#well micro comic

[alva-gunderson]

Spare helmets

[frownyalfred]

"Yeah he's dressed like a fucking Bat. So what? Some guy in the Narrows just got melted into acid by a ray gun on Tuesday. And you know who has to show up and deal with that?" hacking cough, another long drag "Last night I drank eleven of those fancy little espresso shots from that new cart over on 5th and didn't feel a thing. Doctor told me it's bad for my heart. You know what's bad for my heart? Crazy psychos with ray guns melting people into acid. Back in my day, people fell into acid, sure. But now they've got acid guns too?" more coughing, some chest pounding "Bat says he wants to go deal with that, I say more power to him. Matter of fact, he can walk right into my house and kiss my wife if it means I don't gotta write more paperwork about people getting melted into acid. You know how hard it is to identify people when they're goo? It all just looks like puked up spaghetti in those bags. And the acid keeps eatin' at the bags when they're in the cooler so they break open, and boom, that's another form. I filled out three forms about that this week, believe it or not. So yeah, the Bat's doing me a favor, way I see it." lighting another cigarette "Hey, buddy. You want one of these?"

Bruce Wayne, staring at the only other non-corrupt officer in the GCPD he was surreptitiously vetting after his last meetup with Gordon fell through: "Um. No thanks."

[todayisafridaynight]

RGG ironic as hell for necking tsutsumi’s lips when modeling sawashiro once i think back on how ttm emotes a lot through his lips

[hiveworks]

Micro Comic Summer Returns for 2024!

In 2022, Hiveworks introduced Micro Comic Summer, an online comic challenge shared via the #MicroComicSummer tag on varied social media channels.

Micro Comic Summer is one of many online art challenges that bring creators together to complete a project and share their work with their community. Other well-known examples of art challenges include Hourly Comic Day, where artists draw a comic panel for every hour of their day, and Inktober (along with its inspired spin-offs), a daily illustration challenge in October.

Micro Comic Summer focuses on sustainable art practices, story craft, and art exploration, by encouraging creators to take an entire summer to draw a 4-page comic.

The rules of Micro Comic Summer are as follows:

Rule 1- Tell a story in four pages. This rule is possibly the most challenging aspect: to be succinct and efficient with your page count. Some creators have used this challenge as an opportunity to redraw old webcomic pages or introduce new readers to their pre-existing characters and story. What story you tell is completely up to you!

Rule 2 - You have all summer (or winter, for the southern hemisphere) to do it. From June to the end of August, take your time to perfect your paneling, edit your story, and choose your palette thoughtfully. There is no need to make snap decisions or cut corners for this challenge. The timeframe is meant to encourage exploration and growth.

Rule 3 - Share it online. Use the tag #MicroComicSummer to share your work with others on August 31. Contribute to the conversation around comic artist working conditions.

While Hiveworks introduced Micro Comic Summer, anyone is free to participate. Participation in the tag does not mean you’re submitting your work to us, nor does it mean we own it. It’s just a hashtag, for fun.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

🌟 Don’t forget to visit the tag to see what artists have created in 2022 and 2023!

😎 For long form webcomics, check out Hiveworks' amazing library of works, all free to read!

[gtinthepot]

MASTER LIST OF GIANT/TINY CONTENT

Disclaimer, I have not looked up everything on this list and most of it was suggested from others. I cannot promise the accuracy of the content. Suggestions for the list are more than welcome, leave a comment on the post for people to browse through after checking to see if its on the list already :)

I’ll be editing and adding to it here and there, so some reblogs of the post might be outdated. I suggest clicking on the source /main post to get the newest version. The old list can be found here.

7 deadly sins

A bug's life

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (some episodes)

Adventure time

Alice in Wonderland

Alvin and the chipmunks

Amour de poshe (the girl in his pocket)

Animorphs: #24

Ant bully

Ant man (1 and 2)

Antz

Archies weird mysteries (one ep)

Army of darkness

Art Attack

Arthur and the Invisibles

Athena complex (webcomic)

Attack of the 50 foot cheerleader.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Attack of the puppet people

Barbie and the nut cracker

barbie movies (look up specifics)

Barbie Thumbelina

Beastars

Beatle juice

Berserk

Big man japan

Bottle Fairy

Bramble the mountain king. (video game)

Brave little tailor (mickey mouse)

Bugs life?

Captain America: Civil War

Card captor sakura (one ep and some scenes)

Christmas Stories: The Tin Soldier is a good one.

Clifford the big red dog

Cuphead: Don’t deal with the Devil (mostly with certain bosses)

Darby o’gill and the little people

David the Gnome

Disenchantment

Dollman

Downsizing

Dr cyclops

Dr who (one ep: into the dalek)

Dragon ball

Dungeon meshi (a few chapters)

Ella Enchanted

Elusive people.(video game)

Epic

Ernest and Celestine (more of a mini-giant/doll-sized tiny size dynamic)

Fairytale: a true story (1997)

Fantastic Planet

Fantastic voyage

Ferngully

Final space episode 5

Frame arms girl.

Futurama (some episodes)

Gelias and the giant

Gen V

George shrinks

Gods of Egypt

Godzilla

Grandpa in my pocket

Gravity falls (one episode)

Grounded (video game)

Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2 more so than the first one)

Gulliver's Children (webtoon)

Gullivers travels (1939, 1977, 2010) as a well as a mini-tv series

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: Aladdin

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: Season 2, Episode 2 thumbelina

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child: The shoemaker and the elves

Helmecrons

Help I shrunk my friends

Help I shrunk my parents

Help I shrunk my teacher

Here come the littles

Hilda

Honey I blew up the kid

Honey I shrunk the audience ride at Disneyland

Honey I shrunk the kids

Hornby sets

How to Keep a Mummy ( Miira no Kaikata)

Inch high private eye

Innerspace

Invincible (Some episodes)

It takes two (game)

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story

Jack the giant slayer

Jackie Chan Adventures (one episode)

Jaimes and the giant peach

Jitsu wa watashi wa (mostly the 4th episode)

Journey 2 The Mysterious Island

King kong

Kubo and the two strings

Land of the giants

Legoland

Lilo and Stitch the series (two episodes)

Little (Grrl) 

little nightmares 1 and 2 (game)

Littles

Lord of the rings

Macross sequel shows (-anime-)

Mars attacks!

Mickey and the bean stalk

Micro Machines

Micro Ventures

Militsioner (Video game)

Minami-Kun no Koibito (2015)

Minish cap (video game)

Moana

Modest Heroes Kanini and Kanino (Short film)

Monster (video game)

Monsters Vs Aliens

My hero Academia (some episodes)

My Little Lover

My Miniature Manual (webtoon)

My Monster Secret (specifically one character)

natsume yuujinchou

Nau-lmg

Night at the Museum

Nils holgersson

Ok Ko! lets be Heroes season 3 episode 9 Planet Vacation

One Punch Man (some episodes)

Onward (a few scenes)

Osmosis Jones

Ozzy and Drix

Pans labyrinth

Paper mario sticker star (Video game, two levels)

Peter pan

Pikmin 1, 2, and 3 (game)

Pinocchio

Pokemon sun/moon anime second season (one ep)

Ponyo

Rainbow Magic

Ratatouille

Rick n morty (one episode)

Robotech (-comic series; new ones-)

Robotech (season one/The Macross Saga) (-anime-)

Robotech Remix (-comic series-)

Super Danganronpa 2 (video game, final boss)

Shadow of the colossus (video game)

Small blessings (webcomic)

Small Lands Survive The Wilds (Video game)

Small soldiers (1998)

Smallfoot

Smurfs

Smurfs lost village

Snorks

Spirit of wonder: The shrinking of miss China

SpongeBob SquarePants (the wumbo episode)

Steven universe

Stormlight Archive (-book series; has tiny fae people-)

Strange days at blake holesy high (one episode)

Strange magic

Stuart Little

Sugar apple fairy tale.

Super giant robot brothers.

Tales to Astonish (comics)

Ted Hughes

Tentacular. (video game)

The 3 worlds of gulliver

The 7th voyage of sinbad

The amazing colossal man

The bee movie

The BFG

The bfg 1989

The borrowers (1973, 1993 1997, 2011)

The Borrowers (Arrietty)

The Borrowers exhibition at the Hancock Museum

The Boys (some episodes)

The dwarf and the giant 1901

The Fantastic Planet

The hobbit

The hulk

The incredible shrinking man

The incredible shrinking woman

The Indian in the cupboard

The iron giant

The iron man

The Journey.

The Last Guardian (video game)

The Last of the Huggermuggers by Christopher Pearse Cranch

The Little Bits

The littles

The magic school bus

The nut cracker

The owl house (one episode)

The phantom planet

The Rescuers

The return of the Borrowers 1992 and 1993 tv series

The Secret of Nimh

The secret world of Arrietty

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

The simsons (one episode)

The storyteller (one ep)

The Suspicion and #42

The Sword in the Stone

The tale of the princess kaguya

The ultimate avengers (1 & 2)

Thumbelina

Time loader. (video game)

Tinkerbell and The Great Fairy Rescue

Tinkerbell and The Pirate Fairy

Tinkerbell movies

Tinykin. (video game)

Tom and Jerry

Tomb thumb

Townsmen VR. (video game)

Toy story

Transformers

Transformers (old series)

Troll hunter

Troll in central park...??

Trolls

Trolls band together

Ultraman cosmos

Underdogs

Unravel. Porcelain tales. (video game)

Valkyrie Drive Mermaid (one episode.)

Village of the giants

Violet Goes to The Beach (webtoon)

VR Giants. (video game)

We’re Back! A dinosaur story

When the Dolls Woke (book)

Wild Kratts

Wild, wild planet

Wiplala

Wrath of the Titans (one scene)

Wreck it ralph

Yarn (video game)

Zootopia

[gothamite-rambler]

Six days without sleep?!

Headcanon time! In the comics, Bruce Wayne compensates for lost sleep by "micro sleeping," which isn't advisable for most people. While Superman needs proper rest, Bruce goes days without sleep, impacting his mind by day six. Although others have lasted longer without sleep, it rarely ends well. Bruce often crashes unexpectedly, usually because Alfred spikes his drink with sleep meds, causing him to sleep for about eighteen hours and then pretend he didn't fall asleep at a stop sign.

Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern waited at the Justice League headquarters for Batman to arrive. They had planned an intervention for him since he had gone close to a week without any sleep and it was becoming detrimental to his health like it usually did.

Wonder Woman (checking her phone for a text): He’ll be here soon.

Superman: All right, when he gets here, we need to be understanding and not confrontational.

Green Lantern: We’re usually like that with him anyway. He’ll threaten us with a contingency plan over the slightest critique. He just weaves it into conversation out of nowhere.

Wonder Woman (nodding in agreement): He’s not wrong. He told Aquaman he’d use Plan 50 on him just because Aquaman told him to sit down to rest his injured leg. Such a cruel and strange contingency plan.

Superman: That was weeks ago. In the past, Aquaman has forgiven him. We just have to talk to him calmly and kindly because he’s our friend.

Green Lantern (correcting): Co-worker.

Superman: Friend! He needs a friend intervention. He’ll listen to us.

Green Lantern shook his head in doubt just as the elevator door opened and Batman stepped out, looking exhausted even with his cowl on.

Superman: Hey, buddy! How’s it going?

Batman slowly turned to Superman, who wore a forced smile.

Batman: I'm not going to sleep!

Superman (shocked): How did you guess we were going to ask that?

Batman: Because you’ve asked it… two hundred times in the past. I’m fine. My body is stronger than your Fortress of Solitude!

Wonder Woman (concerned): You’re really not fine. You poured coffee on your hand yesterday.

Batman (groggy): That was a simple accident… that woke me up.

Green Lantern (frustrated): Dude, you’ve been awake for SIX days! Your mind hasn’t had a moment to rest. You have a stream of consciousness that hasn’t turned off, and—Batman!

Batman stared off to the side, silently zoning out. Wonder Woman clapped her hands in front of his face, snapping him back to reality.

Green Lantern: You should not be alive! How the actual hell are you still standing?

Batman (dazed): Simple answer… I’m built different from all of you! I can go months without sleep if I want to! I’m the strongest one here and—

Batman stepped back, blinking, and then collapsed to the ground, his eyes remaining wide open.

Superman (alarmed): Oh my God!

Green Lantern (expecting this): Give him five seconds.

Five seconds passed before Batman sprang to his feet.

Batman: Blacked out for a second… where was I? Right, I can withstand months without sleep because I am the one!

Superman (shocked): What the fuck was that?!

Batman: What was what?

Wonder Woman (checking to see if Batman was really okay): You just fell unconscious for like five seconds!

Batman: Was it five this time? Nice.

Green Lantern (crossing his arms with a smirk): Hold on, guys. He’s right; we should just leave it alone.

Superman: What are you talking about?

Green Lantern (sarcastically): I'm speaking for Batman because clearly the dude is showing us he has the willpower, the machismo, if you will, to take micro naps, which have definitely been approved by scientists and doctors, and wake up with ease. Ain't that right, Batman?

Batman's head dipped down as he stared at the floor. Wonder Woman walked over and clapped her hands in front of his face again. His head shot back up, as if remembering where he was.

Batman (exhaling): Yep, yep, yep! I’m going to go outside and get some sunlight. I’ll be back!

Batman dashed out of the room, taking the stairs two at a time. Wonder Woman and Superman glared at Green Lantern, who chuckled with a shrug.

Green Lantern: I told you he wasn’t going to listen. At least he didn’t bring up a contingency plan, though the zoning-out thing is definitely affecting his critical thinking.

Wonder Woman: Astute assessment.

Green Lantern (smiling): Thanks, dude.

Superman groaned.

Superman: How are we going to fix this? I can’t let my best buddy go insane or worse.

Wonder Woman (bluntly): You do realize your friendship with him is one-sided and he sees you as a colleague, right?

Superman: Not true! Not true. Our sons are friends, so that means we are friends.

Wonder Woman rolled her eyes.

Wonder Woman: Back to the main point—what are we going to do next?

Green Lantern: Not worry about it? I’m willing to bet he’s in the middle of a serious case, and when he gets like this, he pushes sleep aside. Which is freaking stupid. He’ll crash soon. Trust me, the moment he starts staring off into space is when he’s about to drop.

Just then, Arrow calmly entered the room, carrying his quiver of arrows.

Arrow: Batman just fell down the stairs and is knocked out.

Green Lantern: And there’s the crash. I'll drag him back up.

Wonder Woman (raising an eyebrow): You’ve dealt with this before, haven’t you?

Green Lantern: Duh. I’ll be back.

Wonder Woman turned to Superman.

Wonder Woman: Unaware your buddy eventually has a shut down?

Superman (sheepishly): It may have escaped my mind.

[thephooka]

Free Radicles, a short White Noise comic that wrapped up in September and my entry for Micro Comic Summer. A small moment between reunited siblings.

You can read it here on my site! White Noise has a whole 12-chapter arc free to read there as well.

Epilogue:

[sgiandubh]

Hi sgiandubh! Happy weekend!

Have you seen the clip of the interaction between Sam, John, and Cait at the New York Comic Con photoshoot? It seemed like Sam didn’t like how John was behaving towards Cait and got a bit possessive.😉 Obviously all was well a few minutes later when they walked out on stage for the panel 😊, but it seemed like a purely instinctual reaction by Sam to get a little possessive of her for a second.

You seem to really have a knack for analyzing body language so that’s why I wanted to ask! Thanks for answering!

Dear Interaction Anon,

I am sorry for the delay. I am in the middle of a very busy week: while it is true I took the bulk of my leftover paid leave and I am currently at home, I also have some very important and urgent things to sort out, so it is what it is.

I think you can find some very decent explanations on some other blogs and I also think @the-sassynach did a fabulous job with her more than clear gifs (https://www.tumblr.com/the-sassynach/764677465702645760/lmfao?source=share).

Particularly this one, if you ask me:

You may think of any number of reasons why that photoshoot looked a bit 'off' (jealousy, possessiveness, uxoriousness, being drunk, being sassy, etc). The fact is that despite the 'look relaxed and spontaneous' brief, they managed to show us the exact opposite. They looked tense and fake, completely unlike what they were supposed to do. Why?

Because you can control many things in life, spare Paul Ekman's facial micro expressions. There are 7 of them: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, & surprise. And all of these are universal, which means you can't fool anyone on this planet, regardless of the culture the person hails from - they would get the schtick of it immediately. And they are impossible to control, because they express an emotional, immediate response to an outside stimulus, the person might even be completely unaware of.

The most interesting game would perhaps be to see how many of them can you see in @the-sassynach's gifs? Once you do this, boom: the story writes itself.

Here is a very useful breakdown of Ekman's theory, illustrated: https://www.osc.org/microexpressions-universal-language/. I think you, along with many, will find it very useful and perhaps enlightening. And while some might think it's bullshit, let them: reading body language is a core competence in business intelligence, for example. I know what I am saying, because let's say I am no stranger to it.

[what-even-is-thiss]

You know when I turn on the in-game radio when I’m playing fallout 4 I start wondering how weird it is for people to hear Travis’ news stories about the player character without any context. Like removed from the context of the game it’s like a micro mini version of something from welcome to nightvale

Like you know that old creepy insane asylum that everyone knows to not go near? Well a group of raiders attacked and now the place is completely abandoned. Raiders vanished.

Did you all know there’s a giant robot being built at the airport? Did you know there’s someone running around dressed up like an old comic book superhero fighting crime? Did you know that the minutemen fought off a bunch of sea monsters? Did you know that literally everyone in that one small town over there have gone missing? Did you know that the ship downtown stuck in a skyscraper has somehow gotten stuck in a different skyscraper?

[lovelyarps]

hehehe @druidshollow i have more i want to do but! a comic is gonna take me like forever considering i dont do them like ever so this is going here first.

little situation in my brain :imagine: i can imagine anything. watcher of painted skies (slugcat/scav!) (watcher) out on a mission to get his iterator, feathers from beyond, a micro rarefaction cell and gets stopped on the way back. not sure how he managed to not get stabbed already but hes not doing a good job of bartering...

i do want to draw feathers and the other iterator, encircled divinity, beaming, as well as the other protector companion slugcat, but that will come later....hopefully i will remember to tag if there is any interest o7 thank you for indulging me :]

ps the signs used by watcher are roughly based on asl, except for the obvious name sign and for cell :] its just fun to make up fantasy sign language for the scugs

[lokittystuckinatree]

Can we please normalize liking OG MCU Loki, TVA Loki, Myth Loki, Comic Loki, and all other micro categories of Loki equally for different reasons? Can we normalize not gatekeeping people and having nuanced opinions of Loki adaptations and being both a critic and a fan at the same time? Can we normalize both Loki fans who resent some versions of Loki as well as Loki fans who don’t resent some versions of Loki? Can we normalize these people respecting each other’s individuality? Can we normalize personal experiences and opinions?

[duchezss]

All my favorite moments in blue beetle: a very long and silly list because this is my new fav movie ever (latinos on top fr)

The fact that the entire movie is low key a representation of how lost people can feel after they finish college and don't know what to do with their life.

How celebrated it is that Jaime is a first gen college student

As much as I loved him being from el paso, I love that he now gets his own city that it still deeply rooted in latino culture

How despite the fact that everything is going bad for the family, Jaime still tries to keep moral up and be positive

Jaime stands up for Jenny without thinking

How his persistence is what ends him landing up with the scarab, and subsequently keeping it out of victorias hands

Am I allowed to say his entire family? The scene where they're all pushing him to open to the box was so funny. Their dynamic felt so real, and it makes even more sense because apparently any time they were bickering it was improv.

How well the movie handled micro-aggressions against latinos. Like the receptionist didn't even attempt Jaime name, and how Victoria would never get her scientist's name right. They are subtle, but very real problems.

Maybe this was just me, but from the trailers I thought Jenny and Jaime already new each other, but I liked that they just met. It made their story more interesting.

The body horror route they decided to take with the suit was so cool.

The suit in general. I missed practical suits so much, and it just looked so amazing.

Another thing, that has already been talked about a lot but idc, is that I still am so in love that his family knows from the get go. Of course it wasn't really his choice, but I love how there is never any big secret, and they are constantly in the picture.

I know the Khaji-Da doesn't have as much personality compared to the comics, but the whole sequence where Jaime first gets the suit was so funny.

Notoriously in the comics the beetles were sent out to worlds to be the harbingers for their creator species to invade said world. I loved the small detail in the intro of the blue beetle crashing into the green beetle and then having a flash of electricity. I wonder if that was to hint at a malfunction, since the Khaji-Da never goes to evil with Jaime.

I love Rudy's truck. It's stupid but that's why it's so good.

The whole family debrief was was funnier than it should've been, and the beetle on Jaime spine looked wicked as well.

I thought it was interesting how much of a presence Ted Kord had on the movie, mainly because. of Jenny, but it was still there.

Every. Single. Latino. Reference. I could barely keep up there were so many good ones omg, the details were amazing.

For Jenny being an original character I thought she was done very well

I love how Rudy was useful and basically got them into kord industries.

I love the way we only see Jaime eyes in the suit. It's a different approach to what we've seen with masked heroes so far and I love it

How much they talked about the first two blue beetles, I thought adding that context made it better

They made it very evident how lonely Jenny feels, and I think her small emotional moments really paid off in the end.

I love how Jaime was so openly affectionate with both Rudy and his father, it's something uncommon with men in latino cultures and I loved seeing it.

The entire sequence where Jaime's house was being raided was so uncomfortable. And it was in moments like this were I thought Soto did a great job of weaving real world problems latinos face within a superhero movie.

The moment when Jaime's father had a heart attack, and Jaime was being dragged away, and his sister was screaming was just so heartbreaking and powerful. All of them were hurting so much.

I loved how active his family was, and how all of them immediately went to go rescue him.

Side note: the bug ship looked so cool and goofy and I loved it so much

How Jose was actually very curious about Jaime's connection to the beetle, but Victoria didn't care

The whole dream scene with Jaime and his father. I thought it perfectly mirrored their conversation from the beginning of the movie, and I thought it was incredibly moving. Not to mention I loved the detail of Jaime wearing the last outfit he saw his father in.

I loved that Jaime saved himself, but that his family greatly aided him. I thought it was a great metaphor for the fact that you can do things on your own, but having support can really make the difference

I thought it was so funny that Jaime absolutely refused to kill, and his family members did it was a smile on their face lmaoo.

I know it's cheesy, but I always love it in superhero movies when the main character finally accepts their destiny and it was a very cool moment for Jaime too. But I will say I think they did it with an interesting approach. For most superhero movies the big moment is the superhero finally deciding to go out of their way and fight the big bad, but in this movie he just finally fights what's right in front of him.

How once Jaime accepted himself as the Blue Beetle, Khaji-Da started speaking to him in spanish and adopted his ideologies, further proving their relationship is a two way street.

I loved that Khaji-Da stopped Jaime from killing Carapax, because he was justifiable angry, but he would've regretted it at some point

The low key plot twist of the locket Carapax had not being his wife and child, but being him and his mother. That was genius tbh.

I loved that Jaime had the iconic 2000s superhero half masked fight. This movie felt so 2000's but in the best way possible.

How the entire final act was circling back to the point of loving his family making him weak, but throughout everything we've seen, it's clearly the opposite.

I liked how once Jaime bonded with Khaji his mask would come on and off on command.

How Jaime started wearing his father's necklace in the ending :(

I loved the entire score so much, the synth wave vibe they decided to take was fantastic. I also love how iconic and recognizable they made blue beetle's main theme. Like the bum bum bummm that kept showing up was so good.

I really loved how they aged Jaime up to 22 as a newly college grad. I feel like superheros are always either 16 or 40 and there's never any in between, so it was nice to see.

And for my last point to a very long list: I loved that in the end Carapax helped Jaime and Jenny. Because the real villain was Victoria making them fight each other, and in my opinion that was such a powerful metaphor for latinos and any pocs

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I feel like Killer often had to act dumber than Nightmare around him. I just know that Nightmare is the kind of guy who wouldn't take kindly to not being the smartest person in the room at any given time. It mostly stems from his own childhood traumas (I'm sure that the fact that nothing he ever did was good enough to make him deserving of not getting abused stuck with him post corruption), but to me he's a walking inferiority complex.

And the thing is that Nightmare isn't stupid. He's a very studious person and he probably retains a lot of the stuff he reads about. But Killer is undoubtedly more observant and logical than he is. I feel like he probably picks up on stuff much quicker (even though he also probably forgets a lot of it just as quickly because of his memory issues).

And, well, I saw a couple of comics of them playing chess and Killer winning every time. And I do think that, realistically, if he played at full capacity every time, he would win against Nightmare. Chess is a game that rewards his kind of smarts so much more than Nightmare's.

But I also think he'd know not to win most of the time (unless his purpose is to piss off Nightmare that day). But, here's the kicker. I think it would be just as humiliating for Nightmare if Killer dominated the entire game only to make some very obviously porpuseful fumbles at the end. Of course, Nightmare could call him out on it, but then he'd need to admit that he would have lost had Killer not thrown the game. And he's not gonna fucking do that. Not when they both already know and Killer is staring unblinkingly at him, challenging him to say something, to admit defeat.

No, he's gonna take that fake victory and he's gonna massage his bruised ego with it. Denial is always a powerful shield.

Yeah absolutely. Killer knows how to stroke people’s egos and notice their insecurities, he will use both against someone for his own benefit. He knows he needs to walk a fine line with people like Nightmare and Chara—those that tend to have huge egos, that are also very fragile. Those whose first instincts are to lash out, and in Chara’s case, throw violent tantrums.

It’s like managing the moods of very explosive, highly dangerous bombs. It’s just that sometimes Killer can’t resist playing a little careless, in a calculated way. He is not above putting himself in huge danger and playing with his life just to gain momentarily pleasure in pissing them off, or to provoke them into hurting him just to alleviate his soul crushing apathy and boredom in controlled bursts.

Like micro-dosing on a drug that is pain, or simply because he knows (or thinks) it is inevitable that they will hurt him today, so he will provoke them earlier and take away their satisfaction in hurting him by taking away their control and bruising their egos.

Let Chara think he loves them. Let Nightmare think he’s stupid and blindly loyal. Those are the things he knows to maintain control over them. On the flip side, a way to keep Killer under control (particularly Stage 2), is to let him think he has more control than he actually does.

Imagine how powerless Nightmare could make him feel if he were to say, find a way to destroy any pleasure and satisfaction Killer gets out of pain. If he takes away the framing of torture, punishment, and pain as “fun” and “playing” in Killer’s mind.

I wouldn’t be suprised if Killer finds a sense of pride in his ability to not only endure but enjoy vast amounts of suffering—especially if he ever got some form of validation or approval for it. He views it as him still having power and control even as he is being “dominated”—because he can say that he enjoys it and therefore it means nothing and has no genuine impact on him beyond the satisfaction and pleasure.

People being unnerved and annoyed when you laugh in their face after they’ve broken your bones just means that Killer still has control over their emotions.

Yet another way he is views himself as sort of, above others. Not in the self loving ego stroking way, but still in a superior, ‘I’m above you, so don’t try me’ way. He’d likely look down on anyone who runs from or hates pain— or anyone who obviously lets it show. Viewing them as inferior and weak.

If Nightmare can take that away, then pain is just pain. Potentially sending Stage 2 deeper into his apathetic, nihilistic, fatalistic worldview—“just get it over with if you aren’t going to make it fun.”

Which is probably the reason why physical punishment wouldn’t work on Stage 2 at all—not until you can take away his sense of control in these situations—psychological stuff like isolation and sensory deprivation certainly would.

I feel like another way would be to greyrock him whenever he tries to provoke someone into violence and hurting him—not giving him the reaction he expects and craves. Which would either make him quickly lose interest, or motivate him to keep escalating until he gets what he wants.

Killer has definitely greyrocked Chara and Nightmare before as well— refusing to give them any type of satisfaction or control over him by not giving any response or reaction they want from him. And sometimes giving the exact opposite of a reaction or response that they want.

All in all, I can definitely see Killer underplaying himself and his own abilities to satisfy others egos and play into expectations if it benefits him or avoids inconvenience. And he’d definitely use their egos to lure them into little mind games and traps—like the one you described.

{ @stellocchia }

[hiveworks]

Micro Comic Summer - A Summary

August 2023

Last year in 2022, Hiveworks introduced the art challenge Micro Comic Summer as a tag on Twitter. Creators took to the challenge and produced four page comics that were shared on the final day of August. This year, we’re encouraging more creators to participate in the challenge. Want to know how? Read on.

Micro Comic Summer is one of many online art challenges that bring creators together to complete a project and share their work with their community. Other well known examples of art challenges include Hourly Comic Day, where artists draw a comic panel for every hour of their day on February 1, and Inktober, a 31 day challenge in the month of October to ink a new illustration every day. While these challenges have artists flexing their endurance and speed, Micro Comic Summer takes a different approach: slow, experimental, sustainable creation.

Very frequently, comic artists face unsustainable working conditions, as many are the sole creator behind projects that require multiple skill sets (such as writing, penciling, inking, flatting, lettering, and so on), often on top of day jobs.

The rules of Micro Comic Summer take into consideration the working conditions of comic creators, particularly in fast paced environments like social media, and attempts to buck the norm.

The rules of Micro Comic Summer are as follows:

Rule 1- Tell a story in four pages. This rule is possibly the most challenging aspect: to be succinct and efficient with your page count. Some creators have used this challenge as an opportunity to redraw old webcomic pages or introduce new readers to their pre-existing characters and story. What story you tell is completely up to you, but the four page maximum is in place to prevent overexertion.

Rule 2 - You have all summer (or winter, for the southern hemisphere) to do it. From June to the end of August, take your time to perfect your paneling, edit your story, and choose your palette thoughtfully. There is no need to make snap decisions or cut corners for this challenge. The timeframe is meant to encourage exploration and growth.

Rule 3 - Share it online. Use the tag #MicroComicSummer to share your work with others on August 31. Contribute to the conversation around comic artist working conditions.

While Hiveworks introduced Micro Comic Summer, anyone is free to participate. Participation in the tag does not mean you’re submitting your work to us, nor does it mean we own it. It’s just a hashtag, for fun :) 

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

[factual-fantasy]

Heya Factual! Congrats on the 23,000! Yet another well deserved milestone earned by your hard work and dedication! Really sorry about the cold- we always seem to get sick at the worst of times! Definitely don't do anything crazy till you're 100%, but thanks for making that really cute celebration piece- you can really tell how much the factual Fam cares about you from their worried expressions...and then there's Gerald, who refuses to let his happy demeanor waver for a second! Though then again, he is still quite young- he might not even understand the concept of getting sick yet!

And on that note, at least till you're better, I definitely won't send any unnecessarily exhausting Asks like last time ( thanks for answering that so thoroughly though- that was really cool! ) and just keep it simple- and my ask today is regarding the simplest Mario enemy, the goomba!

You've mentioned them in the past as beings created by Kamek- How does he do it? How long has he been doing it? Are the goombas sentient, or just savage constructs? How many are there, in ratio to the Koopas? Did the bros have to fight through a bunch of them on their way to the castle? And do any of their variants exist, such as the micro goombas, para goombas, or giant goombas? We require the Goomba Lore!

Thank you! :DD I'm doing my best to take it easy.. I've spent most of my days recently either sleeping, sitting, or playing Pokemon Scarlet XDD that's relaxing right? Yes, I believe so-

As for Gerald, he isn't ignorant to my condition- he's actually meant to be surprisingly emotionally aware. :0 He's smiling though all this because he wants the others to be happy. And if he's calm and smiling, maybe we'll smile too.. 🥺

I was intending to draw a comic that goes into Gerald's character a bit more... But I just haven't been well enough recently to take on a project like that.. :((

And don't worry about "exhausting asks", I encourage them! :D I could really use some lengthy asks as a form of distraction to be honest.. 🥹💔

Speaking of asks, about your Goomba questions..

Well, starting with Kamek actually- I have intentions to make him a few hundred years old. Being the most powerful magikoopa there ever was supposedly.. and he's been associated with the royal Koopa family for generations.. though this idea is in canon limbo, because I'm having trouble figuring how exactly he's managed to live so long. Considering how magic works in my au.. his lengthy life span shouldn't be possible..

None the less, even though I haven't gotten that idea to fit yet- I love it so much that most of the au kinda branches off from it- <XDDD so with that established, Kamek brings Goombas to "life" using magic of course!

I was thinking that the ability animate dead/inanimate things is a very complex magic that took Kamek years to learn. And he was only finally able to master it in the last 100 years or so.

Now for the Goombas, they are not sentient for sure. They are just these little.. zombie like.. machines. They start as poisonous mushrooms and when they are "brought to life", they gain this desire and need move and attack anything that doesn't appear to be a Koopa.

As for the Koopa to Goomba ratio.. I'd say they make up 1.5/10 of the kingdoms population. They are very disposable and "easy" to make.. but they are relatively fragile creatures and take a while to grow.. plus the Goombas don't live very long. Since they uproot themselves upon being "Goomba-fied", they eventually wilt and die.. :/ so that number doesn't ever go over 1.5.

I'm sure Mario and Luigi had to squash some on the way to save Peach the first time. But it was only after her rescue that one landed a bite on Luigi..

As for their variants, the micro and Giant Goombas surly exist! Though king Goomba might not because the original brown mushrooms probably don't grow that big-

As for para-goombas.. hmm.. I know there won't be any Goombas with wings going around. But perhaps there could be a Goomba that can release airborne spores.. or at the very least can attack from afar.. that could get them the title of para-goomba! :0

I think I covered everything, I hope at least-

Thank you for the ask and interest in my au! :DDD it was a nice read and took my mind off of all my ailments for a short time 🥹💖

[therentyoupay]

Hi Kris! I just wanted to say that after reading chapter 7 you and Callie have left me in utter SHAMBLES and AWE with how devastatingly gorgeous the pictures you can paint with literature are. I’m desperately excited to see how you two will be continuing the story although I do have a question that I’m unsure if you’ve answered before. After this broadway oscar winning fanfic has been completed are you and Callie thinking of possibly doing more collaborations or simply just yourself doing more collaborations with other artists and bringing more delicious stories to life?👀👀💞💞

thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a lovely message in my askbox, for saying SUCH NICE AND LOVELY THINGS, and for sharing with us the impact this story has had on you!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 calli and i have been working so hard on this project for two months, and it really means a lot to hear how much you're enjoying it. 💕💕💕

future kriscallicollabs??? we haven't answered this question before, and it's a lovely question!! currently, calli and i are 1000% focused on finishing more than you know and getting part ii of the jelsa video ready to post (SO MANY GIFS), so we haven't actively started planning any other collabs! however, when this idea was first planted back in the summer of 2023 or whatever, we braindumped SEVERAL ideas into the original majestic KrisCalliCollab google doc... (more than you know was actually only one of several ideas! 🤣)

there's a jelsa!wildward collab that we really wanted to do but didn't have time to do fully, so we made a bunch of LORE, and i made a baby fic, and some edits: one of our other ideas that we really wanted to do was a jelsa!prequel to her wildward series and establish some lore for the first aegis users! we definitely did not have time to create a full-fledged fic, but LORE WAS HAD (pages and pages on the google doc), and in the end, i made two edits and wrote a little micro-fic for it! in the time of the first keeper... maybe one day we'll expand? 🤣

when?? oof, not anytime soon, because life is upon us 🤣🤣🤣 BUT, calli and i are creative counterparts for life (TWIN FLAMES), so who's to say??? maybe sometime within the next five years?? FIFTY YEARS?? to be determined, but i do not doubt that it shall happen eventually! calli has also been pushing for a zelda/link!jelsa AU for ages and i have not forgotten 🤣🤣 in the meantime, we'll just keep supporting and devouring each other's other projects!!

(also, not sure how many people know this, but i beta-read for wildward! i have been beta-ing the series since its early chapters!!)

other collabs? i've been super lucky to be able to collab with @knightsquall (my name twin) for our kris/xris edit+fic soulmate!AU creation, not in so many words! we made it for the prompt: “the first words your soulmate will say to you will appear as a tattoo on your body at a certain age.” that two-shot is still one of my favorites. 🥹🥹🥹🥹

i haven't done any other collabs, though!! i feel like both collabs just happened organically because i was already friends with both xris and calli before we actually started working on our projects! collabs definitely require a lot of trust, for me, and so while it's possible that other future collabs might happen, i'm not actively seeking any out. 💕💕💕 there are SO MANY TALENTED fanartists out here!! so it's definitely not for lack of good company, haha, but rather just that i'd already gotten to know both people really well, so doing a collab was just, like, the natural thing to do, once we had time for it. 🤣 fic fanart? i am, however, so so so fortunate that so many fanartists have been inspired by my stories 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 i am really lucky and grateful to have been gifted so many gorgeous fanarts, fanvideos/AMVs, gifs, and doujinshi comics across multiple fics and fandoms.🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💕💕💕 you can find (most of) them here, or on my tumblr tag (therentyoupay fic fanart) but BE WARNED, there are massive spoilers. 🙏🙏🙏🙏 proceed with caution, haha! i also desperately need to update the fic fanart page with all the new mtyk art, too!

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🙏🙏🙏🙏 thank you so much for this ask!!! we hope you enjoy the final installments of more than you know and part ii of the jelsa video!! 🥹🥹🥹 thank you!!! 😭💕💕