loiterer87

[loiterer87]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people

[loiterer87]

Been a while since I've done anything. Anyway, let's play about in that MCUK thing again! And go for a really obscure character! Seriously, I think he only had about 7 issues published... This is Black Axe!

Born countless eons ago, the man known as the Black Axe is as old as history. His real name lost to time, his actual age too. Considered a legend throughout history, he's gone by many names and descriptors, the only constant being a long black battle axe which appears to be carved from some sort of stony metal.

In the modern day, Black Axe is still occasionally working, although at this point, to him, it's more exercise. He doesn't need to work, he's done so much for so long, he's set for the rest of his life. But that doesn't mean he doesn't suffer from boredom. Recently, he's taken up arms against MYS-Tech over some trivial matter. Most likely them choosing to kill him over paying him some overdue fees for a job, such is the life of a freelancer. So, in response, Black Axe has taken to breaking all their shit. It's an ongoing thing...

Design-wise, I rebuilt this dude from scratch. I barely had anything to work with from the wikis and with only 7 issues and about as many other appearances, I gleaned what I could from them (He's an immortal merc with a big axe) and ditched the rest.

Visually he's such a 90's looking character, and a bad one. Bland, silver-y hi-tech armour, big top-heavy body and the titular Black Axe is a big overly tech-y mess. Go look it up, it's not surprising it only lasted 7 issues. So, with the clean slate thing, I just thought what would an immortal, axe-wielding mercenary dress like? Bullet-proof Vest, some other tac-gear, some simple modern weaponry and that's about it. His hair would be short. In fact his whole get up would be practical and no nonsense. Except for the football shirt. He loves football, the fans reminding him of the ancient tribe he was part of. He supports Liverpool.

The axe, I figured, is also the source of his immortality. He carved it out of a weird meteor he came across. One of them typical MCU space rock which makes super people. So I went for a singular carved-type look to it. Looked at some axe designs from history to see what would look good. Settled on this.

Not sure how I feel about this overall. I like the redesign, not super sure about the anatomy on Black Axe himself. But I dunno... Not my best...

[loiterer87]

People always gloss over how mentally damaging it can be to work in retail. I fucking hate that whenever I say “I could never work in retail again” someone has to reply “You snowflake millennials can’t take a starter job because you have to INTERACT with other people” No. Fuck you. I’ve worked as a planetarium host. I’ve worked as a public speaker. I’ve worked as a tutor and as a student teacher. I can work with people. I can work with crowds. Retail was fucking different. Retail was being treated as a subhuman. Retail was being treated so poorly that you have anxiety attacks before work. Having to work retail was a factor in my last suicide attempt. If I hear you say one fucking word about retail workers playing the victim I will personally break every bone in your body. Fuck You.

[loiterer87]

So, back before October and all it's shenanigans, I'd actually got some work out in print!

I'm part of a little collective of local comic creators of varying degree and back in the summer we came up with the idea of doing an anthology comic! Everyone who was interested in contributing got two pages to play with under the theme of 'Cryptids Of Leeds'!

The whole thing was printed in Black and White and since I didn't read the specs correctly, I ended up doing a full coloured version of it. And so I present to you my contribution: A Meeting With The Pigeon-Eater ! In Colour!

If you're curious and want to see everyone else's contributions you can purchase it here: https://leedscomicscollective.bigcartel.com/ In both physical and digital form!

[loiterer87]

I asked a friend what I should do for this. He suggested Herman Li. He also added he should be naked. I drew the line at that. Not literally... So I did him with a guitar, doing his thing. 

DragonForce play power metal. Really fast power metal. It's like their thing. I know they have lyrics, but I couldn't tell you what they were. 

They've some good songs but just for the sake of triggering PTSD flashbacks for the Guitar Hero crowd, go listen to Through The Fire And The Flames. It sums them up best I reckon. 

And that's the end of Monsters Of Rock-tober! I've listened to a fair few new things, some I liked, some I didn't. Either way, I drew some stuff and tried my damnedest to get it out on time. Deffo think I've improved on hands and guitars if nothing else. Maybe unicorns, and stuff which requires reference. Tanks, for example. Anyway, tired now.

[loiterer87]

Another of those bands everyone's heard of! You'll at least know them as one of those bands which wear the masks. I don't know nearly enough about these guys but I like some of their stuff. 

'Duality' is always a good shout, as is 'Before I Forget' and 'Psychosocial', but if you want to try something a little different from them, try 'Snuff'. It's a slower number, but really something. 

Tried basing this one of Corey's mask from the album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses). The video for Duality was the first time I saw and heard them so it left something of an impression. I was also definitely running out of steam on this one. I only finished it up last night...

[loiterer87]

Want to hear epic power metal about warrior princes Vs evil wizards in the ancient magical kingdom of Fife? Yes, that one in Scotland? Where they sing about hammers? And the Knights of Crail? And undead unicorns? Go check out Gloryhammer! They're dead silly. And can play pretty damn well!

For some awesome tracks, try 'The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee', 'Rise Of The Chaos Wizards' and 'Keeper Of The Celestial Flame Of Abernathy'! 

Quite pleased with how the unicorn turned out here. I don't normally draw horses...

[loiterer87]

Alright, let's smash out these last four posts and be done with this: 

Clutch! A blues-y, rock band whose lyrics seem to mostly be some sort of vaguely coherent word salad, touching on all sorts of things. I'd recommend Electric Worry, X-Ray Vision or the subject of today's piece, Ghoul Wrangler. Guess Neil finally got them business cards...

These last few'll probably be short paragraphs because I'm really tired now...

[loiterer87]

Very late because tiredness, work, and slight illness. Nowt serious, just under the weather. Anyway! Black Sabbath! 

You've heard of them, don't pretend you haven't. Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and, of course, Ozzy. The band that practically invented Heavy Metal. Stemming from a blues band, their sound changed after an industrial accident took off the tips of Iommi's fingers on his fretting hand. The sound was heavier, that combined with some darker, doomier lyrics led to Black Sabbath taking off. 

You've already heard War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid, but for something different, try Planet Caravan from the same album as the above or Heaven And Hell. That one is from the period which had Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals. I think Ozzy'd been fired at that point. Or had chosen to go solo, not sure which. 

Decided to try my hand at drawing and interpretation of the Iron Man from the song of the same name. About a time traveller who comes back to the past to stop an apocalypse only to be turned to steel by a magnetic field. Tried going for a sort of pulp sci-fi crossed with horror thing.

[loiterer87]

It's a RWARB-er duck, get it?

...

Anyway, Psychostick are a comedy metal band, which write dumb songs which I love. You want a load of heavy songs about food? Psychostick do that! You want to hear songs about whining about people whining on the internet? Psychicstork do that! Songs about boobs, beards, Bruce Campbell and presidential rhinos? You bet Cyclonestrike do that! That and some quality videos as well. 

This one's based on a song of theirs called Quack Kills. Which concerns a man who fears he's being watched by ducks... Anatidaephobia is no joke, people... Or maybe it's based off a Gary Larson comic, who knows! Anyway, here's the lead singer Rawrb as a rubber duck. In colour.

[loiterer87]

And from Germany to New Zealand now, with yet another late one. Grumble grumble, crappy job, grumble... Anyway, Alien Weaponry! 

Three lads of Maori ancestry who play groovy, thrashy metal some of which is in the traditional Maori language, also known as te reo. It sounds awesome! Lyrically a lot of their stuff also goes into the often bloody history of Maori culture, sometimes with references to their mythology. 

For this I wanted to try do my own interpretation of one of the gods. Tūmatauenga, their god of war, fishing, hunting, cooking and food cultivation! Looked at a lot of traditional Maori fashion and warrior culture for the look. Think I managed it, if not, at least I've drawn a pretty decent stab at a Maori warrior. Tried getting the tattoos and the moko looking right, but I don't know, I'm a daft white boy from the other side of the world...

[loiterer87]

Going to Germany for today's prompt! Started in 1996, Rammstein are an industrial metal band with leanings towards a sound called Neue Deutsche Härte (New German Hardness in English). 

You've probably heard at least one of their big hits somewhere. 'Du Hast', 'Sonne' and 'Engel' have all been used in some sort of mainstream capacity as have others, like 'Mein Herz Brennt' and 'Feuer Frei' in that classic film, xXx...

Speaking of Mein Herz Brennt, that's actually the inspiration for today's piece. The video, like all of their videos, is... interesting. Leaning more towards a weird surreal short horror starring lead vocalist, Till Lindemann as a sinister figure stalking the Beelitz-Heilstätten, occasionally becoming this weird insect-like figure with a long black head and fingers. I think he's meant to be the Sandman? Either way, I thought it was a cool visual!

[loiterer87]

Finally on time! One of my favourite bands today, Kvelertak! A Norwegian group whose sound takes bits of hard rock, punk rock and black metal! It's awesome! Helped by the fact they have three guitarists.

I first heard them on the end credits of a great little horror-comedy called Troll Hunter playing a song of theirs called 'Mjød'. Following that I went and heard their other big single at the time, 'Blodtørst', went and got their album and never looked back! 

They also have a lot of owls in their aesthetic. Which is why there's one in the piece! It's basically a recreation of their old lead singer, who used to wear an owl hat of this design while on stage sometimes. Definitely a cool look IMO...

[loiterer87]

Still late, so here's yesterday's prompt, Girlschool. An all-female metal band who came about in 1978.

Most famous for playing alongside Motörhead, sharing their manager, Doug Smith and being just as wild. They even record an ep with them while Motörhead's drummer, Phil, recovered from an injury which prevented him from playing. Included on it was a cover of Motörhead's song 'Bomber' which is ace! They're still going strong today. 

So for this one I decided to play a little on that Motörhead connection. I don't know nearly enough about them, so I was struggling to think of owt. And in the end, I thought why not make a friend for the Snaggletooth design I did?

[loiterer87]

Still late, but whatever, let's catch up! 

Scar Symmetry are a Swedish Melodic Death Metal band with some trace influences of power metal in there. A lot of their songs concern themes such as conspiracy theories, dark matter and the intersections between Eastern mysticism and quantum mechanics... You know, simple stuff like that. 

I took inspiration mainly from their 2014 album, 'The Singularity (Phase 1 - Neohumanity)'. The first of a trilogy about the rise of artificial intelligences and transhumanism, and all the typically bad things that arise from that. Not my best work, but I'm still knackered from playing catch up. A good track to start with is 'Limits To Infinity'!

[loiterer87]

Third late one and... Yeah, it's a bit bland and generic, but I really couldn't think of anything super specific for Metallica. I suppose it was kind of inspired by that scene from Stranger Things if anything... And it was rushed. Have I explained that my day job is crap?... 

Anyway! Metallica! That metal band so big, everyone's heard of them! Another one with a long history that I can't write all of it here, so I'll skip to the good songs bit: 'Nothin Else Matters', 'Master Of Puppets', 'One' and 'Sad But True' are the ones you'll probably have heard. 

Also, weird fact I learned while doing my deep dive: Superman (Yes, the DC Comic character) is canonically a Metallica fan and has all their albums. His favourite is ... And Justice For All!

[loiterer87]

And here we go with number two! Primus! These guys are just weird... Okay, Les Claypool is weird and the other two, Larry "Ler" LaLonde and Tim "Herb" Alexander are probably less so....

They've had some really off beat songs out such as 'John The Fisherman', 'My Name Is Mud', and 'Wynona's Big Brown Beaver'... All of which are odd, to say the least. Got a bit of all sorts going on in their sound, including funk, country and some psychedelic stuff. Which all works. 

The figure here is Les in the bizarre pigman costume he wore in the video for Mr. Krinkle. It's on YouTube, go watch it! Some good quality early 90's nightmare fuel! MTV only played it about six times...