#or maybe I can try drawing comics like other fanartists do??

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. I'm going to put my money on Persephone reuniting with Hades in less than a month. Imagine a few chapters equating a day or two of being sad, then around 25 chapters of those two determined to do something about the "punishment" for maybe a week, then something big and dramatic (possibly Kronos related) interrupts for around 50 chapters, with only like three hours passing, soon culminating in the two seeing each other, running over, and making out.

2. Lore Olympus fans use “it’s a retelling” to defend it but do they realize that by their logic they can’t complain when a piece of media portrays Hades as bad or *gasp* not in a loving relationship with Persephone because it’s also a retelling

Of course I’m not saying it’s ok for Hades to be portrayed as Satan 2.0 but I’m just saying that LO fan can be very hypocritical 

3. I follow a pretty prolific fanartist and they posted a picture of a stern looking man with blue skin, red eyes, and dressed in a military uniform, and saw LO fans claiming they "didn't draw Hades right" because he was wearing white and had dark hair (mind you, the artist doesn't even follow webcomics, much less LO) so they were confused over these fans getting mad at them and how they "stole" from Rachel. It turns character was Thrawn from Star Wars, a character that has existed since /1991/.

4. I'm sorry but PURGATORY???? Rachel can't even pretend to try and be remotely accurate, she's literally just doing her standard WASP viewpoint and slapping Greek names on it and claiming it's researched. The Ancient Greeks' view of the afterlife and death was not how Christianity viewed it, but god forbid Rachel show this in her "super researched" GREEK MYTHOLOGY comic.

5. Man, RS didn't even do slavery how the ancient greeks did (which regardless is bad no matter what) but rather how the american south did it, which is objectively even worse/more cruel than a lot of ancient systems' use of slavery. like how did she pick a bad system and pick the worst possible option in that system to base it around?? rachel we know youre white but this is so??? gross???

6. im just focusing on the fact hxp in this had a NORMAL height difference at one point and rachel was like nah that makes her look too much like an adult, better make her like 3 feet tall in heels while he's a skyscraper and start overemphasizing how childish and tiny she is in comparison. rachel stop being weird challenge (impossible difficulty)

7. idk if it's a just a random conciendence but there is something so ... off in how it seems so many of the LO designs are either ripped from Disney (Hades, Persephone, Demeter, Eros, Apollo) or DC's version of the gods (Eris especially seems like a direct rip off).

8. It's kind of disturbing Rachel seems to think Hades actually looks good for thinking the only thing he can do with the Shades is just suffering, worse suffering, or the worst suffering. The afterlife in ancient greece was not seen as a cruel place, yet Rachels seems to think he's looking cool and charming for it?? Even if it's a "Persephone can fix him" idea (which is so awful to be promoting as "romance") how are we supposed to buy he's "changed" from being a violent torturer and slaver?

9. Even if the "unpaid labor" is supposed to be a joke that's gross to joke about?? I'm all for dark humor but there's a big difference in the "comedy" when it's coming from a literal king who prides himself on always having all the power and wealth for himself and is known for his  physical violence against against anyone he feels slighted by/doesn't care for. Also, it really doesn't seem like a joke, it seemed like him bragging and being upset Persephone wasn't hanging off his every word.

10. Hades also doesn't pay his interns too, which even the worst companies have been paying their interns for years now. He literally makes sure he gets as much money as possible while the rest rot away for his benefit and yet we're supposed to find it charming. Rachel must be a staunch capitalist because I have never seen someone so into fawning over corrupted wealth and power like she does.

[break-slash]

Puzzleship JP & KR Fancomic Recommendation List

UPDATE (19-12-2020): Added two more artists and two more titles on the Japanese lists!

I don’t consider myself as someone very tidy and organized, but I just like making lists of the things I love, somehow. Hence this post. I haven’t been in the fandom for long but I thought I’d share some of my favorites primarily from two sites: pixiv and postype. Most of the postype ones are behind paywall, and I will mark them differently.

Some of my favorites come from the same artists, so I’ll also link their pixiv profile on top of my favorite work of them.

(I actually bookmarked a lot and picking them isn’t an easy task, so I will update this step by step. If you see only a link of an artist, that’s the reason, but I can guarantee you will love their works! Feel free to recommend me yours through reblogs or DM as well!)

Japanese

Artist: CYHGM

She is a Chinese and is more active on Weibo (she posted tons of puzzleship there, but my Mandarin is beyond rusty so I could only cry in despair lmao), but she has two fancomics that I absolutely adore of. Those two mentioned fancomics are:

The Past and The Future. You can check my translation for this one here. It tells about Atem who gets transported to 3000 years later before his coronation, and that’s where he met post-canon!Yugi. Just... everything about this comic is so wonderful. I teared up at the last page, not gonna lie ;_;

The Pharaoh and The Fairy: An Ancient Egypt-slash-fantasy AU featuring the S0/TOEI casts. The fairy Yugi was saved by Atem, and it’s an obligatory for fairies to grant their savior’s wishes. However, Atem doesn’t exactly have something he wants of, and this confuses Yugi on how he should repay him back. Pure undiluted sugar, and fairy!Yugi is just so cute.

Artist: Fushitas

Arguably one of the most popular Puzzleship fanartists in the JP fandom (look at their number of followers on Twitter, man), but maybe it’s also due to the fact they were in AoT fandom too. They’re mostly active on Twitter, and if you also watch Zexal, they draw tons of Yuma-centric pairings too. They have released lots of books, and their prices on the reseller sites are... well, let’s just say, unbelievable. Just to show how famous they are. 

From everlasting to everlasting: Set after DSOD. A mysterious figure appears in front of Atem, claiming to be his queen. Everyone in the after life somehow acknowledges this person, which makes him even more confused because he’s the only one unaware of this. On the living realm, Yugi who is on the way to his home got hit by a truck (isekai much??) and when he woke up, he suddenly plays the role of Atem’s queen. I’ve always adored Fushitas’ drawing, and this is no exception. The story is pretty simple, but is still good! The ending of this comic is everything I’ve always wanted from the canon lol. 

The King’s Guest: Ancient Egypt AU. The councils are starting to get worried because Atem shows no interest in marrying someone, so Shimon opens up a “chance” sort of for civilians to become “someone for the Pharaoh to talk with”. The civilian Yugi takes this chance right off the bat, and stuff happens? This one is just so sweet and the misunderstanding later in the story kinda cracks me up. I really love the way they build the two’s chemistry in here.

Artist: usi 

They only draw two puzzleship fancomics, but both are so good and explores the themes I’ve loved from the pairing.

The Lotus’ Devil: Set post-canon with a flashback. It tells about Yugi’s regret in the past where he wanted to show Atem a small pool supposed to be full of lotus flower only to arrive seeing them not blooming. Fast forward to the post-canon, he found out that there’s actually a monster residing on that pool. I really, really loved the ending scene of this one.

Who’s The Detestable, Fortunate Guy Here: I think this is set sometime in the canon story, although the exact timing is unclear. It’s a short comic of Yugi asking Atem to pretend to be his date and go on a “dating practice”. A very pleasant hurt-and-comfort kind of story, and who doesn’t love a story of them dating anyways? :”D

Artist: Houzuki Anzu

She doesn’t draw much YGO, but she has some Arc-V and 5D’s fanarts too if you watch the series! 

Hourglass: Sets after the Memory World arc. Yugi keeps hearing a strange sound inside his mind, and he finds out there’s a huge hourglass standing there, guarded by the will of Millenium Puzzle. Apparently, the hourglass is linked to Atem’s remaining time in the living realm? Anyways, the ending of this comic might look like a cliffhanger, but I personally think it isn’t. I love the theme this comic picks to explore and the way it is presented.

Present: Same setting with Hourglass, but this one focuses more on Atem sorting out his feelings about the Ceremonial Duel and what he has learned from Yugi in general. It’s a very nice extra detail that the canon slightly lacks of, and I just love... bittersweet stuff in general haha.

Artist: Chiriko

Are you the type who wants puzzleship to be full of happiness and fluff and nothing else? Well, she has a number of comics to fill that need! I actually love all of her works, but if I have to pick, these two are my favorite:

...Don’t Ever Leave Me Again: A short story about Yugi having a nightmare of where he was stuck in the fire accident at Otogi’s store. Well... this isn’t a fluff sort of, but it’s... a happy ending still? /shot

[Untitled]: A dialogue-less comic, but this is the sort of post-canon what-if that I really, really like. Atem stroking Yugi’s face while sleeping is just... so soft man....

Artist: Komori Nea

Their art style was one of those that’s very noticeable and has a certain charm on it. They are pretty active on Twitter, and even draws puzzle comics once in a while that haven’t been uploaded to pixiv (which is why I recommend you to check their twitter gallery too haha)

The Soul Stays Awake: Post!DSOD. Atem comes back from afterlife in hoping that Yugi would be as happy as he is, but months after, Atem’s existence still hasn’t been registered on Yugi’s life just yet. Another post!DSOD take that I like which involves the fear of another farewell and uncertainty, but this is a good hurt-and-comfort. I swear, it’ll hurt you just... for a while. :”)

The Attack’s Aim: Set during the canon series. A short comic mostly portraying Yugi’s hidden strength but also the tenacity of duelist that is not only targeted toward the opponent, but also to Atem, without the person actually noticing it. The last page of this one is so... soft and gentle I had to put it into this list.

Artist: caf

Often draw with S0/TOEI style, characters and characterization in mind. Their coloring in illustrations is so soft, plus artists who specialize in S0/TOEI style can’t be found so easily. Their comic style is not a manga-like one and they write the dialogues with handwriting, but if you can read hiragana and write and understand how kanji works (so you can write it on translation machine), their comics are easy to understand!

magenta: S0/TOEI AU where Yugi and Atem are two separate person. A short comic of Yugi lying under the rain as Atem searches for his whereabouts. I really love the way they portray the rain and the atmosphere surrounding the scene. Or maybe I’m just biased with rains in general, ahahaha.

Yuugi and Mao’s Stay Home: Same AU as above. Our two boys has to face the same shit we do IRL in this comic, which is quarantine. Atem offers to cook something for Yugi since he can’t eat outside. You love seeing Yugi eating stuff? This is a perfect comic for y’all. 

Artist: Kkyut

Artist: Kayu(i)

Others:

Gemini: As Atem comes back to the living world, Yugi faces the dilemma of having being separated by “his other self” physically and mentally. A short comic, but the lines the artist used are so... beautiful. Like, the way they describe Yugi’s loneliness?? Just hits the park so much. 

Until The Hourglass Runs Out: Set after the Memory World Arc. As their farewell day goes closer, Yugi decides to give Atem a full control of his body at school so he could spend his time with Jounouchi and the gang more. However, things don’t go as smooth as Yugi had expected. If you like that little teeny weeny pain before the Ceremonial Duel, this comic perfectly suits the taste. 

see you sometime: Post-canon. Mahaad offers Atem a chance to meet Yugi in the living realm one more time, but with several conditions. Firstly, he could only stay for a day at maximum. Secondly, Yugi won’t be able to remember who he spent his time with after Atem hangs out with him. Thirdly, Yugi will not be able to “recognize” this Atem; he will only be registered in Yugi’s mind as a new classmate. A bittersweet comic in whole, but seeing the two having fun like a normal teenager would just makes me grin.

After The Rain: A dialogue-less comic, so everyone would be able to read this right away. A short comic of the two, but still very cute and wholesome!

The Tropics of Horus: Post!DSOD, Atem has to chase Kisara who lingers around Kaiba’s soul and he needs Yugi’s help to bring Kisara back to afterlife, but he has his own ulterior motive. This manga is so dialogue-heavy and might be hard to dissect especially if you don’t understand JP grammar and context, but the time spent trying to understand the meaning behind every words will be worth it. That much I guarantee. Just... everything about this comic, and how Atem’s “ulterior motive” connects to our boys’ adventure in canon series are so well planned. You can also purchase the R18 version in a form of the book here (toranoana)

Christmas Day: S0/TOEI puzzleship hint (dark puzzle???). There’s something in store for Yugi in Christmas, but this one might surprise Yugi a lot. It’s not that the prompt of “Atem gets separated from Yugi temporarily” is uncommon, but it is still a sweet one and makes you smile throughout the pages. 

Korean

All titles mentioned here are not free unless mentioned otherwise. Also I don’t understand Korean except being able to read Yugi and Atem’s name, so my story interpretation might be wrong. If you understand Korean, I’d really love for you input! ;_; 

You can check out on how to buy comics from postype here

Yugi’s 2020 Birthday Anthology: Rain and After End

This is an anthology consisting of four titles, but they share the same (or similar) setting where Atem is reincarnated, but he doesn’t remember his past (or has not yet, depending on how the story portrays it). Some are age-gap (adult!Yugi and high school student!Atem), so you might want to consider that if it’s not your cup of tea.

To Like Someone is to...: Age-gap setting. Mostly tells about how Yugi deals with his feeling as the reincarnated Atem in front of him turns out to have a feeling on him. I like how the story’s conclusion is that Yugi will sort it out slowly while also teasing Atem how he’s “too early” to date Yugi w.

In A Circle: A story about how the two met through an online chess game. Iirc Yugi works in a game company and Atem is sort of a famous e-sports player in this setting. There’s a lot of dialogue in this one and the app sometimes can’t process them very well, but I liked what I can understand from it! not very convincing is it haha i’m sorry i shouldn’t have done this

Familiarity: Age-gap setting, where Yugi becomes Atem’s caretaker. The comic mostly focuses on how Atem notices how kind (or too kind) Yugi is sometimes, but there are times where he feels distant. The plot where Atem gets into a fight with the other kid in his school because the kid mocks Yugi, and how Yugi just... accepts it even when Atem doesn’t want to say his reason of punching the kid is just.... god... I love this kind of age-gap setting like this I guess ;_;

Touchdown: Age-gap setting, but Atem is older in here (university student). The two goes to Atem’s university festival and they think about their own feeling when they got separated. On their way to drop Atem off, he confesses to Yugi, but Yugi is still unsure on his overlapping feeling between the reincarnated Atem and the Atem he knows. Make sure you play Motohiro Hata’s Rain and Aimer’s After Rain during the car scene to make the “rain” mood works even better :”)

Others:

Try For Point: A continuation of Touchdown, where Atem (like, the one from the past) visits Yugi in his dream and helps Yugi in sorting out is his feeling toward his reincarnated self. Atem’s advice is so sweet and there’s one certain line from this comic that I remember very deeply - there’s a part where he says, “If you don’t pull out the card, you won’t know what card it is, right?” to help Yugi clearing out his hesitancy ;w; at this point, I curse myself for not being able to understand Korean

[ectonurites]

a very very genuine question: so its bad to repost art but no one says anything when people repost things from the source material/creator's sketches.....why?like sure everyone who likes it may recognize the style but there are plenty of fan artists i recognize immediately, new or old art, with or without. to me it just feels the same, like either dont repost art or people should be able to repost stuff, i dont see how they can work at the same time. and this isnt me saying people should be allowed to repost and all that bc i do understand the theory of why reposting hurts artists, just that the logic doesnt seem to fit once it extends to famous artists/creators. just bc its official and easily recognizable makes it okay? how does that work? again, there are plenty of fanartists who are easily recognizable and lose no money when people repost their work (bc they posted it for free) and from my own observation, it seems it just, somehow, makes them want to do art less (from what i have read from artists themselves). why do we not consider that when it comes to official creators? wouldnt they also feasibly be less motivated seeing their hard work plastered across the internet for free when thats the sole way they make their income? and its not a system where its solely sticking it to the man bc it hurts the artists income, as well. but if it makes them happy to see people enjoying and sharing their work with others, drawing interest, why isnt it the same with fan artists? people often repost art, not out of malice or intent to claim credit, but bc they enjoy it + want to share it, esp on social media where sharing isnt a feature (instagram, for example) again im not trying to justify reposting, just confused about the contradiction

First of all instagram does have a form of sharing posts- stories. Which yes they are temporary by default, but you can use the highlight feature to collect your favorite things you’ve shared from people right there on your own profile AND it links back to the original post and can permanently be on your profile as long as you keep it there. You can even label them and everything! But then moving on to answering more of your actual questions

To start: this is a very complicated thing. And I feel everyone trying to answer it might have slightly varied opinions. 

I personally see a pretty clear distinction between ‘Officially published/released’ works (like comic book [as like you’ve probably seen I frequently post comic panels] or other materials that may have been released in creator guides, official video game art, promotional art for things, etc etc) as opposed to like, personal work and fanart. Because with official works:

There’s usually a source to buy it and you should if you’re referencing it a ton (while I don’t own every comic I’ve ever read I do have a lot and if I did read something first through illegal means [because some comics are just straight up hard to find due to age/being out of print] and enjoyed it I try to seek out a physical copy after if possible)

There is a level of far wider recognition (I know you personally might find fanartists’ styles recognizable but like, things that are in mainstream media.. have just such a higher profile. it’s not really comparable) 

If you’re not supporting the official release you’re harming the big company that published it far more than the individual artist (like, the individual artist probably also wouldn’t appreciate it, because it can effect them for sure as well, but they’re not gonna be taking the brunt of the damage unless it was entirely self-published work, which I’d definitely categorize differently from what I’m mainly talking about here.)  

Often fanartists/professional artists who aren’t that well known, in addition to wanting to just create work for the sake of it, also want to build their own platform, to have an audience that they interact with. Or like, if they’re offering commissions, a bigger platform puts you in a position where people will actually see the art and want to commission you. When you say reposts of smaller artists’ fanart doesn’t ‘loose them money’ because they didn’t charge to post it, you’re missing the fact that it makes them loose out on proper linked-back-to-them exposure. Especially like, when a repost account on insta or something says ‘ah yes credit to [username] on tumblr’ the vast majority of people who see it aren’t going to then open up a whole different website and look for the artist. Some people might! but if there’s anything i’ve learned from working professionally in arts marketing it’s that people want things that are convenient and directly in front of them. Someone who wants to see more works because they liked one is significantly more likely to click on the username of someone who posted it rather than opening up a browser or a different app and searching a separate name put in the caption. 

Then honestly, I do feel weird about reposts of professional artists’ more personal works unless the artist has stated they’re fine with people reposting with credit. It should be about the comfort level of the artist. I think a lot of professional artists who aren’t in a position where they’re as worried about building a platform, because they already have one and might have professional connections/opportunities already lined up, might not really care about reposts especially on a website they don’t use. (Like tumblr. I’m coming at this mostly from a comics artist perspective here, but most professional artists I see are waaaay more active on twitter and instagram than tumblr) If it’s a website they don’t use, it’s not taking away from the platform they had been building there for themselves. And also, some artists really just don’t give a shit, which is their choice they can make with their work! But that’s not a universal thing. One artist being fine with their personal art being reposted =/= all artists being fine with it. 

In my own experience as a fanartist, when I see my art reposted without credit, especially when it’s art I’ve also already posted on the same platform... it’s definitely disheartening. Even worse is when the repost gets even more attention than my original post. (something that has happened to me multiple times!) Like, it can get so upsetting!  Because it lets me know that someone else was using my art to build their platform and I got exactly zero benefit out of it. Then when it’s reposted with credit it’s a little less annoying, but I still don’t... get much out of it. Especially if it’s an instagram repost and they credit my tumblr not my account on there, since insta captions don’t actually do links unless it’s to other insta accounts. Also with insta for example, I have a 'business’ account set up so I can look at and track popularity of my posts and see how they’re doing as something to keep in mind when considering posting times, etc etc. When other people repost my art there I have no control over it. That sucks a lot! Also, when I quite literally ask people not to repost my art (it is IN! MY! DESCRIPTION!) and they still do, it’s just straight up disrespectful. I asked for a boundary to be respected with my work and people have just completely ignored it. That doesn’t feel good at all.

But, conversely, I’m gonna talk about my more professional irl work for a sec. I’m a graphic designer, so I do things like posters, logos, etc, When I design a poster for a client that is meant to be advertising something, even if it’s got my own original illustration or something as part of it, I know my name isn’t necessarily going to be attached to it the same way as it is with my personal work. I get a credit line somewhere, but that’s in a fine print probably not even on the poster itself at all, but that’s like, part of what I signed up for. I already get paid separately, I am giving permission for my work to be out of my own hands in that way. Professional work for a client is often setup in some way similar to this. I don’t get mad when I walk down the street and see a poster I made up somewhere without it directly ‘linking’/referencing back to me (aside from maybe my signature if it had an illustration), in fact I go ‘OMG ITS THERE ugh wait i see one pixel is off oh noooooo” and then move on with my day. It’s just an entirely different situation because that kind of work has a different arrangement from the start, where you know it’s going to be put in a different type of circulation.

So yeah, my word isn’t god here, but I definitely see official releases as having a different set of permissions based on the fact that they are published in an entirely different situation. And I think reposts of personal art aren’t cool if the artist isn’t okay with them, no matter how big a platform they have. Other people probably approach this with a slightly different perspective, but that’s mine!

[canmom]

kind of striking how one popular, prolific fanartist can both trigger a wave of interest in a book and cement certain styles and interpretations of fairly abstract character descriptions. like i really like mashe's takes on most of the baru cast but that's a lot of power... ngl I'm kinda jelly, wish my art had that impact!

but that kind of audience is something you cultivate a long while, and you don't just need a lot of skill in a pupular style, but also to getting lucky to be in major rising fandoms like locked tomb at the right time. having a narrative seems very important... if you don't do fanart, the other way to build a really big audience by drawing online seems to be to consistently update a webcomic for a long time, or i guess draw a specific kind of niche porn (and tbh that market may be saturated these days, the 'whales' of the furry fandom know where to get the stuff they want). the final one is i guess to go to art school and become a concept artist for ~The Industry~, but actually this doesn't seem to pay off as well in terms of attention, no matter how incredible your skills are as a painter. but that's fine, if you can sell to studios you don't need to have a fandom i guess

seems grim to look at it in such cynical terms, but i do really want to make art my main thing that i can live off of (if frugally!) which means like, some consideration of where what i want to draw intersects w what people want to see. of these approaches, i think webcomics with occasional animated sequences is probably the way to go? or like go all in on becoming a web animator in blender grease pencil to try to sit alongside people like worthikids? but that basically requires your stuff be short and comedic and have great sound (look at all the popular web animation: va, foley and music are crucial)

so then... webcomics seems like a place where, if you're stupidly lucky and work your ass off, you might just be able to draw something like what you actually want to draw if it's a bit weird/horny/edgy, and still tell a meaningful story in a reasonable time frame so you don't lose your entire audience. though that said, many webcomics, along with long running manga, are more or less lifelong projects it seems like.

one thing i can't do is like, aim to animate at the standard of the best anime studios at their height and make more than a few minutes of animation in my life lmao. like I'm months into refining this 10 second sequence up to the standard i want, and there's still so much to do. if that's how i want to work, i must submit to the studio system. which means learning either Japanese or French if i want to work on anything actually interesting! in any case, even if going to work in a studio is something i want to do one day, without the money to go to animation school, I'll be going the indie web animator route for a good while while i develop skills and draw up a demo reel

so i think like. need to start planning out a 10 page or so comic project to see if it's satisfying to do that. maybe something that ties in to an existing animation project like the rocket spear girl, or writing project like VECTOR.

[with-my-murder-flute]

Okay okay so, I have read The Old Guard comics for filth. The art is racist, the history’s sketchy, it’s badly misinformed about the realities of human trafficking, it encourages a lot of shitty fandom tropes, etc etc etc.

But.

I’m also learning to... make my peace? with a lot of it. Especially some of the widespread issues based on ignorance, like all the fanart putting Nicky in that white fucking surcoat and red fucking cross. At least, I’ve found a way to live with it and lower my blood pressure a bit, so I offer this, not so someone can wave it in the air and go “I can depict anything problematic I want, this post says so!” (I HAVE SO MANY INFORMATIVE POSTS, CHECK MY TAG) but in hopes that anyone else who cares about this stuff can find some small sliver of comfort among all the aggravation.

Because like, if someone watches The Old Guard on Netflix, they probably won’t log right into Tumblr and look up the longest historical essays on character backstory. (I admit that I’m an outlier.) They probably won’t watch the Youtube featurette that gives us a lot of character details, like Joe being Maghrebi or meeting Nicky in the First Crusade, much less know how that should affect their depiction.

The average fanartist, say, will watch the movie, check the tag on Instagram, google up some images from the original comics, maybe google the Crusades for some more art references, and draw cute fanart of Nicky dressed like a Templar Knight kissing Joe. That is what will happen. If we want some other trajectory to happen, we need to insert ourselves into that process, which means seriously Google-bombing our information and creating a social media blitz. (Which we may be up for! If anyone wants to try, talk to me and we’ll come up with a plan, I know people who do SEO for a living)

But until then, I’m working on not responding with shock and outrage every time that fucking red-and-white costume comes up, because it’s a lot easier on my mental health.

Because here’s the thing.

When these symbols of old bigotry and oppression are used, they are almost always used subversively.

I have an imaginary white supremacist in my head, Whitey McWhiterson, the kind of person who’d pick up a comic because it has a modern military dude with a Templar cross, fuck yeah!!!

And then I show him the fanart and see him recoil with horror.

I am way more okay with depictions of an Islamophobic group when the person wearing their insignia is really visibly demonstrating that he’s seeing the Muslim he’s with as a real person, who is good and lovable.

Does this always help? Nope. Sometimes people depict just Nicky, which is a picture that could easily be taken out of context to show the Noble Character of these Defenders of Christendom whiteness. Then, yeah, I kind of gag a bit.

But until we get the word out and can get TOG fandom substantively on board with the massive cultural project to re-envision that part of Christian-Muslim history away from the old “Crusade” narrative? It helps, a little bit, to reflect that even in the most clumsy and elementary way, people are promoting something that does, in broad strokes, promote love over hate and peace over enmity.

[scarcitti]

“gaming asks”

🎈 original post 🎈

First game you can remember playing?

either tetris or skifree or space cadet pinball

Last game you played?

BLACK BIRD by onion games for nintendo switch!! it’s basically “defender” but with that great onion games/lovedelic art style. it’s really great tho there seems to be some occasional slowdown on the switch.

Games you’ve played?

i have played “virtual boy wario land”, “pac-man VS.”, and “rockstar games presents table tennis”, among others.

Game(s) you’re currently playing?

this is too long a list but: i’m currently playing BLACK BIRD, super mario 3D world, bowser’s fury, hitman 3 (which i “beat” but am nowhere near finished with), nioh 2 (only just started but rly liked), golf on mars, ACNH. (also unfinished: ghostrunner, RDR2, prodeus, “the dark pictures: man of medan”, sludge life, metro exodus, tony hawk pro skater 1+2 (finished 1 but not 2))

Game you plan to play next?

more BLACK BIRD! i think i might have been at the final boss. that might put me in the mood for some MILLION ONION HOTEL or maybe restarting DANDY DUNGEON(, both from onion games).

Games on your to-play list?

i just bought “The Ninja Warriors Once Again, or: The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors”, ODDWORLD: stranger’s wrath HD, and “Sky Racket” when they were on sale on the eshop recently. i also downloaded SINE MORA EX, might load that up whenever i’m done with BLACK BIRD. i might try to play more cyberpunk 2077 before tim rogers’s review hits (though i didn’t really like the game at all). i rly wanna play more nioh 2 as well. generally, prey (2017), sekiro, RE4, pathologic 2, and rain world.

Game you’d get if time / money was no object?

chess, netrunner, magic the gathering. or rainbow six seige

Favorite game?

DOOM (1993), or TETRIS EFFECT, or moon: Remix RPG Adventure (or donkey kong: jungle beat)

Favorite game franchise ?

donkey kong, “souls”, or mario

Favorite game in a series?

mario 3, f-zero GX

Favorite game to play?

f-zero gx or god hand. maybe sekiro. using those gamecube shoulder buttons to slide side to side in F0GX and then pulling both for those 90° turns feels amazing. no dodge has ever felt better than using the right stick in “god hand”.

Most frustrating game to play?

tetris 99 is just not what i like abt tetris. dirt 5 feels like competitive plastic chewing. forced TAA, crashes, jerkweed voice fuckers spitting in your ear constantly, gross dutch angled race countdown, bogus music 😑 bogus! rockstar games also frustrate me (tho i like RDR2 & table tennis (& i probably like the manhunt games)); those awful menus do nothing but clunk. (having to hit “A” scroll the map in the map tab in GTA V? when the map is the only thing you can interact with on screen? 😑)

Comfort game?

mario kart 8 dx, puyo puyo tetris

Underrated game?

moon: Remix RPG Adventure, kane & lynch 2: dog days, rock band unplugged

Game that reminds you of your childhood?

lego star wars, “star wars battlefront ii: the 2004 one”

Game you’re really good at?

guideline tetris. i’m also good at star wars battlefront ii but only on mos eisley and only against bots

Game with the most playtime?

across different versions, tetris. on my switch ACNH takes the cake over BOTW, puyo puyo tetris, and mario kart 8 dx. on steam it’s dirt 4.

Favorite console?

PS2 & GBA SP (which just both happen to be the first consoles i had as a kid). honorable mentions to the gamecube, the personal computer (which is the actual best but does not count, i suppose), and “the switch pro”.

Favorite game ending?

nier automata or moon: Remix RPG Adventure or APE OUT

Favorite genre / kind of game?

racing games (see: f-zero GX, burnout 2, outrun 2, dirt 4, mario kart 8 dx, hotshot racing, etc.), “stylish character action” (god hand, bayonetta 2) or “hard action” (god hand, ape out, disc room, tormentor X punisher), platformers

Favorite side games / quests?

the baker in moon: Remix RPG Adventure, siegward in dark souls iii, dark souls/bloodborne quests in general

Favorite cheat codes / glitches?

my fav cheat code is the one in lego star wars that changes all guns to coffee mugs. in super mario land 2: six golden coins you can make mario fall into the game’s memory and walk directly to the end of the game.

Favorite game mechanism?

the directional dodges in GOD HAND. the push/grab in APE OUT. looping level design, like doom or dark souls or metroid. getting a tetris.

Favorite characters from a game?

wario, bayonetta, everyone in moon, donkey kong, the guy from panic restaurant 

Favorite boss battle?

beauvoir from nier automata during route B. also a fan of the final boss in dark souls iii. 

Favorite game soundtrack?

katamari damacy, moon, mario 3, botw, ape out

Most calming game soundtrack?

tetris effect, DKC, firelink shrine theme/DS1 menu music

Most energetic / pump up game soundtrack?

ape out, those digital hardcore songs in TAIKO NO TATSUJIN

Favorite boss fight music?

something from splatoon or bloodborne probably

Favorite game aesthetic?

megaman legends, sonic mania, mario 3, the wario land games, moon

Favorite character designs?

moon, chulip, the wario land series, katamari, panic restaurant

Favorite game fanart / fanartist?

splendidland

Favorite game fanfiction / author?

those splendidland comics where mario says fuck or where smash brothers characters are gay for each other. also this CYELATM

Do you make fancontent for any games?

i got ok at drawing wario a while ago. i should practice again

What streamers / playthroughs would you recommend?

jerma985: jurassic park trespasser, saw 1 & 2. giant bomb: “giant bomb makes mario”, “hitsmas”. aurateur.

What skins are on your controllers?

my own :-(

Are you a completionist?

no, i do play slowly though. as far as being a series/franchise completionist, i am bad about thinking i need context for new games by playing old games in the same genre first

Has anything made you ragequit a game?

ornsein & smough :-( bad menus, slow tutorials in lots of games

What do your customizable characters look like?

green skinned ladies with mustaches, balding or with a bob

What game would you suggest to a non-gamer?

golf on mars, bad chess

[malignedaffairs]

Artist Interview

Some time ago I was asked to answer some questions for a Russian community that collects interviews from various fanartists - what a lovely idea! Here’s the Russian translation along with lots of other interesting interviews. Under the cut is the English version.

On the artist

Nickname: Fifi

Date of birth: December 11th

What city are you from? Berlin

What genre in music do you prefer? Are there any favorite bands/singers? Dark electro, industrial, gothic, EBM, new wave, with a little side of metal and rock’n’roll. My favourite band is Rammstein.

The book that made the most impression and why? There’s nothing life-changing, but I have a ritual of reading before bedtime and some books have been great companions, mostly because they are gripping as hell or because they build up a huge world to blissfully get lost in. I really enjoyed In Cold Blood, The Swarm, Out, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Fifth Woman, Into Thin Air, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings and ASOIAF.

What are your hobbies besides artistic creativity? Video games, reading up/watching documentaries on things like history, nature, the psychology connected to criminal cases or the obscure niche interest du jour, tasting and trying to cook food from around the world, spending time with close friends and family, planning trips and travelling, board games, being outside in nature, doting on my cat.

What movies (TV series) do you like to watch? Is there something you revise (recommend)? I prefer short thriller/mystery/horror series like Zone Blanche, The Sinner, La Forêt, Penny Dreadful, period dramas like Moon Lovers or The Tudors, movies/series that are funny and thoughtful like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Intouchables and Better Call Saul, Tarantino movies, oh and movies/series about food!

Favorite anime? Mushishi, Hellsing Ultimate, Samurai Champloo, Kuroko no Basuke, Dragonball Z

Favorite manga? Vagabond, Blade of the Immortal, Naruto, Dragonball, Rookies, Shokugeki no Soma

Favorite pictures, installations? Romanticism paintings, they’re so atmospheric. And traditional artwork from indigenous cultures.

Is there something that you would have trouble parting with? (Some thing, for example) There are things like my old diaries or my hard drive full of photos and drawings, but in general I’m more attached to places than to things.

What are your future plans? Getting better at my job, falling in love, lots of drawings.

On the art

What was the beginning of your passion? Discovering how crayons work as a toddler, I guess.

Do you think the academic base is obligatory and should everyone go through universities to be good masters? I think a profound education can totally polish your technical skills, so the benefits can be great. But art is very individual, and you don’t need university for expressing yourself creatively. When I graduated from high school I thought about studying to become a professional artist, but decided on keeping it a leisure activity for me to unwind and express myself without any pressure.

How long have you been drawing? I’ve been drawing from early childhood.

Tell us about the process of drawing. Where do you start, how do you finish? How much time is spent on drawing? When I’m super lazy, I just use one layer. I start with a rough sketch and refine it by just adding cleaner lines on top and erasing the messy parts. When I’m less lazy I do a rough sketch and a second layer of clean lines on top. During the process I often adjust proportions by cutting, warping and relocating parts of the content. For a comic I first think of a rough plot and draft the dialogue, then make a rough storyboard with page thumbnails. I usually only plan around three pages at a time, never the whole thing in one go. Colouring is another beast entirely. No system there whatsoever, I just put colours on there and hope for the best. Usually a drawing takes me at least two hours, comic pages take up to eight hours. I mostly use the same three brushes all the time.

How did your nickname appear? Fifi-la-fumeuse is a random thing I found in a book about curiosities I bought in Paris a long time ago. It’s basically a vintage doll that was used for educating students about the dangers of smoking during pregnancy. I liked how creepy it looked and the name sounds nice and a little similar to my real name, so I’ve kept it ever since. Malignedaffairs is an allusion to the “forbidden” nature of Itasasu, which was my OTP when I started my blog back in 2012/13. Nowadays I’m finding the name rather corny, but it’s what most people associate with my art, so I’m just keeping it.

What inspires you? Everyday life, my feelings, media, exchanging ideas with people within the fandom.

How do you feel about criticism? Do you criticize other artists? I’m not here for the criticism. My first and foremost goals in posting art on the internet are expressing my feelings, getting in touch with like-minded people and having fun, not necessarily improving my artwork or meeting any achievement goals. I’m grateful for constructive criticism if I respect and trust the person who gives it. I only give criticism if invited to do so.

Do you have your own characters? Or maybe the whole universe? Tell a little about it. No, I don’t have any OCs at all.

How did you come to the Naruto fandom? What kind of heroes do you draw and why them? My ex bf was a big fan of Naruto and always tried to get me into it, but I found it boring and childish. After we broke up though, I felt really lost and started to watch Naruto as a way to feel a little closer to him, and before I knew it I was super into the plot and the characters and then Itachi appeared and the story of the Uchiha brothers struck a very deep chord with me. I’m very much into beautiful, tragic, brilliant but troubled characters who are sweet cinnamon rolls inside, and Itachi and Shisui are like the posterboys for this concept. I feel like they’re the perfect muses for me to give some kind of shape to my ideals of love and mutual respect.

Do you agree with the opinion that national self-perception, as an intellectual factor, is present in the creative process? You’re always influenced by the social environment, the battles and the values you grew up with, and some of that can be determined by your nationality. Themes like identity, society, communication, politics and ideologies are often expressed in art, and if that’s the case you can’t and probably don’t even aim to separate it from national self-perception. I think it’s more present in original art than in fanart though.

What topics worry you and most often are reflected in your work? Belonging, mutual love, loss, sex.

Do you consider drawing to be your recognition in life? Do you plan to continue to devote yourself to this business? It’s an important part of my life and I’m going to do it as long as it feels right, but I won’t pressure myself.

What advice do you have for novice artists? Expect your drawings to look ugly in the beginning and draw all the ugly pictures anyway. Draw whatever attracts you, however silly it may seem. “Art block” means you should lower the pressure on yourself and allow yourself to draw something ugly, silly or uncreative, or even take a break from drawing. Art is not about achievement but about expression. Don’t take it personally when no one seems to appreciate your art right away. Instead actively seek out like-minded people in online communities or in real life, get engaged and show your art to them. Also: flip that canvas!

[theexistentiallyqueer]

Okay so I’ve been thinking about that really bad Hot Take that’s been circulating about fanfiction. And it’s been kind of simmering in me. The root of the problem with it isn’t so much that it diminishes the quality of fanfiction so much as the way it characterizes two completely different genres of media.

Preface: at no point is this ever, ever, ever a diatribe or condemnation against fanart or the work fanartists put into their work. This is about the value that is ascribed to visual art vs the value ascribed to literary art. I am trying to talk specifically about the denigration of literary art in fandom spaces and the way it’s been recently, in a very popular tumblr post, martyred at the expense of queer and disabled writers and writers of color.

Fanart (as a collective genre, according to that post) - Good, artistically-driven, pure, wholesome. Fanartists draw for the sake of becoming better artists, and every work a fanartist draws or creates is made with the goal of becoming a better artist. Fanartists never draw anything that is base, silly, shippy, or smutty; if there is pornographic art, it isn’t pornographic but Erotica. There is no such thing as low- or middling-quality art, because all artists are striving to sharpen their skills and become better artists, and there are no fanartists who draw just for fun or shits and giggles. Fanartists achieve fame purely on the merit of their own artistic ability. There’s no room to criticize fanartists who attempt to cis-wash trans (or trans pesenting) characters, or fanartists who blatantly, frequently, and with frankly no impunity (as their art is reblogged, and reblogged, and reblogged) whitewash characters of color.

Fanfiction (as a collective genre, according to that post) - Smutty, ship-fodder, audience-pleasing trash. Fanfic writers write for the sake of expressing their inner boners or enacting their internal fantasies. No fanfic writers seek a sense of growth in their writing or work to improve their writing in any way. The only reason any works of fanfiction are popular is because they cater to the readership’s base instincts, and the True Authors, the Really Daring authors who write Real Literary Content, are cast the wayside.

It’s such a two-dimensional view of the situation--and it doesn’t even take into account edited content, such as gifsets, which makes up a huge portion of fandom content and has been a type of content, along with fanart, that fanfic writers have long voiced their (our) upset about getting more active & polarized attention than written works. It presents this dichotic view of fanart good/fanfiction bad. Which is also incredibly ugly and disturbing when you consider the fact that fanfiction is the earliest form of curated fan content, and fanfiction itself is inherently transformative in a way that fanart and edits are not, because fanwork in general, and and fanfiction in particular, is inherently in and of itself the public (fans) themselves overriding the corporate-owned landscape with their subversive interpretations.

Like, I have seen not-good fanart. I have seen bland, unimpressive, generic fanart. There is fanart from artists who don’t have their own unique sense of style. Fanart from artists who are just starting out and haven’t developed their skills yet. Fanart from artists who draw as a hobby, and damn they may be good, but they don’t give a fuck about contributing to The Body of Artistry because they have bills to pay and career interests outside of art, and damn, they’d really rather draw these two characters making out, or blushing at each other, or straight-up fucking, than they would create something of Great Artistic Importance. That art gets so many notes. It is liked and reblogged and shared.

And that’s all valid, because art ISN’T A COMPETITIVE SPORT. I embrace fanartists who draw just because they want to, because they don’t care about quality or artistic ideals or whatever, and just want to draw someone being happy, or sad, or angry, or getting dicked down, or whatever!!! It doesn’t matter. Draw because you want to draw. Because your art is an expression of yourself that speaks of your experiences and transgresses the definitions of the world you’ve been told to adhere to. You make art for yourself, to say fuck the system!!!! We’re just the lucky souls who get to appreciate it afterwards.

The complaints that come from fanfic writers--and yes!!! I am one, so proceed with the accusations of butthurt--are that fanart and edits get more social media attention (in the forms of likes, reblogs, retweets, shares, etc.) than fanfic does.

And it’s a valid complaint! It isn’t rooted in some alien reality that fanfiction is inherently more base and less artistic than fanart. I’ve seen some pretty aesthetically displeasing fanart get a high reblog count. And I’ve seen some incredible works of literary attention get no recs, no likes, no comments. I’ve seen works of middling writers who have a lot of fucking talent and show it in their work, and yeah maybe they write porn, but their prose SINGS, and no one comments, no one shares it, no one makes their love of it public the same way they do the fanart, the same way they do the edits and the gifsets.

It’s rooted in two things:

1. Literature (which fanfiction is a subgenre of) takes time to appreciate. You can look at a piece of art and reblog it without thinking about it. It could be a work on par with the Mona Lisa, and you could still look at it without any aesthetic or artistic sense and say, “Hey, that looks pretty.” But you can’t read without thinking; reading is an active mental pursuit you have to engage with. (If you try to pull out Twilight on this point to fight me, I’ll fight you back. I’ve actively read Twilight. Even reading awful literature takes effort; arguably it takes more effort than reading something good).

2. Literature is hard to market with words, because when you’re trying to encourage other people to read it, you have to use even more words. You have to use words to convince someone to read even more words! Some fanartists draw comics or fanart inspired by fanfiction--I love those artists and they do more for us than they could possibly know--but for the most part, you can’t use visuals to show someone why they should invest their time in reading a thing. And unlike fanart--when it’s a tribute, when it’s a showcase of the character’s or characters’ canonical attributes--fanfiction can’t be green-stamped by creators, because fanfiction is inherently built in narrative, and canon-compliant or not, that opens the legal owners of the property up to legal disputes.

So much easier, then, to focus on fanart, which distribution and publishing companies love because they see free advertising in sharing it, to complain that fanfiction is a dispirited genre of unartistic creators who just want to read the queer version of a bodice-ripper.

And then we get to the question of: why is the bodice ripper so bad? Are you willing to critique Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski with the same derision you have for queer writers? Are you going to hold the wish-fulfillment fantasies and introspective examinations of sexuality in relation to gender, race, class, and physical ability written by writers expressing their own experiences as inherently debauched and debased because pornographic fanfiction is popular, but not hold George R R Martin to the same standard? Are you going to criticize the prejudices and disparities and biases in publishing that prevent marginalized writers from being able to break into the industry? 

Are you ready to combat the enduring popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is overwhelmingly a series of heroism tales about shitty and mediocre white men?

Are you going to take aim at HBO for taking a fantasy series that, while still written by a sexist author who has a disturbing fixation on female sexuality has uplifted its female characters as heroes in their own right, and then drove it into the dirt to end on a note with the male “hero” murdering his female lover, an abuse survivor, after engaging her in an intimate kiss?

Did you take issue with the streaming blockbuster Stranger Things only confirming a character as canonically gay--after planning to have her be a straight romantic option for a major character--because the actress is the one who repeatedly badgered the showrunners about how she didn’t feel her character fit that role?

Are you invested in the fact that video games continue to be majority white, majority male, majority able-bodied, and majority inaccessible to disabled gamers?

You want to complain about fanfiction having too much porn and somehow that deligitimizes fanfiction as a genre as a whole?

Fuck off. There are hundreds, thousands even more likely, of other authors of equal skill to you or greater, who are struggling to have their works recognized in fandoms that don’t want to put the effort in to reading them, the effort into sharing and appreciating them. It’s harder to make someone care about a fanfic. You can reblog a fanart, and your followers will see the art itself right away. If you reblog fanfic, they have to make the conscious choice to engage with it. And none of that is your fault, because you can’t control how other people engage with fan content, but you can advocate, vocally, for the fair and equal respect for fanfiction and fan-written content. You can remind people, again and again, how fanfic writers do so much for so little.

But you want to come into my house and compare fanart to fanficton and claim one is inherently better? You’re the Banksy to my Catherynne L Valente, to my N.K. Jemisin, to my Seanan McGuire.

Start understanding the system is built against us all and start understanding why your battle is uphill. What’s oppressing your creative success is a white, straight, cis monopoly on what the good story, what the correct story is, limiting your options, tying you to a narrative you don’t belong to. Queerness and marginalization exist beyond what’s depicted in mainstream media, and fans expressing that through their own written content?

That’s us taking back the corporate-owned narrative for ourselves. It’s self-liberation through the written word. And yeah, some of it is porn.

It’s porn when it’s a drawing too.

[notwhelmedyet]

More than Meets the Eye, beginner’s guide / resources

This guide is long. Use the headings to find the information you need & if you’ve got resources this post lacks send them along!

Has anyone pitched the comic More than Meets the Eye to you yet? It’s a very gay action-adventure comedic drama with robots and you would probably love it (especially if you’re lgbt and/or have good taste). Here’s a few posts/articles that will tell you why you’d love it:

This article review/retrospective was what got me to read MTMTE. (warning - it has a bunch of spoilers, that didn’t bother me but might bother you)

My semi-jokey MTMTE sales pitch

@zzxid’s salespitch with dancing rats

This full entire page of radical space socialist philosophy

15 Reasons Why MTMTE/the sequel is The Best Transformers Comic (warning - has spoilers, though some will prob go over your head as a new reader)

Kiss me, Chromedome - retrospective article by The Guardian, contains some spoilers

How/Where to Read

Okay, maybe you’re convinced. Now you want to know how/where to read MTMTE. Got you covered:

Detailed guide by @gaymilesedgeworth: How to start reading Transformers Comics

My very short answer: just read MTMTE in trade paperback form. That way all the issues are in order and you get all the extra stuff (there are prose stories after a couple issues that are very important so don’t skip them!) They’re available that way as both physical and digital books.

Here’s some ways to get access, legally (US centric, sorry):

If your local library has Hoopla (digital library subscription service), you may have access to some of the MTMTE trades that way. They’d be here; but check if you library has Hoopla first.

Your local library very well might have physical copies, so check their website!

If not and you’re very patient you can often request inter-library loans (your library borrows the books from another library) or request your library purchase materials.

You can buy digital trades via either IDW or Comixology. Comixology also includes the first 5 volumes in their comics subscription service. I’ve seen the series go on sale on both of these sites at least 4 times in the past 6 months, so keep an eye out! (Sometimes IDW participates in humble bundles, which are great, but those sales are far more infrequent)

You can also buy them in trade form from wherever you can buy books/comics. US links: Amazon, B&N, Comic Store Locators

Character Guides

So you’ve picked up this comic and oh boy there are a lot of robots. You’re a little intimidated. Maybe you’re having a hard time telling them apart.

If you have the paperback, there’s a guide to the characters on the back cover/the last page of the digital volume. See a copy here.

It’s okay if you keep reading not knowing who these robots are. For real. You’ll get the hang of it. Don’t worry if it takes you awhile and you’re confused. Everyone’s a little lost the first time through.

Some helpful posts in case you’re struggling:

Here’s a guide that matches appearance -> name, and one that matches name -> background info (both spoiler free for issues 1-22)

A visual guide by @squireofgeekdom​ and @kscinewt​: here

Another helpful visual character guide by @bluering8: here

If you’re confused and need help, please ask! I’m willing to answer questions, I know @gaymilesedgeworth has volunteered to answer new reader questions. (Willing to help out new readers? Lemme know and I’ll make this a list)

Lore & Background Info

Okay, so maybe now you’ve gotten into it. You want more information, you want to know all the background lore, you want to dig deep. Awesome! Got you covered!

The holy grail of Transformers information, TFwiki. A slightly snarky, overly-minutely-detailed wiki for the digital age.

They’ve also got a tumblr if you’ve got questions.

And Chris McFeely, one of the main editors, runs a Youtube series called The Basics where he explains characters/concepts across continuities

The podcast Sound.wav has episodes talking about every issue of MTMTE in great detail.

The writer of More than Meets the Eye, James Roberts, answers fan questions on his twitter. I’ve archived a lot of those questions at @jrtweetsindex​.

More than Meets the Eye has a soundtrack, because of course it does. People have made playlists collecting it on spotify and youtube.

Further Reading

I finished MTMTE, what’s next?

If you want the direct sequel to MTMTE, go straight to Lost Light, the sequel series. It’s still ongoing and (as of right now) 12 issues have been released. There are spoilers for it EVERYWHERE on Tumblr, fair warning.

There are also a bunch of other series within the IDW comics universe, depending on what you’re interested in.

@zandergb has a chronological listing of all the IDW comics

TFwiki summarizes the IDW comics line

alt chronological guide

another guide/reading order.

You don’t have to read all the books! If you want to just read Lost Light/MTMTE, you can do just that.

There’s also a bunch of animated series, which don’t exist in the same continuity as the IDW comics. Some of them are well liked.

@ponett has a guide that’ll help you decide which you’d enjoy

And here’s a brief guide by TFWiki

There’s also the Michael Bay movies which are awful and so is he. Not gonna recommend watching them, but if you wanted to learn about film theory by listening to Lindsay Ellis dissect them, there’s a youtube series for that.

Fan Stuff

Okay...but what about fan content and fanfic and art and community events?

First thing to know: Transformers content is posted on tumblr under the tag Maccadam. (more detailed explanation why) A lot of mtmte content is also under ‘mtmte’, so look there too. I only use Maccadam if I think a post deserves to be seen by a lot of people but opinions vary.

Second thing to know - the sequel to MTMTE, Lost Light is still being published and you will see ALL SORTS OF SPOILERS for it on Tumblr. To mitigate the damage, try blocking “LL Spoilers” “Lost Light Spoilers” and “Wednesday Spoilers”. You cannot avoid it all, so if you don’t want anything spoiled, get caught up on both MTMTE and Lost Light before browsing around Tumblr.

Fanfiction:

Warning! A lot of Transformers fanfiction is smut. Please take a moment to integrate this fact into your understanding of the universe. If you can handle that, go ahead to AO3.

If you’re curious about all the terminology used in those fics, here’s a guide to it (not every writer uses every word, but this will get you started)

If you’re not into the idea of robots having sex, here’s a link to AO3 with my personal best-effort safe-search (no guarantees, relies upon people tagging properly)

And here’s a blog dedicated to recommending good sfw transformers fanfiction

If you want to know more about Transformers fanfic, I did a whole statistical survey of it, cause I’m a dork.

Here’s an old-school Transformers-only fanfic archive (I don’t see a category for IDW comics but maybe you can find somehing)

Fanart&Fanfic Events/Zines/Gift Exchanges/Collaborative Projects:

As many active projects as I could find - I’ll try to keep this one updated

Fan Artists:

(same warning as the fanfic - there’s a goodly amount of transformers pornographic art, be aware of that and block ‘nsfw’ if necessary)

There are a ton of active fanartists who draw IDW Transformers art. If you search a bit under ‘Maccadam’ you’ll find them.

@iaconlibrary reblogs a great deal of fanart & is a great place to start browsing

Roleplay:

If you’re into roleplaying on tumblr @teletrans-comm-unit runs a master list of active rp blogs

Transformers: Lost and Found is a long-running independent game set on the Lost Light

TF:Galaxy appears to be a forum-based tf roleplay game

My Favorite Jokes:

The best amazon review

Emotional labor (nsfw-ish warning)

Bros with Vows

Hands

Conventions:

There are Transformers-specific conventions, which is pretty cool! I know nothing about them but tfwiki has some info: Official and Unofficial conventions.

Regrettable Opinions:

hey this is just a quick guide of things not to do so you don’t hurt other people in the community

Do not compare Megatron to Hitler. The comparison is both vapid and offensive, as Jewish members of this community have pointed out time and again.

Don’t say transphobic/homophobic/racist/antisemitic/sexist things. You’re better than that!

Don’t attack the creators of the books/harass them on social media/make bizarre unfounded accusations of them acting in bad faith

we’re really lucky that JRo and the other creators interact with us & answer questions and don’t you dare screw that up, I’m trusting you.

on a less serious but useful etiquette note: don’t tag creators into negative reviews of their work/people complaining about their work. It’s rude to the creator & the reviewer.

That was a short list but remember to also treat other people with respect & that it’s okay to disengage with content/people that upset you.

Fandom:

There’s a guide on Fanlore, but it’s freakishly outdated and doesn’t even mention the comics. If you’re a informed tf fan maybe you should update it. 😉

Tumblr!

MTMTE is a pretty small community on Tumblr, but there are a few cool folks. Remember, ‘maccadam’ and ‘mtmte’ are your tags of choice

Various websites!

Since the transformers fandom is super old, there are a bunch of dedicated websites with traditional forums to chat on. (most of these are news sites that also contain forums) idk anything about them but maybe forums are your thing:

TFW2005 - big site with a large community but be warned there appear to be more than a few alarmingly bigoted people on that site

TFormers

Cybertron.CA

Allspark.com

Seibertron

I’m gonna throw the IDW TF reddit on this list rather than make a new section

Discord!

there’s at least two active discords at the moment. I know nothing about them or discord, but maybe one of them would be to your liking:

#1 - run by @zzxid

#2 - run by ??

The community is, like all fan communities, is a mix of good and bad, awkward and friendly, opinionated and goofy, self-serious and offensive. You won’t like or agree with everyone and there are some folks you should probably block.

Just find some people who share your general outlook & are interacting with the books in the same way you want to 💕

-Lynn. I have no qualifications to write this guide, I am not an authority of anything. I just really want you to love these books. Last updated on Dec 24, 2017, click through to check for any updates.

image descriptions below cut:

[image 1: Panel from MTMTE of Rewdind and Chromedome kneeling and holding hands while Chromedome says “Rewind, my love, it’s not for me to say.”]

[image 2: Fortress Maximus covered in small brightly colored robots shaped like various animals saying “Don’t worry, my friend, all taken care of.]

[image 3: Swerve holding a cartoonish drawing of Prowl and pointing at it, saying “No! Prowl with the head spikes and the cruel mouth and the - cross all the time! Epically, preemptively, existentially cross! And cold! Supercilious and cold! Imagine Ultra Magnus without the warmth and people skills. How can you not know who Prowl is?”]

[image 4: Trailgate in holomatter form, holding the first issue of More than Meets the Eye and saying: “Besides, I didn’t say I didn’t like it - I just don’t understand all the words. And it presumes a degree of familiarity with the Autobot/Decepticon war that I still don’t have...I suppose there’s always the wiki. Or tumblr...”

Cyclonus from off panel: “I told you to stay off Tumblr.”

Tailgate: “You’re right: spoilers. I want to enjoy it issue by issue - it only goes up to 43.”]

[image 5: Drift smiling a big fake smile and saying: “Anyway - let’s move on.”]

[image 6: A panel of Cyclonus gazing out the window in his dark and empty bedroom with a panel of narration: “Of course we’re not the only ones. This ship is a refuge for the emotionally inarticulate.”]

[guidingthulite]

A, B!!!, J, L, N, P, Q, R, S, T, Z!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLS TELL oof i love ur writing!!

OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN THANKS EMY!!!

aaaaa you love my writing? i’m so happy to hear that

A: Your current OTP.

HAMAHAYA. HAMAHAYA BIG TIME. And also lowkey Ishimondo but HamaHaya is my main one!!! I love them so much and I have so many headcanons and stories for them!!! That’s kinda why I want to put them on poly relationships? Like I want these relationships to be explored but I can’t take them away from each other

B: A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind.

I haven’t considered Yuuichi ² (and i refuse to call it any other way) but man did you change my mind. Did you.

Also there was this one time I just liked MasaHika as a BROTP but then @producktions and my brother came and… I surrendered :’D

J: Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr.

Oh, Voltron definitely! I saw all this fanart, and fics and stuff and all I knew it was filed under ‘gays in space’, but then @justanothermatsugirl and @srta-double invited me to watch and… Porntron came to be. And Porntron is the best thing. Ever.

L: Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for?

It depends? I usually try to make both of us happy when it comes to requests, for example, if that person likes, say, HamaHaya but I feel like I want HamaKura I will ask them for HamaHaya anyways because 1. HAMAHAYA and 2. Maybe they will put more feel into the art!!! And what is most important of art is the feelings that it is put into it! Best art is the art you can tell the author put all their heart on~!

but if i could choose anything, give me the hamahayakuraminamana, you cowards

N: Your favorite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over).

Um… Is it normal I want to say the MOTHER fandom on 2014? Especifically on DA. It was like a tiny family… Everyone knew each other. Everyone was nice with each other. It was so nice. But now everyone parted ways and I have no idea where everyone is. Most left DA (and so did I) and I can’t help but wonder where they are. But my current fandom is really nice too… It’s like a family, too… Sometimes.

P: Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

Lately I’ve been thinking about a Go Ares AU a lot and hamano goes to tengawara for obvious reasons but that’s kinda boring so I gotta think about something more interesting >:3c

Kind of a joke AU, but still:

Have you guys ever heard about ~LA FERIA~? It’s like this weird Spanish thing we have. Everyone dances and sings these lame guitar songs which are mostly like aAAAAaAAAaaaYYYYYYYY @loreprotectionsquad can confirm BUT! that’s not the interesting thing! The interesting thing about Feria is that we basically get a mini amusement park on our town, just because! 

So my brother and I thought about some Go kids there and it just…

Hamano gets Kurama a giant Snake plush and he tries to ride on a… Ride with it and it almost slips out but he clings to it and manages to save it. Hamano thinks it’s adorable. Kurama swears he’ll kill him if he tells someone. Hamano promised Hayami he’d get a plushie for him too, but he is unable (because you can only win one plush per day) so Hayami gets a dolphin plush for him. Imagine Hayami walking around with two overly joyful boyfriends clinging to their giant plushies. Goals.

Kirino and Shindou ride on the ferris wheel which they don’t set up anymore, but still. and Ibuki tries to climb it but fails (?

Shinsuke rides on some dinosaur themed train, and there’s clowns with balloons and stuff you can snatch from them. He gets a plastic axe. Which are super hard to get i need to tell you the story of how i got one when i was like 8. it was so stupid it’s funny He somehow convinces Tsurugi to ride too, while Tenma and Aoi look at them. They have become the ultime balloon snatchers. No one can stop them. Aoi and Tenma are so proud.

Taiyou comes, sees Tenma and waves at him, approaching him. Then all of the sudden, Fuyuka comes rushing after him, and tells Tenma that ‘Taiyou should be in right now, sorry for the inconvenience’ and picks him by the stomach (you know… like a kitten, with her arm around his torso? you get me, right?) while Taiyou tries to escape, but fails.

Kariya and Hikaru try to hide from Hiroto and Midorikawa, who have come with them, but Kariya wants some time alone, while they want to take pics of everything they do, basically.

Something about Yukimura and Fubuki was mentioned, along with Kishibe and Aphrodi, but I don’t remember ;v; Also, Amagi going with Mahoro and Yukie, and all of the third years (Minamisawa as well, for some reason) going together too.

My brother kinda dislikes Galaxy (except Tetsukado, Kusaka and Konoha) so I’ll do their stuff myself.

Minaho and Manabe compete to see who will get more plushies. They only get one keychain working together. They give it to the first team member that they see because they don’t know who should keep it.

But that was after the previously mentioned day, so the Second Year Trio got them plushies instead (they got the hang of one game and they WILL make the most of it. And, they have to help a boyfriend out, right?

So they spend the rest of the festivity together. And they have fun and stuff.

There’s one ride with horses. Konoha spends 98/100 there. Otherwise, she wouldn’t come. It’s so noisy, and crowded…

Kusaka comes and goes to check on her. He can’t ride on most… Rides (this is redundant) anyways. He’s too tall.

Tetsukado and Hamano competed to see who was better at Duck-Fishing. Let’s just say that Shinsuke and Hamano’s boyfriends came home with lots of plushes and prices…

Sakura aced all the games. How did she manage, no one knows (she was, in fact, the first one Minaho and Manabe offered the keychain to. But she rejected it and got two super sparkly keychains for them instead. Minaho and Manabe offered it anyways in exchange but she said that it was nothing and that they should keep the one they got.

Matatagi showed his brothers the place and rode on some rides (seriously how is this so redundant). Eventually they joined the Plushie Fest. Matatagi’s brothers cheered. He, not so much, not when he had to carry around giant plushies for the rest of the day, as his brothers were too busy exploring around.

I think that’s all??? Am I forgetting someone? except zanakurou but i don’t know what to do with him. he dances sevillanas. i don’t know. sorry darling

Oh, yeah, and there’s also this AU my brother and I made in which Kurama is a time traveler and quite literally Hamano and Hayami’s son (he has a big sister named Estrella but that’s for another time) and he has come because their parents were too slow too realize they had feelings for each other and he fears for his existence and his sister’s (???

Q: A ship you’ve abandoned and why.

Can you believe I used to ship Min/////a/kura? But, to be honest, I didn’t know what that was. I just found some comic of them and I thought it was cute. Then I got more into InaEle, and well…

I’m saying that one because I can’t think of anything else XD

R: A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships.

The Kurama multiship fest, which I will proceed to explain, even though the first one is sorta popular, but still:

Hamano and Hayami, because I saw HamaKura and I thought it was really cute! (when i got used to kurama, at first i didn’t like him but i found hamahayakura and i went ‘eeeeeeeehhh’ but you already know that story) then I thought of HamaHaya + HamaKura and Hayami just got into the package for some reason XD

Hikaru, because I was salty I didn’t ship him with Minamisawa and I wanted to ship him with someone but I didn’t know who, then he had a little scene with Hikaru on the games (when they go look for Shinsuke or something) and a lightbulb light up on my head

Tenma because, honestly, how can you have someone you ship with everyone but not Tenma? Plus it’s cute. 

Tsurugi because I saw somebody posting drawings of them and I went ‘hey they cute’ and that’s all. also the fandom team might or might not had something to do with it

Kariya because they had this scene when they went to China on CS that i don’t even remember but what i do remember is my brother asking me why i wasn’t saying anything about the ship, and i went ‘well, i don’t, BUUUUUUUUUT’ and so it started.

Minaho because, and listen well because this one is weird, I was in class, and I was bored, and I decided to make quadrants for some InaEle characters, I started by Minaho and went ‘huh so, Moirail, Manabe, Matesprit, Manabe, Kismesis, Manab-wait’ so I decided to crack it up a bit and now it was ‘Moirail, Hamano, Matesprit, Manabe’ but I wanted to give him a Kismesis (that could’ve been perfectly Matatagi, but I didn’t think of that because I’m dumb) (also read: a love rivalry more or less) so I gave him Kurama. THEN I played BigBang and they had a small interaction and since back then I couldn’t even read Hiragana I don’t know what they said but Kurama made a sad face afterwards so I take it as I was right

Fei because Kurama learns Bouncer Rabbit on Galaxy (actually the two-people version. He does it with Hamano because I’m obvious) and also Fei stole his number, now Kurama has to steal something back (???

Taiyou because on my CS game Kurama, Taiyou and Hikaru always do hissatsus together on the random thing (that makes also Sakura and Matatagi do Butterfly Dream together all the time for some reason. Which is funny because I lowkey shipped it before starting Galaxy) so I got used to seeing them together.

Ibuki because my brother always calls them losers (he’s a bit mean sometimes, but I love him ;v;) so I started relating them n stuff.

Hakuryuu because my brother and I have this thing called the ‘Spammer Club’ which is for characters that say other character’s name a lot. We have Hakuryuu (who we jokingly call churugispammer) Miyasaka, Ibuki, Hakuryuu and Kurama got in too for some reason. So yeah. It happened. N stuff.

Also I brotp him with Kinako, but I brotp Kinako with everyone.

S: What’s a headcanon you have?

Hmm… I headcanon that out of the Second Year Trio, only Hamano has siblings (2 sisters, him being the middle sib- and no that’s not me self projecting ok) 

Hayami has mentioned more than once on the games that he wants to be a scientist, and I headcanon that it’s because his mother is! Which also means she’s super busy most of the time. So Hayami is quite dependent, but he can’t cook for his life. Hamano is surprisingly okay at cooking, and he’s learning to bake.

Also, Hayami really likes penguins for some reason.

T: What are your favorite male/male ships or female/female ships?

Ack, that’s a hard one ;v;

- Male/Male - (to keep things fresh from 3 diff fandoms each)

Hamano/Hayami (Inazuma Eleven)

Ishimaru/Oowada (Danganronpa)

Killua/Gon (HxH) 

Shu/Valt (Beyblade Burst)

Hau/Gladion (Pokémon)

- Female/Female -

Diana/Akko (Little Witch Academia) (i gotta continue it sob aaa)

Ootani/Anna (Inazuma Eleven)

Moon/Lillie (Pokémon)

Z: What’s a ship that you want to ship publicly, but everyone on tumblr hates it so you keep your mouth shut about it?

Ahahah, what are you talking about [hides my polyship mess under a rug] it is not much that they hate it, just that no one is interested XD

[everyday-younglife]

fandom questions [p4]

no one ever asks me these kinds of things so i’ll just do them myself. harumph. that’s fine.

A: Your current OTP. SOUYO OF COURSE. it will never stop being my OTP

B: A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind. hmmm i dunno! i’ve liked p4 for so long all my discoveries about it kind of blend together. i think i’ve seen kanji/teddie once. that was cute.

C: A pairing you wish you shipped, but just can't. dojima/souji. or anyone/adachi unless adachi is being beat up or harmed in some way.

D: What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom? persona 4...? fanfic, probably. but i’ve contributed a bunch of other random stuff too.

E: Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what? i’ve made dumb mmds, pretty much it.

F: What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? What fandom was it? yep, persona 4. pretty much ever since it came out.

G: What was your first fandom? xxxHOLiC i believe. that’s the first thing i’ve liked that i’ve also talked to other people about.

H: Do you prefer real-life TV shows or animated TV shows? animated definitely.

I: Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? not exactly? if anything, they stop me from getting into some because seeing it all over the place just got annoying.

J: Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr. i’m sure there are a couple of things but i don’t remember haha

K: How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom(s). you know, now the persona 4 fandom is pretty good! there’s a lot of new people coming in from p5, working backwards, and it’s kinda nice! just kinda tired of people calling yosuke “brosuke” or associating him with trash/trash cans all the time...

L: Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for? oh my gosh... i have so many favorite p4 fanartists and fanwriters... i’d like to ask for them to draw/write their interpretation of yosuke. like a meta, kinda? i’m always interested in what people think of my favorite characters

M: A person who got you into a fandom and what fandom they pulled you in to. the person who got me into the P4 fandom................ hiimdaisy. no joke LMAO. those comics of hers got me interested in it and the rest is history.

N: Your favorite fandom (for the people; not the thing you fangirl over). p4, of course. but xxxHOLiC was a really nice fandom too.

O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of? not random, but that one song from Wicked, “For Good” reminds me SO MUCHHHH of souyo.

P: Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas). persona 4 casino AU. they’re all working for the same corrupt casino so they decide to steal from it, secretly, while also trying to reveal the corruption. (idk)

Q: A ship you’ve abandoned and why. in p4?? hmmm nothing really. i kinda like all of it. kannao is kinda stale to me tho.

R: A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships. kanji/yosuke. it’s fucked up in the beginning but they get used to each other. very good.

S: What's a headcanon you have? everyone in p4 is super bisexual, except maybe dojima, namatame, mitsuo... adachi is straight.

T: What are your favorite male/male ships or female/female ships? souyo, OBVIOUSLY. f/f... chie/yukiko is good.

U: What are your favorite male/female ships? i kiiinda didn’t like yosuke/chie for the longest time, but now i kinda like it. so that probably.

V: Do you have any 3-way ships? If so, what? souji/yosuke/kanji. duh.

W: 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms. watanuki (xxxHOLiC), yosuke (p4), karamatsu (osmt), takao (knb), majima (yakuza)

X: 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms. douwata (xxxHOLiC), takamido (knb), and. majima/kiryu (yakuza)

Y: A fandom you’re in but have no ships from. uhhh... UHHH... THAT’S HARD. i’m gonna say. none.

Z: What's a ship that you want to ship publicly, but everyone on tumblr hates it so you keep your mouth shut about it? nothing. i’m open about everything because i don’t give a shit what antis have to say.

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Respect Fanartists & Fanfiction Writers

Listen, and do so carefully... because this will be said once. 

Fanartists & Fanfiction Writers put a LOT of time, effort, emotion and skill into making things that you enjoy for free, friends. 

Sure, it takes you a minute to stare at artwork that someone spent weeks on; or 15 minutes tops to skim through a fic that may have taken days... so you just see it as something to be consumed, and in a lot of frustrating cases, your RIGHT to have provided.

For one, providing feedback in the form of comments or reviews/asks is always appreciated. That’s awesome and we love it!

Sending ask after ask or Private Message after Private Message demanding they make you something specific... NOT okay.  OR, worse, falsely befriending them in order to get them to make you free art/fiction, is alternatively what the creative side of the fandoms calls ‘a dick move’.

See, here’s the thing... if you are friends with someone, you are there for them. If you friend them with the ulterior motive of getting them to draw you a specific picture, or comic, or write you a highly-detailed fanfiction... then you are being a manipulative drain on their life.

Like, listen... even if someone reblogs a ‘Writing/Art Prompt’ post, you cannot sincerely anticipate they will answer every single request they get. There might be duplicates, the person receiving them may not like one received, they may lose energy or focus, or just be busy with the real world. To harass, to send additional follow-up asks bothering people? Not okay. 

It used to happen more frequently in the past, but it’s rising up again.

Consistent harassment of the creative sides of fandom (encompasses gifmakers, SFM makers, all the types, etc.) just drains the creative batteries worse than a lack of comments/reviews on new art/fiction does.

It puts them under pressure to fulfil your demand, which is not okay. Hell, assholes in certain fandoms used to do CALLOUT posts on artists and writers who didn’t fulfil the requests they demanded. It was ridiculous?

Let’s not go back there.

-

So here’s the thing. 

>You like their artstyle? Yes. <You would like them to draw you something? Oh yes! >Are they doing commissions, or would they be willing to do one? They are open to commissions/Oh, I will politely ask. <They are open to commissions and you can afford what you want? a)Yes (Proceed) b) No. You can save up to commission them later. YOU WILL NOT HARASS THE ARTIST FOR FREE ART (that includes trying manipulative tactics such as making up sob stories, falsely befriending them, and/or claiming you don’t trust internet banking options*). [*If you distrust paypal, or certain sites, you can actually buy preloaded/disposable credit cards (which are basically gift cards), that you can put the required amount on and use to pay. There are alternatives, just ask.]

>>>You can afford it, and what you are asking fits what the artist has said they are comfortable drawing for you? Yes. ~Ask them if they are happy to take this commission and provide the details necessary. ~Accept that it will take time, and effort, don’t hover trying to get them to finish it faster.  ~Do not try to change the deal mid-way through the commission. E.g. if you paid for greyscale, don’t demand colour, or one character but now you want too for the same price, or withhold payment until you get your way. That is a major dick move, and your name will circle through the artistic sphere as ‘difficult’ and ‘untrustworthy’. 

There have been a few notable people out there that have tried to get free art this way, and thought artist-hopping would make sure no one found out. But, buddy, if you know one artist, they know ten more, and it branches out from there... who do you think has the most feedback for creators, but other artists and writers? They will all find out, eventually.

>Not being able to afford it, it not a good excuse to hound the artist to change their prices. Listen, if you’re at the store and can’t afford the new action figure you want... you can’t haggle with the poor storeclerk at the counter (but numerous people have tried that? Is that where you have learned this from?) for a ‘better price’.  You might counter, ‘but the clerk can’t set the price and an artist can’. Listen, lissen here fucko mccoconuts, the artists on tumblr charge an obscenely low pittance for the amazing art they do... like, barely anything.  A coloured sketch? Some artists will do it for five bucks because they’re too goddamn afraid you whiny little bastards won’t agree to anything more; they are downselling their hard-earned artistic abilities.

And fanfiction authors? They have to do it for free because NO ONE pays for writing. Ask, and they will tell you almost all fanfiction commissions fall through, for one reason or another... but mostly the idea is considered absurd.

If you cannot afford it now, then either save, or maybe ask if the artist is open to a payment plan. E.g. If you requested a five-page comic at $60 coloured, by the way an obscenely low price compared to real-world prices, you could ask to pay it in two lots, or something of that nature. It depends on each artist as to whether they are amenable to it. Never assume.

>Not being able to afford it does not mean, ‘befriend the person and try to feed them your headcanons in the hopes of free art’ (nor the old, ‘so my birthday’s coming up... do you think you could make me _____?’).  If that’s the whole reason you have ‘befriended’ them (manipulated them into thinking you are genuinely offering altruistic friendship) then you’re an absolute cactus, mate. A conglomeration of pricks, that is to say. 

You don’t make friends to get things. And if you do, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your priorities, you drongo bastards, people are human beings not vending machines. 

Sometimes, if an artist or writer gets inspired by the stupid headcanons you share at 3am your time and like 9am their time... accidental art or fanfiction happens. It’s spontaneous, fun, a gift based on mutual feedback and conversation. But to anticipate being rewarded simply for your friendship, is wrong.

ESPECIALLY, and I cannot stress this enough, especially if  you try to feed the artist a headcanon... then ceaselessly pester them as to why they haven’t made the fiction/fanart of it yet? Everyday? What the fuck is your problem?

-

>Why is it so expensive? It isn’t. It really fucking isn’t. I’ve covered this. Also, everyone is so damn quick to say “But art is haaaaaard” when told to draw something themselves, because an artist doesn’t want to, but just as fast to question why that artist (who has learned that skill and ceaselessly practised until they have their own artstyle that you like enough to think about commissioning) is charging you MONEY for something you WANT (not NEED).

You will not actually die if you don’t get a pic of your OTP fucking in a jacuzzi, suzy. So just calm ya tiddies and carry on.

>Why won’t you draw my headcanon? Did you commission the artist? No? Then fuck off. They have their own life and ideas... and if you harass them, others who are less polite are going to have something to say about it. Especially the adults who pressure young artists to make them shit all the time... you will be found and shamed you bastards. >Why won’t you write my detailed headcanon? Same as above. But also, aren’t you the person who keeps saying ‘but writing is easy’? How about you write it yourself. One of the many things you will be told to do to yourself if you don’t stop pestering writers.  That goes for bothering writers/artists here, on AO3, ff.net, DeviantArt or any random site they’re affiliated with. 

- - - -

The biggest question is what makes you feel so ENTITLED to their work?

And that’s really what it is. “I want it. Make it for me.”

Oh sure, you can cover it in pretty words, “But we’re friends”, “But I can’t afford it”, “But I’m feeling so down recently, maybe this elaborate 15k OTP headcanon I want you to write will make things better, don’t skimp on the smut! XD” ...it all amounts to, “Hey, you should reward me for liking your art/writing. If I do not get it immediately, without cost, I will pester you either brazenly, or subtly... I may even pretend to be a genuine friend, to get what I want. You owe it to me.”

And, really, from the bottom of the creative community’s hearts, I’d love to just remind each and every person who feels this way... that you are not a good person, at heart, and can fuck right off out past alpha centauri where such disrespect might be considered flattering... because it sure as hell isn’t on earth.

-

Fanartists, Fanfiction writers, put up with this all the time.

It’s the sixteen asks they don’t publish, all demanding things.

It’s the excitement cut short when they thought they had a new fic review, but it’s actually just someone trying to get them to write them something.

It’s the person in your chat always giving headcanons, many you don’t agree with, and then checking in to see if you’ve drawn/written them. Relentlessly.

It’s the Private Messages, dozens of them, requesting you do something specific for someone, something that will require time and effort on your part but not theirs. And the angry messages that follow if you turn down their demands.

It’s the angry ‘callout’ posts from people who you’ve said No to. The people who were told, “I’m not taking requests, but if you would just see my commission post for details...” and were abhorred at the idea of PAYING for ART they WANT????

And more. There is always more, worse, unending, frustrating.

This goddamn barrage hits some more than others. Some acquiesce for the sake of peace, but it will not end if they do; because once someone gets free art, or fiction, they’ll demand again and again and again...

- - - 

And as you can imagine, like a ceaseless cascade of waterfall over a cliff-face, eventually it erodes the joy, the fun, the creativity of your art or writing, or any of the other artistic abilities (e.g. gifsets, photomanips, videos, animations, etc.)

But the reality is, these groups (plus the whole gamete of other creative types out there) are putting time, effort and skill into making something; whether it’s free or a commission, and you need to respect that.

-

So please, be kind to the people who are putting their abilities out there, often entirely free, for the sake of enjoying something they love with the rest of the fandom. Respect them, don’t demand, and remember that a comment on what you enjoyed about their work can mean the world of encouragement.

Thank you.

[ladyvean]

Tagged by @dayoldhakarl! :D

1. What book have you read that utterly changed your life?

Sex At Dawn, the Holographic Universe, and Creative Visualization

2. What is your dream concert? Who would headline it, who’d open for them, where would it be…?

I don’t care when or how, but I would LOVE to see Oingo Boingo.

3. You can bring any TV show back from cancellation for one final season. The cast, writers, directors are all on board. What would it be and why?

Man, I am really drawing a blank here.  I’d love to see what happens after the Dominion War or when Voyager got back from the Delta Quadrant.  Honestly though, I think my answer is the Crocodile Hunter because then Steve would still be alive.

4. Who is your favorite artist? This doesn’t have to be one of “the greats” - it could be a comic book artist, mangaka, fanartist, webcomic artist…whoever! Bonus if you can link to their work!

I love so many artists... Maybe Gustav Klimt.

5. You’re a boss in a video game. If someone defeated you, what would your “loot” be?

Books and snacks.

6. You get to spend the day with a celebrity of your choice (”celebrity” being vaguely defined as someone of renown, not necessarily a movie/TV star). Who would it be and where would you go? What three questions would you ask them?

I think you know who I’m going to say... So,Typical Daddy and I would go to a beach in the Caribbean.  We’d take a long walk, play in the surf, look for animals, maybe build a sandcastle, sip drinks in the shade, read together, and nap in a hammock.  As for the three questions, I’m not entirely sure what I have in mind is suitable for print. LOL

7. Who would play you in a movie about your life? Who would play your best friend? Who would write it? Direct it?

I don’t know who would play me or my friend, but it could be written/directed by either Tim Burton, Dave McKeon, or Jim Henson.

8. The Doctor takes you for a ride in the TARDIS anywhere you want, so long as you only observe and not interact. What historical event would you witness? Would you listen to the Doctor? Why or why not?

Does it have to be a historic even?  I was trying to think of one and I was torn between several, but I would REALLY like to go see the dinosaurs!  And yes, I would listen to the Doctor because I don’t know enough about Dr. Who to make an informed decision.

9. I’m bored: Firefox or Chrome?

Firefox.

10. You’re in charge of the world for one day. What do you do?

Assuming the decisions I make last after my one day, address climate change, put in place protections for endangered species, institute a basic universal wage and a cap on earning, and lots of other things.

11. You have to teach a class. Any public speaking fear you might have is cured. What would you teach? How would you do it?

I don’t have a public speaking fear, thank God.  I love to talk, especially about things that interest me.  I would absolutely teach about sex and how the standard narrative of human sexual behavior is WRONG.

[cosplaytutorial]

Hello Fabrickind! This is a very different kind of question I think. I really love cosplaying, but I can't do it right now for several reasons. There are a lot of costumes I adore and I always wonder if there's some way to do "casual" cosplays, looks inspired by characters that can be incorporated into a casual everyday look but don't scream Cosplay? I know this is a very general and vague question, but I hope you answer it nonetheless!

Hello there!

This is actually a great question. There’s all sorts of ways to incorporate fandom into casual looks without having it be an actual “cosplay.”

The first suggestion would obviously be to choose canon outfits that can work as “normal” clothes. Of course, a lot of fictional characters tend to have outlandish outfits, and maybe don’t have a casual look you can choose that would pass as normal clothes, so this may not be an option. If there’s a comic or manga series for something or an anime with an artbook or lots of official artwork other than the series itself, it’s more likely to find casual outfits on splash pages in comics, during scenes in between the action, and in artbooks and CD liners and such.

The next suggestion would be to look at fanart. A lot of fanartists draw characters in different outfits than their normal clothes, or will draw characters in an outfit they saw in a magazine or on a runway. These may still be too costumey to wear as normal clothes, or may be too avant garde (especially if based off of high fashion outfits), but are another place to look for inspiration. dig through the tags on Tumblr or a safe for work booru for your fandom (safe for work because even if you don’t mind seeing the not safe for work stuff, it often won’t give you many outfit ideas because characters are either nude or in fetish gear).

If you go with either of the above options, I would advise getting storebought clothing meant to be worn as normal casual wear, unless you often sew your own actual clothing as opposed to costumes). This will temper any sort of costumey look the design may have, since the clothes will seem to be something meant to be lived in. If you aren’t used to designing daily clothing, it can be hard to translate something from cartoony artwork to a wearable daily outfit.

Also, if you can’t wear wigs, don’t. Try to style your hair in a way that suits the outfit or character.

The last option, which is what I think has the greatest potential here, is to create outfits inspired by the character’s outfit. In Disney fandom, this is called “Disneybound,” where fans will create fashion outfits inspired by the characters they want to emulate. (Part of the reason for the popularity of this in the Disney fandom is because adults are not allowed to wear costumes in the Disney parks.) Here is a great resource with a compilation of Disneybounds that may serve as inspiration of the types of outfits you can do.

When creating this type of outfit, look at what the character is wearing, and see how you can translate it to real life clothing. What types of items are they wearing? What colors? What accessories would go with this outfit and stay in character? Be creative and have fun with it.

There’s often boards of character-inspired outfits on sites like Pintrest and Polyvore, so you can look there. There’s also a few tumblrs that compile these things: @character-inspired-fashion @character-inspired-outfits @character-inspired-style, and I’m sure many others.

People will also often create boards for this type of outfit, and if the character is popular enough, some may come up in google search. Here’s one someone made for one of my favorite characters:

Link: http://www.polyvore.com/juri_arisugawa_utena/set?id=117867757

You can see that her canon outfit is ridiculous and would only work in an anime, but the inspired outfit takes details of her outfit and character and translates them into real life. Her military-inspired uniform becomes a smart zippered jacket and slacks, her signature locket is included, and a few accessories that would pair well with the outfit are included (I’d suggest a bowling bag inspired purse instead of her infamous bowling ball for a bit of a fandom in joke touch that can still work as a real fashion item). The clothing still very much says “Juri Arisugawa,” but is something that would work in a setting where you can’t outright cosplay as her.

Here’s another example from the same series. You can see that the color scheme and a few of the design details are kept, but the outfit is clearly inspired by the giant anime ballgown, and with few modifications, could easily pass as a normal outfit out to dinner and drinks or to a party, or with the formality toned down a little, could be worn out and about. 

I hope that helps! Good luck. :]

—Fabrickind / Q&A Staff

[wasabi-duck]

reverse idol jungkook

i always write for jungkook and yoongi but lmao i like writing for them the best so here we go…

anyway im offended nobody wants to talk about the ketchup song, i bet jungkook wouldn’t play me like that

okay so this is a reverse idol au wow

which means that you’re an idol, wow, surprise

i think for all of them it would be fun to do different kind of groups but idk for this one im going with the flow

im debating whether to make everyone in a kpop group because i mean most of us probably don’t live in korea so like…

you’re in a pop group though, we can start there!! your group isn’t like super popular, but you just released a single that topped a lot of charts and so now you’re getting a lot of positive attention and a wave of new fans!!

jungkook has been a fan from the beginning though wow surprise…

he was probably the fan that got hooked back in the predebut days (so are you kpop??) and he was the one that made shitty gifs on his moms desktop and uploaded the to the good old tumblr

from the beginning you were his fave tho like there is no denying that

you had a certain charm about you, and you always seemed so pure and innocent and you always were so open with your other members

like throughout all your mini video diary updates, you were always the one making sure everyone in the group got adequate speaking time and got to talk!!

and you’re always helping the other members when they’re struggling with a dance move or with some lyrics, like it’s so obvious that you’re the one who makes sure the rest of your members feel comfortable with what they’re doing??

yah that’s you and wow jungkook has the hots for you

just like my dad thinks winwin is hotter than flames smh

your group at this point, maybe like, you’re just coming up to your year mark??

and jungkook has been loyal all 365 days of this year and he’s like

he makes a cake??

he like makes this cake and it looks awful and later yoongi chokes on it and has to go to patient first lmao yikes

but like he gets so excited about you guys hitting your year anniversary that he bakes this cake with lots of icing and twenty times more sprinkles than that right??

and he puts like happy 1 year in really crappy writing on the top with some icing and he puts whip cream on too it looks wild to say the least

and then he puts some candles on for like the birthday of your group wow

not like i do that or anything when my bias has a birthday,,, haha,,,

okay but he uploads a picture of the cake to twitter and tags you guys or whatever idk how twitter works, im stupid

but like a lot of other fans start retweeting it or something because while comical, the gesture is really cute and sweet and kind of touching??

jung-

when did i stop saying jeongguk did i say this already

anyway jungkook gets all flushed because wow there are a lot of people talking about his cake

and guess what guys

guess what the heck what

you of all people retweet the tweet and you add a comment like “omg this is the cutest thing, thank you so much sweetheart!!”

and jungkook checks his twitter

and he just kinda

he screams and he kinda doesn’t mean to but he throws his phone and he’s shrieking and his mom comes down like boy i will beat you with a candle if you don’t shut up and his brother records his meltdown

he calls jimin and tae and the three of them scream and cry together omg like tae and jimin are the hypemen while jungkook has a come apart

he probably is one of those people that walks when he’s excited so he’s on the phone doing laps around the house and his lil puppy is trailing along all excitedly

after three hours of talking to the boys (i remember when i used to talk on the phone for three hours omg) he heads up to his room

where he promptly goes to his shrine of your group and like cries over it and hugs all three of your mini albums to his chest

he probably has like seven posters of you omg can you imagine

he would be the one to get shy when like he changes and all the posters are staring at him or something…

oh his mom probably would like come in his room all the time and if your clothes were too tight or something, his mom would cover your poster in sticky notes and jungkook would be like “mom plz you don’t understand it’s a looK”

jungkook omg also we all know my boy can draw right

he would be one of the crazy good fanartists that posts his drawings of the group (but mostly you)

and after the cake incident, his work and art gets so much more attention like he becomes a fairly popular fanartist for your group

for his birthday btw, yoongi and hoseok come together to write the worst, most cliche, cringy reader insert fanfic of you for him and he keeps it under his pillow every night

okay but also after the cake incident, you kinda sorta stalked his twitter account and you flipped out over how amazing his artwork is and all your group members crack up because you can spend hours just checking out his account and trying to somehow low key print pictures of the art

im watching a documentary in spanish yikes sorry im distracted

okay anyway your group

your group announces like a special one year anniversary meet and greet to thank the fans who have supported you guys for this time and all

jungkook is in school when he gets the notification on twitter and he loses it in class like the world is caving in around him and his teacher sent him down to the principals office because he was causing controversy

oh btw his binders at school are probably cute collages of your group thanks bye everyone

okay anyway

tbh probably tells the principal about the meet and greet

and the principal just kinda “okay…”

jungkook goes home that day and he is on cloud nine right this boy is having the time of his life like his heart has never felt lighter and he has never felt more alive in his life

he practically skips home from school (like winwin did when they played duck duck goose someone hold me)

and he bursts through the door and the smile on his face is so wide and so bright that his brother goes and gets some sunglasses

and he’s like “mom, dad, guess what! they’re having a meet and greeT”

his parents kinda exchange looks and they’re kinda !!

“well how much is it honey?”

and jungkook’s smile falters because he knows that guess what, his family doesn’t really have that kind of money right now, and the only way that he managed to get all his albums and posters was because he’s been saving up birthday and new year’s money and all

and he keeps that same smile on his face because jungkook doesn’t share his emotions and jungkook doesn’t let people know how he’s really feeling and he doesn’t want his family to know that the air has literally been stolen from his lungs

he just kinda shrugs and his voice is all quiet and he’s like “oh… it’s nothing important, i shouldn’t have mentioned it. sorry.”

he heads upstairs before he starts crying because jungkook like really got his hopes up??

and your music really speaks to him and he’s kind of developed this emotional dependence on your group and you guys never fail to make him smile and you always get him up when he’s feeling down and he just wishes that maybe he could somehow tell you all how important you are to him and how much you’ve done for him through your music and all!!

he goes upstairs and he locks himself in the room he shares with his bro and he just cries into his pillow

it’s the weekend right and that next morning he doesn’t get out of bed and he doesn’t leave his room

he won’t even open his phone up because he doesn’t wanna see everyone talking about the meet and greet he can’t go to

he’s not mad at his parents or anything, he’s just defeated like he’s loved you (guys) from before day one and now the chance to express that is slipping through his fingers

boy howdy someone is not happy with this

it’s min yoongi

surprise

he’s like i cannot not let my love,,, i cannot let this happen

like jungkook had called jimin and tae eventually and cried to them and they immediately told the other boys

and yoongi was like oh heck no my baby gets what he wants

imagine the kermit meme but with yoongi

yoongi: i gotta show the boys im cool and poised and don’t give a shit

yoongi to yoongi: buy jungkook meet and greet tickets

tbh he totally plans on doing it

like he researches it all and he figures out when they’re going on sale and that night (it’s like a week after the entire meltdown), the boys wanna go out to the karaoke bar or something

and yoongi is like i’m at work

and namjoon is like wth you’re laying on our couch

and yoongi is like “did i stutter kim namjoon do you want me to shove a hairbrush down your throat when you’re sleeping”

i just burnt my peanut butter toast and i wanna die tbh anyway

yoongi gets them, surprise!! well one for jungkook but like you get it

and he’s so proud of himself he is like i am the best in the world all hail min yoongi, king of spoiling his friends

he wants to wait to give them to jungkook but he cannot hold the excitement in so one day he just kinda heads over to jungkook’s house and traipses on in and jungkook is doing his calculus homework or something

and yoongi just shoves the ticket in his face and jungkook blinks and then he slowly realizes what’s up and he stares at yoongi then bursts into happy tears

fudge you two havent even met

okay so the day of the event jungkook probably wears a bias shirt with your name on it and he is alive okay like he brings his albums and his drawings of you to give to you because lil bun wants to like impress you??

he probably writes a note to you as well talking about how happy you make him and he’s like wait that’s creepy but jin is like no my child, no it is perfect and beautiful just like you and then he kisses jungkook’s head

the boys wait outside the event and they all have matching bomber jackets and sunglasses to be the jungkook protection squad

jungkook dies when he gets in there right

like there’s so much noise and chattering and people and he’s so uncomfortable and stressed tbh and he doesn’t feel good like he starts to panic

what if he like embarrasses himself?? what if he makes a fool of himself in front of you?? what if he like passes out or something or like gleeks oN YOU OMG

he’s like dying in line but he can’t help but keep checking you out the entire time and you are even more gorgeous in person and you aren’t even up close and personal yet…

he feels like he’s gonna die but the boys keep texting him reassuring messages and all he starts to calm down

he’s gripping everything so tight his knuckles go white

omg his turn though

he talks to all the members because you are at the end and all

and he’s like so shy and flustered but he manages to talk to them and explain how h’es been a fan from the beginning of time and he talks about all the best songs on the album and his fave choreos!! and he’s so cute and his face is all red and bright and he’s so !!!

okay i have a spanish benchmark so i should be going but

he finally gets to you and he’s like wow time to kms

he can’t even breathe like you are five inches away from him, in the living flesh, smiling like an angel and -

he kinda plops his albums down on the table and he can’t break eye contact with you to save his life and you just kinda laugh and smile wider because he’s so cute and you’re so flattered that like wow look at this cute fan??

but then he slips the drawings your way and he’s rambling on about how cool you are and how you’ve really inspired him to try new choreography and all and how he thinks you’re the most angelic person and all this other stuff

and you’re like !!

and your heart is racing because most fans are like wow you’re so attractive i love you but he’s going in depth about like you as a person and that’s so touching??

all your band mates keep glancing at you guys like suspiciously

you notice the drawings and you’re like wth is tHIS i HAVe SeeN thEsE

“you’re the birthday cake boy omg!!”

jungkook’s eyes widen and his jaw drops because you just admitted you’ve been stalking his twitter and you immediately cover your mouth with your hands and you’re like wth is this,,, i wanna die… what

jungkook just blushes and nods and smiles that cute bunny smile and your heart melts because he’s so cute and sweet and wow this isn’t very good

security isn’t feeling it though and they’re ushering you on so you quickly do like

the idol grab hands thing and you interlace your fingers and smile down at him

“im really glad i met you”

and he’s about to #die because you are like talking about meeting hIM

and you sign his albums real fast and wink before security ushers him on

but then you’re like “wait, i never got your name!”

and he just “jungkook!!”

“I hope to see you again jungkook!!”

you wave and he’s pushed off by security

the boys are in the parking lot and they’re like wth man how did it go and jungkook has the thousand yard stare

jimin shakes his shoulders and tae starts yelling and yoongi is like time to throw down??

but jungkook gets this loopy smile and he’s like “wow i am in loVE. love love. like actual love. like marriage love”

namjoon rolls his eyes and jin is like “young mAN YOU ARE TOO YOUNG”

but tae and jimin are poking through his albums and stuff and tae screams and everyone looks at him and he kinda

“man look at this!!”

in the back of the album is “hey cutie, i think i wanna get to know you more. shit, that sounds weird. i guess im saying, hot chocolate your speed?”

and then this is totally against idol code but im making this au so um

it’s your number and a cute smiley face and heart and jungkook passes out on the sidewalk

and guess what you do get hot chocolate after that

and jungkook is all nervous and embarrassed and he hides behind his face half the time and you think it’s cute…

and you guys text all the time?? like always??

you leak him lyrics and dance vids all the time and he’s like my hero…

you two hang out whenever your schedule permits but he still gets super shy whenever the other members of your group are over omg

they always tease you two as like scandalous and all but you really like jungkook!!

you like him enough to dedicate,,, a love song to him,,, on your first full album,,,

and like one day your group is on a talk show and the host is like so anyone, how about those relationships,,,

and you’re like well my boyfriend and i are-

and you’re like oH SHIT

and the boys are huddled around jungkook’s laptop, watching, and jungkook’s heart shatters because you have a boyfriend… since when…

and yoongi is like pal,,, buddy,,, amigo,,, it’s yOU

you guys officially get together in the dance studio really cheesy with help from your group mates and it’s so nice and wonderful and you guys always kiss and cuddle when you’re supposed to be rehearsing oops,,,