#yes that was inspired by that powerpuff girls comic

[batneko]

I like Takenaka, I gave him a little hat

[prev]

[stripeyworm]

Your art is so delightful ;__; ❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤

I wanted to ask you, what are your artistic influences? Which shows or comics or artists have had a big impact on your art?

ahh thank you so muchhhh ;0;;;

i love this question! i honestly grew up with a lot of north american cartoons. I especially loved cartoon network shows like Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff girls and such growing up. One of my biggest influences that got me drawing in general as a kid was Monster Allergy and Adventure Time, actually. I LOVED (and still love) these series.

As for comics, I grew up with webcomics in ye old days of Smackjeeves where every comic was hosted on its own site. I seriously loved comics by Sarah Mensinga, TLOZ: Demon Road by Fancy Owl/Stephan McGowan, and BFF by Mickey Quinn. SO GOOD!!!! They were a serious gamechanger for me that got me into comics in the first place ;0; I honestly didn't get into anime and manga until MUCH later in life around the end of high school/early college years. A lot of my more recent inspiration and taste comes from that. But some of my favourites that really changed the game for me were Houseki no Kuni, Mob Psycho 100, and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD. I had a HUGE FMA phase. It was my breakthrough anime.

Thanks for asking! I sometimes wonder if my influences shine through in my work somehow. I fear I missed out on some major "art kid" fandoms and inspirations, but we all end up in the same place at the end of the day (being a weeb).

[mikunology]

Any specific character inspiration for how you characterize the CV gang?? :0 like, from animes or other media, is that how you picked out their personalities because their really great 🙏🏾

OvO!! excellent question!! ooh boy...where do I start with that...

admittedly, some of my inspirations are a bit difficult for me to remember since I've had my characterizations for the CVs for a really long time, almost if not as long as I've been a fan (so...over a decade lmao). let's see, though... (this became an essay accidentally so putting it under a cut lmao)

My Miku's personality comes from a mix of things: the basics of it I think I can trace back to her portrayals in unofficial comics like Hatsune Mix and Chibi Miku-san, and of course, portrayals of her from various early songs and videos (mainly cosMo's works). Outside of Vocaloid-based works, though, I don't think it'd surprise anyone to know that yes, I did base my portrayal of Miku on Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot (just a little XD) but it would probably surprise people to know that I got a surprising amount of inspiration for how I write Miku from Mickey Mouse of all characters, mostly the version of him from the modern Paul Rudish shorts. I feel like the wackier and more short-sighted aspects of her definitely came from him, lolol - it ended up making her feel more like a Western cartoon protag than say, a stock shoujo anime heroine. Oh, and I can't forget - a good chunk of Miku's personality also is a reflection of myself in a few ways, such as her anxious streak.

For Rin...Rin is actually kinda easy in this regard, a majority of Rin (and also Len's) characterizations were definitely based off the aforementioned early Vocacomics/mangas and early songs, mostly Wonderful Opportunity's discography, but for Rin I also got a lot of my idea for her from OSTER Project's early songs (like Princess Cowgirl Show). Rin tended to get portrayed a lot with a very energetic, in-your-face and slightly bratty attitude and I always loved it. XD Both my Rin and Len were inspired by a few of the Kagamine ask blogs floating around Tumblr in the early 2010s too. Also, while this was more of like...a subconscious inspiration? I recently had rewatched a bit of the Powerpuff Girls and I was kinda struck by how much Buttercup had snuck into how I write Rin XD It was really funny.

Now Len...I'm gonna come out and say that yeah, I owe a lot of my inspiration for how I write Len to hikusa and their Len askblog - I think my Len ended up deviating quite a bit from theirs? But I think the influence is there. XD Let's see...I also got my Len's personality from a lot of earlier Vocaloid content? Although admittedly moreso from other media like the comics and Project DIVA games than music in his regard other than WanOpo. Like Rin and Buttercup, I also noticed he takes quite a bit after Blossom, which I thought was entertaining. Len is also another character besides Miku that I think takes after myself a lot, I'd say he's probably the closest in personality to me in the cast. XD

And Luka is also pretty easy! A majority of my idea for Luka is pulled straight from one of her centric chapters in Hatsune Mix (couldn't tell you the chapter name/number off the top of my head) that discusses her having trouble putting "feeling" into her singing. I thought that chapter was really interesting in giving Luka that conflict so I ended up giving her a sort of robotic personality to delve further into that concept a bit. I think I also got some of my Luka's characterization from some of Owata-P's old Talkloids (Vocaloid Petit Theater, I think?) where while she was more tsundere than kuudere her kinda deadpan attitude felt fitting to the character.

But yeah! I know, kinda weird places to find characterization inspiration...but yknow lmao.

[cosmicalily]

★powerpuff comic: star & vampy save the city at night★

"vampy & star save the city" ★ by lils

comic-style poster inspired by the powerpuff girls. illustration, formatting, storyline and design created by me <3

★ please credit me if you use this as inspiration by tagging @littlestarstay ★

★starring★

@thevampywolf as vampy puff, in purple

@littlestarstay (me) as star, in pink

if you want to see more of my powerpuff spin-off artworks, let me know! should i post more of my art on tumblr?

★love you all★

[jackobbit]

What were some of the inspirations for the working for evil au? Is one of them villainous?

There’s been lots of different inspos!! But the biggest one is early 2000’s-2010’s cartoons!

Regular Show is a HUGE inspo for the show, I love the episodic formula were things start out normal and then get crazy in the most random ways.

Transformers Animated and transformers G1 is also another huge inspiration. I know G1 is on the older side compared to its other inspos, but it gives off immaculate silly vibes

Also a good amount of inspo from the show Chowder! Mainly for the humor and episode formula and the return to status quo. I hope I’m able to write jokes as funny as the ones in that show, that’d be the dream!

From there the inspos get a bit blurred, where it’s more bits and pieces instead of an overall vibe/multiple things within the show, little bit of Powerpuff Girls, Invader Zim, original Teen Titans, and especially those cartoons where teams collect something! Bakugon, Bayblade, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Pokemon, Lego Ninjago, etc. Also, yes, a little sprinkle of Phineas and Ferb, haha

And of course, I do take inspo from The Sun and Moon Show itself, kind of a given!

In terms of inspo that’s *not* cartoons, we’ve got:

80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s music, Cartoon Network, just, in general, bumpers included, the general vibe of Saturday morning cartoons and watching TV in the early 2000’s, and my inspiration for literally any time I’ve attempted to make a comic- Laika’s Comet!

[winxwiki]

"Hopes and Regrets from Winx Club's father" Iginio Straffi interview from 29/10/2010 translated

This interview came out during Magical Adventure 3D's italian press tour. There's a few interesting tidbits in here and it's a bit funny to read in hindsight now. How things change...

More under the cut!

What were your references for this film and, in general, for the creation of its protagonists?

Iginio Straffi: Here we wanted to take up the Shakespearean theme of Romeo and Juliet, and therefore a love thwarted by families, but without that tragic aspect. For Winx, I was vaguely inspired by Sailor Moon, but what I had noticed was that there was not, at the time, a cartoon with really badass protagonists who were not just ballerinas (translator's note: I think he means 80s magical girls like Creamy Mami). For boys there were a lot of interesting heroes, for example Spider-Man, but no super heroines for girls. (translator's note: Wedding Peach, PowerPuff Girls, Corrector Yui, SuperDoll Licca Chan and CardCaptor Sakura all came out after Sailor Moon in Italy and before Winx Club ever broadcasted)

Having started out as a comic book artist, then, was the American scene also an inspiration? And what were your favorite comic books?

Iginio Straffi: Sure, as a child I loved Mickey Mouse (translator's note: he specifically means the Topolino weekly comicbook magazine in Italy. Disney Comics industry in the country is huge!), then at the time there was also Corriere dei Ragazzi (translator's note: short ran comicbook magazine focused on western comics), then all the Bonelli comics, from Zagor to Ken Parker. Growing up I discovered Hugo Pratt and then all the French cartoonists, who are real masters.

In many scenes in the film the 3D aspect is not particularly evident, was that a specific choice?

Iginio Straffi: Yes, we calibrated this aspect scientifically so that it would not be dangerous for young children to watch the film. With 3D you can "push" more or less: it is clear that in a four-minute film you can create much more spectacularity, but here we had the responsibility of an entire film, which had to be suitable for everyone.

Since the television market is also moving toward 3D content, could future Winx series also go in this direction?

Iginio Straffi: We are thinking about it, because as it is also for cinema, 3D means a much higher cost for TV animation, about 30% more than for a standard series. We will have to consider whether in two or three years there will be a sales boom big enough to justify the investment, and also we will have to understand whether this 3D TV animation will be used only for movies or there will be a way to implement a more interactive experience. Perhaps for the fifth season it is still early, but maybe for the sixth season it can be considered (translator's note: lmao).

His future plans include talk of a film set in an academy for young gladiators. Is this a choice aimed at pleasing a male audience?

Iginio Straffi: That movie is really for everyone, it's a comedy about these goofy gladiators, but mainly it's also a love story, again with very badass female protagonists. We think it's going to be a movie for everyone, as they say in America, although still in 3D animation. (translator's note: this is about Gladiators of Rome, which later flopped)

Is there any project you gave up to make room for the Winx that you regret?

Iginio Straffi: Yes, there is one that I really care about and that I hope to be able to realize, sooner or later. It used to be in a drawer, now it's in a hard drive, but I have to slow down the pace if I want to have time for that as well. It is, however, a story not for children, as wonderful an audience as children are, and always able to win you over. (translator's note: could refer to the cancelled adult cartoon he's talked about other times)

[deathclassic]

i was tagged by @you-are-so-much-better-than-that​​ and @mikhailoisbaby​​ to do this fic writer/artist tag! ive never seen an artist version of this so this is exciting :D

1. Do you post on Ao3? If so, how many works do you have on AO3? If not, where do you post?

i dont post art on ao3 but i post fics there,,,,not gonna say my username though

2. What is your total art count?

we gotta be like 500+ by now

3. What are your top 5 pieces by likes/kudos?

they’re all dan and phil surprise surprise i was surprised that the first one has 12k notes for some reason. im just going to link them

spooky week sketches  amazingphil shop spon PHIL QUIFF DEBUT!!! black ‘n’ white dan phil is not on fire collection

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try to but sometimes i forget and i also dont have notifcations on any social media turned on so i miss a lot of things

5. What is your current fandom, and what was the first fandom you drew for?

currently drawing for umbrella academy, shameless and stranger things. first fandom i properly drew for was one direction but i was drawing stuff for like panic at the disco and powerpuff girls and my little pony and my chemical romance when i was like 7

6. Have you ever received hate on any art?

tonnes lol, i’d say every 2-3 pieces i draw gets some kind of negative attention. recently there’s been an asshole in my asks accusing me of fetishising ian and mickey so thats something to look forward to every time i pose 

7. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t drawn for yet but want to?

i want to go back to shows i watched as a kid like total drama island and draw the characters in my art style, i did it with the winx club earlier this year and it was fun. i want to draw harringrove but im not mentally prepared to be like,,,sent death threats atm

8. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

i dont know tbh ian and mickey are up there i guess

9. Do you draw outside of fandom?

yeah im a graphic designer so i draw a lot of shit 

10. What’s the an art piece you’ve drawn that came out completely differently than you expected?

this one actually

11. Do you draw smut?

sometimes

12. Have you ever had any of your art stolen or copied?

yeah of course, someone sells my shit on redbubble and i have to keep reporting them

13. Have you ever collaborated on a piece?

yes! @mishervellous​ and i did that amazing comic together for gallacrafts and im so proud of that! also collaborated with a lot of dan and phil artists to make a calendar, a phil is not on fire poster and some general collabs for fun (if anyone wants to collab hmu bc im down)

14. What’s an idea you have that you have yet to draw?

i really want to draw drummer mickey for some reason

15. What are your drawing strengths?

people i guess, maybe like details on clothes and stuff?

16. What are your drawing weaknesses?

hands and feet lol

17. What’s your favorite art piece you’ve drawn?

im so proud of this drawing even though no one really liked it, like looking at it makes me so happy

18. What is one thing you’d like to tell people about your art that they might not know?

like harvey said haha i also use the same colour palette especially skin tones and hair colours also i sketch a lot of the drawings traditionally and then trace over it on photoshop

19. What inspires or motivates you to create for fandom?

myself. i would still be drawing even if no one notices it. heck i draw so much stranger things stuff only for a top of 10 people across instagram, twitter and tumblr to interact with it. 

20. And finally, can you describe your process a little? Do you have a favourite place to draw? Do you play something in the background? Do you do research or just go for it? Give us a little insight

i sit at my desk and use a wacom tablet and my laptop. I have my other laptop open and im normally listening to a tv show that ive seen so i dont have to pay attention or a play through of a game or some creepy stories. sometimes i listen to music on my record player. i always spend ages looking at pose references and rage quitting when i dont draw it right the first time before coming back to it a few hours later. i draw mostly in the evenings, after dinner. sometimes i drink a hot chocolate if its late enough lol. 

im gonna tag @mishervellous​ @doodlevich​ @heymrspatel​ @adakechi​ 

[s10127470]

My Upcoming Fics and Feedback Requests

Hey there folks!

As I'm sure any of you who has visited by blog page know that I'm a writer on Archive of Our Own.

And so far, I've shared two of my works here.

Those being Disney Mirrorverse: The Series and X-Men: The Next Mutation.

Well I'm here today to announce three upcoming fanfics I have in the works right now.

Not sure if anyone has ever done something like this on Tumblr, but hey, there's a first for everything.

First we have "Maximum Marvel"!

Based off DeputyRustArt's AU of the same name, this series will serve as a commemoration of the 85th anniversary of Marvel Comics.

Heavily inspired by media such as Justice League Action and even Marvel's very own Adventures series, the series itself focuses on the adventures on the various heroes of the Marvel Universe.

And like those two pieces of media I just mentioned, it's more light-hearted and comedic than most Marvel entries, but still has a lot of action!

The series will be sort of a back-to-basics.

Bring many of the Marvel characters back to familiar roles they haven't been in for a long time.

Another major draw of this series will be that'll it essentially MAX out the Marvel characters.

(it's in the name)

And that'll be by either giving them some kind of new power, ability or equipment, or shedding light on skills they canonically have but rarely ever showcase.

The series will be premiering next Friday (August 31st).

Next we have The Nicksquad.

Set in a universe where the Nicktoons co-exist with each other in one big world (and specifically in a huge city known as Nicktropolis), the series focuses on the misadventures of The Nicksquad.

The Nicksquad itself consists of the main stars from the following Nicktoons:

-SpongeBob SquarePants

-The Loud House

-The Fairly OddParents

-All Grown Up!

-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

-Avatar: The Last Airbender

-Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

-Invader Zim

-Hey Arnold!

-Danny Phantom

-My Life as a Teenage Robot

-El Tigre

-The Mighty B!

-As Told by Ginger

-ChalkZone

-The Wild Thornberrys

-Sanjay and Craig

-Tak and the Power of Juju

The best way I can describe this series the feel of this series that it's a mix between MTV's Downtown, Mission Hill, The Powerpuff Girls, Regular Show, Static Shock, Jellystone and The Boondocks.

The series will be premiering sometime this fall.

And finally, we have Spider-Man: Family Values.

In the universe of this series, our family neighborhood Spider-Man is finally in an area that we've been wanting to see him in for nearly 20 years now....

BEING A FAMILY MAN!

Yep! Peter is HAPPILY MARRIED to Mary Jane and is the father to 5-year old Mayday Parker!

The series focuses on Peter and Mayday's adventures across the much bigger Marvel Universe alongside the rest of the Spider-Family.

Which consists of Shadow Spider (Miles Morales), Venom, Agent Anti-Venom, Black Cat and Silk.

Essentially this series will be like a mix between Goof Troop and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

If you couldn't tell be now, this series will have a prominent theme about family.

The series will premiere sometime in November.

Yeah, I wanted to have it premiere alongside Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, similar to how Next Mutation premiered alongside X-Men '97.

Also, the November premiere fits perfectly with the theme of family.

Ya know, Thanksgiving and all that.

Well, those are my three upcoming projects for you to keep a lookout for!

But before I go, I wanted to share the main reason I made this post.

I know may of the people who know about me have checked out the two fanfics I have out.

Since I did make posts that shared the links to each one.

And after nearly six months, I figured it was time to ask for some feedback.

I'd really love to hear your thoughts about the fics.

Answer any questions you may have about them.

And most of all, for you guys to express some hopes for the fics and even share some ideas you have for it.

In regards to both the current two and the three coming later this year.

Anyway, that's all I have for now.

A short post, I know.

But something to get my thoughts and hopes across.

[hug-bees]

Ariel VH, who are your biggest inspirations when it comes to animation?

OOF that's probably gonna be a long list- I feel like there are a lot of people who don't necessarily work in animation that I look up to and have inspired me as an artist. If you look at my blog you'll see all the people I follow on the sidebar, I think that's a pretty good sampling of my tastes.

I think I can break down my influences easier by different times in my life too. There's a bunch of stuff that I'm not really into as much any more but were still really important to me at the time! Influences kind of come and go like that. Here's what comes to mind:

Childhood-Teens: Spongebob, Invader Zim, Nightmare Before Christmas, Bizenghast, Hamtaro, Pajama Sam, Tokyo Mew-Mew, Powerpuff Girls, just...anime in general. Basic y2k goth child (embarassing)

College-Early Adult: Sally Cruikshank, Yume Nikki, Off, Broken Age, Over the Garden Wall, Adventure Time, The 13 Clocks, Youtube Poop (yes really), Coraline, Kanotynes, Emmy C, Louie Zong, Gigidg, Stevie Borbolla, Rachel S, Annette Marnat, Matthieu Cousin, Tom Herpich, Heather Campbell (tf2 comics changed my life, rip),

Now I Guess: Uhhhhhhhhhh, Worthikids, Jessie Wong, Joe Sparrow, Jessica M, Katie Mitroff, Paul Coker Jr., Anatola Howard, allll of my previous coworkers on Star Vs. because I'm biased, annnddd for god's sake just look at my twitter follow list, it'll save you some time.

...

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Sorry that was such a long list and I probably forgot a bunch of people ok byeee •°*”˜.•°*”˜

[raeynbowboi]

Retro Review: Danny Phantom

I’ve never really done a full proper review on this blog, but I was inspired to rewatch the cartoons I was nostaglic of, but hadn’t seen in forever and a half, and chose to start with Danny Phantom to see if it held up after all these years, or if it was a cheesy product of its time. Danny Phantom was a cartoon created by Butch Hartman, who also created the Fairly Odd Parents and TUFF Puppy, which aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons from 2004 - 2007. The show starred Danny Fenton, a 14 year old boy who acquired ghost super powers from a portal mishap. He’s joined by his friends: the meat obsessed tech nerd Tucker Foley, and the goth eco-friendly feminist “ultra recyclo vegetarian” Sam Manson. Danny also has an egghead older sister Jasmine, a clueless father Jack, and a hyper competent badass mother named Maddie who doesn’t get the recognition she deserves. It’s also remembered fondly as the only show in history with a rap theme song that isn’t cringey, and hasn’t aged poorly either. It’s held up well, and the tempo and rhythm feels like it’s pumping you up for some superhero action. Danny Phantom mostly sold itself as a comedy, and while my adult sense of humor didn’t have me splitting my sides, it was still chuckling or smiling while I watched their goofy antics. The slow progression of Danny’s powers was well structured, the characters were pretty likeable, and for the first two seasons, the dynamics were good. The show addressed real teenage relationship drama in a good and meaningful way, especially in the second season. Even antagonist characters like Mr. Lancer get scenes where they’re gentle, soft-spoken, and make it clear to the viewer that they’re not out to get Danny, he just has a bad knack for getting into trouble. Danny Phantom has a truly memorable rogues gallery of villains, and that’s not something you can say for most cartoons. Skulker, Ember, Johnny 13 and Kitty, the ghost bounty hunter, and of course, Vlad Plasmius. The only other cartoons I can think of that aren’t comic book cartoons with memorable rogues galleries is Xiaolin Showdown, the Powerpuff Girls, and Codename: Kids Next Door. Courage the Cowardly Dog and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy had some recurring villains, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call them a rogues gallery. Yes, the show had its... Butch Hartman-isms. There’s also some things that are a bit squicky now that weren’t as big of a deal at the time, like Danny straight up is shown using his powers to sneak into the girls locker room, and the musical cues play it off like a joke. The show also just shows its time period on its sleeve, like how all the female characters are overqualified badasses, while the male characters all share one brain cell, and Vlad Plasmius stole it. But the tone, characters, and story are good, in the first two seasons at least. Unfortunately, in the 3rd season, it all goes to crap. Danny doesn’t know how his parents will react to him being a ghost, even though he’s told them before and he has seen how they responded to it more than once. Vlad primes the bounty hunter to do... something to aid his plans. But she never gets around to it and they forget that final confrontation between them. Even Vlad goes out like a punk and Tucker is the 14 year old mayor because.... anyway, I’d give it a B- as a collective, and an A- for just the first two seasons on its own. All in all, it’s a solid watch. It’s certainly no Avatar: the Last Airbender, but in an age when serialized storytelling in kids shows wasn’t the norm, I remember rushing home from school to catch the latest episode, and happily watching the marathon of the show before the finale. (for you younger kids, a marathon is when a network airs a long stretch of episodes in chronological order, usually as a promotion or as a ratings trap. It was the closest thing to binge watching before streaming existed.) It’s on Paramount+, so if you want to give it a rewatch to relive your childhood, or you’ve never seen it, I think it warrants a view, as long as you remember it came out in the early 2000s, and lacks modern sensibilities in certain areas as a result.

[disneytva]

‘The Owl House’: It’s a Hoot!

You would never think that the dark art of 15th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch would serve as the inspiration for a children’s cartoon. Well, thanks to Dana Terrace and her wild imagination, the strange creatures conjured by the European painter have found their way in the new Disney Channel series The Owl House. The show, which debuts in January, and is already in production of its second season, follows the adventures of a young teenage girl named Luz who decides to pursue her dreams of becoming a witch after she stumbles into a strange realm, inhabited by feisty witch Eda and her tiny warrior friend King.

Terrace, a former director on DuckTales and storyboard artist on Gravity Falls, recalls starting to collect her notes and images and putting together her pitch for the story back in 2015. Then, she finally began pitching her story about a young girl who becomes a witch’s apprentice only a few months after she started directing DuckTales.

“Many of the characters have barely changed since then,” recalls Terrace. “I knew I wanted an older witch mentor figure and a young optimistic girl who was the main character, who learns and grows throughout the show. There’s also this trickster little jerk character named King (voiced by Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch).”

The setting for The Owl House changed a little bit since its early days. Terrace says for a brief time, she was toying with the idea of the whole show being set after the young character dies, so that the Owl House is all set in the afterlife. What really had a clear impact on her work is the work of artists such as Bosch, John Bauer, Remedios Varos and the puppetry of Jim Henson.

Real-Life Models

In addition to the crazy creatures of Bosch and religious illuminated manuscripts, Terrace found inspiration in some of the familiar elements in her life as well. “I have always wanted to tell a story about a rough-around-the-edges mother figure, based off of my aunt, nana and mother who raised me,” she recalls.

Terrace says the show’s central character Luz evolved from late-night conversations she used to have with her former roommate roommate and close college friend. “We were both dorks together,” she recalls. “We tried to cut our own hair and it never worked out. We didn’t have many friends. So, in a way, Luz bubbled out of our conversations. When I told her that I was going to base the main character on her, she said, ‘Yes , but you’ll have to make her Dominican.’ So that’s what happened. Luz now also works on the show as a storyboard artist and consultant, and I get to work with my best friend every day.”

As a young girl, Terrace used sneak into the living room to watch cartoons and copy what she liked in her flip books. Her love for shows such as The Simpsons, Pokémon, The PowerPuff Girls and Studio Ghibli movies finally lead her to study animation at School of Visual Arts in New York and make her way out to L.A. to pursue a career in the animation business. Her first big break happened when someone discovered her art blog and sent her a storyboarding test, which led to her landing a job at Gravity Falls and opened other doors as well.

During her big pitch to Disney, Terrace says she was a bit worried to mention Bosch and his odd, evil creatures, but to her surprise, one of the executive’s response was, “Heck, yeah!” “They have been nothing more than enthusiastic and helpful from day one,” she notes.

After spending a good year writing and making the pilot, Terrace began building her production team in 2018. Art director Ricky Cometa and supervising producer Stephen Sandoval also joined the Disney TV Animation production. At capacity, the show has about 50 staffers as part of its pre-production crew, and an overall count of 120 including the overseas teams at Sunwoo, Rough Draft and Sugarcube in Korea. We’ve been very fortunate to work with all of them,” says Terrace. “They’ve made the show really, really spark.” 

The Owl House has attracted a top-notch list of vocal talent as well, including Wendie Malick as Eda, Hirsch as King and Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz. Among the guest star lineup for the show’s first season are Matthew Rhys, Isabella Rossellini, Tati Gabrielle, Issac Ryan Brown, Mae Whitman, Bumper Robinson and Parvesh Cheena. Terrace points out that having a sterling class led by Malick has been a real treat. “Our witch could have been a very hard character to cast, because we wanted to have sass and energy, and Wendie was absolutely perfect. She came in with all her talent and experience, and my first instinct was ‘You don’t need any direction. Do whatever you want to do because you are amazing!”

She also mentions that she knew Alex Hirsch was going to end up playing the little sidekick King. “I used to hear him pitch when I worked on Gravity Falls. I knew that he can bring a lot to the characters he plays. He would also give me some helpful advice about running his own show and working at Disney.”

Art director Ricky Cometa (Steven Universe, Costume Quest) says he was swept away by Terrace’s wild ideas and spectacular imagery, things that were not usually seen in children’s animation. “The second she came in and said, ‘I want you to read this show bible. The first thing that caught my eye was ‘Bosch and the demon world?’ I very much needed help to figure out what this world looks like. We had this blank canvas and there was a lot of religious iconography. I knew we were going to push the boundaries. I mean we are doing the demon realm on the Disney Channel? You bet I’m in!” 

Cometa points out that it was clear that they needed to balance the darker aspects of the witch’s world with the more light-hearted and fun components of Luz’s comical adventures. “At first, I wasn’t sure how dark we could have made the world this world that Luz jumps into initially. We had to make clear decisions about when the story needed to be scary— when do we highlight the darker moments versus when the story is lighthearted and welcoming. It was all about finding that right balance of warmth and spookiness.”

Terrace agrees. “If we made everything super scary and spooky — which is something I’m not afraid of, scaring my audience — but if we made everything the same color, then the scary parts and the day-to-day light-hearted parts wouldn’t have popped. We needed that contrast for writing purposes.”

Amazingly enough, Terrace is only the fourth woman to solely create and run an animated series for Disney — following in the footsteps of Sue Rose (Pepper Ann), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins) and Daron Nefcy (Star vs. The Forces of Evil). She says one of her biggest challenges on the show was going through the learning process to run a writer’s room, which includes four other writers and a writer’s assistant. “Before this show I had always written and drawn my own comics and cartoons, but this was the first time I had written scripts professionally. Learning the process of writing scripts and learning to run a writers’ room was probably the biggest challenge for me. Luckily, I was with a team of talented writers, and we all kind of learned together. Most of that team has carried on to the second season, and we’re very excited to keep writing together.

As the show begins its run on Disney Channel, Terrace says that ultimately she hopes audiences will be entertained by Luz’s world and her off-the-wall adventures. “There are so many different kinds of animated shows out there and so many traditional and streaming services, that I don’t think it’s possible to have a gigantic blowout hit anymore. At the end of the day, no matter how much stuff is out there, stories with interesting core characters and relatable, understandable stories will shine through.”

Art director Ricky Cometa (Steven Universe, Costume Quest) says he was swept away by Terrace’s wild ideas and spectacular imagery, things that were not usually seen in children’s animation. “The second she came in and said, ‘I want you to read this show bible. The first thing that caught my eye was ‘Bosch and the demon world?’ I very much needed help to figure out what this world looks like. We had this blank canvas and there was a lot of religious iconography. I knew we were going to push the boundaries. I mean we are doing the demon realm on the Disney Channel? You bet I’m in!”

[noxyfied]

This, is Noxy/Noxyfied/Nox. This is the character I identify as online, and I want to tell you my story with this adorable Arctic Fox because it is one heck of a tale from not so long ago

Things did begin rough at the beginning of my persona’s history. I honestly can’t recall how I came up with it, only how I inserted my love for something and went with it.

From the early years of 2017 to 2019 I was all paper and pencil. Ah yes traditional art was my big thing for a couple of years during that era of 2013 to 2020. I had a time where I wrote stories about characters I made, and not much. No fan art, no nothing, I wanted to stick to my own original ideas at first before I took the step to do something that I did not own; it was a weird mindset I know, I couldn’t hold myself to want to be original and develop to be good enough to draw other things.

It took me some time to develop, hell even to this day I still am unsure of my own skills but I enjoyed trying new things. I don’t reject much criticism even if it comes harsh it still lingers in my head when received anyway. I needed someone to identify as online, a persona who I would have an identity through as I was moving forward on this hopeful career I want to make with my art.

Idea #1 draw my own self accurate to how I look 

Scratch that...

Nononono, I am too bad at showing my face, even at that I don’t like myself.

So I had to come up with something else, 2019 was ending with my skills rising up to something neat. I had Fire alpaca and a wacom cheap tablet which I used time to time back then, and with how I moved foward I said “why not, lets draw a glaceon.

Not bad, not bad. I do enjoy anthropomorphic animals, and for a anthro Glaceon it wasn't so bad. Even back then I did not enjoy much of this picture but the idea sparked. I did roleplay around online a lot as a Glaceon. People always had referred to me as a Glaceon when talking, because furry friends tend to be like that and I don’t mind. It had definitely sparked the idea of identifying as one for my persona.

I had a hard time how I would draw this character, a more personalized Glaceon with my own flare of the art style I carry should be nice, should I make it tall? short? anthro? feral? the questions rose up. Even more as time passed, took some time unsure of it, Unluckily I had a Glaceon FURsona, not a persona. (Yes those were two separate things as I carried 7 fursonas as individual characters in their own stories).

But soon one day in class, my artsy self was bored and it just sparked.

This is it! yes! I love it! something about this just clicked for some reason, it was like nothing I had seen before I could not look away at it, this was it.

After class I went home and played some games. The idea was there but man am I tired. Things did go slow, but not for long as of January, the classes I took gave me the ability to better understand this Adobe Photoshop, an amazing tool for editing pictures but also... To draw?!? I have heard of using Photoshop to draw but was amazed to have the ability using such program. During my time 2019 I would doodle around on Photoshop in my school or at home (thanks to the campus giving me a cheaper prize to use it for assignments) Not bad, not bad, the program was for sure something nice to use. Look! I even drew my Fursonas there too, ain’t that nice

2019 was something for sure. It had just begun making 2020 quite the year as I took my wacom tablet, opened Photoshop, and on January there it was.

Oh how cute! I felt so proud of myself, firealpaca was nothing like how clean and pretty Photoshop was, I was amazed at this ability.

“I made this?” that would be what I ask myself everyday. Time to time I would, and still, look at my phone to my drawings and remember what I used to make some pieces, I will not forget how I used thick outlines with the line too from photoshop, added some depth on the eyes. But most importantly, I had a persona, and I introduced it

My friends loved it, I could not believe I am starting to do the shift, my days of traditional art were at a halt. Not at a complete stop since I do use traditional art for a few other things of course, this was just my main focus now.

This little creature was everything to me, cute, easy to make, helped me throughout a few months as I practiced with my digital art.

I also perfected it’s look, but something looked rather familiar about it. Could not put my finger to it, so I went on drawing it.

that was a few exceptions where I shifted the proportions for “it”

“It” “it” what was this thing supposed to be, I myself was unsure how to identify myself with this persona. Male? no, female? no. The issue was there, who am I really inside, who was my persona gonna be.

I still cannot tell you exactly what my persona was for the longest time. I at times felt lost and confused with my identity, it did not help that 2020 did its mumbo jumbo and a pandemic happened, it was a lot of time on my own at home just questioning really who I had been for the longest time. Classes were minimal so my free time was big around April and May.

I was always unsure of who I was exactly, through my early years late 2000′s I had in me that my body was uncomfortable for looking the way it did, 2010′s went silent but there was something in me I did not understand. why did I feel this way, why do I feel as I am not happy with who I am, and who I identify with.

This persona was the wake up call to who I really wanted to be. I saw it in me that I knew being a male was the main issue in me feeling unhappy. Throughout my life I did not enjoy masculinity as much as other kids, yeah I had some boy traits but it was rather minimal, I enjoyed other things more. I enjoyed a lot of things about being female it was something I had never seen before. as hard or confusing things tend to be from me to explain, its a rather hard thing for myself to explain. But that how it felt “confusing” I researched and looked for things and to my conclusion I had come to be, I come to identify as a MtF trans.

I felt relieved in me of it and I already enjoyed my days more after from it. The only issue is “who do I tell..?” I was timid to tell this to anyone, friends or even family. Especially family, those I come to admit they will never be told of what my decision was because of how hard headed they are. It is a tragic story to tell since most families are such closed minded people of rejecting others.

“My friends tho, my friends? I would feel bad if I told them” that was the mindset I had for a while before admitting to them time to time, one by one. This was a chapter in my life that had changed me early 2020′s but I felt a lot of joy in me to be who I wanted to be, I no longer took anyone else's guidance for controlling who I am, I just went with my own flow.

My persona was.... more comically confused, it could be either so I just left it how my mood wanted it to go for when drawing it. So, things went well, in 2019 with the money I got I found myself enjoying a lot of second handed games, with a game coming real soon that had me pumped for I had to get a console I wanted for so long

A PS4 for the the Final fantasy 7 Remake, I was so pumped waiting for the game, I got a used PS4 for it and even bought couple other games for it to get to know the console: Final fantasy 15, destiny, and later on this Persona 5 game a lot of people talked about. Hmm ok, well lets try it out and oh me oh my, a few days later:

The art style captivated me, can you tell I went all out to trying anything with my persona? I cannot believe I was my own guinea pig for these sorts.

Going around some friends and they will tell you that I used this pfp quite a lot back then, as well as updating it with a new oc I had come up with

A tale in due time will be told about this gal.

well, it was set and forth that this was me, my persona, this glaceon was who I was. People loved it, my friends really liked it, and I had a blast having this first pure year of digital art only. Meeting new friends, and admiring their art. Having old friends come back, and even losing a few others on the way. During the time of june, to July I was rapid about drawing my persona in many ways, short, tall, anthro, feral

even metallic.

 But there come some time I did not grew tired of. But a little worried that I had to rely on a franchise for my own identity, of course there is nothing wrong for those doing it. But reflecting on myself, back then when I wanted this art career to happen, I wanted to go all out letting out my imagination  with my own creations. I had to make the decision, it was time to move on...

...To a new art program and new drawing tablet

No, it wasn’t that. I had to branch out from this Glaceon, but keep my identity, my legacy of this persona in check, but with a new coat of paint of course. did not take a long time before choosing that I had to use a real life animal as inspiration for this change. Something at least close to it, ah yes of course! the inspiration of the Glaceon was an arctic fox, well those are some good stepping stones to begin with so what happened one day is that I began sketching, not before saying good bye to this old self that helped me begin. It was weird, this is me but it was old me?

Tested the new Brushes from this amazing program called Clip studio paint, and I gotta say I love the program. Sincerely the best choice I made to leave Photoshop for this.

At last, this is it. the new Me!

Familiar looking isn’t it,baby steps we can say.

I cannot blame the people for calling my new persona a “Glaceon-alike”

I headed to the right direction stepping away from it, but it was hard to let go

new program, new tablet, new me. the later half of 2020 went onto a lot of changes with myself, the chibi small version did not make me happy to make anymore, I was losing the touch and with the few comments I got of looking like a “powerpuff girl look a like” did set me off to do a drastic change I am thankful to do. This new me had some weird phases, don’t we all tho?

where else to brainstorm than back to the traditional old ways. Now, you may see this and ask what was I thinking when making this. the order of when i started and finish goes as: Top right: ok what if it was feral, nah nah scratch. Top left: Can I still make it cute with a round face and features I had from before? ew no! that looks scary Bottom right: lets make it more natural and wow hey! yes yes yes! this looks hundred times better. Bottom left: It is time I go all out and make it humanoid, it was how I found myself enjoying drawing most things but still did some anthropomorphic things. I was just not the best of it.

Back to digital and.... Amazing, I really out did myself this time, lets go for it, lets keep going with this

I even got a cool sword too!

My practice continued from here, the second half was great and fun. New persona got me in a place where I was happy with and through October and December I was having a blast with the more possibilities with it. I went on to practice with even more suggestive things after a life drawing class I took, proportions mattered to me and with this new persona I went out to make more better looking proportions that were attractive and stylish.

This persona was great, and I managed to make so much of it. even Drawing the more suggestive stuff had left me with an answer for this persona. Just make it gender fluid, my selection for this character being male or female made me so tired I did not know why I just made it gender fluid since the beginning. My mood swings for this character, and I can’t resist drawing it either way. Was I finished? of course not, this persona still had some work around to do. The hair became a pain to make to keeping up with  consistently.

2020 ended, with a year of exciting new things coming for this new year. I went through quite a lot in my life and my art career took a shaken with this new digital life style, my persona became the identity I saw myself through, something im happy with drawing to represent Me.

That isn’t to say that I gave up on drawing Me Me.

I drew who I hope to be, and will use this from time to time, nothing fancy but something.

It has been a year already since I began identifying myself with this persona from last year from now. ever since I sketched that doodle in class, it has been a happy trip through memory lane writing it and I am happy how things turned out. 2021 is what I hope to be as good as 2020 was (by that I mean drawing only of course) In 2021 one more change was made that had made me just as happy to continue on with.

I got more hair! as crazy as it is yes. More hair, and a different front style has been to this day what I been using.

I even made a discord emoji for all the warm hugs to have with my fursona!

and my first ever animation I have ever done before!!

I am always experimenting new things, and i’m proud to be an artists to go out there and leave my art out there to be noticed by anyone. The love and appreciation friends and others leave me are the best thing I could ask. I look foward to see what is up ahead, for me, my career, and Noxy.

[hezuart]

Have I ever told you how much I like your art style with the hyperforce comics? There is this Tim burton? art style vibe (idk if that is the person I my trying to reference here) like I wish I could be there in person and point at One of the monkeys or Chiro &be like “this part of them... yeah I like how you drew that part of them” like your style has these “pointy&skinny” parts that are really really nice and you’re also pretty good at conveying personality threw body language... I like it alot

Aw, thank you so much! You’re so sweet!! 

Yes, Tim Burton’s style has been a big inspiration that I’ve incorporated into my style. Sharp claws, sharp teeth, sticks for arms... curling tails, and scarves twisting grotesquely in the wind... I always love sharp angles. (I want to screech at the new Powerpuff Girls character model artist for removing all sharp angles in the character cast. Somehow even the sharp angles on these characters were deemed too “violent” and were removed asdkghfjghjkdlfkg) Seriously though, sharp angles on a character, just as much as perfect round angles on a character, have a massive impact on how they’re portrayed to people. 

One thing I will say, though. I still have great difficulty drawing the heads of the Monkey Team. It’s the strangest shape I’ve ever seen...it’s not a circle, it’s not an oval, it’s not a square, and yet somehow its all of them combined????????

My poor hand can’t draw their heads consistently, and sometimes I draw their legs far too long, these are the most difficult cartoon characters to illustrate I swear! 

I’m so glad you like my style though, I was happy to come back to SRMTHFG after such a long time. I always seem to revisit it no matter how many years go by! 

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 104: Kindergarten Kid

“I'm smarter than your average Peridot.”

Oof. I need a break. Do you need a break? Let’s take a break.

When I was a kindergarten kid, my family had a firm policy against “commercial TV,” as in any children’s television programming that included commercials. Our house didn’t get Cartoon Network until 2003-ish regardless, but this meant pretty much everything that wasn’t PBS (and later Disney Channel, which had commercials but not for toys) was restricted to friends’ houses until I was about eight. I was born in 1990, so the ban lift came right on time for Digimon and Pokémon to debut (in that order, fight me), but until then my access to cartoons was largely limited.

So yeah, unlike others of my age group, I didn’t grow up with Rugrats or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and due to the continued lack of Cartoon Network I also missed out on Dexter’s Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls until reruns in the aughts. But I did have The Tapes, and The Tapes had Looney Tunes, so I was more than satisfied.

I still remember sitting up straighter when I first realized what Kindergarten Kid was doing back in 2016. The southwestern setting is a pretty big hint from the start, but we were cleverly introduced to the area in Beta and Earthlings and aren’t primed to see the Road Runner and Coyote connection until the plot revs up. And yes, these rivals are the clearest inspiration for Peridot’s futile attempts to outsmart a faster, “dumber” foe with intricate traps. But with an exception here or there for comic relief, Messrs. Coyote and Runner are silent, while Peridot is anything but. And as much fun as it would’ve been to go full throttle and make the entire sequence silent, I’m so glad to see Raven Molisee and Paul Villeco instead have Peridot emulate another icon from the Looney Tunes roster. And no, it’s not Porky Pig.

It’s ironic, because his best work sees him fail to come out on top, but I legitimately can’t think of a better cartoon character than Daffy Duck. Like, out of all cartoons, from every country, from any time period, period. Bugs Bunny is no slouch—he follows the legacy of Loki, Anansi, Reynard, and Maui as modern America’s most notable trickster deity—but Daffy perfected an archetype that’s largely unrepresented in myths of yore, and stands head and shoulders above all other examples, including Wile E. Coyote himself (and Daffy’s fun but better-in-the-comics counterpart, Donald Duck). Aptly referred to in Babylon 5 as “an ancient Egyptian god of frustration,” Daffy evolved from a perfectly good screwball character (Daffy Doodles is the best of this era) to the embodiment of self-inflicted pain.

I’ve already compared Peridot and Ruby to the little black duck before (seriously, stop what you’re doing and watch Daffy Doodles if that weird nickname doesn’t ring a bell), but Kindergarten Kid seems to go out of its way to evoke the essence of Daffy. Wile E. Coyote’s ploys may have the same convoluted detail as the Peri-Plans we see, but going on at length about how a scheme is going to work only for it to immediately fail? That’s Daffy Duck. Puffing up in confidence at the infallibility of said plan, and having it collapse in the middle of a smug victory lap? That’s Daffy Duck. This episode pulls its pacing straight out of the Hunting Trilogy (from which we get the famous “Rabbit Season!” “Duck Season!” debate), with Steven subbing in for both Elmer Fudd and Bugs depending on who Daffy is allied with at any given time, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. 

We even get variations of classic gags to keep things fresh. It would’ve been acceptable for Peridot to slowly dismantle an injector to crush Gem Runner, only for it to not fall until she’s right beneath it. But no, she realizes the risk, takes a step back, then gets crushed by falling rocks. I still would’ve laughed if her cannon refused to fire until she stepped in front of it, launching her over the horizon. But the recoil launches her backwards, crushing her with more rocks. Rehashing the exact same classic gags would’ve been an easy way out, but the gags are classic for a reason and I would’ve appreciated the tribute; that we see actual creative changes instead brings Kindergarten Kid to even higher heights. Yes, the final plummet is directly based on Wile E. Coyote’s own falls (sadly without the sound effect), but there’s a level of innovation here that’s compelling for an episode referencing the past so vividly.

Still, the biggest difference between Kindergarten Kid and vintage Looney Tunes is that unlike Daffy or Coyote, Peridot can make a change. The episode is similar to Barn Mates, in that both are a series of sketches that show Peridot and Steven trying and failing to accomplish a goal (which is perhaps the most clinical way to describe the standard Looney Tunes short). Both episodes end with a victory for Peridot when she realizes she must rethink the core problem, but Kindergarten Kid works better by halving the number of characters that need to grow. Barn Mates is by no means bad, but it’s hard to balance the story of its two leads, so Lapis is left without much focus behind her actions. This time the opponent is something of a force of nature, so we can spend more time digging into why Peridot’s plans aren’t working.

Peridot has already changed quite a bit, but her superiority complex remains a central tenet of her personality. It’s been tempered when Steven is involved, but she still treats most other Gems as intellectual inferiors even when she gets along with them. So of course she sees outbraining a Corrupted Gem as a cakewalk, and of course Steven teaches her the error of her ways with a lesson in empathy. These are obvious story beats, but old habits die hard, and I like that Peridot still has issues with her ego despite how far she’s come as a Crystal Gem.

It’s hard to compare any voice actor to Mel Blanc, in the same way it’s hard to compare any English-speaking playwright to Shakespeare, so I’m not gonna give praise that lofty, but Shelby Rabara still nails the fury of a gremlin who's smart but thinks she’s way smarter. It’s not easy on the throat to shout this much, and in such specific nonverbal ways, but I still think her best moment is when her confident front falters, and she yells that she’s doing the best she can. She’s as angry as ever, but that glimpse of vulnerability shows that she’s not a lost cause like Coyote.

Steven also returns to old habits, focusing all his energy on helping Peridot and not mentioning his mother once. I can see how this might make Kindergarten Kid seem too flippant, but as we’ll confirm in Mindful Education, our hero is pushing down the bad feelings instead of dealing with them. I think it’s crucial to have a few episodes where he seems okay to lull us into the sense of security that his breakdown destroys, and just like Bubbled, it’s clear that his coping mechanism is putting others before himself. He never complains about the physical injuries caused by Peridot’s poor planning, instead making sure his friend is okay.

Like Log Date 7 15 2, the show leans into Peridot’s brand of comic relief to cool us down from a major event. This is an even sillier episode, to the point that the other Crystal Gems are watching it for entertainment value, but it comes after an even more harrowing Diamond reveal. And because this one has more to do with Steven, he gets more to do in the episode: he’s not reliving a Peridot montage, he’s participating in her adventure, and the episode is stronger for it.

I understand that comedy is subjective. For instance, I’m not huge on meta humor in the style of our next episode; I acknowledge that it’s done well, but it’s not for me. So I don’t expect everyone to be huge on this episode, especially if you tragically lack a childhood full of ducks getting their beaks blown off and rabbits dancing up to bulls to slap them in the face. But hopefully folks who were let down in their first viewing, expecting more drama and lore in our post-shattering reality, can give Kindergarten Kid another look, perhaps after downing some classic cartoons, and enjoy it for the outstanding love letter that it is.

(I still don’t know why she references Yogi Bear, that’s a whole other era of cartoon, but nobody’s perfect.)

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

I know it’s absurd to nitpick unrealistic elements of such a cartoony episode, but Steven’s endless bag of marshmallows bugs me. At least it gives us another Peridot-as-raccoon reaction.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It barely misses the cut, but boy do I love this episode. Like any great Looney Tunes short, I can watch it and laugh no matter how many times I’ve seen it; the gags are so pure that rather than getting bored of them, I now chuckle in anticipation before the hits even come. 

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

     5. Horror Club      4. Fusion Cuisine      3. House Guest      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(I’m almost happy there’s no promo art for this one, because hot damn do I love this pic from Dark Tarou.)

[comicteaparty]

April 3rd-April 9th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 3rd, 2019 to April 9th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What webcomic inspired you to get into webcomics?  Please tell us about your journey. 

lonelytuatara

there were several for me but I think Sakana was one of the biggest inspirations for me! http://www.sakana-comic.com/ since Mad talks a lot about her process with the comic it really helped make it feel less like some kinda magic that I didn’t know how to do and more like something I could try myself

RebelVampire

honestly i find this to be a difficult question. im old enough to remember when internet wasnt a thing. so when it became a thing, there were basically always webcomics. and it was just kind of like...a normal thing to be read on the internet just as much as anything else. i never saw it as a lesser medium as some ppl have experienced. it was just always there along with the internet so it always felt natural to me to read them if they seemed interesting. that being said, if i had to pick the first webcomic that ever made me stick around for a long time, it was Bleedman's Powerpuff Girls D fancomic. Besides the fact it was super popular at the time, i just thought it was really different. like the art popped a lot more than other comics at the time (that i knew of at least), the story was way less comedy more actually serious material, and just in general i enjoyed the story telling. https://www.snafu-comics.com/swmseries/powerpuffgirls/

Iris

homestuck was the biggest one for me, but others like Witchy, Lady of the Shard, and Tuppence for Stardust are also big inspirations

€heshire777

I kind of networked out from online newspaper comics into actual webcomics and beyond, it's kind of hard to tell but I think Skin Horse (http://skin-horse.com/) was pretty much the first webcomic I got into.(edited)

RebelVampire

cause a true hyperlink comes with the http part. http://skin-horse.com/

also please wrap the hyperlink in < and > so the embed is prevented. it keeps the chat cleaner @€heshire777(edited)

yes sorry XD

im multi tasking and didnt notice the wrong tag

€heshire777

S'fine

I know that guy from a different server too

RebelVampire

@Iris please make sure to link the comics next time https://www.homestuck.com/ http://witchycomic.com/ https://gigidigi.itch.io/lady https://tapas.io/series/tuppenceforstardust

Iris

oh crud, sorry. I'm tired and absent-minded this morning

Respheal

I'm a keenspace child apparently, 'cuz my first introductions to webcomics were Saturnalia (https://web.archive.org/web/20070705042710/http://www.spacecoyote.com/comics/sat/) and RPG World (http://rpgworld.keenspace.com/). Both are dead now, although RPG World has a sorta-creator-blessed fan revival (http://rpgworld.the-comic.org/) And then I sorta fell away from them for a bit, mostly, until a friend threw Mokepon (http://mokepon.smackjeeves.com/) and The Property of Hate (http://tpoh.smackjeeves.com/) at me and now I'm back xD

kayotics

I started reading webcomics back in the early 2000’s so I was consuming everything that was available, but I think the first one that actually made me think “I want my art to be like that” was The Meek https://www.meekcomic.com/ Up until that point I read mostly video game comics and they were funny but not inspiring me to make a comic. The Meek was gorgeous and interesting in a way that I hadn’t seen before.

varethane

A friend of mine made a webcomic in the early 2000s and I will not link it because it baaad, but that was my introduction to webcomics-- though when I started reading Terinu ( http://www.terinu.com/ ) and Lackadaisy Cats ( https://www.lackadaisycats.com/ ) was when I started wanting to make one of my own

The Meek and Gunnerkrigg Court were also early influences for me

oh, and hero! I loved this comic back in the day http://invisiblecities.comicgenesis.com/story.html

there were a handful of others that are no longer around, like Vampirates and Goodbye Chains and Astray3, all of which have vanished forever

Delphina

Acid Reflux (http://acidreflux.ficwad.com/) was the first webcomic I really got into back in 2000. The humor was a great blend of anime and light fantasy, which is definitely my happy place. The forum/IRC communities were big for the time too (and of course there was no social media back then outside of what people hosted themselves). When I started my own comic, one of my goals was to have a community like that.

varethane

yeah I totally used to hang out on the terinu forums and shared fanart and stuff XD

(and on my friends' forum which shall not be named)

Delphina

Yeah, standards were different back then XDDD

varethane

ohhhh yeahhh.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

The first webcomic I got into was Looking for Group https://www.lfg.co/. I'm a huge sucker for medieval settings, so my influences revolve around core fantasy, like Legend of Zelda and Lord of the Rings, but I also LOVE for my fantasy to not be taken as seriously with a good sense of humor, like LFG, Discworld, Dungeons and Dragons, and even The Adventure Zone. Seeing them create a graphic novel was sort of a catalyst for me deciding to make my own. I hope I do well for myself to contribute to the unique fantasy/comedy genre!(edited)

Brodnork

I actually started making webcomics before I knew they were a thing

When I was super young I made comic strips inspired by Calvin and Hobbes all the time

And when I got a deviantart account I started posting them

I think Calvin and Hobbes was a huge inspiration for my early work

Although I really started taking comics seriously when I started reading Cucumber Quest

https://cucumber.gigidigi.com/(edited)

Cucumber Quest

gigi

Calvin and Hobbes really inspired me to make comedy comics, and I loved the variety of backgrounds that were drawn in it

Cucumber Quest has lovely colours and a well written story, so I looked at pages from it a lot when I started teaching myself how to make colour palettes

magusferox

Anybody here read Kill Six Billion Demons? Epic stuff imo https://killsixbilliondemons.com/

€heshire777

Now I am

mika

i should make a tumblr page with all my favs

rae

for my old comic I put a bunch of my favs in the links section because I wanted more people to read them. XD

varethane

That's what I did too XD

though it's gotten a little bit out of date and I haven;t made a new one yet for my new comic

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

I keep my active reading list on ComicRocket these days (https://www.comic-rocket.com/users/SailorPtah/), and when they finish...or stop updating...I move them to the on-site reclist (http://www.bicatperson.com/links/references/finished-comics/).

Some of the oldest ones I remember reading are Venus Envy, Catball & Clown Girl, Boy Meets Boy, 1/0, Alternate Delusions, and girly. (So, also a Keenspace child, lol.) http://www.venusenvycomic.com/index.php http://catball.comicgenesis.com/ http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/ http://oneoverzero.comicgenesis.com/ http://altdelusions.comicgen.com/ http://girlyyy.com/

ShaRose49

The first webcomic I ever read was Michelle Phan’s Helios Femina, Just cause I was a fan of her makeup tutorials. I started reading it but stopped and then when I started making my own webcomics last year I got into it again, but the story turned out to be not my thing, but freaking gorgeous art. Then I got into Planet Ace, Shiori, and webtoons like UnOrdinary and Spaceboy, and The Villain. Just sooooo good brings back some great summer memories. http://planet-ace.smackjeeves.com/ https://m.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/helios-femina/list?title_no=638&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://m.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-villain/list?title_no=188266&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://www.smackjeeves.com/comicprofile.php?id=143025 https://m.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/unordinary/list?title_no=679&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://m.webtoons.com/en/drama/space-boy/list?title_no=400&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true(edited)

RebelVampire

@ShaRose49 please wrap the links in < and > to prevent the embed

ShaRose49

Oh sorry!

Do you just stick the link in between <>?

€heshire777

yep

Make sure there's no space though

ShaRose49

Okeydokey!

I’ll definitely do that next time

ShaRose49

Oh can I edit?

I really don’t know discord that well

€heshire777

Hold click/press the message for options(edited)

RebelVampire

i think thats mobile only

on desktop you hit the three dots on the right

€heshire777

ah

ShaRose49

Fixed!

RebelVampire

thank you~!

ShaRose49

No prob thanks for helping me

€heshire777

sure

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe Podcast Volume 3: Episode 6: Crossovers and Collaborations

This is Volume 3, Episode 6 of the official Steven Universe podcast, looking at crossover episodes, guest animators, and transitions into other forms of media (like video games!), including input from Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, and Joe Johnston.

The official description:

There have been some amazing crossovers and collaborations in the world of Steven Universe - "Say Uncle" with the "Uncle Grandpa" team, Save The Light with Grumpyface Studios, the "Mindful Education" episode with animator Tokafumi Hori, and of course, Monopoly. So creator Rebecca Sugar, and Co-Executive Producers Kat Morris and Joe Johnston return to detail how each was conceived and executed, and to share some anecdotal stories that happened along the journey to bring each collaboration and crossover to the fans.

This, as usual, is bit long so I’ll do my bullet points of interest, with longer descriptions after the jump.

Highlights:

CN shows that were influential and magical for Rebecca and her crew include Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Dexter's Lab.

Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania, Clone Wars) was incredibly influential for Rebecca because of his input on her pilot and the show concept in general.

Rebecca dreamed of having her own show, but always assumed that was an unattainable dream and fully expected to work a day job as a storyboard revisionist while fulfilling her desire to do personal work through independent comics.

Kat and Rebecca knew each other in college and later lived together in California.

Joe hadn't seen the pilot or met Rebecca until his first day of work, but after he'd seen the sketchbook with planned characters and heard her ideas, he knew he'd made a good decision to work on her show.

Rebecca Sugar describes herself and the Crew as being "very involved" in the Grumpyface Studios game Save the Light. They tweaked dialogue, designed Fusions, developed relationship-based attacks, and contributed canon material and characters to premiere in the game (such as Hessonite).

Rebecca loves that Steven has to heal himself to be around to take care of others in the game or else it's really hard to win, and thinks of that as a really good metaphorical message.

Rebecca as of this recording has not beaten the game yet.

Rebecca wanted Attack the Light to begin with two choices, and if you just listen to Garnet, you completely win the game 100%. She did not get to apply this option.

The Steven Universe Monopoly game is the first place the Beta Kindergarten was revealed.

The Uncle Grandpa crossover episode, "Say Uncle," was Rebecca Sugar's idea at the start. She felt Uncle Grandpa was a sibling show to SU since it came out at the same time and she knew the creator, Pete Browngardt.

Rebecca doesn't like that SU gets used to trash other cartoons and wanted to express through "Say Uncle" that there is room for diverse voices even if they're not like your voices, and that they all belong there. It seemed like a very Steveny message.

Some people think Uncle Grandpa's recommendation that Steven get his Gem polished twice a year was an early bit of foreshadowing that Steven's Gem was a Diamond, since diamonds are supposed to be polished twice a year. Rebecca and Joe acknowledge that this was not intentional as far as they know, but they may have to find out from Matt Burnett if that was written on purpose.

Takafumi Hori was brought into working on "Mindful Education" initially through contact with Jeff Liu on Twitter.

Rebecca's only time off the show since 2011 was three weeks off in 2015, during which she went to Japan and went to Studio Trigger and had a meeting she hadn't been expecting to help set up the collaboration with Hori-san.

Takafumi Hori did key frames for some action sequences and the "Here Comes a Thought" music video.

The detailed summary is below!

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]

McKenzie opens up with a greeting for her guests and begins by asking about how everyone feels about being a part of the Cartoon Network "legacy." Rebecca Sugar goes first and describes it as "unreal," since she grew up on CN shows. She still has trouble processing that her show is to the next generation what CN shows were for her. Joe thinks it's weird too, comparing their show to such iconic shows and seeing that it has the same effect, and Kat agrees--she can't imagine SU having the "same weight," though Rebecca can see from meeting kids who love her work that this is indeed going on. They conclude that those other shows are still kinda magical for them because even though they now have an inside look at how these shows are made, their show's "magic" secrets aren't secrets to them, while those other shows still have mysteries they never saw from the inside.

They discuss a few other CN shows that were influential for the Crewniverse, focusing on the amazingness of Samurai Jack and how Genndy Tartakovsky had been so ambitious to make something so "artful and cinematic"--seeing it actually work was inspiring. When Rebecca worked on another project with Genndy (Hotel Transylvania), she got to ask him who was responsible for some of the most powerful scenes in his Clone Wars cartoon and discuss the experience. Rebecca sometimes used to bring her Clone Wars DVD to entertain babysitting charges with, because that made her the cool babysitter. (Joe says that would work on him NOW.) McKenzie points out that Genndy was involved in giving Rebecca advice at the beginning of Steven Universe, and Rebecca agrees that he even directed her pilot.

Joe prompts Rebecca to explain what it means to direct a piece of animation, so she elaborates on how Genndy influenced how everything moves in the pilot, how the actions are planned out through exposure sheets (and she's been advised never to talk about exposure sheets, ha). So Genndy did animation directing while Rebecca boarded and wrote the pilot.

Joe's beginnings go back to Disney TV, and Kat was on Regular Show. Rebecca's first job of course was Adventure Time; she started as a revisionist and became a boarder. She had a dream of having her own show, but she always had this "realistic" understanding that it wasn't an attainable dream. She thought she would do revisions as her day job and do independent comics for her personal work on the side. She didn't realize that something like Adventure Time would allow her to do personal work, directly communicating messages she wanted to communicate. Everything changed when she realized Adventure Time was the kind of show that WOULD give her that freedom. 

Rebecca did dream of having a show and Kat says she also dreamed Rebecca would have a show. :) Kat remembers wanting to meet her in college because she read her comics online, and then it actually happened. Rebecca has trouble still believing people regarded her that way, especially back then.

Rebecca also really liked Kat's stuff back then--Kat was older so they didn't have classes together (senpai!) but Rebecca thought Kat looked really cool and creeped around trying to inconspicuously look at her drawings. They ended up living together in California because Kat was already out there working on Regular Show, and they'd sit around eating ice cream and watching anime and gaining weight. They discuss how Kat was very sick during that time (sleeping on an air mattress and not going to the doctor) and Rebecca would make her tea. They describe trying to walk to the art store together and almost dying because what looked walkable on a map was not walkable in practice. They ended up not buying anything, even after all that.

Discussing the early days of the Crew, Rebecca brings up Joe's storyboard test. They'd been concerned at the beginning about who would really get their vibe for the show, sorting tests into yes, no, and maybe folders. And when they got Joe's test, they created a "heck yes" folder. Joe points out that he hadn't even met Rebecca until he was hired and it was his first day. She'd met Jeff Liu but not Joe. Joe hadn't seen the pilot until his first day either, and then Rebecca pulled out the sketchbook with all the Fusions in it and explained her ideas, and he realized what a good decision he had made accepting this job.

Next they talk about the collaboration with Grumpyface Studios to make Save the Light, which is now out on Nintendo Switch.

Video games were of course influential for Steven Universe. Rebecca and Kat say they were "Nintendo households" growing up, while Joe didn't have a game system of his own but played games at friends' houses. McKenzie asks how involved the Crew was in developing the Save the Light game, and Rebecca says they were very involved, trying to make its storyline work into the canon. Hessonite is the main antagonist of the game, and she is looped into the show proper.

Rebecca revised some of the dialogue so it would be more accurate to the characters, though many of the ideas came from the Grumpyface team for them to modify or give input on. Squaridot was their idea, which is something Rebecca refers to as tonally different from what they would've invented, but she still likes it a lot--on the show they try to do that too, with letting Crew members contribute an idea and working it in. She uses for example how Squaridot focused on the word "pebble" in a similar way our Peridot used "clod," suggesting maybe all Peridots have this insulting tendency but there's no reason they all have to adopt the same insulting word. There are plenty of bad things you can call someone in the Gem culture.

Rebecca and some others were involved in casting and character design too; Ian had established the style of the video game characters, but Joe drew the Fusions for the game in the style they used. She says they were super excited about the Fusions and the relationship dynamic, since they really didn't get to include Fusions in Attack the Light. (Chronicler's note: they did have an Alexandrite option, but it was just a little battle move and cut scene of Alexandrite pounding the crap out of enemies; there was nothing in Attack the Light like the relationships or fusion possibilities in Save the Light, and Alexandrite was the only combination you could attain.)

The thing Rebecca loves the most about both games is that Steven, as the healer and protector, is so important. It's really hard to win if you don't choose to protect Steven and make sure he heals himself too. Joe really liked getting to play the demos during the beginning, and loved the 3D Beach City. They'd been hoping for a long time that someone would make a game. Apparently a fan had been trying to make a Golf Quest Mini game but they think it disappeared. Rebecca pipes up to say they had early plans to have Greg on the team so they could make him a bard. Joe came up with the combination attacks on a sheet all together. Rebecca hasn't beaten the game yet.

Talking endings, she really wanted multiple ending opportunities for the game. There was no possibility to have alternate endings for the phone game, which Rebecca thought was sad because she loved the idea of having a choice at the beginning: Garnet gives you the advice to NOT take the prism into the light, but you do it anyway and the game starts . . . or you just give the prism to Garnet like she says, and you've just beaten the game and won 100%, credits roll.

Going back to Squaridot (of whom McKenzie is a big fan), Rebecca describes the process of creating the game as a lot of back and forth, and Squaridot having a "contentious relationship" with our Peridot was fun because Squaridot is like Peridot before her redemption arc. They really enjoyed having our Peridot feel enlightened in comparison to a Homeworld version of her. The game just came out for Switch in tandem with the OK KO game, which Rebecca recommends and thinks is really fun.

McKenzie brings up a different kind of game: the Steven Universe Monopoly! Rebecca has a story about it: she points out that the Beta Kindergarten debuted in that game before the Beta Kindergarten was revealed in the show. People did notice it. (Chronicler's note: Oh hey, I told one of my friends about this recently! He questioned whether he could play with the Monopoly without getting spoiled. And I told him actually the game spoiled us on the Beta Kindergarten. And, if I remember correctly, the Great North had not been revealed yet at the time we saw promo pictures of how the board looked.) 

Rebecca thought it was pretty similar to how certain attacks Lamar came up with for "Watermelon Steven" were allowed into the game for Attack the Light. (Chronicler's note: I'm not sure how that lines up because "Watermelon Steven" and those attacks premiered on TV way before Attack the Light came out.) The airing schedule makes things weird, so sometimes stuff they wouldn't have intended to be new to fans ends up being an easter egg.

Next up is a discussion of Steven Universe's crossover with Uncle Grandpa in the episode "Say Uncle." Rebecca said she was super excited to do it because Uncle Grandpa could cross dimensions to help kids and it fit like a natural fit. Rebecca Sugar takes responsibility for the idea for this crossover. She pitched it to Uncle Grandpa's creator, Pete Browngardt, in an airport. The shows basically came out at the same time so they were sort of like sibling shows. Even though Uncle Grandpa is super different from SU, she feels that Steven stands for peaceful coexistence with diversity, and she hated that her show was being used as a way to "trash other shows." She wanted to make it clear that she stood for THOSE different voices too, even if they were doing their thing differently than she was doing her thing.

Joe boarded on "Say Uncle," and he describes the experience as seeming to have surprised the other show's crew--as in, it was apparently a surprise to them that they were doing it at all. The first pass was VERY smooth, they say, and Joe got to include some weird jokes that wouldn't normally fly on the show, like Uncle Grandpa coming out of the clamshell disguised as Rose Quartz, characters' heads flying off to circle the world, tripping over letters, the plot hole, Lars and Sadie's ship, the joke about it not being canon--it's all very Uncle Grandpa style that Joe and Jeff had to absorb and execute quickly.

Rebecca excitedly brings up the joke Uncle Grandpa makes about how Steven should get his Gem polished twice a year, and wants to know whether that was a diamond reference (since it turns out that diamonds are supposed to get polished twice a year, and it would have been an amazing call forward if it had been intentional). Sadly, they were not sure if it was intentional, and they felt they'd have to ask Matt Burnett who wrote that line. Rebecca specifies that she did NOT know diamonds should be polished twice a year so she cannot take credit for that. They think it was completely coincidence.

Regarding the collaboration with Takafumi Hori from Studio Trigger, who worked on "Mindful Education." Kat points out that Jeff had a relationship with Hori-san; they talked on Twitter and the Crew knew he was a fan because he posted fan art. Rebecca has been working full time on the show since 2011, except for three weeks off in 2015, during which she visited Studio Trigger in Japan and met the folks who would be involved with "Mindful Education." They believe they were at the outline phase when they had that meeting, since before that Rebecca thought the episode would be instructional mindful meditation from Steven, not an episode where mindfulness is used to solve a problem. Writing that episode really taught Rebecca a lot about storytelling, seeing characters learn and benefit using the lessons you want to teach the viewers.

Takafumi Hori did key animation on some of the action scenes and music video scenes. They give us some animation lessons on how key frames are one polishing step up from storyboards made by Jeff and Colin in that episode, and Hori-san would make the frames in his style/the show's style, with notes for the in-betweeners. In-betweeners would do the frames in between keys, according to direction from the animation director saying how close each would be to the keys. (Rebecca gives some details about how key frames and in betweens might be used in animating a punch.) There was a lot of back and forth with adding the dialogue and finalizing the scenes (involving track reader Slightly Off Track and Sunmin Animation inking on paper with brush pens), not adding too much action so they could preserve the look they wanted. 

Kat congratulates listeners who actually followed Rebecca's description of how to animate a punch (and would love to see if anyone can demonstrate it), and Joe tells a Hori-story: he got to in-between a couple of Hori-san's Stevonnie action shots and felt like he was experiencing a universal animation language that transcends borders, even though the way the Japanese sheets and the American sheets worked were different.

[Archive of Steven Universe Podcast Summaries]