#comic artists are at a whole other level

[reimenaashelyee]

Campaign to make The God of Arepo an award winning work and win a literal brick as a trophy for the authors and for Tumblr community as a whole (SUCCEEDED!!!! Update below)

As the artist for one of The God of Arepo comics, my version is up for consideration for the Ignatz Awards for Outstanding Online Comic.

For those of you who don't know the Ignatz is one of the highest industry awards that "recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers".

The thing is, winning the award means winning an actual literal brick. Because the mascot is a brick-throwing mouse. So they have to make a bit where the trophy is a brick. Like. Look.

For a long time I thought it was just plain bricks they were handing out, but my friend who won a couple of bricks two years ago had theirs stamped (I saw the bricks in person at their house). So now I am obsessed with the idea of The God of Arepo winning an Ignatz trophy. It will have the honours stamped. On a freaking brick. That's the most Tumblr level meme trophy this comic/story could win (which is also a legit high honour industry award on its own btw don't get me wrong). But wilder than that, the brick allows me to do something. It allows me to smash that break into 5 pieces and ship one of each to the authors plus myself. Writing Prompts, sadoeuphemist, ciiriianan, stu-pot and me will get a piece of clay in recognition for our work with the farmer who built a temple out of stone. The full circle moment.

Imagine the value of this win to the lore of this Tumblr sacred text/folklore. This brick will be smashed and given to the creators, but as a collective folklore, it's also dedicated to all of us on this hellsite too. AWARD WINNING. If The God of Arepo wins I will document the entire process of smashing that brick here.

But we have to make this happen. We need to gather our collective energy and make this campaign work. Please help make The God of Arepo an award-winning story and vote for it in the Outstanding Online Comic category (link). You will need to request a ballot, then submit your vote. I recommend checking out the other nominated comics too. The Ignatz really shortlists good stuff. The voting closes September 8 2023 . LET'S GET THE GOD OF AREPO A BRICK FOR HIS TEMPLE!! LET'S GO!!!! REBLOGS HELP TOO!!

[buttastic]

god I told myself I wouldn't do political discourse on tumblr anymore but I swear to god if I see one more "artists are only against generative ai because it threatens their petit bourgeois profit margins" take I'm going to lose it

there are artists who are petit bourgeois. these are your mid-level gallery artists who run studios staffed by assistants and apprentices, as well as like showrunners and creative directors and the like who are at least partially in charge of a system that employs workers. there are also outright wealthy artists who are what it says on the tin. mosts artists do not fall into either of those categories however and tend to either be hobbyists (whose class is not defined by their artistic output) or workers themselves

in calling anyone in the art world "petit bourgeois" we are acknowledging that the creation of art is labor, and that that labor can be exploited. anybody who knows anything about any creative field can see why this would be the case

copyright is kind a double-edged sword in a lot of ways, in the united states it mostly functions as a means for large corporations to hold onto power. this is true. while it can sometimes be used to help avoid the exploitation of smaller creators, that's not usually how it works.

THAT SAID, copyright is a tool used by large corporations to hold onto the labor they have extracted from artist-workers, who obviously and completely do not own the means of production. this is why people say pirating from major corporations is always morally correct, that labor was already stolen

but so like you see where we're getting at here? that we're reaching a consensus that art is labor and artists can be exploited as workers?

I'm not going to get into the individual ethics of piracy since it's a big topic with a lot of nuance, I'm just going to point out that nearly all of my comics are already available for free. so with all this in mind:

how the fuck are you gonna use the framework of marxism to say it's perfectly fine to reconstitute the labor of others to your own ends without compensating them???

like I've been banging this drum the whole time generative ai is first and foremost a fuckin labor issue. all your bullshit phone games and product designs dumb commercial jingles were created by real people putting food on their tables. to treat it as unworthy of consideration is to concede that the need for these commodities outstrips the rights of the people that make them. like. oh my god???

[geospiral]

I've seen before people say that one of the main reasons Mizisua often gets mischaracterized as being the only “healthy” couple in the series is because people take Ivan’s, a character who tends to have a very unreliable perspective, admiration and jealousy of their relationship at face value, and while I do agree with this on some level, I think it's more people misunderstanding why Ivan feels that way about them and especially Sua.

To put it bluntly, Ivan feels that way because Sua had with Mizi what he couldn’t have with Till. Yes, in part because he wants the same closeness that the girls had with each other, but also, most crucially, because Sua was able to have that kind of relationship while hiding the more “twisted” parts of herself. The Confession comic and the untitled comic where Ivan antagonizes Sua about her choice to sacrifice herself are both the best sources of showing this and also what I think people are referring to when they talk about Ivan’s venerative perspective on Mizisua. 

Starting with that untitled comic, while I think that Ivan always intended to die instead of Till, I don’t think he necessarily believed that he would have to “sacrifice” himself in order to do that, so while he is a hypocrite, I don’t think he was when confronting Sua here (I’ll talk about this more with the Confession comic). He’s not relieved here because Sua’s going in with the same selfish plan that he has for Alien Stage; what he’s relieved about is finding that her relationship with Mizi isn’t infallible, that despite what good intentions Sua may have, she is still capable and willing to hurt Mizi in part due to a selfish desire (she doesn’t want Mizi to die but also doesn’t want to live with the burden of being in a world without her).

He relates this selfishness to how he is with Till because while Ivan may not want to actually hurt him, he does so because he thinks that's the only way to get Till’s attention, to be close to him (ex: fighting as children and stealing his things), but also it seems that he ends up hurting him even when he has no intention to do so, like with the Cheer Up comic.

(translations by sorrowcure)

Now talking about the Confession comic, Ivan says again that Sua is “twisted” when listing their similarities with the “When I found out that wasn’t true…” line referring to their differing situations regarding the person they adore.

He sees that she can be selfish like him (the sacrifice, Sua hiding the truth about the world from Mizi) but that she never hurts Mizi directly while the two were still alive and that they were always happy.

Going back to what I said about Ivan not planning on sacrificing himself, I think he believed that it wouldn’t be necessary and that Till would be the obvious winner of their round whether he pulled the same move he did with Acorn or if they performed in a straightforward manner like Ivan previously did in the third round. It doesn’t seem that Ivan accounted for how bad Mizi’s disappearance would affect Till and that he might try to throw the round himself (stopped singing), but besides that, Ivan’s logic doesn’t seem that baseless given that Till has basically always been more popular than him and is viewed as being an artistic genius.

The panels where he realizes that he was being hypocritical towards Sua in that untitled comic is what solidify this idea in my mind.

(translation by WhataFruit)

Basically, I don’t think those two comics and that Ivan in general necessarily glorifies Mizisua as a whole but as what he wasn’t able to achieve and desperately craves.

[br4in-r0tten]

okay so I was sick and dying for the past few days but now that I'm feeling better drawing doesn't feel like a chore anymore woohoo

I have 2 more arts almost ready (art trade and meet the artist) as well so stay tuned for that!

as for the comic- (ramble about my SPTO sona below)

I tried to think more about Nate and at first I wanted em to be Scott's classmate cuz I love their gang as well buuuut I think it'd be weird to fall for someone who punched your friend to death lmao (maybe gonna do like an alternate timeline where they're in a relationship with Scollace and not PatelGraves and go along with my original idea)

So in this AU Nate is Roxie's classmate! I love her as well. They have a queerplatonic relationship and are really close, so Roxie told him about the league in passing conversation, Nate was curious and had nothing to do so he convinced her to visit Rockit when Matthew Patel was gonna fight Scott. Roxie briefly told him about Mattie and Nate got interested bc- theater kid? pirate?? emo???

He doesn't have many friends aside Roxie and he wanted to come out of his shell so this was a perfect occasion to do so. Surface level he's pretty confident and (maybe??) charming but his anxiety still lingers, especially when he's around people he puts on the pedestal (don't do that chat it's a major character flaw) and a pirate emo theater kid sounds like the perfect candidate for that.

The pages start right after he defeated Scott (the scene where he's yelling "WHAT'S GOING ON??") but I also planned to do one page before that where you'd see Nate and Roxie's conversation. Buuuut those 2 already took enough time so imagine it's an awesome cool page by just looking at the dialogue aight??

They'd sit somewhere in the corner to see the whole thing, after it was over and everyone went their way, Roxie would push Nate towards Mattie where the finished page starts

(Nate is red, Roxie is violet)

Also Nate/Matthew ain't really infatuated with the other one yet, they're just very excited for someone to talk to (they're both losers at this point)

[starchytart]

pinch me or wake me up, from this cursed daydream

Drawing this mainly because i saw a comic on twitter (i completely forgot what its from im so sorry) where the artist is drawing sketchy head instead of gore to depict someone getting shot point blank. Immediately remind me of Rosamund's prince face not-yet-decided when they try to look for him in timothy's books. (as in, at the core a picture is not made by flesh and bone, i think that works really well considering how neverafter works)

But other than that he has been in my to-draw list since forever. BIG fan with how things resolved in ep 17. I think its so cool that the fairies thought they have chance to taking back control of her narrative with that offer, when really, by having choices in the first place rosamund already won, even though neither of them really ideal, but at least whatever it is it would be her decision. (Of course one also could argue that with those choices being unfair, it was not really choices at all *insert that cow with two path meme* and i am just being delusional and you might be right, anyway im going to ignore this)

Also, I love how even until the epilogue when everyone is getting back what they gave up, Rosamund's part didn't really mention that she met his prince again. This makes we never really have official design for him (which is crazy like whoa his face was never decided even on meta level), and I think its perfect to capture how "and they live happily" works for rosamund. you get what i mean??, when romance just become one thing among other parts of her life rather than the whole point of her story. Its still there, if you want to, but the matter isnt as suffocating. It would be really easy for brennan and siobahn if they made the end one extreme of either "oh she got his prince back" or "oh she doesnt need love at all actually" and for them not do that feels really refreshing for me.

(I can go on talking how rosamund lost 100 years of her life and finally living the mundanity of learning and making friends are also so important, not to mention with snowwhite and their shared fate etc etc but then i might never stop asdjsldmsk i love neverafter so much)

[hybbart]

Hey guys, I would really appreciate it if you stopped sending me messages about Lizzie's appearance. I get that most of you are just happy and/or think it's a compliment, but I've literally never had so many weird comments on a woman's body before, and it's getting really uncomfortable.

While I know I'm not always as good about it for men, as a character artist and as I hope is made clear in the design sheet I did for all the hermit and empire girls, I have always and will always draw all sorts of body types. That includes not just fat people, but fat people with different distributions and shape language- different everything. Lizzie and Cleo and Stress may all be fat and round but I like to think I did a very good job of making them all distinct in shape from each other in a way that converys their character.

I redesigned my Lizzie recently because I was wanting to draw her more, and I wanted her to allign better with my mental idea of her. She hadn't before because 1) I started off drawing her as the ocean queen and mayor who are very unlike her base self and monstrous, because she's cool like that. And 2) I never sat down and made a design sheet for her, so I constantly drew her differently and mixed her up with my Gem design. (which, go firgure, as a fan of sister characters, when I finally worked it out that mental idea ended up having a body type similar to my own little sister. Which makes it extra uncomfortable on a personal level.)

The fact is, when I draw women people casually comment on their body a LOT more, which is already a bit uncomfortable- and baffling, given that most of my sexualized pictures are of men. I get similar comments about how tall Pearl is, I've probably gotten more comments about how tall Pearl is than I have about how tall Jimmy is, and I draw him multiple times a week. But those comments are often at least done with a bit of amusement and not just straight up ogling her.

Every single time I've drawn Lizzie recently, though, I got an absolute flood of comments specifically talking about her body and nothing else. How fat she is, how attractive she is because she's fat, cat calls, and other more unsavoury language. Even backhanded compliments. I certainly didn't try to make her ugly, but I've not drawn her in pinups. She's doing the exact same things as every other character I draw, including herself before my redesign. And given that timing and VERY pointed nature of the comments, it's not exact rocket science.

Most of the comments haven't been too gross, thankfully. I'll chalk that up to a lot of the messages being people projecting onto her, which- that's a whole different can of discomfort worms. But it is constant and it is in place of literally anything else. I draw a whole comic about a funny moment with multiple people, and art I'm pretty happy with, and the only thing a dozen asks have to say is "Lizzie's fat!!🤤" which stands in quite the contrast to all the comparatively few comments about Jimmy being about how I drew his banana costume.

Anyways, what I'm asking is to please just be a bit more normal about women's bodies. I get that it's rarer, and it makes some people happy when they see characters like them, but focusing on how beautiful an unconventional woman is is still objectifying and making that woman's beauty her worth.

[railroadlion]

i love TOL so much its actually gimving me brain worms im a huge comic nerd and it gives off the same vibe as some of my fav comics ever like serenity rose or lost at sea or the gulf it feels like an old alt 'classic' i wouldv read when younger and changed my brain chemistry (it still is)... so so good and your paneling and page layout and characterisation all make it flow so well and its so easy to get invested in the characters.. jamie and santiago are real and They are my Friends... their dynamic and world feel so lively and real.... i love how you play with comic conventions in using the thought/narrative bubble and turning it into voiced speech its so clever and awesome... your inking is so alive and dynamic... i havent been this ThinkingAbout a comic in ages. would buy in print. ps do u have any comic reccomendations/what comics inspires you?

Thank you so much!! This kind of manic obsession is what all true comic creators dream of, so it touches my heart <3

My main inspirations for making TOL were black and white comics I read as a kid but didn't fully understand at the time, like Bone, This One Summer, and (like you mentioned) Lost at Sea!

Lost at Sea in particular was a huge emotional cornerstone for me when I was younger, and was one of the main reasons I kept TOL in black and white. I read it when I was too young to really understand what the characters were going through, but I could tell there was something really emotionally powerful going on below the surface, and it stuck with me into adulthood. The fact that the world in that story had been abstracted by only existing in black and white only made it more mysterious and fascinating to me.

I have such an affinity for B&W comics. It simultaneously makes a piece feel more obtuse and obscured without the specificity of color, but it also makes it all the more personal and unique to each reader who fills in the gaps with their imagination. That's what I'm going for with TOL anyway.

I know some people have only read comics like Bone and Scott Pilgrim in color because it adds a whole new level of artistic expression to enjoy in a story, but I encourage people to revisit their favorite comics if they were originally printed in b&w to see how different they feel without color.

As for other comics I recommend, I really love Blankets, Keeping Two, Ducks, and The Sculptor.

These are all sophisticated creme de la creme novels that really touch on some intensely beautiful themes, and I can't recommend them enough to people who want to read a comic with some real maturity.

But what if you like comics with action and fantasy and cool shit that are also top of the line? Then I recommend Kaya, Ultramega, Do A Powerbomb, and most importantly: Coda.

These comics are so amazingly well drawn and are told incredibly well, but Coda, drawn by Matias Bergara and written by Si Spurrier is probably my favorite comic ever and I recommend it to literally everyone. It's the comic that pulled me out of my era of reading shonen manga slop and made me start reading western comics obsessively.

The duo also made Step By Bloody Step, a comic told without any words- only pictures. This is the kind of thing you have to read if you want to really understand what the comics medium is capable of.

ANYWAY. That's my reading list. Creators like Hayao Miyazaki, Cliff Chiang, Moebius, Frank Pe, Kei Urana, and Ryoko Kui are also amazing and you should check out their works as well.

I'm making physical copies of TOL chapter 1, and at the end I'm also gonna include a reading list of comics made by indie creators who I'm lucky enough to call my friends for people to check out, but that's a post for a different time.

I hope people will read at least one book from this list. Thanks for reading my ramblings!

[sabianandocs]

What do u think of undertale aus if you've seen some ? :p

I find it's impossible to navigate this fandom without running into AUs, so I have seen quite a few!

I'm not involved with any AUs, and Classic has always been and always will be my favorite, but I am familiar with the vague concepts of a few AUs, or at the very least I know what their Sanses look like (approximately)

Underfell and Underswap are the two big ones, as far as I'm aware, or maybe just some of the first-er ones? I was aware of them way back in 2016 when I first got involved in the fandom. I honestly have no clue about any of the lore or story of either; I know that Swap is just. Personality swap. Pretty par for the course in fandom. No clue what Underfell actually is though- it's been described to me as just 'edgy Undertale'; a version where the whole underground lives by the principle of 'kill or be killed'.

Horrortale I only really encountered more recently; I'm not sure if that's because it's actually new or just came to be at some point between my first foray in the fandom and my more recent re-involvement. I think the concept is super cool- that the whole underground went insane from isolation after Frisk left- (I think) but I haven't been able to really get into it personally.

Dusttale just makes me sad. I don't know a lot about it, obviously, since I'm not actively looking at any AU content, but from what I know it's a version where Sans decides after so many resets the only way to stop it all is to kill everyone himself to level up. Once again, super cool concept, but really depressing?? And personally I don't really feel like it's something Sans would do- he may be generally apathetic, but he cares about the people around him. I suppose anything goes once you've been kind of driven insane, though, to be fair.

--

I find the fascination with Sans across different AUs fascinating. No matter what AU you look at, Sans always seems to be the star of the show- to the point where, even in all the AUs I talked about above, he (and MAYBE Papyrus) is the only one I've really seen art of in those AUs. I think I've seen a little bit of Swap or Swapfell Alphys and Undyne (don't ask me about AUs of AUs, I would have no idea; I barely know the regular AUs), but only by one artist, reposted without credit on Pinterest. It's to the point where the most often I've seen these AU Sanses isn't even in their own universes-- It's interacting with OTHER SANSES. MAYBE an AU Papyrus. There's like, an entire separate branch of fandom that's just all the different versions of Sans hanging out. That's WILD to me. In fact, the reason I recognize the sheer number of AUs I do (well, only their versions of Sans, actually) is just because I've seen so much content of the different Sanses just. Hanging out. Interacting.

Like I said, I don't really have a lot of interest in AUs, even though I appreciate the concepts; that being said, through fandom osmosis, I am able to identify/recognize:

Nightmare, Error, Geno, Fresh, Swap/Blueberry, Fell, Horror, Dust, Death (?), Dream, Murder (? is that one different from dust?), the one with a target on his chest??, Ink, and probably a few others that I'm just not thinking of. I've also heard of Mafiatale but idk much about it other than a few isolated comics I saw on Pinterest. Similarly, I've heard of Farmtale(?) because I've seen a comic or two where other AU Sanses fall into his world.

It's kind of impressive, honestly, considering the fact that I do not seek out AU content at all- this is all entirely just through seeing stuff while trying to look for Classic content- almost all of which is completely separated from their AU worlds and focused more on the Sanses interacting with other versions of themselves.

(oh, also, I guess technically Handplates falls into AU category! I consider it so close to classic that I didn't think to put it here; in my mind, it's less of an AU and more of just an interpretation or extrapolation of Classic. I'm a fan)

--

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID!!!

I consider everyone's own interpretation of Sans (and all other characters) as their own Sans- it's a fun way to look at it; you can't 'get it wrong', because every interpretation is its own individual. I like to think that every download of Undertale is its own version of the world, and so everyone gets their own cast to be friends with and have fun with! So, in my case, that means that MY copy of everyone never had to deal with full resets (only the couple times where I died and got sent back to a save point, never a full reset) and now they're living happy on the surface. Same with my original copy from way back in 2016 on the family computer. Then I have another of my own, separate copy of the UT cast that exists in my art! If that makes sense!

I hope this answer was satisfactory and not too terribly long!!! If you guys want to request AU characters I might draw them but I won't make any promises; like I said, my interest, and therefore my art, focuses on the classic characters. But! Some AU designs are cool so I might take them for a spin if asked.

[storgicdealer]

THE ANIMATION VERSUS KICKSTARTER HAS LAUNCHED !!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/animationversus/animation-versus

which MEANS im going to make a post detailing everything of course .

https://youtu.be/K4lvfmbMkcw?si=73cLDy92Aaron3yL

god. GOD !!!!!!! IM SO EXCITED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT DUDE

the game looks INSANELY good already and that's considering the game, as we see it, is supposed to release in 2028 !

it looks like it has 28 days to go to achieve its goal (and it already is doing really weel as i write this XD i mean, 14k dollars already??? god DAMN !!!)

(new art on kickstarter page! the artist cooked)

i find it INCREDIBLY cool that the lead developer of the project is the person who made the ava/m rivals of aether mod. how cool is that dude

right away from the trailer im incredibly happy they're including purple in the main cast (another purple cameo on alanspc for the win)

(i do admire the way blue is just fine with it)

the fighting kits are INSANE MAN ?? its a little surprising that orange's main moves are projectiles (which however is incredibly cool. both a throwback to anim vs. physics and (unintentional?) parallel with vic perhaps) <- (although, now reading it, it seems like the projectile objects will rotate with every move!)

green having a guitar in his kit ???? are you kidding. /vpos . i was wondering how they would optimize blue's kit but it looks SO cool dude (its likely im going to be a blue main XD)

red's kit looks interesting, especially with the shark move! its genuinely not surprising that its red who's kit currently looks best ingame lol. it's also no wonder purple's kit is best at air attacks!

the backgrounds are just. Holy hell.

the whole fact they're making like. 4 different backgrounds per Stage ??? Good lord.

and. hello??? hello? hi ???? hello ????? im Sane ???????

other notable details: its so cool to get more details on the city from up above, seeing it's so progressed. other details: "primoral descent" billboard which is a reference to dj's original comic! plus corndog guy's stand in the second bg (also we really gotta acknowledge that moon exists in the outernet sometime.)

(as im writing this the amount of money has already went up to 34k. holy hell.)

its interesting to me as well that the game's version of special attacks charge bar is a "node meter"! another one for the computer/internet references

("a node in network refers to any physical device or point that is capable of sending, receiving, or forwarding data")

which also seems like a general running theme for the fighting scene in game itself, given that those "nodes" are also seen on the art and the character's fighting profiles

it seems like the game will either feature new game-specific soundtrack or compile existing soundtrack into a batch (which is making me Squeal because im so interested in how individual soundtracks are going to be named — yes im a fan of such details XD)

the reward tiers are. hough. holy hell

beta tests ???? tco palette???? (as im guessing with sec?????) exclusive character pins??????? FUTURE DLC???????

(also, cursor lobby pet implies that there Will be a lobby. lol)

the kickstarter page also says: "Today, we have six characters that we’re excited to share with you. With your help, we’ll be able to bring even more iconic heroes and villains from AvA into the game!"

if that means we WILL eventually get rocketcorp characters + king. oh my god. oh my god.

and also. DIGITAL ART BOOK??????

(selling my kidney.)

plus. "At some of our higher tiers we're offering the opportunity to join a development meeting to see how to game is made, and the option to design your own original character stick figure in a level background!" Hello ?????

god i barely can word anything right now dude im so excited i cant stop stimming what the HELL !!!!!!!!

[jccatstudios]

Lemme just say again how much I love your work! I do have food for thought about Kaz's R tattoo on his bicep... The first few times I envisioned it, I did so as a Roman Alphabet R. And then I saw the Kerch Alphabet on the Grishaverse wiki, and revised my thinking. Just putting it out there, since I absolutely adore the sketch you posted with Kaz shucking off his shirt in front of Inej.

Oooooooh... now that's a good thing to think about! I often go back and forth on how I should portray the Kerch language. The first way is like the show where the written language is Kerch, but the spoken language is "English" (Kerch translated for the audience's and the actors' sakes). The second way is to make everything translated into English for the audience. Here's what I think about when weighing these two options:

Option 1 pros: makes the world more unique and fleshed out, adds a level of intrigue to the backgrounds

Option 1 cons: alienates the audience because the casual reader wouldn't take the time to translate signage, text, etc. Could lead to clarity issues

Option 2 pros: the audience immediately understands, strengthens clarity

Option 2 cons: less chances for creative worldbuilding, environment is less believable as a separate world from ours

Since I'm an artist who values clarity, I often go for option 2, even though that leaves out the worldbuilding that comes with option 1.

When it comes to the tattoo, the Kerch alphabet "R" would be more appropriate (and honestly cooler) for the world of the Grishaverse; however, I have to think of the audience. The reason readers of the book can connect the dots between the tattoo and the Rietveld name is the visual of the "R" within the book's text itself. If I don't allow comic readers to make the connection in a similar way, it's not as fun for them because of the clarity loss.

On another note, I also need to think of character POV and how the readers can insert themselves into that POV. If a character understands Kerch, the reader should, too. My adaptation hasn't gotten anywhere near the parts of the books where other languages come into play, but I can imagine making the depiction of text dependent on which POV the chapter is in. This feature would be important for all the characters, but it would be especially important for Wylan's POV. Funny enough, I once asked one of my professors how I could manage 6+ languages in one comic, to which his answer was something along the lines of "why would you do that to yourself?" It would take a lot of thought to make the distinctions clear, but I've been doing some good brainstorming.

Okay, text dump over! Thanks for sending this suggestion in. I always love talking about this stuff. There's so much about the depiction of language in comics that I haven't covered here, but that could be a whole book and I have to get ready for class...

[xx-akubara-xx]

Wow

Just

Wow

Last update

The Billsteve comic

I'm gonna be thinking about that the WHOLE day, maybe more

You DO write quality angst, amazing.

I, it hurst for real. Like... I know Steve is supposed to be just a joke when Alex created him, but you take it to a super level. Angst is SO STRONG.

The guy... The guy wanted to be close to Bill for a really long time, and Bill... And bill got to the point he does want and needs the contact... But Steve ISN'T in the right place (mentally speaking) strikes to me that your take in Steve is that he is one of those beings that says really TRUE things but in a really harsh way if upset.

It hurtssssssssssss, Wow! Like... Bill asked for the touch and, oh boy! Everything went to hell! I do understand the hand part, i do! Boundaries are boundaries.... But wow... He calling to see if they have seen Bill... is he using ..?? HIS HANDSSSS.??? IS HEEE?? To CALL??!!!?!?!?!?!

IS HE?!

that is EXTRA SOUL CRUSHING.

Truly a masterpiece.

I

*wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze*

Well, um, first I doooo need to clarify... that yes... you might be confusing me with a different fan artist,,, Sorry, I know that's the thing you seem the most excited over,,,

That's just your run-of-the-mill, old-fashioned telekinesis. No invisible hands...

It's funny, but I did consider making him use his hands for this scene. Since there's only an eye to work with - hands can play a big part in helping express emotion for the triangle boys.

But I also didn't want to make light of the lore I just established for Steve. I do plan on having his hands used again in a future update... I want to save it for that moment.

Touch in general, is a big deal for both of them (Scooting onto the other part of the asks, lol)

Bill very much sees touch as part of his own love language. Hugging his parents, slapping folks on the back, handshaking, nudging, pushing - ECT. (Despite still being an outcast/weirdo)

And then he tried to show Euclidia the stars.

And the only company he had left- was the guy that never backed him up in the first place and clearly was holding back a scary level of resentment against him for what happened. (And Bill couldn't blame him for that)

So when Steve grabbed him, it did much more than just give Bill an 'awakening.' They didn't even have to 'keep going'. Bill would've been satisfied with anything at that moment.

The mere fact that Steve was touching him made him think for a split moment that everything was actually going to be okay.

And then it wasn't.

Because, of course, it wasn't going to be okay.

[pastabaguette]

hi!! i just wanted to try and clear something up with you bc i really need to know? what are your thoughts on eridan as a whole? bc i love your art and i love all your equius stuff (youve made me rethink him as a character that i initially wrote off, a lot like how i used to do with eridan before i re-read the comic) but the hitler joke in one of your humanstuck doodles really rubbed me the wrong way and i couldnt decipher if it was just supposed to be taken as a write off joke or if it was supposed to be exaggerated. theres a really massive misconception within the fandom that eridan is/would be a neonazi and tbh i cant keep following you if you believe that. he's my favorite character and it just makes me upset to see popular artists in the fandom still not reading further into him beyond the surface level and perpetuating fanon that makes volotile people in the fandom harass ampora fans. nothing against you personally, as i dont know you personally. i just would really like to know your full thoughts on him as a character.

hello! no, i don’t think humanstuck eridan (edison) would genuinely be a neo-nazi. i do think he’s definitely falling down that alt-right pipeline, but he’s not too far gone.

i do think he might actually say things like this, but a lot of what he says he doesn’t really understand or mean. he’s trying to sound smart, or cool, or edgy or whatever, but it’s not really working, and it only makes him look like an asshole. he’s mainly echoing things he’s picked up from his environment, namely the spaces he hangs out in online. in homestuck, every troll is based off of a specific type of internet archetype. (angry screaming guy, leetspeaker, roleplayer, etc.) each of them, at the beginning of act 5, is a parody of different annoying or strange types of people you meet online. this is his.

as for my thoughts on eridan’s character as a whole, as a troll in homestuck, i still don’t think he’s a genuine nazi. i think he’s similar to equius in that, again, he says a lot of things that he doesn’t really fully mean. they’re just ingrained in him due to his highblood upbringing.

i think that something that bears repeating is that all of these characters are 13 years old. i think that hussie did a pretty good job of writing them based on this fact. when you’re 13, you’re pretty much at the peak of insecurity and self-consciousness and desire to seem cool and interesting to others and society as a whole. you’re really just starting to try and explore your identity and establish yourself as your own person. all this considered, you still really don’t know what you’re doing at all when you’re 13. you’re desperate to prove yourself, to seem capable and strong.

i think a lot of the highbloods’ (vriska, equius, gamzee to an extent, eridan) behaviors make sense when you consider their environments and upbringing. they don’t think the awful things they do are actually awful, in fact, this is the behavior that’s expected of them. society’s told them their whole lives that this is the way they’re supposed to act, so they act accordingly. i’m not saying it makes their actions excusable, but i think it makes them make sense, given their circumstances.

sorry if my point started getting away from me at the end there. in conclusion, no, eridan is not a nazi. i think to say so would be a little silly. even the people eridan kills, he doesn’t do so because of their blood color (to my remembrance). he kills them because he perceives them as a direct threat, and because they’re in his way. (and i believe feferi technically attacked him first, right?) the solution he jumps to is violence, because that’s what he’s been accustomed to. it’s the first and easiest thing he can think of.

again, of course this doesn’t excuse his actions; it doesn’t excuse any of their actions, but it does explain them.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #71 – The City and the City by China Mieville

Mieville is one of those authors whose influence and artistic shadow I’m far more familiar with than the guy himself or his actual work. I read Perdido Street Station years and years ago (quite good, not as clever as it thinks it is and has let’s say Issues with gender, I would have been better served reading it without knowing all the hype) and I got about halfway into Railsea at some point in university (a great central aesthetic and cute conceit sadly does not sustain an entire book of otherwise uninspired pastiche), and otherwise? I’ve just read and enjoyed far more stuff that cites him as an inspiration or is writing in the whole New Weird tradition (name now at least a decade out of date) that he was one of the big names establishing. So this is me doing a bit to rectify that imbalance, and also trying to fail a bit less comically at my literary fiction reading goal before the year ends. It served both ends neatly, and as a bonus was even a pretty decent read.

Tyador Borlu is a detective of the Extreme Crime Squad in the vaguely Balkan city-state of Beszel who, as detectives in novels inevitably due, gets himself hopelessly entangled in the case of a young woman murdered under murky and improbable circumstances. The investigation leads inevitably to the conclusion no one wants to deal with – that this is a cross-border case, and that Tyador will need to chase the trail of corruption and conspiracy into the neighbouring and overlapping city of Ul Quoma. Only by working with officers from both the mirrored cities police forces is there any hope at all to get to the truth beyond all the hints of a secret conspiracy pulling the strings of both and murdering to cover its tracks.

Which is to say, this is a fairly standard detective story plot that often seems there mostly to explore, poke at, and examine the implications of the lovingly detailed high concept setting. Beszel and Ul Qoma are the true stars of the show here – two cities with their own languages, cultures, histories and governments, even their own borders and economic trajectories, that by odd coincidence happen to cover the same geographical area. A Beszel street might run along an Ul Qoman park, and but every driver on it would simply unsee the families enjoying themselves walking or playing in it. They do not notice the rattling of a train in a another city merely because it happens to run directly above their apartment – or if they do, they’re trained and educated since birth to show absolutely no sign of it. The two cities are separate and foreign to each other, no matter the fact that their residents walk by each other on busy streets every day. This is enforced by popular agreement, by centuries of tradition and, n a pinch, by Breach – the shadowy and opaque secret police empowered and respected by the authorities of both cities as an independent and almost occult boogeyman, there to keep the two nations firmly separated from each other.

Which is an absurd and fantastical a premise as any of Mieville’s other books on the face of it, but he really has put in the work here. The cultures of the two cities both seem real and distinct, and painstacking care has been taken figuring out exactly how all this would work day-to-day with mid-2000s technology. It’s still asking for some heavy suspension of disbelief, to be sure – but once you accept the premise the book never does anything to really throw you out of it with egregious implausibility. If everyone wanted things to work like they’re presented as, if feels like they probably could – and the ways they couldn’t are each acknowledged and given some level of justification or another (or, if not, made into whole plot points).

So yes, this is a very Theme-First novel. It’s never really didactic, and one absolutely never gets the sense of Mieville getting up on a soapbox to lecture at you, but then he really doesn’t have to. The setting makes the point about nationalism – about how lethally hard and sharp borders that exist only in the human mind can be – quite clearly without too much elaboration. Which is really my preference for getting these things across.

In the interview at the end of the book that I very lightly skimmed through, Mieville calls this fundamentally a crime novel more than anything else, which feels difficult to disagree with. It’s honestly kind of fascinating to see his politics – which generally come through quite loud and clear. Read Perdido Street Station and then take one guess what stance his history of the Russian Revolution takes – get absolutely buried under the expectations and requirements of a hardboiled police mystery. There’s still the same cynicism towards political establishments and assumption of corruption as always, but it’s frankly weird to read the avowed Trotskyite write a story where the happy ending is the protagonist is recruited into the secret police. Or just all the blase matter-of-fact narration about the use and usefulness of beating prisoners, informants providing private records on demand, a general surveillance state, and so on. It’s all of a piece with the rest of the genre’s trappings, of course – the general cynical view of the world, the fact that the most personally admirable character is the girl whose already dead on page 1, and the fact that the books central relationships are three different iterations of the natural and sacred bond between a cop and his partner. The genre emulation is really pretty note-perfect, and I’m not quite sure if this is good in terms of getting out of the way and letting the themes and setting taking centre stage or if it ends up muddling and confusing them.

It does save the book from the very common failure state of setting-heavy novels that end up feeling like tourism brochures, at least.

Truthfully the most interesting part of reading this for me was how the ~15 years since publication have left it feeling like a bit of a period piece. The whole vibe of the book and the Europe it presents is just incredibly mid-aughts in ways both obvious and hard to explain. The Twin Cities themselves, of course – the whole conceit obviously owes a lot to the collapse of Yugoslavia and the wars that followed (the talk about the difference between the cities’ languages feels like it was taken 1:1 from people talking about Serbian and Croatian), with more than a dash of divided Berlin in inspiratio n (it seems less than accidental than the more Western and pro-American Beczel has a much more Germanic vocabulary for things whereas Ul Qoma is a melange of Slavic and Turkish). There is, throughout the book, a sense that these carefully and lovingly maintained divisions between cities and peoples are an anachronism, a rough spot that cannot long withstand being smoothed out by the homogenizing tides of globalization and the convenience of international commerce. More directly – the backdrop to the plot is the economic boom a former Eastern Bloc state is going through since opening itself up enthusiastically to foreign (western) investment, and the plot itself involves a corrupt conspiracy between a pro-business Social Democrat, an American tech company, and the easily duped ultranationalist thugs as muscle. It all speaks so deeply to the assumptions and trends of the world that hadn’t quite shaken off the hangover of the Cold War and for which the Great Financial Crisis was still over the horizon.

Even the book’s portrayal of politics has this feel. The vaguely-alt-left Unificationists and the assorted far-right ultranationalists are all portrayed as hopeless lost-causers; potentially dangerous (more the latter than the former) and useful tools in the hands of those who know what they’re doing, but on their own nothing but bitter old men and deluded kids who refuse to accept how the world works – radicals who the real powers leave be because they have infiltrators in every group, and anyway if they ever had a chance of success they’d be rolled up before they even realized it. Real power is the chamber of commerce and the established parties, the police apparatus and foreign corporations – the avatars and defenders of capital and the status quo. Even the plot itself – the revelation that the secret conspiracy which might overthrow everyone’s understanding of their history and their nations is just a smuggling operation that’s gotten out of control preying on the naivete and idealism of a young genius – feels so very End of History. It’s kind of charming, really.

Anyway yes – enjoyable read. Never really set me on fire and nothing about it has really gotten stuck in my head? But glad I read it, and have no real complaints about doing so.

[normal-nightmare]

It's me again and please keep yapping this is the tasty content I come here for. lol I've been sitting here a while (longer than is polite) trying to form a proper response to my previous ask cause it was literally everything! I wish I could be half as eloquent instead of just yelling XD

like there are so many things that draw me to these two, and ngl it definitely started with the whole pseudo-incest vibe but they really are so complex and you really hit the nail with this:

Just... they're so complicated and it sucks that people don't wanna explore that because of the preconceived notion that they're brothers, nothing more, nothing less. Sure, legally they are, but they don't... act like it? They didn't grow up together, they weren't very close before Jason died, and they only recently started getting properly close. Jason also has his crush thing going on (seriously, how else am I supposed to interpret RHATO v2 annual 1??)

Look I will forever maintain Dick was Jason’s gay awakening and that boy has been in love with Dick since he was what 12? 15? Also the way you described their relationship to each other was so delicious and alterous is such a great term for them.

I feel like jaydick becoming canon one day would be a natural progression of their relationship. Especially since they seem to be getting paired up as a duo more often. Readers love them, comic artists and writers like them too- i feel like jaydick actually happening one day wouldn't be extremely surprising.

THISTHISTHIS!!! I hope this does happen.🙏

Also re: dickbabs and not making certain characters bisexual I feel that on such a spiritual level. Like I’m sorry but both Jason and Dick read as queer to me? Idk how to describe it. Which is why I love the little touch of bi Dick in Gotham Knights.

Also speaking of Gotham Knights, I finally finished it and holy fuck what the fuck? One of my few complaints is that I wish it was longer. I need GK2: electric boogaloo but this time with a Poison Ivy case file because reasons. I adored every interaction Dick and Jason had, from the emails to the flirting in front of everyone’s salad, plus how they were almost always near each other? (also Jason looked so good in that post credit scene in the Batcave I choose to believe every time he wears it, Dick can’t keep his hands to himself 🫣)

ALSO

I genuinely feel like the writers were intending for jaydick to happen in a DLC given how much setup there is.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this? I want to yell about this game so much. I wish I had someone to play co-op with me so I could see some of those Jaydick interactions too 😞

GOD honestly i have a million thoughts on Dick and Jason's relationship in Gotham Knights?? Because what the HELL is going on in that game!!!

It utterly BAFFLES me when other people read their interactions (Belfry, cutscenes, whatever) as brotherly/familial bc like... if you're interacting with your family like that I'm so concerned?? Bc they're gay as hell!! They flirt the ENTIRE GAME. Like... it's ridiculous how in-your-face they are about it. It's not even gay subtext anymore, it's just... text. Saying they're not gay in Gotham Knights is like saying Jayce and Viktor were 'just brothers' in Arcane to me LMFAO.

Like... the rooftop scene for one reads as really BAD flirting on Dicks part. It doesn't feel like he's being deliberately silly to cheer up Jason until he fakes falling over the edge, THEN he's properly silly. The entire scene otherwise, he's just... being really bad at flirting? And it's funnier that both that and then him being silly actually kinda WORKS on Jason. He laughs (laughs!!), relents and let's Dick sit next to him! It's so, so cute!!

And then the little interaction where Dick says that the Belfry needs a cat, and then Jason suddenly flirts with him?? Like the line "Listen, Grayson, if you're scared of some mouse you saw scurrying, I'll keep you safe." Is ABSOLUTELY flirting, and this is only supported by A) the tone Jason has and B) the way Dick stutters and stumbles over his words afterwards. Like, Dick is AUDIBLY flustered and surprised by this. He tries sooo hard to keep it cool but that boys BLUSHING.

And then there's the tension in some scenes?? When they argue in the beginning and when Dick puts a hand on Jason's wrist (after Jason jokes about making Tim a fake ID), and kind of the scene where Jasons mad, and he's sparring with Dick and Dick catches his fist and says "Easy, Tiger." Like.... the tension in these scenes goes crazy?? The physical closeness, the eye contact, the brief silence, calling Jason tiger?? Like I CANNOT be crazy thinking that there's at least a LITTLE sexual tension in these moments. Juuuust a little 🤏

And like! Yeah you're 100% on them being so physically close most of the game. It's hard to find scenes where they AREN'T standing right by each other. And their stories focus a lot on each other!! At least Dicks story focuses a lot on Jason! Like... a LOT, it's 90% Dicks story 😭

And the like,, nicknames. Dick calls Jason things like Big Guy, swole, and Miracules throughout the game, like, consistently. He points out Jason's size and strength a lot?? (His size and strength kink is so blatantly obvious, good lord this man is horny LMAO. I don't blame him though... 👀) and then Jason mainly calls him Grayson, but when he's being vulnerable he calls him Dick? Which is so cute?!

And a cute little detail is how angry Dick gets on Jason's behalf when Talia says they should be grateful she brought Jason back even though she took away his autonomy and used him. Like, Dick is PISSED! Lowkey he's so ready to throw hands right there.

And i think one of my favorite interactions is when Dick chooses to take Jason to a circus that's in town. Like! He's literally asking Jason out on a DATE. And it's the cutest thing ever?! Jason is surprised and it's just... it's so sweet.

And in general they have the sweetest interactions and emails. It's adorable how they kinda talk about Tim like they're proud parents, and it's also cute how they kinda bicker over the perfect sandwiches cause they sound like a married couple loll.

Just!! Auuggghhhh they're so CUTE in Gotham Knights! There's a mountain of setup there for a romantic relationship. It's very in your face, and honestly impossible to ignore if you have ears and eyes. I'm sure there's more i'm missing or just haven't mentioned, but it's so blatant it feels like it couldn't have been on accident.

Just... it's so cute, I'll never get over it 😭

[marciaillust]

hey, i hope you're doing great! i feel this may be unorthodox, but i really wanted to reach out to extend my engagement?— awe?— solidarity?— (some variant of those, anyways) with your most recent "workposting" art. i don't normally do this. I've maybe sent 3 asks in my whole life. there's no pressure to respond to this, as i mostly just wanted to cheer you on. also, I'm really sorry this is so long.

i only just recently landed my very first freelance art job, at a start-up company dedicated to making comics + DND inspired art content. I've always felt that "Its nothing to call home about", and so i really resonated with your feelings regarding your work for Brawl Stars. I felt kind of ashamed of my job, that its just a small start up— that I'm not enough and that i should be trying harder, or something like that. Specifically i resonated with your comment of "presenting brawl stars art feels like showing my anime girl oc to an art teacher" and i don't think i could have solidified any better.

Anyways. all's to say. I really found your work quite jaw-dropping. I was shocked when i read it was for Brawl Stars. I didn't know anything about it, but when i did some research i was even more amazed. they're really, really compositionally beautiful... i mean, i know its just "work" to you ultimately, but it really does feel lively, and everything about it makes it feel like you care. I think sometimes you're just able to tell when an artist genuinely cares about their work; about its end outcome. there's so many intricacies. and a lot of attention to detail. you kept the style that was necessary of you but i also can feel the warmth and the care of the artist behind it— its not corporate, or stale, it doesn't come across as "just work".

since you mentioned League, i genuinely do think it serves an equal purpose and weight to what League of Legends would produce. from a biased standpoint, i would actually value your work more. Its not even that its "more obtainable"/"more realistic" but that there's genuinely more feeling to it. Compositionally/artistically, yeah, League makes great stuff, but occasionally, the feeling or the sense of warmth and care from the creator of the art is lost along the way. I value seeing the artist within their own art a lot, which is why I've admitted to a degree of bias. either way. what you put out there is really gorgeous, and crazy impressive.

I know a stranger with a dumb, fandom-oriented art blog cant solve the self-indited art elitism (you and me both, man💀) and that you've already received plenty of love/reblogs saying similar things, but i wanted to extend my feelings anyways. Its really heart-warming, i guess. It brings me hopefulness, and deep adoration for the craft. I'm not very good with words. Anyways. don't undersell yourself. seeing your work meant more to me than you can imagine. I'm obviously nowhere near your skill level, but it meant more to me as an aspiration. i think that regardless of who you work for, your work is really valuable and downright incredible. because you bring that sense of warmth, care, time, and patience regardless of the media it portrays. and you're able to do that while being objectively talented— utilizing great compositions, colour pallets, shading, characterization, mood, etc. That is more valuable. That is much much cooler than working for Riot. imo.

Initially, i also wanted to ask you some questions about how you assembled your portfolio, if you went to school, (if so) what it did/didn't provide for you going into the art field, and just how you landed the job in general. But i respect you and your time, and wouldnt want to be a burden or anything. If you ever have time for it, i would love to ask them, among others, and we can chat in DM if you'd prefer. Absolutely no pressure. Im happy just watching from the sidelines. I dont anticipate anything from you to begin with! I just hope youll know how influential your post was to read & see, to someone like me!

Oh man. I. How. Where do I even start except

This is one of the most uplifting, touching and encouraging messages I received in my life. I read it thrice. And I still can't believe how full of love it is. This is such high praise, I want you to know I will cherish it and carry it with me for a long long time. It's not often that an artist gets to learn how their art is perceived, not to mention in such a positive light. It really means a lot to me.

It makes me so happy to hear that my work illustrations retain a piece of me that is visible to others. I myself can't see it, but I imagine my closeness to the matter at hand heavily impacts my ability to see objectively at all. There was a time where I was worried that work was overriding the me that makes my art mine, that I was becoming a corporate rendering machine and that what I did at work (the shape language and style) was bleeding into my personal art. There is a part of me that is now breathing easier after reading your message. I would love to answer any questions you have, it's the least I can do to repay you! Feel free to send an ask or even an email, I'll try to be as thorough as I can be with my answers. I wish you happy holidays! Take care! And again thank you so much for taking the time to write this message!

[queenjunothegreat]

Soooooooo, I don't normally post recs or anything, buuuuuuuut... if anyone wants to just puke rainbows, YouTube advertisements finally got to me, and I read this whole comic in one single sitting instead of eating breakfast this morning. It's about these two guys in college, one of whom is this short dude who's a genius with some serious mental health issues who loves his sister more than anything, and the other is a big blond dude who is so earnestly kind and facing a LOT of pressures from his family. Shut UP, I know what it looks like, and YES, that IS why the YouTube adds wound up working on me. I do promise that they're not JUST Valgrace a bit to the left. (Lucas especially is a lot different than Leo.) There's also a really fun group of background characters, the writing is fast-paced and funny, and the art style is SUPER cute. I'm not REALLY sure if I would call it a slow-burn seeing as these two LITERALLY had hearts in their eyes (one of my FAVORITE artistic styles) from day one, and they've basically been dating since then. That being said, there's 40 episodes, and they're still not OFFICIALLY dating, so there's definitely that level of frustration slow-burns are renowned for.

Anywho, I do highly recommend to anyone who wants to kill an hour or two this afternoon. Do be warned: Author is MEAN and thrives on cliffhangers. I refuse to TELL people to pay for stuff on Webtoons, but I am an irresponsible adult and did exactly that bwcause the last free episode was SUCH a cliffhanger. Now I'm gonna have to wait a MONTH for new updates unless i wanna keep forking over my money. Do not be like me, kids. If you do wind up reading it, PLEASE lemme know what you thought! :D