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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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Genuinely curious as to if you asked permission to use Rachel’s characters and she said yes or if you just decided Lore Olympus is popular enough to make a fan comic of and are hoping you don’t receive a cease and desist? Can anyone create a remake comic of original content and just change what you don’t like about it and it’s considered legal if you say the characters belong to the original creator? There is plenty of disappointing media out there that could be remade. I understand you cannot use their characters for profit so is just posting it ok?

Yes, anyone can, because it's called fanfiction lmao Obviously in my case the term "fan" is being used loosely here as at this point it's more like "foe"fiction LMAO but the same principles apply. Unless I try to claim LO is my own creation or make a profit off Rekindled, I should be in the clear. If legal action was taken against me then it would set a precedent against all forms of fanfiction, rewrite, redraw, etc. content around LO which are all essentially doing the same thing Rekindled is doing. I think people tend to view Rekindled as somewhat of an "exception" that's vulnerable to legal action because it's an actual weekly comic put into practice in the same playing field as LO (though they're on massively different bases obviously LOL), but there's not much more separating it from the LO redraw accounts or even the genuine fan accounts that have learned how to draw in Rachel's style (and use it to make their own LO self-inserts and whatnot). I had the time and resources and experience to do what I do through Rekindled, but every redraw, rewrite, fanfiction, etc. account are making the exact same statement I am, whether intentionally or not - "I do/don't like the canon, but/so here's what I think it would be like if it went like this".

There is definitely plenty of media out there that could be remade, and a lot of them are by the fanfiction writers out there who are filling that niche within their respective fandoms. LO is the one I want to do because it's the one that interests me and compels me the most to rewrite.

Not to mention, it's already a bold statement in and of itself to say that I'm "using Rachel's characters", a statement that likely wouldn't hold up in court LMAO Her "characters" are literally just stylized self-insert versions of public domain figures. She did not write The Hymn to Demeter. She did not create Hades, or Persephone, or Hecate, or any of the other characters she writes about. She does not own an entire religion or its deities. The only thing that she really "owns" is the licensing rights to the name "Lore Olympus", and while the style of LO is very unique and identifiable, you can't trademark/copyright a style because that uproots the entire foundation of what art is (ironically no one has had an original idea SINCE the Greeks, we all just learn and adapt our styles based on other artists that we get inspired by and learn from).

Shit, there are series completely unrelated to LO that get harassed or otherwise warned that they could cross into "legal territory" with LO just because they're Greek myth comics. Punderworld, Theia Mania, H x P Ficlets, all of these are comics that also tackle the H x P myth, and while they aren't attempting to do the same thing as Rekindled (as they exist on their own terms) it's really disappointing when I see people talk about these comics purely through the scope of Lore Olympus as if LO invented Greek myth. If WT/Rachel tried to pull rank over the story's "characters", they'd be picking a fight with every other Greek myth comic, book, movie, etc. and they oughta know that's not a fight they're gonna win lol

So everything beyond LO's branding is, in and of itself, fanfiction. Rekindled is just another level deeper by being fanfiction of a fanfiction. As long as I'm not profiting off Lore Olympus' namesake or distributing my work with the misconception that I created LO, it's legally fine. Morally, I'm sure it doesn't exactly make me a saint to do it, it definitely took a lot of hubris for me to say "yeah I don't like how you wrote your story enough that I felt the need to rewrite it completely" and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking doing so is icky. There are certain lines I won't cross - I don't use the general LO hashtags because my content is very critical and my work isn't really for the fans, I don't encourage anyone to "show Rachel" what I do here because none of what I do here is obligated to be seen by her (and I know it wouldn't be in her best interest to see it anyways, she's literally said that she doesn't like criticism so why tf would I wanna show her a comic that exists to criticize her work lol), and I'm not planning on posting it to Webtoons because that's Rachel's territory. I don't want to overstep both in the legal sense and in the moral one. I think it's more than enough for me to just post my stuff here for the people who are seeking it, and not profit off it or directly affiliate it with LO/Rachel beyond crediting.

All that said, in a moral and legal sense, what I'm doing is literally the basis of fanfiction, and I wouldn't be going to such lengths and spending this much time every week putting out episodes every week if I never cared about LO and how it made us all feel, even if some of us don't love it as much as we used to.

#also just as some food for thought and because i couldn't find a place to fit it in the post #sonic mania ended up being one of the best games in the sonic franchise in over a decade and it was made by a sonic fangame dev #a lot of shakespeare's most beloved plays were also 'stolen' from other works #and don't get me started on the screenwriting industry #many of the books they adapt into film are completely rewritten from weaker source material or material that just won't work in movie form #obviously sometimes it's for worse and not better #but rewriting works you're dissatisfied with is an age old tradition IMO #fifty shades of grey exists and it was literally twilight fanfiction when it started LMAO #innovation is found in fandoms #i could just be haphazardly defending myself tho LOL maybe i'm just an asshole #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything #lore rekindled #lore rekindled comic #lore rekindled ama

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silverwhittlingknife · 2 years ago

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red and blue

Sheer awesomeness by Dexter Soy!

https://instagram.com/deathstar_soy?utm_medium=copy_link

#!!!#dexter soy #fanart #actually by a comic book artist but like. spiritually it is fanart #thank you artist you are a treasure among us #dick & tim #dick grayson #tim drake #my comic art but we are using the term ''art'' loosely #since it's just dexter soy's art but color filtered with a night sky background

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paperboy-pb · 1 year ago

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"Willful Ignorance" [Life Story]

[Written in August, 2023]

A parent reminded me why I make PB the other night.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a very young creator. 20 in October. And I had one of my co-writers for a different comic ("Weirder Than Usual") over at my place for the weekend. And being the youngest of a hispanic family, my parents have no plans to let me move out anytime soon. When I do leave, it will likely be without their blessing.

I let one parent drive my co-writer back home for the night. I knew I wouldn't be much fun to have in the car that late (I fall asleep pretty early,) and that we wouldn't be free to discuss creative affairs with that parent there, anyway.

I don't like to be myself with this parent around. We are distant. And I keep that distance for a reason.

And despite my absence, this parent reminded me why. Because guess what my cowriter texted me not too long after!

Some hours later, I can't help but think to myself... it's so funny how she stresses my late speech so much. Because now that it's here, it's as if my words don't matter at all.

I will admit my family doesn't know everything that our Special Ed program put me & other children through. But I will ALSO say that that's their own fault. Because as I grew up, I used to tell them every awful thing that I found important. And it was their lack of response that made me stop.

The driver of that car is clueless. She's "forgotten" about the violence that surrounded me in there. Desks crashing to the ground after an adult's angriest shove. Sweaters stretched out and destroyed from middle school fights that nobody broke up.

She's "forgotten" about every time I told her that we weren't learning what we needed to know, insisting that every class must've been doing 3rd grade worksheets in 7th if we were.

She's "forgotten" her 11-year-old asking if he was on the spectrum; how she put on the confused performance of a lifetime as she told me no. But miraculously, she remembers sitting somewhere in the spring of 2005, being told so by professionals.

And she "doesn't remember" us yelling on the phone in 2022. How I spent 80 dollars on an Uber just so we wouldn't share state grounds. And how I screamed for the millionth time, in no uncertain terms, "I AM NOT MAD AT YOU FOR PUTTING ME IN A PROGRAM THAT PROMISED US HELP. You believed them! I know you believed them, they promised you I'd be okay! The problem is that THEY BROKE THAT PROMISE! And every time they did, you just looked the other way!"

Whether she is or isn't being truthful doesn't matter. It's bad on her either way.

Because I know she remembers my dentist reporting bruxism to her when I still had loose teeth. How they would ask her about my environment, or if she knew whether or not anything was stressing me out. And that she chose to question nothing as it continued nightly into my teens. Damaging my adult teeth and concerning all who would sleep in the same room as me. They could hear me all the time. Sometimes my sister would even wake me up.

I know she remembers marking her little one's height against the wall, and seeing the space under his eyes grow darker and darker across the 6th grade.

I know she remembers making leave Autism themed group chats, because to her, my name & that word should never be in the same sentence.

I know she remembers going through his journals and sketchbooks, finding concept art for our Matthew B. And how just one look was enough to make her enroll me to therapy when I was 13.

And she knows that I remember how she hates that boy. Matthew Boston, I mean. And at least one part of her hates everything that he is; disabled, creative, expressive, and headstrong.

I know because she hates those traits in me as well.

Since I spend a lot of time in disability spaces, I try not to assume somebody isn't trying to understand. Comprehension doesn't come easy to everyone. And I especially suspect that she's neurodivergent as well.

But I've tried everything with this one, and I'm truly at the end of my rope. I've tried visuals. I've tried keeping it short and sweet and simple. I've tried having complex and mature conversations where I don't skip a single detail.

I've even tried therapy with her in the room.

Nothing works. And unless this is the convenient work of an undiagnosed memory condition, there's no reason for that.

My Autistic voice matters so little to her that she insists on prying information out of my friends when I'm not in the room; asking the allistic all these questions I've answered myself one thousand times.

She doesn't want to understand. She doesn't want to question her own ableism. Or work past it. And that's why I don't show her "PAPERBOY" at all, and likely won't until years and years from now.

Because PAPERBOY is for the people who do understand. For people who do understand, and everyone who wants to.

#paperboy pb #disability #ableism tw #tw ableism #tw ableist language #emotional abuse #disabled writer #actually autistic #special education #paperboy

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samobservessonic · 5 months ago

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While uncredited, this story was also written by Kitching, though the art came from an artist called Bojan Djukic, according to the wiki. There wasn’t a page for Djukic on the wiki and my search results came back with a footballer who’s probably not the same person, but I think this is the only issue they do art for. At least, I don’t recognise the style from elsewhere

I also believe this is the first mention of Metropolis Zone, which goes on to be a staple location in StC and houses Metropolis City. It’s Robotnik’s main hub right now, but also includes locations like the Groovy Train. It’s basically the big city. You’ve gotta have one. I don’t remember it looking so… sci-fi, but it’s a big place, there’s room for a little sci-fi out the back

We’re now seeing the drawbacks of just anyone knowing about the Floating Island. Because as well as the Marxio Bros setting up camp there, you’ve got this guy, called Smirch, stealing the Purple Chaos Emerald. Why he only grabbed one of them, I don’t know. Maybe it was too risky to stick around for the jackpot?

Sonic, my guy. I know your heart is in the right place. I know you’re eager to impress your rival and crush Knuckles by getting back this emerald for him, but I think the guy wearing the green cape with the prominent knuckle fists had this under control

I was about to say that this bird man’s power is poisonous gas, but it looks like he’s just throwing it. And we once again see that the first thing on Sonic’s mind is helping the civilians. StC Sonic might be kind of a jerk to his friends, but taking care of the civilians is always high up his priority list

Yeah, what do you know about the emerald theft, not-Knuckles??

…Wow, looks like not-Knuckles was actually Knuckles! And he’s less than enthused about Sonic getting in his way, but Sonic’s still eager to help. He’s come prepared with a tracking device from Porker Lewis. Hey Knuckles, that Porker Lewis guy sounds handy, maybe he should come live with you at some point in the future? Just sayin’

Sonic’s smile on the second panel really gets me. He needs this banter in his life

Too eager to impress, Sonic once again spoils a trap that Knuckles sets for Smirch. I’m amused to see the term “nutter” crop up in StC as well. That’s like something my dad would say lol

The scans I’m using crop off a bit of the dialogue, but you get the gist of it. Sonic & Knuckles are distracted by their bickering and Smirch gets away

Damn Sonic, that was a low blow

Sonic tries to win this back by presenting Knuckles with the emerald, but Knuckles remains unimpressed

The story ends with Smirch getting away, but they got the emerald back, so that’s what matters. Since I was on the wiki to get the writer and artist credits anyway, I saw that this is Smirch’s only appearance. Imagine the bad luck of not only being a oneshot character, but being a oneshot character in a spin-off comic that most people probably won’t read

Anyway, this story was great! I already love the dynamic that Kitching’s made for Sonic & Knuckles in these early stories. They’re rivals, but Sonic also seems eager to impress Knuckles at the same time. He’s still a jerk to Knuckles like he is with a lot of his other friends, but Knuckles can fight him back on his own level and it feels like this gives both of them a chance to let loose? I’d obviously recommend this issue to SonKnux shippers, since it’s literally just a comic about the two of them fighting a villain of the week while bickering with each other

#sam observes sonic #sonic the comic #sonic the poster mag 8 #sonic the hedgehog #knuckles the echidna

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grandhotelabyss · 1 year ago

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Any thoughts on the whole "fandom" phenomena?

It's a big topic. I usually defer to my pal Katherine Dee and her collaborators on the subject. It's not that I'm not capable of seeing what's true in the idea and the practice. I have tried to do it justice. I also understand it as a quasi-inevitable feature of mass media, staring with print media, ever since all the sad young literary men started shooting themselves in imitation of Young Werther. Fandom in a loose sense is also just a way of describing the process of modern culture in general, as we all are recruited when young via mass media into one or another aesthetic habitus (lifestyles, subcultures) that will shape the whole course of our lives, from how we dress to who we love to where we live. But fandom in the stricter sense—and, as a writer, I am mainly thinking about fan fiction, fan art, etc.—seems to me a mistake in the end, a way of trapping yourself at an early stage of imagination. I think I was 12 the last time I wrote anything that could now be called fanfiction,[*] whereas some now write it well into middle age. And maybe I should leave them to their entertainment, if that's all they want. But to anyone who wants anything more, I would say this: culture should be an imaginative relay. Handed a world of art, and sparked by it, you should construct your own in turn, and on your own terms, and not live in someone else's; you should make your own variations on the archetypes rather than adopting anyone else's. We were talking about Harold Bloom last post: the motive to write fan fiction is the same as the motive that Bloom analyzes in the tradition of Romantic poetry, where each poet strives to supplant and complete his precursor. But to use the same exact characters, the same exact imaginative world, as your precursor, especially if your precursor is a shallow entertainment product designed by committee rather than the more intricate product of a distinct psyche—this seems like a good way not to achieve Bloom's desired effect of strong poetry: a lie against time, an increase of life.

______________________________

[*] It was my version of a quintessentially Dark Age Batman comic with the following story. Superman, it transpires, has been driven mad, bereft of his Kansan innocence, by his pursuit of a brutal child murder. The Man of Steel's disequilibrium throws Lois Lane, who has chased a hot story to Gotham City, into the arms of one Bruce Wayne. (I still remember writing the scene of their slow dance at the Wayne Enterprises winter ball or whatever, the way they each mutually come to see someone they'd met before but never thought much of in the sudden light of eros and of care.) The whole narrative culminates in a Batman vs. Superman fight I sadistically intended to be more brutal than the one that concludes Dark Knight Returns; I believe Superman ends up impaled on the spire of a Gotham cathedral. Poison Ivy also came into somehow, but I don't remember the details there, and I never finished writing it. Anyway, by the next year, I was creating my own characters, as described here.

#fandom

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daydreamerdrew · 2 years ago

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Marvel Team-Up (1972) Annual #2 and Marvel Treasury Edition (1974) #25

Both of these issues were stand-alone Hulk and Spider-Man team-up stories. The Marvel Team-Up issue was published in September 1979 and was written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Sal Buscema and Alan Kupperberg, and inked by Jack Abel. The Marvel Treasury Edition issue was published in December 1979 and was plotted by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, and Bill Mantlo, scripted by just Bill Mantlo, penciled by Herb Trimpe, and inked by Bruce Patterson.

I thought that both of these issues had a great Hulk voice and entertaining interactions between the Hulk and Spider-Man, who I think is the best character for the Hulk to be paired with in a team-up because they play off of each other so well.

The Marvel Team-Up issue also had a good amount of Bruce in it because it focused on nuclear bombs, which is a topic he's actually well-suited for as a character but one I haven't seen him used that much for since the 60s. He has been used in stories intended to tell readers important messages about other topics, but that always falls kind of flat for me because it feels disjointed as he's not really a 'person' whose opinion I'd value on other topics; it's not like Bruce really has his life together. In this story Bruce gets kidnapped for assistance in stopping a nuclear bomb threat to the United States, and he at first tells the man "If you're trying to kidnap me for the atomic secrets inside my head, you've bitten off more than you can chew," which I thought was interesting as I hadn't thought about someone attempting that before. Back in the early 60s, when Bruce still had his job as a civilian scientist specializing in gamma radiation in the U.S. military, it was common for his strange unexplainable disappearances from transforming into the Hulk to be taken as evidence that he was secretly a spy for a foreign power. Now he's well-known that that's not what was happening, but I could see him being loose as a fugitive from the government being thought of as a security risk, the Hulk notwithstanding.

At the conclusion of the story, Bruce talks about the usage of nuclear bombs as "the death of everything. The horror every nuclear weapons physicist has lived with since the first a-bomb test at Alamogordo… the horror which cost Bruce Banner his humanity." Bruce, of course, was transformed into the Hulk during the testing of a nuclear bomb he designed. I think it would be interesting to explore his changing perspective on his work with the military over time, as he presumably was more positive about nuclear bombs when he was actively working on them, and he actually kept his job after the accident and only fully left it when him being the Hulk was revealed. Even so, despite his fugitive criminal status he's had some friendly interactions with the military over the years. This story ends him questioning whether or not we have the courage to "rise up and say 'no more bombs'" and "learn to live in peace with one another."

Iron Man (1968) #12-14 and Captain Marvel (1968) #14

In this batch of solo Iron Man comics I went from January 1969 to March 1969. I also read that Captain Marvel issue- which was written by Gary Friedrich, penciled by Frank Springer, and inked by Vince Colletta- because it was mentioned explicitly in the endnote of Iron Man #14. Issues #12-14 of Iron Man were written by Archie Goodwin. Issues #12 and #13 were penciled by George Tuska and inked by Johnny Craig, and then issue #14 was both penciled and inked by Johnny Craig as a one issue stand-in for George Tuska. I haven’t had any complaints about George Tuska’s work so far, but I really liked the art in that one issue drawn entirely by Johnny Craig and I definitely would have enjoyed him penciling more issues of the book.

Tony and Janice's relationship in this batch of issues went from them seeing each other and being on positive terms to Tony questioning whether or not it was right for him to date when his emotions for her could effect his decision-making as Iron Man and when he could die at any time due to his weak heart and then ultimately deciding that, while he really wants to be with her, he can't. It's probably worth noting that Janice risked her life for Tony's sake back in issue #11. Something had to happen as Janice had been portrayed as this perfect girl that was always understanding and forgave Tony when his Iron Man responsibilities made him look bad (but not before we got to see Tony freaking out about it, of course) and that couldn't just go on in circles forever without getting boring. But I'm thinking (and hoping) that she won't be written out of the story completely since her company had been referred to as a competitor of Tony's and she could still appear in the book with that reasoning but as someone who Tony has uniquely conflicted feelings about. Though it's also worth noting how in the Captain Marvel issue, which took place right after the end of Iron Man #14 and so right after Tony's "How I long to take her in my arms, confide in her- tell her everything about me! And yet, I can't!" internal monologue, Tony was doing his playboy flirting with a random woman.

Iron Man gets mind-controlled to fight Captain Marvel in the Captain Marvel issue, a problem that is solved by Tony just having a heart attack in the middle of the fight and Captain Marvel telling the soldiers he'd been having a stand-off with before Iron Man arrived to get him to a hospital rather than continuing on. Tony wakes up in the ambulance and it was very amusing to me how he handled the situation by pretending that his very real heart attack was just him faking a medical emergency to get out of the fight because Captain Marvel was too tough for him.

The Avengers (1963) #1-5 and #1.5 (published in September 1999) and Fantastic Four (1961) #25-26

Within the original Avengers issues, all of which were written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby, I went from from July 1963 to March 1934. Issue #1 was inked by Dick Ayers, issues #2-3 and #5 by Paul Reinman, and issue #4 was inked by George Roussos. The #1.5 issue of The Avengers was published in September 1999 and was written by Roger Stern and penciled and inked by Bruce Timm. And the two issues of Fantastic Four were also written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby and both were inked by George Roussos.

This batch of issues was just me rereading what of the Avengers I'd already read back at the beginning of my Hulk readthrough before I continue on with them for the sake of my Iron Man readthrough. I'm in 1969 with Iron Man right now but have only been reading through his solo comics and not all of his appearances in order, and I've reached the point where it's actually really uncomfortable for me to not be getting the full context of his portrayal and characterization and relationships. I had decided to just stick with his solo comics when I first began with Iron Man because I wasn't as invested in him as I was with the Hulk and because I hadn't enjoyed these issues that much when I first read them. But I was really not that into Iron Man's solo comics when I first started them and then found how they evolved to be really compelling, so I'm hoping that these Avengers comics will also evolve into something more appealing to me, even though I'm not ordinarily into team books.

In this batch of issues it was the Hulk that had the most compelling portrayal, and behind him Captain America, and then Rick Jones. It might end up being the case that I get interested in Captain America too and/or uncomfortable reading through these issues and not getting the full context of his character, so this could spark me beginning reading through all of Captain America's appearances too. It'll also be good to be seeing the Rick Jones appearances that I missed because they were when he wasn't with the Hulk, though I don't think I'm interested in reading his appearances with Captain Marvel in the late 60s just yet, so I would at the very least stop there with him when that comes up.

DC Comics:

The New Champion of Shazam! (2022) #4

This issue, which was published in January 2023, was the final issue of a 4-issue miniseries that was entirely written by Josie Campbell and drawn by Doc Shaner. My feelings about this series are overall very positive, though I’ll say that this final issue didn’t quite stick the landing for me because the final big villain confrontation was a bit unsatisfying and, more importantly, the end of the series was a tie-in to an event, rather than a proper conclusion to this story. It’s not that this issue didn’t work as a conclusion to the series at all, but I think that the first issue (and, to an extent, the marketing before it) built up Mary’s away-at-college experience and then never delivered on that front. For example, aside from the cover of the second issue, Mary’s college roommates that she meets in the first issue are never seen or mentioned again. I would have liked to have seen Mary heading back to Vassar or at least making tangible plans to. I want to see this story that this book put in my head and made me want in the first place.

the Shazam Family story in Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods (2023) #1

This story, from an anthology one-shot that was published in January 2023, was written by Josie Campbell and drawn by Caitlin Yarksy. I was honestly not very happy with this story. The positive characterization of Billy didn't make an impact on me because I have no real attachment to this version of him. What did effect me though was the portrayal of the Wizard Shazam, in that it really bothered me. I think it's unfortunate that this negative characterization of him, which is so at odds with how previous versions of him were characterized, is not only being maintained in this new era for the characters, but is being emphasized in how he's built up here as an antagonist against Billy and Mary for the upcoming Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods (2023) miniseries. It was also, to a lesser degree, an issue for me that the Rock of Eternity was used in this story as an antagonistic force against Billy and Mary as well, even though it's partially because of the Lazarus Planet event corrupting things, because it's also partially because of how it was used back in the Shazam! (2021) miniseries. These are integral parts of these characters' mythos, and making gradual slight adjustments over the years from the post-New 52 reboot version of Billy's original harsh characterization in Shazam! (2013) doesn't change how the character's fundamental concept was based around rejecting the original's. And that's inherently still the case, because these elements aren't out of sight and out of mind, but still very present in how they're approaching this character and the stories they're telling with him. It's not that the character is forever tainted and I'll never be able to enjoy a main continuity story with him again, but that nothing that's been published in a comic book so far has been able to carry on my love for the classic character to this one. I would actually consider myself to be a lot less picky than other classic Captain Marvel fans, but I think that not portrayed the Wizard so negatively is pretty bare minimum.

Human Target: Final Cut (2002)

This graphic novel, published in May 2002, was written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Javier Pulido. While it follows up the Human Target (1999) 4-issue miniseries that I didn’t much care for, I was surprised at how much Human Target: Final Cut genuinely really worked for me. A driving reason for that was because Final Cut actually primarily focuses on Christopher Chance as the main character, whereas the preceding miniseries divided more of its time between different characters original to it, none of whom I was convinced to be interested in. I also thought that the approach Peter Milligan is taking with the concept of the Human Target as a character that impersonates people having identity issues was better executed here.

While I prefer Tom King and Greg Smallwood’s The Human Target (2021) as a mature take on the original 70s iteration of the character, outside of that specific context I find the characterization of Christopher Chance in Final Cut compelling. The reason why I prefer Tom King’s approach to Christopher Chance is that it expands on how that he specifically impersonates people who are slated to die and how his backstory of watching his dad be murdered in a degrading away as a child effects him; whereas Peter Milligan’s approach is in exploring an identity issue that, while based on the concept of the character of an impersonator, wasn’t suggested in the original comics and (so far) doesn’t make any use of his original backstory. Also, the usage of noir tropes and the art style in The Human Target makes it feel more like an evolved take on an older character, whereas Final Cut feels like early 2000s comic.

The bulk of this book is spent with Christopher impersonating someone he killed to try to figure out where they might have hidden a kid they kidnapped for ransom. At the very beginning of the book on a different job, we see Christopher’s skills in understanding the people impersonates (which go so far that he’s able to genuinely struggle to understand that he’s not actually them) presented in an almost supernatural way when he’s able to inexplicable replicate parts of a client’s life that they didn’t tell him about. Of course, impersonating a person that’s dead and that you’ve never met is a bit trickier, and I liked how the story approached Christopher trying to learn about them and then integrate himself into their life. But I particularly liked the conclusion of the story, which has Christopher have to impersonate another man which quickly goes awry as he did not actually understand him at all and the unexpected repercussions of his misdeeds are misdirected and catch up to Chris. There’s a part earlier in the book where Chris shows a bit of self-awareness and makes a lot of assumptions based off of a photo and then thinks to himself “For Christ’s sake, Chance. What horseshit! You can’t tell that from a photograph! You’re making it up!” But that self-awareness doesn’t last as he explains some later behavior to himself while impersonating the aforementioned misjudged man as “For a moment you thought you were in love with her. Because at that moment you were Frank White. But Christopher Chance isn’t in love with her. He’s just out of love with the rest of his life.” At this moment Christopher is trying to grapple with his concerning though patterns directly, but, while so much of this book is spent on the difficulty of fully understanding exactly what a person thought and did just from what was around them in their life, he can’t let go of the comforting belief that he actually becomes the people he impersonates, and then it’s his fixation on Frank White’s life and the belief that it’s ideal that creates problems for him.

Judging from the ending though, it doesn’t seem that Christopher learned his lesson from that harshly-presented revelation. I’m now very interested in reading the follow-up ongoing series. Though I’m not sure I’m going to be able to finish all of Christopher Chance’s appearances before the final issue of The Human Target comes out on the 28th.

Eternity Comics:

Spicy Tales (1988) #8-11

Spicy Tales was a series that has so far reprinted comic strips from Frank Armer’s line of pulp magazines, which otherwise primarily contained text stories that had some accompanying art. These comics were unique as the editorial by John Wooley in issue #6 explains, quoting Will Murray that “Sexy comics strips were a staple in the girlie pulps before the Spicies came along- in mags like Pep, Breezy Stories and College Humor. But they usually revolved around college girl situations, not genre stuff.” While the comics from the 30s contained many scenes of women in suggestive compromising scenarios, the action beginning as they happened to be in a state of undress or them being stripped and erotically tortured when kidnapped and such, the comics from the 40 and- starting with this batch of issues- the early 50s were noticeably less so; the content becoming more and more subdued over time in respond to outside pressure.

And the rest of this comics round-up is gonna be under a cut for the discussion of those 'spicy' comics, which also contained some racist depictions:

Sally the Sleuth

There was one 8-page Sally the Sleuth story, written and drawn by Keats Petree, from Crime Smashers (1950) #8, which was published in January 1952. A long way here from her days of regularly being chained up in her underwear, in this story when Sally gets kidnapped all of her clothes stay on. I wouldn’t say that there’s absolutely no sex appeal- she makes no unappealing poses when she’s restrained and there’s a nice close-up shot of her removing a gun from her garter holster- but that’s truly nothing in comparison to the kinds of scenarios and positions she used to end up in and only worth noting to make the comparison, it wouldn’t stand out to me otherwise. By this time the Chief is still appearing alongside (and saving) Sally, though there wasn’t any mention of Peanuts here. The end of the story genuinely startled me because it had the Chief interacting with Sally in a way I hadn’t seen before, with her saying “You often say I’m not too bright” and him replying “You’re a honey just the same, you little dumbbell.” While I wouldn’t say that the Chief shows a remarkable amount of respect for Sally and her work in the 30s or 40s stories, he’s certainly never insulted her before (at least, in the stories previously reprinted in Spicy Tales). Other than that, I really did like Keats Petree’s work on the character better than Adolphe Barreaux’s in the 40s, though Adolphe Barreaux’s work in the 30s is still my personal favorite Sally. The art style is nice and I wouldn’t mind reading more Sally the Sleuth work from him.

And there were three 2-page Sally the Sleuth stories, written and drawn by the character's creator Adolphe Barreaux, from the October 1937, December 1937, and January 1938 issues of Spicy Detective. The first two of these stories followed the typical pattern of Sally being saved by the Chief, but the one from the January 1938 issue broke the mold by having Sally save another woman instead. Not that that’s never happened before, but it’s still a notable occurrence. It has Sally go undercover at a college to catch someone that’s been “peddling dope” to “pretty co-eds.” She gets a “snowbird” to lead her to the buyer by pretending to do coke (it was really just powdered sugar) in front of her after seeing the student do actual coke herself, then saying that she was out and needed to buy more. But Sally fails to capture the crook when she first meets him and the criminal then tracks down the student that introduced them to make sure she can’t ever snitch on him again. Of course, this happens when the student is about to go to bed in a lingerie dress that then barely stays on for the rest of the story. When Sally comes across the dealer throwing the student off a cliff, she shoots him, and then sees that the student has managed to keep a hold of a branch. Sally, of course, takes off her clothes to use as makeshift rope for the student to climb up on. The story from the October 1937 issue had Sally found (in her underwear) while snooping on a ship and then thrown overboard to drown (though the criminals took the time to take everything but her garter socks off first). And the story from the December 1937 issue had Sally kidnapped (and stripped to her underwear) by a cannibal killer, which notably then had her chained up among the naked and dilapidated corpses of other women.

There was also one 2-part 4-page Sally the Sleuth story, which was also written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux, from the February 1938 and March 1938 issues of Spicy Detective. This was the first 4-page Sally story from the 30s that I’ve seen, and it may have been the only one as she was traditionally kept to only 2 pages in this era. It’s unfortunate then that this longer story didn’t take the opportunity to do something more interesting with Sally’s character. While it draws out the mystery more than other Sally stories from this time are able to, it does so while making the Chief more prominent of a character than he’d ever been before, rather than letting Sally do more significant detective work. And the story still follows the standard format, just with a prologue, as the first story doesn’t have much of any sex appeal if you don’t count Sally fully dressed but in a v-cut dress and one panel that has a woman’s naked corpse barely covered up. But the second story has Sally kidnapped, stripped to her underwear, and found in an erotic position as the Chief saves her, as per usual.

Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective

There were two 8-page Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, stories- written by the character's creator Robert Leslie Bellem and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux- from the October 1949 issue of Hollywood Detective and from Crime Smashers (1950) #8 (published in January 1952) which was actually a reprinted story from a 1950 issue of Hollywood Detective but of the exact month I'm unsure. Dan Turner came across to me as a bit of a creep in these stories when he hadn’t made that impression on me before. The story from the October 1949 issue had him forcing a lady murder suspect into his apartment and seemingly extorting her so that he’ll help her while she notably only had a robe on over lingerie. Then in the course of his investigation he barged in on another woman in the shower. The story ends with him saying that he collected his “promised fee” from the first woman” and that he “spent some pleasant hours comforting” the second woman whose sister ultimately went to jail for the murder, concluding that “it’s nice work if you can get it!” And the story from the 1950 issue that I wasn’t able to find the exact month of publication of had him ripping off a piece of a woman’s dress while she was wearing it for evidence.

Ray Hale, News Ace

There were three 8-page Ray Hale, News Ace, stories- written and drawn by Newton Alfred- from the February 1950 to April 1950 issues of Super Detective. This is a new character in Spicy Tales, but to me the most interesting story of his was the one from the April 1950 issue because it sidelined him and instead prominently features the girl “sob sister” reporter Ruth Meridan, who didn’t appear at all in either of the other two stories. The story had them both assigned to report on the same case. They both end up chasing after a murdered, but only Ruth Meridan notices the clue as to the killer’s identity, which she doesn’t share with Ray Hale or the viewer. Instead, she decides to get more solid evidence on her own to use as a scoop in her story for the paper. Ray Hale supports her on this because he thinks she’s entitled to break the story. His big role in the story is interrupting when the killer comes after Ruth Meridan to try to steal back the important evidence, then the two of them are both instrumental in chasing after the criminal and getting them caught by the police. The story ends with Ruth Meridan explaining the case she solved, Ray Hale calling her a “smart girl… and a sweet one!” and the two of them planning to go on a date. This is a far cry from the way lady detectives were portrayed in the comic stories of Super Detective’s predecessor Spicy Detective. I’m referring of course to Sally the Sleuth, who generally just ends up kidnapped and then saved by her boss, the Chief, rather than properly solving mysteries herself. The other two Ray Hale, Ace Reporter, stories didn’t have the character Ruth Meridan in them at all. The one in the February 1950 issue had him solving a murder out of a pool of suspects and the one in the March 1950 issue had him solving a murder in Chinatown with the help of a local boy.

Gail Ford, Girl Friday

There was one 7-page story and one 8-page story about the character Gail Ford, Girl Friday- written and drawn by Gene Leslie- from the June 1949 and February 1950 issues of Super Detective. Another new character in Spicy Tales, this is the secretary of a police inspector, but she actually does detective work herself. The June 1949 story has her going undercover and pretending to be new to the city in order to catch criminals who are leading naive girls who just moved to the city into criminal work. And the February 1950 issue has her taking on the identity of a girl who was arrested on the way to picking up a supply of drugs in order to identity the top smuggler. In both stories it was presented that while she did this there was a police officer, Tim McQuade or “Mac”, nearby waiting to intervene if things went wrong. While he did have to intervene in both stories, there was an earlier point in the February 1950 issue where she shooed him away because she thought she could handle to situation and she didn’t want to tip off the criminal as to what was really going on. This seems to be the staple premise of the character’s stories, as there’s a bit of narration early in the February 1950 issue that says “And so, once again, under the watchful eye of Mac, Gail sets out on a dangerous mission.” It seems to me that she’s essentially a police officer, so I wonder if the reason she’s described as just a secretary is because women couldn’t be full police officers at the time. There does seem to be a bit of sex appeal to the artwork, but it’s not obtrusive to the story. There’s a part in the June 1949 story that has Gail and another women talking in the morning while still getting dressed, so they’re both just in their underwear. And a part of the February 1950 story where Gail is in a bikini at a pool. Still, again, this is a long way off from now Sally the Sleuth used to be depicted in this magazine’s predecessor.

Polly of the Plains

There were four 2-page Polly of the Plains stories, written and drawn by Joseph Sokoli, from the August 1937 and October 1937 to December 1937 issues of Spicy Western. Although the December 1937 doesn’t completely conclude Polly’s story, it was the last Polly of the Plains story ever published. Well, the August 1937 and October 1937 (as well as the missing one from September) largely conclude the storyline that had been going on since Polly’s very beginning by killing of Pancho, the villain that instigated this whole conflict. But then the November 1937 story had Polly, Jean, and Ken get sidetracked on their way home and stumble across a new plot which leads to Polly getting kidnapped in the December 1937 issue by a new villain (a stereotypical Native American Chief instead of a stereotypical Mexican bandit). It seems as though rather than continuing and concluding this new plot thread they’d just introduced, they decided that the original Polly storyline was enough. I’d say that out of all of the material in Spicy Tales so far, Polly of the Plains was the spiciest with the most sexually-charged torture scenes of them all. I’ll also say that I overall liked Joseph Sokoli’s artwork for the series.

Diana Daw

And there were thirteen 2-page Diana Daw stories, written by Clayton Maxwell and drawn by Max Plaisted, from the March 1936 to December 1936, February 1937, April 1937, and May 1937 issues of Spicy Adventure. Diana Daw has always been the one in Spicy Tales that’s able to do the most story-wise in just 2-page stories. It’s genuinely admirable. The plot is always moving and, like Polly of the Plains, there’s an overarching plot that is moved along in every story instead of just being a bunch of standalone stories starring the same character, like Sally the Sleuth. But whereas Polly of the Plains pitted a group of characters against one main villain in one main location, the Diana Daw stories star just one main character that is always going to new places and fighting off against new antagonists. At the beginning of this batch of stories Diana is captured and then sold in a slave market to a sheik named Tarafi who turns out to have been educated abroad and so doesn’t keep a harem. He doesn’t treat Diana poorly, but she still attempts to escape him though she is immediately captured by a band of criminals, who then also capture Tarafi as he had been following Diana. The criminals go to kill him, but Diana is able break free and save him. Then Diana and Tarafi get married and Tarafi instructs his followers that if anything happens to him then Diana is their leader. Tarafi is, of course, immediately fatally and his followers don’t actually respect Diana, so he gives her a secret gun that he had and has her lead a charge against a group of thieves. Among the captured survivors from that charge was Ted, who has previously betrayed Diana because of a love potion given to him by Rama, and Rama herself. Diana is still angry with Ted and keeps both him and Rama as prisoners, then tortures Rama to force her to use her knowledge to save Tarafi. But Rama ends up seducing Tarafi and Diana and Ted both have to flee for their lives. Then there’s a bit of a jump as there’s some missing parts, which I believe takes up to a point in the story chronologically before the Tarafi and Rama parts. We next see Diana in the desert with Ted right after he had been able to purchase her from a slave market (she’s been captured and sold in slave markets many times) and the two of them travel together until they’re captured by a band of bandits, which is interrupted by the bandits being overrun by French soldiers.

Then there’s another jump, this time back to after the Tarafi and Rama part, where Diana and Ted are back in the desert and still upset over what happened. Ultimately Diana is captured by bandits to be sold as a slave again and Ted is left to die in the desert, but Diana is able to seduce one of her captors in order to divide them and then defeat them to go save Ted. The two of them find the sea and buy passage of a ship, but the ship turns out to be a slave ship, and there’s a fight when they try to kill Ted in order to more easily take Diana. Ultimately Diana and Ted win but there’s a storm and they are shipwrecked on an island, which they discover is populated with slave girls as it had been where the men on the slave ship they had just escaped were keeping their prisoners. They free the slaves, but then the women all fawn over Ted, which frustrates Diana. In order to keep him to themselves, the women capture Diana and lock her up so that she’ll starve to death in a cave then tell Ted that she escaped on a raft because she was upset with him. Even with Diana out of the way, Ted rejects the women and intends to find Diana wherever she went, never considering that their story was a lie. He never gets to go searching for her though because a British ship arrived and because they are angry with Ted all of the women tell the soldiers that Ted was the slaver who captured them. The British take everyone off the island, but don’t find Diana. Eventually the other slavers return to the island and are frustrated to only find the now-decrepit Diana and are going to just leave her there until one younger slaver says that he’ll take the time to improve her health to sell her. That slaver then reveals to Diana that he was actually and undercover British soldier and that the two of them can work together to undermine the slave trade, though Diana is focused on wanting to find and reunite with Ted.

#comics read this past week #my posts

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silverwhittlingknife · 1 year ago

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i love a lot of things about dick & tim's relationship but one of my favorite things is that sometimes dick gets to be the unhinged one <3

#dick and tim #dick grayson #tim drake #my comic art but we are using the term ''art'' loosely #look - as an unhinged-dick-grayson enthusiast - it is important for his enrichment!!#he may APPEAR to be unhappy but the emotional release is very important for his long-term well-being in the comics enclosure

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aro-comics · 3 years ago

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Canon Vs. Fanon Aros: Princess Merida

I PRESENT: A NEW ANALYSIS POST ON OUR ARCHERY QUEEN, PRINCESS MERIDA OF DUNBROCH!!! 😄😤🏹✨

Haha okay, but in all seriousness, I’m glad I managed to wrap up the loose ends with this post and get this out to y’all 😅 (sorry about the lateness, I’m fine but lately the combination of work and getting ready for fourth year has been pretty exhausting).

Obviously, as we all know by now, I love a good media analysis, and especially when you look at things from an Aro Lens – and it always fascinates me when I find a character that’s widely regarded by the community as an icon, if not perceived as arospec in some way! 🐸💚💚 Merida is no exception, and I loved having the chance to delve into her character and what (I believe) she represents for our community. Personally, I didn’t watched Brave as a kid, but watching it as an adult and being able to see all those points of tension at the beginning of the movie surrounding marriage – and especially how Merida’s dad described her as wanting to remain single forever and ride off into the sunset shooting arrows – was really relatable, especially as a young woman who’s kind of at that age where people “expect” you to start dating/thinking about things like long-term romantic relationships 😭😭

Anyways, I feel like I’ve covered most of what I want to say in the actual textpost for once 😂, so I’ll just sign off with a note that I will be sharing some extra art and stickers tomorrow.

ARTIST’S NOTE: Since this is tumblr (and I can throw in more than 10 slides at once XD) I’ve just shared the rest of the post here! Link to the stickers.

As always, feel free to let me know what you think! Do you see Merida as Arospec or an Icon for the Aro community?

[Image Description:

Slide 1: Title slide. Text says: “Canon Vs Fanon Aros, feature: Princess Merida.” The title shows a drawing of Celia sitting and reading a book, relaxing. Bottom text says “a textpost buffer series” and by “aro comics (the Instagram username)”

Slide 2: Note: For the following slides, information is quite text heavy. As a result, the original script written will be pasted here with additions of any visual notes if needed.

Slide Title: Intro

About: Princess Merida of DunBroch

Canon vs. Fanon – Circle Fanon

Basic facts:

Personality: Bold, courageous, energetic, freespirited, and a bit stubborn and rebellious

Loves archery, sword fighting, riding her horse Angus, and exploring!

A princess that rebels against traditional training and etiquette, the plot of the movie follows our protagonist on repairing her relationship with her mother after a falling out and an accidental curse.

Slides 3-4:

Slide Title: An Aro Icon

Why is do people think Merida is aromantic, or at the very least an Aro Icon?

Great question! To be fair, the movie doesn’t go into the topic of romance so there’s no canonical evidence to Merida’s romantic orientation.

Even so, however, the narrative presented resonates deeply with many aromantic viewers. Merida is ADAMANT about not getting married off (though this is based more in the fact she’s SIXTEEN and doesn’t know any of these boys, which is very understandable) and makes a point of it by rebelling against the archery contest her mother set up to pick her suitor.

Screenshot: A defiant Merida speaks in front of the gathered clans at the Highland Games. She announces: “I am Merida, first born descendant of clan Dunbroch. And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”

NOTE: This is significant because the games are meant for the first born descendants of other clans to compete for her hand. However, since she has chosen archery as the competitive sport, and she is technically the first born of her own clan, this is a clever moment where she is able to use this rule to rebel and attempt to maintain her freedom!

Slide 5:

Slide title: Meaning

Her behaviour and portrayal really strikes a chord with the aro community, because we are often asked to engage in romance or marriage despite our discomfort. It’s empowering to see a character stand up against these norms!

Given the way amatonormativity also tends to insert as many romantic subplots as possible, it’s uncommon to have no love interest in a movie. Because of this, aros we rarely get to see a story and growth occur without romance, which makes Brave all the more meaningful. Merida’s growth and her agency as a character in this story feels a lot more relatable to us.

Slides 6-7:

(Continued from previous)

It’s because of these elements that many people will consider Merida an aro icon, if not aromantic herself (although this is more of a headcanon)! Also … she’s literally good at archery, which in and of itself is kind of perfect for an aro icon.

Also, Merida’s a Pretty Cool Character for other reasons too!

The focus on familial love in this movie is very heartwarming, and it’s not something you see too often in princess movies. There��s also the intersection between amatonormative ideals and feminism - Merida’s a strong role model for young girls. Though it may seem common now that there are strong/free spirited princesses/female characters in movies for children that take control of their own destinies, it wasn’t so much in mainstream media when Brave first came out.

And especially it’s uncommon to see princesses not have a love interest – historically, patriarchal society uses women’s relationships to men as a indicator of their value, so it’s important to have media that reflects how women can have compelling and complex narratives that feature their importance as a person independently too.

Slides 8-9:

Slide Title: Conclusion

Why is Merida’s existence important to aromantic people and beyond?

In short, it breaks romance norms and also gives aro people a fictional character to relate to! But before we wrap up, I wanted to address the discussion/discourse around “projection” of identity onto Merida – as some people have pointed out before, why is it that if a woman doesn’t show interest in a man in the context of a story should they be interpreted as gay or aspec? This does tie into issues of sexism for women, as mentioned before. But this being said, as an aspec woman I would say that it’s perfectly valid and good for LGBTQ+ to interpret characters to be like them/to have more diversity in interpretation, because we’re so far lacking in representation. It’s a good point to make/ask why we may view a female character this way, but ultimately its understandable, and not harmful/engaging in sexism, to imagine a character that we relate to be like us.

Overall, Merida’s storyline and character was quite groundbreaking regardless of whether or not she’s aromantic, and she’s VERY cool! And personally, I’m glad to have her as an icon for our community!

Slide 10:

Sources:

1: Screenshot from Original Brave Movie, sourced from an online clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbxhKTbTkA

Although I don’t quote any other direct sources for this textpost, I used the following sources for additional research and would encourage you to read them if you’d like to learn more!

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/does-it-matter-if-the-heroine-of-brave-is-gay/258979/

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Brave

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Merida#Personality

Slide 11: A page full of sketches of Merida. The text: “Some Merida Sketches (Yes I’m still messing around with my art style)”. The sketches include a headshot of Merida smiling and winking, another half-body shot with her nocking an arrow, and a third chibi of her with her bow. All three sketches are coloured and shaded, albeit in different styles.

Slide 12: A redraw of a key scene from the Brave movie. Merida is holding her bow as she defiantly exclaims: “And I’ll be shooting for my own hand!”

Slide 13: A graphic showing cutout versions of the two stickers made from the previous sketches (the Chibi and the Headshot). The title: “Free Stickers! (Check the Carrd)”, and below a note reads “Free for personal use only”]

#CanonVsFanonAros #NotAComic #Fanart #Merida #PrincessMerida #InfoTextpost #aromerida

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dimdiamond · 2 years ago

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hi! i hope this isnt a weird thing to ask, but i was wondering if youve ever posted art/comics with greek writing in them? ive been doing duolingo for greek and realized i dont think ive ever seen handwritten greek - im curious to see if my attempts at handwriting it look anything like handwriting of someone actually from there

Oh not at all! I am not used to be asked about my country or find people learning the language and in general I try to avoid referring to my country or anything me about irl as much as I can because... I don't know really 😅

Anyway I don't mind being asked about my mother language etc and ΜΠΡΑΒΟ for learning Greek, I understand it's not an easy language to learn and grasp the concept of it and wish you all the luck! (Long post so I cut it here)

Now I won't say I have the best handwriting out there but I can tell you that even amongst us we differ the way we writing a letter. For example κ/k, Ω/one of our o and β/v:

So don't stress over it and find a way to accommodate you!

But yes the comics! One is the well known now το γαλλάκι/the little french boy from Rastapopoulos 😂

But to helps you more I translated two more so you can see more of my bearable handwriting

I took the liberty of translating loosely some phrasing so it can make true sense instead of just translating word by word. The translation here is basically:

That count as stretching, alright! A for effort! Still better than Haddock but don't tell him that! / Αυτό μπορεί να μετρήσει ως τέντωμα, εντάξει! Α για την προσπάθεια! Και πάλι καλύτερα από τον Χάντοκ αλλά μην του το πεις αυτό!

Did ya scare away the blasted salesman?! Good job, Milou! Now let's continue training! Whenever ya see Catafiori what ya do? BITE! Exactly! Who's the best boy? YA'RE! / Τον κατατρόμαξες τον καταραμμένο πλασιέ;! Καλή δουλειά, Μιλού! Τώρα ας συνεχίσουμε την εκπαίδευση! Όποτε βλέπεις την Κασταφιόρι τι κάνεις; ΔΑΓΚΩΝΕΙΣ! Ακριβώς! Ποιός είναι το καλύτερο αγόρι; Σύ' σαι!

Salesman normally translates to έμπορος/πλανόδιος έμπορος (eboros/ planodios eboros) but we use the foreign word πλασιέ (plasie) in everyday life.

Also decided to translate ya're aka you are to σύ' σαι (si' se) instead of εσύ είσαι (esi ise) for making it sound more countryside you know.

I don't know if I will ever make comics or write something in Greek since I want to actually communicate with you all when I am sharing my work and also some things are better communicated in English terms, especially when we're talking about something foreign to the Greek language and culture. Not gonna lie, though, that some jokes and things would be great in Greek so who knows? I can use Rastapopolos as an excuse for now!

#hope this helps nonnie #good luck with your lessons!#if you have any other question feel free to ask #answered #tintin #captain haddock #archibald haddock #milou #the adventures of tintin #my art #greek language

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galina · 3 years ago

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Hey, wondering how you got into sketching and design, if you don't mind sharing. Wish you a lovely day!

hi, hi, hi. short and truest answer is I always loved drawing as a kid and my parents were super encouraging because it kept me quiet lol, then I went to art skool (where I did creative writing, not fine art) and found a way to approach writing and design in an interdisciplinary sense. but it also got me thinking and I wrote this longer thing about my childhood which is very loose and random.

short story long, when I was born, my parents found themselves (as many do) as a young immigrant family newly in the uk who needed to work. working nights at a bar was not a long term solution. somehow they found work together doing translation, mostly for technical manuals and instructions for machinery. whilst they worked I used to draw on the back of dot matrix paper that came from one of these machines for which they were translating a new manual. one of my first memories is the feeling of drawing on the perforated paper which had code printed across it. I would draw in and around the data, my drawings and the random letters becoming one big mess. I still think of that strange forced blend of computer generated type and hand drawn lines as the first time I encountered design physically.

so drawing was the thing that occupied me and kept me quiet whilst my parents worked, until they bought their first television around 1999. after that I was treated to jolly phonics, the reading and writing programme for small children led by a puppet mouse and snake. everywhere we went I was drawing and writing on bits of scrap paper until I was able to go to school where I was pretty much sated (until maths came along, which I disliked).

my parents moved into an abandoned church which was initially uninhabitable. with the help of friends and a large bank loan they worked to make its attic a home for us. drawing and writing became part of the physical house -- on the new plaster, on bits of wooden frames for stairs and windows, on old chalkboards left by the former tenants from the sunday school which once ran there. design was everywhere, architectural and very much part of growing up. one wall was left as bare plaster, a job to get around to for 20 years. I used to wet the tip of my finger in the sink and draw on the dusty plaster, making temporary dark shapes.

my design marks were usually temporary but my parents also loved to bring creativity into the house. my fondest memories are of my dad’s huge photo collages of us which he hung around the house alongside works by artists he had known before he moved. my mum made all the furniture -- she would buy from second hand shops and re-upholster, strip or stain everything. she had a desk which she covered in decoupage from old national geographic magazines and sealed with varnish. I loved how a glass eye met a waterfall or a bird in the pastiche.

when I was about 9 my best friend, who I was totally in love with in the truest sense, discovered japanese popular art. there wasn’t a huge amount available to us in the small town but we consumed everything we could get, particularly after spirited away came out we were able to get hold of a lot of ghibli dvds and popular english translated manga at the waterstone’s in town. I feel like that was a turning point, reading in the back (or front) of a manga about how the authors studied in the traditional style to become elite comics artists. that turned all this from a passtime into something very real that was happening outside of my world. comics solidified the relationship between art, writing and design for me as an interdisciplinary craft to be honed. it was something I came back to over and over again after that--unlike the forced relationship of the dot matrix paper with my childhood scribbling, comics were bridging design gaps in a way that was truly graceful and felt almost natural--

ummm this is turning into a life story lol it’s very boring! but it was fun to write something different and a bit more personal. if you read this far I am sorry haha. I will probably get embarrassed n delete later! thanks for coming on such a random childhood journey with me

#ask #not what you asked for lmao

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createandconstruct · 3 years ago

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can i ask about amarant coral? the monk in red himself~

Can you ask about Amarant Coral? *cracks fingers* Oh I insist that you do. Welcome to my Amarant Appreciation Post:

favorite thing about them: First off best thing about Amarant? His theme. The percussion and the guitar. It’s great and it captures him so well. People out here like “take Amarant out of the game he adds nothing.” EXCUSE ME? You remove the Amarant you remove the Amarant Theme my friend and that is something I do NOT vibe with.

least favorite thing about them: I wanna know more about him. Now Amarant doesn’t need a backstory or history in the game. In a sense, he already has one that connects him to Zidane and explains his motives and actions and eventual arc. But my issue is, Square never gave him anything else. If you look at Ultimania there’s additional lore about other characters, like Steiner for instance. You learn Steiner was a war orphan who was saved by the Pluto Knights - explaining his devotion to them. Amarant though? Square was like “uh... yeah he was born....? And then he uh got famous...? Idk then he met Zidane. You figure it out.” Square. I hate you. 18 years from his birth until he became “well known”. WHAT WAS HE DOING. WHY’D HE BECOME A SECURITY GUARD. WHAT WAS ON HIS RESUME. TELL MEEEE. Like, okay, what the actual in-game canon gives us on Amarant is sort of enough. He’s a purposely written mysterious “cool-guy” character so we’re given scraps to make him unknown but come on. In the published after-game canon, like Ultimania, we could have been given a bit more. He says he doesn’t remember anything about his origins or parents, but why. Was he another victim of Gaia’s wars? Probably. Was he born on a battlefield? Fighting for his life, living without comrades, taking scraps whenever he could? Was he betrayed when he was young? Is he a supposed to be a version of Zidane had he not been adopted into Tantalus by Baku??? These are questions I deserve answers to, Square.

favorite line: “’I can't just walk away. It goes against my nature...’ You're a real simpleton. Forget it, guys. There's no stopping this fool." I love this. Amarant figures Zidane out pretty quickly after Ipsen’s Castle. Zidane is hardheaded and also an actor. He acts cool and pretends his reasons for doing things are loose but when he’s decided something it’s always for a reason. You don’t need a reason to help people, but Zidane has his reasons for helping Kuja and while Amarant doesn’t give two shits what they are he knows Zidane won’t be stopped because, despite everything, Zidane saved a loser like him. Also this line “Tell me! Why didn't you kill me!?" Because I quote it all the time and it makes myself laugh. Amarant is such a drama queen and Zidane knows it. Zidane’s like “dude... what is your damage, it’s 5 pm on Tuesday in Madain Sari. I ain’t getting blood on my gloves cause you’re having a temper tantrum.” And then Amarant runs away to have an existential crisis. He’s 26 but compared to Zidane, he’s the real teenager with angst.

brOTP: I could talk about Zidane or Freya with Amarant but instead I’m gonna say the underrated dynamic of Amarant and Eiko (and also Vivi). Amarant with the kids is truly the greatest gift given by his presence in the game. Amarant has never known true suffering until he became a designated legal guardian of a group of minors. It also kills me how he’s the one to volunteer to carry Eiko and Vivi up the Iifa tree. He looks at Zidane and is like “you have seriously been the ‘adult’ of this group???”

OTP: Gotta say the Freya and Amarant dynamic. I really enjoyed their unlikely friendship in the game but then the content. The fan content. The Freya x Amarant fans out there, you win. Ya got me. You captured me and I am now imprisoned by their banter and begruntled allies to lovers story. Even if they’re not romantic I love them together and really wish the game gave us more of them. But even Lani and Amarant together are valid, though I prefer them as butting head bros. Not much content for my girl Lani out there either, she deserves more.

nOTP: Nothing I can think of. I tend to like platonic pairings for Amarant. The dude needs friends because he can barely define the word friendship.

random headcanon: Before Zidane returns at the end of the game Amarant wanders around a bit, unsure of what to do. He doesn’t feel any place with the others in Alexandria, Burmecia, or Lindblum. I imagine he goes off on his own for a bit like before but this time he’s not after Zidane or a fight. Instead he’s got no particular destination. Yet he somehow always finds himself running into people just like him - or the old him - friendless lonely people who are looking for a fight. He doesn’t go out his way to find these folks he simply runs into them and decides he might as well knock some sense into them. He does however make it his business to go after any murmur of people hatching any ideas of going after the far off little village on the Lost Continent. The home of the genomes and black mages. They were so helpless, so weak that anyone who’d want to mess with them is pathetic in Amarant’s book. Until Zidane returns, no one has the chance to even look at the Black Mage Village the wrong way because in the shadows Amarant lurks, making damn well sure of that.

unpopular opinion: I kinda love that he’s just there for most of the game? While I agree he gets the short end of the stick in the same way as Freya, not receiving additional individual character spotlight (which could have very well been supplied through discoverable lore in the world/npcs or through sidequests) I never considered his “standing off to the side” as a detriment to his character.

Many would probably agree that Amarant always felt like a bit of a parody of the loner character, or at least the stereotype of the loner character. Amarant is so easily paralleled with Squall and Cloud’s surface-level attitudes because his dialogue always felt like something to poke fun at. As the player we’re supposed to align with Zidane’s way of thinking and how he views Amarant. When Amarant loses to Zidane and pretty much grits his teeth and goes “KILL ME,” along with Zidane we’re supposed to kinda raise our brow at him and go “...really, dude?”

Amarant’s a character introduced as an antagonist who has more in common with the power hungry villains of the game. Like many of the characters in FFIX, Amarant is in search of purpose in life, which he has never found, because he was always looking in the wrong places - in places of violence and power. Very toxic-masculinity of him. Amarant is “cool” on an aesthetic level but in reality he’s the polar opposite of cool in terms of what FFIX states about the need for others to be intertwined in your experiences so that you can live a full life.

I sort of love that he’s like a grumpy pitball following a 16 year old and his friends around. Then he sits in the corner when they all meet up and discuss current events acting like he doesn’t care (not to mention he casually walks as everyone is running as fast as they can to escape Terra - made me laugh cry on my first playthrough) He is “just there” but that’s because he has no where else to be, no where else to go, he’s a man without a home. And until Zidane offers his hand, at the point where Amarant is most willing to take it at Ipsen’s Castle, he’s not truly a party member. He IS an outsider for almost the entire game but at Ipsen Castle he joins the party, becomes a comrade, and decides he’ll allow himself to change paths and start a life where he has friends and lives, as well as fights for them. Which is why after that moment, Amarant finally has a victory pose.

song i associate with them: I was scratching my head for so long trying to think of a song or track that had Amarant vibes until it hit me. Outskirt Stand by Tsukasa Tawada (from Pokemon Colosseum). Amarant is so chill, he’s not a bombastic guy, so he needs a theme that drops me in the rocky open desert of the Lost Continent like I’m just lumbering around looking for a monkey-tailed menace. Some other Amarant tunes: Pyrite Town, The Under, Snagem Hideout tracks from Pokemon Colosseum. This post is just an elaborate call to action for everyone to listen to the Pokemon Colosseum soundtrack. Tsukasa Tawada is so great and he has a YouTube. Check him out.

favorite picture of them:

Yoshitaka Amano’s Salamander Coral. I love him. He had too much power.

Also everything drawn by @crispy-ghee. Everything. I will think of this Comic forever until I die. Tattoo it on my flesh. The banter, the dynamics, the post-game content, the Zidane prince-consort outfit, the new Amarant outfit, the stuck-in-the-same-place relationship him and Freya have. Perfect. Go read it and consume Crisipy’s stuff. And also check them and their current art out, they just consistently get better and better. Here’s a first panel preview of my fav comic. Read it.

@hannahlady‘s Amarant art and their Freya/Amarant art is just ugh. *Chef’s Kiss* Here is another preview because you should go look at it.

Here’s a piece that deserves so much more love by @snackage. I LOVE how they drew Amarant. Here’s a little preview. It’s SO GOOD

Anyway TL;DR: Amarant is love and life and you’ll have to pull him from my little gremlin hands.

#asks #scriberat #amarant coral #ffix #final fantasy ix #amarant #final fantasy 9 #freya #amarant x freya #lani #zidane tribal #eiko carol

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yurimother · 4 years ago

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LGBTQ Comic Review - Amongst Us Book 1

A masterful combination of comedy, subtle romance, and incredible sensuality

I make no attempts to hide my complete admiration and infatuation with Shilin Huang's Yuri webcomic Amongst Us. The slice of life AU featuring reimagined versions of the lead characters from fantasy series Carciphona as a lesbian couple has held a special place in my heart for a long time. I named the series one of the best Yuri works of the past one-hundred years, can frequently be found lurking in the author's Twitch streams, and even have a wall in my office dedicated to the artwork of the main couple (or I did before my office became a remote classroom). So, when a Kickstarter by Shilin and Hiveworks Comics launched promising a print version of the work, I was eager to support it financially and promote it with my humble platform. The Kickstarter took place in March, and books were initially estimated for release in May of 2020. However, as you have probably realized by the dates alone, the world went very South around this time. A combination of disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, a healthy amount of bad luck, and what I am inclined to believe, for various reasons, was some awful mismanagement by Hiveworks led to numerous delays. Indeed, by the time the book finally shipped, I had moved, so my copy arrived a little later as it had to be forwarded. But, at the end of this frustrating and anticipation-building event, I finally have the volume in my hands, and it was worth the wait. While I adore the webcomic, this gorgeous print volume completely enthralls me. The book is absolutely the preferred way to read this spectacular comic.

Before getting into the exquisite details of Amongst Us Book 1: Soulmates, I need to take a minute to praise how well this book is put together. The paperback binding is thick and features amazing spot glass that sparkles in the light. This feature only accentuates the fantastic and bright the cover illustration of main characters Veloce and Blackbird loving holding each other is. The back cover has a simpler but more imaginative illustration of the two flying through the sky, and the character's expressions tell you everything you need to know about this fantastic, odd couple. There are a few things you will notice upon opening the volume. The first is how well Amongst Us made the challenging transition from vertical webcomic to the page. The assembly and paneling are fantastic and clear, and chapters feature stylized illustrations and title cards. You will then see the inside cover, a powerful display that perfectly contrasts the front's glowing and tender love. Finally, there is Shilin's presents moving forward and dedication, where she lovingly dedicates the book to her partner, Kristen.

I assure you, as good as the book's presentation and assembly is, the contents within are even better. Amongst Us follows Veloce and Blackbird's bombastic relationship. The two women are eccentric and striking musicians in their early twenties, and I swear you will never forget them. The slice of life storylines are, per the genre's definition, mundane and include events like shopping at the mall, riding the train, and having lunch with a friend. The charming simplicity of the story serves well to the reactions of the characters. Shilin effortlessly transitions from adorable moments of affection to explosive and hilarious comedy and irresistible and delightful moments of sexual tension; Veloce's neck and jawline alone could topple a monarchy. Often, slice of life works can become dull or repetitive, but these stories and the frequent changes in tone help the reader stay engaged and excited.

Putting slice of life aside for a moment, it is also important to note that Amongst Us is also has an interesting place within the Yuri genre, or "Girl's Love/GL" as it is often called in webcomic circles (originally an analogous term of Boy's Love). Webcomics have often been a bit more adventurous with their storylines and styles than Japanese manga. While the genre rose to popularity in the space thanks to digital manhwa and manhua, some (not all) of the Yuri tropes did not carry over between the similar mediums. Many modern webcomics and webtoons take their inspiration more from manhwa and manhua GL, which has developed its own canon and tropes over the years. However, even for a webcomic, Shilin's work feels somewhat divorced from most other worlds of Yuri. This first volume exists mainly against the Yuri genre's expectations. However, the next book, which flashes back to the couple's origin, undoubtedly is more in line with convention, for better or worse. It feels like the author decided to screw the norms and write a work that she would enjoy, and I am so glad that she did. Veloce and Blackbird are young adults, out of school in an established relationship with no drama. This (sadly) unconventional setting is made all the more irregular because of just how distinctive, and unwonted Blackbird and Veloce are.

Blackbird and Veloce, originally from the fantasy world of Carciphona, take on a new life, literally, in this wonderful modern reimagining and homage. You do not need to be a fan of the original work to enjoy their bizarre and larger-than-life personalities. Indeed, when I read Amongst Us online for the first time, I had not ever even heard of Carciphona. Veloce is the quieter and more stoic of the two, although she is not afraid of showing a more relatable and human side as she reacts to Blackbirds wild antics. Veloce's (not)straight man approach is hilariously sobering. But, her best moments are in those when she lets loose a little bit, like when she is rendered drooling by the promise of her favorite smoothie or in her stoic yet alluring flirtations with Blackbird, only to get close enough to steal a healthy chomp of ice cream.

Blackbird, on her part, is completely insane. She continuously pulls of wild antics like jumping on Veloce to surprise her or singing an especially threatening song after a glorious battle over lunch. However, she is perfectly capable of showing her love and admiration for Veloce in her own cheeky way. However, true to form, each softer or more personal moment between the two is often immediately and perfectly juxtaposed with comedy, with the apparent exception of the book's touching and thoughtful finale. Veloce and Blackbird will both more than please readers individually, but you will fall in love with them as a couple. I must have read this at least a few dozen times between the webtoon and the book, and I am just as enchanted as ever by their loud and unapologetic love.

The ordinary misadventures of Blackbird and Veloce are accompanied by genuinely astounding artwork. No, that statement does not do Shilin's illustrations justice. Veloce and Blackbird lead from the page thanks to stunning, full-color illustrations that detail every moment of hilarity. Every movement from the slightest smirk to the over-the-top dramatizations of regular events thoughtfully and beautifully sprawl across the pages and invite you to stare for hours. Shilin is the only person possible who could make something as simple as someone softly singing Happy Birthday so epic and sultry. Speaking of which, my goddess of Yuri is this work titillating. No, there are no gratuitous scenes, but just the characters leaning over each other or touching the other's chin makes my hands shake. My only small complaint is that some early chapters show their age slightly with noticeably lower quality linework and flatter colors than the dazzling and dynamic work demonstrated towards the end. Still, even on its worst day, Amongst Us looks better than most of its peers and the entirety of its many inferiors.

Amongst Us is nearly the perfect work. It has a uniquely compelling and mirth-inducing way of displaying a young yet very unordinary couple's everyday life. Its characters, from design to personality, are instantly memorable and striking. Despite being ready to rip each other's heads off at the drop of a hat, or rather because of it, Blackbird and Veloce feel the perfect and natural couple we so rarely witness. Shilin's masterful combination of comedy, subtle romance, and incredible sensuality is astounding. This book is worth it for the outstanding and vibrant artwork alone, but its combination with excellent writing create a sonorous and majestic modern romance unlike any other. I believe that Shilin has created something genuinely special here, and I can confidently say that out of the hundreds of webcomics I have read, this one is the pinnacle of its kind and my absolute favorite.

You can purchase Amongst Us book 1: Soulmates exclusively on Shilin's online shop and read the webcomic now for free on Twitter, Webtoon and Tumblr @okolnir.

Ratings: Story – 9 Characters – 10 Art – 10 LGBTQ – 8 Sexual Content – 5 Final – 10

#yuri #reviews #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#queer #gay #anime #manga #amongst us #shilin #lesbian #gl #wlw #girls love #comics #comic #webtoon #webcomic #cute #funny #lol

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