#i am a nerd about comics as a medium

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Your comics are so well done !! I adore the compositions, the linework and colors :D The way you approach compositions is so fun like the panels tripping over each other when Raph stumbles or the way the panel is shaped like the tunnel they’re walking through. I really look forward to seeing more of your work both in this fanwork and any future comics you work on :]

I have fun with the page layouts, composition, and panel boxes ((o(^∇^)o))

TBH one of my favourite pastimes is staring at comics made by more seasoned professional comic artists; it's so interesting to see how they layout their pages and all the fun ways the panel boxes themselves can be used as an addition to the art rather than just what contains it.

Stopping myself before I start rambling. It's so nice knowing there are folks who enjoy and notice things like that!!! Haha thank you!!

[reimenaashelyee]

Hello what do you think of Ai generated artwork and videos?

I have a whole entire blog post I wrote last year btw: The Rise of the Bots; The Ascension of the Human. (Reading it again a year later I am glad I am still validated in my thoughts)

My entire being and output as an artist is rooted in process, thought, craft and connection. I am open about my process and I share/create resources constantly. I have literally experienced the thing people mean when they say 'art transforms you' just by being so close to it every step of its making. All my comics have this centrality of personhood attached to them - if it's not obvious that the artist's hand (me) is in it, there is the characteristic focus on our emotional/cultural/artistic thread across history. Just as NFTs and what they represent were antithetical to how I interact with the world as artist and audience, so is the use of so-called AI art. NFTs and AI Art share a common hype cycle / speculative mania that comes out from an annoying vulture mindset that only knows how to eat itself to fill its belly, so I don't expect it to last too long. However I don't appreciate the damage both things have done to the utility of the internet, the degradation of art as a commercial pathway and the destruction of the image as a historical/educational/legal tool. (Which is why I am becoming more underground and turning towards alternatives like the Web Revival, small presses, curated resources and in-person communities)

The technological concept around LLM (pattern recognition and matching it to a goal), especially for medicine and statistics, is not itself problematic, especially when it follows ethical and data handling regulations that have been defined. However, when people talk generative art, what we are talking about, and fighting against, is the exploitation of resources and labour, and the further disconnection of worker = labour, human = society artificially imposed by the Corporate MBA / techno class in the pursuit of infinite stockmarket growth which then introduces a type of brainrot that can only think of things as producing value in relation to how fast one can seize for themselves Westernised Ideals of Fame and Fortune. Also like, this whole AI thing is part of the degradation of entertainment (the loss of small-to-medium outlets, constant mergers, nobody owning their digital streaming products they bought, the laundering of journalism/curation into press releases), the internet (the algorithimification of everything, constant spam, search engines getting worse, the worsening of socmedia as a tool) and the intellectual rigour of all information.

It's all part of this rot that's spreading outwards.

TL;DR bro I make all my art by hand and I am a nerd about informational integrity

[evilmagician430]

boyfriends but awesome (and instead of a webtoon its an independent webcomic)

design notes and 3ds flipnote concept art below the cut

general notes abt their designs and what the comic would be like in my head:

>they dont have names in this version cause i think that was one of the good things they did originally. i imagine they refer to eachother as "that one" "the other guy" etc like the dhmis guys when talking about eachother.

>they are not in a defined romantic relationship with eachother because i think thats more interesting, the polyamory aspect would be kept (im not polyamorous btw so im not gonna try to write an established polycule) but its more vague in that they all kind of have a thing for eachother but also hate eachother and want to rip eachothers guts out. and theyre all roommates and bffs. if you asked them what they were the answer you would get would be "friends who are boys". they are the height of male friendship, hate, love, etc.

>instead of focusing on sexualizing them in strange ways and doing boring moe shit it would lean into the comedy aspect BUT NO MEMES OR LATE 2010S SLANG !! this was something i could not fucking stand when reading the original (if you couldnt tell by now i did used to read boyfriends. it was a regrettable time and in redesigning and overhauling them i hope to make something good out of this wasted period of my life) like even when it was current boyfriends always made memes feel.. out of place. like as soon as they said it it wasnt cool anymore. it was the unfunniest shit ever

>i wanted the characters to look less WHITE and also more distinct from eachother and also less young cause in the original its like the same twink 3 times in different haircolors and their Chad. said chad is the best character only by way of not being annoying. so yeah i'll be more specific later but none of them are white and i gave them all different eye and nose shapes and distinct physical traits and bodies etc.

>mostly i just did this cause the "nerd" and "goth" ones piss me off so bad like thats not real. thats not a nerd thats just a nondescript waify femboy with glasses. thats not a goth, thats a tiktok eboy. and i felt bad for jock being trapped in this comic. and the prep one i feel nothing towards hes the most accurate to gay preps irl because they really are that annoying. but i tried to make him a little interesting atleast. anyways

nerd - black, brony, always aggressively corrects the others when they state an incorrect fact, really into playstation eyetoy and obscure playstation games. insanely autistic. usually pissed off if hes not indulging himself in something he likes (yaoi, games, ponies, figures, etc). i just wanted to overhaul him completely to make him almost nothing like refrainbow's nerd because nerd type characters are always the ones i tend to see myself in and are my favorites but reading the webtoon that guy just pissed me off fr.

jock - 2nd gen chinese american, one of the things i liked in the original actually was when they sexualized the jock (probably cause hes the only one who doesnt look 14 in that comic) and his big tits. hes a very genuinely kind guy, not the brightest, has a voracious appetite, he also still bakes cause thats cute i think.

prep - he looks different here because i was originally going to make him white but i decided to make him a light/medium skintone black guy (he just wears a blonde wig and contacts). when companies make their pride month merchandise and advertisements this is the exact person they imagine in their head who is going to buy these products. hes a million percent one of those swifties who thinks taylor swift is secretly a lesbian. trust fund kid btw obviously. his only redeeming quality is that hes good at makeup. jokes in the comic are usually made at his expense.

goth - 1st gen latino american, specifically peruvian because i am a self serving motherfucker. hes a really big numetal fan and listens to like 2000s evil wolf amv music in addition to legitimate gothic. his face changed a little too between this and the final design. his outfit completely changed but its only because i realized everyone else was dressed for relatively warm weather so it wouldnt make sense for him to be wearing multiple layers of black. if i do cold weather outfits for them id def reuse this look for him. hes still trans but i think all of them are in my version. also they dont use labels for their sexual/rom orientation. except prep hes homosexual gay.

congratulations for reaching the end of this incomprehensible bullshit 👍 hope someone enjoys this but idrc if its just for me either

[angelosearch]

This has been languishing in my drafts for a while but with the new season of The Bad Batch being dropped today, I thought maybe it would be a good time to discuss...

The Actual and Potential Star Wars References in Final Fantasy VIII

Preface: For your standard nerd, I was a very late bloomer when it came to Star Wars. The first piece of Star Wars media I actually got into was Clone Wars when I was in my mid-twenties. So the first time my husband saw me play Final Fantasy VIII, he kept saying "That's a Star Wars reference!" and I was like "pffft, no way, not everything is Star Wars."

Now revisiting this game as someone who is so into Star Wars I can give you a 60-slide PowerPoint on why I love Thrawn (recent book series version) and identify characters by just their lightsaber, I can tell you: This game has many connections to Star Wars. Honestly, I will probably miss some in this post.

And it is a long one.

But first, the spiritual connection

We all know that the Final Fantasy series is peppered with Star Wars references; perhaps most notably, Biggs and Wedge. However, I like to think the connection between FFVIII and Star Wars is a little deeper.

FFVIII and the first installment of the Star Wars prequel movies, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, both came out in 1999, which means they were both being produced around the same time. They were both extremely ambitious projects in their field. But I think one of the strongest connections is that both the movie and FFVIII were pioneers in utilizing motion capture technology, and, in doing so, completely changed their medium. (If you want to learn more about the importance of motion capture in the history of Star Wars media, I highly recommend the podcast The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks.)

This may be controversial, and I adore Episodes 1, 2 and 3 so I mean this is the utmost affection, but I kind of think of FFVIII as the "Prequels" of the Final Fantasy series. The Star Wars prequel films were reviled by long-time fans of the IP when they were first released, because they seemed silly, because they deviated from what people were used to from the series, because they took big swings, because the dialogue was a little clunky at times, because the nuance of the characters and the politics was lost on some. But, the Prequels are now being appreciated, mostly by those who grew up with them. Sound familiar?

Onto the in-game connections!

I am going to try to move from the connections that I am most certain are intended to least certain.

Biggs and Wedge. This serially demoted bumbling duo from the Galbadian army share names with Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles--two Red Squadron pilots who fight alongside Luke Skywalker.

Piet. Or should I say Piett? The space guy in FFVIII is named after the Imperial Officer Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett.

Only one of the most iconic lines in Star Wars history. When Squall goes to retrieve Ellone from the library mid-disk 2, Squall is spinning out and asks "why me?" As Ellone is leaving, she says under her breath, "You're my only hope." Um, Obi Kenobi called, he wants his Leia recording back.

EXCUSE ME, BUT IS THAT A TIE FIGHTER? Nope, that's a spaceship we briefly see when we are getting into the Lunar Base on disk 3.

Lunar Cry is a deep, deep, deep cut? Screen Rant calls this the biggest FFVIII allision to Star Wars, but I am not familiar with the comic being referenced. It's still interesting though so I'll pull the quote:

The biggest Star Wars allusion in this Final Fantasy game, however, involves the Lunar Cry phenomenon which works similarly to the pull of the tides. The gravitational pull between the moon and planet occasionally brings about the Lunar Cry, where the moon's surface becomes so saturated with monsters, that it creates a gateway for monsters to fall on and attack the planet. This is a direct parallel to how the Beast Wars started in the Dark Horse comic miniseries, Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, in which the planet of Onderon and its moon - Dxun - would connect once a year during their orbit. The native monsters of Dxun learned to use the "oxygen bridge" created from this occurrence to travel to Onderon which inevitably resulted in the Beast Wars.

NORG and Jabba. I think they look alike but also have similarities in the way they move and speak.

Martine and Nida. The Headmaster of the Galbadian Garden is named "Martine" in the English version because perhaps it was too obvious to call him "Dodonna" like he was in other translations. Jan Dodonna was one of the first generals to join the rebel alliance in Star Wars. Nida is a bit of a stretch (and honestly I didn't know this one until I looked it up) but there is a character by the name of Lorth Needa who is an imperial lieutenant commander. Like Nida, he controls a big ship (Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger) during an important battle (the Battle of Hoth).

"You can go about your business." I am pretty sure this is just part of a larger trope, but Galbadian soldiers and Storm Troopers are characterized very similarly. They are always masked, ineffectual, silly, and easily manipulated. Plus the soldiers are very weak in battle. Maybe they miss a lot of their shots?

Probably not references, but interesting parallels

Mysterious parentage/separation from sibling leads to epic destiny. Squall grew up an orphan. Being disconnected from his parents and a secure sense of home, along with living in that particular orphanage, made Squall, well, Squall. And then of course is his canon event of being separated from Ellone. Those beginnings set him on his path toward his fate. His mother is dead, possibly dying in childbirth (like Padme), he has forgotten his sister (Luke just doesn't know), and his father, not aware of his existence, is at the helm of a powerful "empire" (like Anakin/Vader). Of course, Laguna's character arc is much different from Anakin's, but I can still see a sort of "Luke, I am your father" moment happening between Squall and Laguna post-game. (Side note: Does that make Kiros and Ward R2-D2 and C-3PO???)

Gold eyes = evil. Palpatine and Anakin (as Sith lords) and Edea (when under Ultimecia's control) and Ultimecia all have gold eyes. Adel is my c-c-c-combo breaker here but I also know there are other evil characters throughout the Star Wars canon that have red eyes. (NOBODY SAY THRAWN.)

SPACCCCEE! Just space. While I am out here Charlie-Day-murder-boarding it (again) I might as well throw this in. Also, sorry sequels, but Rinoa did floating out in space and surviving because of an unseen power (the force of love?) first.

EZRA BRIDGER HAS A GUNBLADE!!! In Star Wars Rebels, Jedi-in-training (AND ORPHAN) Ezra Bridger builds his first lightsaber to have a blaster at the hilt. Also, he later gets a facial scar.

A character's home gets blown up. Sorry Trabia and Alderaan. :(

Idk, I need to look more into this but something about Esthar reminds me of Coruscant. Anybody else get that vibe?

So there you have it! My Venn Diagram of two of my favorite things. That's all the conspiracies I have time for today. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Edited for typos. Of which there were many. My apologies.

[chalkanthit]

For the SE HC ask: 4!!!

Going for SE Askboard @h0lly-hued-s0ul has made!

Ik it's a bit late but better late than never dkfbdokf

Also going for most of the youngsters bc they're my little precious weirdos uu

Offer a hobby-related headcannon for any character.

Soul

We should all be aware by now that soul is a huge music nerd even if he's pretending to be "just casual" About it but somehow I could even imagine that his guilty pleasure is also baking since... Have you seen the cute little tea and cakes he sometimes brings Maka when she's studying for exams like crazy??? He claims he just buys them from "that one little bakery" That Maka suspiciously never finds but in secret (not really) he really does them by himself and is proud when they're well liked!!

Maka

She's deffenly a little sport nerd kinda girl that got to like things like Basketball and soccer/football quite a lot, but she also would still enjoy a good book (or ten) at times as well next to solving crossword puzzles and other Puzzles and riddles!

Basically everything that makes her Brain go brrrr! Also idk how much it's connected to the hobby aspect, but I hat girl would have Duolingo on her phone and use it almost religiously every evening before bed!

Oh but also she would have a big knack for poetry and writing overall even if she's sometimes quite shy about it since Soul and Black star made fun of it a few times-

Tsubaki

Everything around gardening and cooking???

She also would simply enjoy long walks and nice quality time with her friends since Tsubaki really is this comfy person that likes a calm life but also the fun and more adventureous aspects of it;;;

A part of me can also imagine that she'd enjoy something like Yoga and Ice skating a lot when she gets the chance to do it in peace-

Black star

Sports nerd! Everything that resolves around movement and putting his brain on serotonin 24/7 with the bees on crack he apparently has in his butt-

But also we already saw that he also enjoys comics a LOT and would totally be into video games as well even if he would loose to patty constantly!

Kid

He'd actually like things that put his mind off ease? Like he very much enjoys cleaning much more in a healthy but for many weird manner since who likes cleaning am I right?? But also is very open and keen to things like Chess and plenty of other board games he most likely plays with Liz and Patty almost every Saturday night unless Liz manages to escape :')

Also hey! I can imagine him liking to draw a lot as well together with Patty Duke while listening to murder mystery podcasts-

Liz

Shopping and dancing Q U E E N!

Ik it's basic but hear me out! She just loves fashion a lot and can give people a lot of advice for this topic and would occasionally do makeovers if you let her!

She just blooms so much doing that and seeing how much people can show their other sides as a well! Also my bc especially is that it was initially her idea when Crona was kidnapped on a shopping spree and she would even just offer Ox so many hair stuff in hopes he'll finally STOP shaving it all off like bro.. PLEASE!

Other than that she also got those moves and surprisingly knows a lot about music as well so her, soul and Kilik can actually connect and vibe together super easily and well!

Patty

Again, patty is a huge art person!

Of course she likes other things like beating people up with a passion, but she just loves to be creative and takes almost every medium bc why not trying everything and see how it goes??? Life is too short to be boring and plain!! Patty would most likely also like to bake as well but her creations are.... Experimental to say the least-

At least Stein and Ragnarok do like her stuff weirdly enough..

Kim

Also a little doodle enthusiast but she really would have a knack for Crochet and knitting too since Jackie has taught her the latter! She would rather die than to admit her hobbies and pleasures but she's a big softie when it comes to her interests!

God forbid people would even find out that she likes "girly" Stuff like figure skating and dancing as well.. Oh the horror!

Omg she would also have a secret love for flower arrangements as well but that's just me having more lore and hcs for her past as well that I won't (and likely never will) fully elaborate on :'DD

Jackie

Similar to Kim she loves knitting but also has a big talent and interest in Tayloring as well?? That girl probably had a bit horse phase as well and would actually love to get back into it at some point but a horse in the middle of Nevada is a little too much to ask for-

A bicycle would do as well I guess???

Idk why but Jackie seems a little bit of a person that enjoys Theatre and Musicals a lot as well so take that for what it-

Also little side note I want to add bc it's sth very dear and personal to me but glass engraving and the like?? It just fits quite a bit to her qvq

Kilik

Batic and Linol printed shirts!

The shirts he wears? Self made! The necklace?? Probably as well!! Also another music and Sports enthusiast even if he's more into more combat related sports rather than just running around for a good time!

He seeks the thrill and the surprising so unless you throw something at him out of the blue, he'd just see it as plain and simple training-

The drums are also his hobby but it's less than a hc than it is actually canon in the manga;;;

Overall he's pretty much an everyman kinda guy that has a good amount of Hobbies and interests that overlap with many others he sees as friends!

Fire & Thunder

They're still young as hell so I can't say AS much about them as I like to but they give a lot of crafty energy and would probably get a collecting hobby phase as well like for crystals and all!

Less for the esoteric aspect but more for the minerals itself!

Ox

Again not as much of an HC than it is a fact, but that guy takes a lot or enjoyment into research and other things that make his brain tingle like chess for example! Like he just LOVES burying himself into old history and folklore about plenty of topics and cultures and can easily spend days in it if Harvar wouldn't remind him to eat something in between-

Again I really don't know why, but something in me also knocks at my brain doors and continuesly shoves the HC in my head that Ox actually has a talent to actually draw?? Not like Patty where it's very imaginary and expressive, but more in a sense of scenes and architecture!! Basically pretty black and white and stuff!!

Harvar

It's super ironic but like Kim he actually has some hobbies he either won't admit to or people simply wouldn't believe it since why would a guy like him he interested in something like THAT???

Like liking to go swimming is one thing people could still get behind bc he hates boredom with a passion so it's good to stay active but him actually being into exact the same comics as black star is just super funny in my and it's very much the absolute opposite of Harvar sooo..

Omg but on top of that just.. Imagine him actually do liking video games but nothing like a souls game, but f*cking animal Crossing-

Of course he also likes research and chess a lot like Ox (even tho he's by far more competitive there) but he screams like Modelling as well! (The crafty stuff like building trains or Lego etc)

He just SUCKS at art tho which actually frustrated him-

Bonus

Crona

Crona most likely would catch some interest for poetry and other writing related things as well since they can actually express themselves much better with it without having to speak about it and they don't even have to show it to others as well.. It actually already helps that it exists in the first place and that they have something they can look at like "I made that!"

Aka bullet journaling sounds like sth tame enough for them but still sth to keep their mind somewhere unrelated to u know.. The whole childhood ordeal-

Basically they would enjoy many things that won't put Crona into the spotlight or that is to be shared forcefully so even if it's just reading something, it's just.. Nice;;

Also please give Crona sth calm like Animal Crossing-

Let them share an island with Harvar or Maka dkxbfodndp

Gopher

He sees something that peeks his (or Noah's) intetest, he HAS to overanalyze it and write every crucial detail down!

Like we don't just talk about one smarty little journal! I'm talking about whole Bookshelves worth of Infos written by that puppet alone!! Even his calligraphy and poetry/writing skills and hobbies are top notch and would rub it under Makas nose a LOT!

Hell he would do it so much that even Ox would have to remind him that he was meant to be Makas super annoying rival and not him pfffff!

(You could say that annoying Maka is also a passion of Gopher)

He would actually like to just casually fly and travel around a lot as well even if it's something he just does to get a job done.. If he'd focus more on the aspect itself, there would be much more appreciation etc!!

Also God forbid but he'd be into dnd as well-

My brain tells me to so it must be true!/j

THANKS FOR COMING TO MY INCOHERENT RAMBLING!!!

[honoka-marierose]

Beloved YouTuber Ben Potter, known as Comicstorian online, has died in an “unfortunate accident.”

He was 40 years old.

“Two days ago, on June 8th, my husband, Ben Potter, passed away in an unfortunate accident,” his wife, Nathalie Potter, posted on his X account Monday.

Beloved YouTuber Ben Potter, known as Comicstorian online, has died at 40 after an “unfortunate accident.”

“To many of you, he was Comicstorian, voicing stories from across multiple different mediums. To his loved ones, he was one of the best and most supportive individuals anyone could ask for,” the grieving widow wrote to his fans.

Nathalie explained how her husband was the “rock” of their family off camera, and he always did “his best to make everyone laugh and make sure they were okay.

“As a husband, a son, a brother, a friend, or even just a stranger, Ben was loving and genuine. He was someone who would listen and make time for his loved ones,” she wrote.

“His channel was one of his greatest accomplishments, and while we all need our time to mourn him, I know he wouldn’t want it to end like this.”

Potter’s wife shared that she and his team plan to keep his channel going to “honor him by continuing to tell great stories by great people, as well as to keep the memory of our very own superhero alive.”

His wife, Nathalie Potter, explained that off camera, her husband was the “rock” of their family and always did “his best to make everyone laugh and make sure they were okay.”@Comicstorian/X

“We supported each other on everything we wanted to do and I’m not about to stop now.”

His cause of death remains unknown.

Potter launched his YouTube channel in 2014 and gained a massive following of over 3 million subscribers in the years following.

He made his bones off his love for comics by creating audio dramas for his YouTube channel.

The self-proclaimed comic nerd also shared videos on the channel expressing his opinions, reviews, and close analyses of various comic books and superhero products, most notably those from Marvel and DC films.

Potter launched his YouTube channel in 2014 and gained a massive following of over 3 million subscribers.

@Comicstorian/Instagram

The superhero enthusiast also had a gaming channel called Eligible Monster Gaming with nearly 200,000 subscribers, where he would discuss “video game lore” from fan-favorite franchises like “Assassin’s Creed” and “Resident Evil.”

Potter also had a self-named vlog and manga channel, Mangastorian, which features comics or graphic novels from Japan.

His opinions and insight on comics and gaming made him a beloved figure online, with many of his fans expressing their sadness at the news of his death.

The self-proclaimed comic nerd also shared videos on the channel expressing his opinions, reviews, and close analyses of various comic books and superhero products, most notably those from Marvel and DC films.

@Comicstorian/Instagram

“He did so much for so many. I am absolutely gutted to hear this. Rest in peace, Ben,” one fan commented under Nathalie’s post.

“I’m sorry for your loss. Ben was a huge inspiration to me. This is truly heartbreaking,” another shared.

“My heart completely sank reading this, oh my god… I’m extremely sorry for your loss, Nathalie. Ben’s name rung so many bells in the comic book community & is a main reason why so many of us are involved with characters the way we are today. May his soul Rest in Peace,” wrote another fan.

Potter’s final video, “Why DC’s Reboots Beat Marvel,” was posted on June 7 — a day before his death — and has already gained over 160,000 views and over 7,000 comments.

Many have continued to express their condolences and write heartfelt messages about why they were fans in the comment section of his final video.

[dcpridefanzine]

Creator Spotlight || Henry J. @clockheartedcrocodile

Henry is a skilled writer and fantastic collaborator who has brought THREE different scripts to our Pride Special, dedicating his amazing talent to each and every one of them.

Henry has been quick to step up, fun to collaborate with and just as excited about this project as I am! His grasp of the characters he writes is incredibly strong and his writing is evocative and captivating. In his own words, Henry J. is a gay trans guy, an overwhelmed grad student, and a huge DC comics nerd! He currently lives in New England with his friends and loved ones.

Tell us a bit about yourself, Henry!

I’ve been writing fanfiction for years, ever since I was a teenager, and am currently (slowly) working on a sci-fi novel set during the Napoleonic wars. Maybe one day, I’ll find the time to finish it! Currently I’m a grad student aiming for an MLIS in digital archiving. Between that and my other creative writing hobbies, I’m kept pretty busy! I’m enormously proud of all of my work, but one of my particular favorites is this one in which I translated a full episode of Black Sails into Shakespearean verse. The dialogue in that show just lends itself so well to iambic pentameter!

What a cool project! So what draws you to comics? How have they impacted you and/or your writing?

The allure of comics, particularly DC comics (at least for me) is that there’s this big, sprawling, incomprehensible mythology to it. Each character has been written, drawn, and read by so many different people that they become these strange, confusing amalgamations of all these different facets of themselves. My Lex Luthor and your Lex Luthor are so different from each other, they might as well be two different characters, yet they’re both still, undeniably, Lex Luthor. No other storytelling medium has this kind of flexibility.

Can you give us a little hint about what you're working on for the Pride Special?

I’ve written several comics for this zine, and I’m insanely excited about all of them! As a huge fan of the Flash, being able to write a short comic for Captain Cold and the Rogues was an absolute dream. I’ve also written an interactive adventure for Xanthe- a nonbinary newcomer to the DC world- and an intimate, heavier piece about queer experiences, featuring The Ray, Ghost-Maker, and The Shadow.

We'll give you a taste of Henry's work as well as other amazing stories soon!! Thanks again to Henry J for being such an incredible collaborator and writer!

You can check out more of Henry's work here!

[julianova44]

Comics are hard sometimes

I was giving some feedback to another comics artist, and starting writing out a whole thing about how making visual communication is difficult and deeply rooted in both cultural norms and norms of the medium, but then I realized that was way more off-topic and decided to write out my thoughts here.

One of the people I like to run my art by is my dad. This is not because he's particularly well versed as an art critic. He is a complex human with fascinating tastes and a lot to say about a lot of media in a lot of contexts, but in visual art he tends towards the representative and simple. He is not a comics reader. He is almost certainly allistic, while I am not. He is a nerd, but not a pop-culture nerd.

So if he's not the kind of person who would typically interact with the sort of visual language I rely on all the time, why is he so helpful?

The reason I often run pages by him is *because* he is not a comics reader. He doesn't have the shared mental icon library that a lot people who have been reading comics for a long time have. He is as close as possible to what in a scientific study might be called treatment naive, where the treatment is comics.

My dad is my control group, because I can show pages to friends who think similarly and have read a lot of the same stuff and who all have similar shorthands, even if we don't know it, in how we see and process comics, and they'll see and understand in a similar way that I see and understand, and don't see the areas where maybe I rely too much on a visual shorthand, where I've used the conventions of the medium or genre in a way that excludes people who are only just starting to read modern comics. He has questions, and critiques, (some of which I decide to address and others I don't), that might not occur to others.

Comics- art in general, really- is often an exercise in trying to predict how others will interpret what you have made. With comics and visual art, there is a lot more automatic processing compared to, for example, prose, just due to how vision works. In parsing prose, you can say "A broken table"; but in a visual medium, a broken table is full of angles not normally seen, and perspectives that are hard to parse if we weren't expecting it.

This is a bit of a ramble, but the main point I am getting to is: Sometimes what I think is obvious on a page really isn't, and the kind of feedback that helps me refine my art is often from people who don't know what they're looking at.

[usaghinanami99]

how are you into devilman

Fine, thanks, how about you? Kidding, kidding. I know what you're asking (and I know I'm late answering...): I don't seem like the type of person that would post about something like Devilman, right? Well, the reason behind my getting into it is actually the simplest you can think of: as the most cursory glance at my blog can show, I am an animanga nerd (and for many other things too, but that's a story for another day). I've also been a literary nerd since my dad taught me to read, and now I'm a Literarure student, to boot. My burning passion for literary creation and, crucially, for acquiring knowledge about it (through reading it first-hand, of course) thus plays an enormous part in the way I read and/or watch non-literary texts, which I never choose to engage with any less seriously than I'd do with anything else. And, well, you know how there are some books that you can't not read if you want to understand the literary history of a particular country and/or language? When the medium we're concerning ourselves with is manga, then we can't not read Devilman the same way we can't not read Astro Boy, Attack no. 1, The roses of Versailles or dozens other milestones in the history of Japanese comic that I can't list here and now. I've known that Devilman was among these required readings for a long time, because its immense importance was always referenced in all the books and magazines about the history of manga that I devoured as a Gymnasium student. And my curiosity only grew with the years, because the comic book shop I was a regular at couldn't obviously sell me a series with such a high age rating before I turned 18. You can add to that the fact that I thought I was already well-acquainted with Gō Nagai, when in fact I was only familiar with family-friendly animated adaptations of his most famous works. This is because since around the age of 7 I had watched and rewatched the Robotic Trilogy anime (which consists of Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robot Grendizer), as well as the unrelated Jeeg Robot, be it via some of the very frequent TV reruns or via videotapes that my mum had recorded at the end of the last century. Grendizer, in particular, is very dear to my mum because she grew up on it during the late 70's, so to put is shortly she made it so it could become a part of my childhood too. (Off-topic side note: she was very excited when news of the upcoming Grendizer U reboot aired on TV, but I fear she'll be disappointed due to it being written by the same Ichirō Ōkōchi who's brought us Devilman Crybaby...) Putting it simply: I knew I liked these anime series so I thought I liked Gō Nagai, which fostered my desire to read this all-important but forbidden Gō Nagai manga that I kept on reading about. How things have changed... It may be repeated too much, but it's just because it's true: no one respects Gō Nagai more than those who only known him cursorily through Tōē Dōga's classic adaptations of his giant robot stories, but no one hates Gō Nagai more than those who have actually endured reading his manga.

This was just the needlessly long story behind why, as you can see, I had the moral duty to read Devilman. Flash forward to early 2017, I turn 18, I go to the comic book shop, I buy Devilman, I return home, I read Devilman, I am traumatised, I begrudgingly recognise its genius, I am still disgusted, I develop a (probably unhealthy) love-hate relationship with this manga. Not with Gō Nagai though, that one is a pure hate relationship. BTW, you can imagine how shocked I was when I discovered that my childhood fave Tōkyō Mew Mew was secretly a Devilman retelling; I am just glad I hadn't yet watched stuff like, say, Neon genesis Evangelion before reading Devilman, but this just proved how right I was about there being some manga that should be required reading before passing on to... well, everything else.

I unfortunately suffer from a terminal form of completism syndrome, which is how I ended up searching Japanese blogs for info about those silly pachinko cutscenes that have sparked your question. But in fact, Devilman may very well be what is slowly curing me, since I was so horrified from some of the later official material I've read, not even mitigated by the redeeming virtues of the original manga, that more and more I'm starting to reconsider my stance about having to read and watch *everything* about any particular franchise I get into. I wish I didn't have to learn this the hard way, though... and that I had some brain bleach handy, sigh. Yes, I hate Gō Nagai. Yes, I hate almost all the non-70's Devilman stuff that I've read or watched so far (to the point that I don't know whether to go on or not). Yes, sometimes I wish I could warn my younger self. But historical knowledge is one of the things I value most and, if I hadn't read this foundational title, what sort of pseudo manga fan would I be today? And I love Ryō Asuka to death - don't we all? - along with many future characters and stories by different authors that he paved the way for. These are the two things that I reckon make it worth it to be into something as infuriating and terrifying as Devilman.

[canmom]

assorted manga comments

Berserk is back! I imagine that will inspire some complicated feelings for Kouji Mori, but I’m glad he has the means to continue his friend’s life’s work. It is something I very much want to do for Fall - I can’t become a translator like her, although I am now making progress in Japanese, but I wish to try and keep alive her love of languages and attitude towards life. If any of my friends left an unfinished work, and I thought they’d trust me to finish it, I would want to do the same.

Anyway, these new chapters don’t really move things forward too much, but they do show that Mori et al. can hit the same incredible visual complexity that they were under Miura. Not surprising because I’m sure they were drawing a lot of the manga even before Miura died. I just hope that they’re getting to work at a reasonable pace, because one person dying of likely overwork is already far, far too many.

I started reading Fire Punch, the earlier manga by Chainsaw Man author Tatsuki Fujimoto. I also read his one-shot Goodbye, Eri. It’s very interesting seeing multiple works by the same author like this: you get a sense of what motifs they find especially interesting, which in Fujimoto’s case seems to be getting dommed by a girl who’s obsessed with movies, and characters with healing factors.

Fire Punch is a big step up in grimdark compared to Chainsaw Man - it’s rare to go a chapter without at least one of attempted (sometimes actual) rape, slavery or dismemberment. It is an amoral world where human life has become very cheap and those with power are unafraid to treat people entirely instrumentally - where people with superpowers are common but likely to be used as human batteries or sources of meat. In many ways it reminds me of the earlier chapters of Berserk, but there is a certain harsh dryness to it, in contrast to Berserk’s shōjo-influenced emphasis on emotion; characters state their desires and intentions plainly, and it focuses often on characters who treat violence dispassionately. It doesn’t yet have the dash of humour that came in with Chainsaw Man, and its action compositions haven’t quite reached the same unbelievable level, but you can see the ingredients of Chainsaw Man.

I think Fujimoto is a very interesting author; he has a deep fascination with the structures of domination and cruelty, but also a very interesting eye towards narrative structure and especially cinema. Much like the film nerd guy in Paprika, characters will talk about filmmaking in ways that will be reflected in the design of the comic itself. Both Fire Punch and Goodbye Eri feature the device of a movie-obsessed character wanting to make someone’s life into a movie by filming everything that happens; in Fire Punch she’s much more determined to direct and edit, while Eri is more of a critic bringing out the art in the main character, and it does some fun things blurring the lines of what’s ‘real’.

The visual style of all three of these manga - especially Goodbye Eri with its motion blur, and most of the panels diegetically being shot from the POV of a camera - also makes heavy reference to cinema. Fujimoto’s ‘camera’ is very cinematic: he’s very good at drawing faces in perspective from a variety of angles, which allows quite subtle body language to be conveyed. And he loves his huge special effects panels of a huge building getting smashed to pieces. But despite this, his drawings of characters - typically with minimal shading - tend to feel like they have an appealing simplicity with the very even, neat lines. He has a particular way of drawing eyes which is very characteristic, I think. I should do some studies of it. His fire effects in Fire Punch meanwhile are absolutely fantastic - incredible use of value and texture in a black and white medium.

Made in Abyss also updated - plus we have a continuation of the anime to look forward to soon so that’s exciting. It’s the start of a new arc, which seems to mean a really massive update of something like 90 pages, which bring a bunch of new characters, including a really big girl which is fun... the new guys seem surprisingly sympathetic at first glance, which means Tsukishi probably has something really horrifying waiting round the corner. That man can do some crazy things with tone and rounded shapes - the sense of depth in some of his backgrounds! The MCs are getting really close to the bottom of the Abyss, so I imagine some of those long running plot arcs might come to a head - if not in this arc then maybe in the next. Honestly I’m kind of looking forward of the anime treating the previous arc just because there were so many characters to keep track of, so a second run through would probably be good lmao.

And... It’s not manga, but also read a few pages of Finder by Carla Speed McNeill. I really want to get a physical copy, but oof, £40 per collected volume is a lot of money. I think this is definitely a series I want to be able to fully concentrate on, so expect detailed commentary on that later haha...

[quandaryqueen]

My thoughts on each Riddler

I have a fever and was feeling like I need to state my mind about each individual Riddler there in Batman medium. Obviously not including all of them because the comic book universe is heavily convuled.

This piece is brought to you by me and my delirious ass, enjoy. This doesn't follow any criteria, it's just me going off. As this progresses, I grow unhinged.

💚 Gotham 7/10

My first ever Riddler crush, he's the one who introduced me to the Riddler rabbit hole and the reason why I watched Gotham. Love the season one counterpart because I'm a softie for tall ass dork with glasses who are inherently pathetic. But then season 2 rolled around and I find myself wanting this little bitch to submit to me because like... Nothing fills me with satisfaction than see dominant people fall to their knees in submission.

Though I absolutely hated the relationship he has like, really? Isabella? Lee? Aight before anyone of you comes at me, I love those two gals but not just WITH Eddie. Tbh I stopped watching Gotham because of school works and EdLee. Like, omg kill me.

💚 Young Justice 7/10

He's barely appeared in it, but like, 👁️👅👁️ awooga I knew I've always liked them dweeby nerds. First I wasn't into his voice (cough because I have a thing for voices too) but like it grew on me and god I'd kill to hear his voice crack.

Idk why, I find it adorable when voice cracks it's just so stinken cute ugh. Like this boy sputtering out amid a conversation, flustered, can't even be coherent, then his voice cracks so he reddens more in embarrassment and cover his face?

Okay but anyways, yea I love him. Wished we had more of this little bitch. I like my men flustered and unable to talk from it, thank you very much. I want to break his pelvis by riding him and make him unable to speak and walk properly for the next few days.

💚 Arkhamverse 8/10

This pathetic washed out sewer rat has my neck in a chokehold of love, I LOVE HIM YOUR HONOUR! JRNFNDJCJ it's just that he's so... Rat looking. Though I must say, I have my eyes in his more... Sane looking days at Origin, so fucking sassy and sarcastic and cute and adorable and pretty and look at his slappable ass.

Thoo, I just know if I were to be in a relationship with a person like him irl, I'd fucking leave at like day 3 because your girl, this girl has seen enough red flags and can't really be bothered to take care of men who treat you like trash.

But anyways! I like this dude, he's so well-written and god I'm such a slut that I didn't even played the games and yet I simp and write for this dude like I know his entire story.

💚 Harley Quinn 7/10

Sarcastic, sassy, bitchy, smart, BUFF! God with every muscle he gains the more he loses his smarts, but I don't mind 👀

Since Harley Quinn is getting season three soon, I wish he will have more screen time because gosh I live for this bastard and every single quips he has with other characters.

💚 Batman the animated series 8/10

Honey pie, sugar bunch 🥰

Man got me smiling like a dork, this dork is just ugh. I love him, there's nothing more to say.

💚 The war of jokes and riddles 7/10

THIS MAN CAN MAKE ME DO THINGS WITH A SINGLE LEER AT MY DIRECTION, YES I AM AT HIS DISPOSAL JUST KEEP LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. TALK DIRTY? NAH, RIDDLE ME DADDY~

💚 Batman Unburied 8/10

This man had singlehandedly revived my voice kink, ik ik I'm a crazy bitch but some people can have me at the tip of their fingers with their voices alone, get me?

I love how fucking annoying and irritating he is but at some point something about him broke my heart like um??? SIS YOU DESERVE BETTER 😭

But like, every time he speaks my eyes are hearts and I'm beaming like an idiot.

Also, iconic bitch 👌

Hah jencjdjfif can't wait for season two, aka more him.

💚 The Batman 2022 8/10

Get this incel away from me—

Okay at a portrayal standpoint, I love the acting of Paul Dano and the new flavour he brought for the new Riddler. He's scary, I was unnecered at him screaming, the Ave Maria singing activated my fight or flight response, but personally I like my Riddlers yassified.

But yea, I love this adaptation, but would I fuck? No ahahahahhahaha

[juneberrie]

could i get a gardenia? I hope your going to have a good day!

I was wondering if you could ship me with someone from Stranger Things (Pref a boy)

I am a female korean who is 4'11 (im not a child i swear just short) I have black shaggy medium length hair. It's kinda like a wolf cut but with a side part. I have pale skin and wear black circle glasses. I'm about 98 pounds and pretty small ahem chest area. Also a Pisces.



I normally wear baggy clothes sorta vintage/goblincore style its hard to explain. My normal wear is a baggy dark sage green shirt with a black long sleeve under it. With baggy ripped jeans and black worn out converse. No makeup on this face except cherry chapstick.



I'm a shy distant person and very awkward at first. But get to know me i can be sorta funny and goofy. Also a bit weird i try not being to annoying or bother some so thats why sometimes im distant. I tend to over think things and my relationships with people. I have major social anxiety and ADHD well im not that hyper anymore but still i space off, get distracted, forget alot of things, and cant sit still sometimes. For being shy im not afraid to stand up for what i believe in but not when being bullied. I'm a feminist to the core! I have mommy issues and im very insecure about myself. Also my scars from things on my body. Im adopted from korea now with a german family. Im often a target for bullying and im pretty clumsy.  Can be oblivious and childish. I can get flustered very easily.



Some of the things i like to do is drawing and painting. I also play video games a lot (im sorta a nerd). I love listening to music you can always find me with earbuds in. My music taste is all over the place only thing i wont listen to is country. I mostly listen to vintage, indie, piano, metal, and rock. I play dnd still to this day i first did as a kid. I love reading comics or poetry. I love gardening well most of the time.



I can be such a hopeless romantic sometimes in my opinion daydreaming about my crush or people. I would be the type of partner to draw you stuff or make a playlist for you. I love cuddling, hugs, hand holding, and drawing on your hand if you let me. I always thinking of gifts to give my partner when i have one.

-thanks in advanced!!

hey babe! im pretty sure this is for my friend ivy ( @sw34terw34ther )’s 200 followers event <3

[incoherentbabblings]

I was wondering how do you feel about Dark Crisis YJ if you are still reading it?

I am reading it but honestly I don't really have many thoughts about it save that it's kind of being mean spirited to the fans of that gen of comics - very much reads like a put down of a stereotypical 90s comic book nerd... I don't really like the tone nor the characterisations to be honest. I'm not a huge fan of YJ on the best of days to be fair, I haven't read the 90s series in literally years at this point, so I imagine there are others who can identify issues and problems more than me. I do like her Bart to be fair. Tim and Conner are bloody useless though. And Cassie is floundering around slowly... I'm reading out of an obligation to be honest. Which isn't exactly what you want from your audience.

Meghan is...not a very good writer to be honest. It doesn't bode great for the upcoming Robin series. Or at least my opinion going into it. She's so incredibly clunky with her dialogue and exposition that I find her stuff really hard to read. She's very much a tell don't show author. Which is baffling but not uncommon problem weirdly, considering comics are such a visual medium.

[mendesxruel]

Hey I hope your going to have a good day!

I was wondering if you could ship me with someone from Harry Potter? (Pref a boy kinda confused rn) (im a huffle puff)

I am a female korean who is 4'11 (im not a child i swear just short i aint going no more either) I have black shaggy medium length hair. It's kinda like a wolf cut but with a side part. I have pale skin and wear black circle glasses. I'm about 98 pounds and pretty small ahem chest area.



I'm a shy distant person and very awkward at first. But get to know me i can be sorta funny and goofy. Also a bit weird i try not being to annoying or bother some so thats why sometimes im distant. I tend to over think things and my relationships with people. I have major social anxiety and ADHD well im not that hyper anymore but still i space off, get distracted, forget alot of things, and cant sit still sometimes. Im also adopted from korea by a german family. For being shy im not afraid to stand up for what i believe in but not when being bullied. I'm a feminist to the core! I have mommy issues and im very insecure about myself. Also my scars from things on my body.



Some of the things i like to do is drawing and painting. I also play video games a lot (im sorta a nerd). I love listening to music you can always find me with earbuds in. My music taste is all over the place only thing i wont listen to is country. I mostly listen to vintage, indie, piano, metal, and rock. I play dnd still to this day i first did as a kid. I love reading comics or poetry.

-Thanks in advanced

i ship you with...

George Weasley!

i think george would be patient with you and would always be there for you if you ever needed him, like in social gatherings he'd be your safe person; he'd also think ur so cool for your music taste and your interests!<3

[geekfanficwriter]

Hey I hope your going to have a good day!

I was wondering if you could ship me with someone from Stranger Things?

I am a female korean who is 4'11 (im not a child i swear just short) I have black shaggy medium length hair. It's kinda like a wolf cut but with a side part. I have pale skin and wear black circle glasses. I'm about 98 pounds and pretty small ahem chest area. Also a Pisces.



I'm a shy distant person and very awkward at first. But get to know me i can be sorta funny and goofy. Also a bit weird i try not being to annoying or bother some so thats why sometimes im distant. I tend to over think things and my relationships with people. I have major social anxiety and ADHD well im not that hyper anymore but still i space off, get distracted, forget alot of things, and cant sit still sometimes. i'm a feminist to the core! I have mommy issues and im very insecure about myself. Also my scars from things on my body. Im adopted from korea now with a german family. Im often a target for bullying and im pretty clumsy.  Can be oblivious and childish.

Some of the things i like to do is drawing and painting. I also play video games a lot (im sorta a nerd). I love listening to music you can always find me with earbuds in. My music taste is all over the place only thing i wont listen to is country. I mostly listen to vintage, indie, piano, metal, and rock. I play dnd still to this day i first did as a kid. I love reading comics or poetry. I love gardening well most of the time.

I can be such a hopeless romantic sometimes in my opinion daydreaming about my crush or people. I would be the type of partner to draw you stuff or make a playlist for you. I love cuddling, hugs, hand holding, and drawing on your hand if you let me. I always thinking of gifts to give my partner when i have one.

You didn’t specify a gender you wanted for your ship so I’m just going to assume you don’t mind either gender!

So I ship you with…

Eddie!

Okay so first of all you mentioned that you play DnD so obviously you’d get on well with Eddie. I sort of him struggling to understand that a girl likes DnD and comic books (because it was the 80s) but he’s definitely open to idea and pretty quickly accepts you into the group. Of course, the more you showed your nerdy side to him, the more he would fall for you. It definitely wouldn’t take long for him to just be looking at you with heart eyes especially once he found out you also listened to metal music.

As someone with ADHD myself, I 100% read Eddie as also having ADHD and so I think once he saw you opening up and becoming more goofy and weird with him, he would definitely match that energy. I can imagine the two of you together would just constantly be bouncing off each other’s energies and encouraging the other to act more and more childish. I think he needs someone in his life who understands why he acts the way he does and doesn’t judge him.

I don’t think Eddie particularly cares about the height of his girlfriend but he would definitely be so sweet with a shorter girl. I could imagine him just constantly cuddling up to you and resting his head on top of yours. He would definitely tease you for your height but it would be in a sweet way. Just letting your know how much he loved how tiny you were next to him.

Once you opened up to Eddie about your bullying he would be very understanding and completely protective of you. He would make sure that no one ever said anything about you and god help them if they did cause he would absolutely reign hell over them. He understands that you’re your own person who can protect themselves but he absolutely just wouldn’t be able to help himself from protecting you (although he would totally apologise after if you were annoyed with him and beg you for forgiveness).

Playlists! Eddie would 100% make you mixtapes of all the songs that reminded him of you. Every time he got a new album he would listen through it for songs he could play to show you how much he loved you. Not only would he make you playlists but he would also write you songs. He would regularly rush you through to his room and grab his acoustic guitar, playing these songs that he had written about you and then looking at you with those big brown eyes to see if you liked it.

I think Eddie would struggle with accepting gifts as it’s not something he was used to but he would slowly get used to it, especially if your love language was gift giving and he knew it made you happy. He would definitely prefer small gifts, like his favourite chocolate bar or food you’d made yourself. Although if you gave him flowers, especially ones grown in your own garden he would probably cry and hug you.

[thedevotionaltour]

i can't lie to you i am the most horrific nerd stereotype i will be pretentious about my stupid sci fi show and also honest to god comics. but less about specific series and more about them as a whole and different genres of them because if you try to discredit them as a medium im going to fucking kill you especially if you've never read any comics. MAKE AN EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE DISSING. i don't even deserve the pretention it simply Is. but sometimes what makes me feel like im being pretentious is also just having basic knowledge and sometimes ppl just see you as having normal knowledge as you being gatekeeper. but sometimes i am being a truly pretentious obnoxious cunt. depends how i feel that day and who im speaking with.