#is more about me setting the Plan and Expectation that I would do Comic Work today

[monster-noises]

Hgggg

Had one of those sundays where i felt just like

A little bit like shit all day

So i didn't really get any of my comic work done and it just kinda became a Lost Day

So now as consequence my brain won't let me go to bed because i did not Satisfy the Requirements as Set Beforehand

But i would like to actually set myself up for a successful week of going to bed on timebl because i haven't the last two weeks and i can Feel it slowly destroying me spiritually, mentally, and physically

But sometimes there js Naught you can do in the face of Wanton Mental Illness

[ink-stainedkiss]

Nerd Gojo Headcannons

A/N: I’m so sorry for my lack of activeness. please forgive me🙏🙏 I’ve had so much stuff with school and yesterday was my birthday so my schedule has been packed. I wanted to give you guys something small for now so my accounts not collecting dust, but i promise more will be coming in days prior!! Love you all!💕

Nerd!Gojo who is still completely shocked you chose him out of everyone on campus. Gojo was a known geek, someone who got excited about the latest comic and his grades never fell below an A+. Well lucky for him, you found the fact he was so nerdy to be extremely cute.

Nerd!Gojo who loves planning adorable dates with you, but it’s never commonplace. He will set up picnics right in front of a beautiful lake, taking you to a pottery class and giggling at how dumb your ‘masterpieces’ look, or simply creating a candlelight dinner in your apartment.

Nerd!Gojo who adores you and he makes it extremely known. For someone so shy when the two of you first met, he definitely has warmed up to you. Before, he was too scared to even stand next to you because he was afraid he would slip up and embarrass himself, but now he never leaves your side. You can’t exit the same room with him without giving him a long kiss goodbye, even if you're just grabbing ice from the hallway. Hugs, kisses, handholding, cuddles, you name it, Gojo loves it.

Nerd!Gojo who isn’t the best at taking care of himself. He often stays up late to finish homework or a project that could easily be done the next day, but unfortunately he’s a try hard and will force himself to stay awake until it’s done. Before you, he relied on energy drinks to keep him up and when all of the work was done, he would sleep the weekend away, barely leaving his dorm. Even now, you have to scold him for his unhealthy studying habits.

You were peacefully chatting with your friends, going on about the tests and assignments being piled on top of each other. As you spoke, your group’s eyes shift behind you, but you couldn’t turn before two lanky arms were sliding around your waist. Soft lips gently landed on your exposed neck and in your peripheral vision you saw a puff of white hair. Of course it was Gojo. Your friends did not hold back their cheeky looks, some of them turning and looking off in another direction while muffaling their giggles.

Blush rose to your cheeks instantly and you heard your boyfriend speak up,”Hi Baby.” He’s obviously tired, his voice groggier than normal, but he still has the energy to cover you in his love. You shift your body to face him, cupping his cheek, and you get a good look at his face. Like you expected, he looks on the brink of passing out. His usually bright eyes were a bit dimmer and there were vague shadows coating his under eyes. His own hand reached up and held the one of his face, turning his head to plant tiny kisses to your palm.

“Have you been sleeping?” Gojo sees the disappointed frown on your face, because you already knew the answer. He sighed, leaning into your touch,”Maybe.” The short response was enough to finalize your question. It didn’t help that he had shut his eyes and was practically sleeping against your palm. Turning to your friends, you excused yourself, dragging a half-asleep Gojo on your side the entire time you left.

Nerd!Gojo who knows he should listen to your stern lectures on why he needs to stop doing all nighters, but even if he felt like shit after, without fail the two of you would cuddle on his bed and take a long cat nap. You were never as tired as Gojo, so most of the time you would be awake, reading, or scrolling on your phone, while Gojo slept soundly on your lap.

Nerd!Gojo who may or may not do your homework if you leave it out. He tells himself he shouldn’t, since you tell him it’s not his responsibility to do your own work, but he can’t help it. You’re his girlfriend after all and it would be mean of Gojo to not fill out the first half of the paper and maybe the back half if he has time. (He does it regardless)

Nerd!Gojo who nearly cries when you get him a figurine of his favorite superhero character. He constantly gushes about how cool they are and doesn’t notice how you aren’t even listening to the topic, just focusing on how his eyes light up with pure joy. You have adapted to Gojo’s interest, never denying a trip to the movies with him to see a new action film he has been freaking out about. Holidays are like Gojo’s heaven because you always end up getting him another item for his very large collection. Each time you are smothered in kisses then dragged to his room to watch him rearrange his overcrowded stock.

Nerd!Gojo who is so thankful for you and some nights, wakes up to watch you sleep calmly. His fingers rake over your face and images of your future together flash in his head.

[revive-the-fandom]

Jack's sparkle powers & rotg's continuity issues

commenting on some replies from a previous post

I understand that Jack's sparkle move is not actually sparkles.

It's never really explained what it is, though tbf. It could be a bolt of ice or frost, but I prefer the idea that he's performing a sort of superfreeze move that's turning all the water in the air around him/in a direction into ice crystals,

which is why the sand explodes almost from the inside out, and curving along the arc, it's got more water in it (presumably bc the nightmares are living, breathing, creatures) than the surrounding air.

hence.. sparkle powers.

I don't think it's a "basic" or "simple" move that just everyone can do.

A big part of why I love the idea that he's a civilian is because it pulls back from the prodigy archetype.

There's not a lot of reason for Jack to be a prodigy either. He's the audience surrogate, the guy who needs things explained because the audience doesn't know either. His background is meant to show his isolation, set up his motivation, and having him be a prodigy would raise questions that the movie doesn't have time to answer - why is he a prodigy, who trained him, why couldn't he just hang out with this trainer who could see him?

(the idea that there's this host of other spirits available to talk to is also complete fanon, and no the Rufftoon Comics don't count, neither do the GoC books. There is canonically 2 known spirits outside of the Guardians and Jack - the Leprechaun, and the Groundhog.)

It also just makes him more sympathetic, and builds Pitch up as dangerous. A civilian vs. the Joker is more frightening than Batman vs. the Joker.

Jack's a bad fighter. He lowers his guard too readily, he rushes in without a plan, he freezes up, his moves are predictable and limited.

And while that might be my opinion, I think it is backed up by the juxtaposition of the Guardians to Jack in just about every fight. He's shit scared, frozen up, caught in a bad position and needing a rescue - while they're moving perfectly in synch, reading each others minds, picking up each others slack (including Jack's most of the time). If nothing else then I think the sheer confidence and ease they show in every fight proves that Jack is subpar.

The final fight still has Jack make multiple mistakes that he needs rescuing from - mistakes that build tension, that wouldn't exist if he was already a good fighter.

(bonus point) Jack doesn't freeze because someone else helped him, he freezes because he's shocked and scared.

This one I'm not actually willing to put up for debate, lmao sorry. He sees an attack coming that he doesn't expect/can't dodge, he freezes and then he is saved by Tooth and Sandy.

I am willing to change my statement from "this is a continuity error" to "I wish this was a continuity error" because, if it's not a simple continuity error, it's lack luster writing.

I feel it worked better as a new power discovery, because there was more theming to suggest that course of action. There was a significant amount of screen time dedicated to showing Jack's powers as proximity based (prior to the reveal). The opening scene in particular was quite poignant,

and as I said in the previous post, theres a lot of moments where Jack is shown to touch his staff, or his hand or even use his breath to cast his powers onto a surface,

it just felt very intentional to me. It would be a shame if it wasn't, all for the sake of two blink and you'll miss it scenes?

Jack's powers being limited to proximity based created an interesting weakness, an opportunity to power crawl, and a visual comment on his desire to touch all in one. Yet in two throw away scenes - that are never mentioned again, nor have any attention dedicated to them - that is all lost?

plus I think it weakens the reveal scene iteself. If it's a simple power up, instead of a new development, then... Jack's not gaining a new perspective in battle (ranged attacks), and he's not confronting his relationship with touch (by withdrawing from it, taking the focus off of it, being able to survive without it).

All Jack gains from a power up is confidence. Which he gets with a new development anyway.

So, maybe it wasn't a continuity issue, but I sure hope it was.

[steelheart-redux]

Steelheart Redux: Year 1 Retrospective

I meant to post this yesterday but forgot. Oops. Anyway, June 1st marked the official first full year of Steelheart Redux! For me, at least. While the comic didn’t go public until September, those who have been here since the start remember that I uploaded all of chapter 1 at once. That work started in June, so I consider that the comic’s effective birthday.

With that disclaimer out of the way: what a year it’s been! In 365 days, I drew 153 comic pages. That’s about 0.4 pages a day— a little shy of a page every other day. Granted, those numbers aren’t an even spread. I made all of chapter 1 in three months (68 pages) and then had to take a break for a while because of wrist strain (wonder how THAT happened…) and then the amount of backlog I had fluctuated wildly for a while. Some days I have more time and motivation than others. It happens.

Quite honestly, I’m mainly happy that I’ve stuck with the project. My worst fear was that I’d get a month or two into Actually Doing The Thing, then get bored, demotivated, and give up. Luckily, my brain has allowed me to stick with Redux with a level of consistency that is frankly unforeseen from me, and I’m just as motivated as I was a year ago, if not more, thanks to people's interest. I’ve said it before, but the reception to the story already regularly blows me away. I went into this with the expectation that it would take years for the comic to gain any real traction, if it ever happened at all. But here we are, a year in, with tens, if not hundreds of regular readers across multiple platforms. It’s an honor I don’t take lightly, and as I’ve said, I’m so, so grateful for the trust and support.

Looking back, the comic started on wobbly feet. That’s something I knew even at the time and had to make my peace with. Steelheart Redux is my first original story project, first long-form comic (first colored comic longer than a few pages, tbh), and first time I've ever really left the title of "fanartist" behind for longer than a month or so. I knew I was entering uncharted waters and that whatever I made, I'd later come to see as 'bad', or at least, not executed as well as it could have been. Unfortunately, the only way to get that experience and improve is to do it bad. So I did it bad!

STRUGGLES:

Chapter 1 is way too long. Not in terms of content, but in terms of page count. For some reason, I was utterly allergic to the idea of putting more than four panels on a page. While I do like the pacing of it, and the sort of slow ease-in to the world and the setting, I made way more work for myself than I needed to. I definitely could have cut at least 10 pages by compressing things without seriously hurting the pacing, and it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Figuring out how to "trim the fat" and get to where I'm going as fast as possible without making things feel rushed is still something I'm working on, but I'm a lot more intentional about things now that I know it can cost me time and physical strain. You can see the font size slowly shrinking throughout the comic's run as I pack more in, lol. Honestly, it kind of works.

I have various other nitpicks. I'm sparing myself from the general "I don't like how I drew that"s in terms of anatomy and such, as those are just an inescapable result of improving as an artist and not worth getting in the weeds over. I will raise my eyebrows over some lighting choices-- I went out of my way to plan out a way to make the nighttime section of early chapter 2 read as "night, but not dark", and then the entire bit was annoyingly dark as hell. Trying to get the purple DRACO to visually stand out from the concrete there was obnoxiously difficult. I don't think it's bad-- I like the 'scribble background' gimmick I came up with to save myself from having to do backgrounds there, for one thing-- but I don't think it would have killed me to brighten up that section a bit. Something to keep in mind for later.

Speaking of backgrounds. Maybe it's too early to say, but at least right now, changing the background style was a game changer. That was one of the largest time sinks of early pages, adding 2-3 hours to every page that had at least one or two backgrounds. They were doable, but tedious, and as time went on, I found myself enjoying them less and less, instead of more and more as I'd hoped. You can see details start to disappear as a result, as backgrounds stopped being a "fun worldbuilding element" and "visual element of the page" and became just "something I had to draw to get the page done". Changing the style to a much looser one has brought the fun back, and made it much easier to pack in all the details I actually enjoy drawing without getting bogged down in "is the perspective exactly right". I've written posts before about making things easier for yourself if you're doing a long-form project; this is honestly my best example.

GROWTH:

I feel like, looking back, I can see myself become a lot more confident with drawing various things. Steelheart Redux is filled-- intentionally and not-- with things I'm bad at drawing, which has forced me to improve at those things sheerly through unavoidable repetition. Mainly, this includes backgrounds, mechs (still can't get me to draw cars though LOL), full bodies, and profiles.

It's also interesting to see the way I draw characters change. Going into the comic, I'd already been drawing Arthur for years, but making pages forced me to really lock in his design and get comfortable with drawing it. While it's not too different in terms of content, it has a different 'feel' now. This, too, I know is inevitable, and honestly something I look forward to.

I've become a lot more confident in doing these things, which makes making pages less intimidating and lets me experiment more with layouts and angles I might have otherwise been afraid to try. It's nice! It shows in a lot of the end of chapter 2, which is one of my favorite parts of the chapter. I was worried about hitting those emotional beats, because they're setting up for a lot and really needed to feel meaningful, but I think I landed them alright. My character writing is still something I worry a bit about-- there's a lot of subtlety to these guys and this story I worry I won't be able to get across in a more visual story-- but that's something for me to increasingly focus on going forward.

Away from the comic, I've also improved a lot as a 3D modeler. My robot rigs have improved, and I have much better human bases to work off. I can also slam out a layout for a scene much faster, which is a nice time boost to my workflow.

Overall, despite the hurdles and rough edges of some of the early stuff, I'm incredibly proud of everything I've produced. This is the first time I've ever put my heart, body, and soul so thoroughly into a project like this, and I'd like to think it shows.

While we're still in somewhat of the early stage of the comic's story, I'm hoping I've made a solid foundation for myself. I'm so excited for what's to come, and hoping I can execute it even better, year by year.

[kosmicdream]

Hello. After drawing webcomics for 10 years and making about 10,000 pages of comics, here are some things i have learned/observed in that experience..

1) making comics does not get easier.. Not really

Making comics is a tedious and slow process and with so many different facets of the experience to learn - you’ll never run out of stuff to learn or weaknesses to work on. I’m not saying this to discourage but to just give the frank reality that it really takes a lifetime to understand. Be patient with yourself and try to set healthy expectations. 

2) Read your own comics after making them.

I don’t know if this is as important to other people as it is to me, but I do think that sometimes its easy to not re-read your own work and just go from your own memory of it, or maybe you’re tired of looking at it because of all the flaws. I don’t personally get sucked into the “rewrite/remake” cycle that I know is common with comics, as I sort of just accept things as they are, but re-reading my work does help me see where I have come from and where I need to go to next. I personally don’t like to lose sight of that, and I think re-reading helps ground me in the planning process of my work and gives me a better perspective on all aspects.

3) A lot of comic advice should be taken with a grain of salt, because its the person talking to themselves. (including this)

I see a lot of advice that never would have worked for me, or just simply wasn’t something I was ever going to follow. “Dont start with your big epic long stories”! Is a common one. I don’t think that’s bad advice exactly, but how many young artists are going to listen, especially if they’ve never told a story in the first place? Yes, the advice to start small and build yourself up with experience sounds great, I’m sure people do it, but if you’re an artist you’re probably not gonna be that responsible. And for me, when i tried to do this with eggshells, my house burnt down and i kinda gave up comics for a while because i lost a lot of work. 

Writing short stories is still something I struggle with, its just not easy for me. I have gotten better at it but i don’t think that makes me less of a comic artist because I haven’t gotten good at that particular format, or that I jump around on my projects. Is it more impressive to have more completed work under your belt, sure. But I also think that.. Idk.. what is the advice actually saying, because with that one it sort of feels (often times) as a warning that you’re setting yourself up for failure/embarrassment by attempting a comic like that. I don’t know how to tell you this, but comics are gonna be embarrassing no matter what you do and there’s no guarantee you’ll be more successful/not experience failure by avoiding your passions. Something to think about anyway. 

4) Don’t draw every leaf. Unless you really want to.

I’m the kind of comic artist that kind of doesn’t care about the art as much as the whole package of the comic. When i see a very impressively drawn panel/page, with laborious detail that is well drawn and maybe even colored ect.. That usually is kind of, I guess, a turn off for me as part of the reading experience. The thing is, when i encounter that, it usually signals to me that someone has poor planning skills for comics. It says to me that comic is probably not going to see its end or that artist is overworking themselves in an unnecessary way, that ends up concerning me about how they’re doing. Because i know how hard it is to draw comics. When an artist phones things in a bit, or has a limit on how much they work on a page, its a relief for me to see! because I understand they have healthier boundaries and expectations, and the art itself usually is less stiff too. This is all an overgeneralization, but I think with a lot of webcomic artists we are usually drawing a comic for the first time ever, so it makes sense we want to do our best and try as hard as possible - that just usually isn’t the smartest plan to put all the stock in the visual department. This also kinda frustrates me to see because most comics (professional or not) will also (generally) not reel the art in ever or make a more simple style. Generally I see it always trying to outdo itself, which leads to burn out. I personally only work about 1hr on each page i draw, that hasn’t changed in the 10 years I have been drawing comics, but i used to spend hundreds of hours drawing detailed lineart for eggshells and it didn’t even read well and i’d be disappointed with the results, feeling more lost with my goals than ever. PLEASe.. Just draw worse, its usually better looking in the end too. (because you wont have the experience to judge visual clarity until you’ve been drawing comics for a while imo..)

5) Don’t draw ahead, draw those inbetweenies.

“Inbetweenies” are the pages for the “boring” ones. They are also usually the most common KIND of page. Its the pages that are necessary, but “inbetween” the action. The impact moments in a scene, ect. You gotta draw them. They’re always gonna be there. They’re the pages where maybe, the character is walking somewhere, thinking, ect. The after impact from an action.. There’s a million examples, but hopefully you’ll understand what I mean when I say they’re both necessary pages/panels, sometimes so mundane/redundant, but also required for telling the story.. As a comic is a sequence of images. This is why, the previous advice is also important IMO- because if you really want to “draw every leaf” - maybe you should save that energy and effort for those impact moments that you want to impress the reader with.. And not for the inbetweenies, which are the foundational support, but also not the most important moments. If you conserve your energy a bit, the contrast OF that effort will also pop more. I personally find it funny when I put more effort into a page and end up tricking my readers into thinking I got better at drawing, when really i just have been able to draw better and only save it for moments like this instead of always.

Also, when I say don’t draw ahead.. I mean I draw each page at a time before going to the next one. I have no idea if this is an unusual practice or not, and I know a lot of people will draw their chapters/episodes/whatever in sections like sketch/ink/color/ect.. But I personally draw and finish page by page, unless its the thumb/sketch stage. Even then, i don’t go ahead much. I think that you can control flow/pacing better by doing chapters all at once of course, I see that as a benefit. But i also think that makes things very overwhelming and can also result in a lack of flexibility if something isn’t working. No matter HOW much planning you do- comics are always going to have an aspect of IMPROVISATION with the result you get in the end. There are way too many factors in play to be in complete control of all of them and always know the result of the reading experience. SO for me, this technique is easier and has been something that continues to get me to working effectively. Plus, rumiko takahashi said that’s what she does. And i think she has some of the best visual flow/compositions in comics. So that’s what I do.

I could write more personal advice or rules that i follow..but I think those are the ones I find are the most important to me anyway. Of course, comics are a strange medium and not everything that works for me will work for you. That’s all for now.. Bye bye…! 

Oh by the way, my comics are here: feastforaking.com nastyreddogs.com https://kosmic.itch.io/ Support me on patreon! https://www.patreon.com/kosmic

[neverheroes]

Here’s a bunch of stuff in the MM Tales of the TMNT comic-con sneak-peek I thought about too much!

They’ve cared so much about showing how differently they each react to and process the same situation.

Through the scene Raph is excited to tear things up and true to every iteration ever tries things his way until it doesn’t work, Don’s flight response pings into analyst mode and you just know he’s figuring out how to break stuff, Mike is thriving in team-mode and keeping them all on track, and Leo flails around like a giant ball of chronic anxiety before figuring out a plan. They’re original formula with gently new toppings and I’m ready for this slice.

Raphael

This guy! We get so much. He’s rearing to do some fighting that isn’t sparring and be free to do some actual damage. So we know he’s bored fighting is brothers and wants a challenge. He can’t handle this one and in figuring that out is “open to suggestions” which is quite the overlooked Raph quality, he’ll listen he just has to work through that impulsive reactive streak first. He’s strong and knows it, and that robot gets a harder fight. The Raph highlight for me was taking time while fighting to honour the time-old tradition of making fun of Michelangelo. <Sobs in last ronin.>

Donatello

This kid, man! It’s a long standing opinion of mine that everyone should be more scared of Donatello. His interest in understanding the threat overrides most of his fear. Cerebral af. This is his face most of the time while a robot programmed to obliterate him is directly behind him. On the surface it looks like he’s running away a lot, but he can’t exactly press pause on it to figure out how they work. His gentle heart characterisation is well intact, apologising to the robot when he damages it having already personified the thing. I honestly believe he would take it home like he’d found a new pet if that were an option.

Michelangelo

What a show of Mikey magic. He’s got the comedy relief on a casual setting with subtle jokes and unintentionally antagonistic observation style. Mike has a tiny attention span but is 100% in every moment and they draw a lot of attention to his speed and agility. He shines doing what Mikey is known so well for; keeping the family together. It was awesome to see him effectively orienting his brothers into the situation, and see them listen to him so readily. He still calls to Leo for guidance when he feels out of control, but we might be in for a more surprising personal arc than ~nobody takes me seriously~ this time around.

Leonardo

This is a blessing for Leo fans because MM Tales Leo sucks /srs. Not in the way Raph fans say it on Instagram posts, in the way that his flaws are so disparate from other versions that a mastery arc is screaming his nervous muppet name. The giftedness is still sewn in; even flailing around he has more advanced weapon control, is observant enough to be the right level of stressed when a threat shows up, and jumps into strategy finding a vantage point to make a plan like a good little Leo, but instead of our usual Leo trauma ball we (at least for now) get to watch a Leo with the confidence of a processed cheese slice be terrible at things because he’s just some kid…

Pfffffffahahhhahhahba

The Mutant Mayhem kids are the most realistically green (and by that I mean inexperienced) we've ever seen them and it's continued into Tales. With detaching from source origin and establishing a much more grounded reflection of teen life in the current world, the growth arcs over Tales and the next MM movie have such immense unburdened potential that it really could lead anywhere and I don’t know what to expect.

(Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will air in August 9th 2024 on Paramount+)

[cindol]

cotton candy princess reader and her gingerbread man nanamin .

nanami kento x black coded fem reader

tw + — candyland fantasy au ,

cw + — nanami is a gingerbread man but he still looks human in someway, everything in this world is candy based ( obviously ) , reader is low key an workaholic, nanami and reader are friends with some romantic tension, slightly suggestive massage,

syn — to help the cotton candy princess, nanami gives reader a much needed distress massage .

a / n 🍭 : was suppose to be a drabble but it’s more longer (world building sucks ) ! Left on a cliff hanger because erm me bad at endings

back to candyland . ​divider creds : @ / anitalenia

If there was one man who always could hold you down it was nanami, ever since his teen years of spraying that funny ginger snap smell on his blonde hair he was always there for you, just some royal girl with a pink cotton candy afro.

and he definitely knew when you had enough and overworked yourself.

“Nanami have you scheduled that appointment with peppermint knight gojo? I remember him talking about wanting armor updates..”

“miss y/n.”

“oh! And lord licorice, that man can be difficult but please do try and get in contact with his people so that we could come in agreement.”

“y/n..”

“and black milk painter! I know he just moved into this kingdom but I’d like him to feel welcomed by the people and me, please do send a bouquet of chocolate cosmos to his house!”

“y/n!” he said it in a louder tone than usual making you stop your rambling and pacing back and forth around your office desk.

He sighed scratching the back of his head.“I apologize for shouting princess y/n but I can’t help but say perhaps you’re stretching yourself too much..”

you hummed, agreeing but still kept to your original thought.“but I am the princess nanami, I have to stretch myself for these people, time doesn’t wait for me, only moves forward.” It was hard for nanami to get to you, you were just that much a workaholic, working for everybody but never for yourself.

Walking to you nanami put a hand on your shoulder.“yeah? Well this kingdom would need their princess in tip top shape. Time moves forward but I’m sure you can take some time to yourself for one day.” If there was a drum set in here you would’ve heard a comical ‘bddst!’ at his time joke.

you whirred, putting a hand on your chin. Nanami was your assistant, a smart one and you would take his advice just this once.“fine fine.. just for this day since I must.“

Nanami had a soft smile at that.“good, then I can show you exactly what I have planned for you.” that got a confused hummed from you.

unbeknownst to you nanami had been planning a private massage day for you with help from the peppermint knight gojo satoru. As much as he hated the man he knew what a woman needed to relax.

The room he used for the massage session was some abandoned bedroom in the candy kingdom. The lights dimmed, hard wax candy candles lit around the room and a pink massaging table long enough for you body in the middle of the room.

For you this was foreign. You weren’t someone who got your hands dirty but more use to working all day, all night for your people. You didn’t understand how this would help you relax really.

You only chuckled in this pink towel covering your body stopping at your legs. Near the massage table was nanami with his sleeves rolled up putting lotion on his cleaned hands.

“Didn’t know you’re the one giving me this ‘much needed massage’ .” you put quotes on the words with pointer fingers with a quirky giggle.

Nanami just shook his head smiling.“you never asked but again, I didn’t expect you to be the type of woman who would know about massages.”

“what? the pink dress I wear around didn’t make me come off feminine enough to know?” You joked making nanami falter and a slight blush on his face.

You sniggered at his reaction.“oh I’m just pulling your leg kento, now let’s get to this anticipated massage yeah?”

Once it came to the massage you didn’t expect nanami’s hands to be so…. skilled.

His hands smoothed out every uncomfortable crack in your upper back. He was making it hard to not make some hum or grunt.“mmph.. really working those hands of yours aren’t you?”

“Can’t help too, it seems like you’ve never heard of doing a good stretch in the morning, princess.” He innocently added that princess but it made you grumble and a barely visible blush on your face, you knew nanami didn’t mean it any teasing way but with how he said that nearly in your ear while massaging your naked back made you feel funny.

Before you could make a whitty comeback his hands went down to massage your lower back getting a sharp gasp from him and another funny feeling in your stomach.

That made nanami stop his hands massaging your flesh.“hey, you alright there?”

You just coughed, trying to cover up whatever little noise you were gonna make.“just caught me off guard.”

[moltentowerturtle]

Jsab: Old friends 5

Hey guys! I'm dropping this batch and reminding y'all that I made some edits to the first starting pages, since I've reread them and realised my rookie mistakes lol. and yes. I know I said I'd drop the comic in larger batches but life is catching up to me and I'll be busy for a the other half of this year. Thank you to those who waited like 1 week for such a disappointing drop! And I sincerely apologise for not working on the comic much as I am spending time on other things, trying to improve my art to make it more pleasing! I hope y'all won't mind the random design changes because I have not made a reference sheet for some reason :]

I will make a contents page soon by the way,.soon...

https://www.tumblr.com/moltentowerturtle/786755861800484864/jsab-old-friends-4?source=share (Part 4)

YAP WARNING:

I've been kind of stumped on what to post these past few days, you might call it an art block I suppose? Well anyway, yes I have totally no idea what to post actually. that's not really good.... I've been wanting to draw other things rather than Just Shapes and Beats like Block tales or something! then I recall I'm buns at drawing Roblox too. so yeh, depends on what y'all wanna see, rlly.

Oh and I'm going to address the poll about Old friends, y'all probably picked for them to be in shape form most of the time because you either value my sanity or you want the comic to come out faster. I kind of thought Option 2 would be picked so I already planned the comic with bodies and dreaded making it... I may have accidentally set the expectation for myself to post faster? Uhhh, well, new pages will probably come out when I make them and it's been long enough since I made them. I don't like withholding content from you guys. So yes it is inconsistent and hard to tell, but as long as I'm addicted to jsab, it will be made eventually. Just uhhh questioning life ig? heh. But like earlier, the future is uncertain so things won't always go as you say. maybe I'll lose interest in the fandom before the comic finishes, maybe even worse.... anything can happen, but I'll do what my motivation lets me for this comic. also my eyesight is failing okay bye bye

WAIT DO YALL WANNA SEE CLOSE TO ME CUBE

UHHH COMMENT IF YOU WANT CUZ IT DOESNT LET ME ADD ANOTEHR POLL

[nilolemillion]

Okay, so here’s this Batfamily headcanon I’ve been thinking about.

Jason Todd takes Fridays as his ‘day off’ to ‘rest,’ (because of course, none of the Batfamily actually rests). Tim Drake, on the other hand, claims Wednesdays as his day off, mainly to balance out his detective work with tactical planning. But here’s the twist: no matter what their schedule looks like, every Thursday, without fail, they all come together for brunch.

And when I say brunch, I don’t mean a peaceful, chill, serene break. No, it’s basically their weekly therapy session, except it’s filled with prime shit-talking. They spend the time roasting each other, complaining about Bruce, dragging the villain of the week, or venting about how their respective teams are ‘a bunch of dumbasses’ (even though they’d probably die for them).

Now picture this:

Bruce needs Tim to sign some important Wayne Enterprises paperwork- Tim’s the one leading the project. So Bruce heads over to his office, expecting to just drop the papers off and get it done. But when he arrives, Tim’s secretary politely informs him, “It’s Thursday, sir.” And Bruce just has to smile, play it cool, and respond with, “Oh, right! Silly me. Almost forgot. Thanks, Margaret!” as he walks away.

But inside? Bruce is dying. The best detective in the world, and he has no idea what ‘It’s Thursday’ even means?! He’s fucking pissed. How did he miss something so obvious? But of course, he doesn’t ask- he would rather dive off a rooftop than admit he doesn’t know something. Obviously.

Meanwhile, over in Roy Harper’s world, Roy is losing his mind trying to find Jason. He’s checked everywhere. Everywhere. He knows Jason can be sneaky when he wants to be, but this is different. Usually, Jason’s more chill when it comes to Roy. At some point, Roy’s genuinely wondering if Jason’s turned this into a really unannounced, fucking terrible game of hide-and-seek.

How on earth do you lose a guy who’s 6’0”, loaded with guns, and wearing that ridiculously bold red helmet? Seriously, how?! Roy eventually gives up and leaves a voicemail: “Okay man, I’m out. I’m done playing, I’m not giving you the victory tho.”

And yet, right at that very moment, there’s Jason. Sitting across from Tim in a small coffee shop in New York. They’re completely at ease, sipping espresso and eating waffles, chocolate cupcakes, and all the sweet stuff Jason can barely handle because he’s clogged up from all the sugar.

Jason, mid-rant, says, “I swear to God, Dickhead needs to learn how to set some boundaries. The way he lets everyone be so co-dependent on him is both impressive and pathetic.”

Without missing a beat, Tim, sipping his coffee like he didn’t just call Dick a dozen times three days ago because he’d had six espressos and was spiraling from anxiety, responds with the most sarcastic tone: “Tell me about it. I was thinking of giving him a ‘How to Set Limits’ book for his birthday.”

And don’t even start with “ugh that so not canon” stfu bitch. Here you go. The comic is Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011), which is probably in my top ten from all time, even tho I love the 2016 one. This is the issue #8, 10/10 totally recommended.

[scragon]

Webcomic interview

How did you get into making webcomics?

I just jumped in expecting to make a few chapters and it turned into multiple years of my life.

Consider drawing Short comics about ideas and throw them out there. My current official webtoons were short comics that I posted inconsistently in between other projects. They eventually got their own following.

Who inspires you?

I was very inspired by the comics I saw on early comic sharing platforms. Opening my mind up to self-published comics made me realize the possibilities beyond mainstream works.

Erri Pi on webtoon canvas is one of those early creators I felt inspired by. 

I am also what I would call ‘anti-inspired’. There are many very common tropes that turn me off from media, so when I write, I love to subvert the expectations of those tropes.

What are the best and worst aspects of your work?

The best aspect is creating my own story with full control and allowing it to write itself. I do not find myself getting hung up on the constant lore and rules and history of the work. I just write and allow natural progression. I consider myself an artist over author but you find yourself focusing less on art to make sure the story is good. If the story sucks, nobody will care about the art.

This makes the worst aspect also writing. It takes a long time letting words come to you and it takes more energy than the drawing.

What is the most important thing people should know about when working in the webcomic industry?

Whether it be today's financial climate or how much artists are undervalued, it is still brutal. You have to work fast. It is the only way I've been able to continue a social life, paycheck, and sleep. Learn to only put 30% effort into your comic art. Seriously. As you develop a consistent schedule and style, you will know when to put more effort. You will know.

I understand you created multiple series on and outside of Webtoon. What did you learn from those experiences?

For works like comedy, less is more. You don't need to have more than 4-6 panels to set up and execute a punch line. Sometimes you need even less. Also make sure your jokes are specific to your comic and characters. If any other characters are able to tell your jokes, your comic will become stale fast.

For romance, I've just learned to write what I would like to see more often. I don't care for lots of emotional and relationship mismanagement and it seems like many other people have agreed. So if you want it, chances are, a lot of other people want it as well.

What is your advice for someone planning to enter this industry?

Draw a lot. Write down all of your ideas. Come back to them. Just start drawing one. You learn so much by just doing it and realizing how things look on the page. Simplify the idea. Don't start off with a huge project. Just gesture a 10-page story in a sketchbook. Comics are a language.

The industry can be as professional as working with a publisher, or as casual as having a following on Patreon or social media to fund your work. Both require being fast and able to speak this language.

[archandshri]

28th June ‘24 - [arch] One Page Limitation??? - My process for Traffic Zine #5

Hello All!

A couple months ago, I got accepted to @trafficzine, a digital anthology of pieces by a large group of artists and writers based on the most recent season of the Life Series. I made this piece back in April, but thankfully I kept some notes of my process. 

Heads up - this contains spoilers for Secret Life :D

We were able to choose our own prompt from a list! For this project, I wanted to push my comic making - especially how to communicate a lot of information in a small space. I went through and watched a few clips from the series to see which prompt would fit a comic and settled on Scott’s death.

As usual, I began by getting some reference images and going ham on some big paper. This gets me excited about the project and helps generate ideas. I go for whatever interests me in terms of medium and subject matter, but I try to use a process that doesn’t let me control too much (in this case brush and ink)

initial sketches for fun and vibes :D

During this, I also took the time to transcribe the scene - I wanted to use the dialogue directly, and see how much I could fit into the single page that I was allowed for the zine.

In these early planning stages I make sure to do warm-up sketches to remind myself of the energy I want to communicate. This also keeps things fun and fresh so I'm not ONLY thinking about page composition and making things 'good'. (the expectation for it to be 'good' kills a project prove me wrong)

Dialogue from the clip + warm up sketches

Next up, I started to plan what panels I have on the page. At this stage, some panels might just be a box with some words, and some may have a sketch if I have a clear composition in mind. This stage is mostly for pacing and plot, so instead of focusing on what the panel and page will look like, I will think about:

what will happen in the panel

it's purpose and

what it will communicate

Sometimes I'll illustrate a string of panels that tell the story and fit them on a page after - but this depends on the project and my confidence with the size of it.

After messing around with these and coming up with a pretty clear direction, I draw a bunch of boxes to see how the panels could sit nicely together. At this stage I might realise I have too many panels, and need to cut a few or come up with a creative solution. Nothing is set in stone at this point.

sketching panel layouts

Now begins the fun! I decide on the layout I prefer and I can start putting planned compositions into the boxes. I often do this digitally, or a digital editing process will be involved.

Once planned, I print these out to do a more refined sketch over. I find that my traditional drawings have a lot more life and character to them than digital ones, so I try to keep the majority of the process traditional, with passes of scanning and digital editing.

I tried a version with her looking out at the distance - ready to face the oncoming battle. But it still felt off. So I turned to my slides to ask myself some questions!!

I tried to think of more things that were working - but I really felt like it was lacking a lot. I was going for this slower emotional feeling because that came more naturally to me, but it just wasn't working for this image. The original clip is quite rushed and chaotic - which would be harder to communicate in a comic format but the challenge interested me. Either way, I knew I wasn't happy with this direction so... i decided to start from scratch! Back to the drawing board!!!

In the previous version, I had cut out a lot of the dialogue, but I decided to go back to the original clip and use AS MUCH as possible. Since passing the bow was my favourite part of that first composition, I really wanted to lean into it as the emotional height and final goodbye before Scott's death. It's a moment to slow down and absorb the vibes :D

I made a list of panels along with their descriptions to refer to when trying to figure out the order of panels. there were SO MANY and it was VERY CONFUSING when they were too small to read.

These thumbnails were super small and would not have made sense without my list, I swear.

I printed this tiny thumbnail out at A4, so I could sketch over it and get a clearer sense of flow. Then began a loooong process of printing out tiny photocopies and rearranging the panels to be legible. It was a difficult balance of communicating busyness while making sure the hierarchy/reading order made sense.

After some tweaking, i printed out an A3 copy to draw my panel borders and text.

Doing this on a separate piece of paper means I don't have to worry so much about messing up the text or borders when drawing the characters. This allows me to be more free and expressive with my illustration.

Woah! Quick trip back in time!! During the thumbnailing process I drew these warm up sketches! I looooved the way the linework came out. I drew this on an A3 piece of paper - and the shocked Gem would, in theory, be one of the smallest panels. So I decided to do a crazy thing.

I touched up the sketch digitally, compiling some of my favourite warm up sketches, some traditional sketches made for the panels, and filling the rest in digitally. Then I printed this image out in QUATERS at A3!! This meant the final sketch layer, printed out was A1!! (aka very large, considering the final file would be at A4, about 8x smaller)

I did this so I could get fairly small detailed lines with my pencil while being quite expressive and firm with my mark-making. Slowly, I dlined all of the panels traditionally and scanned them in. Then I assembled the finished linework on Photoshop, along with the text and panel borders and got to colouring :D

final linework :D

For colouring, I played a little bit with halftone but I found the texture made it feel a bit too busy - the panels are already doing enough. Because of this, I also decided to use a limited colour palette. Here are some images of the colouring process, which I won't go into today.

I'm really happy with how this came out - I think it captures the chaos of the moment, while taking time to linger on the emotion of it. Keeping that bow moment really made it, I think.

I think the last panel is still quite weak. Earlier in the process there was a low-angle shot of Gem about to kill Scott which may have been more powerful, but I think I was struggling with my actual drawing skill when it comes to perspective. A lot of learning how to draw, and in particular with comics, is about knowing where your skills are at, how to utilise them best and how to test and push them.

I'm glad that I started again, instead of finishing that composition I wasn't happy with. It was a tough project but I learnt sooooo much from it, and it's been essential skill-building for.... the current comic I'm working on (stay tuned!!! :0) Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! Go check out @trafficzine and look at all the other cool art Cool vibes and silly men,

Archie :D

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

Andor: What I want next from Star Wars

A break from your regularly scheduled Bionicle posts: I watched season two of Andor, and just reading the #Andor tag on Tumblr isn't enough--I need to contribute. The cut below is for spoilers.

I liked it! It wasn't perfectly, but I really liked it. I like Star Wars. I like most Star Wars. I'm not "oh, this was Star Wars, but done well snobbish"--I like Ahsoka, and Obi-wan, and The Book of Boba Fett, and Resistance. In general, I like Star Wars.

But just because I am super-talented at suspending my disbelief and immersing myself in whatever story it is I'm watching while I'm watching it doesn't mean that every story is equally good, and the reason I've gone down this fandom rabbit hole the past three-four weeks is because Andor is good. I've seen a lot of complaints--this being Tumblr--about how the show handles this character or that (mostly Cinta and Bix)--and I don't think that the show is perfect, or those criticisms invalid, but I *do* think they stem--at least in part--from the show being too short! I want more of it. It was planned for five seasons and then the last four of them got compressed down to one and it shows. I think what we got is largely superb, but for anyone not named Cassian Andor--and, honestly, even for him--the show does yeoman's work in implying rather than telling.

That's not necessarily a bad thing: I think Andor is the rare Star Wars property that's more about ideas than it is about characters: it's not about telling a new story with your action figures or even about exploring the sandbox; it's about fascism and freedom and resistance. The characters are subordinated to this more than usual with Star Wars, and that allows the truncation of four seasons into one far more gracefully than you might expect--but it also means that telling you what happens to Wilmon or Vel or Perrin or Leida or even Kleya or Mon Mothma is subordinated to "this is what a rebellion looks like."

That's not an absolute: this is still a story about characters, and the writers and actors do amazing jobs of making us care--deeply--about characters who, this season particularly, may only get two-to-four scenes. It's frustrating that the show was shortened. Frustrating that it was 12 episodes instead of (say) 18. It leaves you wanting so much more. But, look--Tony Gilroy is over it and this is all the Andor we're getting. Could they do more stuff set in the gaps and get me into it? Sure. Assuming they don't, though, can I pretty please with cherries on top ask for a spiritual successor? I doubt it would be the same, but you can't tell me that Tony Gilroy being done has to mean the entire team of writers is done. Get Beau Willimon or someone from the team to give a try.

Anyway, I'm not realistically trying to pitch Lucasfilm's next endeavour--God knows Disney will do what it wants. But what *I* now desperately want is the post-Battle of Yavin continuation for the surviving characters. Quite apart from Andor-withdrawal symptoms, the gap between ANH and ESB is one that has been tried in SO MANY comic books and novels and not ONE of them has ever landed for me--the gap between ESB and ROTJ is less alien to me than this one.

There should also be abundant material: the Rebellion wins this one-in-a-million punch... but the Empire isn't knocked out. Three years later, the Rebels are on the run, hiding somewhere far worse than Yavin, and the Empire has Super Star Destroyers. A show what happens after victory would be compelling: think of how the Cold War immediately followed victory in WWII, or how Reconstruction went wrong after the Civil War.

And there's a huge power vacuum--for both Rebels and Imperials--after Yavin. On the Rebel side, think of all the losses at Scarif and Yavin--and on Alderaan. Bail's absence alone probably throws the Rebel Alliance into chaos. On the one hand, they're riding high on victory, but they're probably undercutting themselves: they're the dog that caught the car. What on earth are they going to do with it?

Keeping in mind that the Rebels are an alliance, some of the earlier fault lines probably pop up again as they have to go to ground after the sugar high of the medal ceremony. Maybe some of them think the war is over: the Emperor showed his hand by dissolving the Senate and destroying Alderaan, and all they have to do is get a parade going on Coruscant. And then some enterprising Imperial Captain with no more than a couple small cruisers strafes Yavin and drives them away.

(You do keep Han/Leia/Luke away for most of this: this isn't about them, but they're going to be more of a presence than in Andor. Think something in the ballpark of Vader in Rogue One.)

(Also, if you want some imported EU content as I always do, then maybe THIS is where you insert Garm Bel Iblis splitting with the main rebels who will form the later New Republic.)

Anyway, there's a story to be told in the two years that follow: plenty of scope to see what Vel, Wilmont, and Kleya are up to now. I am deliberately NOT saying Bix. That doesn't mean she has to be written out completely, but I think bringing her back in means bringing up Cassian's unknown kid and that's just... not the story I want here. If she appears at all, it should be just as a contrast: how the active militancy isn't for everyone, but there is a home front that it's being done on behalf of.

I think this story could mirror Andor in having a run-up to the second Death Star the way Andor ran up to the first one. That means what the Ghorman Massacre was to the first show, "many Bothans died" would be in the second one--i.e. the set piece of the final season (just don't chicken out, Lucasfilm: this is my fantasy, so it can actually run for four seasons if I want it to).

And if you want a real twist on things that's just barely scratched at in Andor, you could have a whole subplot on "what do we even do with Luke Skywalker?" Like... the farmboy is a poster child: innocent upbringing, starry-eyed hero who saves a princess out of nowhere and takes down the Death Star. What do you actually DO with him if you're Mon Mothma or General Rieekan? Is Luke always being sent off on publicity stunt type missions? You can't let HIM get his hands dirty--the last thing you want is your new hero to get sullied with "Luthen Rael" stuff. What happens when he first reveals he's carrying a lightsaber? Is there a ripple of religion (not even really noticed by Luke) as people start hanging on his words?

And the rebellion does have to consider what hard, Luthen Rael stuff it should be doing. After the Death Star, the Rebellion is out in the open, more eyes on it than ever before--after Alderaan, even with Imperial propaganda, there are more persuadable ears than ever. And the thing that Palpatine is going to want more than ever is to find some new atrocity to pin on them--ideally, some new atrocity the Empire can actually trick them into committing.

Meanwhile, on the Imperial side, the power vacuum is probably insane. How many of the Empire's best and brightest were on the Death Star? How many Imperials would now be using it as an opportunity to consolidate power or liquidate rivals? And don't forget: the Senate just got dissolved at the same time that Tarkin leaves a hole at the top of the Imperial military. There's probably even a window where Vader is presumed dead.

Canonically, we know that Vader ends up filling a big chunk of the gap that is left: this is when he becomes the Supreme Commander. His return after being presumed dead, which for our point-of-view Imperials (gonna need some new ones) probably coincides with his public appointment as the Supreme Commander, is like a military coup--and there's probably some old school Republic sorts who think that's exactly what happened: kindly old Palpatine has just been turned into a figurehead and doesn't even know it.

Dedra could plausibly reappear as a point-of-view Imperial. Not as an ISB supervisor, I think, but with Krennic dead, Partagaz dead, Heert dead... anyone who gave a crap about her in any sense is no longer around, but the Empire needs bodies. The Emperor immediately starts planning a second Death Star (stockpiled supplies and all the kinks worked out with the first Death Star are how we'll make sense of the second one coming along fast enough for RotJ--that and the Emperor really only needing a shell of it with a working laser, rather than a whole moon-sized space station).

She's not invaluable, but Dedra is valuable enough to get her sentence commuted to some kind of indentured servitude working on the new Death Star, and while she isn't happy, she takes what the Empire offers, because of course she does.

That's... about all I've got so far. I don't expect we'll ever get something even remotely in this ballpark, and that's okay: I don't have to actually get more for Andor to have been good... but it's a fun exercise to start sketching when I have Star Wars on the brain. And you know... Disney left those characters alive and they're not going to stop coming back to the Original Trilogy, so I may as well lean into it.

[styrofauxm]

2025 Book Bingo Plans

I've started planning out some of what I'm going to read for @batmanisagatewaydrug's 2025 book bingo (read more here), and to get myself hyped, I'm sharing the books I've set in stone, as well as recording some ideas I have for the other spaces!

I've been looking forward to Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins for a while now, I'm interested to see if it will live up to the philosophical examination it sets itself up as.

I got the illustrated copy of Eragon by Christopher Paolini/Sidharth Chaturvedi for Christmas, so that's kind of a no-brainer for the re-read.

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao I'm also getting for Christmas, but it's the pretty Illumicrate version, so it's not getting here until January or February. I took a gamble with Iron Widow and got the hardcover, and I was not disappointed (I've read it 3 times and am going to reread it once I get HT, and will certainly reread both in the future), so I expect the fancy one will be money well spent (by my aunt but still).

I am just assuming that My Friends by Fredrik Backman is going to be set in Sweden, because all of Backman's other novels are set there. Hopefully I don't need to find a new book for the category lol. If I do this one will probably fit Literary Fiction anyway.

I've been working my way through my reread of the Hitchiker's Guide trilogy by Douglas Adams, and think I can finish the 3rd in the next few days, so I'm all set up for the 4th going into 2025 :)

I stopped reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey when school got really rough last year and have wanted to go back to it for a while. It was recommended to me by my dad, and one of his favorite books. In the 100-ish pages I've read, I've found it to be amazing as well.

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman was going to be my memoir choice until I realized it was actually essays.

I saw Death In Rocky Mountain National Park: Accidents and Foolhardiness on the Continental Divide by Randi Minetor while just wandering Barnes and Noble and was sure I had to read it when the title made it clear it wasn't going to blame animals for the actions of humans.

I've wanted to read Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine for a long time, but the concept alone has always made it a little too sad to convince myself to pick up. This year will be its year though.

I promised my roommate that I would read The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson last year so that we could watch the show for Halloween. I'm following through this year instead.....

My reasoning for Thud! by Terry Pratchett is simple. I like Discworld, I like Ankh Morpork, I like the Watch novels, I like Sam Vimes.

Below the cut are some of my ideas for the sections I haven't filled yet (anyone should feel free to send me as many recommendations for these as you want):

Literary Fiction:

All The Names by José Saramago (recommended by my dad)

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (recommended by my roommate)

Short Story Collection:

And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, The Answer is No, and The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman (this is not technically a collection, but it is a group of short stories that I really want to read)

20th Century Speculative Fiction:

The Martian by Andy Weir (I just want to read it)

Published Before 1950:

TBD Agatha Christie novel (I stole my dad's books acquired a lot of these and want to read some)

Indie Publisher:

Something from this list

Graphic Novel, Comic Book, or Manga:

Nothing Special by Katie Cook (I read this on Webtoon as it's been coming out, it has some of the best panel transitions on the platform, and I really want to see how she translated that to book form. Also I want to own the books bc I love the story and refuse to pay Webtoon money for it)

Animal On the Cover:

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird (I was looking at the "local" shelf (not at this book in particular though) in Barnes and Noble, and a woman (not an employee) came up to me to tell me this is one of her favorite books ever and now I must read it)

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry (I help run a blog here cataloguing books with little to no romance and/or sex in them for people who are sex/romance repulsed, and someone submitted this. I also read a book years ago that I loved, but I didn't have Goodreads even at that point, and all I really remembered was the cover and opening. I've been looking for a while, and I think this very well could be it)

City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer (I loved her Market of Monster's trilogy and the Webtoon adaptation, and have been meaning to read this for ages)

Descendent of the Crane by Joan He (recommended by my other roommate, plus I liked her book The Ones We're Meant to Find)

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (re: the reasons for Thud!)

2025 Debut Author:

Honestly, no clue here. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

Read a Zine and Make a Zine:

Scarland fanzine by a whole bunch of people (I've read it before but it's really quite amazing and I would read it again happily)

2024 Award Winner:

Something on this list

Romance Novel:

Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane (recommended by a friend whose judgement in books I really trust)

Read and Make a Recipe:

We will see what strikes my fancy this year

Historical Fiction:

Fever 1973 by Laurie Halse Anderson (this one has been on my TBR since 2015)

The Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See (this was a birthday present in 2019)

Babel by R.F. Kuang (the premise is cool, and it says it's a response to The Secret History and I loved that book)

Bookseller or Librarian Rec:

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea (in 5th grade, we did a unit where the class was split into 3rds and we each analyzed 1 book. The kids who read this book loved it. I really wanted to read it then, but never did. Then in 8th grade a librarian recommended it to me, bringing it back to my memory, but I still didn't read it. It lives on my TBR because I feel like I need to read it for 10/13 year old me)

[augment-techs]

Hello! I know we haven't really interacted before, so this is kind of out of the blue, but my very dear friend @regaliasonata told me that you do asks for power rangers. I wanted to ask if you had any headcannons for Aisha Campbell. I'm currently planning a MMPR fic and I just can't get a read on her. If not, no worries. She's kind of an unpopular ranger to think about, I guess.

Hello, hello, greetings to any and all who have questions and requests about Rangers.

As it stands, I do in fact have headcanons as well as a general read on Aisha Campbell. Not necessarily the live action MMPR one (she wasn't given nearly as much background and attention as Trini or Tanya) but, ohhhhh, the comic girlie is a BLESSING.

From what I can tell and peg down, she is actually the most assertive and no-nonsense of the Stone Canyon Trio. When Kim was picking and pecking at them for every little mistake, sniping at them when they questioned Zordon and how things were going with Zedd, Aisha was the one who first and foremost called out their shit and was unwilling to stand down at the unfairness of their treatment by the senior Rangers. This earned her a lot more respect from Kimberly than just following orders would have and we're all very glad of it, because Rocky is actually a peace keeper who jokes at inappropriate times when he's EXCEPTIONALLY nervous and Adam is willing to see both sides of an argument and maintain a certain level of submission if it means nobody gets hurt (except for him).

According to comic canon, she's an only child of a single mother household and is also the ONLY person to have ever been paired with Bulk in classes and had nothing bad to say about him about the initial shock of Miss Appleby setting them up as partners. I headcanon that this actually worked out really well because she's a PERFECT Yellow to match against Bulk's (comic) Color of Purple.

Also as a side note to reference an image above, she is very considerate towards Bulk and Skull just...in general? In this universe the writers had the decency to drop the bully thing directly after Matt's abduction to the moon and Putty swap (plus the Blue Ranger/Billy making Skull feel like shit in GGPR #3), but that can't be the ONLY reason. I like to think that she can actually see underneath the underneath to who a person really is. Which is why she saved Sentry Adam's ass in the World of the Coinless when they'd been on opposite sides of a war for the better part of 20 years. Girl is precise, considerate, no nonsense, SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN PLACED WITH MATT (I love the boy, but the writers were seriously just bitching out of letting the Trio be an ACTUAL poly), is probably bisexual, and is one of the only Yellow's that actual lives up to expectations. Caretaker, cautious, blunt when needed, too.

I actually like her more than Trini in a lot of ways. Don't get me wrong, the og's actress and Trini in the comic had a longer run/were fleshed out, but this girl has potential.

Additional (basically useless) headcanons:

Could probably be a perfect candidate for Ranger Therapist when she grows up. All these fuckers have insurance and NEED treatment.

Loves her mother, thought she hung the moon when she was little, but is really aware of the fact that she comes from a different generation and is so paranoid about her finding out she's queer--actually more than if she ever found out she was a Ranger (Zordon has a mind wipe gun for that, at least).

Is shorter than Kim, but has more self-esteem, so it levels out.

Has actually started a pseudo-book club with Bulk in the aftermath of acing the shared project(s) they'd had. She recommends more domestic, psychological books from the feminine point of view that he always reads all the way through and it makes her weirdly happy to talk with someone normal about it (bless Adam and Rocky, but unless it's for school, neither of them care much for her tastes). As a trade off, she reads his recommendations of eclectic varieties from authors that never seem contained within one genre and that she'd never have otherwise read. This is good for both of them in a number of ways.

Is not afraid to check out all of her teammates, but is at least subtle about it (reflective surfaces are her friend).

Kind of sort of really doesn't like Zelya. The Eltarian helped save their lives and the planet, but after weeks of walking around town and seeing the missing person posters Skull hung up and what that meant, the woman (and Zelya is a woman, by human standards probably hundreds of years old) kind of gives Aisha the creeps (which Rocky and Adam don't really get, but support her as best they can).

Loves all sorts of Asian foods, but doesn't really like spice? Something to do with a memory of one of her cousins tricking her with wasabi, curry and cayenne and then throwing up so much her mom took her to the hospital.

Does not have much in the way of either boobs or a butt, but somehow has hips? Which is fine, really, given that Rocky has boobs to go along with his abs and Adam has a bubble butt--so everyone's comfortable when they cuddle together.

During the week after the bullshit to do with the Necessary Evil comic arc, she was super jumpy in spite of their success; which lead to her accidentally punching Skull when he was standing behind her in the lunch line because she got spooked--which would have lead the school to put her on suspension, but Bulk spoke on her behalf and Skull was unwilling to press the issue since, "It takes people a while to get used to the monster attacks and the sensory overload. She's not the first person to deck me, she won't be the last."

Reminds everyone to put on sunscreen constantly.

@chanti-leaving

[swap-hellaverse-au]

~ Welcome to the Swap Hellaverse AU!!! ~

Q: What is Swap Hellaverse AU? A: Swap Hellaverse AU is an AU created by @my-name-is-bunnyfoxy (a.k.a me lol) based off of the popular shows Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss created by Viviene Medrano/Vivziepop. In short, an AU where character roles are swapped with one and other and while the AU does follow a similar story to that of the original shows, there are a few parts that are rewritten to fit my AU and to make it make sense.

Q: What is Geulah Hotel and Helluva Jester? A: Geulah Hotel is the swap AU for Hazbin Hotel. While Helluva Jester is the swap AU for Helluva Boss.

Q: What's the plot for Geulah Hotel? A: In hopes of saving his brothers and sisters and to help accomplish his mothers' dreams, Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, sets out on a quest to find out how a soul can be redeemed. To do this, he opens up the Geulah Hotel. With the help of his girlfriend Emily, the demon overlord Voxtech and the residents, later friends (Molly, Crymini, Cherri Bomb, Valentino, Nifty), Abel hopes to make his dreams come true. But unfortunately for him, no one has told him how exactly hard this his goal would be. Especially when he is being threatened by a powerful Seraphim...

Q: What's the plot for Helluva Jester? A: Fizz once worked in a circus ever since he could walk. But after a terrible accident which caused him to lose his limbs and left him scarred for life, he decides to abandon his past and starts a new life of his own. Creating an assassin business with his best friends Striker and Verosika and beloved daughter Pinkney. Together, they are hired by different sinners to take out a target in the living world. But in order to get on Earth, instead of using an asmodean crystal, Fizz ends up stealing the grimoire from Asmodeus, the sin of lust, which leads to an unexpected turn of events where Fizz finds himself in a strange relationship with Asmodeus, not having any clue what the kind of lust's older brother king of greed has planned against them.

Q: What should we expect from this blog? A: Well, obviously I'm gonna be posting about this AU. I will be posting stuff such as characters designs, facts, drawings, possible redraws from the actual show and potential comics.

Q: Will you write a fanfic- A: Hell nah my writing is worser than Viv's.

Q: Can I make fanart? A: Absolutely you don't even need to ask!

If you have any further questions about the AU, My asks are open and I'll answer as soon as I can.

Note: Both AUs are still a work in progress. I say this because both Hazbin and Helluva have more seasons planned and that have yet to be released. So certain things might change in the AU.

If you are interested, please do follow and hope ya'll enjoy this silly AU of mine.

Bye my demons~!

[theambivalentagender]

Hello all! So if you follow me, you likely also follow my comic Valley Echoes as well as any of my other art drabbles. You may also know that I've been financially limping along for some time.

For context, my day job is dog grooming. It's a "career" I came into relatively recently and honestly love. However, my location has recently been incredibly dead. I haven't been able to make commission from lack of dogs and my hours have been cut drastically.

I'm currently looking into finding extra work where I can that will still fit with my technically full time schedule. This has been a big part of why the comic updates have slowed considerably in the last few months.

In the meantime, however, I did want to show that I am available for commissions at this time. This is the first time I'd be getting into commissions, so if folks do request I just ask for patience as I figure it all out, but I'd love to be able to draw your requests. I have a vgen account that's still being set up at the moment.

I also want to plug my Patreon again - honestly, the fact you all give this much for what I do now is incredible to me. I recently met the fun "milestone" of Patreon temporarily locking access to my withdrawals because I had made enough money this year to require filling out a tax form before my funds could be released, which I did. Maybe it's silly but it made me a little happy. I also have a Kofi though that's updated less.

This next part ended up being much longer and more personal than I expected so I'll put it under a cut.

Anything at this time would help immensely. Cost of living is insane, I just turned 30 and keep wondering how much longer I'll be able to keep renting, let alone ever saving to afford a home. I'm very, very lucky in that I have support from my dad, who has honestly been one of my strongest lifelines for years. But I obviously don't want to have to keep taking so much of that support from someone who should be enjoying retirement.

There are a lot of expenses I keep having, and things I'm putting off. The ipad I use for art has been cracked for months, but is still functional thank god. I recently finally bought myself clothes that aren't falling off my body after losing over 100 lbs in the last year. I have to buy and maintain my own tools for my grooming job, and I have to maintain my own health, both mentally and physically. My left hand/arm probably has nerve impingements and muscle strains science hasn't even named yet lmao. And of course there's taking care of my two terrible feline children who cause nothing but chaos in my home and who I love dearly.

Even if you don't give monetary support though, I so, so greatly appreciate every one of you who shares, likes, or comments on my work. I just recently got an anon who I mean to reply to soon gushing about they love Valley Echoes. Nothing makes my day more than waking up to see a million notifications that's just one person liking each of my comics as they read through it the first time.

Ever since I was 6 years old I wanted to be a storyteller in some way. I used to draw my own Dilbert and Far Side comics, and I constantly wrote wild fantasy stories. But after going through college, dealing with a huge amount of stress, burnout, and just one random person online telling me that I needed to hear the harsh "truth" that my writing skills were garbage, that spark was just gone. Excluding occasional stuttering starts, I didn't really write for years.

Doing this "silly" comic and getting the feedback I have is starting to rekindle that spark. I have so many stories of my own that I'm starting to make tentative plans on producing in some way. But even if I never become some official published recognized author, I feel like just putting out this comic is fulfilling that dream I had as a kid. So thank you again, as cheesy and long winded as this post has become.