#inspired by osamu tezuka of course

[turbonicflaws]

Character designs for school, meet Cat and Rabbit.

[dreammeiser]

Is it okay to ask what where the inspiration for the characters of Dream along?

Of course! I'm always dying to talk about their creation and inspiration but worry about getting too wordy/annoying about it, so I hardly talk about it unless asked (please ask me about my brainrot heeheehee). I can only fit so much on an Instagram Story or a Tweet, so I'm glad you asked here. I guess this will be the master reference for them. Sorry in advance that this is wordy!!

I made these characters spanning the past 14-15 years, with their story only being worked on about 10+ years ago, give or take. I will mention that they were made with Earl as a starting point while I was working at the cool puppet place; the show I was interning on wasn't scratching the creative itch I had, so it was recommended to me to make the project that I wish I was working on. :oD

The Muppets, Sesame Street, Osamu Tezuka's works, and Moomin were some animated/puppet media off the top of my head that always stuck with me my whole life and have influenced my retro inspired work the most. They all had such sweetness and charm to them, and all felt like a found family :o) My favorite trope. Puppets were also just deeply meaningful to me because they were physical forms of creativity and childlike wonder you could hold and play with! I thought whenever you made one, you put a little bit of your heart and soul into them.

I wanted the Dreamalong Gang to have the charm of Jim Henson's and Tove Jansson's characters, but I wanted them to have the humor and intrigue of Gravity Falls, Over the Garden Wall, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, and Welcome to Night Vale. DHMIS and Night Vale actually inspired the story the most because they were both a really nice mix of absurdist humor and horror! Sleep Paralysis Demons were a point of intrigue for me that I thought were perfect for a Dreamscape setting, so I started working on including those.

The Dreamalong Gang has little bits and pieces of friends that I had loved, but I leaned into the group dynamics more for them. They're composed of friends I wished I had growing up!

Visually, I'd think of a fun/dream adjacent theme for the characters to tie them all together thematically. I know people tend to bark at me when they see what I'm inspired by but, I don't like to copy directly from my inspiration sources. They're just there to inspire you, ya know?

Archie's theme was Wishing Stars and Bedtime Stories; Hunson Abadeer from Adventure Time used to be on here, but I moved away from anything that might've made Archie spooky. I forgot to include Peter Pan and his Shadow on here, but they inspired him as well!

When it came to palettes, sometimes I'd have something in mind for them already like with Roy G Biv, Archie, and Mae-- Roy has his kidcore rainbow/SMPTE bars, Archie had some of my favorite blues and creams with a pastel minimal rainbow, Mae's were based off the colors of a golden hour rainstorm I had seen on my travels. Other times I had to play around with what color I hadn't used much of yet. I wonder if you can tell which colors are my least favorite and which ones I like a lot hahaha :'o)

I would also think about stories and songs that went with the characters thematically and use those to shape their character a little further, like looking to The Impossible Dream from the 1972 Man of la Mancha and Moon River for Archie, as well as old Ole Lukoje fairytales. He used to draw inspiration from Hijo de la Luna, but I wanted his story to be more upbeat on surface level with hidden tones of sadness instead of dramatic.

I don't want this to get tooooo long, so I'm going to put a pin in it there. If people want to know more in depth inspiration sources for specific characters feel free to ask! I like being open about my inspiration sources and my process since so many other artists gatekeep stuff. I hope this was a nice read!! :o)

[blackbackedjackal]

So to put this in perspective. I was about 5-7 when The Burned Furs was happening. I literally went to see Pokemon: The First Movie IN THEATERS, while this was going on.

By the time I was using the olde internet was about 10 or so. My family had a home computer system with Windows 98 and kept things upgraded over the years due to my dad needing access to "the internet" for work. I was left alone a lot as a kid (busy father/neglectful mother) and this was around the time of "CHECK OUT WWW.POKEMON.COM FOR MORE DETAILS" kind of time of the early internet + advertising. Like I was still using AOL dial-up for a lot of my original internet deep dives. Then, when things like Neopets took off, I was using the computer religiously. I stayed (mostly) on kid-safe spaces, but of course, the internet was, and is, the internet and I eventually branched out. I wanna say I was looking up pictures of Inuyasha to print out and use as art reference, as well as Digimon and Wolf's Rain. I know one of the earliest pieces of furry media was Renamon porn around 2002-2004, as well as a lot of art by Dark Natasha through her website.

At some point around 2005-2006 I stumbled onto VLC. I remember because I saw some furry art by an artist and really liked his style and was emulating it for a bit. At this time, furry art was still ruled by many people emulating Animalympics (which I only knew of because my family owned one of the first official releases of the VHS copies), as well as Osamu Tezuka's deep stylistic influence on the furry community in the 80-90s. The Disney influence from TLK hadn't fully seeped into the community at that point, and, being a little anime kid, I was genuinely fascinated with the art style. One of the first pieces of art I posted online was something I drew inspired by some furry fox art I saw on VLC, but then hyperfixated more into the general "I wanna draw a cool edgy anime wolf" kind of thing.

My first OC, Jade Shadowblood (lol) I made when I was about 9-10. I still own the sketchbook where I first drew her. This was sometime around 2001-2002. She was an Inuyasha self-insert character and intended to be "me" if I was in Inuyasha. I always refereed to her as "this is me if I was a wolf demon" to my friends at the time when I showed them my art in elementary school. I got the idea to make more "wolf demons" of my friends when they asked me if I could draw them as wolves at school. I took a lot of design inspo from Neopets/Neopets Adoptables at the time, and a lot of my original OCs were in fact, based off of kids who were my friends at the time (I have all of these original pieces still saved to this day).

Anyway, I joined DeviantArt in 2006 when I was 12-13 under the handle ShroudofShadows. I heard the name on Xiolin Showdown and thought it sounded cool for an internet username. This was my first real venture into social media. I scanned in and posted some of my old art, and continued making art inspired by Inuyasha, Wolf's Rain, Neopets, etc. It wasn't until about 2007 or so when I shared Jade on DA that one of my friends asked me "is this your fursona?" and I was like "what's a fursona?" and well, here we are I guess?

My first webcomic was started at this time, I found out about other people making wolf comics with their characters and I was like "I wanna do that too". The OG Wolf Song was heavily inspired by Inuyasha/Wolf's Rain, but because I also liked Don Bluth, an inspiration Kay Fedewa also used for her art, I got lumped in as "copying" Kay Fedewa because our styles were similar.

Kay got started with The Blackblood Alliance around the same time I did, and did influence about 5 or so of the original pages. Even though I knew my characters and plot were different and eventually would deviate from looking similar to her art, I just leaned into it since people were accusing me of copying her when we just happened to be posting around the same time. I had no idea who she was prior to people comparing me to her.

Wolf Song, ran for several years, but due to being bullies by TheRoguez/RayJ and her band fo merry fuckwads who made it their goal to "remove" wolf comics off of deviantart (the great sparkledog cleanse) and people like MirrorZan and BlueShineWolf having some very public drama in the wolf comic community, I eventually stopped working on my comic to do a big re-write. I wanted to FINALLY get out from under the "oh you're just copying these people" bullshit because I was like "I literally don't know who this is until you name dropped them". I stayed in my lane with Wolf Song and didn't branch out too much to other wolf comic artists since we were all getting harassed at this point. I didn't really know who to trust outside of the friends I had made in my early DA days.

By 17, I was applying for colleges and didn't have time to work on Wolf Song anymore. This was also around the time the other Wolf Song, the one on youtube, began taking off more and my comic was buried under the popularity. I figured "eh ok" and dropped the project while focusing on school.

I never felt like I really fit in with any one place/group. I had my own space and the fans of my comic which made me happy, so I avoided social media/fandom stuff for a few years. I was always on the fringes of the furry fandom, but due to coming across some really racist proboards forums about the furry fandom when I finally looked into it and saw "N*ggers can't be furry/therian/otherkin", I was like "ok fuck you too" and never wanted to participate in the fandom.

[merriway]

Do you have any tips for how you developed your style? I want it to be like yours :3

OH my style has been developed over the course of many years through many different inspirations. I dont really have a name for it either per your other ask its more just like a hodge podge of all my favorite things. I can list some of my prominent inspirations for you to look up as well as list some of the things I focus on when arting!

For inspiration I'd have to go back to elementary school and say that my first creative inspo was probably the Nightmare before Christmas. I think that really encouraged a love of weird and whacky shapes in character design. Anime was obviously also a huge inspo and I love a lot of retro anime from the 80s/90s. Ranma, Moomins, Add in some PS1-PS2 era platformer mascots like sonic, spyro, crash, and klonoa. If we're talking video games too i gotta bring up pokemon cause thats been my obsession since the games first came out. From highschool through college I really studied a lot of art from classic disney and I'd say one of my favorite book series is "They drew as they pleased' I think studying that gave me a love for gesture drawing and acting. I think there was the show Wakfu which had a lot of art from Gobi and Bill Otomo and I loved how they pushed shapes in their character design. Takashi Nakamaru is a big inspo for me in how he stylizes and animates. He has such a level of volume and weight that what he animates feels so real but his style feels so cartoony and whimsical. Yuasa Masaaki headed one of my favorite anime, Kaiba. Which had a very stylized toony look but held a lot of darker heart wrenching themes. I really love cute/fun aesthetics mixed with heavier topics. Yoh Yoshinari is another major artist I reference a lot. Hes a major hitter at Trigger and I love the way he has blended both western and anime styles together. Also his extreme poses are so fun. I particularly love his book of sketches he did of Osamu Tezuka characters. Very toony but animated stuff. There is probably a lot more but I would say thats a erally good starting place to know where Im coming from. As for how I approach drawing. I will echo this as long as I live but gesture drawing gesture drawing gesture drawing. I took several life drawing classes in college and my favorite thing was to do short timed drawings of people and animals. There are so many videos for free on youtube about the Line of Action, about how to start gesture drawing as well as so many resources to find models/reference to draw from. Do 5 second gesture drawings where you can only get like three lines on the page, that helps you to focus most on the feeling and energy of a pose. Then 30 sec, 1 min, etc See how people do life drawing too. I really like Heinrich Kley and he was a huge inspo for many of the classic disney artists. You keep practicing that and it'll start to show up in your more stylized work. When you learn how to twist and bend shapes it starts to show in your personal art. For my personal art I tend to have a lot of mood boards, pinterest boards with artists I like and work that inspires me. I sometimes just spend 15min-30min looking at my favorite art, injecting the things I like about them into my brain and getting hyped to draw! Draw all sorts of styles, all sorts of things! Experiment with a variety of styles and eventually you'll start to create your own signature look. And dont be afraid to make a bad drawing!! I made so many! I drew on notes in class, on napkins, on post it notes, you name it. Just doodle and sketch bad things then try to figure out how to fix them through reference and learning. But remember to just stop and think about what you want! For example, what do you like about my art? is it the posing the shapes, the energy? Think about those things. Take a moment to ask yourself questions like 'what am I going for?" "why?" I think having a motivation, a drive, or something similar to that helps you want to draw and not get caught up with social media and trying to compete with your peers. Overall enjoy the journey! You're your own unique person and all your own personal experiences can feed into your work in a way others may not! And good luck with drawing, I hope it stays fun for you!!

[the-monkey-ruler]

how common is it for adaptations to give stone monkey a (usually female) friend on flowerfruit mountain? i've noticed it in a couple adaptations and wonder if it comes from a specific adaptation

Funny enough YES!

At least I think we can all think of one man in particular for the common grey-fur monkey companion that Shihou/Wukong has...

And that is Tezuka Osamu!

I think it starts with his manga My SonGoku ぼくの孫悟空.

This was first published in 1952 and has been quite influential in Japanese interpretations of Sun Wukong.

He was actually influenced by Tessen Koshu who made the Princess Iron Fan cartoon 铁扇公主 in 1941 with that kind of rubber hose kind of art style.

Anyway, the main point is that this guy made a certain character at the start of his manga before Wukong left for his training.

"While Biko, a monkey born from a stone, starts as a shy crybaby, he becomes the king of the monkeys with the encouragement of a gentle sister monkey, LinLin. He learns Senjutsu, becomes Son Goku, and goes on a rampage in Heaven...

Sister edition of "Boku no Son Goku", girls' manga version "Journey to the West"."

Otherwise known as RinRin depending on how you translate it. Or even DeeDee or Reina. Depends on what you are looking at.

"RinRin-chan" The tomboyish monkey to the main character. She names the stone monkey Biko and takes care of him as an older sister."

I haven't read the manga (I don't know Japanese) nor do I understand how manga history in how this is both a "Hitomi" (Akita Shoten) 1960 serialization but I do know she is credited to Tezuka Osamu. And her influence has been in serial more of a couple of Japanese Xiyouji iterations.

Her next appearance being in ALAKAZAN THE GREAT Saiyuki ぼくの孫悟空 which was made in 1960. This was written by Baku Yumemakura who was a fan of Tezuka Osamu's works where she goes by RinRin. A pretty one-to-one look from what she looked like in the manga

This is also some inspiration in the 1967 Goku's Great Adventures 悟空の大冒険 but any female side character was replaced with a fairy-like person Tatsuko. She isn't Rinrin of course but I think that since this was also credited to Tezuka Osamu that having a pink-themed older sister character was what inspired her.

There was also a female monkey by the name of Fanya from the 1999 Magic Monkey モンキーマジックTV series that is more well-known for its video game. Not named Rinrin at all but... look at her. She gets TWO flowers in her hair and a pink theme. I know flowers and pink aren't the most creative choice for a girl monkey but that is a clear inspiration.

She wasn't really seen by name until the 2003 movie, My Son Goku ぼくの孫悟空 where she was brought back by where she goes by Reina in the eng subs! Here her name is slightly different but I think that this might be my favorite version of her thus far! She is such a caring person and while he isn't in the movie that long she plays such an impactful role!

These are mostly Japanese interpretations because of their tie with the My SonGoku manga but there are a few more giving Wukong a grey monkey friend in his Shihou phase in Chinese interpretations.

The only one I can think of that can be a real nod of acknowledgment is really 1999 Legends of the Monkey King 西游记 with an unnamed girl monkey (if she does have a name please let me know I've never learned it!) Love the change from pink to yellow, we are getting creative here.

These are all the examples I can think of at least in the media I've personally seen!

The only grey-furred sidekick thus far was LiuEr Mihou from Monkey King 2009 美猴王. I think this one might be more coincidental with the grey fur and the pink theme but that would be hilarious if it was to fit the 'childhood best friend' card that Rinrin, a completely different character, has set.

I do find some comments on how LiuEr in this version took RINRIN'S place as the childhood best friend trope. Like that idea of Wukong in his Stone Monkey phase of life having a Best friend is now tied to the image of Rinrin! It is funny to think that out of all the interactions of giving Wukong sidekicks, this one seems to be a re-occurring one consistently. Sadly I haven't seen another version in nearly 20 years!! We've been deprived!

Will we see this character again soon? Hard to say considering it's been so long but I love that in at least 3 different Japanese Xiyouji interactions and a general nod in acknowledgment in 2 as well.

Until we see you again beautiful queen!

[littleeyesofpallas]

pulling a random paper sleeve from the trash bag they've been sleeping in, my first salvage of the day is... The original 1984, "Glass Mask"/GLASS no Kamen, adapting the classic 1970s manga of the same name, by Suzue Miuchi. (And right behind it two DVDs of the 2005 remake)

The original manga started running in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume/"Flowers & Dreams" shoujo magazine(and later its, now defunct, supplementary magazine, Bessatsu Hana to Yume) in 1976 --The magazine itself started in 1974-- and ran until 2012 (with a little gap between 2006 and 2008) when it was put on its now indefinite hiatus. With over 50million copies sold across 49 volumes, it is one of the best selling shoujo manga of all time. Especially impressive considering Hakesensha is a bit of a runt of the litter in terms of big manga publishers; they're not exactly "small" but they don't stack up anything close to the big hitters like Shueisha, Kodansha, of Shogakukan.

The 1984 anime was by Studio Eiken, whom are kind of all but forgotten these days. They really peaked between the 80s and 90s, but were responsible for a handful of real foundational classics. They did Tetsujin-28 and 8-Man, which were of course the basis for early American anime imports Gigantor --one of the early giant robot series-- and Tobor The 8th Man --which would go on to influence the creation of Robocop, and get a shout out in Big O.(the electric eel episode is an almost shot for shot remake of an 8-Man episode.)

The director of the original TV series was Gizaburo Sugii who is himself a real monolith of the early anime industry. He was an animator on White Snake Legend/Hakuja-den(Panda and the Magic Serpent in English) an early anime film adapting the Chinese Lady Whitesnake myth, often cited as part of what inspired Hayao Miyazaki to become an animator. Gizaburo, like Osamu Tezuka, for whom he worked, was himself inspired by the Japanese theatrical release of Disney's Bambi. He was also an animation director on the original Tetsuwan Atom/The Mighty Atom (aka Astroboy in English). He's been a key figure behind a bunch of classics, often sports series, and in Mushi Production's Animerama film trilogy, as well as a few iterations of Lupin III and Street Fighter, but perhaps his most uniquely enduring work was as the creator behind Night on The Galactic Railroad, adapting the 1934 Kenji Miyazawa novel.

The 2005 series had a different kind of big name behind it: Mamoru Hamatsu. He may not have been a godfather to the art or the industry, but he was no slouch as far as pop culture hits go. He's the director behind the original Dirty Pair and Urusei Yatsura, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers aka Ronin Warriors, all of which had substantial success in English release, and some big but slightly B-list giant robot series like Giant Gorg and King of Braves GAO GAI GAR.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for March 10th. There's a lot of smoke there. At first I was toying with making the image even taller, like ten times the size, so that most of it was covered in smoke, but decided to go with this one. A real coin toss, really.

On an unrelated point, I heard about Akira Toriyama's death yesterday. Pretty sad, considering he was still comparatively young (68) and active. I was a huge Chrono Trigger fan when I was young, and I've played that game through the end several times. Best RPG of its generation.

I also liked Dragon Ball, although not as much, and that love kind of diminshed with age. Still, I've got a lot of nostalgia for the Z era sagas, with Freeza and Cell. And I read the manga, the early years with kid Goku were pretty interesting, too.

Unfortunately, after the Boo saga the franchise kind of went off-rails. Wasn't into the anime-only GT series, not to mention the games or the disastrous movie. The Super series wasn't as bad, but still doesn't compare to the original.

Still, I have real fond memories of the story. It's an interesting and unique story - or at least it would be if it wasn't so incredibly popular it became ingrained into everyone's mind and imitated to such an extent. I'm reading Osamu Tezuka's Boku no Son Goku, which was also inspired by Journey to the West, and this time I can say Tezuka's work wasn't the superior adaptation. Of course, you have to consider the context...

It's hard to explain a lot about Dragon Ball, especially to people who aren't fans. It started out as a comedic parody of a XVIth century novel, but then it turned into a martial arts story, and then it became serious? And the main character grew up, dozens of minor characters piled up in the background... and all of that before the twist that started the story I'm familiar with - Goku's an alien?

Toriyama's art made the story a lot more pleasant, too. The design of vehicles, aliens, monsters and robots was top notch, and what made me enjoy the story much more than the fight scenes and associated cliches. Another interesting thing was Toriyama's use of twists which led the stories into a different direction when compared to other shonen manga, which often adhered religiously to the build-up to stronger enemies in sucession.

But that's also where the story issues lie. The first is the bloated cast of characters being humiliated so Goku could steal the spotlight. The biggest victim there is Yamcha, but, really, everyone who was beaten by Goku then turned good was kind of cannon fodder. That started as a twist, too - so this evil guy Goku had so much trouble with got beaten so easily by the new villain? Damn. And since new villains kept being introduced, each one being so much stronger than the last, it was hard to make sense of how strong the characters were (and any realism was already out the window thanks to all the plot devices keeping the characters alive and strong enough to fight).

It's funny by the end of the story - or even, by the end of the kid Goku era already - the dragon balls were also relegated to the background. I don't like a lot of the cliches of the series, the plot devices used to make characters stronger with no interesting consequences, the convoluted use of elements of past stories, annoying character behaviors... but, still, you have to respect a guy who managed to start out with such a weird little comedy with its goofy looking vehicles and talking dinosaurs, and turn it into a behemoth so popular, people can have such strong feelings about it.

RIP, Akira Toriyama.

[gremoria411]

I really like how distinct you made the designs, particularly the silhouettes and I like the integration of colour into their designs, as opposed to just being clothing.

The greater emphasis on their bodies is also great, it feels like it allows for more expressive poses (like blossom and buttercup in the top right) while still being simple enough to allow for punchy action during fight scenes. It really feels like a good mix. I also like how you’ve blended fingers with the classic “nub” hand designs (specifically with Bubbles in the bottom left). And of course the varied skin tones are a welcome addition (Personally, I’m always particularly fond of that on robots or other forms of engineered life, because it’s such an easy thing to justify not having, so having it anyway is just lovely).

I also really like the design of Professor Utonium but I’m not really sure why. I think it’s because both the original and this one are Dad-coded, but whereas the original is more “standard, clean, respectable” this one’s more “battered, flawed and human but trying his very best”. I assume that’s the Dr Tenma influence (especially with the implications of the robot hand), but it’s a wonderful take nonetheless.

Also, since you decided to draw these as explicitly robotic, I’m curious as to what the Powerpuff girls are in the original series. I don’t think the series makes a big thing out of it but I wonder if they count as Androids? (Following the old logic of Android = A robot that was created chemically)

Also hey, if you wanted to take Inspiration from a different one of Osamu Tezuka’s works, might I suggest Pinoko, from the excellent Black Jack? (Though it can be a little grisly)

Was inspired by @wolfsvile's (twt) ppg iteration and decided to draw around its concept with my own take of how they came to be :)

tried to stay loyal to their og shape language while straying further from the simplicity of the style, and picked up a few things from astroboy and my life as a teenage robot

[art-of-bygost]

I must ask. What inspired your drawing art style? I am referring to the pieces of art I'm seeing you post on the art fight in your character references.

Was it perhaps something you saw? Or was it just something that developed one day and you just vibed with it? I just really love the style. Especially how you drew your pokémon.

Sorry it took me this long to answer but i needed to honestly think about it XDD

It's a bit of both. My art style heavily depends on what i am currently interested in. With that said, there are quite a few places where i find inspo!

Currently there are a few inspirations i look to when it comes to my art! My biggest ones however, are probably Osamu Tezuka and Albert Uderzo. They used very strong shapes for their characters, which hugely influenced how i approach designing on my own. Having variety in body types as well as facial structures is VERY important for me, and i love to be able to showcase a character's personality through their design alone.

I recently had a bit of a shift in my art style, which was partially caused by OFF by Mortis Ghost. And of course the many artists that make excellent fan art for it. It sort of made me abandon trying to go for "clean" art as honestly i don't enjoy making it. I am too impatient XD

Mateusz Skutnik is another influence. I used to actually really like his art in the past because i played a lot of his flash games (Which you should honestly check out). And recently I found out that he used to make comics, which I think is cool.

I also somewhat take inspo from the Polish School of Posters at times, as the artists back then were more focused on giving off the vibe of the thing the poster was made for, rather than making it something accurate.

I am sure there are more, but those are so far the mains so to speak.

[tganalostarosciak]

Comic artists researches. Part 2

Osamu Tezuka:

Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the Father of Manga", "the Godfather of Manga" and "the God of Manga".

What is Osamu Tezuka famous for?

In Japan, however, Tezuka is revered as a “god of manga,” a pioneer in the development of comics and animation, and, as one recent biographer described him, an almost-superhuman figure, “like Walt Disney, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Tim Burton, Arthur C.

What is Osamu Tezuka art style?

Osamu Tezuka's art style had a tremendous range. Although usually defined by his trademark Disney-influenced "cartoony" style, Tezuka was quite an accomplished artist with the ability to draw breathtaking realism. Of course, he could also go the other way.

Why is Osamu Tezuka the godfather of anime?

Starting in the 1950s, Tezuka created and wrote more than 700 manga series containing over 170,000 pages and he also penned over 200,000 pages of anime storyboards and scripts. His impact on anime and manga is impossible to overstate. His influence on the industry was nothing less than miraculous.

My opinions for this artist that his style its have a mixture of a anime and cartoon together as he made anime which his style it is Disney-Influenced ''cartoony'' style when he is known for ''godfather of anime'' that he made amazing anime and manga for his cartoony style.

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Steve Ditko:

Stephen John Ditko was an American comics artist and writer best known for being co-creator of Marvel superhero Spider-Man and creator of Doctor Strange. He also made notable contributions to the character of Iron Man with the character's red and yellow design being revolutionized by Ditko

Why did Steve Ditko leave Marvel?

In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the "Doctor Strange" feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for a variety of reasons, including creative differences and unpaid royalties.

How many issues of Spider-Man did Steve Ditko make?

Writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Steve Ditko created the character of Spider-Man, and the pair produced 38 issues from March 1963 to July 1966. Ditko left after the 38th issue, while Lee remained as writer until issue 100.

Are Stan Lee and Steve Ditko friends?

Ditko and Lee were never really got along as friends and Ditko felt he was being given enough credit from the start of the book so this decision became the last straw for him and he quit.

My opinion for this artist as his style is also pop culture-like as he uses very bold and bright colours like red, blue, grey, black, etc. As he uses his own style that he made notable contributions to character of Iron Man with that character's red and yellow design which is the idea from Steve Ditko.

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Jack Kirby:

Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew up in New York City and learned to draw cartoon figures by tracing characters from comic strips and editorial cartoons.

Why did Jack Kirby quit Marvel?

In 1970 Kirby left Marvel over creative differences with Lee and joined rival DC. The following year he launched a trio of comics—New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People—which he envisioned as finite series of interlocked stories that would eventually be collected in a single volume.

Did Jack Kirby make Thanos?

In creating Thanos, Starlin drew inspiration from Jack Kirby's New Gods series for DC Comics, particularly the character of Darkseid. Thanos is usually portrayed as a villain, although many stories depict him as believing his actions to be justified.

Why did Jack Kirby create the Hulk?

Kirby also commented upon his influences in drawing the character, and recalled the inspiration of witnessing the hysterical strength of a mother lifting a car off her trapped child. Lee has also compared Hulk to the Golem of Jewish mythology.

My opinion for this artist for his art style as it is like realistic style mixed with comic/cartoon style to the comic so that it will be not difficult to make it simple as it will be time consuming to make VERY small details on the comic.

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[matchachas-blog]

June 18 - Kyoto Manga Museum

My friends make fun of me for falling asleep during the morning discussions, but there’s no way I can stay awake with consecutively insufficient hours of sleep. So after another morning of sleepy morning discussion, we headed to the Manga Museum. The manga museum kind of reminded me of the Old Davie School back home because of the creaky wooden stairs. It had information of what manga is, how it is made, how it can be turned into tv shows, novels, etc, and of course, had a ton of manga and space to read them.

After flipping through some mangas and pointing out which ones we recognize, it was time to watch the kami shibai. Kami shibai is a form of entertainment for young kids where a story teller speaks and uses posters with drawings on them to usually tell some kind of story, scary or comical. It was impressive to watch the story teller do his job because he was a great entertainer. He involved the crowd, told a story, projected his voice, make jokes, all while having an audience of mostly English speakers, even though his English was not great. I really respected how he put on a great show for kids and adults.

Academic Reflection

The reading talked about the origin of manga, and the debates around it. Some people think that it started post world war 2, as Japanese newspapers were inspired by American newspapers that had comics on them. Other scholars of Japanese culture argue that it started with old Japanese scrolls with caricatures on them, which most seem to agree is a stretch. It also talked about Osamu Tezuka who wrote many manga while being a doctor and is regarded as the god of manga.

Another point it made was that Japan is now known for their manga and anime and exporting those forms of media allows Japan to exercise soft power, similar to how America exercises soft power through hollywood. I think that Japan does enjoy soft power through manga and anime but only with older children and adults. Young kids also watch a lot of anime like Pokémon, but they don’t know that the media they’re consuming is from Japan. However, adults and older children consume manga and anime and do understand that the entertainment they consume comes from Japan.

[thekingofwinterblog]

GRRM - A Hundred Years From Now

You know, listening to people react to George R. R. Martin basically admitting that he has given up on Winds of Winter, and by extention finishing A Song of Ice and Fire, there was one argument from one of those videos that really struck a cord with me.

Basically the argument went, that in a hundred years, people will still bring up fucking Lovecraft as one of the great writers of fantasy stories.

Lovecraft was a horrible, awful human being... but he will still be remembered a hundred years from now as one of the most influential writers in history.

George will not.

George essentially treats the TV shows as his true legacy, the sign that he made it big, but let me ask, a hundred years from now, will ANYONE care about these TV shows? Do you care about the tv-shows that aired 70 years ago?

The answer is, of course you fucking don't. No one does. Other than shows that are still ongoing to this day, nobody cares about shows that are that bloody old, not when new shows are made all the time.

But you know what people still do remember? Lovecraft. Because his legacy was finished. It was done and dusted, and when he died, he left all his work in the public domain and by doing so created a myth, a story, a legacy for himself that would last long, long beyond his death.

So did Tolkien.

Tolkien spent his entire life working on his legendarium, but by the time he died, he had long, long since finished the books that made him the king of fantasy. Lord of the Rings, and to a lesser extent the hobbit. If he hadn't finished return of the King, no one would ever have cared about the silmarillion.

But he did. He finished his great magnus opus and by doing so, he immortalized himself as one of the greatest writers who ever lived, and so, people cared about his expanded universe, far, far beyond his death.

Just like Lovecraft.

A finished legacy will last forever. One that was never finished, will not, because people rarely seek out a work they know will never have an ending.

Osamu Tezuka was one of the greatest and most imfluential mangaka who ever drew, and he will be known for as long as Manga remains a medium as "The God of Manga".

Black Jack, Astro boy, Kimba the White Lion, and more. All of these will be revisited and remembered by future generations, and will probably be reimagined until the end of time.

However, have you ever heard of his manga Pheonix?

The answer is probably not, which is kinda strange, given that Osamu both planned for, and considered to be his magnus opus. And yet, it's barely remembered, and it will certainly not be remembered as the equal of Black Jack and Astro boy a hundred years from now.

Why? Because it was never finished.

And an unfinished work remains so forever if it's author dies. And it is doomed to be forgotten in the long run.

Which brought me to a rather sad, and awful realization.

Kentaro Miura died last year. The creator of the legendary manga berserk, a manga that was a great personal inspiration for me, and has defined the way i write action scenes to this day.

While certainly not perfect, it was one of the best fantasy, and human stories ever written.

And the fact is, that if his team of former assistants ultimately choose to not continue the manga beyond his death, Berserk, for all it's crowning glory as a work of stunning art, will ultimately be doomed to the same fate as Phoenix.

To be remembered, not as something great, but as a mere footnote in history. Maybe a hundred years from now people will say "oh berserk? Thats the manga that The souls series took inspiration from right?" And that will probably be as far as it will be remembered.

And that is really, really depressing.

J.K Rowling will be remembered forever, because whatever we, or future generations may think of her as a person, just like Lovecraft, her work is done. Harry Potter is done. Her legacy as a writer is done and dusted.

A hundred years from now, people will still remember harry potter, while berserk will probably be forgotten.

that sucks, but thats how it is.

Martin has abandoned his magnus opus fantasy novels for the glory and riches that comes with tv deals.

And he has also made it clear that if he dies, he wants all his work on the unpublished books destroyed, and any continuation of the books will be fucked until they one day fall into public domain.

It is a remarkably shortsighted path for a man who clearly wants to leave behind a great legacy of a great writer.

Today there is the discussion of which is better, Which is the greatest fantasy writer in hsitory, Tolkien or GRRM?

If a song of ice and fire ends at A Dance with dragons, then a hundred years from now, George will only be one out of a hundred different fantasy writers who came and went.

While Tolkien, Rowling, Lovecraft, Andrzej Sapkowski, Stephen King and many others will be remembered, because whatever qualities they had, or lacked as people, they finished their legacy.

While Martin and all his works will be forgotten.

And i personally find that bloody sad.

[animepopheart]

Hello! Do you know of any Christian-inspired anime? Referenced? Or like even portrayed? Thanks!

I sure do! You cover a lot of ground with those questions, so yeah, there are actually a lot of series that would qualify, particularly from a more superficial level.

Lots of anime, of course, use Christian elements as window dressing (think gothic churches) or for world-building, usually portrayed in a negative light (ex. Evangelion), though there are some that portray the faith more neutrally (Samurai Champloo), comically (Saint Young Men) or in a positive way through the actions of a Christian-like church (Chrono Crusade), with some even throwing in decent theology (Vatican Medical Examiners) too. But the latter are rare—you're more likely to find stuff like this experimental trailer for a proposed Warrior Nun Areala anime:

There are a few straight-up, Christian anime, mostly older ones like the original Superbook, which many kids grew up watching in Sunday School, and In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, a series written by Osamu Tezuka. I also like to post the short film, My Last Day, each Easter; it was developed by a Japanese studio for the makers of the Jesus film.

On Beneath the Tangles, though, we prefer to dig a little deeper. Instead of looking for superficial elements, we connect better with themes or content that help us think more about the Christian life. A couple recent examples of articles include one about Rio's arc in Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai and how Sakuta's advice to her doesn't provide a strong hope, and another on the final episode of Kageki Shoujo and how one character's thoughts and actions brings to mind the older brother of the parable of the Prodigal Son. A more classic example is in Trigun, and Wolfwood's struggles with grace.

If we believe God is who he says he is, his stories are everywhere around us, often in unexpected places and in media where creators never intended to include him. That's what we examine on our site.

Here are some recommendations we have for Christians, though virtually none of these series actually reference the faith.

[frobin]

Okey serious question here. How much do you actually believe that Oda ships Frobin? Like do you think he actually have like doodles/sketchs of them in a pairing kind of way? like for the strong world film riding the motorbug? (Personally i would love it to be true but he has stated one piece isn't about romance in that way)

Hey there anon! Thank you so much for your question and I hope I can answer it seriously enough. Also once more sorry for the late response. I felt like a question like that needs some research and that is what I did these last few days.

So... I think I'll start with the tl;dr because that way people can read that and ignore the rest.

So, long answer short: I 100% believe that Oda has one or more sketchbooks with drawings of his characters that are absolutely self-indulgent. I am 98% sure that he has drawn Franky and Robin in a romantic way at least once (and supported the ship). I am 80% sure he still is shipping FRobin.

Little disclaimer: I actually have no idea if any of this is true. I pull everything in my arguments out of my own experiences and knowledge and since I'm not a 46 year old Japanese Mangaka my perspective might be WAY OFF.

argument - reason- example - conclusion... behind the cut (or in the google doc)

So, why do I think that Oda has a secret sketchbook?

Simple answer is that he is an artist. He is drawing a lot and no artist will publish everything. That can have multiple reasons like imposter syndrome or because the artist thinks it’s not good or interesting enough or they just forget. There are even more reasons I forget and every person has their own.

For Oda I can imagine two big reasons as to why he would keep secret sketchbooks.

First: He is a horndog. You can skip this part if you don’t want to read about it, to the second reason.

Anyway, we know thanks to answers in the SBS, the way he likes to draw big-breasted women and how some of his characters are classified as perverts that he can be considered one too.

Let me show you a few of a few lewd SBS questions he likes to answer in a funny way:

Chapter 228, Page 46

D: How are ya, Odacchi? I know how much you like getting butt-naked, so this must be a favourite season for you. <3

O: Yes, yes. I just LOVE getting completely naked. In the summertime, after I take a bath I just run STRAIGHT OUTSIDE!! And when the girls' softball team running on the sidewalk looks over at me, they say, "Yup, it's really summer now!!" ... AS IF!! I'D GET ARRESTED!!!

(x)

Chapter 433, Page 68

D: If Lady Robin can use her Hana Hana Powers to make any part of her body sprout somewhere else, does that mean she can do it with her ample bosom as well? "Nyurin-zaki" (Breast Sprout) Boy, I'd like to take a hit from that sometime... P.N. Ero Ero no Mi Devil Fruit User.

O: "Ichirin-zaki" (Single Sprout) "Nirin-zaki" (Double Sprout) "Nyurin-zaki" (Breast Sprout) Very clever!! NO IT'S NOT!! STOP THAT!! I'm sure she CAN do it though ♡

(x)

Chapter 798, Page 64

D: Oddachi, I'll give you a pornographic book, so please answer my question. Sanji won't allow anyone to waste food, but what will he do if a woman does so? P.N. Smoker's Cigar

O: I think he would grab the plate and eat it up. Now please give me the pornographic book.

(x)

Nowadays I’m sure there is a focus on those lewder questions compared to the beginning because that is what 13 year old boys laugh about and we all know that is Oda's main demographic (of course).

I think a very good picture of that is given by Tekking101 in his breakdown video of SBS Volume 100.

“Let’s get diving into these questions (...) now, this is a huge moment. I mean, not many Manga manage to reach 100 Volumes, Okay? Now I know Oda usually starts these off with questions relating to boobs and things that don’t really… you know, aren’t really relevant but you know, this is a big celebration so we’re gonna dive right into it. I bet the most important things that we need to know about the One Piece Story are right here in these pages, okay? I printed them out. That is how important this is. So let’s start off, shall we? Epic voice, Barry!

‘Mister Oda, there is a UFO over there with huge big-breasted beauties on it. That memorable 100 Volume of the SBS is about to begin.’

[pause] Yeah, like the first five of these are all related to boobs in some way. You know what Oda? Sticking true to your guns! Godspeed, Sir Oda. Godspeed.”

(end at around 2:30)

So, Oda is a man who likes beautiful women and who draws.

Coming to the conclusion that he will draw his own characters in suggestive poses, naked and even doing adult stuff is not hard.

Obviously he would not show these sketches just around. He would probably keep them in a secret sketchbook that he keeps at a safe location. Maybe his wife and some close friends know about it? Maybe it is his and only his little secret.

I don’t think it would be unlikely to learn about this years into the future, maybe the next generation of Anime Fans will hear about this.

And it would not be the first time that something like this happened.

Not that long ago the daughter of Osamu Tezuka - groundbreaking Mangaka, known for his works of “Astro Boy”, “Kimba the white lion” and many more - found his adult Furry art. Source; Japanese article;

It’s a fact that many Mangaka did indeed start their career with art of the more risque kind and/or as doujinshi artists.

So again, I have no doubt that Oda, a known pervert, has one or more secret sketchbooks with „the p0rnography“ in it. Is there only hot stuff in there? Not necessarily.

The second reason to keep a secret sketchbook would be to collect information in there, that could be considered canon but he is not willing to use it in the Manga. Maybe they are not important enough or will be used later.

What am I imagining here? Anything that could be considered too weird for the normal sketchbook but isn‘t too risque. Funny things that might still not be „appropriate.“

Like a sketch of the male Strawhat ding-dongs with the sizes beside it. All the lewd jokes the fans did about Luffy's stretching qualities? I’m sure Oda thought about them too and drew that in the past if he had the time and it made him laugh enough.

But also maybe there are scenes in there that never made it in the Manga. The Strawhats interacting with each other in their daily lives, ideas for colorspreads and maybe chapter-titles. Oda probably has noted/sketched down a lot of unofficial stuff somewhere.

Another example, even an artist like Oda himself would have needed to exercise drawing two people kissing. Why not use Characters he thinks that might work out together?

Why not Franky and Robin? I would imagine he sketched up a few panels of Franky and Robin having a romantic date, going shopping together in Dressrosa, having a conversation that we never got to see because it was too on the nose.

Which brings us to the second point of me being very sure that Oda had drawn FrankyXRobin at one point.

I’m sure in those sketchbooks there is at least one drawing of them doing anything couple-related together. Again it does not have to be downright nasty but it could be them holding hands, kissing or even just Robin leaning onto Franky while reading, like all those fanarts that exist out there.

It’s not hard to imagine. Even for other Characters I think that is possible

And there might even be proof for that idea. The sketch of the Strong World movie you also mentioned, anon. The one movie that can be considered canon is Strong World. It was basically written/directed by Oda. Shiki the antagonist had an appearance in the Manga.

This sketch is drawn by Oda. Robin is holding onto Franky.

Can it be read as romantic? Yes. Can it be read as Robin holding onto Franky because there is nothing else to hold onto? Also Yes. But couldn't she just have used her power to keep herself secured on the bike without holding onto Franky? WELL YES. Could Oda never have thought in these circles like I do right now? I hope he did not because I hate it and I don’t wish it upon him.

In the movie Robin is NOT holding onto Franky. Now the really interesting thing - that is neither proof pro nor anti FRobin - is that we can see the sketch provided by Oda as a “between the scenes”.

In the movie Strong World the old trio is collecting information at the Pirate assembly. The next time we see them they use the Batta GT-7000 to slowly approach the destroyed village, which had been ravaged by the animals, and start to look for their friends. No need to hold onto Franky and no need for Brook to lean back. They are looking around.

The sketch is clearly not the same scene as the one we see in the movie.

In conclusion the drawing is indeed a between the scenes drawing. And yes if there exists one, who is to say there aren’t more?

Talking about Animal-Bikes...

Is there any meaning about the fact that in the opening scene (that is part of the talked intro after the opening ‘We Go’ - a huge thanks to antiherofangirl, ccb0nnet, JFL_Estudios and Maems, over at twitter!) Franky and Robin build another grasshopper-based vehicle? Maybe not but I still feel like it’s quite a callback.

Where did the idea to put this in the beginning come from? a) an editor had the idea inspired by Strong World; b) maybe it’s another sketch that Oda provided.

Neither seems very far-fetched in my opinion.

So yes, I am very sure that Oda has drawn things that we would consider FRobin.

Now to the last point (the first being Oda having a secret sketchbook, the second me arguing that Oda might have drawn FRobin).

As I said in the beginning I’m very sure that at one point Oda did and kinda that he still does ship Franky and Robin. Because even though every Interaction of two characters can be depicted as romantic or platonic, Oda used ROMANTIC TROPES with Franky and Robin.

They have never kissed on screen but we had

finishing each other's sentences

coordinated clothes

one using the others lap as pillow

hand on cheek caressing

and we can’t forget that Robin had answered Franky's invitation to ride on another animal-themed bike with a heart.

Edit: I didn‘t say anything about „no romance in OP“ so ask again if you want me to talk a bit about that. Sorry!

Those are things an author of Oda's level would not write or draw without being aware about how teasing this is. He has to be aware that every single line he draws will be analyzed to the end of the universe and back. People earn money by saying their opinion and interpretations about the Manga on Youtube.

These interactions are not something outlandish like “There was once an Anime Scene in which Robin was wearing something blue and exactly 28 episodes later Franky was wearing something violet and then 39 episodes later they both stood beside each other for exactly 69 seconds.”

Whenever I think about these facts, things that are not about interpreting but are factual, black ink on white paper but also about the little things, about how Frank and Robin help each other to become better, how they support each other… I want to say YES! ODA IS 100% on board! While in reality I’m 80% sure and 20% of me is wondering if I’m not actually analyzing too much into it. If maybe he really is abandoning ship. Maybe I will become the person who will curse his name and throw my Mangas and fanfictions in an active volcano?

I don’t know and it’s impossible to say what is going to happen.

And with that I've concluded this answer, and it only took me around 2k words and four days.

[tate-lin]

Omg an extension of your dissertations!! That's so cool tho; exploring your dissertation in a fiction novel~ There's more creative freedom to express what you want to say and make your point through the book's themes 👀🔥

For manga, I have several (though I did very briefly touch on it in this post)!!

The biggest I'd say is Hunter X Hunter's magic system called Nen. What I love most about it is how majority of Nen-users have to create their own special ability called Hatsu and, because of this, their Hatsu is directly informed by their respective personalities, strengths & interests which says a lot about their characters, narrative, and story arc. Because of this, I modelled the basics of my own magic system, ethra, after it by having it be something anyone can pick up and use, like a sport or skill. Here's my post on ethra and I think anyone who read the manga and see my six foundational pillars will be able to spot my inspiration behind it 😂

Besides that, I was inspired to create my darling plant-robot, Drew, directly because of an animated movie called No Game No Life: Zero. I just loved how strange and alien the robot seemed at the start and how the robots were all connected like a hive mind.

In terms of his actual story arc tho, my biggest inspirations come from a mech creation manga I read years ago (I can't remember the name of it now but it's basically this dude manufacturing non-sentient transformers) and Pluto by Urusawa Naoki, a grimmer and more grounded retelling of a really, really long chapter in Astro Boy by Tezuka Osamu called The Greatest Robot on Earth. And while it's not a manga or anime, I was also influenced by the video game Detroit: Become Human while trying to figure his character out.

Though I love No Game No Life: Zero, Pluto, and Detroit: Become Human (especially Pluto I love that thing to bits), I have different ideas on the potentials of robots. In all three of them, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the robots' humanity and empathy. In fact, the androids in Detroit: Become Human were only able to be freed from their lack of agency by becoming exactly like a human till they're nearly indistinguishable on the outside (hence the title).

For me, however, I don't need nor want robots to become exactly like us because they're not. If they can become sentient, they'd be people, of course, but not humans, and this difference is what's crucial to me.

In this case, it's the mech manga that truly influenced my direction on this take. In that story, there was a long-standing habit, maybe even an obsession, for engineers to create the mechs in our image, and the MC found a problem with that. Their society created mechs in order to fight or solve other problems, but was it so necessary to have them take on the shape of humans? If a spike for an arm made more sense, or if it was more useful to create something more akin an over-glorified spring with a knife, then wouldn't that be better? Why were humans the template that all mechs were based on? Just look out to nature and you can find thousands more fitting examples to base a design on, depending on what you're trying to solve.

This manga introduced me to the idea that humanity has a huge keenness to create robots that looked, moved, and acted exactly like us. Which is why things like this exist:

I'm absolutely not suggesting that humanity isn't creative enough to come up with something else, but from what I see, the general consensus is that a 'perfect robot' would be something that's exactly like us, just better.

But is all of that really necessary? In my opinion, it's akin to a parent-child relationship where the parent raised a child just to have another version of them. A take #2 of their life, but be perfect and make absolutely no mistakes. Be whatever the parent needs them to be in order to achieve their own goals.

In the end tho, I think it's nonsensical to assume that if a robot achieves sentience, they'd want to follow the same path as us or even want to think like us. There are many robot media out there which touched on how differently they view the world, but why is the correct answer at the end for a robot to want to be like us? To love like us, feel emotions like us, to care about the same things?

I just don't think that it makes sense. What's wrong with acting, feeling, and thinking like a robot? It may contrast with humanity's goals and desires and may prove to be inconvenient or troubling for us, but as long as they aren't hurting anyone, what's the big deal? They're essentially a whole different species we're creating, even if they're based off humans.

To me, I feel like their biggest problem wasn't necessarily not being human, it's that they wanted to be accepted and have agency but they're not, because robots were ultimately created as tools first. There is a huge difference being 'treated like a person' and 'treated like a human' I think, and that's what Drew struggles with the most.

Returning to Pluto though, one thing that influenced me heavily is how even robots that have very typical clonky robot looks can show such deep emotion & depth. Like omg JUST LOOK AT THESE PAGES!!

(note: please read from right to left for manga, like a reverse-z)

Like wowowow I just can't. I really can't. The anime did not do this scene justice cause I near about cried while reading this the very first time.

A robot that can't express themselves like a human can, a robot that doesn't look or think like a human does, a robot that doesn't even appreciate the same things as a human does... And even with all that, this is so clearly a person with her very own problems, thoughts, personality, and mindset. With Drew, this is exactly what I want to achieve.

Robots have their own strengths and weaknesses and unique appeal to them. Just like we humans do, even if we end up as very different beings. Isn't it such a waste to desire a pure copy-paste of us? I want to explore robots as their own species that are still a legacy of us, their creators, but also how they can go beyond that, like all children do in the end.

Other than that, certain panels of numerous other manga really strike me and they often inspire the creation of a particular character or plot choice. For example, Attack on Titan (humanity vs giant monsters) really influenced how I think about life's purpose, especially these two juxtaposing panels:

What are we born for, what should we do with our life? Attack on Titan was the manga that really made me realise that the answers to those questions don't necessarily need to be answered, and that's also what I want to explore, particularly with Minh.

And while thinking about my theme on acceptance, these are my biggest inspirations for it (the first is from Blue Lock, a soccer manga, and the second from Jujutsu Kaisen, an action manga about child soldiers, though the character featured is a lawyer):

Anyway we finally come to the end of this!! If you read till the end kudos to you omg cause I just ended up rambling 😭

I do get inspired by English novel books and other media too, but there's sth about the honesty and sincerity I find in manga that just really captures me.

@tate-lin reblogged your post:

#wowwww omg#did you take philosophy?? the inspiration you got is so interesting#i'm mainly inspired by manga so it's really cool to see where others draw their inspiration from#the ideas you're trying to implement is super intriguing too 👀🔥#i wanna beta readdd 🥹

Hi Tate-Lin, 💜 It's such a treat to see you on my dash! Hope you're doing good and the Writeblr gods are smiling down on your WIPS (check them out here). Thank you so much for reading through that super-long post 😅 I got a little carried away. But to answer your question, yes, I have two degrees in philosophy, and I'm still debating whether I should go in for another one (it's an addiction at this point, although I don't like the whole snobbish academic scene, tbh). Most of the references I mention in my post are things I've studied over the years. In fact, most of my big creative projects, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice especially, are extensions of my dissertations. I'm exploring the same questions, just through a different medium (my latest dissertation was on Socrates, fascism, and Foucault, so yeah you can definitely see that in the references lol). I'd be honoured to have you beta-read it when it's ready!!! By the way, I'm curious: which manga have inspired your work? I haven't read enough Manga in my life and I'd love to know more about it from your perspective! 💜

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for January 28th. He's looking a bit like Claude Raines, right? Or, at least he would be, if you could see him. Invisibility potion and whatnot.

The Invisible Man was an interesting book. I used to think it'd be like a supervillain story where he uses the invisibility as a superpower, to sneak up on people, spy, murder... but really, it's more of a mastermind criminal who has to live in secrecy because of his "condition" - and of course, it makes sense. Griffin is only invisible when he's naked, after all, and even then people would be able to hear him move, see stuff move when he touches it...

So it's really not at all like other stories about invisibility. It works better as a metaphor about how people turn to crime because society perceives them as invisible, i.e., out of sight, out of mind.

And after reading it, having read Osamu Tezuka's Alabaster, I think there's some similarities in the stories. Might've been an inspiration. Alabaster himself doesn't turn invisible as much as he has transparent skin (like our loveable Sally Impossible in Venture Brothers), but he's also like a criminal mastermind whose appearance sets him apart as a freak.

And he was black before being transformed. Reminds me a little bit of Michael Jackson.

I think Alabaster was one of the first Tezuka manga I've read. It's a pretty memorable story. Sometimes I think about re-reading it, but there's so much stuff I haven't read yet, I feel like by reading old books again I'm keeping myself from new interesting stories.