#and book 3 is FANTASTIC

[aniseandspearmint]

its kind of serendipitous that after my brain ordering a halt on 90% new media the past 3-ish years, it FINALLY lets up and i'm allowed to start in on the stack of books i bought two ENTIRE years ago. i looked up the series and the next book is out this august.

i finished book 3 in two days, now i'm on book 4. Pretty sure I can do it and 6 plus the short story anthology in plenty of time to grab that when it comes out.

book 4 is a little harder to engage with bc it's a departure from the rest of the series so far, and the two protagonists are 9, if very VERY smart 9 yer olds.

[batvilletv]

Absolute Batman

[only-lonely-www]

So basically ATLA brain rot has hit me like a truck

[starleska]

embarrassingly, this is not the first time i have fixated on an Ice Guy™. they're just the...coolest...type of guy!! 🥁❄️

[charnauk]

From Spider-Man: Quantum Quest! (A Mighty Marvel Team-Up # 2) by Mike Maihack

[splankie]

*puts them in a petri dish*

[e-adlirez]

The art style of Cloud Castle is absolute ass bro why are their eyes so big

Idk man it just looks.... off

I wish they brought back the og art style like Blue Scarab Hunt because that was gorgeous

Well if you’re referring to the book's artstyle as a whole, then calm down buddy the illustrations as a whole are pretty good all things considered (believe me some of the illustrations in the later books are waaaaayyyyy iffier)

But if you are referring to Danilo Barozzi’s illustrations in the book then uhhhhh… yeah I don’t blame you, I didn’t like the big anime irises either, she didn’t cook with this one,,,

The interesting thing is Barozzi also did pieces for Secret of the Snow and those looked fine (she did well enough that I have to squint to determine which ones were done by her). My guess is either she did a lot of the illustrations for the latter half of SotS and we just got used to it, or it’s because the artstyle of special editions 2 and 3 were more… experimental? Books 4 onwards developed a very specific… look for the artstyle that adhered very closely to the main book illustrations of Spanish Dance Mission onwards, thus the illustrators had to follow suit, resulting in whatever looks off to look especially off.

(Even with this set of pictures, I’m only about 70% sure these are Barozzi’s because of how alike yet different the styles are from each other in the book. The first one could be Barozzi’s, but it could also be Giuseppe Facciotto’s, since he also did illustrations for SotS and his stylization means he sometimes puts the eyes really close to each other in a way that’s weird but still makes sense somehow.) On the contrary, books 2 and 3 (and I would probably even include book 1 there) had a more experimental look to the illustrations, which seems to be based more on (and this is just a theory of mine) Giuseppe Facciotto’s iconic work for the covers of Mouseford Academy books 2-12, 14, 15 and 17 in the English books (he did waaayyy more covers for the Italian Mouseford books— he was basically the cover guy for the Mouseford books for a WHILE) as well as the books from Spanish Dance Mission to Lost Letters. If you’re wondering why those covers go as hard as they do, then now you know why.

(These aren’t all of Facciotto’s works for the covers we know in English but you can see that he popped off <3)

But yeah as you can see with special editions 2 and 3, the art direction seems to be heavily inspired by Facciotto’s artstyle.

However, when Barbara Pellizzari’s works became the aesthetic poster child of the books’ brand, that was reflected in the illustrations and how their aesthetic changed, as seen in the main books and how they look currently, special editions 4-9, and the Treasure Seekers trilogy.

This new profile thing of the girls? This was done by Pellizzari (coloring was done by Flavio Ferron), and thus it became the main reference for how the girls look in the book’s illustrations.

And it’s not just in the general direction to the artists for how to draw the Thea Sisters, but also in the direction given to the colorists. Alessandro Muscillo was the colorist for the special edition books since book 1 and the Treasure Seekers trilogy, and you can see that the direction for the style varied through books 1-3, like maybe direction was experimenting with the mood the illustrations were to convey, beginning with the cartoony and bright colors of book 1, easing into the more grounded and layered palettes of books 2 and 3

Then book 4 was when they transitioned to using digital art /j

I jest, but seriously book 4 was the debut of the coloring style we end up keeping for the rest of the special editions and for all of Treasure Seekers, which is very… bright :D

(I would show more picture examples but I manually took pictures of my physical copies for the Cloud Castle and SotS illustrations and gwuh I’m too lazy to grab my entire collection just to take pictures,,)

Bright as in like… the colors are very defined and saturated. I dunno how to describe it, but when you see it, you get what I mean. It’s very bright and pretty and colorful and it stands out. There are still variations that happen on occasion (Star Fairies in particular uses a good dose of airbrush for the lighting and shadow effects, and Crystal Fairies looks like someone had a bit of fun using sparkle brushes), but other than that, it’s very bright. I don’t hate it, but I do acknowledge that yeah, if I was introduced to the series when it had fully transitioned to the new style, I never would’ve gotten into the series in the first place, because the older books had something that didn’t make it feel specifically catered to girls. The colors were bright, but not too bright. Colorful, but unified. They weren’t that complicated, and they didn’t have to be because the colorists (plural, there were at least 3 per book once upon a time) were popping the hell off with the colors they were given. But y’know, the newer books’ consistent style did give me a good spot to practice drawing mouse furries so I’m not complaining too much about the newer style, haha.

(Tiny baby E’s (it’s literally from 2020 what’re you on about mate) her first mouse Violet drawing using Barbara Pellizzari’s artstyle in Treasure Seekers 1 as an anatomy guide!!)

With that said tho, yeah I miss the old books -m- dunno if it’d fit the aesthetic of the special editions but m a n we could’ve had it and it probably would’ve looked cool

Also the illustrations go way harder in the older books, like Prince's Emerald? I've talked about Prince's Emerald and how it goes hard before, and I still stand by it and say that it does in fact still go hard

Maybe it won't fit the uh splash of color they gave the hardcovers, but imagine they grabbed Giulia Basile's coloring work for the graphic novels and used that as sort've a basis for the coloring style of the hardcovers. Not exactly the same-- would probably still add a touch of whimsical watercolor and/or paint to the very cel-shaded style, but we could've had something pretty dope -m-

Anyway that's my ramble simultaneously defending the hardcovers' artstyle and reminiscing on what could've been haha

[smbhax]

From "Chapter 3 Let the World Beware!" in Fantastic Four #4, May 1962. Stan Lee script, Jack Kirby pencils, Sol Brodsky inks, Stan Goldberg original colors, Artie Simek letters. Photoshop color reduction.

[cowgomoo1123]

A lil post about my interests!!

bc why not, also great chance to make new friends :]

My favorite shows!!!

Anime i like!!!

My favorite movies!!!

My favorite games!!!!

heavy on nitw, ultrakill and tf2 :3

My favorite music artists!!!

represented by my favorite album of theirs :3 (Cavetown - Lemon Boy, Fredo Disco - very cool music for very cool people, Tyler, The Creator - Goblin, Set It Off - Duality)

My favorite book series!!!

Lastly, here's a few artists on here i think are sooooo cool!!!

love these blogs 🙏

[sisterofthesouth]

next time i go in for a tattoo i’m getting the mark of the resistance tatted also

[heir-of-the-chair]

Lowkey hyperfixating now and I’ve come to the devastating conclusion that Jacob the main character of Water For Elephants… doesn’t really have a character arc

[makeminemarvelcomix]

Bought a custom head of the high evolutionary. Used a eternals body as its as close as it can get. I Mixed burnt amber and real brown to match the skin tone of the eternal figure painted the First coat. Second coat I sprayed primer in the paint. Then Paint it over it.

[batvilletv]

DC is officially releasing new cover art and logos for their upcoming Absolute Universe! The new images and solicits include the main covers and exclusive variants for their core trinity. Among the images, DC shares further information about the creative teams for Absolute Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman and a sneak peak at the “All In” branding. In addition, this elaborates on the original San Diego Comic-Con announcement and updates fans with several Fall release dates. While the how and why of the Absolute Universe is largely unknown, we have become aware of Darkseid’s overarching influence. As a result, some of DC’s heroes are heading in new unexpectedly dark directions. Via: Batman News Website

[300iqprower]

39 clues is a fantastic series because it's a YA globetrotting thriller with plotpoints like "the C plot villain is is already taken care of because he said bomb in an airport and got dogpiled by security"

[ellieloves2draw]

went and saw the last voyage of the demeter last night! this is not the dracula from that film, but boy howdy am i in a dracula mood now

this guy is loosely inspired by @dross-the-fish’s absolutely fantastic dracula design :]

(ID: a pencil sketch of count dracula from the novel dracula. he is an older man with short, somewhat spiky swept-back hair, pointed ears, thick eyebrows, and a beard. he is backlit and smiling cruelly, showing off his fangs. his irises are slightly glowing. end ID.)

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

NOT TO BE DRAMATIC BUT FIRST 1K OF SUNLESS GROUND WRITTEN!!! a little bit:

She and Darren have been at the cabin for eight months. It belongs to a college friend of his—an arcing property flanked by evergreens and nothing more. She could lie to herself. Say she’s gotten used to waking every morning at yolky dawn in the bedroom she occupies alone. She’s gotten used to the scalding silence at midnight and gotten used to lighting the candlestick on the nightstand even in the middle of the day. The same instant peach oatmeal Darren keeps buying every time he treks out to the city because she said she liked it once. She can’t bring herself to tell him she can’t handle the flavour anymore, the way she’s gotten used to it and the way she’s gotten used to her hair getting longer, nearly touching her shoulders, the way she’s gotten used to her waxen face in the bathroom's uncovered mirror. She could lie. But nothing changes the truth even when she stays up all night, rocking back and forth, hoping something will. She made it out—no more running, no more hiding. It’s a good thing, and yet the prospect is so lonely, so frightening, that she sometimes considers walking into the woods until she makes it out the other side a woman who did not survive alone.