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seaofreverie · 2 months ago

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Sparkstember Day 12: In Outer Space (Cool Places)

Oh boy, it's finally here!! Having been a Sparks fan for nearly a year by that point, I finally got to an album I just straight up don't like! I honestly forgot by then that this was even a possibility. But a world where I can enjoy everything in such a vast catalogue of a favourite band of mine would be too perfect. It would be pretty strange and unsettling even. Not to always make it about my other favourite band whenever I'm talking about the first, but with TMBG also I eventually got to that one studio album release that I just couldn't bring myself to like, no matter what. So I think I discovered a bit of a personal repeating pattern here.

Alright then. My verdict on this album, which already got a pretty mixed response from fans as far as I know, is that it's not very good, or at the very least, it's not for me. Even the songs I like here I mostly like in the sense of, well, this one I could listen to again outside of the album every once in a while, but they're nowhere near being an actual favourite (besides one song, or two, mayyyybe four if I'm feeling particularly generous).

So I think that my main problem here comes down to how the arrangements / instrumentals seem rather empty to me but not in a cool minimalistic way. And, dare I say, they're pretty damn uninteresting - very few elements of suprise or anticipation to be found here. This is the only Sparks album that just... doesn't feel Sparks to me. (And that's coming right after Angst, which might really just be one of the most Sparks-like of Sparks albums in a way). Something is TERRIBLY missing here and a couple catchy melodies and fun synth lines aren't enough to make up for that. It drags on quite a bit and is underwhelming to listen to as a whole. With only a couple moments of change and something more interesting and engaging. It's this sort of situation where I feel like the whole time I'm waiting for some kind of resolution that never happens ultimately. First instance of me putting on a new Sparks album and forcing myself to sit through the whole thing. And last one I hope! (and expect...? well, better not jinx it)

Ok, having said all that... This will be a historical event because I can't finish this post before I have my obligatory listen to the album of the day on its day. So, time for some real time documentation of my changing opinion, or lack thereof. Time to hear IOS in it's entirety for the first time since april!

...Ok, I'm glad that I didn't say all this in vain at least, LOL! Because I'm still underwhelmed! No major change here. Definitely still not something I'm going to return to more often than very occasionally and the "waiting for nothing" effect was very present and real once again. And it just dawned on be, but do most of these songs not have a bridge?? Maybe that could be part of why it all feels pretty predictable! But alright, as per tradition, let's look at some highlights anyway.

Favourite songs (and other highlights):

Cool Places: never felt in any strong way about it but repeated listens made it an enjoyable little ditty over time, lol. One of my first impressions here was how LOW Russell's voice is, this must be the lowest he's ever sung, right?? And oh, quick shoutout to the 21×21 version of it too

All You Ever Think About Is Sex: ok, this one's really cool and exactly what convinced me that the rest of the album would be enjoyable in the same way. Not for me unfortunately!!

Please, Baby, Please: my definitive fav here that I like a whole lot and that for whatever reason doesn't seem to have any of this album's problems that I described earlier. And I'll always be partial towards songs that I can interpret as being aspec-coded, thanks to my predisposition to do that as often as possible

I Wish I Looked A Little Better: very similar case to All You Ever Think About Is Sex

Dance Godammit: it's funny. It's fun to listen to sometimes

#in outer space slander type of post today. on its day no less.#i'm sorry in outer space fans #but yeah maybe it's healthy to have at least one album that you can vent your frustrations with actually #and even then i feel like i held back quite a bit here mayhe i should stop being so afraid as coming out as mean with my opinions lolllll #the more i think about it the more i realize i really do not like this album at all. but ok moving on #for the drawing i actually made this whole fancy background at first that unfortunately would not in any way fit with the rest of it #and then when i redid the whole thing i put way too much effort into it anyway #considering that hours later i decided that i actually don't like the drawing that much!#well at least tomorrow's picture i do like much more #and i said i'd start going less detailed now yet the complete opposite seems to be happening. burnout incoming in 3... 2...#sparkstember 2024 #my art #goose monologues

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tbcanary · 7 months ago

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haiii uhm. idk if anyone has asked this but what are some of your favorite character costumes/outfits :O

iggy i love and adore you and i love this question. hold on, i have to dig up some images.

okay. i dug up some images. so many, in fact, that i hit image limit on this post and had to trim some things down. let's go through it.

we're gonna just go ahead and start out with dinah lance, the light of my life. this whole post won't be sorted by character, but she's the one i have the most images of, so she gets her own section.

i know people really, really love the short-haired, less effeminate dinah we get in grell's 80s run. i'll get to her! but i'm going to start by saying that her looks in the green lantern/green arrow run are all-time. please consider, if you will, the most fashionable lady in the room:

(i can't include the house robe from snowbirds, but know that i spiritually do count it as part of this post. i hold it near and dear. for now, these two looks will do.)

her long black hair. her little white vest. the statement necklace for her date with ollie. and look, i would include ollie here too, because his outfits in this run are PEAK seventies dad energy, but i don't have the space and i like dinah more, so you get these.

then comes the 80s, when dinah is in her element. short black hair, noir vibes, wearing graphic tees for things like "seattle slugfest." (in longbow hunters, at least.)

she gets some cute looks in grell's run, obviously, but i'm partial to this little skirt and sleeveless denim button-up because it's so very unlike her. she was putting in the work to look cute, and i appreciate it. oliver, meanwhile, looks like fred from scooby doo.

the 1991 run is important because of her extremely high heeled boots with the BIG cuffs around the calves. i miss the cuffs. i wish they would return to me. but the actual panels i think about the most from this run are when she cuts her fishnet stockings and uses them to tie her hair back.

wh. who. i want to know which people in the writer's room decided that was a feasible option. i just want to talk. i can't imagine a less stable hairstyle to go karate-chop some yacht pirates. come on now. but also, she even ties them in a bow? i love her so much. what the fuck is happening.

she has a lot of good looks in birds of prey (1999), honestly, but none of the artists have EVER IN THEIR LIFE seen a woman's chest. not a one. i'm going to go ahead and stick to the two things i love: the fringed leather jacket (iconic) and the long-pants jumpsuit that they did instead of the fishnets.

i don't know WHY they got rid of the fishnets, honestly, but i like this turtleneck situation and the yellow accents. also her communicator necklace on full display <3 she also usually wears a motor jacket OVER the jumpsuit. slay!

(it's maybe a little sacrilegious to like the long pants costume, given that she is so well-known for the bodysuit and fishnets. but to be fair, even when they cut the legs off this suit, she still isn't wearing the stockings. her legs are naked. 0/10 what the HELL.)

sean izaakse deserves his own post and i would not be able to pick out a limited number of panels from his work on green arrow (2023) but i will say i love dinah's new costume, i love the texture on her jacket, and i love that she gets to have the little canary logo on the chest now.

i assume this was more of a birds of prey (2023) design and not izaakse's personal design, but i love how he draws her hair, and she's so short compared to everyone, and overall she just looks good. zero complaints here.

(actually, i do have a few complaints, they just aren't about dinah. one, lian's eyes should be brown. two, ollie should have KEPT HIS HORRIBLE MANBUN, THAT'S MY DAD. and three, mia's cape should still be yellow on the outside. otherwise, the art in this run is perfect.)

speaking of mia.

the art of green arrow (2001) is not like. my favorite art style ever in terms of aesthetics. but hester really, really sets the tone for a lot of these characters through his design choices. particularly mia, which makes a lot of sense given this is her introduction and he did a lot of the initial work with her character.

the thought put into her costuming. she's wearing baggy clothes to contrast with what she wore before she moved in with ollie, she has the hair up in a messy ponytail, etc etc. this mia is everything to me. and i love ollie, too. he looks like a cartoon dad from a nickelodeon show. which is exactly who he is, to me.

we're gonna detour from dc and into marvel for just a second but don't worry we'll come right back. i was really excited when kelly thompson and leo romero were announced for birds of prey (2023) because i really liked their work on hawkeye (2016). it's such a good style for kate bishop, in particular; it feels very youthful and the style just suits her. this is The Kate Bishop, to me, outside of the 2012 run.

(i also really, really like the way dinah is drawn in birds of prey (2023). she's small, she's compact, she looks like someone who's been doing gymnastics and karate her whole life. i could also fit her in my pocket! perfect!!!!)

but yeah okay i mentioned it so i also need to shout out hawkeye 2012. this comic's aesthetics were so fucking on point, and it is one of my favorite ones i've ever edited because it has such an INTENTIONAL color palette and use of graphics like the arrows and bullseyes.

like i know everyone talks about how good this run is but that's because it is LITERALLY that fucking good. the writing. the art. the characterization. ugh. life-changing.

anyway that's enough marvel (for now). back to my hovel. dc.

spiritworld (2023) was so fun. the art is so intentionally drawing on manga and i loved it from the first issue. you can feel the love put into the character design and the color work, and xanthe's cool bomber jacket and undercut is SO essential. this is the nonbinary rep we deserve.

shoutout to cass's look in this comic, too. i LOVE this costume for her. it moves in such a fun and exciting way when she's flipping around and moving through the air, it has a new silhouette, AND it STILL has the bat on the chest. perfect. everything to me. never change.

that being said, i DO have a favorite cass look, and it's these specific panels from batgirl (2000). the style in most of that comic is great, it's super funky and fun, but these were the panels i saw that ended up solidifying in my brain as "oh, that's cass."

also from batgirl (2000) though, i love the funky design choices because they give us things like PEAK takes on stephanie brown's spoiler costume. she's just a fucking blob to me. look at her.

steph has a lot of fun looks, to me, but my favorite will always be the era in like, issues 110-112 of robin (1993), where they gave her a bob cut and big :pleading: emoji eyes.

i do wish she'd had freckles at this time. i know they were a later addition, but i like them. they add character.

unrelated to AAAANY of that, i need to talk about poison ivy (2022). this run is stuuuuuunning. i've only pulled panels of pamela here because i LOVE the way her freak body horror is done, as well as the way her hair is drawn, but the scenery and the textures of this comic as a whole are insane.

even when the story isn't grabbing me, the art does. it's beautiful, it's unlike any other comic i'm reading right now, and it is one of the first comics i ever looked at that made me go, oh fuck, that's an ART piece. ykwim.

HOWEVER. if we're talking about comics that are just. art. through and through. there are a couple others i need to mention.

supergirl: woman of tomorrow is stunning. the colorwork, the hair texture, the EXPRESSIVENESS of the FACES. ugh. this comic made me cry, yeah, but it also made me stroke the pages lovingly because of the beautifully rendered colors.

i love that kara doesn't always look Pretty. i love that she gets bloody, and beat up, and she looks tired and sad and sick sometimes. i love that it is so beautiful and also you can see genuine hurt on kara's face. ugh. UGH. this comic!!!!

now for the indie shit lol. die (2020) is sooooo lovely. stephanie hans is ordinarily a cover artist, but she jumped onto this project to do pages, and my GOD is it beautiful. the character design, the colors, the expressions. it feels like a PAINTING and i want to EAT it.

there's a lot of body horror and gruesome stuff in here. but like, somehow, even that manages to look pretty? i love the painterly textures. i love how the tone influences the colors. it's all just stunning. i need to go reread this one right now, actually.

annnnnnnd! last one, i promise! it's time for THE FORGED (2023).

i love this comic. everyone in it is a lesbian with an atypical body type, half of them are wearing bondage gear, and it's all set in a space sci-fi setting with more lore than you can shake a stick at.

and on TOP of all of THAT. LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL THE COLORS ARE.

there are a few honorable mentions i don't have room to include images of, so i'm gonna go off and list them now:

the wild west arc of exiles (2012) in that very painterly style

the scenery and background work in wonder woman: the hiketeia

the INCREDIBLY clean lines and sharp colorwork of dan mora in world's finest (2023)

the super sketchy and rough pencil-esque art in the back half of green arrow/black canary (especially mia! i love her!)

i am sorry but i enjoy the very sharp style of batgirls (2022). i don't necessarily endorse the writing or the story of the run, but i think the shapes are good. sorry. take me out back, i know.

young justice (1998) also has very cute cartoony art!! i haven't read much of it yet, but every time i see it, it makes me smile. which is the point, i think?

OKAY. PHEW. do you regret asking me yet, gobby. did you get what you came for. am i welcome to come yell at you about the forged (2023) and die (2020) until the day we both shed this mortal coil and depart for the great beyond.

that's it ily mwah thank you for the best question i've ever been asked <3333

#ask.tb #stainedglassgoblin #I HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING RANKING DINAH'S OUTFITS FOR LIKE FOUR DAYS. HOW DID YOU KNOW.#that's not what this is. this is a mess of a post. but dinah's sure in it a lot.#i may come back tomorrow with more images. only time will tell.

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