#id enjoy art of Black characters that actually looked Black

[tododeku-or-bust]

To my non-white viewers of this question: in the tags, what are some things you'd do if you didn't have to deal with racists or racism (let's say they all got somehow muted)? This can be anything, from fandom to professional spaces

[sunnnfish]

Okay OKAY I wasn’t gonna propagandize the summer hikaru died but ive been thinking a little too much about it. SORRY I’ve been basically recommending a hundred different series. If you think my posts are all over the place you should see my brain. Anyways.

The THING about the summer hikaru died. The many things about it. That are getting to me. Number one the overwhelming feeling of SUMMER. Almost every page has the sound effects of cicadas or rain and sweat on everyone’s bodies. It’s so immersive, to me at least. It’s like it never lets you forget. A constant droning it feels like everyone has to speak a little louder to be heard. Something oppressive lives here, and it’s not just the eldritch horrors.

Number TWO. Grief. But in like that horror way. Mourning somebody no one else knows is gone. I’m just gonna say it bc it’s revealed in like the first 5 pages it’s body replacement. Some.. thing replaces the main characters best friend and it’s like. The twisting feeling in your gut looking at something that you should know but knowing it’s not the same anymore. It’s someone else. Look at this page I can’t stop thinking about it

[ID: A panel from Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu. Yoshiki sits with his head on his desk, drawn so his face and body are streaking down the page in smears of black. Around him float black text bubbles with scratchy text saying "To move on." Then he lifts his head with a gasp when someone exclaims, "Finally! There you are!" End ID]

That’s fucking GRIEF a sinking terrible grief. That nobody in their right mind could understand. But it’s also like. Christ it’s the mitsuba sousuke tbhk dilemma it’s that this new thing is it’s own person too. They aren’t the same but it’s damn near impossible to separate them because they look the same and act the same and desperately want to be the same. They want to be alive.

THREE. Cannot forget the queerness. The queer allegories and actual queerness are intense. Grotesqueness and horror at being different. Feeling like you know something is bad but you can’t help but enjoy it. Gut wrenching desire mixed in with every complicated feeling about losing your best friend while something pilots his body almost perfectly. It’s very fucked up. ALSO. Fear at being found out. Self hatred for being grotesque and different and not what everyone wants. Not what he wants.

Anyways uuuhhhh.yeah the summer hikaru died is fascinating to me. I love the feeling of it. Gives me chills. It’s cool 👍🏻 ALSO THE ART IS SO. GOOD. Haunting. I love it.

[rjalker]

Well, have some memes about it.

Feel free to add your own versions of the characters. In fact, consider this an art prompt.

[ID: Three versions of the "I think we're gonna have to kill this guy" meme, showing different versions of A Sphere and A Square from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, with A Sphere saying "I think we're gonna have to kill this guy, Square", and A Square replying, "Damn.", while text below him indicates he is staring at Ladd Ehlinger, the creator of the 2007 Flatland film. In the first version, the Sphere is a literal blue sphere with lighting on top and shadows underneith, and A Square is a thin line through the air with a bright point in the center. In the second version, A Square is the same, but the Sphere is now more cartoony, with thin black arms, a light green surface with soft lighting and shadow, yellow eyes, and a blue tongue visible as he speaks. The third version has the characters as they appear in the 2007 Flatland film by Ladd Ehlinger. The Sphere is yellow, with protruding red eyes, and a red mouth that goes across his whole front half, like a Pac-Man. A Square is now visibly a Square, with a blue eye on his perimeter that frowns upwards, with dark insides with lighter squiggles. End ID.]

Yeah unfortunately the creator of the 2007 Flatland film is literally a racist misogynistic conservative. So racist in fact that youtube has actually had to restrict videos he's made because they're that blatantly racist. He has literally compared government-funded healthcare and free lunches for school kids to slavery.

You are not a bad person for watching or enjoying his movie, but you should be aware of what kind of person made it, because his bigotry is in the movie, and the way he chose to gloss over and ignore all of the politics of the original novel.

These characters are public domain. They do not belong to this racist misogynist. They belong to all of us. You can design your own versions of the characters in any style you want and do literally anything you want with them.

How about to spite the conservative bigot, everyone takes this as a challenge to create their own designs for these characters, in this meme format, and add them on here?

If you cannot make your own image description, I will make one for you as long as you edit it into your original post.

Flatland is public domain and can be read and listened to and watched in so many different ways. Here is a post linking to a few of them.

Also, you don't have to draw A Square and the Sphere if you don't want to, you can do any Flatland or Flatland-Adjacent characters.

You can start your image description out with "The same meme format as above, but now..." And then describe what the characters look like in your version.

[creatingblackcharacters]

i really enjoyed your lessons on black hair and it's allowed me to think a lot more deeply about the character arc of one of my black characters and how his hair style would change as he progresses through his story.

there is a part of the story where he lives completely on his own, survivalist style for a couple years, and i was wondering if it would be realistic for him to maintain a box braid hairstyle during this time or if i should look into other options for his hair during this period of his arc. what tools would he need to do his hair on his own?

i appreciate the work you're doing here and also your art that you've shared! i love your use of color in character design <3

That's good! I'm glad to hear that you applied what you learned. And thanks 🥺 I feel like I gotta get better with colors but I appreciate it 🥹

(actually, unless you're the same anon, I have another anon asking about hair- this is an example!)

If you mean simple box braids where they look like this:

It's not impossible....... but...... It still would take effort. He'd at least need access to water, some sort of oil or moisturizer, and a small tooth comb for parting. And time. Here's a video on a beginner friendly way where she didn't blow dry his hair; I say that bc I doubt he has the electricity for a neater, blow dried box braid. Tbh I doubt he'd want to keep focusing on it all that much though, given he's trying to survive.

Now, you already know my bias- LOCS! Freeform, even. Never even think about it outside of occasionally pulling them apart. Or, if he started locs before he went on this journey, they'd be neater.

Or, if he's got access to a pick, razor and/or scissors, might just be a regular ol short afro time for him. If it were me, and the point were survival and I was by myself, id focus on ease and using as little of my resources as possible, and an Afro would be my choice.

Still, it's up to you! Those are just my thoughts.

[demento-mori]

18, 12, and 11 for the ask game?

18. how did you first hear about the show, and what made you want to watch it?

Ok so this story genuinely makes my blood boil because I was robbed. lied to. swindled even. So the first time id heard about the show was around 2017 i think? It was in some video about like, queer animation and the history of queer rep, that kinda stuff. I had also seen a few video thumbnails about the show that looked really interesting (like, there was this one called understanding utena or smth similar that used the art from the dvd covers, and I remember thinking how beautiful and visually distinct it looked) so it was on my radar and I planned to check it out at some point. BUT THEN.... I was watching some unrelated video and they brought up rgu in it... but the way they described the show was completely fucking misleading. Like, they basically described the show as "a slice-of-life high school fantasy yuri anime that has incest in it" WHICH IS A COMPLETE LIE BUT WHATEVER, but yeah since that description sounded so boring and generic it pretty much killed my interest in the show for a good while.

I only ended up getting into the show like a year or two ago. I saw a clip of the swords of hatred scene completely out of context and something about it was just so striking. Like, the black silhouettes against the stark red background, the way you can see the pain of each sword impact in the way she writhes and flinches, the lack of sound silencing her screams, the haunting, mournful music. You can feel her pain so viscerally. It left a really profound impact on me. I searched up and listened to the translyrics for missing link afterwards and that was equally as upsetting, hearing this girl wonder why she was even born if she only exists to suffer. So yeah, that was what finally convinced me to watch the show! Because I needed to find out what the fuck all that was about, and if that poor girl was okay.

So yeah, I probably wouldve watched it a lot earlier if it wasnt for some guy literally just lying about what the show was about.........

12. favorite black rose duelist

This is a complicated one because do I choose the black rose duelist who I enjoy the most overall as a character (which would be kozue, underrated icon and one of the most fascinating characters in the show in terms of her parallels with other characters and the ideas she embodies within the narrative, such as the sunlit garden), or do I choose the black rose duelist who I enjoy the most specifically as a black rose duelist (which would be wakaba, who has one of the most emotionally charged and violent duels in the entire series, literally breaks the duel format, and probably comes the closest to actually killing anthy). The answer is that its my blog and I can do what I want, so im choosing both!

11. favorite and/or most interesting relationship (doesn't have to be romantic)

Answered this one fully here, but Anthy and Utena's relationship is so so special to me and is one of my favourite aspects of the show. Bonus answer is the hypothetical kozue and nanami relationship that exists almost entirely in my head!

[orchidbreezefc]

reposting my old twitter thread regarding venom (2018), which a friend once said should be printed on the back of the dvd case. screenshots aren't working but they'd be redundant with the image ID anyway. if you want the 🌟Full Experience🌟 the original thread is [here].

[1/10] ok i just watched the venom movie for the first time and yall? let me level with you. real talk. full frontal honest hot take.

shit was amazing.

[2/10] like you know that whole shit with video games where people just get so into it and the completionism and the competitive scene and the graphics and whatever and youre like yeah ok but is it like. fun

thats me with venom vs mcu

[3/10] like goddamn. i had fun. i loved it. i saw it and it was an enjoyable experience for me and i liked watching it.

with mcu im all no i get that this is an installment of a series that has a greater overarching plot and shit but like.... am i gonna enjoy it? at all?

[4/10] me looking at mcu movies like am i gonna feel an echo of an iota of entertainment anywhere in my being at any point during this movie or nah?? and most of the time its a solid nah!!! but tom hardy just showed me a good goddamn time!!!!!

[5/10] like man. you talk about disaster characters? i thought i had seen disaster characters. eddie turbofucks his life into the ground with great prejudice. he makes dysfunction an art form. he hits rock bottom and pulls out a jackhammer and thats BEFORE the alien

[6/10] like i spent the front half of the movie going dude. who even allowed this dude to be a protag of anything. who said yep lets make this guy the main character, that seems acceptable

and then around the climax i realized that they HAD to for the plot to work

[7/10] like just imagine how shit wouldve gone were eddie not an eighteen wheeler fucktruck tire fire. if the man were capable of catching a whiff of a phantom of the dessicated corpse of his own common sense none of this would have worked

[8/10] like any human being who is even .0005% more functional than eddie (i.e. anyone on the planet) would not have responded like 'hey actually? i LIKE having this cannibal monster alien controlling my body. i think this is GOOD. im gonna KEEP IT.' like eddie what in the whole fuck.

[9/10] this guy is not even there!!! the whole time!!! nothing behind this dude's eyes. he started dissociating shortly before meeting the scientist lady and he just never fuckin stopped. the lights are all off upstairs. this dude is checked out and he is NEVER coming back.

[10/10] final point the dialogue was just fucking phenomenal start to finish. just absolutely batshit nuts what was coming out of everybody's mouths. and the delivery was stellar, like the wack shit they were saying was completely normal and fine. i'd like to shake that writer's hand

BONUS:

[ID: a graphic that reads, in all caps: "disclaimer: black panther and thor 3: ragnarok are exempt from this statement" and in lowercase: "(captain america 2: the winter soldier you're on thin fucking ice)". end ID]

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Parker from Leverage the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Parker-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with Parker, portrayed by Beth Riesgraf, from Leverage at the centre. She is wearing all black and is strapped into a parachute harness. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"DVD commentary from the series has a creator saying she’s autistic! but also she has a bunch of autistic traits anyway - she misses most social cues, canonically practises nonverbal communication like doing air quotes, doesn’t get sarcasm and some jokes, has to have a particular line said on every job as part of her routine, etc. her special interest is security systems and how to get around them. she’s a world renowned thief who works with her found family team to steal from corrupt rich people and get justice for those they’ve hurt. she loves the feeling of rappelling down/jumping off buildings to the point that she even rigs a rope pulley thing inside the team headquarters when they’re away, which i think of as a stim or sensory seeking sort of thing."

"Theft and security systems are her special interest. She struggles with social cues and forming relationships. Airvents make her feel safe. (Look, if I'm the only one submitting Parker, I'm eating my hat) She is awesome."

"Besides word of god confirmation, she has a lot of trouble with social interactions (though she slowly improves over the course of the series) one notable example being not understanding that not everyone enjoys leaping off of high places like she does, and her special interest is theft - she'll go to a high-end art museum and only pay attention to the security systems and devise ways to crack it. She's extremely empathetic and learns to use that to her advantage."

"Parker is actually cannonly autistic. She does not interact well with others, unless you think stabbing the bad guys with forks is acceptable. She likes money and tasers and shinnies. The close relationships she has though show how her small group are tight and they understand each other on their own appropriate level. (this is not to discount the wonderful character growth she has over the course of the original series, the break, and the sequel series) Plus the pretzels."

"She stims by jumping off of buildings and needs flash cards for social rules and her special interest is stealing things. Like elaborate museum heists."

"Doesn't understand social interactions/cues and struggles to communicate with people. From the wikia "According to several DVD commentaries, Parker has Asperger's syndrome, which has since been reclassified as a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder." "

"Just, like, look at her."

"She is canonically autistic! I don’t think they say outright that’s what she is (unfortunately in s1 they say some kind of ableist stuff abt it like calling her crazy and weird), but it undeniably Is what she is. She has special interests (safes, art, alarm systems (she is a theif), and struggles with social cues. The rest of the crew at first struggle to understand her (except really her eventual love interest who is incredibly empathetic toward her and her struggles and I also think is autistic but he is not relevant here bc autism boy). The first show (they have a revival going on right now) does this so well, she's some of my favorite autistic representation because after the first season the crew really adjust and are just like "It's Parker (it's not weird, it’s expected of her /neutral)", and they never want her to change. They understand she struggles with social cues and sometimes needs guidance about things they think are normal, and they accept that and work with her on it to accomodate her and make what their job requires from her, easier for her. Also, her canonical relationship is one of thee most healthy relationships I've ever seen, especially with a character who has complicated feelings about romance and intimacy due to how she grew up in the foster system while also being autistic. The first show uses her character sooooo well, but I wouldn't recommend the revival because they have different writers and handle her, in my opinion, much worse and much more childishly and I HATE it. But yeah, first show??? really good love her favorite nbd rep."

"So, I believe that the lead writer actually confirmed that her being read as autistic was intentional. I don't have a source for it offhand, though. Either way, Parker is the 'thief' in the Leverage team. (They are all essentially one big con team). She is portrayed to have a keen interest in her craft, to a level that it seems to trump almost everything else. She's blunt, to the point, and often doesn't get subtext or why other people are doing/saying something - like a lot of social interaction is in-jokes that she's not a part of. They also portray her as being one of the most compassionate on the team - though often to her own chagrin, it's something that really sold her portrayal to me because while she does often come across as cold, even a bit ruthless - that's very far from all she is, and her character is so much more nuanced than I can accurately get across here 😭"

"doesn't understand social situations v well and has to follow a set of rules/instructions when speaking to marks, incredible technically proficient in her field of interest (thievery/heists), gets overwhelmed by her own emotions, etc!!"

"-special interests: thieving generally, Christmas, Glenn-Rieder safes, climbing tall things -cereal samefood -openly admits to not understanding social norms or other people's emotions -learns to read people by tracking hyper-specific things like eye movements (to her allistic teammates' utter bafflement) -in the sequel she has a flowchart to help her do social interaction"

"It's canon! (Not talked about in the show text but the writers have confirmed it and it was written into her character from the very first episode) She has a lot of trouble with social skills, she has special interests, she has safe foods, and she has a hard time with empathy"

"SHE WAS WRITTEN THAT WAY ON PURPOSE! The show runners confirm she was written as having aspergers, & there's SO much in canon to support that. She's the best canon autistic representation I've ever seen. I know one of my friends is submitting her too and I'm not the best with words about Parker but I just love her so much! And I love how the show doesn't treat her like she needs to be fixed. There's characters who don't know how to respond to her at times but the team values her for who she is, as she is. I just think if an autistic girl's special interests are money stealing crime and jumping off buildings she should be allowed to do that and Leverage said rights!" End ID.]

[shigayokagayama]

maybe a weird question, but do you have any recommendations for non-mob psycho media? I’ve been in search of something that hits similarly/is as well made and I trust your judgement o wise one. I’m not super picky, so recs of any kind would be appreciated :)

im like the worst person to take media recommendations from because you have to tie me down to watch something new and then i get obsessed with it forever, in terms of things ive seen recently that hit the same tumblr is NOT lying dungeon meshi is really good and if you start watching now you're gonna be watching at the part where it starts getting crazy

other stuff ive been into (gets progressively less mob psycho and generally more depressing like the further down we go bc i tend to get into really, really sad shit):

-i <3 deltarune but everyone has already played that. deltarune good. if you havent played deltarune play deltarune. genuinely like it more than undertale. also if the last chapter of deltarune is just the confession arc i called it and deserve a million dollars

-same w spiderverse. listen usually i dont care about superhero stuff but god these movies are good and i really hope they stick the landing.

-everything everywhere all at once continues to be one of my favorite movies ever

-rainworld (video game, very difficult but skurry's playthroughs do a good job summarizing the plot and general vibe of each route if you wanna watch those. i watched my friend play survivor ages ago and ive been playing through survivor with a friend on multiplayer and decided to watch some playthroughs to get a feel for the map and GOD DAMN the story of this game. rivulet route almost made me cry.) fair warning this is animal death the video game.

-severance (live action tv show, general plot is some sort of dystopian future where they invent a surgery where you can seperate your work self from your normal self so you clock into work and then black out until your shift is over. except your work self is just stuck at work forever. only 9 episodes but very, VERY good)

-i actually really enjoyed the scott pilgrim comics and the anime i wish anyone ever could be normal about them. id definitely suggest comics (if you can handle the 2000s humor) then anime. also basically everyone knows this but fair warning that starting out the main character is in his early 20s dating a 17 year old, it is explicitly treated as a shitty thing by the narrative and theres nothing explicit and its made very clear that he has 0 feelings for her whatsoever and is just using her as an ego boost but if youre sensitive to that stuff i might skip this one

-lots of webcomics about animals. i read so many webcomics about animals its like. my main media intake. this is part of the reason that i dont understand complaints about the art style my favorite webcomic looks like this

its called doe of deadwood and ill think about it until the day i die. others im currently reading (since this one wrapped a while ago) are "what lurks beneath" (cat cult on an island) "waves always crash" (cat cult on the beach) "i didnt know" (cat cult in a barn), toufati sawa (hyena trying to avenge her clan) and africa (leopard trying to survive the harshening world with her cubs) warning for animal death with all of these and general abuse warning for all those cat cult ones bc. cults.

-i like warrior cats. do not read warrior cats. its not very good and youll get stuck here forever.

-pathologic but the actual game and not just people describing the game please watch someone play the actual game summaries skip so much of the meat of the story and the characters. or play the game if you can bear learning to strategically quicksave. fair warning there is a lot of racism depicted against indigenous people in these games and while the framing of it generally aires on the side of "racism bad" there are a lot of kinda shitty tropes that come with it.

-listen bojack horseman is one of my shows it is the polar opposite of mob psycho in like every way and i would never in a million years recommend it if you want something that hits like mob psycho but if we're asking for just things i enjoy this is one of them. heavy cw for drug usage and abuse with this one. might want to give "does the dog die" a look for this one bc people are not joking about how heavy this show is

-same with hospice. hospice is a concept album about a hospice worker and a patient and has had more of an influence on me than any other piece of media ever bc i found it at the exact perfect time in my life for it to be relevant to my circumstances and now its like part of my identity. heavy cw for abuse also

-speaking of concept albums hey have you listened to tyler the creator he has several. WOLF especially i really like because the plot is actually like. kinda intricate. he also says the f slur a lot in WOLF but hes bisexual so diversity win?

-succession good. tw for like. everything though. probably "does the dog die" this one.

-hey have you ever watched david lynch's 1972 film "eraserhead"

[pennumbra]

hiii i so love all your art!!! the brushes you use make your drawings so satisfying and i want to touch them. i wanted to ask you how you go about making outfit sets. like not designing the outfits themselves, but what do you do for the character base? how does that work? ive always wondered because id love to make outfit sets without redrawing the character every time, but is it possible to make a base without having to draw the character wearing... nothing? loL. how do you do it?

Hi there, thank you so much!! I probably overrely on them tbh, but I do love me a good chalky brush, and it makes me so happy that someone notices/enjoys the effect and texture. C:

I've tried to explain how I go abt making outfit sets! Hopefully I didn't overcomplicate my answer here- I feel like it really is a simple process! Just duplicating layers and reusing base elements.

1. Sketch the base! Technically the character isn't wearing anything at this stage? But it's like a doll or a mannequin, you just need the basic forms as a good foundation to draw the clothes on top of.

2. Sketch different outfits, hairstyles, etc!

3. Line only the parts that will be consistent and stay mostly the same in each outfit- usually the face, hands, hair, maybe feet. If your character wore the same boots in each outfit, or their forearms always showed, you'd line them here too- it's anything you don't need to redraw.

This will be the 'base' that you copy/paste and reuse in each new outfit, sometimes with slight edits. Here are some more examples with the base lines (black), outfit lines (pink), and the base + outfit sketches (blue).

4. Finish lining the outfit! C:

I like to work with my layers in groups, one per outfit. Each group will have the outfit sketch, a copy of the base line art, and then the lines and colors for that outfit. A file will eventually end up looking something like this:

I will also usually color the face on its own layer and duplicate it for consistency/time.

I suppose the other approach would be to draw a finished base body, and then draw the outfits on separate layers on top- like an actual dress up game or a paper doll. And that would work! I just don't do it that way b/c I feel it's more time-consuming + tricky to get the edges and overlapping bits to actually line up.

[superstarzolar]

Your outfit design on the mci is so good!! Do you have any tips for how you put them together, picking colors, ect?

i’ve been putting off answering this because i know id ramble for about a thousand words because designing characters is my favorite part of the character making process + i spent almost a year refining the mci designs. BUT i’ll try to be cohesive and to-the-point about the tips and pointers i held myself to while designing the characters

info starts under the cut just in case ppl don’t care

1: keep the time period and age range of your character(s) in mind.

athazagora, or at least the part where the children originated from, is in 1985. knowing this, i wouldn’t use clothes in my designs that weren’t around/weren’t as popular, as that would make the date and clothes meaningless and out of date.

considering a character’s age is important, too, as styles and the “maturity” (for a lack of a better word) of said styles evolve with the character. for example, gabriel, a 5 year old boy, would not be wearing the more alternative, dark, and overall mature-type clothing that jeremy, a 14 year old punk, would be wearing.

adding on to that, it is also important to consider the personality of your character while designing them. unless you are specifically going for a misdirective character design (like that one bear from toy story. sorry he’s the best example), having characters wear stuff that doesn’t compliment their personality makes them confusing (in my opinion).

2: use a color palette that is easily identifiable and pleasing.

what is pleasing to look at and what is identifiable is subjective, i know, but this entire thing is subjective so…………….//Yeah

anyways. i’d say to always stick to 5 colors at the least, and 10 at the most. over 10 base colors in a design makes it hard to remember, and if you can’t even remember the design of your own character, who will?

secondly, a character’s color palette also has to reflect their personality. sorry. i’m gonna use gabriel and jeremy again because i designed them with a juxtaposition in their traits and designs in mind:

jeremy, a punk kid who is timid and sad, has a color pallete consisting of mostly grayscale and red. these colors, especially when compared to the other colorful cast of characters in athazagora, clearly set him apart as a character that is not like the others.

gabriel, on the other hand, is a bouncy 5 year old who is very happy all the time. this is represented through the minimal use of dark colors in his pallete. he even includes some sun buttons on his overalls, which usually signifies that something is bright and cheerful. this contrasts jeremy’s skull, which usually represents sadness and gloom.

but color palletes are nothing without proper implementation. to really utilize a color pallete, you need to create designs that catch, and keep, somebodys attention. I’ll use gabe as an example AGAIN because he’s my favorite design

on the left is his design from july of last year. it uses mostly the same colors as his current design (the shorter one on the right), but it is oversimplified and unappealing. he looks like a background character in mlp. in the current design, still using the same colors (as stated before), there is more contrast and patterns; the black stripe against the blue, yellow, and white; the horizontal stripes of his shirt against the vertical ones of his overalls; these little details require a viewer to actually look at the design to fully understand it.

3: (the final tip unless i think of any more) design what you like to draw.

there is little to no point in making shit you hate drawing. and i’m not talking tedious, if you genuinely do not like to draw something, don’t. you control your art experience, and you’re just fucking yourself over if you force yourself to make stuff you don’t enjoy.

for example, i really like overalls. i love designing them, customizing them, and that is why they are on most of the missing kids designs. i draw what i like to see.

hope this helps. this is just me yapping basically but there’s some actual coherency if you squint

[solarsnapp]

[ID: A primarily reddish-pink digital art piece fashioned like a magazine cover. It features Yoo Joonghyuk as the Punisher standing close to another version of the Punisher who looks like Lee Seolhwa from Omniscient Reader. Both are looking towards the viewer with serious expressions. Pink electricity dances around them, some of it arcing in the top left into two hearts. There is big white and pink text in front of the two figures saying “The Punisher.” End ID.]

whats better than one punisher? two punishers

some punisher-related snippets under the cut:

(the terms of address for joonghyuk are masculine in the first three snippets and feminine in the fourth) 

Dokja: When you played games for competitions, you always played as female characters. Why is that?

Joonghyuk: ...Many had Femme Fatale-esque perks which significantly increased their damage against characters of the opposite sex. This was especially useful in earlier years when meta comprised mostly of male characters and the pool for viable competitive female characters was smaller. 

Dokja: But, this year it was different, no? Weren’t all those perks weakened because of how powerful they were? And even then, there was a surge of popularity for female characters because that one group made up of skilled women dominated the leaderboards the year prior. 

Dokja: It offered you no true benefit anymore. Why keep using them?

Joonghyuk: ...

Joonghyuk: I’m not sure.

— Chapter 8 of “Transfem YJH AU”

Countless handles and usernames displayed on the screen, the battle roster filled nearly top to bottom with masculine playable characters. Then, there was one with startlingly white hair, red ruby lips, and a curvy figure, looking sultry and distinct from all her stone-faced competitors. That was stuck under his own name.

As the event progressed, the roster was blacked out. Competitors dropped team by team. That woman was still up there. Joonghyuk watched the more famous players in meta throw their headsets on the ground and storm off. He had to resist the urge to cackle and tell them to ‘eat shit’ so many times, it became tortuous.

“To keep it simple, I enjoyed seeing the looks on the players’ faces after they learned some gimmicky female character they didn’t take seriously wiped the whole damn roster clean.”

— Chapter 26 of “Transfem YJH AU”

“Ah, I see. What should we call you then?”

Joonghyuk knew he didn’t have to waste any more time. He could leave them without a name. But, judging from how quickly this random person picked up on his appearance, such a decision could lead to unfavorable theories spreading around. He had to think of something quick. 

His mind went back to a time still so clear when the apocalypse was only a far-off nightmare, to national competitions and competitors.

“The Punisher.” 

Joonghyuk said the name of the character he brought to the highest ranking on the leaderboards with, then dashed towards the monsters.

— Chapter 1 (Birth of the Punisher) of “Transfem YJH AU (The Prequel)” 

“Nah. Honestly, I’m more impressed.” Namwoon then casually strode up and inspected Seolhwa with a playful hum. “Can’t believe the old hag actually found a chick who looks this much like ‘the Punisher.’”

Joonghyuk tensed up. Seolhwa recognized the strange name she really should search up later. 

“Um...that is a game character, right?” Seolhwa asked.

“Hell yeah. You fit this bitch’s type so well, it’s almost like you came from the damn game itself. I mean, except for the outfit. The Punisher would have worn something way sluttier.” Namwoon then swerved around and jabbed Joonghyuk on the side with an elbow. “Must have been really disappointing for you, eh?”

Namwoon choked on a yelp when Joonghyuk slapped him upside the head. “Don’t talk about someone like that.”

— Chapter 4 (Chill Out Or Die)* of “Sparkling Water”

*As of posting, this has not been published yet.

[seeminglydark]

i found your blog through that detention au post and binged your whole webcomic and i love it! im fairly new to webcomics and ive been trying to find some supernatural ones to read (one of the first i came across was paranatural, which is also excellent). seemingly dark is exactly the type of story ive been looking for and im so glad i found it! also if you have any recommendations for other webcomics id love to know what they are but thats not the point of this ask lol

Oh gosh thank you! I’m so excited to hear that, I’m really happy that piece brought someone to my comic, thank you for telling me, it means a lot!

Let’s see, Seemingly Dark and of course my other project Mil-Liminal is actually about the two characters in the Detention post (they are in Seemingly Dark too but ML focuses on them) it ofc has a big romance element, but will be monster of the week style after the first intro season.

I am ALWAYS happy to rec stuff though I don’t get the chance to read as much as I should.

Some of my favorites include (paranatural ofc!)

Stag Town on Webtoon, it’s REALLY good but does have some disturbing imagery but I recommend giving it a go, I’d call it supernatural horror. (Spooky town ala junji ito but not)

Black Water comic here on tumblr is AMAZING, you can easily binge it in one go, the art is perfect and the story is really engaging in my opinion (monsters, forests and mysterious boys)

Wilde Life is an ongoing one, you can google it, it’s got great art, fantastic lore and a really interesting premise (guy buys a haunted house on Craigslist, hijinks ensue)

Welcome to Wolfsgate on Webtoon, it’s on hiatus but the art is reallllly cute, the stories engaging and we love pumpkin head kids around here (Spooky ‘how did we get here’ places)

A lot of the comics I really enjoyed that inspired me are dead and gone or unfinished unforch, but I’m going to say them anyway because they deserve to be recognized. Return to Sender was insane, beautifully drawn and the premise was wild and I miss it and was sad it never finished but understand. And Hanna is not a Boys Name, which has a lot of uhhhhh lore about what happened to it and I know the artist has another comic but I haven’t gotten into that one yet.

And finally, comics people always put in the same lists as Seemingly Dark that I haven’t had a chance to read all of yet, Demon for Hire, which looks amazing, and Lies Within. Both comics I’ve read pieces of, both have phenomenal art, I just haven’t found a lot of time to binge them.

Followers, hit me with your fave supernatural comics in the comments if you want!

[bnnuy-wabbit]

HAAIIIIII you can call me Lago, im 21 (i dont know how EITHER), im just some guy*. this is my main blog and where i throw funny things that makes my brain produce juices and also random ass personal poasts.

one of those he/shes they never warned you about (pathogenic variant they have yet to make any vaccines to protect you from)

my art tag is #feral art tag.

there will be adult things in this blog because im an adult. follow at your own risk etc. were horny in here towards men occasionaly.

I'm brazilian. From Brazil. As in born here, living here and stuck here for the foreseeable future. é nois 🤙

Everybody says I'm really nice! I am Unable to hit people up first though, but if you'd like to be friends, send me an ask and I'll give you my discord!!!!

i have many interests (mostly music and nerd shit) and funny things that I'll be putting under the read more lest this post get Unbearably Big. There are flashing blinkies down there by the way.

OK SO INTERESTS. I like MANY things! and i have favorite things! I think it's really cool of me to have favorites. i decided I'm going to wear them on my sleeve. anyways Here's some things i Like.

MUSIC!!! its one of my favorite things ever. I play the guitar and a bit of bass. heres stuff in no particular order of favoriteness. Just stuff i care enough right now to remember.

Linkin Park (meteora, hybrid theory <3)

My Chemical Romance

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Mindless Self Indulgence

scalene

Rammstein

Ft-rj (listen to it or i am going to chase you with a broom)

francisco el hombre (i recommend the rasgacabeza album)

danny bond

2000-10s pop!!! fuck it, lady gaga, britney spears, kesha, katy perry, black eyed peas, that sorta jazz.

Every single Homestuck song there is. i have listened to all of them multiple times. My favorite albums are colours and mayhem and also the beforus fan album.

Dad rock (acdc, queen, talking heads, nirvana, judas priest, Some pink floyd etc)

Industrial and Adjacent. I've been listening to code:redcore a lot and some grammostola actaeon lately. processor also fucks.

OTHER THINGS I ENJOY

Eragon (the books)

Disco elysium.

ADVENTURE TIME. I AM OBSESSED.

How to train your dragon (the books. specifically.)

Animated movies!!! Specially the hand drawn ones.

My horrible little OCs (@honsebeasts just go there but also Beware.)

Worldbuilding. I do aliens and monster speculative biology. Most of my thoughts on it are on the Above mentioned blog though.

Real life physiology and anatomy also

MEN (and like 3 fictional women.)

HORSES!!!!!!!!!!!

stranger things

Pokemen (i do not know a single thing after gen 6 though.)

Dungeons and dragons, sometimes

Traditional art like watercolors and oil pastels

Drawing my blorbos in the same side facing pose or just standing there.

Drawing in General actually! Designing characters is my passion

Fictional fathers

sewing and felting and sculpting and painting and singing and playing

COLORS. i love colors. i love looking at them. i love playing with them. i would like to eat them if i could. i love warm palettes.

Hiveswap (pissing screaming CRYING)

MONSTERS!!!!!! They're really cool and gay and hot.

Portal (the games. all of them. glafos........ kissing her)

Half Life.

y2k and 80s-90s vibes. i think its awesome.

I am afflicted by the human condition and also a few other funnier conditions. my brain and my body dont work right.

If you want to know the brunt of the brain ones: autism adhd avpd. they all impact heavily how i interact with people with people. Sorry in advance if i can't keep conversation going.

I'm some sort of queer thing. If we need to get really specific, id say "bisexual aromantic bigender femme", mostly into men and butches, but Queer will do just fine. I'm a self entitled part time pretty fag and ugly dyke in my free hours. Intersex it turns out.

[shadethechangingman]

[ID: Eight comic book covers from titles published by DC and Vertigo.

1. The cast of Hero Hotline running at the viewer, an image of the Trinity floats above them. The comic title and DC logo at the top of the image, and Villains line the borders.

2. Text at the top right reads The Psycho. A man in a cap and skull-like mask stands holding a smoking gun. He is faced to the right but looking at the viewer. Psychedelic images float around him, including a skull, some fish, flowers, and the devil.

3. Text at the top reads Giantkiller. A Kaiju/human hybrid with black and red skin standing against a red sky over a dead Kaiju, holding his blade downwards and looking at the viewer.

4. Text at the top says Major Bummer, the first Inaction Hero. An impossibly muscular man looks bored, sitting slumped in an armchair watching TV, surrounded by junk food and comics. Behind him, aliens and supervillains are fighting and civilians are huddled in fear.

5. Text at the top says Chain Gang War. Three armed and masked men are standing huddled together, the two closest to t he front shooting their guns forward, while the third is holding his upright. Bullets are striking the wall behind them. A black chain goes down the left side of the cover, connecting to the title text.

6. Text at the top reads Menz Insana, in a triangle border. In the lower part of the triangle is a painted bust of a cartoon man with a balloon shaped head winking at the viewer, next to a detached image of a floating pair of gloves snapping on where his arms would be. A pale woman in a red dress, hat, and shoes with red hair is standing to the right of the triangle.

7. Text at the bottom reads Mighty Love. Navy blue lineart of a man and a woman in a superhero suit gripping eachothers hands and jumping into eachother. Behind their heads is a orange rectangle, and behind their torsos is a red splatter.

8. Text over the entire cover reads Beware the Creeper. There is a woman with wild red hair jumping through the middle, over a cityscape of 1920s Paris at the bottom. The sky is bright green.

End ID]

been reading a lot this week!

1. Hero Hotline by Bob Rozakis and Stephen DeStefano - It’s... fine......... DC’s comedy titles are something i read against my better judgement. i actually thought i would like this one more but it had a much more serious tone than i expected, which I guess i should be less surprised about since I’m pretty sure I learned about it while reading Wild Dog in the same Action Comics. Really enjoyed the character designs on this one though.

2. The Psycho by James Hudnall and Dan Brereton - great character designs esp the protag, probably wont revisit unless to look at pictures caus the plot was actually pretty whatever.

3. Giantkiller by Dan Brereton - I loved this! Beautiful art, Yochu and Jill were both great. devastated to realize i missed out on a hardcover copy and now i have to wait for a collector to part with theirs OTL i did pick up a copy of the monster field guide

4. Major Bummer by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke - Ya another one I dont think i’ll revisit... I love how Mahnke draws really grotesque muscle man but there wasnt really anything like. enjoyable about it actuallyyy actually wait the blonde guy was funny.

5. Chain Gang War by John Wagner and David Johnson - I actually thought this was an original/out-of-continuity so (spoilers?) Slade showing up and getting locked in a basement prison for the entire run and the random Azbat appearance was kind of like huh ok... Interesting ig, to have it set in-universe and people go after revenge in a totally non superhero way.

6. Menz Insana by Christopher Fowler and John Bolton - Beautiful art but. hm. im not sure how to describe the experience on this one... frankly it could be 

7. Mighty Love by Howard Chaykin - So so so bad. I forgot why everyone told me he sucked so i read it anyway and was like Oh. Ohhh

8. Beware The Creeper by Jason Hall and Cliff Chiang - Somewhat interesting overall? I actually waited a bit before writing this so I think i forgot a bit already. Usage of shitty topes but ive seen other comics do it much worse, Cliff Chiang’s art helps with it imo

(Queued post from November 2022)

[banashee]

I posted 7,684 times in 2022

54 posts created (1%)

7,630 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@virtuallyinsane

@nospheratusblack

@lilolilyr

@undefeatednils

@morganathewitch

I tagged 881 of my posts in 2022

#our flag means death - 111 posts

#the magnus archives - 67 posts

#asdfghjkl - 29 posts

#banashee writes - 24 posts

#ofmd spoilers - 22 posts

#tma fic - 17 posts

#hawkeye tv - 14 posts

#jonmartin - 14 posts

#tma art - 13 posts

#dracula daily - 12 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#...........................................................................................................................................

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

(ID: A photo of a dark blue night sky, scattered with stars and a bit of nebula. In front of the sky and in the bottom part of the photo, there is a forest with several kinds of trees which is only visible as a black silouhette. A white text over the sky reads: "Hold on to this night - a The Magnus Archives Fanfic - by Banashee for Rowan" ID end)

READ ON AO3

Hello there! This is my story for the secret snowflake event, hosted by the Seasons in the Archives crew @seasons-in-the-archives Thanks for hosting this event, Folks!

I have written this oneshot for Rowan,  @falling-forever-upwards

This is what ae wished for: Platonic or romantic JonTim; au or precanon. favourite tropes include emotional hurt/comfort, time travel, there was only one bed, fake dating, and fantasy and historical au's. bonus points if I suffer emotional damages.

Dear Rowan, I hope you enjoy this oneshot as much as I did writing it! You chose such a lovely pairing, and I, too, am a sucker for Hurt/Comfort, Fake dating and emotional damages (pls don't send your therapy bill to me though :D)

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Cover photo is from Unsplash and free to use

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Please read the tags and additional warnings on AO3

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Summary:

When they are sent to the countryside to investigate a case, Tim and Jon don't mind - they're actually having quite a good time togther. If only it wasn't for some bad nights and their evergrowing, mutual crush, things would be easy... The fact that they frequently get mistaken for a couple doesn't help - and neither does the sleeping situation. After all, there is only one bed.

READ ON AO3 <<< click

17 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

#4

One hundred years (again and again, every single day)    

It’s here! My fic for the @podcastbigbang​ 2022!

I’m beyond excited to share it with all of you, because I’ve been working on it for months. And now it’s here!

And of course, as it is with big bangs, I wasn’t alone. By my side, I’ve had two fantastic artists and wonderful humans, namely Lucky, @lucky-numberme​ and Cybil, @clbl-arts​ .

Please go throw some love at them, they more than deserve it ♥

READ THE FIC ON AO3

This is Lucky’s art for chapter 1

Look at it, it’s so fucking beautiful, I’m in love ♥

See the full post

22 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

#3

A small something for the @jonsimsandcats day 2022

Biscuits, or: 5 Times Jon wishes for a cat (+1 time he doesn't have to) 

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23 notes - Posted April 29, 2022

#2

5 Times Jon and Martin miss each other (+1 time they don’t have to anymore)   

[ID: an animated gif of Jon and Martin from The Magnus Archives sitting at a table together in a café. Martin is a fat pale man with freckles, light brown hair, and round glasses, wearing a brown jumper over a white shirt, maroon trousers, and green rubber-toed trainers. Jon is a thin brown person with long salt and pepper hair tied back loosely, and angular glasses, bearing numerous scars and bandages. They wear a pale green button-up, dark trousers, and brown oxfords. Martin looks at Jon and talks animatedly, cupping his mug with both hands. Jon, meanwhile, looks downward, not meeting Martin’s eyes, their expression tired and carefully neutral. Thought bubbles flutter above his head containing both hearts and skulls, and he blushes slightly. They’re both brightly lit by the yellowish midday glow outside the café window, and the colours overall are warm and bright. End description.]

Art is by the wonderfuln @cinnamoniic​ thank you so, SO very much!

Later on, you’ll see art by Grace ( _myxoma_ on twitter)

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Over the years, Jon and Martin keep missing one another, despite being somehwat close. Or are they?

The yearning starts surprisingly early, and yet, life throws stones into their way - until it doesn't and they no longer need to miss one another. -

This fic is written for the @seasons-in-the-archives Summer Event 2022

..

Content Warnings Chapter 1: - Lack of communication - Paranoia - Mention of death/murder (not graphic) - Loneliness - Trust-issues

--

Chapter 1: Paranoia with a side of yearning (I want to trust you but I can’t)           

 It is remarkable, really, how two people can coexist in the same spaces, for months and years, time and time again, and still end up missing one another. “Missing” in both the emotional and literal sense, even years prior to any open acknowledgement of feelings for one another. Strange things they are, those feelings. They creep up on you when you least expect it, and before you know it, you’re entirely lost in them and you’ll have to figure out how the hell to either deal with, or ignore them. And truth be told, it would be a bold, bold lie to say that Martin, or Jon, for that matter, would openly acknowledge any such thing - at least, at the time. The two of them work together, and well, yes, at this point, it’s only fair to say that they know each other - quite a bit better than anticipated, even. It probably comes with the admittedly unique situation, work-related and otherwise.

(...)

28 notes - Posted September 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

(ID: A photo of a grey tabbby cat, sleeping on the side on a grey blanket which is folded on top of white sheets. The picture is mostly white. On the right side, beginning in the middle, black text reads: "In from the cold - a The Magnus Archives Fanfic - by Banashee for Ella" ID end)

READ ON AO3

Hello there! This is my second story for the secret snowflake event, hosted by the Seasons in the Archives crew  @seasons-in-the-archives

Thank you very much for hosting this event, Folks!

I have written this oneshot for Ella @gh0stlymoth

This is what they asked for: "i would like smth jmart, i would like them to do some cute winter stuff, like for example taking a walk in the snow, ice skating date, drinking hot cocoa at the winter market or just them enjoying a quiet night in during a snowy night. I mostly just want smth where jmart is happy and cozy, really. be my guest to sprinkle in a little bit of angst, but i would like heavy emphasis on the comfort. bonus points for cats!"

Dear Ella, thank you for this beautiful request! And of course, I'll happily deliver you some winter fluff including cat :) I hope you enjoy this story ♥ It's been a joy to write!

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Please mind the content warnings on AO3 - they’re light, but there.

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The cover photo is from Unsplash and free to use

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Summary:

A wintery day Somewhere Else, in the scottish highlands. Jon and Martin make the best out of an already wonderful day. 

-

READ ON AO3 <<< click

29 notes - Posted January 11, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[scaryl3gs]

Devil's advocate anon again: I understand your stance. I do. Especially if you're young or new to fandom. I'm personally only marginally older than Kimi. But I've also been in fandom for a long time and something that's important to understand is not everything people create is going to fit the model of this perfect ideal world where everyone is of age and not related and everything is consensual. At the end of the day, as much as it is illegal and wrong, stuff like underage sex and sexual assault *does* happen in real life and exploring those types of tropes and dynamics in fiction isn't something that inherently makes the author a bad person.

Ultimately, Kimi is 18 now, and legally an adult. And even if he wasn't, this is the purpose of dead dove fics: writing about morally reprehensible tropes while not necessarily supporting them yourself. Applying a black and white moral code to art is strange to me when much of the world is far more nuanced than that. Just my two cents.

Of course, you're just as free to criticise these authors as the authors are free to write these things, but to be honest, these fics aren't hurting anyone. They are robustly tagged with exactly what you're getting into, and archive-locked so no one unintentionally stumbles across them. Publicly bashing these authors isn't doing anyone any favours. Is it that hard to keep scrolling?

I totally get your stance too! I'm not new to fandoms, and I've been through enough to know that some stuff people write is fucked up--- and I'm okay with that. I normally just scroll past and live on with my life, but I think this is a whole different topic. The thing about AO3 is that you can't block tags, and I've been a loud advocator for it. Their archive-locked, but I have an account. Their tagging it, but I'm not scrolling through the F1 tag expecting to see Kimi/Toto content and I'm not tagging out the dead dove tag everytime I'm on that tag.

I personally can appreciate these types of fics, and sometimes I find books like these more provocative than normal ones. Take Lolita for example, even if it's not a fanfic. I'm assuming you've read it, but if you haven't, the basic premise is around a middle aged man falling in love with a 12 year old Lolita. And you know what? I actually enjoy that book. I can appreciate it for what it is and it's involves very similar types of questions/thoughts as what I assume some of these dead dove fics do. I can deal with that type of thing. What I don't like about the toto/Kimi thing is that their real living people. I feel like it's especially grimy since Kimi was just a child a few weeks ago.

Sure me "publicly bashing" these authors isn't gonna do anything, but if they put out their work into the real world, they should expect criticism just like any other thing would. If it can persuade just one person to be just the slightest bit embarrassed to release something like that because they've seen others being called out for that same behavior, then id make that post 1000 times again.

I stated before that I wasn't gonna get into the whole "Rpf ≠ fiction" but I'll give you a bit of what I think.

RPF for years, has been heavily criticized. It's a very taboo thing to write about in my opinion as at the end of the day, that person you're writing about is a living, breathing, person. RPF is mostly for sports and singers (hockey, F1, Harry styles, ect), while "fiction" on Ao3 is mostly book/movie characters (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, ect). Their both writing with real people, but one is actually about a person while the other is a character.

Also, I get that underage sex is a thing. It's present in pop culture, in music, in life. Look at euphoria and Riverdale. I'm fine with people writing it, but it gets weird when you're writing sexual content involving a person who's actually just became legal. I think what set me off was seeing a flood of that type of content just days after Kimi turned a legal adult. That to me, was authors being smart enough not to post sexual content about a minor but still desperate to write about it--- kinda like when people get into relationships with a freshly turned 18 year old.

At the end of the day though, this is just opinion and I'm not expecting people to stop writing content like this, and my opinion will forever stay the same about this sort of thing. I wanna thank you though for being so kind in your response and actually explaining your thoughts on the whole situation (+ just having a basic sense of decorum) as it definitely made me a bit less abrasive towards the entire situation.