purposes. is this annoying? sure. but it keeps you safe.

to illustrate what i mean, let's say you do want to be a content creator. your creator name is "mcguffinthecreator" (that's what it is now, you have to use this, it's the rules). you can have your content creator twitter, tumblr, facebook, insta, tiktok, whatever else have the username "mcguffinthecreator" for brand recognition purposes. for your personal shit, make up something totally different for each one that cannot be connected back to the mcguffin personality OR to each other. "anonsworld" for one. "ilikepencils" for another. so on and so forth.

#2: don't reuse passwords

this is a basic one you may have heard and most people shrug it off because it gets difficult to remember multiple passwords when every fuCKIN WEBSITE these days bullies you into creating an account.

but you don't have to.

use firefox and it'll generate passwords for you and save them to the browser. and if you ever need to copy and paste the passwords into another browser for whatever reason, you can do that by going to about:logins in the browser bar on firefox. and, if you make a firefox account (yeah i know aNOTHER ACCOUNT), any instance of firefox that you log into will port those passwords over, even on mobile devices. this is also a function on edge and chrome, but i highly recommend firefox over those two browsers for security reasons.

#3: don't use your real name on any account that you want to do fandom bullshit in

(or really in general, but i know that's not gonna happen for most people)

if you really wanna be low-key, don't give your real name to anyone online that you don't know IRL. yes, it is 100% possible to make real, genuine friendships with people online. i've known @sapphire-weapon for like, 15+ years and we've yet to meet in-person. i know her real name, she knows mine. but we never use them, anyway. we're just "ash n sirea" in any online shit we get up to, and it'll stay that way forever.

that might sound strange to a lot of people, but it protects both of us to do that. if we just started using each other's real names in tumblr posts, for example, that opens us both up to weirdos tryna find us. it sounds paranoid and it probably is, but we both grew up during a time when the internet was just getting big. both of us remember a time before having a personal computer in the house or everyone having internet at home or everyone having a cellphone. and we were both taught to never give out your real name to anyone online, ever.

this protects us from shit like... yknow... people calling our places of employment to tell our bosses that we're horrible people, actually. which is a thing that people do like it's normal nowadays since it's so fuckin easy to find information on more normal people. you say one wrong thing and it's easy for someone who's got a chafed enough bhole to find your deets and start harassing you IRL. keeping your PII close to the chest is the smart thing to do if you plan on getting involved in any online discussions these days.

#4: don't post any identifying pics on your fandom bullshit accounts

this means selfies, pics of your house, pics of places around your house, so on and so forth. again, this sounds restrictive, but it's extremely easy to find where people live that way AND it opens you up to AI photo manip bullshit. if you must post a pic, be sure to strip its EXIF data before posting it. you can find steps on how to do that here. and just... don't post selfies publicly. at all. even if you strip the EXIF data before posting, that doesn't prevent people from taking your selfie and running it through either a photoshop manip or an AI tool. share selfies only with people you absolutely, 100% trust. this means locking down instagram accounts where you want to post selfies, for example. this goes back to having multiple accounts for different purposes.

#5: inform your friends that, if they know your fandom bs accounts, to NOT tag you in posts that they think you would like

this is a huge hole that people often overlook. let's say you have some IRL friends that are also into fandom. let's say you've been doing your due diligence and keeping your experiences segmented. you've got different usernames, don't use your IRL info on the fandom account, you're all good.

you share these accounts with your IRL fandom friends because maybe you post insightful stuff, funny fandom memes, or maybe you're an artist. you figure "they're my friends, they're not gonna purposefully expose me."

problem is, a lot of people these days don't really "get" the concept of keeping your info on lock online. you can't assume that they'll look at a situation the same way you do.

so let's say your friend finds a funny meme for the fandom you're in. they know you have a personal account and a fandom account. they figure "well, i'll tag the fandom account because this is fandom-related." so they do.

here's the problem: let's say you've pissed off someone who's hate-following you. they see someone's tagged you on a post. maybe the friend even uses your real name rather than your handle because why would they use your handle? they know you IRL. to the friend, it's harmless and makes sense to use the name they've always known you by.

but to the hate-follower, they've just been handed a juicy dish on a silver platter. now they can use a few tricks to find your actual personal account. for the sake of clarity, let's use twitter as an example. let's also assume that on your IRL account, you're using your real name. and let's ALSO assume that your friend doesn't lock down their account because most people really don't.

they go to the friend's account who tagged you.

they look in their following list.

they look for your name.

they find the account.

they see your personal deets just sittin there, ripe for the picking.

they can now harass you and stalk you with more precision than if they just had your fandom account handle.

for that reason, you have to make a call here. do you share your fandom account with your IRL friends that you trust to not fuck you over on purpose? or do you keep that private from even them to protect yourself from unintentional exposure? depending on your friend group, some may be more diligent than others when it come to keeping your accounts properly segmented. you can tell your friends that have the account to never tag you in anything and to just private message it to you. that's one option. the other is to just never reveal that you have a fandom account and interact with fandom on a very, VERY surface level degree on your IRL account. the last is to just never post anything on your personal IRL account and/or lock it to friends only.

#5: "commit to the bit." don't break "character" if you meet someone in fandom who seems really cool

now, i say "character" as if you'd be acting differently, but what i really mean is your handle and username set-up for your fandom bs account. if you meet someone really cool, don't get starstruck and answer any question they pose to you like "what area are you in?" or "is [handle] your actual name?" because these are dangerous questions to answer when you don't know what the intent is. again, it sounds paranoid, but assume everyone you meet online could potentially fuck you over in the end. it took me a very long time to tell my closest online friends my actual name and location. i've met some of them IRL and i've sent letters/packages to others. it's not unheard of, but it's not something i do lightly. if you are REALLY keen on becoming pen pals with someone, set up a PO box.

this also protects you from common scams like pig butchering or revenge porn. online dating is more ubiquitous than ever and who wouldn't want a bf or gf who's into fandom like you are? problem is that you can open yourself up to trouble if you meet someone who's really really interested in your personal life when you're on your fandom bs account. don't give up your IRL account for anyone who asks, just because you're into them, romantically or otherwise. most people who are looking to scam or troll don't tend to pull a long game. this means being pals with someone for an extended period of time before opening up any further.

#6: don't give away personal troubles to anyone in fandom

this means shit beyond like "my mom is being an asshole" and going into providing detailed backgrounds on your tumultuous family relations. this gives people ammunition. if you're in DM with someone and it comes up in conversation, don't go into detail. treat it like a work relationship: coworkers don't need to know your personal life and neither do fandom friends.

and that's what i got for now. there's a lot to go into regarding PII opsec. there's a subreddit called /r/privacy that i'd recommend perusing for more ideas on how to protect yourself online. they tend to go into things like online tracking, advertising, VPNs, and so on, but they also have discussions about just keeping yourself as anonymous as possible online in relation to your IRL self.

i hope this helps! feel free to share it to any of your pals if you like and if you have more questions, just let me know!

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase: How It All Started (Episode 1)

This comic was later renamed to Cyberchase Web Adventures Episode 1.

When I make posts about certain Cyberchase characters or important events, I sometimes show panels from the prequel web comic "How It All Started", which was released online in December 2001, a month or so before Cyberchase premiered. I have restrained myself from just posting the whole thing, since I don't own it.

However, it is no longer available on the live pbskids.org website. It is available through archives, but there are some difficulties in tracking it down due to missing images in some places. Additionally, even when it was available on the live pbskids.org website, it was free for all to view, so posting it here wouldn't hurt anyone.

The best way to enjoy the web comic is through the FlashPoint Archive Project. This is because the webpages used simple animations in some places. Essentially, each comic page is treated like a tradition animation cell. They have a background layer, and then the webpage places images on top of it that can be exchanged for one another. This produces simple three-frame animations for things like flashing lights or repetitive arm and eye movements. This isn't something I can easily reproduce on Tumblr, since it isn't like posting a single animated GIF. There may be some round-about way to convert it (i.e. take video of the webpage animating and convert it to GIF), but I'm not going to do that. So, this will just be still images. There is no author or illustrator credited for this. The webpages mention a copyright of 2001 for the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, but I don't know if they actually assembled the content in-house, or if Nelvana or WNET did it. I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that I do not own this. I am presenting someone else's creation here, in an unedited form.

There is one other thing I should point out. When the comic was originally released in 2001, it has a certain framing to it.

However, in 2002, the Cyberchase website got redesigned, and the comic was changed as well. Some animations were removed, some images were replaced with lower-quality images, and some assets were altered to fit in a new frame. They started calling these webisodes to fit in with Cyberchase Web Adventures, which included an original Poddleville story and one about Hacker trying to knock over Tikis in Tikiville.

I prefer the original framing, and I dug into the archives to find as many panels with the original framing that I could. However, I was unable to find the original framing for a few pages. It may be possible for someone with better Photoshop skills to try to put the assets back in their original forms. I'm not that person, but the assets are on the Internet Archive and the Flashpoint Project for anyone who wants to try. In those cases, I will use the new framing. All of the images necessary to understand the story are intact. However, there are some special cases that I will note when we get to them.

Anyway, my plan here is to show the panels, transcribe the narration and dialogue, and make some commentary at the end. So, let's begin.

Narration: Cyberspace... A place where time and space are one... A place where the lines between reality and imagination no longer exist... A place where anyone can go and anything can happen.

Narration: Throughout Cyberspace there are thousands of places called cybersites, each very different from the other, and all under the watchful eye of their thoughtful and peace-loving leader: Motherboard.

Narration: The heads of several cybersites gather for an important meeting with Motherboard to discuss the future.

Narration: Motherboard tells everyone that all is well, and reminds them that peach and harmony are the key to the future.

Dr Marbles(?): Together we are strong

Assembled Heads(?) of Cybersites (Ava of Symmetria, Sheriff Judy of Sensible Flatts, The King of Happily Ever After, Zeus of Mt. Olympus, an unknown character, Ollie Nollie of Solaria, Lucky of R-Fair-City, and Two-Headed Sam of Castleblanca): To Motherboard

Editors note: Motherboard is absent from this panel during this version of the comic. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be a shot from Motherboard's POV, or if they just wanted to wait another page before showing her. That speech bubble is so far away from Dr. Marbles, that I wasn't sure if he was even the one saying the line. Maybe they were implying that Motherboard was speaking through the screen behind Dr. Marbles, even though it doesn't have anything on it.

The second version of the comic adds a screen with Motherboard to the background layer, implying that it was supposed to be her saying the line all along. This is confusing.

Narration: Motherboard exists in a vast, hi-tech computer center known as control central.

Narration: Motherboard is the brain of the giant computer system that oversees all of Cyberspace.

Narration: The brilliant Dr. Marbles is responsible for keeping Motherboard's parts working smoothly and efficiently at all times.

Dr. Marbles: Your memory is now optimized, Motherboard.

Narration: Needing an assistant with a high level of intelligence, Dr. Marbles assembles a cyborg who calls himself The Hacker.

The Hacker (thinking): Hmmm, someday I'll take over all of Cyberspace!

Narration: Wanting an assistance of his own, Hacker makes a robotic Cybird he names Digit.

Digit: Yoikes!

Narration: One night, while Marbles is away, Hacker removed the Encryptor Chip from Motherboard... ...and hides it inside a secret vault.

The Hacker: Without the Encryptor Chip, Motherboard cannot function. Ha-Ha-Ha!

Digit: Stop! You can't do this!

Narration: Digit needs to figure out the combination to the safe so he can replace the Encryptor Chip inside Motherboard before it's too late!

Digit: This is definitely not going to be easy!

Editor's Note: And then, we play "Crack Hacker's Safe". This game still exists on the pbskids.org website almost 25 years later. It was done in Javascript, so it survived the death of Flash that took out most of the rest of the Cyberchase game library. Feel free to pretend that Digit is the one pressing the buttons for these panels. Make up dialogue if you wish.

Narration: Congratulations you did it!

Narration: With the Encryptor Chip safely back in place, Motherboard tells Hacker he has to leave.

Motherboard: Your hostile actions cannot be tolerated, Hacker. You are no longer welcome here.

Narration: The power is drained from Hacker and he is placed inside a remote-controlled Cyberpod.

The Hacker: Someday... somehow, I'll return. And when I do, I'll take over all of Cyberspace!

Dr. Marbles: Page down, Hacker. Your file is closed!

Narration: Hacker is banished to the farthest reaches of The Northern Frontier.

The Hacker: NOOOOOOO....!

Narration: Neither Motherboard nor Dr. Marbles realize that Hacker has taken Digit with him.

The Hacker: I'll be back! Ha-Ha-Ha!

Digit: Yoikes Lemme outa here!

Narration: Check out webisode 2... ...and find out about Hacker's Evil plan ... and what happens to Digit!

Editor's Note: So, we have the narration inviting us to watch webisode 2. Normally, you would expect the alt text attached to the web page to match the text for the image, so that if someone was unable to load the image, they would still get the text. The alt text is: "Tune in next week and find out about Hacker's evil plan and what happens to Digit!"

This leads me to believe that there was a different version of this image back in 2001 that had narration that was either the same as the alt text, or more similar. However, it appears that that version of the image was replaced, and the original version was not archived.

That's the end of the comic, so let's get to my commentary.

So, what do I think about this comic? I enjoyed reading it. I like the idea of The Hacker's schemes to topple Motherboard starting before the main virus. I find it a bit odd that he was able to remove the Encryptor Chip without either Motherboard or Dr. Marbles being alerted instantly, since it is an essential part.

I suppose Digit was already a good guy at this point. Otherwise, he would have looked the other way, Motherboard would have ceased function, and we wouldn't have gotten the show at all. Now, Digit never being a bad guy is a controversial idea in the fan community. If he was always against The Hacker's evil plans, then it removes the idea of him being genuinely bad and having a change of heart later. I'm also not sure why The Hacker took Digit along after he foiled his plans this first time. Perhaps Digit was able to hide this betrayal from him at the time. But then, who else would have known about The Hacker's secret vault, or the fact that he stole the Encryptor Chip?

It is questionable how much of this is still canon. The Hacker's origin story in particular has been expanded in the years that followed. The modern story talks about him wanting to help Motherboard, and then turning evil later. Meanwhile, this original origin story had him turning evil immediately. At this point, they had not even created the young Hacker that we see in flashbacks, since he only appears (from birth) in his final form.

The show has also animated a flashback of Dr. Marbles exiling Hacker in the same cyberpod. But then, we got Season 5 Episode 6 "The Flying Parallinis, where his banishment involved being trapped on top of Mount Wayupthere until the Parallinis accidentally released him. Both items may have been ret-conned in Season 12 Episode 8 "Hacker Hugs a Tree", when we see him banished via portal. He is also alone in that episode, so he didn't bring Digit along with him in that version of events.

Also, can we go back to the board room with the leaders of a few of the Cybersites?

This was early days for the show, so they only had so many characters created. Now, Zeus makes sense. He is the king of the gods on the Mt. Olympus Cybersite. The King from Happily Ever After also makes sense. Judge Trudy makes sense, I suppose. Back then, we only really knew her and her sister, Sheriff Judy, from Sensible Flatts. This was long before Sensible Flatts had a separate mayor.

Ava from Symmetria is an interesting choice. She runs the factory that produces the symmetrical objects, but is she also the head-of-state on that Cybersite? We don't see anything on that Cybersite other than the factory, so maybe the site really is just the factory.

I'm surprised to see Two-Headed Sam here. We know he runs the Cryoxide factory in Castleblanca, but this isn't really an Ava situation where the entire site is just one factory. Is Sam also the head-of-state across Castleblanca? That would explain his monopoly on the Cryoxide business, and it is a concerning conflict of interest. This was before the mayor we all remember from the Halloween Howl.

Ollie Nollie was the cart driver on Solaria, and Lucky was the cab driver on R-Fair City. I get that Solaria is mostly a vacation resort, and R-Fair City is an amusement park. But it's still weird to me that these two would be the heads-of-state over there.

Does anyone recognize the character in the top right? I can't find any reference to him.

Edit: I was looking back at S01 E21 "Less Than Zero", where we see a meeting of the Cyber Council. They used the same room, and the characters are in much the same arrangement. Our mystery character is replaced by the Mayor of Poddleville. The Mayor of Poddleville is easily the most senior member here, due to his place in the pilot. So, I'm a little surprised that he was the one character to change between "How It All Started" and this episode.

We also get Lachesis, one of the three fates from Greek Mythology, seated across from Dr. Marbles. I'm not sure why only one of the three fates gets a seat at this table. Why would Olympus get two representatives on the council?

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Immortal Thor #3 Speculation

Spoilers for The Immortal Thor issues 1 and 2 and the promotional summary we have so far for issue 3.

So I want to talk today about making the title or byline or maybe just selling point "Thor in the wilderness," and how my literary nerd brain is going brrr over it. (And I know this is more Thor than Loki, but Loki's involved, so it counts.)

"Going into the wilderness" is a symbolic or literal phrase referring to one undergoing a personal trial. One might think of "shamanic or "rites of passage" going off into the wilderness to gain some sort of wisdom or insight or to come of age, but as I am not Native myself in any capacity, let alone of a culture that might have practiced or still practices this sort of journey, I'm not going to get into that interpretation, because I don't even run the risk of misrepresenting the practice, I already know I will. So I will allow someone else with more background knowledge in that interpretation (if what I've heard of it is even a legitimate cultural practice) to talk about that in greater detail.

I do, however, have experience with the Christian (possibly Judeo-Christian? But again, not my experience, so I'm not going to make any claims I can't back up when I don't even know what makes for a credible source for that community on the internet) Biblical usage of the phrase.

We often (or maybe just I do) think of "the wilderness" as thickly forested areas, but in Biblical terms, given the area most of the stories take place, wilderness primarily just refers to anywhere apart from civilization. It can be deep in the desert or at the top of a mountain as much as in the heart of the woods. We can call to mind Jesus's forty days in isolation in the desert, where he is tempted three times by the Devil. In the Old Testament, Moses leads the Israelites into the desert/wilderness, where they wander for forty years until (as one interpretation has it) they come to trust in God enough for God to show them the way to the Promised Land (and not, as I thought growing up through Sunday School class, a 40-year straight line through a very large desert). There are other wilderness examples, but this isn't Sunday School, so I'll end with these.

So aside from other literary references (as I didn't look into it, but I'm sure the trajectory of this symbolism doesn't just go Bible -> Thor comic. There's got to be a Shakespeare play in there somewhere, at the very least), if Ewing is directly referencing the Bible here (which I doubt, but we're gonna pretend for a hot second, bear with me), why?

I'm going to ignore a few obvious parallels for the moment, around Thor (though a god himself) being the son of (a) God and Loki's horns being particularly prominent and (albeit more eccentrically) devil-like in this panel:

Ewing has been bookending these issues with excerpts from the Eddas. The Edda was composed by Snorri Sturluson, and is one of, if not, the earliest written account (both Prose Edda and Poetic Edda) of Norse mythology, as had previously been passed down through oral tradition. (Issue 2 is actually prefaced by a quote from Saemund Sigfusson, but I'll get to him later.) So what does this have to do with the Bible? Sturluson's account of Norse mythology is not without personal authorial bias, and Sturluson writes his Eddas at a time when Iceland has been mainly Christianized. So there is some interesting historical basis for making a biblical reference in a story following a hero from a completely different pantheon. This would certainly not even be the first time an illustration or characterization of Loki bore a striking likeness to the devil (he does have a snake form, after all).

(So I tried to find the image I was thinking of, and in addition to being devil-like, it also was setting off warning bells of being an anti-semitic caricature, so now I have to go stare at a wall and think about the upsetting and disheartening parallels between "devilish features" and anti-semitism and how disappointing it is that I didn't make this connection before. BRB.)

Saemund Sigfusson is quoted in issue 2 (and I cannot confirm this is a legitimate quote or if he's now a fictionalized Marvel character, but I would think it's an official translation), and he was an Icelandic priest and chronicler in the eleventh century. According to Britannica, "The Poetic Edda is known as Saemundr's Edda, because it was erroneously attributed to Saemundr." So another edda writer (edda just refers to this kind of work) who was also Christian, though I did not explicitly see in my (albeit scant) research whether he has been criticized for applying Christian themes/doctrine to Old Norse traditions. [EDIT: This is purely speculation on my part, but given what the Britannica says about Saemund's other work being lost to the ages and the Poetic Edda being misattributed to him, the source in the comic being "The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson," and Wikipedia saying the Poetic Edda is also called the Elder Edda, I'm going to leave the above interpretation in as a possibility but also add that this may actually be a quote from the Poetic Edda misattributed to Saemund. Why Ewing chose to do this, I don't know. Maybe he doesn't know it's not his Edda, maybe Brittanica and Wikipedia are telling me the wrong information and it is actually written by Saemund, maybe in the world of Marvel Saemund did write the Poetic Edda. Maybe I'll stop having really bad social anxiety and write in to the comic to ask Ewing myself and maybe he'll tell me.]

Another interesting note on the parallels. Loki asks Thor, prior to whatever enchantment they place on him, if he trusts them in three different forms their relationship has taken (as king and subject (which is interesting; they demote themself purposely here), as siblings, as enemies). Loki sets him in his trial in the wilderness after he professes to trust them. Compare that to the common interpretation of the Israelites' wandering forty years in the wilderness until they come to put their trust in God.

What I'm saying is if issue three has some time increment of 40 (days, years, hell, even minutes) related to Loki's trial, I'll be unsurprised and also losing my shit.

I still have the same thought I had in my reaction post. Loki is not consciously trying to hurt Thor here (at least that's not their primary intention), but to prepare him for Toranos and protect him in his time of highest vulnerability. But I don't think Thor will see it that way immediately. Loki might need to brace themself for a storm-powered fist to the jaw once their brother makes it out of there.

[mokeonn]

Ive been drawing for 10 years and no one wants my art and i live in a community of people who dont care for each other i reslly just dont see how it gets better for me in this case and i just wish i had you optimism

Well, I don't truly know your situation so there's a lot I can't comment on or give advice for. However, I am noticing some language in this message that gives me an idea (whether it's a good one or not is up to you) of what could help.

NOTE: I'm an unemployed 23 year old who is off their depression medication. I am NOT the one to go to for life advice, I'm just speaking from personal experience.

I think the first and easiest step is to take a moment, breathe, and just think. What do you want? Do you enjoy art as a hobby and would enjoy a non-art related job? Do you want art as a job/career, but you're not exactly picky on what that job should be? Do you have a specific dream in mind, i.e., comic artist/game developer/fantasy writer/illustrator/independent business owner? Because the answer to this question means a lot to what you should do!

For example: I'm all three.

I could absolutely keep art as a passionate thing I do for myself that I happen to post online while also working at, say, a library or a laboratory. I would love to make art my primary job/career, but I'm not very picky on how I get there! I have some ideas in mind, but if they're not a good fit, I won't be too upset. I would also love to be a comic artist/game developer, I am currently working on a comic and a game right now, actually. It's taking a long time, and it's going to take ages before I get to a point where I can even post things related to it online.

So I have a metric fuck ton of options. Let's make that clear, my goal in life is to just be happy, fulfilled, and surrounded by my friends. How I get there? Doesn't matter. As long as I stay true to my personal core values and it makes me happy, I am down for whatever. This absolutely gives me an advantage over someone who, say, only wants to be a professional animator or someone who wants to sell their knitted goods in shops and online.

So once you identify what you want to do, you gotta get ready for the next step: research. Ask yourself a million questions, find an answer, talk to other artists on or off the internet, find an answer.

For example: let's say you want to be a tattoo artist, but everyone in your area thinks tattoos are of the devil. Well, some questions to ask yourself would be:

How do I become a tattoo artist? What does that entail?

Are people the next town over more alright with tattoos? What about the nearest city?

Are these locations too far to travel to?

Would I have to move to make this dream a reality? Or could I start a tattoo community here?

How will I make the money in the meantime while working towards this?

And so on and so forth. In fact, imagine under every single one of these questions, there are sub questions that expand upon your answer, ask you if that answer is achievable, and ask you if that would make you happy. Like I'm taking dig deep, man. Get into the nitty and gritty of what you want to do and how you're gonna get there. Because, at the very least, this will give you some basic goals to work towards and ideas of what you are and aren't able to do. Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone! If you spend your whole life in your comfort zone, you're never gonna learn anything.

However, I think the biggest obstacle that gets in a LOT of artists way that I pretty much spotted immediately when I read this ask: having low self-confidence and being pessimistic is absolutely getting in your way.

I've been working on my self-confidence for the last 10 months, give or take, and to say that there is a difference is an UNDERSTATEMENT. I had extremely low confidence, possibly because of a lifetime of bullying, mistreatment, depression, and a childhood of undiagnosed autism... but in all honesty the reasons don't really matter. I made self depreciating jokes ALL the time (the really harsh kind that made people uncomfortable rather than laughing with me) I constantly held myself back from doing things because I didn't believe I could do it, I hid myself all the time (metaphorically because I rarely showed others the things I was passionate in and kept myself very private out of fear of judgement... and literally too. I never fucking left the house.)

I basically was my own worst enemy, and what got me out of it was working with my friend. One day, I made a self depreciating joke or something along those lines, and she just looked at me and said "You know, it makes me very said to hear you talk about yourself like that."

She then went on to explain how I was a kind and wonderful person and it made her sad to hear me say things like that because it wasn't true and it was only preventing me from seeing what she saw. I ended up crying because it was so kind, and I never even thought about that. Around that time as well, I had made a joke around my Dad, and he said, "You know, I wish you didn't talk about yourself that way."

Over the upcoming months, I started working on my self-confidence. My friend helped a LOT whenever I went to her place to help out with her art business. She helped me gain confidence in asking questions, because before I would just avoid asking out of fear. She never yelled at me or got upset at asking questions, and would compliment me or thank me for asking a good one. It helped me learn that if someone yells at me for asking a question, they're the jerk! They're the problem, not me!

I slowly switched my language from "I think I can..." to "I can", "I'll try my best", and similar language. I went from being afraid to trying new things because I was afraid of failure to feeling completely fine with trying new things because a majority of those new things are completely low risk! If it doesn't work out, it just doesn't work out! I didn't lose anything but a little bit of time! A year ago, if something didn't work out, you might as well thought I shot your puppy or something with the way I would cry and apologize. I got better at not apologizing all the damn time, because there's no point in apologizing for things that aren't your fault!

I went to a pretty awful show with my friend where pretty much everything went wrong, and during the show it ended up POURING. We had an absolute downpour of rain. It ended up destroying a ton of stock and packaging for transportation. I had to stop myself from apologizing so much, why? Because I don't control the rain! It's not my fault that we got rained on and things got destroyed! Apologizing is not the right thing to do in this situation because there's nothing to apologize for. I ended up being a huge help in putting things away, and when I later told my friend that I had to stop myself from apologizing, she said the same thing: "it's not your fault it rained."

I can safely say that since working on my self-confidence, my mental health has been at an all-time high. My medication is more effective than ever, I am no longer struggling with depression unless off my medication, my anxiety is pretty much gone unless off medication (I need to make it abundantly clear that I have chronic depression and anxiety and I need medication to be able to function and I know that my mental health struggles are nowhere near as bad on medication, because I am currently off my meds due to doctor problems)

I have been more willing to get out of my comfort zone, learn, try new things, and work towards actual tangible goals. Because I took the time to work on my EXTREMELY LOW (I can not emphasize enough how bad it was), self-confidence, with the help of those who care about me.

Your anon message absolutely tells me you do not have very high confidence in yourself. The way you talk about "no one wanting your art" (I don't know how you know that for certain), and how you wish you had my optimism because you see no options for yourself remind me SO MUCH of how I used to be. So my biggest message really comes down to this:

If you want ANY success in life, you're going to have to allow yourself to have it.

Having low self-confidence and being pessimistic is honestly just... denying yourself the happiness you deserve. You're going to have to work on that because you deserve that happiness.

[askthe4thwallbreakers]

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