#sorry guys I know I post a lot of comic reminders on here so here is some real art

[kailysander]

[celaenaeiln]

Hiii, how are you? I’m new in the Batman fandom, but i saw a lot of people saying that Jason is actually Batman’s favorite child, and when i was reading the comics, i really though that Dick is Bruce absolute favorite, but i saw a lot of posts here on tumblr of the fandom saying is actually Jason and that the batkids all know its Jason, but i don’t know what is canon and what is fanon (quite honestly when it comes about the batfam i don’t like a lot about the fanon version 😭), so i wanted to ask you about it

And sorry if i said something wrong, english is not my first language

Hi and no worries at all!!

Yeah, canonically Dick is Bruce's favorite by a LONG shot and canonically the batkids all know this.

Infinite Crisis Issue #3

It's says right here in the comics. Really explicitly. But not only that, time and time again, there is clear evidence of Bruce's preferential treatment of Dick over the rest of the batkids.

One time the batboys and Bruce are searching for a guy that kinda is using the Gotham criminals as his subjects. So what they decide to do is split up to narrow him down.

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1057

But they run into issues because the villains chose a 'divide and conquer strategy"

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1057

Bruce gets swept away! Because of a carefully planned trap. But do you what he does the second he wakes up?

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1058

JDAKFA;BFJALEC

BRUCE LITERALLY WENT: "I love Dick and all the other not-Dicks equally" !!!!!

As if that's not enough, Bruce's biggest fear is that he's not good enough for Dick.

Bruce's fear about Dick-

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

because he believes this -

vs

Bruce's fear about Jason -

Batman vs Robin Issue #3

because he believed he failed to do this -

Batman: Hush

Reminder: Joe Chill is Martha and Thomas Wayne's killer. Enough said.

If you want to be even more explicit about Bruce's preference for Dick over Jason it can't be clearer than here:

Bruce reflects on Jason's Robin tenure -

Batman (1940) Issue #428

Something a lot of people don't know/refuse to acknowledge is that Jason canonically did have anger issues. There aren't a lot of parallels between Jason and Dick but one particular thing that DC points out is that Jason and Dick both lost their beloved fathers. The difference is that Dick was able to move on and become cheerful even if he didn't get revenge. Jason wasn't able to get over the loss of his father and became angry. UTRH makes a specific point of talking about this too.

Batman (1940) Issue #645 "He knew that Jason Todd was NOT Dick Grayson."

Do you remember why Jason became Robin?

Batman (1940) Issue #416

Bruce wanted Dick. He took in Jason in replacement for Dick. But Jason was not Dick and even on the day he died, all Bruce could think of was that taking in Jason was a mistake.

The batkids are well aware of this. Damian actually calls Jason Bruce's mistake too when he's recounting the story of the robins.

Here's what he says -

Batman (1940) Issue #713

That's Damian's retelling. Tim's is even worse -

A Lonely Place of Dying

Ouch.

Truthfully Jason is like Bruce's 4th favorite. In order of how much Bruce loves his kids it goes:

Dick

Damian

Cass

Jason/Tim (tie)

Tim/Jason (tie)

Steph

I think there's so much confusion about Jason supposedly being the favorite because Bruce grieved over Jason's that but I think a lot of people are conflating grief and self-blame with love. There have been two significant deaths in the family: Jason and Damian. If you look at how Bruce reacted in each aftermath, it becomes clear that he loves Damian more than he loved Jason.

After Jason's death:

Batman (1940) Issue #429

Batman (1940) Issue #431

After Damian's death:

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #21

Batman and Robin (2011) Issue #20

He would forcefully make Jason relive the worst day of his life so that his other son could enjoy his.

Bruce's behavior after Jason's death was self-destructive and isolative but his behavior after Damian's death was to beat bloodly every single criminal. His reasoning for beating Dick after Jason's death was "Jason was your replacement. If you hadn't left I wouldn't have had to take him in and he wouldn't have died." His reason for beating Jason after Damian's death was "Your trauma matters so little to mean that all I want is Damian to live again and I couldn't care less about how you feel."

In summary, Jason wasn't Bruce's favorite either as Robin or as an adult. But even if it's not Dick, claiming that Jason is the favorite is so far off that no one is DC would remotely believe it. You would think there would be more analysis on Damian's death in comparison to Jason's because they were two big official deaths but I guess not for some reason. I ran out of image space but yeah there's more than just this overall. This isn't to say that Bruce doesn't love Jason. NO! He very much loves him. But he just doesn't love him the most.

On a different note - coming from someone who went from TT show to YJ to fanfic AND THEN reading comics, I've had relearn a lot about each of the characters. But for people still in the process of transitioning from fanfic to comics or just in the fanfic stage, general rule of thumb when it comes to batfamily content - NEVER trust what people say if they don't provide the evidence for it. People in this fandom are so wild that they'll have you believing the earth is the center of the universe, that you'll fall off the world if you go too far left or right, and that pigs can fly.

[cuephrase]

from the questionnaire:

are there any results that really surprised you or that you didn't expect?

oooooh good question!! for me personally, no, not really? at least nothing that automatically comes to mind, so yk, don't quote me on that if i share data later and say "this surprised me/i didn't expect this!!" lmao

ummmm, hmmm. well actually okay, so i did expect Tim to be the Most Disliked Robin, but not by such a margin, if that makes sense? more like, logically one of them was going to be the most disliked even if only like 10 people disliked a Robin and my bet was that Tim would have the most votes, by process of elimination/other hypotheses. i wasn't upset by the results, if you've seen the post you know i was incredibly entertained.

there were definitely some results that were a relief? like they aligned with my personal predictions, but it was still really nice to see them.

oh, something that did surprise me was the amount of commentary i got on batcest!! there is zero discussion of shipping in the questionnaire, which is mainly why i wasn't expecting so much commentary, and there's not really a whole lot of ship discussion apart from batcest stuff that i remember- i did think i might get a couple mentions of it but i got a lot more than a couple lmao.

in favor of and against, to be clear, and to be even clearer to anyone reading- this is not an invitation to share your thoughts about batcest with me, i truly do not care. not to be rude, either, like i don't care if you love it or hate it, i just have zero interest in discussing it since a) my blog is mostly gen and b) i don't see any benefits in engaging in discourse about batcest 🫶

on the individual response level, there were some things that surprised me in isolation, but made perfect sense in the context of the responder's answers, like for instance one person said they didn't see Dick as brothers with any of the boy Robins except for Damian, because "he doesn’t really interact with a lot of the other robins in canon", that being said, the only eras they said they read were pre-crisis and rebirth. makes a lot more sense in that context. like i was thrown for a loop, but then i saw the full picture and i was like, "oh. okay."

let this be your daily reminder that the statement "i read comics" means basically nothing lmao. and i don't mean that as a dig at that responder, not at all, just that if you're someone who reads comics you cannot assume that someone else also reading comics means that you guys will be on the same wavelength. not because canon is nebulous and unknowable imo, but just because there's a lot of it!!

also!! a decent amount of people said i was brave?? that freaked me out a little, because i hadn't really...i didn't think i was stepping into shit, okay? in hindsight, i realize that that was naive of me, but idk. i wasn't thinking about the results in that way, and i also really didn't think i was going to get much interaction either- i was floored by the engagement the questionnaire got. but yeah, idk, i was just genuinely curious to see if my theory had any weight, i wasn't thinking about the broader implications of what the data might reveal. whoops.

and here's what surprised my wonderful data-crunchers:

@chinajousama: Hmm, I think one thing that did surprise me was how little the types of Robin media actually impacted the results [of the Most Disliked Robin]. Aside from that pocket of Jason hate from the post-Crisis fans, everyone was remarkably consistent. Also, it wasn't really a surprise, but it was extremely funny to see how big the gap between tim and literally anyone else was, dislike wise.

(we got an ask about if the media/eras consumed impacted which Robins were disliked, so that math has been done, but i haven't shared the results yet, sorry!!)

@tevyaa: Lots! Off the top of my head: - I was sure that the clear winner of the most disliked Robin poll would be Damian. He's the only one I've ever really seen hate for - probably because I entered fandom through Tim-centric whump fic 😂. I was shocked that it's actually Tim who the fandom is most annoyed with. - I was surprised how much of the fandom does actually read comics! I would have guesstimated that the comics/non-comics fans were something like 50/50, and was shocked to find out that only 15% of fandom doesn't read comics (and only about 4% doesn't interact with canon at all, including comics/ games/ animation)

(dw, we haven't released any data apart from the MDR yet, but you'll be able to see the breakdown of comics read/canon interaction eventually!!)

ty for the ask, anon!! i hope you enjoyed the answer!!

[meanbossart]

Misc. Ask compilation

These aren't all of the asks I want to reply to, just some that I can answer relatively quickly to clean the ol' inbox out before things get out of hand. Thanks for your patience!

HAHAHA THANK YOU FOR PERUSING AROUND and for enjoying my work! I had a... Weird Gale experience my first playthrough which led to his characterization being what it is in my comics. Here's the beat-by-beat of all the shenanigans: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/740827466716807168/alright-i-am-like-90-sure-there-is-one-line-in-a

And here's just some of my personal thoughts on him! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/736193145686114305/can-you-tell-me-more-about-how-you-would-make-gale

I would be lying if I said I'm not conflicted to know my style still bears some remnants of my edgy teen roots (not your fault not noticing it though, you aren't the first and won't be the last) BUT... That comic did mean a lot to me as a youth, so I guess I should be proud ��� and honestly it is a little cool that such a thing would survive for so long in what I do, crazy how that works.

LMAO, re: the bottom/top debacle, I was honestly so surprised to see people react to it like it's something novel. If I ever expected to get any push back on the matter, I thought it would be from people assuming DU drow was the top and taking issue with how violent and big he is (and yknow, some people are weirdly protective of Astarion as if he isn't a sneaky murder machine rippling with lean muscle)

Very disheartening to see that mindset still so alive and well among young people, but I guess it just means I gotta draw DU drow throwing more back and Astarion drooling over more ass until the stereotype is forcefully banished out of people's minds!

(more asks below the cut)

"Sleeper agent activation phrase" absolutely took me out, Thank you so much LOL

YEAH I got it pretty late though, Astarion had already told my durge that he was a vampire of his own accord (and the response was, of course, "no duh") I forgot wheter this happened before or after the first romance scene triggered, but I think after.

Since this was after DU drow decided he was gonna fuck him out of pure contrarian spite and was shamelessly laying it extremely thick, He happilly let Astarion drink his blood. Hell, he was probably a little Too Eager - the guy likes pain and he likes letting people he trusts do with his body whatever they will, and while he didn't yet trust Astarion at that point, that event might've very well reminded him of something from his past that planted a seed which would eventually grow into his genuine affection for the guy.

Ah, he definitely got a half-chub as it happened too. I'm sure Astarion noticed it and just walked off rolling his eyes and thinking "eugh of course" lmao.

Hello!!!

Oh man, I grew up fascinated with horror things. I remember from a very young age just looking at the covers and backs of horror movies at the film-rental even though I wasn't allowed to watch them. I was also easily scared but I sought those things out anyway - I think i just enjoyed the visceral reactions it drew out of me and was always curious about most things taboo.

When I got access to the internet that just opened a (very unfortunate) door to all things vile and awful like it did for so many people at that age in time. Though my tastes have changed a lot since then (Less August Underground, more The Devils kind of guy nowadays) my stories and art are just always going to fall into a horror-y category because I just... Don't think there's many better ways to showcase the human experience and emotional range without many of the elements native to the genre, and I'm all about that.

Thank you for your question and your sweet words, have a good week yourself!

I did a little write-up about that over here! https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/742508493562593280/i-dont-have-a-particular-question-in-mind-sorry

That's the result of a scene that happens relatively early in the story I'm writing ("A Novel Experience" on Ao3).

{SPOILERS} DU drow accidentally passes out on a blade which puts a relatively deep gash on his hip. Meanwhile, Astarion is weakened and starved after certain events that transpired the prior night. They have a private exchange both in a somewhat hazy-state of mind and Astarion ends up prodding and prying at his wound while feeding, so it's a laceration and bite mark that just scarred over badly.

Elves apparently don't grow body hair so never LOL guess they'll just have to slip&slide up on each other for heat

[flowervolcano]

Oh man… I just read Deadpool (2024) #6 and I GOT MUCH TO SAY. But I’m gonna keep this Taskpool centric, I might do an overall review on the full series later but there’s a few talking points specifically about Taskpool I’ve gotta say before I forget ‘em.

spoilers beyond the cut so DO NOT READ IF YA DON’T WANNA GET SPOILED!!!

At least I hope this works. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, I don’t usually even do review type thingys but I’m really hyped ^^

Let’s begin….

Really loved the way Tasky looked here. But also find this pretty funny considering back in Despicable Deadpool he threw a guy/his wheelchair at Taskmaster.

Interestingly enough, Wade called him Taskmaster more times in this comic than the previous ones. But he’s on business mode rn so he’s definitely keeping it professional!

Because not too much later he then calls him Task-Daddy— WHY DID HE DO THAT???? Tasky, you aren’t getting out of this anymore, I’m sorry… I had to full stop and process this. We kept making jokes… we did it for months now and Wade finally said what we all been saying 😭💀

This just interested me a lot. Both of them are talking about new territory, but it’s not the same kind. I think it’s really important for Tasky because he’s never actually been a father-like figure to anyone (not even his own daughter…) but maybe I was reading too much into this—

I know this is very much in character for Tony to wanna brand more since he’s broke, likes good business, etc, but I can’t help but feel like this equals him being a dad to Ellie, why? he’s never had to brand anybody before, but he obviously saw promise in her and even if Wade may have thrusted this mentorship onto them both, he didn’t HAVE to do it like this, that he is explaining the reasoning just felt like an excuse/deflection, it was like he WANTED to have a piece of himself in her outfit but he’s just gotta act cool about it.

I won’t lie when I say this “No Killing Rule” has piqued my interest the most, because to me, rules are made to be broken. And I am intrigued to see where this leads in the future and what will unfold. It is sort of a big deal for Wade to put onto Taskmaster, and I can think about how he may react if Ellie crosses that line— I mean it is his responsibility… I’m wondering if I’m thinking too much on this!

At first I just wanted to add this in and say isn’t he just gorgeous here? But then I realized the dialogue is something to poke at. He’s somewhat pulling her leg here, but I also think it could be interpreted in a few different ways; he’s never gonna admit that he’s protective of her, but he is. It’s not just hit reputation that he’s concerned about okay?

I also think it may be how he’s worked with Wade for a very long time, but with her, it’s a whole new world. It could go a lot of ways, but I’d like to think there’s a part of Taskmaster that is going to miss working alongside Wade and he doesn’t wanna confess. But being around Ellie is just gonna be a reminder.

Being around Ellie might remind him of his own daughter that he knows nothing about. And maybe he feels regretful about this. Idk maybe he doesn’t even remember her at all… depends on the writer.

—————

Loving the dynamic he’s got with her so far. They’re goofy and silly and I love to see him being the funny guy in the situation while Ellie is more serious. Nice change from Wade & Tasky. Really appreciate Ellie is her own person and not just a Deadpool 2.0, I think Tony likes that about her too.

Finally. Love seeing these two interact. A lot. This is something I will REALLY miss now that… well you know… now that stuff happened…. And at this very moment NEITHER TASKY OR ELLIE KNOW THAT WADE IS DEAD OH I AM SICK!!! (Also why did Wade look extra cute here… there was zero reason for it. Thank you Artist!!!)

Uh yeah and these were my little thoughts and such. I might of jumped over things and I’ve never really done posts like these. But this issue really itched my brain and so I wanted to discuss stuff a little haha. Hope y’all enjoy and ofc enjoyed the new issue!!!

[kramerblogrealgood]

Comic books that you should read!!! Yes you!!! Right now!!!

These are comics I really enjoy! I'm trying to stick to slightly more obscure comics, preferably stuff that's a little newer, but that's by no means a rule! This is my list baby, I make the rules!

#1: Local Man (Image Comics, 2023)

Local Man follows Jack Xaver, who was once the superhero Crossjack before being unceremoniously kicked out of his team and legally barred from any vigilante activity. Moving back in with his parents in his destitute former hometown, Jack starts to unravel a conspiracy that has ties to both his old team and his old town.

It rules! It's funny and heartfelt and thrilling and if it were a TV show you'd never stop hearing about it. It's also one of the few modern original Image series that actually takes place in the "Image Universe", so it's packed with references to characters like Shadowhawk. You don't need to know all these guys to enjoy the comic by any means, but it's fun for long-time fans.

Most of all, I'm a fan of the basic conceit of this comic: it looks at The Dark Age of Comic Books with the same reverent-yet-critical eye that so many other comics used on the golden and silver ages. I think that rules! A lot of this stuff deserves reappraisal!

#2: The Wrong Earth (Ahoy Comics, 2018)

The concept for this is pretty simple: what if Adam West's Batman got sent to the world of the Nolan trilogy, and Christian Bale's Batman got sent to the world of the 1966 TV show?

They hit all the dramatic and comedic beats you could imagine coming from this premise, and a few you probably couldn't think of. It's not just a one-dimensional parody, though: really sharp writing and an engaging mystery elevate what could easily be, like, a Dorkly video into something special. Which is to say: if you think this premise sounds good you'll love this comic, and if you think it sounds stupid you'll probably still like this comic.

There are some cool character designs here, but my favorite is the villain in both universes:

His name is Number One, and he's a crime boss with an egomania/numbers gimmick. (Sorry for the compressed jpegs)

I imagine "design an original 1960s villain, and then design his edgy 2000s reboot version" would be a difficult prompt for an artist, but Jamal Igle knocks that shit outta the park. Number One really feels like he could fit into Batman's rogues gallery, but he's not a riff on anyone in particular-- he's kind of like all of them. The "1"-shaped scar is an especially great touch.

#3: Ice Cream Man (Image Comics, 2018)

(This image isn't from any cover as far as I can tell, it was posted on instagram by writer W. Maxwell Prince.)

Hey, another from Image Comics! And it's my favorite genre, too: horror anthology. If the pic I chose didn't tip you off, this one gets SPOOKAY! The basic premise is that every issue is a one-shot that features a character going through some kind of horrible misfortune. Tying all these tales of woe together is the enigmatic Ice Cream Man, who seems to be somehow torturing all these humans for his own amusement. We eventually learn that he's an evil god-type thing named Riccardus, and he has a good counterpart who's trying to stop him- all the lore stuff is a little vague, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting! The art style used by artist Martin Morazzo is almost uncanny-valley, it reminds me of The Shivering Truth.

Some of the "horror" in this comic is really personal and upsetting, by the way- the one about dementia made me cry. Actually, a lot of these made me cry. Full on snotty gasp-sobbing. 10/10. Riccardus has real sexyman potential if the freaks on this site would ever read something besides fuckin Wayne Family Adventures.

#4: Wayne Family Adventures (DC/Webtoon, 2021)

What? It's cute, fuck you. "eeuuuhhh it's out of character" you sound like a dweeb man

#5: Eight Billion Genies (Image Comics, 2021)

Just like The Wrong Earth, this has a killer elevator pitch: what if every single person on Earth got exactly one wish, all at the same time? Also like The Wrong Earth, it takes it's premise in every angle you can think of- there's wish trading, wish stealing, cities that are kept safe from the chaos of the outside world but you have to give the city government your wish to get in, you name it. No wonder Amazon bought the rights. Keep an eye out for that movie/series, I guess.

Ok, I need some non-image comics.

#6: Giant Days (Boom! Studios, 2015)

Anime fans, this one's for you: you know all those series you love about groups of cute girls just going through their daily lives? Well imagine if those cute girls were over eightee- hey wait where are you going come back

Giant Days is a slice-of-life story about three young women facing the challenges of college life. Apparently it's a spin-off of a webcomic with like 15 years of strips, but I don't care about all that and neither should you! It's a little like gilmore girls in terms of tone. The dialogue is snappy, all the characters play off each other in ways that's fun to see, and there's this 7 foot tall Australian rower chick who's completely obsessed with her reedy loser boyfriend. It's just comforting. It's like a big plate of mashed potatoes, this comic.

Hey, speaking of slice-of-life:

#7: Megg, Mogg and Owl (Indie/Fantagraphics, 2013ish)

This has the honor of being the only comic on this list that's been adapted to another type of media, in the form of a segment on Justin Roiland's weird kinda-shitty Hulu halloween special. Not much of an honor, I guess.

Anyways! MM&O is about a group of "friends" who live together in drug-addled squalor. Megg is a chronically depressed witch just waiting to die. Mogg, Megg's boyfriend, is a talking cat who just wants to keep the degenerate lifestyle they've built for themselves stable, and Owl is a neurotic sex addict who wants to make something of himself but doesn't want to lose his only companions, and Werewolf Jones is a drug-dealing sociopath. It's like Peep Show! I absolutely love this comic, I reread it constantly, but I'm having a hard time pitching it.

If Giant Days is a plate of mashed potatoes this is like... a gas station hot dog eaten over a storm drain or something. Still kind of comforting, just in a different way. Let's cleanse our palette with some capeshit.

#8: Planetary (Wildstorm/DC, 1998)

Planetary rocks. We follow an amnesiac immortal named Elias Snow as he travels the globe with his top-secret Planetary Investigations team to uncover the secrets of the Wildstorm universe. Think of it like... The X-Files crossed with The Venture Brothers. X-Files in that they investigate weirdo mysteries, Venture Brothers in that every genre of speculative fiction- from Doc Savage-style pulp heroes to Kaiju to James Bond superspies- all exist, or existed, in some form.

Also on the team besides Snow are The Drummer (who has some kind of information-based power I never really understood) and Jakita Wagner, the super-strong ADHD daughter of a Tarzan expy. It's hard to do it justice in a post like this, buy a copy! Or pirate it, if you don't want to give Warren Ellis any money!

#9: Bad Enders (Indie, 2020)

Hey, this one is free! Check it out here: https://beany-tuesday.itch.io/bad-enders-pilot-issue

Bad Enders is a shonen pastiche with all the humor and charm you could expect from a @beanytuesday joint. It's great! It follows a burnt-out twentysomething who once had ambitions of becoming a demon hunter, but has since resigned himself to a life of filling out excel spreadsheets. Beanytuesday has stated there probably won't be any more Bad Enders content, but he has another comic called GUE (https://beanytuesday.tumblr.com/tagged/gue/chrono) that takes place in the same universe.

#10: G-Man (Image Comics, 2009)

i bet you thought i was done with image huh

Anyways, this was my jam back in like 3rd grade and you know what? It holds up. When they say "all-ages" they fuckin mean all ages, I'm a grown man and I can enjoy this.

The story of this entry is that I wanted to end on 10 instead of 9.

The story of this comic is that a kid named Mikey G gets his hands on a magic blanket that allows him to fly, but his brother ALSO uses the magic blanket to fly with and they become, like, rivals, but this other kid can also fly and he starts fucking with them... better than it sounds. There's also this crazy arc later in the series where they have a baby brother but- hold on, I'll show you

See? Nuts.

Ok, that was all of them bye

[blepxiee]

Hi. It’s been a while and I deeply apologize

Okay so mini comic to demonstrate what just happen to me when I checked tumblr after… I don’t know how long it’s been-

I’m not going to get into much of what happened while I was gone. My mental health was slipping ever so slowly, on top of that I got sick towards the end so that kicked my ass- That’s the gist of it.

Typically when I go on little breaks I neglect to make a post about me taking a break or anything. This is because I feel like feel like I’d just be letting someone down for lack of better words. Even at the point of writing this my hands are shaking and I can’t think straight. The main reason I even took the break to begin with was to calm down, I had a lot on my mind at the moment and tumblr just added to that 10 fold.

For the record most of it wasn’t with anything anyone did. It’s all just my brain and the fact that since I wasn’t used to tumblr still I felt out of place. Even though I knew this wasn’t true and you all are amazing people I just didn’t want to continue while knowing I couldn’t preform at my best. I felt like if I couldn’t give you all the best than nothing was going to be good enough. (Couldn’t imagine being a perfectionist/sarc)

Anyways, I’m also terribly sorry I had absolutely zero idea that so many people would worry about where I went or if I was okay. The guilt of also not answering those makes me feel worse. It was a bitter sweet feeling to see the worried messages it felt nice to know people worry and care, but it was anxiety inducing to know that you all are worrying about where I am while I’m just drawing in my room to relieve stress.

I LOVE this community and the people here, I’ve always loved talking to people and making new friends. However social anxiety is a bitch and I sadly still get in my own head about it. I’m too hard on myself and I feel like that’s what happens with a lot of people and not just me. So a little message to people who can relate

ENJOY YOURSELF!!!

Doing stuff like this is supposed to be FUN for you and hopefully everyone else that interacts with you and whatever you create. Doing this is my fun and what I really need to work on is reminding myself that it’s just that. Fun. Not a 100 page essay that needs to be perfected and reviewed twenty times over. I’m not saying that I’ll stop trying, just that I won’t be so hard on myself for my mistakes and trust that you all will be okay with that and the fact I will make many mistakes. If there’s mistakes in this writing that I probably didn’t see I won’t be surprised.

Anywizzle, that was that. This is also NOT me officially saying I will be very active. I’m about to go on an 4 day trip so interactions will still be sparse, I’ll make an official post when I return. Also no one has to feel bad for sending messages asking if I was okay, I overall thank you guys for that so so much. I am still very sorry though for not interacting for a while, also PLEASE CATCH ME UP- I assume stuff went down since I went completely MIA from tumblr so if you want you can just briefly tell me what I need to catch up on. With that, thanks for reading and happy scrolling!

….Also happy pride!!

[steeltwigz]

cross-posting my ii finale review from twt to here too. guys rambling on twt SUCKS >:( had to break i tup into TEN POSTS ARE YUO FOR RRAL

anyway.

WAITT im in a ranting mood ok. im actually rlly Happy NOT HAPPY uhmmm satisfied but NOT SATISFIED EITHER ughh. im. glad the choice was for mephone 4 to leave. i like that its left open, for the same reason i like why marshmallow leaving in ep 11 was written so definitively. she wanted to get away from the show. and so she Did, completely. she wasnt even in the Comics after that!! she got what she wanted, kind of, sort of. and i feel the same way abt mephone too. he NEEDED to step back from it all, for himself and the people around him, imo. i mean, like he says, he only Made the show to get one up on cobs, and now cobs is gone and mephone needs to figure out who he is Without cobs' influence anymore. i think this is ultimately good for him, the best that couldve happened. and im not upset the contestants aren't sad enough, or whatever. becuz mephones story is Explicitly one abt parental abuse, and like it or not he kind of did the same thing to the contestants that cobs did to him, just in ykno. kind of different ways. they have complicated feelings towards each other and im not surprised most of them didnt react. i doubt most of them knew What to do at all given the situation! i think it was a rlly good choice, narratively speaking. i think it represents the kind of mixed emotions that parental abuse can cause, esp when its in mephones case where it was rlly just a super unfortunate circumstance. ik mephone isnt rlly their parental figure and the crew has stated that he isnt their dad, which i agree with! i like how complex their relationships all are. they feel more real that way? i guess? idk.

sorry this is all becuz i saw a post that read how someone was sad mephone left his support system. but like. the contestants dont rlly Want to be that for him, and not even rlly for each other all the way either, and they dont Have to be. a lot of the cast arent friends and i like that perspective! yeah it sucks that mephone left them, but they all have rlly mixed emotions abt each other, i feel. mephone was in a position of authority that he would occasionally abuse, just out of inexperience and naivete. so the feeling left over is complicated. MUCH LIKE [insert anecdote from my childhood. waves hands nonchalantly to avoid revealing too much abt my personal life].

it resonated with me. i can see a lot of my own relationships reflected in mephone's with the contestants. so YEAH i think the ending was rlly good ^_^ it reminded me a lot of the sturggles i have both as someone with. Not Ideal but also Not Terrible parents. like cobs was inarguably awful, and i think partly mephone thought he couldnt be as bad becuz he wasnt Like That, but it made him underestimate his actions and he ended up overlooking a lot of stuff and hurting his contestants in more emotional ways. Not That I Would Know Anything About That Ha Ha. and now he feels bad. but he doesnt know how to fix it, because you Cant fix it, not without significant personal growth that he seems to recognize Isnt going to happen if he sticks around. so he leaves. for himself, but i think for the contestants also. he doesnt know how to apologize, and i think he feels really guilty too. and the contestants cant say anything becuz Its True and Hes Right, and hoenstly a few of them are probably Happy to see him go too, so they let him leave. idk. its just weird living in that middle space where someone who deeply loves you is also someone whos caused a Lot of your problems. I think part of mephones problem too is that he views them as characters on his show. not like entirely, they're People to him of course, not like how cobs treats his creations. but they also serve a purpose to mephone, to be his friends and entertain him. i do think he genuinely cares about them but i think he also probably has kind of an objectification of them in his mind? uhm. Not That I Would Kno- [gets shot]

tl;dr like. mephone didnt mean to hurt the contestants, but he did because of tragic events beyond his control. but that cant excuse his actions and its a hard situation to fix. tbh there isnt rlly a solution. so him leaving felt profound and understandable. there COULD be a reconciliation, another spin-off series to elaborate and write in a redemption arc. but for now there Isnt. and i dont think there rlly Has to be? i like the bittersweetness. idk. anyway rant over Probably Maybe Idk

[zkylearnstherope]

Lemme write some updates for some fellas here.

AU Content

I don't know who's been keeping up with my stories, but the one I used to call, Void Walkers [AU] has been rewritten far too many times that it has now become its own series. It will NOT be an AvA AU anymore.

It will now be just called, Void Walkers.

You may notice that there are sticks there that look like victim and Agent, but they are separate fellas.

vic is taller than canon victim. Always has been. I just sucked at drawing the first Height Chart. And Gent as well. Both of their colors are different from the canon although it's barely noticeable.

I plan to remake their whole designs more, because I want them to be completely separate from AvA.

Why? It started with me being too tired of seeing the victim x Agent ships, when I see them as father and son. I cannot hate the art, because they are genuinely really good, but the pit in my stomach grows bigger with every piece I see.

One of the first solutions I came up with, is to make vic and Gent as separate characters. After I did that, the story just took a life of its own.

I used to think of H as a borrowed OC, but I am now claiming him as mine. He looks far too different now, I think I deserve that.

All of them got a life outside of AvA, and I'm 100% going through with it.

Now, what about Interrogation? If cowboy vic and H will be removed from AvA, what happens to that one?

I paused working on that one because of two reasons:

One was because I was waiting for a dev update for the animation software I am using. That update was released hours ago.

Second reason was because I was conflicted with the story. The flow doesn't make sense. Maybe it would, if it's still an AvA AU.

I only finished 14 seconds after working on it for two weeks, and during that time, I redesigned and posted here the new designs (but still not finalized) for Gent and vic.

After that, I reworked their designs again, wrote a few more stories, and each story just felt right on its own (without the AvA influence).

I still plan to work on Interrogation, but I would most probably, start from scratch. Sorry to disappoint those who were waiting for half a year now.

Am I still gonna do AvA stuff?

Yes. But I don't know if A and H would be in it.

Some of you have probably read my Shepherd vic poem. I plan to make that a really short AU. Again, I will not ship Agent and vic there.

Shepherd of the Lost Lambs AU

I will explain more about this one in the future.

There's also that victim vs Agent animation that I promised, and the lesbian ChoDark animation as well.

Now what's with all these updates?

Because a lot of you probably followed me for the AvA content, but then I started to go back to writing. I am not sure if you guys liked the kinky stuff or you liked seeing A, but all those things will still exist, but NOT in AvA / AvM context. Sure, my style would be there but it will not be intentional anymore.

I honestly lost interest because of that Reddit IA incident a few months ago. 😒

All the AvA stuff I have planned, I want them to go on YouTube, and I need to hold back on the kinky if I plan to do that, obviously.

One of them is even AvM S3 themed. I think you guys will love that one. My brain won't stop coming up with ideas, I swear...

So, AvA stuff, yes. Kinky no. Will A and H still be there? I am still thinking about it.

New Blog

Because I want Void Walkers to be a separate thing from AvA, I want to make a separate blog for it. Besides, it will be a lot of text based content, and that's a lot of reading. I tried to post writing here too and I don't think anyone reads them. Maybe people do? I am not sure.

But yeah, I want to make a new separate blog for Void Walkers.

Someone asked me the other day if Gent and H are in a comic, because they "seemed interesting". It made me happy hearing that. It reminded me of the comics from last year. Why don't I just make more of those short stories, right?

Lastly, not only was I 🪽 writing Void Walkers, I 🌟 also started to write about The True Kingdom again. I have big plans for TR. So that other blog will be repurposed for it.

I never got to finish that art of The Wise Wolf of The Fog. I wasn't skilled enough, so I just gave up at some point. But I will draw her again, maybe next year. Then write an official lore for The Fog.

Conclusion

I started writing this post with the intention of asking you fellas, what you think, or perhaps even making a poll.

As I am currently typing this, I have made up my mind. Void Walkers will be a separate blog and I will keep working on that and The Collectors series that I love.

Anyway, 'til next time. I'm going to bed.

[majorproblems77]

Bonus links update! Which means it's analysis time! (Only slightly late haha)

Hi all!

I emerge from the void! Exams are a doozy man, but here i am, And i am ready to analyse the hell out of this update cause ohhh man stuff is happening and I'm loving it.

For the important stuff! All art belongs to @bonus-links and the artist @ezdotjpg. Please go and look at their other stuff too! And I once again thank you for letting me do these. Its awesome to be able to ramble about things like this.

Find the original comic here! go reblog it, please? For me? :D

It's so much fun!

Okay

Grab some popcorn and some water because we hydrate here. LETS GOOOOO

Slate taking pictures of all the plants and stuff is so sweet! I love them.

Shout out to the pig picture, it's so cuteeeeeee

The lil bug carrying his bag is giving me actual life okay i love him smsm

Just

Look at this little guy he is beloved, number 1 sidekick you can't stop me and my beetle propaganda

Speaking of little guys

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

MY LITTLE GUYYYYYY

HE IS SO PRETTY I LOVE HIM :D

And I love his little headband hello that's the sweetest lil thing? did he bring that with him? Did Aryll give him one to useee?

were you not expecting me to yell about loft in the first panel I could? Then you came to the wrong post friend! :DDDDDDDD

ANYYYYY WAY

These two defo need to talk about it at one point, maybe after the entire team is together? Having a divide like this (While 100% understandable, loft was kinda a dick about it) will impact things.

Makes me wonder how it's gonna work. Will someone snap some sense into them? Will someone get hurt because they were arguing?

We know they dont really get along too well so I feel like this is the beginning of a greater arc with these two.

Poor loft, he wants to make amends. Maybe try again in a bit? You'll get it.

This made me chuckle, when in doubt, wolf is there to assist.

Also, these two have no beef, do we know if Wake knows the wolf from his adventure? I cant actually remember if it was mentioned at all. It would explain why he's so willing to apologise to him and not Loft.

Aryll!

I love Aryll she is wonderful and deserves the world.

As peony should, because peony is wonderful

WAKE IS IN TROUBLE

Tetra's face gives me, as soon as you finish talking I am going to grab you and shake you like a bag of potatoes while asking you a million and one questions.

Small Aryll hiding like that gives so much little sister energy i love her so much okay.

aw

oh... OH

WHO IS THAT?

SLATE? Who is sheeee? A sister?

Alsoooo, She looks an awful lot like loft....

More on this in a minute cause I've got a whole thing.

Peony pulling them back from the memory, this is why i love her okay. She's wonderful.

Okay okay okay I am excited about this so hear me outtttttt

I have a theory

Loft reminds Slate of a family member. More specifically his sister.

Thats why they are so cold to him.

So, it's not just me right? There's a resemblance here. The way the hair falls and the colour.

ESPECIALLY WITH THE HEADBAND THAT LOFT HASNT WORN UNTIL NOW.

If Loft got given that headband by someone here as he was helping and now that Slate has seen him wearing it and also not he's had this memory it would explain why he looks to the side like that.

He's looking in the direction that Loft left the screen, perhaps looking for him...

The response from Slate might be a trauma response without them realising it. He's acting cold to Loft because he reminds him of a member of his family that he can't put a face too.

Just a thought of course.

Thats all from me! :D

Have a great day yeah?

(Again sorry this is a little later than normal, I've been head's deep in exam revision for weeks now haha.)

[universeinthebox]

Hey again

Shout-out to all the people who liked and commented on my last post. Glad to know that Squeak hasn’t been forgotten. =)

Comments:

winterstraystar said: For Sonic: Thank you for still looking out for his blog, it means a lot. For Squeak: Hope you are going better wherever life has taken you. I hope you live with no regrets 

You’re welcome. I should mention that I’ve done a little writing, and one of my stories is about Squeak. Here it is: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/528407/thanks-for-the-memories

I can’t believe how long it took me to get a fimfiction account. It says something about all the trauma I’ve been through.

There were a lot of us in the Box with mental health struggles of one sort or another. It was really valuable to have that space to talk, and also create! It reminds me of that one Subnormality comic...

pinkusponkus said: Squeak did so much for so many people. I miss him! 

Thank you! We miss him too!

kasamari said: I miss the care and love of the whole team you guys put together. I will keep following this and Squeak’s other spaces in the hopes that I get the chance to tell Squeak that the soldier who left his pregnant wife for training all those years ago is now a proud father of 4, still married to the same amazing woman. I will always be so grateful for the story of Good Night and for the wonderful Ponies in a Box that worked to share so many stories.

CONGRATULATIONS! Hip Hip Hurray! I hope we can all be so fortunate. =)

You didn’t ask for advice, but I’m gonna provide some anyway. My favorite parenting book is Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn. Also, conventional school sucks and kids would be much better off at Sudbury Schools: https://www.facebook.com/HudsonValleySudburySchool/videos/10155951019968804/ (The teachers are better off too!) Anyway, give your kids a hug from us. And maybe show them an old PIAB video or two =)

And hopefully, hopefully someday you’ll be able to tell Squeak the news directly. I’m sure he’d be happy for you. =)

warbalist said: I miss writing music for his stuff. 😭

Oh wow, you wrote music for him? (Sorry, I don’t recognize the username!) What did you write?

I miss working with him too. I miss the sheer sense of possibility we had in 2012, in the brony fandom generally and especially with Pony in a Box. I still remember how I was on vacation and Squeak came up with the idea for The Best and within 12 hours it was fully written, recorded and posted on Youtube. Or how about that time the other boxers and me secretly made a short for Squeak’s birthday?

I miss hearing our stuff premiere on Celestia Radio. I miss reading the comments as they came in. I miss the little ARG we did for Wrong Way Backwards. I miss the feeling that anything was possible.

I’m really sad that I didn’t go to BronyCon 2013. A lot of PIAB people were there, and in retrospect that was the best opportunity I ever had to see the boxers in person. But my mom had cancer and I had anxiety mixed with self-hatred and the flight seemed too much of a risk and it didn’t seem fair to mom so in the end I didn’t go. =(

I miss my box friends. Too many of us had IRL problems at the same time, and we gradually scattered to the winds. We’ve still got a discord server but it rarely gets any activity. It’s so sad. =(

Special shout-out to Togpie, who was a vital support to me during some extremely difficult times in my life. I think maybe she burnt out, caring for me all the time. If so, I don’t blame her. She worked really hard to help me when she was already busy with her own problems. I haven’t heard from her in over a year now. I hope she’s ok...

It’s strange how Life is so much grander and deeper than it seems. Do you know what I mean? There is so much meaning and passion and joy and opportunities taken and opportunities missed just in this one little group of people. There are so many things that shaped us, so many traumas that the Box helped us face, and then the Box itself drifted away because we still hadn’t found perfect solutions to Life’s problems.

And here I am, posting this little thing that a handful of people will see. How will it impact you? What’s your story?

A good life is possible, I’m sure. The solutions involve things like Children’s Rights and Sudbury Schools and Democracy and Universal Basic Income. The solutions involve things like ponies and fandoms and community for its own sake. The solutions involve knowing that you matter and your feelings matter, and it’s ok to cry when you’re hurt and it’s ok to get mad at abusive people and systems.

I think of the billionaires of the world and I wonder why they don’t just feed the poor. I’ve had a lot of friends who deserve money, good people tied down by bad circumstances. I’ve given a few thousand myself, trying to figure out how much I can afford considering I still can’t manage a full-time job (on account of my mental health). And I wonder why anyone thinks Elon Musk is a good person, seeing that he has so much money but he refuses to help people.

I think back to a time when guys openly liking ponies would have been impossible, when this fandom would have been impossible, where the formation of Pony in a Box would have been impossible. I wonder how many wonderful memories past generations never got to experience because of their stupid rules, and I’m glad for the progress we’ve made and the hope of more progress to come, and I’m also very sad that more progress hasn’t happened already.

Every so often I google anti-aging medicine (which is a legit field now) because I want to make up for all the time I’ve lost to trauma and abuse.

In the meantime, though, I’m glad we had Pony in a Box. And I’m glad that the fandom still exists. And I hope that the choices I make today will help future generations. Maybe new opportunities will come our way, like the TARDIS fading in from the Vortex.

Thank you, my friends.

Onwards and Upwards --Sonicsuns

[mmollymercury]

I've been inactive for a bit... sorry abt that😭😭 and I've got requests that I've been meaning to post but haven't and I feel REALLY BAD ABT THAT AGGHHH SORRYYYY. But to end off a pretty good day, heres some of my fav shadow moments from the sonic comics because sega has forgotten how to write him💗😊😙 (i promise I'll be more active soon💕)

1st up to bat we have:

Shadow actually has a soul guys I'm so sick of the SLANDERRR

Two:

Girls, this is so lovely to see, this whole issue abt him wanting to find out abt his past and asking for help from sonic and tails was just.... MUAW chefs kiss. He's very vulnerable here, and his facial expressions vary a lot but despite all this, he's not out of character. HE IS A NICE GUY, HES JUST COMPLICATED 😭

Three:

Idk I just like this drawing. Unleash your true power, king🙌🙌🙌👹👹👹

Four:

OK, so I know this comic isn't necessarily "official" however, it was drawn by official artists,,,so its real enough in my book. Shadow was raised by an old man in the 50s so we can forgive that gender comment- RIGHT NOW LETS JUST FOCUS ON THE BABIES. OMG THEYRE SO SOFT AND CUTE, Shadow would definitely be like this with any little kid/person that reminds him of how it felt to be a sibling💕

Five:

"I just wanted a girl's trip to the Maldives and now I'm playing fucking hero‼️‼️🤬🤬🤬"

Six&seven:

More from the previous comic abt Shadow’s past questtt

He ang😡

Not Sonic's fruity hand tho-

Eight:

Shadow annoyed then entertained by sonic asking to race🙌🙌😵💘

Nine:

I couldn’t not mention this are u kidding me???-

Ten:

Snap crackle pop

[thedevotionaltour]

your posting about brat pack has got me so curious

ohhhh my feelings on bratpack are both So Complex and Extremely Easy. i'm gonna put this under the cut bc it accidentally got long. and then this got long too IM SORRY. this got so damn rambly. anyways. what i deem important i'll keep up here

summary of feelings: underground gritty take on superhero sidekick story contains both well done genuine critiques of the genre and its fans but i think has some contempt in there, too (but then again, who can blame a guy). offers interesting ideas. has some piss poor writing in there where occasionally trying to satirize something just makes it into exactly what it's trying to critique if not handled well. READ THE REVISED TPB INSTEAD OF THE SINGLE ISSUES AS THE REVISIONS MAKE THE STORY MORE IMPACTFUL and reminds us that capitalism is the upholder of evils. and lets itself breathe here and there a bit more and allows for more depth. though if you want to read both for comparison, i wouldn't advise against that-- rereading it in the tpb form as opposed to when i just read it as single issues helped me with some of the meh feelings i had about it.

it is also a comic i will absolutely say right now is NOT one i would recommend to everyone. at all. i'd say if you are not a fan of american underground comix, this may not be to your taste. but if you're willing, or enjoy edgier comics even with no underground experience, and enjoy comics that satirize the cape genre, it's worth giving it a go. and please keep in mind that not only is richard veitch's career from an undergound background, it is also the 90s. so it's good to keep that in mind, too.

also, important to note content warnings on the comic itself include homophobia, sexual abuse, racism, and misogyny. alongside other things, but i think those are the most important to be upfront on. this isn't a here and there thing with it-- they are major points through the whole story and will be carrying it along.

final important statement: i am so sad for all these children and wish the heroes would die.

and here is a link to the comic!

i think a good background context for this is to my understanding, it's was partially written as a response to the jason todd vote to kill hotline and how people acted about it afterwards. well, inspiration at least, not quite sure on the response part at all. im trying to vaguely remember things right now. the comic as a whole is satirical poking and prodding about it. for some further context, jason todd had only died two years ago when this began publication.

the comic is a very gritty, edgy superhero style story, talking about all the dark parts and the "you know, this wouldn't be all the fun in real life, now would it?" stuff. so these kids are going through the fucking ringer of abuse, life as child soldiers who are both idolized and despised by the public, and are seen as icons as opposed to people. and that it's adults who are putting children through this. you get the awesome reminder of it is not as easy to survive being blown up as dc and marvel may have you think just because you're the hero!

as mentioned before, it's a story that is a satirical and critical deconstruction of the superhero genre, sidekick and young hero groups in particular. author richard veitch's career started in underground comix and it shows through and through. i think it has a lot to offer in how it handles its critiques, how it points out the hypocrisy in the fan culture. it also has a lot of blunders with it too. sometimes when trying to satirize misogyny and homophobia within the fan culture and stories, it just winds up as actually misogynist and homophobic writing.

a lot of where my more negative feelings on it definitely lie in the realm of sometimes the line between crit/satire and then just contempt for the genre and its fans feel occasionally blurred. i think a lot of this comes from some parts of the writing i find really mishandled. a lot of my critical feelings also come from the aforementioned homophobia-- i have. many feelings on the character the mink. i think it is absolutely possible to write a gay sexual child abuser. i think it is very much possible to write a character like him, stereotypical flamboyancy and all. but i also think the caricature gets pushed too hard sometimes, and it leaves a very nasty taste in my mouth. i know exactly that this character and his sidekick are meant to be an exaggerated portrayal of the homophobic beliefs and gay interpretations surrounding batman and robin. knowing that fact and what it's meant to be does not make that better and mean it is done well. i think it could have been handled a lot better. maybe if i returned and reread after sitting with this comic for a while, my opinions would change. as of right now though, they remain... less than pleasant.

i am willing to hear someone out if they wanted to say, "eiffel, i think your feelings are truly more discomfort as opposed to veitch having handled this story point poorly, and here's why the writing with the mink is not actually as bad as it feels". but i will also say i dont think every second of it was bad. again, i think there are some interesting approaches here and there with it, and as a function overall in the group of heroes, none of them are any better than him. but it's. hooh. oh boy. oh boy. it's a lot. get ready for every stereotype about the flamboyant gay molester you could imagine.

mink is also not the only caricature here-- all of the heroes are meant to be some caricature taken to the extreme with the heroes they're meant to mock.

THAT BEING SAID I REALIZED I HAVENT ELABORATED ON LIKE. THE BASICS OF THE HEROES AND STUFF AND WHO THEY'RE PARODYING. It's obvious when reading but since I don't know if you'll read it, I'll say it here. Midnight Mink and Chippy are Batman and Robin, Moon Mistress and Luna are Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl, King Rad and Wild Boy are Green Arrow and Speedy, and Judge Jury is a combo of Captain America and Judge Dredd (and one more character?) while Kid Vicious is meant to be Bucky. The last one I couldn't figure out until TvTropes told me bc despite loving heroes my knowledge on many of them is highly limited to a few of them.

anyways, this is also where i really try to remember that veitch's background lies in underground comix, which are the most edgiest and pushing your boundaries comics you can come by. and it's also the 90s. oh god it's the 90s. it's the 90s in the way it's 2008 when the comic kick-ass was published. but i also think i can recognize when it's just me having to sit through some discomfort and when some stuff just becomes distasteful. i think he handles the other characters better, though. or maybe i just choke them down easier. again, i'm willing to hear someone out if they'll talk me through it in a convincing way.

however, my enjoyment of it comes from that i do enjoy a good darker hero story. i do! i will always prefer a hopeful for humanity and that's why it's worth is superhero comic, but that's mostly for actual hero comics in the genre that are not critiques or satires. when a comic lets it be known this is entirely its purpose, then it's better than guy who just hates hero wrote a superhero comic, for some reason. knowing veitch has a background in heroes is what makes some parts of this a bit easier to take in good faith, but like. i wouldn't be surprised if there was absolutely some contempt and bitterness interwoven into it, too.

i think the sidekicks are a really interesting cast, and i like them. my favorites are chippy (cody) and luna. my heart goes out to them sooooo much. everyone talks about how much they want mink to die for sexually abusing chippy but no one talks about how moon mistress was... also sexually abusing luna. 100%. not the same way as mink with chippy, clearly, but luna was absolutely 100% sexually exploited too. so i think moon mistress should die badly too.

with the revised tpb of brat pack, i think it's good how it shows what the actual driving force behind all the insane abuse these children go through; it's capitalism. the heroes sold their imagery to companies for money, and so they have to uphold it to continue their funding. their greed and selfishness is what causes harm.

it also goes into how vigilantes are highly conservative reactionary as a concept politically speaking. politics and superheroes are a long as fuck conversation with a lot to talk about, and im just not totally qualified for it, nor am i gonna go into it here. but it's less exploring the reactionary side of heroes as wooooaaaaah edgy looook at this guys the heroes are actually ~baaaad guuuys~ as too many people in non critical comics like to pull (and then do a piss poor job at it bc they dont understand what actually makes vigilantism bad as a real life thing. bc they arent trying to point out the actual bad politics of superheroes-- they just wanna see a good guy be a bad guy without further thought. but instead of just doing that, they want to think they're being oh so smart about it. so it sucks bad most of the time.), and i think it's honestly a more sincere approach that actually understands what it wants to say about that. because it understands capitalism as a system that upholds abhorrent abuses. and for all the shit i think it does wrong, i will say that veitch understands the phrase "abuse of power comes as no surprise" in this story.

anyways this is getting... really long! apologies! and it's super duper rambly for which i also apologize!! my feelings on brat pack are mixed, but i've come around to this comic way more the longer i've sat with it. it's not perfect, no comic is, but it is. definitely for a certain crowd. and i do, ultimately, consider myself part of that crowd, even if im certainly not envisioned in it most of the time. i'm also sorry if you were looking for way more stuff on the story as opposed to my feelings-- i feel like i can't give a lot on the story, especially bc i sometimes feel unsure how to explain without also spoiling too much and also i just cant remember a lot of what happened outside of some pretty key plot points. i've only read it twice, and it was like, twice in two days! like, in april.

overall brat pack does some things right, i think it does a lot of things wrong, but what makes it a comic i find worth reading is that it does offer some interesting ideas and approaches, and i think it has some neat characters. i think it falls in the realm of "mediocre story with insane potential will stay with you even more than a really fantastically written story you love". for me, at least. again, i don't think this comic. but there's a lot it could do better. and what it does do right (and honestly even what it does wrong) highly compels me.

... and i can't help but enjoy an edgy superhero satire.

[beevean]

No worries about tangent-ing! I think you raise good points; I didn't think much of it when issue 8 came out, but with other people on Tumblr pointing out the oddness of a canon character from the 'main' medium (the games) extensively gushing about a newly-introduced one in a new medium (the comics), I've increasingly found myself also considering it a ploy to hype up Whisper more than anything else. At the very least, it paints quite the negative picture of Silver, or at least greatly undoes how powerful he is supposed to be. But then again, he seems like the type of person who would absolutely destroy himself to help others (like at the end of 06 where he tries to seal Iblis into his soul), so with some suspension of disbelief I could imagine that in the Forces!war he got in over his head and got into life-threatening scrapes and had to get helped out there. (On the other hand, iirc Sonic plus the Avatar easily broke one of those massive grey Death Egg robots or whatever they're called with a spindash through the face, sooooo... But then again, in that game little got done without Sonic for six whole months anyway. I personally enjoy Forces, but that aspect of the Resistance imo definitely is odd.) Still, I think it is strange that Silver's fanboying is getting dragged up again after it should have gotten resolved at the end of the MV saga. He had his fight with Whisper at his side, they succeeded (twice, if you count the Metal Sonic stuff early on and MV afterwards), he's gotten to know her as a person who is just as fallible and flawed as anyone else, so why does the comic insist that he still has this amazingly high view of her after it has not gotten brought up since like... issue 8 and a VERY minor mention in issue 26? It doesn't come out of nowhere, but to me it feels displaced.

Furthermore, now that I think about it, Sonic's snarky reply about Whisper being Whisper's name when Silver actually whispers during her true introduction ("No, genius. Whisper is her name.") absolutely is him being a dick! That has always bothered me. As well as that whole "Couldn't even play along, had to bring the mood down." part. Maybe some concern about the world you are living getting imminently ruined, Sonic? Hmm...

I guess sorry for my long tangents in your askbox too, but I actually find it quite interesting to think about it all and analyse it in such a way!

Yeah, it gives an odd impression. I know that calling comic-exclusive characters "OCs" is controversial :P but it really feels like that. It's a lot of telling and hyping up a character that belongs to a "lesser" canon by using a character that belongs to the "main" canon.

(also, friendly reminder that Flynn back in the day explained his decision to create Tangle by putting down all canonical female Sonic characters. That's also not a good move.)

It feels like they don't know what to do with Silver and they've also ran out of characters to use, so they're bringing back one trait they had established about him to create Conflict. To be cynical, they may be not putting in much effort to be more creative since the comic is in severe danger of being cancelled :P

Boy, I re-read those few pages of #8 to put them in the post, and geez Sonic is just so unlikeable. "My over-eager friend here is Silver" dude, c'mon! Imagine if your "friend" introduced you like this to someone you admired! This is not like Sonic calling Knuckles a knucklehead after being tricked and losing them two Emeralds, it's just making fun of a guy for being awkward, I refuse to believe that Sonic would be so insensitive! Man, if I think of all the things we let slide from early IDW because of the hype... :\

(Team Sonic Racing, which came out a year after #8, had a similar chemistry between Sonic and Silver, but it came off as more endearing, and also more befitting the context because it was during a race so Sonic was expecting some trash talk lol)

[hackedmotionsensors]

GOD SORRY LMFAO

I’M SORRY I’M RUNNING BEHIND AGAIN ON OPENING COMMS.

They’ll be open...probably tomorrow morning. I’m trying to use Ko-fi’s commission form so everything is nice and neat but I’ve not done this before so its kinda confusing lol 

Actually honestly its pretty clean and has lots of little add ons and stuff that make organizing things really nice but I’m not sure how things will look on your end or how they’ll look on my end when a comm comes in so if I goof something up on the first part I’m so so sorry lol

Also I know I was REALLY lowballing sketch coms before but I can’t afford, nor do I have the energy, to do 15$ commissions for sketches. So the base price for a black and white bust sketch will be 30$. Thats still really low all things considered but I want to make things ...cheap and fast and also...worth my time and energy. This is a reminder that that price is EXTREMELY low and that artists who charge a more sensible price than that are not over charging. I’m lowballing bc I’m fuckin broke lol

If that price is too high even little donations help me out in the long run so if you want you can leave a donation for as little as 3$? 6$?Just remember to leave a comment that its a donation so I know its not a request

I also have a few new rules so please be mindful of that. ↴

I’d say the most important rule is do not message me on any platform BUT ko-fi and if you commission me please check your ko-fi messages. Most likely I won’t have anything to say unless you’re sending me references. I have my DMs off on all platforms and I don’t really want to use my email unless I’m sending something to you. Ko-fi will be the only way to contact me and for me to contact you.

The other important one will be no real people. I’m sorry I feel uncomfortable drawing a real person being it you, your auntie, or an actor you like. (If its like...a live action character that’s different bc I’m just gonna make them anime anyway lol)

The other OTHER new rule will be I have to limit what I can draw from marvel. IT’LL BE IN THE POST but basically I’m still under NDA. You’re probably okay to ask for stevetony....bc they’re dead :)  (Also my crew was well aware of my ST shipping lol)   But you can dm me first to ask what is probably okay. I know i get a lot of BuckyTony which isn’t my thing but I know you guys are thirsty. But since Bucky is still in the current mcu I don’t know...if I’m allowed. Things like Billy, Tommy, Teddy....probably fine if its comic book based. Its WEIRD lol There’s a lot of grey and I just wanna be able to get hired again yknow?? lmfao Absolutely NO spider-man at all. AT ALL. I’m not risking it. 

Unless you were one of my crew members then (how’d you find this account???) ....i’ll just dm you privately lol

So yea if you’re interested in MCU, since I know a lot of people originally followed me for that....you gotta let me know first before sending your comm request in...I THINK?? I don’t exactly know who gets what first on the commission thing on ko-fi. 

and then the usual rules like please no gore, please no NSFW (spicy is fine but not explicit), Maximum 2 characters, try to keep them simple bc they’re sketches not fully rendered pieces, Furries are okay but not recommended (I’d rather send you to a furry artist with comms open since I’m primarily an anime artist ...more or less lol) , PLEASE be mindful of things that might make ME uncomfortable. I’m very VERY open minded and most things DON’T bother me but remember I’m not really an open NSFW artist or kink artist or anything like that. I know I can come off as really wild or loose minded (????) in terms of shipping but there’s been a few times I’ve felt really uncomfortable with comms and I just did them anyway bc I needed the money. You can always ask me ahead of time if you’re really unsure. When it comes to shipping what you might think is comfortable might make me VERY uncomfortable. 

lol THIS WILL ALL BE IN THE POST SORRY TO DUMP HERE  lol but i have more text space here

So yeah I need to make a graphic and then it should be up tomorrow.

[weirdestcornelius]

hey i know many people have spoken on this and i know this is kneeby’s personal comic, but as someone who also has gone through intense trauma regarding hospitals and has been manipulated by nurses/doctors who said they were looking out for me, the idea of doom being shipped with the patients just makes me feel so uncomfortable.

can’t we have a character who’s not woobified into a brainwashed baby who regrets everything? yes maybe he was brainwashed, but he did those things. i wouldn’t feel comfortable dating someone who did those things to people even if they weren’t me—let alone have my kids around then

and plus, as seen in the whole Miley & Funfi issue in cometcare, the other nurses are treated as demons by the comets and didn’t have any legal repercussions for what they did.

it just feels too enabled. I’m not hating on kneeby, this is her project entirely. it just feels weird to me as someone who was in a similar situation as some of the characters (albeit less fictional and with less sparkly gay furries)

Sorry this took a while to answer but I agree with you in some ways.

I like to remind myself that toxic people and abusers, ESPECIALLY in Dooms case of being forced into whatever they did can grow and change to be better people. BUT that does not mean that anyone has to or is going to be comfortable with forgiving them and I wish that was shown more.

The entire nurse and doctor cast is being woobified to be brainwashed little babies who don't know any better. Especially Puppy. I'm going to make an entire post on how the way lo is written is so fucking stereotypical of people with derealization and people with maladaptive daydreaming as someone who has had issues with both. But this post is about Doom and I don't wanna derail it so.

Trust me; I do not blame Doom for the situation skull is in. They are probably the character I have the most empathy for because he's one of the only people that fits the "forced innocent" trope in the comic. When you think about it, he's doing it only to protect their sibling and so that skull can survive; even if Cuddles wasn't threatening violence against him or Mood they still wouldn't have a fun time finding a different job considering their extra limbs are considered weird on Spinch (Kc mentioned that they were bullied a lot for it I think? So I can only assume it's not the most normal thing on Spinch)

BUT that does not mean he hasn't done terrible things. Doom would still need to grow and change as a person before getting in a relationship with anyone, much less patients at the hospital skull worked at. It would make much sense to actually SHOW skull changing through therapy and other outside help before saying "Oh yeah he's in a relationship with like seven people now". Especially Miley who I've already talked about on here. It just feels gross. Especially whenever all the other nurses and doctors are demonized, completely throwing out how Kc has basically said "You guys Cuddles is the only bad guy!!!!" which is a terrible trope in the first place but that's beside the point. If Kc wants to ship them with any of the patients they should have to go through a redemption arc where skull and his partner have to relearn how said partner is supposed to trust him after what they've done.