#watercolor comics you have my heart forever and always

[sceebybeeby]

a redraw of a comic from 2020 heavily plagiarized from that one post ^^

[15-dogs]

Can I request a Neville imagine with prompts #4 and #7 from list 3? Like Neville with an outgoing Slytherin girlfriend maybe? Thank you!💚💚

love is forever |n.l.|

pairing: neville longbottom x fem!reader

summary: neville has been acting stranger than usual about your upcoming party

warnings: none

guide: (Y/N) = your name, prompts bolded (“I asked if you were having a party. I didn’t tell you to have a party.” and “Wait, no, don’t take kissing away from me!”)

word count: 1.7K

“I asked if you were having a party. I didn’t tell you to have a party,” Neville hissed at you. 

You simply rolled your eyes and shook your head, continuing on your way. Neville ran after you, stumbling on his own feet as he pushed through the crowds of people that you invited to your party that upcoming weekend.

This was nowhere near the first time something of this sort had happened. Like a couple months back when someone said that a Slytherin should enter the Triwizard Tournament. You took it as a personal challenge, putting your own name in. Neville was furious. He ranted for the whole night about the possibility of your name getting drawn and how that comes with the possibility of losing you. He froze, realizing that his voice had come thick with emotion from his admission. That night, you two kissed and were inseparable ever since.

So what would make Neville think that you were one to back down from any wandering thought?

“(Y/N)!” some Ravenclaw called out from across the hall. Your head snapped up and the girl continued, “Party on Saturday, right?”

“Yes-”

“No!” Neville interjected. You slapped a hand over his mouth, a grin still on your face.

“Don’t listen to him, party’s on for Saturday night. I’ll see you there!”

The girl waved at the two of you before sauntering off. Once she was out of sight, you removed your hand from your boyfriend’s mouth and tugged him down a corridor.

“Are you mental?” you asked. “What’s going on with you, Neville? You’re acting so strange. Do you have a problem with parties?”

He shrugged dismissively. “Reckon I don’t like them all that much.”

“Care to share why?”

Neville suddenly became shy under your gaze. His brow knit together and he scuffed his shoe against the tiling as rings of blush clouded his cheeks. “I don’t know,” he said. His voice was so quiet that it could barely be heard.

“Why doesn’t that feel entirely truthful to me?”

“I...I-”

“Hey, (Y/N)!” a familiar voice called out. “Oh, hey, Neville!” Your eyes snapped up to meet your roommate, who was peering down the end of the hallway. “We have class in, like, two minutes. We should probably head out.”

You nodded solemnly and she turned the corner, waiting for you out of sight. Neville waved hesitantly at her as she disappeared.

“I’ll see you after class, love,” he said, leaning down for a kiss. You put a hand against his chest, stopping him in his tracks. “Huh?”

“No way, no! I’m not giving in that easily.”

Neville was dumbfounded. He blinked in surprise before slowly leaning in again. You scoffed and stopped him once more.

“What?” he mumbled.

“No,” you stated definitively, “no more kissing until you tell me what’s really going on, Neville.”

“Wait, no, don’t take kissing away from me!”

You fought the urge to place a final peck against his lips as he donned an adorable little pout that had you weak in the knees. No, you had to stand your ground.

You eyed the end of the corridor, spotting your friend glancing anxiously around the halls as the number of students dwindled. You eye contact with your roommate who tapped her watch and you nodded before returning your gaze to your boyfriend.

“Sorry, Neville, but I have to go. Talk to me when you’re ready.”

And you left him there, feeling like you didn’t do the right thing at all.

—

Just because kissing was out of the picture, didn’t mean spending time with you wasn’t. Neville was constantly trying his hand at flirting, which he never really was good at. When you first started dating, you asked how you hadn’t noticed his attempts before. Apparently he had thought he was flirting with you for months now.

However, Neville had really stepped up his game. After being with you for almost three months, he knew what made you tick. His hand splaying on your lower back while you chatted with your friends, running his thumbs over your knuckles, bringing you his favorite plants which he had been caring for in the Herbology greenhouses— all of it was entirely too tempting.

Little by little, your resolve had been chipped away by Neville, but it finally crumbled a week after you had made your decision. You couldn’t stand it anymore, feeling as if you were just a bit too hard on your boyfriend.

You slid in next to him at his desk in the library, your hand curling around his. He slowly looked up, his eyes filling with pure panic as he scrambled to put his things away.

“W-what are you doing here?” he stuttered out.

You cocked a brow at him. “I’m here to talk, but mostly to call off my ban.”

“Your ban?”

“On kissing.”

The tips of Neville’s ears reddened as he let out a quiet, “Oh.” 

He leaned forward towards you as the words escaped his lips. He reached a gentle hand up to frame your jaw, planting a careful kiss to your lips. You smiled contentedly into the kiss, finding that the universe was right and just again.

Neville pulled away a moment later with a soft, “I missed that.”

You hummed in response. “Me too, Nev, but we should talk.”

Neville began to busy himself with his papers to avoid meeting your eyes. You groaned, sliding your hand from his up to his face, pulling him by the jaw to look at you.

“Why won’t you tell me what’s going on? Do you really hate parties that much?”

Neville’s eyes darted back and forth as he tried to come up with an answer. “Y-yes. I don’t like parties that much.”

You frowned and moved backwards, relaxing into your chair. “If they really bother you that much, I won’t go.”

“No, no, no!” he hurriedly assured. “Don’t do that! You can go to your party, it’s okay!”

You raised a brow at him. His jumpiness was confusing you. You knew he could be jumpy, it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary, but this seemed different, like he was hiding something from you.

“Okay,” you drawled warily, “I’ll go.”

You gathered your things and stood up, glancing at your boyfriend from the corner of your eye. As soon as you turned, he reached out to you, grabbing you by the wrist. You gasped as you looked down at his pleading eyes.

“Would you spend the morning with me? It’s okay if you don’t want to, I just thought that it would be a fun date, but it’s fine if-”

“Neville-”

“-you don’t want to. I mean, I understand that you have more-”

“-Neville-”

“-fun things to be doing that night, but I thought that if it were the mornings-”

“Yes, Neville, I would love to!” Your shouting got a few glares from some studying students around you and a loud shush from Madam Pince but you didn’t mind; his rambling was comically adorable, him always making you smile. But as you thought for longer about it, you always remembered he would ramble when he was nervous— what did he have to be nervous about?

Neville blushed and nodded shyly, letting go of his grasp on you. “Okay,” he murmured, “Saturday morning, then.”

“Saturday morning,” you confirmed, a laugh on the tip of your tongue as you left the library, wondering what had caused him to start up that nervous habit again.

—

The week came and went, leaving you anxious as ever for Saturday morning. Neville had instructed you to meet him in the kitchens which led you to assume that you would have another baking date again. Although, that was quite disastrous last time around. Fun, sure, but a mess, indeed.

As you approached the portrait, your heart hammered in your chest. You hesitantly tickled the pear, the pathway in revealing itself. However, as you stepped in, your breath was taken away. 

Neville adjusted a vase of flowers on the table which was covered head to toe in other romantic things: cards, chocolates, plates of homemade cookies (which clearly someone helped him with). He jumped at your gasp, turning around to see your delighted face.

“Did I forget Valentine’s Day?” you asked as you walked up to his embrace, kissing him on the cheek. “I thought that it was January right now?”

“Oh, it is, it is! I just…” Neville stepped backwards and gestured to a small, homemade banner that had pressed flowers and watercolor lettering on it. “...happy 3 months? Is this stupid, I feel like this is stupid-”

“Was this why you didn’t want to go to the party? Our 3 month anniversary which, wow, by the way, I forgot.” You chewed your lip, shame bubbling up in your stomach. “I feel terrible, I should’ve remembered.”

Neville rushed to your side in an instant, shaking his head with wide eyes. “No, it’s fine! Really, it’s fine! Ginny, actually, told me that girls want to celebrate anniversaries every month so I just...went with it.”

You chuckled as you walked over to your seat, Neville having pulled out the chair for you. “Well, you sure know how to make me feel special. Tell Ginny I said thanks.”

You eyed the display of sweets in front of you, your gaze falling on a card with your name on it. You glanced up at Neville, silently asking if you should open it. He nodded with confidence but was fumbling with his own hands. You carefully picked up the card as Neville began to ramble again.

“This was Luna’s idea. She said that Ginny did it for her. Apparently Luna really liked it, so I hope you do too. Luna decorated the banner as well-”

You gasped as your eyes scanned over the cursive text. Your heart swelled with joy as you reread the words over and over again. Finally, you glanced up at your overly-anxious boyfriend, whispering a breathy, “I love you, too.”

“You do?” he asked. You nodded, biting your lower lip to contain your smile. “Blimey, you do! I love you so much. So, so much.”

You dropped the card which contained his admission to take his gentle hands in yours. “I love you, too. A stupid amount, really.”

And as you sat there, confessing how you truly felt about each other, you knew that a party could wait. Parties were temporary, love was forever.

[identityexcavationstation]

The High Fidelity Remake is Good and my Identity is Irreversibly Linked to Music Consumption

Hi! So, I’m kinda insane about playlists.

This year I’ve made a lot of them. They’ve been short and snappy on index cards, scanned and pasted in a book and uploaded to the internet. (I’ve really fallen in love with index card playlists and they’re my thing now and I think everyone should do them always and forever.) They were easy to churn out as a retrospective exercise because the music I listened to as a teenager really defined my high school experience. Also, I have most of my favorite songs from that period in a very dramatic playlist I started in 2014 so it was really a game of copy-and-paste. 

Making these smol boys in batches has been a really peculiar experience because for years now, I’ve only made one playlist at a time. In my second semester of college, I’d officially burned myself out listening to only CHVRCHES for three months and began venturing elsewhere. (Don’t get me wrong, CHVRCHES absolutely bangs, but you can only listen to “Never Ending Circles” so many times before getting seasick.) All of the random songs I was listening to made me feel kinda hazy and purple, like I’d done all of this before. So I made a playlist full of them and called it “Deja Vu.”

I added to it all semester, and then suddenly it was summer and I didn’t feel purple and hazy anymore⁠—everything was blue and crisp on the way to South Haven as my friend blasted “Settle Down” by Kimbra in her beat-up Honda. So I started a new playlist and named it the first word that popped into my head: “Roots.”

Using Deja Vu as a rubric, I developed some ground rules for the playlists I would go on to create. They are pretty nonsensical but also exceedingly firm because if I don’t make rules for every area of my life I feel like I’m falling into a deep and limitless void. Health! Anyway, the rules are:

The playlist’s title has to be a short noun (seven letters maximum).

This has since transformed into a noun that is also a verb.

To generate a title, I ask myself what short word I would use to describe the phase of life I’m currently in. The answer comes quickly and reflexively, and I choose the very first word I think of.

One song per artist, no repeats!

Exceptions are made for artists who are featured on a track.

There have been times when I’ve obsessively listened to a whole album or an artist’s entire discography, so I have to choose just one song that represents the very best of that album or artist.

Tracks are added chronologically, based on when I first hear them and/or start listening to them compulsively.

The playlist has to contain an amount of tracks that is divisible by five.

If a song in a playlist is deleted from Spotify, I have to find a replacement asap that is accurate to what I was listening to when that playlist was being created.

and, most importantly, 

I can’t make a new playlist until I feel I’m finished with the current one.

These playlists represent seasons of my life, cycles in which I change and evolve and stagnate and fuck up and try again. The only rule I have for beginning a new playlist is that I feel done with the current one—those songs are a little stale and don’t represent me anymore. These “seasons” don’t have any set length, and I can never predict when I’ll feel like a new being who needs new songs to define her. So far, my life has looked like this:

Deja Vu - 176 days (12.03.16 - 05.28.17) Most common lyrics: now, love, time, need, take

snow that covers ivy that covers bricks, towers made from dining hall dishes, smiling at the bus stop without knowing, sheet masks in the dorm bathroom at 2am, pink string lights and pink crocheted blankets and pink shag carpeting, cheap beer behind tarps and walking everyone home

Roots - 111 days (05.28.17 - 09.16.17)  Most common lyrics: love, one, give, wanna, know

t-shirt tan lines, mozzarella and tomato and basil and singed spaghetti, sunset walks around abandoned high schools, green leaves outlined in watercolor, the smell of mildew and old paper in banker’s boxes, sweat-soaked french braids, the knife twist of eye contact, tarot readings under lamplight

Walls - 110 days (09.16.17 - 01.04.18)   Most common lyrics: wanna, know, baby, take, feel

crying in the gender-neutral restroom, pretty boys holding guitars or rolling rock, photos in the forest, blue carpeting and lofted bedframes, pitch-black bonfires, sitting in the dining hall to just watch the people pass, snow on eyelashes in large wet clumps, laughing at lies

Bite - 78 days (01.04.18 - 03.23.18)    Most common lyrics: know, love, stay, come, need

impatience at the airport, texting on the laundry room floor, nervous night drives, five grilled cheese sandwiches, acne like freckles, ceiling photos taken in secret, watercolor lines and paper houses, broken glass on the sidewalk, ink-stained forearms, notebook paper comics, writing small on basement walls

Windows - 131 days (03.23.18 - 08.01.18)   Most common lyrics: love, now, know, baby, fall

books piled up by the bed, rum and coke and orange juice and vodka and cheap white wine, rainy day night walks, streetlights turning the leaves orange, echoes from the party upstairs, solo trips to the grocery store, always leaving the blinds open, aperol and chai lattes and smørrebrød, never coming home

Grip - 136 days (08.01.18 - 12.15.18)    Most common lyrics: know, boy, lost, girl, night

read receipts, the creaking of an empty house, sand and bricks and traffic cones, sitting on the curb and shaking, applause at dinner, bubble tea, bike rides in torn jeans, mr brightside blasting at 10am, doodles during lectures, embroidery at the kitchen table, blue bus panic attacks, half an apple for lunch

Wait - 117 days (12.15.18 - 04.11.19)  Most common lyrics: heart, want, one, back, know

crying in the lobby, measuring oats by the quarter cup, drunken voice memos, shoes on power lines, another bowl of granola, reading all the lyrics, photos taken with the flash on, sleeping on strange couches, shoeboxes full of photographs, wire catching the sunlight, fifteen minutes of windchill

Wave - 108 days (04.11.19 - 07.28.19)  Most common lyrics: wanna, know, now, love, come

dancing on the porch, reading on the roof, tipsy trips to the corner store, silent heavy parlor air, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, barred windows and string lights and exit signs, highlighting the important parts, nails tapping on wooden tables, wet wind before the storm, biking straight into the smoke

Home - 178 days (07.28.19 - 01.22.20)   Most common lyrics: down, know, now, wanna, think

steep downhill walks, fingertips covered in graphite and lead, blank faces on green walls, forest walkways, hands gripping thighs too tightly, light leaks in darkrooms, the handwriting of strangers, chains trapped between teeth, white words left unread, twirling at the tennis court, yellow becoming blue

Hand - 63 days (01.22.20 - 03.25.20)   Most common lyrics: know, time, love, die, back

masking tape messages, laughing four shots in, BiC .07mm HB mechanical pencils slipped into coat cuffs, cheeks blushed with red ink, green floodlights and kissed knuckles, windows fogged from the inside, falling asleep with earbuds in, finger guns and everything in boxes, wedging open locked doors

_______________________________________________________________________

It’s interesting to look back at these playlists altogether, see them as self-contained units, little stories I tell about myself, about the people I used to be. Adding a song to one of these playlists was like making a vow, entering a relationship with a collection of sounds. It’s like I was saying “this song is now a part of me.” I constructed this little world for myself in the space between my ears, and it, in turn, created me.

I really mean it when I say that the first word that floats to the front of my mind becomes the title of whatever playlist I’m making. I never question what the word means, and its meaning always ends up describing that season of my life. 

“Roots” became a period of reconnecting with essential pieces of myself I thought I had abandoned. 

During “Grip,” I was holding on so tightly to things that had left me ages ago, and I think I knew that, even if I was unable to admit it to myself. 

“Wait” revealed itself in two ways: it was a time in which 1.) I felt stagnant and restless, unable to be patient, and 2.) I was forced to grasp with a physical and emotional weight that had been bearing down on me. 

The mind is a magical thing—it processes what we refuse to recognize. 

Speaking of which, these playlist covers have been driving me up the wall for ages. They’re like nails on a freaking chalkboard for my synesthesia. Is “Bite” a heavily blue playlist? Sure. But is “Home” purple? Is “Grip” pink??? I think the fuck not! 

(I could do a whole goddamn blog post on synesthesia, and I might.)

Now that I know how to switch out playlist cover art (can you believe it’s taken me this long to figure out how to do that?), I have decided to issue myself a challenge/project/way to procrastinate actual work I have to do. 

I’d like to make a piece of cover art for all of the above playlists. And because I am, to reiterate, insane, I’m setting up some Rules For Creation:

All works must be the same size, on the same type of paper using similar materials (tbd but probably graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, fineliners, and/or collage).

The preliminary sketch for each cover must be created while listening to the playlist.

Each piece can (must?) incorporate the five most common lyrics as listed above because goddammit I did not spend four hours compiling lyrics in a web-based word cloud generator for nothing.

If I’m not having fun, I won’t make myself do it because this is literally just for laffs. 

Anyway, I’m looking forward to creating some fun weird art! I know nobody is gonna read this and nobody is gonna comment but if, by some miracle, you feel like it, comment a playlist you’ve made that you’re really proud of! Or comment if you have some weird playlist rules! Or cyberbully me! Anything’s fair game. 

TL;DR playlists are fun and I’m a maniac :)

[shadowtearling]

DECEMBER 2018 — We made it! December is over, 2018 is over, and it has been a year. Before I post all my year in review posts (there’s quite a number lmao be prepared), let’s first talk about all the books I read this month. I enjoyed a lot all of them, which is nice.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I knew nothing about this book when I went into it, so it was a pleasant surprise to meet Sir Gawain during the couple’s travels. It’s a quiet novel exploring the dangers of forgetting and the pain of remembering. The ending is exactly where you think it would go, and I was sad about it.

The Subtle Knife & The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

I’m trying not to insult myself because it’s a new year and I need to try something new, so I’ll say that this series was mind boggling and definitely something that I need to reread in the future. If you look at how I feel about the books individually, I’d say I was disappointed about all of them. Book one took forever for me to get used to, book two felt lackluster because Lyra’s presence wasn’t as prominent (and she’s why I loved the first book so much), and then book three had a whole chapter on how a certain species worked which I thought was entirely unnecessary (nor was the ending satisfying). But as one unit? It’s great. It gave me so much to think about and got me attached to unexpected characters. Lyra is near and dear to my heart.

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente

If I read this physically, I really don’t think I would have gotten past Julia Ash’s story just because Valente’s writing can get overly complicated at times. However, once you get used to it, it’s easier to understand and enjoy the stories. This is a set of six call out posts for the men of comics who use women to further their story. Knowing who Valente was talking about isn’t really necessary because she crafts enough of her own superhero world that things still make sense, but when you know, it’s funnier. I loved the Batman and Aquaman shade.

Hunted by Meagan Spooner

Listen. Listen. I love Beauty and the Beast. This was no exception. The writing was great, though there were times that it felt a little repetitive. I think the Beast’s perspective was extremely interesting and because it was always so short, it helped propel the story forward and get you to turn the page again and again. (I also like the blood splatters). I love the fantasy world of the Beast, which is why it’s a shame that so little is known about it beyond what Yeva sees. Speaking of Yeva, girl was a whole dumbass. She never thought to put two and two together while she was captive and honestly that was the most common sense knowledge that I was astounded at how stupid she was. I still liked her despite that. This is very traditional Beauty and the Beast, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

This is a very short but powerful poem. I read it twice and cried. The watercolor illustrations were beautiful. I don’t have much to say. It was good, and all author profits for the book go directly to a charity helping the refugees.

A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

GAURI AND VIKRAM GAVE ME LIFE. I can’t begin to describe how much I loved this book (and how much better it was than its predecessor!). Firstly the two main characters are just so funny as individuals and together. The story was interesting and more compelling. Gauri’s intimacy issues were hashtag relatable. The writing was still extremely flowery, and sometimes the characters did things that weren’t previously hinted at (like "He didn’t take his hand off my back” but it was never mentioned earlier that he put it there in the first place). BUT the good outweigh the little nitpicky things I had about it. I put this off for so long because I thought I would have trouble with it, but the only trouble I had was putting it down to go to work. This was so good. Please.

Returning a Borrowed Tongue: An Anthology of Filipino and Filipino American Poetry edited by Nick Carbó

This is the poetry collection I never knew I needed. I’ve been writing emo kid poetry since I was in 5th grade as a coping mechanism for the trauma of assimilation that I was going through. To have a whole collection of voices that resemble my own and echo the very struggles I put out in the world back into my heart is indescribable. This collection gave me a lot to think about in terms of my culture and my language, and I even got to talk with my best friend about this very thing. We’re having a crisis about it. Most importantly, I was inspired to write more poetry that explores my personal struggle about staying connected to my roots and what it means to be Filipino. I can’t wait to read more and learn more in the future!

[gigglebunnys]

Ahh, thank you! I’m glad you enjoy it even though I’m not extremely active right now! Summer time is always busy for me. As for artists that inspire me, I have a lot, lol. I feel it doesn’t show through my art, but these are some of the top artists that I actively follow >:3 (Some links lead to Twitter and others lead to Tumblr. I’m sure they can all be found on multiple sites)

1. RabbitFears very squishy and colorful art. Does a lot of traditional stuff with watercolors! (There’s some nudity in some of her art) I also have to mention it every time, but she drew Cupcake out of the goodness of her heart a few years back, and I still cant get over it... <3 Literally my favorite artist in the world ;w;

2. Edoyainuhachi draws a lot of Cardcaptor Sakura and cute cat girls! Has a 90′s-esc anime style to their drawings. I reeaallyyyy love the cat girl pictures, I wish I knew japanese :’D

3. Taracod A twitter artist who draws really pretty scenery+ animal characters. I feel if you liked the animated movie Wolf Children you would like their art.

4. NSMMM Has extremely polished artwork, that’s like.. movie level polished. They draw these two animal kids on little adventures, and it’s nice to see a little story in a single picture.

5. Demizuposuka I found them through their art book at my bookstore, it took me forever to find them since I couldn't remember their name. They have a sort of sketchy style, and I like the worlds they draw+ the perspective stuff.

6. Rii Abrego Woof, cute lines and warm colors! There’s a sort of texture to the way they do things, and I just really like it. Ahh.. such pretty art.... ;;

7. Jake Wyatt Riot  I really dig his line work and colors. He’s currently in the process of making a comic! I like art with lines that add texture, similar to how he draws.

8. Gigi D.G. I’ve been following her through her webcomic Cucumber Quest. I enjoy the way she paints characters and the colors she uses!! Everything looks soft, and somewhat simplistic. Big love.

Other art that inspire me is the art of Splatoon, Night in The Woods, and Studio Ghibli! There’s no specific art for those since they’re big entertainment things, but I thought I should mention it. Anyways, I hope you also have a wonderful day!!!

[whitelippedviper]

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. Fuck war, love comics.

So I’m making my way through Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and like I’ve seen Yaz’s work before.  I have the first volume of Venus Wars--but it just didn’t click for me. MSG: The Origin tho is goddamn sorcery on the page. You need to know this first off, you don’t need to know anything about Gundam to read this.  The whole thing is this is the book retelling the story that started it all but like Yaz’s from the heart version.  And two volumes in, which is like...1000 pages of comics, and this is a masterpiece.  

I’m mostly going to talk about the art, but story wise, military stuff is generally not my bag.  Unfortunately, it’s a genre that is grossly popular in American comics, not just in straightforward military stories, but superhero comics as well.  Too often these heroes have design updates that are all too happily to enlist heroes whose past models leaned more heavily into daredevil circus performers or wrestlers.  You know the look.  When your favorite hero goes from tights and a cape look to body armor looking shit everywhere.  War on crime right? And then these companies on their film side have all kinds of connections to the military industrial complex--hell these companies often employ ex-military, or in some notable cases ex-CIA to write the damn books.  And when you couple that with how interested the military has always been with warping people’s brains to keep the war machine humming(they once put acid in a whole town’s water supply just to see what would happen!) it’s quite unnerving!  So besides being extremely anti-war in practice, I’m also pretty tin foil hat when it comes to seeing the edges of the military in pop culture, particularly when the message is like “look how cool this is!”

Which as a sidebar is one of the things that makes the Aubrey Sitterson GI Joe thing complicated to me, because like...I don’t think GI Joe is a good thing, and I don’t believe leftists should be getting their pay pushing paper for something that could not BE more military industrial.  Like let's make kids think how cool being a soldier and going to war is--and then those kids grow up, and what a surprise we are in like ten wars that we know about, and will be for forever--and you get this kind of brainwashing that turns Kapernick trying to say “hey, maybe cops should stop shooting black men” into a debate about “respecting the flag” because the NFL is in bed with the military….agh.  I hate it.  I hate it all.  From Operation Condor, the firebombings of dresden, hiroshima and nagasaki, the genocide of the american indian, fallujah, Abu Ghraib, our complicity in Saudi atrocities in Yemen and Qatar...we are not the good guys of history!  We kill for empire, but our empire isn’t colonies, it’s more war. Our chief export is war.  And I would love to expatriate to a country that doesn’t have these values, but I don’t know if even then I could shake that shit from my stomach.  And even more insidious than our war is our financial arm, our banks and investors who have killed as many people with pens as any soldiers with guns.  We are an empire of atrocity!

So when I see military comics, or cop comics, it just reminds me that I live in the most warlike country of the last 100 years, and all of those innocent people that are caught up in our bombs, and the way we turn whole regions into chaos to serve our ends and make more money--my relative prosperity as an American is built on the bodies and bloodshed of innocents the world over.  I mean why is America what America is?  It’s because WW2 basically moved europe's wealth to the US, and then we spent it on more bombs and we stepped in not because of any real moral thing--we stepped in because england owed us too much for us to let them go down.  We as a country became a world superpower, the world superpower, through war profiteering and slavery.  That’s a huge aside, but I’m saying, I fucking hate war.  And maybe find ways to not contribute to more of those sort of comics?  But more than that in an aesthetic sense, the codes for military in American comics are so bland and it seems half the time to justify not having to do interesting character designs. So surely there is a better fit for someone like Sitterson who has the politics I do, I think, than writing war comics to a patriotic pro-military audience, so I wish him the best, but fuck GI Joe. (And as an aside aside, if it were Frank Miller and not Aubrey Sitterson with the controversial opinion that book isn’t getting dropped--these companies only do these things as financial calculations, and if you are a big enough cash cow you can say or do whatever you want in comics for the most part but if you aren’t--you better protect your neck because these companies don’t have your interests in mind. And we live in stupid times) So I can fuck with Gundam because 1) it hates war as much as I do. And 2) they’re not trying to make everything look like utilitarian military shit.  They’re about looking goood while they are hating war.   The story is really rich, background characters positively radiate and each have their own character which comes to the fore at different parts.  In some respects, Amuro Ray haunts this comic like death, because he’s the end of so many terrific characters that you really grow to love, and the Federation cause is somewhat murky at best, as is their exploitation of kids like Amuro. I kind of think Yaz does my favorite faces in all of comics, unseating Jose Munoz:

This kind of caricaturing is really lovely for a story this rich and dense, because you get so much just from how a character looks and the faces they make, and it’s quite appealing to look at I think.  There are characters you fall in love with just because you want to see Yaz draw their face again.  The range of expressions he has in the toolkit is amazing to me. Yaz’s style in general to me is like magic.  Lines don’t connect, and it’s like he can just shift around these minimal set of lines and accomplish anything on the page.  It’s like he has a set number of lines that he’s working with on every page, and he just dips his brush into the page and waves it around and those lines bend and contort into perfection.  He’s one like Kirby where he kind of just sits down at a page and the images come out of his brain.

 It’s not overly rendered, but it still is textural and inky.  I think this also has my favorite lettering in comics.  I don’t know who was responsible for it in english, but I love the obvious care that went into varying the lettering, and just how gentle and elegant it is.  It probably was just a font in a computer--but it doesn’t FEEL like that, which is cool. Oh also Yaz watercolors various pages in the book, and they are almost all stunning.  I’m planning to read his Joan of Arc book which is all watercolored, so that should be interesting. But I think what comes across more than anything reading these books, because of not only the comic, but the production value of the books themselves--the hard cover, the essays at the back, the slick pages, the thoughtful lettering--what comes across from stem to stern is that these books are a labor of love and passion in a way that you would not expect from the retelling of a decades old giant anime franchise!

Hideaki Anno said in his essay in the first book: “And I sense a certain good grace.  He decides to draw Gundam--well known to the masses as a premier franchise of the plastic model and anime industries--not from weariness, not as expiation, nor to return to his roots, but in earnest as a work of his own” and I think he’s absolutely correct.  There’s a love and attention to every inch of these books that is really inspiring to behold whether as an artist or in whatever you do to fill out your days--seeing something, anything, done by a master, with care and concern is a special thing to behold.  I mean I don’t know for sure that Yaz actually gives a shit about this book--but that’s what comes across on the page.  It comes across that he cares about these lines, about these stories, vividly, and even more surprising, the people whose charge is getting the work out to others, they seem to care just as much, so what you get is a very very special book.

In some ways, these dueling masters, Char and Amuro Ray, also express this concern and care.  At one point Char loudly criticizes Amuro Ray for his lack of style.  And while Char’s vanity, his secrecy, his romantic rogue ideal is extremely alluring, and any scene he’s in, I’m pretty glued to the page--he’s like Harlock or Queen Emeraldas.  We don’t have these kind of artist villains in American comics for some reason.  The closest I’ve seen was Ron Wimberly’s Prince of Cats which has characters who besides their bloody monstrous ideas, consider style to be important.

But even with all of that going on with Char, I’m surprisingly drawn to Amuro Ray--who is a character even without watching the original Gundam series(something I’m planning to rectify this winter--trying to finally knock out all the Gundam I’ve put off for years) that you just kind of know even without ever knowing why.  He’s a legend.  Like Luke Skywalker.  Even his name when you say it, you feel like you are speaking the name of a god.  But he’s a punk kid who has been dragged into this war against his will, and is desperately trying to balance doing the right thing, and keeping his identity.  I love that sometime he just refuses to go out in the Gundam which puts Ltg Bright in these particular binds(Bright might lo key be my favorite character in the series weirdly, for how he kind of morphs through being a snotty prick, to being in over his head, to being someone capable of real genius creativity. I’ve been watching Iron Blooded Orphans which is a Gundam series about child soldiers and is really brutal and depressing, and Orga is kind of like Bright mixed with Char.) His mercurial nature speaks to the nature of his art versus Char.  Amuro Ray belongs to the fickleness of inspiration, so because of that he’s not really reliable, but when he shows up he’s capable of things Char isn’t, moments of improvisation and grouchy genius that are the linchpins of the romantic appeal of the series.  

Versions of this character archetype I feel usually are supposed to be incompetent or dumb to those around them, but their conviction carries them, they have the most will--but in Amuro Ray’s case, he’s just an asshole.  The despair of it all, which is never lost on Amuro is that whether he does something, or doesn’t do something, people are going to die and it’s going to hurt.  And knowing that, that in the end horror is inescapable, and that death is undefeated--like what do you do?  How do you function?  What do you choose when there are no good choices?  Char is a little different, because his aim is revenge.  Which that side of Char that he hides behind his rogue’s grin, and devilish acts is really stunning when it first comes out in these early books.  He’s so careful to let that out, and when it does, you’re like “oh man, Char isn’t playing the same game the rest of you are”.  Agh.  It’s soo good. Comics like these keep the fires going.  There’s an infinity of them out there to be sure, but nothing makes me happier than a truly great comic.  Those comics that years after you remember the experience of reading them, where you were, what music was playing.  A great comic is a great lover.  It won’t last forever, though there’s a LOT of this book still for me to read--and I get in this mode where I both want to just inhale the whole comic as fast possible, and I don’t want this experience to end.  This is that sort of thing.  Which should be evident, since I bothered to write about it, haha.  I could never just review comics.  I’m like Amuro Ray with comics criticism, I need the right situation to be compelled to climb in and do it.  I don’t fundamentally love writing comics criticism--but when I experience something great, I have to talk about it and write about it.  Comics like these affirm everything about being involved with comics for me.  Check it out, see if you feel the same way.

If you liked this essay, and want to see more like it, subscribe to Sarah Horrocks’s Patreon.  For as little as a dollar a month you can help a comic topic in need get the coverage it deserves.

[ionlyeatcomfortfood]

The Asks

@fandima​ did all of them for me, so I shall do them all for her.

1. When you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? 

Cereal

2. Do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintry day?

No. Cold can go fuck itself.

3. What random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

Hands, leaves, socks.

4. How do you take your coffee/tea?

Coffee I do with a little creamer, and tea I take as is.

5. Are you self-conscious about your smile?

Yes. There’s a reason I say my teeth are ‘monster teeth’

6. Do you keep plants?

I don’t get plants, so no.

7. Do you name your plants?

I name everything. I may not name my plants, but I sure do name my friend’s.

8. What artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?

Music. I will sing a sad song when I am sad, I will scream-sing at you if I am mad.

9. Do you like singing/humming to yourself.

Yep. Do it all the time.

10. Do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?

Side.

11. What’s an inner joke you have with your friends?

Ha ha..... tree.

12. What’s your favorite planet?

Pluto. Pluto is family. Ohana means family. Family means no one is left behind or forgotten.

13. What’s something that made you smile today?

My little sister laughing.

14. If you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

Messy, art shit everywhere. Something is cooking and it smells wonderful. The walls are painted with murals, and every piece of furniture is soft and comfortable. There are so many books.

15. Go Google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!

The Milky Way smells like rum and tastes like raspberries.

16. What’s your favorite pasta dish?

Any pasta dish, except spaghetti.

17. What color do you really want to dye your hair?

All of them! But mostly rainbow right now.

18. Tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.

Not always brought up, but my friends really like to make fun of me when I mess up grammar, considering I’m the one who normally corrects them.

19. Do you keep a journal? What do you write/draw in it?

I used to, but I don’t anymore.

20. What’s your favorite eye color?

All of them!

21. Talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces?

I don’t really have a bag like that.

22. Are you a morning person?

No. I almost always would prefer night to the morning.

23. What’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days when you have 0 obligations?

Read or write.

24. Is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?

No. Nothing against any of those people, it’s all me.

25. What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?

Old abandoned Marsh store.

26. What are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?

My tennis shoes.

27. What’s your favorite gum flavor?

Peppermint!

28. Sunrise or sunset?

Both, when I’m up for sunrise.

29. What’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?

Aven makes emoticon faces and it’s really cute!

30. Think of it: have you ever been truly scared?

Yes. A couple of times, actually. Once I thought I was in a fucking horror movie. Not fun.

31. What is your opinion of socks? Do you like wearing weird socks? Do you sleep with socks? Do you confine yourself to white sock hell? Really, just talk about socks.

Socks are awesome! I wear exclusively weird socks, none of that white sock shit. No socks when sleeping, though.

32. Tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3 am with your friends?

I only stay up to three by myself.

33. What’s your fave pastry?

Baklava!

34. Tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. What is it called? What does it look like? Do you still keep it?

There was a couple, but my favorite was Peanut Butter, a light brown teddy bear my aunt got me. And yes I do still have it.

35. Do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? Do you use them often?

No and no.

36. Which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

Panic! At the Disco.

37. Do you like keeping your room messy or clean?

Clean

38. Tell us about your pet peeves!

Privilege.

39. What color do you wear the most?

Gray.

40. Think of a piece of jewelry you own what’s it’s story? Does it have any meaning to you?

Necklace and ring my nana gave to me. It has only meaning in the fact she got it for me. I don’t wear jewelry.

41. What’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

The Wrath and the Dawn, plus the sequel.

42. Do you have a favorite coffee shop? Describe it!

Starbucks? I don’t drink a whole lot of coffee.

43. Who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?

Myself.

44. When was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?

Earlier today, after I finished yoga. I felt at peace.

45.Do you trust your instincts a lot?

Yes. Every time I don’t trust them, something bad happens.

46. Tell us the worst pun you can think of.

Gee, I can’t think of any. I feel super pun-intelligent.

47. What food do you think should be banned from the universe?

CELERY. FUCK IT. NO ONE SHOULD EAT IT EVER.

48. What was your biggest fear as a kid? Is it the same today?

I was afraid of the dark as a kid. Now I’m scared of heights.

49. Do you like buying CDs and records? What was the last one you bought?

No.

50. What’s an odd thing you collect?

Pop tabs.

51. Think of a person. What song do you associate with them?

I associate ‘Into the Unknown’ with my little sister since she loves the song so much.

52. What are your favorite memes of the year so far?

None. I do not seek out memes, they find me.

53. Have you ever watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Heathers? Beetlejuice? Pulp Fiction? What do you think of them?

No, but I love the musicals for Heathers and Beetlejuice.

54. Who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?

My brother, when he was talking about a thing.

55. What’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?

Almost set someone on fire.

56. What are some things you find endearing in people?

Everything. I love people.

57. Go listen to Bohemian Rhapsody. How did it make you feel? Did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?

I like the song. Nothing amazing, but I like it.

58. Who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? Why?

No one’s the wine mom, but my best friend is the vodka aunt. She is batshit crazy. (in a good way)

59. What’s your favorite myth?

Most Greek myths, but especially the story of Hades & Persephone.

60. Do you like poetry? What are some of your faves?

I am a poet, and I love Emily Dickinson. My favorite is ‘Hope is the Thing With Feathers’

61. What’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? The stupidest one you’ve ever received?

Idk what this would be. Any gifts I give or receive have meaning.

62. do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? 

No

63. are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?

Music? No. Books? Yes. Alphabetized by author’s last name, like a library.

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? 

Dark Blue

65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?

My friends. D:

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?

RAINBOW ROSES THAT MAKE ME LOOK PRETTY

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? 

I feel at peace.

68: what’s winter like where you live?

Barely anything, especially compared to where I used to live.

69: what are your favorite board games?

All of them.

70: have you ever used a Ouija board?

No. Kaz don’t mess around with angry spirits.

71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?

Peppermint

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it? 

Yes

73: what are some of your worst habits?

Nail biting and isolation

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.

Sweet, gorgeous, attentive, and hard working.

75: tell us about your pets!

Kaz has no pets D:

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t? 

Writing

77: pink or yellow lemonade?

Yellow

78: are you in the minion hateclub or Fan club?

I don’t hate the minions, but I certainly don’t like them.

79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?

Aven drew the Kaz Protection Squad Picture. It’s still one of my favorite things.

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color?

Off white. No

81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.

The lightest void that shifts and shimmers

82: are/were you good in school? 

Ye

83: what’s some of your favorite album art?

I like the art for Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?

Yes. Heart on my wrist, ‘it’s okay’ on the other, ‘hetero-ever after doesn’t have to be the norm’ on the back of my calf, ‘and love is not a choice’ on my upper arm, ‘so smart’ on my inner arm, and a watercolor rainbow flag on my other upper arm.

85: do you read comics? what are your faves?

Peanuts.

86: do you like concept albums? which ones?

No

 87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? 

Coco

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?

Surrealism

89: are you close to your parents?

Yes.

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.

I don’t like cities. I like the country.

91: where do you plan on traveling this year?

Nowhere

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?

The former

93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?

Loose and messy

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? 

My dad.

95: what are your plans for this weekend?

Watch TV and YouTube

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?

Procrastinate

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?

ISTJ-T/Logician, Taurus, Ravenclaw

98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?

Forever ago. NO.

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

Recipe for Me, Demons, and Sober (never had a drink, just resonate with her feelings)

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?

Future. The past needs to stay there.

[segadores-y-soldados]

SEP: Sunsets

I wrote this based on the comic “SEP Days” that my friend @vapewraith drew - I love silly SEP and Crisis interactions between Gabriel and Jack so I loved this comic and really wanted to show how much Vape’s art and colors inspire me.

Thank you again, Vapewraith - thank you for nearly nine months of your wonderful Overwatch art!  ❤️  ❤️  ❤️ ---------

“Soldiers, line up here.”

There are tart groans and muttered whines as the SEP candidates shuffle to a stop and the group practically collapses against the walls and waist-high concrete barriers.  The exhaustion and aches are practically tangible in the air as the supersoldiers-in-training ease themselves into sitting or leaning or even lying positions - Number: 37 practically throws herself on the group even though it’s as miserably comfortable as sleeping on broken groundstone.  Number: 123 next to Gabriel rolls his shoulders, hissing every time the right one moves back too far, exactly where one of the rubber bullets had hit him earlier.  Number: 88 on the other side of Jack seats herself and then curls up into a ball, pulling the drawstrings on her hood to shut the world into what Jack assumes is blissful darkness.

They’re in one of the halls of the SEP facility - tucked away into a deep mountainside “somewhere out west,” the building is hard angles and brutal concrete and cut-steel, as soft as titanium and as gentle as the injections they get every morning and evening.  Yet even here, in “wherever’s-range,” there is still beauty: the massive windows, normally just cold, crystalline glass, are open to the sunset, bleeding colors across the land and sky, dripping into the hallway with the vibrancy of oil paints.  Reds smoke into bright, endless pinks, golds melt into bold, sunshine yellows, oranges shift into liquid amber, and at the edges of the atmosphere, velvet purples sigh into silky blues, tinting the more vivid colors and steeped clouds with the dusk of night and the emerging stars.

It’s a sight neither Gabriel nor Jack will ever get tired of -

No matter how exhausted they are.

“The doctors will see you shortly -” the SEP instructor starts to say, reappearing at the far end of the hallway, before he looks up from the papers on his clipboard and scowls at the group of crumbling supersoldiers, snapping, “Is that what you call ‘lining up?’”

“Maybe if y’all didn’t work us so damn hard,” Number: 141 growls, his voice climbing into a hoarse yell, “We’d still have the energy to fucking stand!” 

(The rest is under the cut!)

There are shouts of agreement and calls of “Yeah that!” and quiet mumbles of assent.  Gabriel huffs to himself, sliding himself onto the concrete barrier and trying his hardest not to wince as his muscles settle into a sitting position.  He’s used to hard work and even harder workouts, but today had been...brutal.  3 am running through the facility and into the mountains and back, to 10 am sparring and boxing and hand-to-hand combat, to 1 pm “simulation training” where they ran teams in rubber-bullet fire-fights, to 4 pm regulated work outs of push ups and squats and curls, to now - 8 pm - where they fall to their pieces in concrete hallways, waiting for doctors to take their biodata and continue churning them into statistics for the U.S. government before jamming more needles in their arms and sending them to brutal, uncomfortable cots in the dorms.

Jack slides himself up next to Gabriel, sighing just loud enough for his best friend to hear, “Today...was pretty bad.”

“Would’ve been easier on you if you hadn’t burned yourself out on those push ups,” Gabriel grunts back, pulling a pack of cigarettes from a pant pocket.  He taps one out, muttering with some confusion, “Why were you doing all those one-armed push ups?”

To try and impress you, Jack thinks in bittersweet, bright shades as he leans against the wall.  The haze of the brilliant colors coating the room and the world beyond is beautiful, better than the sunsets he used to see out in Indiana, and although Jack always listens to Gabriel’s complaints of “LA has better sunsets, amigo,” Jack knows Gabriel has slowly been won over by the rough, raw beauty of the SEP facility, “edgy” and hard and rough-cut like sawed-off shotguns, but watercolor-painted in the sunrises and oil-drenched in the sunsets.

And even though the barrier he’s sitting on is edgy and hard and rough-cut 

There’s something warm and smoky-sweet about this small moment of reprieve

As soft as the sunset clouds and as comfortable as Gabriel’s charming, vivid voice

Breathing colors and light into Jack’s drifting mind.

“Someone has to be the cool badass around here, Gabe,” Jack chuckles dryly, sliding his eyes shut as Gabriel teases back, “Pretty sure that’s not you, boy scout.  How are you gonna look badass if one arm is more swole than the other?”

“That’s when...I know it’s time to switch to the other arm,” Jack murmurs to the sweet sunset of Gabriel’s words, his head dipping slightly -

“I’m also pretty sure that’s not how it works,” Gabriel grins, reaching for the lighter in his other pocket as he glances at the line to his side.  It’s moving slow - the doctors are clearly taking their time with this one, but the supersoldiers aren’t...helping, per se.  No one is quick to stand back up and Gabriel is pretty certain that at least two-thirds of them are already passed out.

“I warned them to pace themselves,” he mutters, flicking the lighter before lifting the small flame to the end of the cigarette.  Gabriel clicks it back off, stuffing it into his pocket, saying quietly, “And you, Juan - you shouldn’t push yourself so hard either - you’re just gonna hurt yourself -”

He feels something solid and strong, yet warm and surprisingly comfortable slug against his back.

...The fuck? Gabriel thinks as the lump shifts slightly against him, scowling as he feels the body breath in-out, in-out, steady-steady, a rhythm like the tide and the roll of lazy summer storms, and there’s a whisper of that inhale-exhale of life against his hood -

Gabriel twists a little, turning that scowl towards Jack, as the blonde, in his haze of exhausted, drifting sleep, rests further on the warm, comfortable friend he’s fallen against -

“...Jack, c’mon,” Gabriel mutters sourly, but...not as sourly as he should, shit, he should feel more frustrated by this, he should be pushing Jack away, but the line isn’t moving very fast and Jack looks fucking worn, his friend has looked so tired the last few days, a little sleep couldn’t hurt, Jack needs to sleep more -

“Jack, man, you gotta get up,” Gabriel says, but he’s not sure if he actually wants Jack to get up, there’s something real nice about how Jack is leaning on him, about how comfortable his body is against Gabriel’s back, about how smoky-sweet the moment is - 

About how the dying sunlight catches in Jack’s hair -

About how the color graces the high cut of Jack’s cheekbone -

Nope, Gabriel thinks fiercely, taking a long pull from his cigarette as he tries to refocus on the line in front of them - why is it moving so damn slow - and nope, nope, not doing this today, c’mon, Reyes, pull your shit together -

Number: 123 looks at the two of them skeptically as Jack continues to lean further into Gabriel’s back, and Gabriel grumbles, “Don’t judge me.”

“...It’s kinda hard not to,” Number: 123 chuckles, “You’re such a sucker for him -”

“Listen, he had a rough day, okay?” Gabriel mutters, but it sounds weak and defensive, even to his own ears and Number: 123 shrugs sarcastically, replying coyly, “We all had a rough day, 127 - but he’s the only one you’ll give special treatment to.”

“...I’d let you lean on me…?” Gabriel says back, but it’s half a question too, and Number: 123 cracks up slightly, chuckling, “Sure you would, 127 - I’m gonna take you up on that offer someday, just you watch -”

Somewhere in the haze of his shifting sleep, Jack feels the rumble of a warm, strong back, smoky-sweet, steeped in sunset colors, and a voice whose laughter sings colors into his heart and -

He pulls closer.

He’d hold that voice - smoky-sweet and colorful - forever in this moment, if he could.

“Alright, asshole, look -” Gabriel starts to retort when he jolts slightly, his eyes going wide as -

An arm snakes around his waist.

Number: 123 snorts and Number: 37 on his other side even turns to look, smirking devilishly as Gabriel feels a second arm wrap around him and shit shit shit shit -

“Didn’t know you were part octopus, Jack,” Gabriel whispers rather loudly, rather sarcastically, causing several of the other supersoldiers around them to snicker and snort, but Gabriel feels Jack nuzzle his head against his back and shit -

Shit, Reyes, c’mon - don’t think about your best friend like that, don’t think about your best friend like that, Gabriel reminds himself, trying to let the cigarette calm him down, trying to ignore how Jack’s arms fit perfectly around him, trying to deny how he’s surprisingly comfortable with how Jack presses into his back and -

It’s just a silly crush, it doesn’t mean anything, you’re tired, you’re thinking too much -

“Dammit, Morrison,” Gabriel huffs, “God dammit.  Don’t do this to me, dude -” as the other supersoldiers snap a few pictures, one of them even giggling, “Jack’s gonna get a kick out of this.”

“Don’t you dare show him this,” Gabriel warns them, but they refuse to listen.

“Just lie down and let him cuddle you, 127,” Number: 123 teases him, as Number: 37 grins, “Enjoying his sweet embrace there?”

“Okay, no, now it’s starting to get kinda awkward,” Gabriel admits as Jack continues to lean into him, sleeping heavily, sleeping comfortably as -

Jack’s fingers dig into Gabriel’s side -

“Oh God,” Gabriel half-shouts, half-squirms as several of the awake supersoldiers laugh and wheeze, and the joke’s on them, because Gabriel would never admit aloud that the way Jack clings, the way his fingers tug at Gabriel’s shirt is by far

One of the best things Gabriel has ever felt.

BAIL, every alarm bells screams into his head, Dude, you’re not emotionally equipped to deal with this moment right now, bail, bail!  Get to the chopper!

Gabriel stubs out the only half-smoked cigarette and struggles to shift against the pull of Jack’s arms, the grip of his fingers, shrugging and wiggling and writhing.  But with every twist, Jack just seems to pull harder, cling more, his hands grabbing at Gabriel’s shirt, the slight slip of his skin -

Fuuuuuuuck me, fuck you, Jack, fuck everything, Gabriel groans to himself, dying slightly inside, finally feeling an opportunity as Jack grabs at the hem of his sweatshirt instead, managing to twist out of his grip, but Jack pulls harder on the cloth.  Gabriel feels the sweatshirt slip, and he -

He gives up.

You gotta lose something in the Great Octopus War, Gabriel tells himself, pulling one arm through the sleeve as he turns around, crawling off the concrete barrier, yanking the second arm through but - 

He freezes

As Jack curls tighter around his sweatshirt.

“You managed to escape!” Number: 123 chuckles, turning back to his phone and Number: 37 smirks, “Good job on getting out of that training simulation, 127!”  

But Gabriel isn’t listening to them

Because -

In the sweeping clouds of semi-slumber, Jack frowns a little to himself - that rumbling, warm strength is gone, where did it go, he wants it to come back, he wants to hold it forever, he wants to feel it laugh again, it was the most comfortable thing he’s felt but -

But there’s something soft and smoky-sweet in his arms now, with a lingering sunset warmth and the scent of something bittersweet but so nice, so nice and -

He thinks he sees Gabriel.

He thinks he sees Gabriel in bright, vivid sunset oils, reds and pinks, golds and yellows, oranges and ambers. 

He thinks he sees Gabriel give him that bright, vivid sunset smile - a grin charming and bold, happy and smoky-sweet.

Jack pulls the softness closer to him, murmuring to the dream in his mind:

“...Gabe.”

Gabriel is not listening to the supersoldiers around them

Because as Jack snuggles deeper into his sweatshirt, tinted gold in the dying sunlight, a faint smile flittering on Jack’s face, broad arms cradling hoodie and head

Gabriel knows

Gabriel knows

That he hears Jack whisper, warmly, fondly, with a bright happiness:

“...Gabe.”

Gabriel cannot deny how his heart skips a beat at that.

...Why, Gabriel thinks slowly, as slowly as the line moves, as slowly as time drifts, as slowly as Jack’s head dips further into the folds of his sweatshirt.  Why do you have to say my name like that.  Why do you have to look so content.  Why do you have to look so good like that.

His hand is in his pocket, wrapped around his phone, before he realizes it. 

...Don’t, a part of his mind cautions him sarcastically as he pulls the phone out, Don’t do this.  Be smarter than this, Gabriel.  You’re going to get in too deep.  You’re going to get your precious feelings hurt.

But another part of him -

He thinks it might be his heart -

Says back, with surprising earnestness:

This moment is yours.

In a building of edgy, hard, rough-cut walls, made of stone-cold concrete, brutal and dry -

In a program of daily runs through hallways and mountains, endless sparring and simulations, long hours of fake-fighting and sometimes real fighting and painful, bitter injections -

In a group of people being slowly, slowly - as slowly as this line moves, as slowly as time drifts, as slowly as the sun slips low - transformed into something more, something super-human, something beyond human -

In all of this -

There are still moments where Jack smiles

While saying his name

While cuddling his sweatshirt

While looking more than perfect.

Why, Gabriel thinks slowly, so slowly, yet he fears if he doesn’t take this, if he doesn’t do this now, he’ll lose this moment forever.  Why do you do this to me.  Why do you make me feel this way.

Gabriel snaps a quick picture of Jack’s sleepy, roguish grin, pressed sideways into the grey cloth of his sweatshirt.

Because being in love -

Stupid, sexy Morrison.

Is just as beautiful as the smoky-sweet sunset

And, Gabriel knows -

Often just as hard as the brutal, angular concrete.

Gabriel slots himself by the floor, at the base of the concrete barrier, as Number: 123 slides over slightly, grinning, “I can’t believe you got out of that trap.”

“You and me both,” Gabriel mutters, but there’s a wistful edge to his tone because...he’s not entirely sure he wanted to leave Jack’s arms.  He taps at the picture, setting it to the wallpaper, glancing back at his friend, still snuggling into his sweatshirt, before scowling and looking back.

Now fully prone, Jack feels something shift in his mind, and he flutters an eye open, colors swimming back into view and the light chatter of the waiting supersoldiers filling his ears.  There’s soft fabric pressed into the side of his head, and it feels so warm, so comfortable, lingering with a gentle strongness that Jack barely remembers -

Gabe.

The thought stirs in his mind and he tilts his head slightly, looking for his friend and -

Oh.

Gabriel is slumped against the floor, tapping through some pictures on his phone - images of the supersoldiers, a shot of a pier in LA, a picture from his sister showing off some drink, the usual.

But

Gabriel is not wearing his standard hoodie.

He’s muttering something to Number: 123, who’s laughing lightly at whatever he’s saying and oh lordy -

Jack grins sleepily, lazily, coyly.

The sight of Gabriel in just a tank top - broad shoulders and gilded-rich skin and the swell of the strength in his back -

Is a sight Jack will never get tired of.

Jack buries his head a little deeper in the grey fabric, nuzzling into the remaining warmth of Gabriel there, thinking smugly, Objective captured.

---------

I cannot wait for part 2!!  I’m so excited to see where this comic goes and how Jack reacts to everything.

[l0chn3ss]

L0chn3ss’ Reverb 2017 Haul

A master post of all my reverbs this year! Thank you to all of my glorious partners, the mods, and to my friends who supported me through the journey!

Tiptoes: A MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: Basketball MVP Black Star and top student Maka Albarn don’t always see eye to eye, especially since one towers over the other. When tutoring sessions bring them closer together, though, Star finds himself falling for Maka. All he has to do now is convince a titaness that it is the age of small men!

Warnings: N/A

View Art by @happyisahabit: [Cover Art + Comic]

View Art by @l0chn3ss: [Knitted Scarf] [Wrist band] [Playlist]

Read Story by @soundofez: [Read here]

dust the cracks in my heart with stardust, make me anew: A MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: Childhood friends Maka Albarn and Blake ‘BlackStar’ Sterling go on a road trip all across Nevada in a beat-up jeep. Their final destination is the Fly Geyser, a beautiful rainbow landmark, before Maka leaves for grad school. Along the way, they feel a sense of urgency to get their personal feelings off their chest.

Warnings: bed-sharing, sexual tension, cursing, bathroom breaks

View Art by @l0chn3ss: [Ambiance Playlist 1] [Road Trippin’ Playlist 2] [Knitted Scarf] [Watercolor Painting]

Read Story by @happyisahabit: [Read here: FFNET | AO3]

Bonus Mood Board by @happyisahabit: [View here]

Seasons of Liz: A Liz Thompson Reverb, 2017

Summary: (1969) Elizabeth Thompson, age 18, has left the dirty streets of Brooklyn behind in favor of the polished suburbs of Long Island. Armed with a camera and a cynical world view, she tries to make amends with herself whilst traveling her new home. The idea that she could belong in such a lavish lifestyle seems preposterous, but then again, so does landing a man on the moon.

Warnings:  mentions of violence, dark themes, alcohol, cussing, depression

View Art by @rainshatteredsky: [Photography + Dress Design]

Read Story by @soulevansvevo and @l0chn3ss: [Read Here: AO3 | FFNET]

A Part of Me Is With You: A BROTP MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: Growing up is never easy, but with an obnoxious best friend by your side it’s not all bad. MaStar brotp, snapshots of growing up.

Warnings: N/A

View Art by @l0chn3ss: [Crocheted Owl]

Read Story by @meisterful: [Read here | AO3]

Bonus Art by @l0chn3ss: [To be posted]

Pretty Reaper Sailor Moon: A MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: Student by daylight, Soul Reaper by night, Maka Albarn leads a double life as the Reaper of Madness, Sailor Moon! With her talking cat, Soul, and her fellow reapers at her side, Maka feels confident in her abilities as a protector of Order. When Queen Arachne threatens Earth with a web of Madness, Maka realizes that she may have met her match. Combined with blurry romantic visions of a past life and the appearance of one striking Tuxedo Star, Sailor Moon must regain her courage to untangle the mysteries and save the day. “In the name of the Moon, your soul is mine!” Sailor Moon AU

Warnings: mentions of violence, cussing, death

View Art by @happyisahabit​: [Main Art] [Outtakes/Comics] [Pastel Group Shot] [Sunset Scene]

Read Story by @l0chn3ss​: [Read Here: FFNET | AO3]

View Bonus Mood Boards by @l0chn3ss: [Part One] [Part Two]

Adrift: A MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: A commercial fishing trip gone awry leaves Braxton ‘Black Star’ Sterling floundering, furious, and ready to fight a God. Will his mission to get to Poseidon for a one-on-one be victorious, or will he forever be lost at sea?

Warnings: cussing, violence, talk of death, minor character death

View Art by @l0chn3ss: [Ambiance Playlist] [Watercolor Painting] [Knitted Piece]

Read Story by @rebornfromash​: [Read here: Tumblr | FFNET]

Bonus Mood Board by @rebornfromash​ and @l0chn3ss​: [Part One] [Part Two]

Heroic Vulgar: A MaStar Reverb, 2017

Summary: Childhood friends torn apart by distance, Maka is suddenly reunited with her first crush in the Albarn family’s pet shop. She needs an employee, and Black Star needs a job… but also a place to stay. A new tenant in the house, exotic bird theft, and big-name pet food companies turn the shop upside down, but now that she has her best friend back, Maka thinks she can get through anything– if her heart would simply shut up. Also if Fred would shut up. Please shut up, Fred.

Pairings:  MakaxBlack*Star, TsuxLiz, SoulxKilik Rating: PG-13 Warnings: canon-typical violence, language, alcohol

View Art by @l0chn3ss:  [Pet Shop Moodboard] [K-Drama Moodboard] [Maka Moodboard] [Black Star Moodboard] [K-City Moodboard] [MS Paint Doodle]

View Art by @uppastmybedtimereading316​ and @l0chn3ss​: [Playlist: Tumblr | Tumblr | Youtube]

Read Story by @marshofsleep​​: [Read here: Tumblr | AO3]

Chapeau: A KiMa Reverb, 2017

Summary: Maka is a hospice resident struggling to cope with the many deaths she's forced to witness. On top of that, a mysterious man has shown up; a man that only she can see.

Warnings: Death Mention

View Art by @l0chn3ss: [Knitted Scarf + Watercolor Painting]

Read Story by @quantamtheory1: [Read Here: Tumblr | AO3 | FFNET]

Bonus Art by @l0chn3ss: [To be posted- Beanie + Playlist + Moodboard]

[thepaintbrushworld]

As it's New Year and there should be something new with us to make you super excited. And to began the chain by making this year beautiful and excited,I introduce you to - KITty POTS and CACTI-THE CACTUS. In our childhood,we all dream that our surrounding objects and plants start talking,become friends and that what DISNEY has make us learned.Revisiting those childhood memories, I have also created something different,something that I always wanted in my childhood- a talking plant,talking furniture and so on. Somewhere in our life's i think- if you are grown up watching DISNEY you always be living in that fantasy land. That magical stories,everything has life. Everyone can become friends, that sweet memories were always there in my heart, but somehow with the age we forget everything we lived up to. I have always dream of creating characters of my own,who can talk,became friends, then something magical happens. But without wasting any more minute I have launch my first comic story so as perhaps i have already introduce you to my character but this is not the end of my characters.This is just the beginning. Both KITTY POTS and CACTI are friends living together at MS. PETERSON's home, friends forever but how their life's changes when a new guest came up and will there friendship will stay forever or not. To know all stay connected and keep smiling. #kitty #illustration #art #graphicartist #deaigning #watercolor #handdrawn #watercolorcharacters #characterart #cute #kawaii #cat #cactus #comic #shortstory #story #saturday #saturdayvibes #drawing #watercolor_art #blog #ThePaintbrushbyneelima @thepaintbrushdesign.com https://www.instagram.com/p/BsRANxpny-G/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=156cbtym7mhie

[pinkdestructr]

Listen up

Tagged myself because nobody wants to know about me haha

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people.

THE LAST: 1. Drink: Energy drink 2. Phone call: My boyfriend last night (I think?) 3. Text message: My friend a photo of my cat laying in my way 4. Song you listened to: BTS - 21st Century Girl 5. Time you cried: Uhhhh...I’m too dehydrated to cry today

HAVE YOU: 6. Dated someone twice: Yeah... ...yeah...  7. Kissed someone and regretted it: Yupperooni! 8. Been cheated on: Hahahahahaha ...yes. 9. Lost someone special: Ten down and counting... 10. Been depressed: Forever. 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: It’s too expensive for me to get drunk.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS: 12-14: Turquoise, spring green, vermilion red.

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU: 15. Made new friends: Luckily! 16. Fallen out of love: Yes, I’m actually relieved.  17. Laughed until you cried: Yupyup 18. Found out someone was talking about you: Well yeah, not surprisingly. 19. Met someone who changed you: Yes, but I’m always changing. 20. Found out who your friends are: I’ve always known. 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: Uh...I guess technically?

GENERAL: 22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Most.  23. Do you have any pets: One tortoise shell cat, Maggie. 24. Do you want to change your name: My last name, mostly. 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: Went to Little Tokyo to celebrate becoming too old to be a kid anymore. 26. What time did you wake up: I dunno, the light outside was on. 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Drawing, I think. 28. Name something you can’t wait for: Becoming a real artist. 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: A few minutes ago. 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: My brain. 31. What are you listening right now: Daughter - Landfill 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Not a physical being, no. 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: My exhaustion and depression. 34. Most visited Website: Tumblr, I guess?

LOST QUESTIONS. I JUST PUT IN RANDOM INFO ABOUT ME 35. Mole/s: A lot all over. 36. Mark/s: A scar between my shoulder blades, and one on my right knee. 37. Childhood dream: A comic artist. 38. Haircolor: Right now it’s dirty blonde with streaks of bleach and teal.  39. Long or short hair: Yes. 40. Do you have a crush on someone: Yes, one I’m dating. One has no idea I exist haha 41. What do you like about yourself: My sheer willpower, I guess? 42. Piercings: Size 2 gauges in both lobes, two secondaries on both ears, snakebites on my lip. 43. Bloodtype: I have no idea! But based on personality, I guess AB? 44. Nickname: Nene, Octo, Mutt, Passum. 45. Relationship status: Two months in, so far so good. 46. Zodiac: Fire Tiger/Capricorn 47. Pronouns: She/Her/They/Them 48. Favorite TV Show: Criminal Minds, TWD, GitS:SAC, I dunno I watch a lot of shit sometimes. 49. Tattoos: None yet. Planning on binary code tattoo, watercolor flowers all over my back and shoulders, my signature on my chest, and more. I’ve designed and planned a lot haha 50. Right or left hand: Right hand, working on getting my left trained. 51. Surgery: None. Had an infected spider bite lanced several times, tho. 52. Hair dyed in different color: I’ve done a lot. Neon red, deep blue, neon green, black, teal, white, I plan on more. 53. Sport: Hahahahaha what? 55. Vacation: Since I don’t have a real job, I’ve never really had a vacation? 56. Pair of trainers: None?

MORE GENERAL: 57. Eating: Noodles, rice, eggs, peanut butter, sweets, anything sour. 58. Drinking: Tea, boba, coffee, I like a lot. 59. I’m about to: Get back to work on commissions and comics. 61. Waiting for: Too many things. 62. Want: A Cintiq tablet, and a place to call home. 63. Get married: If someone can stand me for that long. 64. Career: Comic artist and illustrator.

WHICH IS BETTER 65. Hugs or kisses: Kisses. Soft and delicate, hard and hot. 66. Lips or eyes: Eyes, deep and full of dreams. 67. Shorter or taller: Taller, I can’t reach the third shelf. 68. Older or younger: I don’t really care about age either way, but I prefer people who are more mature. I can’t take care of others forever. 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Nice arms, but mostly because I love hands. 71. Sensitive or loud: Sensitive, I need more empathy in my life. 72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship, I don’t understand untangling so easily from people. 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: I enjoy a combination of both. Life is more interesting that way.

HAVE YOU EVER: 74. Kissed a stranger: Yes. They stopped being a stranger soon after. 75. Drank hard liquor: Yes. I don’t care for beer or wine.  76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: I’ve misplaced my glasses several times. 77. Turned someone down: For several things. 78. Sex in the first date: Actually yes. Which was really unusual for me. 79. Broken someone’s heart: I guess? I’m not sure if I really did or not. 80. Had your heart broken: Many times. But then again I love too much. 81. Been arrested: Not yet. 82. Cried when someone died: I am still mourning, still crying over so many. 83. Fallen for a friend: Yes. I felt like a failure, for possibly betraying their trust in me.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 84. Yourself: No, I know how much of a disappointment I really am. 85. Miracles: They are far less frequent than people believe. 86. Love at first sight: To the degree that things are not coincidental. 87. Santa Claus: You mean the Christrian God? Huh. No thanks. 88. Kiss in the first date: If it feels right, then yes. 89. Angels: Spirits, ghosts, beings of energy, forces and entities we cannot understand. But not necessarily “Angels”.

OTHER: 90. Current best friends name: Bridgette. Then there are the ones who are now just my family. 91. Eyecolor: Hazel grey-blue, everyone tells me they are a different color. 92. Favorite movie: Pacific Rim, I guess? There are too many that have influenced and changed me.

If you want to do this, you can say I tagged you. I want to learn about you, and maybe learn about me.

[comicteaparty]

May 13th-May 19th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from May 13th, 2020 to May 19th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following  question:

Which comic has your all-time favorite artwork, and why do you like it?

carcarchu

Oh yes i can say this with certainty but the webcomic with my all-time favourite artwork by far is 榴花不及春 https://www.manmanapp.com/comic-1404769.html. it's not just that the art is beautiful but the way the artists create mood and tone is just jaw-dropping. I actually got chills a few times while reading it from the art alone and that's not something that i can recall happening when reading a lot of webcomics, or actually any fiction in general. there's such a elegance to the line weight and movement of the art that brings life to the characters. the artists' use of lighting adds such depth to the scenes, sometimes creating a warm and inviting atmosphere and other times a haunting and foreboding chill. the time i've spent with this comic is not something i'll soon forget(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

This is such a difficult question for me. Gahhh, so many pretty comics out there.... I guess, in regards to artwork alone, my favorite is the 2015 version of Countdown to Countdown by Vel. (https://tapas.io/series/Countdown) Just... such beautiful work. I'm a sucker for detailed painterly styles I will admit, but also the color and lighting is phenomenal. The way Vel sets up the mood with color and movement is amazing. The textures and brush strokes are simply gorgeous! Unfortunately, Vel rebooted the comic to a new style last year, and while it is still really gorgeous, I must admit, I don't like it nearly as much as the original. (What can I say? I have a bias for painterly styles.) Still highly recommend it! (https://tapas.io/series/CTC) I do want to point out some honorable mentions for me: * Ghostblade by WLOP (https://tapas.io/series/GhostBlade) - another painterly comic * The Sixth Dalai Lama by Ze Zhao (https://tapas.io/series/thesixthdalailama) - discontinued as far as I'm aware, but painted traditionally with watercolor! * Wind Rose by Sfera (https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/wind-rose/list?title_no=54306) - Painterly again (later on as the artist improved) but also great expressions I will say, I also love deliciously detailed lineart, but I don't see it a lot (especially in webcomics), and I cannot think of one right now :/(edited)

carcarchu

ahh ghost blade is a great choice @Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) and while i agree that countdown to countdown's new art isn't as sumptuous as it used to be for a comic it works better and the simpler art style allows vel to release at a more consistent rate without injuring herself so i really respect the change(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah, definitely understand why they changed styles, because oml can a painterly style be taxing

DanitheCarutor

I can't pick just one! But to start off I love the art of Lost Honey (https://www.losthoney.com/), everything about it is so soft, the linework, the colors the character designs, the panelling, it all has such a nice feel to it. The creator's use of color is sooo easy on the eyes, it fits so well with the comic. The linework has such a nice flow and movement, there is never a feeling of stiffness, it almost reminds me of water. Also I'm a complete sucker for traditionally drawn comics. Even though it's discontinued as far as I know, Thicker Than Blood also has really nice aesthetics! (https://tapas.io/series/Thicker-Than-Blood-), it has such a unique style almost like classical art mixed with glass. The designs are detailed yet highly stylized. The quality varied from time to time, given the amount of work that goes into them, but overall I really liked the look of this comic. Carciphona is another one I like aesthetically. (https://tapas.io/series/carciphona) The art of this one has improved immensely since it started, and while I'm not a fan of the look of the earlier pages, I'm loving how their work has evolved. The style is very Japanese inspired, there is a lot going on sometimes, but has its own unique look and is very well crafted. Also I love the action scenes, how they're handled makes the scenes look intense, sometimes grandiose.(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Oh my god I love carciphona’s art! I always get shilin’s art whenever she sells at Anime North I’ve been meaning to read carciphona for a while so thanks for reminding me!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Hands down it is Black Out Cityhttp://blackoutcity.ca/lvl10.php Jay does these amazing illustrative panels when they introduce a new chapter and it has me hooked on each update! The way that the title is incorporated within the panel is beautifully done, and their attention to detail and effective use of contrast is breath taking. Definitely a huge inspiration of mine! I also want to shout out to O'Sarilho by @Capitania do Azar . The palettes she uses are unique and dynamic, and the layouts read like the comic is animated (there's even animated parts in it!) the way she draws action and portrays horrific parts is phenomenal!https://sarilho.net/en/

(also i love this prompt but i could def go on forever with it hehe)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I wholeheartedly second O'sarilho ^^ it's a comic I regularly reccomend and I probably won't ever get over how lovely it looks! (I'll have to look for more comics who's art I love later)(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I'll throw in Heart of Gold https://heartofgoldcomic.com/. The ethereal palette, the clean and crisp architecture, the panels that work perfectly with the church imagery, and the energy of the lines and brush strokes. SO GOOD.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I agreEE

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Okay for me it's two webcomics One of them is Tracy JB's Lackadaisy https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/lackadaisy/list?title_no=39790&page=1 https://www.lackadaisycats.com/ Everything she does is wonderful; colour, expression, character, plot.....her art inspired me to embark on expression work. I remember being younger and being so inspired by her webcomic. Hands down can't find a flaw. The other one is Muted by anidoodles https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/muted/list?title_no=1566 I was introduced to her from her Heather animatics on youtube. I love how her inking and cell shading is simple but VERY effective; the use of bold bright colours and watercolours was amazing. My art style is heavily inspired by hers and overall, I love how she captures people's attention with it.(edited)

Miranda

Oh I love Muted!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

looks at your profile pic heheh

Miranda

I mean, I'd have to say I love "Nothing Special" by Katie Cook. Her art style and color scheme is just easy on the eyes and I love her intricate filled backgrounds. https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/nothing-special/list?title_no=1188&page=1 Phantomarine is another favorite. I absolutely love the painted look and it's been inspiring my newer pages. Every page is just a work of art and I love the color choices and just everything about it. http://www.phantomarine.com/

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

PHANTOMARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’m also going to say Phantomarine

Theres also one I found recently called Bybloemen that has a really cool art style

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh Bybloemen is gorgeous and is so up your alley Sssfrs!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Its so good

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Woah, it's like woodcuts!! I like it!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Ooh this is a hard choice since I see beautiful webcomic art alot. Recently my favorite art and coloring style I've been inspired by are: - The Glass Scientists https://www.theglassscientists.com/ Some of the pages are well executed, I like the character designs, fantasy with alchemists, werewolves and more. Ghost Teller https://www.webtoons.com/en/horror/ghost-teller/list?title_no=1307 I enjoy QTT use of gradient coloring and spooky atmosphere, it looks like alot of time were used to make each strip. I like how the characters are linked to each story, it's not as spooky as more dramatic. They are all short stories Gourmet Hound: https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/gourmet-hound/list?title_no=1245 When I think of slice of life with a soft pleasant color palette, this story comes in mind. I like to refer to her work as well as other SoL comics for inspiration on coloring.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

@carcarchu ooh I love the different comics you recommend. It's always unique and pretty. I hope there's a tranlation strip for '榴花不及春'(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

GOURMET HOUND

IM SO HAPPY ITS HERE

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Funnily, the webcomic with my all-time favourite art is Order of the Stick. Love how much expression and narrative work this simple style does.

RebelVampire

Definitely Rising Sand https://risingsand.glass/. The art is immensely detailed in ways that are relevant to the world and story, has beautiful color choices, beautiful compositions, amazing light effects, great backgrounds, and so on. And just overall the skill level is so high I'd need another 20 years experience with art to even be able to begin to point out a single flaw.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

^Ooh yes! I don’t know how Rising Sand keeps that quality so high. From their posts, it seems like a bit of a nightmare sometimes But the end product is like its own animated film!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Omg I'm often in awe with those artists making high quality art that looks like it belongs in graphic novels or film. I can imagine those big details will take alot of time to put together. (edited)

I once happen to meet the creators for Rising Sand. Very passionate writer and artist team who have quite some experiences and strong teamwork. (Life goals!)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

so many comics to check out :0

Deo101 [Millennium]

wow rising sand is really gorgeous

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Whoa rising sand is really good

actually reminds me of Tigress Queen by Allidraws https://www.tigressqueen.com/comic/page-0001(edited)

especially the parts where she draws glass and architecture it's very vibrant and full of life

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Gosh I realized I have a trend of loving slice of life stories, so I might end up recommending that genre afew times!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(don't forget webcomic_recs for recommending good comics in general outside of the weekly topic!)

Unfortunately Korean-only at this time, but I am in awe of the art in this comic. It's not very polished, but you can tell the artist really knows what he's doing in terms of anatomy, perspective and composition. https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=701535&weekday=wed

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

oops I remembered that, I'll go repost there instead. Thanks Keii. Wow that comic(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I really want to read more Korean and Chinese webcomics, they have a different vibe and story atmosphere. I enjoy looking into them as inspiration on how to stage my webtoon scenes.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Hmmmm, I wouldn't recommend the one above for how to make vertical scroll comics. That one was originally made for print and then adapted afterward, and it shows.

Still absolutely amazing action art, though!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) Heart of Gold is SO beautiful! I agree with you 100 procent!

I will add The Ocean Soul. Holey damn this comic is SO gorgeous!!!! https://tapas.io/series/The-Ocean-Soul

Javi

Gonna add this before this prompt changes. I think Oren's Forge has the best artwork I've ever seen done in a webcomic. Every panel has a setting that's so bold and pristine in color, layout, and background that it begs to be animated. Every color used paints a different mood to show character development and the style of the characters is so stylized and interesting to look at. Even the story is interesting enough that it gets you hooked and wondering what will happen next. Also talking animals, what more can I say? :) There's more discussion in FurAffinity than there is on Tapas so I'm putting two links https://m.tapas.io/series/OrensForge https://www.furaffinity.net/full/18260576/

[nexttattoos-blog]

New Post has been published on https://nexttattoos.com/small-tattoos.html

Small tattoos

The tattoo is one of the oldest cultural manifestations that has been increasingly popular, in virtue of technological advances, the increase in the number of professional tattoo artists, easy access to information, the influence of the media and fashion trends and the greater willingness of the individual to invest in their own well-being. The art of adorning the body communicates to the other its peculiar codes, its style, its essence. It is also a mark of life in which it is possible to express a memorable memory, religious options, affection for a loved one and even irreparable pain. The choice of the figure to be stamped must be done thoroughly to avoid causing remorse. For those who start the ritual now, the ideal is always to opt for simplicity either in “hidden” places, soft features or in smaller formats. Complexity and innovation are the biggest obstacles, since materializing them in the exact way you imagine is a difficult and complicated task. The small tattoo, for example, is the most accurate, practical and efficient way. And do not hesitate: the result, for the most part, is always positive and surprising. There are endless forms and diverse and creative models of the brand in your skin. Check out our gallery of 180 amazing little tattoo suggestions and find here the inspiration you need to take the first step:

The sunflower is like the sun: it brings light and makes the environment happy

The flower is one of the most feminine symbols

Smile!

The shades of pink leave the moon even more feminine

An elephant bothers a lot of people!

Origami on the wrist

Freedom is a gift!

A powerful and imposing ring

For addicts of macarons

Citizen of the world

My half orange

Put on the face of your favorite classmates

Chip and dale

The rose adapts to any area of ​​the body, so, dare!

Chef on duty

The crown is the symbol of power, authority and leadership

The master key

There’s no mistaking the contour tattoo of the star

To move-te

The butterfly represents the transformation, the beauty and the transience of

Whale in black and white on the arm

Like a wave in the sea

Rosa outline of the leg

Do you prefer the most hidden flowers? This place of the body is perfect for you!

All forms of love

The heart hurt by a loving disappointment

Non-continuous features bring more lightness to tattoo

For a good traveler, nothing better than a book with a warm coffee

Soft, delicate, feminine and exciting

Dirty girl

Who does not like to travel?

A lazy cat on the leg

The horseshoe carries with it luck, protection and positive energies

For those who are passionate about the city that never sleeps

I am the owner of the world!

Pointillism

Returning the night for the delivery of the project

Lights Camera action!

Small and realistic cherry tree on the arm

Tattoo of colorful and vibrant flowers in hand

Lucky girl

Amazing and vibrant lotus flower on the arm

New school tattoo

The arrows of love

Under my umbrella, rain, rain

Smile, my good!

Guardian angel

How about stamping several figures in your hand?

anchor in shades of gray on the wrist

Charismatic kitten on the finger

The most precious stone

Figure of the deconstructed house in the hand

Manifest your joy with the arrival of the new member of the family

How about a wolf ring?

Take advantage of the stem of the rose and make more sense to tattoo

I was crush!

The world is the smart ones!

Dagger in shades of gray in the hand

Attract all the luck of the world for you!

Secure all evil!

Positive and negative

Two equally relevant elements: infinity and anchoring

Simple musical note stamped on the wrist

Mini walnut on the wrist

Traveler of the seven seas

Petals that are released in the leg

Today time flies, love

Take advantage of the format of the moon and write a word means for you!

A toast to life!

I have something to talk about!

The act of giving aromatic flowers

Blue flowers on the wrist

The door of hope

Minnie sends kisses!

Amulet of protection

Lovely and feminine piglet on the leg

Beautiful and realistic goldfish swimming by the pulse

Loving

Labyrinth

Notable black and white pine on the leg

The diamond symbolizes purity, perfection and truth

The world divided into five parts

Lucky clover, all covered in black

Sexy blue cherry on the thigh

The rose represents the heart, sensuality and beauty

You are a star! shine everywhere!

Vibrant red cord on the arm

Diamonds are women’s best friends

Pink heart tattoo on the leg

Love potion

Love is in the air!

Candle holding skull

We will be together forever, baby

Who has the key to your heart?

Colored flower tattoo on the leg

How not to love these beautiful puppies?

Do you prefer not to risk? bet on the points tie and win numerous fans

Give a comic touch to your tattoo and get rid of it!

Oh cupid, let’s see if he leaves me alone?

Geometric figures never go out of style!

disney icon

I’m looking at you!

Beautiful realistic roses on the back

A passionate flamenco

One of two significant elements for you and the result will be amazing!

Lonely flower full of love to give!

Funny ballerina in the leg

Love to cook? This tattoo falls like a glove

A test of friendship, a promise for life

Delicate, soft and feminine pink on the arm

Delicious, fun and colorful cupcakes on the fingers

Kisses on the shoulder

Funny and colorful bird on the finger

How about stamping the year of his birth on his fingers?

Delicate infinity in the neck

Funny lizard, walking on the leg

The watercolor tones bring more life and energy to the vase of flowers

The urban landscape

Whale of the color of the sea

The phase of the flower stamped on the back

To quench your thirst

Small and colorful heart that beats for you!

Remarkable and red rose on the wrist

Make a mix with several elements together and the effect will be amazing!

Tattoo of a black and white dog on the arm

How to resist so much tenderness?

Messenger of Peace

Queen sheep in watercolor tones on the arm

In homage to someone special in your life

All we need is Love!

You have the key to my heart

The texture of the dog’s hairs leave the tattoo even more realistic

May peace be with you!

Beautiful swallow flying by the pulse

The bee represents order, discipline and cooperation

Vibrant and energetic tree on the leg

Mini umbrella on the wrist

Combine two complementary elements in a single tattoo and strip!

A precious pearl

Live the realm of fantasy!

Fissured by the game of nintendo de mario? this is for you!

A funny clown in the hand

Kanji

Winner of all stages of the musical world

Small and ultra feminine loop on the leg

Flower tattoo in shades of gray on the wrist

Protection

Creative, original and fun: a decayed tooth

Several female figures in a single tattoo

The pixelated heart

Mini diamond back contour

Think always positive!

Leg bracelet with beautiful flowers

The pearl manifests the long life and immortality

How about adding a special phrase next to infinity?

I was smiling, I only have love to share!

Bouquets of leaves with minimalist style on the wrist

Rabbit and sheep with non-continuous traits

The dove of peace

Leaving footprints

With crossed fingers to give luck!

The group of dogs gathered

Grief brings luck, justice and protection

Faith moves mountains

Playboy bunny

The four-leaf clover brings good luck to those who believe!

The rain falls wet my love!

Nautical star hidden behind the ear

Flowers are synonymous with beauty, femininity and innocence

The filter of dreams brings protection and luck

Remember why you started!

Birds are messengers of the heavenly and terrestrial worlds

The arrow of passion

The love of a mother

Her full lips are born beautiful flowers

How about stamping your self-portrait on your arm?

Love Paris? put one of the most beautiful scenarios in the world on the wrist!