#the rest are from pinterest comic panels

[emillyverse]

This is not an update to the Comic, but it still has something to do with it !!!

(call it a little gift for the Wish Rewrite and KoW fandom)

Hello my little stars! How are you?

I mentioned in the last post in the series that I would be traveling for a week or two and that's why I wouldn't be working. Well I'm still traveling Lmao.

It's been a lot of fun, I'm visiting my Prince Charming and family, both of whom I haven't been to in a long time. Still, I couldn't stop thinking about KoW and Wish's Concept Arts. Disney sealed the fate of its fan artists by discarding so much good material, now they are embedded in our minds and we will not be able to rest until we see them realized. This is crazy but it's beautiful to see how much these discarded concepts generated creative potential in the fandom.

Because of all this I couldn't help but make some small sketches! And well, I came to show them here. They are not sketches of Comic panels, but they have something to do with it and I will show the photos and explain how.

This first one, very faded, are Magnificent and Amable's clothes (designed by @uva124, for the characters in @annymation's rewrite of Wish "The Kingdom of Wishes"). The drawings that Aled did are very complex, I don't judge her for that, in fact I thank her, she gave beautiful clothes to the centuries-old Disney villains and they are perfect. I really wish I could draw them with all the details, but I will do everything by hand, alone and seeking a minimally professional quality (I want to be a comic artist/book illustrator one day. This comic is my first step Lmao, and I want to do something that conveys the best I can give at the moment), so I need to make some things easier for myself. The costumes are one of those things.

" Better something simple and well done than complex and poorly done." — This is my motto for this Comic and for my life.

The next sketches are related to aesthetics. I've been watching a lot of "Analyzing the Art" videos of some Disney films and I was inspired to adopt some "Disney Style" features in my arts for this comic (not everything obviously, because I don't want to be sued by Disney lmao).

What you'll see next is me trying to mix this influence with my own style in some KoW character sketches.

(this last art specifically references a meme in which @rascalentertainments tagged me, Thanks for that, by the way! <3 )

(credits to the artist, I don't know who it is because I was just tagged in this meme and I was busy So I didn't look for more information, but I'll leave the post link and you can check the official credits)

Speaking of aesthetics. Anny received Chiara's aesthetic from someone — the north star, "daughter of Aster", created by his magic at the very end of Anny's fanfic. This Aesthetic inspired me to create an aesthetic for Asha and Aster too and these were the results:

What's your favorite?

Lmao, It took a lot of work to make Aster's. There are almost no things for "starboys" on Pinterest.

I'm leaving this up to you to share as you wish, consider it a gift to the fandom!

Lastly, I want to say that the artistic analysis videos They also inspired me to put together a moodboard for KoW and I'll be leaving it here. Not even Anny and Aled know about this and I can't wait to see their reactions! I wish I could print this painting and leave it on the wall, but unfortunately I don't have a printer T-T.

This moodboard is helping me with the artistic direction of colors, style and is a visual motivation to stay active at work.

I hope you like it too!

That's it for today, it's already midnight in Brazil and I should be sleeping instead of posting crazy things on the internet. I'm going to tag my friends and go to sleep, Lmao.

Kisses full of light and stars!

~ Emy

@wings-of-sapphire @flicklikesstuff @frogcoven88 @chillwildwave @gracebethartacc @gracebethartacc @kstarsarts @oh-shtars Come and get your therapies after the anguish caused by certain publications by Anny!

[mostspecialgirl]

It might just be the sick talking but i want to make another webcomic and let it be the one i do for the rest of my life on and off that attracts a steady following and yet no one has ever heard of it before despite it running for 10 years. i want to bring a 2000s Gamer Webcomic energy that Webtoon doesnt really fuck with. i want to have a shitty little website with a patreon button and descriptions under every release where i start off making little jokes about the comic but it slowly becomes a blog where i talk about current events that will be outdated to any future readers and how the latest shipment of physical releases might be delayed. i want to suddenly disappear in 2015 leaving people to comb through thin lines on social media only to find i’m active on reddit asking people how to use TMs in the new pokemon game. i want to have characters that check weird boxes for people and watch it blossom into some extremely strange media fixations later in their life. Is that so much to ask for. Let me sell stickers. Let me sell a plush that you can only get from resellers on ebay because the small manufacturer went bankrupt in 2017. I want to see the weirdest person in the world have a cropped panel screenshot as their forum icon and either be the biggest fan in the world or they just found it on pinterest and liked how it looked. I just want to be creating for the rest of my life and have a really select group of people resonate with my work profoundly. I’m feeling really sick and im glad that tumblr lets me just ramble like this

[winged-bat]

For the character ask thing: Dick Grayson? Very curious to hear your thoughts on him :)

Before we get into this i’d like to state that im a fraud and have not read that many comics most of my info comes from fanfics, out of context comic panels, and like those stroyline explained videos (also his wiki page).

Favorite thing about them:

His independence and want to form his own path (seen via his identity as nightwing) but also his leadership and how he’s quick to step up and take action (with him acting as batman when bruce was presumed dead).

Least favorite thing about them:

Him cheating on kory with babs cuz what was that (idk if this was retconed but like what was that writing)

Favorite line:

“Or I could do some good. Somebody’s gotta help him…” -Robin: Year One one of the few comics i’ve actually read (i like this line a lot bc it shows his determination and his want to help other)

brOTP:

dick & just any if his siblings preferably jason cuz im a sucker for taller younger sibling and shorter older sibling

OTP:

dickkory all the way, i just love them, also tall gf and short bf supremacy here

nOTP:

any shipping with the rest of the batfam, its just a no for me, they’re siblings

random headcannon:

he is an anchovies on pizza enjoyer  

unpopular opinion:

I like him with discowing, i mean guy it wasn’t that bad 😭 (i know the fandom loves to make fun of this look but he was lowkey rocking it)

song i associate with them:

I don’t really have one, I’m really bad at associating songs with characters bc I worry I’m not looking at the character right so I just don’t do it

favorite picture of them:

Just look at him juggling, also discowing my love <3 (no i dont know which comic/issue either of these are from I found them on pinterest and just saved them to my phone cuz I liked them)

[jellybeanium124]

I made another comic!

So this idea came from a bunch of other people’s posts about if the siblings get stuck in Hotel Oblivion, and how the hotel would trap Five by giving him a break. I haven’t read the comics so I know nothing about the hotel outside of scraps I’ve read off tumblr, but I kind of imagine it as a cross between the hotel in that Doctor Who episode The God Complex and Mabel-land from Gravity Falls.

I’d been mulling over drawing something like this for a while when my brain came up with the coffee-maragrita, and the rest wrote itself. Five’s living the high life when Luther finds him. The only way to get Five to stay is to clean Luther up and give him what he wants (his normal body back). More siblings will find them in this pseudo-paradise. Who will break them out? I don’t know. I picked Klaus to go next because he could probably be seduced by paradise easily.

My favorite expressions in this one is the panel where Luther and Five are looking at each other like “hell yeah,” because as someone who’s had pina coladas by the pool with her brother... that is the height of luxury. I also had fun drawing Klaus’s outfit. Pink converse rock, obviously, and his jacket is a Seargent-Pepper’s looking thing in the enby colors and his shirt has a pan flag on it. I’m pandering to myself lol.

Hope y’all enjoy it!

please do not repost to tumblr/twitter/pinterest/etc

[claudeleine]

grfsdjdw whenever i message someone about an edit they've reposted to pass off as their own they go "well i didn't know i got it off pinterest :/"

pLS as if most pinterest posts don't link to the original posts. i've had someone say they just googled a character and my edits came up so they reposted them on twitter like ????????ok but they clearly came from my..blog...?????? the source was right..there...

i'm truly at a loss for words that the most recent situation though was someone taking my edits and cutting the character out of that and adding it to their own edit (and i know it wasn't the first time they've done this). like...just...cut it out of the original comic cover/panel and color it yourself like the rest of us do :/ how are u gonna tell me u didn't know what u were doing ladksfjsdklaf

[munettieart]

Processing a panel

As I’m in no way a professional comic artist, I still want to share some of my process in drawing a panel. Maybe in the future I’ll change my way of working but for now it works for me. 

So whenever I finished designing the page layout, I’ll usually sketch the most crappiest storyboard you’ll ever see and place the speechbubbles. Getting the speechbubbles in right place is important as they take a lot of space. So it’s not about getting the details right but moreso the right idea, setting and character traits for the dialogue.

My first storyboard, contained a dissapointed Damiane and Elena having some attitude towards Damiane. 

At first it was fitting with the dialogue because the original dialogue contained:

Damiane: Then stop doing charity work. 

Elena: Can’t do. That’s basically the purpose of my existence.

The reason why I changed the dialogue and also the composition/storyboard of the panel was because of their dynamic in the previous pages. The story I wrote before starting this comic is the guideline but within the process of the pages, I’m willing to change the dialogue into something else because I think it fits more natural within the panel or character.

So I changed it into this: 

The main reason I changed this panel is because I wanted them to be nicer to each other, while still having a bit of the original dialogue. 

I’ve also changed the composition because a composition where two characters are standing next to each other is less interesting than a composition with a different angle. 

Something to keep in mind is that after a few pages it’s becoming a bit boring if the characters are constantly having the same pose. So that’s also one of the reasons why I’ve changed their poses.

Last but not least: when making these changes, I always check if the panel still fits with the panel that comes before and the panel that comes afterwards. 

So when the set up is right I’ll focus on the anatomy. I’m going to be honest with you. I think I’ve used 10+ layers to get it in this condition. Each time I just redraw the pose with better adjustments. I usually check references such as Pinterest and the Morpho anatomy books to get the anatomy right. I know a lot of Webcomic artists use 3d-models that come with Clip Studio Paint and sometimes they’re great! But I always have the feeling the anatomy gets either stiff or just wonky when they are traced directly.

Clean up sketch. This is the process I always do when going towards the final lineart. I usually do this step in 3 or 4 times and when the most important details are right, I’ll start lining it. 

I also drew Elena quickly. As her pose is less difficult, I started later with  her. But since she’s at the foreground. She needed to be done before Damiane. And yes I draw the characters always seperate from eachother.

So this is why Elena needed to be finished first. She’ll cover Damiane mostly and I didn’t want to erase his pose because she’s infront of him. 

Because I could see how Elena was infront of Damiane, I could also resize him so that it fitted the composition better. 

And I was also lazy with his foot because I knew Elena was going to cover that part of his body. 

Fully colored. Also when colored drawing can change. So sometimes I need to adjust the final lineart. Which sucks. Especially when it comes to their faces. But this one came out alright. :P No face.

So now you have the two characters together. Last thing I’m going to add is the background. If the background is complexer, I’ll start with the background first and then add the characters. Sometimes I want to move the characters a bit (yay for drawing them seperately) and when I haven’t draw the background first. Well I get an ugly blank space I need to correct.

Since I knew the background was easy, I just drew it later. I always make a grid for the background to get the perspective right.

And done. In the end, I’ll just let it rest. Sometimes I’ll go back and edit minor details like the sizes of their eyes, color or background details. I’ve also completely removed panels and redrew them with a different angle (sigh). Really editors stuff. 

Fully page: 

Thank you for reading :-D!! 

[techmomma]

Lovely seawitch lady! I was curious, how did you come about the beautiful rock textures and desgins/inspiration in your underwater pieces, namely this one? I’m working on portfolio pieces and I’d love to take a page from your book here

So there’s two aspects to that which help create that look: texture overlay and textured paintbrush. Texture overlay is an old photoshop trick where you take an image with an interesting texture, like this watercolor staining here. 

You put that on top of all your layers, set it to overlay, usually, though sometimes I’ll use soft light or some other mode, and lower the opacity. I did that with a li’l baby pic of Witchy and voila! Easy texture!

The second part of that look is the brush I used when coloring the rocks. Here’s that panel without any extra light rays, this is purely the painting on the rocks I did. 

I can shave this down even farther to give you an idea of how I start the background, which is just multiple layers of color splotches.

With a really soft, textured brush, I add in only one color to those rocks in the foreground.

I just went chunk by chunk, painting in on separate layers. 

By the end, I’ve got a whole bunch of colors I’ve used. The two color swatches on the right there are colors I added in very softly for some variation. 

Throw a watercolor texture on top, and I’m already like 95% of the way there. The rest is just fiddling with color and adding the caustic light refractions, which honestly, help mask a lot of this and make it more vibrant than it actually is. 

The brush I used is actually one meant for clouds, but I liked the spongy quality of it and thought it’d help add to the rough watercolor look of the comic! 

As for inspiration, googling “underwater caves” can yield some fun results. I thiiiiink... that particular scene was loosely based off of a diving spot in Iceland. The Silfra fissure, I believe? 

I really liked the look of the two walls enclosing this crystal-clear area of water, fading into obscurity in the background there. 

I also have a pinterest for underwater inspiration. 

I hope that helps! Any other questions are more than welcome! Especially if something isn’t clear here. I do these things in certain ways in clip, but tried to explain them in a way that would apply to any digital program.

[drink-n-watch]

  Genre : Action, comedy, crime, science-fiction

Episodes: 13 + 3

Studio:

One thing that we can pretty much count on is that as long as humans have working brains, they will try to find ways to mess with them. The latest and most potent way is the designer drug Anthem, which goes way beyond just altering your perceptions, it alters your actual DNA. In fact, if you’re not careful, you could end up as something which is no longer quite human…or just dead. That’s why it’s outlawed! But how do you deal with criminals that are literally superhuman? You send in your “best”! The detectives of the Seven 0 unit risk their lives every day to keep the citizens safe and Anthem off the streets. Don’t call them heroes, they are just doing their jobs. And starting now, Kirill is one of them!

First Anthem is a great name for a drug. It’s poetic, symbolic, easy to say and remember, positive in connotation. I am putting way too much thought into the marketing applications of illegal drugs. Second, that synopsis I just wrote is very accurate and super boring. Don’t go by it. Double Decker is a fun, often very silly show. I kept thinking of Brooklyn 99 if that can give you an idea. But then also of Breaking Bad a little… It’s not as funny as Brooklyn 99 or as well written as Breaking Bad but it makes up for it in weirdness and colour! Double Decker is just a queer little show in the best way. Pun intended!

why did this image seem to fit?

I have to say, the first thing that hit me as soon as I started this series was: whoa the colours! I haven’t been taken by such a sumptuous and prominent colour palette since No Game No Life. I figure this will probably divide viewers somewhat. The colours are rich and bright but they could also be called loud and potentially headache inducing. For me, that pop art palette is a selling point though and I must say my screencaps do not do it justice.

With such an in your face element, it’s sort of difficult to get passed the colours to the rest of the production. If you do though, the second thing you are likely to notice is the CG. The CG is… well, it’s ok. Some episodes are pretty CG heavy and it’s not incorporated as smoothly as it could be. But when used more sparingly it actually creates some very interesting dynamic effects that work well with the high action scenes. It’s actually heavier in the first few episodes and I was worried that it would end up being distracting but the 3D team seems to have found the proper balance as the series wore on and later episodes, which use it more sparingly, actually have some very good CG integration.

I never get tired of the gorgeous skyline

Wow, I really didn’t think I would talk this much about production. Fact is, Double Decker has a very distinctive look to it. Not only for what I’ve mentioned above but in actual design as well. Thankfully, I think the screencaps do a better job of showing those. Like anything that’s unusual, that can be a plus or a minus. I liked it, so it worked for me, if you don’t you may actually find it enough of a turn off to drop the show. This said, the sound is in fact quite good and the voice acting has a lot of chemistry even if individual performances don’t stand out as much.

Alright, so it’s a cool looking show. What else… I’ve come to realize that I am not the best person to review these types of series. What I mean is that I have a real soft spot for goofy action comedies with a criminal element. For instance, I rated much higher than average last year’s Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens. I’m also a big Archer fangirl. It’s a very specific niche that happens to speak to me, so I’m by no means objective in this review.

My review doesn’t make it clear but Travis sort of rules

I enjoyed this show a lot more than the average viewer, so my review is going to show that. But let me tell you why. The underlying organized crime story is in fact pretty solidly thought out. The organizations are described in enough detail to give you a real sense of everything that’s going on and the tension and danger are present despite the generally humorous tone of the series. If you like crime procedurals, there is enough groundwork in the storyline to keep you interested.

 This said I started the series firmly believing this was a mecha show, and for the longest time, I had no idea why. There is a pretty drastic tonal and genre switch that happens in the last few episodes that I did not see coming. It’s not exactly seamless, there is a reason I called this show messy in my title. There are some plot holes and a few contrivances. The story could have used a bit more background to really evolve naturally. But it still works.

 An effort has been put in to tie all the disparate genre elements together and give decent explanations for all the events of the series. Some are a little contrived but the whole thing holds together rather well and when you consider just how nutty things get, that’s pretty impressive, to say the least.

self-awareness is important

Although this isn’t an important element, I feel I should drop a line for all the nontraditional gender and sexual orientation representation in this series. A lot of characters and relationships do not follow social norms but both gender and sexuality are presented as incidental character traits rather than defining ones which I really appreciated. Double Decker is a very accepting show and I found it refreshing. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Kirill, the main character gets mistaken for a woman very regularly and although he is occasionally annoyed and corrects the misconception, in general, he never gets mad about it or considers it an insult or even a joke. It’s more of a catalyst for later events than a running gag. As for the clearly more traditionally masculine female character, it’s never even brought up and her femininity is never questioned despite her imposing physical strength.

 That’s a long paragraph for something I thought was barely worth mentioning. I watched Double Decker in June when questions of sexuality and identity were all around me and I just thought the series presented it particularly well while keeping its sense of humour about it. Kudos.

it’s a long story

The three extra episodes are side stories and slice of life events that happen in the course of the main storyline that for some reason weren’t included in the official season. I actually enjoyed them more and wish there had been more of those asides in the show as they fleshed out the characters beautiful and were just generally fun to watch. This is probably the first time I enjoyed the extras this much.

Overall, Double Decker is a well-made show with more than a few good moments. It’s not perfect and overreaches now and then but it succeeds more often than it fails. In my opinion, it’s worth a look. As the season stays fairly consistent throughout (the two background episodes on Doug and Max are particularly touching though), you should be able to get a good feel for the show from the first few episodes and decide if you want to see the rest. I would watch a second season in a heartbeat.

Side note : the frequent exposed brickwork and apartment interiors in this show were really beautiful. The hipster in me wanted to move there so bad!

so cool!

Favorite character: the narrator

What this anime taught me: modifying a bacterial shell with a virus’ DNA rewriting potential could yield a very powerful drug

Whenever the brain and the heart fight, it’s always the liver that suffers

Suggested drink: Double Decker Daiquiri

Every time Kirill talks to the narrator – take a sip

Every time there are comic book panels – take a sip

Every time anything is censored – gasp!

Every time anyone says Athem – take a deep breath

Every time someone gets called an idiot – get some water

Every time anyone mentions Derick – pour some out

Every time we see a cat – take a sip

Every time we see the King’s Kane – raise your glass

Every time someone gets drunk – join them

Every time anyone calls Kirill feminine – stretch

Every time Doug taps his temple – pay attention

Every time we see a chocolate bar – get a snack

Every time Doug talks about/does laundry – take a sip

Like I said, Double Decker is a very striking show. As usual, I have some more screencaps on imgur or Pinterest. I’m adding just a few here to get your interest!

Double Decker is a Little Messy and a Lot of Fun Genre : Action, comedy, crime, science-fiction Episodes: 13 + 3 Studio: One thing that we can pretty much count on is that as long as humans have working brains, they will try to find ways to mess with them.

[princeorion]

Star Fox: Crisis 06

Tumblr, if you wanna see the original Hi Res version, follow the link:

Star Fox: Crisis - 06

Lylat has known many terrors. It has seen it share of monsters, from within the Lylat system and beyond. It has seen countless wars waged across its planets. But in its hour of need there has always been those that would step up to fight. Fox McCloud and the Star Fox team have saved Corneria and the Lylat system countless times. They have defeated countless foes that sought to conquer Lylat. They are praised as heroes, heralded as saviors. Lylat knows peace because of them. It has known a calm it has not seen in a long time. But a shadow stirs in the darkness of space. The storm that follows the calm is coming. Coming not just for Lylat, but for Fox and the Star Fox team itself. And what they will face may change them forever. The real battle begins, Andross' epic chin vs Fay's... Fayness. This damn thing took two weeks to do! Well, one day last week, but 4 this week! And I took this week off for Summer Games Done Quick and CEO! I've been working straight since sunday! Argh! Enjoy, I went all out with this one, kinda. My pc does have limits. Massive resolution, every line vectored out (and not my usual corner cutting method) and 32 bit color for this one (though I have to bust it down to 16 bit to actually save it to a usable file type after some trickery to preserve the color.) Saving takes a full minute and actually stops my stream. Oh, and it's two pages. Maybe forgot about that. No I haven't, it took a day just to vector the lines for one page! Argh! So anyhoo, I wanna enjoy the rest of my vacation, and SGDQ & CEO, plus they're running Starfox 64 early in the morning and I's gots to be all over that with my donating finger! Enjoy as the story starts to heat up as Andross and Mystery FoxyFoxFaceMan are up to no good, starting causing NO! I'm not doing that! No! Also, I'd gladly spend a week working just to make sure my beautiful Fox looks as good as she does. She's my first born. Shame she's so small in that panel. Next week: NOTHING! Summer Games Done Quick and CEO are going on this weekend, AND I JUST SPENT A WEEK WORKING ON A COMIC! So yah, I'm taking sunday off. Was gonna surprise you all with CMC 10k and Rightful Heir at my old release dates this week, but.... CMC 10k will be next next week. Special Thanks for my Patreon backers: Ray Fuller Links Below: Star Fox: Crisis - 05 Star Fox: Crisis - Gallery Prince Orion tumblr Follow your Prince! Prince Orion tumblr Collection Gates Patreon Page, if wanna help out support me on Patreon. You could even become a part of the comic. Just check out my rewards. And follow me on Google+ and Twitter for comic updates. Though you are warned, I don’t do squat on google+. All these new fangled social thingies… Gates’ Twitter Page Gates’ Google+ page Gates’ Pinterest Gates’ Twitch

[retromaisie]

10 Questions Meme

I was tagged by @sullivanrandomness​ @delicatesoul88 & @simlishdistractions; I’ll be starting with Carla’s. You’re all about to know way more about me than you ever wanted to know! ;)

1) When you’re playing, do you have the game music on or off?

- I play with the sound on really low. Now and again I’ll pop it up for the ambiance of the seasons. I’m usually watching TV simultaneously or playing near people who are.

2) How long have you been playing your current hood?

- Somewhere around 2006/2007. It started as a legacy style hood, and then transferred to a prosperity inspired hood (sorta), and now it’s just a beast of its own accord.

3) Uh-oh! Your game just exploded: are you going to rebuild or start afresh?

- definitely rebuild. I have several times already, and have backups on several devices that span back a few years.

4) What is your favourite Sims version and why?

- TS2, seemingly now and forever. I’m rather attached to my hood and all the work I put into it over the years.

5) What’s an expansion you’d love to see that EA never did for any version of the game?

- I’ve spent way too many minutes thinking this over, I’m a total blank; I’m sure after I post this, something will come to me.

6) Do you use cheats (apart from building cheats) when you play?

- Absolutely! I have no shame to do what I want, and follow rules that I make for myself, and then break them if I feel like it. My biggest rule is to have fun, so if my favorite sim, Paloma dies while paying her bills, you can bet the Grim can bring her back. That just made no sense!

7) Do you consider yourself primarily a player, builder or decorator? Or other?

- All three. I won’t have fun playing unless its a building I enjoy, and decorated in a pleasing fashion.

8) Do you play pre-mades, your own sims or a mix?

- Mostly my own sims, with a handful of pre-mades in there. The Traveler family became the Langes (which their daughter born in the game, Brooklyn, just gave birth to the blond baby). I also have the Picasso family making messes, that is Riley and Jett’s story that I’ve been posting.

9) What is your favourite kind of business to run? Or what kind would you like to run, if your game version allowed it?

- I enjoy them all, but really enjoy selling goods like the Love + Flour bakery selling their cheesecakes, and Meg selling her family portraits, and I can’t forget the comic book store. But this is by a small margin, restaurants, coffee shops, and clubs are all fun to run.

10) If you were a sim, what would be your aspiration and lifetime want? Feel free to translate that to your own game version - I only speak TS2!

- Family primary, than a tie between knowledge/pleasure for secondary aspiration. No clue on LTW, I haven’t bothered to look at them in the game for years.

Now Laura’s questions:

1) What is your longest marathon simming session?

- I’ve played all day before, but I don’t have the concentration to actually play the entire time. I poke around on the web, and seek out snacks.

2) If you could visit one premade world as a real life place, which would it be?

I’m not familiar enough with any of the games but TS2 for the worlds. I suppose I’d say Twikkii island because I prefer the sun and ocean.

3) Tell me about a sim of yours who you were saddest to lose (death, game glitch or whatever…)

- Annie Carver. She’d made such poor choices and left behind Ella (a child), and twin infants. She never finished her story nor found her redemption.

4) If you could go back and change one thing about your simming, knowing what you know now, what would it be?

- For the love of Pete, not so many black haired sims!!! Geesh! I’m still paying the price of this!

5) Do you aim to give your sims a happy perfect life, or enjoy watching their struggle and misery? >:)

- In the middle. I try to follow sims want panels and have ROS to throw some added misery in, but quite a few of my sims will lead happy, well-adjusted lives.

6) What do you sip or snack on while you’re simming?

- coffee or wine, popcorn or tortilla chips with local salsa. I lean toward a salt-craving.

7) Do you own any pets?

- Heck yes, bunnies, kitties, a doxie, and a bernese, they all threaten to take over my instagram. I grew up with animals, and my parents now live on a farm, it seems too quiet without them.

8) What is your favourite food?

- Mexican food is where I gain my super powers. I blame my aunt who made the best food, and had the best family gatherings when I was growing up.

9) Do you play with cc or no cc?

- So much CC, beyond the amount of CC that I actually need, and yet I always want more. Currently resting at 15.3 GB. I’ve been using my Sims Pinterest for my downloading therapy instead of always adding to my game, thanks to Carla for that tip!

10) How often do you play the sims?

- It goes in waves. I can go weeks or even more than a month without playing at all, then I lose my mind, and clear a weekend so I can play.

Ideally, I try to sneak at least a few hours in one day a week, but it makes it difficult for me to stay caught up with whats new and happening in everyone else’s games. I follow quite a few of my tumblr favorites on feedly, so if you see me come through on a liking spree, that’s why!

Now to break my record, for longest post in the world, @delicatesoul88‘s questions! Some of these were asked above, so I won’t repeat those answers.

5. Have you ever made a simself (sim of yourself)? Pictures.

- In TS1 and TS3. In TS1 I shared it in the N99 forum, and it was fun to see the adventures mini Maisie got into. In TS3, I just wondered if I could. Zero pictures of these.

7. Do you play on a laptop or a desktop computer?

- desktop computer. I have TS4 on my MacBook but rarely play it.

8.  What is your favourite aspect of the Simblr community?

- Tons of great ideas, pretty sims and decorating, and all the wonderful CC that everyone shares.

9.  Besides tumblr, how else do you interact with the simming community?

- Tumblr, blogs, and N99 are pretty much it.

10. Lastly (this question is my favourite!) - Another simmer whose game you would love to have and why?

- Whatever world @jenba is creating, I’ve never been disappointed by her work, all the way back to her TS2 days. I have a thing for New England, and she encapsulates it perfectly. I’m still in love with her Chowder House for TS3.

Tagging - @blissfully24 @eulaliasims @celebkiriedhel @mdpthatsme @holleyberry @simsofsimcity @deesimmer @lilsisterg @starrsim @tanjassims @veetiesims2

I cannot think of any questions, so pick 10 from the ones above, whichever strike your fancy! :) If you’ve already done this, or just don’t wanna, no hard feelings! And if you weren’t tagged, and wanna play, consider yourself tagged by me! :)

[mividaeslimones]

Day 01: start of the process...

I think this is one of the more unnerving days I’ve had in a while. I checked in at 1:30 pm and it’s now 3:00 pm and there’s still no sign of the provider... I split my time between Michelle Obama’s book, Spanish lessons, and some recipes I found on Pinterest. Driving to the appointment had been the usual level of Albuquerque fuckery, so I can’t complain too much there (I should be used to it), checking in had been a breeze, but this waiting... I almost want to get up and leave I’m so anxious. But I’ll stay positive and keep my ass parked in this chair as other patients are roomed and seen quickly.

I’m moved to another room at 3:05 and this does absolutely nothing for my nerves. But I smile and follow the nurse without complaint anyway. I remind myself I’m not leaving without progress at the very least. I’ve waited too long and have come too far. Just breathe in, breathe out, and repeat. Smile as more patients and clinical staff pass in the hall. There’s a damn good reason the appointment was so delayed which I’ll address later.

It’s now 3:05 pm, I’m ready to climb out of my skin. The provider moseys in and things are...odd? Both of us are actively trying to feel out the other, and I imagine the fly on the wall is tickled pink. When we finally start I’m in tears, in all my 32 years of being on this planet I can fit the number of people who have actively tried to make sure my pronouns were as they should be. It’s a weird and uncomfortably visceral feeling. I cried, she cried, and then she cracked a joke this will be easier, because crying will literally be harder after testosterone.

We chat for a bit and I lean into the conversation with my overly tired and rehearsed, “so I know it varies from state to state, and clinic to clinic, but will I need a diagnosis of dysphoria to make this happen?” Yes, yes I will; insurance companies will outright deny it. She dances around “the question”, I know she’s trying to be delicate with me so I cut in with a wild move.

“When did I know?” She looks relieved and says “yes.” I think for a minute, not because I’m inventing answer, but because I’ve literally never given it a second thought since I’ve pushed it down. It is one of a million neat and tidily wrapped boxes (in a mellowed robin egg blue) I’ve kept locked away inside. “I tell her I feel cliched for saying this, but I think it was kindergarten...” I go on about the rips in the perfect discount tights from Nordstrom and the filthy dresses. I also mention how hilarious I must have looked to the adults who watched the kindergartners. I was the most careful child, but in spite of my best efforts I came home a mess. Can you imagine some poor child comically stepping over puddles and trying to ascend a tree with the tenacity of a sloth? And I would later have the dreaded conversation with my mother on the subject... One day I just decided it wasn’t worth the effort anymore and I caved. I stopped the rough play, then resigned to quieter and less messy activities.

But I still tried on some level... I wanted the reprieve. So I’d slyly sneak over to the boy’s racks of some department store to try toss in a shirt or a pair of pants. And when I was inevitably caught I would be taken by the arm, before I was abrasively whispered something along the lines of, “it will look like no one loves you if you dress like a boy.” It was another weird little box to unwrap... Honestly, it didn’t feel like something that belonged to me anymore. Kind of like when you step into a house that was converted into a museum. You see the remnants of a life lived by someone eons ago, and it’s sad to some extent, but it’s not real, or tangible. After having context for some of this I think I sort of understand her reasoning... As awful as some of her behavior was, I think it came from a good place, which I’ll get into later.

Woo! Anyway! The provider went on to ask a few more things before we finished up the brief questionnaire. I honestly mean it was brief, like the Spanish Inquisition could have laughed at it. I was asked about the surgery portion and I said I wasn’t ready, not out of fear, but out of an understanding of how the procedure works. If a person wants a something like a subcutaneous mastectomy (boob removal) with chest contouring (shaping of your moobs), you need something to be there, if you’re particular about the outcome. If you’re not, you’re amazing and more power to you. But for the rest of us (who avoided the gym) we will need to work building up that area as much as we can. The question came up of if I wanted to keep my current primary provider and I said yes. My doctor is more enthusiastic about this whole thing than I am, like she sounded ready to jump on anyone who dared tell me no to any of this. I did mention it was weird that my current health system (outside of UNM) didn’t have a way to look up the endocrinologist who helps trans patients. I even called when I couldn’t find anything online. I said it was kind of my deciding factor to keep this part of my care with UNM, since that seemed very sketch to me. She also seemed to think it was a little odd, and quietly brought the rest of my concern up... Which was this endocrinologist may treat trans patients frequently, but he may not be the gentlest or versed, and we moved along...

It was weird, she was willing to give me a script that day, but she was hesitant to bring up the blood panel. Which I was completely fine with by the way! I would much rather be safe than sorry, your health is nothing to take for granted. Shoot I even requested to tack on another for peace of mind (STI check). I’m going to be checked to see where my glucose is at, along with my cholesterol, if my cells are clumping or if it looks like I might have something like macrocytosis (puffy/large cells), and I’m getting a pregnancy test. I’d be shocked if the last one turned up anything, I haven’t done the horizontal tango since the beginning of the year, I think, it’s been a long time okay.

I did kick myself when I realized I broke my own cardinal rule before the appointment. DON’T EAT. I always shoot for the earliest appointment available so I can eat immediately after, this wasn’t an option, so I ate on accident... You never know when your provider will want to order blood work. Which means this could completely screw up a blood panel. It’s the equivalent of crossing your legs when you’re getting your blood pressure taken. Now I have to get up at the ass crack of dawn and get a draw... Which would have meant waiting to take the testosterone, because yes you guessed it, that too would skew the results.

In all honesty, I’d have to wait on taking the script anyway, my insurance has to approve it and get something from my doctor. I had suspected this from the get go, because nothing in life if ever this easy for me. Haha. And it was confirmed when the pharmacy technician looked over the sheet of paper. I could see it in his eyes there was an issue, still he optimistically told me twenty minutes. He was super nice and apologetic about the whole thing, and he even urged me to call everyone and their mother if I hadn’t heard anything in a week, so this didn’t fall through the cracks. Like the man was so adamant about it, the whole thing threw me off.

So if you’re still wanting to know why the appointment was so late, there was a power outage yesterday. With everything being digital this can take some clinics or organizations days or weeks to catch up on (if there was extensive damage). And if you’re wondering about the mother thing, well, she had a cousin who died of HIV/aids. He was the sweetest and kindest man, with the most rotten luck in the world. Some would say he would have no luck at all if it weren’t for all the bad luck. He was also gay. I’m not going to name him, I didn’t know him, and it might upset my great aunt to know I posted this. I adore her, so I won’t do that. My point is, I genuinely think she still fears the maybes, the might bes, or the definites of living outside of what society has deemed as acceptable. Which is probably problematic, but I don’t think there is anything anyone could do or say to sway her at this point. Personally? I don’t care. Since I’ve lived in New Mexico I’ve had random men try to solicit me on a jog, I’ve been groped at my place of employment, I’ve had a gun pointed in my face, I’ve had people put me in headlocks, people have laid hands on my property with the intent to damage it, some have even succeeded in damaging it, and I’ve had my life threatened. I think I’m over the worst case scenario. I also think I need to dial things back a notch. After living here for over ten years I recognize that I’ve become harder and colder; I am absolutely ready to pop off on someone who’s clearly in the wrong. But today has taught me, that things are indeed easier than they used to be, and they’re continuing to improve.

[umbralgrey]

 HEY YOU THERE!! I SEE YOU OVER THERE! I WANT YOU TO COME HERE...just for me to say.... I’m still here...around...about...

So I did mention sometime ago that I was either gonna redesign my Valindra Lavellan or scrap her. A new pinterest board later for a new Lavellan that would have been an Archer, I came across a lovely archer class for D&D. Reading into this class made me realize instead of choosing between the two loves of my life, Archery and Magic, I could just combine them!!  Thus this sneak peek into the new and IMPROVED Valindra Lavellan, the Arcane Archer. I’m still working on her background and history and MORE FLAWS! Because before she was a innocent fluff, tbh that was a bit boring. She is still sporting purple eyes and silver grey hair, without the cost of her parents lives. No that isn’t makeup it's dark circles...

Update time!

The $10 commissions week didn’t go so well, which is okay, because I got to do more work for some projects. 

First project: I’ve been working with a lovely game developing company called  Stegalosaurus Game Development. We and several other people worked on the sequel to their first game “Army of Tentacles” to produce “Super Army of Tentacles 3: The Search for Army of Tentacles 2″. Its a cool game that really doesn’t take itself seriously. A lot of reading. I did the sprite work for this lovely game. So check it out here. Now that the game is out I’ve been also working on A LOT of Outfit DLCs. I still am working on them. So thats part of my work load now. 

Second Project: I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been working on a comic for the lovely @elvensemi for her fucking amazing fanfic “Keeping Secrets”. (Still waiting for updates. *eye twitch*) I’ve explained before that she won first place in my last giveaway where you can get a comic or a illustration. She gave me a sorta long ass description expecting 1 page of comic...pfft... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)...I’m gonna give you several pages!!! So of the Raw pages, no text yet I have 7/10 done. Boy it looks good...Just wish I could keep Solas’s face the same. (moar practice). So yea look forward to that! Once everything is done then I’ll put out the rest of the giveaway rewards and maybe...just maybe another giveaway. Soon™. (an old lime odyssey forum joke)

Third Project: Speaking of comics, I’m making one!!! Yay!!!! I got the idea of it hashed out so far. Need to do some character info shite and places. Then work on the story. So it's basically a Comedy, Slice of life, Magical and Romance, 4 panel comic. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH DRAGON AGE or Solas...so completely original. Scary! I hope to have the first chapter out by next year Summer. I’m much excite about it, I hope you are too. 

Fourth Project: I loved my Growth from Destruction,my Flower Crown Solas and my Hydrangeas Solas so much that I got hooked. I love to see Solas with flowers. So I’m working on a series of pictures of Solas with FLOWERS! I’ve already finished a sketch of one which is so cute. So I’m hoping to have some done before I go away for a few days. Another thing to look forward to. 

That’s pretty much it workwise. I’ll spare you guys the personal stuff. BTW its never too late to commission me! 

[k-thequeen-writings]

Fandom Quest ch 14

                                                 Comic Caught-Ya!

Katy’s winter break after her first semester was a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. Before the semester had ended, she turned eighteen and got her first tattoo: her mom’s handwriting from the birthday card she had sent her. When she got home for the winter, she was only there for a matter of days before she, her mom, and a few others drove to Florida to hand out donations to victims of the hurricane.

Now, to understand the first loop on her ride, you have to understand what had happened a year prior. The town she lived in was also hit by a hurricane. After the storm had subsided, her family began handing out donations to the needy. They even offered their home to friends who had lost their homes. During that time, they met an elderly gentleman named Terry. They swore he was an angel in disguise. The kind-hearted, quiet man had been living with them ever since.

Back to current day, mid-December of twenty-eighteen, Katy and the others were busy wrapping gifts for the children of families who couldn’t afford to buy Christmas that year. Everyone was exhausted from the long day’s work, so a phone call from her mom’s fiance saying that Terry had had an accident wasn’t a good addition. He had fallen down the stairs and hit his head, causing internal bleeding.

Once Katy and her family had arrived home, they spent Christmas day going to visit him in the hospital. It made everything even harder to see him in the state he was in, and to know that his children hadn’t even come to see him yet. Of course, they weren’t angry with them, just a little disappointed. After they had said their goodbyes, they went back home to open presents and have dinner. The next day, December twenty-sixth, Terry had passed away. The death was hardest on her mom, but she also felt a sting in her heard from his passing.

That weekend, only three days after, the last loop in Katy’s rollercoaster came. Her mom was getting married! It was a small wedding, but very cute and rustic, which fit her mom perfectly. The bride rode in on her horse, which stressed out Katy and her brother a shitton. They both walked her mom up and gave her away with their lab as the ring bearer.

After winter break was over, Katy and her friend from the Netherlands returned to the university. Katy first dropped off her friends and then went back to where the convention was going to be. Luckily, the university wasn't too far, so she would be able to enjoy the whole weekend and return for her morning classes.

“Hey, my Katy-bug! How are you?” Her mom chirped through the phone. It had been a couple of hours since she had heard from Katy and she was getting a tad worried.

“Hey, mom!” Katy was currently walking into the hotel that the convention was being held in, a spring in her step as she got closer. “I’m good, just got to the convention center. It’s at the same place as the Supernatural convention was at!” As she approached the doors, she dug through her purse for her ticket. Once she was inside, the chatter of the crowd grew louder the closer she got to the convention portion of the hotel.

“Oh, that’s great, honey! I’m glad you got there safely.” A smile was obviously planted on her face, excited for her daughter’s adventure. “I’ll let you go, it sounds busy. Love you!”

“Love you too!” With that, the ladies hung up and Katy went to start her first day at the convention.

The booths and cosplayers were one of the best things she saw. There were plenty of people dressed as characters from Supernatural and the Marvel universe. She laughed to herself; she'd met the characters they pretended to be. Of course, there were others who displayed as game characters, anime characters, and mythical creatures.

At the end of the day, Katy’s feet were killing her to the point of burning if she sat down. On the plus side, she enjoyed the panels by some pretty famous celebrities that she was excited to see, also getting the chance to have a photo op with them. After the crowd had died down some, she did her shopping and got some pretty cool merchandise; one of her favorites being the Loki themed leather jacket.

Saturday was the day she was looking forward to the most. Even with the lack of sleep from the night before, she woke up early to make sure her hair and makeup were done and that her outfit matched. Yes, she normally wore things that made her more comfortable, but today she was going to get to meet Tom Hiddleston! Her favorite celebrity at this convention, the main reason behind her being here.

Once she was ready and content with the way she looked, she took her time heading downstairs to get something to eat. After breakfast, she gave another look around the vendor room to see if there was anything else she was wanting, picking up a picture of Loki for Tom to sign. Even though the line was longer than the path to hell, She went ahead and jumped in line for autographs before it was too long for them to get through.

For two hours she passed the time by scrolling through Instagram or Pinterest. Every now and then a friend would text or call so she would of course reply or pick it up. Although, once she was only third in line, she put her phone away and started tapping her foot impatiently, the nervousness finally hitting her.

One left, then me. Oh god, what if I say the wrong thing and freak him out? Shut up Katy, you’re making it weird.

“Miss? Please step up, you’re next,” a kind lady dressed in red told her, a smile on her face as she gestured for Katy to walk up.

She did so and smiled awkwardly. “Hello, Mr. Hiddleston. How are you?” Katy’s posture was stiff. She was so nervous, she couldn’t even register that her feet were moving.

When Tom looked up, he stared at her for a moment before giving her a smile. “Please, call me Tom. Who should I write this too?” he asked, eyes focused on hers. The look he gave her was almost like he was looking at an old friend. When she gave him her name, he glanced at the tattoo on her forearm before looking down at the photo to sign it, writing something extra that Katy couldn’t make out upside down. “I like your tattoo, Katy. Very sweet of you.” Once he finished writing, he handed the picture to her with a smile on his face.

The blush from Katy’s ears moved to cover her whole face when he spoke to her, butterflies disturbing the peace in her stomach. “Oh, thank you very much! I just got it a few months ago.”

Katy you idiot, he doesn’t care when you got it!

“Well, congratulations. Is it in her handwriting?” Katy only nodded, a large smile lighting up her face. “That’s very interesting. Make sure to enjoy the rest of your day, Katy," he gave one more smile before giving her a small wave as a send-off.

“Thank you, have a nice day!” Katy also waved back, noticing that he had turned to Luke, his handler, and whispered something to him shortly after. Once she was out of the way of traffic, but still close to where Tom’s table is, she turned her attention to the autograph, smiling like a kid in a candy store.

To Katy, ‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.’ Love, Tom.

Reading the line, her smile quickly faded and the blood rushed to her ears, causing everything to go silent. She was completely frozen, stuck in a state of shock. She was so infatuated with her thoughts that she jumped when a man touched her shoulder, her autograph in his hands as he offered it to her. She recognized the man as Luke.

“Excuse me, Miss. Are you Kathryn Hart?” She nodded, eyes wide as she focused on him. “Please come with me, Mr. Hiddleston would like to see you when he’s on his break,” he spoke quietly, obviously not wanting anyone to hear the conversation.

Once she was in the back room, he left her to return to his boss while she paced like a caged beast across the room, the panic finally showing on the outside, now that she was alone. Holding true to her nature, she was hyperventilating, biting her nails, pulling her hair, and getting emotional the more she thought about the situation.

She was yanked from her thoughts once more when she heard the door close, jumping as she turned her head to see none other than Tom himself, giving her a smile. “Katy? Are you alright? You look stressed…” he had a worried look on his face as he approached her, the girl only staring and shaking her head in disbelief.

“Stressed? Oh, Thomas that’s an understatement!”

Tom chuckled a little, a small grin appearing on his face. “I can clarify things, if you’d like.”

Katy nodded. “Please do! I mean, you’re Loki? Why the hell haven’t you said anything to me before now, Tom?” she exclaimed. “I mean, you know Loki like the back of your hand, how could you not realize that I wasn’t supposed to be in that universe? Plus, I stopped Thanos! You know that wasn’t supposed to happen the way it did!” Katy spoke fast, almost like she was doing it all on one breath and not giving Tom any time to respond.

Groaning a little, he scratched his beard, making sure to keep his eyes on her while she talked. The rest of what she said he had tuned out, mentally slapping himself for what he was about to do. Without further hesitation, he gently cupped Katy’s face in his hands, placing a gentle kiss on her lips, eyes squeezed shut as he did so. A gasp escaped Katy, shock filling her every being with is actions, but she gave in, returning the kiss. When she did, the worry left Tom and most of the panic left Katy. She was much calmer, lost in the moment.

When he pulled away, he dropped his hands but remained mere inches from the girl in front of him, chuckling a little as she covered her beet-red face. After giving her a moment to process what had happened, he gently took hold of her hands and pulled them away from her face, making her look at him. “I apologize for my forwardness, Darling, but that was the only way I could think of to get you to focus.”

She was quiet for a moment, studying his eyes and he hers. “You could have slapped me. I wouldn’t have pressed charges.” When he laughed at the comment, a small smile appeared on her face before she sat down, the dizziness of the situation finally hit her. “Please explain why you never told me.” She sat with her hands in her lap, a sad look on her face as her eyes followed his movements, the man sitting next to her.

“Ah, where do I start?” he sighed, chuckling a little. “Well, a few years ago, I went to sleep and thought I was only having a dream. The dream was that I was Loki, but I couldn’t exactly control what I was saying. When we saw you, or Iro I should say, come into the cell on the helicarrier, I knew that you weren’t supposed to be there and just figured you were part of my imagination.” Katy snorted a little, finding the comment ironic. “Although Loki seemed to know you, so I just went along with it. After New York, we never saw you again until Ragnarok happened only this past November. Although, Loki thought about you a lot between that time. He’ll never tell you that though.” Tom nudged her shoulder, giving the girl a smile to try and lighten things up.

“When you took Loki to Othos and explained everything, it finally clicked with me that I was also, in a way, also experiencing the same thing as whoever this girl was. Whenever you dropped the illusions, Loki and I both memorized every feature of you, even down to that -” he leaned over, tapping a very tiny scar above her eye that her brother had caused when they were children, “- little scar there.”

“So… how did you know it was me? Aside from my looks, which I do appreciate that you don’t think I look… horrible,” she chuckled half-heartedly, rubbing the back of her neck as she spoke.

The comment she made about herself stung him slightly, but he gave a smile nonetheless. “Well, you were too busy to realize in Othos, but when you’d drop the illusion you would show your tattoo as well. Also, your name kinda gave it away too.” He chuckled softly at the end, eyes locked on her. He couldn’t believe that, after all these years, he finally found the girl in his dreams, literally.

Before Katy had a chance to respond, Luke had knocked on the door, telling Tom that he needed to come out now. After replying with a simple ‘okay’, he turned back to Katy who seemed like she was still freaking out a bit.

“Hey,” he whispered, placing two fingers below her chin to make her look at him. Once her attention was focused on him, he gave her a soft smile, moving his fingers to caress her cheek. “I’d like to talk to you about this more, Darling, but my break is over.” She nodded, which he returned before standing and taking her hand to help her stand. “Please give Luke your number and I’ll get in touch later, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. What exactly do you want to talk about though? Why me?” The happy look that was on her face earlier was replaced with a sadness in her eyes. Her mind was getting to her, which made Tom a little nervous.

“Because -” he gave her a small kiss on the forehead, before opening the door to let her walk out, “I’ve been looking for you for years, Katy. I’m not gonna let you slip through my fingers unless that’s what you really want. But please, just think about this and I’ll text you later.” Tom gave a small smile and another small wave before rushing back to the table to continue working on the autographs. He was eager to talk with her.

“Mom!” Katy shouted into the phone, slamming the room door closed behind her as she rushed into the room, ignoring the muffled yelling from her hotel neighbors.

“Honey? Something the matter? You sound out of breath,” her mom sounded worried, which was to be expected with the way Katy had answered her phone.

“You won’t believe - wait,” she hesitated, clearing her throat a little before continuing, “I uh, I need to ask you about something… it’s about, uh… a possible date, if I’m lucky.” She was blushing like a mad man the more she spoke. How the hell was she supposed to tell her mom that someone in their 30’s possibly wanted to go on a date with her? Let alone that they actually kissed her! Although, she wasn’t gonna tell her that part.

“Oh?” her mom drug out the word, a smirk in her voice. “What’s the name of this possible date?”

“Well, his name is Tom. But - uh, you like to call him ‘Hiddlesbum’.”

Her mom was silent for a moment, which made Katy’s heart race. Oh god, what is she gonna say! She’s gonna say no. I feel it!

“Well, keep me posted with what happens, okay? You know how I worry.”

Hold the phone. “What?”

“You’re an adult, Katy. Yes, it does worry me a little bit with the age, but I’m basing my decision on what you’ve shown me and told me about him. So why not give it a shot? See if it actually goes well!”

Her mom’s response just wasn’t clicking in her head. She was dumbfounded! Her mom, was actually, decently, okay with what her daughter had told her. Once it did register, Katy’s heart did a little excited jump in her chest. After a repeated thank you, she started getting a call on the hotel line, so she had to hang up.

When she answered, she was told that someone was asking for her room number and that they needed permission to send them up. Of course, Katy gave them the a-okay before rushing around the room to make it cleaner. Then she rushed to the bathroom to freshen up her makeup and brush her teeth, you know, just in case.

Before long, there was a knock on the door. When she rushed over, she hesitated, her hand just above the door handle and shaking. With a deep breath, she tried to calm herself, opening the door and giving the handsome actor a bright smile before inviting him inside.

“So, um… what exactly did you want to talk about?” Katy was starting to panic again as she walked to the desk chair, letting her guest have the comfortable bed.

It didn’t seem to just be her who felt nervous. Tom was rubbing his hands on his jeans just before he sat down, probably trying to dry off his palms. “Well, I was hoping to convince you to give this a chance.” he chuckled a little, picking at his fingers as he spoke.

“This?” she had a feeling she knew what he meant, but it doesn’t mean that the whole situation was kind of freaking her out.

“A relationship, between you and I.” Biting his lip, he gave her a hopeful look, but there was also worry, which was to be expected.

With a slight groan of frustration, Katy ran her fingers through her hair as she stood up, pacing around a little with her arms crossed. “I’m mentally slapping myself for saying this, but if a relationship like this does anything to your career and your reputation, I don’t want a relationship.” She stopped pacing sighing a little as she looked at him, her arms still crossed. “I care about what happens to you Tom, and an age gap this big is bound to have some backlash! I don’t want that for you. I’d rather die lonely.”

He was honestly kind of proud of her. He knew she had feelings, so for her to put them aside and focus on him was a big step. Something most adults have a hard time doing. With a soft sigh escaping his lips, he stood and walked over to her, gently grabbing hold of her arms with a soft smile on his face. “Darling, people will always talk about the age gap, regardless of how fast or slow the relationship goes. Regardless of how public, or private, we are. As long as we both want the same thing, and feel the same way, I won’t let it destroy me like you think it will. I can promise you that.”

Though she blushed at his words, she still was uncertain about the whole situation. Gently pulling away she walked back towards the bed, her back facing him. “But, even then, why me?” She now turned, sadness glossing over her eyes as she looked at him, “Why me, Tom? I’m not the woman you know from that world. I’m not the woman that you’ve… grown to feel for.”

“I beg to differ, Katy,” he chuckled a little, walking a little closer to her. “You seem to be very similar to Iro. Like caring about others more than you care about yourself. Am I wrong?”

She glanced up, shaking her head no a little.

“No matter how different or similar you are to Iro, you’re still you’re own person. That sense of mystery is exciting! And if you’ll let me, I’d like to see if this would work out between us.”

“Are you… thinking long term? Because I’m not someone who just dates to date. If I date someone, it’s because I see a partner in them. In the long run.” Katy's face had turned a bright red and she found it hard to meet his eyes.

With his confirmation, they talked just a little longer and arranged to have lunch tomorrow before Katy left. Once he was gone, she collapsed on the bed and found it hard to let sleep take her over. She didn’t want this to be a dream.

When Katy woke up, she was barely focused on anything happening around her. She was stuck in the clouds thinking about her little ‘date’ with Tom later. When it came time to the photo op, she waited towards the back of the line so she could just walk to the back with Tom. Yes, the wait was longer than the day before, three hours and fourteen minutes longer to be exact, but it was worth it. When she walked up, Tom gave her a warm smile, just like he would with any other fan. Although the look in his eyes is what was different.

Once the photo op was done, they were escorted to his break room where he had a small table set up with a tablecloth and a flower in the center. She found it adorable that they weren’t just going to have pizza or something simple. Instead, it was a cute little lunch with pasta and soup. During the lunch, they talked a little more about how the relationship was going to work, ultimately deciding they wanted to have titles, but go at Katy’s pace, which she was grateful for.

After the date was over, they said their goodbyes and Katy headed back to school for the semester. Over the next month, the two talked constantly, a couple rumors spread across the internet that Tom was with someone, but no confirmations. There were quite a few people who knew about the relationship, but all were close to either party. All of the Avengers actors, including Holland and Cumberbatch, both of their families, and a few of Katy’s close friends.

When Valentine’s Day rolled around, there was no word from Tom, other than their usual conversation. Unbeknownst to her, he had planned to come that weekend and spoil her. Thanks to her mom, he was able to plan everything around her classes.

“Katy-Bug! Did you get your cupcakes? They should be there by now.”

“I did!” Katy chirped, walking up the stairs of her dorm from picking up said cupcakes. “Thank you, by the way! They look delicious.”

“Aw you’re welcome honey, I'm glad you like them.”

“I’m sorry to change the subject momma, but have you heard from Tom today? I haven’t heard from him.”

Almost like he was listening, there was a knock on the door. Katy was a bit confused, mainly because she wasn’t expecting visitors. After saying bye to her mom, she set the cupcakes and opened the door to reveal Tom standing with his hair fixed, a casual suit on, and roses in his hands.

"What the hell are you doing here!” Katy yelled, but she couldn’t help the smile that crept on her face just before tossing herself into his arms, causing the man to chuckle.

The man happily hugged her back, gently kissing the top of her head and breathing in her scent. “Hello, darling. I’m sorry I’m late, but I’m here to take you out for Valentines. Is that okay?” When he pulled away, he felt a small pain in his arm; she had hit him. “Ow! What was that for?” he chuckled a little, watching as she crossed her arms and gave him a half-hearted glare.

“You weren’t answering for hours! Mr. Romantic, I was getting worried.” He gave her a smile, leaning down and kissing her cheek. “What was that for?” A blush heated up her cheeks, still trying to look intimidating.

“You’re adorable when you try to look mad when you aren’t actually upset!” he laughed a little and the woman finally stopped the facade, the smile returning to her face. “Why don’t you take these -” he handed her the flowers before continuing, “- and get dressed. Nothing too fancy unless you want to. Church attire would be fine.”

“Thank you for these, Tom. they’re beautiful.” She gladly took the flowers, giving them a whiff while he kept talking. “Alright. What will you do in the meantime? I don’t want you to be bored,” she tilted her head a little, maybe picking up a little too much from the trenchcoated angel.

With a soft grin on his face, he pointed to his left, towards the study room doors. “Your friends are watching, so I probably should go say hello.” He seemed a bit embarrassed when he spoke, almost like he was a little nervous to go talk to them.

“Take your time, we have a little while,” Katy nodded, and the two parted.

After about an hour, Katy walked out wearing black heels, a light-blue floral dress with off the shoulder straps and a sweetheart neckline, her hair with loose curls, a full face of makeup that went with the dress perfectly, her purse with the essentials, and her favorite black fur coat in hand.

With the sound of her heels clicking on the floor, Tom shot up from the couch, smiling a bit when he saw her walk in the room. “Wow,” he chuckled, adjusting his glasses. “You look lovely.”

Katy blushed, pulling a strand of hair out of her face. “Thank you, Tom. Sorry to keep you waiting,”

“Oh, darling, it was worth the wait,” he offered his arm, which she gladly took, then led her outside to start the evening of activities.

The night consisted of a movie, dinner, and star gazing at the town’s observatory. Afterward, they went back to Katy’s dorm so she could pick up some sleep clothes and go stay with Tom at the hotel, assuming he would be leaving in the morning.

When they both fell asleep, they went Othos, as usual.

Early in the morning, probably around three, Tom woke up in a cold sweat, frantically looking around the room. “Katy!” he called, adjusting so he could shake her. She was cold and clammy, a pained look on her face but she didn’t wake up. “Dammit, Katy! Wake up! Please!”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

So sorry for the pretty crappy chapter everyone. I like romance, but I honestly suck at writing it XD see you for chapter 15! What happened to Katy??

~ K-The-Queen

[lechevaliermalfet]

Experiential storytelling is awesome, you guys

I’m currently hip-deep in Mass Effect Andromeda, and enjoying myself immensely.  So let’s talk about something else for a bit.

One of the things I really like in games is what I call experiential storytelling.  I can’t think of a name that’s less of a pretentious mouthful, sorry.  To explain what I mean, let’s talk for a bit about something completely different: Watchmen.  I promise I’m going somewhere with this.  (WARNING: LONG)

Now, there was a reason why neckbearded comic book guys worldwide got grumpy about the Watchmen movie, and it wasn’t because their Lord and Savior Alan Moore has a hate-boner for his works getting adapted.  Not just because of that, anyway.

(To be fair, Alan Moore probably has perfectly valid reasons for not liking his works being adapted.  But, after having seen V for Vendetta prior to even knowing there was a graphic novel it was based on, and having loved every minute of it, I feel like his being irritable over these things is maybe sometimes out of proportion).

The thing that makes Watchmen great isn’t that it’s a wide-awake-and-screaming vivisection of the superhero genre of comics (though it is that, and that’s certainly a part of the whole phenomenon), but because it really is a story that could only be told the way it was told, and with the impact it was told, in comics. I have to imagine that there were legions of film critics who settled into their theater seats in anticipation and, when the ending credits rolled, just sort of went, “That’s… it?  That’s what comics fans have been having weird, sexless orgasms about since the 80s?”  And the answer to that is, well, no.  It’s not. Not quite.

Part of what makes Watchmen great, what really carries it beyond being just a really clever deconstruction of superhero stories in general, is how it’s told.  

Watchmen leans on the strengths of comics as a storytelling medium to tell its story by doing things only comics can really do.  This isn’t really a new phenomenon, of course.  If you talk to film students about this sort of thing, they’ll call it ‘filmic language’, which refers to the sort of functional vocabulary movies have built up – ways of using camera angles, lighting, rapid cuts and long shots, panning and close-ups and focus and God knows what all to place unstated but very present emphasis on whatever’s happening onscreen.  It’s how (for instance) horror movies create tension and surprise – it’s how they scare you even when you know something scary’s coming.

Watchmen uses ‘comics language’ to do pretty much the same things.  Just a single example: It makes (at times) rapid jumps back and forth between two unrelated events to underscore the ways in which they’re thematically related, with passages of dialogue or narration in one scene used to comment on the events of the other.  You can’t do this in a book (at least not to the frequency and extent that Watchmen does it) or in a movie.  In a book, it would create so many asterisk breaks you’d have more white space than text on the page.  In a movie, it would require literally dizzying cuts.  But the sense of timing in comics is different.  Events can happen quickly, which is communicated by the placement and sizing and shape and content of panels.  Yet at the same time, you have all the time in the world to unpack what you’re seeing, because it’s occurring in a self-progressed medium.  Time and timing in comics both expands and contracts at the same time.

There’s a scene in the comic where Doctor Manhattan reflects on how interlinked the events are that got him to where he is.  It’s all out of chronological order, because in his current state of being, he doesn’t really perceive time in the same linear way that we do, and so because the whole scene is from his perspective, it’s also out of order.  Much like a certain other doctor I know of, to Doctor Manhattan, time is a lot of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… stuff.  But time and timing in comic books are unique. You can speed up and slow down with whiplash-inducing change in a comic, and it can all be perfectly fine if you do it right.  In movies, you’d call it sloppy editing, dock a star from your review, and go on about your day.  In a book, you’d shake your head and wonder whether the editor – if there was one – forgot to take their medication that day.  But thanks to the unique sense of pacing of the medium of comics, this works, and is in fact relatively easy to keep track of.  This isn’t just a neat side-effect of how comics work; it’s a part of comics language.  It’s a storytelling tool.

Watchmen was one of the first comics to lean so hard on the structure of the medium to help it tell its story.  And so of course it was a superhero story.  What better story to tell in such a uniquely comic-book way than the genre comic books are, rightly or wrongly, best known for.  I’m not nearly expert enough to say for sure whether it was the first comic book to do this, but Watchmen was probably the first to do it so often and so self-consciously.

The short of it (since we’ve gone over the long) is that, just like part of what makes a great novel truly great is the way the words seem to ring in the mind and capture images and thoughts and feelings with exactitude and an almost poetic flair, a good part of what makes Watchmen truly great is the way it’s constructed to capitalize on the language of its medium.

I’m a firm believer that video games have the same potential in their own right.  Hence this post.

Now, I’m not in any way trying to indicate that I feel this is the One True Way that games have to tell their stories.  As much as I like to bag on, say, Hideo Kojima for directing his Metal Gear Solid games like he wishes they were movies, I do actually enjoy games that use cut scenes and full-motion-video to do most of the legwork in their storytelling.  Mass Effect does pretty much the same thing, after all.  There are the bits where you’re running for cover and shooting everything that isn’t you, and then there are the deeply affecting story and character parts, and seldom do the two overlap in any really meaningful way.  And the series is probably in the running for “personal favorite new-ish franchise of the last decade” for me.

Also in the running for that consideration would be the loose “series” comprised of Demon’s Souls, the three Dark Souls games, and Bloodborne.  The lattermost especially.

I recently finished Bloodborne, though I can’t really say I’m done with it; @el-draco-bizarro is perpetually amused at how much my relevant Pinterest board has blown the hell up with Bloodborne art and images.  It’s still on my mind in a way that even the Souls games haven’t quite managed.

I’ve read a lot of people comparing the Dark Souls games to the original Legend of Zelda, with their higher focus on combat, the abandoned, hostile-creature-infested world, and the sense of loneliness and isolation. I’m not going to say the comparison’s invalid.  Personally, though, after a lot of thought, I tend to think that the Souls games and Bloodborne are a lot closer to the Metroid series.

Full disclosure: I am a pretty big Metroid fan.  Some gushing may ensue.  My Pinterest board for that has likewise gotten ridiculous.

Honestly, in writing, it’s hard to pin down the difference between the Zelda series and the Metroid series.  The main problem is that the games just feel different in a way that’s not at all easy to pin down.  It used to be easy, kind of.  Zelda games were top-down oriented and emphasized ever-increasing ability to navigate the world (via the use of an expanding array of tools and weapons) and some non-linear exploration, whereas any given Metroid game was a side-scrolling platformer which emphasized ever-increasing ability to navigate the world (via direct upgrades to the character’s weapons and personal abilities) and aggressively non-linear exploration. In the move to 3D, the line separating these franchises got awfully blurry, thematic differences aside.

But Metroid as a series has always thrived on its atmosphere of loneliness and a sense of eerie menace.  Its settings frequently have you traversing the ruins of ancient civilizations without ever really explaining any of them.  They’re just there.  There were people who lived here once; they’re gone now; that’s it.  The settings are part of the window-dressing.  They exist to create atmosphere and a sense of quiet abandonment and loss.  The explanations, when present, are never really comprehensive.

Of course, in reality, Bloodborne and the Souls games are all very much their own thing.  It’s reductive to say “Like Metroid but...”  At the same time, it’s tempting to point back at predecessor games, to say “it’s like X, but with a dash of Y, and a hint of Z, and…”  It forms a useful frame of reference for people who might be unfamiliar, also, and it’s interesting (to me, at least) to dig into a game and try to figure out just exactly where it came from, as an idea.  Nothing exists in a vacuum, after all.  And it’s hard for me personally not to be interested in this sort of thing when I’ve gotten to see so much of the medium of video games develop and evolve throughout my life.

Like with the Metroid series, the storytelling and mechanics and progression are all welded so firmly together in Bloodborne that you can’t really spot the joins any more. They all feed into each other to create a whole and singular experience.  

Bloodborne doesn’t go out of its way to tell you its story.  It is, in fact, very aggressively about letting you come to it.  There are a small handful of brief cut scenes you’ll run across in a single play through, and the rest of it is up to you to piece together from context.

Some of this context comes from atmosphere.  The story of Bloodborne is going on all around you, from the crumbling urban decrepitude of Yharnam where you start the game, to the terrifying, exposed openness of the Nightmare Frontier, to the venomous-reptile-infested swamp at the bottom of the Lost Woods that is rendered with such loving attention to nauseating detail that you can smell it – fucking smell it – despite being displayed in a strictly audiovisual medium.  

These things all tell a story in hints and implications, one of dark, horrifying secrets, and a system that was never very stable in the first place and is now entering the final stages of breakdown before everything flies apart.  It starts with your nameless character seeking a cure (The ‘Pale Blood’, which is never actually explained, but like so much else, there are hints as to what this refers to) for some unnamed disease, and winding up trapped in a falling-apart Victorian-ish city that is wracked with what looks for all the world like a lycanthropy plague.  From there, it eventually takes a hard left into Lovecraft territory.

Some of the storytelling also comes in the form of item descriptions.  I know this sounds weird, so let me explain a bit.

Pretty much any item you find in the game, whether it’s some consumable thing like a firebomb, or a weapon or other piece of equipment, will have a description with some flavor text.  “This sword was originally forged by so-and-so, who got eaten by things best left to the imagination” or “This coat is similar to the ones the first Hunters to protect Yharnam wore, back in whenever, at the direction of so-and-so,” and on it goes.  Just brief little snippets to give you some context, much like the flavor text on cards for Magic: The Gathering.  Except it kind of goes beyond flavor, here, because a lot of this stuff actually helps to hint at what’s going on in the world. And maybe that seems kind of unfair, because after all, you’d have to go looking up the item descriptions first of all, and second, you may very well miss a lot of items (it’s that kind of game). 

Well, there are lots of loading screens.  I mean, the game has to load every time you die and this is basically a Souls game, so even if you’re an actual sorcerer, you’ll be dying.  A lot.  

So, so much dying.

So the loading screens show you the descriptions for random items.  The developers do this in all the Dark Souls games as well, of course.  It’s not unique to Bloodborne, that just happens to be the one I’m most interested in talking about at the moment.  At first, it seems just innocuous.  Like, okay, at least they’re giving you something to read while the game loads. It beats the hell out of staring at a small animated icon in the corner of the screen, which is what most games do. But then you realize that… no. No, this is actually important.  This is something you should be paying attention to.

And I mean, why wouldn’t you?  It’s right there.  This is about as in-your-face as storytelling gets in Bloodborne or any of the Souls games.  (Well, Demon’s Souls has slightly more conventional cut scenes and doesn’t do the item description thing, but every work has a rough draft).

And aside from the environment and the item descriptions and all the million subtle details that you notice in your progress through the game, even the game’s mechanics get in on the storytelling action.

An example: Bloodborne has an expendable resource called Insight.  It’s meant to represent the degree to which the player’s AFGNCAAP recognizes the more illusory aspects of the reality in which he or she finds himself.  It can be gained by using certain items, and can be spent in a certain place to gain access to some rare equipment.  However, you also gain Insight whenever you first encounter any of the boss enemies, and a little more when you defeat one, which follows from the narrative.  It’s a concrete measurement of how much about the setting your character understands, based in part on how far you’ve dug into said setting.

And it gets better!  The higher your Insight, the more you literally see about the world.  The appearance of your enemies will be altered in ways great and small (and almost always for the more disturbing, typically involving eyes where eyes absolutely do not fucking belong).  You begin to see just how much the world is held together by the will of creatures that would earn a grim nod of approval from H.P. Lovecraft.

This is gaming language.  The use of the game’s environment, its mechanics, the very way in which you progress through the game, to tell a story.  Most of these methods are perfectly natural in games, and make them engrossing, enthralling, compelling, immersive, etc.  Whereas they would be clunky and ham-fisted at best in a book, and are (I’m convinced) a large part of the reason why even story-heavy and highly cinematic games like Silent Hill make for disappointing movies (though to be fair, the Silent Hill movie was bad for more reasons than just the difficulty of adapting gaming language well).

The interesting thing is that none of the Souls games have an especially complex story, nor does Bloodborne.  The plots are mysterious and secretive, but not especially complicated.  But what makes them gripping is not just the mystery of them, or even the compelling world they’re set in (though God do those help), but the simple fact that you are a part of the story.  There is something about being more than an uninvolved observer, about being an actor within the world, that bridges a kind of gap, and makes even the relatively uncomplicated mysteries of a game like Dark Souls or, say, Shadow of the Colossus seem profound and gripping.  

That’s gaming language, too.

[bookclub4m]

It’s time for our Best Books of 2017 episode! We’ll talk about our favourite things we read for the podcast, our favourite things we read that weren’t for the podcast, and lots more! Please note, while many of the titles we recommend were published in 2017, this is our list of best of that we read in 2017, so there is some older material on the list as well.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Top Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

The Argonauts (2015) by Maggie Nelson (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Jessi

The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2016) by Stacy Schiff (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Matthew

Prose: The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA (2017) by Doug Mack (Episode 039 - Non-Fiction Travel)

Comic: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (2017) by Nagata Kabi (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Meghan

In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote, narrated by Scott Brick (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Fiction

Anna

Death in the Vines (2013) by M.L. Longworth (Episode 025 - Detective Fiction)

The Snowman (2011) by Jo Nesbø (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Jessi

Stardust (1998) by Neil Gaiman (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Matthew

Prose: Autonomous (2017) by Annalee Newitz (Episode 041 - Dystopian Fiction)

Comic: Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind (1982-1994) by Hayao Miyazaki (Episode 043 - Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Meghan

The City and the City (2009) by China Miéville (Episode 025 - Detective Fiction)

 Top Non-Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land (2017) by Monica Hesse

Jessi

Tomboy Survival Guide (2016) by Ivan Coyote (we mention this one in Episode 021 - Coming-of-Age and Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Matthew

Prose: Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate (2017) by Zoe Quinn (mentioned in Episode 032.5 - BookExpo America and the American Library Association Annual Conference)

Comic: Lighter than my Shadow (2017) by Katie Green (Episode 040 - Precipitation in Video Games)

Meghan

Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues (2016) in Canada by Chelsea Vowel

Métis in Space podcast with Chelsea Vowel and Molly Swain

Fiction

Anna

The Queen of Blood (2016) by Sarah Beth Durst (Episode 040 - Precipitation in Video Games)

Jessi

The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) by Katherine Arden (mentioned in Episode 034 - Reading Resolutions)

Matthew

Prose: Red Spider White Web (1990) by Misha (mentioned in Episode 034 - Reading Resolutions)

Comic: Giant Days (2015-present) by John Allison and Max Sarin

Meghan

Next Year for Sure (2017) by Zoey Leigh Peterson 

Other recommendations

Anna

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty

Lucky Penny (2016) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota (Episode 021 - Coming-of-Age)

Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us: A Johnny Wander Collection (2017) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (2016) by Patrick Phillips

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2016) edited by Jesmyn Ward

The Fire Next Time (1992) by James Baldwin

Clean Sweep (2013) by Ilona Andrews (and the rest of that series)

Spill Zone, vol. 1 (2017) by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland

Volume 2 is being serialized as a webcomic (frustratingly the site seems to be setup so that you cannot link directly to pages, so to get to the beginning of volume two hit the previous chapter link a few times)

HiLo, vol. 1: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth (2015) by Judd Winick

Here’s the full panel (Read-Alikes: What to Suggest When They've Already Read Smile & The Walking Dead) from the Comics Conference for Educators and Librarians that Anna mentioned

Jessi

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (2014) by Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell

Queers Were Here: Heroes & Icons of Queer Canada (2016) edited by Robin Ganev and RJ Gilmour (Episode 031 - LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Green River, Running Red (2007) by Ann Rule (Episode 027 - Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

The Hating Game (2016) by Sally Thorne (Episode 028 - Accidental Romance)

Matthew

Three Parts Dead (2012) by Max Gladstone (Episode 33 - Legal Thrillers)

True Grit (1968) by Charles Portis (Episode 29 - Westerns)

The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt (Episode 29 - Westerns)

No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee (specifically issue #9)

Matthew’s longer list of favorite comics he read in 2017 is below

Meghan

Turning (2017) by Jessica J. Lee (Non-fiction memoir)

See What I Have Done (2017) by Sarah Schmidt (Fictionalized true crime)

Dreams of Shreds and Tatters (2015) by Amanda Downum (New Weird)

Need for the Bike (2011) by Paul Fournel, translated by Allan Stoekl (non-fic BICYCLES)

Blue Light Yokohama (2017) by Nicolás Obregón (Mystery)

Matthew’s List of Top Comics he Read in 2017 that weren’t his top picks (Anna’s recommendations were also good!)

Monstress vols. 1-2 by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (2016-2017)

This is an insanely epic (and beautiful) fantasy. You should read it!

No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee

No, I haven’t read volume 3 yet...

Omega Men: The End is Here (2016) by Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Toby Cyprus, and Ig Guara

Invincible vols. 23-24 (2017) by by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and  Nathan Fairbairn

It’s superheroes meet Dragonball Z, except much bloodier. It’s ending with volume 25, and I’m kind of sad about that.

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2016) by Sonny Liew

Despite really liking this, I don’t think it should have won the Eisner for “Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia”

The Private Eye (2015) by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente

As much as I enjoyed this, I don’t think the hardcover is worth $50.

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank (2017) by Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss

I was supplied with a review copy by the publishers.

Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea (2017) by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni

Delicious in Dungeon vol. 1 (2017) by Ryoko Kui

Yowamushi Pedal vols. 3-4 (2016) by Wataru Watanabe

Bicycles!

Demon vols. 1-4 (2016-2017) by Jason Shiga

The first volume is the best and, to be honest, this series is kind of gross, so be warned...

Order of the Stick: How the Paladin Got His Scar (2017) by Rich Burlew

This was a reward only given to backers of the 2012 Kickstarter so you can’t actually buy or read it, but it’s really good!

Questions

What were your favourite reads of 2017?

What would you recommend to us?

Is there a supernatural gardening book you could recommend to Jessi?

What is “Clean Sweep”?

A curling related cozy mystery?

A high school hijinx sports novel?

A romance novel about a chimney sweep who is reforming himself after his criminal past?

Something else?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on January 16th for our episode on Family Sagas!

Then come back on February 6th for our episode on our Reading Resolutions for 2018!

[spynotebook]

Up until now, we’ve had to be satisfied with glimpses of Marvel heroine America Chavez in team books like Young Avengers and A-Force. Now, in a book simply titled America, brought to us by the Latinx team of writer Gabby Rivera and artist Joe Quinones, Ms. America finally has her own solo book!

And this book will find her embarking on her greatest adventure yet…college!

No, really. She’s kind of over the whole “hero” thing, having been in the Teen Brigade, the Young Avengers, and leader of the Ultimates. So, after a kinda too-easy mission defending the planet Maltixa in the Utopian Parallel with the Ultimates, America sets off to study at Sotomayor University. (If you think that the school is named after Puerto Rican Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, you would be correct! The school even has a Sotomayor hologram greeter, apparently.)

However, while hero-ing is easy for her, feelings are not. After being orphaned, America isn’t too great at letting herself connect with anyone: not authority figures, not fans, not friends, not even her girlfriend. She’s just very uncomfortable in situations that don’t require her punching someone in the face, okay? So, when an opportunity comes up that allows her to time travel the multiverse? She sure as hell is gonna take it!

America #1 is a great start to a series with a lot of promise. America herself is a wonderfully nuanced character who has a hard edge, but whose vulnerability seeps through. Writer Gabby Rivera’s voice pops off the page. It’s unique, and lively, and youthful, which makes sense since Rivera’s previous writing has been in the YA fiction sphere. However, some of the dialogue is a little cliche, particularly in the scene between America and her girlfriend, and some of it kinda hits you over the head in reminding you that America is Latina:

Spectrum: Hit her with a blast to the chest, but she’s stable. It came up on the scans as pure white energy.

America: Pure white energy, huh? Well, pure white just means the absence of color…so let me give her a little of this brown fist! [PUNCHES VILLAIN]

Typing that out just now, it occurs to me that, out of context, a lesbian exclaiming these words could have a whole other connotation. That’s not the connotation here, just so you know.

ANYwho, there are a couple of little moments like that where I wish that Rivera would just let the character’s Latin-ness speak for itself, rather than have the character comment on it. Then again, I can chalk that up to this being the first issue and, much like a TV pilot, it has the job of setting up a lot, including the tone of the book, which usually makes it more heavy-handed than the rest of the series might be. America is clearly a book that wears its Latinx heritage proudly, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that!

Plus, there are some smaller, more interesting aspects to America’s dialogue. I noticed that, when saving a child, she said that she needed to “get this kid to their family.” As drawn, the child looks female, and the child’s name is Mari, but having a queer character like America use a “they” pronoun was thought-provoking indeed. She, of all people, is not going to assume anything about people she doesn’t know.

Meanwhile, Quinones’ art is awesome from a layout perspective. The panels themselves, as well as the goings-on inside them are kinetic and compelling. There’s a bit of a loss of detail and personality in the regular, less action-based panels, though. Still, I love how he draws America, full-hipped and athletic, sexy without a boob window. Shout-out, too, to the mostly-Latinx art team! In addition to Quinones, we’ve got Joe Rivera and Paulo Rivera on inks (brothers, no relation to Gabby), Jose Villarrubia on colors, and Travis Lanham on letters.

America #1 is a solid first issue for a series I hope goes on a really long time. If any character deserves a solo book in the Marvel universe right now, it’s America Chavez.

Oh, and the final panel of the issue is epic!

(image via Marvel Comics)

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