#i was originally going to my the exclusive illustration

[quartergremlin]

The Legacy of Genius Built Industries: Exclusive Interview with Othello Von Ryan

transcript and process under the cut

Year after year, Genius Built Industries captures the world's attention as they roll out neigh-fantastical devices and systems dedicated to making all our lives a little bit better.

This time, instead of an industry-shaking tech development, the thing that has eyes turning towards GBI is a personal change: the first public appearance of real-life giant and part-time superhero Othello Von Ryan's children.

I've been invited back into Von Ryan's lab for and exclusive interview with their small family.

Von Ryan's personal lab is just as i remember it - perfectly organized and violently purple - but now it's a little more crowded.

For now, Von Ryan has put away the projects to give their attention to their equally purple children.

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. - just as tall as Von Ryan themself - leans away from his insistent parent, armed with a spray bottle and a cloth and attempting to wipe down the screen that makes up the bottom half of his face. On Von Ryan's other side, P.S.D.D. kicks zir legs and laughs at zir brother.

This doesn't last long, as zir eye is next. When they're done, both teens are shiny and irritated.

And yes, Othello Von Ryan's children do - to the best of my knowledge - seem to be hyper-intelligent robots.

Johnson:

I know you hate beating around the bush, so I'm just going to say it: your kids are androids.

Othello Von Ryan:

Friendly laugh. It would seem so.

J:

You must admit, it's a little surprising, especially considering your previous comments on artificial intelligence. That, and your history of forging your own path against the usual hype-based trends of the tech industry.

(S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and P.S.D.D. both seem to cringe at the comparison. Von Ryan quite literally turns their nose up.)

OVR:

Scoff! My children are nothing like what my competitors would call "artificial intelligence"! Their version is nothing more than an overhyped word scrambler with illusions of grandeur! A parrot residing within a thin-walled apartment complex could do a better job.

Additionally, I created Shelly and D.D. when I was in my teens. The "tech industry" is stuck chasing my tail, as always.

J:

Really? That long ago? A.I. as we know it today was only just gaining popularity! Why not re-create a version for the consumer market?

S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N.:

We were accidents.

OVR:

(Very clearly embarrassed)

No, that doesn't sound like me.

S:

I was a glorified roomba, Pops.

OVR:

You could do much more than a mere roomba!

P.S.D.D:

I was a bed!

[bogleech]

Also going to finally make a pinned post for all my stuff:

BOGLEECH - my tumblr blog is named after this website I created around 2002 and still update. Thousands of pages worth of content focusing on creature design as well as real biology. My review of the original Legend of Zelda monsters might be the most straightforward example of my articles. Links to some of the most popular content:

POKEMON REVIEW ARCHIVE: - I rate and review each and every single Pokemon, in Pokedex order, on its merits as a creature design. I also do so as someone whose favorite animals are all parasites.

DIGIMON REVIEW ARCHIVE - same, but more chaotic.

CREEPYPASTA COOKOFF ARCHIVE - for several years I hosted a yearly writing contest before it grew too big for me to keep up with. There are over a thousand user submitted horror, fantasy, sci fi and surrealist stories here emphasizing unconventional, original ideas you seldom see from the "creepypasta" community!

The original "MORTASHEEN" Monster Archive - since the early 2000's I've created and illustrated more than 800 creatures and counting for my own monster-catching world, now set for release as a tabletop RPG setting.

AWFUL HOSPITAL: SERIOUSLY THE WORST EVER (page one): an interactive comedy-horror-sci-fi webcomic I started in 2014 about a medical facility that could maybe be better.

Some of my other internet stuff:

PATREON - constant work makes my patreon updates inconsistent, but the content backlog goes back years with a huge amount of exclusive art and writing. I try to put up new exclusive stuff whenever I can.

ETSY - I design all sorts of original enamel pins like these, plus I sell zero-maintenance terrarium plants (just leave them in a jar!), original books and other things!

COLOR THE ABYSS (available on the above etsy!) - a 30 page educational deep sea coloring book! Includes a few famous favorites like giant isopods and hagfish, but mostly focuses on less popular, often much weirder animals.

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS - also regularly restocked in the etsy store, 30 of the strangest and most surprising arthropods most people have likely never heard of, illustrated by myself and @revretch, written for even the youngest kids to understand (but will likely teach you something new at any age)

My Itch.io and Ko-fi - both sell digital versions of my books, including some creepypasta collections and my first novel, "Return of the Living," about a world of entirely ghosts suddenly dealing with the appearance of ghost-hunting monsters.

TWITCH CHANNEL - I now try to stream something at least monthly, sometimes weekly when possible, from horror games to books and art.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - archives my twitch streams and other little things.

INSTAGRAM - look at pictures of my huge weird collection of toys and Halloween collectibles

BLUESKY - I'm going to put mainly just updates to my stuff on here. SEE ALSO:

HUMANS-B-GONE - a science fiction animated series by my partner @revretch, about a world of kaiju-size, technologically advanced insects and arachnids to whom vertebrates like us are just pesky little "gubs." Also has a tumblr account @humansbgone FINALLY, HERE'S MY GUIDE AND RESOURCE TO MAKING YOUR OWN INTERNET WEBSITE IN A FEW MINUTES WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF CODING

[beatcroc]

a year!!! as of today i have now been drawing these funny little pizza freaks, to the exclusion of almost everything else, for!!! an entire year!!! i wanted to do a nice group shot/lineup of everybody to compare to when i first started trying to draw them because oh boy were they bad. i never even posted most of them anywhere because they were so bad. but im posting them here, now, to see how everything's changed/evolved.

this is probably the hardest time i've ever had trying to figure out how to work with a style, but we got there eventually; i'm pretty happy with the handle i've got on everybody now...dont let ur memes be dreams. lots of unimportant journaling and idle thoughts abt it below.

older pics

the first one is the VERY first time i drew them, before i thought i was going to actually have any interest in drawing them [lmao]; it was just the one isolated image, for my friendserver, to illustrate the funney message, so there was no attempt to make it Good or actually understand anything going on w/ the designs or style.

second is the original run of practices sketches to start trying to figure them out for real; done after i started having ideas for the comics and such and realized oh god maybe i am actually gonna draw fanart for this. [again, lol, and lmao.]

third one is the first pt art thing i posted on here. there were a couple weeks of sprite studies between this one and the previous image. the one on the top right wasn't part of that post i just threw it on as space filler; i'd intended to shift to doing Sprite Redraws But Stylized to explore tings more, but that was the only one i did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

individual characters

peppino: by far the hardest dear god. bro what ARE your shapes how DOES your face work. jesus christ. everything i have trouble with this style for, peppino has it in excess. i draw in polygons! i need consistency! and that is the last thing this kind of style is concerned with. they are made of squarshy clay and i do not understand how to mold them. i was really hoping trying to learn this game's style would GIVE me that kind of flexibility for fun exaggerated facial expression but i don't think much came of it in the end 😔. anyway on the bright side all this means once i got peppino figured out a little bit everybody else clicked way easier.

fake peppino: honestly i never did anything with him on purpose except for how his eyes work + the perma-smile thing. i figured ok hes supposed to look weird and off model so whatever happens with him happens. and it did. and it kept happening. it is still, in fact, happening.

noise/ette: somehow, for every bit that peppino was the least natural thing i've ever tried, these two worked pretty much right off the bat. i still don't understand it, seeing as pretty much all the things at play for peppino are also at work for them. i think the new sketches are actually a little worse than older ones but not enough that i care.

gustavo: really funny bc i drew him on model twice and just went 'okay, cool nice, easy, um. he doesn't have any fucking legs?' fortunately he was the only one i had a strong idea for how to stylize him [square] and it worked exactly as i was hoping so wahoo.

brick: is an animal and therefore 5000x easier and more natural for me to draw/stylize than anything else in the cast. that is Just a rat bro. i can draw a rat.

gerome: i think the funniest one here. the most drastic and least necessary change imo. i was gonna have him be really small at first, like smaller than the noises, but then i just... didn't. he's just peppino-sized now. also i gave him like. actual human facial structure, which is funny bc in most cases i'd do anything to avoid, but it works well for his being A Rock to give him some angles and definition like that+ to differentiate his vibe from the rest of the cast who are all very squishy. also since he is essentially Just A Head it's good to emphasize that too ig.

john: i only drew john a couple times but he gets to be here because i like him. and because most of the stuff i applied to gerome was readily applicable to john, though i did try to keep him a little more uncanny because he is a Huge And Lanky Freak. i hate that he is barefoot btw but idk how to make his color balance look right with shoes.

pizzahead: i did not want to put him on here honestly but i Have drawn him a handful of times and more importantly i didn't know what i was gonna do with john's pose if i didn't have him there to be glared at. the only thing that's different with him is giving him wider-bottomed pants, which i got from when i tried to draw these guys in clone high style [i never posted that one either][i will eventually]

snick: he gets to be here because 1. he's like 6 lines 2. i like him and 3. ive scribbled him a few times offhand and it went pretty well

misc

there are some guys missing because those are guys i didn't draw enough [or at all] to have gotten comfortable with them. sorry

i would have Liked to shade these but for the time being i have accepted that my grasp of light/shadow has decayed to the point im not going to be happy with anything i try there, so For Now i am working on my presentation with flats i guess. gerome has a shadow only because he's shaded like that ingame and looks naked without it

anyway if you are still reading [hi?] i get to shamelessly plug now. i'm over the hill of my pizza run now, and while i still have plenty of things i want to make here, most of the bigger more in-depth ones have passed. pizza tower was the first thing in THREE YEARS to get me out of my oc groove to doing fanart, and once i am done with my ideas here i will be going right back to it. if you like my art or how i write characters/interactions you should check out my oc/webcomic blog @jamverse . i can't promise people who like pizza stuff will be terribly into my designs, but i can guarantee i treat my guys with the exact same sort of tone i handle the pt guys with. and hell, i've mentioned it a few times before, but like 70% of my characterization for fake pep is just copied off one of my characters, so if u are going to miss him... he will still be there in spirit >;p

and if you dont care about any of that and are still reading thank you anyway. actually making these comics + seeing how shockingly well-received they've been has done a lot for my confidence, and for seeing that my kind of stuff IS something people enjoy :')

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family Operation Diary - original illustrations

As Anya interacts with different characters in the SxF game, you'll unlock unique cutscenes with them, as well as original anime art exclusive to the game 😄 Now that I've completed the game, I wanted to share all 20 of these illustrations, starting with my favorites...wholesome Forgers ❤️

Yes, that is the castle from episode 5 in the below picture! It's the last family outing place you can unlock in the game. The Forgers even acknowledge that they've been there before, which is a nice bit of continuity with the series (same with the Berlint aquarium).

I adore the below scene of Yor & Anya 💖 I think I've mentioned before that they're my favorite relationship in the series along with Twiyor, and they had so many cute interactions in the game~

The context of the below scene is that Loid is working late so Yor has to cook, much to Anya and Bond's dismay! Yor says that she'll start dinner once they clean up, so Anya and Bond purposely stall by making more of a mess, which gives Loid enough time to get home and do the cooking instead 😆

One of the scenes was a reenactment of the part from episode 12 where Loid and Yor pretend to go on a mission with Anya and her toys to get her to stop crying!

Also lots of scenes with poor Anya trying her best to study 😅

She doesn't fair much better at Eden, lol. At least she always has Becky for support (despite her silly crush on Loid!)

And of course, the usual squabbles with Damian.

The context of the below scene is Anya trying to tell Damian that she wants to get along with him (for the sake of Plan B). As usual, that just makes him more flustered!

Lastly, Yuri and Fiona each got one event scene each. I especially like the Fiona one, it was a nice callback to episode 21 when she first visits the Forger house.

If you haven't seen already, I also made a post about the gameplay basics of Operation Diary here, as well as a post about the mini-games here. I plan to make at least one or two more posts about the game, so stay tuned~

[avatar-news]

Exclusive: The next Avatar animated series, featuring the earth Avatar after Aang & Korra, is coming in 2025 from Paramount and Avatar Studios

We have a ***HUGE*** Avatar News exclusive for you today.

It’s happening.

Avatar Studios is working on the next Avatar after Aang and Korra. An original animated streaming series set in the future after The Legend of Korra, following the next earth Avatar in the cycle, is coming to Paramount+ in 2025.

But there’s more. An animated movie featuring this Avatar and their era is coming to theaters in the years after the show comes out. (I can’t reveal more specific dates yet, but it won’t be an insanely long wait.)

Currently we don’t know how far in the future this Avatar’s era will be set, but a very rough approximation based on previous Avatars is that if it’s set ~100 years after Korra’s time, it will be in the Avatar world’s equivalent of our world’s present day.

2025 is going to be a HUGE launch year for Avatar Studios’ animated universe, with the adult Aang movie coming to theaters on October 10th, 2025, as well as this new series streaming in the same year. This isn’t a mistake on my part, they’re intentionally releasing both in the same year-- part of a much bigger plan. Currently it’s implied that the movie is Avatar Studios’ first project of any kind, which would imply that this series would come out after that, at the very end of the year, likely in November or December 2025. There could, of course, be delays, but they’re absolutely working on multiple projects in parallel right now.

This is the second Avatar original streaming series coming soon, with the live-action young Aang series premiering next year in 2023. Season 2 of live-action ATLA can be estimated for two years later in 2025 as well, joining the adult Gaang animated movie and next earth Avatar animated series to form the biggest year of Avatar EVER.

More news tomorrow.

(Note that the above artwork is an Avatar News mockup for illustrative purposes only, it’s not official and we have no idea what the next Avatar will look like yet.)

[heterophobicdyke]

Calling lesbians mean for criticizing hetero relationships or saying that it is easy for them or that they just cannot understand the situation etc. misses the point. The harshest (that is the most honest) critic of a system will always come from outsiders because for them there is not as much at stake. That is not unique to lesbians. Poor workers will also be more critical of capitalism than rich CEOs, because they benefit less from this system. To avoid misunderstandings, I do NOT compare osa women to exploitative CEOs IN THE SLIGHTEST - these are mostly male after all ;) - this is just an example to illustrate what I mean with outsider/insider. To get back to my original point, as a celibate straight woman I am less invested in the system of heterosexuality than a women with a boyfriend or husband. And exclusively ssa women are the least invested. As outsiders of varying degrees we have less to lose by seeing the heterosexual "system" of our socitey clearly without rose coloured glasses. There is nothing in it for us anyway. One last sentence and then I am done spamming your inbox, again to avoid misunderstandings, it possible to be an outsider in some regard and an insider in others. Most people, both oas and ssa women, will find themselves on either side of the fence at different times and everyone wants others or listen fairly and respect them when they find themselves in the position of the outsider.

You’ve hit the nail on the head.

Lesbians don’t benefit from OSA relationships existing, in fact they’re upheld as “normal and natural” to our “abnormal and unnatural.”

OSA women benefit from OSA relationships in the way they flag she is “normal and natural.” Society can be sure she is attracted to men (which is why lesbians often force themselves to date men - the power of “proving” sexual normality in the expression of heterosexuality that OSA relationships are).

I originally thought that OSA “radical feminist” women getting so triggered by the critique of OSA relationships among lesbians (they don’t address the OSA women participating in this conversation for obvious reasons) was because they truly believe they couldn’t live without romance and sex. But that doesn’t make sense because most of the triggered “radfems” are bisexual.

You’ve opened my eyes to the real reason they’re so deeply triggered that lesbians, specifically, are critiquing OSA relationships: because they’re (consciously or not) identifying that the group they oppress on the axis of sexual orientation is challenging an expression of their power. What’s a bigger way to communicate “I am into the opposite sex,” treat me well for it, than making it official with a relationship to a member of the opposite sex?

Heterosexual power and male power are entwined. For one to go the other must, too. That’s why it upsets “radical” women when lesbians suggest that it makes no sense for a radical feminist to defend OSA relationships: they’re happy for male power to go because they don’t benefit from it but they’re not happy about losing the heterosexual power that OSA relationships afford.

They cannot handle the mirror being held up: the way in which they act like any other oppressor who holds onto their power by the fingernails. They don’t even believe they do oppress lesbians. Other OSA women can say to them to avoid men and they will respect that take. But a lesbian saying it angers them because:

Lesbians’ disempowerment means we are less valued and respected by all non-lesbian people, including women. It directly leads to our words being less valued/respected in all conversations, including feminist.

They require our disempowerment in order for them to be empowered by their “normal” sexual orientation (male attraction) so they are essentially “putting us back in our place.”

This is also why male/female friendships are not a problem for feminism but male/female relationships are. Heteropatriarchy are entwined and women need to give up heterosexual power for patriarchy to end. They need to say “no” to the power that OSA relationships bring, at least until female liberation, because men rely on the inevitability of male/female relationships in order to control women (and the reproductive means of production). Friendships are not reproductive. There is no power incentive to being friends with men like there is with relationships because reproduction (or the social expression of wanting to reproduce even if you don’t by being in an OSA relationship) is what’s being rewarded when OSA people are.

If men don’t reward women who participate in a system where they play a meaningful role in reproduction (the heterosexual family) with power then men could be relegated as the sperm bank. That’s why they always go on about how they exist to protect - they know women on average aren’t as big and muscly (therefore men are more threatening to predators). But the predators are each other. They hate butch lesbians so much because, to men, they threaten the protection (and penetration) role men think is theirs (watch how they speak about Britney Griner and kd lang compared to some feminine lesbian). Now IVF exists women literally do not need sex with men to reproduce so men have to offer something else so they’re considered of value: they offer “normal” power to women in OSA relationships, and be homophobic as fuck to flex punishment on those they percieve as abandoning them and the system they’ve created. For both homophobia and misogyny to end, women need to stop seeing relationships with men as inevitable and some fairytale thing because that is literally what heteropatriarchy wants you to do for it to survive.

This is also why gay men are not the same threat as straight men, whether OSA women want to acknowledge that or not.

Bro we just cracked the code.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Dilophosaurus wetherilli

Debut: Real Life, Circa The Early Jurassic (roughly 280 million years ago)

Hi I'm gonna talk about my favorite dinosaur now and you're gonna like it! Or maybe you won't, I don't know you! But y'know what I do know? Dilophosaurus!!! It's my best friend. They named it after the fact that it's got two (di) crests (lopho) on its head and also it's a reptile (saurus). A big reptile at that! In fact, it was the largest known animal of its time to walk the land in North America, and was almost certainly the apex predator of its environment, the Kayenta Formation (located across several of what are now the South-Western United States).

As you can see, this size chart demonstrates that the largest specimen discovered was about 7 meters (23 feet) long; no Tyrannosaurus rex, mind you, but still far larger than... some popular depictions might lead you to believe.

Also contrary to what some popular depictions might lead you to believe, Dilophosaurus would not have required the use of various biological mechanisms such as, for instance, retractable neck frills or venom-spitting to take down its prey; mechanisms which, mind you, are exclusively seen in animals as methods of self-defense, and would therefore only serve to scare away potential prey items.

Speaking of prey items, this stunning piece by Chase Stone depicts a pair of Dilophosaurus as having just brought down a prosauropod (a name for early sauropod relatives). Dilophosaurus did in fact live alongside at least one prosauropod, Sarahsaurus, the Holotype specimen of which bears tooth marks very likely left by a certain two-crested culprit! On that note I want to address another prevalent misconception in regards to life reconstructions of this animal...

On the left we have a (frankly hilariously sock-puppet-like) restoration by a sadly unknown artist, and on the right is another absolutely breathtaking rendering by Chase Stone. As you can pretty clearly see, the way the crests (among other things) are restored is very different between the two! For a long time, the crests were restored as seen on the left: very thin, and with a little protrusion jutting out of the back. This is due to something called shrink-wrapping, a trend in paleoart exemplified by the omission of tissues such as muscle or fat when reconstructing the animal, leading to much of the skeleton being visible through the skin, particularly in the case of the skull.

Stone's restoration, on the other hand, wraps the skull in a much more naturalistic-looking amount of soft tissue, and completely envelops both crests in a keratinous structure, much like the casque of a cassowary or a hornbill (in fact I believe the coloration is actually referenced specifically from a knobbed hornbill's beak).

This is due to the fact that the crests were likely a kind of bony core which would have supported a larger keratinous structure as is to be expected of... sigh... horny structures such as this. Stop smiling. Don't you know there's no fun allowed when you're learning about things? That's what school taught me, anyway. Ahem. As I was saying, the original shape of the crest was extrapolated from incomplete remains, which you can see a restored illustration of above.

Also worth noting is the inclusion of a thin, fluffy covering of feathers along the head, neck, and back of Stone's restoration. This is entirely plausible, as the current consensus is that dinosaurs and their close relatives, pterosaurs, were descended from a fluffy common ancestor due to the fluffy-feathery coverings seen in both groups being found to be basically the same stuff!

I could go on about so many things, like how tremendously fucked up and addled with tumors and infections the Holotype specimen was, or how we have a trace fossil which seems to preserve a Dilophosaurus sitting down in the mud like a big dumb bird, complete with an impression of its butt, but I trust that if these things pique your interest enough, you'll seek them out on your own time. Just remember not to have fun, because as we all know, fun is the one thing learning should never be.

[wingfril]

My newest shipment just arrived so let’s talk about some (recent) lottery-only items! The picture above is from the most recent d.grayman playing card drawing, which you could’ve entered by subbing to zebrack comics.

They’re really pretty! I don’t know if it was worth $350 dollars though. There’s only 2 types of illustrations plus the card back and spades,

Funny thing about the prices — I’m pretty sure I’m the reason why the floor for this is 350 on mercari. When the drawing results come out, several people started selling the cards on mercari. I knew I wanted something that’s super exclusive like this, so I started paying attention. There were three sellers in particular competition against each other. over a span of around 2-3 days, the price dropped from ~100k yen down to 59k yen. Keep in mind that these drops were mostly happening while I was asleep being on the east coast. My ideal price would’ve been around 200 usd or ~30k yen, but I’m willing to pay more. Right before going to bed, I saw that the price has fallen to below 60k, and said screw it. Next morning, I woke up, and the main price competitor’s cards were also sold, and a few days later the third person, with a slightly higher price, also ended up selling. Since the price decreases happen primarily while I was asleep, and I knew that as soon as one sells, the other is going to get bought up too, might as well pay a little extra. I’m also 99% sure that at least 2/3 of the other sets on mercari was bought by chinese people, since I see their posts on chinese social media.

To be honest though, if I knew that there’s only two new drawings on these cards, I probably would’ve waited a bit longer before buying them. Oh well.

The other lottery item I had is from the vol 28 drawing.

They’re B5 sized manuscript replicas. They’re stunning — you can see so many details on these. Every stroke on neah/mana’s hair is clear as day. I’d like to frame them but *screams in nyc and paper walls*.

The other drawing item is a acrylic board of the vol 28 cover.

I’m still debating on buying that off of mercari. I think I will once the yen drops a little more, but we’ll see. I wouldn’t lose sleep over not getting it.

As a side note unrelated to dgm: the reason why I’m buying so much recently is 1. I realized that a few thousand literally makes no difference to me and my house owning goals (I LOVE NYC) and 2. The yen is incredibly cheap right now. Even though some Japanese collectors are price gauging, some of the items are not too much more expense than their originals price (there’s a few absurd outliers, which I’ll covered in two months… because I paid for some of the outliers and now they have to be shipped from China).

The Japanese fed has spent billions on trying to stabilize the currency, but to no avail. it’s really bad for any Japanese companies doing import, but it’s really really good for usd based consumers. As long as the US federal reserve and their interest rate remains high (and a bunch of other factors), yen is going to continue getting crushed against the dollar. There’s some items I’m eyeing on that I’ll probably only buy if the yen drops to at least 1:160 against the dollar. If you zoom into the last month of usd:yen, you can literally see when the Japanese fed intervened.

[decepti-thots]

Headmasters Light Novel - トランスフォーマー ザ・ヘッドマスターズ 夢戦争 - download

The 1987 Japanese light novel トランスフォーマー ザ・ヘッドマスターズ 夢戦争(/roughly: "Transformers: The Headmasters - Dream War") by Keisuke Fujikawa is as far as I know the only Japanese light novel tie-in for the franchise. The Japanese Wikipedia page for Headmasters briefly explains it's an adaptation of some early Headmasters episodes, and I found a few tweets discussing it on Japanese TF Twitter, but there seems to be very little information about it online.

It turns out (thank you so much to @hanamiyama-basketball-club for confirming this for me) that in 2014, twenty seven years after this tie in novel came out, the publisher republished this digitally, available exclusively through their site as a read-in-app ebook. (Which surprised me, because Why Bother for something this niche, but it looks like they just throw everything they have the rights to up on their publisher site/app. Which hey, why not in that case I suppose.)

It's not the exact same as the paperback (the original was illustrated, and this is just the barebones text; not sure if it's a matter of lacking the original illustrations decades later or rights issues or what, but it doesn't even have a cover on the site). You can buy it at a very cheap price (420jpy, around £2.80) here, there's no region lockout, but it's not even a DRM'd download, it's solely through their proprietary app whether android/iOS or in-browser. Which is my least favourite thing in the world lmao. I hate that so much, god.

So I went through and screencapped every page via the in-browser app and assembled them into a VERY rough and ready .pdf version, for safekeeping purposes, so in the event anyone has ever REALLY REALLY WANTED to read an incredibly obscure 80s Transformers anime light novel adaptation. That is now a thing you can do. If you read Japanese, obviously. (I cannot.) It now exists at my website and will not vanish if the publishers go bust tomorrow! Do whatever you like with it, idc.

You can find it here! :)

Sidenote: I am looking for scans of the illustrations of the OG book still, so if you know of any that exist please message me! If I can't find any by the time I have a little spending money again, I will be importing a second hand copy to scan them myself at some point, now I've confirmed they are original art for the light novel, though.

[marvelousmop]

The Mystery of John Burr the Chestnut Man

The Land of Oz is a series with many an obscure characters - most people could probably tell you about Dorothy, the Tin-Man, the Lion, and the Scarecrow, but how many know of Ozma? Or Tik-Tok? What of Professor H.M. Wogglebug T.E.? And that's just scratching the surface, considering there are so many books (around 40 considered "Canonical"), and then beyond that there are characters who pop up in works connected to Oz... and then there's the case of John Burr the Chestnut Man. Who the Hell is he?

Well, first, some context:

In the year 1900, L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, complete with illustrations from W.W. Denslow. Due to their collaborative efforts on the book, it was agreed that both men should have the rights to the characters and various elements within the first book. This arrangement may sound a bit unusual, but really it should be fine as long as Denslow and Baum don't have some sort of falling out.

Guess what happened in 1902 while they were working on the Wizard of Oz Stage Musical?

So, Denslow and Baum went their separate ways, with Baum going on to write "The Marvelous Land of Oz", while Denslow continued illustrating for books such as "The Pearl and the Pumpkin". He also worked on a small book called "Denslow's Scarecrow and the Tin-Man", featuring a short story about the duo getting into some hijinx after deciding they were tired of working endlessly on the Wizard of Oz stage show - I'm sure he wasn't working through anything there.

Around the time Marvelous Land got published, he also worked on a newspaper series called "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" which served both to promote the sequel and increase the reach of the Oz brand. It's also one of the few remaining artefacts of a time when Baum really wanted Professor Wogglebug to be the mascot of the Oz series, but that's a discussion for another time.

Denslow sees this and thinks "Well, I'll show him! I'll make my own newspaper series!" and so we got Denslow’s Scarecrow and the Tin-Man (yes he used the same name as he did for the book - he also split that book into two halves and published them in the newspaper series, so that’s confusing). Unlike Baum's strip, this series mainly stuck to the events of the 1902 stage musical, so Dorothy never left Oz and is also referred to as Dorothy Gale (a name Baum wouldn't use in prose until Ozma of Oz) or Dotty (her show-exclusive nickname). The first story also makes reference to a Good Witch covering the poppy field with snow, which didn't happen in the book but did happen in the musical. Other than this though, they keep references deliberately vague - no mention is made of King Pastoria II, Cynthia Synch, or Dorothy’s pet cow, Imogene (who replaces Toto in the stage musical - similarly, this series makes no reference to Toto). It’s interesting to see an Oz-related work be influenced by a very popular adaptation other than the MGM movie.

Okay, but who is John Burr the Chestnut Man?

John Burr is introduced in the second story in the Scarecrow and Tin-Man series, and immediately he raises questions. Apparently, he's the Fairy Godfather of the Scarecrow (which possibly links him to the Scarecrow's 1902 musical origin wherein he comes to life because Dorothy wished for a friend, but this isn't made explicit) and possibly the Tin-Man. It's not clear. The Scarecrow and the Tin-Man are joined at the hip for most of this series though, so it hardly matters. In his first appearance, he transports the Scarecrow, Tin-Man, and the Cowardly Lion down to Earth, making him one of the most powerful characters in the series at this point.

Later in the series, he hands the Scarecrow and the Tin-Man "Magic Passes" because nobody will tell these poor guys how money works, so they just keep stealing things (relatedly, the Scarecrow and the Tin-Man book I mentioned earlier where they're performing in the musical mentions that the two just aren't paid for their work... again, I'm sure Denslow wasn't working through anything there)... and that's it. That's all we know of him. He enters the narrative, fulfils this oddly powerful role for someone who isn't even hinted at in anything prior and is then forgotten about entirely.

Also, he sells chestnuts, that's why he's the chestnut man.

[Honestly, the funniest thing about this whole situation to me is that Denslow's Scarecrow and the Tin-Man series is just significantly better than Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz - better art and the writing is just very charming - both are probably equally racist though, so be warned if you want to seek these out].

[featherbow]

Exclusive: The Mighty Nein’s Journey Continues in Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria—The Mighty Nein Part Two from Dark Horse

Critters, rejoice! The long-awaited sequel to 2020’s Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria—The Mighty Nein is finally on the horizon, picking up with more art, more lore, and even more incredible journeys for our favorite band of heroes.

The first art book covered a number of arcs from the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons live-play phenomenon Critical Role‘s second campaign, featuring glimpses of iconic locations like the Happy Fun Ball, unforgettable characters like The Gentleman, and so much more. Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria—The Mighty Nein Part Two picks up where the first installment left off, featuring everything from the group’s “adventures in Xhorhas, to encounters with the Kryn and the Bright Queen, to discoveries at the Cinderrest Sanctum and in the belly of a behemoth, all the way to events at the Whitedawn Lagoon and beyond.”

This second book is being published by Dark Horse, longtime collaborator and publisher of other hit Critical Role adventures like Vox Machina Origins and The Mighty Nein Origins, and is being written by Critical Role Lore Keeper Dani Carr in collaboration with Matthew Mercer and the entire Critical Role team. The 304-page, oversized hardcover will feature new lore, its own narrative, and a plethora of art from across the Critter community.

And speaking of which, said narrative will come from the perspective of the Campaign 2/Campaign 3 NPC Iva Deshin, who made her first appearance selling Tusk Love to Laura Bailey’s Jester Lavorre, but was always clear in her desire to be an author. The Mighty Nein Part Two acts as a collection of her notes and mementos of the party.

“I really wanted Iva to go on a genuine emotional arc during this journey and find her voice, but to never lose her spark and her joy for the world she loves—especially the adventurers she adores,” said Carr. “The entire book is a love letter to the Mighty Nein, to Critical Role, and to the cast who have placed such faith and trust in me over the years. Exandria is just as much my home as it is Iva’s, and I can’t wait for Critters to dive in and let Iva help guide them through the incredible art of the Mighty Nein’s adventures.”

The beautiful cover, which you can check out below, is illustrated by Stephanie Pepper.

Critical Role: The Chronicles of Exandria—The Mighty Nein Part Two is available to preorder now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, TFAW, and your local comic shop or bookstore, and is slated to release November 26th, 2024 in bookstores and November 27th, 2024 in comic shops for $49.99.

[cerealandchoccymilk]

Trigun Bookclub: Vash's Speech (FLOP EDITION...)

all bookclub posts

so i wrote this entire thing over a span of a day and a half. and found out just as i was finishing it that the ultradeep™ vash lore analysis point i wanted to make is actually NOT in the og trigun. [here's my mental breakdown post lol]

but i spent so much time and energy on this that i cant just say whelp! and delete it... so i'm posting it anyways. the straight-up incorrect parts are crossed out and some post-realization notes are in red. theres also a few paragraphs of postscript commentary/rambling in purple at the end of the post.

read it if youre bored i guess. but take it all with a grain of salt.

in the future (once we get to trimax vash+knives interaction) i will write the version of this that my memory intended, with an actual conclusion that makes sense lol

Mini-entry this time because I got consumed by linguistics brain worms :P But I wanted to make sure I talked about Vash's speech and his usage of pronouns!

A bit of background before we get into the analysis:

Japanese pronouns are very different from English. As the Wikipedia page puts it, "The use of pronouns, especially when referring to oneself and speaking in the first person, vary between gender, formality, dialect and region where Japanese is spoken."

The styles of spoken Japanese in general are another can of worms.... They're similar worms so I'll be touching on them a little, but it's not that relevant yet.

In real life, people have multiple pronouns (and speech styles) that they switch between depending on the situation, like with friends and family, at work, in front of kids, etc. For example, I primarily use 俺 online (along with joke/slang pronouns for funsies like 漏れ or おれっち), 自分 or 僕 in public depending on the person, and 私 in closeted situations. My cis male JP-school classmate uses 俺 with friends/family, used to use 私 in class at first, and then transitioned to 僕 as he got more familiar with the teachers.

Although this sort of code-switching happens all the time IRL, it's way less frequently illustrated in fiction, both for consistency's sake and because fictional characters just don't care as much about status. That's why I thought what's going on with Vash is particularly interesting!

Details continued below...

--original readmore position--

Here are the connotations for the two first-person pronouns that Vash uses (pulled from Wikipedia):

ore/おれ/俺 - informal - males - Frequently used by men. Establishes a sense of "masculinity". Can be seen as rude depending on the context. Emphasises one's own status when used with peers and with those who are younger or of lesser status. Among close friends or family, its use conveys familiarity rather than "masculinity" or superiority. It was used also by women until the late Edo period and still is in some dialects. Also oi in Kyushu dialect.

boku/ぼく/僕 - formal/informal - males - Used by males of all ages; very often used by boys; can be used by females but then carries tomboyish or feminist connotations. Perceived as humble, but can also carry an undertone of "feeling young" when used by males of older age. Also used when casually giving deference; "servant" uses the same kanji (僕 shimobe). Can also be used as a second-person pronoun toward male children (English equivalent – "kid" or "squirt").

(the usage of boku as a 2pp is actually part of a different phenomenon--if you're interested in that kotolabo's video explains it better than i ever could (eng captions available))

And these are the notes for every time Vash has used a first-person pronoun in the span that I've analyzed so far, which is until Chapter #06. I'll be adding onto this in the future as my annotations continue. no need anymore. i skimmed the rest and found out that, aside from a childhood flashback, vash uses exclusively ore after chapter #05.

The first instance is in Chapter #02, when he cries in French.

「なぜ僕がこんな目にあうのママン　何も悪いことしてないのにみんなが僕を狙うよママン」（独り言） "Why do things like this keep happening to me, maman? I don't do anything bad, but everyone's always after me, maman!" (to himself)

Here he uses boku, the softer pronoun. However, because he's putting on a "helpless French boy" persona, this one actually doesn't say much about Vash (other than that he's being silly).

The second time is later in the same chapter, when surrounded by the women of April City.

「奴に…会うまでは！！　俺は立ち止まる訳にはいかないんだ！！」（主婦たち） "Until I see him again... I cannot afford to stop moving!" (Housewives)

This time he uses ore, the rougher and more masculine pronoun. The situation is very tense; he has several guns pointed at him. This is also the first instance we see the trauma and hurt Vash holds inside. Overall he's very desperate here. We can see in a bit that ore is his "default." He drops his usual polite/kind tone to be as sincere as he can with the women. I think he can't afford to code-switch and be polite because this is a very personal and emotional moment for him. This doesn't mean his tone is necessarily rude (in-universe!!! probably better not to talk to strangers like this IRL); he still uses relatively soft language.

The next two are in Chapter #04, both when he refuses the sandsteamer guy's job offers.

「やだやだやだやだ　僕は争いごと嫌いなの！！」（砂蒸気の人） "No, no, no, no! I don't like trouble!" (Sandsteamer guy)

「僕は客なの！！この車の警備態勢にはチョーー期待してるから ヨロシクね！！」（砂蒸気の人） "I am a passenger! I have great faith in your security, so I entrust everything to you, okay?" (Sandsteamer guy)

He uses boku here. As we'll see in future instances, this is the pronoun he uses in front of other people and is the one he chooses most frequently. He constantly avoids trouble, so he always uses soft language and the humbler pronoun. nope it was just out of politeness towards a stranger and trying to sound less assertive/more harmless(?) to get out of the situation

In the next page, Vash talks to himself during his piss break.

「…まったくもう　保険屋の2人組といい…　俺(おら)ァもっとひっそりとやってきたいのに」（独り言） "...Jeez! As if those two insurance girls weren't already enough... I was hoping for a nice, quiet trip." (to himself)

Although the pronunciation here is oraa, it's a reduced form of ore wa (wa is a grammatical particle). His tone here is sort of laid-back (and tired, as you can tell). Again, this is his default 1st-person pronoun.

A few moments later, on the last page of the chapter, he says,

「よく分かった　ツラかったろう！！大丈夫だ 僕にまかせな　悪い様にはしねえぜ！！」（カイト） "I understand. It must have been so hard! It's okay... I'll take care of you. I won't let anything bad happen to you again!" (to Kaito)

Here he switches back to boku. He does this in front of almost everyone, but this is especially the case because he's speaking to a child he wants to protect. Using the boku pronoun gives a softer, more approachable vibe.

In Chapter #05, he goes back to ore when he talks to Kaito about No Man's Land.

「時々考えるよ　この惑星に…来た事が本当に俺達にとって幸せな事なのか　ってね」（カイト） "I sometimes wonder... Was our arrival on this planet actually something for us to be happy about? ...Y'know?"

From here on Vash is more familiar with Kaito, enough to open up a bit about his true feelings about humanity. It is also partially Vash talking to himself. irrelevant/coincidence

In Chapter #06, Vash talks to himself in front of Kaito.

「間違いない！！俺にゃー死神か貧乏神が２ケタ以上ついてるんだ」（独り言・カイト） Overhaul: "Why do death and destruction always follow right behind me?!" Literal: "I swear, I have at least 2 digits’ worth of death-gods or poverty-gods haunting me!!"

He uses ore here again. At this point, he's pretty much completely familiar with Kaito, and considers him a friend/teammate. The speech here is very casual. Skimming through the later chapters, I was able to confirm that from Chapter #05 on, Vash uses exclusively ore.

wait

AAAND CUT! this is where my dumb ass realizes that vashs speech is different between trigun and trimax, and that the conclusion i planned on making was trimax-exclusive :) now forget everything you just read in this post past the wikipedia table screenshot because itll be completely irrelevant in less than a week!!

trimax vash uses boku 99% of the time and ore exclusively in front of knives as far as i can remember. i wanted to say stuff about how he is always wearing the kind persona as a mask and shows his true emotions (aka his sheer trauma and rage) in front of knives and knives only

but like. he really doesnt in og trigun. thats just him being kind to strangers??? and barely has any deep meaning to it. it doesnt mean the individual analyses are wrong but theyre definitely not making the point i was going to make at the end of this post and it just aint that deep.

very frustrated with myself rn... but the 2 good things i got out of this are 1) i wont have to write the pronoun explanation again and 2) i skimmed through all of trigun so future annotations might be faster/cost less spoons since i already have some things to write down in mind.

This will definitely get a part 2+ in the future, especially once we get to see Knives. the redo will just be a new single-part post. this stuff will most likely only become relevant once we see knives+vash interaction in trimax The Meryl speech analysis we mentioned in a past post is currently in the works, and will also be part of this speech series!

[bignosebaby]

is there an established primateliker community on tumblr? looking for more accounts to follow

I wouldn't say that there is an established community, but there is definitely a good amount of primate love here! I tend to find content by following tags, and I have taken notice of primate accounts that tend to interact with me. If you're looking for more primate enthusiasts, these are some accounts I recommend:

@jasffy doesn't exclusively primate post, but posts so many high quality GIF sets from ethical and reputable sources! I definitely recommend taking a look.

@bonoboaday updates frequently and posts excellent and well sourced bonobo pictures and articles.

@macaques variety of great primate posts (and a very fun custom theme on desktop)

@markhors-menagerie fantastic variety of fun and informational primate posts. If you like the New England Primate Conservancy, you'll love this blog.

@gorillaheritageposts personal favourite of mine. Besides collecting gorilla themed posts, they also post original illustrations and information about gorillas.

@apes-like-us lots of ape posts and very informative.

There are a lot of great animal enthusiasts on tumblr! These 6 are my personal favourites and I feel comfortable and confident endorsing them but I recommend following tags and searching for your favourite species. If anyone else wants to recommend primate posters, go ahead and reply to this post! Self endorsing is also great, if you think you run a great primate blog go ahead and toot your own horn.

[yumeka-sxf]

There were two panels related to Spy x Family at Anime Expo this year, with the first on Day 1 being Toho Animation's panel featuring both Spy x Family and Kaiju No.8.

The panel started with the SxF portion, with the special guests being the series director, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and the CODE: White director, Takashi Katagiri. They also had the six SxF ThreeZero figures on the stage with them 😀

The MC asked them some questions, like what their favorite scenes were from their respective works and who their favorite character is. They also showed behind-the-scenes footage of both the Loid/Fiona tennis match in season 1, and Yor's fight scene against Type F in the movie. We got to see both of these scenes in rough animatic sketch form and then in line art form, which was pretty cool (it wasn't clear if photo/video was prohibited at this panel, but I didn't want to risk it by being caught blatantly recording these exclusive clips, lol). Then they showed off some of Anya's unused outfits from the movie.

At the end, they showed this original illustration by Kyoji Asano, made specifically for this event 😁

And that was it for the SxF part of the panel before they moved on to Kaiju No.8...and to be honest, it kinda overshadowed the SxF part, mostly because it featured two of the main Kaiju No.8 voice actors, one of which was extremely hilarious and charismatic. Plus there were a lot more segments compared to the SxF part. The interview with the guests seemed longer, they did three live voice overs, showed a pre-recorded special message from the band that performs the Kaiju No.8 opening, and then they took a group photo with the audience (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). It seemed like the SxF part took up about 35% of the panel's time while Kaiju No.8 took up 65%. Not sure why it felt so unbalanced, but it was still fun.

Next was the panel on Day 3 for Production IG and their related studios WIT and Signal MD. Heads of each studio were there, including George Wada from WIT. Photo/video wasn't allowed once the panel started, but it basically consisted of an interview with the different guests, then trailers/teasers for their upcoming projects, then a Q&A session.

WIT is the studio that makes SxF, so I was hoping for any news about season 3, specifically if WIT would be more involved with it than they were with season 2. For those who don't know, season 1 of SxF was made by both WIT Studio and Cloverworks. But when they decided to make both season 2 and the movie in 2023, they split up the work, with WIT focusing on the movie while Cloverworks did pretty much all the work on season 2 (which is why the animation in season 1 and season 2 looks a bit different). According to this tweet, the official staff listing for season 3 is the same as season 2, meaning WIT will once again have little involvement. But despite this, they had a slide during the presentation with the season 3 promo image (preceded by the CODE: White teaser trailer, which made the crowd go wild - glad there were lots of SxF fans in the audience!) George Wada also said in regards to season 3 that they're "working hard on it."

I wanted to confirm during the Q&A if WIT would again take a backseat during season 3's production as well, but unfortunately the panel only had a few minutes left when it was close to my turn, and then they opted to pick a few random people in line for their last questions (which I thought was kind of unfair). Guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything changes with that staff listing once we get closer to season 3's release.

Overall, while Takuya Eguchi's appearance at last year's AX was more fun, it was still cool to attend this year's SxF-related panels as well. Hopefully season 3 will either be airing or close to being released at next year's AX, so we'll have even more SxF events!

[tadpole-apocalypse]

4. What's your least favorite part of the body to draw, if any?

14. Do you prefer to make fan content or original content?

17. Your personal favorite works of art (not made by you) are...?

20. What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

4. What's your least favorite part of the body to draw, if any?

Feet. Everything I said about hands earlier, goes out the window for feet. A foreshortened foot facing the viewer can go right to hell.

14. Do you prefer to make fan content or original content?

Overall I prefer creating fan content, since it tends to tap into a hyper fixation that unlocks previously untold powers of productivity that is very rare for me to find outside of fan content. And there's a built in audience for it usually, so its instant serotonin.

Original stuff is fun to do, and I do dabble in it exclusively sometimes. For a few years I only really drew content for my vampire the requiem campaign and ship.

I've tried doing my own original stories too, but I've always stumbled in the execution and planning stages.

17. Your personal favorite works of art (not made by you) are...?

I answered here, but I'm going to add these particular MKR artworks, as they had a stranglehold over preteen me :) CLAMP had a direct line into my brain for a time.

20. What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

Surrounding myself with other artists that are sharing their creative works. It just makes me want to also be creative :3

Good role play experiences that makes me want to illustrate or continue their story

Pathetic old men

nice comments and tags

Taping up finished artworks that I am proud of near my work desk; at least I did before my kitten ripped them all down 🥲

From this artist ask meme

[friesian]

🌵🌵 howdy! i'm elf! 🌵🌵

i'm 25, agender transmasc (he/they/it/???), neurodivergent, queer, disabled, and an appalachian cowboy. you can find my pronouns.page here if you need any more details.

this is my personal blog. i just post whatever here. cowboy stuff, horses, cows, paintings, ocs and stuff i think is funny or important!! i post elder scrolls stuff exclusively on my side blog @voryn-dagoth. my oc tags are marwyd, wakeland, tiyrnan, tsujio, luis veracruz, penbrooke, layncaster, paiman, and snowgore! (more to be added, probably.)

my BEAUTIFUL, wonderful and talented boyfriend is @kamiporterbridges 💜💜💜!! if you see posts tagged as johnny, henry harker, archie, jin, gyro, isolde, and many more, they're his ocs! not mine!! i'll be tagging them with 'bfs oc' as well. GO FOLLOW HIM IF YOU LIKE THEM!!

i'm not much of a talker otherwise! i'm not good at replying to asks or messages, but if you have something urgent or want to say, please feel free to reach out! i don't bite!

i don't post my art anymore. sorry if you followed originally for art. you can find most of it archived on my toyhouse though.

check out me and my boyfriend's project, the haunters! a group of paranormal investigators who are trying to make it to the top via the internet, but maybe not without some hitches, demons, and curses along the way! i mostly illustrate some scenes and come up with some plot points, but kami does all of the writing!

otherwise! thanks for reading!!

🐎🐎🐎 <- my cool horses btw. if you even care.