#i say posted bc I'm working on this comic and i already have a page done but i aint showing it yet lol

[sobredunia]

I was literally thinking of a completely unrelated au and then the most perfect fanfic-y trope for these two just worms itself into the narrative. Dear brain I love this idea but also what the fuck how do you come up with this while I am in no way shape or form trying to turn this into romance

[holy-reference-in-a-username]

if you have paid any attention to my ramblings on my process, you know that i tend to rethink my comics and toss out a lot of work if im not satisfied with how it turned out. so i thought id share some previews of comics that have gone unseen, and why they havent been posted (yet?) in order of how likely i am to finish and/or post them :)

(under cut bc long post)

Be nice to each other: Main 4. Tomtord/Polyworld, angst. 4 pages. Matt confronts Tom and Tord on how have been acting, accidentally compelling them into saying how they really feel.

Status: abandoned.

I drew this one quite a while ago and i still really like the dialogue and character interactions i wrote for it! vampire hypnosis is a super cool concept and im definitely going to use it in the future, but this ultimately didnt pan out how i wanted it to.

Why it's not posted: while the buildup and climax are really good, this would be a huge mess to clean up. this would require some serious work both between the four of them and on my part for writing and drawing all of that!! plus, it would totally change the relationship dynamic between Tom and Tord, possibly ending it altogether (and i still have so much i want to do with them!!!)

Ed and Edd: Eduardo, Edd, Eduardo's mother. No pairings, angst. 3 pages. Eduardo can't wait to introduce himself at school, but he's got competition for the name he chose.

Status: abandoned.

Trans Eduardo is such a good concept. imagine figuring out who you are only to find out someone else already is that. of course you're going to hate them.

Why it's not posted: two main reasons. one is that i couldn't figure out how to end the comic (a recurring theme lol), but another is that i'm still not super confident with writing Eduardo yet. ...or writing children. so kid Eduardo is a challenge.

Can't tell where you're looking: Tommatt, fluff. 3 pages. Tom isn't as sneaky as he thinks he is.

Status: on my list!

Tommatt fans, i have heard your pleas i have received your asks. it's on my list.

Why it's not posted: i had a great idea, drew several pages, thought about it, and decided it sucked, actually. it can be reworked, but my motivation did not get out unscathed.

Bad (?) Dream: Tomtord, uh.... yeah thats just smut huh. 2 pages. A bad dream for one and a good dream for the other.

Status: ???

I'm not saying SHIT.

Why it's not posted: originally, it was because i didn't want to post suggestive stuff on this blog. now, it's because i found better ways to cover the concepts in this comic. Y'all will simply have to wait and see ;)

Matt figures it out: Matt, Tom. could be Tommatt. hurt/comfort. a collection of random sketches. Matt figures out how to turn into a bat! It sucks!

Status: on my list!

I've been wanting to talk about this SOOOO BAD!!! because why would you transform in a second via a poof of smoke when it could be an hour-long painful disturbing process?! honestly could be described as hurt/comfort/hurt.

Why it isn't posted: well for one it barely counts as a comic, just random sketches and a general idea. to be fair thats how most of my comics start, but... you know. i havent worked on it in a while mainly because the characters need to solve some personal problems first.

Not tonight: Tordmatt. fluff/suggestive. 2 pages. Matt's got pointy ears again, and Tord knows what that means!

Status: on my list!

TORDMATT FANS I HAVE ALSO HEARD YOUR PLEAS! Also, yippee i get to infodump about my headcanons via a comic

Why it's not posted: unfinished, and i hit a bit of a road block. usually its in writing, but this time its in the art half! so i have no idea how to get around it yet!!!

Puberty sucks fr. imagine losing an eye: Tom, Tom's mother. no pairings. angst. 3 pages. When did Tom's eyes change?

Status: on my list!

You all remember the soul-crushing existential grief that started at the same time as puberty, right? No, just me? Huh.

Why it isn't posted: layout isn't quite what im looking for :/ also, a half-naked child on tumblr, even in a completely non-sexual context, is something i am slightly apprehensive about!

Something's wrong: Main 4. Polyworld, angst/suggestive. 20+ pages. Tom doesn't feel well. Edd, Matt, and Tord try to help.

Status: actively working on it

Oh, you guys remember that poll? Haha thats funny. Yeah i'm still working on this one.

Why it isn't posted: uh its not done yet. and also i am unsure of whether or not it will be allowed on tumblr. or whether or not i want people to speculate on my entire deal.

...and while i'm here:

Communication comic part 6: IN PROGRESS!! these idiots need to establish boundaries. all of them. i believe <3

Zombie Tord part 4: ON MY LIST! i want to get through the communication comic first :3

thank u for reading all my ramblings :D! i am so fucking excited to continue working on all of my dumb shit and i am so happy that ppl like said dumb shit

[spacey-xannabelle]

Fateful Encounter...

Last month, at around April 10th, I decided to revisit an old project I started months prior which was to polish up a test sketch of a comic page about Lucy encountering Lumi in the dreamspace. And after slowly making progress on this, I'm finally finished with this!

I'm gonna leave some artist notes under the read more, but overall I'm super proud of how this turned out!! This is pretty much my first serious attempt at making comics in general so this has been a very interesting learning experience!

Artist notes: So this is what the original sketch for this whole thing was. It was just me scribbling out a scene I had in my head for Startrails that I wanted to put on paper:

This I'd say was made around 2020-2021 ish. At the time, I didn't really do much with it. Until several months ago, I thought of trying to redraw this page and expand upon it.

But my first attempt at doing this didn't quite lead anywhere. I barely got through the thumbnailing process and just gave up bc I lost motivation (and life/work stuff was Happening so yea I had to put this aside as I figured stuff out). Here's the first draft of the thumbnails:

It was just two pages at the time and was pretty simple. I left this project sitting in my files for a while until I one day just, started binging videos from Thestarfishface on YouTube, primarily her webcomic guide videos. And I decided I'd give this project another go.

It was here where I began making a second draft of the thumbnails and this was what I had to work with:

I wanted to experiment with the panels and get funky with the compositions this time around. The 2 page draft expanded to a 3 page thing. But I thought it would've been better if I added one more page at the end with Lucy waking up as a conclusion to wrap this whole thing together.

And in the middle of working on page 3, my friend had suggested to do a an impact frame page, which I hadn't considered during the thumbnailing, so 4 pages became 5. And this was the result!

I posted the pages as I finished them onto my deviantart so that's where a lot of my thoughts were journaled as I went along dfjsdh. To summarize my ramblings there, this project was a very fun (and a bit frustrating) learning experience! I'm hoping to keep practicing and improving my workflow, and hopefully one day make Startrails a full fledged webcomic :')

Additional ramblings:

The structure that Lucy finds Lumi in is inspired by an orrery.

For page 5, I initially didn't plan for much dialogue but as I drew it, it felt just a liiiitle bit empty, so I kinda just threw in some dialogue for Mira. But bc I was already in the inking process (and I just wanted to have this project completed), I didn't redo the page to even include Mira in it. So Mira's just out of frame sdfjskdh. If I had more time and energy to keep this up, I'd have made a revision of the page so I could include her.

This experience has taught me that I could seriously work on my rendering process a bit more, and that my layer management is just atrocious sdkfjksdfh

This has also taught me that while Medibang has the tools needed for me to draw these pages just fine, it also lacks some stuff that I personally need if I were to do a longer project like this. So I'll be experimenting with CSP next!

The dialogue throughout this whole thing wasn't all that planned out- I really just stuck close to what the initial doodle had which probably wasn't the best idea bc I just have like, 2 pages of Lucy's awkward sounding dialogue aaaa. I might do something a bit more dialogue heavy to help improve this skill next time.

Anyway, thank you for reading through my 1 am ramblings on this little project of mine shdkjhks

[yes-asil]

(sorry if this ask goes through multiple times my internet is WACK)

i have!! a ghost boys question!! (absolutely adore these past few pages btw, as a comicfury reader pages 470-473 have been SO cute and im literally crying with joy that theyre reunited ive missed them sm its unbelievable i care them so much ANYWAY)

so i read your fic on ao3 a while back and for no reason in particular, definitely not writing a fic, can i ask for details abt matt and sickness? not like the chronic passing out/near death biz he deals with when hes suffering from ghosts, i know thatll get explained later in the story, but like if he were to get a normal illness. like. say. theres this thing of stress fevers popping up for people who work themselves too hard and you mentioned matt having fever in your ao3 fic which i was rereading earlier because its SO good and i love it but like that fic was focused on the coughing and his lungs giving out lol and i am just wondering if perhaps you would be willing to share how hed deal with being like... aware of being out of commission. being able to feel the fever and physically not being able to be unconscious bc of like the insomnia aspect because i feel like he can be so nonchalant because hes never conscious when hes miserable so just curious on how hed handle having no choice but to acknowledge it. how hed deal with having normal person illness that isnt him about to die. in my head hes ofc going to keep working anyway and make things worse bc thats how he is but i would love to hear your thoughts if you dont mind giving them!!

for no reason in particular. there is definitely not already 1k words of this which will not spiral into something more ahaha wink thank you for all you do this comic makes me so feral(/positive) my friends have learned of the boys through osmosis of me not shutting up every time a new page posts

I'll start this with an: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So happy you like the comic so much!!! And that you rope other people into it is so fun, I'm glad you like my boys!

As for the question; Matt ignores feeling bad no matter for what reason. In his head he just goes "what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger" before he proceeds to knock himself out. When he wakes up, he continues the cycle until his body is back to normal by sheer force of will. It doesn't matter if it is a week long sniffly nose, a dry cough spell that lasts a month or his funny little ghost powers pulling him under. He WILL work and he WILL make himself useful.

The only times he accepts defeat and goes to bed to rest while actually awake are when Lukas' worries so hard it makes both of them want to cry and when Cathrine starts using her soft "I'm really worried right now I can't even act harsh" voice.

He acts pretty much the same then, just a bit huffy and restless

[rontra]

your art is making me go absolutely feral about wondermagic. I never looked at Zatanna comics before (or much comics in general), do you have any recommendations on where to start? I need more of this funky gay stage magician and her huge dork girlfriend in my life.

oh god. I MEAN first of all YES!!!!! WONDERMAGIC W!!!!!!! im so happy to hear it. they make me actually crazy im glad youre enjoying The Art

however SECOND OF ALL i must confess (as i have confessed before!) that i am a fake ass comic book fan. i've barely read Anything for Any character (LOL) i am not at ALL versed in her various appearances/history. so tbh i hope my more knowledgeable followers can drop recs for both me and you if there's anything particularly noteworthy

but i can talk about what i HAVE read bc my journey with her has been very . memorable to me. THIS IS NOT A HELPFUL POST this is just me infodumping--AT LENGTH--about my and zatanna's relationship. but i do talk a little about what ive read. like casual rontra followers can stop reading here its just rambling

anyway my first exposure to ms zatanna was in the first proper dc comic i ever read. which doesnt count because its extremely not about her (this is a tangent) but its notable for making me out loud go "who is this MAGICIAN" which prompted my partner to immediately reply "you mean zatanna zatara". oh you know her. you know the magician. bitch who the hell is--

you gotta appreciate the experience here. its babys first ever comic. i know superman i know batman ive seen them around (from being alive as a human). i have never in my life heard of the stage magician who hangs out with them (in full costume??) and is their friend(?????)

SHES VERY MEMORABLE. WHO THE HELL IS THIS MAGICIAN

anyway that's all a tangent. flash forwards to last month. i was already working on CTDE from the kara^2 angle (bc i majored in n52 power girl w a minor degree in supergirl: woman of tomorrow, of course) but i was like "i should expand this roster". my friends suggest their blorbos ofc and i have a fun time reading wiki pages from multiple storylines/continuities just getting a wide array of impressions from different places. just snooping around the Vibes. and im like. man i should look at that Magician. read some of HER pages

you gotta appreciate knowing nothing at like 3am, to figuring out ctde zatanna's palette at 5:43 am

i can't resist her.

anyway i already knew here that i was going to do something weird with her in the CTDE that wasn't necessarily connected to any of her published material. i was cooking independently. the stove was on before i had ingredients on hand bc i had the IDEA first. but i was like "i should look at some of her stuff first-hand and try and refine the Vibes" yknow. like theres limits to how much of a fake zatanna fan i can be

so we put out a call in the Mutuals Network and someone was like "you Could watch the justice league dark movie from 2017 she's in that". i was like ok 1hr15 animated movie i can handle that EASY

i didn't love the movie. so i'm not going to say anything else about it. however something VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

thats right. wondermagic took hold before i read a single zatanna comic. just as it has for you anon.... we're not so different you and i...

couple days pass. im just relaxing. hanging out. looking at random tumblr blogs that post comic stuff bc im curious. so i stumble on this one post and it has a clean edit of This Fateful Image 👇

this. GODDAMN image

i was like Wonder Woman is HOW TALL? excuse ME? (>he has also never engaged with a single piece of wonder woman content)

SHES SO TALL........??? and Next To Zatanna? (diesel voice) back in my day we called this spitting distance. and we would post it on /u/

im like okay what comic is this from im going there and im going NOW. to view her. like it's that easy folks. just show me wonder woman, Tall, next to another woman. and i'll go read it

nyway this is Justice League Dark from 2018-2020 it's like 30 issues or so and theres a stretch of chapters where diana is a real hunk its unbelievable. then the art changes but it was amazing while it lasted

(and then i immediately stumbled and wondermagic ctde real)

i really enjoyed this comic actually. i have NO idea how its generally regarded by zatanna nation, but i had a fun enough time. absorbed a lot of DC Comics Magic Lore for my AU which is important

at some point it starts doing Weirdly Umineko Coded dialogue totally unprompted so if you've read that it might tickle your funnybone to see comic book characters asking each other "was this a trick or was it magic 😏". made me feel right at home

my main complaint is that SHE'S NOT DRESSED LIKE A FUCKING MAGICIAN IN IT!!!! COME ON!!!!! they chickened out on the full magician garb in this whole era. which is just so sad. the fishnet fingerless gloves are funny though i might steal that. but i think she is so funny when she's wearing the full magician costume. like call me shallow but her commitment to the bit is so important to me

on the upside she interacts with wonder woman A Lot. the rest of the team is fun too. the justice league dark team is just wonder woman severely failing to put together a squad with any star power at all and i think that's adorable. her failgirl era. now she's out here with her also-rans. i like them all im fond of them

diana scruffs zee like a cat??? she's just hanging there like she's ok with it LOL

it technically jumps off of another comic but tbh if you're willing to hit the ground running and just Accept some stuff in medias res and go with it it's pretty easy to pick up if you wanted

("Just Going With It" is a vital survival skill for getting into comics in general because even if a comic isn't part of a longer continuity its always like "omg glup shitto is here!!! for the fans!!!" and you just have to be like Okay someone else will know who that is. ill just go w it. yknow 😭)

anyway i got a lot of DC Magic Lore (Strangely Familiar Edition) and Zee Content AND!!! Wondermagic Content. in this one. so even if i had an inkling about them before, this comic is really what detonated the charge so to speak. they interact so much

and the dynamic created w their relationship to magic and stuff is really interesting. brainwormy for sure. it took me from "who the hell is this magician" to "DO PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT WONDERMAGIC????? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO???" in one comic. i have a LOT of thoughts about them like genuinely i think there's meat on the bone conceptually for wondermagic

but i think pretty much any time they appear together in general they're just Like That. whenever theyre both in a comic they have to be gay about it (what the fuck did she mean by this). i was losing my mind when i was catching up on DC/RWBY (ABHORRED. avoid if possible) and zatanna is immediately on her bullshit again. IS THAT HOW YOU GREET HER

anyway to sum up my rambling here's a peek into my league of comic geeks library of Shit Ive Read Since Then (that had zee in it). basically i have no further wisdom for you but for the knowers this is where i'm at (click to enlarge)

it's a totally random selection LOL my strategy is that i look at comics that list her as a cast member and spin an actual roulette wheel in my brain to decide whether i should read it or not. there's very little else going on here. just monkey sees funny magician -> neuron activates

that pretty much catches us up on my zatanna journey. youll notice if you paid attention to the date/time stamps that it took a mere matter of Days to go from "yeah i can watch a movie" to "i think about her kissing women every night before i sleep". it is DIRE in here. im not sure ive ever had such a Severe escalation of worms

i love her. she's my funny girl. anyway. zatanna nation. if you're still reading this. if you're still with me. what is your wisdom. what should me and anon read. please.

this is a matter of international consequences.

[matchadobo]

have a oc that a part of the kid pirates rignt, tell me more a about her.

YES

first of all hi anon!

i haven't had the chance to actually elaborate more on her storyline, visuals, and characterizations bc of the shithole called school 🙁 i will try to get back on doing stuff for them but i doubt i'll be able to commit since we still have some work even on break 😩

but ANYWAYS

so margaret mulhall 🔫

PRE-MEMBER

i assumed you've already read her first post and their first meeting.

to provide more info, i based her character off of lucille mulhall. to put it simply, she's the first cowgirl originated from missouri. in this case, i made margaret's mother to be lucille. margaret made it her life goal to look for her mother, it is an irl canon event that lucille lives in st. louis so i made that margaret's destination.

margaret lives off as a ship hopper (is that a word) ever since she was of legal age. she's a mercenary who takes on jobs under a certain handler, it is an informal employment. i would cook some bullshit and say this employment is aided by someone who raised her. her father is... well... i haven't cooked up something for that yet 😩

she is scared of dogs LMAO that's why i made an art for it. i just find ppl scared of dogs really cute. most dogs are scared of new ppl too so they're just scared of each other it's the CUTEST thing 🥺.

in terms of personality, margaret is somewhat similar to robin hood. does crime for good? helps people but also breaks the law? a kindhearted criminal? she steals, knows her way around danger, very daring, may or may not have k1lled someone 🫣, slept around some places for certain conditions, and have SEEN some shit. her ideals are way too similar to a pirate tho, fuck the govt and celestial dragons kinda shit. she doesn't have a stigma against pirates, she have worked (mostly betrayed) with them side by side. she just hasn't really sat herself down to assess if she'll join one. she doesn't see the need for it (until she met kidd 🤧), she has a one track mind that is only set on reaching st. louis.

NOW-MEMBER

it'll be narrated in the comic that i'm hopefully planning to release, but here is the rough sketch of the next page that does not probably make sense

but i'm planning to have her join bc she saved kidd from the marines so there's some you-owe-me kinda stuff between them, she only saved kidd to let him have her on the ship and take her to st. louis. she'll only plan to stay on the ship until the victoria reaches the island and in the span of her stay, stuff will build up between margaret and kidd 🥰. once she leaves tho, kid'll begrudgingly ask her to be become part of the crew, chemistry is just too strong in this one😌. let's just say he'll miss her 😞. i'll do better explaining in the comic i'll make I SWEAR 🥺

you guys are free to send asks abt your thoughts on margaret's characterization or anything else that could help my oc! if it's some deets abt the story with her, it'd really help 🥺 i welcome your thoughts 🥰

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 081 The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man (ASM 246-248)

MASTERPOST

This time: daydreams, hot Peter, a secret sister, extremely hot Peter, and... uh...

...whoever this guy is. Also, read the title again!

Spidey's relationship with Black Cat is much more happy under Stern's penmanship. He goes to see BC at the hospital (she's not out yet in ASM 246) and invites her to help him steal papers at an embassy. Not only does he appreciate her expertise, but he uses it! That's lovely.

Then they give the papers to an agent, who gives them 500K dollars, and they get away in Spidey's yacht and--wait a minute.

Oh. Well played, Mr. Stern. Well played.

Elsewhere...

Jameson is channeling his inner Sue Sylvester.

I can see it.

This issue gives you insight into everyone's dreams. Felicia wants to be respected and loved for who she is (and rich). Jameson wants to punch Spidey down and be celebrated (and rich). MJ wants to be famous (and rich).

Then MJ's sister who wanted to be an actress is introduced and when MJ wakes up from her daydream, she sure has a REACTION.

Oh, is that the new MJ thing? Act all happy in every panel except her very last one of the issue where suddenly she's terrorized? It's the second time now.

In his dream, Peter saves Jonah and gets famous for a picture where Jonah kisses Spidey's foot. It's pretty similar to Jonah, in a way I never considered. Are they foils to each other? Anyway, Peter also has a fancy camera, then Dr Sloan says he actually cured every disease EVER. The celebrity kind of terrifies him.

Captain Marvel <3

And now, every superhero team fights to get Spidey. But then nobody wants him anymore because Spidey's powers were forced upon him, so his cause isn't as noble as people think. Kind of interesting, but the self-pity does get tiring.

It's a nice issue at least! The teams were changed for Comic Con (see previous post).

Anyway, #287 time!

Spidey asks Arthur "Nose" Norton for intel about the Hobgoblin. He leaves when Nose says he's got nothing, but Nose does have *something*... But is it related to the Hobgoblin?

Anyway, Peter joins May and Anna for dinner.

The Romita Sr/Jr team-up makes for great work because that last panel is... oh, my ovaries!

Peter mentions that ever since Anna and MJ's return, everybody's been trying to set him up with the latter. Well, it's not MJ arriving with Nathan who'll prove him wrong!

Stop being so fucking hot, Peter?!

Peter can be so funny. And that relationship between MJ and Nathan? Hell yeah!

Sorry for the amount of screenshots but ah, my ovaries! They're bursting!

Anyway, Spidey follows Nose and his suspicious attitude, unaware that he's being watched himself. It's Frog-man, who soon intervenes.

Well at least he's funny.

Later...

Jesus Christ.

Anyway, uh, Spidey gets to the goons to whom Nose gave that stuff, and it's eventually revealed that he wasn't running after the Hobgoblin (obviously), but Thunderball. Sure.

We saw Nose's last appearance! I'm not too sad about it. Also, apparently, the guy who was following Spidey was *not* Frog-man, and we never learn who it was. I'll assume it was the Hobgoblin then.

#248 time!

Oh.

Watch me skip the 10 pages of fight with whoever that villain was because I am nawt intcherested.

Ooh. Every Star Wars movies? I hope he liked the 2010s trilogy...

Spidey goes to see Tim at the hospital to have a little conversation with him. You quickly forget that the kid is even at the hospital.

The conversation is full of nostalgia, it's quite fun, and then it's time to say good night.

He does, then leaves.

Yeah.

I think I already read that story, years ago. It's famous, and very much spoiled for pretty much everyone. It's alright, but a bit obvious.

There's a cute follow-up in Christmas Holiday Special #1 in the 90s, FIY.

[spider-xan]

I had actually meant to post my thoughts on finally reading the entire Green Goblin arc in the original USM comics spanning USM #22-27 in its entirety as opposed to just the second half starting with USM #25 when the issues were first printed and released back in 2002 a week ago, but I'm not in the right mindset to write a detailed post right now, so just a few brief thoughts in the meantime:

There is so much to say in terms of the long term and broader impacts of how these comics conceptualized Spider-Man that is still being felt to this day, to the point where you could make an argument that their influence has arguably exceeded the original Lee/Ditko/Romita runs, starting with the Raimi films and increasing exponentially from there, and this arc being the one where Peter meets Nick Fury and SHIELD starts playing a much larger role than it usually does with Peter, esp during his early teenage superhero career, is like, ground zero for that.

This arc is another great example of how USM was simultaneously compressed and decompressed compared to the 616 comics and the stories that parallel bc on the one hand, it took six issues to tell the 'Norman throws Peter's girlfriend off a bridge' story (though that's just one major part among other plot points) where the original comics did it in two issues, but on the other hand, it only took until USM #26 for Harry to turn on his father and side with Peter, less if you take into consideration that he was barely around, which took decades of real time in 616.

Bendis has a very distinct style for writing dialogue that you can identify immediately, and it works if it's just, say Peter talking that way, but it is extremely irritating when EVERYONE talks like that in terms of diction, jokes, pop culture references, etc. - when I was a teenager, I thought his dialogue was so cool and original, but as an adult, it's bad that characters don't have distinct voices and sound almost like they're being written by J*ss Wh*don lol

I wrote a post about this earlier, but yikes at an entire page being devoted to homophobic jokes meant to make the good guys look cool and badass - truly a comic from the early 2000s smh

One of the most interesting things is how reading this now after Peter's run ended years ago versus as the issues were coming out the first time I read the second half over twenty years ago is such a different experience where lines I didn't think much of back in 2002 now hit very differently, knowing what will happen in later comics - the big one being Peter saying that if Norman goes after his loved ones, then he will fight him until one or both of them are dead (okay, they both got resurrected and be ane immortal, but you get what I mean), but also the foreshadowing of Gwen and Harry's deaths, whether already planned at the time or not.

[nights-at-crystarium]

Hi hellooooo and thank you <3 Putting my responses under the cut~

I remember seeing a post!! About Vivi's weapon! And for the life of me I cannot find it anywhere but you linked the post underneath the comic where he first met Ardbert!

Here you go! I posted it a bit earlier on tumblr, that's probably why.

Also here are Alisaie's weapons that don't have a name yet. Essentia is a name just for Vivi's spear, yes, but several people began referring to the whole concept by that name whoops. That's my mistake as a writer, I'll take it as a lesson in the original lore delivery.

Their duel looks awesome. It looks so Fluid. Idk how you did it bc it's a comic and not animated, I never know how comics do it actually, but it's always so impressive.

I'm glad that you think so!! It's probably because of the smears (blurry actions) and stretching/squashing. Like for example their hair looks longer than normal in this panel, we're used to seeing this trick in art and animation, our brain suggests quick movement.

This scene was totally unnecessary and self-indulgent, yet I wish I'd make it even longer hahah. Just two elves frolicking around and chatting nonsense. This form of communication's much easier for Alisaie than holding hands and talking feels.

"you still can't duel for shit" interesting! So does Vivi have a weakness in battles where he has to fight one other person, or is it only in sparring? Does he have anyone else that he naturally works with? Does he have an easier time when he's fighting multiple people at once? :O I just realised I've never really seen what his fighting style looks like in a fight where his life is at stake.

Vivi can't see the telegraphs if there's no actual threat to his life, a bit of silly ingame mechanic interpretation for the Echo. Alisaie has no intention to harm him and would stop before her sword reaches him, so he's kinda blind, only relying on his actual (average) combat skill :'>

Once he realized that Hydaelyn's gifts carry him when shit hits the fan, he started dismissing the real training/skill. Vivi doesn't see the merit/appeal in being a cool fighter, the world-saving happens anyway while he's present, so why bother. But I fear I'm getting too far ahead of the comic plot.

"You STILL can't duel" implies that they've gone through this before. Even if it's been 1 year for Alisaie, for Vivi just about a week since their separation, hell knows when did they spar last time, he obviously didn't undergo some massive training in a week, Alisaie mustn't expect much from this lil dance, it's simply better than standing and twiddling her thumbs.

Gotta acknowledge how much value I get from our convos, aside from the happy brain juice. You're bringing up many points that make me realize how and where I could improve my work. We indeed haven't seen Vivi in a "real" fight, I thought it wasn't worth the screentime because the comic's focused on daily life and feels, YET! As time goes on, it becomes more of a sore thumb, a missing beat, a solid chunk of Vivi's life unjustly shoved aside. This's important, and I'm already looking into fixing it. There's plenty of opportunities to show a page or two of combat without changing my script.

"This Crystal Mystel tends to get broody when left alone for too long" HI??? HELLO?? I'm in SHAMBLES

Wehhhhh ;w; <3 I received so much love for this line aaaaaa. Thank you so much. Their casual greeting and body language indeed hint at a shared past, I'll be sprinkling in more of their interactions and flashbacks throughout the years.

Anyway I apologise for taking so long, I've been trying to commit the entire comic the memory before I say anything so I can Really talk abt it >:'3 I give you, the author and artist, a flower as well for all your hard work 🌺

Please never apologize or feel obliged to comment on every episode!! I'm taking great joy in reading and replying to these posts, I can babble on about Fragments for hours, but I don't want this to feel like a job for you ;3;

Also time to give back some flowers, catch~ 🌸🌷🌼🌹🌺🌸🌼🌻🌸🌺🌹🌼🌺🌸

✧✦✧ “Fragments” - episode 27 ✧✦✧

A little girl bested Vivi with her left hand. Exarch's still impressed for some reason. (reason: oblivious fanboy)

New reader? Start here: @ffxiv-fragments

[ikimaru]

gosh i just wanna say im sorry u keep getting asks demanding for a comic update. i think i can speak for most of ur fans that we’re just happy ur posting in general! rest and balance is super important so please dont feel pressured just bcs some folks here demand it from you <3 at the end of the day we’re all just klance lovers!! :))

ohh I didn't take that ask super seriously, I thought it was the same tone as "we need answers!" kinda thing fjkjgs but ye I already have a schedule so it's not like I'm gonna make it any faster than that anyway

if anything I'm gonna try to make as many pages as I can this week so that I got the next weeks covered and finally have time to do something else too lool it's easier to work on comics with a buffer but I haven't been able to make one for a while now so I want to fix that

[linootte]

I just found your art through your CR animatic and absolutely fell in love with your style,, what/who are some of your biggest artistic inspirations?

Hi! I received this ask ages ago, idk if you're even still here or alive anon, but I'm going to respond to it!

I don't have a very fixed style, so i guess this is a hard question for me to answer, but here are a few artsists that are always in the back of my mind!

First, Stupidoomdoodles. She did a lot of cool DBZ Vegebul comics a few years ago. Her style was quite "simple", but i've yet to find an artist whose expressions made me laugh more that hers. Sadly she has deleted most of her art/blogs so you can only find her art reposted. Whenever you see me drawing big round stupid eyes... that's her legacy.

In the same ballpark, @kebabcito recently is killing me with their expressive and sketchy comics, with top-notch character designs. And that texture mmmmh... I REALLY have an itch to do more comics (the problem being: having time and ideas).

Animation-wise, I obviously am influenced a lot by Ghibli (who isn't), but people like Felix Colgrave (bc I love how disturbing yet coherent and colorful his world is) or Louis Zong (bc this man's content is so funny and i love how much he blends techniques, music, animation, everything together...I WISH I KNEW HOW TO DO THAT DAMN) are also big inspirations.

@ameliecausse is a very dear friend of mine (coucou si tu lis ça :D ). She influenced a lot the way i think about backgrounds, and her digital paintings were so good they pushed me to do more lineless art, and to incorporate already existing textures into some of my drawings. Also I stole a bunch of photoshop brushes from her shhh.

I need to mention FMA: not only is it my favorite manga, i use to copy pages from it, a lot. I think it KIND OFs hows in the way i draw heads??... idk. (i know i never draw anything FMA-related, but you don't "need" to do fanart for a piece of media that is already perfect imo. At least for me, fanart is always born of a mix of excitement and frustration). Recently I've learned to love very colorful art more than ever, like Moebius, or Dominique Ramsey's art. Anyone who draw weird creatures/animals already has my love, but her!!! Wow... What can I say. Just go see her stuff please.

Speaking of colorful art, my lastest illustration shows i think how much @cy-lindric's work had an impact on me. There are hundreds of other artists I would to love to talk about, but this post is already too long. So here is a recent art mindblow of mine to finish this post:

The COMPOSITION! The MEANING... the COLORS...

Thank you for that very interesting question!

[ectonurites]

Do you know how old Tim is now? I’m seeing people say he’s 17 but I thought they made him at least 18?

I think at this point I need to like. Make an FAQ page with the most common comic questions I get so I can stop repeating myself on stuff like this. Bc it's not your fault for not knowing, anon, like I 100% understand you asking so don't take my tone here as being frustrated with you, but it's just that these age questions have been asked and discussed to death at this point so im always like 😑 when i get a new one sgfdhgf

But Tim's age has not been specifically confirmed on panel since 2016, when he was still ~16 (if you wanted to use some interpretation the panel that mentioned the age could be interpreted as 'recently 16' rather than 'at that exact moment' 16, but it's debatable).

We literally have no solid idea how old he exactly is right now. According to like... logic, he's absolutely older than 16 right now, but DC also throws logic out the window all the time so. Ya know. I hope it's something we get a solid indication of sometime soon, honestly I feel like Dark Crisis: Young Justice could be a good/likely place for that to happen for him and the rest of the core four.

There's been a few things recently that imply he's more like an adult now (Robins had some implications i discussed the other day, and some of the stuff in House Of Gotham also has implications if you work through the logic btwn Jason, Tim, and the unnamed boy's ages in relation to one another) but it's not enough to like, solidly say 'ah yes he's exactly this age now'

I am once again putting on the post itself that i'm begging this to not start more age debate in my inbox.

just as a few preemptive responses:

'but Tim had a story about going to college' that was the same arc that last said his age. he was supposed to be ~16 for that, it was a special 'genius' grant thing he'd earned.

'but two years passed in YJ 2019' its left unclear if tht was true in-universe or more of a joke about the length of the run irl.

'but infinite frontier happened shouldn't that restore the old age differences?' it should but who knows if it actually did, it 100% didn't for Cass considering her current main writers mentioned seeing her as a teen yet Jason is written as an adult and she used to be older than him, with a discrepancy like that already among batkids we can't assume it automatically fixed things for Tim

[thirstyforred]

i don't want to make new post so im gonna borrow this one✌️i also spent some time thinking and came to the conclusion that I might as well include some comfort characters outside of the witcher since I do have them, anyway

Gavin Reed from Detroit: Become Human. i know, i know. dbh is, in every possible way, a bad game, story, worldbuilding, presentation, gameplay, everything sucks, and you know what the worst thing is? that this guy ⬆️ this character who had like 3 scenes total, is fandom's darling, special little stinky boy, there's a full-length fan movie with him as one of the main characters, it's actually pretty enjoyable watch, actually, fuck dbh just watch Detroit Evolution, I don't get it, but every once in a while I will look at my home page on AO3 with favs that are primarily dead fandoms and then there's link to reed900 tag and there's always something new to read there, and it's often good. and I just like case fics ig

Bullseye from Marvel. i remember that in the last year of high school, someone asked me, bc my whole group hated our English teacher and wasn't giving a fuck, why I'm giving visibly more effort, and I said that I want to know English so I can actually read comics and not just synopses of them on the polish fansite. it had to be literally a year before they started releasing hardbacks every month or so. anyway, the person told me that I probably can read them already, and I was like yeah ig, and then I got home and grabbed the list of Bullseye's every main appearance from the 70s till the Dark Reign storyline and was reading that for like two weeks. i have known no peace ever since 🥰

Ogata Hyakunosuke from Golden Kamuy. it's a bit more of a discomfort character, bc I feel like my brain got rewired last year, but still. idk what to say more, I feel like everyone who followed me since last march got to see the rise and fall, and then the general fallout of what reading gk did to me. F

Roderick de Wett from the Witcher games. no pic bc I would have to crop it myself and I'm lazy. I'm putting him here instead of Alvin literally only bc a few weeks ago after posting the bugfucking my first thought of comforting myself with some creative work was to break rod's arm. it did help so here we're, he's got to be officially my comfort character, and I'm the fool

Namrevlis from my brain. you may think, thirsty that's not fair, that's your oc, but I just typed her name in duckduckgo image search and got this pic so sue me. i have had her since like summer 2017, so that's a lot, and some things changed of course, and some didn't, I put her in some different settings just to see if she you be thriving and she did, idk what to say, sometimes your comfort character is someone you created and I think that really cool, if I'm suddenly crying now it's because I'm sick, fuck ogg

@do-androids-dream-ao3acc tagged me in a 5 comfort characters thing (thank!) so i'm doing this "try not to post 5 pictures of geralt of rivia" excercise

do ocs count? because honestly most of the time the feelgood for me comes from thinking about ocs. and i haven't delved deep enough into many properties to really get a diverse set of characters for this

so here's my top 5 witcher babygirls (gender neutral) in no particular order and excluding Gerry? predictable as all hell

Ciaran aep Easnillen, surprising absolutely nobody. But the cope i live on where he's perfectly fine and chilling in Vergen is just 'mmm, good for my lil guy'

Madoc, who is very close to becoming an oc (doesn't even have a canon appearance), though i stick to the journey story. It's tragic but it won't leave my brain. I want to ContentTM about him at some point down the road.

Bincy Blumerholdt, whose gwent card i used in my syndicate deck a long time ago and got great results with despite it not being a meta choice at all. And she's super cool.

Isbel of Hagge, i suppose of the entire tb cast, she's the closest to a comfort character for me. I love her vibe, the fact she shows her age, and i find the concept of a pacifist in a war time very interesting. I based a couple ocs on her.

And of course, my babygirl in chief, Rainfarn of Attre. Who is kinda becoming an oc as well, though at least there's more official content to work with. CDPR had to focus on other stuff in B&W, i get it, but they reduced my poor guy into "snorts fisstech randomly on the tourney grounds for everyone to see" which...i didn't like. I swear one day i will find the words and will to finish that fucking Gregoire fanfic.

i tag @gaiusmarcellusnerva and @thirstyforred, gimme your robots mgs eternal fire extravaganza

[darkholme]

if you ever decide to make a house of m explanation post…… i would be v interested. Bc while I consider myself pretty well informed on 616, and 100% agree w your opinion about shutting people up abt house of m, I’d rely rly love to see what you have to say

i don't think i have anything really ground breaking to say about HoM since this event came out over 15 years ago - what it did to the x-men, what it did to the avengers, to pietro's character, to wanda's character, plus all of the ableism and misogyny there, etc, etc, have been extensively covered by others, and i would really just be regurgitating those talking points again. i also don't have a huge desire to reread HoM to dig for panels to back up what i'm talking about so i'm sorry this response ended up very text heavy.

the main point i was trying to get at is that HoM is not about wanda. it's using her and her reality warping powers as a vehicle to create a new status quo for the marvel universe going forward: a different avengers roster and a little less than 200 of the mutant population left. she isn't even in most of the series! it's wolverine who is the pov character for a majority of the issues. i've seen many people talk about HoM as if this is wanda's "big moment", when it absolutely is not. its the entire super hero population coming to murder her, and her family, that has been through so much heartbreak already, trying to do what they can to save her. wanda didn't rewrite reality "just because" which was another thing my post was about.

Big Event Comics will sell. big super hero fights will sell. character deaths will sell. it's similar to civil war in that regard, which came shortly after HoM, where it didn't have much to say about the questions it was bringing up, and kind of ends as more of a way to make bucky the new captain america for a few years, tony the new director of shield for even less, and for the spider-marriage to be dissolved. as of 2022, only the spider-marriage is still undone.

the consequences of the decimation have also now finally (FINALLY) been laid to rest with the new krakoa era's resurrection protocols for the mutants, and even wanda herself creating the waiting room at the end of trial of magneto with the help of legion and proteus. and before that, wanda with phoenix force powered hope summers restored the mutant population in AvX. and even before THAT, wanda alone began to restore the x-gene in mutants with her powers back in children's crusade. so its completely ludicrous to pretend like ToM was the first she had "made up" for the decimation.

and, honestly, no one really likes HoM! there are a number of good comics or runs for the x-men post-decimation, but i've never met someone who actually reads comics and says that they like HoM and most of what came after for the mutants. so its insane to me to see mcu stans who read (skimmed) a wikipedia page, and apparently even the people working for disney/marvel studios, completely misinterpret what this event is: a way to dwindle down the mutant population and create new stories from that. (never mind the legacy virus and the destruction of genosha that had very recently happened at that point, but whatever, marvel. whatever!)

house of m is not a story arc like dark phoenix or the winter soldier. house of m is an event comic. people not understanding the difference is the problem. one is more character driven and one is more sales driven. an event comic is to create a new status quo and is not always written with characters' integrity in mind. it is a way to get from point A to point B while using whatever characters writers/editorial need to get there even if it doesn't completely make sense or compromises their integrity (see both civil wars). a majority of the comics that follow up on or are even part of The Event Comic are trying to get back to that initial point A status quo. stan lee called this the illusion of change. it just took a little longer in this instance to get back to that initial larger mutant population.

there's some potential there for HoM to be more character driven, and to tie it back to prior issues (like wanda's strong reactions to carol danvers leaving the avengers in annual #10 and vol. 3 #7), but that's obviously not how things shook out. i will admit i think there are even a few good scenes in HoM, but unfortunately all of them get drowned out by both the aftermath of the decimation, and the later retcon of the twins not being mutants and not magneto's children.

and a television series or a movie using elements of HoM isn't inherently bad. if they tweaked a lot of things, it could actually be about wanda, her struggles, and her family and actually SAY SOMETHING about the character. but the mcu is an absolute nightmare place and the character in this massive movie/tv franchise is wanda maximoff in name only. i'm certain multiverse of madness will continue to drag her comic counterpart’s name through the mud. there is nothing new or powerful about a selfish white woman not learning anything after holding an entire town hostage and continuing to rip apart reality to get what she wants.

616 wanda is a character i love very dearly, so i feel strongly about what people say about her and how a character using her name will be portrayed in a big blockbuster movie that general audiences who don't read comics will see. 616 wanda is not a villain or a bad person. she isn't! she doesn't deserve all of the bad things that have happened to her. she is good, she is a hero, she has many people who love her both in universe and in the real world, and she does everything she can to make up for any hurt she has caused others. we can move on now, marvel studios.

[blackberry-gingham]

How do you think Otto would come to care for a not classically attractive reader? I know you mention he doesnt care for looks but what would draw him in?

Well if I'm being 100%, I kind of think that anyone who shows both the interest for one, and initiative second, to approach him at all is probably his main and only attraction requirement lmao.

Maybe that sounds kind of lame or desperate of him to some of you, but you know what? You're right 😂 Look, even when we have the king of DILFS himself, Alfred Molina, playing the doc, they kind of want us to believe that he's like average looking on a good day, so.... Yeah 😅 He doesn't get much action on the dating scene.

Although I will say, once he gets passed that honeymoon stage of as being just soooo freaking happy to finally have had like his first kiss and stuff with someone lmao, the thing that will be the deciding factor for him is personality.

I know personality is kind of thought of as "something on the inside", but idk... I think you can tell quite a bit about someone's personality just by looking at them! I'm going to be straight up, again, but the doc seems like he is honestly looking for anyone who can 1) put up with his nerdy ass shit 2) can tolerate his face and 3) has at least a moderately nurturing personality

You all have seen me post those comic pages 3929299 times already, so I'll spare you, but I mean he literally says as much himself a few different time lol. He loves aunt may so much bc she like to take care of him, even when there's literally nothing in it for her.

She also meets requirements 1 and 2 that I mentioned above and, as far as the newer comic is concerned, she also called him up first, so boom, first paragraph about "approaching him first" also met 😅

Anyway, TL;DR bc you guys know I love my rants about this guy: this man will literally catch feelings for whoever hits him up first. If you can tolerate his eccentric personality and also have a knack for being a caring individual, he'll probably pick up on that too, which would also work to attract him if you're not the outgoing type.

[kummatty]

Do you have any tips on reading more :)

scream I really feel like I'm the last person you should be asking, I've been struggling for years to try to read more and I made my book goal 9 books for this year bc I couldn't conceptualize double digits... but I can share what's helped me some, first this post is rly great, and a lot of what ive been doing echoes it :

put reading materials all around you - I have stuff on my phone/laptop & often have tabs open to what im reading/want to read, a physical book in my bag, the pocket app is also great for keeping track of articles, it makes it easier to read throughout spaces in the day & reducing the time, distance, and decision making it takes to open something is critical for me; i prefer having a variety of materials too- articles, short stories, books, novellas, comics, poetry, graphic novels etc, the variety and different forms keep me engaged

know what kind of reading is going to hold your attention the most rn - to build a habit and build focus for reading, its abt knowing what im able to move through easier, I've been reading shorter books (more than 300 pages makes me hyperventilate), mostly fiction, and books I feel are at my current reading level; in addition to short form anything

on rebuilding focus, ive had to be conscious of where my mind is straying, and when it absent mindedly picks up other things or starts scrolling I have to remind it of what we were doing, and with that the intervals start to get less frequent if u keep doing it, and removing distractions helps; ill also say that i’ve been working on balancing/mediating my relationship to social media over time and that’s helped w focus and reading; all of it is such slow deliberate work

reading several things at a time - maybe this only works if your brain is already so scattered but rly not putting any boundaries on what i start and finish, i like having different genres/types of books, varying the content, jumping into one i just found out abt, returning to ones i started before, im always downloading something or the other just so its there when I want to turn to it,, idk sometimes u do have to stop yourself from jumping too much cuz you'll never settle enough to read anything but it's helped me to be able to shuffle bw readings based on my energy/attention levels and what I'm feeling like reading that day

the feeling of accomplishment has been important, shorter books help w it a lot - also so many great novellas/graphic novels/short stories/articles - and so do rly achievable goals like 9 books, u start to pick up momentum when u find yourself finishing things and feeling good abt it

making associations is also good advice, ive not done this very well but the idea of signaling to ur brain that you're transitioning into a reading space, could be time of day, where u sit in ur house, drinking something like tea whenever u start reading; I'm still trying to make a habit of reading an article/short story every morning so that I can read something complete before the day starts (and usually gets away from me)

and I do believe in hopes prayers and giving it attention in ur mind even if u don't do the reading that much yet - like having in my mind that I want to read I want to read has eventually helped me move towards making it a bigger priority even if it's taken years lol, it's honestly v difficult w work and other things to find the time, part of the reason I read so much this month was cuz of a lot of time off

im sorry this is so long when i don’t think i’ve said anything new, but i hope its helpful somehow! <3