#It's a bird

[hozaloza]

THAT'S A BIRD

A BIRD ON HIS FACE

A FAT ROUND BIRD

NOT A PLANET

(it's a planet.)

BIRD

[vertigoartgore]

90's Superman (coming back from the dead with a mullet, because to quote Abe Simpson it was the style at the time) by Brian Bolland.

[favoritejohn]

babe wake up new johnny suh tattoo just dropped

[angrybatart]

Banana Birb 🍌 🐦

EHHHHHHH....been a while since I drew a Kasuga....

Keep being reminded that Kasuga gets a bird in Infinite Wealth. And since I love birds so much, I finally looked it up. And it is SO. FREAKING. CUTE!!!! It looks like a ringneck! The yellow one! (I forget the proper color term.)

So I couldn't unsee him teaching it to say "I'm a banana!" to impress everyone else. There's a popular bird that says that floating around on YouTube somewhere, but this talkative parrot has a distinct voice. They're also the kind that doesn't shut up once they get started. I love them. Look them up. You won't regret it.

[goodbyeapathy8]

I ordered Korean mu and received a monster instead.

Normally, mu is the length of a banana and the thickness of an orange. Grapefruit if it's a large one.

Weeeee! groceries sent me a BABY SIZED MU.

Oh you think I'm exaggerating? Good thing I took pics for evidence, with references.

Monster Mu is bigger than my face.

Monster Mu is thicker than my thighs (laughcry let's not comment on that)

Monster Mu is bigger than Mignon (a friend told me it looks photoshopped but I promise you, my poor hand and arm was trembling as I had to support the Mu Child with only one hand whilst I took the picture)

Although Moko looks bigger, it's his poofy fur and I'm pretty sure Monster Mu is bigger than Moko

There was some mild panic as I didn't even know if my knives could cut through this thing but the Legend of ShenLi OST provided sufficient badassery in the background.

Additional credit to my handy dandy cleaver but there was definitely a bit of swearing as well as a renewed sense of needing to work out my biceps.

A third of it is now simmering in kkongchi jorim (꽁치 조림) and I suppose the rest will be made into kkagdoogi (깍두기).

[coupleofdays]

From It's a Bird... Written by Steven T. Seagle, drawn by Teddy Kristiansen.

[microwavepopcorn]

[abuddyforeveryseason]

It's Superman and Supergirl! Remember the Superdictionary? The one where Lex Luthor stole forty cakes? He stole forty cakes!

You know, it seems like, inside every writer, there are two wolves - one who wants to be as self-indulgent as they want, write stuff only to themselves, and not care about criticism at all. The other, the one who wants to be as popular as possible, try and craft a story based solely on what people want and strip it of any flaws, no matter how personally revelant these flaws are to them.

And to a certain point, both sides are kind of childish - wanting to be self-indulgent is like wanting to play with your toys alone and get mad at any suggestions, even though sometimes suggestions are given specifically because someone likes the writing, and wants to see it evolve. And of course, being too dependant on praise is also childish, cause it's like wanting mommy to see you do a tumble - having confidence means doing stuff for yourself as well, after all.

The one big criticism every writer has to answer to, the first thing everyone hears again and again when starting to write - is to avoid making your main character a Mary Sue. Meaning, flawless, overpowered, too important to the plot and being too unique compared to the rest of the cast.

Yeah, I mean, that does sound like an unpleasant read. The big problem is that term was created mostly to discuss stories that are based on the idea of external struggle. So if the conflict in the story comes from characters having a hard time surviving, a character that's universally powerful and beloved is boring.

That is the big complaint everyone has about Superman - why is in interesting to read a story where the tension comes from finding out who wins a fight, if one of the challengers can punch the sun shut?

And I'm not sure if I'd classify Superman as a Mary Sue. He's the strongest guy in the story, sure, but the conflict isn't whether he'll win a given fight. The conflict comes from the way the plot's constructed, whether Superman knows who the enemy is, if he can get there in time to stop him, how other people feel about it...

And there's the inner conflict that comes from Superman having a secret identity. That goes against the "Mary Sue" accusation because having the secret identity is a flaw. It was the big flaw that set the character apart from others when he was first published. And although it's never really explained why Superman even bothers "pretending" to be Clark Kent, it makes sense, even if only on a subconscious level, back when the character was created.

I know that, if I started developing superpowers as a teen, I wouldn't abandon my current identity and life, and my adolescence wasn't even as wholesome as Clark's, with his upstanding parents and friends. So, the reason Superman has a secret identity is that, even if he's not human, he's a person, with all the lived-in background, dreams and psychology that that ensues.

Then, during the Silver Age, writers pretty much gave up on portraying Superman as an enviable, much less powerful figure. For most of it, Superman was subjected to all sorts of humiliations, from being turned into a monkey every other issue, becoming evil at the flip of a hat, or otherwise being portrayed as a mean-spirited prankster or neurotic egomaniac.

All that, of course, was to suprise audiences who were shocked to see their hero reduced to such a pathetic figure.

Of course, after then, Superman was not much different than any other superhero out there - if he was super strong, his enemies were just as strong. Also sometimes he wasn't even that strong. There was even The Death of Superman, an interesting story where he was killed by the personification of the nineties.

Of course, the idea that the main character is going to be victorious isn't exactly news to the audience - at least not if the story's supposed to be about dangerous conflict. Nobody watches The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron assuming there's a chance Jimmy will be slaughtered by the end of the episode.

Mary Sues are called conflict-killers because they're overpowered, but also because they're boring. A character can be all that much better/stronger/smarter than everyone else, but readers don't mind it so much if they're also interesting. Or if the story around them is interesting. It's usually the case with a character like Sherlock Holmes - not only is he a genius, he's also surprisingly strong for a skinny, balding englishman. He's rich, too, and can even be pretty handsome and charming when he wants. And to top it all off, he's a badass who flaunts his superior intellect by declaring he gets bored with the matters of the common man.

But the stories are good, because his hypercompetence is what allows us to see him figuring out the truth. And that's often pretty interesting. Except in that story where the guy's impotence drugs were turning him into a monkey.

There are other ways to make stories with all-competent characters interesting. Sometimes comics are more about the art (and in some cases, the circunstances that make it so the backgrounds are so interesting), so it's a lot of fun if Mary Sue's just plowing her way through the plot to let us see the pretty pictures. If the Mary Sue isn't the protagonist, jealousy and admiration are interesting plots. It's a thing that works well in comedy too.

But the interesting thing about Mary Sues, and Superman in particular, is that, if the character isn't bogged down by the dangers of the world and its associated fears, the story becomes becomes purely about morality - if Superman can do anything he wants, what should he do? The best Superman (and Superman analogue) stories are about questions like that. And some of the worst ones are the ones that fumble the answer.

Anyway, he's resting with Supergirl there. Funny. Why does he even need to rest? He can punch out the sun for God's sake!

[dyspraxicgamergirl]

Top birds:

Hot and Cold bird

Majestic AF bird

The LITTLEST bird!

[theblackestofsuns]

"It's A Bird"

E-Man #1 (April 1983)

Martin Pasko, Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson

First Comics

[bob-artist]

My brain: You have so many tight deadlines. So many things on your weekly schedule. So many important jobs. You have to get important work done!!!

My hands:

[ur-daily-inspiration]

Cute birds appreciation post

[todaysbird]

that’s a whole man.

[tenderanarchist]

These are so fun to make

[catchymemes]

[ostdrossel]

Oh my goodness, the woodpecker 😆 (other two are Oriole and female Grosbeak)