#it's been a while since i've properly done a comic but...i feel it's the best way to convey more context and clues~

[aur0raaura]

im still blown away from the support im having with the previous art I've done related to the AU! as thanks, I'll share a wip of what i'm doing next as a continuation to this piece...hehe!

[idolomantises]

Wasn't sure when it would be the best time to discuss this, but since the ending is drawing near... yes, Bugtopia is ending.

It was a decision I really wrestled with myself for months over it, before finally concluding that letting it end after 40 episodes was the better option. Just to be clear, webtoons did not force me to end the series. They even offered to give me a pay raise to continue the series. It was my decision due to a multitude of personal factors. I'll just repeat what I said on my patreon:

I just want to say, first of all, thank you all so much for patiently waiting for my series to release and for supporting my work as I began developing the series. Bugtopia was a series I genuinely loved and adored and it made me feel so incredibly happy that people were turning their heads towards a series about weird bugs and their natural lives.

However, as you can probably guess, it pains me to say that I am concluding the series after season 1. I had 4 seasons planned with new characters to introduce, but unfortunately, I cannot see myself continuing to work with Webtoons and I want to pursue other projects.

This decision was due to a compiling number of issues with the company, the final straw was when they had a mass layoff, fired my editor that I've been working with for two years, and did not inform me for a week, leaving me in the dark until they randomly assigned me with someone else. My new editor is great and I'm glad I'm working with someone so patient and understanding, but this decision to fire my previous editor, the one who got me the job to begin with, without prior warning made me feel disrespected and disregarded, and it killed all motivation I had for properly completing the series.

I also felt incredibly overworked, I was spending vacation days working on comics and avoiding time with family just so I could get something done for webtoons once I come home. I feel like so much time was being wasted away for a company that paid me so little that I had to work twice as hard building up funds on my patreon. Bugtopia just ate up so much of my time. The pay also didn't make up for it. It's commonly assumed that webtoons authors make about $800 for the episodes they do, but that's not true. In fact, you can make far less depending on the amount of panels expected for your contract. It doesn't help that the artwork i did for banners and promotions were all things I had to draw and didn't get paid for, and the work I gave was either tampered with or scrapped, making me feel like I spent more hours of my day wasting time. There were also comics I had to censor and scrap, likely due to another series being in hot water for its racially insensitive content. But it was just extra work I wasn't being paid for. It also frustrated me because I was seeing other series with far more explicit content getting away with a slap on the wrist (turns out you can't say "fuck" anymore without it being hit with a mature rating, disappointing!)

In all honesty, it just felt like webtoons needed me more than I needed them. I was making more money from patreon in a week than I was making from webtoons in a month.

Personally, while I don't really regret my time with Webtoons and met some great people along the way, I honestly don't think any artist should work with them. You will be severely overworked and underpaid, and will barely be featured in ads unless your series becomes an instant hit immediately. It doesn't really matter how successful you are, you're just a product to Webtoons, put yourself above the corporation.

I have tried my best to provide you all with a satisfying conclusion to Bugtopia, even if some episodes may feel rushed or incomplete, but I completely understand if the conclusion isn't to your liking and I do apologize, but I could not continue working on this series if this was the mistreatment I was going to continuously get. I owe a massive thank you to my editor and assistants for helping me complete the series, I truly don't think I could have ever finished it without them.

Though I am done with Bugtopia, that does not mean I want to stop projects entirely, so please don't feel bad for me. I have a lot of upcoming projects and ideas in the works, and I'm still continuing the Monsters and Girls series.

Will Bugtopia ever return... possibly. I retain complete ownership of the series after a few years, and I wouldn't mind continuing the canvas series (or possibly starting over). Unfortunately I don't think I can continue the Webtoon Original as it belongs to webtoons now, but never say never I suppose!

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Miku Wrap-up 2022

Another year comes to an end and it's time to look back and reflect, so here's my top 10 favorite Mikus of the year!

#10:

While this has a few janky bits that keep it from being higher up I can't help but adore her smarmy ass look, the foot up on an unoccupied chair and the little details with the dice and the cards.

#9:

This one, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, is just so ridiculous I can't help but love it. It's somewhat a spiritual successor to the Goya inspired Miku and emulating the style/appearance of such old art was a joy, as was filling in the gaps with a few Miku related references.

#8:

Speaking of the ridiculous, this Loss meme parody I titled Gain.png still gets me. Doing the Gumi for the body pillow was also fun and Miku is very cute in this.

#7:

I have no idea why I drew this even then but fuck me is it good. Don't think I've drawn a pony since a few poor attempts over a decade before this. I love how AJ came out and the idea of like, Applejack carrying home a drunk Miku while chiding her for having too much cider is so fucking good to me.

#6:

This one is rather simple honestly, but I just love how clear the silhouette is and the highlights from the back lighting. This was inspired by an AURORA concert my sister invited me to.

#5:

Im still very happy with how this came out, especially in regards to the lighting. I feel like I made a lot of headway here as an artist, even if parts of it could stand to be cleaner.

#4:

Hatslimey Migoo looks so relaxed here, the details I was able to include for the room such as the water under the door are great and the small bit of landscape outside the window is something I'm extremely proud of. Had I just a bit more time with this piece I think it could have placed even higher.

#3

This one's a bit special cuz uh, it's fucking me lmao. Not only is this my high school duds, the location is also based off the liquor store I used to bum around at after school senior year. I still have the pants (they're more shredded now) and the black and white sleeve (actually leg warmers). The only real anachronism is the black nails- my dad wouldn't let me do that cuz he said I'd look like a fag lmao. Looking at this piece brings me just immense amounts of joy and soothes that part of me still in highschool and mad about it.

#2:

Honestly this and the #1 spot are really tough to decide which goes where but I think I'm happy with this. Based off some AI generated text (no doubt written by Miku herself) Not only is this the most successful piece I've done notes-wise it's also my first one where I drew more akin to painting then to coloring cleaned up lines, a process I made a ton of progress with over the year. There's very few things about this I would change (namely a few details in the final panel) but the way this comic is laid out was and is excellent. I feel this piece is the biggest jump in overall quality I had during the year.

Honorable mention:

While i do adore these, especially the top left and bottom one, there are a few issues that keep it from being in the top 10 properly. I also wanted to avoid this list being just every Hatslimey Migoo piece which actually brings me to the final entry and my favorite Miku of the year 2022-

#1:

The original Hatslimey Migoo, before she even had that name. This piece is very interesting because I had pissed away most of time and couldn't do the Miku I had thought about doing up to that point. Unwilling to do proper anatomy either, because again, I had gotten too wrapped up in runescape and was low on time, It popped in my head that I could make her a slime girl. I can't mess up getting bodily structure right if there is no proper bodily structure after all. The result couldn't have been better. She's so cute and adorable and this is easily the best original design I've yet to do for Miku. I doubt I'll top it for some time. The pieces came together naturally- her color had to be green to give her that Miku color, she had a few spots to give some detail, her arms were bulky to be reminiscent of her sleeves the headset was to help push visually that this was, indeed, Hatsune Miku and her eyes were pink to stand out and draw attention to them. Created in haste, Hatslimey Migoo has gone on to fill my heart with joy (and slime) and if I could pick any of my Mikus to be adopted by the wider vocaloid fan base it would have to be Migoo.

Thats my top 10 for 2022, I'll see you next year to wrap up this year- I'm sure I'll make even better Mikus! If you like these and wish to support me, I have a Patreon where I upload the full PSD, PNG and a 60 second time lapse of the Miku being drawn. It's only 2$ a month and it means a lot to me.

[thattimdrakeguy]

Regarding that separation live read blog idea,

While Early Tim Drake is a viable enough option I guess, why Ultimate Spider Man instead? You know, something that actually makes you legit happy instead of being incredibly hard to read like in the former case

Only asking

As I've said before, several times over, I don't think I'd see the point in an Ultimate Spider-Man blog. It's not a relevant comic book series.

There's a new one coming out, yes. But unless they pull the wrong out from under me, it's going to be a new one.

I'm not a big attention seeker or anything. It's that I'm under the understanding that the point of a blog is to get followers. And I don't see myself getting many with an Ultimate Spider-Man one.

And Spider-Man at large is such a popular character, that having a niche one would put me under the wheels of everything else much sooner.

Plus I don't read it every day or anything like I did with Tim. I made the active decision not to go overboard like I did with Tim Drake, so I could avoid ruining it for myself.

It has been years, since I properly gave a fuck about Tim Drake. I'm fine with it. I'm not even saying I'm going to actually do it.

I didn't announce some plan right now.

I'm fine.

There's nothing new to talk about with Ultimate Spider-Man either. Most people actually read that competently.

With Tim it's interesting, because when ever I read it back, it says stuff so straight forward, that I'm not sure how any of these so called "interpretations" come up.

And if I where to start a new blog. I'm certainly not telling anyone unless I want them to know. And I'd block people quick and fast.

It'd be more of a social experiment then something I'd attempt to do for enjoyment.

Plus, maybe I could do it less in the habit of talking like this, like I'm some high authority that needs to be taken oh so seriously to the point I feel like a pretentious dick head.

I could finally go back to talking about stuff that I do like, despite it's flaws, as someone who simply likes it. This specific blog feels like it subconsciously locks me into such a specific mind set that i hate who I come off as here.

You know the last time anyone tried to get to know me here? Well, years obviously, I haven't been active in ages. But before that it's been a while. And people who I haven't even done anything to stopped interacting with me, probably 'cause they thought I was being a total fuckhole. When otherwise, I was absolutely fine.

If I was relevant enough to have a reputation with this blog, I don't see it being a good one. It'd at best me "He has some good points, but fuck he sure seems to think highly of himself. I don't think I like him. Takes himself too seriously."

In most of my friendships, I'm the light-hearted, sweet, kind one, that makes people laugh.

Could anyone honestly tell from this blog? Could anyone guess that I was one that was called the 'cute' soft one in friend groups? I entirely doubt it. And that bugs me.

I'm not me anymore on this website. No one knows me. I'm a totally different person.

I'm rambling now I'm realizing.

I'll shut up.

I just care so little about this blog that I don't know when to shut up anymore. Doesn't help my case.

The greatest pleasures I've ever had in my entire life came from when people would message me, telling me that I helped them NOT commit suicide, because I kept them so engaged and entertained that I convinced them not to. Without ever interacting with them directly.

That made my life feel like it had worth, and that me being born was worth it, because I technically saved lives, even though that's probably stretching that.

All I do now is depress people.

[seyaryminamoto]

Putting aside the issues with Thor; what else about the MCU turns you off?

Ugh, right now? Almost everything xD I admit I've been pleasantly surprised by WandaVision and Hawkeye, recently watched the latter and I'd heard suuuuch awful things about it from people who generally love MCU content, only to find myself mystified by how they could hate it if it's really not that distant from other MCU content they did enjoy in the past...

But anyway, Thor definitely was what caused my initial debacle and part of the issue is that Thor, Loki and their particular cast were what I loved most about the MCU altogether, a concept that isn't all that rare but that, nowadays, might come off really strange to a lot of people. Still, it's the truth. My detachment from the MCU isn't all that different from my gradual detachment from ATLA's comics, to the point where I only read one issue of North & South and haven't even touched anything Faith Erin Hicks has done. It's not even that I've decided she must have done a TERRIBLE job without reading her comics, but the truth is that things have been deteriorating so badly on a narrative level in the franchise in general that most canon content these days appears fated to let me down :'D so I avoid being let down by just... ignoring XD

In the case of the MCU, I really was never a huge fan of a lot of the characters people adored. I never fawned over Steve Rogers all that much, I actually used to dislike Tony Stark a lot but ironically Civil War changed my take on the man and I grew to enjoy him a lot better xD Black Widow was cool but heh, now she's dead and while her sister is a surprisingly good addition to the MCU, the knowledge that there's just no chance she's coming back isn't exactly encouraging, since it would have been very interesting to see her interacting some more with other people.

Now, then... people may call me a purist or so xD but Phase One, with whatever weirdness it committed to, is ultimately the best one for me. Marvel perfected origin stories for superheroes where others (like DC) haven't really cracked the formula properly (I watched three of the DC TV shows and... no. They had potential, but they just went down the absolute worst paths they could have and were miswritten like heck, even without factoring in the disrespect to the original content it's based on). So Marvel did a pretty solid job at establishing the first Avengers line-up, and the occasional expansion on that content wasn't really unpleasant...

But then Phase Two started to get wobbly when stuff like Ultron happened and things just started to feel soooo repetitive. "Oh, no! Ultron is trying to take us out from within! Wanda is manipulating us so we fight each other, just...! J-just like... like Loki did in Avengers...?" I've also written a few posts explaining why I just... despise Thanos as a character in the MCU. It's just beyond me how a character could be done so dirty to a point where he's a goddamn joke and then THAT is what our final boss is? Remember how many people poked fun at Voldemort for feeling really pathetic as a villain in the end, as opposed to villains like Sauron or so? Well, that's really how I ended up feeling about Thanos even if he was a little more interesting in Endgame. But his story just doesn't make sense, and that all we had watched was supposed to lead up to this massive confrontation with this guy is very anticlimactic when the guy just isn't a character you want to see defeated because you have all these strong, adverse emotions against him inside you, but that you want to see defeated because you're just flat-out tired of him (literally how I felt in Endgame).

Lastly, I'm particularly irked by the ridiculous "Well this new character is just SUPER EPIC but they weren't around when the whole world was burning down because, um, well, they were given orders NOT to interfere! Or, you know, they were dealing with very bad things ELSEWHERE!" (despite, you know, we've had movies set elsewhere, not on Earth, and there wasn't even the slightest suggestion that said character (as in, Cap. Marvel) was busy saving the universe from threats other than Ronan in GOTG, or anything of the sort). I haven't even watched Loki and I don't even want to, but the concept that this TVA organization could NOT interfere at any point in time until Loki steals a Tesseract he "wasn't supposed to", and they ONLY do something at that point? It's so convenient and so farfetched that I just can't buy it. It's 100% fine to feature new characters with growing powers the same way they were brought into the fold in the past. You didn't need Ironman to explain to us why he wasn't saving the world before he developed his suit. You didn't need Captain America telling us he couldn't save the world as a scrawny guy and that he could only truly make a difference on a battlefield after the super soldier serum changed him. Hell, even Antman features a completely ordinary guy who ends up in one hell of a crazy situation when he's sought out by someone with a certain tech who requires his help for a very delicate mission... and there's no "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE CHITAURI ATTACKED, HANK PYM?!?!?" situation, because it's just not needed! Because you DON'T have to constantly explain this unless you want to say that EVERYTHING you're bringing up was already established forever ago and that you just forgot to bring it up before.

Honestly, say the TVA came into place BECAUSE the Avengers fucked up the timelines as they did in Endgame and they're trying to prevent that from ever happening again, and it WORKS. Have the Eternals and Captain Marvel mentioned occasionally in previous films and, if they're not, bring them in as NEW elements that just got here, don't just say "oh yeah they were always here but they couldn't help save the world ever because they were busy/weren't allowed to!", because that just feels... so lazy. So dumb. So lazy. Really, though, think about the kind of shit Nick Fury was willing to let slide and to accept in the world (as in, the events of both the first Avengers films, at the very least, and Winter Soldier too, probably, with SHIELD falling to shit), and that he wasn't ready to call Cap. Marvel for: there was a NUKE heading to New York that he wanted to see stopped and we don't even see him fuddling with the pager just before Ironman swings in and saves the day. There was a WHOLE CITY about to collapse violently with a massive death count... and the guy didn't even seem to think to call her to help. It's plain absurd in retrospect, and it can't be explained away with "she was just too busy because there's more things going on out there". Like I said above, we saw TWO GOTG movies where Captain Marvel, savior of the universe, doesn't even get name-dropped as an entity of righteousness and justice fixing all that's wrong everywhere. Thus... it's an excuse. And a particularly stupid one, at that. Make her a modern-era character and this nonsense wouldn't be an issue in the slightest. Make her someone who was "always there", and it just feels lazy and wrong.

*SIIIIIGH* I just am jaded with the MCU all around. It feels increasingly lazy, increasingly aimless, and the writing quality is in constant decay for the sake of easy, quick and cheap laughs from an audience that will assign value and depth to so many things that just DON'T have them, while pretending that the original movies lacked that depth and complexity when the whole reason why they were successful is because they didn't. The new ones constantly disregard whatever previous lore was established, cause retcons and then "solve them" by making them worse, they weaponize representation in order to gain viewers by pretending they care about certain social issues but the representation they usually provide is just so shallow and weak that it's hard to believe so many people buy it... all in all, it feels like people are happy to watch and consume everything the MCU makes because that's the norm.

Fortunately, there's been more criticism to it recently (such as criticism of their narrative formulas being so trite and repetitive, criticism of their cinematography always looking more or less the same, criticism even of their color palette x'D) that I feel a little less lonesome in my "I am done with the MCU" corner than I used to. But, all in all, I don't think the MCU can recover or do better without pulling what the comics often do, as in, restarting from scratch and trying to tell the same story all over again while attempting to remediate their misfires... but I doubt they'll do that, and I doubt they'll get better as they are right now. Thus... I'm basically resigned to not enjoy the MCU the way I did in the past, because I absolutely did... but it has become something I just can barely enjoy at this point. Like I said, Hawkeye and WandaVision were surprisingly better than I expected (especially the latter), because they really didn't feel like a spit in the face of everything that came before them... but the more characters the MCU brings in, the more their scripts are all over the place as far as narrative coherence is concerned, the more they disregard what came before and pretend that excuses can justify a plethora of new characters taking roles in the later content, the less I want anything to do with the MCU.

[meganaut]

time for an update

Yo where the fricc is that Meganaut guy???? Oh there he is, updating his tumblr blog he forgot about again. Yeah sorry about that, my dudes. A bit has happened since the last post. To summarize, I've been taking a break from projects to unwind. I've been having a hard time focusing on my projects as of late. Youtube and Twitter and whatnot have been too distracting for me. I spent at least 3 or so months trying to figure out where I am mentally and coming up with a game plan. I'm officially back in business, now slowly, but steadily, making progress on my game. I don't really have much to show. But rest assured; Pepper Adventure is still being worked on. Ontop of still working on my game, I've also been working on ANOTHER project. A webcomic. While not quite Antagonist Super Society, it is a webcomic I've been wanting to do since... Fuck, before 2014? Something like that? It is called "Slick". A story about a world ruled by a Dark Lord.

Progress has been slow on this too, but I'm halfway done with the first comic. I'm not planning on doing this comic monthly. That would absolutely take all my free-time (including my non-free time). Slick is, as of right now; A comic that I'll do whenever I want. Whenever I grow tired of doing Pepper Adventure constantly or if I feel the time is right, I'll work on a new episode of Slick. It's a more serious story than what I'm used to working on. Not really much of a comedy... It's more akin to an 80's action film that crossed paths with a shonen anime. The first episode will be out when its done.

On the side, I've been learning how to PROGRAM! CODING FOR FUCK'S SAKE! I've always wanted to make games myself but I'm too stupid to understand Unity/C# or Unreal Engine/C++. Nor can I properly learn Godot Engine/GDScript. It's been a struggle for me to learn coding as a concept in general. Not even GDScript's Python-like syntax does it for me. And I know PYTHON! I decided the best approach to this oddly specific problem that only applies to me is to just... Go off on the deep-end. All languages are related to C to some capacity. So... FUCK IT. I'm gonna learn C! Learning the basics so far, but the plan is that if I master C, I'll have mastered every other language and everything else will be easier by comparison. Eventually I'll be able to churn out cool games by hand, right? So yeah, that's the current state of things. Not gonna promise that I'll post more, cuz I'm just gonna forget this website again lmao Peace.

[modmad]

Uncle Mod I really love your comics and they inspire me to create art. I've taken classes since I was a kid and write often, but somehow it's like I'm never good enough? We aren't allowed to do anything cartoony in class, just realistic stuff. I can't do anatomy and my writing goes to pieces. I know I've been given the opportunities to learn, but I feel like I've wasted them. I'm 15 this year so I know I've got time to learn, but I can't help but feel lost. do you have any advice?

putting this one under a cut ‘cause it got way long!

ah shucks anon gosh I can only tell you that I’ve been there- at that precise age, in fact! I had three lovely art teachers in secondary school and I had a great time but we were never taught how to draw humans, at all, or even animals properly! I had to basically teach myself that stuff until I got to foundation art year and uni, but the best thing is? there are a lot of sources of information out there to help you, I mean heck- you even have a real live human to look at and draw right now! it’s you! find figure drawing classes if you can, and an anatomy art book goes a long way, but honestly just grab a mirror and get to work- it might feel a bit frustrating, but understanding how to draw The Real Thing is how you can learn to draw cartoons- this applies to everything. in fact, I’m having to do that right now with cats! I never grew up with one as a pet, so I haven’t really drawn them a whole lot or ever deeply understood their anatomy- the next doodle comic features one, and while it is a cartoon style I know that the best way I can do that is to learn how a real cat’s anatomy works. That’s fun though! I love biology so looking at skeletons and muscle breakdowns is neat to me (got to love libraries and the internet for finding those kind of resources) and watching real footage of cats is, obviously, hilarious and adorable. Research can be dull, or fun! you have to go in with the right mindset, and have enough patience with yourself to allow the time for it to sink in properly.

You’re right that you have a lot of time to learn, but I also understand that it might not feel like it! In fact, it never does! You want to be able to draw better than you can, and I hate to say but it’s always elusively out of reach- someone once told me that your head is always two years ahead of your hands, meaning that what you can ‘think’ to draw will always be better that what you actually ‘can’ draw. This sounds disappointing, but don’t be fooled! Always wanting to do better than you can means you always try, and when you try you always learn, and so you therefore always do, in fact, get better. People who think they’re the best don’t bother to try to improve, so they don’t! 

I’m not some magical guru super artist with all the answers; I’m still learning and trying and failing and trying and screwing up and trying again myself, and I know I always will be! all I can advise you on is to be kind to yourself, never stop trying to learn, don’t be afraid to seek out alternative ways to learn, and trade perfect for done- that’s one of the best things I ever learned to do. Perfect doesn’t exist! You’re always going to post art online and then go ‘augh I missed that bit’ or ‘urghhh it’s not as good as what I had in my head’- but nobody else can see that picture in your head, they can see the thing you made, and odds are they think that’s pretty damned swell! Make a thing. Want to make a better thing. Make a better thing- repeat.