tuvvin

[tuvvin]

you can now purchase a copy of A Town Called Collegeville through my online shop!

[tuvvin]

hiiii i'm about halfway through a Town Called Collegeville and i just wanted to let you know that i am LOVING it!!!!!

the color is amazing - i love the hues and textures and the way it conveys mood and atmosphere. the psychedelic scenes with roy almost swim before my eyes!!

you can really HEAR every panel - music playing, bacon sizzling, the tv on low in the background - it feels alive and buzzing.

the page composition and dramatic pacing is perfect. i love the cinemetic camera in certain scenes, especially mary's nightmares and the juxtaposition between claustrophobic close-ups and dizzying bird's-eye shots. the emotion carries between panels and you can really FEEL it.

anyway your technique is amazing and i can't wait to finish (but i'm taking my time because i want to spend more time in this world and vibessss) and i will definitely try to get as many people to borrow my copy and read it too because you deserve much more recognition for this incredible piece of work!!

thank you so much for all these thoughtful compliments ;w;

i'm really glad so much of the comic is working for you in those respects. it's great to know i can translate some of it into a tangible experience for others.

and please yes share it with your friends!

[tuvvin]

I love youuuuuuu I loved collegeville I loved your world and your characters I want to wrap rhett and roy and mary and truman and hell even cynthia and chopper into a big hug and tell they’re all little superstars to me

u are too sweet thank u <333

[tuvvin]

does choppyboy ever say ANYTHING or does he just [heavy breathing that sounds like it’s labored through a plastic mask]? if I stick my finger in his silly blue mouth will he bite me? how many cigarettes could I fit in there (Gentlemen)

he can't move any part of his face other than his eyes so he can make sounds but can't form words

[tuvvin]

just finished reading the graphic novel. LOVED IT!!! i do have to ask though; from what i could gather, kilroy was right? like in general and about most things? i really liked her in general, shes probably my favorite character and it kinda just feels like collegeville in general is being haunted and held under SOMETHING in the sky (the heavenly eyes, the planes, the chemicals, the steam from the nuclear plants, all that) which is probably the demiurge (kilroy discussing how god is real but isnt good) which ig is also the government and societal systems they live under? honestly i wish we had more time with chopper but i think i mightve just missed what was going on there, ill have to read it again, idk i just loved the comic and id love to hear your thoughts and what i should look out for when trying to get even more out of chopper and all the background stuff

thank you!!!

nah you hit the nail on the head. everything you have said ending with question marks should be periods because they are fact LOL

if you want to tie Chopper in with that i think you should look more to his design. he was modeled after a Ben Cooper mask from 1973 called "Battling Bunny", which.. Ben Cooper was one of the big midcentury mass-produced halloween costume companies (the only other one i knew of being Collegeville Costumes) so i was very much thinking of poorly replicated, heavily manufactured copies of characters from popular IPs being marketed to children who'd wear them maybe once before they end up in a landfill never to decompose. there r multiple layers of modern day eviles in that and if everything is going according to god's plan well then.... yikes!!!

but yeah it sounds like you've already picked up on the important parts. beyond Chopper's design there's not much more to be read into him or the sections of the comic he's in because those are basically just the adventures of my fucked up little killing freak. the context is just that he was manufactured that way, and yet he's just another one of god's creaturechildren

if you want to get more out of it, i think more things will jump out at you just knowing the ethos of the story being in the contradictions of morality in America's deeply ingrained Judeo-Christian values and the seemingly irreparable damage recent technical and industrial advancements have inflicted upon the earth & every living creature.

[tuvvin]

Your piece for the Bunker Projects show is fantastic, and it was great to see you talk about comics!

thank you so much!!

i never do any sort of public speaking so i felt wicked unprepared but it was wonderful to sit down w the other speakers and hear everyone's perspectives, and i feel so motivated and excited about indie comics and small press in the aftermath. hope that extends to you & everyone else who attended the talk!

[tuvvin]

Since we get to ask questions about the story- Mary’s mom is pretty checked out. Is she just a tv glutton, or is it also a substance use/prescription drug issue? They seem to have a detached but loving relationship at least…?

this is like very, very subtextual (stuff i don't expect anyone to gleam from the content of the story) but Mary's mom has PTSD (undiagnosed and untreated) and uses TV as a kind of self-medication to keep her mind occupied from unwanted thoughts so as long as she's awake, the television is on. she's tried working here and there (mostly as a supermarket clerk) but she's always really struggled holding down jobs for long periods of time.

detached but loving is an apt way to put her and Mary's relationship also. i think her mom is content because she keeps herself busy and has pleasant interactions with her daughter and husband so as far as she's concerned her life is pretty good. Mary worries for her but has seen her much worse and doesn't know what would help her anyway.

[tuvvin]

just wanted to say my copy of collegeville came in and ive read it maybe 3 times now. wonderful job. will we ever see these characters again outside of standalone art pieces?

wow, thanks! glad to know it has that great of re-read value.

and maybe! i've been drafting up a lot of post-Collegeville artistic goals for myself as the project's been wrapping up, and one thing i was thinking about doing was more short comics that are like character vignettes. those would likely be with the cast of Collegeville.

i can't promise it because of the way i typically work - i only do what my heart's in 100%. so although i still love these characters, if i draft up new characters soon that i get way more invested in, i'm probably gonna totally shift my focus to that.

[tuvvin]

My interpretation of Chopper while reading was kinda as a symbol for the evil Christianity can bring. How it appears as a deep-rooted background prop in isolated rural communities and can inflict unspeakable harms totally unnoticed as long as it wears a smile and puts on a helpful front… I always thought he looked like an Easter Bunny so that really influenced my interpretation. Was there ever any humanity in him? Could he have been helped if someone cared about him, or was he always doomed to embody an evil presence?

Also… What’s up with the interesting and tense relationship of Roy and his mom?

yep this is also a part of it! i associate him with the easter bunny as well. it is interesting to me how much some of you seem to be looking into his character attempting to read him like a person. though i would probably do the same if i were experiencing him externally. i have too much context. he's been a thing masquerading a person from day 1 to me.

& Roy and his mom are just Like That. all Roy's life she's been very hot and cold; either smothering and over-affectionate or self-centered and over-critical. Roy's just more openly resentful now that she's 27 (at the time of the comic) and still living under the same roof and dealing w the same bs

[tuvvin]

would you be ok to post any refs you have your characters please? I’m not a good artist I’m not sure I’ll finish anything I try to draw but I loved your story

thank you!!

only a few of them actually have reference sheets but they all have plenty of ref images on toyhouse https://toyhou.se/TUVVIN/characters

[tuvvin]

can you list off some more movies that inspired atcc? I did see you mentioned scream and scream again(1970)! it’s great to be talking to you

sure!

Scream and Scream Again really only inspired that one scene. overall that movie is kinda dogshit lol

i also mentioned in another ask Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Gummo (1997) being definite inspirations. i do feel like in retrospect those were the two biggest sources of inspiration for the comic when it comes to film.

a few others i'd taken down as inspiration are Five Easy Pieces (1970), Heavy (1995), Easy Rider (1969), and Ricky 6 (2000). mostly for vibes

[tuvvin]

Was the pool Roy found in the woods real??? How on earth did Chopper do all that without getting noticed????

it's real

i don't know, people used to get away with some pretty horrid things. i just think of all the serial killer cases we know of, and how many more we probably don't know of. the pool specifically requires a little suspension of disbelief mostly just logistically trying to figure out how Chopper sourced all of that lye. god forbid he Bought it all from the same place. but maybe they just thought he was making a lot of soap :)

no but basically Sometimes. you make artistic decisions just for the spectacle. that was definitely one of those times. i think i watched Scream and Scream Again (1970) and thought i had to include a lye bath somehow, bc it could potentially be a really inconspicuous way to dispose of a lot of corpses.

[tuvvin]

I been using the shallow, flat cardboard box that my collegeville copy came shipped in as a makeshift rolling tray for my joints lmfaooooo this one’s for you mary

[tuvvin]

ok my quastion. I went into the story wanting to understand chopper better, but even after reading and rereading I dont feel like I do. I might just be too dumb to understand something youre implying with your visual storytelling and thats ok with me but I was hoping you could help me out by maybe telling a bit about… what hes thinking/feeling, or NOT thinking/feeling? what his relationship with his brothers is, what his motivation for his actions is, what hes supposed to represent as a character other than the presence of evil… the cooks in general were my favorite part of the story because of how real they felt to me so id love to hear any more about them that youre ok sharing on a public blog. thanks for your art and sorry for writing a book in your inbox!

well first of all i don't think it's that you're too dumb to understand anything, i purposely don't divulge a lot of information on Chopper in the story. what context and background clues there are in the story exist only to give viewers hints, not to outright explain anything.

his relationship with his brothers is pretty much as it's shown in the story - he's expected to take on household roles that none of the other brothers want to deal with (like cooking and shopping) but beyond making sure he carries out these tasks, they're all aggressively disinterested in him. between their band, dealing drugs, and other crimes, they have plenty going on that he has nothing to do with. if they cared even a little they'd probably quickly realize his habit of killing.

Chopper's internal world is kind of spelled out by his mask-inspired face - emotions are undetectable because there are none. good luck figuring out his motivations. the colorful, childlike, nostalgic appearance of the mask face to me is like the wolf in sheep's clothing concept, masquerading as something he's not. it might not seem like that convincing of a disguise but it's enough to fool most people.

the above kind of ties into what he represents, which i have been saying is the presence of the demiurge, shaping the world through senseless violence and consumer manipulation. it acts like reaping blood and traumatized children is just a part of the job. and we are raised to think that's normal, or rather not to question it because nothing is going to change anyway.

i'm glad you enjoyed the bits with the Cooks too! they are really fun to write, and if not specifically them, i am really interested in exploring more morally reprehensible characters. i think even with people who have adapted to act with such cruel uncaring for those around them, if you spend enough time with them you'll end up empathizing a little. hell if you ignore what Chopper represents - or what inhabits him - (and all of the murder too i guess), he's one of the most empathizable characters with the abuse and neglect he faces from his family, the only people he knows.

that's about all i'll say for now. i think i could spend more time explaining every aspect of Chopper & the Cooks but i never really meant to go into extreme depth with them. Chopper was around before i even had the idea for Collegeville, and not that i remember specifically, but if i had to think backward i'd think i landed on the current iteration of the Cooks for Chopper's living situation because i was trying to figure out what kind of living situation he could have that wouldn't impede his killings, then the rest fell into place. i think i was also pretty inspired by Texas Chain Saw Massacre (original of course) and Gummo.

thanks for reading & for your input!

[tuvvin]

are we allowed to ask you questions about the story I neeeeed answers….

sure!

maybe if there's anything spoilery i'll tag it #atowncalledspoilers and do a readmore

[tuvvin]

i'm gay

nice

[tuvvin]

Cigrat incoming 4 u

unhinging my jaw in anticipation