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wooahaes · 9 months

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hii its tattoo anon again <3 i just wanted to update you i loved cheols part of uts and cheol is one of my biases and i am so in love with his part!! i found this series almost a year ago and its bittersweet now that it has ended. i am so excited to see what comes next for the poly fic and your new works in general. i also hope that u saw my last message!! also i wanted to ask because idk if i didnt realize it or missed it but did you ever reveal who gave mouse the little stuffed mouse? if im not mistaken was it jeonghan? i have been wanting to figure out who it was but idk if i got it wrong lol. have a good day!

omg hi lovely!! i 100% saw ur last message and meant to respond and then. either forgot or got busy w school stuff, im blanking on which is it which probably just means it slipped my mind :( sorry!!

im literally gonna copy it over here and answer both this ask + the previous one to make it easier so uhh long response under the readmore !! i hope that's okay :(

okie dokie ill address this ask first

hi!!! you've been following the series since like... very close to the beginning then haha which is v v sweet and ill sob rn!!

i think i mentioned jeonghan working on the lil plush mouse during cheol UtS but didn't address it further, but yes! it was going to come up during poly fic at some point where he made all of the plushies for each person as a way of like. giving ppl comfort, esp when they show up & don't join the group at first (so that they have Something there w them, im the kind of person who needs something in my arms in order to sleep haha so that's where it's mainly coming from).

and for ur last ask:

hi its me again the tattoo anon LOL. i just wanted to reply to what you said and im so glad that i made you happy with what i said and i genuinely mean it. this is a little vulnerable but ever since i started liking svt i think a major reason why i love them so much is because they are a big group of friends and i have friends, but not that many so stanning svt in general is so comforting because of the closeness of all of them but finding this fic was like. a fucking dream for me because them being such a big close knit group and it being like the found family trope is perfect and the way you write and portray them is so comforting. genuinely i meant it when i said its one of my favorite things i have stumbled upon in my life, i have shared this story with my friends and they love it too and when we watch some edits of seventeen or see something in general that reminds us of this fic we say “this is so under the sun coded” and its like an inside joke with me and my friends. you literally changed the trajectory of my life with this fic lol. when im having a hard time in my personal life i come back to this little world u created by either just thinking about it before i fall asleep or rereading it and i want to thank you for being a writer. i hope you enjoy writing what you write bc i know that i certainly enjoy it and i hope you are proud of urself. anyway i think selling subtle stickers would be so awesome and i will definitely buy them. also since i submitted my last ask i have thought about little ideas for a tattoo maybe?? like what about like a small drawing of a church and like 13 little people around it with a little sun?!? or flowers like you said OR getting little drawings of the animals each person has? i think that would be so cute. or like maybe a little sash blindfold?? anyway ur awesome i love u thank u

the first time i tried to answer this ask, my long response ended up deleted bc i switched tabs for a second to check something and then tumblr just... deleted it??? which was v frustrating, kind of makes me hate the new post editor a Lot!

but to be vulnerable as well, i think i started writing UtS at like... a difficult point in my life? not difficult as in the painful way, but difficult as in 'there's a lot going on right now and i've never felt more alone than i do now' i guess? it's like... i started writing it right before my final semester of college, and i'm an online student, so i don't get to go out and be in a classroom with other people. sometimes i call myself an introvert when i think the term 'ambivert' has always fit more--i don't detest being social, i do tend to enjoy it! but i still need alone time to make up for it since it's draining. and idk, i was lost for a while on who i am and what i want to do with my life?

and i feel like writing UtS has put me in a vulnerable position to like... question a lot more about myself as a person. i have friends, sure, but no one i go out to see in person since i'm not exactly like... in a good place for that kind of interaction (deep south bible belt, haha... makes not being straight something i struggle with sometimes). i think the important part of UtS is the acceptance they all have for one another, and it's something i personally wish to have a lot more of in my offline life. i think even if i had the idea without darl+ing, it would have ended up being a svt fic due to how close they are and how much they care for one another.

also tbh i just love the found family trope. i love the idea and process of choosing your own family in a sense and saying 'these are MY people and i love them' ig.

also u showing the fic to ur friends + the comment abt being like 'this is UtS coded' ill SOB!!! i will!!! thats literally so cute and sweet of u!!! (pls feel free to send me any of ur 'this is UtS coded' thoughts i would always love to hear them haha)

but like. this is why i write. i like being able to impact people and help them escape life and be happy for a while. its why it always means a lot to me when i get feedback on my work and see people be happy with what i write (... even if sometimes its angsty haha--moving people to feel is a huge compliment by itself!). im glad you have UtS. im glad i have it now, too.

i do enjoy writing, btw, and i loved writing uts. even with the frustration periods where i didn't touch it for a while, i genuinely enjoyed writing uts a lot. i think i owe a lot of that to people like you, who read it and show support for the series! its always easier to read something when i know there's someone who will enjoy it. i remember smiling hard when i rewrote the ending to cheol uts bc of how fucking stoked i was to share it tbh!!! also bc i messaged savv 'lol this is gonna be devastating (/pos)' at one point i think sdkfhsdf but i was genuinely excited to finish it and get it out to u guys!! i dont know who i would be if i didn't write, and despite like... all of the bad shit that's happened in my life that i've turned to writing to pull myself out of it, i don't think i'd ever give it up. i think it's too deeply a part of me to ever give up. maybe one day i'll get published lol

ill definitely put more thought into subtle stickers for UtS (and maybe some other series haha cant remember if i mentioned that last time but UtS felt like the bigger one)! might have to ask around my friend circle for tips on designing them >:3

ohh i like ur tattoo ideas :0 im not sure what would look good so i hope u consult a tattoo artist with ur ideas eventually!! the idea of the lil church w a sun + 13 ppl is rly cute? if u do the sash-blindfold thing, u could always have a lyric inside of it or something if u wanna play w that :3c pls feel free to keep me updated further!!

sorry i didnt get to this ask until now but i hope u are doing well mwah mwah have a good day ur awesome ily

#wooahaes.ask #asks.anon #tattoo anon

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bettsfic · 4 years

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tying up loose ends/wip update

i have a little over a month until i start my phd, and i realize, sadly, something’s gotta give, and that’s probably going to be my fandom interaction/social media time. so i’m trying to finish/tie a few things up before my schedule explodes.

renovations

chapter 10 is complete, and i only need to revise 2 scenes of chapter 9. i’ll post them both at once since they ended up being a little shorter than the other chapters. hopefully they’ll be up in the next few days.

ace of spades

per @fraxinus and a few other anons maybe? i’ll be rereading ace of spades in the next week or so, parsing through my notes, and writing a detailed summary of how it would have ended. it’s been four years, so i have a vague memory of what i’d intended for it, and can only hope i made a diligent outline. i’m sincerely sorry i didn’t end up finishing this fic. i still love it, and it framed so much of what became my MFA thesis. i made the mistake of believing i could get it done in tandem with grad school, and i was wrong about that. by the time i graduated and had time to write fic again, my writing style and interests changed so drastically i couldn’t go back to it.

fake-dating your step brother (and other terrible ideas)

i’ve gotten a lot of asks about this over the past year, and for the most part i don’t answer them because i don’t want to inadvertently launch a shit storm. the good news is, ao3 is adding a feature to turn off comments completely, so what happened with fdysb won’t happen again.

i will not be completing this story or re-posting it to ao3. however, you can find the pdf of the existing chapters here, and read how it would have ended here. more info can be found in my fys tag.

other bellarke fics

i know i had a few unfinished km fills, but i don’t plan to go back to those, not because i’m not into bellarke (i am, but am just disgusted by the show rn) but because it’s gotten really difficult for me to write smut. i have no idea why.

untitled coriojanus fic

i’ve begun fiddling with a bosas fixit (just a one-shot) that idk if i’ll manage to finish. i’m not in a huge hurry because bosas isn’t even a wrangled fandom tag yet on ao3, and the book publicity fell totally flat. i don’t think most people even know it’s out. at least, i didn’t.

untitled stucky fic for fth

hopefully i’ll be able to work on this in july. i’ll be writing a 10k stucky werewolf fairy tale fic for fandom trumps hate! i’d love to post it before i start school, but i may have to save it for winter break. either way, it’ll be up sometime in 2020. it may be the last fic i write for a long time :(

baby/patreon

baby will finish up in august, although i’m considering posting the last couple chapters at once in july so that no one gets charged an additional month, since i don’t have any other posts scheduled in august. if i come up with some posts, i’ll stay up an extra month. after that, i’ll probably be deactivating patreon until i have a new novel, or can commit to posting consistently.

this means that if you were waiting until the end to become a patron so you could read baby all at once, you’ll want to do that in july, because by august it will be unavailable to read. i don’t have tiers, so you could read all of baby for $1.

original projects

2019 and now 2020 are turning out to be shitty years for me in terms of publishing, as well as just being shitty in general. i’m getting really exhausted by rejection and disheartened. i don’t have a lot of hope for my short story collection, which didn’t even get a partial request from the agents i sent it to, and i’m afraid it doesn’t stand much of a chance in the contests and small presses i submitted to, either. i think it’s a good book, but it requires a certain kind of editor/contest judge to champion it, and i think it will be hard to place.

i have two literary novels i’m working on, one i feel pretty good about and another that needs a major structural overhaul. i’ve also finished the first (bare bones, extremely shitty) draft of a YA SFF novel set in a simulated reality, kind of the matrix meets breaking bad, but written like a douglas adams/terry pratchett book.

all i can do is focus on the work -- writing, reading, teaching -- and have faith everything else will fall into place eventually.

as always, i’m extremely grateful for all the positivity and support i’ve received, and which motivates me to continue writing during the times i begin to lose hope.

#writing update #ace of spades #renovations #fys #patreon baby #vandal #cherry pop #eden #my fic #bosas #bomb time

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mortuarybees · 5 years

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do u have any more good omens fic recs?

oh boy do i. some of them are fics that i have included in my fic rec tag so if you’ve been in that bear with me there will also be others. basically my preferred and only accepted genre of anything is “unbearably tender” and “aziraphale is extremely neurotic and crowley loves him anyway” it’s therapeutic

at some point im going to update the original reference post with like. all the amazing content ive come across since making it but until then:

one may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel by lumosity aka @femmeaziraphale aka my very best friend

they have started another fic intended to destroy my life in which hell wins the next round and divines a special torment for crowley pls read it and encourage them to finish it because they don’t believe me when i tell them it’s amazing and i am d e s p e r a t e for more.

“You know, you’re very familiar,” Aziraphale said, breath stinking of the sweet wine.

“Oh? I guess I look like many goat herders,” Crowley allowed. Aziraphale snorted, nudging Crowley’s shoulder clumsily.

“No! I mean that you just seem like someone I’ve known before,” Aziraphale said. Crowley felt that familiar ache in his chest. Suddenly he wished he was sober.

“I have a common face,” Crowley dodged.

“Say whatever you like, but I feel like we fit together quite nicely,” Aziraphale said, resting his head against the bark of the tree. Crowley took the opportunity to watch Aziraphale while he had his eyes closed. There were the same old blonde eyelashes against his cheeks, the one little drop of sunlight that formed a mole at the corner of his eye. Crowley wished to kiss his cheek only once. An apology for not losing. For not giving Aziraphale an eternity of listening to celestial harmonies.

wings and how to hide them by triedunture

Crowley's been annoyingly in love for six thousand years. What's another lifetime between friends? // if you follow me you’ve probably seen me post or quote certain excerpts a million times you may recognize it as His Body Is A Place And It’s Filled With Love.

He swallowed. So bloody awkward, staring up at Aziraphale like this, having his face held. Was he supposed to maintain eye contact? It seemed impossible. His gaze darted away.

"Keep your eyes fixed on me," Aziraphale admonished, giving his cheek a little pat. "Try to imagine, I don't know...slipping into my body the way you'd slip into a new coat." His smile was weak.

Crowley made a face. "Sounds grotesque."

"It isn't! Come now." His voice and eyes softened. "Please. Try."

Deep breath in. He would try. For Aziraphale's sake. "All right." He opened his eyes, held Aziraphale's plaintive stare, and pictured how it would feel. To be a part of Aziraphale. To be held inside him, to surround him at the same time.

To be loved.

hand in unlovable hand by courfeyrock (les mis solidarity)

“Goodnight, my dear,” he says, and Crowley swears, Aziraphale could call him my dear for six thousand more years and he still wouldn’t be able to get used to it. // it’s tender it’s bed sharing it’s “i love you in the human way” it’s quoting that unspeakable broadchurch scene its title is from no children by tmg; in short, it’s specifically designed to torment me.

Crowley’s head snaps around as if on a swivel. “Shall we… what?”

“Go to sleep? Normally I would love to stay up and have a drink or a chat but you see I really am exhausted and I--”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Idiot, Crowley thinks. I am such an idiot. "I'll uh, I'll sleep underneath the covers, and you can sleep on top." He waves his hand in a forcefully casual gesture that he hopes conveys just how normal it is for two platonic friends to be having this conversation.

everything just stops by witching

they are drunk and crowley wants to take a bath so he miracles one and they have. the most unbearable conversation ever fucking put to fiction literally returning to it to select one single quote was nearly impossible for me emotionally. god the tenderness the yearning!!!! “i like your silly aziraphale things”!!!!!!!!!! “i love you deep, angel”!!!!!! i hate it! just read it please i cant actually keep describing it or i’ll have to lay down for a little while.

“Are you –” the angel’s voice was hoarse, and he paused to clear his throat, “are you playing some sort of game right now?”[....]

“I am not,” Crowley whispered fervently, his face frighteningly close to Aziraphale’s. “Six thousand yearsss, angel. You’re a part of me, and I jussst – just wanted you to know, is all.”

Without warning, Aziraphale reached with both hands to pull Crowley in closer, forcing him to drop his own hand from the angel’s face. Aziraphale held him gently, pressing a single chaste kiss to the demon’s forehead, his lips lingering as his thumbs slid tenderly along his cheekbones, his fingers wrapped up in dark, dripping hair.

When Crowley responded not by recoiling, as Aziraphale had expected, but by melting against his skin and sighing contentedly, the angel placed another kiss on one cheek, then the other. He moved to kiss Crowley’s eyelids, his jawline, his chin, the corners of his mouth, all the time cradling Crowley’s head in his hands, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Crowley to rebuff his affection.

Crowley, ever one to defy expectations, continued to allow the angel to kiss his face to his heart’s content. It was only when he heard Crowley sniff and let out a pitiful whimper that he pulled back, looking at the demon with concern.

hard feelings/loveless by witching

Aziraphale said it was like the opposite of the feeling you’re having when you say things like “this feels spooky.” Crowley didn’t know what to make of that, but he expected it was something like the opposite of the feeling you get when the only person who truly knows you makes a cryptic remark suggesting that you can’t understand love. Crowley understood love all too well. // crowley. crowley can’t sense love bc he is so goddamn full of love that he can’t see past it he’s just so full of it that he can’t separate it from just how he always is c r o w l e y. also angelic/demonic mindmelding.

“What about - I mean, if that’s… love,” he struggled to get the word out, “then what’s this other feeling? The one that I’ve been calling love for all this time?”

“I don��t know,” Aziraphale said. “I can’t possibly imagine.” He didn't have to voice his surprise at the fact that Crowley had an emotion he called love. It wasn't that he had truly thought Crowley was incapable of such an emotion; he was deeply aware of the power and range of the demon's feelings. He simply hadn't thought that Crowley was in tune with his own mind enough to understand it in those terms.

“Can I show you?” Crowley blurted without thinking.

come as you are by punkfaery (explicit; trigger warning for body dysmorphia and disordered eating)

Aziraphale visits a modern art gallery, goes on a diet, and submits to the mortifying ordeal of being known. Not necessarily in that order. // this mugged me in an alleyway and ruined me emotionally for a whole night but like whatever. it starts with a mary oliver quote so idk what i expected

He dragged a kitchen chair out and sat in it, looking like he wanted to set fire to things with the power of his mind. He was probably angry enough to try it, too. Aziraphale moved a nearby copy of The Earth Compels out of the way, just in case. “It wasn’t really because of him,” he said. “It just made me realise, that’s all.”

“Realise what?”

Aziraphale swallowed. “That I’m not… quite as I should be. That you deserve better.” He lowered his head, feeling wretched. “That’s all. I’m sorry I didn’t say something from the start, but it seemed like a difficult sort of thing to bring up.”

Crowley’s face was indescribable.

“You thought I’d stop liking you because you’re not thin,” he said. His voice was utterly toneless. A muscle ticked in his jaw.

“Well, naturally when you say it like that it sounds – ”

“Seriously? After six thousand years of, of whatever you want to call this? After we literally saved the fucking world together?”

salinity (and other measurements of brackish water) by drawlight

It's an odd thing, getting on after the End of the World. Crowley takes to sea-watching. // michael sheen has read and recommended it. god. it starts with a quote from eros the bittersweet. it took me a full half hour to read past the first paragraph or so it’s so Much.

"I want to see you cook." (Something made from his hands. Something purely Crowley. Nothing pulled from the ether. Nothing sourced and given, no. Something made from his hands.)

He looks at his hands. Holds them up, splays them against the shale backdrop of his ceiling. His hands are always the same, day to day. They are clean but stained. His long and dawdling fingers, his bit of knuckles, his veins and tendons beginning to show a little more. Yes, more, he doesn't know the age of his body but he keeps it somewhere here, at indeterminate forty. There is a hangnail on the ring finger, there are stains of belladonna on the sides, on the rough spots.

Belladonna, that green plant sick with chlorophyll, sick with poison. Crowley is a gardener and he grows belladonna in his bedroom. He knows poisons the way Aziraphale knows the Dewey Decimal System. Yes, he knows them intimately, bent over his long counter, pulling the leaves apart, peeling the stems. Crushing the seeds. He knows not to lick his fingers after, that the leaves and berries are toxic to a grown man, that maybe even Livia had used it once, dripped into Augustus' wine. Not, really, that poisons would matter . It’s one of those little perks of the demon gig, that whole immortality thing. What can get at him; what can cut it short? Only holy water and other blessed things. (Aziraphale is an angel, made out of blessed things. Crowley does not know how it might be to kiss him, mouth to wet mouth. If holy water might burn him, what can he expect from the freshwater mouth of an angel?)

birds of a feather by idiopathicsmile

Aziraphale nests. Crowley relearns some crucial facts about angelic courtship rituals. // look....im weak for home decorating as proxy or metaphor for domesticity and familiarity and this trope is literally this. i die

“Demons definitely don’t court,” says Crowley. “They fuck sometimes, but it’s—I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anything about the mating practices of insects but it’s more—like that. There’s no guarantee all parties will come out in one piece. Never seemed worth it, frankly. I like my pieces where they are.”

Aziraphale takes this all in with a series of slow, horrified nods.

“Wait,” says Crowley, “what do angels do?” He’s never pictured angels engaging with each other at all, outside of maybe mandatory team-building exercises.

“They nest,” says Aziraphale.

Crowley waits for this to all make sense. “What, instead of fucking?”

“No,” says Aziraphale primly. “Not instead. It’s—it’s part of the courtship ritual. You have to be able to build a decent nest if you want to be seen as a viable mate—”

“Like birds,” Crowley repeats, disbelieving.

“Not like birds, birds got it from us,” shrills Aziraphale.

men have gone to heaven for smaller things than that by mercuryhatter

Aziraphale finds an age slipping away from him. // aziraphale and crowley attend robbie ross’ funeral, and aziraphale mourns the loss of the old circle. also there’s some brief dunking on bosie. i adore this fic with my whole heart

“Listen.” Aziraphale took Crowley’s elbow and dragged him out of earshot of the funeral, releasing him under a nearby tree. “It’s not that I’m not glad you’re back. Remember that, because I’m about to be very short with you, but it’s not that.” He raised an eyebrow questioningly and Crowley nodded.

“That being said.” Aziraphale took a deep breath. His voice was shaking slightly and he tried to press it back to steadiness inside his throat. “You will not get near one more human under my charge this decade, are we clear?”

“Angel–” Crowley started, surprised, but Aziraphale cut him off. Fury was bubbling up inside of him, bright and brittle and with a deeply-buried thread of exhaustion that he couldn’t afford to think too long about.

“No.”

where you stay i will stay by mercuryhatter

at the hundred guineas club, men went under women’s names. aziraphale went by naomi and he paid! to keep ruth free! for crowley!!!! while crowley slept! it stopped my tender heart

“Let’s see. We all know Victoria, of course. Betsey, Henrietta, Georgiana, Chastity, that’s rich, and Temperance too, particular friends of each other, I imagine? A few Elizabeths, not particularly creative… oh.” Crowley nudged Aziraphale until he peeked up from his place hidden in Crowley’s sweater. “Aziraphale.”

“No, dear, I didn’t put that one down.” Crowley huffed in fond exasperation.

“No, honey, you put Naomi.”

“So I did.”

“And… I don’t see a Ruth.”

“No,” Aziraphale sighed. “No, I paid them an extra hundred pounds a year to hold that one for me.”

“For you or for…”

and this isn’t a fic but another essay that means the world to me, making an effort: queer (trans) masculinity in the ethereal & occult beings of good omens by elegantidler and irisbleufic

#henry speaks #good omens #fic rec #ineffable husbands

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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June 10th-June 16th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from June 10th, 2020 to June 16th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How does poor web design affect if and/or how you read a particular webcomic?

carcarchu

it's a huge factor. if a comic is amazing in every way but the website or app makes it difficult for me to read i'm simply NOT going to read it. there are a lot of great series that i've put on the back burner just because the website is so annoying to navigate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've honestly never run into a website so bad it stopped me from reading a comic i was interested in

carcarchu

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

Deo101 [Millennium]

The worst things with sites that I see often are 1: huge headers, and 2: laggy sites (not really site design, but its adjacent I think) Another is if the pages are too big on the screen, so you can't, for instance, see some panels all at once. Those kinds of things can really ruin a reading experience for me

carcarchu

One example of a website that is hostile to the reading experience is ZMYK which for some reason hosts vertical scroll comics but cuts them up into little pieces as if they were comic format so you can't actually scroll through the entire chapter as it was intended to

That kind of thing grinds my gears so much how can something you have to pay for be that incredibly bad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've also seen some sites that have graphic design issues, where elements are illegible due to their color, and some have very busy and distracting backgrounds. Those kinds of things won't necessarily ruin it, but they're distracting

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

forward comic's website was doing this weird thing where the further I read the longer pages took to load. Near the end it seemed they were taking 10 full seconds. Still read the whole thing though. Reading manga on shady sites with terrible internet connection as a kid has desensitized me

Oh one comic I was interested in but didn't read because of the site: I was kidnapped by lesbian pirates from outer space. It doesn't have a website. To read it you have to pirate (hehe) copies of the archive.

It's a pretty sad story- the author was young and tricked into giving up the rights to her series

She ended up taking the site down to prevent the company from getting any more money off of it

https://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

Here's her post about it

I think it can be a good warning message to us

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

For me, the biggest thing that deters me from reading a comic is if the website isn't well optimized for mobile (as someone who reads a lot on the go). This includes the images loading bigger than the page, or navigation being hidden on mobile, or glitchy scrolling, or any number of ungodly things. Also, too many ads. That'll turn me away in a heartbeat.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah ads are definitely a huge turnoff for me too

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@carcarchu okay i just digested this comment and wtf

no search bar is laughably bad omg

how did you even find out about it

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah that's ridiculous hahahaha

carcarchu

it's a shame because there are genuinely good comics on there you can't read anywhere else?? and i found it because an artist i adore did a series for it but it got AXED after only 2 chapters and after that was pretty much scrubbed from the internet. i think it's a shame because it really had so much potential and it ended before the story was really able to start

it's a screenshot from the app. you can see that it is categorized reverse chronologically by week

the point of aqua kiss is to emulate monthly/weekly style manga magazines but in app form. however i think the execution of this idea was horrendous

SteffieMusings

Oh no! It must make reading there so challenging. As for me, if the navigation is so hard to understand/pages don't load properly when you click a link or when the website's colours hurt my eyes so much I can't stay there for too long.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Honestly nowadays most of the CMS's out there share the same basic functionality and adaptability, so it's getting harder to screw up on that. Most sites are OK, if only a bit laggy. If the site takes less than 2 seconds to load and it's not so crowded that I have to look for the comic, I'm generally good.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

How much bad/inaccessible web design I'll tolerate is directly proportional to how much I care about the comic.

I've dropped a couple series in the middle of the archive just because they changed the site design to screw up the tracking of bookmarking sites, so I would've had to figure out an alternate way to keep track of it, and it didn't seem worth the effort

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh yeah, I've totally had that happen too where I was deep into an archive, had taken a reading break for a month or two, and came back to find the urls had been updated and my spot was lost it isn't so bad if a comic also has an archive page, but ive stopped reading a few stories that it would have been too hard to track down where I was.

DaeofthePast

I haven’t had to experience weird websites in a while, but I do sometimes go to an unknown website to read the comic/manga I’m looking for. Mostly what I’ve had trouble with is unnumbered chapters, of that it’s unclear where/how to start reading in general.(edited)

Like, I get to the page for that specific comic and then there’s no easy “start reading here” button anywhere

And when I do find the chapters list, I don’t know which end of the list is the beginning bc it’s unnumbered

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Is a "First page" button enough or are you looking for a "new readers start here" button? (<- is redisigning her page)

DaeofthePast

Is there a difference? :0

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

hm, sometimes yes.

Some old running comics have different jump-on points (schlock mercenary for example).

DaeofthePast

Ooh I see

Well when I first go on the site, I just want to start reading so idk

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

So, I always try to read every comic that's featured in the book club all the way through. Like even if I don't particularly like the opening, or if the comic is thousands of pages long, or I don't have time to meaningfully discuss the comic, I do try to at least give the comic a fair shake by reading through the entire archive. There have been four exceptions. One was because of content (it was a gag a day comic, and the content was SO horrible for SO long that I just couldn't stand it anymore. real "punching down" type of humor). Another was because the comic was literally deleted before I could get to it. The remaining two were because the site design/organization were so awful that the comics were unreadable. One of the two comics had a custom built, hand-coded site (I assume), and it just... didn't work properly. Like the "previous" button seemingly took you to a random page, the "next" button and the "latest" button led to the same place, etc. I'm not sure the creator ever bothered to test the site. The other one used some pre-built stuff, so it was ok... but you had to scroll to the top of the page to go to the next page. Not only that, but the author was posting all their comics to the same archive - which means one page would be the comic that was actually meant to be read for the book club and the next few pages were a completely different comic entirely. And this wasn't a gag-a-day either - it was a story based comic, so the three action minimum to get to the next page made things absolute hell to keep track of.(edited)

DaeofthePast

Wow

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff, yeah, that sounds horrible.

Nyx+Nyssa's page is currently a barebone mess, but I made at least sure the navigation works. :/

DaeofthePast

Having the comic be deleted while you’re reading it sounds like such a weird experience lmao

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean, it wasn't thanos snap style lol

DaeofthePast

Was the website gone too or?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

it was in between days

nah the website was still there, it's just that the author had decided to reboot their comic and forgot that they had submitted it to the book club

DaeofthePast

Oh okay I imagined Thanos snap style

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not really a design but a site thing: I can't do comics without an archive of some sort. On platforms like Tapas or WT, the episode list serves that purpose perfectly fine. I personally need to be able to see how many pages there are, and I need a way to go to specific pages easily. It might sound like a small complaint, but it's a big thing for me! There have been comics that piqued my interest, but once I saw that there was no archive of any form, I left forever. Sure, I might be missing out, but there are also lots of good comics out there that have accessible archives. My life isn't long enough to read them all, so I'm letting myself be very picky.

copperine

I can manage a very basic site just fine. But if a site is hard to navigate, or just makes reading the page/getting to the next page difficult - I'd be likely to give up eventually. Doesn't matter about the quality of the comic, but if it's a chore to just read it, it's going to put me off after a while

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I will note - if you want me to actually discuss your comic in the book club, please do have an archive link, and probably a cast page too. Like the lack of one doesn't stop me from reading entirely, but I can't discuss anything without being able to look back at specific moments. (and one of those archives that just has dates doesn't count - lemme know what the chapter is!)

copperine

For example - when I read webcomics on dA, I was absolutely fine with either the author having a dedicated folder with the pages in order. Another option was to link next and prev pages in the description. But if I had to go find each next page, I just wouldn't.

DaeofthePast

By an archive do you mean kinda like a chapters list?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

A list of all the pages, ideally

That also list the chapters somehow

copperine

Short version: if I feel like I'm spending half as much time navigating the site as I am actually reading, it's gonna get old real quick

DaeofthePast

And same copperine. As long as it’s organized well, I will probably read it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like maybe you click on a chapter link to get to a list of the pages, or maybe it's just a list of the pages with the chapter names as headers

some sort of organization

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! (I admit my own comic's archive page isn't the prettiest, but it's 100% functional.)

DaeofthePast

I only have a chapter list so far ^^; idk how to go about getting an archive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Chapter list is totally fine if your chapters tend to be on the shorter side

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like having chapter lists around, although coding them can be a handful Not sure if to go for an archive with thumbnails or just with page numbers though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's also workable if you also have like... a dropdown menu for individual pages on the actual pages? So it only takes 2 clicks to go to a specific page (first click to go to the chapter, second click to go to the page)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

OH yeah, there was also a dA comic in the book club once that didn't have any next/previous buttons. However, it was a short comic - the bare minimum for getting into the book club - so I still read it all the way through. But it was pretty annoying to do so. (it was also pretty obviously a fetish comic, but that's not really relevant to the discussion XD)

DaeofthePast

I want to post by scene so I’ll be dividing chapters like “chapter 3 part 1” to hopefully that will be better

copperine

I'll always take functional over pretty

DaeofthePast

Haha I’m not sure if I want to know the comic for that one

Also what is “punching down” humor?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, the author was a straight man, and nearly every joke was making fun of people who weren't those things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like making fun of people but

copperine

Yikes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

you're intentially trying to put them down

that's punching down in my imo rip

DaeofthePast

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah....

DaeofthePast

Well at least I know what to call it when I see it in the future ._.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, occasionally I see a shitty joke in a comic and I keep reading because maybe the author improved (we do sometimes get comics with archives that date back decades in here) But this comic was just so consistently awful for so long that I couldn't stand it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that aint good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Though that's kinda off topic lol

DaeofthePast

Oh yeah

So bad site design...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I don't really wanna post the examples of the comics I talked about in here cuz I don't wanna call anyone out

Actually, hold on, lemme check something

DaeofthePast

I feel I haven’t had too much experience with bad site designs, but I might have just forgotten(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

ok yeah

so, the comic where you had to scroll up to the top of each page to click to the next one, and the site was multiple comics alternating pages that made the story rough to follow

copperine

Oof yeah having to scroll up to click next won't stop me but it is a bother

DaeofthePast

I like having the next button both on top and the bottom, even if they update page by page(edited)

It just feels convinient

copperine

Yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Re: punching up/down, here's an overly simplistic set of examples: billionaires making fun of poor people is punching down. Poor people making fun of billionaires is punching up.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

's good webdesign pattern for everything with continous content - e.g. blogs, web-novels, webcomics.

Ideally you have one on top, between content and comments and under comments

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

the comic that alternated storylines & required scrolling back up to go to the next page was Antibunny: http://vinnied.comicgenesis.com/d/20061002.html if you see that page I linked and click next a few times, there's no obvious distinction between the main story and the spinoff story (no, like, header change between the two, and the art style looks similar), so you can see how it'd be confusing to follow and the scrolling is just icing on the cake (it used to be even worse) the only reason I feel comfortable sharing that is because the author uploaded the comics to new sites, and fixed all those issues in the process: http://antibunny.net/

DaeofthePast

Oh nice. So they realized the problem

copperine

Aren't they in this server? Or am I thinking of another one

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah, the author is in this server

copperine

I thought so

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hence why he realized, because we told him that there was a problem during the book club

copperine

I'm not gonna take anything said here as a comment on anyway btw

DaeofthePast

It’s cool that submitting their comic to the tea party resulted in some good feedback :3

copperine

You love to see it!

It always makes me happy when webcomic community stuff helps people out, that seems like the ideal outcome

DaeofthePast

Yess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i agree on that yeee

DaeofthePast

It’s like having a friend point out a spelling mistake. Embarrassing but you can live with the knowledge that your work is now a little bit better(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah kinda off-topic, but I love it when the author of the comic for the book club joins the server. Like not only does it mean that the author could join in on others' discussions in the future (pay it forward 'n stuff), but... it's just really sad when I see a comic pop up in the book club and the author seemingly forgot they submitted it.

DaeofthePast

How long does it usually take to get to a comic? :0 that they would forget they submitted it?

copperine

I always hope I can help others out or support them, and I hope they feel the same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The book club had a very very long wait list in the past. These days, not so long.

DaeofthePast

And I guess if you submit a comic with a website, the people here can be your beta testers

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

what's odd is that five months ago, the wait list was six months but now, the wait list is two months y'all need to submit/resubmit your comics

DaeofthePast

I tried going to submit mine yesterday and the site doesn’t let me v.v says you’re booked for July

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh yeah, so it is

DaeofthePast

Maybe later :3

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i guess Rebel doesn't want the queue to get too long

copperine

I would submit mine but I'm only at 10 pages and I believe you need to have 20 to submit

DaeofthePast

Ooh they have a minimum?

Gotta count my pages now

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it makes sense. Hard to discuss a comic that only has the cover for chapter 1

DaeofthePast

Tru

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Let us dissect this cover image for an entire week"

DaeofthePast

It would be a hilarious April fools challenge

copperine

Idk I think it was 20 minimum?

DaeofthePast

shrug

copperine

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you shed any light on this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The sign up form is where you would normally find that information.

copperine

... very good point

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But the form is currently unavailable, and it's possible that Rebel might change the requirement when it becomes available again

copperine

Thank you for the heads up

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

FYI, https://comicteaparty.com/ is where the form will be available eventually

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

They accept resubmissions now?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I def like arrows on the top and bottom of pages for sites to be more of a thing, as well as clicking the image for the next page too! Honestly there hasn't been a make or break, mainly preferences, and the most complaints i have are with the mobile formatting. I think most comics have been pretty solid in functionality that i've read, and it's clear that having their own website is becoming mainstream enough for there to be help, tips, and tricks to making it work!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I definitely prefer if I can just click on the comic image to go to the next page especially for mobile.

copperine

Agreed!

Idk about resubmissions tho

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... Wow. I absolutely HATE clickable images on mobile, because they usually mess with the pinch-zoom.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i've had sites that didnt have image click throughs and the arrow..... was like SO TINY XD

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Didn't think anyone would actually like it, so... huh.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i kept going back and forth

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

yeah, navigation needs to be bigger on mobile for safe tapping.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, re:resubmissions, I'm pretty sure you can if it's been long enough? I think @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) mentioned it recently as an option. But maybe a tangent for #general

boogeymadam

i dont mind the pinch zoom being a little more difficult from time to time cause usually the clickable image is worth it to me

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same

boogeymadam

am also fond of sites that allow left/right arrows to let you move forward and back on desktop

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Mainly it's just for like Krispy said, reading on mobile and tiny next/previous buttons.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ye my dummy thicc fingers prefer the click through image for sure

ohh yes Boogey that too

boogeymadam

it took me hours of googling to find the very simple comicpress option to just turn that on on my site

copperine

Mmm I do like sites that allow pinch zoom though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also prefer clicking on the image to go to the next page

mariah (rainy day dreams)

My fingers small, but still dummy T-T

copperine

It makes it easier to get a better look at the page

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

iweudhweiu Mariah XD

copperine

Especially if it's got smaller font

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

nyxandnyssa has a seperate navigation for mobile that's much bigger and skipping scene select to make tapping easier.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had the hover text def bum me out for some comics, where you click the image and it just displays the text, then you gotta click the tiny next bar def killed me there

copperine

I've never had issues with pinch zoom affecting clickable images but I can imagine it would be annoying

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

but! never breaks me out of a comic for me to stop reading-! i persevere in the face of adversity XD

boogeymadam

i've never encountered a site so bad i couldnt continue reading. maybe stuff where i'd stop reading until i was less frustrated but i'd come back later.

DaeofthePast

That’s something I’ll have to consider for my site then

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I feel like Smackjeeves had a really obnoxious auto pitch & zoom before they updated most recently. I like when I can turn it off on my phone. I'd rather do it myself most of the time and let my phone try to auto it X')

DaeofthePast

I usually read on desktop more often than on mobile so it’s good to hear from other’s experiences

copperine

Idk I've never used a custom site yet

boogeymadam

same dae, except on tapas and webtoons!(edited)

comics with their own website i'll boot up my computer for a single update of

DaeofthePast

Even on webtoons I read on desktop

boogeymadam

omg your power, webtoons feels so choppy on desktop to me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

im definitely lucky that our site got a mobile friendly version i remember the 'ol pinchy zoomz was tiresome on our site for sure

DaeofthePast

I get headaches from reading on my phone unfortunately :/

Idk what the difference is between reading mobile and on a desktop but my brain doesn’t like it

Like, I can text fine???? But reading a comic for some reason is like “no”

So yeah, comics on desktop for me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh!! it could be the close proximity!

DaeofthePast

Ooh :0 maybe?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i know i get motion sickness depending on how close/ far i am from screens

DaeofthePast

Maybe it’s something like that... :O

boogeymadam

whatever the reason sorry you get headaches and motion sickness from comics :'0

DaeofthePast

Every once in a while I’ll try again to read on mobile I never learn

boogeymadam

the only reason i dont like mobile is sometimes comics text is a combination of too small there and the font is hard on my dyslexia

DaeofthePast

Rip

boogeymadam

so i see if zooming in on my computer helps

DaeofthePast

The lesson here is that it’s good to have both mobile and desktop options

boogeymadam

yep :'D

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh yea def agree. I know that feeling and i sometimes ... have a Time reading my own work XD (i admit it lol!!)

boogeymadam

sometimes my own comic is hard on my dyslexia for The Effect so i never have hard feelings with other comics

copperine

(brb)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ewiudhiwue the things we do AT WHAT COST XD

DaeofthePast

Asdfghjkl

Meanwhile I use the same font for everything

boogeymadam

wait im gonna generalize this more so it can be a party

DaeofthePast

Please post that on pillowfort so I can reblog it

boogeymadam

you can post it for yourself if you want dae!

i'm having a hard time logging on asdfgjh

DaeofthePast

Rip sure

copperine

Ah see I have both

Because hand lettering

It's great for feeling right for a comic but also eternally wondering if it's readable

DaeofthePast

Ooh yeah I guess that would count as both

What’s your comic btw :0

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about website design right

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yep! If it gets too off topic, you can always continue in another channel that's more fitting.

copperine

Ah sorry! Sure thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mobile is too small for me

DaeofthePast

Yeah

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(oHHMYYGOSH BOOGEY XD)

boogeymadam

mm archives were mentioned already, and how it can really turn readers away to simply not have one at all? my favorite archive is https://www.vaingloriouscomic.com/comic/archive 's but i've seen some where they attempted an all picture archive and it backfired by just being a page of all empty boxes. this didn't deter me from reading it and it got fixed pretty quick tho~ mine is one of these and its a very chonky slowmoving page cause i uploaded the first 90ish as fullsized pictures. nobody's ever complained so idk if it's ever deterred anyone from reading but i know i gotta fix it someday.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really dont mind any kind of web design in particular though tbh. I prefer desktop sites but it’s fine if the design isnt great

DaeofthePast

Have you guys ever gone to a comic website (for a single comic) and the colors used in the background were so bright that it felt like they were blinding you to the point it was hard to read the actual pages?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My archive is down right now becayse it broke and I dont know how to fix it lol

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i def want a fully view-able archive but we're gonna be hitting 800 pages and i dont know how well that will work XD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

But I have a navigation bar now

boogeymadam

u could have multiple pages of archive, krispy!

i'm starting a new page for chapter 2

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or dropdown menus

boogeymadam

but its probably important to have a dropdown if u have more than 1 page, yeah

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I want to switch to picture archives, but I haven't found a good plug in/way to get my word press to do it :( if anyone has recommendations...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I knew how to make dropdown menus

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i'll have to bring that up ! we dont do the tech work for our site ( thank gosh seriously) but i love archives that show full pages

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

If I could make dropdown menus I would be unstoppable

copperine

I miss the drop-downs on SJ

boogeymadam

i feel like dropdowns are smth i pretty much only exclusively see on hiveworks comics

i wonder what their secret is,,,

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’ve inspected the elements on so many hiveworks sites lol

I want to know

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

they use word press I think

for their comic sites

just have to do some digging with the site html and csss

copperine

Right click and inspect maybe...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Php stands for my Personal hell pit

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

if i could go undercover for yall i would XD

boogeymadam

also!! @mariah (rainy day dreams) i use elementor for mine

its not perfect and breaks like every time i update it but it works asdfg

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... I'm currently writing a sparkling fresh wp-plugin for my page (comic easel wasn't doing what I wanted), but I am also a software dev who enjoys coding.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My template I use functions in mostly php and xml and its gibberish to me but functions so well I dont know how to improve it to have specific things I want

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my knowledge with site design is basic at best lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

wordpress is a bit special in that it does most things more complicated than strictly necessary.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I do like fiddling with stuff

^that too lmao

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I know Shiza of osarilho is really good at web designing? she's made some beautiful work with her site!

boogeymadam

i want to ask shiza for more help but not before i have some money to pay her :')

she's helped me a lot already

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I can do html and css at the babiest level

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'll check that out Boogey, thanks! Even if it does break X') And I guess I'll just make a note to start stashing money to hire shiza XD im definitely at the point where my site needs a general face lift, but I don't have the spoons for it.

boogeymadam

imo i've made some really pretty pges with it. it's a drag and drop that's excellent at galleries, but it doesn't like when you don't have even rows for some reason

the wordpress plugin, Elementor, i mean.

copperine

I've been wanting to try comicpress for ages

I just don't know where to start

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'm gonna move over to #shop_talk for my response

copperine

I had someone who was gonna help me out but we lost contact so it's on the back burner

boogeymadam

OOPS yeah

copperine

But for websites in general I prefer to have one that feels very basic than one that feels too busy or crowded

I'm not a graphic designer at all lol

If I do try an independent site I'm planning to pay a coding friend to help me

DaeofthePast

yeah i have no idea what I'm doing when working on my site, it's kinda basic, but at least it looks nice

copperine

I just use a premade theme on my ComicFury site

It works and that's good enough for me so far

Oh I guess the other thing that would put me off reading a comic is if the site isn't formatted for mobile, and/or particularly if the site doesn't have adaptive formatting

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same, but editted it hard core so it looks like it's own thing lmao

copperine

I usually read on my phone because my computer is where I work so I like to get off it for hobbies

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but for me uh i guess mobile i try to read it either on tapas, webtoon or its own site

I find just clicking the page to the next one helps me a lot lol I don't do a lot of zooming

copperine

Mmm

copperine

It's personal preference a lot tbh!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I like my comuter because its big

copperine

Valid

Mine is not

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

did anyone talk about paying me please you don't have to do that

copperine

Idk but you can pay me

Idk what for but

I'll take money

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I absolutely would have to if you made my site awesome X') work is work, and you should be paid for it

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

fair enough

Just send me a DM whenever you're up for that and lemme take a look at what you already have

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I would hire someone to do web design for me but I dont have the funds & I dont wnat to make someone do work for me for free

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I've been meaning to set up my own website for a while now, since the collective i was originally hosting my webcomic with kinda fell apart, but it's so much work and i'm hella intimidated :'''D

copperine

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) there's been some related discussion in #shop_talk and I believe @boogeymadam might be able to advise (I'm sure others can too but I'm going off the convo from earlier)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) depending on how much it is I can help you out

RebelVampire

Admin Reminder Remember this channel is for experiences as a reader first and foremost, so #shop_talk and #general are better if you want to discuss your own stuff.

DaeofthePast

thank you for the reminder :3

RebelVampire

I would say poor web design is something I have a complicated relationship regarding webcomics. On the one hand, outside of a site being 100% completely broken, I'm willing to sit through a lot to read. So in terms of affecting whether I read a comic the first time or not, there isn't much to say there. But it does affect how engaged I am with the comic. Cause if I can't easily go back to re-read a page, easily find things like character names, have to deal with extreme lag cause the host is garbage, have to deal with eye bleeding color schemes, etc. you can bet your bottom dollar 1 time is all that comic is going to get in terms of reading it. I can only subject myself to so much, and if I don't feel like reading a comic again because of the site itself, I'm going to quickly forget it in favor of comics whose sites don't make me cry. I do give more leeway to sites created by creators in many respects. But professional bigtime hosts like Tapas or Webtoons literally have no excuse for some of their garbage design choices. And some of their design choices are super duper garbage.

DaeofthePast

that's true yeah, there's a big distinction of the quality expectations between sites by small creators and those of big companies like Webtoons

RebelVampire

At the same time, though, I know from first hand experience that poor design choices are literally influenced by user data for bigger companies. So for every decision I consider stupid- at the same time they probably did the AB tests that showed crappy design A had better results for their conversion rates than user friendly design B.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Which boggles my mind

I wonder if there's some kinda causation-correlation thing going on that the A/B tests could not detect accurately

boogeymadam

Rebel mentioned sites that have eyebleedy color schemes and I'm in the same boat; will read the comic, just will be turning down the screen brightness a looot. Sites that have a huge space of extremely neon background that distracts from the comic make me reluctant to read on the site, and I'll look for a mirror before trying. That white background of the 2 big comic hosting sites can at least be affected and turned dark by nightmode when needed, while nightmode doesn't work on half the bright comic sites I've tried it on. u-u

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

1 note · View note

ghoulcandy · 5 years

Note

any tips on being a professional artist on the internet? I always love how polished your work is, and how u seem really competent with self marketing/professionalism and i'm just like, how do u do it? i wanna be a better presence on the internet/art community but i'm baffled about where/how to start

Hey! So I’m going to condense everything I know as best I can, but I don’t want to leave anything out. These are all of the things I keep in mind when posting online. I won’t really go into how to seek out employment, though, since that’s not really in my sphere.

* I asked crims via PM if they were comfortable with me posting my reply, so please feel free to reblog this as well!

Good luck and I love ya!!!

Make a Name For Yourself

Marketing yourself can be difficult enough as it is, but try to put thought into what you post and when! I do my best to avoid posting sketches onto my art blog, and save them for my personal blog and twitter.

Don’t just post on one site! It’s slow going to build a brand, which is why I regret waiting for so long to actually use my twitter.

Speaking of, register a domain! I purchased ghoultreats.com for $12 through google domains, and the url redirects to my art blog. (I’m still working on having the url display properly, but tumblr won’t let me :/)

All things considered, tumblr is a pretty good site to build a portfolio on, but the name does tend to give itself away. Wix is pretty good, too, so you could do the same thing there.

If you want to work under an alias, find an artist tag that’s snappy and recognizable, as well as one you could see yourself using for years. If you want to be taken seriously, avoid posting work under something memey, numbered, or clearly related to a fandom / intellectual property (I kept ‘ghoul’ because people usually don’t identify it as a Fallout reference.)

Understand that your tone is all people have to go by what you’re like personally when looking at your site. When you post, use concise captions--I do my best to never leave a picture un-captioned. Aesthetic stuff is fine but ‘idk lol i just drew it haha’ is unacceptable for your portfolio.

Fanart is gradually being seen as more acceptable to include in your portfolio these days, but try to gave it at a 1:9 ratio of fan stuff to original content.

Use tags, but tastefully. “#artists on tumblr” is a classic go-to and one that’s tracked by many people. Tag a few of the most prominent items in your piece for traffic visibility, especially if it’s a fan work. Same with Twitter.(also, following the Dec. 17 2018 update, it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a #sfw)

Join a Community

One annoying thing about tumblr is how unofficial the social circles are; on DeviantArt, you have groups, forums, and chat rooms, which all lend themselves to creating specific areas to share content and network. Tumblr doesn’t have that, obviously, so following tags and reaching out is about the best you can do.

So, 1. Join a discord server. If you see someone post about a server that interests you, look into it! Creative-centric discords are great for meeting new people and spreading your influence.

2. Join a zine! They’re fun collaborative efforts, you get to flex your creative muscles for the chance to create something you might not usually be able to produce (keychains, enamel pins, etc) and be featured alongside other artists! Plus, you can put it on a resume.

3. Submit your work to a convention artist alley! This does, of course, require you to have product to sell, but conventions are a FANTASTIC way to meet other artists.

Reaching out / networking / making friends can be scary, but as long as you’re respectful and friendly, things usually turn out okay! Remember, we’re all a bunch of self-conscious nerds. Reblogging/Retweeting and replying is a x2-hit combo. All artists love it.

Act Like A Professional

ie: fake it til you make it

I haven’t gone to art college. I can’t afford it, and frankly, for what I do, I don’t think I need to. This is NOT to devalue the importance of education, but to bring attention to the fact that currently, many network show runners and employees are alumni of the same school. Even Netflix’s new animation studio is run by those same people. So be honest about your education, but know that going to an art college isn’t required to become a professional.

Separate your socials from your professionals. It seems obvious, but far too often I’ve seen people use their main blogs as their portfolios. Don’t do that!However, Twitter is kind of a different beast, and it’s usually a bit more acceptable to post socially there, but I recommend linking to your portfolio right in your bio.

Periodically go through your portfolio and remove works that no longer reflect your skill as an artist. Now is the time to be self-critical. I’m not saying “DELETE EVERYTHING” but go in every few months with an eye for detail.

I also suggest not trying too hard to have A Style that you’re known for. The way we draw changes naturally over time, so please! Experiment, try new things and new mediums, and for the love of god, accept criticism. Tumblr communities have a habit of harboring a very anti-crit mentality, which stunts art growth and improvement.

Understand that critique is not a personal attack. You don’t have to adhere to every piece of advice that’s given to you, but understand that others’ perspectives of your work are valid and necessary. We create for others, so what they have to say is important.

Don’t use too many pages on your site. All you really need is an about page, contact info, and your main gallery. List your best, most recent achievements (ie: storyboard artist for x, character animator for y) on the about page.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF -- LEGIT. NOT A JOKE.

DROP self-deprecating commentary. When you feel bad about how someone is better than you, realize that you don’t know what their life is like. We’re all on different skill levels. Instead of saying, ‘wow, I’ll never be THAT good,’ evaluate what MAKES their art good. Save the pictures, study them, appreciate them!

Remember, someone thinks the same thing about your art.

I hope this has helped!

#long post #art advice #artists on tumblr #see im even using these tags as an example #crimson-miz

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moonlit-manifesto · 6 years

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Heartbreak Red’s Takeover

It’s April 1st, so you know what that means - it’s April Fools’ Day!

Because it’s Uduki Arata’s Hearbreak Red’s month, he’s taken over the Tsukiuta Twitter (@tsukiuta1) and Tsukino Productions website as you’ve probably already seen. I’ll translate some select Heartbreak Red tweets from the throughout the day and put them on this post under the cut. This post will be continually updated throughout the day, so check back at the end of the day to see all of them!

☆Today Begins April☆

Haru: “I would like to give formal thanks to the month of March. Until next year♪”

Arata: “Thanks for your hard work, Haru-san! Don’t worry! I’ll definitely make April an exciting month just like you did!”

Haru: “Ahh, good. I can feel your enthusiasm from those sunglasses and that red scarf.”

Arata: “Yep!”

#Please treat us well, April

Arata: “Now then, it’s time to hand it over to a hero.”

☆It’s April 1st! Everyone Gather ‘Round! It’s a Heartbreak Red Fest☆

Red: “Hey, everyone! It was pretty hard to make updates everywhere with just one person! [referring to the site takeovers] I worked extremely suddenly! So guys, will you join me~ ?”

Red: “Your heart will beat...” [This is part of his catchphrase but doesn’t sound good translated literally lol. The full phrase is “ハートがキュンと来て... ドッコイショ!” (HAATO ga kyun to kite... dokkisho!)

[T/N: In this tweet, he’s supposed to be reading through some requests/mail sent in. As part of the April Fools’ Day campaign, people could actually tweet things to Heartbreak Red, and he’d reply to some of them.]

Red: “There’s ‘heartbreak’ stuff in here. Well, any subject is fine. ‘Go call on Aoi-kun~’ is in Requests (I’ll go catch him when he comes back to the dorms). ‘Anxiety from becoming an official adult in April’ warrants some more serious advice so I’ll throw away my carefree-ness for that one. The carefree-ness will make a return though.”

☆It’s noon! Let’s have some fun!☆

Red: Is everyone enjoying April Fools’ Day~? I admire, and also laugh at, the official staff’s common sense once it became time for their lunch break. Now’s my time to shine! I’m Heartbreak Red. So with this first greeting, let’s try and continue energetically!“

Red: "Your heart will beat…” [everyone’s supposed to respond with ‘ドッコイショ!’/'ba-dump!’]

[The tweets below are some of the requests/messages/etc. that were submitted along with Heartbreak Red’s replies. I’m mainly translating the funny ones since they’re more interesting ^^ ]

[REQUEST]: I want to see a drawing of Hajime-san by Heartbreak Red.

Red: Bam:

[ADVICE]: Red!!! My boyfriend is incapable!!! What should I do to make him more exciting??

Red: "How about me instead!!!”

[REQUEST]: Please call Chisa-chan over

Red: “CHISA-CHI---------------!!!”

Chisa: “I’ve arrived from your call, ta-daaaaa! ‘Your heart will beat - ba-dump-----!!!’ Bye now!!!!!”

Red: “That great energy she gives off is the best!!!!!”

[ADVICE]: My room is really disorganized. How can I make it pretty (´;ω;｀)?

Red: “Take a picture of it with your phone, and look at it and say ‘Wow... it’s better in my imagingation... possibly...’ is what I would recommend (speaking from experience).”

[OTHER]: Arata-kun, how are your nose and throat? [because it’s allergy season]

Red: I’m not Arata, but in regards to hay fever, I seem to be fine for the time being.”

[REQUEST]: Pick a fight with You-kun ◝(●˙꒳˙●)◜

Red: “Hey Cure Curry---!!!!” [reference to Precure, see Tsukiuta’s other prank this year where they turned some characters into magical girls]

You: “Who’re you calling ‘Cure Curry’!! I’ll force-feed you curry!! *angry*”

Red: “He’s a tsundere.”

[later on, he quote-RTed this with a correction]:

Red: “Sorry, sorry, it’s Pure Curry [not Cure Curry].”

You: “Either way, I’m neither of them.”

Red: “Well I’m not Arata either, you know?”

You: “Don’t group me with you *angry*”

[ADVICE]: I’m starting a new chapter in my life, but I’m always bad at self-introductions. Please tell me if there’s something I can do to have a good grasp of it!!

Red: “Try the standard ‘syllabary composition*!’ So for me, it would be ‘shi’: I’m a happy [shiawase] person... ‘tsu’: I have an indifferent [tsurenai] attitude... ‘re’: I cook things using the microwave [renji]... ‘n’: nnn~hmmm and I’m a genial person.”

*[T/N: take a sound/syllable in JP and come up with a word that starts with that sound to describe yourself (in English, it’d be like coming up with a word for each letter of the alphabet). Heartbreak Red kind of cheated on his last one - the ‘n’ sound lol]

[MESSAGE]: Heartbreak Red!! I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!

Red: “Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu I love you tooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

[REQUEST]: Please give me a supportive message to help me save money in order to move to a different residence 🙋

Red: “With this 10,000 yen, your next place will be 10m^2 in area.. *saying it like an incantation*”

[REQUEST]: Call Koi-kun over~

Red: “Ay, Pink.”

Koi: “So rude~~~~!!! Could you call for me in a nicer way!!!??? I’m on stand-by!!!

Koi: “I’m everyone’s hardworking cheerleader: Kisaragi Koi! Call me Koi-kuuuuun!”

Red: “Alright, thanks. Everyone, send him off with your loudest applause.”

[ADVICE]: I’m nervous and I don’t want to go to tomorrow’s company welcome ceremony and orientation. What should I do?

Red: “I understand, I totally understand. But you should go because there’s bound to be a lot of unexpected, surprising things anyways! During difficult times, just remember me because I’m cheering for you a whole lot. Keep fighting ☆

[REQUEST]: I love Kai-kun! I become a working adult tomorrow, so could he say a few words for me? ♡

Red: “Kai-sannn!”

Kai: “Congrats on becoming a full-fledged adult! I hope you find joy in your work and that it’s something worth pursuing. I think it’s bad to dwell on just the mistakes made in life, so make sure to take a breather without working too hard during the tough times!

[REQUEST]: Dear Heartbreak Red, I want you to call on Issei and Ichiru from QUELL! I want to hear the twins’ thoughts on “unrequited love!”

Red: “Pure Hokkaido guys~~!”

Ichiru: “That’s not us!!”

Red: “Yeah, yeah. This is random, but what do you think of unrequited love?”

Issei: “Erm... Love, umm... *shy* Ichiru, what do you think?”

Ichiru: “Ehhhhh!? Um, I-!!!?? I-I still don’t.... know about stuff like love that well...”

Issei: “Me neither... I think it would be nice to experience something like unrequited love, that’s the kind of love I want to try.”

Ichiru: “Same.”

Red: “A priceless answer. Thanks, guys.”

[T/N: all of the “love” talked about here, including the “love” in unrequited love is “koi,” not “ai”]

[REQUEST]: Heartbreak Red~!!!! Call Kakerun over~~!!!!!

Red: “Kakerun - I’ll give you ice cream if you come over here.”

Kakeru: “Good evening~!! How’s everyone doing~? I’m in good spirits since I got to eat ice cream. Tomorrow is a new you! I’ll take on Angra**, so let’s keep smiling!”

**written as アンラ, I’m assuming this refers to Angra Mainyu which is a boss from Final Fantasy X-2

[OTHER] I want to know what everyone’s favorite kanji is ( *´꒳`* )

Red: “Strawberry” (苺) [of course lol]

Kakeru: “Gold” (金) [also obvious]

Red: “Oh, this has a once-in-a-lifetime meaning!!!”

Kakeru: “Ah, it matches our image color meanings too!!!!”

Koi: “You guys do know the whole business is based on our images, right? Have you been paying attention at all?”

[REQUEST]: Heartbreak Red, as well as whoever’s near you: tell us the color of your underwear!

Red: “You guys like underwear, huh. Mine are the red of victory... Well that’s what I pretend the plain grey is.”

Kakeru: “Dang, what bad timing! Mine are gold! That was a lie! Uhh~ they’re black!”

Koi: “Such a question at a time like this........Mine are red.”

[T/N: Koi’s first sentence was actually the same as Kakeru’s but idk if I got the nuanced meaning correct in Kakeru’s part so I didn’t want to copy the same thing]

[REQUEST]: What kind of lie did Rui-kun tell today on April Fools’ Day?? Please tell us!!!

Red: “Rui-rui~”

Rui: “Were you referring to Minaduki Rui (水無月涙)? I’m actually Minaduki Rui (水無月類). There’s a lot of Minaduki’s around...”

Red: “That joke’s hard to understand based on sound alone, Rui-rui.”

[T/N: Rui just changed the kanji in his first name from 涙 to 類, but both have the same pronunciation so you can’t tell unless you see it written lmao]

[REQUEST]: Please summon Heartbreak Purple and Heartbreak Green!!

Red: “Please heed my request!!! Mainly Green!!”

Green: “I dragged Purple with me ♪”

Purple: “...”

Red: “With that really reluctant face, it must be the right time to do that mean prank I was talking about earlier.”

Purple: *clench*

Green: “If you have something to say, just say it. Come on, Purple!”

Red: “Yeah come on, Purple.”

Purple: “This all started from that one magazine’s survey results, and the fact that this ‘unrequited love army’ has continued to exist worries me.”

Red & Green: “Sounds fair.”

[REQUEST]: No matter what Heartbreak Purple is doing right now, call him over and say your catchphrase together!!

Red: “Yessir!”

Green: “Yessir!”

Purple: “I learned that hesitance gives way to shame, so I’ll say the catchphase.”

Red: “All right! Lol”

Green: “Ok! Lol”

Purple: “Your heart will bea.... You guys, quit laughing *angry*. Will beat.... Ba-dump.”

[REQUEST]: Please call on Yoru-kun! I start work at a new place tomorrow, and my anxiety is unbearable - please say some encouraging words!

Red: “There’s a lot of serious concerns about the anxiety of starting a new chapter in life on April 1st, aren’t there...! Yoruru~n!”

Yoru: “Y-yes! Don’t push yourself too hard, eat properly, rest properly... Keep fighting!”

[This one wasn’t particularly interesting, but I’m a big softie for the yellow softie, Yoru lol]

[REQUEST]: Make a quick one-liner jab at Sakuraba Ryota with all your strength!

Red: “Sakurabaaaan!!!” (he did some “bam” pose) [like something triumphant]

Ryota: “... (expecting something)”

Red: “That dead-cold glare of yours... I could get used to it.”

Ryota: “Please dont.”

[I’m also a big softie for the pink tsun, Ryota. Thanks @syphiria for correcting me on this translation and also noticing all my late-night typos!!]

[REQUEST]: Spread some love to everyone!

Red: “Thanks for all your messages, everyone---!!! It’s almost time for me to go, but it’ll be great if we could meat again next year! When you’re not feeling well, just remember: I’m here, so cheer up~”

Anddd that’s all! These are actually the majority of the tweets since I skipped the more serious ones. The life advice Red gave was mostly the same for those anyways. There were a lot of requests to interact with other characters, but I loved all the cameos haha.

#tsukiuta #heartbreak red #uduki arata #april fools day #twitter translation #my translations

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thedappleddragon · 4 years

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Ok I’m a big dumb dumb and went almost a full week without updating yeehaw

Day 147 (Friday August 7th)

I patterned and sewed all the short pile face pieces for my fursuit

Day 148 (Saturday August 8th)

I spent a lot of time in my backyard after hearing my mom talk about her marital issues and how my dad is really emotionally abusive to her. Idk what I’m supposed to do about it other than pretend it isn’t happening 😗 ✌️ then my dad brought me Arby’s for dinner and we talked a little bit about nothing. I stared at him and really LOOKED at him, as if we were strangers meeting for the first time. He looks so old now, with deepening wrinkles and whiting hair. And I thought about how I don’t really know him, and how I couldn’t picture him doing all that shitty stuff to mom. I just don’t know how to feel. I didn’t mention it to him.

Day 149 (Sunday August 9th)

I finished furring my fur suit head (aside from the neck piece. The first time I traced out all my pattern pieces, I did them all backwards. Thankfully I noticed before cutting anything out, so I just retraced everything.

Day 150 🥳 (Monday August 10th)

I finished my suit! I tried a few different methods for the eyes, and ended using a plastic folder and some vinyl material off of a binder from church. I tried using a plastic storage container lid, but it was too difficult to cut through so I gave up. I had even brought it out to the backyard to clean it off with the hose, which felt almost nostalgic. Every time I use the hose, I remember a time when I was little and all the neighborhood kids were playing in my backyard. The hose was streatched across the yard so the end was at the top of the slide, making it a water slide that ended in a big puddle. I shouted over to the other kids something about twisting the wheel thing towards my house, since that’s where the party was. Anyway I finished my suit and happy stimmed like hell when I put it on, dancing around my room and jumping back and forth to tire myself out. I took a few pictures by myself while home alone. I haven’t shown it to my mom yet because I think she’ll poke fun. My dad is very supportive and my sister is neutral about it but it feels like she’s both impressed and judging me.

Day 151 (Tuesday August 11th)

I spent the whole day outside, and I saw a bunch of wierd bugs and a frog. I joined r/whatisthisbug and had the same professor dude answer all 3 of my questions.

The first one is a white marker tussocks moth caterpillar, and the other is a freshly molted wheel bug. I also submitted pictures of a freshly molted cicada I found a few days ago, and that post got 74 upvotes :) and that frog has been in the same spot every day I go back to check. He’s very cute and may stay as long as he pleases.

Sorry for the bad picture, but I also harvested some beans from the plants in my front yard. Very satisfying to play with.

My sister and I FaceTimed our brother Eric. I showed him my fursuit and he seemed impressed. Emily then gave me her old laptop, since mine is broken rn. I joined the stardew valley discord and played multiplayer for the first time! It was really fun. I also spent forever trying to get used to using a Mac. It’s still wierd lol. At night, I was on the computer just for the sake of being on the computer just because I was so starved. Also revisited furvilla, I like breeding mini pets and making bank selling supplies.

Day 152 (Wednesday August 12)

I played stardew valley literally ALL DAY. It was great, also the prettiest farm I’ve had yet. I tend to min/max pretty dang hard in that game, so it was nice to take it easy and lay down stone paths and make fences and let someone else influence my play style. Later at night, when the 2 other people I was playing with were busy, I really want to play stardew but I didn’t want to go back to my old saves or start a new one. The save data from my recent active farm didn’t transfer over, so I revisited my very first farm. I had quit that one because STV stopped working on my home computer and I had to stop for a long time. I couldn’t get back into the fast-paced endgame on that file, so I started a new one. I think steam broke on the home computer too, so I made 2 more when I got my brothers old laptop; one new main farm and one specifically for multiplayer. Then that laptop broke. Anyway sdv rant over. It’s really fun and I want to make my friend buy it since it’s on sale right now so we can play together. I also almost bought Minecraft, but Idk how often I would play it because I’m bad at video games.

Day 153 (Thursday August 13th)

Had a wierd morning I think? I had a dream about my dad dying of a heart attack while trying to look at the stars, and then telling him about my dream while still dreaming. Eventually my mom, sister and I drove to pick up groceries and I almost made my mom cry because I’m bad at driving and she always thinks I’m about to wreck the car. She screams all the goddam time at my every mistake, so I made emily drive us home, but she made me pick up smoothie king after a terrible time in the parking garage. I had to de-stress in the backyard for a while until I decided to take a shower and start on another fursuit. My mom has just given the dog a flea bath but didn’t rinse out the fleas and I was too grossed out and skipped the shower. I worked on the head for 4.5 hours excluding breaks, listening to drawfee the whole time. I made myself dinner with Mac n cheese n steamed broccoli. I want to sell the fur suit head I’m working on rn so I can buy more fur colors and maybe make a job out of it before I head off to college.

#hehe get it. head off. like fursuit head. HA #thanks for coming to my ted talk #corona diary #entomophobia #bugs tw #bugs /

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troglobite · 7 years

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fhsldhs i was listening at work and i got a bit distracted when they were reading the submission and then i realized they were talking about ice skating and was like "WAIT WAS THAT BECK'S" and went back to hear that bit again and was disappointed that it was not yours

also i super wanna submit something myself but am afraid i would not be able to limit it to a few sentences. *~*~AUTISM~*~*

@drcoxsredwingsjersey

completely forgot to reply to this earlier bc i slept in super late BUT thank you bc same. lol unfortunately twas not....but fate had been so cruel as to trick us BOTH into thinking that it was... lol

also dude, same. i’m afraid that’s why they didn’t read mine. technically it was only a few sentences. then i hit space several times and said ‘this isn’t for the podcast, this is for y’all’ and linked like....6 videos for them to watch. BUT LIKE. HOW CAN I MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND MY ENTHUSIASM FOR YUZU’S SKATING IF I DON’T SHOW THEM HIS SKATING???? anyway. lol

it’s also weird to me that they repeat “keep it to one or two sentences” when the things they read are like clearly MORE than that. idk.

but yeah it’s like. you can’t...create a show...about enthusiasm and love and wonderful things and excitement and positivity....and not expect a shitload of your autistic or otherwise neurodivergent fans to be like “HERE’S MY GIANT INFODUMP TREATISE ON WHY THIS PARTICULAR NICHE INTEREST GIVES MY LIFE JOY” like ???? my dudes, i have loved figure skating since i was a KID. i used to have figure skating barbies and make the kitchen floor a skating rink and make them do incredible jumps and then commentate like the people on the olympics. i’ve spent HOURS researching this shit, deciphering the official score cards from the ISU that are only posted on a difficult to find link on their fucking website and have, of course, stayed up until 5 in the morning to watch a livestream of various competitions because i wanted to see it live with no/good commentary, instead of the heavily edited and talked-over GARBAGE that NBC airs.

lol idk it’s bizarre it’s just kinda like. suuuuper wish they’d devote a bigger segment of the show to like--like, they do the regular amount of time for some short listener submissions, but then they’d pick one Bigger Submission and talk about it a little longer.

because the idea is to SPREAD that joy and enthusiasm??? and i sent them the videos (after making it clear only the short few sentences were meant for the podcast) bc i want THEM to be enthusiastic about it too! i want them to watch the routines and cry or cheer and clap! i want them to get it! same thing with shakespeare! or performance poetry! i want people to get it and then to enjoy it! if it’s not their thing that’s okay, but i want to invite them in so they at least have all the info to decide whether or not it’s their thing.

PLUUUUUUUS the skating season has ALREADY STARTED. like the us classic started yesterday and pairs and mens skated today! nathan chen and jason brown debuted their new short programs! like!!!! jason brown is skating to HAMILTON and i am 1000000% about to go youtube it and check it out (the livestream kept freezing for me earlier :( )

and yuzuru’s competing at the----...autumn classic? i think? and i’m SO FUCKING EXCITED for his new (old) programs. they’ve been updated, and this fucker has been practicing a fucking quadruple axel are you motherfucking kidding me i guarantee it’s not competition ready but NEITHER AM I so it’s a good thing. lol

i just---AJSDLFKJSDLKFJSLDFKJASDLKJ SPECIAL INTERESTS I AM IN SPECIAL INTEREST HELL RN I NEED RACHEL AND GRIFFIN TO LISTEN TO A TEENY TINY BIT OF THIS. lololol

i’m probs gonna send in another but about the OSF instead... oh! about the show Will! i think that’ll be good. yeah, okay, i can keep that short, i think....

i just want to spread my LOVE. :( lol

#drcoxsredwingsjersey #replyy #long post for tsfaksdjflksdj

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cooljazsheepie · 7 years

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Webcomic Creator Interview with Kosmic of Feast for a King

Hi, all! I usually don’t post my webcomic creator interviews on this account, but this one is special since the comic is explicitly NSFW. The creator, Kosmic, is super awesome though and deserved an interview anyway. Check it after the cut.

Me: Please introduce yourself.

Kosmic: My name is Kosmic and I make two comics currently, Feast for a King and Eggshells. Although I mostly focus on Feast for a King! Which is a really graphically violent/sexual story about man eating worms in a sci-fi setting. I started it in September 2014 and I’ve basically been working every day on it since then.

Me: What made you pick sci-fi?

Kosmic: I’ve always really loved sci-fi stuff!! Many of my favorite stories/movies are sci-fi or have some robot/alien elements to them. I think it’d be more accurate to say that sci-fi picked me because FFAK was inspired by a dream I had which had some very strong sci-fi elements and visuals. I think at the time when I started FFAK, I was also feeling really inspired by the first two Terminator movies and wanted to like, take the elements about that i found successful in those movies and include them in my own story! I liked how much the characters struggled and how hopeless it felt to face their enemies, but they kept going anyway despite being so afraid. I also had a bunch of stories/characters I worked on sometimes that was really just my own version of Trigun that I didn’t know what to do with and just...felt like building on more of that type of world. I think I first started those characters in like 2009 but they were basically just back-burner ideas for something eventually. I got a lot of story material like that!!

Me: Do you have a favorite part of the creative process when you're working on your comic?

Kosmic: Favorite part of he process...That is kinda difficult. There are so many parts that I enjoy that blend in with each other, it’s hard to determine when one step begins and the other ends. Brainstorming with music is always really nice, especially if it’s in the afternoon and I don’t have any responsibilities to worry about. I do a lot of self RP too. I can go anywhere in the story I feel like and just let my mind explore freely!! Its always very fun/exciting to discover things I didn’t expect or when some connection suddenly clicks that opens up new doors of ideas! SO.. daydreaming is my favorite part, I suppose. That feels kinda basic to say, but I can’t think of anything that tops it!

Me: Nooo. I totally get what you mean. Just letting ideas come to you is the best! You do color and black&white comics. Do you prefer one over the other?

Kosmic: I don’t really like the look of colored comics for the most part, honestly. I find it way too mentally distracting and I find it often takes me out of the story by making me too aware I’m reading something. So, I generally prefer the look of B&W comics when I’m the one reading. However! I personally find it boring to do for too long if I’m the one working!! I hate doing the same stuff for too long and black/white communicates a certain type of atmosphere to me, so after a while it can feel kinda stiff or limited when I don’t...really need to be?? I used to be determined to only use B/W ONLY EVER!!! and now I am allowing myself the freedom to experiment using some aspects of color to communicate my ideas and not worry about a consistent look too much lol. I sort of feel like my comics fall somewhere in the middle because they obviously DO use color but aren’t like the ‘typical’ full color comic, I guess? I dunno. That’s how i interpret it anyway. I am breaking my own rules of what looks good!!! If I had to make a decision, it would still B&W over color. :3

Me: Do the colors you pick have a certain significance for the characters? Like I know you have several named after them and the worms are colored by status.

Kosmic: Yes! Totally. They are super important! I have a whole color lore or color language I have built in the story. I dont really focus on like...every color in the rainbow though. Its mostly with basic default-y colors of Red/Yellow/Blue + Green. Red and Green being the most important ones I use in FFAK. I reflect a lot on their dynamic and parallel in several different ways with various designs and narratives, Crimson and Celadon’s relationship is also meant to be a direct translation of that conflict and bond I see with those two colors in the context of the story as well. Red and Green is like the ...PURE EXPRESSION OF LIFE AND DEATH!!! or something.

Me: For your worms, do you choose certain animals for them or you just go by whatever? Like how Paper is a bunny.

Kosmic: Nah, I mostly go by whatever and many worm designs are just improvised on the spot as these weird...animal chimera things. Paper is sort of an odd one out because she’s specifically very bunny-themed.

Me: Do you have a favorite character?

Kosmic: Crimson’s my absolute favorite character!! However... Knife is also very important. I guess he’s a close 2nd. I just have put a staggering amount of work/history into both characters they both kinda stand out a little bit from the rest lol.

Me: I know you said to just read whatever, but how does the use of gender shape your comic? As a creator.

Kosmic: I suppose it shapes a lot and yet it...doesn’t? IDK, it’s difficult to explain cause I think gender is a broad topic and I’m not sure what parts to focus on with it shaping? Haha. Most of my characters are just self-inserts really. It’s not really a conscious thing that I feel like I need to fit a quota of or something. I just sort of naturally feel the need to articulate feelings about my experiences using the characters sometimes. I also generally use my comic as a safe place to explore my thoughts about identity and sexuality. It makes the comic really personal/vulnerable/stressful sometimes, but I also feel like I understand myself a little easier. As much as I reflect on it I don't really have a concise answer or reason.. it’s just part of life! So there it is!

Me: Do you find that you attract or put off readers with the sex? Like do people expect a hentai situation? Or ignore the warning and get mad about it?

Kosmic: Yeah, it definitely rocks the boat a bit. I get a lot of polarized reactions from my sexual content. Mostly it’s supported and people understand and respect what I do with it, but I have definitely received negative comments or like, people feeling betrayed it was included at all. (Nothing upset people more than that period sex scene in chapter 11 for example .) It’s also often described as a vore fetish comic which I also...have mixed feelings with LMFAO. It just feels really misleading and simplifying the narrative. I think the fact that I include genitals in my drawings [means] people get the impression it’s supposed to be a smutty hentai comic, but then when they read it isn’t that either. So it’s hard for people to determine what it is. It pushes buttons, I guess. good and bad.

Me: Who is your intended audience or do you not have one?

Kosmic: I don’t really have an intended audience!!! I just draw it as much for me as possible. :D

Me: What made you decide on making a webcomic?

Kosmic: I’ve been determined to make comics since i was like...13 or 14? And webcomics are very freeing!! You just post it and go!! Nothing can stop you from making your story how you want and I love that.

Me: Do you have any advice for other creators?

Kosmic: Advice is tough... But I suppose it is important to establish your boundaries between yourself and the audience. Your enjoyment and relationship you have with yourself and your art is what is most important. So be careful not to burn yourself out on what people will think/say/ask and it’s OK to feel overwhelmed and over-stimulated sometimes. Even when it’s positive attention, it can still be just as stressful and draining. I find that’s the hardest part about making a comic is learning how to deal with the reception rather than making the comic itself lmao. So yeah! Draw and write what you want! Always. But also give yourself a private place only for you, so you can reflect on your journey. :3

Me: That's great advice. Do you plan on making a print version?

Kosmic: My friend Cameron made Chapter 1 into a book and mailed it to me as a surprise. But besides that, I have no actual plans or real desire to make a printed version.It seems like it would take a lot of work to do and I’m very lazy. Maybe some sort of art book would be more ideal, but who knows!

Me: Will you be attending any cons or making any merch?

Kosmic: I went to one con in 2015! I sold like...a single poster I think. It was fun (especially because a friend from Canada was staying and helped tremendously with it,I also got interviewed the first time there!) but not exactly the ideal experience. Another friend also made keychains for me of the characters that we sold online. But, besides that, I don’t have any cons planned. I want to make t-shirts in the future, but I’m so slow to do these things. I just really need to take the plunge, but I generally get intimidated by money making stuff!!

Me: Do you do art full time?

Kosmic: Yes LOL. FFAK is basically my life. I do educational/instructional flash animations as well for the monies, but I am pretty broke most of the time. If it weren't for Patreon, IDK what I’d do!! I am so thankful for it.

And that’s it. I already linked Kosmic’s Tumblr profile, but you can also follow them on Twitter for personal or comic updates! If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post here or submit an ask. If you would like to be interviewed for your own comic, contact me here for explicitly NSFW content or over on my literacy blog if your work doesn’t have content restrictions that make it NSFW. Please also feel free to suggest artists for me to interview.

#kosmicdream #kosmic #feast for a king #webcomic interview

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