#consistent art style??? dunno her

[moonstruckhaze]

to the crew member who is responsible for the Sprig plush in Hunter's room — i love you i owe you my life <3

(please pretend I finished and posted these last August before Thanks to Them aired - k thanks byyyyyeeeee~)

bonus doodle, thoughts, and reference credits under the readmore :)

POV grimwalker #58 is 8 years and frew up at 3am

Once I caught up on season 2 of TOH last summer and saw the Sprig plush in Hunter's room, my brain went BRRRRRRRR. Even though it's just an easter egg/cute reference someone snuck in, I immediately thought that Amphibia existing as a children's book or book series on the Boiling Isles would be a fun in-universe reason for him to have a Sprig plush; especially since Hunter canonically loves to read, like Luz. I thought it would have been nice for the Amphibia books to have been one of the few genuine childhood experiences he got to have before being fully indoctrinated by Belos. Since we don't have a full canon timeline for Hunter, I made a few artistic choices when I was originally doodling these. 1. His ear notch is from creation, and not an injury. I got the image stuck in my mind of a still clay-like toddler grimwalker, and Belos accidentally clipping his ear in the process of trying to cut his hair 💀 2. Hunter's face scar happens later on, maybe around age 12 or 13 (and almost definitely due to an outburst from Belos). 3. Before Flapjack (❤️), Hunter monologued to Sprig 4. While the thought of Darius, Lilith, or Belos being the adult to help make the plush is extremely funny, I couldn't imagine any of them actually doing that, LMAO. Darius and Lilith might not have even been a coven heads yet, and while Belos may have indulged the fresh child grimwalkers a little, I couldn't see him being kind or patient enough to do more than just allow them to have some of their own childhood interests for a short while. Gotta let your child soldiers have the illusion of personal choice and love so they stay loyal :,) SO, I thought to myself, "Who the fuck would be in the castle, but wouldn't hate Hunter for existing??" and then I thought about how Amity volunteered with the public Library to read to kids and help them with projects, and how amazing librarians are, in general. So I decided the castle library had this kind witch as an employee for a while during Hunter's childhood, and he is the one who helped Hunter make Sprig :,,,) Credits Non-native procreate brushes used: Star Brush Set for Procreate by CK Art & Design Ultimate Dynamic Comic Panels, Balloons and SFX Toolkit for Procreate By Ittai Manero

Hunter's bedroom layout referenced from Hunting Palismen (S2E6), and Leland Goodman's original design for Lilith's room (which it seems was re-used for Hunter's room later on in production).

[aquarius-cookie-jar]

Right. I'mma just dump these ref sheets I made here because I'll be making some drawings with these guys, and I am bad at staying consistent within the design lmao.

I was inspired by these amazing designs, go check them out.

X || X || X.

Ramble down here, where I try to explain the ""lore"" and my design choices:

So as mentioned above, the majority of the Dark Cacao kingdom is actually composed of kirins, mainly because Cacao was already a kirin in my older designs, and I wanted more of his citizens to match him. Maybe I'll draw the other Cacao NPCs mlp-ified and what I headcanon their species to be.

I ultimately decided to give Cacao a mane and replace his long hair with that. Ngl, I was always on the fence about Cacao and Choco's designs, but yeah, I think the mane works better than just getting rid of it. (Old design below).

Btw, I dunno if I wanna give Cacao an actual crown, or just keep the additional horn things the leader of the kirins kinda have.

Dark Choco hasn't changed much, just in a different art style. I do however wanna say that he shaved off his mane out of shame and guilt for coming across the cursed sword not long after his banishment. Maybe when he and Cacao reconcile, he'll start to grow it out again, or maybe he'll keep it that way as a reminder of the past.

I actually drew (more like edited a screenshot) Caramel Arrow before, and she was originally just a pegasus, but honestly, the concept of hybrids and what they entail really intrigued me. I thought it would be fun if she were a hybrid kirin/pegasus.

Also, her horn doesn't exactly function, mainly because there's this headcanon I once came across a post that says faux alicorns do exist in the mlp canon. If you wanna know my full headcanon for this, feel free to shoot an ask, but to keep it short, for faux alicorns, either their wings are under developed, or their horn can't control the frequencies of magic that well or at all. Such is the case for Caramel Arrow. Though she has fully developed wings, she can't control magic with her horn, and if she tries to, it may cause a headache. But besides that, she's all fine and dandy.

Crunchy Chip, hm, I'd say when he was a little filly, he was found in the woods, either by Cacao, or Choco, and his horn was already broken by the time they came across him. When asked, the little guy said he was protecting the cream wolf pups from a monster, but he can't remember what else happened before he fell unconscious. As he grew older, his broken horn didn't really bother him anymore. He's adapted well, and picked up a thing or two about survival from his cream wolf pack.

Also, sidenote, the kirins' scales are actually very hard to dent, meaning their backs are usually safe from attacks. Crunchy once encountered... something when he was out on patrol, and he was out of commission for a week (to his incredible dismay + annoyance) because of how rare serious injuries to the kirins' backs occur.

Ah, Affogato. Actually, I really do like him as a character, I just tend to focus my attention towards the Celestia and Luna coded father-son duo a bit more. Oops. But anyway, I decided to make him a hybrid just like Carrow too, mainly to add both contrast and similarities between them. They're not too different, but their ideals and beliefs clash and cause conflict with one another, I just thought it was fitting. Also decided to give him a more elegant and curved horn design as a nod to his unicorn heritage. Unicorns in the Cacao kingdom (and maybe the Golden Cheese kingdom) have a curved horn, mainly because the east asian coded unicorns in the mlp canon have curved horns too, and I thought they looked beautiful. Affo is someone so elegant and refined in a land that's chaotic and holds danger everywhere.

And that's my unhinged thoughts for now. I think I'll design Licorice and the others next time, but no promises.

Anyway, thank you for reading.

[e-adlirez]

The last question you answer about violet having a grasshopper pet being stereotypical make me realize that the girls do be kinda stereotypical in the very first book…(which fortunately isn’t there anymore as the series progress). Though, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I would love to hear your take on the cultural aspect of the thea sisters books. In your personal opinion, do you think the books do a decent job in cultural representation?

It started out with a decent chunk of stereotypes, but what allows me to look past them and love them is the fact that they show the girls growing out of them. For example, Vi (the only one I can actually speak on) is very much the smart and shy Asian kid stereotype (and the occasional esoteric proverb or two), but I love her because she grew into the role of being the group braincell. She's the group braincell, the straight man, the nanny holding four leashes at once, the anxiety-riddled bean who wants to move out of her comfort zone but is scared to do so on her own and thus leans on her friends for support ohmygodshe'sjustlikemefr--

For a series made in the early 2000s, the representation is pretty good! Definitely not perfect (stares at the Chinese proverb thing and Pam being a sasslord with weird-ass slang), but it was very much ahead of its time! The girls did start out stereotypical, yes, but one thing that it did was expand the girls beyond the stereotypes they initially started out with. Violet started as the Asian smart kid, but her character was expanded (if I described how we'd be here all day); Colette started out as a diva, but grew out of it and became a proud girly girl who gets along with Pam even though their tastes in fashion are different; Nicky does have that crazy Aussie in her (which I love), but she's also a goofball and passionate nature advocate a la Steve Irwin (still crazy tho, see that one time she crawled on the roof of a moving train); Pam I think changed the most, seeing she started off as the sassy one with weird slang but is now more the comedic relief who takes charge of the girls culinary itineraries and keeps them grounded; and Paulina's stayed the most consistent, but I dunno if that's saying a lot because she doesn't get that much screentime compared to the others.

One thing I will also appreciate is the extra bit of character building that the girls have that tie the little bits together. Vi has many things she's into and is good at? She is a curious type open to new learning experiences and is also a perfectionist (with anxiety coding), said wumbo combo means she's pretty good at a lot of nerd-flavored things like art and strategy and attention to detail. Pam likes pizza? Her family runs a pizzeria. Nicky is crazy? Yeah she's crazy, she's really good at thinking on her feet even if it means jumping off the outstretched ladder of a speeding firetruck to catch a perp. Colette is a fashionista? She likes looking good and has a good eye for different fashion styles and how to elevate them (and is most likely the reason Pam doesn't just have the most basic of clothes to wear everyday). Paulina is an IT kid? She is also chronically online :D (:'D) and she uses technology to try to improve her corner of the world and remain in contact with her family, mainly her little sister.

Oh yeah and the plots of the books were not that stereotypical, either! Tho take my statements with a grain of salt because I'm not part of any of these cultures, their trip to Japan didn't involve a single ounce of sushi or origami or samurai-- it involved bunraku and a theme on tradition versus passion. Their trip to Hawai'i did involve hula, but that was because they were there to compete in totallynottheMerrieMonarchFestivalweswearsincerelyScholastic, and they do mention the whole volcanic eruption thing without having to talk about Hawai'i religion beyond the white dog superstition, with a little side comment of how business corporates can be more than willing to pull all the strings they can to exploit the natural beauty and the people of Hawai'i. They went to New York and the plot was intertwined very much with the NYC housing crisis in such a way that was easy to digest, even for kids! They went to India and not only set it in an underrated part of the country (Tamil Nadu), they didn't lean into mainstream media stereotypes about India and let the story tell itself as it deserved to! They went to Italy multiple times and, get this, they didn't make a single pasta joke. (Because it's an Italian series that'd be weird if they did.)

But yeah, they treated these cultures with a surprising amount of respect. Like I said, not perfect, but it is a relief how a good chunk of the books still stand up to the test of time.

If you're from any of the cultures they explored in any of the books, feel free to let me know ^^

[kayakoto-enterprises]

Apologies for spam liking your art :( I just love how you protray sam!! Something about the way you draw her makes her look much softer and squisher and I live for it!!

Thank you! You're so sweet <3 no need to apologize. I get super stoked whenever someone starts spam liking my bttwns stuff hehe.

I dunno. Her design is a lil inconsistent body wise and maybe that's just the art style evolving. But she's 45 and I took more inspiration towards other bear fursonas and actual bear morphology for my own spin on her. I think I like the Issue 3 and 4 iterations a lot bc it just feels a lot more consistent? Real? This is a woman I'd see irl lol

Yea shes a fat butch to me. Nigel i get you i would've lost my fucking mind too.

[linagram]

Hiii! Don't know if you remember me, I send you Naomi and Asahi sketches once. I want to repeat how much I like your project and I'd love to draw more for it, but I miscalculated how much free time I have so it took some time (I was supposed to finish the second drawing two months ago or smth...). Anyway! I present to you: the goddes of Linagram, Andou Miki! (I wuv her) Same as last time, I tried to make it look more like Milgram style, this time with color even. Not sure how accurate it turned out, but I kinda like the result. Tbh at first I just wanted to make an art of her, but now looking at the composition and background style... Dunno I just think it looks like it shoud be a series of art of wardens... I really want to make it into a series, but not sure if I will be able actually do it Aaand I guess I kunda screwed up some of her design details (jokes on you, I coildn't even be consistent with her design in my own drawings lol), but it's too late to change anuthing so whatever In the end I want to wish you good luck with both T3 Linagram and Linagram2 development! Oh, oh, and I also want to ask something, but you obviously don't have to answer: are there any special gestures or facial expression traits that your characters (both prisoners and wardens and maybe even victims or side chars) have that you'd like to point out? Like Shun having closed postures or Kei smiling a lot even if it doesn't look like he feels like it? I suppose you've talked about this before, or maybe someone even sent you a similar ask... If it's true, I'll search it!

SHDJAJASJKSJSJ SHE LOOKS AMAZING THANK YOU SO MUCH!! (and yes i remember you!) i love her expression in the first drawing so much she looks like a tiny scared kitten.. (and she kinda is one) i really love the shading on the second one too it looks so much like the milgram art style!! (and it's okay i kinda forget things when it comes to my own designs too 😭)

oh and also i haven't received an ask like that before so here it is! so sorry i think it turned out a bit long ><

akio is one of the characters who has changed the most throughout the seasons. in season 1 (and before milgram), he usually had this kind of annoyed or more serious face expression (but i really like to make his expressions look like he's a bit nervous or even scared maybe? like he's just putting up a front..)

in season 2 he looks much more tired and traumatized for obvious reasons and he's supposed to look like he's in a lot of pain (and he is).

and in season 3, he still looks very tired, but i like to think that now he just kind of.. accepted everything that happened to him. akio doesn't think he'll be able to live that long even if he's able to leave milgram so 😔 akio's character arc is just a humbling experience took too far

aimi's an interesting case! she's actually a character who has the most consistent face expressions and by that i mean. she's literally almost never seen without a smile on her face.

like this art is the only exception??

but also, in season 1 the faces she makes are usually more sad or apologetic-looking! she also likes to do. The Thing with her sleeves

she still has some of that in season 2, but she starts to smile a bit more calmly and even confidently.

and in season 3? she's in her girlboss era!! she's much more confident now, her smile is more wide, she doesn't look sorry at all!!

but some of the art that is supposed to show her outside of milgram shows her having the same smile too.. like she started to look more "like a victim" only when she came to milgram.. huh..

shun is a fun character to draw because most of the time he's either supposed to look stressed (or like "physically he's here, but he's not here mentally") or he's supposed to look so confident that it's kinda scary considering his usual personality. i like to think that in season 1 he mostly looked like the former and started to act like the latter in season 2 only to act like the former again in season 3 because of his punishment.

like!! the difference!! also im not sure if it's easy to notice but when i draw shun i try to make his poses look a bit.. tense? i like to imagine his movements being a bit unnatural, almost like he's in pain or he genuinely doesn't know how to move or make certain poses. it also could be related to why he has his hands close to his face so often, it's almost like he's trying to check if he's real or not!

like aimi, naomi is almost always smiling and her expressions and poses are supposed to make her look like the "mom friend".

she also has her hand on her chest very often, to make her look more.. confident, maybe? like she's supposed to have this "don't worry i'll take care of it :)" vibe!

SHE IS LITERALLY STILL SMILING EVEN IN SEASON 3 it's just that her smile is more wide now and it's supposed to make her look more unhinged rather than someone reliable. like aimi, literally the only case of her having a different face expression is this art.

I HONESTLY CAN PUT KEI, EIKO AND RIKU IN THE SAME SECTION all of them are the smiley characters too but the way they act is a bit different.

kei's smile is supposed to show that there's something. Wrong with this man. like you shouldn't trust him. i'm also not sure if it's easy to see but kei often has this expression like he's looking down on someone. he's supposed to look all cool and when he's drawn with another character, he's almost always going to either look at them or look somewhere else, like there's another person that we don't see.

this is also one of the reasons why this art with him and someone who is (or was?) very precious to him is so important bc he's!! looking UP at the boy!! and he's not smiling!!

riku also likes to smile a lot but it's often supposed to look a bit. forced. it's like kei really believes that he's better than others and breaks when he realizes it's not true, meanwhile riku has the same belief about himself but he KNOWS he's not really special or unique, so he has no choice but to fake it until he makes it. when i draw riku, i always have this sort of rule (?) in mind: riku's smile is never sincere. he is always too worried about his image, popularity and reputation. he hates himself too much to be truly happy even for a moment. which is why him suddenly not smiling in his t3 art is so scary to me it's like.. idk, it's like he's too broken to even pretend to smile now..

eiko is very interesting bc unlike the guys she is a genuinely very confident woman! she doesn't have that many issues with her self-esteem, yes, she's a bit too much of a perfectionist, but honestly, she just has very high expectations from others and if we compare that to kei and riku's problems, that.. doesn't seem too bad to me. her expressions are also often supposed to look like she's laughing at someone or she's about to tell a joke or she's just being playful.

asahi's expressions are surprisingly hard to come up with when i draw him, so i usually just go with whatever i think is cute or shows his personality well. so most of the time he looks disgusted or angry, but i like to make his expressions adorable at the same time too! like akio, he also often looks a bit scared or stressed on the inside. he is also often seen chewing on something.

yurika is another character i find hard to draw when it comes to expressions and poses.. but that's also why i like to take advantage of her. reputation in the linagram fandom and i like to make her look a bit insane!! i get to go crazy with her poses too like girl get a snickers or something!!

and when she's not in a silly goofy mood she just looks kind of >:( i also have a rule similar to the one with riku: if yurika is smiling, her smile is usually fake.

tumblr pic limit is killing me we have to do the rest of this quick!!

reina is another character that changed a lot and if in season 1 she was usually seen smiling, she quickly dropped the facade after it ended and now she is only seen with a more cold and emotionless face expression. who knows, maybe she will smile again one day..

eiji, ironically, was supposed to have expressions and poses a bit similar to kei in season 1, but after it ended and the plot (and yurika) hit eiji badly, i can only imagine him looking more and more stressed with each day. the fact that he's actually similar to kei, but he can't pretend as well as he does..

miki is almost always seen being a bit sad or scared, and she only starts to smile more when season 2 begins and she starts embracing her role here. interestingly, her smile isn't supposed to look fake or forced, and it's actually more sincere compared to kei and riku. when season 3 starts, she lets her hair down and her eyes become more empty (same goes for eiji, who had "swirly" eyes in season 1 and the beginning of season 2) and her tone is more cold.

hinode is a bit.. too relaxed for a guard. he often presses a finger to his chin, like he's curious about something, he's always smiling and his smile is like.. you can't say it's sincere, but you can't say he's faking either. he also often has to lean on something or someone because he gets tired a bit too easily so he's usually seen either sitting or lying down and if he's standing, he's either leaning on a wall or someone's shoulder (usually miki's).

[silk-bullet]

Fuyuka Hiramatsu ౨ৎ [KNY]

Updated Fuyu design!, tweaked her bangs a bit, moved her bow, different haori, now kinda a cloak like her bestie Kanao.

I forgot to put it on the image but as you could guess from her secondary being flower, her sense is sight like Kanao! 💕

Side note, art style consistency?, she left me 😭😭

Where did her eyebrows and socks go-??m I dunno how that happened

[bugeyedfreaks]

1, 3, 7, 9 - buttercup! 💚

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I can’t dislike any of the girls, and Buttercup was my OG favorite PPG when the show came out, so she holds a special place in my heart. I loved her to death because, at the time, I could relate to her so much. A girl with short, dark hair, someone who also didn’t love traditionally “girly” things, who’d hang out more with the boys at school, who was tough and didn’t take people’s crap… I felt all that. She’s the kind of character you just didn’t see much of at the time, either: a girl who wasn’t just cutesy or pretty but rambunctious and loud and not afraid to show her angry side when she needed to. She’s a badass rebel! I still love her even though I’m now a Blossom apologist. 😆

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

Hmmmm… at the moment I can’t think of anything that’s my least favorite thing about her canonically. I really do like Buttercup! It happened to all of the characters, but she definitely did get a little Flanderized in the last two seasons (to a slight degree... also even a little more dumbed down like all the girls were). A common mistake with writing Buttercup can be making her angry all the time... it's not like she never smiles or anything, she gets excited and happy about lots of things like fighting, partying down, candy, etc. She's not an eternal grump, and she doesn't have a permanent grimace on her face... but what she does have is a short temper and a stubborn streak! Now that I think about it, Makes Zen To Me was kind of a useless episode for her (even though it was entertaining from what I remember!) because that’s who she is, someone who goes over the top with her fighting style because she loves to fight. Also, her fighting's never really been a problem before, so why is it suddenly one now? Is that really something that needs to be fixed? It ends up not even “fixing” it for future episodes anyway! I dunno. That was kinda pointless.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

When it comes to the fandom… I don’t know because I don’t really specifically seek out Buttercup content. But when I’m looking for PPG fanfics or fan art, I’ve seen her personality be pretty consistent across the board more or less (at least with most of the stuff I’ve liked, anyway).

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

My heart says absolutely yes… my brain says I don’t know. Assuming she’d be, like, older as my roommate, she’d probably keep bringing bloody slabs of meat into our shared space to punch, I could absolutely see her inviting people over for crazy impromptu parties, we’d probably get into arguments over her love of stink… it could end up being a disaster. 🤣

[an-inky-cultist]

Pinned post!

Hey there! My name is Trainer or real name Maya (She/her). I'm a bendy fan since 2022-2023. This is my main blog so don't be surprised if I post anything other than batim (like fnaf or just silly posts) but it will be mostly only bendy and the ink machine content. Feel free to ask me anything! I love talking about theories in bendy or in general. My favorite characters are mainly Sammy and Henry.

So originally I do NOT ship a lot of characters (and I see the batim employees mostly straight), but this are the ships I'm going to apply in my aus/drawings:

-Sammy x Susie

-Allison x Tom

-Buddy x Dot (I only read dctl but I got all the other book so it's only a matter of time until I'll bring them too into my blog)

- Henry x Linda

I was never great with aus but ill try to do an au with the employees and the team from the past maybe an au where my oc would be included.

Anyway, please be patient with me, I'm still pretty new to Tumblr and it's going to take a while learning about all the features this app has to offer. Any tips would be very appreciated.

So a little warning, my art style is still developing and it's not consistent at all so a lot of my drawings will be different from others.

And I dunno if I should make some rules or something but this are some things I guess I should mention:

- I love getting ideas or prompts so feel free to suggest anything

- I'm trying to post weekly but I may sometimes not post at all due to problems or art blocks

So I think this is it for now. I hope this journey will be interesting for all of us :)

[oddygaul]

Girl Juice and Michael DeForge

Girl Juice

P good. It has some absolutely hysterical, standout moments, but overall didn’t leave as much of an impression as I was expecting it to. I dunno, I might’ve just been expecting more of an ensemble thing, when in fact everything’s more or less centered around Bunny. She’s a pretty commanding character, for sure, but the humor loses a bit of its luster when she’s the punchline nearly every time.

I think the format contributed to this wear a little bit. Girl Juice is structured a bit like a comic strip / webcomic compilation, where each page is ostensibly its own standalone story; when they’re more straightforward gag strips with a payoff, they usually kill, but there’s some bits on the first half where it tries to be a bit more narrative / slice of life, and the layouts start to feel stiff and restrictive.

I did appreciate the ending story for branching out a bit in that regard, with deviation in both the paneling and the pacing.

Overall, the art and vibe and character designs are incredibly charming, and I quite like the author’s voice for dialogue, I just think medium-wise it’s a bit clumsy at times.

Also the slow drip feed of clownlore about Nana was fucking wild. The first time it dropped the clown fetish thing it was a fun one-off gag, then we see her clown boyfriend and hear about her clowning aspirations, and things start snowballing - by the end she’s wearing full-on clown outfits with ruffs and buttons, and suddenly I realize that her red nose, which I assumed was an artistic choice and didn’t think twice about, is a big ol clown honker she puts on / paints every day?? yo.

---

Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero

Reading Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero consistently filled me with the same delight that first reading the title Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero did. which I consider a success story

This is probably my favorite thing I’ve read from Michael DeForge. I think (unintentionally) everything else I’ve read from him are collections of shorts, so it was kind of a shock to get something with this much of a throughline. DeForge is so confident with his style here, and I felt the longer format really gave him time to fully explore the tone and visual style of this setting.

The art is gorgeous throughout, and remains cohesive while still featuring lots of experimentation and playfulness. The tritone coloring is eye-catching, and DeForge really makes the most of it by constantly messing with line variation and texture, adding a huge variety of middle values even between each of the three printed colors. The book, generally, is incredibly lavish - while heavily stylized, both the characters and backgrounds are popping with detail and incredibly graphic, and it feels like DeForge rarely repeats himself with his visual effects. Lots of cartoonists making a strip-based story like this find a trick for certain elements then put them on autopilot; as if to make up for the book’s general artstyle not changing for once, DeForge instead finds new tricks for each element constantly.

All the designs are incredibly memorable, too, from the geese with their mouths constantly agape to the fuckin constantly sweating outline bear.

“Why should [she] be the exception? Penance is her birthright, just as this mushroom is mine.”

---

Heaven No Hell

So yeah, after the relatively cozy Sticks Angelica, hopping straight in here was a fuckin trip.

This is DeForge back on his short story bullshit, and totally nailing every one. The man is a style chameleon - if not for the titling, I genuinely think you could convince someone this was an actual anthology. Visually, not every style resonates with me, but there’s no denying the sheer variety of aesthetic inside Heaven No Hell.

On the recommendation of some internet rando, I held myself to only reading one or two stories a day, leaving time in between to digest them, and… if anything, it only made collecting my thoughts on the book more difficult. Each of the stories is so short, maybe ten pages on average, and they’re all so drastically different - the voice of the writing, the artstyle, the setting - yet they all, to a one, left me with a sense of unsettling bemusement I couldn’t shake. It’s as if you see only a brief snapshot of a story, and are yanked away before you can fully come to grips with what’s going on. Heaven No Hell is almost short comics done as poetry rather than prose, which is a rarity in a medium so tied to narrative.

Some of them come off lighthearted - Soap Opera is one of the funniest shorts I’ve read in a minute, and the middle school murder mystery is surprisingly jovial for its subject matter (and the anti-carceral solidarity that all of the 11-year olds inexplicably share). Some are heady - the title track’s ridiculous tiered heaven system manages to strike a melancholy chord despite its flippancy (honestly bronze tier fucks tho), and the impostor syndrome society, where not a single person is who they claim to be, feels a little too real to be comfortable. Some are surreal and delirious - the war of the unreasonable, New Museum, was an incredibly potent tone piece that fully swept me up in its conceit. And then some are just legit actual nightmares, like the girl whose new ant stepdad keeps knocking up her mom, leaving clusters of giant squirming eggs rampant around the house, hatching and dying and crawling.

Fun panel but also this story is about a skeleton afterlife where the skeletons of every dying thing end up, their skin slowly blooming off them and collecting into a giant shell of flayed skin that girds the planet like a fleshy atmosphere

---

“When the crowd cleared out and the snow off everyone’s boots had melted, we realized that at some point in the night our bodies had crushed and killed Barnaby. Barnaby was the littlest among us. He died the way he lived: misremembering the lyrics to a Hole song. We held a service for him, just a few of us stragglers–the ones tasked with cleaning up. It ended the night. We said a few things. Everyone knew the words.”

---

In a few words: exhaustingly creative.

[taiblogcomics]

Living Sheltered Lives

Hey there, celebrities on Cameo. My birthday's in five days! Let's review some more Countdown!

Here's the cover:

I dunno, DC, this Fall Guys crossover ain't gonna save this story, even if you're thirteen years early. Like, you didn't even get the art style right at all! Also, since there isn't much else to this cover, let's talk about this point: the design of the handcuffs binding Trickster and Piper together are not consistant from issue to issue, further showing how little the staff was communicating with each other. Last issue, they were thick and manacle-like, taking up half the forearm, with a big cable between them. In this one, they're basically handcuffs with a thin-ass wire connecting them. Just saying, last issue, I believed they could deal a lethal shock. This issue? Not so much.

Recap time! So Pied Piper and Trickster got apprehended and are falling from a plane. Donna Troy, Jason Todd, a Monitor, and Ryan Choi are falling into the microverse to find Ray Palmer. Mary Marvel is falling into the sway of her new powers. Jimmy Olsen is falling into the trap of finding a use for his new powers. Karate Kid is falling back into the timestream before something bad happens. And Holly Robinson is not falling for the stuff at Athena's women's shelter. And now let's us fall into this issue~

So we pick up right where we left off, where Trickster and Piper are falling out of a plane. I should also note that, like the design of the handcuffs, the plane also changes appearance between issues. Last time, it was a high-tech superhero plane. This issue, it looks like a normal commercial passenger jet. So you can tell they just wrote "handcuffs" and "plane" in the script, and nobody went and consulted the previous issue's artist. Like, the reason 52 worked so good is that despite being a multi-creator work is that they mostly all communicated. This series, they're clearly not doing so.

Anyways! Falling from a plane! Very scary. Especially coz if they fall too far from each other, it'll trigger the electric shock from their cuffs. Trickster won't take the blame for this situation, thinking they were only in a van when he jumped out. Luckily for them, Piper managed to grab the bag holding all their equipment as they jumped out. How convenient! Trickster manages to dig out his flying shoes, and both of them put on one shoe. At least this comic is smart enough to point out that even if they're about to hit water, it'll still kill them like hitting concrete if they're going too fast--just as both of them plunge into the harbour.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen is trying on a superhero costume. Oh, trust me, we'll be getting to that. I really want to critique it when you guys can see it too, so wait 'til issue 38. Nonetheless, it kind of sucks, and so does his chosen supranym of "Mr. Action". Jimmy then realises he's going to be late for work if he doesn't stop admiring his shitty costume in the mirror. He gets to work, and Lois asks if he isn't hot wearing a full suit (which he's wearing his costume under) on a summer's day. Jimmy just laughs it off awkwardly, saying he's trying to look professional. Then maybe he shouldn't be wearing his Silver-Age green suit with bowtie.

Over in Gotham, it doesn't seem as hot as in Metropolis. Must be the constant cloud cover. At the very least, Mary Marvel doesn't seem bothered sitting outside in her black latex costume. The perks of magic, I guess. Speaking of, though, she's not sure what the magic is doing to her. Apparently Black Adam's powers feel way different than the old Captain Marvel powers ever did. And they seem to be a bad influence on her, given how violently she took care of Clayface. And while she's moping and brooding about this (she is in Gotham, after all, brooding capital of the world), someone mysterious observes her through a purple lens…

Hundreds of miles and microns away, Ryan Choi leads his teammates deeper into the Palmerverse. I'm just gonna keep calling it the microverse, even though that's Marvel's racket. Less confusing. The Monitor thanks Ryan for his efforts in aiding the multiverse. He's just glad to be here. (This won't last, no one in Countdown is glad of the experience in the end.) And now the most important moment in the comic: Jason notes that the Monitor doesn't have a name. So he decides to name him "Bob". "Bob" is a guy he can get casual with, unlike "the Monitor". Fantastic~

Bob and crew land in the microverse just as we cut away to Trickster and Piper hauling themselves out of the harbour. Somehow they lived through that. By sheer coincidence, they landed in Gotham. This is basically out of the frying pan and into the fire to Piper. Trickster has a plan, though. As long as they keep their heads down and don't attract attention, he knows someone who can help. This is indicated by them passing a sign for the Penguin's establishment, the Iceberg Lounge. I like this includes art for the The New Batman Adventures version of the Penguin.

Hey, remember a few issues back when this series teased at being an Amazon Attack! tie-in? Here's another flaw with this series: it's trying to tie in to an event that was running monthly, while this series is running weekly. That's why we haven't heard about it in a half-dozen issues! Anyways, we've finally caught up to that point where Supergirl and Wonder Girl side with the Amazons and hijack Air Force One--yes, that was a real thing that happened. Naturally, the American public is big mad about it, and reacting perfectly believable for the American public, they decide to protest in droves outside the Athenian Women's Shelter.

Like, seriously, they use a two-page splash to show us how big the angry crowd is. They're shouting things like "Murderers!" and "Terrorists!" Like, the President's not even confirmed dead at this point. Harley Quinn goes out to yell at the crowd that this place is just a women's shelter and they haven't even done anything, and Holly has to drag her back in when the crowd starts throwing things at her. Well, say what you will about literally anything else in this comic book, but they sure got the reactionary dumbasses of America down pat~

Now here's a weird bit I think is only in the trade, possibly to even out the page count so you always get the issue's cover on the right-hand page. But it's a fully black page with only the first panel of the opposite page in the middle, showing an establishing shot of the Fortress of Solitude. I get why it was done, but it's very odd to come across in the trade.

Anyway, the comic ends with the Legion members going home. Except Karate Kid is told he's not allowed through the time portal, as he still has something they need him to do here. At least he won't be alone, since Una (formerly Triplicate Girl and Duo Damsel before she lost her dupes) is also coming with him for the adventure.

I think the biggest problems with this issue are the aforementioned inconsistancies with the art. It doesn't say much for the story when you can't keep details like that straight. (If you're missing simple details, you're probably not setting much store by broader topics either, yeah?) This and the weird shift with trying to keep this as a tie-in to other things with a different release schedule really hurt this one. The behind-the-scenes meta stuff hurts this one more than anything in particular in its writing. And heck, it did give us Bob the Monitor~

[ioannemos]

16, 19, 31

where is your favorite place to write?

i don't have a where, tbh. another lack of writing consistency

what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

dunno, i don't think about that much

tell us about one of your characters who's an absolute joy to write.

michelle. she's melodramatic, deliberately annoying at times, and so intense about Art that some might find her a little... off-putting, if not downright obnoxious. but when she loves someone, that passion becomes a shield and she will kill anyone who hurts her loved ones. she's an open book about her good feelings and her bad ones, strives for honesty in everything, and rarely sits still or shuts up. i love her

[moonstruckhaze]

digital sketch dump and meme time hehe

[chocomars]

SW reintroducing Rex like he’s Strider, Ranger of the North in that cantina has me by the jugular, actually.

[portablecity]

this is definitely interesting to read, as i also did not connect with this show even though the genre and premise sounds right up my alley.

i definitely found the gorgeous, detailed, researched and beautifully painted art at direct odds with the utterly shameless pulp style storytelling that was also at odds with the heavy seriousness of the genre references -- which is rare for me - i often love a bold crossing of tonal streams, as it were!

and i dunno, Mizu's maybe too complicated a character premise for a show this pulpy for me? The self loathing, the gender stuff, the xenophobia -- and the Becoming a Secret Weapon Who Cannot Have Peace or Feelings But Must Destroy Or Be Destroyed -- this is a lot, like, a LOT. And i didn't really enjoy spending an hour waiting for them to shit or get off the pot re the gender thing, only for the reveal of it to be an embarrassing gag at Mizu's expense.

The "girl disguised as boy in historical setting rampant with sexism" trope is old news to me and there is a brutal pattern of humiliation and exposure and sexualized violence within it that i think maybe i personally am just too fucking tired of.

(what about a show that treats the passing-as-a-man aspect respectfully? or engages with it kind of consistently at all? like, if it has to be a secret, Mizu's presumably been protecting that secret since childhood -- maybe don't have her fuck it up in episode one? OR, dream of dreams, imagine just writing the character as trans and having the language AROUND the show refer to Mizu as He and, again, respecting his experience protecting himself?)

I might keep it on in the bg while i work and get through the rest of of curiosity, but...

it feels like someone looking back on 90s media in these various genres and mostly trying to recreate it, not create a version with anything new to say.

I'm very curious to read more from mixed race folks about the way the show handles that stuff. As the poster above mentioned, while the borders after closed at the time of the events of the show, they obviously were not prior to that and Mizu would certainly not be the only person of mixed race her age.

Hi! Ive been following you for a while and I'm absolutely in love with your art!

I saw Blue Eye Samurai on netflix last month and since then ive been thinking the characters would look amazing in your artstyle. You should check it out!!

I have way way way way way too many thoughts on this should bc it touched on the hyperfixation and not in the positive way. I wish I could have liked it more; i wish I could like it in the way other people did. Mizu's excellent, but the rest of the show doesn't quite hold up around her.

Anyway here's a doodle of Mizu 👍

[grumpyoldsnake]

(Click for a sharper image!)

@blind--magic‘s recent icon change inspired me to try drawing the image/outfit myself! It’s her OC Masha as a kid, and an adorable kid at that. I had a lot of fun with it. ^_^

[thetruequeenoftheabyss]

Not gonna lie I'm in a bit of a mood