#like I'd be amazed if any of the original artists are still working on it

[madamemachikonew]

"Go to hell" is basic. "Hope your favourite anime movie sequel gets cancelled after seven years in production AND getting an animated teaser." is smart. It's possible. It's terrifying. It's happened.

[beyondfabric]

Introducing: Mr. Archive

What better way to kickstart 2024 than with one the most beautifully curated, styled and fair-priced vintage stores out there?

Mr. Archive has been one of my go-to places the last few months, be it for visual inspiration on their instagram profile or the browse some of the most interesting pieces around. To be fair, after 15 years of working in this industry is getting more and more difficult for me to find garments and brands that are truly exciting and fresh. If on top of that we take into account the price point of some of these labels, many of which produce in Portugal with accessible costs, my enthusiasm dims even further.

I’ve always been passionate about the universe of vintage and pre worn garments, but this love has been fueled in recent years by the appearance of highly specialized shops that seem to be perfectly in tune with my personal style. I’ve had the chance to chat with Matteo, the mastermind behind Mr. Archive to learn more about this outstanding project.

BF: I came across Mr. Archive fairly recently and I must say that it definitely hit a soft spot within the range of vintage providers currently on my radar. How long have you been in business? What drove you to create it?

Matteo: I'm passionate about my job, believe I have a somewhat general knowledge of the fashion world, but about 4 years ago, I got fascinated by this industry, even though I already knew it. I come from a family that has always worked in the clothing industry.

BF: For me, your selection is perfectly curated, bringing a mix of military and navy-inspired garments, with a twist of Americana. Is this an extension of your own style and taste, or is it more business-oriented?

Matteo: What I propose is all based on my personal taste; I create outfits on the spot, drawing inspiration from magazines, newspapers, etc., and then I elaborate and create. My mom is an artist, and I think I took inspiration from her.

BF: Vintage has always inspired me ever since I got into fashion roughly 15 years ago. There's just something distinctive about the fabrics and the history behind each garment that you can not replicate with new items. How/where do you source your amazing selection?

Matteo: My pieces come from warehouses worldwide; I'm constantly looking for new things, and that's the wonderful thing about my job! I have strong trust in my suppliers!

BF: With sustainability being the word of order when it comes to fashion, have you noticed an increase in demand for pre-owned garments? Do you think part of the solution can be provided by vintage?

Matteo: Recently, there has been an increase in the purchase of vintage and second-hand clothing items. To be honest, I believe that a few years ago, not many people knew about this world, but now it's expanding and captivating even those who knew little about it.

BF: I noticed you have a small capsule of garments carrying your own label, namely selvedge denim and accessories. What's the story behind those? Can we expect more designs in the future?

Matteo: I won't deny that creating my own clothing line would be a great personal satisfaction, a significant growth. I recently created a small line, "MRARCHIVE," currently composed of jackets, pants, and hats. One day, I'd like to expand, but I still have much to learn and study.

BF: Any tips or advice you wish to leave for those more reluctant to explore the world of previously owned items? It's still somewhat taboo for some people.

For many people, this world is still a taboo; they're still stuck in the thought of "they're used clothes." What I think is that one should see the story and originality behind each piece to appreciate its value, both from a historical and an aesthetic perspective. Sometimes, I compare some clothing items to paintings—they should be framed.

You can find Mr. Archive here.

[anonymouspuzzler]

Haha Whoops Uh Oh! (UPDATED 6/11/23)

so this isn't the type of post I normally like to make, but! uh! hey! I just got ambushed by a HUGE tuition bill I wasn't expecting, and I'm out of options to pay it - they've already applied my scholarship and loans, I'm already working multiple jobs that are basically just barely paying for rent + groceries, and I only have enough on my credit card to pay for One of the three payments they're requiring, which only gets me through till July (with, again, no options that get me that amount of money by that time).

further full disclosure, this bill came at like, the worst possible time - they've given me four days to make at minimum the first payment (which, again, I can only do by maxing out my credit card), and on top of juggling multiple jobs I'm also in the middle of two classes, including one which involves upcoming travel (that is already paid for, thank god). Hence, me Scrambling a li'l bit!!

as such, I've set a new goal on my ko-fi!! it is, of course, HUGE, but genuinely any small amount people are able to contribute goes a huge way to giving me SOME way to pay it off. note that 3-coffee doodle requests are still A Thing, commissions are still a thing (if you have one active I'll be getting to them this & next week), and I'll be streaming wherever I can to pull together money that way - wherever it comes, any support is HUGE and I mean that.

UPDATE 6/11/23: I am updating the original post to remove the ko-fi link and yet you fine folks know: HOLY HECK, y'all managed to get my tuition dealt with. words truly cannot express my gratitude for that - I'm so, so, SO humbled and thankful for everyone who came out to get me out of a really rough situation.

in the slightest, smallest attempt to pay forward the kindness i've been shown, I'm gonna try and use this moment to direct y'alls attention to some other folks I know who could use some kindness! hardly comprehensive, in no particular order, just top-of-my-mind type type beat. (note that these are all folks' twitter handles - some of 'em are on tumblr too, but I figure best to direct you to where I know they are 100%!)

@/Pochiyaki is a friend & artist who's been trying to get out of a bad money situation a while, and could definitely use some love!

@/rudeboimonster is similarly a dear friend who's been struggling to find long-term work and housing, anything you got would help.

Or, considering supporting the work of a creative you love! A few I've been loving lately that I'd recommend:

@/cosmignon (Runaway Draikana webcoming, and other comics and illustration work)

@/SynthCharmVA (voicework & writing/show development)

@/Tonya_Song (music - including vocals, piano and composition - plus education and activism work)

@/jaypg_art (character design, visdev, and illustration)

@/littlegoodfrog (Matchmaker and other comics)

@/winonaparadise (Girls With Horns and other comics/illustration work)

@/derekmballard (comics, including the upcoming Cartoonshow graphic novel)

@/_PartyCoffin_ (Welcome Home, and just about every art form you can conceive of)

and of course, if you're not following & supporting my amazing partner @/hollowtones, who helped me through this tough situation in every possible way - well you ought to be!! a delight and talent in every imaginable way, and I'm only a little biased on that.

and above all else... THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!

[cactiired]

I can't find any of your old Grahamscott art pieces, did you delete 'em by any chance? I see works by you on the internet but I can't seem to find them anywhere on your blog

Hi! I get this question quite a lot still which I understand because of the reposts and I should probably issue a disclaimer in a pinned post or something.

Yes I've deleted and archived most of my old grahamscott works because:

A) I'm tired of being seen as the (insert a fandom here) artist. Quite a long time ago I did fanart for things I was passionate about. Since I was like 14 fanart was my creative outlet and source of joy at the time and I just felt like posting them online. People liked the stuff I drew which was amazing! And obviously I still am happy to hear that people liked the way I drew well known characters.

But by now I have been drawing my own characters for years. It's not that I don't still have a soft spot for the video games and books I was into but that they're no longer the thing I spend hours thinking about and drawing.

B) I would like people to follow me not because of an expectation for new fanart about a thing they like but because my original art and stories would be enough on their own. If they're not interested that's fine and I'd rather have people not follow me if life is strange or other fanart is the main thing they wish to see because that's not what I do anymore.

It's also just personally frustrating to have my old work being brought up again and again. While I understand that it's easier to connect with fictional characters that are well known and fanart is an awesome medium in that sense that it brings people together. But I've worked hard to improve in art technically and am proud of where I am today. My old art is okay but my goals in style were much different back then so I don't even see myself in any of it anymore. It's kind of like seeing old pictures of myself at 15 still finding myself. Same happens artistically.

I know I can't really control others finding my stuff since a lot of my works have been reposted to the point I have no authority on who sees it and who does not. And that's the internet I suppose 🤷 whatever you post stays there forever. But maybe some can find me through my old art and stay for the stuff I create now. Because I found my artistic voice. I love what I do. I love my silly little characters and their stories. I love sharing them with the world and seeing people still finding something valuable in the pieces even when they're not of already known characters.

[monodramatic-cannibal]

Renegade au world information

All this info is subject to change.

This is just some info on undertale (Sans) au I've been working on. I don't mind questions about the world, but bear with me I'm not that good at world building lmaoo. So if things don't make sense just let me know and I will try to fix it or explain it lol.

This au is also self indulguent, orignally I was going to keep it to myself, but since I've made a ut blog, may as well share the utau content I'm making since I don't know how much of my ut art is gonna be the renegade au.

Also Characters won't be following their canon personalities, there will be a lot of fandom interpritations and my own head canons.

Also a bit of info on the name, originally the au was going to be something different (plot/world wise) its originally name was "Reject/|Renegade", which then got shortened to Renedage. Then I changed the plot/world and since I was so used to calling it the Renegade au I never changed the name. So the name might not make sense for this world, but thats why lol.

Asks about the world/characters will be open, or just doodle ideas/requests for them too. I'd also love to hear peoples thoughts/interpretations on this au lol.

Also when sending asks for the characters: The asks will be like voices that can't directly/physically interact with characters. (Thought maybe on special occasions I may let askers appear as animals or something else to interact physically with characters) If your going to send in an ask make sure to specify that its for the Renegade au somewhere in the ask and also make sure to specify which character the ask is for.

(there's also sans shippings in this au, so if thats not something you like this au may not be for you.)

More info under the cut

World inspo (just so u know when I reference things in me trying to explain my aus setting): -Obviously undertale and all of its au's is an inspo for me lol -Stray (Cat game), For the world and its environments. As well as the horror inspo. -The artist Simon Stålenhag (https://www.instagram.com/simon_stalenhag/), Specifically their work on the artbooks “The eclectic state”, “The tales from the loop” and “The Labyrinth”. The world design is amazing and a huge inspo. (the inspo for me comes from the world not so much the story) -The game Wuthering Waves, specifically it’s world design. -Also some inspo came from me hearing about the place Kowloon city. (There's more inspo, but I'll save that unless I'm asked lmaoo)

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World/au takes place on the surface. The tree of emotions is in this world (tree from Dream and Nightmare's story).

Where it takes place:

The story also takes place in a world sort of like our own, in terms of there's a ton of wars of counties going on, and most likely a lot of conflict with monsters/humans as well. Leading to the incident which put the world into an apocalypse, which the au takes place a little bit after that situation, so weaker buildings are starting to crumble, and some plant life is starting to over grow in places.

The tree of emotions is also in this world, due to it being around for a long time (it’s older than Dream/Nightmare) its roots are deep, it’s a giant tree (It’s around the size of the giant tree in Wuthering Waves that's in the Violet Banyan area).

The tree of emotions is so in tune with the world, that if there were to be any problems with it, it can affect the world and the laws of the world. The tree still does have apples (both the golden and obsidian apples) on it, but it doesn’t look like an apple tree it looks like a mix of a weeping willow tree and wisteria tree (with both purple and yellow flowers yellow on Dream’s side, purple on Nightmare’s side). The tree on both sides also has little nooks and places for the twins to be, either it be a place in the tree to hide or sit, or places in the middle of the tree for both of them. The tree can grow and shift to fit the twin's needs.

The world has been deeply effected by the tree of emotions (see the paragraph above). When the apocalypse hit it wasn’t long before the land/environment itself was effected, things started appearing where they shouldn’t be e.g. trains in the middle of fields, or a patch of a flower field being placed into the 3rd floor of a large building. It started to affect the gravity of things as well, leaving cars suspended in the air, not really floating away but not coming down either. Roads and buildings been pulled up into the sky left floating. Glowing orbs of all colours randomly (normally its only one or two just randomly around theres never really a lot of them). Impossible machinery just placed at random (look at Simon Stålenhag art books “The eclectic state”, “The tales from the loop” and “The Labyrinth” for inspo, though the renegade world doesn’t have things nearly as drastic in them.) The rapid growth and decay of plant-life. Either plants taking a hold of buildings within a year, or whole forests dying leaving barren lands. Cracks forming in the earth revealing cave systems that weren’t there before, showing extensive environments that shouldn’t exist, like a portal to another world almost. (e.g. these environments can look like undertale underground, as the underground doesn’t exist in this world. Or can even look like other things like bioluminescent caves). Or glowing white cracks in the earth that decay the world around them turning the ground black becoming spawn points for Wraiths.

The specific area the story takes place in is a big city area, the group have made a small settlement within the higher floors of buildings that have bridges connecting them together. They've cut off most of the lower floors of the buildings to keep the Wraiths away from their living spaces. But have kept a few exits to get up and down from the buildings. They often use roofs for gardens and stuff, and fire escapes for movement around floors as well. Each character has a different mental map of both the living area and the city around. E.g. Night’s view of the city is going down all the nooks or walking along places that the average sized person cannot or using underground tunnels that he squeezed into. Where as someone like Error has a different view of the city, mainly viewing it from above, being able to use his strings to swing around to to launch himself building to building. This is to say each character has a different story when it comes to the city and their view of it. (Inspo for this is when people talk about “Kowloon city”)

The group try to give out roles to everyone, trying to cater to everyone's skills, but some people hang around without doing too much for the group, just as long as the rest of the group can rely on them when they need it then they're fine with it.

Wraiths:

The Wraiths look both human and monsters, they look like the Amalgamates (from UT), but come across as slightly more blob like, these creatures sort of look like tar. They're beings of negativity. They're often violent towards anything that isn't a Wraith, though they do tend to leave most animals alone, but do attack when they get too close. They possess a bit of magic abilities, some maybe more than others.

They can travel alone or in large groups. For people with no magic or limited magic, it's best to stay away from them.

People can't really turn into Wraiths (only the tree can turn people). But the Wraiths can spawn back after a while, often 'spawn points' will be littered amongst the land, being hot spots for Wraiths to be. Though on rare occasions the tree may turn people to Wraiths, mainly it’s when some is abusing the fact the world is in an apocalypse with no rules to do bad things, due to the build up of negative energy around them, it can cause them to get turned into a Wraith.

Wraiths aren't really that intelligent, some may have the intelligence of animals, but the most intelligent tend to have the brains of 7-year-olds. So they are capable of makings some sort of attack plans, but often lack the knowledge to fully cooperate with one another effectively. Though some rare few may have more intelligence than others.

Some Wraiths have been show to be evolving in ways, e.g. if someone specifically kills the same Wraith over and over, the Wraith may start developing features to combat that person's attack style. Some people think the Wraiths may be getting more intelligent, when in reality it may be a Wraith having a moment of clarity, as they did use to be a sentient being, they may try to do things that they used to do in life, e.g. returning to a building where they lived or worked. Wraiths magic is partly based on what they were before, either that be human or monster, and what magic capabilities they had, or could grow to have. Some Wraiths are a lot stronger than others, able to use their magic effectively.

Wraith growths are normally found around ‘spawn points’ for the Wraiths. It’s like a mold looking flesh that covers the ground and buildings (think of the sort of things in Stray ((the cat game))). Though it’s started to spread out past the spawn points. The ‘mold’ itself isn’t much of a threat, but Wraiths camp out in areas that have these Wraith growths covering them. Which can lead to dangerous situations if effort isn’t taken to make sure the growth doesn't spread any further.

Cause of apocalypse:

The tree of emotions is in this world (tree from Dream and Nm's story), and is the cause of the apocalypse. Due to all the negativity in the world, the tree without the input from its guardians (Nm and Dream) decided to cause a 'world reset'. The tree corrupted half of the population in the world (think of the Thanos snap but instead of disappearing it turns people to Wraiths). Due to all the negative emotions, the tree saw it best fit to start completely over in terms of the world's creatures that are capable of emotions. Most of the beings left alive blamed Nightmare for what happened, thinking this came from his side of the tree. When in reality it was a sort of man made issue that a higher being decided to sort out. The tree until it sees more of a balance of the negative/positive emotions will continue to keep the Wraiths around, either that means society finding a way of living in this world peacefully or everyone dies out from the Wraiths. Due to the build up of negative energy people would have thought Night would have gotten more powerful, but instead his power manifested in an alter self which looks a lot like the Wraiths but less drippy goo like, though he still looks like tar and such.

Powers/Magic:

In this au a lot of the powers/magic is a lot more toned down. Monsters are closer to humans in terms of the fact they don’t have a lot of magic. Monsters magic has dulled over time with being on the surface with humans, leading to monsters having more convenient powers that might help in day to day life, rather than having combat magic. Some monsters still have combat magic and some monsters may be born with more magic than others. Humans can also learn magic due to spending a lot of time with the monsters. But humans don’t have a lot of magic, and can only do basic things, sort of like the monsters of the modern-day.

When talking about the Skele's: When it comes to teleporting they can only do it very small distances, normally the length of a bus, but a few can train themselves to teleport a little bit further than that. They can also only teleport to places they’ve either already stood or straight ahead (almost like a dash when they do it ahead of themselves) (they can’t teleport through walls unless they’ve already been on the other side)

Being able to summon bones is a lot more limited in this au compared to the game. (They can still summon quite a lot of them, but they can’t spam it compared to the games).

They still have gaster blasters but they’re a lot smaller. A few may have slightly bigger gaster blasters, but normally they’re the side of a large dog.

They’re able to assign weapons to themselves, which allows them to summon/dismiss their weapons at will, they can have up to 4 weapons they can summon. (Their magic doesn’t count towards their weapons, it’s more of a physical weapon, such as Horror’s axe)

Some of them can have specific abilities that only they (or a few others) can use. E.g. Ink being able to use paint as his magic/power ability, or Error and his strings.

Original team/group and what order people joined it after that:

Og group: -Ink -Blue -Outer -Sci

What order the rest joined the group (same point = joined at the same time): -Horror / Error (Joined around 3 weeks into the apocalypse) -Fell (Joined just over a month) -Dream / Nightmare (Joined 3 months into the apocalypse) -Dust / Killer (Joined 4 and a half months into the apocalypse) -Lust (Joined 6 months into the apocalypse) -Geno / Echo / Edge (Joined 7 and a half months into the apocalypse) -Cross (Joined 9 months into the apocalypse) -Death (? didn't exactly join, followed Geno) -Fresh (? didn't exactly join, appeared shortly after Lust joined)

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Ships that are in this Au: (will be adding more ships as it goes along)(also even thou I say these ships are in here, feel free to ship what you want lol)

-Crossmare (Nightmare X Cross) (Both Night and Mare are apart of this)

-Afterdeath (Geno X Reaper)

-Horrorlust (? idk what it's called) (Horror X Lust)

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As mentioned a lot of this is subject to change. So Will be adding to this as I go along. I will try to let people know as I update this and whats changed so people don't have to read through all of it again. I'm looking to improve the world building, so if you have any suggestions I'm open to listen lol.

Some extra stuff :D :

When I talk about things like "living area" it means the collections of buildings/etc that the group is living in. And when I call something someones "room" it actually means a whole apartment, or in the case of Echo's (Radio room) and Error's (Storage room) rooms its an office floor that has been cleared out.

playlist I made with a few inspo videos for renegade, has world building shit, trailers, and music. Will be adding to this whenever I can be assed too.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsOp1NNY64Q34UJs-FRLTbqoqhLymApfI&si=VN3GkrjQyF8yawOr

Some more info on the character designs

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Links to character refs:

Nightmare (Night and Mare's ref)

Dream

Cross

Blue

Ink

Dust

Horror

Killer

Error

Lust

Fell/Edge

Geno

Outer

Sci

Reaper/Death

Fresh

Gans/Echo

Chief

(The refs posted in bulk with no info)

Refs 1

Refs 2

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Credits:

Nightmare/Dream belong to Jokublog Cross belongs to Jakei95 Blue (underswap!Sans) belongs to P0pcornPr1nce Ink belongs to Myebi/comyet Dust (Dusttale!Sans?) belongs to ask-dusttale Horror (Horrortale!Sans) belongs to sour-apple-studios Killer belongs to rahafwabas Error/Fresh/Geno belong to loverofpiggies Lust (Lusttale!Sans) belongs to NSFWShamecave Fell (Underfell!Sans) belongs to underfell/Fella/Vic (???) Outer (Outertale!Sans) belongs to 2mi127 Sci belongs to (???) Reaper (Reapertale!Sans?) belongs to renrink Gans (Echotale!Sans?) belongs to Yoralim (???) Chief (Swapfell Purple) belongs to (???) (Let me know if I need to change any of these, cuz a few I was unsure about)

[crimsoncold]

Current thoughts on HOTD

(i.e. the disappointment, the choice not to hate watch the show, and my continued appreciation for the fandom itself)

So I'm admittedly done with the show itself... I can tolerate quite a bit of lackluster writing when I love the concept or certain characters enough- seriously I watched all of the original 9 seasons of the x files (+ the films) even when it had pretty much abandoned the monster of the week format I loved, got extremely convoluted in terms of its plot/conspiracies, and most of the original cast wasn't even around anymore- but sometimes a show declines in quality so much I'm too discouraged to want to continue watching.

S1 already had issues but the inconsistencies in plot/messages/characterization and the strange changes writer's have made to the source material in S2 all sort of converged to make a show that is ultimately not just generally disappointing but now is outright unimpressive and unwatchable (side note i feel so bad for the cast they're working their ass off and the writer's are just giving them literal garbage).

I'm just not a person who really enjoys hate watching stuff? Like no judgement if you want to continue watching or if you do choose to hate watch- do what makes you happy- it's just not something I personally would choose to spend my time on- if a show doesn't even interest me to begin with or nothing about a show makes me happy anymore I'm not going to watch it. (With many of the better shows out there getting unfortunately canceled so quickly I'd rather spend my time watching enjoyable shows while they are still around- I know I'm just one viewer and likely I make zero difference in the scheme of things but I just don't want to be part of a viewership that encourages studios to cancel well written but less popular shows and continue with the poorer quality shows because hate/outrage inspired so much viewership... I think it's just that this business practice pisses me off enough that I don't want to be a part of it or reminded of it)

So for HOTD I'm not personally continuing with the show I'm just going to rely on the braver souls in this fandom to show me how crazy things get - at this point it feels like for my sanity there is nothing left to do but laugh at how bad these showrunners are ruining their story/characters and otherwise just move on and watch other things.

When it comes to fandom side of things well I'll quote myself from a different hotd post for a moment..."disappointing or poorly written shows are not without their appeal for participating in fandom (i.e. making, viewing, or sharing the art, writing, metas, or other content inspired by the show) particularly when there is a handful of interesting characters (looking at you book/S1 HOTD's team green) that fans want to rescue from the terrible writing/butchering by the showrunners ... sometimes it is even one of the most appealing sort of set ups for fandom to take over and fix things."

So I will absolutely continue to appreciate the general efforts of HOTD fandom (writers, artists, gif makers, etc.) and I will continue to seek out/like/reblog/comment on fan works as well as the many well thought out/eloquent metas and write ups fans put out about this show.

To paraphrase once again from one of my other hotd post "The juxtaposition between how underwhelming and juvenile the showrunner's storytelling choices are compared to how eloquently fans interpret, analyze, deconstruct, criticize or even defend the show and it's characters is absolutely wild...a not insignificant amount of hotd fandom puts in more time, effort, and thought into hotd than ANY of the showrunners/writers."

While I was admittedly intrigued by select characters of hotd my desire and decision to participate in hotd fandom really came down to the amazing efforts of fans who analyzed the show, wrote incredible metas on it's characters, and who made their own transformative stories and art based on hotd.

So in conclusion I'm done with watching the show, I hate everything the showrunners are choosing to do (the audience deserved a better story/show), I feel so bad for the cast and wish the characters hadn't been massacred by these writers (Alicent, Aemond, Helaena, Aegon, and the rest of team green all deserved better writing, i.e. consistent and coherent characterization or you know getting time on screen/together in general, all characters deserved better than being reduced to props for this strange pro targ/pro Rhaenyra storyline the showrunners have made up, hell even Rhaenyra herself deserved better writing),

I will continue to think about the "what ifs" that come up around this ... (what this story and these characters could have become in the hands of better writers) and I will always still appreciate/comment on and reblog fandom efforts themselves (whether you continue to participate in hotd fandom or are done with it just know that even though the writer's suck and the show has just gotten worse and worse, and the few character's we liked are getting destroyed by the writing, I still admire everybody I encountered in the little niche of the hotd fandom I have participated and appreciate what you all contribute to hotd fandom.

AND I will continue my own little additions to said fandom-i still have hotd inspired art coming soon and while I'm done with the show itself I intend to steal away the shiny things I liked from hotd (certain intriguing characters and the possibilities that could have existed if this had been adapated better) and continue to enjoy them while I ignore the rest of the nonsense the showrunners have created.

- Crimson Cold

[hermitpostzine]

Hi, I was invited to participate in the extended digital zine and I was wondering if there are any plans to allow us into the discord? I'd like to be able to coordinate with fellow artists to make sure there are no repeats and that the zine comes together as a cohesive final product, and have the ability to ask questions and get feedback. Though I appreciate and understand that this is coming from a place of including more people to participate in the zine, it feels exclusive still when we are directly separated from the "primary" participants and not allowed into the planning of what our pieces will even look like in the final zine.

Hi! We currently only have one dedicated discord moderator and don’t feel we could safely moderate a larger server than our current contributors for the physical zine, but this is something we would love to do in future projects! The digital zine will be open for anyone who would like to submit a postcard, even those who didn’t originally apply for HPZ during our application period. It is not our intent to make it feel exclusionary - just a way for us to showcase people’s work even though we could only accept a small fraction of our applicants for the physical print copy. We encourage anyone who would like to participate in the digital zine to post about and collaborate on their work--as ever, our goal is to create a community project to showcase the amazing creativity of MCYT fans. Every submission following our guidelines will be included in the digital zine, stylized like a collector’s book of postcards. This is something new we're trying for this project, and we appreciate the feedback!

[not-poignant]

Hi!! I hope you’re enjoying spring! And I hope that the warmer weather and the blooming flowers bring about comfort and rejuvenation (if they have indeed started blooming, I have no idea how and when spring springs in your part of the world at this time). 🌷

How do you feel about fanfics of your original fiction? I’ve read most of your works on ao3 and have been following your tumblr for a while so I know (or at least it seems like) you are very encouraging toward any type of interpretation and writing.

I’ve seen there are a number of works people have written that either use your original characters or your worlds and I’m wondering how that feels on a personal level. Have you read them all? I imagine it’s quite flattering. But what if things seem a bit out of character or not exactly how you imagined? And what if those out of character moments or out of world moments seem like misinterpretations rather than reimaginings?

Basically this is all coming from a place of uncertainty. I’ve written some Ice Plague fanfic that I am personally proud of but it’s scary 😳. It’s still a draft and has been sitting as an open window on my computer for months now.

I have so much respect for any artist who puts their art out into the world. You’re so amazing Pia!!

I meant to reply to this and then Life did it's lifening thing SO HERE I AM NOW

Firstly I have a blanket 'omg yes please I love fanfics of my stuff' - there's even a fandom tag wrangled for it on AO3 (it might not stay there forever, and idk how it happened, but it's amazing and I'm forever 'omg thank' to the person who did that, though I wish it happened for more original fandoms over at AO3 which are very fandom friendly and have lots of fanfiction).

But you know that, I just figured I'd say it again. :D

Now to the nitty gritty of it all:

Philosophically I think it's fantastic in general. Every author feels like they've 'made it' as a 'real author' at different points in their career. For some it's their first paycheck or royalties. For others it's their first published novel. For others it's their first positive review from a stranger.

For me, it was the first time I got fanart, and then the first time I got fanfic. That for me was the marker of realising I'd 'made it.' Everything else is incredible too, don't get me wrong, that was just my metric. I didn't know it was until I got there, and I was like 'oh, this must be the feeling other people were talking about.'

Have you read them all?

So, no I haven't. I have a rule that I don't read any fics for a universe I'm still actively writing in. This applies to fanfiction for works I'm writing right now (so I haven't read any transformative works like fanfiction for the Underline series), and it also applies to fanfiction for works I'm writing fanfiction for (I stopped reading BG3 fic the moment I started writing Palmarosa, and I don't read Stardew Valley fanfic either).

This is mostly a 'liability' rule so that people can't say 'hey you copied this idea of mine give me money.' That's not highly likely to happen, but it does happen, and I think occasionally people forget that if I set up enough foreshadowing in a story that's not finished, and other people unconsciously write the 'logical end' of that foreshadowing, and then I write it myself, I didn't copy them, I followed the logic of my own story, lol.

I do read everything once I've finished writing in a particular original world! Back in the day I used to leave a lot more comments and engagement and then realised that might not be wanted or might be strange, or even might be seen as playing favourites if I do that to some people and not others, so now I try to keep some distance so people don't feel like I'm breathing over their shoulder basically, judging them.

There was a period of people trying to check in with me about their fics to be canon compliant, and I sort of disliked it, because to me that's the opposite of what fanfiction is - they're not writing my version of a story - I'm doing that, they're writing their version. And as with everything else, just like you have to make up what's not present in say...The X-Files, I like it better when people invent their own solutions or change rules based on what they want to see. Now I'm a lot firmer about encouraging people to remember that fanfiction is 'anything goes' and it's really not at all about how I feel about their ideas or how "correctly" those ideas apply in my own mind about my universe.

That leads me to answering your next question:

But what if things seem a bit out of character or not exactly how you imagined?

GOOD!!! That's what fanfiction is! Anyone expecting anything different is like...wildly out of touch with the purpose of transformative works which are meant to transform characters, canon, plot points, and scenarios. If people want to take my characters and put them on a spaceship, they can. If people want Temsen and Gwyn to fuck and have a happy ending, they can write it and I'm happy for them.

I literally am extremely happy about this, even if it's so wildly not what I'd write it's actually a trigger for me and I can't read it lmao. That's what fanfiction is for.

Fanfiction isn't for me, fanfiction is for fandom, for the people in it, for the people transforming the original thing. I'm extremely lucky I get to participate in it, but do you think I'm out here worrying about whether ConcernedApe/Eric Barone (creator of Stardew Valley) thinks my version of Alex or Sebastian in my Stardew Valley fic are like the most 'in character' version? Nope. I don't want him to know about my fic at all, I'm doing terrible things to his characters lmao.

And what if those out of character moments or out of world moments seem like misinterpretations rather than reimaginings?

That has nothing to do with me, and it's not my business. It's wrong to even pretend to make it my business. I don't want to be flippant and say 'so what?' - So it's more like - that's literally the point of fanfiction. Or again - good!

People can make characters into self-inserts. They can turn a character into pure wish fulfillment. They can take a world they love (the Underline universe) and then put themselves in there and make Gwyn super femme and I'm not really going to want to read that and that's great, because ultimately it has nothing to do with me and it shouldn't have anything to do with me. They can make every character experience mpreg, if they love mpreg, I'm so happy for them lmao.

Tbh, I also feel this way about fanfiction for other fandoms too. Do I stumble into Dragon Age fics with characterisations so wild and offputting I'm like 'OH GOD NO' and want to throw my phone across the room? Of course! And what do I do? I close the tab and find someone who's not doing that. It's so free and easy to just make different choices and find (or write!) the fics I want to see in the world without judging other authors for living their best lives.

I want fanfic authors to live their best lives, and that includes me as a fanfic author. I don't want to - as a creator of some original universes - have attitudes that would go against that.

So yeah, I'm...what I would call pretty zen about people 'misinterpreting' my characters (it's not really a misinterpretation, because that assumes that the goal of fanfiction is to always write characters 'in character' and it's not - there are many many goals in fanfiction, being canon compliant is only one of very many).

I'm less zen about people trying to get me to approve their ideas for fics or headcanons they have about my stuff. First, that's not really my job in the sense that...this is their responsibility if they want to write a fic, and also it's not great for me to interfere with their creative process (and not really fair on me to expect me to do creative work for them outside of the creative work I already write - asking me to have thoughts on their headcanons usually ends badly if they're unrealistic lmao). Like, it's not really fandom 'normal' to just go up to the show creators of Teen Wolf and go 'hey do you think my headcanon would happen? What about if they all got pregnant?'

And second, it implies that this is an area I should have input into and it's not. Even if I said 'I hate fanfiction don't write it' like a hypocrite, people can still write it. That's how much I don't matter to the process of writing fanfiction for an original work I've created. If people make getting my approval for their headcanons my 'problem' by putting it in my inbox, I will reply from the perspective of someone who writes the canon (which can sometimes lead to headcanon shattering, which I don't want to do! So tread lightly, folks), if people don't want me to shatter their headcanons before they write the fic, don't share 'em with me - they're not my business. :D

This can get confusing because sometimes people are asking me genuine worldbuilding questions and hypotheticals in good faith about my writing, and sometimes they're kind of trying to ask about their writing and get me to do some of the hard work for them, and I can usually tell those folks by how many anons they send me and if they seem strangely fixated on a particular subject I clearly have no interest in writing about, like mpreg (mpreg anons, you know who you are). In those cases it's like *I hand the pad and pen to you, and now it's your turn to answer these questions - if I wanted this to be part of my imaginative landscape, I'd be imagining it, and I don't want to.*

I get to be here and share other people's fanfiction and fanart, that's a privilege I get to enjoy, but I don't sort of have to be here to validate what other people are doing or thinking or writing or drawing etc. It's something I get to be a part of when people choose to share it with me in a way that I can then share it with more people, but I'm not an arbiter of it.

It can exist not only in my absence, but also in the face of my active disapproval (bless all you Anne Rice fanfiction writers who said 'fuck you' to Anne Rice being extremely litigious about people writing fic for her works and doing it anyway, bless every single one of you).

Thankfully I don't disapprove of it at all, no matter how batshit triggery wild OOC the headcanons are, it's like looking at something happening in a building I don't live in and am not supposed to live in. My response is like: 'Well, I don't live there, so...that has nothing to do with me, but hey, maybe other people want to live in that building so I'll share the address to folks who know me too.'

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

Do you have any good sci-fi recs? I haven't read anything written in the last decade except Murderbot I think.

Oh I have so many. I'll skip the series and books that have been deluged with big American SF awards (although Embassytown, the Teixcalaan duology, The Broken Earth trilogy, and The Locked Tomb series are all more than worth a read to name a few) and list a few other things here that have been published in the last decade or so that I loved.

Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series is amazing. Set in the 25th century where nation states have been replaced by voluntarily joined polities called Hives. The books are framed as a history (the author herself is a historian as a day job) written by an infamous criminal aping the style of the eighteenth century. Lots of fun and a deeply ambitious set of books. They sometimes stumble and fail to realise their ambition but still a great series.

Deep Wheel Orcadia is a verse novel written in the Orcadian dialect of Scots by Harry Josephine Giles. English translations are provided but I found it best read by reading each section in the Orcaidan first and then the English after. Depending on your dialect of English you may often be able to understand a lot of what's happening before moving into the English translation. It follows an artist Astrid returning to her home and an heiress Darling who has run away from her life. They both come to the space station Orcadia and the novel focuses on them and the ordinary people of the station. There's lines of it still lodged in my mind years after reading it.

In Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky a runaway project to terraform a planet and accelerate evolution leads to the inadvertent creation of sentient spiders. It focuses on the development of the spider society, a generation ship of humans and eventually the two of them meeting. A great work of xenofiction. It has two sequels - I've read and enjoyed one and have heard good things about the other - but was originally a standalone and can be read as such.

It wasn't published in the last ten years but Yōko Ogawa's The Memory Police was only translated into English in 2019 so I'm including it here. Set on an island where people periodically forget about different objects and concept and they're removal is then enforced by the titular Memory Police. I'm generally suspicious of literary authors writing SF (I often find it's worse than their usual writing and not good SF) but this book is brilliant and the best I've read by Ogawa.

Isabel J. Kim is one of the best SF short story writers currently writing. While she's best known on tumblr for Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole many of her other stories are better than it. For sci-fi specifically Zeta-Epsilon is a good intro to her work. If you're into SF and fantasy her entire bibliography is worth reading and is nearly all available for free online.

Ted Chiang had a new short story collection Exhalation released in 2019. Chiang is always thought provoking and unlike many SF authors focused on exploring the implications of an idea or concept he knows how to imbue human emotion into his work. The story the collection takes it's title from is available online and is one of my favorites by him if you're looking to get a sense of his work.

Porpentine is best known for her brilliant interactive fiction (IF) . She has a very distinct voice and it should be noted her work is often extremely dark. Usually I'd recommend With Those We Love Alive as an intro to her IF but it's more fantasy than SF, Howling Dogs might be a better entry point if you're into SF specifically and if you're interested in her work she has a collection Eczema Angel Orifice which collects much of her early work. She's also written more experimental work like Foldscape a game made exclusively of folders.

If you aren't into IF Mall school was an early "rare venture into linear storytelling" that I'm fond of. She's written more linear writing in recent years and has released a bunch of short stories, novellas and an amazing novel Serious Weakness (though other than being set five minutes in the future there aren't many SF elements in it).

[detailtilted]

Somebody saaaave me! (I need opinions about colors.)

I'm working on the Comic-Con 2008 enhanced edition videos. This one has presented some new sorts of challenges. One challenge is that a lot of the videos I'm working with have wonky (I think) colors.

The video editing software I'm using has some color correction capabilities, but I'm really bad with colors. I know we have some amazing artists here, and I think pretty much anyone, artist or not, will have better judgment on this than I do. I once had to Google what colors went with gray because I'd bought some gray jeans and then after I brought them home I was convinced nothing in my closet went with them. Yes, gray.

I've made some attempts to improve the video colors, but I don't have a clue what I'm doing so it's mostly trial and error. I've also been looking at them for so long that I'm not sure if I've made them better or worse. I'm pretty sure the first set is at least a little better, but I'm not sure if it's only better in that it will make people only want to claw out one eye instead of both. I don't want anyone to claw any eyes out watching my videos!

Below are the examples I'm currently working with, including my settings in case that means anything to anyone. Just don't laugh too hard if my settings are idiotic! I'd be happy for any suggestions or opinions, good or bad, regardless of whether you think you're good with colors or not. However you want to communicate is fine, including private messages if you prefer that.

Set #1

This set of videos will be the main set people see, so it's especially important to me that this one not look horrible. It has the most stable and consistent focus on Jared and Jensen and there's coverage for most of the event.

In addition to color issues, I adjusted the aspect ratio because the original video was squished. I noticed it in their faces first, but you can also tell pretty clearly when you compare the Comic-Con logos in the background with other video sets. This is the one where I feel pretty sure I made it better -- I'm just not sure if it's better enough.

Example video link.

Set #2

This set of videos will never be the main full-screen video, but it will be my first choice for the talking head bubbles (not sure that's the right term, I'll explain at the end of this post) for the other guests when possible. It has the most stable coverage when focusing on the other guests. It covers less than 30% of the panel though.

I truly don't know if I've made this one better or worse. My initial reaction of the original was that it was way too green, but I've tweaked this one so much and nothing looks quite right to me. I think the tablecloth is supposed to be black, but tweaking the colors enough to make it more black makes the rest of it look worse to me. Similarly, I think their faces might be a little too pale, but adding in a little more red doesn't seem to affect their faces, it just makes the other parts look worse to me. The main pieces of this video that people will see is just the heads. (The example at the bottom of this post uses this video for Eric's head.)

Example video link.

Set #3

This set of videos will only be the main full-screen video for very short segments of time, to cover gaps in set #1. It will mostly be used for talking head bubbles. This set covers most of the event, but it has much less coverage of Jared and Jensen and it's very jittery.

I actually thought the colors on this one looked very good though, so I didn't tweak them at all. I just upscaled the videos as normal and left it alone. Every time I look at this video, it makes me doubt the above changes even more because the colors in those really don't look like this one and I haven't been able to get them anywhere close.

Example video link.

"Talking Head Bubbles"

Here's an example of what I mean by that. I'm trying to create a best-of-both worlds scenario where we can feast our eyes on Jared and Jensen the whole time, but also still see who's talking sometimes when one of the videos had coverage of it. It's taking quite a bit of effort to make that watchable -- the main video (Set #1) bobs around randomly, and the insert videos (Sets 2 and 3) bob around randomly in different directions, so it's been quite a challenge to make it look stable enough that people won't think I'm trying to hypnotize them with Eric's head or something as it swings back and forth like a pendulum! 🤣

[not-quite-there-myself]

helloooo, if thats ok, id like to request something with square mutton fish/male reader! could be anything :)!!!! i rarely see any content of him ^^ love your writing btw!!!!

PORTRAIT PAINTING

After telling him that you wanted to see original art instead of his forgeries for once, Square Mutton Fish ends up painting a portrait of you. He does, and... he ends up liking it a little too much. The painting, of course. Definitely not because the subject was you. Totally not.

A/N: Aww anon I'm happy to hear that (seriously, that made my day)! Square Mutton Fish is definitely underrated, and he actually happens to be a favourite of mine. Made this silly drabble with him because of that, though it ended up being different than I originally intended (please help me I didn't mean for this to be 1k words).

Reblogs are greatly appreciated!

"What?!" Square Mutton Fish yelled, stepping back in a rather dramatic manner. "You're telling me you, my amazing master attendant of all people, have never had your portrait painted?!"

It was another day when you and your Food Soul, Square Mutton Fish, had been talking about his... unique, shall we say, line of work. As you came to learn, he was a skilled artist—that was the only thing the two of you could agree upon with 100% certainty. Square Mutton Fish would have honestly been happy if the two of you left the conversation at just that: his artistic talent. Unfortunately for him, you also happened to pick up on the fact that he didn't always use that talent of his for good.

Forgery was something you weren't exactly fond of, so it was no surprise that you chastised him when he reluctantly admitted to his scamming side hustles. No matter how much he tried to convince you it was honest work, you shut him down immediately. It didn't help that he often got into trouble with scammed victims he couldn't run from. Whenever he came back from one, you were like a parent punishing their kid from stealing from a candy store, hands on your hips and making him work double time on chores around the restaurant. But he wasn't just going to give up doing it just because you told him to.

You sighed. "Honestly, with all the trouble you get yourself into, you really oughta use that art talent for original work, not forgeries." Square Mutton Fish suddenly perked up when you added, "I'd like to see some of your own art for once..."

A grin appeared on the Food Soul's face. "Well, why don't I make one just for you?"

And that's where the two of you stand now.

He'd suggested painting a portrait of you, because what better model to have other than his dear attendant? Surely you'd like a painting of yourself, right? Especially with how you mentioned his creative talents and all... But you shook your head, declining his offer. You told him that you probably wouldn't be the best muse—you've never had yourself painted before, actually. You weren't sure if you'd be able to sit still for so long, nevermind keep the same position.

Incredulous by your nonchalant reply, he decided that that just wouldn't do. "Come now, Master Attendant. Why don't I do the honours of painting you?" He seemed all the more eager now, and claimed to be up for a challenge. With a bit more pushing and prodding, you gave in and agreed to his request.

Who knew it would end up backfiring on him?

Gathering all his supplies, you and Square Mutton Fish agreed on a time in the afternoon where you both would be available, and away from all the hustle and bustle of the busy restaurant and the even busier streets. You went out to a grassy clearing nearby, and, making sure there weren't any Fallen Angels near by, met with Square Mutton Fish.

He had already made himself a little area to put his paints and brushes, plus a wooden chair in front of an easel for you to sit on. He waved to you as you came over, carrying a blank canvas under his arm. From the way he peered at you, he could tell that you were probably regretting your decision to agree to his silly request. He seemed adamant on keeping you seated though, a cheeky grin on his face as he put a hand on your shoulder.

"Having second thoughts, Master Attendant? You better not! You agreed to this and I've already set up everything."

Well, it's not like you were gonna back down now.

As the sun gradually went down, you watched as Square Mutton Fish's eyes alternated from the canvas to you. He worked swiftly, mixing paints and switching brushes, but you couldn't help but think that after all this time, he'd been staring at you for a little longer than necessary. It got to a point where you worried he was spacing out or tired and questioned him about it.

"Huh? N-nope! Nothing's wrong, Master Attendant! Don't worry, you look great!" He'd shake it off and tell you it was just an artist at work, to not worry your little head about it and trust the process! It takes time to create perfection, you know. And it's definitely not taking longer than normal because it's difficult for a skilled artist like him to paint someone he finds attractive. Wait, what?

At some point, he let it slip, a frown on his face as he struggled with finding the right colour for your clothes.

"Tsk-tsk, if only he wasn't so handsome, this wouldn't be as complicated..."

"What was that?"

"Wh-what was what? Just keep still, Master Attendant. I'm almost done~"

The relief that washed over you when he told you you could move after so long was astounding. Stretching felt amazing, and you swore that if anyone ever asked to have you pose for a portrait painting again, you'd never agree. You went over to look at the finished product and was pleasantly surprised with what you saw.

"Oh, this looks wonderful!" You complimented, taking the painting off the easel with great care. You made sure not to touch the paint as it was still in the middle of drying. The colours and the proportions were perfect, and the way the paints blended in together seemed almost effortless. It looked so real that if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were looking in a mirror. He really was talented.

Square Mutton Fish had a hand under his chin the whole time, an indiscernible expression on his face. It honestly surprised you that he could get so quiet. You grimaced at the thought that he might not be happy with it. You held up the painting for a side by side comparison. "You're not going to make me sit back down, are you?" You asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, no! Not after you've sat for so long. I wouldn't make my master attendant suffer like that." He seemed to trail off despite that, drifting back into his mind's space once more. Your brows furrowed in confusion until a realization dawned on you. There was a prominent dust of pink on his cheeks that only seemed to grow the longer you stared at him, and his expression seemed almost soft.

"Are you having second thoughts, Square Mutton Fish?" You smiled slightly. His mouth struggled to come up with a reply. "You seem to like staring at me. You already have a painting right here, surely that will last longer than the real thing." You teased, "Unless you want to keep looking?"

The Food Soul let out a forced laugh, trying to buy some time to think of an excuse. "Master Attendant, you're really..." He cleared his throat, dismissing what he originally wanted to say. Instead he explained, "It's, uh... it just turned out way better than I expected it to! Yes, that's it!"

With a swift hand, Square Mutton Fish yoinked the canvas from your hands and fled the scene, leaving you, the easel, the paints, and the paint brushes alone. You also caught him say he forgot to put a seal somewhere or something. As you watched him leave, you couldn't help the small chuckle that left your lips.

It's not everyday you get to see Square Mutton Fish so flustered. Thank your lucky stars that today you managed to catch the look on his face today: incomparable to any work of art, original or forged. It was absolutely priceless.

[popculturebuffet]

HCG: Garfield His 9 Lives Retrospective Finale: The BOOM! Comic Book (Commission for Emma Fici)

Happy halloween all you comic cats and welcome to the finale of my look at Garfield His 9 LIves! We've covered the cult classic book, the beloved specail and now we're onto the final entry: the comic time forgot.

So in the 2010's Garfield had a comic book done by Boom Studios, both an ongoing and a few mini series, initially written by Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Showrunner Mark Evainer, but by this point written by Scott Nickel. Nickel seems to primarialy work in kids comics, having done some of Sports Illustrated's graphic novels for kids. A real thing that exists.

So naturally with a new medium, it was time to once again take a stab at this concept. Honestly with the films going on I wouldn't mind if they tried to do a full film version with 9 new lives, but we'll see.

For now this is the last stab at the concept and is largely forgotten as the Boom Garfield comic didn't make a huge splash. It is currently being reprinted which is good, I hate when things fall into limbo betwene licenses and i'm still waiting for Image to put more than meets the eye back into print. and meant I could read the whole thing on comixology unilmited as it's recently added the garfield comics.

So fitting the medium, much like the book, 9 Lives III: Season of the Witch has each life have a wildly diffrent visual style, probably the most of any of these, with the artists involved really going wild. Out of the three it has the most visual range, and even the segments closer to garfield writing wise still look vastly diffrent. I love it and while a style or two dosen't work for me I applaud the variety. Nickel writes all 9 , the only time one writer wrote all of these, if not a massive departure as Jim Davis wrote the bulk of his 9 lives and Phil Roman oversaw the adaptation and has a director credit for the whole thing.

As I hinted at last time this one's a mixed bag as the first few segments.. are not great. But it picks up as it goes along. It's the weakest of the three and while I admit I defintely have love built up for the other two versions I don't here, going into it for the first time for this review, it's more that a lot of the segments fall flatter, some not taking nearly as big swings or trying to do the old narrative thing of looping in past versions of garfield's fast. Sometimes it works, but the better segments, with one exception, tend to just do thier own weird genre thing. It's time for 9 last lives, 9 last ways to loose under the cut as we see the good, the bad and the ugly of garfield.. and also garfield homaging the good the bad and the ugly.

So unlike the others Boom's 9 Lives was originally done as the last 4 issues of the ongoing series, two lives per issue and instead of a garfield life, we just get a full page intro from garfield instead of the one off blurb from the original book or similar intros in the specail. These are mostly fine, just fun little diversions to help set it up each themed to whatever life it is and linking them back to garfield. It's a solid wraparound that dosen't really have an ending as the last one is a scinetest theroising garfields future instead. It does however have my faviorite depection of johns hair i've seen

These are done by Andy Hirsch who looking at his website seems to prefer historical fiction for kids, a cartoony style but you learn something. He did do work for boom on adventure time, regular show and amazing world of gumball so it's not a shock he wound up here. He does really fantastic garfield work and i'd love to see him return to the franchise if they ever do comics again

Art by David Degrand

Cave Cat sucks. It just.. does. On the writing front Nickel falls into the trap most of the lives from the other versions avoided, the same one that made me hate King Kat: it's garfield BUT IN ANOTHER SETTING. Jon is his cave owner! Nermal gets mailed to abu dabi! fucking vito the pizza making man shows up for some reason! I get these are aimed more at kids, but kids expect.. more.

And the thing is looking into the artist.. David Degrand honestly slaps: he did backups for rocko, has a unique and fun chunky art style he just.. didn't get to go as far with. You can see this in the fact he did another garfield story, what seems to be issue 10 of the boom comics, that he , like with cave cat, put art of up on his site for his portfolio

This is so much more expressive and fun btu Cave Cat isn't. The writing really lets him down while Mark Evanier clearly let him have a bit more oomph to his weirdness. That and Evanier can be fucking weird in general, and it fit what they were going for more. Defintely going to have to review this issue at some point and check out some of degrands other works, but Cave Cat did him dirty. I can't tel lif he thought he had to hold back or not drawing monsters he simply couldn't go all out but the man is awesome even if his anthology segment isnt'

Art by Kari Smith I couldnt' find out WHICH Kari Smith made this as Kari Smith turns out to not only be a shockingly common name but lead to a few artists, none of whom SEEM to have worked on this. I did give it my honest best and the art here is decent, if nothing special and nothing like the other kari smiths I found. Granted that again could simply be boom editorial stepping in.

King Cat is fine, which you wouldn't think given how much I fucking hate the animated version. And it DOES keep garfield owning slaves for some reason, but they mostly feed him and fan him. They don't you know. .have garfield whip the piss out of assorted slaves or actively visit the pyramids. He's just doing what a pampered cat/advisor to his king probably would do.

The plot itself.. is kinda boring but at least uses the setting better: Garfield is the beloved pet/advisor to his king, being the one who suggests the pyramids and thus the one who inherits the throne. The king's evil vizer, you know the type, wants the throne instead and sends mummies, a plauge of rats and the god of death anubis against him. And I love how each backfire: the mummies are so dang slow he can just unravel them, he, as you'd expect from garfield, bargins with the rats giving them a bunch of cheese and Anubis.. is pissed the evil vizer interuppted his poker game and kills him.

Honestly.. this one's pretty good. I don't love it and having garfield have slaves is questionable as always, I don't really LIKE characters who own people outright on principal because .. i'ts slavery, I shoudln't have to explain why slavery bad or why a beloved cartoon cat shouldn't be practicing it, but they at least don't tdwell on it as much and use the setting for egyptian gags and in the style of the prince and vizer. it's not amazing but it's at least a marked improvment.

Art by Roger Landridge

Pirate Cat comes to us from Roger Landridge, who as a first for the artists for these stories has a wikipedia article: He started writing a deranged comic strip from 2000ad, The Straightjacket Fits, did a popeye series for IDW and to my delight is the same guy who wrote and drew the excellent Muppet Show comic for boom I've gotta cover one of these days. All in all an acomplished dude. his art style here is nice and expressive, a bit more cartoony than usual for garfield and fitting the story.

It's also nice to get an original concept, as while I don't entirely mind the boom comic recycling concepts, as they do new stuff with the basic premises each time, it is nice to get NEW lives as history is vast. And garfield as a pirate fits as well as a viking with him pillaging lasanga and on a treasure hunt against Jon. It's also the only one that does this past lives gimmick that works for me as Odie and Nermal as his crew, along with some other cats, just makes sense and nermal isn't just.. shoved in there as a button. While Jon as the antagonist is just.. inherently funny. It's hard to imagine Jon as evil but here we are. We also get Melvin the sea monster

I like melvin Give him and old eli a spinoff yesterday.

Art by Yehudi Mercado

So I encountered something entirely unexpected here... see turns out the artist for this one, also artist of Barkham Asylum and other childs comics.. got to write a marvel comic.. what if miles morales #4. Each one in this series was by a diffrent author showing miles as a diffrent marvel hero and for some reason his idea of "Thor but in brooklyn".. became..

I mean combining the two could be clever, combining brooklyn arcateture with asgards buuuut

I mean my god. He later apologized and agreed to donate his residuals to a brooklyn charity but my god. Anyways I mostly bring it up as it's infamous and it'd be weird if I didn't.. and because so far googlling anyone else involve just brings up "They did a bunch of other neat stuff I might check out, usually better than this" not "They did a racisim".

So anyway this story itself is good. I like Mercado's style here, nicely stylized and the first of this anthology to really stand out. The script is also great , with Evil Roy Gato coming into town to force them to print goofy novelty shirts so when it's invented he can send the work offshore and pocket the money! It's just such a weirdly specific and goofy idea it makes me giggle. And his defeat by clint eastwood garfield is delightful. Just typing the sentence clint eastwood garfield is amazing and it's this right mix of fitting, as they both have an excellent resting bitch face, and being fucking weird to have an icon of hypermasuclinity who once ranted at a chair represneting the president for some reason represented by garfield. It's a great segment and while it's marred by it's artist being a bit of a shithead, my hope is that mercado genuinely learned from this and gets a chance to do better. Also just to be clear marvel editorial ALSO deserves blame for that one as they approved it and thought nothing was wrong with it. Mercado is NOT blameless, but my god ya'll read this script and thought "this is fine".

Art by Brittney Williams

Brittney Williams is the first artist whose work i've actually seen before in the marvel series "Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat" a decent slice of life comic starring patsy with fantastic art. Williams was fantastic there and does incredible work here.

Super Cat is a golden age superman pastiche, which happens a lot but works due to putting it's own spins on it: their clark kent stand in is a copy boy, trying to pine after a golden age style dismissive lois, fight a nefarious villian in a mech suit in a world of delightfully drawn furries. It's a simples tory: super cat gets depowered and his new sidekick, odie , the newspaper's janitor who stumbled in on supercat's identity and becomes his sidekick and saves the day. It's cute, funny and gorgeous to look at, getting the right ballance between a golden age comic and parody, feeling like one while also having nice colorful modern florishes in it's art. Super Cat might be my faviorite of the 9+ lives, and is certainly my faviorite of this batch. It's fun, breezy and I may cover it in full someday and gets the feel of superman comics from the golden age down pitch perfect. Read this one if nothing else.

Art by Andy Hrisch

Andy Hrisch gets to cut loose a bit and I like that they let the wraparound guy also do his own segment. You can see more style with this one, with a bulkier sam whose close to garfield. This story leands heavier on comedy than babes and bullets and is delightful: Spayed accidently eats poisoned lasagna and has to figure out who in his rogues gallery poisnined him> The comic has lots of fun designs, reminding me of dick tracy a bit but in it's own style and the payoff for both thigns is great; Spayed spends the day grilling all his enemies.. and thus they all come calling to beat him up, with the real culprit being his secretary he wouldn't pay. He's forced to pay her (He was never poisoned).. but since the whole "pissing off his rogues thing" is thanks to her instead of just..demanding a raise, which is a lot but sadly realistic givne this climate, he leaves her to get pummeled by his enemies. Sam's a jerk here.. but he's a likeable jerk versus Slaverfield. A guy being a touch anti heroic and leaving an asshole to other assholes is a bit more tolerable than "WHIP THEM WHIP THE PISS OUT OF THEM.. FIELD"

Art by Frazer Irving

Frazer Irving is an artist who seems to specialize in horror and being unsettling. Lab Cat ironically is more of a horror comedy, but irving DOES do a great monster design for the cat.. his humans... welll

This is also the only story i've seen talked about entirely for it's art. And it's a mixed bag. I do think Irving does great horror work here, if with dodgy humans.. but the offputting feel dosen't quite match the story, where a bumbling pab tech is forced to look after a giant monster and gets it t calm like any other cat. BOth sides of Lab Cat aren't bad: the idea this big horrifying mutation that man has created is just as much cat is ever is adorable, and the tech leaving the cast hastily and his exasierated reactions.. are genuinely funny. It's just not completely strong as it's clear the writer and artist werne't on the same page as much as with say the first 9 lives "Primal Self". It stillg ets points with me for doing something so diffrent with the basic concept and is on par with sam spade as far as the takes on a life we've sene before go. This one honestly grew on me for it's creatvitiy and unique garfield design and while it dosen't mesh perfectly, I like it a lot more than I did the first go round and a LOT more than the first two segments.. or our last.

Art by Genivive FT

Space Cat is a throughly disappointing finale, more on par with our first segment. It's a star wars riff.. which as a child of the late 90's and early 2000's i've seen far too many of those to be impressed by "OH you made Jon the emperor instead of darth vader, you made arlene leia and garfield han good for you"

It's only two highlights are making it's odie super intellgent, it's C-3PO. C-3POdie, which they shoudl've gone with is fun.. but we just dont' get much time with him or Ace Nova. Ther'es intresting bits here, I like the ending reveal that this was all a setup to get the infinity brick and that Ace.. ends up resetting time and space

But i'ts agressively bland. The art is decent, nicely done digital stuff that reminds me of a more polished versoin of John Allison's early work on scary go round before he started handrawing the strip again

Though the artist has done better work as seen by her deviant art instagram and her own style is better.. which does kinda note the pattern: these artist seemed to be restricted somewhat by whatever paws, boom or the writer wanted, compared to the previous two versions where there was little, the only restirction on the animated one being budget and censors but still not enough.

Overall

Mixed bag was my thoughts going out of the graphic novel.. but on this reread as I reviewed it it's generally.. okay. It has one truly awful segment, a few okay ones, and a lot of geninely great ones. It's the weakest of the three easily, as it's clear the writer for all three wasn't al ltha tup for actual experimenting the way Jim Davis was. He leans more toward humor for ALL segments instead of trying something diffrent with even Lab Cat being a horror comedy. I have nothing against comedy, especailly since this is garfield, but what made 9 lives in both previous versions so unique is it blended comedy stories you'd expect with diffrent styles of comedy, like the three stooges, or horror, noir , biography and more. This 9 lives dosen't seem as keen to experiment in the story ,though the artists involve all try their best, I feel there's WAY more that coudl be done with this concept in this medium and hope we get another crack. I"d even love for some of these artists to come back as they can do more bu it feels like SOMEONE told them to be more garfield. 9 Lives 3: The Dream Warriors is still well worth reading for it's good segments, but feels a bit downgraded, the way it feels like Davis slowly homognized the franchise. It wasn't super deep to begin with but it feels like its experimented less and less as it goes and it's to the franchises detrment

9 LIves Boom Ranking

Super Cat: I gushed about this plenty. It's fun, breezy and unique for a superman parody using the standard golden and silver age setup. Sam Spade: A solid noir spoof with great art Cowboy Cat: A fun western romp with good art from a guy who really needs to sort some shit out. Pirate Cat: Garfield's really handsome when he's on a boat Lab Cat: Despite it's clash of art and words it still stands out Garfield Wraparound: Pretty standard garfield stuff, pretty fun King Cat: Better than the original but still fairly bland compared to the rest Space Cat: Bleh Cave Cat: The artist deserved better.

So that leaves one bit of buisness left. We have 30 segments over three versions, we've ranked them all indvidually.. but which ones are the best? The worst? The middle? Let's see

Overall Ranking

For this i'll also be thrwoing in the babes and bullets special, because why the fuck not.

Primal Self Diana's Piano Super Cat Babes and Bullets (Special) The Exterminators Court Musician (Special Lab Animal (Special) Lab Animal (Book) Sam Spade (BOOM!) Cowboy Cat (BOOM!) Space Cat (Special) Blues Cat Stunt Cat Babes and Bullets (Book) Cave Cat (Special) Garfield (Book) Garfield (Special) Lab Cat (BOOM!) Pirate Cat The Vikings In The Beginning (Book) In the Garden (Specail) The Garden King Cat (BOOM!) Cave Cat (Book) Garfield Wraparound In the Beginning (Special) Space Cat (Book) Space Cat (Boom) King Cat (Special) Cave Cat (BOOM!)

And while I didn't intend it that way, this ranking was entirely by the seat of my pants I do like that it ended up with one of each near the top. I do recommend checking out all three versions of 9 lives if you haven't, it's a trip and well worth the time. Not all segments are created equal, but what's good there is great and well worth your time. Thanks for reading

Next Time: Thanksgiving.. the only garfield holiday done in it's actual month. What a concept.

[miss-oranje-disco-dancer]

liz 🫶🏽🫶🏽 i understand why you're thinking abt leaving, but i have reasons why you shouldnt. i really hope this brings back some of your faith in us, bc i havent really done much to keep it 🙏🙏🙏

you're VERY talented.

i feel like there's not much to elaborate on this? like, i've been stalking a few of my (now mutual) amazing fic writers and artists for a while, even before i got an official account, but you've always been one of the first.

2. you're inspiring to ALL.

one of the first leon fics that i ever read were one of yours. back when i first got on here, your account was recommended to me first, and im so so so glad that it was. you were someone that wrote leon, and the further i delved, the more i realized that you were really talented, not just a horny teenager looking to get likes. you were ACTUALLY WRITING. and that's so so inspiring because let's be fr, who does that anymore? ik for a fact that a lack of likes gets me discouraged (but that might be my praise kink yapping)

3. your fic ideas are so creative AUGH

honestly? sometimes i wish i could go back in time and just... think of that idea first, because they are always stunning. especially your cool mom's countdown, that had me enamored. i looked up to you and thought, if she could brush herself off and get up, write this and still manage her life outside of writing, i could at least try, right? so i have you and a multitude of others to thank for this, but you for being my first inspiration on here.

4. you're very mature about everything.

in the sense that personally i would freak any time i get anon hate in my inbox, you handle things very well, like a cool older sister (not the one that gets in fights and gets expelled, but the one that's calm and calculating. i've always seen you like that, not an insult, but a compliment <3) having an online presence is hard when people hate on you, and i'd just like to say one more thing

5. you are NOT unoriginal.

i have no idea where the fuck those asks are coming from, saying that ur unoriginal and that ur dialogue is repeated, because it's not???? everything you write is well thought out and precise, even if you hadn’t meant it to come across that way. not to mention that ur blog is one of the very few that i’ve seen that actually has a set theme, in this case, the music! the demos, the singles; a lot of work went into it, and i dont know why the fuck people aren’t appreciating it and instead hating, but lets end on a good note, which brings me to

6. we respect your decision.

this is not to get you to change your mind, please never think of this that way. i’ll completely understand if you still want to go through with becoming an archive idea, because that is always up to you and don’t ever feel pressured to do something you don’t want to. this is more of a response to the hate that you’re getting for no reason, and also just because i feel like i haven't really been showing up, as of late? i’ll always look up to you, no matter what you choose <3

ily!! made my day with this one, sweetheart (i didn't see a name on your blog, so i hope that's an okay name for you)

people like you make me want to stay (and i'm never going to stop writing, i've been in love with writing since long before tumblr), but if i stop posting/post less, we can always chat in the dms/discord :)

the horny teen thing made me laugh bc i was a melodramatic hopeless romantic teen who wrote poetry during class - for better or worse, i feel like poetry being my introduction to writing (and ultimately, what i like most/think i'm best at) shows in the way i write fic sometimes?

i'm happy to hear that you find my fic ideas original because i feel like my creativity/imagination is limited, especially when i'm not into AU's and such (i'm so stuck on making characters not OOC). i feel like this is different from a lot of writers but brainstorming and plotting is my least favorite part of writing, like i love the actual writing things down part and even the editing sometimes! this is such a random side note but i always see posts about people being like "i have an idea but i don't want to write it out" and i'm like omg pls feed me the idea, i would love to write it!

(also, i don't really have a life outside of writing at least atm... which definitely contributes to my whole emotional state rn)

i don't think i've ever been called mature before lol! i'm glad it seems like i'm handling things right but ik it's probably best to ignore anons, i'm just the type of person who won't start fights but won't back down from them either? i also think a lot of the people are easy to clown on lol

the older sister comment makes me want to cry, genuinely bc i am an older sister in real life (to my brother, who is my favorite person in the world) but i've been writing and thinking a lot about how i wish i could go back in time and be my own big sister (not to get too deep, but i wish i could hug baby me :( )

the funny thing about my theme is that i actually feel like it's v disorganized (tho i love maximalism and color and it is v me, plus i had to do a disco theme for miss oranje)

if i did quit this blog, which i doubt i will entirely bc i still want to support other people even if i post less of my own stuff, i would definitely leave it as an archive or leave some way for people to read my fics because I HATE when authors delete their fics, like i totally get orphaning a work on ao3 if that's something you want to do but as much as i don't like some of my older fics and might do a revised version of not old enough in the future, ik that there's probably someone out there who loves that fic and would be sad if it was gone

btw i am trying not to cry bc i'm in the same room as my dad and it would be awkward but "i look up to you" is quite possibly the biggest compliment i've ever received, like that means a lot to me because i struggle with the idea that younger me wouldn't like me now so the fact that someone else finds me worth looking up to for any reason at all makes my heart cry tears of joy

also, you have absolutely been here for me, like every reblog/comment on my fic makes me so happy, and ik a lot of people don't have the time to leave comments and such so it makes my heart smile knowing that you put in that time and care!

[martyrbat]

But, having just reread the stuff, some of it for the first time since the original publication, I'm mildly amazed at how cohesive it all is. It really does form a single, unified narrative—what today would be called a graphic novel. Does that mean that when we introduced Talia we knew that eventually her father would be presumed dead, and she and Batman would finally enjoy a walk into the sunset? No, certainly not. Rather, I'm sure, we understood the characters well enough to keep them from doing anything alien to them and, with that as a constant, the narrative grew organically, each incident suggesting others. The overall design was never imposed on the material; rather, it emerged gradually as we produced the individual episodes. We were guys sticking tiles up on a wall, just interested in covering the space, and after a while, Look at that! Darn if we didn't make a mosaic! This kind of process is denied to storytellers who create conventional plays, movies, novels-forms that demand structure with clearly defined beginnings, middles, and ends. It lets the writers and artists share, at least to some extent, in the audience's pleasure of anticipation, of being surprised by what happens next. It can be an absolute joy.

(full ID below cut)

[ID: an afterword by Danny O'Neil on the collective comic ‘Batman: Tales of The Demon’ from 1991. Text reads:

If you're reading these words after you've finished the stories collected in this volume, you may have noticed some things. For example, you may have observed that although the hero is often driven and desperate, he isn't quite as grim as today's Batman. He banters with the bad guys, he essays the occasional mild wisecrack, he is more openly compassionate. Nor is he quite so superhumanly competent; would the present Batman ever be flattened by Molly Post and her lousy skis? Not likely. You may wonder about some of the captions—the alliteration, the chatty little asides. (“Did you catch the key to the mystery, as did the Batman?” a typical one asks.) But then, you surely remind yourself, these tales first appeared almost two decades ago, at a point in Batman's 50-year history when a lot of the elements of his persona were still being defined, as he was evolving from the cheery, sun-drenched do-gooder of the 1950s and mid-1960s to the present Dark Knight. As for those captions...like Batman himself, comic book conventions and technique were changing; in particular, many young comics professionals were influenced by Marvel Comics' Stan Lee, whose writing teems with friendly comments to the reader. And almost nobody working in the medium would admit, under torture, to taking the work seriously. In a cutesy mood? a writer might ask himself. Then knock out a cutesy caption. It's only a comic book...

Okay, granting all that, you still have a question. You've given the stories titled “The Vengeance Vow” and “Where Strike the Assassins” your close attention and you want to know how the Batman found the Bronze Tiger in the hospital after the fight with the Sensei's thugs. Well, try this: it was simple detective work. He knew, from the amount of blood on the ground, that the Tiger was badly wounded and so would probably seek help at the nearest medical facility. The hospital was it.

Not satisfied? No problem. There are other possible answers. (He spotted the killers and tailed them, hoping they'd lead him to the Tiger? He was able to follow the trail of the blood itself? He questioned someone who saw where the Tiger went?] You might be able to think of something better than any of these. Me—I don't know if I had an explanation and forgot to include it, or if some months passed between the writing of the two stories and I didn't remember that the Batman's fortuitous arrival at the Tiger's bedside hadn't already been explained, or what. Maybe I would have fretted if I'd noticed the omission after the story was published—maybe I even did. I don't know. We weren't taking notes back then. We were just dashing from assignment to assignment, producing monthly entertainments and, frequently, having a pretty good time doing it. What we weren't doing was expecting that those entertainments would ever be collected in a single, rather portly book with an introduction by Sam Hamm and a postscript by the undersigned.

But, having just reread the stuff, some of it for the first time since the original publication, I'm mildly amazed at how cohesive it all is. It really does form a single, unified narrative—what today would be called a graphic novel. Does that mean that when we introduced Talia we knew that eventually her father would be presumed dead, and she and Batman would finally enjoy a walk into the sunset? No, certainly not. Rather, I'm sure, we understood the characters well enough to keep them from doing anything alien to them and, with that as a constant, the narrative grew organically, each incident suggesting others. The overall design was never imposed on the material; rather, it emerged gradually as we produced the individual episodes. We were guys sticking tiles up on a wall, just interested in covering the space, and after a while, Look at that! Darn if we didn't make a mosaic! This kind of process is denied to storytellers who create conventional plays, movies, novels-forms that demand structure with clearly defined beginnings, middles, and ends. It lets the writers and artists share, at least to some extent, in the audience's pleasure of anticipation, of being surprised by what happens next. It can be an absolute joy.

Of course, it does cause the occasional glitch, such as Batman arriving at a hospital without anyone, maybe including the writer (maybe especially the writer), knowing exactly how he got there.]

[sunsoakedhighhopes]

Amazing Fantasy #15

This is Spider-Man's origin story, which, I think, we're all pretty familiar with by this point. So, for me, this was just kind of interesting to read from the standpoint of seeing what was the same and what was different from the movies. I have seen every (modern) Spider-Man movie except for Amazing Spider-Man 2, though it's been a while since I've seen the non-MCU ones, and I'd say I remember the first Spiderman movie the best, so that's what I'll be comparing to.

As a side note, even though I kinda knew it was coming, I was a little bummed to see just how boring the layouts are for these silver-age comics. Pretty much every page is the same layout, two panels in the top row, three in the middle, and two again in the bottom row. I miss the way that the art used to sometimes kinda escape the panels in Steve's original run.

Okay, so we're introduced to Peter, who is a bit of a loner and a wallflower, and we see that he is teased and picked on by his classmates.

Not to defend bullying in any way, but I think if you looked at this panel out of context, without the speech bubbles, you would think that Peter was a teacher, rather than a student.

Then we're introduced to May and Ben Parker, who absolutely adore their nephew. And gosh, why are they so old?? Like, as an uncle, shouldn't Ben be somewhere around the age of Peter's parents? I get that a lot of artistic choices in early comics was more about differentiating different characters, and making things pop (that's why there are so many red-headed sidekicks) but it's still a bit jarring.

I do like that we're shown that Peter has a really great relationship with his aunt and uncle.

Then we're told that Peter gets along with all of the teachers at his high school and I guess participates in running science experiments, maybe? Idk, he's got a bunch of test tubes and a guy in a lab coat tells him to keep up the good work.

Peter asks a girl names Sally out on a date, and she reiterates to him "for the umpteenth time" that he's not her type, then drives off with "dream boat" Flash Thomson.

Then he invites a group of students to the "science hall", and they, predictably, make fun of him for being a nerd.

One of the things that I was kind of surprised by was how angry Peter is throughout this comic. You almost get the sense that if a certain event didn't happen so soon after he got his powers, kinda veering Peter back onto the right path, that we could be reading a villain origin story here.

Also, I don't know how I feel about these radio-active experiments being open to the public. That kind of seems.... a little irresponsible. Actually, as it turns out, Institutional Review Boards didn't exist until the 1970s, so.... I guess Peter has a lack of overall regulations to thank for his super powers.

The scientists are demonstrating how they can control radioactive rays, just shooting beams of radiation right in front of the general public, no protection anywhere in sight -- they must not have Godzilla movies in the Marvel universe.

Anyway, you know the story. There's a spider, though the spider is not actually part of the experiment, it's just a regular old spider trying to live it's own life, about to have just a really terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. So, the spider drops down from the ceiling, accidentally going through the radioactive beam, and then landing on Peter's hand -- because Peter (once again, a high schooler and member of the general public) was standing close enough to the radioactive beam for this to happen. The spider, in it's last agonizing moments of life before dying from, presumably, radioactive poisoning, bites Peter on the hand.

Peter notes that the bite burns, and either the bite itself or the spider -- it's not really clear which -- is glowing. He does not mention this seemingly quite important detail to any of the adults in the room.

Speaking of the adults in the room, they make fun of Peter for looking ill following the experiment, because everyone except for May and Ben are dickheads apparently. Literally no on checks on him.

Outside, Peter's standing in the middle of traffic, feeling... honestly, probably high as a kite. It says he feels like his entire body is being charged with some sort of fantastic energy.

He misses the car that's barreling towards him until the last moment when it nearly runs him over -- again because it's New York, I guess, and everyone's a dick. He jumps out of the car's way....

And then scales the wall, because he can. A small child sees him climbing the wall and tells his mother and she says, "That's the last horror movie I take you to, young man!" which is just hilarious. She doesn't even look at what he's pointing at.

At the top of the building he grabs a steel pipe and crushes it as though it were paper. At this point he figures that the spider bite transferred the spiders powers to him.

The spider watching all this from the afterife:

He tests his powers a little in the city, then heads to the wrestling match to fully test his powers. As we know, he beats the strongman with his powers, then he catches the eye of a TV producer, who gets him a slot on the Ed Sullivan show.

This is our first look at Spiderman

He becomes very popular by climbing around on the walls and ceiling on TV, and shooting webs.

Then we get to the part where he chooses not to stop the escaping thief, and he doesn't do it because he feels ripped off by the person being robbed like in the Sam Raimy trilogy, or whatever was going on with the chocolate milk in the Andrew Garfield one.

I actually think this one is worse than either of those two. Like he does it out of pure teenage angst and selfishness.

And like, look, I don't think random citizens should feel obligated to help the cops arrest people, or feel bad about it if they don't, but he says he's doing it for selfish reasons. Plus, he's at this place (The Ed Sullivan show?) not as Peter Parker, but as Spiderman, so his identity is safe and people already know that he has powers, cause five minutes ago he was climbing around the ceiling.

We get another wholesome scene with Peter and Ben and May where they gift him a microscope that he's been wanting. Spiderman gains in popularity, winning accolades and awards for his television appearances.

And then.....

And then Peter comes home one night to find a police care outside his Aunt and Uncle's home, and Peter receives the terrible news that Uncle Ben is dead, having been murdered by a burglar. Hmmm.

I was very confused by this at first, because the scene hadn't happened. You know the one. With the line. How the hell is Uncle Ben going to impart his final words of wisdom if he's already dead??

Peter runs off to the warehouse where the robber is hiding out. The cops are standing around outside doing nothing because "...he'll pick us off like flies if we charge in there," which.... okay... sure we'll go with that. Actually this pretty much tracks with reality.

So Spiderman goes in, confront the robber, then *gasp*, sees his face, and it's none other than the exact same robber that he previously let escape. He wraps him up in a web, leaves him for the cops (who are still standing around outside) and goes home to cry, knowing that he is, at least partially, responsible for Ben's death.

But what about the line?? You know the one.

Wait, oh...

So, wait, Ben doesn't actually say this line in the comics?? The narrator says it? I swear there were a number of Marvel fans screaming online about how not having Ben Parker say this line to Peter in the MCU was hugely disrespectful to both Peter and Ben as characters.

Huh....imagine that.

Okay, so this was fun. it wasn't super exciting, as I knew pretty much everything that was going to happen (thank you MCU for not rehashing this yet again), but it was nice to see the original take on it. I imagine the big reveal was very impactful for readers at the time.

I've never actually been a huge Peter Parker fan, but I plan to give it shot, along with all my other faves, see how his story developed over the decades. I can't say this issue really swayed me, but then, there wasn't a lot new here for me, so we'll see.

I will say, I missed the dry humor and sassiness of Steve. I really think people sleep on how fun the Cap comics were, even in their original incarnation.

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking Down The Comics: Under the Mask

Moon Knight, Issue 20: Cut Adrift off the Coast of America

LOOK AT THIS COVER. I laugh every time I see it. It reminds me of like, Night on Bald Mountain when the devil creature is over the city and about to do his evil things. I feel like the past two covers for this run are just the artist (Bill) going, “I don’t know… Moon Knight in various poses of angst?” For no reason! 

Anyways… Let’s finish this run! 

So we left off with Marc finding plans for Nimrod to attack Manhattan and Marlene being undercover as his personal bodyguard. 

Now, up to this point, Moon Knight has been abroad. This whole run has been him retracing steps and places Marc has worked. 

I've noticed that in the original comics, any time Moon Knight had to travel out of the country, Marc Spector is the one in charge. 

He is well traveled and he has contacts all over. If there's a country, Marc has most likely been there being paid to be a bad guy. 

Perhaps Jake doesn't feel comfortable traveling. His home is New York and always has been. He found his identity there and his friends. 

Steven will sometimes travel, if it involves luxury, but usually once they leave the hotel Marc takes over. 

Now, we are finally heading back to New York. 

Which, oddly enough, Marc never feels at home on American Soil. He'll show up for a fight or two, but perhaps he just doesn't feel like he has a home there. He did, after all, leave his home in a hurry after a fight with his father. America is something Marc left behind. 

ANYWAYS: 

We see Moon Knight with scuba gear on... and still wearing his cape I might add... trying to reassure his contact that "Spector and I will take care of it." 

He notes that while he has faith in the plan, "our real strong suit is playing it by ear." 

This is true. Moon Knight is amazing at winging it. When things go to shit, he just goes. Which is probably for the best because a lot of his plans tend to go to shit. He's...He's not good at thinking things through. (Especially Marc). 

Streglov (the government contact) mentions that he really doesn't like the fact that Marc is emotionally at risk in this mission. Not just for revenge, but also that Marlene is involved. 

Moon Knight quips that "I didn't like anything about this operation, Streglov, but we're stuck with it." 

Once in full scuba attire: 

(WHAT ARe YOU WEARING MOON KNIGHT. That cape can’t be easy to swim in. Is that breathing respirator OVER YOUR MASK?! Are you….wh…. The depths this man will go to to keep his mask on…) 

As Moon Knight goes for a swim at night in full outfit... 

"Sure cold down here this time of night. Gives me the chills... Chills to match the goose bumps I got when Streglov mentioned Spector. Didn't like his tone of voice. Almost as if he was embarrassed to refer to Spector as a separate man. Guess I'd better face the grim possibility --Streglov may be catching on that Spector and I are one in the same man." 

Hmmm... Now, in the last issue, we had no issues with identity. Marc was undercover and comfortable not being himself. Moon Knight was an easy guise to slip into. 

He is grappling with 'secret identity' right now. He doesn't like the idea that people know who is under the Moon Knight mask. 

But also, he doesn't like the idea that people see the man under the mask as Marc Spector. 

He's so uncomfortable being known as Marc that he would go to great lengths to keep the guise up that they are different people. 

Which, in this particular circumstance, it IS silly. They are on a boat. It's assumed Marc got on the boat and now Moon Knight is there going on the mission saying that Marc sent him to do it and to trust him. 

There's a certain level of self delusion going on in which he wants everyone to believe that Marc is still on the boat. Perhaps that he wants to believe that Marc is still on the boat. 

In Moon Knight's eyes, Marc has very little place on this mission and he would rather everyone just play along. 

So it looks like the terrorist plan is to put four oil tankers out in the water in key locations, purge the oil, letting the gas build up until a spark sets the whole thing off in an explosion. 

Nimrod is on one of the tankers. He plans to blow his tanker and send a signal to the others to blow their own. The pressurized explosion form the built up gas will be devastating and then the oil in the water will catch fire, encircling the island in a raging fire inferno. 

Moon Knight is to get on Nimrod’s tanker, cut a hole in the hull and release the gas to prevent the explosion. He will then stop Nimrod, preventing him from signaling the other tankers, giving other teams time to take them out. 

A convoluted plan on both ends. 

Would the ship blow up? Yes. Science has proven that this is what caused some famous explosion at some point (I'm not looking up which boat it was. It was in port and the built up gas caused a devastating explosion that wiped out the whole town, but if you know it then kudos to you). 

Are there better ways to do this? YES. JFC yes. Just put a bomb on the boat. Why is he going so over the top? Why is the only method of preventing the explosion cutting a hole to let the gas vent? What about all the oil in the water that is polluting and causing a fire hazard? And with that much gas build up, ANY spark could set off an explosion. What if it goes off before you’re ready?!

Convoluted plan aside... Moon Knight gets on the tanker, now in search of Nimrod himself. 

Moon Knight is now lamenting that he needs to keep control of his emotions. "I've got to control myself... Avoid hasty judgements... Keep myself from thinking about it..." 

Good luck with that buddy. Hasty judgments should be your middle name. 

Back with Nimrod, we see Marlene still playing bodyguard. 

Nimrod is doing his bad guy rant about how Moon Knight destroyed his base. He rants about how he's a one man army and will take down the city no matter what it takes. 

As Moon Knight makes his way through the tanker, taking out bad guys, he reminds himself that he's not doing this just because of Marlene. 

As Moon Knight busts into Nimrod's room, Nimrod shoves Marlene forward, demanding that she attack him. 

Luckily, the two other lady bodyguards jump in and attack first. 

Oh! And here we see our hero once more face on the floor in a helpless position. 

Back at Grant mansion: Hey! We haven't seen this place in a while! 

Frenchie has taken Jake's cab back to the mansion to GET TO THE CHOPPER. 

Back on the tanker, Moon Knight wakes up in a very Bond-like situation. 

I do appreciate that each time we look at Nimrod after this while Moon Knight is tied up, Nimrod is upside down. It’s a fun touch in perspective. 

Nimrod gloats a moment then moves to unmask Moon Knight. 

Back in the day, secret identities were pretty sacred. All heroes who wore masks kept their identity pretty tightly locked down (Notable exceptions to those that wore masks: Tony Stark who can't stop telling people who he is and Captain America who no longer has the ability to just be Steve Rogers). 

In current times, Moon Knight really stopped caring and ever since Civil War (don't get me started on that Marvel Event), the only one who really keeps his identity is Spider-Man. And that really depends on what Spider-verse you live in. 

So back in the day, Moon Knight kept his identity a secret unless you were in his close circle of friends. 

This really worked well for Steven Grant, who needed to maintain his social standing to get into high class crowds. It also helped Jake keep his own personal life and let him work the underground. 

When it came to Marc, it really didn't matter. Marc didn't really have a normal life anymore. 

Not to mention the only people that knew who Marc Spector even was were probably those that had come up against him as a Mercenary. 

So Nimrod is momentarily shocked then laughs about how he now has both his nemeses helplessly held captive. 

He leaves Moon Knight helpless and we get...this...view....

Um... Anyways... 

Moon Knight realizes that the crescent darts are still on his belt, being mistaken for decoration! 

So he wriggles around till one pops off and falls towards his restrained hands. He misses quite a few of them. 

Of course on the last dart, he finally catches it. 

Now he just has to saw through the rope restraints. 

Back up top, Nimrod is relaxing with his three bodyguards. They doze and Marlene finally gets a chance to slip away. 

Just as she is about to leave the room, one of the other bodyguards wakes up. 

Marlene assures her that she's just going out for fresh air, but the guard is suspicious She wakes up Nimrod. 

Marlene finds an escaped Moon Knight and they team up together to start taking out the guards. 

The hapless lackies all taken care of, they return to look for Nimrod, only to walk into a trap! 

Nimrod makes a run for the detonator to blow the other ships. Marlene tells Moon Knight to go. She'll deal with the other two ladies. 

We get several pages of Marlene in an out and out brawl with the other two ladies (all three are in bikini uniforms, but not drawn softly. Bill gave them good muscle definition for the time.) To the credit of the writing team/artist team, it's not a cat fight. They use martial arts, punch, and hit one another with chairs and things. 

Marlene makes nice work of the other two and wins the fight. 

Meanwhile, Moon Knight is up against Nimrod and his Arsenal of weaponry. 

Moon Knight is hit by a grenade and once again....

He sure does spend a lot of time down there. 

Dizzy from the hit, he stares down the barrol of a gun and remembers his friend being gunned down right in front of him. 

"A memory of Ben Abramov, his oldest friend, jerking from the impact of a sniper's bullet... Twisting slowly through pain towards a last fall into a darkness called death..." 

He acts and kicks the gun at the lat moment, causing it to discharge into Nimrod's face. 

"And another memory, also snarling... Nimrod Strange crushing Marlene to his chest, smearing his lips over hers..." 

Moon Knight jumps up, enraged. 

"You've killed my friend and soiled my woman, Madman!" 

He attacks the disoriented man, punching and coming at him head on despite bullet fire. 

When the fire becomes too intense, he falls back to get the high ground. 

Nimrod makes a last desperate run for the detonator and Moon Knight tackles him. 

Moon Knight takes a blow to the head that leaves him in his favorite position on the floor. 

We get a really nice page here and you really have to admire the art, the layout, and the tension. This is just a fantastic page! 

He knocks out Nimrod before he can push down on the detonator! 

And now we get a bit of our nit and gritty man showing his emotions. 

MK: Marlene...I...That last gesture...It was stupid. I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.

Marlene: Hush, Steven. If such a gesture can ever by earned, you did tonight.

He cuts the detonator and calls for Frenchie to be picked up. He leaves Nimrod on the boat and rushes to inform the agents waiting that the mission is a success. 

Moon Knight laments that Nimrod knows who he is and will most likely tell everyone who he really is. 

Just as he's about to confess to everyone that he and Marc Spector are the same person, Nimrod wakes up and manages to set off the bomb. 

His ship blows, taking out everyone still on it. 

Thankfully, the other ships have been disabled and taken out before they too can blow. 

"You were saying?" 

"Oh, nothing. Just that Spector and I are a good team. He does the undercover work and I'm the visible one up front." 

Hmmmm. Very true. Very visible. 

Epilogue: 

Back in Jerusalem... At the home of widow Anna Abramov, she receives a message. 

"Anna- Ben's work finished --Spector." 

She crumbles the letter and weeps silently. 

"Then she sips some tea and wraps herself against the chill, and for a time she is quiet, and she is still, and she is alone... An hour from now the tears will start again...and last until dawn." 

END ISSUE and end to Nimrod Strange. 

This was a long run of Just Marc Spector in his element. 

We got to see a lot of Marc’s skills and the things he did before Moon Knight and what gave him the ability to put on the mask and be as brutal and effective as he is. 

It also showcased Marlene in good light and we even got a lot of Frenchie action. 

As for the bad guy, he seemed like he was supposed to be bigger than he was. He boasted a LOT about his abilities, his firepower, and being unstoppable. But he just hit behind his goons for hire, his bodyguards, and his weaponry. He really just didn’t strike me as a big top tier villain. 

And maybe that was some of the point. A single guy with power and an idea that managed to gather people together to try to do terrible things and hurt a lot of people. 

This was a very run run, especially traveling to Israel and going against the elite three. The story and imagery in that one was amazing. 

Honestly, it was pretty amazing to just focus on Marc. So that makes up for the fact that the villain was just utterly detestable, and not in a fun hate the villain sort of way. 

We also got to see him be utterly pissed and petty, culminating in spitting on Nimrod, then instantly feeling shame that someone saw him. I think that sums up Marc pretty nicely. It isn't often he gets to spit on a terrorist who enjoys killing and hurting people. But then he feels shame that he let his emotions out. Oh Marc, stop being a bottle of suppressed emotions.

It ends in a way that a lot of Moon Knight comics tended to end back in the 80s: A sad and lonely note. Though they won and get to go home, there is still the Widow who is alone and will always be alone. 

Marc sends her the note, but Marc can slip back down into his safe mask of nothing and doesn’t have to think about her anymore. His friend is dead, and it’s another name added to his list of people he failed and watched die. 

What did you guys think of this run? Thumbs up or down for the bad guy? 

I think what’s really exciting after this and seeing Marc work, is knowing where it’s all culminating in at the end of the first big 1980s run of Moon Knight.