#the books arrived today :)

[mewtillidae]

posting a kremy every single day until new episodes of OUAW are out DAY 103

[abd-illustrates]

It’s Finally Here…!!

After more than a year in the making; my biggest project yet is all wrapped up! This year has been putting me through the absolute wringer up until now, but getting to hold this book and see folks getting their own copies in the mail and from their local shops has been easily one of the best times of not just this very wacky year, but probably my whole life 🥺😭💖 I never wanna stop making stuff, and I sincerely hope that this book might be able to help all of y’all who share that spirit 💪❤️‍🔥

📖 BOOKSTORE LINKS:

Amazon | Waterstones | Barnes & Noble | Blackwells | + more!

[hedgehog-moss]

In other news, this week a French publisher on his way to the London Book Fair was arrested by British counter-terrorist police to be questioned about his participation in protests in France.

A French publisher has been arrested on terror charges in London after being questioned by UK police about participating in anti-government protests in France.

Moret arrived at St Pancras [...] with his colleague Stella Magliani-Belkacem, the editorial director at the Paris-based publishing house, to be confronted by the two officers. [...] He was questioned for six hours and then arrested for alleged obstruction in refusing to disclose the passcodes to his phone and computer. [...] He was transferred to a police station in Islington, north London, where he remained in custody on Tuesday. He was later released on bail.

Éditions la Fabrique is known for publishing radical left authors. Moret also represents the French science fiction novelist Alain Damasio and had arranged more than 40 appointments at the London book fair. [...]

[Quoting publishing house’s press release] “The police officers claimed that Ernest had participated in demonstrations in France as a justification for this act – a quite remarkably inappropriate statement for a British police officer to make, and which seems to clearly indicate complicity between French and British authorities on this matter.” [...] “There’s been an increasingly repressive approach by the French government to the demonstrations, both in terms of police violence, but also in terms of a security clampdown.”

(Guardian link - BBC link) (article in French)

The publishing house (here’s their latest statement in French) and the publisher’s lawyer mention that the British police asked him “Do you support Emmanuel Macron? Did you attend protests against the pension reform?” and he was also asked to name the authors with anti-government views that his employer has published. They add, “Asking the representative of a publishing house, in the framework of counter-terrorism, about the opinions of his authors, is pushing even further the logic of political censorship and repression of dissenting thought. In a context of social protests and authoritarian escalation on the part of the French government, this aspect [of the questioning] is chilling.”

Being an accomplice to thoughtcrime by publishing dissident authors gets you treated like an international terrorist now... The publisher’s lawyer suggests that French authorities asked the UK to help them get their hands on the publisher’s contacts in the radical left sphere. But on the face of it, we’ve got: Exercise your right to protest your government in France -> get arrested by counter-terrorist UK police in London. That’s literally the reason he was given for being greeted by police at the train station...

[suntails]

THEY’RE HERE!!!!!

[spampai]

As they say, “An artist can draw a n y t h i n g.”

50 likes and I’ll draw them again idfk

Got inspiration from a FNF song (Catfight)

[hotwaterandmilk]

A couple of things I received in the mail this week.

Wada Shinji Artworks

Released in 2022 this book, which commemorates 10 years since Wada's death, covers an extensive assortment of artwork from the artist's catalogue including finished colour pieces, manuscripts and comments.

Truly if you're a fan of Wada this book is for you, it is very comprehensive; offering insight into his processes as well as exquisite finished artwork. It does something I'm normally not a fan of in art books, which is spread artwork across pages and combine several illustrations to a page in some places.

However, this book feels like a journey through Wada's career (grouped together by thematic elements like historical titles or suspense titles) and each page is composed in a particular way as part of telling this story so I actually don't mind it all that much. No, not the best for scanning but I don't think a book like this should be about scanning - it's about walking down Wada's path and rediscovering (or igniting) a sense of respect and affection for his works. In that sense, I really do think this book is successful.

I'm old but not old enough to have grown up reading Wada's stories (I was only introduced as a teenager with Sukeban Deka, which immediately captured me because it combined detective themes with action) so I can't speak as an authority on his works or career. But I believe most fans of manga will take something away from a detailed retrospective like this and as such, I highly recommend it.

Lab-Garnier's Magical Emi doujinshi

The latest in Asamiya Kia's long line of full-colour heroine doujinshi volumes which can veer between featuring cute, harmless pics, cheesecake shots and some more softcore illustrations (such as the one he did for Saimebi's Lebia). I had hoped this one would just be on the cute side of things given that Mai from Magical Emi is IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL however, this was not to be.

While there are a couple of fairly harmless shots of Mai, which I've included here, there is also a double-page panty shot spread and a bath illustration of her naked. 🤢🤢🤢 I had thought Yui from Corrector Yui eating ice cream in her book was bad enough, but this is on another level of NOPE. I'm posting this to save others from making the same mistake I did. This isn’t cute, it is gross ass shit.

Ranma 1/2 Ciao Magazine stickers

Ciao magazine shares a lot of shounen collab content, particularly Meitantei Conan, but in the November issue they actually included some Ranma content (timed obviously with the new anime series’ release).

While I’m not a big Takahashi-head, I had to get the magazine issue specifically for these stickers because I fell in love with the designs. Truly, an insert sticker sheet did NOT have to go this hard. If nobody else has scanned them I’m happy to do so, but Ranma has a lot of dedicated fans so it may not be necessary. I am happy I got these for myself though, very cute little insert that highlights Takahashi’s iconic artwork in a way that will appeal to young girls.

[degenerateshinji]

i like them. they're cool.

[kulapti]

Bookbinding (2 copies) of This Thing of Darkness by @maggieandthedragon, spring 2023.

This Thing of Darkness (Fantastic Beasts, Percival Graves x Credence Barebone) is a serious but hopeful look at the difficulties of helping someone face depression, whether it be for intervening in a crisis or the providing support in the long slog of continuing to get up every day. People are messy and difficult, but it is good to be together. As dark as it might be, we can receive help, and sometimes the help we offer each other is the most important thing in the world. It's no wonder this is one of the most popular works in the pairing tag. Recommended also for compelling side characters and interesting magic system additions.

-------------------------------About this project under the cut

This is one of the first fanfics I bound for myself when I started ficbinding last year. TTOD is one of my top ten favorite fics of all time and when I realized I could learn to do typesetting and bind fics I immediately knew I wanted to make a hard copy of this novel. My personal copy has a different spine because it’s part of a matching set of my favorite Percival x Credence fanfics; the set is almost complete.

Materials: text laser printed on archival paper; Italian rayon bookcloth, purple batik-pattern cotton backed with handmade wood pulp paper, bookboard, PVA glue, cotton cheesecloth used as mull. Stitched with cotton thread, beeswax, and linen tapes, plus embroidery thread and hemp cord for the endbands. Endpapers are marbled Italian paper by London-based artist Stephan Parenti (Peacock Paper studio) which I got on Etsy specially for this binding because I wanted it to be fancy.

I learned how to stitch endbands for this book as well. The bindings aren't perfect but I’m still quite pleased with the result. The whole time it’s been on my bookshelf I keep looking at it and going heehee I made a book ✨✨✨✨ Author copy has been mailed to maggiedragon.

[nikidanger]

.

[pandapear-art]

WHO UP BOOKING THEY BILL 🗣️🗣️

Higher-res still image hehe

[sgtprophet]

when i was at the flea market today i found a gray wool suit complete with the trousers, vest and blazer. I felt like god spoke to me at that moment

[lexalovesbooks]

Teraeth: I’m so jealous of you and kihrin because you both have this natural connection and fell in love in your past lives and what I have with both of you will never compare to that, I’m too tainted by my own past life and mistakes

Janel: That’s crazy because I’m actually so jealous of you and Kihrin because you don’t have any past lives influencing your feelings for each other. I wish that I knew my feelings for you were from a genuine connection in this life but instead I have to live wondering if I would even care for either of you without that history and if your feelings for me will eventually fade as you grow more settled in our present lives and realize that I’m just a memory of affection rather than the real thing

Kihrin: That’s crazy because actually I’m not even that jealous of either of you but I have a feeling that my role in this story means that there’s no way I’ll be able to have a future with either of you and I hate the idea that I won’t be able to spend this life with the two of you but since it’s inevitable I’m going to go full self-fulfilling prophecy and kill myself to save the world. Hope you guys are happy together though

[alascirce]

[ryssabrin]

this is maybe delving a little too much into apologia for veilguard’s writing but for the purpose of giving it the benefit of the doubt i don’t think it’s necessarily fair to say the lack of “mean” companions or dialogue options for rook is “sanitizing” it. ultimately they wrote a story that’s about offering kindness and seeking connection through understanding. having a big ol stinker of a character that’s difficult and challenging to engage with or having the option to play as someone who is genuinely ruthless and uncaring undermines that immensely.

like anders and vivienne work in their respective stories because their character arcs cohere to the overall thematic conflicts of the games that they are in. they were about these big issues that people have very different and relatable feelings and opinions about. so yes, i would say veilguard did pull back a lot on that as a mechanic and i understand why that makes the game feel hollow for a lot of people.

but the story they set out to write isn’t one that’s about big political issues affecting the world at large. it is at its heart a very personal story confronting the very personal emotions we have about self reflection and growth. how do you write a character offering a different view on that? “fuck personal growth and learning from your mistakes! wallow in your misery!” lol obviously there’s probably a more artful way of doing that but i understand why they didn’t go in that direction. also it would sort of end up being redundant anyways because that’s basically solas’s main character conflict.

there is a certain way to play veilguard where you do encourage less growth and reinforce the idea that we can’t escape our past, which i think turns the game into a bittersweet tragedy. played another way though it is a game that challenges your empathy and ability to overcome your own faults and see how that connects you to others.

though i do think they could have absolutely hit that theme harder with rook as the protagonist. (and there's an argument to be made ofc at how the inquisitor could have worked just as well if not better in this role, but that's also getting into sticky game dev issues and is a whole 'nother post lol.) the whole reason thedas is facing a crisis is due to something that rook did. you can offer vague lip service to them feeling responsible but it’s not a failing the game meaningfully confronts. as disastrous as solas tearing down the veil might have been, rook accidentally unleashing elgar’nan and ghilan’nain has to be just as bad if not worse due to the barely contained blight. the choices that rook is meant to be regretful over work to an extent, but it would have been so juicy to have solas point out rook’s pride in believing they knew best about dealing with solas and his ritual. it’s something he could really nail you on and i think it would make their parallels stronger.

ultimately i think what i'm seeing people feel veilguard’s main failing is is that it simply isn’t the right sequel thematically to the first three games that it should be. it’s not a bad game and the writing shows a great degree of understanding of thematic structure and internal character conflict. it doesn’t hit as hard for most because all of the problems the previous games had us grappling with aren’t present. it presents an entirely new problem that in my opinion it does! do a decent job of exploring, but it’s not the problem players expected so it feels very disconnected from the rest of the series.

[colorisbyshe]

just googled "none houses with left grief" and its real

ngl if i read that in a published book i'd kill myself on the spot

[dailydegurechaff]

Today's Daily Degurechaff is… getting book 12!