#THE CRIME OF BEING COLORIST ????????????

[saintkey]

maybe the funniest most delusional bs i’ve seen someone reply to a mutual with 😭😭

[kittykatninja321]

If you could write a run (like 3 to 12 issues or something) of any established DC comic series past or present, which would you pick and what would you have happen?

Extra question if u want: what artists/colorists/typists would you pick for the illustration?

post-crisis Robin Jason didn’t get a lot of time in his original run so I’ll use this opportunity to give him some more content. So the comic will obviously be post-crisis Batman during the Jason era in the 80s. As for content, I’d have a few Jason centric issues that follow him at school so we can see how he adjusts to being surrounded by a bunch of rich kids and the sudden spotlight that comes with being Bruce Wayne’s adopted son. We never got to see much of his civilian life so that’ll be fun, that’s the B plot

The A plot will be the case of the week, which will be centered around Crime Alley. This plot will fill in the gap for how/why Bruce went from only patrolling Crime Alley once a year on the anniversary of his parent’s death (#408) to being fairly tuned into the community not long after Jason’s death. We never really saw exactly how that happened, and while I don’t know the exact details of how I would have it go down, I know Jason is the catalyst (it would be funny if the catalyst is just Jason going “hey how come we never swing by Park Row :/“)

As for the art, I would keep it the same artists that were usually used in that era, I’m very charmed by the 80s Batman art styles.

[not-goldy]

Not to ruin the mood, I love Jimin so so so so much. But it just hurts my soul to see him with Taemin a known colorist 😭 I would like to know how others are feeling

That's alright you already killed the mood sis💀

But let's tak about it.

When my sister first moved to Seoul all she did was complain about the people over there. They were mean and rude and racist, colorist, texturists, homophobic you name it.

A few years later, she'd be the one to lecture you about cultural relativism and how some things have been so normalized in those parts of the world that she can't tell anymore if they do all those things to be mean or their just being Koreans.

I had a Nigerian friend too (not trying to come for my Omo Niaja people😩) who'd bleached her skin so much she was near passing as white- save for her under eyes knees, elbow, and knuckles. She was giving real life kunfu panda.

I thought it was strange she'd do that and I complained to my other friend about it and he said, well what's wrong with being light skinned? I am light skinned. Do you think being darker makes you better than I am?

Imagine my shock and surprise😲

It occurred to me then how light skinned blacks also experience discrimination from the black community as well as nonblacks because they are perceived as not "black enough"

Colorism is insidious and prevalent even in media as light skinned black brothers are often overlooked for most roles and when they have to be casted at all they are cast in limited roles. Think Duke of Hastings and Bridgerton and all the roles dark skinned black actors fill as opposed to the light skinned poc actors on TV.

You can be black but will still not be black enough because you speak or sound a certain way, you'd hear you're "pretending to be black" you're pretending to be white, you're "an oreo" as if there's a proper and standard way of being black.

Black people are not monoliths. We come in all shades of black and from various cultures.

But Colorism is the cousin of racism and like racism it can be perpetuated by our own people- sneezing at Chris Brown. Goofy fella that one.

I am not going to defend Taemin.

I know his culture puts him at a disadvantage and exposes him to so many normalized behaviors that outside his culture is and would be construed as perpetuating oppression.

Kpop idols do undergo training and are educated on issues of racism and misogyny and other harmful practices indulged in innocuously. A little bit of self awareness will go a long way.

As long as he acknowledges this challenge, practices mindfulness and is ready to apologize for his actions and most importantly take steps not to repeate them I think he can be forgiven and shouldn't necessarily be "cancelled" for minor infractions.

The internet elves can be so sensitive at times💀

There's this concept in law called the principle of proportionality which is just common sense for the punishment must fit the crime.

You don't cut off people, or deplatform them for harms they've caused negligently unintentionally. Thats toxic and unlawful and extreme, cruel and unusual punishment- hate the crime and not the person as they say.

Saying all this to say, I, Jimin and others can love Taemin, be his friend and still condemn oppression in its various forms.

Expecting Jimin to cut off his closet friend, alienate him and ostracize him for his media blunders that aren't a true reflection of who he is at his core is toxic. True friends don't act like that. Let's be real.

[morebedsidebooks]

Poison Ivy #19-21

Checking in with the Poison Ivy comic series again, we’ve reached a set of trio issues #19-21 forming “Origin of Species”. This writer G. Willow Wilson’s efforts in marrying together the contributions by many creatives over decades who have taken on the matter of Poison Ivy’s origins. Which if that sounds ambitious, you’d be right.

In media Ivy’s origins have often been recounted either by others or herself. However, because of the developments that led here in previous issues, this secret origin is too for all ones knows a last testament. With that frame dare readers hope for a more sapient, innermost version?

To begin issue #19 sees Pamela Isley off to a Seattle university as an undergraduate in a plant biochemistry program fatefully headed by Dr. Jason Woodrue. Wanting to best her peers (leading botanists Alec and Linda Holland plus Philip Sylvain), entranced both by the work and Woodrue, falling for a sexual relationship with him among other manipulations. When the next round of funding for the experiments runs out, Pam makes her first foray into crime.

Next for issue #20, as things with Pam and Woodrue continue to escalate, Wilson once more does not forget a relatively recent character in the schemes of things… Bella Garten.

Her last appearance to this in a flashback in #2, it’s been several issues. So, let’s take a minute to discuss Bella.

As a fellow student and love interest, specializing in botany and genetics going on to earn a doctorate, Bella Garten or the The Gardener as she would become first appeared in Batman #107 in 2021 creation of writer James Tynion IV. Plus, part of the thread of story involving Poison Ivy during the Fear State event and into the past. The one-shot Batman Secret Files: The Gardener (written by Tynion and art by Christian Ward) was also included in the first collected edition of Poison Ivy. However, the file, another secret origin comic is less about Bella Garten and more an attempt to appeal to Batman to help Ivy (around the Tom King Everyone Loves Ivy period) running through decades of Ivy’s character (with adjustments). Part of the history there exposed, particularly certain actions of Gardener, is uncomfortably weird.

Yet again an example of major violation done to Ivy by someone she trusted. The revelation resulting in a short confrontation between the two in Fear State Omega. (The issue also marking the end of Tynion’s Batman run with Art: Riccardo Federici, Christian Duce, Ryan Benjamin, Guillem March & Trevor Hairsine, Colorist: Chris Sotomayor and Letterer: Clayton Cowles). Where Ivy is having none of the presented defense.

In sum a character that functions more as a plot point, another retcon while trying to put it all (back) together. Yet, coherency that has been needed. Despite the American superhero genre (in)famously being one where seemingly everything and nothing is canon, something still important. So too, the first ongoing series for Poison Ivy not just ought to but, does endeavor to plumb over 50 years of a character’s existence. While bringing what each creative uniquely can. It’s worth asking then if Bella is made more too under Willow’s writing.

Wrapping up casting Ivy’s mind back, issue #21 arrives at the full Poison Ivy. Once again, becoming a human experiment (volunteering!) and transformation. An old life lost, the new leading to Gotham— yet for a unique green reason.

As a woman with growing abilities, confidence in using them, the law is just an obstacle to justice. But of course, conflict and differences plus mistrust with Batman result with Ivy in and out of the terrible Arkham Asylum. This would be the early pre-Harley days too, even though the Ivy costume calls back to the influential BTAS.

Then what can I say about the art I’ve haven’t already in other reviews. Jessica Fong continues to deliver pretty and pretty gross (body) horror main covers. (On the latter it took a while to prepare myself to read the previous issue #18. Though it’s not shocking that bodily autonomy, something Ivy’s origins raise too, makes the list of also current matters the series depicts.)

Marcio Takara definitely has set a bar as the main artist for the series. I wish he was drawing every issue. Though nothing against the other artists who have so far done so. It’s just that I generally wish for a creative team to be able to remain consistent through a run. I’ve praised colorist Arif Prianto consistently too. On the other hand, since these installments are Ivy believing she’s dying and mired in her distant past, I’m surprised there isn’t more of a difference exhibited of that. Why not really experiment with the paneling, designs, and color palette. Just as key the letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou can switch things up to good effect. Actually, if part of the team working on Poison Ivy had to change briefly maybe here was where to do that instead.

In the end these issues of the comic series offer an origin stressing the choices and chances. A Poison Ivy that refutes being pathologized, focuses less on victimization, and more of her own creation and missteps along the way. It’s interesting too, if not still poignant, to look back to the first few issues of Poison Ivy. In soon coming up on two years, the series has issue by issue after issue grown and been recognized as an Outstanding Comic Book by GLAAD. After reflecting on a new(ish) past it continues forward.

[nonasemporium]

g1deon for the ask game <3 or if you've been asked abt him already then pash

send me a character [G1deon] and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: He is the love of my life, he is my princess in a tower, he is my lost lenore. My favorite thing about him is probably that he is so quietly resistant--there are parts of himself he keeps for himself, that he holds close, and also that he may choose to share nearly silently. That moment of solidarity with Harrow will always eat me up inside. He has been suffering with these white folks [+ John] for thousands of year. Free him.

least favorite thing about them: Light of my life that he is, he needs to stop doing John's dirty work, he needs to reject the empire. He was also chasing that little girl around on John's orders. Unfortunate.

favorite line: Imma cry forever over how he experiences the loss of time when Pyrrha is present, or as already stated when he kind of tried to share a moment of solidarity with Harrow. Fucks me up.

brOTP: Him and Pyrrha. I always see her as in love with him, but I don't always see him in love with her, heheh. I do think he loves her, I just don't always view his feelings for her as matching hers exactly.

OTP: G1deon/Wake/Pyrrha, but especially him with Wake. That she's what he can't be, the way Pyrrha is an important aspect of the relationship between him and Wake, the tragedy in his affection for her not being enough to get in the way of his orders.

nOTP: G1deon/John. Can't stand it. That man is so colorist at him, and lets those white people talk at and treat him so horribly.

random headcanon: I see him having a preference away from white people (if he liked Pyrrha, to me, she was an exception). I also like to view him as being transfemme, tbh.

unpopular opinion: Apparently that he has a personality or that Pyrrha and Wake loved him/were attracted to him. Please, he's his own person and they each displayed their interests in him. Where's the tragedy in his loss if we the readers never saw him? No, we did see him. We should be haunted by the fact he's died and very few people even know, and even less who could remember him are even alive enough to respond if it comes out. Someone perform funeral rites for him, please.

song i associate with them: 'Beautiful Crime' by Tamer. Is it about him, is it about his feelings towards Wake, is it about his feelings for Pyrrha? Yes.

favorite picture of them: one day I'll answer this probably

[doctorstrangereview]

Strange Tales #145

Cover Date: June 1966 On-Sale Date: March 10, 1966

This is Steve Ditko's penultimate Strange Tale. This is another departure from the main arc; and even more so than any previous distraction. Previous departures were tangentially related by being caused by something in, or involving characters from the main event. This is a genuine interlude and introduces a new villain. Except for the installment in Strange Tales #129, all these Strange stories are Stan Lee/Steve Ditko productions. Issue #129 was scripted by Don Rico. I forgot to mention this when I wrote that one up and I'm too lazy to go back and edit it in. This issue is scripted by future superstar Dennis O'Neil. Stan being Stan still manages to put himself first in the credits by giving himself an edited by credit smack in front! No one could accuse you of modesty, Stan.

Hearkening back to the old days, we begin with the villain committing a crime. Mr. Rasputin is in a little European country plundering state secrets using illusions to scare their guardians. The super honest Mr. Rasputin also screws over the traitor who helped him out. What a guy!

Damn, Mr. Rasputin is sinister looking! Yes, he's a descendent of Grigori Rasputin who was shot, stabbed, frozen, emasculated and a few other things I can't quite remember. The scene is repeated all over the globe with a nice symbolic image to keep this from taking up too much real estate.

Our villain, by a lucky coincidence, winds up in Greenwich Village. Funny that, eh? He practices his illusions and our series gets its first mention of Ikonn. Ikonn will be invoked frequently and even show up in person in about 15 years. Ditko gives us an idea of what the fellow looks like. I have to give credit to Gene Colan who made Ikonn resemble this initial look when he shows up for real.

This tips of Doc who just happens to be doing his virtual patrols with the still yet-to-be-name Orb of Agomotto, which still looks like a classroom globe in a fancy stand. Doc goes flying to find Mr. Rasputin. Along the way he calls the ritual of Ikonn forbidden. Doc will use this "forbidden" ritual as often as he breathes in the future. Doc arrives in Mr. Rasputin's rented loft masked in shadow. It looks really cool!

Naturally, a battle ensues and even though he's still weak from his clash with Tazza in the previous issue, he's easily Mr. Rasputin's better.

Magic bolts fly and clash into shields. Mr. Rasputin realizes he doesn't stand a chance in a fair fight. What, oh what, will our enterprising, yet cowardly foe do? Why, pull out a gun of course!

The tables have turned. Doc uses his cloak to float into the window of a nearby hospital. How fortunate for him that a doctor and nurse happen to be in the room he floats into. Hooray for diversity! The doctor is black! He's one of the first non-white, not-Asian characters in the script. The colorist does him no favors. I present a scan of the original instead to the usual Masterworks restoration.

After surgery Doc is interviewed by the police. His cloak is hanging around upside down. It's not shown before or after, but perhaps it likes to rest like a bat. Or it may have just been tossed over the door.

Thinking fast, Doc realizes where his buddy is heading: His own Sanctum Sanctorum! Going ghost Doc finds him there. Yup, still no freaking security, physical or magical. Everyone just walks in.

While Doc is checking out Mr. Rasputin, a thug has been sent to whack Doc's body in the hospital. Doc has sent for his cloak which is flying to the Sanctum. Now we know why Ditko drew Doc's entrance earlier the way he did.

Mr. Rasputin's like "Oh, crap! You're supposed to be dead! What the hell do I do now? I know! I'll shoot him again!"

Very clever Doc! You can be a deceptive little SOB too! Realizing what's happening, Mr. Rasputin attempts to banish Doc's ghost to the netherworld. He nearly succeeds, but Doc sends the ghost version of his amulet's eye to entrance his foe. Mr. Rasputin manages to resist the eye until Doc uses the cloak to wrap itself around him and suffocating him until he passes out. Doc returns to our plane and uses the cloak to haul his buddy to the hospital.

Entering his room, he finds the thug entranced by the physical version of the amulet. Whew! It woulda sucked if that didn't work! There's one last task Doc must perform. He non-consensually wipes Mr. Rasputin's mind of magical knowledge. The coerces him and his minion to confess their crimes.

One day the Ancient One will need to sit Doc down and have a serious conversation about consent! Doc's doc says he'll be released in the morning. Doc's like "Don't worry none! I kinda like it here and need to catch some z's." The magic business must be lucrative if he can afford an extended stay at a New York City hospital. It'll be a good investment. There's something big coming next month!

While it happens in the middle of an arc, it's unrelated to what's happening around it. It's also the last villain of the week, standalone story we'll see for quite awhile. Everything is multi part arcs from now on. Fortunately, none of them will span 17 months like this one. I like Mr. Rasputin. He's not arrogant, is aware of his limitations and is not afraid to stoop to dastardly deeds to get his way. He's clever and thinks on his feet. He's not the bungler that Mordo devolves into. Since the foes that Doc mindwipes have a high rate of recidivism, it would have been nice to have him as an occasionally recurring villain. He does pop up again in the future, but not as a the primary antagonist. Let Doc get his rest, he'll have bigger fish to fry next month.

[kudosmyhero]

Batgirl (vol. 3) #16: The Lesson, pt. 1: Grass Before the Scythe

Read Date: July 14, 2023 Cover Date: February 2011 ● Writer: Bryan Q. Miller ● Penciler: Dustin Nguyen ● Inker: Derek Fridolfs ● Colorist: Guy Major ● Letterer: Travis Lanham ● Editor: Sean Ryan ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● yet again, Batgirl asks questions instead of doing what Oracle says. yet again, that hesitation bites her in the ass

● 👏👏👏

Synopsis: Batgirl is on the run from the GCPD for the murder of Newton Flitwik. Oracle sends the Ricochet, but it won’t reach her for another four minutes and she has to continue evading her pursuers through Devil’s Square. She jumps through the skylight of an abandoned building and falls several stories to the ground, dislocating her shoulder. She is found by Detective Gage, who believes her innocence. He gives her the bloody batarang, thinking she can find something the crime scene techs didn’t, and he pops her shoulder back into place and promises to buy her some time so she can escape. Oracle listens to their flirtatious banter in discomfort.

Steph hides in plain sight the next day and attends class as normal, albeit with her arm in a sling. Jordanna has started a campaign against Batgirl, and she is claiming her “grief” over Newton’s death is negatively affecting her studies, which has already gotten her a pass on one quiz. She tells Steph to do the same, but instead she walks away. Oracle has analyzed the batarang and discovered the blood was added after Newton’s time of death, meaning Batgirl is being framed, as well as trace radiation from a unique isotope that in all of Gotham is only present in an abandoned tech warehouse across town.

Proxy breaks into the computer lab at Gotham University to reassemble Newton’s flash drive. She is caught by a guard, who points out the security camera directed right at the computer Newton used. This gives her an idea.

Batgirl bursts into the warehouse and confronts four out of the five reapers, who have used the manhunt for Batgirl as a distraction while they stole high-end black market machine parts. Gage arrives with the GCPD, who arrest the reapers, and he explains that they received video of the reapers chasing Newton across campus. They now know Batgirl didn’t kill him. The fifth reaper runs in, wearing a speed suit, to whisk away the reapers and the machine parts. Thanks to the flash drive Proxy reassembled, Oracle has figured out that Newton designed the suits and told the Order of the Scythe how to find more parts for it, but they stole more than needed.

The Order of the Scythe regroups in parts unknown. They argue over what they should do now that Batgirl is onto them until Slipstream declares that from now on they stick to the plan, and if Batgirl gets in their way, she’ll be gone in the blink of an eye.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batgirl_Vol_3_16)

Fan Art: Damian and Steph by mikemaihack

Accompanying Podcast: ● Batgirl to Oracle - episode 16

[silverjetsystm]

edelweiss :   what was the bravest moment in your muse’s life ?are they known to be courageous from then on ?

❥     𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒    [ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚂 ] -- Accepting!

Okay I've been mulling on this.

There are a few I could toss up as 'bravest.' Most of them are telling Khonshu to go to hell. >:3c but in this case, I think we'll go with the 'death by origin story.'

Is that cheating?

Marc's gone from dishonorably discharged Marine and former CIA operator to real deal merc. He's felt a twinge of conscience before now but this is the big moment of Marc becoming not bad guy.

MK (2006) #3 Writer: Huston; Penciler: Finch; Inkers: Miki, Olazaba, and Martinez; Colorist: D’Armata; Letterers: Caramagna and Virtual Calligraphy

However, for reasons eventually under the cut, Marc thinks this moment was a moment of weakness instead of bravery.

This got away from me so I'm placing Cory retells and analyzes MK (1980) #1 under a read more.

Marc and his bestie Frenchie work for Bushman. Frenchie figured out the campaign they're on is the wrong side. Marc and Frenchie like underdog causes and as few war crimes as possible. Bushman's big into war crimes.

[Marc just spouting off about tombs is hilarious to me]

Frenchie and Marc don't like those orders. They plan on getting the heck out of there. Marc gets them pulled in. The lead archeologist stands up to Bushman with a gold dagger. Marc warns Bushman, who kills the archeologist. Archeologist tells Marc to save his daughter, Marlene.

Spoiler alerts? Marlene becomes the System's girlfriend for a very long time. In the early days, she was very invested in 'rehabilitating' Steven as the future, MK as the atonement, and hoped one day that Steven and her will have a happy life free of the MK junk. Marc was the bad past and Jake was not serious.

Marc does tell Marlene Bushman killed her dad when they meet again in the tomb, so that's good. Still...

Worst meet cute.

Marlene makes it to the tomb and has the surviving staff start moving out when they spot this fuckin guy topple into the sand. They lay him in front of the statue and realize he's dead.

Writer: Moench; Penciler: Sienkiewicz; Inkers: Sienkiewicz and Springer; Colorist: Sharen; Letterer: Orzechowski

Yes. There's no vision of Khonshu besides the statue for decades. Moench designed it as open ended. It was up to the reader and the characters to determine if it was coincidence or something more. In the original comics, Steven and Jake were considered aliases who may or may not be a little too real.

Lemire and Smallwood did a fantastic retelling with bonus Steven, Jake, and Khonshu. (and a shirt and plate carrier for Marc)

MK (2016) #14 Writer: Lemire; Penciler and Inker: Smallwood; Colorist: Bellaire; Letterer: Petit

It takes courage to change one's whole life around. Marc's got other thoughts about it.

MK (2021) #1 Writer: MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Cappuccio; Colorist: Rosenberg; Letterer: Petit

To Marc, he made the wrong choice when he agreed to become Khonshu's Fist. All his life, he believed his father was weak and foolish for being a pacifist. His father would never had made a bargain with a foreign god.

Part of it is whether or not he actually grew beyond the merc mindset. Sure, he helps people now. Keeps the ultraviolence to an all time minimum. He'll talk a big game about ripping people's faces off but when he has an option to kill someone, he instead comes up with a fate worse than death. He's still an incredibly violent person who goes to Avengers Mandated Therapy and has friends (for all he hides it in professionalism).

Clinging to MK as a sense of escape from his wild dog days, self-worth, and duty has kept him from being able to move on and find peace. Frenchie and Marlene lead separate lives from him. Diatrice, Marlene and the System's daughter, can't visit because of Marc's choices.

[aladdin]

WHO STOLE MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY? Aladdin Investigates

In 2021, I made a social media post to publicly call out one of my clients, Z2 Comics, for underpaying their creatives. I received between $45 - $75 a page for my coloring work, always below the industry minimum standard for mainstream work, while being pushed to work at rapid and unsustainable speeds. In that post, I expressed other grievances, as well, such as being told by Z2 leadership that I was simply replaceable - they told me they could hire new colorists for as low as $30 a page. 

The CEO of the company, Josh Frankel, appeared on my public call-out thread to tell me I was being "inappropriate,", and proceeded to terminate all active projects with my coloring studio, I Love Lamp, LLC. He was fully in his right to execute that decision - we had no work-for-hire contracts between us to complicate the business / legal side of things. 

Although Josh referred to himself as my “employer” on that thread, he must have either been confused. Luckily for him, because he was my client, and not an employer, it was not a federal crime for him to terminate our relationship over my open discussion of compensation with other working artists. 

Z2 found new colorists to finish up Elvis The Graphic Novel, Sublime: $5 at the Door, and Machine Gun Kelly's Hotel Diablo Graphic Novel. 

Although I met lots of great illustrators and editors during my time working with Z2, the experience was, broadly speaking, a nightmare. I was more than ready to sever ties. I retained, however, a massive financial stake in the work that I'd done - I never surrendered any of my intellectual property. 

The More You Know: In the American Legal system, a colorist is a co-author of the comic books on which they work, with the full rights that entails. 

I had no energy for a fight, so I straight up offered all of my IP to Z2, for free, under the condition that they write out an official contract. My intention was to have a complete list of work I'd done for Z2, and ensure that I'd be properly credited for my work, by the company, moving forward - a mutually beneficial arrangement, I believed. 

Josh rejected the offer, saying that a contract wouldn't be necessarily, and that the email itself "should work fine." In that same email, Josh also accepted an apology from me that I didn't make. I laughed at the clown, and wrote his name down in my burn-book ("Josh Frankel Is a Fugly Slut").

I made no further attempts to offer my IP to the Z2 circus show. Instead, when Z2 continued use my work in promotional material, I sent a cease and desist to Z2's marketing department, and offered an explanation to the various new hires that Z2 never secured the rights to my work. I was ignored, and the solicitations continued. 

The Hotel Diablo graphic novel, which was completed in my absence, was nonetheless heavily marketed using pages that my studio had colored - because, presumably, other colorists had been paid $30 a page, and their efforts reflected that. BloodyDisgusting and ComicsBeat both published uncredited previews of my work on that book, which have since been corrected to include my name. Explaining how my name had been omitted, the journalist at Bloody-Disgusting told me that he “was only able to run what I was provided with.” 

Z2 comics thought that it was in their best interests, apparently, to simply remove my credits from future publications - or, the company is just so sloppy that no one even knows who worked on what.

When the The Elvis Graphic Novel was released, the final print contained my my covers, my pin-ups, and more than a dozen pages of interior coloring, with the rest of the color art clearly modeled after my own - but my credits had been entirely stripped from the work.

Confused and angry, I checked the copyright text within the book - the Elvis Estate was claiming 100% of the IP rights in the book. Where did my intellectual property go? 

Did the Elvis Estate steal my color art? Does the Elvis Estate even know that my color art was stolen? Does the Elvis Estate they know they are trafficking in grifted IP? 

I'm sure that Elvis would be rolling in his grave to know that his brand was associated with stealing the work of other artists. 

Anyway, I checked online, and there exists no record (that I can find) that credits me for my coloring work on that Elvis, other than my own various social media posts. When I nominated myself for awards in 2021, I had included that Title -  how embarrassing to discover that there was no public record of my involvement.  

Newly incensed, I contacted an Arts / Entertainment lawyer for the first time. I never intended to file lawsuits - I just wanted to be treated fairly, and recover my intellectual property. The lawyer explained the dynamics of IP and copyright in 2022, and sent me on a quest to the US Copyright Offices to look up all the copyrights to the books I've worked on. 

Wouldn't you know it, almost every Graphic Novel I ever worked on with Z2 had been registered, with the entirety of the Intellectual Property being copyrighted by Z2's various clients. These copyrights were not filed independently by the artists - all the copyrights were registered by the same Lawyer in Alexandria, VA. I sent the lawyer an email asking, in effect, "Hey WTF?"

I have received no reply, and have since reported their office to the Virginia State Bar. 

Early in my tenure contracting for Z2, in 2020, Z2 co-founder Josh Frankel explained to me, at his birthday party, that he was withholding my creator credits in the press so that I wouldn't get poached out from under him. It was his clever solution for retaining my services. At the time, I didn’t have other offers for work, and I was encouraged by other creators to push through my frustrations, and earn my place at the table. I kept working for Z2, despite feeling devalued (because I was literally being devalued). 

Upon further reflection, there is reason to suspect that Josh's idea to withhold my credits may have had even broader implications than what he revealed to me. The concerted effort to minimize my association with Z2 comics happened to dovetail quite nicely with a possible corporate embezzlement scheme - Z2 had legal access to, but not legal ownership over, my Intellectual Property. Somehow, all of Z2′s clientele seems to be under the impression that they own 100% of the IP contained within their various projects.  I haven’t fenced a lot of stolen goods, but I imagine, as an arm-chair gangster, that it’s lot easier to sell stolen material if the buyers don't know that it was stolen. Did the clients even bother to check if the colorist had signed away his rights? 

From my studio in Baltimore, I can't do much other than speculate. Some questions remain, for me:

What happened, behind the scenes, that caused Z2's clients to believe that they owned all of my IP? 

Is there a relationship between this years-long IP 'displacement,’ and the fact that Josh Frankel left the company this Fall? 

If Z2 did, in fact, intentionally embezzle hundreds of pages of my coloring art over the course of 3 years, would that constitute a valid RICO case to be mounted against the company? 

Did God himself orchestrate these events to amuse himself over the irony of a bunch of 'anti-establishment' Artists and musicians using the power of the State to facilitate the theft of art from smaller creators? 

When I colored 2 pages of the Magic comic for Boom!, I was credited in their press release, and was tagged in tweets for months as the book was reviewed, and later collected into trade paperback editions. 

Z2, meanwhile, has sent dozens of my pages out for previews, while withholding my name from the credits. Some popular outlets that currently feature my uncredited work online include Paste Magazine, ScreenRant, the Hollywood Reporter, the Comics Journal, and BleedingCool. 

Was there a legitimate corporate conspiracy against me, with agents in place across all spectrums of Pop Culture? Is the US State going to stand in my way as I march through Hell to take revenge on God for his failure to protect me and my family? Must I surrender my own humanity in order to summon the cyberpunk that lurks within? What will I become? 

Sorry, my degree is in “Dramatic Writing,” not “Intellectual Property Law.”

Anyway, here's a non-exhaustive list of of Copyright Claimants that have filed, with the US Copyright Office, for full legal ownership over my Intellectual Property on their various publishing projects. For the lulz, I have added three asterisks to each book that utilizes “Anti-Authoritarianism” as a major literary theme. 

Grateful Dead Productions  Grateful Dead - Origins ***

Dominic Harrison ("Yungblud") Yungblud Presents: The Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club *** Yungblud Presents: Weird Times at Quarry Bank ***

Moriah Rose Pereira ("Poppy") Poppy 1: Genesis *** Poppy's Inferno ***

Universal Music Group The Final Symphony: A Beethoven Anthology.

Skillet Eden II: The Aftermath ***

Dance Gavin Dance  Tale of the Robot ***

Rico Nasty, Inc.  Nightmare Vaycay *** Note: all images in this post were colored by Aladdin Collar for I Love Lamp, LLC, whose services were solicited by Z2 Comics. The Elvis Estate actually made minor adjustments to the Elvis cover, to their credit, they were very helpful in making their final touches, instead sending a thousand emails about inane bullshit. The paper texture on A Robot’s Tale was taken from an old book on archive.org, I don’t remember which one. The b/g textures of the Yungblud Presents cover below were originally from scans of a silk tie-dye scarf I originally made with my Mom for the Grateful Dead book and reused in at least 4 different projects. 

[mlmvoidboy]

"The word 'aesthetic,' which comes from the Greek meaning 'to perceive.'" "The art is more important than the artist, aestheticism tells us" "Elegance is more important than suffering." "Aestheticism, as a movement, is about seeing more of the beauty in the world than most people notice, since, for example, most people don’t really notice a good-looking font, or a talented colorist for a comic book, or a nice use of enjambment." "Walter Pater, who said that all art aspires to the condition of music—to a state of abstraction free of content." "Being true to ourselves, Pater suggests, keeps us from new impressions and new opinions." "“The Art of Killing” Andrea Zanzin overviews the way in which Harris’s crime novels were always about art." "If art is the end, then people can be a means to an end, and using people as a means to an end is the definition of immorality." "Hannibal’s murder scenes are too beautiful, audacious, and unrealistic to be sad or funny. On Fuller’s Hannibal, the viewer must accept the show’s apparent unconscious premise, which is that all the killers attended the same highbrow MFA sculpture program, a program that values aesthetic, and emotional, distance. Paglia says that Wilde’s Dorian Gray “is the fullest study of the Decadent erotic principle: the transformation of person into object d’art,” 73" "loss of identity is total and communicated with the most abstract imagery (3.6). They are no longer human; they are pure symmetrical design, mirror images blending into each other, part of what rock critic Perry Meisel calls Pater’s “psychedelic sublime”:" "That cave where people sit in the dark, facing the same direction, watching illusions on the wall projected from a man-made light source is not a place of ignorance and fear, as Plato thought. It is a movie theater.49 It is not a prison. It is the temple of the aesthete. The phrase “Art-for-Art’s Sake” lives in Latin above the roaring lion at the start of every MGM movie" "Dante placed homosexuals and misers on the same level of hell because he saw the sins as fundamentally similar: unproductive love. In the Christian tradition the purpose of love and sex is procreation" "The show makes this stark distinction over and over: you live on after your death through your art or through your children, but not both." "“Each man kills the thing he loves” writes Wilde." "Wilde (via his character Gilbert) on music: 'After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.'" “Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place.” "Oscar Wilde, in “The Critic as Artist,” wrote that the highest form of art criticism “treats the work of art simply as a starting point for a new creation.” Harold Bloom will expand this into saying that the only proper response to a poem is another poem, and he considers his critical work about poetry to be a 'severe poem.'" “Moral grounds are always the last refuge of people with no sense of beauty.” "If we really want to experience all that experience has to offer—which might include religiously or morally forbidden foods, challenging art, drugs, homosexuality, or murder—we must lose ourselves."

"“The Quinto Quarto evolved from necessity to become high tradition” (3.3), and Hannibal serves it in the fashion of a triple Michelin star restaurant. This is what Fuller is doing with Harris’s novels and the movies: translating them into a higher sphere, from fantastic pulp to high art." "Mads Mikkelsen says Hannibal is “doing what the rest of us should have done our whole life, except for the killing thing, I guess. Embracing life. Every second is an opportunity for beauty.” “He’s a happy man,” Mikkelsen says, “I have rarely given life to a character that is as happy as him.” 197 Elsewhere he says “There is no reason to listen to boring music, you may as well listen to fantastic music, or drink a fantastic glass of wine. And for that reason [for Hannibal] banality is sin.”"" "His mental space is not a place where he returns to his murders, but where he calls up excellent singers he has heard. He tells Will (quoting Harris): Hannibal: If I’m ever apprehended, my memory palace will serve as more than a mnemonic system. I will live there. Will: Could you be happy there? Hannibal: All the paths, chambers, are not lovely, light, and bright. In the walls of our hearts and brains, danger waits. There are holes in the floor of the mind. (2.13; H48)" "Zachary Quinto yells at Bedelia that “This is culty and weird” (3.10) and he is referring to therapy, but that goes double for the show he is in. The Red Dragon himself calls Hannibal’s press notices “unfair reviews” (3.10), and Reba laments that “people don’t pay attention” (3.9), which feel like digs on the mainstream viewing audience. Fuller would surely endorse Oscar Wilde, who said, “Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.”" "Tobias tries to kill Hannibal with a cello string, and Hannibal stabs him with a pen before crushing his skull with a sculpture of a stag—their whole fight uses art and the tools of art rather than any conventional weapons. That connection of art and violence is of course central to Dorian Gray, where striking the painting kills the subject of the portrait.” "This is the under girding of the poetic language in Hannibal. It is a universe where every word matters. It is an indictment of the sloppy language used by other shows and other people as insufficient tools to figure out the answers to the questions Hannibal is asking, and insufficient to build the kind of world Hannibal is building, one more perfect and more beautiful than our own."

"In the middle of season 3, Will sits in Hannibal’s kitchen, where Hannibal killed Abigail in front of him, and where Jack and Alana were brutalized. Alana enters in a wheelchair, still reeling from being attacked, and Will explains his friendship with Hannibal. Their conversation could be any defeated Aesthete talking to any Social Justice Activist, as given below: Bloom: Friendship with Hannibal is blackmail elevated to the level of love. Will: A mutually unspoken pact to ignore the worst in each other in order to continue to enjoy the best. Bloom: After everything he's done, can you still ignore the worst in him? Will: I came here to be alone, Alana. (3.4)"

Aestheticism, Evil, Homosexuality, and Hannibal: If Oscar Wilde ate people by Geoff Klock

[brownibai]

Jamaica pros & cons

Cons:

It’s kinda poor in alot of places that aren’t meant for tourist

High crime rate but where doesn’t . Home invasions and armed robbery are very likely. Gun control isn’t as controlled.

There are high rates of rape and sexual assault.

Ima Florida bby so ion care about the heat or high hurricane and natural disaster risk but if u care about that I wouldn’t recommend Jamaica.

Ima be honest it really isn’t safe being gay in most places outside America.

Even tho there’s jus about a population of every race there people are still colorist

Pros:

Pretty scenery

Deeply seasoned food

It’s close to America or atleast to the south

The music is fire

Main language is similar to English

There are a lot of ethnicity and races that are native to Jamaica I’ve seen Asia, white, Hispanic and black Jamaica

The rest of the places

[doamarierose-honoka]

In a preview for Marvel Comics' upcoming Punisher #2 from writer Devid Pepose, artist Dave Wachter, and colorist Dan Brown, the latest vigilante to take on the Punisher mantle, Joe Garrison, infiltrates the skyscraper stronghold of a powerful crime lord known only as The Offer. When The Offer discovers the threat heading his way, he calls upon his very own team of mercenaries to take the Punisher out, and the new Night Shift appears to be more than willing to do just that.

Punisher #2

Written by DAVID PEPOSE

Art by DAVE WACHTER

Cover by DAN BROWN

Main cover art by ROD REIS

Variant Cover Artists MAHMUD ASRAR, MATTHEW WILSON, and MARCO MASTRAZZO

NO ONE ESCAPES THE PUNISHER! Deep in the heart of New York City, the crime lord known as the Offer trades in every currency on the planet. Barricaded within his fortified tower, he is defended by an army of guards, the latest in cutting-edge security and a team of stone-cold supervillains capable of slaughtering a battalion. With the limitless resources at his disposal, the Offer thinks he is untouchable. He’s about to learn that no one escapes the Punisher.

$4.99/28 pgs.

The original Night Shift, led by the vigilante known as the Shroud, consisted of various superpowered beings who had been captured and imprisoned by the malevolent Locksmith. Eventually freed thanks to the intervention of Jessica Drew, better known as Spider-Woman, the Shroud amassed a small team who worked to overthrow numerous criminal operations. Though they appeared to be villains in their own right, the first incarnation of Night Shift was devoted to destroying the criminal underworld that had preyed upon them. In the years since, Night Shift has undergone multiple changes to its roster and mission statement, with the current incarnation led by the villainous Carl Burbank, aka Bushwacker, following in the footsteps of their mercenary predecessors.

Joe Garrison made his Marvel Comics debut in the first issue of the currently ongoing Punisher series. A former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Joe's story is largely parallel to that of the original Punisher, Frank Castle. Much like Frank, Joe lost his family to a horrifying act of calculated violence, leaving him with a deep-seated desire for vengeance. This coupled with his vast experience as well as his seemingly endless resources made Joe a near pitch perfect replacement for Frank as the Punisher, especially after the original was whisked away to Marvel's Weirdworld following the conclusion of his time leading the ancient, malevolent ninja cult known as The Hand.

Punisher #2 will be available on December 13 from Marvel Comics.

Source: Marvel Comics

[scarletwitching]

Without the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff and her troublemaking brother, Pietro, were never reformed.

Heroes Reborn #1; writer: Jason Aaron; penciler: Ed McGuinness; inker: Mark Morales; colorist: Matthew Wilson; letterer: VC's Cory Petit

Someone asked me about this comic, which I have not read, so I went to check it out, got to this point, and said, "No."

I am going to say something that should be obvious and uncontroversial: Abused children are not supervillains.

You know this. I know this. We all know this. So, why does almost everyone accept this framing that Wanda started out as a supervillain? This is an absurd idea, based not only on what actually happens in the earliest X-Men comics but also on what we, people living in the year 2021, understand about abuse. And cults. And children.

You know that a teenage girl standing around while her abuser does crimes is not a "villain" and does not need to be "reformed." I don't know what villainy people think Wanda was getting up to in the 1960's. What evil plans was she enacting? Most people haven't read those old comics. I get it. Some of y'all think Magneto is based on Malcolm X. I know you didn't get that idea from reading X-Men #4. But what do people even think was going on in the original X-Men comics?

You know what Wanda was doing before she joined the Avengers? Living in Switzerland, hanging out. What was she being reformed from? Yodeling?

It is bizarre to me the way that people, including and especially Marvel writers, will buy into a narrative framing even when it makes no sense. But more importantly, wow, is the idea that Wanda started out as a spooky, evil supervillain used to justify everything. Right down to her being [Don Johnson in Knives Out voice] lit-rally a Nazi in those awful movies. You can have her do anything and people will rush to say, "Of course, that happened. She started out as a villain!" If you're a homeless teenager who falls under the sway of a charismatic leader who saves your life, then mentally and physically abuses you and you stand around while he does crimes, you are capable of literally any atrocity. That's just facts.

There's a lot of elements at play when we talk about what has gone wrong with Wanda and the horrible way that she's been written over the years. Writers being horny. Writers being incompetent. The sexism, the ableism, all of that. It's all true. But this is, to some extent, the original sin. Because if you create this hero/villain binary and then slot homeless teenagers who ended up in a bad situation into the "bad" category, 1) you have failed from the get-go and 2) you will be able to justify whatever bullshit you want. (And no, I'm not blaming this on Lee and Kirby. This is mostly people not reading their work but thinking they know what happens in it.)

Superhero stories have this ongoing struggle with themselves where they are torn between, on the one hand, the redemption arc and on the other, this black-and-white, tough-on-crime thinking where if you're "bad" once, you're "bad" forever. I'm not a big redemption arc person, but I don't get how people can feel this genre is at its best when it's parroting carceral mindsets brought to you by Ronald Reagan.

Anyway, stop giving Wanda red hair.

[erosconleche]

🍮Before You Follow🍮

Do Not Follow if you fall into any of these:

TERFs, SWERFs, Radfems

Aphobes/Exclusionists

Use Transandrophobia (The creator has been shown to be racist. The majority of people I've seen use this term use it to be transmisogynistic. As a trans masc, it rubs me the wrong way)

MAPS/NOMAPs/Apologists

Zionists

Antisemites, Islamophobes, Antireligion in general

Anarcho-Capitalists/Pro Capitalism

Support crypto currency/NFTs

Support Colonialism, Imperialism, Militarism, and the police

Anti-Land Back

All Lives Matter Supporters

Racists, Colorists, and Xenophobes

Misogynists, Transmisogynists, and engage in Misogynoir

"Pro-Life" AKA Anti-choice

Antivaxx

Ableists, engage in any eugenic ideas such as "We are the virus"

Pro-Ana, Pro-Mia, Pro ED in general

Anti-Recovery

You are a minor interacting with sexual content (YOU WILL BE BLOCKED INSTANTLY)

"Anti-Anti"/Supporting Abuse, Inc*st, and P*dophilia in shipping content

H*rry P*tter fans

True Crime Apologists (The people who fetishize and romanticize murders)

Please let me know if I Interact with anyone who falls into any of the above so that I can block them and delete any reblogs.

____________________________________________

Tagging and Tikkun Olam:

My post will be tagged as "eros posting"

My art will be tagged as "ahava art"

Please do not reblog anything tagged as "vent"

Sexual content will be tagged as "n/ safe"

Any content that can be triggering will be tagged as what the trigger is, some will be followed with a tw (You can always ask for me to tag something)

Things such as racism, police brutality, the holocaust, and other serious topics will be tagged with a trigger warning. This trigger warning is for the people these topics directly impact, not for everyone else to ignore

You can also send me posts and links to donations and reparations. Because tumblr sucks, that will be tagged as "tikkun olam" to try to prevent the op from being shadowbanned

[antiloreolympus]

3 Anti LO Asks

1. its easy to claim youre "flexible" in your art style when you dont do most of the art anyway and havent in years. i honestly wouldnt be shocked if the style change was more from the inker and colorist(s) part of trying to work with the loose sketches than her, tbh. you see that happen with a lot of the other webtoons with big teams (freaking romance, UnOrdinary, etc) because the actual comic looks completely different from what the creator does outside of it.

2. LMAO BUT HONESTLY its wild LO espically is like look at poor HxP! What underdogs against the world! Like how??? They're two abled bodied, "attractive", cisgendered straight, rich, 1% royalty with everyone who matters supporting them and bending backwards to defend them. What exactly is their struggle? Minthe was not a threat, Apollo is going to be punished and is no romantic rival, and we know Persephone wont be jailed for her crimes, so what, Demeter is a big meanie? Where's the conflict?

3. not even joking if LO was persephone and minthe being a couple while hades is merely the beard/someone persephone was using for power that would be a much stronger concept AND an actual deconstruction of the myth as opposed to what it is now which is played literally straight (ba dum tss) and the only "deconstruction" is in making up nonsensical ideas as fact and demonzing bi gods and women to prop up a straight, rich couple.

[kudosmyhero]

Detective Comics (vol. 1) #576: Year Two, part 2: Deal with the Devil

Read Date: July 13, 2023Cover Date: July 1987● Writer: Mike W. Barr ● Penciler: Todd McFarlane ● Inker: Alfredo Alcala ● Colorist: Adrienne Roy ● Letterer: Augustin Mas ● Editor: Dennis O'Neil ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

● ^Gordon about to piss himself in 3… 2… ● I prefer the Waynes’ killer not be known ● 👏👏👏👏

Synopsis: The crime rampage of The Reaper continues in Gotham City and the Police Department are unable to stop him from murdering criminals or even their own men. Meanwhile, Batman has recovered from his last encounter with The Reaper and has been honing his marksmanship skills with Joe Chill's gun, the same he retrieved in his childhood from the crime scene where his parents were murdered. His decision to use a firearm is disturbing to Leslie Thompkins, who finally decides to look for an apartment in order to stay away from Wayne Manor. As she makes this decision, she asks Alfred to cancel her lunch date with Rachel Caspian, but Bruce offers to replace Leslie on the date.

At that moment, Rachel is preparing to go outside and she has a conversation with her father, Judson, who can't help but remember the dreadful night in which his wife was murdered by a crook, forcing him to become The Reaper. After telling Rachel that everything he does, it's for her, he leaves her to continue her day. At noon, Rachel goes to the meeting place and is shocked to find Bruce Wayne instead of Leslie. Bruce explains the situation and the two of them go on a date, where Rachel learns more about the true depth of Bruce. When Rachel realizes that Bruce and her father are very similar, she gives in to Bruce's approaches and they make out as a result of their mutual attraction.

That night, Batman visits Commissioner Gordon at the GCPD Headquarters and tells him that his actions will probably put them at odds, but that deep down, he will remain truth to their friendship. This warning is not taken seriously by Gordon and he starts planning the capture of an important criminal from Metropolis, who is bound to arrive in Gotham. Gordon and some of his men prepare to capture Johnny Heymer as soon as he steps down from his airplane, but The Reaper beats them to the place. Gordon and the Police try to stop Reaper, but they are in turn challenged and stopped by Batman, who shoots at Gordon's gun, forcing him to drop the weapon. A new confrontation between Batman and Reaper starts, but the Dark Knight is once again, unable to defeat The Reaper. Instead, he takes Heymer out of danger, away from the place. The Police regret not being able to capture Heymer, and when they attempt to stop The Reaper, they fail as the crook also manages to escape. Left empty-handed, the Police retreat from the scene, confused with Batman's behaviour and Gordon feels betrayed.

Elsewhere, a criminal meeting is taking place and all the important crooks in the city realize their profits have decreased since the appearance of The Reaper. The criminals get anxious when Heymer doesn't appear at the scheduled time, but the criminal makes his appearance when Batman drops the thug among the rest of them. Batman makes the criminals a proposition of working together in order to capture and stop The Reaper. The crooks are unsure at first, but seeing how they have little options left, they accept Batman's proposal. However, the criminals give Batman a special partner: Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents, starting it all.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Detective_Comics_Vol_1_576)

Fan Art: Bruce and Jim by RickCelis

Accompanying Podcast: ● Batbooks for Beginners - episode 16