#2020 kicked my ass

[blazingjackdaw]

If I stay perfectly still, perhaps a resplendent butterfly will bless my nose with a landing. 🦋

I’ve been getting back into Stardew lately, so I coloured an old sketch as a warm up :d

[chenziee]

Writing Patterns

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

I was tagged by @quackquackcey! Thank you, Cey 🥺🤍

Alright, here we go! Newest to oldest posted.. though not newest to oldest written ahaha (Very much not surprised by the pattern xD I'm more surprised not all of them start with a 5-10 word sentence ahaha)

Red

LawLu for @/lovinglawzine

The first time Law noticed the red cord tangled around his little finger, he dismissed it.

The Plight of the (not) house cat

MarcoAce for @/opmarcozine

The first time it happened, Kotatsu didn't pay it any mind.

Fly, little bird (away from everything)

Marco & Izo for @/opmarcozine

The one time the Whitebeard Pirates had visited the Land of Wano, it was a peaceful and beautiful country.

Cigars, smoke, you, and I

SmoLaw commission for RitsukoRyoku

Punk Hazard was a mess.

Of Murder bunnies and stray marimos

ZoSan for @/zosanauzine

The sun was setting.

Revelations (we could do without)

LawLu chaos

Nami couldn’t believe it.

The Stubborn

ZoSan for @/zosanauzine (part of the Obstacles series)

They say that everyone has a soulmate out there somewhere.

World Economic Journal - Grand Line Edition

LawLu newspaper for @/truffyfest (reminds me i never finished posting this on here whoops)

A mere few days since Straw Hat Luffy and his crew appeared on Sabaody after disappearing off the face of earth for two whole years, they are already sending waves throughout the Grand Line and the entire world.

The Coming of autumn (sudden like your love)

LawLu Hades x Persephone AU for @/truffyfest

Contrary to popular belief, being the God of the Underworld was incredibly boring.

Menace

LawLu & ASL for @/truffyfest

To say Sabo was surprised would be a severe understatement as he watched Trafalgar Law and Luffy interact after all was said and done in Dressrosa.

[strawbs-screaming]

looking through my old messages is so traumatizing i want to go back in time and kick myself in the stomach like what possessed you...

[slutpoppers]

Grottemon evolves into Gigasmon

[gregmarriage]

really just feels like the last four years of my life have been in pretty permanent stagnation, everything’s temporary and transitional, and i’ve been trying to fix it, but every time i do, something happens to make it worse

[polithicc]

yeah i work in democratic politics yeah i’m fine yeah i only think of the 2024 election cycle every 2 hours (including in my sleep)

[procycn]

me when i vanish for days, show up, write one reply, vanish again

[blogalreadydoesntexist]

okay so when were you guys gonna tell me that the OTHER series-i-adore-that-includes-knights,-gay-people,-found-family,-and-a-mainly-singular-color-shape-shifter-dragon WAS GETTING ADAPTED???

my brain is doing that one clip of insides spongebobs mind when its all on fire and theres a bunch of mini spongebobs running around

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

So help me God, I WILL finish archiving this webcomic, bc if anything ever happens to it I will be beside myself

[antoncrane]

As per tradition; so it begins. (New yearly art folder lol.)

[ladymariayuri]

its sekiros anniversary today happy birthday funny parry game!!!!!!

[twinkboimler]

adjusted my reading goal for the year from 23 to 52 books because I was actually close to hitting the initial goal already

[nako-doodles]

Why did they play us like that 😭

not to be your neighborhood fb-using conspiracy theorist BUT it does sound more like a 'oops didnt mean to announce that so quickly sorry'

[biohazrd]

cannot possibly explain how heart wrenching and isolating it is to be one of the tiny handful of people still keeping up w c0vid and taking precautions in this country i am so tired but since everybody else decided that they're totally fine letting a virus that destroys your immune system and heart run rampant and disable and kill millions bc they got tired of the mild inconvenience of wearing a piece of cloth on their face i guess i gotta keep chug-a-lugging

[kbspangler]

This is the public statement from @alepresser and myself which went up at Webtoons tonight.

Now for some ranting. Just from me, not from Ale—she's innocent of the art crimes I've committed in the past, and boy howdy have I committed art crimes.

This is the first page of my first webcomic, A Girl and Her Fed. I started this thing back in 2006. (I don't actually need a head count of those reading this who weren't yet born in 2006. I'm sure you're delightful and I wish you well in college.)

And this is the last page I drew in early 2020 before I turned art duties over to Dr. Beer. It's better, right?

Well, these days, A Girl and Her Fed has pages like this:

I drew this comic for fourteen fucking years because it's a story I wanted to tell, and I thought webcomics were the perfect format for it. I didn't know how to draw. I got better through sheer obstinate perseverance and sticking to deadlines as best I could for, again, fourteen fucking years. I sought out a replacement artist when I ran into time constraints and couldn't do art plus writing anymore; I'm a much better writer than an artist, so I had no problems whatsoever kicking art to the curb.

The first time Ale sent me art that would go up on the website—art I hadn't needed to draw myself—I literally cried in relief because I had been grinding myself down for, yet again, fourteen fucking years.

So when I read comments from people who say they want to make a webcomic but can't draw themselves and therefore need to resort to AI, that little line between my eyes gets dangerously deep.

This isn't like I'm some old dude who's bitching over student loans getting cancelled after making regular payments. This is me, someone who threw raw art onto the internet like a monkey hurling fresh poo, because I wanted to make a webcomic and the art is part of the process of storytelling via webcomics! I could've (arguably should've) hired an artist right out of the gate, and that would've been part of the process of making comics, too: a partnership between an artist and a writer is also something which grows and develops over time.

For example, after Dr. Beer and I spent two years working on AGAHF, we decided we enjoyed our partnership so much that we set out to make another webcomic! It's great! It's got wonderful art and consistent storytelling! You should read it!

But turning art duties over to unaltered images generated by AI because you want to make a webcomic but "just can't draw" is, frankly, a bullshit excuse. I'm not talking about persons who are physically unable to draw due to disability—I'm talking about people who say they want to make webcomics but simply don't wanna do the art part.

Friends, if you don't want to show your entire ass in front of God and country, you don't actually want to make a webcomic.

Do the thing yourself.

If you're scared, don't be. Take the plunge. Set a goal of twenty strips and do the thing yourself. If you can already draw but can't write? Great! Write twenty strips, write forty panels, etc. You might surprise yourself. If you can write but can't draw? Great! Draw twenty panels and see what happens.

Whatever comes out of it, it's a thing you've done yourself. It's something new you've given to the world, no matter how big or small. Be proud of that. And if you need to partner with someone else to make your comic dreams work? You can do that, too! It's still a thing you've done yourself, and many projects are stronger when done together.

...but maaaaaaaaaybe hire that partner before you've busted your own ass for fourteen fucking years. That one's on me.