#the main thing of my work is... my comics!

[muffinrecord]

I need to go to bed, but initial thoughts:

I like Magia Record a lot more. I'm having fun but I admit that I feel a little disappointed. I'm going to stick with it but I don't think I'll need to worry about whaling too much on this game.

The combat is growing on me. I prefer Magia Record's combat but I can see how Magidora is going to have more intricate stuff going on that won't just devolve into magia spam/blast spam. Maybe. I dunno? But it's fun and that's good enough. I do like the speed element of it over random disc selection, I think.

I don't really like the 3d bits but I can live with it. Folks keep saying how good the graphics look and to me it looks kinda ugly, but no one ever said I have good taste.

I don't particularly like how exploring labyrinths work. You're not even really exploring, just moving in a straight line looking for the occasional shiny. The labyrinth parts feel like an awkward in-between the content that matters, aka story and combat. I think I'd rather move between menu screens.

Uhhhh story wise.... Hmm. I think one problem I have is that the main story is literally just pmmm but an inferior visual novel version. If I want to read the pmmm story then I can go watch the anime or the movies or even the horrible comics. This doesn't really do it for me.

I'm also a little worried about upcoming event stories for spinoff girls. I straight up hated the Tart events in MR because a lot of them were an extended boring rehash of the manga and if I want to experience the story, I'd rather read the fucking manga, you know? For all the upcoming spinoffs: are they going to do their own thing with new stories like magia record did? Or are they going to be another visual novel version of the comics? Because god I don't really want to go through that???

It was also kind of depressing to get old characters I love, excitedly go to their magical girl stories, and then realize they're probably going to be rehashing what we already know. I mean, they're not copies of the originals and I can see how they might provide new context that we didn't have before, but something about it just makes me really sad.

I also REALLY miss having a homescreen character. There is so much charm in having a character on the homescreen, selecting their outfit, getting excited over new poke quotes. And being able to change your homescreen in general. Getting a new character in magia record wasn't just exciting cause new character but also because you got to put them on the homescreen and see what they were about, you know? Like these are their poke quotes, here are their outfits, look at all their lil animations! I miss it so much. Getting a new character does not feel that exciting to me at all ;_;

Something I never thought about before, but I hate how dark all the menu screens are. MagiReco menus had a lot of color and variations and they weren't just the same dark gray background repeated over and over.

Like look at this. Where's the color? I feel sad looking at this OTL

I think all of this kind of culminates in: it feels like some of my favorite aspects of magireco were taken away, mainly the character-focused nature of it. I'm not going to say Magireco was the pinnacle of writing but it was what drew me to the story in the first place and it's not here.

Last negative thought-- I have absolutely no idea how a person who doesn't know anything about Madoka Magica would feel about the game. The presentation feels kind of weird-- I feel like we're already meant to know who everyone is based on all the videos you see before loading in but then the story kind of treats us like we're brand new and that Mami is supposed to be some sort of surprise.

All of that said, it's early access and we're not even a whole day into it-- I'm not done with the main story so it's possible I'm missing stuff too. Maybe I'll be more into it once I start watching more Magical Girl Stories. The event story is kind of boring so far but it's also pmmm girlies and I love them but-- you know.

I think my greatest fear for the game is that it doesn't bring anything new and it just summarizes stories we already know. I know you have to strike a balance between presenting content that old fans and new fans alike are going to find interesting-- and new fans need to know what's the deal with characters they are unfamiliar with too. But I really hope it gives us new stories, new characters, new things in general.

There are elements I like, I swear that it's not just all negative. It looks like we'll spend a lot of time developing our characters and I like long projects which reward you for patient investment. Again, the combat is growing on me and I'm starting to enjoy it more.

Actually trying to write out the positives makes me think of more things i dislike aklfjsaklfasjfkkasfja

Which is weird, because I'm not not having fun. I am! I dunno.

I don't want to be a huge bummer so I won't put this in the tag. We'll see how I feel about the game in like a week.

At the very least this game looks like it'll be a fun way to waste some time and good god I've been needing something like that lately so if anything, thank the stars for that

[splinterofpandora]

You're not him. About Jeph Loeb style. Perfection of The Long Halloween universe. Why Hush was never important. H2SH fails.

We're starting a long journey that will focus on the upcoming Batman issues. Each new topic post will follow the thoughts that are brought up in Hash. But what is Hush?!

The original series was successful commercially and massively. I mean, new readers, regular people, and random comic fan could easily understand what Batman is.

Cool art, nice narration, lots of drama and a simple plot did its job perfectly. You knew a lot of things. You understood the cost of Bruce's victory. And there was an unusual relationship here. But that's for them.

Don't get me wrong, you can love Hush while still being a Batman fan. I respect that. I think Hush is a pretty good work because it is what it is. There are clever notes here about Jim and Alfred's role in Wayne's life. I love the alley scene because it reveals the nature of Gordon and Knight's relationship. Every episode is in its place. And I'm always happy to see Helena-that's my girl-Huntress.

But it's the most conventional Batman story ever. Because we've known for a long time that he and Selina couldn't have been a couple at the time of the comic, and it's Bruce's fault. Hush never made sense as a character. The best friend who showed up years later, but whose death the steely Batman reacts more strongly to than Jason's murder. It's not a detective story because the structure is too obvious. You only have one new antagonist, and no one else here is going to change their mask. They're stable.

Writers tried to make it interesting after...Hush...but the attempts were not successful. Because all the character has is blind revenge. Which works for a standalone story, but not a complete storyline. You're asking me why it really worked in the past. Only one reason. Cool Loeb's approach.

Hush takes place after big Figurative event. After Cassandra father-daughter plots. But before complicated Bruce/Selina and Todd's returned scenarios. It retains the imprint of the era. On the one hand, Batman hasn't properly begun his journey into the light yet. He was fighting with Cass about it. He was having problems with Sasha. He had become less focused on the mission, but still obsessed with it and his fears. Jeph emphasizes it from the first monologue in his head. Bruce can't work as Clark, he's too dark. He has a lot to lose, takes a lot of risks.

At the same time, we see how much his friends and family mean to him. He talks about Tim's role, the importance of Dick's support. He always wants to help Dent...

It's an image of time. Today is a different time. Bruce hasn't been obsessed with fighting for a long time. Jason closed the Joker issue and became a better, kinder man. Calmer and more humane. He's really learned how to be a true hero. Damian is no longer a child. Hell, even the Joker has important new stories! The foundation of Bat-universe has changed. Forever!

But all we see in part 2 are blind comic book references that don't make the scenes. Bruce can't be mad about that. He's done years ago. This isn't Barbara's trauma. Or Jim's. And it's not even a trauma to the reader, because modern conflicts are New 52, Bats Who Laughs, Tom King's concepts, City of Madness, Harleen...is about Bruce's place in his own world, about psychology.

About a city without Batman, because we're talking about Legacy. The difference between Wayne and Knight. H2SH is not!

We get a laughing fish thrown in our face, they give us the Joker's rescue again like it's not a plot from 2009. Or 2015. Or 2019. Again thoughts of the endless mission. Again the panic in every reaction as if it were the end of the world. Stop it! But again. HOW. DOES. IT. WORKS. Well...it's smart!

Dark Victory uses the same vibe, structure, roles and character locations as The Long Halloween. This can create a sense of deja vu similar to H2SH. The main difference is that this...structure here makes scenes.

The Long Halloween has a story about the world before Batman. Bruce is often wrong, he can be hurt by mafia. He's more violent, putting principles above the world. Gotham's elite, the clans, are destroyed, and at the end, there are a new kings...supervillains. The master assassin uses old methods in the form of a gun. His messages are poetic but not ideological. In mafia style, yes.

It's different in Dark Victory. Batman is more accurate and dangerous. Villains have become more understandable and easy for him to deal with. Selina is back from Rome, and she's acting a little differently. The attentive and cruel huntress like in TLH? Yes! But now she acts more gentle. Doesn't just lunge at her prey. She plays with affection. The main villain uses a particular style of killing. He's still close to old-fashioned assassins, but also has clear signs of a new approach. Unusual targets, a sly message in each new body, a bit of games with the police and Batman. This is the age of dark Gotham...

And then you open The Long Halloween Special, where jailbreaks have become the norm. Where Gotham isn't so scary. Where Batman and Jim can go out on a night of celebration together, and Batgirl and Robin make a date under the Moon. This is comics!

Globally, it's always the same story. Someone dies. Chasing the killer through the clues. A third plan character with sudden help. The collapse(literal and figurative meaning) of a building or something big on the heads of all the characters. An epic battle with a happy ending. Killer isn't a killer.

Jeph uses this all the time, so the basis of his universe doesn't change. Bruce is always quite dark and serious. The detective works on a circle system where minor character in the first issue = killer. Details make it alive.

In H2SH, there are no meaning-making details. Think back to The Killing Joke adaptation. One shot tells every fan a deep Bat/Joker never-ending battle background.

Instead, Batman imagines the Joker killing his parents. It's a reference again, but what role does this have in the plot? Bruce doesn't realize that the Joker hurts others? Can he only realize it by going through it? Then Batman doesn't work at all. Or is it about seeing all the killers in one killer? Then you're just erasing any relationship with Two-Face.

And that's the way things work around here. Loeb's beautiful approach breaks down because he forgets when and why he does what he does. It does the same thing as in The Long Halloween universe. But there we have a gradual development while maintaining a general...stability, unchanging foundation. This doesn't work for H2SH because it has no context. Because a violent Batman with the loss of dear ones doesn't work in 2025. That's all that's left to do is draw homage. Bad release.Really frustrating.

[delyth88]

Long day at work, but I'm caught up on the MCU news now. I'd been wondering about the references to chairs lol! 😆 But that was a fun way to do it.

My thoughts:

• I am so burned by Infinity War and Endgame that I'm excited, but cautiously so.

• But its nice to be kinda looking forward to an MCU movie for a change. I still haven't seen a few of the more recent ones.

• I'm excited to see Tom listed as being in Doomsday. I'd like to hope that this list of names indicates characters who will play a significant part in the story, not a cameo, or a short intro to the next film. But again I'm trying not to get my hopes up. I would hate for it to be something where Loki is just occasionally referenced as holding the timelines but doesn't actually interact with the main cast. I'm sick of him being in his own little bubble (first the Thor universe, and now the TV series universe). If you're using him in the films let him actually be a character not just a plot point.

• I wonder what flavour of Loki this will be? If the TVA Loki then I wonder if he'll be like season 1, season 2, Ragnarok, or broadly like the rest of the films. My preference is of course for him to be more like in the films.

• I hope they give him a wig this time and his hair is longer again. Especially if he's only in a small part of the show.

• I'd like to see a new costume, but something closer to the Asgardian outfit, but I can imagine that if he sees any sort of action he'll quickly change out of the comfy lounge clothes.

• Because I didn't like the series as much as rhe films I'm a little less invested this time, and that might be a good thing in regards to disappointment lol. 😅

• But oh God they better deliver on that sunshine!!!!! And that hug. *screams*

• Will there be multiple Loki variants? Perhaps the TVA variant will pluck a sacred timeline Loki out just before he's killed and plonk him into original Thor's timeline.

• I know lots of people don't want any of Loki's sacrifices to be undone because they will lose their weight, but I kinda think that it's been years now for their impact to be felt, so I think I'd have less problem with some comic book-y resurrections now. And yes, fuck you specifically, Thanos.

• And X-Men! I knew they were coming, but I did NOT expect any of the original actors to be part of this on any substantial way! I thought they'd settled that with the Xavier cameo in MoM. So I'm intrigued. 

• Will they be their actual ages, or cgi'd to look younger? Will they be from a universe we've seen already, or something new and quite different? Will they have the same backstory? Particularly Magneto.

• I feel like at some point they have to develop new X-Men cast and stories for the MCU, so I half expect this will be the only movie with the original X-Men in it. We see this one universe where they're brought in to help, and then any future X-Men are from an entirely different universe where they happen to look a little different too.

• Part of me does wish there were chairs for McAvoy and Fassbender too, but this is already more than I'd hoped for.

• Loki and Xavier and Magneto in the same place?! I hope they get to meet. Actually I hope Loki gets to meet anyone new tbh... see earlier point. *sigh*

Oh, and does anyone have a list of what the musical themes were that were played for each actor? I recognised Loki's and Xavier's, but not Magneto's or any of the other X-Men and I'm curious.

Okay Marvel, you've got me interested. 

Now it's time to deliver.

[deoidesign]

Hii! I have been recently getting more and more obsessed with your art and webcomic and was wondering if I could use your art as like a profile picture? (With credit!!) If not that's perfectly fine! :)

yeah you can use my art for whatever as long as you're not stealing it or selling it

I don't mind if people print my art out for themselves either. I do sell prints, but it doesn't bother me either way

In general I don't post anything that I haven't made my peace with all that comes with sharing my art publicly! So feel free to use it as you please pretty much.

Giving me credit for the things I've made is respectful and helps me in my career, and I would hope that most people intend to respect my work... And the people who don't respect my work were never going to whether I asked or not.

I make my work for other people to enjoy it, I want you to enjoy it!

[jahdefender]

So I found this posted to reddit and I wanted to share it here because I'm sure there are some fans who haven't seen the Adventures Bible stuff. (I had not so this is just referencing myself)

[forgettable-au]

[BACK TO THE MASTERPOST]

Section meant to organize all the forgettable-au-related mini-comics!

They're gonna be organized as pre-comic and post-comic because some of these were created before the main comic started, this is to clear some confusion if you see some inconsistencies with the main comic, -especially- in the ones from 2022

Post-comic era

Drinking water (This mini-comic was a continuation of another mini-comic by @o-sunny-day)

Living situation

Pre-comic era

Pride month (LMFAO the last mini-comic before the main comic started was a joke comic)

Codeword

Annoying brother

Font problems

Nightmares

Like the back of my hand!

Something off

Name

Forgetting how to write

Goopy Gaster but it`s Christmas

Shitpost

Gaster blasters

Thanks!

Something missing

Someone else...

Mini-comic dump

WD in the current timeline?

-2022 mini-comics- (These are the FIRST EVER things I did about this AU, my art style is very different now + these are not accurate to current lore)

Flamethrower

VENTS!

[warmfuzzyanimal]

hi i'm alive i'm just struggling my way to happiness & productivity

[biazerod]

New TF2 comic cemented something in my mind and that it's going to be a decade now that I've been on the internet in fandoms and it's time to start wrapping it up :D starting with this blog

I started dozens of things that I never finished but finally I feel fine with leaving them to stay that way

It's been an honor to be part of this 🫡

I'll leave fave panel from comic

<3

[lisondraws]

The Interlude. A renowned and reclusive playwright pays a visit backstage.

[rabbitindisguise]

THE EXPRESSION ON MY FACE WHEN I READ THIS, I'M-

[intotheelliwoods]

To whoever is still alive after all that, congrats! You made it through the hard part! Hope you enjoyed the week event~ Not sure if I will be doing another one anytime soon though haha, also do expect a small break from me after this!

Few things to make clear to those who missed stuff:

This timeline is safe! The two Leos who are currently in the timeline will be happy and well by the end of things! From this point on its just them healing~

If by chance you are confused on what happened, I lovingly hand you this post! If you are still confused, feel free to send me an ask!

I am not paying for any medical bills <3 But hey the huggy leos persisted through just like I promised-

[wereh0gz]

Random thought but idk why ppl thought shadow shouldn't have gotten infected by the metal virus

Like. Yeah he's the ultimate lifeform. He's immortal and literally made to be immune to most if not all diseases. But

The metal virus. Isn't an actual disease

It's a bunch nanomachines that convert living organic material into more of itself

Shadow is made of living organic material

The only way he would have been immune (based solely on what canonical info there is on how the metal virus works) is if he was inorganic or dead, which he obviously isn't. And no just bc he was made in a lab doesn't mean he's not organic

Sure, they probably could've made him immune to it in some way, like say the high amounts of chaos energy in him burn it off on contact or something. But how to get rid of it is never fully explained. All we know is that something about sonic's speed burned it off for him, but it's not explained further as far as I can remember and the virus eventually mutated to become resistant to that anyway

Going super seemed to get rid of it completely for sonic tho, so the cure could've been chaos energy after all. Or it could've been like, chaos control warping time or the warp topaz warping reality to sonic and silver's will or something. Again, it's never fully explained, and who knows if shadow would've had the time to fight it off or cure himself anyway considering the circumstances of his infection

Anyway. Tldr shadow is living flesh and the virus infects all living flesh. Him getting infected makes sense based on what we understand of the virus. That's all

[dire-kumori]

[melit0n]

I made a little comic based on a convo a few friends and I had.

Time taken: 6 hours and 5 minutes.

What took the longest? Slide 7. Those book designs brought me to the brink of insanity (1 hour and 44 mins).

(Notes under the cut)

Before anyone asks, yes, I know Canus Major typically appears behind Orion, however, I was running out of space, so please forgive the inaccuracy.

For anybody wondering what on Earth the third drawing is, it's a interpretation of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft's Pale Blue Dot, which was taken on February 14th, 1990.

Slide 8 represents the red string theory. In most literature, the red string is attached to two people, typically romantic lovers, who are intertwined by fate to meet. However, it can also just be a string that connects a person and all the people they'll connect with in life. It's an embodiment of fate; everybody is interlinked.

Slide 10 is one of my own photos taken from my bedroom window. I originally planned on drawing it out, however, after two hours of fiddling about and trying to make it look right, I gave up and just put the photo there; I hope it fits in fine.

@moonchild-in-blue @tonguetyd @hookedhobbies @branches-in-a-flood thought you four might like this!

[vamp-a-day]

day 61

@sparkvampweek day 1; Lazy Day/Hard Work

He can be competent when he wants to be

a big part of their relationship is that they are. unhealthily dependent on each other. tied by the hip. vampire needs sparkling to keep him stable, sparkling needs vampire to loosen his strings. they don't always see eye to eye, but that's not always a bad thing.

i know the way i've portrayed them on this blog so far is kind of one sided, but tis the nature of a character blog. just know that sparkling is more worried about vampire than whatever state he could leave his place of business in

[dw-flagler]

its kind of funny to me that in the comics supergirl kind of occupies the spot for like the edgy superman. which is kind of weird for her typical role as kid sidekick to superman because her thing as a character (at least the versions of her character that i like) is that she doesn't have a reason to help anybody and doesn't like earth. edgy superman. but she's also the kid sidekick. strange juxtaposition