#and then also fond memories of me reading comics in between classes lol

[oflgtfol]

cant listen to horizons by starset without also thinking of venom. U_____U

[crimsonandcloverwrites]

bhah ch3 reread u know the drill

what is Jamie doing with all this oil I am concerned

god the tension of knowing Jamie is there but not talking to her but Dani probably secretly hoping she will

aww is she picking up more wonder woman comics for mikey?? cute

gah I love that they slip back into playful banter so easily despite everything going on

also 10/10 that the gays in town would be trying on the tackiest sunglasses in the service station (and 12/10 that Jamie actually brought them)

Dani Carson car adventures!! i would read a whole 20k word chapter just on that

sdfkjdshjfhd Dani throwing herself to the ground when she sees Jamie in the supermarket I’m losing it

“Yeah and then she left” ouch

THREE GAYS IN A SUPERMARKET WHAT WILL HAPPEN

aww Jamie Carson reunion tooooo cute

oh my god the tension of them standing back to back trying not to touch lmao

Jamie rly is the teeniest in town huh

Dani getting all protective and mad over Mikey having to sit outside school is v sweet

Jamie to the rescue how cute

Jamie’s collarbone: hello. Dani’s gay panic: LOOK AWAY

also sdkjfhdkjhg Jamie working w her hands is so hot we need more fics just talking about her getting dirty. for the good of the nation

there is so much going on here the cute teasing Dani feeling all weird abt their whole dynamic jamie giving her looks the engagement ring I am not equipped to process all of it

“you think there are secrets in this town?” just ur burning love for each other ladies!

once again mechanic!jamie... i am compromised

aww Dani bby literally does not know what to do with herself. the juxtaposition of the depth of their relationship and the little moments of familiarity with the awkwardness of people who don’t really know each other properly anymore is so fucking well done here

Eddie’s “honey I’m home” moment carrying her over the threshold afkjhsdkjf good for him

Dani and this house got beef huh

Dani: sometimes things with Eddie just don’t feel right but I’m sure that’s fine. Dani when she loses a tiny piece of her relationship w Jamie: level 5 meltdown. Literally the theme of this fic is “honey you got a big storm comin” and I love it

this dig at pineapple on pizza........ offensive

“Instead, she reset her mask, pulled the rope to part the stage curtains, and tied the other end around her neck.” Jesus.

“the other part of Dani, the part that never knew how to stop missing Jamie” i will cryyyy

starting a gofundme for Dani’s car asap

Eddie putting the moves on I can’t look. but lmao when he finds a girl that’s actually into him and wants this kind of attention his whole world is gonne be rocked

can we get Dani some therapy pls this is not how u should feel abt the person ur gonna marry. or about yourself

*gasp* the wontons mixtape

hmmmm I’m Not in Love and A Case Of You really are a one-two punch huh

lol I just went to play them and I was apparently in the middle of listening to Stop Making This Hurt by The Bleachers which feels... apt

fuck. making a mixtape for someone truly is peak romance huh? music my beloved

hmmm i just realised that this timeline parallels the flashback chapters w a new Taylor in school in each how cool. and also Nan vs Jamie taking on responsibilities w these kids and stepping up for them in their own way pls my emotions

aahh the coffee date I kinda forgot how fast Dani made this relationship rekindle bless her

wait clara and horace does that mean abigail is in Dani’s class too??? she lives??

a reserved sign pls that’s so cute

OWEN! god I love the levity and banter w Jamie he brings to fics

there is just so much fondness between them it always shines through no matter what they’re talking about I love it

this backpacking chat... envisioning Dani n Jamie once Mikey is grown up going on a big tour of europe together n fufilling Dani’s dreams

the fact that Jamie was drawn back to this place... by what hmmmm ms taylor. by what

oof this really is a painful rehashing of the past huh.

“star hike” lmao

"I can fix it." "You can't." OUCH

ooft just rip the bandaid right off. “I missed you. Everyday.” god my heart

arguing in an alley behind the pharmacy that’s gay rights

"Because if it was going to end, then I wanted it over quickly!” jamie ‘everyone always leaves so I cut them off before they can hurt me‘ taylor everyone. I am not doing well

ok with the context of like... everything from the future chapters this scene hits even harder than the first time i read it jesus

still can’t get over Dani ‘trying not to recall the memories of the last time they were in this room together’ was Jamie absolutely falling to pieces in her arms *screams forever* i remember reading that line and imagning so many things it could have been and yet yall went for the ultimate stab to the heart bravo

god I’m just thinking about how much they’ve both changed in those 10 years and how much they’ve stayed the same and just. god the way they’re so drawn to each other still!!!! i can’t even comprehend

blue schrunchie cherished friend

i feel like there is a significance to the red door I cant place and all my brain will provide is “you, me, her” but polyamory adventures is probably not the direction this is going

Jamie like “want a tour of ur future home babe? lets go” (I do love how enchanted Dani is by all of it though)

gah I love Jamie and Mikey together soooo much

find u a person that eats all the foods u don’t like. pickle soulmates

heh “Miss Dani” poor Mikey is goin through it lolol

they are all so cute together i love this lil sunday afternoon family

“Dani kept her gaze fixed on Jamie for just a second longer, studying her profile” gay

there has been several mentions of Jamie’s unreadable/blank expressions this chapter and I can’t stop laughing at her losing her mind over how much she loves Dani and trying to keep it in check every time

THEY’RE FRIENDS AGAIN

AND THEY’RE HUGGING OH HAPPY DAYS

oooh the sandalwood cologne

idk why this Jamie Eddie handshake is making me laugh so much but I love them

Eddie pulling Dani in closer to himself when Jamie’s there..... he knows 

staying awake until 2am to finish rereading gay fanfiction... clownery (but fun!) goodnight

[starglasszodiac]

SGZ Anniversary - Cassie and the Comic

The big one, the origin story!!!! And honestly one of my favourite memories to look back on. :’D I’ll be talking about both the idea itself and the evolution of Cassie’s character in what is a BEHEMOTH of a text post, so here we go!

While July 19th, 2015 is the official origin day of SGZ, it started a bit prior to that. I have this story already somewhat explained on the blog’s FAQ page, but I might as well reiterate it here:

SGZ started as an idea in the summer of 2015 after my buddy Laura showed me two webcomics: Paranatural by Zack Morrison, and Vibe by Dan Ciurczak (two comics I highly recommend, please go read them!). I loved how vibrant and beautiful their artwork was despite how different their stories were, and how wonderful the writing and humour was. My two biggest creative passions have always been visual art and writing, but ironically this was what really flicked the switch in my head to actually try comics, the literal combination of the two. Why I didn’t start sooner will forever be a mystery to me, but I suppose a lack of exposure to comics as a kid had something to do with it. Better late than never, right?

The specific launch day of July 19th is an homage to not only the creation of the idea but of the main protagonist, Cassie. After thinking “hey, I could do this!” I started wondering what I should make a comic about. While working at my retail job (on the slowest day in existence), I began to make a list of things that I liked or wanted to write a story about, and stars / astrology was one of them. I had always loved that aspect of mythology, and my affection for stars is a mystery to no one.

I worked at what was effectively a Blockbuster clone in my hometown (RIP Cherry Hill Video) and we had scrap pieces of paper that we made from old movie facings, so the first ever notes and doodles for this series exist on these scraps. I’ve still got quite a few of them, but they got a bit scattered when I moved for college. I’m hoping the rest are at my house somewhere.

I got the idea of a girl with a star in her eye, and called it the Starglass. And, well, the idea went from there! I started researching all of the zodiac signs and symbols, and drew the first (digital) drawing of Cassie when I got back home that day. Which, looked like this:

Seeing this again is not only weird and oddly nostalgic but it’s a testament to where my artistic sensibilities were prior to going to animation school. The idea for SGZ happened mere months before I was thrown into that 3-year fray of insanity so the evolution is pretty odd in places, especially how my knowledge of shape language, anatomy, etc. evolved and how my style adapted to that. I had almost NEVER drawn humans prior to going to college, so a lot of the art for this series deals with my inability to do so at the start. ^^’ The awkward phase, if you will. And as such, it is the first story idea I had that primarily focused on humans.

Looking back on it, Cassie’s character in terms of personality was pretty different than what it is now, but from a visual standpoint there’s (surprisingly) a lot that stayed. The basic idea of her hair stayed, right down to the double ponytail and orange clasps. Her freckles, eye colour and general face shape too, even if that ended up modified after solidifying her character later.

Her main colour was always red, in fact after making the headshot I remember having NO IDEA what to do for the rest of her body, so it just ended up being RED. Then I added the blue for the contrast, but I still wasn’t happy with it at the time (a perhaps subconscious origin for her blue pants though, lol). I also find amusement in the fact that my current concept for her mother Nora has her wearing blue flats much like these.

Based on the notes I have and what I remember, Cassie was older at this point (like 15 or 16 probably) and seemed to be a lot more sarcastic (this is a norm for a lot of my characters, trust me). xD Some of the first character interactions I ever wrote largely involved Cassie being sassy to one of the signs, back when a few of them were being over dramatic (looking at you SCORPIO). I cackled reading those interactions again now that my characters have changed so much. They’re not well written at all but they still let me look back to that time with fondness. :’D

What is also interesting is the progression of her name, or the fact that she didn’t have one right at the start. My earliest notes have simply Starglass or SG whenever I wrote dialogue. I started trying to think of a name, and contrary to popular belief, settling on Cassie actually had nothing to do with Cassiopeia. Though I do really enjoy the irony of that. xD It started with Cass, which could be short for either Cassandra or Cassidy, and I ended up going with Cassidy. I then changed it to Cassie, as I find the -ie suffix makes it a lot cuter. I am biased though, my name ends with it too, aha. There is a note that spells it as Cassi and for the life of me I cannot determine if that was a typo or not, but when I write fast I miss letters sometimes. The nickname of “Star” was one the table for a while too, and now that Star VS exists it’s even funnier. I specifically recall my mother telling me that she was going to suggest Star on the Facebook post I had made for the art at the time, but thought maybe it was too obvious. She was right, though this idea lives on in the nicknames that the signs end up giving Cassie later on, my favourite being “Little Star”.

While development for the story and characters started right away, it got a much welcomed jumpstart at the beginning of my second year at animation school. We were given a character design project that would span the entire year, and would require a story concept to complete all of the assignments. We were told this fact in first year to give us time to prepare over the summer, and I had just pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment that day, but upon hearing this news I was not tired at all. Character design was already my favourite class, but this put it over the top. That beautiful feeling of inspiration that hits you is the BEST and in that moment nothing else mattered. Not even my fatigue, which I promptly dealt with the next day.

I used this as an opportunity to spend time developing the designs and story progression of all the characters, while getting marks for it at the same time! This is largely the reason I was able to launch the comic a few months after completing that year of school, as it ended up giving me full-sized references, colour schemes, and a much better idea of the story as a whole. Based on when my school years took place, I can actually track the progression of the characters pretty well through the artistic skill upgrade I was getting too.

The progression is pretty wild honestly, especially between 2015 and 2016:

(oh god these are so old help me) 

(these aren’t all of them either but I did my best jdhkfhsjkfhskjf)

From 2016 onwards I had the basic idea of her, so her colours stayed more or less the same once I actually added them. Cassie’s hair was one of the things that required a lot more iterations. I had her general idea down for a while, but when it came to making the character pack of her for my character design class, I remember having to sit down and actually figure out how her hair would work, structurally and otherwise, for that High Quality Refinement™ that was required of the project. Her older drawings had the part in her hair be in the middle, and that posed the problem of covering her eyes too much. If she was a more reserved character in any way this could have worked, but nah. I knew from the beginning she was going to be an outwardly eccentric child, one I wish I could have been when I was growing up.

Now for anyone that knows me as both a huge nerd and an artist, when it comes to fantasy stuff I LOVE armour. Absolutely love it. You see it everywhere in the things I make both inside and outside of SGZ, and I adore making themed costumes based on that (see my Feather Knights series for the most extreme example of this ever, ahahaha). So, it stands to reason that I would do the same for Cassie at some point, and I did! 

There was a particular focus on a helmet for a while too, whole plot points in fact! This helmet was, story wise, a long-standing plot point that proved difficult to change once the focus shifted. The initial idea was that the helmet belonged to Cassie’s science teacher (who is still a minor character in this as of now) and he gave it to her knowing its significance to the Starglass, thus establishing a sort of connection between Cassie’s normal life on Earth and the supernatural shenanigans that happen on the Astral Plane. The night she brings it home, she discovers that this little friend laid dormant inside:

This is Flicker. A character I’ve actually never revealed to anyone prior to now but hey, why not? The idea of Cassie having a spirit companion certainly didn’t come out of left field for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure how this character would appear, or what dynamic they would have with Cassie. I didn’t have pets bigger than a hamster growing up, so the idea of Cassie having a potential dog or cat companion would be new territory based on my own experiences. 

Flicker, as they are right now, acts as a sort of sensor for spirits that are roaming loose on Earth, and alerts Cassie to them... even if she’s not always up for a spirit hunt. They do have a backstory associated with how they appear and what their purpose is in the overall context of the world, but that isn’t revealed until much later in the story. For now Flicker is a cute little friend that cannot say much, but is devoted to protecting things, especially the Starglass. Luckily they still made the cut when it came to the helmet idea, and you should be meeting them officially pretty soon in the comic! :D

While the initial problem was getting any sort of cohesive look to the helmet or any other armour in terms of concept, I found as the story developed along with Cassie’s design, both her hair and her star sweater ended up being her two most “iconic” qualities aside from her eye, and using armour would have covered that up. 

On top of that, Cassie didn’t really end up being the type of character that would use armour, as one might expect from a character that has to fight and defend things a lot. She’s one to do things a little differently, and both her and the signs discover that, well, different works! It wasn’t a matter of her physical strength for the majority of the problems she faces, but rather strength of heart, and that’s a very personal note for me to touch on with this character. As such, nothing about an armour concept ever came out of the sketch phase:

It still makes for really interesting ideas though, so I’m sure I can work these into something else I’m working on. :’D Knowing myself, I’ll find a way. (The wings are VERY Cardcaptors though lol)

What did stay, however, were her swords:

She had at least one sword at the very beginning of this concept, but it eventually evolved into two. I find it interesting that sun, moon and star symbols were always present, regardless of what iteration these swords went through. Their official names are the Sun Star and Moon Star Swords respectively. Aside from the few doodles here and there for the zodiac weapons, this was the first appearance of any kind of fantasy weapon in SGZ. I can confirm that Cassie and the signs were going to have weapons from the get-go though, this IS something I made after all. xD

I think I also need to mention the main influences for this series, as the love for those things is very evident in my work, from the visuals to the storytelling and everything in between. Aside from my general interest in fantasy topics such as mythology and astrology, here’s a list including (but not limited to) the series that inspired the making of SGZ:

Kirby, Steven Universe, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra, Cardcaptor Sakura / Cardcaptors, Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and pretty much any other show I’ve watched about surviving school while going on crazy adventures. That stuff may be cliche now but I’ll be damned if I don’t love it still.

I grew up with some of these and the rest are new, but they’re all near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I’m happy that I can put that love into something I’ve made, and share that story with the world. 

I know I’ve got a lot more ranting about this story to do in general and the comic is still going, but I want to say some special thanks to some of SGZ’s biggest supporters: 

Laura, Eleanor, and my classmates and teachers at Seneca College. This comic wouldn’t exist without you. <3

I’ll be honest, working on this series got me through some of the toughest years of my life so far, and this was one of the first times where something I made actually came to fruition in some way, and had a genuine development period that I can look back on. I’ve grown a lot as both a person and an artist since then, and doing this look back in time really solidified that for me. I have a cast of characters that I love, and now I get to tell their story. So if you’ve stayed till the end in this gigantic post, thank you. I don’t know where this story will lead me, but with any luck it’ll be somewhere in the stars. Thanks for reading, friends. <3

[enderoftheend]

5 Things Thing

Tagged by the one and only @five-foot-a-b1tch​! (I’m stealing your number symbols, they look fancy.)

5 things I keep in my bag ① Laptop: Windows 10 Acer laptop in prime breaking down condition! This thing is a few years old. I hope it lasts until I get a new one, lol. I’m a bit attached to it, though... I have fond memories of me playing games in class when I’m supposed to be working. (I’m a high school student, okay? It’s what we all do.) ② 3DS XL: Okay, not ALL the time, but... I do bring it a lot. I take my Pokemon very seriously. All I need to do to have caught ‘em all is to finish the Alolan Dex and then gotten a Diancie. One day, I’ll be a real Pokemon master... ③  Sketchbook: I try not to think about the fact that it has my sister’s ex boyfriend’s name on it. I’m pretty sure it was his when he was in year 9 art, but... he left it here, so yoink. ④ Books: Lots of books. My bag is heavy... ⑤ Laptop charger: The battery on my laptop is warped, so the charger is like a lifeline for it. Well, it has crappy battery life, basically.

5 things I keep in my room ① Birb statues: My dad bought them for me. One of them is a macaw that’s drilled into my wall. The other is a bald eagle that’s sat on my shelf... my bird sits on the eagle, sometimes. He has no fear. ② Plush animals: Most of them are different types of birds... I have an elephant, cheetah and Fennekin one as well though. I also have a really old robotic cat toy, which has been out of battery since forever. It’s furry, though... and again, my bird likes to sit on it. I’m still a kid, so I have a bald eagle plush that I still sleep with. I love bald eagles, y’know? They’re my favourite animal. ③ Assassin’s Creed Special Edition boxes: More specifically, the Notre Dame edition of Unity and the Buccaneer edition of Black Flag. I used to be obsessed with Assassin’s Creed, but now my love for it is more nostalgia for how much I used to enjoy it. I still stand by my opinion that Connor’s the best character, though. ④ Merchandise: Of the Attack on Titan and Undertale variety. I have a Survey Corps uniform, and though... poorly made, I still very much so enjoy it, because I’m a freakin’ nerd. The Undertale merch I got a few days ago from Fangamer. It came with two shirts, one of which is too big for me, but that’s not gonna stop me from wearing it. ⑤ Feather box: I collect feathers. Most of the feathers I have in there are from my bird, since he’s... usually the bird at closest proximity to me in most hours of the day.

5 things I’ve always wanted to do with my life (oh god) ① Concept Art: Getting the obvious stuff out of the way. I enjoy digital painting moreso than doing lined art. It’s just fun to work with colours and lighting and shapes more freely. ② Animate: Probably not gonna happen... especially compared to my art skills, my animation skills are subpar (I know because I tried, I have a YouTube channel with crappy WMM animations in it), and I’m not patient enough to spend days upon days animating a 5-minute video. I have immense respect for animators. Not to mention, every good animation program costs like $500??? What the hell???? ③ YouTube personality: Again, probably never gonna happen, but I want to feel important to a wide range of people. ④ Make a game: It’s not just Undertale that makes me like Toby... Everything he says and does inspires me in some way. He’s my biggest role model at the moment, and I’ve had an idea for an original story for quite a bit. What made me sure that I wanted to do this eventually was a quote he had on his (inactive) Tumblr, when Undertale had its first Birthday. ⑤ Cosplay: Yes. 5 things I’m into  ① Attack on Titan: AoT AoT AoT AoT AoT (it’s always been my most favourite thing ever. I have a place in my heart specially dedicated to it.) ② Undertale: Coming second only to Attack on Titan. I love this game so, so much. I joined the fandom a little late but was immediately charmed by the game the moment I met Flowey. It didn’t take me long to start obsessing over it... by the time I stepped out of the Ruins, I already lost myself to this world. Look at me now. Haha. Ha. ③ osu!: osu! is an Australian-made rhythm game where you click the circles... to the beat. (No, it’s not Japanese, like I initially thought it was. It was actually made by some guy in Perth.) I’ve only been playing for about 9 months and I’m ranked 46k globally out of over 9 million players. Something about seeing you grow out your skill in such a short amount of time is so rewarding. It’s great for improving stamina in my arms (which I’ve always had trouble with, thanks to a certain disability that I was born with) and perhaps the greatest thing about this game is the culture surrounding it. There’s kind of a poetic balance between beauty and elegance, intenseness and frustration, and just... utter weirdness. I love it. ④ Touhou Project: I only recently got into it, but boy, did I get sucked into it. It’s just so damn difficult that it’s impossible not to play it over and over. And, I’ve watched Memories of Phantasm, the fanmade anime... the only good thing about it is the animation quality. And that’s not just me complaining like a hipster... it actually sucks so badly it’s funny. My favourite character is Cirno, in case anyone’s curious. ⑤ Warriors: The one and only book series that I actively follow. The writing’s horrendous in some books, but I love the ideas in it anyway. Plus, Jayfeather is to live for. My favourite book would be either Bluestar’s Prophecy, which was the first book I’ve ever read, Tallstar’s Revenge, which made me shed a manly tear at the end, or Path of Stars, which ACTUALLY made me cry, because that death scene was so emotional. I loved Gray Wing, man...

5 things on my to-do list ① Improve my art: ok. ② Get on top of my schedule: I swear I love my comics... ③ Catch ‘em all: You don’t get it... I take my Pokemon VERY seriously. ④ Actually beat Touhou 6: IT’S. HARD. ⑤ Become a 4-digit player on osu!: Because the community gives 5-digit players like me enough smack for being mediocre... 5 things you may not know about me ① Well, I guess you know NOW, but I was born with a disability. Low muscle tone, AKA Hypotonia. It’s not actually that bad, I think... it does get in the way, but it’s liveable with. ② My earliest memories involved me being a selective mute. This was when I was 4 years old. I only felt comfortable talking at home, and even then I didn’t do it much. I also had OCD, apparently, which I think I can remember a little bit of at the back of my mind. Not too sure, though. ③ I like flowers. For symbolism, partly. But picking flowers has a sort of childish innocence that appeals to me, as well. I don’t think I have a favourite flower. ④ I interacted with Markiplier before I knew who he was... Everyone else on the server at the time knew, though. I was one of the few people on who was very confused. My exact thoughts were, “Who the Hell is this loser?” I was like... 12 or 13, maybe? It was back when he still played Minecraft. And I’m preetty damn sure it wasn’t a fake, seeming as I recall him typing in the chat with words that correlated exactly to what he recorded on his first episode of Drunk Minecraft. I didn’t say anything until after he finished recording and hung out for a bit because I practically just got on the server. ⑤ I’m half Italian. Have you ever been to an Italian Christmas family reunion at midnight? Because I have. It’s loud.