#metal bibliography

[ghnosis]

Ghost dissertation bibliography as of 30 May 2024

hey! some of you were curious to read things I'm working on/my bib. my comprehensive exam is 18th June, so these aren't like, FINAL final (in terms of citation formatting), but they're pretty darn close.

I'll probably paste the contextual review document I've been writing for 2 years as well - it's awaiting final say-so from my supervisors right now.

ALDERSLADE, Merlin. 2019. 'How Ghost became the face of the new generation of heavy metal.’ Metal Hammer. May 29 [online] Available at: https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-ghost-became-the-face-of-the-new-generation-of-heavy-metal 

ANZALDÚA, Gloria. 2021. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.  (The Critical Edition, edited by Ricard F. Vivancos-Pérez and Normal Elia Cantú) San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. 

ANZALDÚA, Gloria. 1991. 'To(o) Queer the Writer – Loca, escritora y chicana.’ In WARLAND, Betsy (ed.). Inversions: Writing by Dykes, Queers, and Lesbians. Vancouver: Press Gang Publishers, 249-264. 

ARROW, V. 2013 ‘Real person(a) fiction’. In JAMIESON, A.(ed.). Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World. Dallas: Smart Pop, 323–32.  

BAKHTIN, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

BARNARD, Ian. 1997. ‘Gloria Anzaldúa’s Queer Mestisaje.’ MELUS. Spring 22(1), 35-53. 

BENNETT, J. 2013. 'Receive the Beast’. Decibel. Issue 100/February, 75-84. 

BENSHOFF, Harry M. 2015. 'The Monster and the Homosexual.' In GRANT, Barry Keith, The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Austin: University of Texas Press, 16-41. 

BIELAK, Zbigniew M. ‘Prequelle.’ [album art] 

BUSSE, Kristina. 2006. ‘My life is a WIP on my LJ: Slashing the slasher and the reality of celebrity and Internet performances.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 207-224. 

BUSSE, Kristina. 2005. ‘Digital Get Down: Postmodern Boy Band Slash and the Queer Female Space.’ In MALCOLM, Cheryl Alexander and NYMAN, Jopi, eros.usa: essays on the culture and literature of desire. Gdańsk: Gdańsk University Press, 103-125. 

BUTLER, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. 

CHANEY, Keidra and LIEBLER, Raizel. 2006. ‘Me, myself and I: Fan fiction and the art of self-insertion' Bitch. 31, 52-57. 

CHARMAZ, Kathy. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. (2011 reprint) London: SAGE Publications. 

CIXOUS, Hélène. 1976. ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’. Signs. 1(4), 875-893.  

CLIFFORD-NAPOLEONE, Amanda. 2015. 'Living in the margins: Metal’s self-in-reflection.’ Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 379-384. 

CLIFFORD-NAPOLEONE, Amanda. 2015. Queerness in Heavy Metal Music: Metal Bent. New York: Routledge. 

COHEN, Cathy J. 1997. 'Punks, Bulldaggers and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?’ GLQ. 3, 437-465. 

DAWES, Laina. 2013. What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal. Brooklyn: Bazillion Points. 

DAWES Laina. 2015. ‘Challenging an "Imagined Community:” Discussions (or lack thereof) of black and queer experiences within heavy metal culture. Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 385-393. 

DERECHO, Abigail. 'Archontic Literature: A Definition, a History, and Several Theories of Fan Fiction’. In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 61-78. 

DORAN, John. 2012. ‘Mass is in Session.’ Metal Hammer UK. April 2012, 38-47. 

DRISCOLL, Catherine. ‘One True Pairing: the Romance of Pornography and the Pornography of Romance.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 79-96. 

EHRENREICH, Barbara, HESS, Elizabeth, and JACOBS, Gloria. 1992. ‘Beatlemania: Girls Just Want to Have Fun.’ In LEWIS, Lisa A. (ed.). The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge, 84-106. 

FABBRI, Franco. ‘A Theory of Musical Genres: Two Applications.’ 

FAST, Susan. 1999. ‘Rethinking Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Led Zeppelin: A Woman’s View of Pleasure and Power in Hard Rock’. American Music. Fall 1999, 17(3), 245-299. 

FAUSTO-STERLING, Anne. 1993. ‘The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough’. The Sciences. March/April 1993, 20-25. 

FAXNELD, Per. 2017. Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

FIESLER, Casey, MORRISON, Shannon, and BRUCKMAN, Amy S. 2016. ‘An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design.’ CHI ‘16 Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 

FIESLER, Casey. 2019. ‘Ethical Considerations for Research Involving (Speculative) Public Data’. Proc. ACM Hum-Comput. Interact. 3, GROUP, Article 249 (December 2019), 249-249:13. 

FRITH, Simon. 1996. Performing Rites: on the Value of Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

FRITH, Simon, and MCROBBIE, Angela. 1990. 'Rock and Sexuality’. In FRITH, Simon and GOODWIN, Andrew (eds.). On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. London: Routledge, 317-332. 

GARLAND-THOMSON, Rosemarie. 2002. ‘Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory’. NWSA Journal. Fall 2002, 14(3), 1-32. 

GHOST. 2012. ‘Children! In the wait for some news from the ghoul front, devour some graphics that we applaud here within the ministry...’ October 30, 2012 [Facebook post]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/thebandghost/posts/297668790339417 

GHOST. 2019. ‘Chapter Seven: New World Redro’. June 13 2019 [YouTube video] Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ryuzatodraws-archive/672367379880312832/i-remembered-the-jesus-showing-off-his-top?source=share [accessed 30 May 2024] 

GHOST-BAND-AIDS. 2020. ‘Interview with GHOST and TRIBULATION.’ [Tumblr post] Translated from DELASTIK, Anja. 2020. ‘Schlagabtaush: Ghost vs. Tribulation.’ Metal Hammer Germany. March 2020. Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ghost-band-aids/190811297796/interview-with-ghost-and-tribulation  https://www.metal-hammer.de/schlagabtausch-ghost-vs-tribulation-1424295/ 

GREEN, Shoshanna, JENKINS, Cynthia, and JENKINS, Henry. 1998. ‘Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking: Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows’. In HARRIS, Cheryl and ALEXANDER, Alison (eds.). Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Cresskill: Hampton Press. 

HAGEN, Ross. 2015. 'Bandom Ate My Face: The Collapse of the Fourth Wall in Online Fan Fiction’. Popular Music and Society. 38(1), 44-58. 

HALBERSTAM, Judith. 2003. ‘Reflections on Queer Studies and Queer Pedagogy’. In YEP, Gust A, LOVAAS, Karen E., and ELIA, John P. (eds.). Queer Theory and Communication: From Disciplining Queers to Queering the Discipline(s). Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 361-364. 

HALBERSTAM, Judith. 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press. 

HICKMAN, Langdon. 2023. ‘The Dialectical Satan’. In LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir (eds.). Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press, 335-350. 

HILL, Rosemary Lucy. 2016. ‘”Power has a penis”: Cost reduction, social exchange and sexism in metal – reviewing the work of Sonia Vasan’. Metal Music Studies. 2(3), 263-271. 

HILLS, Matt. 2002. Fan Cultures. London: Routledge. 

HINERMAN, Stephen. 1992. '”I’ll Be Here With You”: Fans, Fantasy and the Figure of Elvis’. In LEWIS, Lisa A. (ed.). The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge, 107-134. 

HOAD, Catherine. 2017. 'Slashing through the boundaries: Heavy metal fandom, fan fiction and girl cultures’. Metal Music Studies. 3(1), 5-22. 

HOOKS, bell. 2015. Feminism: From Margin to Center. New York: Routledge. (third edition) 

HOPPER, Jessica. 2021. The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. First MCD x FSG Originals Edition. 

HUTCHERSON, Ben and HAENFLER, Ross. 2010. ‘Musical Genre as a Gendered Process: Authenticity in Extreme Metal’. Studies in Symbolic Interactions. Vol 35, 101-121. 

IRIGARAY, Luce. 1989. This Sex Which is Not One. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 

ISMMS 2023: ‘No Outsides’. (Conference June 3-6, 2023) 

JENKINS, Henry. 2013. Textual Poachers. New York: Routledge. The Classic Edition. 

JONAS, Hans. 1958. The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon Press.  

JONES, Rhian E. and DAVIES, Eli (eds.). 2017. Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them. London: Repeater Books. 

KAPLAN, Deborah. 2006. ‘Construction of Fan Fiction Character Through Narrative.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 134-152. 

KROVATIN, Christopher. 2018. 'Ghost is the Most Try-Hard Satanic Rock Band on Earth’. Vice. 31 May [online]. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/9k8qbe/ghost-is-the-most-try-hard-satanic-rock-band-on-earth [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

LATZKO-TOTH, Guillaume, BONNEAU, Claudine, and MILLETTE, Mélanie. 2017. ‘Small Data, Thick Data: Thickening Strategies for Trace-Based Social Media Research’. In SLOAN, Luke and QUAN-HAASE, Anabel (eds). The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications, 199-214. 

LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir. 2023. Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press. 

MCINTOSH, Peggy. 1990. ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack’. 

Metal and Religion Conference 2022 

NAMASTE, Viviane. 2009. 'Undoing Theory: The “Transgender Question” and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.’ Hypatia. 24(3), 11-32. 

PAGELS, Elaine. 1989. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Random House. (Vintage Books Edition, September 1989.) 

PARR, George. 2023. ‘Rape Culture’. In LUKES, Daniel and PANAYOTOV, Stanimir (eds.). Black Metal Rainbows. Oakland: PM Press, 353-361. 

PASCOE, C.J.. 2011. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley: University of California Press.  

PETROCELLI, Heather Oriana. 2023. Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator. University of Wales Press. 

REED-DANAHAY, Deborah. 1997. Auto/ethnography: rewriting the self and the social. New York: Berg. 

RICHES, Gabby. 2015. ‘Re-conceptualizing women’s marginalization in heavy metal: a feminist post-structuralist perspective’. Metal Music Studies. 1(2), 263-270. 

RICHES, Gabrielle, LASHUA, Brett, and SPRACKLEN, Karl. 2014. ‘Female, Mosher, Transgressor: A “Moshography” of Transgressive Practices within the Leeds Extreme Metal Scene’. IASPM Journal, 4(1), 87-100.  

ROACH, Emily E. 2018. ‘The homoerotics of the boyband, queerbaiting and RPF in pop music fandoms’, Journal of Fandom Studies. 6(2), 167-186.  

RYUZATODRAWS. 2022. ‘I remembered the “jesus showing off his top surgery scar to the homies" post so heres Trans Copia showing his off!’ [Tumblr post] Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/ryuzatodraws-archive/672367379880312832/i-remembered-the-jesus-showing-off-his-top?source=share 

S_G. 2022. ‘Ghost/Tobias Forge - Hård rock pä export, 2022, (English subtitles) [YouTube user-generated content]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPwiFdYJc20 [Accessed Jul. 31 2022] 

SAVIGNY, Heather and SLEIGHT, Sam. 2015. ‘Postfeminism and heavy metal in the United Kingdom: Sexy or sexist?’ Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 341-357. 

SHADRACK, Jasmine Hazel. 2021. Black Metal, Trauma, Subjectivity and Sound : Screaming the Abyss. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2019. ‘Tobias on being the sexy face of Satanism.’ Translated from CZARTORYSKI, Bartosz. 2019. ‘Seksowne oblicze satanizmu. Rozmawiamy z liderem zespołu Ghost.’ Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/189496141322/tobias-on-being-the-sexy-face-of-satanism [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2020. Into the Fog. Translated from LAGERGREN, Richard. 2010. ‘In i dimman’. Sweden Rock Magazine. 76. Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/619019726477213697/heres-an-interview-with-papa-from-2010-that-i [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2022. ‘Ghost MySpace, 2010’. [Tumblr post]. Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/695852845125238784/ghost-myspace-2010 [accessed 30 May 2024] 

SLOAN, Luke and QUAN-HAASE, Anabel. 2017. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications. 

SMOKE-AND-SILVER. 2024. [Tumblr post] Available at: https://smoke-and-silver.tumblr.com/post/741475063435542528 

SPRACKLEN, Karl. 2020. ‘From The Wicker Man (1973) to Atlantean Kodex: Extreme music, alternative identities and the invention of paganism.’ Metal Music Studies. 6(1), 71-86. 

STASI, Mafalda. 2006. ‘The Toy Soldiers from Leeds: The Slash Palimpsest.’ In HELLEKSON, Karen and BUSSE, Kristina (eds.). Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, 115-133. 

SWIST, Jeremy J. 2019. ‘Satan’s Empire: Ancient Rome’s anti-Christian appeal in extreme metal.’ Metal Music Studies. 5(1), 35-51. 

TEDDLIE, Charles, and TASHAKKORI, Abbas. 2009. Foundations of mixed methods research: integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. 

TIIDENBERG, Katrin, HENDRY, Natalie Ann, ABIDIN, Crystal. 2021. tumblr. Polity Press. 

TIIDENBERG, Katrin. 2018. ‘Research Ethics, Vulnerability, and Trust on the Internet.’ In HUNSINGER, J., ALLEN, Matthew M., and KLASTRUP, Lisbeth (eds). Second International Handbook of Internet Research, Springer. 569-585. 

THOMSON, Andrew. 2021. ‘Right hand up, left hand down: The New Satanists of Rock n’ Roll, Evil and the Underground War on the Abject.’ Metal Music Studies. 7(1), 43-60. 

TRANARCHYREIGNS. 2024 [tumblr post] ‘I made a diagram that represents myself perfectly.’ March 26th, 2024 Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/tranarchyreigns/746022566448316416/i-made-a-diagram-that-represents-myself-perfectly [accessed 30 May 2024] 

TRINH, T. Minh-Ha. 1989. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

UNGER, Matthew P. 2019. ‘Ode to a dying God: Debasement of Christian symbols in extreme metal.’ Metal Music Studies. 5(2), 243-262. 

VASAN, Sonia. 2010. ‘”Den mothers and band whores”: Gender, sex, and power in the death metal scene’, in HILL, R.L. and SPRACKLEN, Karl (eds.), Heavy Fundamentalisms: Music, Metal and Politics. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 69-78. 

VASAN, Sonia. 2011. ‘The Price of Rebellion: Gender Boundaries in the Death Metal Scene,’ Journal for Cultural Research. 15(3). 333-349. 

WALSER, Robert. 1993. Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. London: Wesleyan University Press. 

WEINSTEIN, Deena. 2000. Heavy Metal: the Music and Its Culture. Da Capo Press. First Da Capo Press Edition 2000. 

WISE, Sue. 1990. ‘Sexing Elvis’. In FRITH, Simon and GOODWIN, Andrew (eds.). On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word. London: Routledge, 333-340. 

YOUNG, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.  

YOUNG, Iris Marion. 1990. Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 

[phantasieandmirare]

Of course it’s all connected

[fab-bladesmith]

A Celtic Anthropomorphic Hilted Short Sword/Dagger and Scabbard, 1st cent. B.C.

Based mostly on two local examples (one found in 1900 in Mirebeau-sur-Bèze, and the other in the river Saône, at the ford called "Iles Percées" in 1974, and both kept in the @museedenon in Chalon-sur-Saône) as well as others.

The blade is high carbon steel with a hollow ground diamond section, and has been slack-quenched so that only the edges would harden. A sun, crescent moon and two silver lines were inlaid on one face.

The hilt is bronze, cast in 4 parts. The shape of it recall the "proper" anthropomorphic hilts of the earlier phases in a simplified form, but it's not hard to identify the legs, body, arms and head. The scabbard is bronze, and as should be can be taken down relatively easily. The front plate overlaps the back plate on the sides, and the throat piece and chape also keep holding these two together.

I have a boundless admiration for the Celtic smiths of old.

There is both much to say about these swords - questions, mostly, and not much in terms of answers.

Such swords appear all over Europe, and a striking feature in addition to the hilt is these inlays of a moon and a sun - though some swords only show a single central strip of gold. Maybe my current reads on metal finishes has me overthink on the meaning of these inlays - or rather, the fact that they did have a meaning, now lost to us.

But it made sense to me that the blade could have been heat-blued, to emphasise the moon and sun at twilight - the silver lines could then be the Milky Way or the Divide between Night and Day, maybe at the time of the Equinox.

Bluing of blades is also found later on inlaid Mediaeval swords, with a possibility of a continuity of this technique. I'd say more, but space here is limited. I don't know.

Not to mention the strong symbolism of the scabbard (you do know the Latin word for scabbard, right ?) associated with the blade dangling between the hilt's "legs". Ritual blade fitting with fertility/astronomy/renewal of the cycle ?

Damn you, Celts and Gauls, who made such marvels and didn't write down a thing, and now all is lost in the sea of Time and Silence.

All that we can affirm is the undeniable highly symbolic meaning of such artifacts - as the Archaeologist in me would say.

Many thanks to Dr Guillaume Reich - leading expert on La Tène weapons - for the advice, insight and bibliography.

[magicrainbowkitties]

So yesterday my friends and I

- Were told the story of Steve the Walmart Electronics Guy, who was accosted by a MAGAt for not voting trump (Steve simply said his vote was between him and the box), and who called him a slur, to which Steve replied "Did I see you on Grindr earlier, you're kinda cute." The interaction went from there. I thanked Steve for his service to this country.

- Waited for the friend whose house we were going to to actually get home because traffic sucks so we went to this bar 2 streets away and just chilled there until we got the clear.

- Saw Shrek bc I had never seen it all the way through. Before I had always been made to experience it in chunks.

- Watched all available episodes of Dandadan. Pretty good, I was nerding out over the writing and gorgeous artwork the whole time.

- Chased our host's escape artist dog to another yard when she stopped running only to take a piss and ran back inside the house after the thunder started rumbling in the distance.

- Got caught in the torrential rain on a road with no streetlights and no clear markers. One of us had an essay due at 11:59. The driver couldn't see, and was searching desperately for a port in the storm. We saw the yellow neon glow of the Waffle House. And so the prophecy I had foretold earlier that day came true: "You don't go to Waffle House, you wind up at Waffle House."

- The essay friend is Australian and had/has never been to Waffle House, Rudy's, or Denny's despite living in Texas for a little over 8 years. We had intended to rectify the Waffle House thing at a later date. Evidently the gods had other plans.

- Scared the hell outta poor Kevin the Waffle House Guy because we got a text from...

- The friend whose house we left that he was DRIVING IN THE TORRENT TO MEET US AT WAFFLE HOUSE. Even after I called him to say "You better stay your ass inside." With the WINDOW DOWN blasting a metal song called Storm from some band I don't know (I'm sorry). He's type 1 diabetic and therefore could not eat at Waffle House.

- Made great progress in developing CAIN characters while sitting around and eating chocolate chip waffles.

My roommate (driver) and I didn't get home until after midnight. Fuck what a day. Truly no better day to watch something like Dandadan.

And now I've got an Astronomy test on fuckin election night. Fuck.

Edit: I shouldn't have done any of that because I have an entire annotated bibliography that I was supposed to turn in last night that I thought was due today not last night. Fuck.

[sanctus-ingenium]

answering asks vol 2.

'Smiths' can encompass enginesmiths (mercury), armoursmiths (mars), alchemists (saturn) and some others - generally a smith is someone who works with engines or metal in any capacity, whether by constructing them, managing their fuel, making armour, etc. all of them have a completely degendered role in the church. They are supposed to be wholly devoted to their craft & church, to the point of becoming almost unpeople, sexless.

-

I like pantera :) he's the main character beast sure (alongside leun) but he's got a lot of interesting history and has been through a lot.

To start out I do some basic sketches while looking at bestiary diagrams of the animal type. Then I draw the base proportions over a photo of the animal's skeleton. Once the joints are all in place and I could imagine it moving relatively freely, I pick a motif and design the armour shapes with that in mind (i.e leun's trefoils, taurus's waves). The motifs come from a bunch of sources - if I see them in medieval art around that animal, the beast's use purpose, the culture that built them and how it might differ in art styles to the 'basic' designs from the heart of the Mezian theocracy. Fun stuff like that.

As an exercise I have taken (human) characters from other settings and made holy beast versions of them, trying to imagine what animal it would be, what weapons, what armour designs, etc. Behold, Bowman:

It's a fun exercise! I recommend :>

-

Hi! Thank you for the suggestion! I actually did try to use OneNote for my thesis but I found that it ended up an extra step that got in the way. Instead I organised my reference papers manually (and wrote up all my bibliography by hand as well). I haven't heard of Notion so I might look into it :> as someone with adhd I find that the best way for me is to make it stupid easy, which is why discord works because I already use it for talking with friends and I like the mobile app.

-

SO true!! You can make whatever the hell you want forever and that sounds really cool, I'm glad I was able to help in some little way >:) (although, holy beasts are not robots.. i think the best description for them is just. exotic vehicles.)

-

lmao it's totally fine!! I love to talk

Sir Heaven had such a profoundly negative experience with Leun that he struggles with the concept of making anybody else do what he now considers to be his burden. He also feels that taking any new people inside Leun would endanger them.

The bishop of Salvius cathedral is the guy Heaven answers to, and his superior officer. The bishop has reported the matter to the pope and they're still working hard presenting new potential novices to Sir Heaven, but the thing is that Sir Heaven rejects them for seemingly valid reasons. He doesn't just say 'no I'm not taking apprentices', he says 'this one's reaction speed isn't good enough' or 'this one is too prideful'. But the longer he tries to keep this up, the more suspicion he heaps on his shoulders. If the time came, no, he would not be able to deny a direct order from the pope.

Ketjan was selected at random, one of a large group of other children who were not raised in the church. This is to ensure that there is no per-existing bias or knowledge of how holy beasts work. And he just happened to be the only one of the group who could master Leun's very demanding dialogue tattoo. The recruiting enginesmiths, who designed Leun's systems, were the ones to train him, but Ketjan was the one to write most of the procedures for operating Leun based on feedback from the dialogue.

-

Replies from THIS post:

@ospreyonthemoon @kicks-tiktaalik-back-into-water

Krokodilos had an amazing high-tech ventilation system that used active air pumps to keep it circulating. But exactly like the second reply says, it broke down frequently. And because of how it worked, the interior of croc had to be air-tight so that the pumps could work efficiently. And, of course, if it broke down, and it was air tight on the inside, it instantly became a more dangerous deathtrap than your average passively ventilated beast.

There were valves that could be opened in an emergency but these were only added after the first Incident. The pumps would break down from the fabric seals degrading, lose efficacy, and then the parts furthest from the pumps would suddenly not get enough air anymore because air couldn't be moved such a distance with faulty pumps. The reason his enginesmiths want him to be re-commissioned is because the only barrier was the material used for the seals, and they believe they can innovate some new materials or try something different and have it work. They were even thinking of trying natural rubber, which would have worked perfectly, but they never got approval for it.

[ntshastark]

With the first issue of Spencer Ackerman's Iron Man run coming out this month, I guess it might be time for me to finally post this essay I wrote for university back in 2020, so here it is! It's definitely not anywhere near as informed and polished as anything he'd whip out in half an hour and with a headache, but I really liked it, so I hope you do too <3

(Obs.: There's a lot of direct quotes, it's on purpose - it was a whole thing - and I didn't want to rewrite the entire text so I kept it and just changed up the referencing system instead, both in the text itself and in the bibliography. I also added images and videos because I can now. And there's a P.S. after the bibliography, please read that as well)

Iron Man:

How the general public's view of war and the military influenced Tony Stark's status as a weapons-maker

Introduction 

Arthur Asa Berger wrote, "there is a fairly close relationship, generally, between a society and its heroes; if a hero does not espouse values that are meaningful to his readers, there seems little likelihood that he will be popular"¹⁰. The 2008 film ‘Iron Man’ (dir. Jon Favreau) was responsible for launching the billion-dollar franchise now referred to as the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ — which definitely marks it as popular.

A huge theme in the film is the relationship between the main character's company (Stark Industries) and the U.S. military. But what is shown on screen is wildly different from what was first seen in 1963, when the comics character of Tony Stark/Iron Man was first created. The aim of this research is to trace how Stark’s status as a weapons-maker changed through the years, shaping itself based on his readers’ opinions, and how the film translated the real-time struggle of the comic writers into an integral part of Tony Stark’s own character development. This analysis is heavily based on the 2015 book ‘The Ages of Iron Man: Essays on the Armored Avenger in Changing Times’. 

Contextualization 

In 2008's ‘Iron Man’, leading man Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark — the CEO of Stark Industries, a defence contractor he inherited from his late father. The film starts in Afghanistan, which Stark is visiting for a weapons demonstration. The second after a joke about how he would be "out of a job with peace", the convoy carrying Stark and the soldiers tasked with securing him is attacked by Afghan paramilitary units — ironically using what, as he soon finds out, are his own weapons.

Stark is wounded and captured by the attackers, who want him to build them a weapon. Instead, he makes a suit of armour and uses it to escape. Back home in the United States, he immediately stops his company’s production of weapons, and goes on to further develop the metal suit, turning it into the one he will be using as the titular superhero Iron Man.

Iron Man, the character, first appeared in 1963, on the 34th issue of the comic book ‘Tales of Suspense’. Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Don Heck, his debut story (‘Iron Man Is Born!’) tells a very similar, but also very different tale. Most notably, it is set in Vietnam, not Afghanistan, and Stark’s captor is a man named Wong-Chu, who is known as "the Red guerrilla tyrant".

After his escape, instead of ceasing weapons productions, Stark is praised on the very next issue as "a military genius" who doesn’t "neglect America’s Cold War struggle against the communist menace". It wouldn’t be until almost a decade later, in the 45th issue of his own comic, ‘Iron Man’, that Stark Industries would stop accepting military contracts. 

Cold Warrior 

"Iron Man stories created during the Cold War are very different from the Iron Man stories in a post-9/11 world, in part because the creators and readers have different expectations for what issues a hero should be facing in those distinct eras. [...] Audiences are not static, and if the entertainment they consumed did not evolve to reflect their tastes it would become a relic of a previous era"¹. As a character directly related to the military-industrial complex, the effects of time on Tony Stark’s stories were made a lot more apparent than it would be on most entertainment. "All of Marvel's new heroes of the early 1960s somehow reflected and contributed to American perceptions of its Cold War enemies, but none more explicitly than Iron Man"². 

When he was first conceived, Tony Stark’s role as a weapon maker wasn’t something seen as needing to be redeemed — quite the opposite, it made him even more heroic. In the middle of the Cold War, "Americans thought that the military-industrial technological innovations were an aggressive yet antiseptic means to battle communism and establish global hegemony"⁴. So, instead of putting off readers, a "businessman and iron-clad communist killer combined was the perfect superhero for the new America"¹². 

Those early Iron Man comics were not "apolitical so much as unobjectionably mainstream"⁵, as based on the idea that "the two faces of the consensus mood" were "confident to the verge of complacency about the perfectibility of American society [and] anxious to the point of paranoia about the threat of communism"¹⁴. And the writers of the time took full advantage of this paranoia. "Often just revealing a character to be a communist, or a citizen of a communist nation was a narrative shorthand establishing each issue's nemesis. The communist enemy would either be temporarily defeated or reformed by Iron Man at the end of each 13-page issue, signifying America's victory over the reds. Each month Iron Man appeared, extolling the virtues of American patriotism while denouncing the tyrannical communist governments."³ 

Meanwhile, far from being painted as villainous, Iron Man writers at the time "portray Stark as possessing the best qualities of the modern American man: tolerance, ingenuity, broadmindedness, and the profit motive. [...] [He] is a capitalist, but hardly rapacious. Instead, he is a liberal's ideal: a benevolent boss, environmentalist, and hard-working scientist as concerned with enhancing mankind as he is with the bottom line. While some critics in the comic cast doubt on the benefits of Stark Industries, they are usually revealed to be malevolent or naive; the writers make clear that Stark is above reproach"⁴.

The Wrong Side of History 

But, of course, this sentiment wouldn’t last forever. With the Vietnam War becoming increasingly unpopular, "the morality of [Stark’s] role in the Vietnam conflict or his close relationship with the U.S. military [would no longer] be taken for granted, as it was early on"². "From March 1963 through October 1967, Iron Man fought a series of brutal bullies who sought to enslave humanity under the mantle of International Communism. But in the late 60s this formula broke down. [...] What's more, though, the war was increasingly being blamed on the ‘military-industrial complex,’ envisioned as a shadowy network of vested interests that dealt in death and dismemberment for the sake of corporate profits. And this otherwise faceless abstraction found a readymade personification in Tony Stark"⁵. 

"Iron Man, once a symbol of what would lead to victory in Southeast Asia, gradually represented the country's arrogant overkill. Critics made the connection between the comic and the bloodshed in Vietnam, and urged writers to see the error of their ways. [...] As the casualties mounted, some readers urged Stark to forgo defense contracts"⁴. Marvel’s response was to shy away from political stories, "moving from fantasizing about success in South Asia to a James Bond fantasia of secret organizations equipped with wondrous devices but no motivation beyond the cripplingly vague ‘world domination’"⁵ for the remainder of the decade. 

"Marvel's creators were slow to educate themselves on the nuances of the Cold War, as their superheroes remained committed to fighting long after many readers had misgivings or were openly protesting"¹³. Stan Lee would later say the following of the writing of the time: 

“Now it's important that you bear in mind that this yarn was written in 1963, at a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil and that the American military action against the Viet Cong was tantamount to St. George's battle against the dragon. Since that time, of course, we've all grown up a bit, we've realized that life isn't quite so simple, and we've been trying to extricate ourselves from the tragic entanglement of Indochina.”¹⁶

This same conflict and learning experience can be seen happening to Tony Stark himself in the ‘Iron Man’ film. In it, the announcer of an award claims that "Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry, by ensuring freedom, and protecting America — and her interests — around the globe". Stark himself has statements such as "The day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals"; "Do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey." and "I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far". He also refers to the people his weapons will be used on as "the bad guys". It is clear that, not only does he think his position as a weapons designer is a necessary evil, but the world around him validates this perception. The only time in the film where, prior to the kidnapping, this assumption is challenged, is by a reporter who then abandons the discussion to, instead, sleep with him.

In 1971, the elephant in the room of Iron Man comics finally started to be addressed. On the 38th issue of ‘Iron Man’, Marvel published a letter from a reader inquiring "When are you going to admit that Tony Stark produces devices to kill people?" and saying "He needs to start converting from military to civilian uses". The reply was simply "Good points, well taken, Paul. We'll try to explore those problems in the place where they should be explored — in the pages of our mag. Stick with us. We're trying, pal, we're trying."

Months later, on issue #45, it’s finally stated that Tony Stark has made a decision to refuse all further military contracts.

But this didn’t instantly redeem him from all those years as a military contractor. Fifteen issues later, Stark is told "No amount of well-publicized 're-ordered priorities' will wash away the Asian blood your weapons shed — not merely once or twice — but for a decade".

This guilt would be the theme of a pivotal issue later on. Written by Bill Mantlo in 1975 (roughly coinciding with the final U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and the Fall of Saigon) and titled ‘Long Time Gone’, the 78th issue of ‘Iron Man’ finally shows us the moment Tony Stark decided to stop producing weapons — and much of it would later be incorporated on, and made into an integral part of, Iron Man’s origin story in his cinematic debut. Pondering over how he "didn't do much soul-searching back then" and "beat the commies for democracy without ever questioning just whose democracy [he was] serving", Stark leads us into a flashback set years earlier, in Vietnam.

Much like the beginning of the film, we see him (but now as Iron Man) engage in friendly conversation with U.S. soldiers, minutes before a surprise attack by local forces leaves him the only survivor. In a fit of despair, he screams that "they were out here because a weapon I’d built gave them the promise of a faster kill, a well-oiled war!! I did this!" — a sentiment echoed in the film, when Stark says "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them".

 

We then see Iron Man meet a blind Vietnamese boy, "who most likely didn’t understand the meaning of words like communism and democracy". He takes the boy to his village, only to find it completely destroyed by the weapon he made, with no survivors left.

In the film, we see this moment paralleled on Stark’s first outing as Iron Man, which was motivated by seeing his weapons used to destroy a town near where he was kidnapped.

The issue ends with Stark vowing that he "will live to avenge those whose lives have been lost through the ignorance of men like the man [he] once was — or [he] will die trying!", and a note from the authors saying the comic was "dedicated to peace".

 

While "the writers seek to partially redeem Stark by describing his shame, agony, and soul searching", the sentiment portrayed in the issue also "reflected how many Americans responded to the national humbling in Southeast Asia". Now, both "Stark, and America, have seen the light and will not repeat their mistakes, as Tony transforms his operations from military hardware to alternative energy and space exploration"⁴. This is the issue that cements Stark's weapons-making past, narratively, as not "a drawback but a central asset, a character flaw on par with Spider-Man’s guilt over the death of Uncle Ben"⁵, and this is clearly seen in how the film deals with the theme. 

9/11 et al. 

Of course, the world saw plenty of changes since 1975 — and so did Iron Man comics. No longer making weapons became a staple of the character, in fact, "during 1979, [security agency] S.H.I.E.L.D. were actively working to take over Stark International in order to get it to produce more munitions and military grade materials"⁶ — but there was still a problem to tackle: his extreme connection to "anti-communism" in a world where this dichotomy grew more and more irrelevant. "Not-Communist was enough motivation to be a superhero in the 1960s" but "Iron Man [could] no longer be defined solely by what he is not"⁹. Some of his old "classic Cold War villains" had already been "rewritten as independent actors"⁵ in the late 1960s, but too much of his character was still stuck in time. 

The 1980s give a big step away from that, when the ‘Armor Wars’ story arc "moves away from the early Iron Man tales that presented the idea of inherently superior American technology and describes the difficulties of the hero battling complex, equal armored supervillain competitors"⁸. "While the character had been anti-Communist to the point of pure propaganda, he was now being presented as a businessman who happened to also be a superhero in order to protect his capitalistic endeavors"⁹. But the final move wouldn’t happen until the 1990s, when Iron Man, already in the 267th issue of his solo comic, had his origin story updated to remove its connections to the Vietnam War and communism. Darowski describes the change as following: 

“In this updated version, Vietnam and Communism are not mentioned once. When Stark is disembarking from his plane his colleague welcomes him only to "Southeast Asia" where Stark is coming to address a situation with one of his factories. There is no ideological battle line being drawn, rather this is a "direct attack on Stark Industries" as someone is stealing shipments out of Stark's new factory in the region. It is revealed that Wong Chu, the local warlord responsible for disrupting the factory's output, is only acting under the orders of [classic Iron Man villain] the Mandarin. None of the democracy versus communism or America versus Vietnam rhetoric that existed in the original origin story is present in this updated retelling of the tale.”⁹

But then, of course, everything changed again in September of 2001. "September 11 forced comic book makers to step back and reevaluate the place of their industry in American culture"¹⁷. And, if regular characters were affected simply by having their stories set in the U.S., Iron Man, with his long and complicated history with the military, suffered a huge impact. "In the context of the United States' "War on Terror," Iron Man's traditional emphasis on national defense and military technology was given renewed emphasis and visibility across the Marvel Universe"⁷. 

During the Cold War, "the U.S.S.R. had been a threatening and stable adversary for over four decades that had provided a consistent "them" as a mirror to better clarify the American "us"." With the fall of the Soviet Union, "how would the U.S. define itself and what would be its new mission?"¹⁵. The World Trade Center Attack answered that question. After it, not only was Iron Man’s origin story changed, again — now being displaced from the jungles of Vietnam to the Afghan desert; but Stark’s work as a weapons designer was moved up to much more recent times, as seen in the first issue of 2005's new Iron Man comic.

He would also, even if reluctantly, sometimes work with the military again — agreeing with his best friends James Rhodes, in the first issue of 2011's Iron Man 2.0, that "If Stark doesn't supply Iron Man to the military, someone else will supply an Iron Man to the military. Better us than them." 

Though the majority of the U.S. population had initially supported the war in Iraq, by the time the film started production it was opposed by sixty-seven percent. And the lack of evidence for weapons of mass destruction led fifty-four percent to believe that the war was not morally justified¹¹. This put the general public’s reaction towards the military-industrial complex at roughly the same state it had been when Iron Man writers were first bombarded with letters asking them to redeem Tony Stark for his role in it. Having gone full circle, it seemed like the perfect time for his live-action debut. 

Conclusion 

Much changed between Iron Man’s creation and his first appearance on the big screen — and much had to be changed in the character’s history to accommodate him to this. The socio-political climate in 1963 not only allowed, but encouraged a hero who aided in "America’s Cold War struggle against the communist menace". But, as the real nature of the conflict in Vietnam came into perspective, the blind confidence and self-righteousness turned into regret and guilt, compromising the existence of a character that so heavily embodied the ideals of this now bygone era. 

After much trying to ignore or sweep under the carpet Stark’s part in the Vietnam War⁵, though, writers finally realised that the shame they, and the rest of the country, felt could be translated into Tony Stark. In making him carry with himself the guilt of his past, they made him a lot more relevant, relatable and interesting; and this eventually became a staple of the character. When, after 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Iraq, the sentiment of guilt and disgust towards military action overseas was rekindled in the U.S. population, Stark was, once again, the perfect mirror for the audience to see themselves in. 

By turning his realisation, rebellion, and quest for atonement into a key point of his beginning as a superhero, the ‘Iron Man’ film presents its audience with the message that your past mistakes don’t have to define you. Stark’s tainted history makes him the perfect hero for a world so conscious of its own wrongdoings, and so desperate to see significant change for the better. Iron Man is now, just as he was in 1963, a product of our time. 

Bibliography 

From Marvel

Iron Man. (2008) Film. Directed by Jon Favreau. USA: Paramount Pictures. 

LEE, S. & LIEBER, L. (1963). Tales of Suspense. Issue 39. New York: Marvel Comics.

LEE, S. & BERNSTEIN, R. (1963). Tales of Suspense. Issue 40. New York: Marvel Comics.

CONWAY, G. & BRODSKY, A. (1971). Iron Man. Issue 38. New York: Marvel Comics. 

FRIEDRICH, G. (1972). Iron Man. Issue 45. New York: Marvel Comics. 

FRIEDRICH, G. (1973). Iron Man. Issue 60. New York: Marvel Comics. 

MANTLO, B. (1975). Iron Man. Issue 78. New York: Marvel Comics. 

BYRNE, J. (1991). Iron Man. Issue 267. New York: Marvel Comics. 

ELLIS, W. (2005). Iron Man. Issue 1. New York: Marvel Comics.

SPENCER, N. (2011). Iron Man 2.0. Issue 1. New York: Marvel Comics. 

From 'The Ages of Iron Man'

1. DAROWSKI, J. J. (2015). Introduction...

2. PATTON, B. (2015). “The Iron-Clad American” — Iron Man In The 60s...

3. SHEPPARD, N. R. (2015). "Gorgeous new menace” — Black Widow, Gender Roles and the Subversion of Cold War Expectations of Domesticity... 

4. COOLEY, W. & ROGERS, M. C. (2015). Ike’s Nightmare — Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex...

5. HENEBRY, C. (2015). Socking It to Shell-Head — How Fan Mail Saved a Hero from the Military-Industrial Complex...

6. SACKS, J. (2015). Demon in a Bottle and Feet of Clay — David Micheline and Bob Layton on Iron Man...

7. CHAMBLISS, J. C. (2015) War Machine — Blackness, Power and Identity in Iron Man...

8. ZANCO, J. (2015). From Armor Wars to Iron Man 2.0 — The Superhero Entrepreneur...

9. DAROWSKI, J. J. (2015). Cold Warrior at the End of the Cold War — John Byrne’s “War Games” in an Era of Transition...

...In: Darowski, J. J. (ed.). The Ages of Iron Man, Essays on the Armored Avenger in Changing Times. Jefferson: McFarland.

Others

10. BERGER, A. A. (1973). The Comic Stripped American. New York: Walker and Company.

11. COSTELLO, M. J. (2009). Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America. New York: Continuum. 

12. FELLMAN, P. (2009). Iron Man: America’s Cold War Champion and Charm against the Communist Menace. In: Journal of Popular Culture 40.6. 

13. GENTER, R. (2007). “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”: Cold War Culture and the Birth of Marvel Comics. In: Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review. vol. 1, no. 2. 

14. HODGSON, G. (1976). America In Our Time: From World War II to Nixon — What Happened and Why. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 

15. JOHNSON, J. K. (2012). Super-History: Comic Book Superheroes and American Society, 1938 to the Present. Jefferson: McFarland. 

16. LEE, S. (1975) Son of Origins of Marvel Comics. New York: Simon and Schuster.

17. WRIGHT, B. W. (2003). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

P.S.:

I was going to put this on the tags, but I got just far too big. This is a weird text to post in the middle of the Palestian genocide, by the hands of Israel and the United States. Even weirder so soon after the strikes in Lebanon. What motivated me to finally get on with editing it was actually Spencer Ackerman's newsletter about said strikes, more specifically this post on bluesky about it, but honestly I'd forgotten the essay ended in such an optimistic note.

It was also weird to first write it, anyway. I had basically the whole thing outlined when I was reminded that 9/11 happened. It honestly never impacted my life directly. I'm not from the USA, I'm not from the Middle East, I've never even met a muslim person irl. I've never felt the guilt I describe in the text. My country has been in exactly 2 (two) wars after WW2, both of which happened before I was born. My current president has always been an ally to Palestine, and has publicly called what's happening in Gaza a genocide. My main source of anger towards it isn't "my country is guilty in this, my tax money is funding this", it's "it doesn't matter how much my country opposes this, because there's only one country that can actually do something, that holds all the power, that acts as if they're the rulers of the entire fucking world, and they're not stopping it - they're funding it".

But anyway. Iron Man. When I first started writing this essay, back in 2020, it was all about how the writers' real-life struggle was turned into Tony's, and how this became so integral to the characters that it was turned into his origin story in the film. So I had two things to work with, the comics from the 60s-70s, and the film from 2008. I outlined this. And then there was a decades-long gap, and I went "well, I should probably have a section talking about what happened in between those, like retcons and such, just to bridge it". Then I remembered 9/11 happened. So now I had to write about 9/11. And, in my defense, the whole "War on Terror" thing really seemed to be in the outs (they left Afghanistan and Iraq the year after I wrote this!! I know I didn't really follow international politics back then, but I wasn't pulling it out of my ass either ok).

So, I apologise if this text sounds flippant and dismissing, especially towards the ending. It's from a different time - which was still bad, but when I genuinely had hopes things were getting better. To be honest, until earlier this year I still did.

In keeping with the analysis here, though, because - as I have to keep reminding myself - this post is about Iron Man, the 'Conclusion' section now has basically become a premise. If we're really living through a post-9/11 2.0, will future Iron Man comics reflect this? I would expect so, considering this is what the current writer was doing earlier this week:

And maybe this paragraph from his latest newsletter:

(I couldn't really tell if the "impact" he mentions is on the writing or the schedule)

So, if Spencer Ackerman does want to let those current events inspire his writing, and, maybe most importantly, if Marvel allows it, might we see the exact opposite from the post-9/11 comics? How different is the current opinion now from in 2001? Does it only seem so much more negative because I'm in a progressive bubble and/or wasn't really following international politics at 4 years old? Who knows. Plus, Marvel nowadays seems way more interested in pretending comics have nothing to do with real life politics (don't look at the military-funded cinematic universe behind the curtain), and they have the plausible deniability to act like the US isn't just as involved in what's going on right now as it was in the invasion of Afghanistan (and Iraq, and Yemen, and-

Anyway, I don't think I have anything more to say for now, at least not about Iron Man. Hope you enjoyed the essay. I'm not actually that knowledgable in politics (though I've been trying to fix this) and this was written from a media studies POV, so if you have any corrections to make (or just want to talk about the subject) feel free to reblog, reply, send an ask, make your own post and tag me, anything.

Don't forget your daily click. And, if you can, please donate.

[hdslibrary]

Bibliography with Bite

You can really see how deeply the metal type was pressed into the paper sheet (the "bite") in this page from a 17th century work of Hebrew bibliography by the Christian Hebraist, Giulio Bartolocci. The paper is very soft, so reading this book might have been an extra tactile experience.

Bartolocci, Giulio. Bibliotheca magna rabbinica de scriptoribus, & scriptis hebraicis, ordine alphabetico Hebraicè, & Latinè digestis … Romae: Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1675-1694.

[crashhole]

Eight Comics to Sooth a Savage Soul

From Primordial Warriors and Jungle Heroes to Woodland Wildmen and Mutant Berserkers, here are eight comics appeasing our animalistic, hunter/predator-fight or flight-lizard brains. Reminders that man is just an animal trapped in his own zoo

Lord of the Jungle (2022)

A compelling tale starring the og jungle hero, Tarzan! I picked this up on a whim and it became one of my most anticipated reads each month. The writing pulled me through each page as effortlessly as the gorgeous art swings Tarzan from tree to tree

Ka-Zar Lord Of The Savage Land (2021)

Ka-Zar is essentially Marvel’s answer to Tarzan. With animal based powers and a family to protect against the invasive technological metaphor for deforestation, fracking and industrial pollution, this is a really cool and gorgeous miniseries

All Against All (2022)

Pushing “Tarzan” even further into the realm of sci-fi than “Ka-Zar”, this story centers parental trauma around an alien war mining Earth’s creatures for biological weaponry. Ultra violent with hyper intense art enhancing the vibes

Sheena Queen of the Jungle: Fatal Exams (2023)

Sheena is back and is now attending prep school? I’m gonna be honest, not having read any previous “Sheena”, I’m not really sure why she’s there or how old she’s supposed to be, but the school drama is fun between her ecoterrorism!

Bloodrik (2023)

A hyborian hunter looking to eat! This is a 3 issue mini, with the finale issue set to drop next month. Minimalist storytelling sets the stage for phenomenal art with heavy metal overtones, while it’s unique page layouts are giving CLAMP on T

Kroma (2022)

This comic is very different from the others on this list, playing a sort of twist on the Giver crossed with elements of the Wickerman. An absolutely stunning story about propaganda, religious indoctrination, and a sacrificial scapegoat ready to bring it all down

Shirtless Bear-Fighter! (2017)

Are you ready to punch some bears!? Shirtless dedicated his life to protecting the forest, until something happened that turned him onto the war against bearrorism! A really cute comedy with a surprising amount of depth. Raunchy but fairly tame tbh

Wolverine (2020)

Of course I’m adding the most iconic wild man of our time to the list! The current run is a great place to start, especially when paired with X-Force (2020), but any entry in his bibliography is gonna be a wild, messy ride from start to finish.

Thanks for reading my list! Hopefully one of them peaked your interest enough to check out. Here are a few savagely honorable mentions that’re also definitely worth looking into:

Animal Man, Berserk, Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Sabretooth, Swamp Thing

What are some of y’all favorite wild man comics?

[all-the-things-2020]

Continuing the Way - Chapter Four

Summary: Mariana gets some unexpected news.

Rating: PG

Mariana’s desk was a mess. Three piles of books, six stacks of papers, two data pads in addition to her personal one, and her info terminal covered every inch of the table. With exams coming up, she was spending every spare moment studying while simultaneously working on the prep work for the bibliography project, and wrapping up the last bit of research she’d been working on for Professor Ti’lik. She had been getting home so late that the boys were fast asleep by the time she walked through the door, and she felt as though she hadn’t said more than three words to Din in the past week. She was exhausted, but she was so close to the end of term that she kept pushing, promising herself that she’d sleep during the break between terms.

Her data pad pinged at her and she shook her head. What now? She uncovered her pad from the detritus and peered blearily at the text. She groaned. It was a reminder that her appointment with the med clinic was in fifteen minutes. I don’t have time for this now, she thought, but she’d postponed it several times already and knew she really needed to get it done. She stared at the mess on her desk for a long moment before closing her terminal down.

“She stands!,” Ti’lik said in mock amazement. “She walks!”

Mariana shook her head. “Ha ha, very funny, Professor.” As she’d gotten to know Ti’lik better, she’d discovered that the professor had a dry sense of humor that she only revealed to those close to her. “I have an appointment at the med clinic. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Ti’lik nodded. “Good,” she said. “You’re overdue for it and you’ve been pushing yourself too much lately. I’ve told you, let my project slide for now, concentrate on your classes, and use the break to get the bibliography project started.” She tilted her horned head, giving Mariana a look she recognized as one she often gave her sons when they were being obstinate.

“I know, I know,” Mariana said. “Between you and my husband, I’ve heard it a thousand times. I just … I want to wrap up the work I’ve been doing on your project so when I do get back to it, I can start fresh on a new topic. And I have a meeting with Professor Dane next week to show him my plans for the bibliography project. I want to have a good grasp on the scope of things before I give him my report.”

“Oh, go on, you’ll be late for your appointment,” Ti’lik said, shaking her head. “You won’t listen to me or your husband; maybe the doctors can knock some sense into your head.”

Mariana rolled her eyes and headed across campus to the med clinic. It was in a small building behind the cafeteria; the joke amongst the students was that this was intentional because of the poor quality of the food. She checked in at the front desk and took a seat in the waiting area, pulling out her data pad to check for any new messages. There was one from the literature student she’d asked to help her on the bibliography project, saying he would be happy to join her team as soon as the next term started. She was halfway through drafting a response to him when a med droid called out her name.

She stashed the pad in her jacket pocket and followed the droid into an exam room. “Please change into the examination gown on the table and the doctor will be with you shortly,” the droid droned in a bored voice. It left the room and Mariana quickly stripped down and put on the flimsy gown that could have been made of either cloth or paper for all she could tell. The room was cold and the exam table was even colder, the protective paper covering doing nothing to insulate her from the metal beneath. 

As she sat on the table, her legs swinging lazily as they dangled over the edge, it dawned on her that this was the first time in weeks that she’d actually done nothing. She thought about retrieving her pad from her jacket on the other side of the room, but decided against it. The doctor would certainly take her vitals and if she sat quietly, her blood pressure and heart rate would be lower.

Minutes passed and she resisted the urge to check the time on her pad. It hasn’t been that long, she told herself, and you need a break anyway. Still, it was hard to sit there doing nothing when her to-do list was a parsec long. Finally, the door opened and the doctor came in. She was a tall, dark-skinned human with braids and knots in her hair that must have taken hours to achieve. Mariana self consciously ran a hand over her own sloppy single braid.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Djarin, I’m Doctor Korraay.” She extended her hand, which had neatly trimmed and polished nails. Mariana shook it, hoping her own chipped and bitten nails weren’t completely obvious.

“Good afternoon, doctor,” she replied. “And it’s Mrs.”

Korraay nodded, glancing down at the small data pad in her hand. “So you’re here for a routine checkup. Is there anything bothering you that we should pay closer attention to?”

“No,” Mariana said. “I’ve been feeling fine. A little tired and stressed, but between work and school and my family, that’s to be expected.” She laughed, but knew it sounded strained even as it left her mouth. She just wanted to get this over with and get back to work.

Dr. Korraay nodded again, a small smile on her face. “Undoubtedly. I’ll take some blood samples and put those in the analyzer so it can work on them while I do the physical exam.” She drew a few vials of blood from Mariana’s arm, then patted her gently. She dropped the vials into a sleek white machine against the wall, which began to whir and click.

The exam was thorough but Dr. Korraay was quiet and careful, so nothing felt too invasive. When she was done, she tapped a few notes into her data pad and then looked up. “Anything else we can help you with while you’re here?,” she said.

“Um, I’ll need my contraceptive implant replaced soon,” Mariana said. “It should be due in a month or two, I think.”

Korraay nodded and checked her pad. She frowned. “Actually … it was due for replacement almost five months ago,” she said.

“What? No, that can’t be right,” Mariana said. “I got it put in during the spring before we came here ….” Her stomach dropped. “Oh, kriff, that was on Thantos Prime. It was springtime there, but it was still winter here on Chandrilla … how could I be so stupid?”

“Changing planets messes everyone up,” Dr. Korraay said. “And you said yourself you’ve been busy.”

“Well, can I get it replaced today?” Mariana asked. Her mind was already racing, trying to calculate how many times she and Din had been intimate over the last five months …

Korraay consulted her pad. “I’m afraid not,” she said.

“Okay, then when?” Her schedule was slammed right now but she’d definitely make time to get the implant replaced.

Korraay smiled. “There’s really no point right now,” she said gently. “You’re already pregnant, Mrs. Djarin.”

“No, no, no … I can’t be, not now,” Mariana knew she was babbling but she couldn’t help it. “We were going to wait until I finished my degree before we tried for another baby … I don’t have time … I can’t do this right now.”

Korraay slid her arm around Mariana’s shoulders. “Take a deep breath,” she said quietly. “And another. You’re fine.” When Mariana had stopped gasping and was able to focus, she went on. “I know it’s unexpected, and I know you feel like the timing isn’t right, but the fact is, this is happening.” She consulted her pad again. “You’ve already had one successful, uneventful pregnancy. You’ll be fine.”

She helped Mariana lie down on the exam table. “Just rest there for a moment and I’ll do a couple of quick scans to check on the baby. Find out how far along you are, see how things are progressing.”

As Korraay prepared her equipment, Mariana closed her eyes. She wanted another baby, and so did Din. A year from now, she’d have been overjoyed to get this news. Right now, though, she wanted to cry. It was all too much.

The scanner was cold as Korraay ran it over her lower abdomen and Mariana tried not to flinch. “Looks good,” the doctor said as she gently closed the examination robe. “I’d say you’re about two months along.” She helped Mariana sit up and gave her a quick hug. “You’re going to be just fine. Now, I’ll leave you alone to get dressed and then the med droid will see you out.”

Mariana put her clothes on, her hands shaking as she fastened up the buttons. She hardly heard the droid come in and jumped when it said, “If you’ll follow me ….”

Soon she was outside the clinic, blinking in the late afternoon light. It felt like hours should have gone by, as if it should be a completely different day, but it had been less than an hour since she’d left Professor Ti’lik’s office. She walked slowly back across campus. Originally, she’d planned to get back to work on Ti’lik’s project, finish up some details on the bibliography project plans, and then study for her Galactic Cultures of the Old Republic final. Now her mind was a blank, save for one thought. We’re having another baby.

She reached the office and found it empty, for which she was thankful. Ti’lik taught a seminar class that lasted three hours on that afternoon and she usually went straight home afterward. Mariana would have the office to herself for as long as she needed it. She sat and stared at her desk for a good fifteen minutes or more. So much work to do and all she could do was sit and try to process the news. She’d managed to take distance classes while pregnant with Cabur, but only two classes at a time, and she hadn’t been working, just taking care of Ad’ika and the apartment. Now she was a full time student, working on two major research projects and even though Din was taking care of the boys and everything else, she was already stretched to the limit. A new baby was definitely going to force her to make some tough choices.

She knew Din would insist that her studies had priority over everything except the family, but she loved her job and how could she give it up? Besides, if she stopped working, they would lose their employee subsidized housing, healthcare access, and all the other benefits that came with working for the university, especially free tuition. Even if Din could find a job quickly, it would never pay enough to keep them in a decent apartment here on Chandrilla and pay her tuition. There was no way she could quit her job.

That meant she’d have to stop taking classes until after the baby was born, which meant her degree would be that much further in the future. By the time she finished up, Professor Ti’lik would be retired and if Professor Dane didn’t take over as department chair, her chances of an adjunct position dropped exponentially. 

No matter what, she was going to have to give up something, and for the first time in her life she finally had everything she’d ever wanted: a degree within her reach, a job she loved, and a family. And now it was falling apart in front of her eyes. She laid her head on the table and let the tears come. Better to cry herself out now before she broke the news to Din. With her head cleared after a good cry, she might be in a better headspace to discuss it with him.

[henrysgeekymind]

An OBJECTIVE review of Celeste

For this next video, I have decided to meet the demands of Gamers™ everywhere and write a 100% objective review of the 2018 video game Celeste. Yep, definitely nothing that isn't objective in this video, no sir. Watch to find out whether I give this game a good, perfect, or the worst rating a video game could receive: 6.5/10.

Ok but in all seriousness, this video is my attempt at using the format of a review to act as a sort of memoir, similar to works like The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green or "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" by Jamil Jan Kochai. Definitely one of the more personal pieces of writing that I have done in recent memory, but I am overall pretty proud of it, even though I feel pretty certain that this thing is gonna get less view than my other stuff. With that said, I hope you end up enjoying this and perhaps let me know what you think of this format because I can see myself doing this with a number of other works out there.

Bibliography

“Definition of AVIOPHOBIA.” Merriam Webster Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Co., www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aviophobia#:~:text=Definition%20of%20aviophobia. Grayson, Nathan. “Celeste Taught Fans and Its Own Creator to Take Better Care of Themselves.” Kotaku, G/O Media, 16 Apr. 2018, kotaku.com/celeste-taught-fans-and-its-own-creator-to-take-better-1825305692. Paquet , Ryan, and Lena Raine. “INTERVIEW: Composer Lena Raine Talks Celeste Soundtrack & Working in Game Audio.” Original Sound Version, 5 Feb. 2018, www.originalsoundversion.com/interview-composer-lena-raine-talks-celeste-soundtrack-working-in-game-audio/. Reber, Paul. “What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?” Scientific American Mind, vol. 21, no. 2, May 2010, pp. 70–70, https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamericanmind0510-70.

[rhianna]

A HISTORY OF PLAYING CARDS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY The history of playing cards is not only the record of the persistence of a fifteenth-century craft, practically unchanged in its essential aspects, but the story of the universal trait of human nature, the allure of chance,- which is as characteristic of the Far East as it is of our own country, and was as alive thousands of years ago as it is to-day. And for its gratification throughout the centuries it has employed the artists and craftsmen of all lands and times — painters, and makers of missals and beautifully illumi- nated manuscript, workers in wood block and engravers of metal and stone and finally the printer and his press; so that its story embodies the romance of all of these, and makes them intimate and understandable things which bring the old past very, very near. Just how far back into the past the history of playing cards goes, no one can say with certainty. But we are indebted to Mr. Stewart Culin, Direc- tor of the Brooklyn Museum, for the most interesting researches on this subject. He believes that both chess and cards are derived from the divina- : tory use of the arrow, and that they represent the two principal methods of arrow divination. The basis of the divinatory systems from which games have arisen is the classification of all things according to the Four Direc- tions. This method is universal among all primitive peoples in Asia and America. In order to classify objects and events which did not in them- selves reveal their proper assignment, resort was had to magic. Our present games are the survivals of these magical processes. The identity of the games of Asia and America may be explained because of their common object and the identity of the mythic concepts underlying them which appear to be universal. As an example, we may take the national game of Korea, called Nyout, which is played by moving objects used as men, around a circle, according to throws made with sticks about eight inches long, used as dice. On the fifteenth day of the first month, this game is still used for divination. Early in this month, a small book is sold in the markets of Seoul, 'Correct Planet Rule, which carefully explains the meaning of all combinations of numbers thrown, in Chinese characters and Korean text. The names

Hargrave, C. Perry., U.S. Playing Card Co. (1930). A history of playing cards and a bibliography of cards and gaming.Boston: Houghton Mifflin company.

[ghnosis]

would like to publicly thank @slavghoul today, your translations are quite literally invaluable to my work although I did have to ask not one but two librarians how to cite you

image ID: a screenshot of the bibliography of my dissertation prospectus. four citations appear:

SAVIGNY, Heather and SLEIGHT, Sam. 2015. ‘Postfeminism and heavy metal in the United Kingdom: Sexy or sexist?’ Metal Music Studies. 1(3), 341-357. 

SHADRACK, Jasmine Hazel. 2021. Black Metal, Trauma, Subjectivity and Sound : Screaming the Abyss. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2019. ‘Tobias on being the sexy face of Satanism.’ Translated from CZARTORYSKI, Bartosz. 2019. ‘Seksowne oblicze satanizmu. Rozmawiamy z liderem zespołu Ghost.’ Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/189496141322/tobias-on-being-the-sexy-face-of-satanism [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

SLAVGHOUL. 2020. Into the Fog. Translated from LAGERGREN, Richard. 2010. ‘In I Dinman’. Sweden Rock Magazine. 76. Available at: https://slavghoul.tumblr.com/post/619019726477213697/heres-an-interview-with-papa-from-2010-that-i [accessed 29 May 2024]. 

[kankhajurabai]

AFSP advanced - Jack Kelly

“A non-profit organization is an entity that is created and operated for a charitable or socially beneficial purpose rather than to make a profit.” (Kenton, 2024). The goal for this organization should be to promote its cause while also receiving support through donations to grow and offer more help. I chose to analyze the Americans for Suicide Preventions’ Social Media accounts’ metrics to see if I can find any weaknesses or strong points that they could benefit from.

Vanity metrics are basic ways to see how much interaction and activity that a page has with its followers. These include things such as likes, comments, and shares, where you see the interaction taking place but do not have any more data from it.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has a Facebook page with 598 thousand followers, but averages below 50 likes, comments, and reactions per post. This is commonly seen with large organization’s accounts as many people will follow something they recognize with or a general topic that can be supported but do not care to engage with the content. The potential to reach large audiences is not farfetched, but AFSP would have to investigate doing more video interviews with people who tell a personal story. This could be about themselves, or a loved one who has struggled with metal health. These types of post get the most interactions and lead to their followers finding a personal connection with the person in the video. There is also an abundance of the same post “Walk with Us”. While this is a major part of where AFSP gets their donations, I would recommend posting the flyer in different colors, or with images of the location of the walk that will be taking place.

AFSP’s Instagram has seen more interaction with their posts than any other social media. This is because the younger generations have been struggling with mental health and suicide related thoughts or actions. Since 2011 the suicide rate in young adults has increased 39% (Panchal, 2023). And with Instagram having 30.8% of its users between the ages of 18 and 24, AFSP’s followers are more likely to be able to relate to the content being posted which intern leads to more interaction with the posts and more donations.

I think that AFSP could generate more awareness and interactions if they created a playlist that was specific to a person’s struggles. Making a playlist of different stories would be a good spot for someone who is feeling the same way to receive the help they need or the donations to help another. Trying to find the different posts that are relevant to a user can be a turn off and make the user bored. The goal should be to post content in a way that is easy to find while also being able to increase click rates and awareness.

Bibliography

Panchal, H. S. (2023, 08 04). A Look at the Latest Suicide Data and Change Over the Last Decade. Retrieved from KFF: https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/a-look-at-the-latest-suicide-data-and-change-over-the-last-decade/

 Kenton, W. (2024, March 03). Nonprofit Organization (NPO): Definition and Example. Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/non-profitorganization.asp

[zhaojinduo]

W9-Making-Sculpting

In addition to that, this week I also completed the high-poly model. Thanks to the brushes I found on ArtStation, I was able to add scratches, stains, and dents to the model with surprising efficiency.

Finally, using the 4K normal maps baked in ZBrush, I successfully baked the other maps in Substance Painter.

And some Texture test

Bibliography:

Silkin, V. (n.d.) Easy Metal Surface Brushes Pack. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/VnOj/easy-metal-surface-brushes-pack (Accessed: 14 August 2024).

[theodorobrejafmp]

FMP - Necromancer Scythe Update

For the weapon, I want to create a scythe that would suit the style of the necromancer. While generating the design with MidJourney, I focused on trying to achieve a combination of metal and organic, as I want the weapon to be a living thing, up to a certain degree.

Fig.1 Scythe Generated Concept

Taking the inspiration from one of the images I generated, I thought it would be an awesome idea that the scythe would have a demon soul trapped inside, showcased through the centred eye. In addition, the scythe would have flesh and muscle elements, to amplify that leaving organic weapon.

I started modeling the base shape of the scythe in Maya, using the generated images as reference.

Fig.2 Base Model in Maya

After having the base mesh done, I imported the model in ZBrush where I stared adding elements and sculpting all the details of muscles, flesh and the eye. To match it better with the outfit of the necromancer, I also added cloth wraps along some places of the staff and on top of the blade as a decorative element and to show the deteriorating state.

Fig.3 High Poly Sculpt Front and Back

I focused on sculpting the detailed fibres of the muscles and the flesh for a more realistic look. The effect will be enhanced when I will start working on the textures. In the end, I have also decided to add spike bones to add variation and elements of the body.

Fig.4 Sculpt Details

Bibliography:

Fig.1: (No date a) Midjourney.com. Available at: https://www.midjourney.com/home

[zoewilkinson]

Environment Research

09/04/2024

(ActionAdventureTwins, 2022)

I looked into a lot of YouTube videos to start getting some inspiration for an underground base environment and came across this channel.

In this video, these two friends are exploring an abandoned pool room at a nuclear laboratory (which actually feels similar to our group idea!). I'm personally not focusing on any of the water here because that's not something we talked about including in our environment, but instead at the textures in the pipework and the ceilings.

I like the way the building looks overall, with pipes and metal everywhere that now have some amazing rust from degradation over the years. The narrow tunnels are also incredibly unsettling, which would be great for a turnaround show to see the monster character.

Bibliography

ActionAdventureTwins, 2022. Poolrooms The Nuclear Laboratory. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dsnOyq54A&ab_channel=ActionAdventureTwins [Accessed 9 April 2024].